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1.
The composition of heavy mineral assemblages in sandstones may be heavily influenced by processes operating during transport, deposition and diagenesis. As a consequence, conventional heavy mineral data may not be a reliable guide to the nature of sediment source material. Certain features of heavy mineral suites, however, are inherited directly from the source area without significant modification, such as the varietal characteristics of individual mineral species. This paper describes an alternative approach to varietal studies that concentrates on relative abundances of minerals that are stable during diagenesis and have similar hydraulic behaviour. Ratios of apatite to tourmaline, TiO2 minerals to zircon, monazite to zircon, and chrome spinel to zircon provide a good reflection of the source rock characteristics, because they are comparatively immune to alteration during the sedimentary cycle. These ratios are described as index values (ATi, RZi, MZi and CZi, respectively). This approach avoids some of the practical problems associated with varietal studies, such as the need to make subjective decisions about mineral properties or to use advanced analytical techniques that may not be accessible to the analyst. It also makes use of more components of the heavy mineral suite and thus provides a more balanced view of provenance characteristics. The use of these ratios is illustrated with examples from Upper Jurassic sandstones in the Outer Moray Firth area of the UK continental shelf and Triassic sandstones from onshore and offshore UK. Heavy mineral indices, notably ATi and MZi, show marked variations in Upper Jurassic Piper sandstones of the Outer Moray Firth. Main Piper sandstones have lower ATi and MZi values compared with Supra Piper sandstones, indicating significant stratigraphic evolution of provenance. The UK Triassic shows major regional variations in a number of index values, including ATi, MZi and CZi, demonstrating that sediment was supplied from several distinct source regions. This indicates a need for some modification of existing palaeogeographic models for the UK Triassic.  相似文献   

2.
The UK is a country with limited direct experience of natural disasters. Whilst landslide losses are not negligible and fatalities are rare, accounts are under-reported. Financial losses from landslides are poorly understood but likely to be considerably in excess of £10 million per year. As a result, a strategic management framework has evolved based upon small, low-impact events punctuated by occasional larger events or larger landslides affecting urban areas. We present an overview of the different landslide management mechanisms in the UK and discuss them in context of cases studies to explore their effectiveness. We conclude with three issues that may have implications for landslide management in the UK and other ‘low-risk’ countries. Firstly, the evidence base by which landslide hazards and risks are measured is insufficient and limitations in existing information need to be better understood. Secondly, existing guidance on strategic and responsive management needs to be assessed for its fitness for purpose. Thirdly, we encourage debate about the importance of near misses.  相似文献   

3.
In order to understand natural sea‐level variability, and to enhance future predictions, accurate and precise estimates of Holocene tidal levels are required. Although the application of diatom‐based transfer functions can yield such data, these work best when underpinned by local training sets. Urbanized estuaries offer little prospect of obtaining local training sets and, instead, the reliability of regional transfer functions has to be assessed. The performance of a published regional (UK) diatom‐based tidal‐level transfer function applied to fossil assemblages from two contrasting core sites in the Mersey Estuary, UK, is assessed using modern analogue techniques and sediment isotope data. We find that, although estimated tidal levels coincide with changes in organic matter source, the frequent lack of modern analogues mean that palaeotide estimates are without basis. This is likely a consequence of the site‐specific nature of diatom assemblages in higher intertidal and supratidal areas in particular, where local factors are expected to exert a greater control on their ecology. This situation may be partly resolved by constructing and applying much larger regional training sets from multiple higher intertidal and supratidal sites (where intact). Otherwise the application of alternative techniques, such as regional foraminiferal tidal‐level transfer functions, may be more appropriate. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

4.
Andrea Revell 《Geoforum》2007,38(1):114-126
Ecological Modernisation (EM) theorists argue that businesses in industrialised nations are ecologically restructuring in response to market signals, and that economic actors increasingly perceive a business case for sustainability. Whilst UK policymakers urge companies to undertake environmental measures voluntarily on the basis that it will be good for business, a qualitative study exploring the environmental practices of small and medium-sized construction firms found that the opinions of owner-managers had little resonance with this ‘win-win’ rhetoric. Respondents did not perceive the financial returns to be gained from eco-efficiency measures to be significant enough to warrant the short-term investment in time and resources required to pursue them. Moreover, the market was not signalling that product value could be raised or that customers could be won by embracing environmental best practice. The paper concludes by questioning the UK government’s faith in EMs ‘win-win’ ideology to encourage the greening of industry.  相似文献   

