Monaco with bananas,a tropical Manhattan,or a Singapore for Central America? Explaining rapid urban growth in Panama City,Panama

The built environment of Panama City, Panama, has undergone a transformative change over the past decade. Hundreds of high‐rise residential towers have sprung up in and around its central business district, eliciting comparisons with Singapore, New York and Dubai insofar as journalists, real estate boosters and politicians have associated the increase in tall buildings with a commensurate increase in global status. Concurrently, on the urban periphery, scores of uniform housing estates have been erected to house an upwardly mobile middle class. Triggered by the handover of the Panama Canal and the surrounding Canal Zone in 1999, the city's pronounced building boom has corresponded with the highest rates of economic growth in Latin America. This paper examines the complex factors behind the recent transformation of Panama City from a historical‐morphological perspective. While the drivers of demand for real property were primarily global, the determinants of supply have been highly localized, suggesting that the interface between the global and the local is a fundamental catalyst of changes in the urban landscape.     

Mercury levels in coral reefs along the Caribbean coast of Central America

Sediment and coral skeleton samples from 23 coral reefs along the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and Panama (1497 km) were evaluated for total mercury (Hg). High levels of pollution were found in the entire region with averages of 18.9 and 71.3 ppb in coral skeletons and sediments respectively. Significantly higher contamination was found in Panamanian corals (21.4 ppb) while compared to Costa Rican reef sediments (85.9 ppb). Hg from several processes and non-point sources (e.g., erosion, runoff, flooding, mining, overuse of agrochemicals, industrial waste, ports, and refineries) may have affected the entire region. The widespread observed distribution suggests that Hg is being carried along long distances within the region due to its high concentrations found in “pristine” reefs. Forest burning and colonial mining residues may be considered as possible contamination factors.     

An interdisciplinary approach to the collapse of the port and degradation of freshwater resources at Panama Viejo (Panama), 1519–1671

The Archaeological Site of Panama Viejo (Panama) comprises a protected area of 28 km² within present-day Panama City, on America's Pacific coast. In 1519, the Spaniards founded the city of Panama Viejo to secure a natural port in an area inhabited by indigenous peoples since at least the eighth century CE. The site, along the coastline and between two rivers, became a principal gateway for goods and people travelling between Europe and Pacific settlements to the east (Realejo) and the west (Trujillo, Lima, Arica). Within one century, however, Panama Viejo's natural port and freshwater infrastructure collapsed, leading to the city's relocation after corsairs attacked it in 1671. This study combines archaeological, geographical and historical analyses to explain how and why human interactions with the local environment made the settlement increasingly untenable.     

巴拿马科隆自贸区的发展历程及启示

采用文献归纳、案例分析等方法,依据贸易与经济地理等理论对科隆自由贸易区的发展历程、特征以及影响因素进行系统归纳与梳理;在此基础上,对科隆自贸区发展的成功经验与存在的问题与挑战进行了系统的总结与分析;最后对中国自由贸易试验区的启示作了初步的分析与探讨。     

A semi-analytical model of barotropic and baroclinic flows for an open Panama Gateway

A semi-analytical model of the Panama throughflow is presented. The model expresses the throughflow transport as a function of deep water formation in the North Pacific and in the North Atlantic, and of the Panama Gateway depth. The model is derived from the integral of the momentum equation along a circumpolar path, and can be interpreted from the point of view of the vorticity balance. The important conditions are whether the deep water, whose location is considered to be above the bottom water formed around Antarctica, originates from the North Atlantic or from the North Pacific, and whether the Panama Gateway is shallower than the lower boundary of the deep water. The present model indicates that the barotropic transport through the Panama Gateway is eastward, except for the case where the deep water is formed in the North Pacific and the sill of the Panama Gateway is shallow. The baroclinic structure of the Panama throughflow depends on whether the deep water is formed in the North Pacific or in the North Atlantic. These qualitative implications of the model are consistent with recent numerical studies and proxy-based paleoceanographic studies. Numerical experiments performed in the present study reinforce confidence in the semi-analytical model.     

High resolution seismic imaging of faults beneath Limón Bay, northern Panama Canal, Republic of Panama

High-resolution seismic reflection profiles from Limón Bay, Republic of Panama, were acquired as part of a seismic hazard investigation of the northern Panama Canal region. The seismic profiles image gently west and northwest dipping strata of upper Miocene Gatún Formation, unconformably overlain by a thin (<20 m) sequence of Holocene muds. Numerous faults, which have northeast trends where they can be correlated between seismic profiles, break the upper Miocene strata. Some of the faults have normal displacement, but on many faults, the amount and type of displacement cannot be determined. The age of displacement is constrained to be Late Miocene or younger, and regional geologic considerations suggest Pliocene movement. The faults may be part of a more extensive set of north- to northeast-trending faults and fractures in the canal region of central Panama. Low topography and the faults in the canal area may be the result of the modern regional stress field, bending of the Isthmus of Panama, shearing in eastern Panama, or minor deformation of the Panama Block above the Caribbean subduction zone. For seismic hazard analysis of the northern canal area, these faults led us to include a source zone of shallow faults proximal to northern canal facilities.     

A physical mechanism for the Atlantic–Pacific flow reversal in the early Miocene

Barotropic wind-driven steady ocean circulation patterns have been calculated for several different continental geometries during the Tertiary. Using a shallow-water model, flows are computed at 5-Ma intervals within the 60–20 Ma period, while keeping a fixed pattern of the wind-stress forcing. The most interesting changes in ocean circulation occur between 35 and 20 Ma, in which (i) the Antarctic Circumpolar Current appears because of the widening of Drake Passage, (ii) the Tethys Current disappears because of the closure of the Tethys Seaway and (iii) the transport through Panama Straits (between North and South America) reverses. The results are qualitatively in agreement with interpretations of changes in ocean surface currents drawn on the basis of proxy studies. A physical mechanism of the flow reversal through the Panama Straits is proposed based on a detailed analysis of the changes in wind-driven transport of both the Tethys Current and the Antarctic Circumpolar Current.     

Port privatization in Panama

In previous papers we have looked at open registries, the Panama maritime sector and Panama Canal operations and management. No maritime study of Panama is complete, however, without a detailed look at the Panama Canal's main port system, which has enjoyed remarkable growth since the privatization of the terminal ports of Cristóbal and Balboa in 1995. This paper looks at the evolution and development of the Canal's port system; its stewardship, initially by the American authorities governing the Canal and, post-transition, by the Panamanians, and includes a study of the driving forces that led to privatization. We will conclude by looking at the results of the successful reform of the system, currently considered a primary model for other Latin American countries.