Through a comprehensive selection of classic and contemporary interdisciplinary readings, Perspectives on the Caribbean: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation presents a variety of viewpoints to further our understanding of life and culture in the Caribbean: * Highlights the major concepts and debates in the anthropology and history of the Caribbean, including its unique Anglo, French, and Hispanic communities* Provides multidisciplinary perspectives on Caribbean society that show the connections between its vibrant cultural forms, political economy, and tumultuous history* Features section introductions that put readings in context, with lists of additional suggested readings for further study* Offers an overview of the strong traditions of art, literature, music, dance, and architecture in the Caribbean* Outlines the key research in Caribbean studies from history, anthropology, sociology, linguistics, and folklore, examining classic ethnographies as well as new scholarship

This book explores ancient efforts to explain the scientific, philosophical, and spiritual aspects of water. From the ancient point of view, we investigate many questions including: How does water help shape the world? What is the nature of the ocean? What causes watery weather, including superstorms and snow? How does water affect health, as a vector of disease or of healing? What is the nature of deep-sea-creatures (including sea monsters)? What spiritual forces can protect those who must travel on water? This first complete study of water in the ancient imagination makes a major contribution to classics, geography, hydrology and the history of science alike. Water is an essential resource that affects every aspect of human life, and its metamorphic properties gave license to the ancient imagination to perceive watery phenomena as the product of visible and invisible forces. As such, it was a source of great curiosity for the Greeks and Romans who sought to control the natural world by understanding it, and who, despite technological limitations, asked interesting questions about the origins and characteristics of water and its influences on land, weather, and living creatures, both real and imagined.

Climb a mountain and experience the landscape. Try to grasp its holistic nature. Do not climb alone, but with others and share your experience. Be sure the ways of seeing the landscape will be very different. We experience the landscape with all senses as a complex, dynamic and hierarchically structured whole. The landscape is tangible out there and simultaneously a mental reality. Several perspectives are obvious because of language, culture and background. Many disciplines developed to study the landscape focussing on specific interest groups and applications. Gradually the holistic way of seeing became lost. This book explores the different perspectives on the landscape in relation to its holistic nature. We start from its multiple linguistic meanings and a comprehensive overview of the development of landscape research from its geographical origins to the wide variety of today's specialised disciplines and interest groups. Understanding the different perspectives on the landscapes and bringing them together is essential in transdisciplinary approaches where the landscape is the integrating concept.

The availability of geographically referenced data, the proliferation of geospatial technologies, and advances in spatial analytics have been a boom to applied geographers. Geospatial Technologies and Advancing Geographic Decision Making: Issues and Trends is a resource for private and public sector applied geographers engaged as geospatial technicians, analysts, scientists, and managers. It includes chapters that highlight the use of geospatial technologies to explore applied geographic issues and problems; studies from economic geography, urban geography, population geography, medical geography, political geography, geography of education, geography of crime, and transportation geography are considered.

Randolph Marcy wrote this guide for fellow travelers wanting to brave the wilderness of North America, at a time when the western reaches of the continent were barely settled. A captain in the U.S. military, Marcy wrote this guide partly to allay the many myths and fears of the Western frontier, and partly to offer guidance to the dangers which were actually manifest. The information within takes readers across two popular trails - northerly, ending in Oregon, and southerly, ending in Santa Fe. Written in 1859, this book is both a guidebook and an authentic history of the Wild West era. Various anecdotes are interspersed through the text - Marcy is careful to differentiate between friendly Indian tribes such as the Delawares and Shawnees, whom he admires. The Plains Indians however are considered to have hostile tendencies; Marcy instructs on how to sign, and gives a detailed account of how to safely sleep with a gun cocked and loaded.