5.
Thanks to the pioneering research of Paul Younger over the past 20 years, acid mine drainage in the UK has been recognized as a major environmental issue. Acid mine drainage and hydrous ferric oxide deposition are environmental hazards resulting from centuries of extensive coal mining activities across the UK. Oxidative weathering of pyrite in coal from spoil heaps and exposed bedrock can liberate trace elements, releasing them into local water systems. In addition to posing an environmental threat through water and ground contamination, ochres can also act as a remediation material, trapping elements such as selenium. Trace elements with a close association to iron oxides, such as selenium, may fix to the fine‐grained ochre materials, resulting in hyper‐enriched ochres. Selenium in coals has been known to cause an environmental issue in areas of North America but is also an important commodity for solar cells and nanotechnologies. Coal‐bearing areas of the UK, such as Northumberland, are known to contain a high selenium content, and coal‐derived ochres in these regions also contain significant selenium. The widespread occurrence of ochres in UK coal‐mining regions may therefore present a unique ‘E tech’ trace element source and prevent a toxicity problem for which they were once thought to be responsible.  相似文献   

6.
Motorised transport infrastructure and increasingly specialised labour markets have resulted in energy intensive commuter patterns in many parts of the world. This is cause for concern due to the possibility of oil price shocks and the need to restrict the combustion of fossil fuels to minimise the chances of runaway climate change. The paper investigates methods to identify the spatial distribution and socio-demographic profiles of those who are vulnerable to high oil prices. It does this by use of four metrics of oil vulnerability which were developed using a spatial microsimulation model and applied to the case study region of Yorkshire and the Humber, UK. The metrics capture different aspects of vulnerability and highlight the importance of translating conceptual definitions into practical metrics. The geographically aggregated results coincide with the literature: rural areas are associated with the highest levels of vulnerability. The individual level results indicate that vulnerability can be prevalent even in seemingly resilient areas. Ultimately, we conclude that the social and spatial distribution of oil vulnerability depends on how an energy-constrained future is envisioned. Creating localised metrics about the future is a challenging task fraught with danger but could, provided that these metrics are interpreted with sufficient humility, aid the development of equitable policies to encourage resilience, as part of a worldwide transition away from fossil fuels.  相似文献   

7.
In the current environment of austerity, social justice concerns are increasingly permeating the food security agenda. However, there is a need to clarify what it means to create socially just food systems conceptually and practically. To address this gap, this paper proposes an analytical framework to embed a more complex conceptualisation of justice in food security debates that also serves as a bridging device across competing narratives. This framework is mobilised to analyse the framing process of the UK media, which plays a key role in developing narratives that provide audiences with schemas for interpreting events. Results show the emergence of eleven frames which highlight different solutions to deliver food security. The application of the justice analytical framework evidences the contingent relationship between food security and justice claims and discusses how these food security frames address differently what counts as a matter of justice (including economic, socio-cultural and political dimensions) and who counts as a subject of justice, tackling issues around delimitation of scales and sites of justice. The analysis reveals polarised positions between whether the sites subject to justice should be individuals or structures and uncovers how political and global elements of justice are largely by-passed in food security debates. These conceptualisations of justice and associated policy recommendations neglect the potential for people to participate fully in the conditions and decisions that give rise to particular distributions of goods and bads in the first place; limiting the construction of shared responsibilities to deliver global and participative food justices.  相似文献   

8.
Whilst the UK is planned to have a census in 2021, it may well be the last and there is official acknowledgement that the country’s statistical system should be enhanced by greater use of administrative data. Thus, there is a pressing need to understand whether alternative data sources are fit for social science purposes. This study assesses the potential of utilizing administrative statistics for investigating the relationships between health and socioeconomic distributions for small areas; a type of study regularly carried out using census data. Pairs of administrative measures of health and deprivation indicator variables are compared with census equivalents for lower super output area geographies in England in 2001. The administrative datasets are then used to derive health measures and deprivation indexes for the time points 2001, 2006 and 2010. Inequalities in health are then analysed using administrative data derived area measures with health found to be poorer in areas with socioeconomic disadvantage. Overall, the administrative datasets used here reveal very similar patterns of health and deprivation to the decennial census suggesting they are viable alternatives and have great potential to enhance the country’s statistical system given their availability outside census years.  相似文献   

