The economic impact of extreme sea-level rise: Ice sheet vulnerability and the social cost of carbon dioxide

The possibility of extreme sea-level rise is one of the commonly cited reasons for concern about climate change. Major increases in sea level would likely be driven by the melting or collapse of major ice sheets. This possibility has implications for the social cost of carbon dioxide, which is a key policy value as well as a useful summary measure of damage caused by greenhouse gas emissions.This paper extends earlier work on the importance of low-probability, high-impact events for the social cost of carbon dioxide to incorporate the possibility of extreme sea-level rise.To estimate its impact, an integrated assessment model is used, which allows a probabilistic assessment of climate change damages based on the linkages between the economic and climate systems. In the model, the generic discontinuity damage is replaced with the possibility of large-scale damage from factors that are taken to be correlated with temperature rise and, crucially for this paper, explicit consideration of extreme sea-level rise.Estimates of the amount of increase in the social cost of carbon dioxide that can be expected from incorporating extreme sea-level rise show that the increase is significant, though not especially large in percentage terms.The paper contributes to the literature of how to represent uncertain climate impacts in integrated assessment models and the associated estimation of the social cost of carbon dioxide.     

Safe and just operating spaces for regional social-ecological systems

Humanity faces a major global challenge in achieving wellbeing for all, while simultaneously ensuring that the biophysical processes and ecosystem services that underpin wellbeing are exploited within scientifically informed boundaries of sustainability. We propose a framework for defining the safe and just operating space for humanity that integrates social wellbeing into the original planetary boundaries concept (Rockström et al., 2009a,b) for application at regional scales. We argue that such a framework can: (1) increase the policy impact of the boundaries concept as most governance takes place at the regional rather than planetary scale; (2) contribute to the understanding and dissemination of complexity thinking throughout governance and policy-making; (3) act as a powerful metaphor and communication tool for regional equity and sustainability. We demonstrate the approach in two rural Chinese localities where we define the safe and just operating space that lies between an environmental ceiling and a social foundation from analysis of time series drawn from monitored and palaeoecological data, and from social survey statistics respectively. Agricultural intensification has led to poverty reduction, though not eradicated it, but at the expense of environmental degradation. Currently, the environmental ceiling is exceeded for degraded water quality at both localities even though the least well-met social standards are for available piped water and sanitation. The conjunction of these social needs and environmental constraints around the issue of water access and quality illustrates the broader value of the safe and just operating space approach for sustainable development.     

1980年以来京津冀区域研究进展评论

1980年以来,因研究内容和空间治理重点不同,京津冀、京津唐、环渤海、大渤海等区域名称与区域范围多次变动。作为中国最早开展人文与经济地理学研究的对象区域,越来越受到经济贸易、生态环境、城乡规划等多学科关注。本文基于学术论文和专著、具有影响的科研项目,对1980年以来京津冀及相关区域研究进展进行了综述和评论。归纳起来,研究对象区域经历了“京津唐（塘）—大（环）渤海—京津冀”的变化过程。整体上可分为4个阶段：20世纪80年代面向京津唐地区,国土规划为主的经济地理学区域研究,研究规模有限;20世纪90年代拓展到大（环）渤海地区,面向东（北）亚区域经济一体化进程开展经济贸易科学与地理学交叉研究;21世纪前10年,回归京津冀区域,生态环境科学和城市规划科学大规模介入的融合研究;21世纪10年代京津冀协同发展的多学科区域综合研究。其间,中央政府在该区域开展的一系列重大规划,包括20世纪80年代京津唐国土规划和90年代环渤海经济协作区规划,21世纪前10年京津冀都市圈区域规划和21世纪10年代京津冀协同发展规划,与区域研究形成了良性互动关系,在显著增强空间规划和战略决策的科学性的同时,也有力地促进了人文与经济地理学科发展,推动了人和自然相互间强烈作用状态下区域复杂系统演化规律的研究进展。     

地理信息系统的社会公共功能

地理信息系统已经成为商品走进人们的生活 ,它所具有的社会公共功能正引起人们越来越多的关注。     

Issues and options for a Martian calendar

In the past 125 years, more than 70 authors have published ideas for keeping time on Mars, describing how to divide the Martian day and Martian year into smaller units. The Martian prime meridian was established in the mid-19th century, and the design of the Martian clock has been standardised at least since the Viking missions of the 1970s. Scientists can tell time on Mars; however, despite the constant stream of data that is downlinked from Mars these days, there is still no standardised system for expressing the date on Mars. Establishing a standard epoch—at a specific time of year on Mars, and a specific Martian year—should be the next priority in Martian timekeeping as a minimal system required for the physical sciences. More elaborate ideas, including the number and length of weeks and months, and names thereto, can be deferred for the present, but may become important considerations in coming years.     

Demographic and Economic Changes in Remote Australia

Varied distribution of resources, populations and Indigenous people result in significant socio-economic differences among statistical local areas (SLAs) in remote Australia. These differences indicate that the experience of change at the height of the resources boom will differ among SLAs in the region. Using hierarchical cluster analysis with Ward's minimum variance method, four socio-economic clusters were identified among the 197 SLAs in the region. The first was the most disadvantaged, with limited resources and human capital and the highest percentage of Indigenous people. The other three clusters improved in sequence, with the fourth having the most resources with the highest employment rate and income but least number of Indigenous people. Multivariate analysis of variance with main and interaction effects showed changes in demographics, industry structure, human capital and income over the period of investigation for the region as a whole and differences in the extent of these changes among the clusters. Policy interventions in the region are suggested for each group to match its specific needs.     

