Coping with disaster: Rehabilitating coastal livelihoods and communities

This paper examines lessons from past approaches to natural disasters, as well as early lessons from the post-2004 Asian tsunami rehabilitation, to draw out general principles for rehabilitating livelihoods in poor coastal communities. We contend that avoiding the mistakes of the past requires: (1) a framework for understanding the diversity of coastal people's livelihood strategies and the sources of their vulnerability, (2) a process for designing interventions that build on this understanding in order to strengthen and revitalize coastal communities, including a means of assessing and selecting the most promising livelihood options, and (3) a focus on the longer-term challenge of building future resilience and sustainability in the communities by addressing the root causes of vulnerability.     

Catastrophic debris flows near Machu Picchu village (Aguas Calientes), Peru

Slope movements together with intensive river erosion and the following accumulation are the leading processes in the landscape evolution in the area of Machu Picchu village (former Aguas Calientes), which is located close to the Machu Picchu Sanctuary. Debris flows affect not only the bottoms of valleys or canyons, but also debris fans at the termini of the drainage basins, which are heavily inhabited at some places. The most recent event in the Machu Picchu village occurred in April 2004, but several others were documented in a broader area in the last 50 years. The field inspections at Machu Picchu (May and September 2004; June and September 2005) together with oral testimony revealed the nature and behavior of the debris flow. Machu Picchu village can be assessed as a zone with high landslide risk in relation to its urban development. Despite that, the village recorded a rapid growth (threefold population increase) without urban control within the past two decades. Precipitation, which is the main triggering factor of the debris flows, and natural hazard management of the Machu Picchu village are discussed in this paper.     

Gender and voluntary work in late adulthood in rural communities in the Netherlands

This article discusses the involvement of older women and men in voluntary work in rural communities in the Netherlands. Gender, ageing and civil society form the core concepts in the article. Politicians and policy makers in the Netherlands are worried about the perceived decline of civil society and about the consequences of this decline for specific categories of older women in terms of well-being and social exclusion. The paper presents the results of two surveys of involvement of older women and men in civic organisations, voluntary work and local actions. The surveys indicate high levels of involvement of both women and men. No gender differences are found in activity level. However, the data demonstrate the gendered nature of civil society. Women are more engaged in informal voluntary work and informal local actions, while men are more active in formal organisations and functions. This gender segmentation is not absolute, however. Many older women and men transgress the traditional feminine–masculine boundaries. The surveys highlight the involvement of women and men in rural communities, but indicate lower activity levels in urban areas.     

Gated communities of the Moscow green belt: newly segregated landscapes and the suburban Russian environment

The transition from the Soviet to the post-Soviet period in and near Moscow manifested itself in increasing production of segregated space both in the urban core and suburban areas outside of the beltway to accommodate the preferences of the new Russian business and governmental elite. This paper focuses on the residential single-family housing inside old and new settlements, which are frequently gated. Approximately 260 of such suburban communities have been developed within 30 km of the beltway during the past few years, of which a majority have some form of exclusion mechanism in place, typically tall solid fences, gates, closed-circuit video surveillance and guarded entry checkpoints. The difference in exclusivity varies from the most exclusive older communities inside Moscow Serebryany Bor enclave and Rublevskoe highway mansions to less exclusive new developments along Novorizkhskoe and Dmitrovskoe highways. Despite high rates of construction, based on sociological surveys in 2003, only about 11% of Russia’s upper class claimed to live in such new “cottages,” with the rest owning condos and luxury apartments in the inner city or older detached homes in villages and small towns. Therefore, not all the needs have been accommodated and more development is certain to take place. The environmental impact of such developments is profound. Based on preliminary LANDSAT image analysis, almost 22% of suburban “green belt” forested land within 30 km zone has been converted to new construction from 1991 to 2001. New construction is now focusing on the remaining fragments of natural vegetation, which will likely lower air quality and water quality available for the city. Ironically, the new developments advertise themselves as “clean and green” with massive investments in unnatural landscaping (seeded lawns, exotic shrubs, river and lake shore “improvements”). This investment highlights the well-known paradox of development in which people move out of town to live near nature, while destroying the wild nature they come to enjoy. “We left city for the weekend It was raining, saw no stars There were fences everywhere Our chiefs behind the bars.” Gennady Shpalikov     

略论目标规划及交互方法在小康示范村规划中的实践--以西藏贡嘎县沃拉村为例

建设全面小康社会是我国本世纪头20年的核心内容,目前已经有越来越多的人加入到这一研究领域中,该领域的规划研究工作正在逐渐加强。本文以西藏贡嘎县沃拉村为例,介绍了目标规划及交互方法小康示范村规划中的实践,讨论了规划的过程、建模方法及模型的精度等问题,认为在研究人员的指导下,由村民学习并建模的方法是今后小康村规划的发展方向。     

