Urban Heat and Climate Justice: A Landscape of Thermal Inequity in Pinellas County,Florida

The combined effects of two global trends, urbanization and climate change, have generated considerable concern regarding their adverse and disproportionate impacts on the health of urban populations. This study contributes to climate‐justice research by determining whether elevated levels of urban heat, indicated by land surface temperature (LST), are distributed inequitably with respect to race/ethnicity, age, and socioeconomic status in Pinellas County, Florida. Our study utilizes 2010 MODIS and Landsat medium‐resolution, remotely sensed thermal data, census socio‐demographic information, and both conventional and spatial statistical methods. Results indicate that LST is significantly greater in census tracts characterized by higher percentages of certain racial/ethnic minorities and higher poverty rates, even after controlling for contextual factors and the effects of spatial autocorrelation. This reveals the presence of a landscape of thermal inequity: uneven distribution of heat within the built urban environment and a community structure with varying vulnerability.     

Of questionable value: The role of practitioners in building sustainable cities

The reshaping of South African cities is being guided by policies aiming to build socially and environmentally just communities. Despite widespread commitment to this goal, there is little consensus on what it means and how it should and could translate into practice. The paper shows that despite the emphasis on environmental justice and building sustainable communities in policy, the institutional context for implementation (including expert driven and deliberative approaches) do not always deliver on this mandate. Consequently, policy outcomes do not reflect those of the communities and households it is meant to serve, raising challenging moral and ethical questions for institutions involved in environmental governance. This paper shows how the institutional context of environmental assessment combined with the role played by the values held by environmental practitioners charged with influencing decision-making result in the perpetuation of environmental injustices. The lack of a clearly defined profession and professional body, reflecting a diversity of values, debating, regulating, defining and defending a set of principles to guide decision-making in cities is identified as a possible reason for the lack of congruence between the values reflected in policy with those held by the communities these interventions are intended to serve. The resulting value added by sustainable cities interventions in the light of this mismatch is therefore questionable, raising challenges regarding international calls for local action as well as an increasing policy focus in South Africa on the local level as the agent of political and spatial transformation of cities.     

The Distribution and Enforcement of Air Polluting Facilities in New Jersey

This study examines the spatial distribution and enforcement of air polluting facilities in the state of New Jersey, as listed in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Aerometric Information Retrieval System. Results show that air‐polluting facilities tend to concentrate near minority neighborhoods, although this relationship is partially explained by factors of population density, manufacturing employment, and land use. Other results suggest that facilities in areas with a relatively high percentage of minority population tend to have a weaker record of environmental enforcement as compared to other facilities. Of the socioeconomic variables considered, employment in manufacturing appears to be the most strongly related to environmental enforcement.     

WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT IN CHESHIRE*

ABSTRACT. The purchase and subsequent demolition of Cheshire, Ohio‐located in the shadow of the General James M. Gavin Power Plant‐has attracted national attention. According to a New York Times report, “the deal … is believed to be the first by a company to dissolve an entire town.” In this article we consider historical precedents for the case, explore the thirty‐year history of community‐plant relations in Cheshire, and recount the series of incidents that ultimately led to the town's sale. We discuss the impact that the town's sale has had on the local community and the larger implications of American Electric Power's actions.     

A Methodological Approach for the Evaluation of Urban and Territorial Seismic Vulnerability

A methodology of urban and territorial vulnerability analysis related both to engineering studies and social priority levels is presented. Modelling an urban system as a set of elements and relations, the evaluation of seismic vulnerability is carried out through suitable functions that characterize the seismic reliability of the site in terms of the geotechnical reliability of the ground and a structural reliability of buildings regarding the importance of activities referable to each element of the system. The results of the study, represented in map form, allow a full characterization of the distribution of urban and territorial vulnerability aimed at a seismic risk mitigation.     