Social capital and community preparation for urban flooding in China

Social capital can enhance community resilience to environmental change. Productive and trusted relations among social actors and effectual social norms can help local residents share resources, information and risks. The main objective of our study is to understand the ways in which social attributes and risk considerations influence adoption of resilient economic measures by individuals for reducing potential losses due to catastrophic rainstorm and flooding. This article provides evidence from China on how social capital contributes to anticipatory adaptation to environmental change. The inquiry is based on structured interviews with local residents of Tianjin, a flood-prone port city in China, and a standard regression analysis. Findings show that the intention to make preparation increases with the levels of social expectation, social relationship, and institutional trust. Perceived risk and damage experience, however, have no significant impacts. This suggests that building social capacity and trust will be more effective in enhancing community resilience than merely increasing awareness of hazard risks. We call for greater efforts on strengthening the capacity of formal and informal communal institutions. The structural changes required, however, are challenging.     

基于省会城市的中国体验性网络团购发展的空间格局与空间错位

体验性网络团购是一种消费者需要到店才能完成消费的特殊网络购物形式,因其服务范围的空间局限性,正在对消费地理格局产生不可忽视的影响。借助360团购导航网站,以中国30个省会城市(含直辖市)为研究对象,采用综合规模指数、发展水平指数、集中化指数、空间错位指数等指标,对中国体验性网络团购发展的空间格局与空间错位特征进行了实证研究。结果表明:1团购市场发展规模在中国省会城市的空间分配极不均衡,主要受东部发达城市的带动作用,同时也受西部地区部分内在增长极城市的驱动影响;2中国省会城市团购市场的发展主要处于"小规模—低水平"和"大规模—高水平"的两极化状态;3城市的经济发展水平是团购市场规模扩张的根本动力,城市的网络零售市场消费潜力规模以及互联网基础设施规模、互联网用户规模和发展水平也对团购市场规模有明显的驱动作用;4中国省会城市团购市场的发展规模在空间上与消费者的需求潜力的错位程度较低,与购买能力错位现象较明显,空间错位主要是由部分城市的团购市场规模发展过大或过小造成的。     

Environmental governance through “Speaking Like an Indigenous State” and respatializing resources: Ethical livelihood concepts in Bolivia as versatility or verisimilitude?

This research addresses recent environmental governance in Bolivia through its relations to indigeneity and respatializations. It introduces and develops the concept of “speaking like an indigenous state” to examine the Bolivian state’s recent use of a pair of indigenous linguistic concepts, Living Well and Earth Mother, representing the identities of citizens and their rights to resources and livelihoods. State relations to indigenous social movements highlight the use of Living Well and Earth Mother concepts through accommodation, resistance, and protaganism. Six active issues of environmental governance are examined: (1) climate change and justice movement; (2) agrarian reform, agrobiodiversity, and food justice; (3) water resources; (4) indigenous territories; (5) Protected Areas; and (6) extractive industries (mining, hydrocarbons). The usages of Living Well and Earth Mother show versatility as they have been mobilized in the respatializing of the politics and social-power dynamics of environmental issues at scales of the state, global and international institutions, and community and local levels. Analysis also reveals deployment of Living Well and Earth Mother that is discursively influential and yet conceptually reduced and unevenly applied, thus suggesting a characteristic of verisimilitude. My analysis determines that respatialization at various levels, including territorial transitions of sub-national regional spaces, are associated with the heightened articulation of environmental governance through indigeneity and “speaking like an indigenous state” amid resource nationalism. Linkages and logics operating within this conjuncture differ from the prevailing interpretation of the Bolivian state’s use of Living Well and Earth Mother as solely an unwitting contradiction or instrumentalist camouflage.     

Experimenting with spaces of encounter: Creative interventions to develop meaningful contact

To-date geographical research on encounters has primarily comprised observation of naturalistic settings (both micro publics and everyday public spaces) or narrative accounts of encounters generated by conventional methods, this paper focuses on a contrived spatial experiment to create meaningful contact across difference. Inspired by, and drawing on insights from, Architecture – a discipline relatively neglected by geographers in recent times – we use a creative form of spatial play to stimulate groups of people to explore their differences and to develop shared understandings. Whereas previous studies have identified the importance of material objects in art projects and home spaces in mediating relations between people, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the physical configuration of space in work on encounters, despite the fact that geography is a spatial discipline. Here, we engage directly with the role of the form and function of space. Our spatial experiments demonstrate how paying attention to the materiality of micro-spaces rather than social relations alone, can provide insights into the generation of positive interactions by contributing to a greater understanding of how meaningful encounters happen, and what can be done to facilitate them. Specifically, by exploring the size and configuration of space, issues of ownership and surveillance, the relationship between primary and secondary space, and aural architecture this research identifies how working together to create a shared private or intimate space – might facilitate a sense of empowerment and the production of social relations characterised by democracy and inclusion.