The politics of greening unceded lands in the settler city

ABSTRACT

Urban greening is a buzz term in urban policy and research settings in Australia and elsewhere. In a context of settler colonial urbanism, like Australia, a first fact becomes clear: urban greening is always being practiced on unceded Indigenous lands. Recognising this requires some honest reckoning with how this latest urban policy response perpetuates dispossessory settler-colonial structures. In this paper, we listen to the place-based ontologies of the peoples and lands from where we write to inform understanding the city as an always already Indigenous place – a sovereign Aboriginal City. In so doing, the paper tries to practice a way of creating more truthful and response-able urban knowledge practices. We analyse three distinct areas of scholarly research that are present in the contemporary literature: urban greening and green infrastructure; urban political ecology; and more-than-human cities. When placed in relationship of learning with the sovereign Aboriginal City, our analysis finds that these scholarly domains of urban greening work to re-organise colonial power relations. The paper considers what work the practice and scholarship of ‘urban greening’ might need to do in order to become response-able and learn to learn with Indigenous sovereignties and ontologies.     

Emerging Geographies of Conservation and Indigenous Land in Australia

International examples of interactions between Indigenous peoples and the new conservation paradigm come mainly from developing countries and suggest divisions over priorities. As a Western settler society, Australia is at a critical time in conservation and Indigenous peoples' rights. Innovative approaches to conservation are promoted. The role and influence of non-governmental organisations is increasing. Indigenous peoples' rights to land are recognised and Indigenous involvement in conservation is growing. Yet, despite Australia being considered a leader in these arenas, particularly the latter, there has been little analysis of the relationship between innovative approaches to conservation and Indigenous Australians under the new paradigm. This paper describes how the spatial manifestations of approaches under the new conservation paradigm and Indigenous land in Australia are creating new geographies. We identify geographies of overlap, dichotomy and absence. The paper identifies research needs into these geographies, including: examining the influence of ‘recognition’ in engagements between conservation and Indigenous Australians; investigating the impacts of approaches under the new paradigm such as scaling-up, territorialism and differing governance structures on Indigenous Australians; and questioning the social responsibilities of the non-governmental organisations towards Indigenous Australians.     

Recovery of thorium (IV) from leached monazite solutions using counter-current extraction

A flow sheet was developed to recover thorium from Egyptian monazite sands. The results of a detailed investigation on the extraction and stripping of thorium in the hydrous oxide are obtained after alkaline dissolution followed by leaching with alkaline carbonate solutions. This cake was dissolved in 4 M HNO₃ and thorium was extracted selectively by a counter-current extraction system using a mixer–settler contactor and Aliquat-336 in kerosene as extractant. The results show that 2 h of continuous operation are necessary to reach the steady state condition for the process. The extraction efficiency is found to be 80% and the stripping efficiency is 82%.     

小应变条件下隧道开挖引起的横向沉降槽分析

利用配备有局部高精度位移传感器STDTTS+UNSAT型号的高级应力路径三轴测试系统,对小应变条件下的土体进行了试验。采用三维数值分析方法和应用小应变模型及摩尔-库仑模型,分别对隧道施工引起横向沉降槽的影响展开了研究。结果表明,在小应变条件下土体表现出高模量以及模量随应变增加而衰减的特性,且当剪切应变应用对数坐标（lg）表示时,剪切模量随剪切应变增加而衰减的规律可以表示为带有2个拐点的反S型曲线,同时,利用式（1）对其进行很好地模拟;两类模型计算结果的规律性是相似的,采用小应变模型所得到的最大下沉位移符合工程实际,且横向沉降槽的宽度也能符合现场实测,即能够适当地解决采用一般模型所得到的最大下沉位移合理,而横向沉降槽的宽度过宽,或者横向沉降槽宽度合理,而最大下沉位移过小,两者间存在对立的问题。通过计算结果对比进一步验证了考虑小应变条件下土体特性的必要性以及二次开发所得到的模型的合理性与可适用性。