HUMBOLDT AND THE HABITABILITY OF CANADA'S GREAT NORTHWEST*

ABSTRACT. Alexander von Humboldt's influence in British North America during the nineteenth century was filtered mainly through British imperial applications of “Humboldtian” sciences, including geomagnetism and biogeography. The best‐known examples include Edward Sabine and John Henry Lefroy, Royal Artillery officers who, during the 1830s and 1840s, transformed British North American outposts and territories, including Rupert's Land, into Humboldtian sites and regions in Great Britain's imperial “magnetic crusade.” Important groundwork had already been laid by John Richardson, who applied data accrued during John Franklin's overland Arctic expeditions during the 1820s to systematize Humboldtian inquiries into the habitability of Canada's Great Northwest. Despite both the relative decline of Humboldtian sciences by midcentury and Humboldt's own reservations about the political ramifications of his science, his “cosmic” outlook circulated in Canada to refine territorial expansionists' scientistic arguments justifying annexation of Rupert's Land after the monopoly of the Hudson's Bay Company expired in 1869.     

ARE ISLANDERS INSULAR? A PERSONAL VIEW*

ABSTRACT. I use my personal experience as an islander doing fieldwork among islanders in the West Indies to explore the meaning of “insularity.” I then expand on that personal experience by drawing on literary sources, particularly Homer's the Odyssey and Herman Melville's Moby Dick, both of which express an island worldview. The island worldview is contrasted and compared with the continental worldview on the basis of differing modes of navigation and cartography and differing modes of orientation as defined by cognitive psychologists.     

For creative democracy

Emerging commonalities between philosophical pragmatism and contemporary political thought suggest that those who find resonance in recent political theory will find in Deweyan pragmatism a fruitful source of insight and inspiration. Pragmatism’s commitments share deep affinities with parallel impulses in feminist and post-positivist thought animating engaged, activist scholarship inside and outside of geography. An ethic of radical equality applies equally, for Dewey, as a theory of democratic practice and a mode of being in the world.     

Service-Learning: Critical Traditions and Geographic Pedagogy

Abstract

The rise of service-learning in higher education has been critiqued as little more than community service that encourages students to “do good,” but fails to generate original scholarship or social change. In this article, we argue that service-learning gives geographers the opportunity to challenge these critiques, by demonstrating the practical and political implications of collaborative research methodologies, while conveying powerful conceptual understandings of inequality. We begin by interrogating the philosophical overlap between experiential and service-based learning in the educational philosophy of John Dewey. Using this foundational approach, several theoretical and methodological debates in geography are examined, celebrating and drawing lessons from classic and current service-learning programs. We conclude with a discussion and reflection on experiences with implementing similar pedagogical projects.     

基于统计理论方法的水文模型参数敏感性分析

参数敏感性分析是模型不确定性量化的重要环节,有助于有效识别关键参数,减少参数的不确定性影响,进而提高参数优化效率。利用Morris筛选方法定性识别相对重要参数,耦合方差分解的Sobol方法和统计理论的响应曲面模型构建一种新的定量敏感性分析方法——RSMSobol方法。以长江支流沿渡河流域的日降雨径流过程模拟为例,系统分析4种不同目标函数响应条件下新安江模型的参数敏感性。结果表明Morris方法和RSMSobol方法的集成应用极大地提高了全局敏感性分析的效率,Morris定性筛选结果为定量评估减少了模型参数维数,采用代理模型技术的RSMSobol方法减少了模型的计算消耗。     

苏北盆地盐城组咸水层CO2 地质封存泄漏风险的全局敏感性分析

      基于对苏北盆地盐城组下段沉积旋回地层概化,建立了一个含有断层的二维剖面模型,采用TOUGH2/ECO2N 程序对 注入到深部咸水层中CO2 的运移分布特征及沿断层的泄漏过程进行了数值模拟。结果表明,尽管盐城组下段地层具有3层旋 回结构且砂岩层属高孔高渗储层,但由于泥层厚度较小且渗透率相对较高,多层封盖效果不佳。在存在导通断层时,CO2 泄露风险较大。应用Morris 法以断层中气相CO2 总量作为输出变量,对模型参数进行了全局敏感性分析。研究显示,当仅 改变断层参数时,与毛细压力相关的参数对气相CO2 沿断层泄漏影响程度最高;当考虑系统参数整体变化时则以砂岩含水 层和泥岩的渗透率敏感性最高,其次为与毛细压力相关的参数（进气压力、残余液体饱和度及孔隙分布指数）。两种情形下 孔隙度与盐度的敏感性均很小。     

深部咸水层CO2地质封存数值模拟参数的全局敏感性分析:以苏北盆地盐城组为例

基于对苏北盆地盐城组下段砂岩储层概化建立二维径向剖面模型,运用TOUGH2/ECO2N程序模拟深部咸水层中CO₂迁移分布过程。采用定性(Morris法)和定量(Sobol和EFAST法)全局敏感性分析方法,以储层中注入井处的压力、气相CO₂总量及CO₂气相羽扩散距离作为模型响应变量,对储层的水平渗透率、孔隙度、残余液体饱和度、孔隙分布指数、压缩系数、进气压力的倒数和盐度7个参数进行全局敏感性分析,讨论了咸水层的水文地质参数、盐度及其他模型参数对CO₂封存运移泄漏过程的影响。Morris和Sobol法的敏感性分析结果都表明,对于不同的响应变量,参数的敏感性排序不同：以注入井处的压力为响应变量时,孔隙度的敏感性最高;以气相CO₂总量和CO₂羽扩散距离为响应变量时,水平渗透率的敏感性最高。EFAST 1阶及总敏感度分析结果与Sobol分析结果基本一致,但EFAST法相对Sobol法计算更高效稳健,需要的样本数较少。