An integrated web-based air pollution decision support system – a prototype

To efficiently and effectively monitor and mitigate air pollution in the urban environment, it is of paramount importance to integrate into a unified whole air pollutant concentration databases coming from different sources including the ground-based stations, mobile sensors, remote sensing, atmospheric-chemical-transport models and social media for the analysis and unraveling of the complex air pollution processes in space and time. This study constructs and implements for the first time a prototype of the fully integrated air pollution decision support system (APDSS) that put together in an integrated manner all relevant multi-scale, multi-type and multi-source data for decision-making on urban air pollution. The prototype contains the main system that handles the multi-source, multi-type and multi-scale databases, queries, visualization and data mining algorithms and the integrated modules that individually and holistically capitalize on the power of the ground-based stations, ground and aerial mobile sensors, satellite-borne remote-sensing technologies, atmospheric-chemical-transport models and social media. It renders a solid scientific foundation and system development methodology for the study of the spatiotemporal air pollution profiles crucial to the mitigation of urban air pollution. Real-life applications of the prototype are employed to illustrate the functionality of the APDSS.     

Living with floods: victims' perceptions in Beijiang, Guangdong, China

This study revealed the collective values of the flood victims in the Beijiang area, Guangdong, China, as a result of a hazardous flood in 1994. The victims were sceptical of large flood-prevention engineering structures. They believed that flooding was unavoidable, but by extending support networks, applying hazard-resistant designs, and developing loss-sharing adjustments the disastrous effects of a flood could be mitigated. Seemingly, victims were prepared to live with floods and adopted functional adjustments to lessen flood impact.     

Geographies of Displacement: The Karenni and The Shan Across The Myanmar-Thailand Border

First, central to our analysis is the argument that human movement within and across borders fundamentally challenges the view of geopolitics based upon fixed territorial states, inter-state relations, national identities and citizenship; indeed the whole idea of "national geographic". Using the examples of the Karen and Shan peoples, we explore the processes and patterns of forced relocation, displacement and migration in the border regions of Myanmar and Thailand. Our main concern is with forced displacement as a result of political and ethnic conflict; specifically, how the Burmese military regime's desire for "national unity" within Myanmar's "national space" has influenced the militarily inspired displacements of hundreds of thousands of villagers and civilians within the border zones inhabited mostly by so-called "national minorities". We examine the particular problems of the so-called "internally displaced persons" within "national" boundaries compared with the "refugees" and "undocumented migrants" who make it across "international" space into Thailand. We illustrate the ways displaced people are represented by state agencies and the media as "threats" and "transgressors". We consider some of the "long term" aspects of the displacement problem along the Myanmar-Thai border and the vital contribution geographers can make to the study of displacement.     

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA: PAST THEMES, CURRENT STATUS AND FUTURE TRENDS

Our knowledge regarding the physical geography of Southeast Asia is incomplete to a surprising extent. This paper reviews the past research, describes the ongoing work, and attempts to identify the future trends. Coverage of such a large area, even for the last 25 years, requires study of publications in several languages and coping with literature which is not easily available. Therefore certain topics. which are prominent in current research and likely to remain so in the future were chosen and reviewed in detail. Such topics include studies related to active plate margin features; the Pleistocene in Southeast Asia; erosion and sedimentation rates; rainforest; river systems; karst in Southeast Asia; coastal geomorphology; and the urban environment. Environmental studies are rapidly gaining importance chiefly because of (a) the destruction of the natural vegetation and the associated loss of biodiversity and (b) the growing problems due to accelerated erosion and sedimentation This trend is likely to continue with accelerated destruction of forests, development of coastal areas, and urbanization of the landscape The direction of research in physical geography of Southeast Asia has been determined by a combination of individual research interest, governmental priorities, and international expectations     

FORTY YEARS OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY IN THE JOURNAL

