Research relevance, 'knowledge transfer' and the geographies of CASE studentship collaboration

The Co-operative Awards in Science and Engineering (CASE) studentship programme of the UK Research Councils provide one example of wider efforts internationally to encourage so-called 'knowledge transfer' and thereby harness publicly supported university research more closely to the goals of national competitiveness, regional economic development and local regeneration. In this paper we describe the implications of how the various UK research councils have interpreted the objectives and beneficiaries of 'knowledge transfer', both for the relative opportunities available to human and physical geographers for collaboration through CASE and for the sorts of values that their research must serve. Then, we draw on unpublished data from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to explore the geographies of CASE studentship allocation and participation. The broad regional and institutional patterns of participation we describe have important implications for ongoing debates in the UK about research selectivity and the role of the university as an engine of local development, while the striking disciplinary patterns of CASE participation, and in particular the overwhelming success of geographers in this competitive programme, provide an opportunity to reassess claims about whether and for whom geographical research is relevant.     

The resilience and sustainability of local wetland management institutions in Illubabor and Western Wellega,Ethiopia

Local community based institutions that coordinate the management of natural resources have been linked to socioecological resilience, adaptation and sustainability within rural livelihood systems throughout the developing world. The resilience and sustainability of related local institutions, however, is influenced by their relationship with external actors and institutions, particularly in facilitating, supporting or hindering local institutional arrangements. From this standpoint, this paper examines the case of local community based institutions involved in wetland management in western Ethiopia. Drawing upon the findings of participatory fieldwork undertaken in eight wetland‐using communities of Illubabor and Western Wellega zones in Oromia Region it is argued that although local institutions do play a key role in coordinating wetland management and sustaining the benefits from wetlands, the sustainability and resilience of the institutions themselves is threatened by a range of factors. Despite their grassroots nature, their effectiveness is influenced by their reliance on local government backstopping that appears to have diminished in recent years, as well as a perceived lack of local government support for collective action over individual rights.     

AN ANALYSIS OF THE RANGE AND SPATIAL GRADIENT OF URBAN RECREATIONAL HINTERLANDS

Because medical geography is a dynamic and developing area of thought, a number of conceptual and empirical problems are, as yet, relatively unexplored. This essay constitutes an attempt to delimit these problems, which include the application of geographical analysis to ascertaining disease causation, the prediction of future disease patterns and disease diffusion, and evaluation of the importance of maximizing geographical access to health care facilities.     

The Value of Practice-Based Knowledge

Increasing recognition of the value of practice-based or experiential knowledge in natural resource management justifies the creation of a new category of articles in Society & Natural Resources that we are calling Practice-Based Knowledge (PBK). The rationale for focusing on PBK is due to its key role in the emergence of hybrid governance institutions across state, market, and civil society, understanding the complexity of dynamic socioecological systems, recognizing the challenges of multiple knowledge systems and context-specific practices, embracing the power of informal institutions and civic science, and engaging debates on the growing prevalence of market-oriented conservation. The goal is to provide a dedicated space within the published, peer-reviewed literature for scholars, government officials, nonprofit managers, and engaged citizens to share experiences informed by practical action. Relevant and timely practice-based insights may improve understanding and management of social and ecological processes and systems, while also offering the potential to contribute to theory.     

Expanded adaptive fuzzy sliding mode controller using expert knowledge and fuzzy basis function expansion for UFV depth control

Generally, the underwater flight vehicle (UFV) depth control system operates with the following problems: it is a multi-input multi-output (MIMO) system, it requires robustness, a continuous control input, and further, it has the speed dependency of controller parameters. To solve these problems, an expanded adaptive fuzzy sliding mode controller (EAFSMC), which is based on the decomposition method designed by using an expert knowledge and the decoupled sub-controllers and composition method designed by using the fuzzy basis function expansions (FBFEs), is proposed. To verify the performance of the EAFSMC, the depth control of UFV in various operating conditions is performed. Simulation results show that the EAFSMC solves all problems experienced in the UFV depth control system online.     

Pastoralists’ perceptions and realities of vegetation change and browse consumption in the northern Kalahari, Namibia

Pastoral production around artificial watering points in semi-arid environments affects the density and composition of plant communities. In the Kalahari desert of southwestern Africa, bush encroachment is often regarded as the major form of land degradation resulting from pastoral production around watering points. We investigated the OvaHerero pastoralists’ perceptions of the extent of vegetation change since the establishment of artificial watering points in the northern Kalahari desert of Namibia, and related this to ecological data on vegetation change. We determined the utility of woody vegetation to pastoralists’ livelihoods in terms of provision of construction material, fuel wood and browse. We quantified local knowledge of cattle browse consumption and correlated this with field data. We also assessed the purposes for which major livestock types were used. Our results showed that: (1) pastoral knowledge of bush encroachment and browse consumption was consistent with concurrently collected field data, (2) the current level of bush encroachment was perceived to be beneficial for pastoral production, and (3) cattle played an important role in the production of milk and milk by-products for domestic use, and served as a source of cash income, while sheep and goats were primarily kept for meat consumption. This result contrasts with historical studies that mainly portray cattle as a symbol of social status among OvaHerero pastoralists.     

