Disaster risk reduction legislations: Is there a move from events to processes?

Disaster research and scholarship is now advocating a shift from focusing on the hazard event to processes that generate vulnerability and loss of resilience to disasters. Disaster legislations are among prominent instruments that can highlight the tensions as well as challenges that are being encountered towards this change in focus. Using textual analysis, this paper presents a study that investigated whether five post-2002 disaster legislations have shifted emphasis from the hazard to the vulnerability and resilience paradigms. The five examples illustrate that while there is a slight change, at least in rhetoric, from response to a prevention focus, disaster legislations largely promote a centralised institutional framework, with inadequate resource commitments and limited participation from vulnerable communities. Consequently, while generalisations simply cannot be made without a wider analysis of many more examples from different countries, the five disaster legislations appear to re-emphasise the response focus with less attention on the processes that reduce vulnerability and enhance resilience. The conclusion is that while the rhetoric has changed, the disaster legislations have not significantly moved from the hazard to vulnerability and resilience focus suggesting that reduction of losses and damages to disasters remains a big challenge     

大数据对人文—经济地理学研究的促进与局限

大数据技术的诞生不仅快速推动着社会的进步,而且也将科学研究不断引向新的高度。以人类社会经济活动为主要研究对象的人文—经济地理学与当前大数据建设和发展趋势具有高度一致性,大数据的发展对丰富和完善人文—经济地理学势必起到积极的推动作用,同时也对人文—经济地理学的学科思维和研究方法提出了新的挑战。梳理和分析了目前大数据在人文—经济地理学主要研究领域,包括城市内部空间研究、交通与消费行为、社会空间与社会网络研究中的最近进展,以及大数据对参与式研究和决策平台的作用。着重剖析了大数据对人文—经济地理学数据获取,研究思维与范式,研究内容、研究时空尺度与研究目标等方面的促进作用与存在问题,特别是由于大数据自身发展的不完善,在数据收集特别是数据属性方面还存在很大的局限,缺乏理论基础将会使得大数据与实际应用受到很大限制,同时,数据本身也不能替代研究者思维和决策过程。因此,人文—经济地理学者应该科学对待大数据所带来的机遇,弥补和丰富以往发展中的短板,即完善学科数据建设、建立大数据应用较为完善的研究方法体系,促进跨域数据整合和跨域研究,以及推进研究对象和研究目的的转变。     

时空大数据时代的地图学

地图学研究的主战场是"地图",但不同历史时期的地图其信息源、主题、内容、载体、形式、制作方法和应用方式是不同的,当然它的全方位价值也就不同了。从科学史上的科学范式的变化来看,随着大数据时代的到来,如今已经步入"数据密集型"科学范式时代,地图学亦如此,具有明显的大数据科学的特征。所有大数据都是由包括人类活动在内的地理世界的任何事物和任何现象运动变化产生的,都具有空间和时间特性,当然也就离不开空间参照和时间参照。因此,大数据本质上就是时空大数据。自20世纪50年代末60年代初以来的现代地图学,即信息化时代的地图学,是以时空数据为对象的,其核心是时空数据处理与表达,但并没有像今天面对天空地海一体的大规模多源(元)异构和多维动态的数据流(或流数据),地图的实时动态性、主题针对性、内容复合性、载体多样化、表现形式个性化、制作方法现代化、应用泛在化等特征,是以往任何时期都无法比拟的,这就产生了地图学理论、技术和应用体系的巨大变化。而所有这些变化都正好发生在20世纪50年代末和60年代初以来的约60年间,故以本文纪念《测绘学报》创刊60周年。     

时空大数据面临的挑战与机遇

"大数据时代"的到来,正在改变着人们的工作、生活和思维方式。该文较全面地分析了目前大数据及其应用的研究现状,提出"时空大数据"的概念,并认为时空大数据就是时空数据与大数据的融合,并从大数据与时空大数据的背景、特征、本质和类型,分析了时空大数据带来的科学范式、时空信息传输和认知模型等方面的变化,同时对时空大数据的理论体系、技术体系和产品体系进行了探讨。     

