Katrina and Migration: Evacuation and Return by African Americans and Vietnamese Americans in an Eastern New Orleans Suburb

Hurricane Katrina constitutes the most costly natural as well as technology-induced disaster, in terms of both human suffering and financial loss in the history of the United States. Even years later, it continues to profoundly impact the livelihoods and the mental and physical health of those who have experienced evacuation and return and those who have begun lives anew elsewhere. Our study focuses on these geographical processes associated with the Katrina disaster experiences of African Americans and Vietnamese Americans comprising an overwhelming majority (93.4 percent) of residents in a racially mixed pre-Katrina eastern New Orleans neighborhood. We examine the spatial morphology of routes, volumes, and frequencies of evacuees; their return rates and experiences; and rationales and motivations to return or stay. The conceptual framework is based on the disaster migration, place attachment, and social network literature. Both quantitative and qualitative evidence indicates that the evacuation and return experiences of each minority group substantially differed, especially among African American women, and this was strongly influenced by existing social networks.     

Reasons for Returning and Not Returning to Rural U.S. Communities

Population loss persists in nonmetropolitan America, especially in isolated counties with limited natural amenities. Communities in these counties experience high levels of outmigration among high school graduates, but low in-migration is more important in distinguishing declining from growing nonmetropolitan counties, and return migration is a much more prominent component of in-migration to these locationally disadvantaged areas. This research uses a multisited, interview-based methodology to understand the factors that influence decisions of people in their late twenties to late forties to move back to rural communities and the barriers that keep others from making such moves. The life course segment considered here captures a critical “settling down” period when career and family obligations overlap and return migration peaks. Interviews at high school reunions, the only venues where stayers, return migrants, and nonreturn migrants are found together, show that limited rural employment opportunities are barriers for nonreturnees. Others intent on returning find ways to secure or create employment but are primarily influenced to move home by family concerns. Connections to the larger social and physical environment of the community are important as well. Interviews affirm that factors affecting migration decisions work in combination, and ties to both people and place are critical for understanding rural return migration.     

“WOMEN IN GEOGRAPHY” REVISITED: PRESENT STATUS,NEW OPTIONS

The representation of women on geography faculties did not increase appreciably between 1971 and 1977, but women in other academic disciplines have fared somewhat better. The latter have improved their status primarily as a result of actions taken by professional associations representing their fields. When a professional association ignores its female constituency or refuses to commit itself to improving their circumstances, federal agencies now offer alternative channels for obtaining redress.     

Temporal and spatial variation of annual rainfall on the island of Crete,Greece

Annual rainfall records from the island of Crete in Greece were used with the aid of a geographical information system (GIS) to study the temporal and spatial rainfall characteristics. The GIS was used to produce a digital elevation model, delineate watersheds and estimate the areal rainfall from a network of raingauges by using different interpolation schemes. The rainfall–elevation correlation was significant, suggesting an orographic type of precipitation for the island. The rainfall records for the majority of the stations were found to fit the normal distribution. Deviation from normal for the rest of the records was attributed to the wettest year of 1977–1978. The year 1989–1990 was the driest, and most rainfall records showed a decrease in rainfall over 30 years with higher negative rainfall gradients at the higher elevations. Frequency analysis of the rainfall records was used to estimate areal rainfall for the island of Crete and its main watersheds for return periods of 2, 5 and 10 years. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The marine dynamics and changing trend off the modern Yellow River mouth

Topography around the Yellow River mouth has changed greatly in recent years, but studies on the current state of ma- rine dynamics off the Yellow River mouth are relatively scarce. This paper uses a two-dimension numerical model(MIKE 21) to reveal the tidal and wave dynamics in 2012, and conducts comparative analysis of the changes from 1996 to 2012. The results show that M2 amphidromic point moved southeastward by 11 km. It further reveals that the tides around the Yellow River mouth are relatively stable due to the small variations in the tidal constituents. Over the study period, there is no noticeable change in the distribution of tidal types and tidal range, and the mean tidal range off the river mouth during the period studied is 0.5–1.1 m. However, the tidal currents changed greatly due to large change in topography. It is observed that the area with strong tidal currents shifted from the old river mouth(1976–1996) to the modern river mouth(1996–present). While the tidal current speeds decreased continually off the old river mouth, they increased off the modern river mouth. The Maximum Tidal Current Speed(MTCS) reached 1.4 m s-1, and the maximum current speed of 50-year return period reached 2.8 m s-1. Waves also changed greatly due to change in topography. The significant wave height(H1/3) of 50-year return period changed proportionately with the water depth, and the ratio of H1/3 to depth being 0.4–0.6. H1/3 of the 50-year return period in erosion zone increased continually with increasing water depth, and the rate of change varied between 0.06 and 0.07 m yr-1. Based on the results of this study, we infer that in the future, the modern river mouth will protrude gradually northward, while the erosion zone, comprising the old river mouth and area between the modern river mouth and the old river mouth(Intermediate region) will continue to erode. As the modern river mouth protrudes towards the sea, there will be a gradual increase in the current speed and decrease in wave height. Conversely, the old river mouth will retreat, with gradual decrease in current speed and increase in wave height. As more coastal constructions spring up around the Yellow River mouth in the future, we recommend that variation in hydrodynamics over time should be taken into consideration when designing such coastal constructions.     

