Excavating geography's hidden spaces

This paper considers alternative ways to approach teaching and researching the history and philosophy of geography. While exploring the geography department as a previously marginalized space in accounts of disciplinary change, three different types of source are identified: first, less formal kinds of documentation; second, material sites; and third, a bodily archive of action, gesture and movement. In combination, these are shown to open up new possibilities for localized, grass–roots versions of geography's pasts and presents.     

Indigenous knowledge for natural resource management: a comparative study of Māori in New Zealand and Dusun in Brunei Darussalam

Indigenous people often exclusively depend on the natural resources available within the ecosystems where they live, and commonly manage their resources sustainably. They have developed, and continue to develop indigenous knowledge systems which encompass sustainable management of natural resources. This study compares indigenous knowledge of natural resource management developed by two different communities in two different environments—Maori in the temperate environment in New Zealand and Dusun in the tropical environment in Brunei Darussalam, and comparatively evaluates the role of indigenous knowledge in sustainable resource management in three categories of knowledge such as spatial and seasonal distribution of natural resources, sustainable harvesting, and habitat management. The comparison reveals that despite the differences in environment and the great geographical distance between the two communities, there are remarkable similarities between the two knowledge systems in concepts, principles, strategies and technologies used in natural resource management.

Drought in the rain forest: Effects of the 1991 El Niño-Southern Oscillation event on a rural economy in West Kalimantan,Indonesia

In this paper, I first conduct a preliminary analysis of monthly rainfall data from West Kalimantan, Indonesia that indicates that (1) dry periods periodically occur in this otherwise humid environment; (2) these dry periods are often linked to El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events; and (3) the intensity of these ENSO linked dry periods has been increasing over the past two or three decades. I then examine the economic costs of the 1991 dry period to residents of several small villages near Gunung Palung National Park. Costs I considered included reduced durian fruit harvest, loss of coffee gardens, delayed rice crops, increased water hauling labor, lost wages in the forest product industry, and increased health problems. The total cost was estimated to be between approximately one-quarter and one-half of annual township income. These results of this economic ground truthing indicate that even in one of the wettest places of the world, droughts occur and can have serious welfare consequences. To the extent that the increasing intensity of these droughts may be linked to climate change, prudence dictates that policy and decision makers should use these results to plan accordingly.     

Political change and local objectives: observations from rural Wales

Summary In this article, we argue that the spatial reorganization of local government structures may pose a significant threat to fragile local cultures. A recognition at the national level that policy structures are culturally specific (and not converging) is not always conceded at the very local level. Drawing on observations from Wales, we show how political change brings the danger of cultural neglect.     

Deep western boundary current dynamics and associated sedimentation on the Eirik Drift, Southern Greenland Margin

Growing interest in the dynamics and temporal variability of the deep western boundary current (DWBC) in the northern North Atlantic has led to numerous studies of the modern hydrography and palaeoceanography of this current system. The DWBC is fed by the two dense water-masses that spill over the Greenland–Iceland–Scotland Ridge; Denmark Strait Overflow Water (DSOW) and Iceland Scotland Overflow Water (ISOW). These overflows entrain ambient water masses, primarily Labrador Sea Water (LSW), as they cross the Iceland and Irminger Basins before merging in the vicinity of south-east Greenland. A number of studies have been performed around the Eirik Drift, located off the southern Greenland margin, downstream of this main merging point. However, the relationship between the DWBC and the associated sedimentation at this location has yet to be fully elucidated. New hydrographic data show that the current's main sediment load is carried by only one of its components, the DSOW. Seismic surveys and sediment cores confirm that Holocene sedimentation is limited to areas underlying the most offshore part of the current, where the hydrographic data show the highest concentration of DSOW. Active sedimentation through the Holocene therefore appears to have been controlled by proximity to the sediment-laden DSOW.Our interpretation of new and historic geostrophic transport and tracer data from transects around the southern Greenland margin also suggests that the DWBC undergoes significant growth through entrainment as it flows around the Eirik Drift. We attribute this to multiple strands of ISOW following different depth-dependent pathways between exiting the Charlie Gibbs Fracture Zone and joining the DWBC. Comparison of our new data with other modern hydrographic datasets reveals significant temporal variability in the DWBC, associated with variations in the position, structure and age since ventilation of the current in the vicinity of Eirik Drift. The complexity of the current dynamics in this area has implications for the interpretation of hydrographic and palaeoceanographic data.     

Chemical and mineralogical characterisation of weathered historical bricks from the Venice lagoonal environment

Surficial and bulk samples of historical bricks of different age (from XII to XVIII centuries) recovered from a campaign of archaeological excavations recently carried out at the site of a medieval monastery in the S. Giacomo in Paludo Island in theVenice Lagoon have been characterised by FT-IR, TGA-DTG and DTA, XRD, SEM + EDS. The samples belong to a particular brick type commonly used in the Venice region: the "altinella brick". The bulk relative abundance of primary (i.e. calcite and dolomite) and secondary firing minerals (i.e. diopside and wollastonite) in the bricks coupled with their relative geometrical dimensions allows placing the samples in a chronological sequence according to known historical changes in brickmaking firing temperatures and practices. Most of the bricks were used as paving material and have been exposed to the action of seawater salts (chlorides and sulphates) due to periodical submersion following high tide episodes. Salt-laden (gypsum, halite, mirabilite) surficial patinas are indeed present but salt weathering does not appear to have affected the overall structural soundness of the bricks in this now abandoned island as it is the case with brickwork located in other more populated (and polluted) areas in Venice and its lagoon.     

Pathways and Processes: Reviewing the Role of Young Adults in Urban Structure

Challenges arising from changing demographics, expensive housing, and precarious labor have prompted recent interest in the residential geographies of young adults. Yet, despite attention to young adults' diverse housing pathways, I argue that greater focus is needed on the place-based and spatial underpinnings and effects of particular housing pathways: Connections to urban processes of “youthification”—the concentration of young adults in dense neighborhoods—and “studentification”—whereby an area becomes dominated by university students—remain underdeveloped, as do linkages between these phenomena and gentrification. I explore these connections through a critical review of extant literature to show that the enactment of some pathways is associated with particular urban processes, which might foreclose certain pathways for other individuals. Finally, I identify three crucial areas of inquiry: (1) how youthification, studentification, and gentrification interact; (2) how these processes shape and are shaped by diverging individual housing pathways; and (3) how differences among young adults such as race, ethnicity, and gender intersect with age in the course of these processes.