Incorporating geographies of health into public policy debates: The GeoHealth Laboratory

Abstract:  The restricted influence of geographers in the policy arena has been the source of some angst. This paper reports on a new initiative at the University of Canterbury, which aims to strengthen geography's contribution to health policy debates in New Zealand. The GeoHealth Laboratory is a joint initiative between the Department of Geography and Public Health Intelligence group at the Ministry of Health that seeks to provide a pathway for the integration of health geography research into policy development. This new facility aligns the expertise in health geography, GIS and other spatial analytical methods with policy-relevant research priorities. An overview of the strategic aims of the GeoHealth Laboratory is provided along with some examples of recent research activities that are contributing to understandings of the health landscape in New Zealand. It is argued that such partnerships provide important opportunities for geographers to engage with policy-relevant issues.     

Vertical and lateral organization of a carbonate deep-water slope marginal to a submarine fan system, Miocene, southern Turkey

Organization is recognized in the forereef–deep water slope–submarine fan system of the Burdigalian-Langhian Kaplankaya Formation. A basinwards transition from a prograding shelfal reef complex, through forereef talus, deep-water slope and laterally encroaching bypass deep-water clastic system is described, although the deep-water slope makes up the bulk of the succession. Considerable thickness variations occur between the reef and deep-water clastic complexes; these are controlled by sea-floor topography, carbonate foreslope gradient and degree of mass wasting off the platform and foreslope. The vertical and lateral heterogeneity of the Kaplankaya deep-water slope system is described from a number of localities along a 40-km-long and up to 3-km-wide exposed section of the northern margin of the Miocene Adana Basin, a foreland basin setting resulting from thrust sheet loading from the north during the Tauride Orogeny. Detailed field mapping is supplemented with vertical sedimentary logs, photomosaics, palaeontological and petrological data to investigate stratal variation, diagnostic architectural elements, controls on slope progradation, differential timing of basinward encroachment of the reefal complex and lateral onlap of the deep-water clastic system onto the slope. Three-dimensional models are presented showing the vertical and lateral facies associations in different parts of the deep-water slope system, and provide a basis for architectural prediction of geometry and relative position in such environments.