The political geography of religion: historical state-church relations in Europe and recent challenges

Historical processes of state formation and nation building are crucial for an understanding of the geography of religions and churches in Europe. Each country has developed its own model of state-church relations, giving rise to a ‘bewildering variety’ as Grace Davie aptly remarks. The aim of this paper is to bring some order to this variety by developing a framework for the comparative study of church-state relations based on Stein Rokkan’s famous conceptual map and recent extensions of it to Central and Eastern Europe by John Madeley. According to that framework Europe has been divided into three mono-confessional (Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Eastern Orthodox) blocs and two multi-confessional culture belts from Northwest to Southeast, and from Northeast to Southeast. This historical pattern has been challenged by secularisation, which started with the Enlightenment and the French Revolution (Western Europe) and the Russian Revolution (Eastern Europe until the velvet revolutions of 1989/1991) and then became widespread after the ‘cultural revolutions’ of the 1960s. A second challenge has to do with globalisation and its consequences, such as massive immigration and the rise of immigrant religions, and in general deterritorialisation, which means the disembeddedness of religion from its national territory. A third challenge concerns reterritorialisation at other (supranational, regional, transnational, and local) scales, of which the new territorial order of the European Union seems to be the most important. Finally, this paper serves as an introduction to the case studies on church-state relations in this special issue.     

Assessment of sand encroachment in Kuwait using GIS

Assessment of sand encroachment in Kuwait using Geographical Information System (GIS) technology has been formulated as a Multi-Criteria Decision Making problem. The Delphi method and Analytical Hierarchy Process were adopted as evaluating techniques, in which experts’ judgments were analyzed for objectively estimating and weighting control factors. Seven triggering factors, depicted in the form of maps, were identified and ordered according to their priority. These factors are (1) wind energy; (2) surface sediment; (3) vegetation density; (4) land use; (5) drainage density; (6) topographic change and (7) vegetation type. The factor maps were digitized, converted to raster data and overlaid to determine their possible spatial relationships. Applying a susceptibility model, a map of sand encroachment susceptibility in Kuwait was developed. The map showed that the areas of very high and high sand encroachment susceptibility are located within the main corridor of sand pathway that coincides with the northwesterly dominant wind direction.     

The changing relationship between state and church/religion in the Netherlands

The Netherlands is part of the historic Northwest-Southeast multi-confessional culture belt according to the comparative framework of church-state relations in Europe as recently developed by Madeley on the basis of Rokkan’s conceptual map. The aim of this paper is to describe the development of the church-state relations in the Netherlands within this historic framework of state-formation and nation-building, and to interpret recent challenges of its historic state-church model, such as secularisation, the rise of immigrant religions, and general ‘de- and re-territorialisation’ tendencies. The Netherlands developed from a relatively very tolerant polity dominated by the Calvinist Church to a ‘pillarised’ society, in which the Rome-Reformation divide (which also had a strong geographical dimension) was institutionalised in the political system. After the 1960s, very strong secularisation put this ‘pillarised’ system under severe pressure, but the remnants of this system offered a favourable opportunity structure for religious newcomers (Muslims in particular), who could establish their mosques and Muslim schools relatively easily. However, while the main Protestant churches, and even Catholic and Protestant political parties have merged, failing integration of these newcomers in Dutch society and terrorist attacks at the global level as well as in the Netherlands encouraged a new divide between Muslims and non-Muslims. The metropolitan areas in particular became the scene of this new divide.     

论信息时代的城市发展

城市信息化是中国城市发展的新主题与新动力,是解决目前我国城市发展中诸多难题的重要途径。本文首先对比了数字城市和信息城市,然后指出了建设信息城市的迫切性和重要性,最后提出了城市信息科学的学科范畴。     

基于GIS的城镇土地定级信息系统建模方法探讨

基于GIS的城镇土地定级信息系统在建设过程中,定级方法确定、定级单元大小确定和定级因素/子权重值的生成是关键,且三者都具有不同的确定方法,因此选择什么样的方法决定了系统建立的优劣。本文着重归纳、总结了城镇土地定级信息系统定级方法,通过对比分析,探讨了最优定级方法、最优网格单元大小划分方法和最优因素/子权重值计算方法。     

测井资料在碳酸盐岩储层评价中的应用

以塔河油田碳酸盐岩储集层基本特征为依据，利用常规和能谱测井资料信息比值法和重叠法等技术．致力于储集层缝、孔、洞测井响应特征敏感性评价研究，从中提取8项储层敏感性参数，并对其进行综合评判，确定出划分储层类别的标准，经过50口井的测试资料验证，采用多参数综合评判来划分储层类别是可行的，对储层的评价效果较好，使常规测井资料得到了更深入、广泛的应用。     

三维遥感影像数据库系统的研究与实现

介绍了以3S技术为手段，采用目前较为先进的三层结构体系，使用Dephi开发工具，结合数据库技术、遥感技术，尝试以数据库SQL Server组织、存储、管理海量的中巴资源卫星遥感影像数据和新疆1：10万地形矢量数据，应用OpenGL技术实现海量三维遥感影像数据的三维立体显示浏览，进而完成全疆三维遥感影像库建库和三维显示及漫游．     

地理空间关系描述与集成推理

地理要素的空间关系在GIS空间数据建模、空间分析、地图自动综合等方面起着重要的作用,研究如何快速判断要素间空间关系是否发生变化,从而有效维护空间关系具有重要的科学意义.本文对目前现有的有关地理空间关系描述及其集成推理的研究成果进行了综合分析与分类,分析了它们的适应性与特点,并就本研究方向存在的问题和今后需要解决的问题提出了一些看法和思路.     

元数据管理在空间信息共享中的应用

空间信息共享一直以来阻碍着GIS的发展,元数据是解决其共享的技术手段之一。本文在分析元数据和元数据管理存在问题的基础上提出了建立元数据库管理元数据,详细分析了元数据库中元数据定义、元数据查询和元数据编辑这三大管理模块,最后在信息共享平台中,对外建立统一的元数据库访问接口,对内建立针对每个数据源的数据访问引擎,实现实现多源异构分布的空间数据的集成。     

论江西省大气成分观测与服务系统建设

在介绍国内外大气成分观测与研究进展的基础上，对建设江西省大气成分观测与服务系统的必要性和可行性进行了科学的分析，并从系统建设的原则、目标、内容、技术路线、监测方案，以及系统研究的主要内容和提供的产品等方面，对拟建的江西省大气成分观测与服务系统进行了全面的阐述。研究结果认为，随着江西经济建设的快速发展，建设江西省大气成分观测与服务系统，有利于了解和掌握江西大气物质成分分布特征及变化情况；有利于提高江西天气气候预报预测准确率，提升江西气象公共服务的能力和水平；可为预防大气化学灾害和控制区域大气环境质量，提供科学的决策依据，具有显著的社会、经济效益和生态效益。