Assessing rapid environmental change using geoindicators

 Geoindicators are high-resolution measures of short-term (<100 years) surface or near-surface changes in earth processes, and phenomena that are significant for environmental monitoring and assessment. They are based on standard concepts and procedures and can be used to track changes in fluvial, coastal, desert, mountain, permafrost and other terrestrial areas. Geoindicators assess both catastrophic events and those that are more gradual, but evident within a human lifespan. Most deal with changes on the landscape (0.1–10 km) and meso-scales (10–100 km), but some, such as relative sea level and volcanic unrest, have regional and global dimensions. Some are complex and costly to measure, others are relatively simple and easy to apply. Geoindicators can also be used to unravel trends over the past few centuries and longer through paleoenvironmental research, thus providing the important baselines against which human-induced and natural stresses can be better understood. Geoindicators have been designed by the International Union of Geological Sciences as an aid to state-of-the-environment reporting and long-term ecological monitoring. Received: 26 July 1996 / Accepted: 1 November 1996     

水流模拟智能化问题的探讨

对水流模拟的发展历史进行了总结,指出阻碍水流模拟发展的主要问题,提出克服这些瓶颈问题的方法是将智能科学与水利科学交叉融合,实现水流的智能模拟。据此,介绍了水流智能模型理论,结合遗传算法、模糊逻辑、元胞自动机、混沌分析理论、人工神经网络、专家系统、数据挖掘等智能理论和技术,对水流智能模拟的实现途径作了探讨,并指出建造一个优秀的水流模拟智能系统的关键是联合运用各种智能方法,认为智能化是当前水流模拟发展的新方向,水流智能模型将是水利科学的一种新的研究途径,并将在研究水流问题上具有广阔的应用前景。     

Progress in sandy desertification research of China

Desertification is one of the most serious environmental and socio-economic problems facing the world today. Because the rapid expansion of desertification has resulted in serious environmental deterioration, economic loss, locally unsteadiness political situation and social upheaval, it has become a hot-spot issue of worldwide concern. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, as the catastrophic drought in the west Africa greatly accelerated the development of desertification, the desertificati…     

In the Critical Zone: Geography at the U.S. Geological Survey

Geography is again becoming an integral part of the premier natural‐science agency of the federal government. Geographic research emphasizes the surface of the earth, a portion of the earth system that the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) defines as the “critical zone.” Although geography was part of the USGS from the creation of the agency, in recent years geography in the agency has largely been limited to topographic mapping. Recently, the USGS and an advisory committee of the National Research Council (NRC) reviewed the role of geography at the Survey. The committee's report, along with ongoing decision‐making in the federal government, is likely to reshape geography in the USGS. The newly defined USGS has a regional structure and four disciplines: geology, hydrology, biology, and geography. The NRC report emphasizes the need for the creation of a spatial database called the National Map to replace the existing series of paper topographic maps. The report also outlines the need for geographic research in geographic information science (GIScience), nature‐society connections, and bridging of science to decision‐making. The NRC report has been briefed throughout the USGS, in the federal executive branch, and in Congress. The changing role for geography in the USGS requires change in the agency culture, revised budgetary decisions, and the establishment of a long‐term core agenda for research. Academic geographers will need to prepare a new generation of geographers for participation in the USGS and similar agencies.     

试论实施防震减灾社会动员的途径与方法

0前言中国是一个多地震国家,频繁而严重的地震灾害给人民生命和财产带来了巨大的损失,防震减灾任务任重而道远。回良玉副总理2004年在全国防震减灾工作会议讲话中指出:“防震减灾是全社会共同的责任,要广泛动员社会各方的力量,积极投入到这项事业中来,使防震减灾逐步成为全社会的自觉行动。”因此,总结近40年我国防震减灾工作和改革开放的实践经验,对社会公众进行各种防震减灾宣传教育,广泛动员全社会力量,建立健全防震减灾社会动员机制,增强全社会防震减灾意识,是提高我国综合防震减灾能力,有效地促进地震灾害综合防御各项措施落实的重要途…     

Research relevance, 'knowledge transfer' and the geographies of CASE studentship collaboration

