GROWTH OF NEW ECONOMIC SECTORS IN SECOND-TIER EXTENDED CITIES IN THE CHANGJIANG RIVER DELTA——Case of Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou

1INTRODUCTIONUrbanrelationshipaswellasurbansystemhas beenthemostimportantandlastingdirectioninthestudyofur-bangeographysinceCHRISTALLER(1933)putfor-wardthecentralplacetheory.Alongwiththepaceofglobalizationinthe1980s,somepioneer researchessen-sitivelyexpoundedaworldcitysystem,includingworldcity,internationalcity,nationalcity,regionalcityandlocalcity(FRIEDMAN,1986).Lotsofresearchesfo-cusedonthedevelopingmechanismofthebigcitiesandurbansystemnetwork(GU,2000;ZHOU,1997;CUI,1992;HUeta…     

Incorporating Māori values into land management decision tools

ABSTRACT

Environmental sustainability and the long-term wellbeing of Māori (the indigenous people of New Zealand) are interdependent and degradation of landscapes risks the progressive degradation of Māori wellbeing. The present study developed an analysis framework based on Ki Uta Ki Tai (holistic-mountains to the sea- management philosophy advocated by Ngāi Tahu) for exploring relationships between landcover and Māori values to enable predictions of cultural values through space and time. We used this framework to predict how two Māori values (Overall Health and Cultural Land Use) have been altered as a result of landcover change between 2001–2012 in three Canterbury catchments. The area of native vegetation declined while exotic pasture increased between 2001–2012, and there were corresponding declines in both cultural health scores. These results suggest that the change in landcover has reduced the ability of the landscape to support Māori values. This framework for assessing changes in Māori values with respect to changing environmental conditions may identify opportunities for Māori to better engage in land use management decisions.     

基于空间数据库的山东城镇发展水平的空间统计分析

基于GIS空间数据库,对山东省108个城镇的综合发展水平进行了空间统计分析。首先选用了反映城市综合发展水平的14项指标,并进行了主成分分析,得出反映城镇综合发展水平的综合指标,并分析了山东省各城镇的综合发展水平与分布状况。然后利用该综合指标,对各个城镇进行了空间统计分析,通过计算全局空间自相关指标,分析认为山东省各城镇综合发展水平总体上未呈现空间相关关系;通过计算局部空间自相关指标,分析认为山东省68.5%的城镇分布存在非相似空间集聚特征。     

Slope instability of San Miniato hill (Florence, Italy): possible deformation patterns

The hill of San Miniato (Florence, Italy) has been repeatedly identified in the past as the site of a slow moving, intermittent landslide. Possible hypotheses regarding the mechanisms responsible for past movements and for cracks and fissures present today are formulated based on the comparison of historical information and processed monitoring data. Although it is not possible to completely exclude a large inactive landslide that involves the entire northern slope, it seems more probable that the slide, if it does exist, is no longer active and that present-day damage is due to separate shallow movements concentrated in man-made deposits. This hypothesis can only be verified with a temporal extension of the monitoring activities, necessary in any case for planning possible safeguarding measures for the cultural heritage in the area.     

梅州市名城文化景观的保护与开发研究

从名城文化内涵出发，着眼于作为客家人文中心和名城文化景观的集中的梅州市区，全面分析了其中丰富多样的文化景观资源的特征及其文化内蕴。揭示了梅州名城文化景观保护与开发过程中的成绩与存在问题。并从文化地理学的视觉，结合旅游开发和城市规划，论证了科学保护与开发梅州名城文化景观的下述对策与途径的必要性与可行性：提升名城办的职能并与相关部门共营名城文化氛围；强化名城轴线与标志性文化景观；抢救与保护“老字号”等一批文化景观景区；适度利用，以积极的开发促其效的保护。     

Beyond world cities: Central America in a global space of flows

Central America is a region without a world city. Traditionally, the region's national projects have been based upon openness to the world economy: how do the region's contemporary transnational projects connect to the world economy under the new conditions of openness that is contemporary globalization? Focusing upon advanced producer services, three connections into the world city network are identified: global service firms operating directly in Central American cities, local service firms operating indirectly through extra-regional world cities and global service firms operating through Latin American regional offices. Miami is confirmed as the primary world city through which Central America connects into the world economy     

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.     

From catfish to organic fish: making distinctions about nature as cultural economic practice

This paper addresses the cultural economy of nature and the material culture of economic practice. Attending to ways that cultural notions about the biophysical world play key roles in political economic conflicts, discussion centers on two recent debates involving the cultural economy of seafood production and trade. The first debate is over whether the label “catfish” should include catfish imported from Vietnam into the United States; the second deals with whether fish and shellfish should be eligible to be certified “organic” under new US regulations. Analysis reveals that the key dynamic in these debates is not necessarily how people think about “nature”, but instead is how people make distinctions about the world. Rather than focusing on what is natural or not, key actors make distinctions among both organisms and environments. The ways that different groups define and enclose the biophysical world works to distinguish places as either appropriate or not for certain kinds of production activities. The overall argument is that significance and meaning of the biophysical become implicated in economic geographies by making distinctions about the world that then become important for how economic activity can work. As such, cultural economic approaches should attend to the ways that the biophysical is involved in relations such as competition and international trade, while nature-society approaches should shift focus from Nature to specific aspects of the biophysical world.     

The Geography of Personal Name Forms

The geographic distribution of formal and informal names is considered. Given names are variable and bearers may identify themselves with one name form or another (e.g., William, Will, Billy, Bill, W. T., “Skip”). The form of name chosen by state legislators was classified as formal or informal and the proportions of each were plotted by state. Three regions are identified by their relative use of name formality: the Northeast, where formal names are the rule, the South, centering on Arkansas, where informal names are common, and the West, also characterized by informal names. The West is divided between the Mountain and Pacific states, with large numbers of informal names and the states which they surround, which tend toward formal names. Some states, especially those of the Midwest, do not participate in this process. Indiana and South Carolina are exceptions to the general patterns. Informal names presume to create solidarity between legislators and voters. The South and West are apparently less formal than the Northeast in general, also in name usage.