20世纪初叶以来中国地理学研究范式特征与发展

“范式”一词于20世纪70年代由库恩基于科学哲学提出,并逐渐为科学界接受。同时,各学科学者借用库恩的“范式”概念和“研究程序”思想而构建出本学科的研究范式。因此,使得各学科间的研究范式既具有相对独立性又存在联系性。地理学也因此形成自己的研究范式。中国近现代地理学作为世界地理学的重要组成部分,深受其思想与方法的影响。因此,系统地认识20世纪初叶以来我国地理学研究范式的发展历程十分必要。采用“历史”与“逻辑”统一的原则对地理学研究范式的含义与意义及我国地理学研究范式历史的认识进行研究得出：中国地理学经历了区域因果关系范式到空间范式的继承与转变;我国近现代地理学范式的发展始终是“显范式”（冠予“范式”一词的研究方法）与“潜范式”（未冠予“范式”一词的研究方法）并存发展的;我国人文地理学研究范式与应用多以“显范式”为主,自然地理学多以“潜范式”为主;所有地理学研究范式都遵循地理学空间思想指导;未来地理学研究范式将朝向定量化、技术化、空间化、社会性和文化性方向及格局、过程、机制及模拟发展,朝向科学第四范式迈进。     

Translating Bertin into Arabic today: new hidden facets of Semiology of Graphics

ABSTRACT

Semiology of Graphics is a seminal work of contemporary cartography. Published in 1967 by Jacques Bertin, the book attracted as much mistrust as it did interest even if some claims seem obsolete or outdated with the advent of GIS. This article discusses some underlying perspectives regarding an Arabic translation of Sémiologie Graphique. First, one may question the usefulness and the language of translation, and what issues readers should learn or be aware of before reading the book. In the Arab world, little research has engaged graphical semiology and its paradigms are rarely encountered. Second, only a limited number of graphical procedures have been experimented or implemented by digital means. There is a gap between some theoretical statements and their practical applications. Third, many other semiological aspects remain, in substance, little known in detail. This article considers whether these should be revisited by visualization and graphical analytics.     

《自然地理学》案例教学问题辨析与范式建构

文章对自然地理案例教学中一些热点问题进行了深入的解读和辨析,厘清了对案例教学的认识,构建了自然地理案例教学的范式,对深化自然地理教学改革具有积极意义。     

Human geography and its relationship to GIS: a perspective from the vantage point of GIS

Concern abounds over what is a never ending sequence of paradigm shifts within human geography. One result is the marginalisation of previous work. Considerable concern has been expressed among those working with geographical information systems (GIS) over the relationship of this area of work to human geography. Behind much of this turmoil is the ascendancy of post‐modernism, an approach with which many human geographers are unable to actively engage in debate. At a time when the other social sciences are incorporating space into their research, human geography and GIS are parting company with the two facing very different futures.     

Coexistence or contradiction? GM crops versus alternative agricultures in Europe

Agricultural biotechnology (agbiotech) has intersected with a wider debate about ‘sustainable agriculture’, especially in Europe. Agbiotech was initially promoted as an alternative which would avoid or remedy past problems of intensive agriculture, but such claims were soon challenged. Agbiotech has extended the dominant agri-industrial paradigm, while critics have counterposed alternatives corresponding to an agrarian-based rural development paradigm. Amid controversy over environmental and health risks in the late 1990s, an extra issue emerged − the prospect that genetically modified (GM) material would become inadvertently mixed with non-GM crops. In response the European Commission developed a policy framework for ‘coexistence’ between GM, conventional and organic crops. This policy has aimed to ensure that farmers can freely choose among different production systems, which would develop side by side, yet specific proposals for coexistence rules favour some choices over others. Such rules have been contested according to different policy agendas, each promoting their model of future agriculture. Moreover, a Europe-wide network of regional authorities has promoted ‘GM-free zones’ as a territorial brand for green, localised, high-quality agri-food production, whose diverse qualities depend upon symbolic, immaterial characteristics. This alternative has been counterposed to the agri-industrial production of global commodities - symbolised by the European Union, especially its product authorisation procedure for the internal market. ‘Coexistence’ policy was intended to mediate policy conflicts over GM crops, yet it has become another arena for contending agricultural systems, which may not so readily co-exist in practice. Wherever an agrarian-based rural development paradigm gains local support, its alternative agricultures are in contradiction rather than coexistence with GM crops.     

Considering Refugees Through 100 Years of Geographical Review

Given the role of the American Geographical Society and its flagship journal, Geographical Review, in the Paris Peace Conference and its prominence in the discipline of geography ever since, this paper considers how the journal takes account of refugees in its pages from 1916 to 2018 using a bibliometric approach. The term “refugee” was tracked in every Geographical Review article published during this time period, using content to generate data and analysis in QSR NVivo. First, we identify key trends in scholarship over time, then we note the rise and fall of important key terms, and finally, we examine both the countries analyzed and how these geographies change over time. The results of this bibliometric analysis of refugees in Geographical Review reflect both global geopolitical dynamics and refugee governance structures, and broader trends in epistemology in the discipline of geography. Observations made on these trends and variations indicate a need to further explore shifting paradigms and master narratives, both past and emerging, built around the “refugee” concept and its treatment within the discipline of geography.