9.
In this review, we call for more engagement with the geo-political dimension of the finance economy that epitomises the 21st-century capitalist order within the European Union. Using the example of financial clearing and settlement, key processes in global trade and finance mechanisms in which London leads the world, we discuss the entangled political and economic dimensions in the shadow of Brexit to come, and its potential impact on the City’s complex financial ecosystem. The aim here is not to consult the crystal ball and predict London’s future as a financial centre. Yet, euro clearing is of geo-political relevance: if the UK leaves the EU, euro clearing would be taking place outside of the ECB’s regulatory space of intervention. This can become highly problematic, as the nominal euro sums involved in a major crisis are immense. We believe that these processes illustrate the pressing need to engage with finance’s geo-economics and geo-politics in more depth, both empirically and conceptually.  相似文献   

10.
Martin Buttle   《Geoforum》2007,38(6):1076-1088
Over the last decade a range of social banks and Community Development Finance Initiatives (CDFIs) have developed a social investment sector in the UK. Some of these organisations emphasise their belief in partnership, association, reconnecting and re-humanising the relationship between investors with borrowers in order to reap social returns. ‘Ethical’ investors are encouraged to take sub-market returns on their investments in order for surpluses to be distributed to the organisations’ beneficiaries. Some key theoretical and political questions include: how are investors enrolled in these initiatives? What discourses of ethics are constructed and how do investors relate to them? How do these discourses relate to debates in geography revolving around ‘caring at a distance’? Drawing on work on the Charity Bank and the Industrial Common Ownership Fund (ICOF), this paper analyses how these discourses are constructed and mediates the relationship between investors and borrowers. It explores stakeholders both investors’ and borrowers’ perceptions of these activities as well as the way investors construct their own reasons for investing.  相似文献   

11.
Observed Tertiary palaeolatitudes in central Asia are more southerly (by about 1600 km on average) than those predicted from the Eurasian reference palaeopoles. Subsequent northward displacements of the central Asian terranes are unlikely to have been this large. In this study we analyse to what extent non-dipole fields, especially octupole fields, can explain this phenomenon. A global (zonal) octupole field manifests itself in two ways. (1) Because the reference APWP is based mostly on results from the UK and North America, its palaeopoles will be far-sided as seen from the North Atlantic, but near-sided as seen from eastern Asia, giving predicted palaeolatitudes that are too high. (2) An octupole field contribution produces observed palaeolatitudes, as calculated with the dipole formula for central Asia, that are too low. Both effects therefore increase the palaeolatitude anomalies in Asia. We find that an octupole/dipole field ratio (G3) of 0.06 or greater will reduce the palaeolatitude discrepancies significantly and is of the same magnitude as the G3 estimate of a recent analysis of Early Tertiary European and North American data.  相似文献   

12.
Environmental planning is an arena of policy making in which formal public deliberation is among the most extensive. At the same time, environmental disputes can also be among the most resistant to resolution, often becoming entangled in issues that some describe as “intangible”. The discourse is largely structured by regulatory frameworks, such as environmental impact assessment laws and procedures, which focus primarily on operational rights (what one can or cannot do where and when) and tangible impacts on the physical or natural environment. A comparative case study of mariculture in Hawai‘i reveals that a large measure of public concerns focused on collective choice rights (who has a right to make which decisions on behalf of whom) and the more intangible impacts to the social or cultural environment. These concerns are often nested in a historic context that has implications for the social processes that they create. The findings from this study imply a need for more structured or systematic ways to deliberate issues of collective choice rights alongside operational rights within the larger process of environmental planning.  相似文献   

