Building Temporal Topology in a GIS Database to Study the Land‐Use Changes in a Rural‐Urban Environment

This article addresses the issue of linking temporal and spatial information into a GIS database structure to investigate the land‐use changes in a rural‐urban region over a thirty‐five‐year period. More specifically, it describes the application of a programming package developed to build temporal topology in an historical land‐use GIS database to efficiently perform spatiotemporal queries. The program was created within the MapInfo environment using MapBasic language. Different types of information, such as the rate of change, the relationship between the change of land use and zoning regulations, and land‐use succession were extracted from the database. A user‐friendly interface was also developed to easily address spatiotemporal queries to the database. This approach represents a flexible and performing tool for scientists and planners who need to efficiently capture essential spatiotemporal information required for geographical inquiry and decision‐making.     

Manuscript Reviewers for Volume 53

Books reviewed: Bassin, Mark, Imperial Visions: Nationalist Imagination and Geographical Expansion in the Russian Far East, 1840 – 1865 Shortridge, James R., Our Town on the Plains: J. J. Pennell's Photographs of Junction City, Kansas, 1893 – 1922 Jakle, John A. and Sculle, Keith A., Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age Boeschenstein, Walter, Historic American Towns along the Atlantic Coast McKee, Jesse O., Ethnicity in Contemporary America: A Geographical Appraisal Luciuk, Lubomyr Y., Searching for Place: Ukrainian Displaced Persons, Ottawa, and the Migration of Memory Hausladen, Gary, Places for Dead Bodies Phillips, Richard, Watt, Diane and Shuttleton, David, De‐Centering Sexualities: Politics and Representations beyond the Metropolis Goldin, Liliana R., Identities on the Move, Transnational Processes in North America and the Caribbean Basin McDonald, David A., On Borders: Perspectives on International Migration in Southern Africa Fox, Roddy and Rowntree, Kate, The Geography of South Africa in a Changing World Takeuchi, Keiichi, Modern Japanese Geography: An Intellectual History Amery, Hussein A., and Wolf, Aaron T., Water in the Middle East: A Geography of Peace Karl, Thomas R., Nicholls, Neville and Ghazi, Anver, Weather and Climate Extremes: Changes, Variations, and a Perspective from the Insurance Industry Pittman, Blair, Texas Caves     

Malaria and related environmental issues in India: a case study of Aligarh city

Malaria is one of the most widespread diseases in the world. Endemic malaria no longer occurs in many temperate zones as a result of social and economic improvement. At present malaria is the Third World's most dreaded killer. It kills over 1 million people and causes 300–500 million episodes of illness. In India, malaria-reported deaths have shown an upward trend. In 1955, a drive to eradicate malaria was launched in India. But after initial success it failed and malaria made a comeback. Malarial mosquitoes generally prefer unpolluted natural breeding sites but now they have adapted to the changed urban environment. In this paper, an attempt has been made to examine the occurrence of malaria and related environmental issues in a small town of India. Aligarh city, lying in the shadow of the country's capital New Delhi, was selected as a case study. Data were collected mainly from household surveys with the help of questionnaire interviews. About 2,185 households belonging to different income groups were sampled. The differences in the occurrence of malaria in the different income households (in 87% low, 69% lower-middle, 65% middle, 14% upper-middle, and 5% upper) suggest that most of these differences are related to the environmental conditions existing inside and outside their homes, such as poor drainage system, poor sullage disposal, open blocked drains, waterlogging and indoor water storage in open containers. Commitment both by the Government and local residents is needed to improve the environmental conditions and eradicate malaria.     

