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Books > Earth & environment > Geography
An annual collection of studies of individuals who have made major
contributions to the development of geography and geographical
thought. Subjects are drawn from all periods and from all parts of
the world, and include famous names as well as those less well
known: explorers, independent thinkers and scholars. Each paper
describes the geographer's education, life and work and discusses
their influence and spread of academic ideas. Each study includes a
select bibliography and brief chronology. The work includes a
general index and a cumulative index of geographers listed in
volumes published to date.
This book focuses on the spatial distribution of landslide hazards
of the Darjeeling Himalayas. Knowledge driven methods and
statistical techniques such as frequency ratio model (FRM),
information value model (IVM), logistic regression model (LRM),
index overlay model (IOM), certainty factor model (CFM), analytical
hierarchy process (AHP), artificial neural network model (ANN), and
fuzzy logic have been adopted to identify landslide susceptibility.
In addition, a comparison between various statistical models were
made using success rate cure (SRC) and it was found that artificial
neural network model (ANN), certainty factor model (CFM) and
frequency ratio based fuzzy logic approach are the most reliable
statistical techniques in the assessment and prediction of
landslide susceptibility in the Darjeeling Himalayas. The study
identified very high, high, moderate, low and very low landslide
susceptibility locations to take site-specific management options
as well as to ensure developmental activities in theDarjeeling
Himalayas. Particular attention is given to the assessment of
various geomorphic, geotectonic and geohydrologic attributes that
help to understand the role of different factors and corresponding
classes in landslides, to apply different models, and to monitor
and predict landslides. The use of various statistical and physical
models to estimate landslide susceptibility is also discussed. The
causes, mechanisms and types of landslides and their destructive
character are elaborated in the book. Researchers interested in
applying statistical tools for hazard zonation purposes will find
the book appealing.
Building upon models set forth in Volume I of this work, Harris
turns his attention to populations on the move. Through examples
from literature on migration, the Atlantic slave trade and slave
demography, and urbanization, this study demonstrates how all types
of migration--free and forced, long-distance and local--build up
and are then absorbed into populations according to the same
patterns that characterize populations in general. What causes
these few closely related trends to reappear, Harris argues, is the
way structures of populations alter, according to a standard
absorption of these migrations, and react to other events via
changes in births, deaths, and composition by age and sex. Harris
finds that something fundamental in the process of demographic
renewal consistently imprints a few common shapes upon many kinds
of demographic, as well as social and economic, developments. Fresh
perspectives on the business of the slave trade and the
much-discussed modern shifts from agriculture into other
employments, and from countryside to town or city, illustrate how
ubiquitously and how fundamentally demographically generated trends
shape social and economic movements. A future volume will identify
and explain the origins of such ever-present patterns of change in
the dynamics of fertility, mortality, and demographic renewal.
In this stimulating and timely book, Scott Bailey, an American
teaching Russian and Eurasian history in Japan, traces the history
of the dynamic Russian Geographical Society, which carried out
major research expeditions to Central Eurasia during the second
half of the nineteenth century. The immediate goal of its
expeditions was to collect ethnographic, geographic, and
natural-scientific information on these regions and their peoples.
Their wider benefits established and extended Russia's imperial
control in Central Eurasia, including some regions under direct or
indirect Chinese control. These expeditions served the acquisition
of social and scientific information to benefit the Russian
Empire's colonization efforts. Their leaders were often elites
trained in ethnography, geography, and natural science subjects,
and a major objective of this book is to give a fuller picture of
the diverse biographies of these figures, not all of whom were
Russian or European males. In the `Wild Countries' moves
chronologically from the founding of the Russian Geographical
Society in 1845 to the beginning of the revolutionary period in
Russia in 1905. During these decades, research missions became more
overtly "imperial" and coincided with the consolidation of Russian
hegemony over Central Eurasia and an increasing Russian interest in
territories in the western and northern regions of the Chinese
Q'ing Empire. The book also addresses wider moves toward imperial
projects worldwide.