Spatio-temporal Approaches presents a well-built set of concepts, methods and approaches, in order to represent and understand the evolution of social and environmental phenomena within the space. It is basedon examples in human geography and archeology (which will enable us to explore questions regarding various temporalities) and tackles social and environmental phenomena. Chapter 1 discusses how to apprehend change: objects, attributes, relations, processes. Chapter 2 introduces multiple points of view about modeling and the authors try to shed a new light on the different, but complementary approaches of geomaticians and thematicians. Chapter 3 is devoted to the construction of spatio-temporal indicators, to various measurements of the change, while highlighting the advantage of an approach crossing several points of view, in order to understand the phenomenon at hand. Chapter 4 presents different categories of simulation model in line with complexity sciences. These models rely notably on the concepts of emergence and self-organization and allow us to highlight the roles of interaction within change. Chapter 5 provides ideas on research concerning the various construction approaches of hybrid objects and model couplings.

This "Reader" recounts the story of the emergence and impact of postmodern thought in human geography. The editors have brought together in a single volume the pivotal writings of the period since 1965. Through these, and their connecting narratives, the editors engage what has been the most invigorating intellectual roller-coaster ride in geography's recent history.
Recounts the story of the emergence and impact of postmodern thought in human geography.
Brings together in a single volume the pivotal writings of the period since 1965.
Engages with what has been the most invigorating intellectual roller-coaster ride in geography's recent history.
Eraces the shift in human geography from a plethora of pre-postmodern paradigms to the emergence of a postmodern consciousness.
Outlines an agenda for a postmodern human geographical theory and practice that sympathetically intersects with feminism, postcolonialism, cultural studies, and environmentalism.

The natural disasters are the killer agents which can/can't be predicted even though we have modern technology. Every year, in one place or another, disasters striking which is devastating the area and surroundings, leading to ecological disruption besides huge loss of life and property. India is vulnerable to cyclones, landslides/avalanches, earthquakes, floods, droughts, forest fires, epidemics, etc. The 5700-km long coast of India, with its dense population is vulnerable to cyclones/low depressions, tsunamis, etc. The 2400-km long rugged Himalayan terrain is vulnerable to landslides, avalanches and earthquakes. India is not only vulnerable to natural disasters, it is also experiencing industrial accidents. The Bhopal Gas tragedy is one of the major man-made disasters in the world. The state of Andhra Pradesh has 970-km long coastline with two major rivers, etc. The conference is conducted in Visakhapatnam, is famous for industries and tourism. Recently, several industrial accidents took place, besides major natural disasters like Hud-Hud, etc. Disaster management shall be implemented from the grass root level in vulnerable areas to improve the capacity building, so as to minimize the losses. The capacity building coupled with technology results in reduction of loss of life and property.

This contributed volume applies spatial and space-time econometric methods to spatial interaction modeling. The first part of the book addresses general cutting-edge methodological questions in spatial econometric interaction modeling, which concern aspects such as coefficient interpretation, constrained estimation, and scale effects. The second part deals with technical solutions to particular estimation issues, such as intraregional flows, Bayesian PPML and VAR estimation. The final part presents a number of empirical applications, ranging from interregional tourism competition and domestic trade to space-time migration modeling and residential relocation.

This book offers a systematic investigation of the ecological and environmental issues related to the land cover changes in Nepal by researchers from both China and Nepal. It discusses the eco-environmental issues faced by Nepal, particularly in the hills and mountain regions. It also sheds light on the global concerns regarding the eco-environment issues of mountains, and analyzes the various causes and potential consequences of eco-environmental degradation in Nepal. The book is of particular interest to students, researchers, experts, and decision-makers wanting to gain a general overview of land cover in Nepal and its dynamics, environment and natural resources, as well as mountain hazards.

