Practising geographical knowledge: fields, bodies and dissemination

In this article we make a case for a renewed emphasis upon some of the generic, albeit often tacit, spaces of practice that we share across our sub–disciplinary boundaries. In this we seek to emphasize the ways in which everyday actions make up the grander facades of institutional agendas, empirical projects and disciplinary schools of thought. To achieve this we trace the performance of disciplinary contours and identities across three important sites: the field, the body and the act of dissemination. There are, we will argue, significant commonalities that bind us as disciplinary practitioners in terms of how we perform within and across these sites, and indeed, how we join them up through our practices.     

Velocity profile of a sand cloud blowing over a gravel surface

Particle dynamic analyzer (PDA) measurement technology was used to study the turbulent characteristics and the variation with height of the mean horizontal (in the downwind direction) and vertical (in the upward direction) particle velocity of a sand cloud blowing over a gravel surface. The results show that the mean horizontal particle velocity of the cloud increases with height, while the mean vertical velocity decreases with height. The variation of the mean horizontal velocity with height is, to some extent, similar to the wind profile that increases logarithmically with height in the turbulent boundary layer. The variation of the mean vertical velocity with height is much more complex than that of the mean horizontal velocity. The increase of the resultant mean velocity with height can be expressed by a modified power function. Particle turbulence in the downwind direction decreases with height, while that in the vertical direction is complex. For fine sands (0.2–0.3 mm and 0.3–0.4 mm), there is a tendency for the particle turbulence to increase with height. In the very near-surface layer (<4 mm), the movement of blown sand particles is very complex due to the rebound of particles on the bed and the interparticle collisions in the air. Wind starts to accelerate particle movement about 4 mm from the surface. The initial rebound on the bed and the interparticle collisions in the air have a profound effect on particle movement below that height, where particle concentration is very high and wind velocity is very low.     

GIS专题数据综合的研究

随着GIS技术在各种应用领域的推广使用，各领域的专业数据与G1S的空间数据相结合，形成描述特定地理现象的各种专题数据。与GIS空间数据一样，专题数据的应用也由微观的、较为详细地描述小区域地理现象特征，转向宏观的、较为概略地描述较大范围地理现象特征，这是专题数据综合的主要任务。该文在讨论GIS专题数据类型及特征的基础上，着重分析了专题数据综合的基本类型，并提出了专题数据综合的概念模型，为GIS专题数据自动综合的实施提供理论依据和实施方案。     

海南省五指山土壤中的重金属元素含量

海南省地处热带地区，山地面积占25．4％，五指山是海南山地的核心，也是海南最高峰，从下而上依次分布着砖红壤、赤红壤、黄壤、灌丛草甸土。五指山土壤普遍遍缺，而Zn、Ni、Pb、Cd、Cr、Co含量属正常值。在成土过程中，Cd有一定积累，其他元素有明显淋溶。在自下而上的垂直带谱中，Zn、Co含量呈现递减，Cd则相反，Ni、Pb、Cu、Cr含量呈现波浪式变化。气候因素是影响五指山土壤重金属元素含量及分布的主导因素。     

Sand harm in Taklimakan Desert highway and sand control

Reputed as a wonderful achievement of the world's highway construction history, the Taklimakan Desert highway is now facing serious sand drift encroachment problems due to its 447- km-long passage of sand sea consisting of crescent dunes, barchan chains, compound transverse dune ridges and complex megadunes. To solve some technical problems in the protection of the highway from sand drift encroachment, desert experts have been conducting the theoretical and applied studies on sand movement laws; causes, severities and time-space differentiation of sand drift damages; and control ways including mechanical, chemical and biological measures. In this paper the authors give an overall summary on the research contents and recent progress in the control of sand drift damages in China and hold that the theoretical research results and practices in the prevention of sand drift encroachment on the cross-desert highway represent a breakthrough and has an epoch-making significance. Since the construction of protective forest along the cross-desert highway requires large amount of ground water, what will be its environmental consequence and whether it can effectively halt sand drift encroachment on the highway forever are the questions to be studied urgently.     

Silenced Rivers: The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams.

Patrick McCully. New York: Blackwell Publishing, 2001. ill and 416 pp., diags., notes, apps., and index. $69.95 cloth (ISBN 1856499014), $25.00 paper (ISBN 1856499022). Reviewed by Patrick H. Buckley, Department of Environmental Studies, Policy, Planning, Education, and Geography, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA.