Loose threads: The translocal making of public space policy in Hanoi

This paper analyses the recent developments in public space policy in the city of Hanoi, Vietnam. It has three aims. The first is to look at a potentially progressive urban policy in contrast to most work on ‘policies in motion’ that has primarily been concerned with neoliberal policies. The second is to put the process of public space policymaking in Hanoi in historical and cultural perspective. We therefore describe public space in Hanoi as historically constituted by different layers of meaning and physical urban patterns. The paper's third aim is to analyse the translocal connections involved in a policy that is still in the making, and therefore characterized by a series of ‘loose threads’. We show how different types of connections – policy mobility, topological relations and inter‐referencing – relate Hanoi to multiple locales elsewhere. The conclusion reflects on the ‘politics of reception’ showing how analysing a policy in the making develops a critical analysis of policies in motion.     

Södra Finlands blocksänkor

Söderman, G.: Södra Finlands blocksänkor. Geografisk Tidsskrift, 82, 77–81, November 1. 1982.

Map analysis and field inventory show that there are about 20000 boulder depressions in Finland south of 64°N. The features are most common in blocky till areas close to fracture zones in the bedrock. The depressions range in altitude from above the highest shore-line down to 25–30 m above present sea-level. They are youngest in the NW part. Some depressions show surface patterns.

SAMMANDRAG

Blocksänkor är frostmarksformer med en huvudsakligen vertikal sortering som ett resultat av differentiell uppfrysning av blockrikt utgångsmaterial. De framställer inga klimatiska kriteria om utbildningstid och -förhållanden. Däremot här de till områden med sasängbetonad frostaktivitet, och om ej inskränkta till nedisade omräden, trots typiska fär dessa. Blocksänkorna är den mest utbredda och största frostmarksform inom den fennoskandiska skogsregionen i dag.     

Human and Environmental Factors Affect Patterns of Crop Diversity in an Ethiopian Highland Agroecosystem

The Ethiopian highlands are a center of diversity for numerous globally important crops. Heterogeneous landscapes, traditional agricultural practices, and inaccessibility have created and maintained diverse subsistence agroecosystems. We surveyed sixty-three farms in twelve communities of the Gamo highlands and found high levels of on-farm diversity of crop species and varieties. The extent and nature of this diversity are related to both ecological factors, namely elevation, and anthropogenic factors such as land-use history, accessibility to markets and extension, and strength and scale of farmer exchange networks. These human landscape features have the potential to both enhance and mediate effects of elevation and other environmental factors on crop diversity. The interaction of environmental and anthropogenic forces on the diversity of crops grown by farmers affects the strategies farmers employ to adapt their farming to changing conditions.     

Authorship,Collaboration, and Gender: Fifteen Years of Publication Productivity in Selected Geography Journals

In academia, publication productivity, defined as the number of peer-reviewed articles published and the frequency of citations, is a primary factor in the assessment of tenure and promotion. One of the most cited gender differences in academia is the “productivity puzzle,” which suggests that women publish less than men, thereby affecting every aspect of a woman's academic career. Peer-reviewed articles published in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers (Annals) and The Professional Geographer (PG) between 1995 and 2006, and in four subdisciplinary journals between 2005 and 2009, as well as citation reports, were used to explore whether gender differences are present in publication productivity. Gender differences were evident in the proportion of women authors, the frequency of collaboration, and the number of citations across a broad range of prestigious geographic journals. For all journals studied, women were underrepresented, especially in the authorship positions that equate to notions of respect and merit. Although the number of collaborative articles increased during the study period, single-authored papers are the dominant mode of publication for both men and women for most geographic journals. The authorship patterns for frequently cited articles generally mirror those for all articles. Because the frequency of collaborative publication was high for women, the dual trends of a general increase in publication collaboration and increasing participation of women in academic geography bodes well for increased female productivity as it relates to publishing. Nevertheless, it is important to note that, currently, males as lead or single authors represent the predominant voice of geography within the journals examined in this study.     

Ethnic and Racial Differences in Tornado Hazard Perception,Preparedness, and Shelter Lead Time in Tuscaloosa

The 27 April 2011 EF4 Tuscaloosa tornado directly impacted more than 50,000 residents, causing forty-five fatalities within the city and sixty-five in total. It was a rare urban tornado with varying impacts on the three major ethnic and racial groups within the city. A hybrid survey and interview of open-ended and closed questions was conducted with 211 Tuscaloosa area residents in a two-week period after the tornado. Results indicate significant differences in risk perception, preparedness, and shelter lead time among the three ethnic and racial groups. Furthermore, results were still significant for perception after controlling for the effects of age, education, and experience.     