协同多时相波谱特征的不透水面信息级联提取

不透水面作为反应城市表征变化和区域城镇化的重要技术指标,其位置、图斑大小、空间分布等信息在地表水热循环和能量平衡等领域被广泛需求。传统方法大都基于单一时相信息提取不透水面,而忽略多时相所蕴含的丰富信息。因此,本文提出多时相信息融合的不透水面级联提取方法,利用Landsat-8 OLI遥感影像分析归一化植被指数（Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, NDVI）、改进的归一化水体指数（Modified Normalized Difference Water Index, MNDWI）和归一化建筑指数（Normalized Difference Building Index, NDBI）年内时序变化特点和典型地物间多时相波谱曲线的协同特征,并归纳不透水面多时相变化规律;再根据先验知识所获取的有效地表信息,进行多时相分级提取不透水面信息。此外,基于实地考察数据和同期2 m GF-1遥感影像屏幕数字化生成30 m不透水面图斑,进行精度验证、分析和对比单时相、四季相及多时相3种时序情况下的提取精度。结果表明：单时相提取不透水面总精度最低,四季相提取精度优于单时相,而多时相提取精度最高（精度可达93.66%,Kappa系数为0.81）。本方法在偏远城镇不透水面的有效识别中显露潜在优势,可为不透水面提取方法融合时序波谱特征提供新思路。     

Anthropogenic threat assessment of marine-associated fauna in Spencer Gulf,South Australia

Assessing the vulnerability of species to [anthropogenic threats is an essential step when developing management strategies for wild populations. With industrial development forecasted to increase in Spencer Gulf, South Australia, it is crucial to assess the ongoing effects of anthropogenic threats to resident and migratory species. Expert elicitation was used to assess 27 threats against 38 threatened, protected, and iconic marine-associated species. Species and threat interactions were assessed individually, and as taxonomic or functional groups. Climate change had the greatest overall exposure (c.f. risk) across species, followed by disturbance, pollution, disease/invasive species, and fishing/aquaculture threats. The largest overall sensitivities (c.f. consequences) were pollution and disease/invasive species, followed by climate change, disturbance and fishing/aquaculture threats. Vulnerability scores (exposure x sensitivity) showed the climate change group posing the greatest overall threat in Spencer Gulf, with individual climatic threats ranking as three of the top four biggest threats to most animal groups. Noise, shipping, and net fishing were considered the greatest region-specific individual threats to marine mammals; as were trawl fishing, line fishing, and coastal activities to fish/cuttlefish; trawl fishing, line fishing, and net fishing to elasmobranchs; and oil spill, disease, and coastal activities to sea/shorebirds. Eighteen of the 20 highest vulnerability scores involved the short-beaked common dolphin, Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin, and Australian sea lion, highlighting the particular susceptibility of these species to specific threats. These findings provide a synthesis of key threats and vulnerable species, and give management a basis to direct future monitoring and threat mitigation efforts in the region.     

基于CiteSpace中国海洋经济研究的知识图谱分析

利用CiteSpace可视化文献分析工具对1982~2013年CNKI总库中文核心期刊以及CSSCI中文社会科学引文数据库中海洋经济研究的3 441篇相关文献进行分析,绘制出研究热点、核心作者群及研究机构的知识结构图谱。结果表明：自中国海洋经济研究会成立以来,中国海洋经济研究主要围绕 “海洋经济”、“海洋产业”、“可持续发展”、“海洋资源”、“海洋开发”、“滨海旅游”等展开;韩增林、张耀光、郑贵斌、殷克东、李靖宇、徐志斌等是主要的发文作者;国家海洋局、中国海洋大学、辽宁师范大学和广东海洋大学为发文较多的机构;《海洋开发与管理》是海洋经济相关研究载文量最多的期刊,《经济地理》、《中国人口·资源与环境》、《地域研究与开发》、《资源科学》等是主要的载文核心期刊。除了传统的海洋经济研究视角下,区域海洋经济差异、海洋产业结构与布局及优化、海洋产业竞争力、海洋产业集群、现代海洋产业、海洋资源开发利用的可持续、人海关系的脆弱性、滨海旅游等的研究外,在新的国际和国内形势下,海洋经济相关理论、战略性新兴海洋产业研究、海洋经济可持续发展研究、及“一路一带”战略对海洋经济相关研究的新要求也是需要重点关注的方面。     

Time, idealisation and international development: promoting Canadian co-management in northern Russia

In this article, I trace the efforts of a development team working to promote a Canadian approach to natural resources management in the Russian North. These development workers used two communication strategies related to time and history to render Canadian knowledge mobile and applicable to a new location: (1) imagining today's Russian North as equivalent to the Canadian northern past and (2) reframing and idealising the Canadian past and present to make the governance export less discursively 'messy' for an outside audience. The relative failure of these communicative strategies points to the need for richer dialogue in efforts to move knowledge cross-culturally.