Global and local indicators of spatial association between points and polygons: A study of land use change

The existing indicators related to spatial association, especially the K function, can measure only the same dimension of vector data, such as points, lines and polygons, respectively. We develop four new indicators that can analyze and model spatial association for the mixture of different dimensions of vector data, such as lines and points, points and polygons, lines and polygons. The four indicators can measure the spatial association between points and polygons from both global and local perspectives. We also apply the presented methods to investigate the association of temples and villages on land-use change at multiple distance scales in the Guoluo Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province, PR China. Global indicators show that temples are positively associated with land-use change at large spatial distances (e.g., >6000 m), while the association between villages and land-use change is insignificant at all distance scales. Thus temples, as religious and cultural centers, have a stronger association with land-use change than the places where people live. However, local indicators show that these associations vary significantly in different sub-areas of the study region. Furthermore, the association of temples with land-use change is also dependent on the specific type of land-use change. The case study demonstrates that the presented indicators are powerful tools for analyzing the spatial association between points and polygons.     

Geographic information technology usage in developing countries – A case study in Mozambique

ABSTRACT

Geographic information technologies (GIT) have matured, have become pervasive throughout many types of organizations over recent decades and gained a wide range of attention in diverse sectors of society. The goal of this paper is to identify the main drivers and uses of GIT in organizations and to give an overview of GIT uses in developing countries with a focus on a case study developed for Mozambique by analyzing the results of a survey of 123 Mozambican organizations that are current GIT users. The results show that the main drivers behind are compatibility, complexity, competitive pressure, donor pressure, government policy, intention to adopt, innovation, relative advantage, security, and technology competence. Organizations of the public and private sectors use GIT for customer/resource/risk management, decision support, education, research, monitoring, prediction, simulation, suitability analysis, sustainability, use and access.     

Anglo Intrusion on the Old Sangre de Cristo Land Grant

Positioned on the northern edge of the Hispano homeland, the southern portion of the old Sangre de Cristo Land Grant (present-day Costilla County, Colorado) provides an interesting empirical study of cultural change. After economically displacing Spanish-American residents from villages throughout the homeland's core, incoming Anglos have adopted the region's rich Spanish culture as their own. On the homeland's periphery, however, the cultural traditions of Hispanos and Anglos have been, for the most part, at odds. Most resident Hispanos desire to maintain ties to their traditional past, while the younger generations embrace Anglo cultural norms. Considering the vital role it plays in the maintenance of culture, religion provides a window to the study area's modified cultural environment. In 1900 the population in this region was predominantly Catholic Hispano; by 1990 Protestant-dominated Anglos comprised a sizeable proportion of the population. Comparisons are made between traditional Hispano and Anglo-influenced religious landscapes. Changes in church affiliation, the distribution of active Penitente moradas, and the characteristics of community cemeteries demonstrate ongoing cultural change. Geographically isolated communities, where Anglo intrusion is limited, retain their strong Hispano cultural integrity.     

Book Reviews

Committee on Protection and Management of Pacific Northwest Anadromous Salmonids Upstream: Salmon and Society in the Pacific Northwest

Cook, Ian G; Doel, Marcus A. and Li, Rex (eds.) Fragmented Asia: Regional Integration and National Disintegration in Pacific Asia

Crush, Jonathan Power of Development

de Blij, H. J., and Muller, Peter O. Physical Geography of the Global Environment

Hayward, David J. International Trade and Regional Economies: The Impacts of European Integration on the United States

Kennedy, Michael The Global Positioning System and GIS: An Introduction

Lowe, Philip; Marsden, Terry and Whatmore, Sarah (eds) Regulating Agriculture

Marsden, Terry; Lowe, Philip and Whatmore, Sarah (eds) Labour and Locality: Uneven Development and the Rural Labour Process

Marsden, Terry; Lowe, Philip and Whatmore, Sarah (eds) Rural Restructuring: Global Processes and Their Responses

Whatmore, Sarah; Marsden, Terry and Lowe, Philip (eds) Gender and Rurality

Whatmore, Sarah; Marsden, Terry and Lowe, Philip (eds) Rural Enterprise: Shifting Perspectives on Small-Scale Production

Martopo, Sugeng and Mitchell, Bruce (eds) Bali: Balancing Environment, Economy and Culture

Ould-Mey, Mohameden Global Restructuring and Peripheral States: The Carrot and the Stick in Mauritania

Redclift, Michael and Benton, Ted (eds) Social Theory and the Global Environment

Thomas–Slayter, Barbara and Rocheleau, Dianne Gender, Environment, and Development in Kenya: A Grassroots Perspective

Wallach, Bret Losing Asia: Modernization and the Culture of Development

Wennberg, John E. Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care

Wilson, David and Huff, James O. (eds) Marginalized Places and Populations: A Structurationist Agenda     

Organizational response to the Mexico City earthquake of 1985: Characteristics and implications