State‐led talent return migration programme and the doubly neglected ‘Malaysian diaspora’: Whose diaspora,what citizenship,whose development?

This paper questions the assumptions of ‘diaspora’, ‘citizenship’ and ‘development’ underlying diaspora strategies targeting a specific pool of overseas Malaysian ‘talent’ migrants. I examine the Malaysian state's discursive attempts to construct a carefully contained economic ‘diaspora'—the ‘Malaysian diaspora'—through its talent return migration programme. In this process, there is a portion of the ‘Malaysian diaspora’, especially non‐bumiputeras (sons of soil), who are doubly neglected and excluded: first, from access to full and equal citizenship (which arguably contributed to their emigration in the first place); and second, from eligibility and recognition to participate in Malaysia's talent return migration programme. However, recent political activism calling for electoral reform and overseas voting rights challenges state‐constructed visions of the ‘diaspora’ and their expected roles in advancing ‘development’. This paper concludes by highlighting questions raised by the Malaysian case, linking these explicitly to how diaspora strategies—as they have been conceived, practised and contested—challenge the broader Migration and Development paradigm.     

Modelling catchment‐scale shallow landslide occurrence and sediment yield as a function of rainfall return period

A model‐based method is proposed for improving upon existing threshold relationships which define the rainfall conditions for triggering shallow landslides but do not allow the magnitude of landsliding (i.e. the number of landslides) to be determined. The SHETRAN catchment‐scale shallow landslide model is used to quantify the magnitude of landsliding as a function of rainfall return period, for focus sites of 180 and 45 km² in the Italian Southern Alps and the central Spanish Pyrenees. Rainfall events with intensities of different return period are generated for a range of durations (1‐day to 5‐day) and applied to the model to give the number of landslides triggered and the resulting sediment yield for each event. For a given event duration, simulated numbers of landslides become progressively less sensitive to return period as return period increases. Similarly, for an event of given return period, landslide magnitude becomes less sensitive to event duration as duration increases. The temporal distribution of rainfall within an event is shown to have a significant impact on the number of landslides and the timing of their occurrence. The contribution of shallow landsliding to catchment sediment yield is similarly quantified as a function of the rainfall characteristics. Rainfall intensity–duration curves are presented which define different levels of landsliding magnitude and which advance our predictive capability beyond, but are generally consistent with, published threshold curves. The magnitude curves are relevant to the development of guidelines for landslide hazard assessment and forecasting. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

联合效用理论与风险量化的防波堤决策模型研究

回顾和总结了当前防波堤项目的决策模型,介绍了效用理论的起源、发展和理论基础,提出了效用理论结合防波堤风险量化方法的新型风险决策模型.以某直立式防波堤的优化设计为例,将防波堤滑移失效概率、防波堤尺度、生命周期内的风险损失和预期收益、决策者风险态度等量化指标纳入决策系统,比较了费用最小化、费用-收益权衡和效用三种决策模型,探讨了优化设计重现期的确定.结果表明,决策者的风险态度将极大地影响防波堤方案的选择,而费用-收益模型实质上是效用模型的一种特殊情况,这凸显了效用模型的包容性和合理性.     

基于现场实测的渤海风速特性研究

风荷载是影响海洋结构物设计和安全服役最为显著的环境因素之一。利用在役海洋平台监测系统对渤海风速场展开长期监测,获得了长期的风速信息。对极值风速进行分析,利用极值Ⅰ、Ⅱ、Ⅲ型分布对风速极值的概率密度进行拟合。基于极值Ⅰ型概率分布,获得了渤海海域重现期为5 a、10 a、30 a和50 a的最大风速值。对年最大风速的脉动风分量、湍流强度、阵风因子进行了分析。考虑高频分量的影响,利用小波变换,得到了脉动风速的近似分量和细节分量,计算了实测风速的纵向和横向的空间积分尺度。对比经验脉动风谱与实测脉动风谱,证明了Davenport风速谱能够较好地拟合渤海现场风速场。     

龙门山地区地震活动性广义极值模型构建

以龙门山地区为研究区, 利用1931年至2010年历史地震数据, 时限取80年, 时间间隔取10年, 构建地震活动性广义极值模型, 估计龙门山地区震级上限和强震重现水平。 结果表明龙门山地区地震活动性广义极值模型服从具有有限上界的Weibull分布, 震级上限为8.3, 未来20年、 50年、 100年龙门山地区的强震重现水平分别为7.9、 8.1、 8.1。 起始年由1930年至1933年逐年平移, 时间间隔不变, 震级上限及强震重现水平的计算结果相差不到0.2级, 表明本文构建的龙门山地区广义极值模型具有一定程度的稳定性, 可为地震区划以及地震危险性分析研究提供参考。