Europeans' romanticist imaginings of people from the South Pacific
have been around since the Enlightenment and have been
significantly informed by the accounts of voyages to Tahiti by
people such as Louis Bougainville. This book shows that the overtly
promiscuous behavior that the French perceived as hospitality on
the part of the Tahitians in 1768 was actually a defensive ploy,
and that our contemporary image of sex and sexuality in Pacific
Island societies is influenced by a fantasy based on this French
misperception. This volume takes a very detailed look at
traditional Tahitian culture and society and provides a realistic
description of what happened on Tahiti when Europeans encountered
the people who lived there. Bolyanatz provides a very readable
history of South Pacific exploration and Enlightenment thinking.
Anyone interested in the development of Enlightenment thought and
the way it has developed since the 18th century will enjoy this
book.
Exploring some of the ways in which repair practices and
perceptions of brokenness vary culturally, Repair, Brokenness,
Breakthrough argues that repair is both a process and also a
consequence which is sought out-an attempt to extend the life of
things as well as an answer to failures, gaps, wrongdoings, and
leftovers. This volume develops an open-ended combination of
empirical and theoretical questions including: What does it mean to
claim that something is broken? At what point is something broken
repairable? What are the social relationships that take place
around repair? And how much tolerance for failure do our societies
have?
The purpose of this book is to present a range of cases and
comparison of the issues, insights and cases emerging from the
Sustainable Energy Mix Summit in the Galapagos that offer a better
understanding of energy mix in fragile environments from a variety
of International locations and contexts including the Galapagos.
Connect to core World Geography content with an accessible,
student-friendly text built on the principles of Understanding by
Design.
An annual collection of studies of individuals who have made major
contributions to the development of geography and geographical
thought. Subjects are drawn from all periods and from all parts of
the world, and include famous names as well as those less well
known: explorers, independent thinkers and scholars. Each paper
describes the geographer's education, life and work and discusses
their influence and spread of academic ideas. Each study includes a
select bibliography and brief chronology. The work includes a
general index and a cumulative index of geographers listed in
volumes published to date.
Can transportation problems be fixed by the right neighborhood design? The tremendous popularity of the 'new urbanism' and 'livable communities' initiatives suggests that many persons think so. As a systematic assessment of attempts to solve transportation problems through urban design, this book asks and answers three questions: Can such efforts work? Will they be put into practice? Are they a good idea?
The Clyde is arguably the most evocative of Scottish rivers. Its
mention conjures up a variety of images of power, productivity and
pleasure from its 'bonnie banks' through the orchards of south
Lanarkshire to its association with shipbuilding and trade and the
holiday memories of thousands who fondly remember going 'doon the
watter'. Its story reflects much of the history of the lands it
flows through and the people who live on its banks. This book looks
at the maps which display the river itself from its source to the
wide estuary which is as much a part of the whole image. It
discusses how the river was mapped from its earliest depictions and
includes such topics as navigation, river crossings, war and
defence, tourism, sport and recreation, industry and power and
urban development.
Australia's varied grasslands have suffered massive losses and
changes since European settlement, and those changes continue under
increasingly intensive human pressures for development and
agricultural production. The values of native grasslands for
conservation of endemic native biodiversity, both flora and fauna,
have led to strong interests in the protection of remaining
fragments, especially near urban centres, and documentation of the
insects and other inhabitants of grasslands spanning tropical to
cool temperate parts of the country. Attention to conservation of
grassland insects in Australia is relatively recent, but it is
increasingly apparent that grasslands harbour many localised and
ecologically specialised endemic species. Their conservation
necessarily advances from very incomplete documentation, and draws
heavily on lessons from the far better-documented grasslands
elsewhere, most notably in the northern hemisphere, and undertaken
over far longer periods. From those cases, and the extensive
background to grassland management to harmonise conservation with
production and amenity values through honing use of processes such
as grazing, mowing and fire, the needs and priorities for Australia
can become clearer, together with needs for grassland restoration
at a variety of scales. This book is a broad overview of
conservation needs of grassland insects in Australia, drawing on
the background provided elsewhere in the world on the responses to
disturbances, and the ecological importance, of some key insect
groups (notably Orthoptera, Hemiptera and Lepidoptera) to suggest
how insect conservation in native, pastoral and urban grasslands
may be advanced. The substantial references given for each chapter
facilitate entry for non-entomologist grassland managers and
stewards to appreciate the diversity and importance of Australia's
grassland insects, their vulnerabilities to changes, and the
possibilities for conserving them and the wider ecological roles in
which they participate.
