Human–Wildlife Interactions and Environmental Dynamics in the Okavango Delta,Botswana

The Okavango Delta in Botswana hosts abundant wildlife and a human population with diverse livelihoods. Representing a heterogeneous landscape nuanced by spatial and temporal variability, the region has recently seen an expansion of floodwaters with social impacts ranging from livelihood disruption to human displacement. This article reports on in-depth interviews conducted in 2012 regarding these transitions in Mababe, a community in the eastern Okavango Delta, to evaluate how dynamic environmental processes alter perceptions and livelihood responses. We focus on community members’ variable interactions with wildlife in spaces of human–wildlife overlap also experiencing change. While human–wildlife interactions can have negative effects, we find that perpetuating the common narrative of human–wildlife conflict overlooks how disruptions can usher in new relationships between people and animals. In order to move beyond the conflict narrative, we conclude that spatial and temporal context is essential to evaluate effects of dynamic, uneven, and sometimes unpredictable human–wildlife encounters.     

Comment on Rust et al.: Human–Carnivore Conflict in Namibia Is Not Simply About Black and White

Carnivore conservationists agree that addressing the socioeconomic needs of people is critical to human-carnivore conflict mitigation. We therefore welcome studies that encompass complex social and cultural factors that affect the severity of human-carnivore conflict on Namibian farmlands. However, we contend that the recent study by Rust et al. (2016 Rust, N. A., J. Tzanopoulos, T. Humle, and D. C. MacMillan. 2016. Why has human–carnivore conflict not been resolved in Namibia? Society &; Natural Resources 29 (9):1079–94. doi:10.1080/08941920.2016.1150544[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) was poorly designed, used inappropriate sampling methods, lacked quantitative information on their qualitative results, and ultimately produced unsupported conclusions about the role of historic apartheid and current racism in exacerbating human-carnivore conflict in Namibia. We outline our concerns regarding the methods used, and demonstrate that the conclusions drawn by Rust et al. were not supported by their data.     

社会行为下的体育旅游冲突研究:结构、功能、程度

将社会行为下的体育旅游作为研究对象,通过文献资料法、逻辑分析法对体育旅游与社会行为间的冲突过程进行分析,运用结构功能理论与社会冲突理论对社会行为下的体育旅游的结构、体育旅游与社会行为冲突的功能体系以及冲突程度问题进行讨论。社会行为中的体育旅游具有设计与规划结构、操作与执行结构、购买与体验结构和资源与要素结构4种结构;"四位一体"的结构构成同时也存在着社会系统、文化系统、行为有机系统和人格系统的冲突功能定位;体育旅游"四位一体"结构功能的存在导致了与社会互动中的关系冲突、过程冲突和任务冲突表象,且具有一定的冲突强烈程度。这些具有强烈程度的冲突能够推动体育旅游事业在社会中的发展与进步。     

Building Displacement Based on the Topological Structure

Map data at smaller scales than their source can result in spatial conflict, whereby map symbols become too close, or overlaid. Server map generalisation operators may be applied to solve this problem, including displacement. In this paper, we show how an optimisation algorithm, the snake algorithm, was used to displace multiple objects in order to resolve spatial conflicts and maintain important spatial relationships between objects during displacement. Two principles based on the snake algorithm are proposed in this paper. First, the truss structure mirroring spatial proximity relationships between buildings and between building and road is formed based on the weighted proximity graph derived from constrained Delaunay triangulations (CDT) in each map partition. In the weighted proximity graph, each connecting line is determined as a snake and as an element unit to assemble the global stiffness matrix in snake algorithm. Second, a buffer method that calculates force between a building and a road (or other linear features) or between pair of buildings is adopted in the snake algorithm. This avoids the imbalance phenomenon caused by different force calculation methods during the displacement. The feasibility of the approach is demonstrated in obtaining real geographic data. Finally, the results are cartographically usable and in particular, the spatial relationships between objects are preserved.     