Up to June 1993, 207 articles on physical geography have been published in the Malayan Journal of Tropical Geography (MJTG) (1953–57), Journal of Tropical Geography (JTG) (1958–79) and the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography (SJTG) (1980–93). These articles are examined initially in terms of their sub-fields (Biogeography, Climatology, Geomorphology, Hydrology, and Soils), area of focus (the tropics, Africa, America, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia excluding Malaysia and Singapore, Malaysia, Singapore, and Southwest Pacific) and the area of origin of the authors. The more significant papers in the sub-fields are indicated. Various factors influencing the contributions to the Journal and some insights on the contributions of local staff (Singapore and Malaysia) are also given. The significance of the Journal as an avenue for local and foreign authors and for papers on physical geography in the tropics is briefly evaluated.     

A study on the flux,speciation, and budget of mercury in controlled experimental ecosystems

The lowest addition of mercury (0.1 ug Hg 1⁻¹) was used in CEEs for research on mercury flux, speciation and budget. The removal behavior of mercury by phytoplankton in water columns of CEEs can be described by first order kinetic equations for total and particulate mercury in the CEE spiked by mercury. The removal rate of mercury in water columns depends on the size and productivity of phytoplanton in a water column to which mercuric ions were added. A 4.4 day half-life time and a 2.8 day half-life time for total and particulate mercury respectively was obtained in diatom bloom. During microflagellate bloom a 30 day total mercury half-life time was estimated with increase of particulate mercury in the water column. The 0.010 ug Hg cm⁻²y⁻¹ mercury flux rate that was attained in the control bag agreed with the values from field measurements in Saanich Inlet where the bags were launched. The proportion of total mercury to dissolved and particulate mercury depended also on the size, productivity, and concentration of mercury in a water column. A more or less constant distribution of mercury species in the control bag was observed as follows: dissolved Hg 0.73, particulate Hg 0.27, inorganic Hg 0.42, dissolved organic Hg 0.31. After spiking with mercury, the particulate mercury rose rapidly and reached to over 70% of the total mercury. The concentration factor of mercury by phytoplankton in the CEEs in the order of 10⁵ was consistent with the results from field measurements in Saanich Inlet. The mercury recovery from the water column, sediment, water with sediment, and the CEE bag walls was only 52.3% of total mercury spiked in the CEE. The losses of mercury by vaporization into the ambient air and diffusion through the wall of the enclosure should be considered. This paper was published in Chinese inOcean. Limn. Sinica,17(4):307–317, 1986.     

The Reliability of Using the Iterative Proportional Fitting Procedure*

This paper demonstrates the utility of the iterative proportional fitting procedure (IPF) in generating disaggregated spatial data from aggregated data and evaluates the performance of the procedure. Estimates of individual level data created by IPF using data of equal-interval categories are reliable, but the performance of the estimation can be improved by increasing sample size. The improvement usually is enough to offset the increase in error created by other factors. If the two variables defining the cross-classification have a significant interaction effect and the number of categories in each variable is larger than two, then IPF is preferred over an independent model.     

Patterns of Racial Diversity and Segregation in the United States: 1990–2010

The growing ethnic and racial diversity of the United States is evident at all spatial scales. One of the striking features of this new mixture of peoples, however, is that this new diversity often occurs in tandem with racial concentration. This article surveys these new geographies from four points of view: the nation as a whole, states, large metropolitan areas, and neighborhoods. The analysis at each scale relies on a new taxonomy of racial composition that simultaneously appraises both diversity and the lack thereof (Holloway, Wright, and Ellis 2012). Urban analysis often posits neighborhood racial segregation and diversity as either endpoints on a continuum of racial dominance or mirror images of one another. We disturb that perspective and stress that segregation and diversity must be jointly understood—they are necessarily related, although not as inevitable binary opposites. Using census data from 1990, 2000, and 2010, the research points to how patterns of racial diversity and dominance interact across varying spatial scales. This investigation helps answer some basic questions about the changing geographies of racialized groups, setting the stage for the following articles that explore the relationship between geography and the participation of underrepresented groups in higher education.