The Co-operative Awards in Science and Engineering (CASE) studentship programme of the UK Research Councils provide one example of wider efforts internationally to encourage so-called 'knowledge transfer' and thereby harness publicly supported university research more closely to the goals of national competitiveness, regional economic development and local regeneration. In this paper we describe the implications of how the various UK research councils have interpreted the objectives and beneficiaries of 'knowledge transfer', both for the relative opportunities available to human and physical geographers for collaboration through CASE and for the sorts of values that their research must serve. Then, we draw on unpublished data from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to explore the geographies of CASE studentship allocation and participation. The broad regional and institutional patterns of participation we describe have important implications for ongoing debates in the UK about research selectivity and the role of the university as an engine of local development, while the striking disciplinary patterns of CASE participation, and in particular the overwhelming success of geographers in this competitive programme, provide an opportunity to reassess claims about whether and for whom geographical research is relevant.     

Sustainability schizophrenia or “actually existing sustainabilities?” toward a broader understanding of the politics and promise of local sustainability in the US

As an approach to development, many see capitalism as reaching across an enormous range of scholarly domains and political interests. For some time geographers and others have begun to conceptualize capitalism as less of a system of intrinsic economic logic and more a collection of social and discursive relationships. By bringing capitalism into the “discursive world” these commentators and others have provided the theoretical ground for an exploration of alternative economic forms, especially those that are more socially and ecologically just. This paper makes an argument for putting sustainable development through the same theoretical scrutiny. Drawing on examples from the US we recruit the concept of “actually existing sustainabilities” from Altvater’s concept “actually existing socialisms” as an entry point to this conversation. Our purpose is to show that the potential for sustainability in the US exists in current local policies and practices if we rethink how we frame it.     

中国南极软科学研究的意义、现状与展望

本文指出中国的南极研究大多集中在自然科学,而软科学研究相对薄弱,存在着研究领域较少和研究深度不够等不足,这会制约我国在国际南极事务中的话语权、应有权益和国际地位。为了提高中国在国际南极政治和南极事务中的地位,应重视和加强南极软科学研究。文章分析了南极软科学的研究现状和存在的问题,对今后的研究方向和课题进行了展望和讨论,可供极地软科学研究者和管理层参考。     

Towards a moral socio-environmental economy: A reconsideration of values

In this intervention article I contribute to discussions of moral economy by arguing that scholars should reconsider the nature of value. Neoliberalism considers only exchange value. As a consequence neoliberal policies try to manage problems such as climate change with economic systems and instruments that are mis-calibrated to the material realities they are meant to represent. Value has spatial and temporal characteristics. Recognizing the spatial and temporal dynamics of value leads to new means of resource valuation, such as extending the time-frame of instruments and changing the nature of privatization. In conclusion, I argue for the need for new theories of use value.     

Re-conceptualizing the Anthropocene: A call for collaboration

Since it was first proposed in 2000, the concept of the Anthropocene has evolved in breadth and diversely. The concept encapsulates the new and unprecedented planetary-scale changes resulting from societal transformations and has brought to the fore the social drivers of global change. The concept has revealed tensions between generalized interpretations of humanity’s contribution to global change, and interpretations that are historically, politically and culturally situated. It motivates deep ethical questions about the politics and economics of global change, including diverse interpretations of past causes and future possibilities. As such, more than other concepts, the Anthropocene concept has brought front-and-center epistemological divides between and within the natural and social sciences, and the humanities. It has also brought new opportunities for collaboration. Here we explore the potential and challenges of the concept to encourage integrative understandings of global change and sustainability. Based on bibliometric analysis and literature review, we discuss the now wide acceptance of the term, its interpretive flexibility, the emerging narratives as well as the debates the concept has inspired. We argue that without truly collaborative and integrative research, many of the critical exchanges around the concept are likely to perpetuate fragmented research agendas and to reinforce disciplinary boundaries. This means appreciating the strengths and limitations of different knowledge domains, approaches and perspectives, with the concept of the Anthropocene serving as a bridge, which we encourage researchers and others to cross. This calls for institutional arrangements that facilitate collaborative research, training, and action, yet also depends on more robust and sustained funding for such activities. To illustrate, we briefly discuss three overarching global change problems where novel types of collaborative research could make a difference: (1) Emergent properties of socioecological systems; (2) Urbanization and resource nexus; and (3) Systemic risks and tipping points. Creative tensions around the Anthropocene concept can help the research community to move toward new conceptual syntheses and integrative action-oriented approaches that are needed to producing useful knowledge commensurable with the challenges of global change and sustainability.