13.
Alex Hughes 《Geoforum》1999,30(4):469
In the light of the significant role played by corporate interviews in the construction of contemporary economic geographies, this paper suggests that the practices of corporate interviewing in the research process demand critical reflection. These practices are reflected upon in the context of a comparative study of retailer–manufacturer power relations in the UK and USA. In particular, attention is paid to the ways in which corporate interviews actively construct knowledge of contrasting own-brand supply relationships in these national economies. To do this, the paper addresses the following issues: (i) the embeddedness of corporate interviews in a transforming economic geography; (ii) the processes of identifying, and gaining access to, own-brand supply networks in the UK and USA; (iii) the use of materials resulting from corporate interviews to produce nuanced understandings of own-brand supply relationships; (iv) the adoption of an appropriate textual strategy for writing such interview-based material into economic geography.  相似文献   

14.
Relative sea‐level (RSL) change is reconstructed for central Cumbria, UK, based on litho‐ and biostratigraphical analysis from the Lateglacial to the late Holocene. The RSL curve is constrained using ten new radiocarbon‐dated sea‐level index points in addition to published data. The sea‐level curve identifies a clear Lateglacial sea‐level highstand approximately 2.3 m OD at c. 15–17 k cal a BP followed by rapid RSL fall to below ?5 m OD. RSL then rose rapidly during the early Holocene culminating in a mid‐Holocene highstand of approximately 1 m OD at c. 6 k cal a BP followed by gradual fall to the present level. These new data provide an important test for the RSL predictions from glacial isostatic adjustment models, particularly for the Lateglacial where there are very little data from the UK. The new RSL curve shows similar broad‐scale trends in RSL movement predicted by the models. However, the more recent models fail to predict the Lateglacial sea level highstand above present reconstructed by the new data presented here. Future updates to the models are needed to reduce this mismatch. This study highlights the importance for further RSL data to constrain Lateglacial sea level from sites in northern Britain. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

15.
Increasingly, the geographically weighted regression (GWR) model is being used for spatial prediction rather than for inference. Our study compares GWR as a predictor to (a) its global counterpart of multiple linear regression (MLR); (b) traditional geostatistical models such as ordinary kriging (OK) and universal kriging (UK), with MLR as a mean component; and (c) hybrids, where kriging models are specified with GWR as a mean component. For this purpose, we test the performance of each model on data simulated with differing levels of spatial heterogeneity (with respect to data relationships in the mean process) and spatial autocorrelation (in the residual process). Our results demonstrate that kriging (in a UK form) should be the preferred predictor, reflecting its optimal statistical properties. However the GWR-kriging hybrids perform with merit and, as such, a predictor of this form may provide a worthy alternative to UK for particular (non-stationary relationship) situations when UK models cannot be reliably calibrated. GWR predictors tend to perform more poorly than their more complex GWR-kriging counterparts, but both GWR-based models are useful in that they provide extra information on the spatial processes generating the data that are being predicted.  相似文献   

16.
Decomposing co-seismic deformation is an immediate need for researchers who are interested in earthquake inversion analysis and geo-hazard mapping. However, conventional InSAR or digital elevation models (DEMs) imagery analyses only provide the displacement in the Line-of-Sight (LOS) direction or elevation changes. The 2004 Mid-Niigata earthquake in Japan provides lessons on how to decompose co-seismic deformation from two sets of DEMs. If three adjacent points undergo a rigid-body-translation movement, their co-seismic deformation can be decomposed by solving simultaneous equations. Although this method has been successfully used to discuss tectonic deformations, the algorithm needed improvement and a more rigorous algorithm, including a new definition of nominal plane, DEMs comparability improvement and matrix condition check is provided. Even with these procedures, the obtained decomposed displacement often showed remarkable scatter prompting the use of the moving average method, which was used to determine both tectonic and localized displacement characteristics. A cut-off window and a pair of band-pass windows were selected according to the regional geology and construction activities to ease the tectonic and localized displacement calculations, respectively. The displacement field of the tectonic scale shows two major clusters of large lateral components, and coincidently major visible landslides were found mostly within them. The localized displacement helps to reveal hidden landslides in the target area. As far as the Kizawa hamlet is concerned, the obtained vectors show down-slope movements, which are consistent with the observed traces of dislocations that were found in the Kizawa tunnel and irrigation wells. The method proposed has great potential to be applied to understanding post-earthquake rehabilitation in other areas.  相似文献   

