中国城市群发育现状分析

伴随着市场经济和工业化、城市化的推进。中国城市群正在逐渐形成并快速发展。文章在对城市群概念进行讨论的基础上，选取2002年各项经济指标，从总体经济实力、人均发展水平、中心城市与县域经济发展状况诸方面，对中国各大城市群的发育状况与存在问题进行了综合对比分析，强调国家应采取以城市群为依托的“多极联动”区域发展战略。     

Impact of Flood Disasters on Taiwan in the Last Quarter Century

The increasing natural disasters, especially floods during the last quarter century, are raising the economic losses in Taiwan. The most severe hazard in Taiwan is flooding induced by typhoons and storms in summer and autumn. By comparing the rivers around the world, the ones in Taiwan have the steepest slopes, the largest discharge per unit drainage area, and the shortest time of concentrations. Rapid urbanization without proper land uses managements usually worsen the flood problems. Consequently, flood hazards mitigation has become the most essential task for Taiwan to deal with. Although the government keeps improving flood defense structures, the flood damage grows continuously. In this article, possible flood mitigation strategies are identified for coping with complex environmental and social decisions with flood risk involved.     

Climatic characteristics of summer high temperature and assessment methods in the large cities of North China

Based on the high temperature data of June to August in 1961-2000 in North China, the high temperature weather processes are investigated, and a more complete data set for severe high temperature processes is created. The climatic characteristics of adverse high temperature weather in Beijing, Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Jinan and Taiyuan are analyzed respectively. The major features of the East-Asia Subtropical High and Transformed Continental High are discussed. The outcomes indicate that the influence of both East Asia Subtropical High and Transformed Continental High on these weather events varies, by a larger margin, from one city to another over North China and they are also closely related to the relative humidity. It is found that the behaviours of East-Asia Subtropical High and Transformed Continental High are the major important systems that give rise to the summer high temperature weather over the region. Based on these findings, the 5-day, 10-day and monthly assessment models for such high impact events have been developed. The assessment outcomes prove to be useful in assessing severe high-temperature events in major cities of North China.     

RACIALIZED TOPOGRAPHIES: ALTITUDE AND RACE IN SOUTHERN CITIES*

ABSTRACT. This study examines altitudinal residential segregation by race in 146 cities in the U.S. South. It begins by embedding the topic in recent theorizations of the social construction of nature, the geography of race, and environmental justice. Second, it focuses on how housing markets, particularly in the South, tend to segregate minorities in low‐lying, flood‐prone, and amenity‐poor segments of urban areas. It tests empirically the hypothesis that blacks are disproportionately concentrated in lower‐altitude areas using gis to correlate race and elevation by digital elevation‐model block group within each city in 1990 and 2000. The statistical results confirm the suspected trend. A map of coefficients indicates strong positive associations in cities in the interior South‐where the hypothesis is confirmed‐and an inverse relationship near the coast, where whites dominate higher‐valued coastal properties. Selected city case studies demonstrate these relationships connecting the broad dynamics of racial segregation to the particularities of individual places.     

The place of individuals in the politics of scale

Conceptualizations and re-conceptualizations of scale have been powerful tools for explaining spatial processes that transcend traditionally-bounded territories. Examining the role of individuals within a politics of scale can do even more to explain multi-scalar conflicts. This paper does so by examining struggles over airport expansion in the US, showing how an understanding of the various roles of individuals in the politics of scale – as sites of multiple scales, as actors constituting other scales, and as scales in and of themselves – better explains multi-scalar conflicts and offers more opportunities for resolving them.     

Branding the design metropole: the case of Montréal, Canada

As part of a broader process of inter-urban competition, city governments have increasingly sought to 'position' themselves as centres of creativity. In these branding initiatives, culture is viewed as a tool of urban regeneration and economic development. Our paper examines the case of Commerce Design Montréal, an annual design competition run by the City of Montréal, which aims to brand Montréal as a centre of design. Commerce Design Montréal is an example of a 'fast' policy initiated by the state, but carried out by business owners and citizens. As such, it represents a downloading of the responsibility for economic development to the private or individual scale and adopts only a partial view of the varied actors and uses that are implicated in the design process. The paper considers the opportunities and challenges that this model presents for promoting design as a form of urban regeneration in a neo-liberal context.     

Historical Auckland on foot

Abstract:  This paper discusses three walking tour guides prepared for the 12th International Conference of Historical Geographers. It argues that the guides are innovative in terms of format, content and ironic sensibility. It construes them as devices for re-imagining Auckland's urban heritage.     

Retrieval of stratospheric O3 and NO2 vertical profiles using zenith scattered light observations

Daily zenith scattered light intensity observations were carried out in the morning twilight hours using home-made UV-visible spectrometer over the tropical station Pune (18‡31′, 73‡51′) for the years 2000–2003. These observations are obtained in the spectral range 462–498 nm for the solar zenith angles (SZAs) varying from 87‡ to 91.5‡. An algorithm has been developed to retrieve vertical profiles of ozone (O₃) and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) from ground-based measurements using the Chahine iteration method. This retrieval method has been checked using measured and recalculated slant column densities (SCDs) and they are found to be well matching. O₃ and NO₂ vertical profiles have been retrieved using a set of their air mass factors (AMFs) and SCDs measured over a range of 87–91.5‡ SZA during the morning. The vertical profiles obtained by this method are compared with Umkehr profiles and ozonesondes and they are found to be in good agreement. The bulk of the column density is found near layer 20–25 km. Daily total column densities (TCDs) of O₃ and NO₂ along with their stratospheric and tropospheric counterparts are derived using their vertical profiles for the period 2000–2003. The total column, stratospheric column and tropospheric column amounts of both trace gases are found to be maximum in summer and minimum in the winter season. Increasing trend is found in column density of NO₂ in stratospheric, tropospheric and surface layers, but no trend is observed in O₃ columns for above layers during the period 2000–2003     

城市土壤环境地球化学研究--以苏州市为例

通过苏州城市环境地球化学调查工作的实施，对城市土壤环境地球化学研究的工作方法进行了初步研究。结果显示。苏州城市土壤的主要污染区域分布于东南居民生活区、西部工业区、东部木材加工厂集中区及公路干线一带；主要污染物为重金属、有机污染物多环芳烃、有机氯农药等。根据城市自然地理环境、功能分区特点和分布面积大小，确定土壤环境地球化学采样密度和测试项目是城市土壤环境地球化学研究的关键技术。     

合肥市夏季热岛特征研究

根据2002牟夏季高温期间合肥市城市小气候考察的资料，分析了合肥市夏季城市热岛特征以及热岛强度的历史变化。结果表明：1）合肥市夏季热岛强度的日变化与冬季明显不同，夏季晴天一天中热岛强度只出现一个峰值，其基本特征与Oke提出的理想状态下的城市热岛强度日变化的模式曲线非常相似，而冬季与高纬地区的加拿大卡尔加里城市的热岛强度日变化特征接近。这反映了冬、夏两季人类活动、能源消耗量的不同；2）随着城市范围的扩大和城市绿化工程的实施，合肥市热岛面积、分布形状有了一定的改变，但主要分布特征和强度基本没有变化。