Assessing the Impact of Airborne Toxic Releases on Populations with Special Needs

In this article, we 1) develop and demonstrate an approach for assessing the population at risk to airborne releases of extremely hazardous substances, 2) examine the relationship between potential sources of chemical hazards and the special needs population in a medium‐sized metropolitan area (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), and 3) determine whether the distribution of environmental risks disproportionately impacts the special needs population. Our approach provides a comprehensive view of the risk burden imposed on the population by examining the effects of multiple sources of toxic releases. Disproportionate impacts are evaluated by comparing the existing distribution of the special needs population at risk to 1,000 randomly simulated distribution patterns. The results indicate that a significantly high proportion of the special needs population resides in areas susceptible to worst‐case toxic releases.     

Religious factors in territorial disputes: An intra-Jewish view

This paper concerns the internal political controversy that polarises the concepts of sanctity and sovereignty over Eretz Yisrael (The Land of Israel; Palestine). The controversy has deep religious roots in the history of the Jewish people's bonds with their country. The historical elements of which derive from a longing for religious perfection, which included observing Commandments associated with the Land. The destruction of the Temple, the Exile and the devastation of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel broke the chain of such continued observance. Polarisation of the concepts of Sanctity and Sovereignty accentuates the problem of the relation between political sovereignty and national bonds with it. The association of religious affinity with the relatively recent phenomenon of Nation-State sovereignty led many to see religious connotations in political sovereignty. The traditional, religious bond with Eretz-Yisrael, which many of the more secular Israeli public also feel, has existed for generations; conversely, national sovereignty continually changes form, not always conforming to traditional, religious perceptions of dominion over the Land. This raises problems about the link between Jewish religious laws and the political world. Abandoning the knit between national sovereignty and religious bonds may lead to the loss of religious and cultural bonds. The conflict between beliefs and opinions on the one hand and new objective circumstances on the other leads to confrontations that may cause serious harm. Time becomes critical and expediting the processes of appeasement and adaptation is a matter of redoubled importance.     

Private property restitution: the geographical consequences of official government policies in Central and Eastern Europe

The restitution of private property has been a widespread and controversial part of the post-socialist transformation in Central and Eastern Europe, raising issues about social justice and the responsibilities of national governments for the actions of their predecessors. This paper reviews the implementation of the restitution process in the countries of the region and assesses the impact on the social and economic landscape. The policy has been most extensive in Germany and most controversial in Poland, and the impacts in these two countries are considered in detail. The results show that everywhere restitution has resulted in winners and losers, with some claimants having long-lost property returned, but too often at the cost of residents losing their homes. However, an important benefit, notably in Germany's New Bundesländer, has been the introduction of much-needed new investment into the urban fabric of towns and cities, although the landscape impacts elsewhere have been less significant. Nevertheless, throughout Central and Eastern Europe restitution policies have helped governments to come to terms with a difficult aspect of the past and move forward.     

Territorial justice in unified Germany: Financial equalization, the Länder and the Federal Constitutional Court

Geographers have traditionally been interested in the issue of territorial justice conceived in terms of distributional equality. The German constitution incorporates a concept of financial equalization with the objective of creating equivalent living conditions throughout the federal territory. This primarily involves the redistribution of finance, the regulation of which has been a continual source of conflict. The paper looks at the role of the Federal Constitutional Court in mediating such conflict. The Court is the ‘supreme guardian of the constitution’ and a highly influential policy-making institution within the German political system. Commentators have described a process of the judicialization of politics, with an increasing number of important political decisions being taken by the Court, rather than in Parliament. The decisions of the Court within the sphere of financial equalization are examined in this light. Further, the particular relevance of a geographical perspective in this regard is highlighted.     

关于地理学的“人-地系统”理论研究

本文强调地理学面临的问题正在由自然因素引发的环境变化到人类因素引发的环境变化 ,分析了我国“人地关系”变化的严峻态势。指出地理学对“人地关系地域系统”研究可为实施可持续发展战略提供理论基础。阐述了“人地关系地域系统”研究在我国地理学理论发展中的地位 ,并对如何研究“人地关系地域系统”进行了探讨。