Contesting the Future of Cape York Peninsula

Entrenched contests about the future of Cape York Peninsula's lands, waters and people have for long received national prominence. In the federal arena, this has climaxed with the campaign to overturn the State's declarations on wild rivers. Initially pursued as a means of influencing decisions on the determination of the government in a finely balanced federal parliament, it has been retained as an early test of the survivability of the minority Labor government. The peninsula's prominence is founded on its iconic conservation status and the continuity of Aboriginal occupance of their country, reinforced by the formidable capabilities of Indigenous and conservationist leaders. Contests are characterised by their complexity, durability and intractability. Contests are bedevilled by shifting alliances and schisms within Indigenous and conservationist constituencies. Increasingly potent is the schism between modernist/reformist/regionalist visions of Indigenous futures, forcefully presented by Noel Pearson against more traditionalist/localist visions held by many community leaderships. Other participants, notably conservationists, State politicians and bureaucracies have needed to align their policies around these contested visions. Over the last two decades, policies of State Labor governments have maintained some continuity, being pro-active on conservation goals, selectively supportive of Aboriginal advancement, necessarily passive in the determination of land claims, reactive in the resolution of land tenures and property rights, and inconsistent and ineffectual in conflict resolution and in providing leadership in shaping sustainable, multifunctional futures, attuned to the peninsula's unique challenges and potentials.     

中国地质学会第一届优秀女地质科技工作者奖揭晓

正2017年10月29日,中国地质学会召开第一届优秀女地质科技工作者奖评审会议,评选产生了10名第一届优秀女地质科技工作者奖获奖者候选人。10月31日~11月6日,在中国地质学会网站对10名获奖者的申报材料进行了为期5个工作日的公示,公示期间未收到不同意见。中国地质学会决定授予苏文等10名同志"第一届优秀女地质科技工作     

干旱区绿洲城市城镇化发展状况及协调性浅析——以吐鲁番地区为例

城镇化是一个国家或地区经济发展的必经途径,同时也是衡量某地区经济发展水平的重要标志之一。城镇化进程不仅关系到区域人口、经济和环境的可持续发展,还关系到区域平衡与区域生产效率,以致关系到区域的综合竞争力。利用2001—2011年吐鲁番地区人口、经济、社会和生态方面的相关数据,剖析吐鲁番地区城镇化系统,选出并构建吐鲁番地区人口、经济、社会和生态4个城镇化系统的6个评价指标体系,对指标进行定量分析;计算城镇化4个系统以及城镇化发展水平的综合评价指数及其各系统的协调度,根据各子系统评价指数建立数学模型,分析吐鲁番地区城镇化驱动因子以及制约该地区城镇化进程的影响因素;并推算出吐鲁番地区城镇化的变化和发展趋势。     

艰难时世中的地理创造——张相文的地学生涯与学术贡献

张相文是中国近代地理学先驱。在时局动荡的清末民初时期,他将家国情怀与学术追求相结合,在不断转换的身份之中谋求地学报国。其地理学家的主要身份与革命家、历史学家、教育家、实业家等多重身份交织在一起。他是“中国地学会”(中国地理学会的前身)的主要创建者和组织者,是中国第一本地理学学术期刊《地学杂志》的主要创办者。他明确提出“秦岭—淮河”南北地理分界线,创编较为完整的地理学教材,积极投身洪水治理、田野考察为主的地理实践,强有力地推动了中国近代地理学的迅速发展。论文通过广泛的资料比对重新归纳提炼了张相文的学术思想、主要活动及其现实意义。包容与专业精神、卓越的组织领导力、积极投身实践与治理、长期的坚守是他能够获得开创性成就的主要原因,也非常值得现今地理学者及团体发展借鉴。     

AN ANALYSIS OF DATA ON HOME JOURNEYS BY CHINESE IMMIGRANTS IN CANADA, 1892–1915∗

The Young Geographers, an informal organization of American geographers, flourished from 1936 to 1943. One of its projects in 1940 and 1941 was the compilation and publication of lists of contemplated research by some 170 Young Geographers. Their listed research interests were relatively narrow in subject and geographical area. The successor of the Young Geographers was the American Society for Professional Geographers which merged with the Association of American Geographers in 1948 under a democratic constitution which assured that young geographers and their research would be recognized.     

