Identifying China’s leading world city: a network approach

This paper reports our research on China’s world cities. Formal network analysis of air passenger linkages for recent years among China’s most populous cities and among many of the world’s largest cities allows us to identify the country’s leading world city from among the leading Mainland candidates, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. We theorize our findings about China’s world cities in relation to both global forces (and China’s increasing entanglement with them) and the policies and actions of the national state. We examine the national and global urban network through a longitudinal, two-level analysis of airline passenger travel for four time points between about 1990 and 2005. We show that Beijing was China’s leading world city at the beginning of the time period, a status it lost nationally in as early as 1995, and then globally 10 years later. On the other hand Shanghai became China’s leading world city, and it acquired this status first nationally in 2000, and then globally in 2005. The changing status of the Chinese capital corresponds to the country’s increasing involvement with the capitalist world economy. Shanghai’s ascendance as the leading world city in China may indicate that global forces have come to play an increasingly important role relative to that of the developmental state.

How a court, a commissioner and a lobby group brought European transport policy to life in 1985

Until the mid-1980s, transport policy was considered by many as one of the least successful domains of the European integration project. However, from the early 1990s onwards, there are clear signs of a single European transport policy, along with the accompanying implementation of infrastructure projects. What is the explanation for such a change in pace? This paper aims to offer insight in these processes by looking at the mechanisms which form and transform this policy domain. To understand the state of a policy domain and its dynamics over time an institutional approach is taken. Two concepts in political science, ‘policy arrangements’ and ‘supranational governance’ are combined and used as a framework to analyse the European transport policy domain. This analysis describes the development of several elements: organisations, rules, the transnational society, power, resources, and the central transport discourse. It demonstrates that all of these elements have developed from an intergovernmental setting towards a more supranational one. This development was slow in the first decennia when European transport policy was rather passive, but it picked up speed in the 1980s and 1990s. In the pivotal year of 1985, pressure from the transnational society resulted in a rapid change of the rules, the resources and the discourse.     

Detection of free vertical convection and double-diffusion in groundwater monitoring wells with geophysical borehole measurements

Two algorithms for in-situ detection and identification of vertical free convective and double-diffusive flows in groundwater monitoring wells or boreholes are proposed. With one algorithm the causes (driving forces) and with the other one the effects (convection or double-diffusion) of vertical transport processes can be detected based on geophysical borehole measurements in the water column. Five density-driven flow processes are identified: thermal, solutal, and thermosolutal convection leading to an equalization, as well as saltfingers and diffusive layering leading to an intensification of a vertical density gradient. The occurrence of density-driven transport processes could be proven in many groundwater monitoring wells and boreholes; especially shallow sections of boreholes or groundwater monitoring wells are affected dramatically by such vertical flows. Deep sections are also impaired as the critical threshold for the onset of a density-driven flow is considerably low. In monitoring wells or boreholes, several sections with different types of density-driven vertical flows may exist at the same time. Results from experimental investigations in a medium-scale testing facility with high aspect ratio (height/radius = 19) and from numerical modeling of a water column agree well with paramters of in-situ detected convection cells.     

National flood discharge mapping in Austria

This article presents the approach and the results of a study in which 30, 100 and 200 year return period flood discharges were estimated for 26,000 km of Austrian streams. Three guiding principles were adopted: combination of automatic methods and manual assessments by hydrologists to allow speedy processing and account for the local hydrological situation; combination of various sources of information including flood peak samples, rainfall data, runoff coefficients and historical flood data; and involvement of the Hydrographic Services to increase the accuracy and enhance the acceptance of results. The flood discharges for ungauged catchments were estimated by the Top-kriging approach with manual adjustment to the local flood characteristics. The adopted combination approach proved to be very efficient both in terms of the project time required and in terms of the accuracy and acceptability of the estimated flood discharges of given return periods.     

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Der Pyroxentuff vom Heilsberg im Hegau

Zusammenfassung Das Tuffvorkommen vom Heilsberg bei Gottmadingen im Hegau wurde neu kartiert und mineralogisch untersucht. Die Korngrößenverteilung zeigt ein deutliches Maximum bei 0,6–1,2 mm. Der Tuff besteht aus 40% magmatogenem Material und 60% Bestandteilen des durchschlagenen Untergrundes. Die magmatogenen Komponenten sind 17% Einzehnineralien, 10% Grundmasse und 13 % Auswürflinge. Unter den Einzelmineralien wiegt der Pyroxen (Fassait) vor, daneben kommen Amphibol, Biotit und Magnetit, ferner Apatit und Analcim sowie einige seltenere Mineralien vor. Für Pyroxen, Amphibol, Biotit und Magnetit werden chemische Analyse und optische Eigenschaften mitgeteilt. Die größte Menge der magmatogenen Auswürflinge sind kugelförmige Lapilli, die hinsichtlich ihrer Entstehung genauer untersucht und chemisch analysiert wurden. Seltener sind grobkristalline, dunkle und belle Bomben, deren Mineralgehalt und chemische Zusammonsetzung genauer beschrieben werden. Sic stellen wahrscheinlich Differentiate des Heilsbergmagmas dar. Die ehemals glasige, magmatogene Grundmasse des Tuffs liegt heute als ein Gemenge von Montmorillonit und Calcit vor.Aus den nichtmagmatogenen Bestandteilen kann auf den Untergrund im Bereich des Heilsbergvulkans geschlossen werden. Aus dem Deckgebirge wurden Tertiär, Mahn, Dogger, Jura, Keuper und Muschelkalk nachgewiesen. Das Grund-gebirge besteht hauptsächlich aus granodioritischen bis granitischen Gesteinen und enthält auffallenderweise nur wenig Gneise. Der Herd der Eruption dürfte mindestens 4000 m tief liegen.Der Chemismus des Heilsbergmagmas ist hornblenditisch. Es ist dem Magma der Melilithite verwandt und leitet zu den Phonolithen des Hegau über. Das Gestein ist als hornblenditischer Pyroxen-Analcim-Tuff zu bezeichnen.Zwei unabhängige Bestimmungen nach der K-Ar-Methode ergaben für den Biotit des Tuffs ein obermiozänes Alter von 14,0 bzw. 14,5 Mill. Jahren.Mit 2 Textabbildungen     

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