Employment and Socio-spatial Relations in Australia's Cultural Economy

This paper examines the significance and contribution of Australian 'creative' industry activities in light of recent debates on the emergence of the 'cultural economy of cities'. First, census employment data and business location counts are used to illustrate patterns of metropolitan primacy and concentration in the cultural industries both across states and in Sydney. Second, the specificities of the locations of cultural production, and the links between cultural industry activities and wider urban-regional change are explored in more detail. A set of observations of urban-regional change is used to demonstrate how the notion of 'cultural economy' should include complex interactions between the material activities of consumers and producers, and the discursive worlds of image makers and place marketers. Urban renewal, housing market pressures and intra-regional migration all mediate Australian experiences of the 'cultural economy'. Such interactions, in addition to key quantitative data on employment and business activity, suggest important policy considerations.     

Regulating Land Use Conflict on the Urban Fringe: Two contrasting case studies from the Australian poultry industry

Land use conflict involving farm externalities represents an increasing policy concern in Australia as agricultural activities intensify and as the nation's metropolitan areas continue to expand outwards. A review of the rural-urban fringe literature reveals a noticeable absence of research exploring the intensity of conflict experienced by farmers. Similarly, inadequate attention has been given to the policies adopted by government to manage conflict. This article contrasts the regulatory system that has been implemented to manage conflict involving poultry farming on the metropolitan fringe of two Australian state capitals: Perth, Western Australia and Sydney, New South Wales. Spatial variation in the nature of government intervention is uncovered. In the discussion that follows reasons are identified to help explain such variation including state ideology, metropolitan growth, industry activism, geographical constraints and farm characteristics. It is concluded that where agricultural industries experience internal political divisions and a geographically dispersed membership it becomes more difficult to influence government policy.     

Carbon dioxide and radon gas hazard in the Alban Hills area (central Italy)

The sudden and catastrophic, or slow and continuous, release at surface of naturally occurring toxic gases like CO₂, H₂S and Rn poses a serious health risk to people living in geologically active regions. In general this problem receives little attention from local governments, although public concern is raised periodically when anomalous toxic-gas concentrations suddenly kill humans or livestock. For example, elevated CO₂ concentrations have been linked to the death of at least 10 people in the central Italian region of Lazio over the last 20 years, while it was the CO₂ asphyxiation of 30 cows in a heavily populated area near Rome in 1999 which prompted the present soil-gas study into the distribution of the local health risk. A detailed geochemical survey was carried out in an area of about 4 km² in the Ciampino and Marino districts, whereby a total of 274 soil-gas samples were collected and analysed for more than 10 major and trace gas species. Data were then processed using both statistical and geostatistical methods, and the resulting maps were examined in order to highlight areas of elevated risk. General trends of elevated CO₂ and Rn concentrations imply the presence of preferential pathways (i.e. faults and fractures) along which deep gases are able to migrate towards the surface. The CO₂ and Rn anomalous trends often correspond to and are usually elongated parallel to the Apennine mountain range, the controlling structural feature in central Italy. Because of this fundamental anisotropy in the factors controlling the soil-gas distribution, it was found that a geostatistical approach using variogram analysis allowed for a better interpretation of the data. With regard to the health risk to local inhabitants, it was found that although some high risk areas had been zoned as parkland, others had been heavily developed for residential purposes. For example, many new houses were found to have been built on ground which has soil-gas CO₂ concentrations of more than 70% and radon values of more than 250 kBq m⁻³. It is recommended that land-use planners incorporate soil-gas and/or gas flux measurements in environmental assessments in areas of possible risk (i.e. volcanic or structurally active areas).     

Possible refugia for reefs in times of environmental stress

This paper investigates the refuge potential of (1) upwelling areas, (2) coral areas at medium depth, and (3) offshore bank and island reefs in a scenario of increased global warming, and thus increased sea surface temperature (SST) and increased solar UV radiation. (1) Observations on coral health and water temperature in the subtropical Atlantic (Eleuthera and Cat Island, Bahamas) and Indian Ocean (Sodwana Bay, South Africa) suggest a link between cool water delivered by upwelling and coral health. After the 1998 bleaching event, caused by strong SST anomalies, coral health and recovery from the previous year's bleaching was significantly better on the narrow southern Cat Island shelf (70% of corals healthy) where the presence of cold water was observed, which was attributed to small-scale upwelling, than on the wide northern Eleuthera shelf (44% of corals healthy), where downwelling of hot bank waters was believed to have damaged corals. In South Africa, regular, short-term upwelling events in five summers reduced SST to well below bleaching level. (2) In the northern Red Sea (Safaga Bay) and in South Africa (Sodwana Bay), wide areas with either coral frameworks or non-framework communities exist. Calculations show that if the top 10 m (20 m) of the ocean became inhospitable to corals, still 50.4% (17.5%) of the coral area would remain intact in the Red Sea and 99% (40%) in South Africa. (3) Offshore bank and island reefs investigated in the Turks, Caicos, and Mouchoir Banks and Grand and Little Cayman showed high rates of mortality and coral diseases. The most remote sites (Mouchoir Bank) were not the healthiest. Refuge areas appear to exist in (1) and (2), but in (3) only if vigorous water-circulation is encountered.     

气象卫星观测资料的分析在城市区域气象环境研究中的应用

目前 ,我国气象部门相当普遍地拥有气象卫星观测资料 ,但是 ,这些资料如何在城市气象服务以及为城市建设规划等方面的决策研究中发挥作用 ,急待进一步研究并开展工作。本文试图通过合理的反演处理 ,给出卫星观测对地面温度的测量结果 ,由此可比较细致地分析了解地面热状况及其与土地利用类型 ,地面覆盖性质等的关系。本文利用有限的 NOAA- AVHRR气象卫星遥感资料 ,采用修正的 Ulivieri分裂窗方法反演出同期的地表温度场 ,通过对北京地区的卫星观测资料进行算例分析 ,揭示出一个 2 0 0 km× 2 0 0 km范围内的地面温度分布特征。反演结果可以明显地揭示出城市热岛现象的变化规律 ,并且能较为清楚地反映出相对的高温区和低温区     

岭南城市居住小区生态系统及其规划

本文探讨了城市居住小区生态系统，提出了城市生态居住小区的关键因素，最后对岭南城市生态居住小区规划进行了探索。     

城市地理信息系统的功能和内容

本文论述了城市地理信息系统的主要功能，进而分析了城市地理信息系统的主要内容、模型和界面。     

法国巴黎区的规划与整治及其对上海建设的启示

本文对法国巴黎区城市膨胀扩展过程、城市规划指导思想由同心圆模式向轴线发展模式、由单个要素转移到郊区城市综合功能开发转变的原因进行了分析，并对以巴黎城市副中心和郊区新城建设等为主要内容的城市规划经验教训进行了介绍和总结。在此基础上，结合上海市经济社会发展的条件和目标，分析了上海市规划中存在的郊区城市规模小、城市工业“空洞化”、城市建设政策措施协调配套以及浦东建设项目利用效益低下等几个城市建设面临的主要问题，并提出了相应的改进建议。