Epilogue: Towards a future for political ecology that works

Political Ecology (PE) has been retrospectively created from a history of wide ranging work of different disciplines, cultural settings and epistemological foundations. Its conceptualization was and remains expansive, eclectic and inclusive which has brought both innovative thinking and charges of incoherence. A review of these paradoxical views on the quality of knowledge and its effectiveness in promoting justice and other aspects of political progress concludes that PE can fulfil these criteria in spite of challenges involved in understanding an exceptionally wide range of different disciplines in the natural and social sciences, technical detail and cultural settings. Also, the production of PE both shapes and is shaped by the structures of the academy and daily practice of teaching and research in a reflexive way. There are particular rewards and penalties in academic production which make it difficult to undertake long term PE research, to write overall integrative PE work other than edited and multi-author works, and to engage with wider audiences outside the academy. There is also an enduring stand-off between PE and policy matters. The growth of PE courses in anglophone universities is encouraging more comparison, coherence and communication between political ecologists and promises increasing stabilization and legitimacy of the field.     

The time and place for political ecology: An introduction to the articles honoring the life-work of Piers Blaikie

Political ecology (PE) is experiencing a renaissance and embrace similar to that of Geography itself. Just as there is a rediscovery of the importance of place and thus Geography, Geographers and others are discovering that this critical approach to the human-environment dialectic provides unique theoretical, methodological, and practical insights for unravelling the complexities of this contentious nexus. The host of new volumes that introduce students and the larger academic community to PE each emphasize different theoretical and thematic confluences. This volume is organized around the life-long work and intellectual history of a leading political ecologist, Piers Blaikie, and as such it is both a tribute to that work, and an alternative means to discover what PE is today. Piers Blaikie’s life-work also encompasses research and writing on natural disasters and risk, development policy and practice, international environmental policy, conservation and biodiversity, AIDS in Africa, livelihoods, and books on India and Nepal. By assessing Blaikie’s long and productive career, from pioneering foundational texts, through transdisciplinary exchanges in the fields of Geography, Development Studies, and policy, to constructive and critical engagement with the post-modern turn, and questions of epistemology and methodology, the contributions to this themed issue provide a diverse yet coherent set of insights. The three sessions of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) Conference in Denver in 2005 and group of articles that emerged from them to form this collection serve to clarify the major convergences and dissonances in the field and its ongoing vitality. In Piers Blaikie’s case, as a central actor in both the theory and practice of PE, a collection based upon a critical overview of his contributions to PE provides a new window into seeing and understanding the past, present, and future of the field.     

非GIS专业地理信息系统课程教学思考

我国GIS教育正处于蓬勃发展时期,在社会需求的拉动下,GIS应用早已突破其专业领域,因之而推动了非GIS专业GIS教育的快速发展。作者在分析比较GIS专业与非GIS专业地理信息系统课程教学目标、学生学科背景差别等问题的基础上,对非GIS专业地理信息系统教学中教师要求、教材选择、教学内容、教学模式和考核方式等诸方面进行了分析总结,并提出了对非GIS专业地理信息系统课程教学的一些建议。     

大数据与小数据结合：信息时代城市研究方法探讨

信息技术的快速发展引起了城市研究领域的“大数据”热潮,并带来了传统城市研究方法的变革。但是,其自身存在的诸多缺陷使得学者不得不重新考虑传统小数据的应用角色。但是,传统小数据并没有失去其应用价值,相反,以城市与居民行为活动关系研究为主体的信息时代的城市研究必要充分结合大数据与小数据,并探讨适宜的方法论与方法框架,从而应对日益复杂的城市问题和居民需求。提出“物质空间与活动空间结合”、“相关关系与因果关系结合”、“宏观分析与微观挖掘结合”的3个方法论,并在此基础上构建了“大样本空间发展评价+空间差异与联系发现+小样本影响因素探究”、“小样本模型构建+影响因素发现+大样本验证及挖掘”、“微观活动分析+活动空间界定+影响因素探究”3种方法框架,且分析了这些框架的具体应用,以期为未来的城市研究提供思路和方法借鉴。     

Patran与Abaqus技术在海底管道屈曲分析中的应用研究

针对海底管道屈曲稳定性问题,应用Patran二次开发技术,提出海底管道屈曲分析的参数化自动建模方法,其中核心问题为在Patran中直接建立楔形体单元组成止屈器几何形状以及管道表面skin单元的创建等,生成Abaqus可识别的数据文件。通过算例分析,将计算结果与全尺寸试验和DNV-OS-F101规范进行对比,验证了方法的可靠性。     

基于Skyline的地下三维管线自动生成技术研究

从地下管线数据制作标准以及管线三维自动建模两方面,系统地阐述如何使用Skyline三维系统平台,以参数化的形式,实现在大场景中地下三维管线的自动化生成,提出解决相邻管线之间特征点(弯头、变径、多通等)建模问题的方案。实践表明,此方案具有较好的可行性与实用性,可为城市规划提供准确的基础数据。     

A survey of remote sensing-based aboveground biomass estimation methods in forest ecosystems