长江三角洲南部“大城市圈振兴”理论的质疑

工业发展和城市化的传统理论，对亚洲的某些具有较高生产力水平，且还在发展中的“大城市圈”不能充分地解释，本文对长江三角洲南部空间经济转为的“大城市圈振兴”理论进行了批判地评论，根据最新的现场调查结果，从根本上对“转为过程”的假说提出质疑，并且提出了更适当的的区域发展战略，此外还证明，关于亚洲大城市带的一般结论，必须建立在对地方性经济变革认识的基础之上。     

黄淮海地区农村劳动力剩余与转移研究

黄淮海地区农村劳动力的转移历史以1978年为界分为前后两个阶段。劳动就业目前仍集中于农业,农业劳动力多为兼业性的。农村劳动力转移水平普遍较低,地域分异明显,农村劳动力剩余量较大。劳动力转移的基本措施包括促进经济总体增长,提高乡镇企业就业弹性、提高劳动力文化素质、完善小城镇和劳动力市场建设。     

山西中部地区农村民居震害特征及抗震对策

收集整理山西中部地区历史地震灾害资料,总结了山西中部地区农村民居由地震引起的地基震害、建筑结构震害、建筑材料与施工震害三大特征,讨论了今后农村民居和村镇公共建筑的抗震对策。为将地震造成的民居震害损失降到最低程度,提出要实行总体规划,增强防震减灾意识,加强对农村民居抗震工作的指导的建议。     

A summer and winter apportionment of particulate matter at urban and rural areas in northern France

The apportionment of atmospheric aerosols undertaken in Northern France during two sampling campaigns allowed to determine the influence of the atmospheric contribution of a heavy industrialized urban center on the particulate matter composition at a nearby rural site. The concentrations of major components and trace elements sampled by bulk filtration have been determined on June–July 2000 and January–February 2001, and the comparison of these two campaigns shows very well the importance of wind directions. The sources of 10 trace elements (Al, Ba, Cu, Fe, K, Mn, Pb, Sr, Ti and Zn) and 7 major components (Cl⁻, NO₃⁻, SO₄²⁻, NH₄⁺, Na, Mg and Ca) are better identified by studying their elemental contribution at each sampling site according to wind sectors. This kind of study shows that the concentrations recorded at the urban sampling site are always higher than those observed at the rural site as well during the summer campaign (about + 35%) as during the winter campaign (+ 90%), because of the predominance of the W–NW wind sector, corresponding to the influence of the urban and industrialized areas.     

3S集成技术在城镇土地利用变更调查中的应用研究

城镇地区由于建筑物密集、土地利用类型变化快、土地利用现状图比例尺较大等特点,土地利用变更调查主要依靠专业部门利用全站仪完成,但全站仪需要通视的特点限制了其工作效率。而采用3S集成技术进行城镇地区土地利用变更调查的技术方法,则可以相应提高工作效率。基于3S集成技术城镇地区土地利用变更调查的应用模式为:通过GPS接收机与笔记本电脑(已配置GIS软件系统)通讯,实现GPS与GIS的集成,并调用RS影像作为底图,既可实现实时的数据采集、存储和编辑。对于城镇地区部分GPS信号弱的地区,采用测边交会的方法则可以完成这些点的数据采集,克服了GPS使用盲区的限制。     

BEEKEEPING AND LOCAL SELF-RELIANCE IN RURAL SOUTHERN AFRICA*

ABSTRACT. Beekeeping has the potential to supplement incomes in rural southern Africa. In light of regional economic constraints, self-reliance strategies that draw on local knowledge and skills take on a renewed importance. We consider the advantages and disadvantages of beekeeping and examine appropriate forms of development support. A short case study from Zimbabwe illustrates these issues.     

A rural development strategy for the Apuseni Mountains, Romania

The Apuseni Mountains, part of the Western Carpathians, are distinctive in cultural terms because of the highly dispersed settlement patterns that have developed on the high erosion surfaces where the Moti people cleared the forests to allow for an expansion of family farming in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These small ‘crang’ settlements remain, but the population is declining in the face of limited employment opportunities and poor services. The question arises as to the most appropriate rural development strategy for the region, following the communist period which encouraged centralisation through the provision of housing and industry in key villages and new towns. The emphasis on private farming and the expansion of tourism could protect the inherited cultural landscape but money must be found to improve rural services. There is also a strong conservation movement which supports the establishment of a national park, but this could constrain development through controls on grazing and woodcutting. Hence the dialogue continues to find the best compromise and the concept of a ‘natural park’ is being discussed with such a reconciliation in mind. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.