Social geology — integrating sustainability concepts into Earth sciences

Most geologists would argue that geoscientific knowledge, experience, and guidance is critical for addressing many of society’s most acute environmental challenges, yet few geologists are directly engaged in current discourses around sustainable development. That is surprising given that several attributes make modern geoscience well placed to make critical contributions to contemporary sustainability thinking. Here, we argue that if geoscientists are to make our know-how relevant to sustainability science, two aspects seem clear. Firstly, the geoscience community needs to substantially broaden its constituency, not only forging interdisciplinary links with other environmental disciplines but also drawing from the human and behavioral sciences. Secondly, the principles and practices of ‘sustainability’ need to be explicitly integrated into geoscience education, training and continued professional development.     

ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES IN THE 21ST CENTURY—IN MEMORY OF THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE CHINESE METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY

On the basis of the development of society,economy,sciences and technologies in the 21st centu-ry,a possible new leap is analysed and outlined in the systems and concepts of the atmospheric sound-ing,prediction,services and modification.It is indicated that the atmospheric sciences should be aclosely integrated component and actively play the leading role in the global system sciences.     

“A Royal Geographical Society for Ladies”: The Lyceum Club and Women's Geographical Frontiers in Edwardian London

This article reconstructs the history, organization, and campaigning function of the Geographical Circle of the Lyceum Club—a membership group that, under the leadership of Bessie Pullen-Burry (1858–1937), sought to promote and legitimize women's geographical work in early twentieth-century Britain. Through an examination of archival material and contemporary press coverage, I document the Geographical Circle's efforts to establish itself as a professional body for women geographers and to lobby for their admission to the Royal Geographical Society. Although considerable scholarly attention has been paid to women geographers’ individual contributions to the discipline, their cooperative, professionalizing endeavors have been comparatively neglected. In tracing the parallel history of the Circle as an example of women's self-organization, and of Pullen-Burry as an independent campaigner, I argue that a nuanced account of women's professionalization in geography demands attention to both individual and collective endeavors.     

Discrete-element, individual-based and agent-based models: Tools for interdisciplinary enquiry in geography?

Discrete-element, individual-based and agent-based modelling techniques represent the interactions of individuals or entities with one another and their environments by sets of computational rules. These methods are now being used in geophysics, ecology, zoology, and increasingly in the social sciences. A characteristic is that the “agents” are embedded in an environment with which they interact, so that joint evolution of physical, ecological and socio-economic systems can be studied; this makes them of interest in integrated geographical investigation. Of particular interest is the fact that they allow the study of macro-scale emergent behaviour generated by multiple individual actions. Discrete techniques have the potential to create integrated models that cross disciplines. Similar computational methods can be employed to control the spatial search process, deal with irregular or changing boundaries, and to track the evolution of systems where preservation of heterogeneity across space and time is important. The complex series of feedbacks between the different types of system can thus be modelled within a single computational framework. Humans modelled in this way as “agents” can allow the collective effect of many interacting individuals to generate emergent structures at the community scale. The structural characteristics of their social and natural environments will influence their behaviour, while at the same time constituting emergent consequences of their actions. The principal challenge of the latter is to find those sets of rules that represent the beliefs and desires of real human agents, accurately reflecting the cultural context, while allowing us to explore the social and economic limitations of agents to take action. This paper reviews and illustrates discrete methods applicable to a range of geographical enquiries, and with particular reference to individual- and agent-based methods, assesses the rich diversity of approaches that must be combined to take full advantage of their potential to explore interactions of social and environmental processes.     

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.