A study involving a collaborative effort between American and Mexican social scientists was made of the individual and organizational response to the 1985 earthquake in Mexico City. Our general findings only about the activities of organizations are summarized under five general themes: (1) the massive and complex organizational response was decentralized, (2) resources for organizational actions were not problematical but there were difficulties in their quick and effective use, (3) the dominant organizational behavior was emergent rather than traditional, (4) organizational personnel carried out their work and occupational roles, and (5) there was changes in disaster planning of organizations as a result of the disaster. Both practical and theoretical implications of our research findings are noted.The findings summurized in this article are drawn from a very detailed and extensive report on the disaster by Russel R. Dynes, E. L. Quarantelli, and Dennis Wenger,Individual and Organizational Response to the 1985 Earthquake in Mexico City, issued in 1990 by the Disaster Research Center atThe findings summurized in this article are drawn from a very detailed and extensive report on the disaster by Russel R. Dynes, E. L. Quarantelli, and Dennis Wenger,Individual and Organizational Response to the 1985 Earthquake in Mexico City, issued in 1990 by the Disaster Research Center at     

An assessment of women’s access to natural resources through communal projects in South Africa

With the passing of the apartheid regime and its multi-faceted mechanisms of exclusion, women in rural South Africa have begun expanding their access to natural resources for livelihood enhancement. One of the ways this has occurred is through community-based organizations that focus on local production as a mechanism to transform natural resources into material goods. While this practice is nearly ubiquitous throughout sub-Saharan Africa, the apartheid regime was particularly effective in limiting access to natural resources, a phenomenon reversed by the current democratic government. In this paper, we assess the impact of organizational design on women’s livelihood systems as a means of alleviating rural poverty. We surveyed women on both more formal, or bureaucratic, organizations and more informal, or socially-embedded, organizations. After locating the discussion in the relevant gender, environment, and livelihoods literatures, we employ four concepts, organizational context, environmental entitlement, livelihood systems, and gender and power relations to assess the impact of organizational design on livelihood enhancement. Having found that women derived no significant material benefit from participation in either type of organization, we conclude that women are straddling two processes, neo-liberalization and neo-traditionalism, that impact gender and power relations. This situation has left women in vulnerable positions within their organizations and with little livelihood enhancement.     

Local economic linkages to community‐based tourism in rural Costa Rica

This paper reports on the contribution of tourism to the wellbeing of rural residents through the development of economic linkages engaged by community‐based tourism (CBT) in rural Costa Rica. In a qualitative case study of local economic linkages surrounding one such project in Chira Island, economic linkages were assessed at two levels: discourse and practice. The findings indicate that CBT does not involve the collective property of the community, but rather, the collective property of a group of community members organized in a formal association. As a result, a discourse on local economic linkages has been promoted by CBT support organizations in which hopes of wider benefits are placed on small linkages to services and products provided by local community members. However, a field survey suggested that the economic linkages generated by CBT in the community were sporadic and polyvalent and, furthermore, that the linkages with agriculture are negatively affected by scale and seasonality, resulting in leakages out of the community. These findings caution practitioners that CBT may only have small‐scale positive impacts on the local economy.     

Environmental governance through information: China and Vietnam

In the field of environmental governance information is starting to become increasingly important, not least because of globalization and the information and communication technologies revolution. The notion of informational governance is a recent coinage that acknowledges the (partial) switch from regulatory‐based forms of governance to information‐based modes. In the information‐rich centres and nodes of the network society, where information is widely produced, disseminated and accessible, this might prove analytically useful. But what are the contours of informational governance in information‐poor environments? This paper looks into the (limited) emergence of informational governance arrangements in environmental protection in two cases characterizing the informational periphery: China and Vietnam.     

Spatial patterns and driving forces of land change in Tibetan-inhabited Three Rivers Headwaters region,China

The Three Rivers Headwaters Region(TRHR) plays a key role in regulating water supply and climate of East Asia. A comprehensive understanding of the processes and driving forces of the long-term land use dynamics of the TRHR is needed to guide sustainable land resource management and regional ecological conservation strategies. This study examined long-term land change patterns in the TRHR and investigated the driving forces of the change. First, Landsat TM/ETM+ images covering TRHR of four time points from 1987 to 2016 were used to derive land use patterns, and statistical metrics were applied to quantify the spatial and temporal changes. Second, Principal Component Analysis and correlation analysis were employed to analyze environmental and social-economic data to identify the driving forces of land use change. Third, potential influences of the religion of Tibetan Buddhism on land use change were explored using GIS analysis, questionnaire survey and field observation. Results showed that areas of barren land, agricultural land, and built-up land largely increased, while areas of grassland and forest greatly decreased, with the highest change rate occurring in the most recent decade of analysis(from 2007 to 2016). Among the three headwater regions, the Yellow River Headwater Region showed an overall higher changing speed than the other two headwater regions. The regional driving forces of change in TRHR includedsocial-economic development, climatic condition, pressure of population growth, and environmental protection activities. It was also found that Tibetan Buddhism can help slow down the changes caused by human activities.