This handbook is unique in its consideration of social and cultural
contributions to sustainable oceans management. It is also unique
in its deconstruction of the hegemonic value attached to the oceans
and in its analysis of discourses regarding what national
governments in the Global South should prioritise in their oceans
management strategy. Offering a historical perspective from the
start, the handbook reflects on the confluence of (western)
scientific discourse and colonialism, and the impact of this on
indigenous conceptions of the oceans and on social identity. With
regard to the latter, the authors are mindful of the
nationalisation of island territories worldwide and the impact of
this process on regional collaboration, cultural exchange and the
valuation of the oceans. Focusing on global examples, the handbook
offers a nuanced, region relevant, contemporary conceptualisation
of blue heritage, discussing what will be required to achieve an
inclusive oceans economy by 2063, the end goal date of the African
Union's Agenda 2063. The analysis will be useful to established
academics in the field of ocean studies, policymakers and
practitioners engaged in research on the ocean economy, as well as
graduate scholars in the ocean sciences.
Governing Arctic Seas introduces the concept of ecopolitical
regions, using in-depth analyses of the Bering Strait and Barents
Sea Regions to demonstrate how integrating the natural sciences,
social sciences and Indigenous knowledge can reveal patterns,
trends and processes as the basis for informed decisionmaking. This
book draws on international, interdisciplinary and inclusive
(holistic) perspectives to analyze governance mechanisms, built
infrastructure and their coupling to achieve sustainability in
biophysical regions subject to shared authority. Governing Arctic
Seas is the first volume in a series of books on Informed
Decisionmaking for Sustainability that apply, train and refine
science diplomacy to address transboundary issues at scales ranging
from local to global. For nations and peoples as well as those
dealing with global concerns, this holistic process operates across
a 'continuum of urgencies' from security time scales (mitigating
risks of political, economic and cultural instabilities that are
immediate) to sustainability time scales (balancing economic
prosperity, environmental protection and societal well-being across
generations). Informed decisionmaking is the apex goal, starting
with questions that generate data as stages of research,
integrating decisionmaking institutions to employ evidence to
reveal options (without advocacy) that contribute to informed
decisions. The first volumes in the series focus on the Arctic,
revealing legal, economic, environmental and societal lessons with
accelerating knowledge co-production to achieve progress with
sustainability in this globally-relevant region that is undergoing
an environmental state change in the sea and on land. Across all
volumes, there is triangulation to integrate research, education
and leadership as well as science, technology and innovation to
elaborate the theory, methods and skills of informed decisionmaking
to build common interests for the benefit of all on Earth.
The Red Hills region of south Georgia and north Florida contains
one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in North America,
with longleaf pine trees that are up to four hundred years old and
an understory of unparalleled plant life. At first glance, the
longleaf woodlands at plantations like Greenwood, outside
Thomasville, Georgia, seem undisturbed by market economics and
human activity, but Albert G. Way contends that this environment
was socially produced and that its story adds nuance to the broader
narrative of American conservation.
The Red Hills woodlands were thought of primarily as a healthful
refuge for northern industrialists in the early twentieth century.
When notable wildlife biologist Herbert Stoddard arrived in 1924,
he began to recognize the area's ecological value. Stoddard was
with the federal government, but he drew on local knowledge to
craft his land management practices, to the point where a
distinctly southern, agrarian form of ecological conservation
emerged. This set of practices was in many respects progressive,
particularly in its approach to fire management and species
diversity, and much of it remains in effect today.
Using Stoddard as a window into this unique conservation
landscape, "Conserving Southern Longleaf" positions the Red Hills
as a valuable center for research into and understanding of
wildlife biology, fire ecology, and the environmental appreciation
of a region once dubbed simply the "pine barrens."
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