Is GIS appropriate technologyquest;

Abstract

Appropriate technology (AT) has become an integral part of the programmes for decentralized regional development in the Third World. ‘Appropriate’ techniques are usually low in capital costs; they can be maintained without a high level of expertise; and they do not involve patents, expensive copyrights and royalties. By these criteria a commercial geographical information system (GIS) is not an appropriate technology to be used in decentralized development However, the use of local renewable resources involves the adoption of end-use analysis for matching end-uses to specific sources so as to minimize the consumption of material and energy (i.e., minimize entropy). This matching requires much information which leads to what may be called the 'information-entropy trade-off; minimization of entropy requires an inverse increase in information. In this respect computers and GIS have an important contribution to make to decentralized regional planning. Drawing on a case study in Sri Lanka, this paper presents some ideas on how to incorporate GIS into local-level planning information systems.     

Analysing telemetry data with a GIS-based vector structure

Abstract

This paper proposes a unique method for plotting field bearing locations, of the kind typically taken by wildlife biologists on free ranging species, directly on a computer-compatible habitat map. We show how to use a GIS data base to identify differential habitat use directly from the polygon formed by each set of bearings. A geometric algorithm is developed to interpret the bearings accurately. The technique avoids the most difficult errors associated with using point locations, namely those due to animal movement, and distance from receiver to transmitter, and is especially useful for habitat preference studies.     

Chemical composition of glacial meltwaters and river waters within the Aktru river basin (Gornyi Altai)

An assessment was made of the mean levels of major and trace elements and of biogenic and organic matter in glacial and river waters within the Aktru river basin (Gornyi Altai, Russia). The analysis showed a general tendency for an increase in mineralization along the direction from the region of alimentation of glaciers to the mouth of the river. A relatively abrupt increase was revealed in Al, Zn, Cu, Pb, Si, NO₂ ^? and NH₄ ⁺ concentrations in the source of the Aktru river and its glacial tributaries, with their subsequent decrease downstream. The mechanism for such changes is governed by the conditions of interaction of rocks with meltwaters and river waters.     

32Si dating of sediments from Lake Baikal

We applied the ³²Si dating technique to a sediment core from Lake Baikal to obtain the sediment chronology for the last millennium. The core was recovered about 4 km offshore from the north slope of the South Basin in 1,366 m water depth. The sediment material consisted of continuously accumulated diatom-rich geogenic-terrigenous mud, intercalated with a number of dark olive-grey turbidite layers. The sediment layers containing the turbidites were excluded from ³²Si sampling to obtain the chronology that is representative of the continuous sedimentation. The initial ³²Si activity of 31.3 dpm kg^?1 SiO₂, measured in sediment trap samples, confirms the trend of ³²Si specific activities of biogenic silica found in other Northern Hemisphere lakes. The four sediment core samples from depth 0–48 cm have ³²Si specific activities between 23.5 and 0.5 dpm kg^?1 SiO₂, with corresponding ages between 60 and 860 years and constant sedimentation rate of 0.036 ± 0.004 cm year^?1 over the most recent 800 years. ³²Si allowed us for the first time to date the uppermost turbidites in the South Basin of Lake Baikal, to 1030, 1310 and 1670 ad. Given these dates, the last long-distance turbidity current triggered by slope instabilities had occurred 330 years before 2000 ad, and the intervals between the 1310 and 1670 ad event and between the 1030 and 1310 ad event were 360 and 280 years, respectively. The ³²Si ages allow unprecedented time resolution for reconstruction of the former environmental and climatic conditions during the past millennium.     

The relative influences of climate and catchment processes on Holocene lake development in glaciated regions

Following deglaciation, the long-term pattern of change in diatom communities and the inferred history of the aquatic environment are affected by a hierarchy of environmental controls. These include direct climate impacts on a lake’s thermal and hydrologic budgets, as well as the indirect affects of climate on catchment processes, such as weathering, soil development, microbial activity, fire, and vegetation composition and productivity, which affect the transfer of solutes and particulates from the terrestrial ecosystem into the lake. Some of these catchment influences on lacustrine systems operate as time-dependent patterns of primary succession that are set in motion by glacier retreat. This paper provides a conceptual model of some dominant pathways of catchment influence on long-term lake development in glaciated regions and uses a series of paleolimnological examples from arctic, boreal, and temperate regions to evaluate the relative role of direct climate influences and of catchment processes in affecting the trajectory of aquatic ecosystems during the Holocene in different environmental contexts.