Remote sensing-based methods of aboveground biomass (AGB) estimation in forest ecosystems have gained increased attention, and substantial research has been conducted in the past three decades. This paper provides a survey of current biomass estimation methods using remote sensing data and discusses four critical issues – collection of field-based biomass reference data, extraction and selection of suitable variables from remote sensing data, identification of proper algorithms to develop biomass estimation models, and uncertainty analysis to refine the estimation procedure. Additionally, we discuss the impacts of scales on biomass estimation performance and describe a general biomass estimation procedure. Although optical sensor and radar data have been primary sources for AGB estimation, data saturation is an important factor resulting in estimation uncertainty. LIght Detection and Ranging (lidar) can remove data saturation, but limited availability of lidar data prevents its extensive application. This literature survey has indicated the limitations of using single-sensor data for biomass estimation and the importance of integrating multi-sensor/scale remote sensing data to produce accurate estimates over large areas. More research is needed to extract a vertical vegetation structure (e.g. canopy height) from interferometry synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) or optical stereo images to incorporate it into horizontal structures (e.g. canopy cover) in biomass estimation modeling.     

Assessing decarbonization pathways and their implications for energy security policies in Japan

For countries without sufficient fossil fuel resources such as Japan, climate policies in the mid- to long term need to satisfy requirements not only for decarbonisation but also for energy security in the context of limitations on renewable energies and nuclear power. This study assesses the feasibility of decarbonization pathways to 2050 and their effects on energy security, considering the latest energy and climate policies in Japan using the AIM/Enduse model. The analysis illustrates that deep decarbonization by 2050 is technically feasible even without nuclear power based on three elements: energy efficiency improvements, low-carbon electricity and electrification in end-use sectors. These decarbonization pathways, in the long term, could also contribute to enhanced energy security, reducing import dependency to less than a half of the total primary energy and reducing import bills for fossil fuels by around 70% compared with the current level. Notably, renewable energies could play a strategically significant role in satisfying both climate and energy security requirements. In the mid-term (to 2030), however, although GHG emissions are reduced by 14–20% from 1990 levels, import dependency is relatively stable at today's levels, particularly without the restart of nuclear power. Given the limited potential for renewable energies in the mid-term, it is suggested that the availability of nuclear power will have negative impacts on carbon intensity and energy security, and policies to enhance the security of fossil fuels, including diversification of fuel sources and supply routes, will be required for the foreseeable future.

Policy relevance

Considering the scarcity of indigenous fossil fuel resources and the uncertain availability of nuclear power in Japan, renewable energy could play a strategically significant role in replacing unabated fossil fuels, which would contribute to satisfying both climate and energy security requirements in the long term. However, the renewable energy potential is insufficient to eliminate the requirement for fossil fuels by 2030; therefore the unavailability of nuclear power would affect energy security considerably. Thus, policies in the mid-term would still require enhancement of the energy security of fossil fuels, including the diversification of fuel sources and supply routes, as well as alleviation of the impacts of price volatility.     

On viability: Climate change and the science of possible futures

Growing attention to the impacts of climate change around the world has been accompanied by the profusion of discourses about the lives, livelihoods, and geographies that are “viable” and those that are not in the time of climate change. These discourses of viability often invoke concrete physical limits and tipping points suggesting a transcendent natural order. Conversely, I demonstrate how viability is co-produced through political economic structures that exercise power at multiple scales in shaping the environment and understandings of how it is changing. I describe three dialectics of this co-production: epistemic/material (between ideas about viability and their biophysical and political economic conditions), epistemic/normative (between how the world is understood to be and ideas about how we should live in it), and inter-scalar (between geographic scales, where action at one scale shapes both ecologies and understandings of possible action at another). Each of these dialectics shapes the knowledge regimes that govern the ambiguous social and biophysical process of disappearance and foreclosure of livelihood possibilities in the time of climate change. I examine these discourses of viability through narratives of unviable agrarian livelihoods in coastal Bangladesh, as a lens through which to examine the dialectics of viability more broadly. I situate these discourses concretely in relation to an analysis of interdisciplinary social and natural scientific research on ecological and agrarian viability in coastal Bangladesh now and in the future. Across a broad interdisciplinary spectrum, I find that scientific attention to political economy shapes the politics of possibility. Finally, I demonstrate how discourses of viability limit alternative possible economic and ecological futures. I do this through a concrete examination of the co-production of viable agrarian futures within communities in coastal Bangladesh. These alternative visions indicate that the viability of agriculture is shaped by historical and ongoing decisions in the present about cultivation, water management, and development intervention.     

Application of electrical prospecting methods to petroleum exploration on the northern margin of the Siberian Platform

This paper considers the potential of modern electrical prospecting methods for evaluating oil and gas occurrence on the northern margin of the Siberian Platform—a vast region from the Gydan Peninsula to the mouth of the Lena River. Results of regional electrical surveyes over the past 12 years in this region are generalized. The capabilities of electrical prospecting for solving the following four problems are defined: survey, in conjunction with seismics and drilling, in the Jurassic-Cretaceous part of the section; study of the structure of the Paleozoic sequence; study of the junction zones of large geoblocks and deep structure of the Earth’s crust and upper mantle; and study of the permafrost. © 2018, V.S. Sobolev IGM, Siberian Branch of the RAS. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.