This book presents landslide studies using the geographic information system (GIS), which includes not only the science of GIS and remote sensing, but also technical innovations, such as detailed light detection and ranging profiles, among others. To date most of the research on landslides has been found in journals on topography, geology, geo-technology, landslides, and GIS, and is limited to specific scientific aspects. Although journal articles on GIS using landslide studies are abundant, there are very few books on this topic. This book is designed to fill that gap and show how the latest GIS technology can contribute in terms of landslide studies. In a related development, the GIS Landslide Workshop was established in Japan 7 years ago in order to communicate and solve the scientific as well as technical problems of GIS analyses, such as how to use GIS software and its functions. The workshop has significantly contributed to progress in the field. Included among the chapters of this book are GIS using susceptibility mapping, analyses of deep-seated and shallow landslides, measuring and visualization of landslide distribution in relation to topography, geological facies and structures, rivers, land use, and infrastructures such as roads and streets. Filled with photographs, figures, and tables, this book is of great value to researchers in the fields of geography, geology, seismology, environment, remote sensing, and atmospheric research, as well as to students in these fields.

This book provides a comparative analysis of 30 American interventions into Third World countries. An historical approach is used to place the featured cases into a more general history of American Diplomacy. The author uses his assessments to prove that U.S. foreign policy has been driven by the goal of being the ultimate power in the global capitalist economic system. The author makes his work unique by giving a critical view of America's place in the world during an anticipated time of war and raised patriotism. He provides a scholarly look at U.S. diplomacy leading up to the era of "the War on Terror." Sullivan explains how over the past 50 years the U.S. has come to succeed Europe as ruler of the global economic system. The "political systems" which have been promoted by the U.S. to preserve worldwide capitalism range from one-party rule to monarchies and recurring civil war. The interventions discussed have proved to be short-term successes for U.S. policy, but more often tragic for the local societies affected. Sullivan draws on his 1996 release Comparing State Polities to create a number of tables that place U.S. involvement into geographic and hierarchic perspective. The reader is ultimately provided with a provocative thesis that challenges traditional interpretations of America's role in the world. This book will be an asset to any undergraduate college student taking classes in political science or history. It will also appeal to a general audience.

This monograph offers a unique conceptual bridge between economic geography and Middle Eastern political economy. Arab economies are confronted with enormous structural difficulties such as high rates of youth unemployment in a challenging demographic context, exacerbated by intense spatial disparities. These structural problems demonstrate the breakdown of the "Arab social contract", a social arrangement centered on a strong role of the state in welfare and employment provision, for which regimes demanded acquiescence to authoritarian rule. The book argues that the Arab social contract can be understood in terms of regulation theories known in economic geography and sociology. It uses the approaches such as the regulation school, national systems of innovation, social systems of production, and varieties of capitalism to analyze the structural difficulties of Arab economies and current reform efforts. The basic assumption is that Arab economies are currently faced with a structural crisis. After the breakdown of the Arab social contract, there is a mismatch between the economic and institutional spheres of society. The challenge is for Arab societies to develop new forms of socio-institutional regulation. The book proposes ways towards such new modes of regulation by developing a framework for regulation specifically targeted towards Arab societies, and by applying it to the cases of Tunisia and Jordan.

As the need for geographical data rapidly expands in the 21st century, so too do applications of small-format aerial photography for a wide range of scientific, commercial and governmental purposes. Small-format Aerial Photography (SFAP) presents basic and advanced principles and techniques with an emphasis on digital cameras. Unmanned platforms are described in considerable detail, including kites, helium and hot-air blimps, model airplanes, and paragliders. Several case studies, primarily drawn from the geosciences, are presented to demonstrate how SFAP is actually used in various applications. Many of these integrate SFAP with ground-based investigations as well as conventional large-format aerial photography, satellite imagery, and other kinds of geographic information.

Taking the Qinghai-Tibet Railway as an example, this book introduces intelligent processing for Global Positioning Data (GPS) data. Combining theory with practical applications, it provides essential insights into the Chinese Qinghai-Tibet Railway and novel methods of data processing for GPS satellite positioning, making it a valuable resource for all those working with train control systems, train positioning systems, satellite positioning, and intelligent data processing. As satellite positioning guarantees the safe and efficient operation of train control systems, it focuses on how to best process the GPS data collected, including methods for error detection, reduction and information fusion.