A comprehensive approach to drought and desertification in Northern Nigeria

Drought has been a recurring feature of the arid and semi-arid areas of Nigeria. This paper reviews the extent, severity, and consequences of drought and desertification in Nigeria with particular emphasis on the northern part of the country. The haphazard manner in which these environmental hazards have been tackled is examined and a systematic approach for the formulation of a national policy is proposed. It is recommended that a detailed formulation and implementation of the proposed policy plan is imperative to mitigate the often devastating impacts of drought and desertification in the very prone areas of Nigeria. Until such is done, some areas of Nigeria will always be vulnerable to the whims of an inevitable climatic hazard of drought and associated land degradation in the form of desertification.     

Agricultural policy reforms and sustainable land management: a New Zealand case study

This paper examines the link between poverty and land management within the context of New Zealand's almost total removal of subsidies to agriculture since 1984. The impact of these policy changes is explored through the findings from a detailed study of sixteen farms in the North Island hill country. Stress is identified as a primary link between social damage and environmental degradation. This link reinforces the impact of other linkages expressed in reduced production, lower stocking rates, and reduced capital inputs. Deregulation is claimed to be good. This paper shows that in certain circumstances this is not so.     

Brazilian health regions and scales: A geographical perspective

Abstract:  This paper offers a geographical perspective on the way in which health regions have been defined and established in São Paulo as part of overall Brazilian health policy. To accomplish this, I first situate the Brazilian case in the international debate over the regionalization of health services. Second, I examine health regionalization in the case of São Paulo and show how the process is dynamic and complex, involving geographical scales that go well beyond the administrative boundaries of Brazilian municipalities.     

新时期西部地区贫困问题研究

西部地区是我国贫困面最大、贫困程度最深的地区，同时也是从类发展水平非常落后的地区，收入贫困与知识贫困、人力贫困并存。在上世纪末基本解决温饱之后，西部地区仍然面临着能否稳定脱贫、人力资源开发落后、农民税费过重等诸多扶贫新问题。在深入分析西部地区贫困特点及面临的新问题的基础上，提出了新世纪西部地区消除贫困战略的政策导向以及分三阶段实施贫困地区发展目标的基本设想。建议扶贫开发方式逐渐从以物质投入为主转向以人力资源投入为主，并与国家西部大开发中的“退耕还林（草）”、“西气东输”、“西电东送”等重大工程项目密切结合。     

London: a sustainable city?

Observations include:
Ian Livingstone, London: a sustainable city?, p.77
Michael Parkinson, Key challenges for European cities: achieving competitiveness, cohesion and sustainability, p.78
Chris Hamnett, London's housing, p.80
Sarah Curtis, Health in London, p.84
Martin Frost, London's transport—investing for sustainability, p.92
Chris Birks, Mike Owen and Brian Arkell, London's water resources: threat or opportunity, p.92
Sean D Beevers, David C Carslaw and Gary W Fuller, London's air quality: nitrogen dioxide and particles (PM10) in London's air—present and future, p.97
Adam D Read, Where there's muck there's brass—the 'cost' of London'swaste?, p.103     

Interrogating the ten-year transport plan

This paper presents an analysis of Transport 2010, the government's ten-year plan for transport. It develops discussions held by members of the RGS-IBG's Transport Geography Research Group (TGRG) in September 2000. It is argued that the plan marks something of a return to previous policies designed to accommodate increasing mobility.     

河北省临港经济区建设构想

论述河北省临港经济区的建设条件 ,提出构建以大耗水重化工业为核心的临港工业经济体系 ,带动全省经济发展 ,缓减淡水资源紧张、城市拥挤和环境污染压力 ,以及各临港经济区的建设策略。     

Residential Mobility and Urban Restructuring under Market Transition: A Study of Guangzhou,China

Residential mobility can be conceptualized as an outcome of a choice process exercised under complex institutional and personal constraints. China's rather unique pattern of housing market segmentation under market transition impinges directly on residential location and relocation. Drawing upon data from a sample survey, this paper analyzes the pattern of residential moves resulting from commodity housing construction in a major Chinese city, Guangzhou. Most moves are of short distance, although the general direction is towards the urban periphery. Danweis and the municipal housing bureau, rather than the market per se, are the primary driving forces behind suburbanization in China today.     

Exploring the links between health and housing: The limitations of population health surveys

While it is intuitively attractive to link health status and the quality of housing, it is methodologically complex to identify the relative importance of housing because individual characteristics and environmental variables act as confounders. A secondary issue is that the data sets which contain detailed data on health status and environmental variables often contain only limited data on housing. Similarly, housing surveys rarely contain detailed data on health and environmental variables. Respondents from Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver in the public use micro-data files of the 1996/97 cycle of the National Population Health Survey make up the data sets for a series of logistic regression models where health status, allergies, asthma, arthritis, migraines and bronchitis/emphysema act as the dependent variables. Sets of variables which measure housing, the environment (smoking and alcohol consumption) and the socio-economic status of individuals are used as independent variables. The issues of confounders and the limitations of the data are illustrated by the results of the analysis. If we are to go beyond local area surveys and carry out broader analyses of the links between health status and the quality of housing, researchers and data collection agencies will need to re-think the artificial divisions between these two critical aspects of peoples' lives.     

地震科技成果奖励政策的研究与实践

本文系统论述了国家地震局的科技成果奖励政策及其特点并介绍了10年来的执行状况。 地震系统建立的国家级、部委级及基层级(厅局级)三个层次的奖励体系是合理有效和可行的,它进一步调动了地震系统广大科技人员的积极性和创造性,促进了地震科技工作的发展。