A Critical Note on ‘Eco‐Civic Regionalisation’ as the Basis for Local Government Boundaries in Australia

The notion of ‘eco‐civic regionalisation’ has been applied recently to New South Wales by Brunckhorst, Coop and Reeve (2004 Brunckhorst D Coop P Reeve I 2004 An eco‐civic regionalisation for rural New South Wales: final report to the NSW government Institute for Rural Futures and Centre for Bioregional Resource Management, University of New England, Armidale  [Google Scholar]) in order to identify the appropriate administrative boundaries for ‘socio‐civic’ regions and ‘biophysical’ regions. On the basis of this analysis, they recommended inter alia that 49 future non‐metropolitan ‘local government areas’ be established. This proposal was adopted with alacrity by advocates of the NSW government's program of compulsory council amalgamation, including official ‘Facilitators’ appointed by the State government to draft formal consolidation proposals. This paper disputes the applicability of ‘eco‐civic regionalisation’ as the foundation for local government boundaries in Australia.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article: Portable Utopia: Glasgow and the United States 1820–1920. Bernard Aspinwall. Studies in Russian Historical Geography. James H. Bater and R. A. French, eds. Water and Sanitation: Economic and Sociological Perspectives. Peter G. Bourne, ed. Green Politics. Fritjof Capra and Charlene Spretnak. The Southern Cone: Realities of the Authoritarian State. César N. Caviedes. Women in Third World Development. Sue Ellen Charlton. Land Management: New Directions. David Chiddick and Alan Millington, eds. Geography and Ethnic Pluralism. Colin Clarke, David Ley, Ceri Peach, eds. Geomorphological Hazards in Los Angeles. R. U. Cooke. Regional Impacts of United States-Mexico Economic Relations. Alfonso Corona and Lay James Gibson. eds. Patterns of Jobs and Geographic Mobility. Torvald Gerger. Cities and Sickness: Health Care in Urban America. Ann Lennarson Greer and Scott Greer, eds. Neighborhoods: Their Place in Urban Life. Howard W. Hallman. Development and the Rural-Urban Divide. John Harriss and Mick Moore, eds. Patterns of Undocumented Migration: Mexico and the United States. Richard C. Jones, ed. Central Place Theory. Leslie J. King. The Geography of Western Europe: A Socio-economic Survey. Paul L. Knox. Regions and Resources: Strategies for Development. David T. Krisge, Daniel A. Seiver, Oliver S. Goldsmith and Michael J. Scott. Geography of Crowding and Human Response. A Study of Ahmedabad City. K. M. Kulkarni. Haciendo Pueblo. The Development of a Guadalajaran Suburb. Kathleen Logan. The Imperial Lion: Human Dimensions of Wildlife Management in Central Africa. Stewart A. Marks. Water in the Hispanic Southwest: A Social and Legal History, 1550–1850. Michael C. Meyer. Imlil: A Moroccan Mountain Community in Change. James A. Miller. Tourism in Canada: Selected Issues and Options. Peter E. Murphy, ed. David Harvey's Geography. John L. Paterson. Raster Scanning, Processing and Plotting of Cartographic Documents. Donna J. Peuquet and A. Raymond Boyle. The USSR and the Muslim World: Issues in Domestic and Foreign Policy. Yaacov Ro'i, ed. Environmental Perception and Behavior: An Inventory and Prospect. Thomas F. Saarinen, David Seamon, and James L. Sell. Incised channels, Morphology, Dynamics, and Control. Stanley A. Schumm, Michael D. Harvey, and Chester C. Watson. The Gap Between Rich and Poor: Contending Perspectives on the Political Economy of Development. Mitchell A. Seligson, ed. Twentieth-Century Richmond. Planning, Politics and Race. Christopher Silver. Land Conservation and Development: Examples of Land-Use Planning Projects and Programs. F. R. Steiner and H. N. van Lier, eds. Biogeography: Recent Advances and Future Directions. J. A. Taylor, ed. Late Quaternary Environments of the Soviet Union. A. A. Velichko, ed. H. E. Wright, Jr. and C. W. Barnosky, eds.     

What is urban about critical urban theory?

This essay takes as its provocation a question posed by the feminist philosopher Nancy Fraser: “What’s Critical about Critical Theory?” In urban studies, this question has been usefully reframed by Neil Brenner to consider what is critical about critical urban theory. This essay discusses how the “urban” is currently being conceptualized in various worlds of urban studies and what this might mean for the urban question of the current historical conjuncture. Launched from places on the map that are forms of urban government but that have distinctive agrarian histories and rural presents, the essay foregrounds the undecidability of the urban, be it geographies of urbanization or urban politics. What is at stake is a critical urban theory attentive to historical difference as a fundamental constituting process of global political economy and deconstruction as a methodology of generalization and theorization.     

The effectiveness of decentralisation reforms in the Philippines’s forestry sector

Decentralisation reforms and political conditions in the Philippines present an ideal environment for forest management by recognising the land entitlements of upland and indigenous communities and promoting the involvement of local government units. By assessing whether current conditions – policies, institutions, and programmes – are conducive to effective decentralisation, this study examines the present state of decentralisation in the forestry sector of the Philippines. By analysing case studies conducted in Nueva Vizcaya Province, it also attempts to answer a broader question: when is decentralisation a success and when is it a failure? A number of uncertainties are revealed, along with various issues that hamper decentralisation, and that are interrelated and reinforce one another in much the same way as they have done over the past decade. The study highlights the need for caution when increasing the involvement of government at different levels, as it affects the pace of decentralisation reforms. It also shows that a mix of site-specific interventions and community endeavours that focus on securing local livelihoods has led to some success. This is a strategy that helps decentralisation reforms.     

普及地图在政府部门信息发布中的应用

地图是空间信息传输的栽体,也是信息传递的主要工具之一.本文以省、市级政府部门作为主要研究对象,对地图在政府部门的统计年鉴、报表以及电子政务门户网站中的应用现状进行调查;分析地图在其信息发布中所体现的优势,论述重视地图的使用价值、普及地图在该领域应用的必要性;并对如何解决此问题提出一些观点和意见.     

The East Side Story – The Transylvanian latest Cretaceous continental vertebrate record and its implications for understanding Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary events

The latest Cretaceous continental vertebrate faunas of the wider Transylvanian area figured prominently in discussions concerning the Cretaceous–Paleogene Boundary (K-Pg) events when they were first described by Nopcsa between 1897 and 1929, because they were assumed to be late Maastrichtian in age. Subsequently their age was reconsidered as early Maastrichtian, and were thus regarded of lesser importance in understanding the K-Pg boundary events in Europe and worldwide. Moreover, Transylvanian continental vertebrate assemblages (the so-called ‘Haţeg Island’ faunas) were often lumped together as a temporally restricted assemblage with a homogenous taxonomic composition. Recent fossil discoveries and more precise dating techniques have considerably expanded knowledge of the Transylvanian vertebrate assemblages, their ages, and their evolution. A synthesis of the available stratigraphic data allows development of the first comprehensive chronostratigraphic framework of the latest Cretaceous Transylvanian vertebrates. According to these new data, expansion of continental habitats and emergence of their vertebrate faunas started locally during the latter part of the late Campanian, and these faunas continued up to the second half of the Maastrichtian. During this time, long-term faunal stasis appears to have characterized the Transylvanian vertebrate assemblages, which is different from the striking turnovers recorded in western Europe during the same time interval. This suggests that there was no single ‘Europe-wide’ pattern of latest Cretaceous continental vertebrate evolution. Together, the available data shows that dinosaurs and other vertebrates were relatively abundant and diverse until at least ca. 1 million years before the K-Pg boundary, and is therefore consistent with the hypothesis of a sudden extinction, although this must be tested with future discoveries and better age constraints and correlations.     

Application of the Clean Development Mechanism in the Sanitation Sector: “Proof of Concept”

Greenhouse gas emissions from the waste sector account for only 4% of the total production, with wastewater management accounting for accurately 8 to 10% of this contribution. Wastewater disposal and treatment activities, mainly contributes to non‐CO₂ gases such as methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O). Capturing or avoiding these emissions is thus both a concern and an opportunity. The clean development mechanism (CDM) offers an instrument to internalize global climate concerns into the design of wastewater treatment facilities. Properly designed facilities could improve effluent quality and optimize the abatement of greenhouse gas emissions, thus ensuring additional revenues to pay for capital, operation and maintenance costs and possibly justify higher levels of wastewater treatment. This document summarizes the experience of the “Rio Frio CDM project” in Colombia, as an example of what is achievable through the CDM application in wastewater treatment upgrade in developing countries. This document summarizes the scope of the project, the methodology used to establish current greenhouse emissions and future reductions, and the estimated financial results.     

福建省政务信息资源标准规范改造与集成

对电子政务的标准化和网络化推行,政务信息数据标准化改造和共享集成是基础。本文分析了福建省政务信息资源的现状,提出了省级政务信息资源标准化、规范化改造的信息共享、分类体系、交换接口和信息服务模式。开发了福建省政务信息共享平台,充分应用XMLWebServices技术,将政务数据库分别按空间数据库、关系数据库、文件数据和多媒体数据4种类型,将分布在各单位、各行业的异构数据库集成到共享平台,并采用面向信息服务的集成架构,将多个分布式异构数据库进行实时的XML格式化,依据不同的共享级别按4种服务方式集成到各个应用系统中,实现数据库与应用系统的整合,提高政务信息资源的共享利用与服务水平。     

国家工业遗产时空分布特征及影响因素——以中国四批国家工业遗产名单为例

以国家工信部公布的四批共164个国家工业遗产为对象,运用核密度、集中趋势演变等方法,探讨其时空分布特征与影响因素。结果表明：1）国家工业遗产在空间分布上具有显著的正空间自相关性,呈现东南多、西北少,并在空间上形成了“三核两副,片状分布”的格局;2）从遗产类型看,轻工业主要分布在长江流域及沿海区域,重工业较轻工业分布分散;3）工业遗产在省域范围内存在较为明显的三类区：Ⅰ类区在中国东北及东南沿海等“一线地区”,Ⅱ类区为中国西北部的“三线地区”,其他为Ⅲ类区;4）从时间演化看,工业遗产空间分布中心有4次明显转折;5）中国古代工业大多受自然地理及社会经济环境的影响,近现代工业虽受上述因素影响,但更多受民族主义驱动、洋务运动、“三线建设”等历史及政治因素的影响。     

New Zealand's abandonment of the Carbon Neutral Public Service programme

In 2009, New Zealand's new National-led government abandoned the Carbon Neutral Public Service (CNPS) programme, a Labour-led government initiative intended to help Government achieve carbon neutrality within its core agencies. This short analysis article provides an overview and brief assessment of the CNPS initiative by drawing on the relevant scholarly literature and public documents relating to New Zealand's climate change agenda. It is argued that although the CNPS programme faced a range of challenges it was successful in some respects. Although the Labour-led government was keen to act on climate change mitigation, New Zealand no longer intends to take a lead on carbon neutrality under the National-led government.