Quantitative classification and analysis on plant communities in the middle reaches of the Tarim River

Plant communities were sampled in the lower reaches of the Tarim River, Xinjiang. The results showed that there are 23 species belonging to 21 genera in 11 families, most of which have low occurrence frequency in quadrats. The most common species is Tamarix ramosissima, which occurred in 17 sites accounting for 89.47% of the total 19 sites. Quantitative classification (TWINSPAN) and ordination (CCA) methods were used to study the distribution patterns of 23 plant species in 19 sites in this valley. TWINSPAN results showed that the plant communities in the middle reaches of the Tarim River could be divided into 3 groups and the sampling sites could be divided into 7 types in 3 groups. CCA results were consistent with TWINSPAN results, and showed species distribution patterns correlated with major environmental variables of groundwater level and soil moisture.     

一种典型的同生沉积型微细浸染型金矿床--桂西北高龙金矿床

桂西北高龙微细浸染型金矿床位于广西田林县高龙乡。含矿硅质岩与热水沉积作用有关，而非首人认为的断裂破碎—热液硅化交代岩。矿床的典型地质特征以及地球化学特征显示该矿床具有典型的同生沉积—准同生成岩的成因特征，矿床属同生沉积型，而不是前人认为的后生热液改造型。矿床的形成与右江沉积盆地演化关系密切，含矿流体为以大气降水为主要补给源的深循环盆地卤水和与沉积物发生了同位素交换的埋藏古海水，流体的运移方式以压实驱动流为主，含矿流体主要以沉积喷流方式成矿。     

Problems associated with tourism development in Southern Africa: The case of Transfrontier Conservation Areas

Tourism in Southern Africa is synonymous with the wildlife safari. In the post-colonial era the establishment of so-called ‘peaceparks’ that straddle the borders of states has come to be seen as a key not only to increasing tourism in the Southern African region, but also to the modernizing of conservation policies and the development of rural economies. This paper focuses on the global and continental presence of transfrontier conservation areas, the link between conservation and tourism development, and the current factors that constrain and influence the realization of an ‘African Dream’ — ‘establishment of the greatest animal kingdom’. The unstable political situation in Zimbabwe and how this negatively affects wildlife conservation and tourism in the Gonarezhou part of the Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park, serves as a case study. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Spatial distribution of crustaceans associated with shallow soft‐bottom habitats in a coral reef lagoon

The ecology and diversity of the shallow soft‐bottom areas adjacent to coral reefs are still poorly known. To date, the few studies conducted in these habitats dealing with macroinvertebrate fauna have focused on their abundance spatial patterns at high taxonomic levels. Thus, some aspects important to evaluate the importance and vulnerability of these habitats, such as species diversity or the degree of habitat specialization, have often been overlooked. In this study we compared the crustacean assemblages present in four different habitats at Magoodhoo Island coral reef lagoon (Maldives): coral rubble, sandy areas and two different seagrass species (Thalassia hemprichii and Cymodocea sp.). Forty‐two different crustacean species belonging to 30 families and four orders were found. ‘Site’ was a significant factor in all of the statistical analyses, indicating that tropical soft‐bottom habitats can be highly heterogeneous, even at a spatial scale between tens and hundreds of meters. Although traditionally it has been considered that seagrass beds host greater species diversity and abundance of organisms than adjacent unvegetated habitats, no differences in the univariate measures of fauna (abundance of organisms, number of species and Shannon diversity) were observed among habitats. However, sandy areas, coral rubble and seagrass beds exhibited different species composition of crustacean communities. The percentage of taxa considered as potential habitat specialists was 27% and the number of species exclusively occurring in one habitat was especially high in seagrass beds. Thus, degradation of this vegetated habitat would result in a great loss of biodiversity in tropical shallow soft‐bottom habitats.     

基于地理格网分级法提取的中国传统村落空间分布

中国传统村落真实地记录了建筑、民俗民风和较原始的民居空间形态,是千百年来人类与自然和谐共存的生活基础。随着城市化进程加快,传统村落的存续受到了很大的挑战,为了更好地保护利用传统村落,对其进行多视角的研究尤为重要,除了微观层面的具体保护措施外,还应加强宏观层面的空间分布研究。地理格网是表达复杂地理现象、综合分析自然与人文数据、模拟地理系统功能与行为的基本方法。本文从百度影像地图提取村落坐标,并截取遥感影像作为村落点数据的判断补充,在此基础上,运用地理格网的分级法,对国家公布的三批中国传统村落(2555个)数据进行空间格局分析,结果表明：这些村落主要分布在中国东南部,如落在一级格网Ⅰ18、Ⅰ19就分别有586、781个村落,占三批传统村落总数的96.6%。通过对二级和三级格网的村落分布离散性进行分析,使传统村落的空间分布数据结构更加系统和清晰有序,为合理构建其数据库提供了框架基础。