17.
Stigma and concern about public breastfeeding have been identified as contributing towards low breastfeeding rates in high-income countries. Despite this, very little research has examined public perceptions of breastfeeding. Among existing studies, lack of familiarity with breastfeeding, sexist views and hyper-sexualisation of the breast were identified alongside discomfort at viewing breastfeeding by strangers. During 2014, in the United Kingdom (UK), several cases of women being criticised for breastfeeding in public appeared in national newspapers. A Critical Discourse Analysis approach was used to theoretically frame analysis of 884 naturally occurring comments relating to a protest supporting women’s right to breastfeed in public from the UK’s most popular online news site, Mail Online. Findings are discussed in relation to mothers’ roles as citizens and sexual beings, with a particular focus on the visibility of breasts in public space. Women who breastfeed in public were viewed as unattractive, lazy, bad parents and lacking in self-respect. More specifically, women who breastfed in public were viewed as exhibitionist. This was contrasted with the desirability of breastfeeding within the home, which was seen as an appropriate way to feed an infant. The undesirability of public breastfeeding was inherently linked to sexuality, with breastfeeding women viewed as sexual aggressors (“flashers”) or inviting sexual contact from men. It is argued that these views originate in unequal gender relationships in society and the framing of breasts as sexual rather than nurturing. These discourses are played out in public space in which mothers are marginalised in a patriarchal society.  相似文献   

18.
Mark Riley 《Geoforum》2011,42(1):16-27
Through a focus on agricultural retirement, this paper extends on the recent work considering human-livestock relations. Drawing on research conducted in Hampshire and West Sussex (UK), the paper utilises farmers’ narratives of farm work and retirement to explore the themes of [dis]connection between farmers and their dairy cattle. The paper attempts to add complexity and nuance to assumptions about the nature and extent of animal objectification with commercial dairy farming, and consider the intricate moral geographies [re]created within the individual farm. The discursive and material ‘placings’ of animals are considered alongside an exploration of how the intricate temporality and spatiality of these are disturbed and disrupted by the move to retirement. In discussing these relations the paper examines how animals are central to the everyday lives and identities of farmers and how separation from them alters farmers’ attachment to particular practices, places and social networks.  相似文献   

19.
Graham Drake   《Geoforum》2003,34(4):511-524
This paper focuses on the relationship between place and individualised creativity in micro and small enterprises within the creative industries. The paper uses the findings from qualitative interviews with workers in the craft metalwork and digital design sectors of the creative industries in the UK to analyse how the perceived attributes of a location may provide inspiration in the creative process. Current spatial theory on the creative industries has emphasised both collective creativity and ways in which clusters of creative enterprises in particular places can promote creativity. This paper analyses the empirical evidence obtained in the interviews and argues that the links between place and creativity can be important and influential in the creative process and that current theory needs to be extended to take greater account of individual creativity and the ways in which the attributes of localities can be used as a catalyst for individual creativity.  相似文献   

20.
Shale gas is considered by many to have the potential to provide the UK with greater energy security, economic growth and jobs. However, development of a shale gas industry is highly contentious due to environmental concerns including the risk of groundwater pollution. Evidence suggests that the vertical separation between exploited shale units and aquifers is an important factor in the risk to groundwater from shale gas exploitation. A methodology is presented to assess the vertical separation between different pairs of aquifers and shales that are present across England and Wales. The application of the method is then demonstrated for two of these pairs—the Cretaceous Chalk Group aquifer and the Upper Jurassic Kimmeridge Clay Formation, and the Triassic sandstone aquifer and the Carboniferous Bowland Shale Formation. Challenges in defining what might be considered criteria for ‘safe separation’ between a shale gas formation and an overlying aquifer are discussed, in particular with respect to uncertainties in geological properties, aquifer extents and determination of socially acceptable risk levels. Modelled vertical separations suggest that the risk of aquifer contamination from shale exploration will vary greatly between shale–aquifer pairs and between regions and this will need to be considered carefully as part of the risk assessment and management for any shale gas development.  相似文献   

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