Beyond technical details: The stalled Kwabenya Engineered Sanitary Landfill Project in Accra,Ghana

Geografisk Tidsskrift-Danish Journal of Geography 111(2):169–179, 2011

The development of a modern, sustainable system of waste management in developing countries is frequently delayed (and in some cases stalled) by causes that cannot be directly attributed to technical or economic reasons. One such project is the Kwabenya Engineered Sanitary Landfill Project which was conceived in 1991. This paper examines why the project was not actualized though the technical details and financial component were duly secured. Using mainly a qualitative research method, the study revealed that the authority's poor governance practices spelt the doom of the project. Neither were the direct occupants of the land consulted during the project formulation stage nor were the host community's fear of environmental reprisals addressed. This paper maintains that successful implementation of projects like a landfill demands the collective participation and acceptability of all stakeholders.     

Island Exceptionalism and International Maritime Conflicts

Scholars have argued that due to their special geographical circumstances, island states develop a different relationship with maritime space than their continental counterparts. This is generally attributed both to island residents’ greater access to and benefit from oceanic resources and also to the metaphysical qualities of life that uniquely develop on islands. This article investigates deeper into the phenomenon of geographically determined island exceptionality by considering whether island states and mainland states truly behave differently when it comes to their treatment of and behavior in maritime spaces. Through an analysis of disputed areas in the International Correlates of War maritime data, I consider whether island states are more likely to try and confirm sovereignty over disputed maritime waters than mainland states. My examination of disputed maritime areas in the Western Hemisphere and Europe from 1900 to 2001 shows that indeed island states are both more likely to try and settle a disputed maritime area, whether by force or by negotiated resolution. This finding is then used to raise new questions about the geographic differences that characterize island states in the world political system.     

Emerging Memorial Landscapes of Labor Conflict in the Cotton Textile South

While research into the formation of memorial landscapes in the American South has focused on those resulting from racial conflicts, a new landscape memorializing labor conflict and class consciousness is also emerging in the region's textile-producing Piedmont. This memorialization poses significant challenges to dominant regional discourses of economic development and class mutuality in a region in which labor organizing and radical politics remain anathema. This paper examines this emerging landscape for what it can tell us about class relations in the region and the process by which memorial landscapes are formed.     

Activities of American Geographers

Cognitive distance is analyzed in relation to various elements of the built environment. The basis for accepting a power function as the underlying functional relationship between cognitive distance and its objective counterpart is discussed. This counterpart has been assumed to be objective distance. Evidence is presented to indicate that cognition of distance is based upon travel time rather than upon objective distance or upon objective distance modified by other elements of the built environment.     

Cattle-based livelihoods,changes in the taskscape,and human–bear conflict in the Ecuadorian Andes

Cattle-raising, especially for dairy, has expanded in the Ecuadorian Andes since the late 1990s as smallholding farmers have shifted their livelihood activities away from crop-based agriculture due to changes in climate, market conditions, and rural out-migration. Non-migrants constructing cattle-based livelihoods are turning to cattle as the basis for “viable” livelihoods in order to remain in depopulating rural parishes. Non-migrant farmers express ideals such as autonomy and tranquility as reasons for their attachment to rural places. In turn, their livelihood activities remake these places materially. Drawing on Tim Ingold’s conceptualization of taskscape and landscape, I argue that cattle-based livelihoods create a taskscape prone to human–wildlife conflict. Since 2009, residents have reported dozens of Andean bear attacks on cattle. Cattle are vulnerable capital assets. They represent both an investment with daily and weekly dividends over many years, in the form of milk, and a long-term form of wealth storage. The turn to cattle-based livelihoods in this region has thus heightened human–bear conflict. The phenomenon of the human–bear conflict is therefore a product of shifting livelihoods and accompanying changes in the taskscape. This analysis demonstrates the importance of listening to narratives of place attachment and accounting for the cultural logics of livelihood choices when considering interventions to address human–wildlife conflict.