Amplifying (or Reversing) the Territorial Disparities in Land Vulnerability to Soil Degradation: The Case of Italy     

Luca Salvati  Sofia Bajocco  Tomaso Ceccarelli  Luigi Perini 《The Professional geographer》2013,65(4):647-663

This article analyzes the territorial disparities in the level of land vulnerability (TDLV) to soil degradation caused by five processes (soil erosion, salinization, sealing, contamination, and compaction) as well as by climate variations in Italy in 1990 and 2000. The analysis reveals, for each soil degradation process, a typical spatial distribution across Italy. Three processes (soil salinization, compaction, and sealing) contribute significantly to the increase in land vulnerability, which is mainly concentrated in risky areas. The observed disparities highlight a growing environmental divide between northern Italy (an economically developed region, not at risk of desertification) and southern Italy and the two main islands (dry, disadvantaged regions at risk of desertification). The knowledge of such a territorial divide and of the underlying soil degradation processes is regarded as important for environmental policies at the country and regional scales aimed at sustaining the economic and socioenvironmental cohesion between areas that are either vulnerable or nonvulnerable to soil degradation. The proposed approach should be seen as part of a decision-making tool informing policies and supporting the design of management solutions, hopefully reversing disparities in land vulnerability to soil degradation.  相似文献   

Recreating Ocean Space: Recreational Consumption and Representation of the Caribbean Marine Environment     

《The Professional geographer》2013,65(3):376-387

This paper investigates the historical relationship between the development of marine-based tourism and representations of marine space. Over the past 100 years, the Caribbean Sea has been transformed from a transportation surface connecting exotic ports of call into a commodity itself. Imagined by early travelers as a two-dimensional space to be crossed, the Caribbean has became part of a new tropical marine aesthetic, a three-dimensional spectacle to be actively consumed and conserved. These changing representations of the marine environment as a space of consumption have been paralleled by changes in the relationships between marine and terrestrial political economies. As marine-based tourism has intensified, the balance of power among coastal resource users has shifted. The increasingly conflictive consequences of this shift are illustrated by the case of Soufrière in St. Lucia where new uses of marine space have re-configured social and economic relationships. Soufrière's coastal economy has been transformed and its marine space increasingly politicized as competing representations of the sea have been used to assert conflicting claims to resource access. This paper attempts to elucidate the power of these representations by investigating their historical relationship to the changing role of the Caribbean Sea in the international tourism industry.  相似文献   

Applying the Political Geography of Scale: Grassroots Strategies and Environmental Justice     

《The Professional geographer》2013,65(1):23-36

The grassroots environmental movement often protests locally unwanted land uses. Many grassroots groups have, however, expanded their agenda to the scale of environmental justice. Explanations for this scale transformation include historical circumstances, individuals' radicalization through activism, and the growth of environmental justice networks. This case study, grassroots environmentalists' opposition to a proposed electricity transmission line in Monroe County, WV, explores another explanation: appeals for environmental justice are also a strategic response to siting regulatory procedures. With concepts emerging from the political geography of scale, I interpret the Monroe Countians' efforts and show how their strategies link the grassroots scale with that of environmental justice.  相似文献   

Air Quality,Climate, and Policy: A Case Study of Ozone Pollution in Tucson,Arizona     

《The Professional geographer》2013,65(4):469-491

This article addresses the need to better understand the complex interactions between climate, human activities, vegetation responses, and surface ozone so that more informed air-quality policy recommendations can be made. The impacts of intraseasonal climate variations on ozone levels in Tucson, Arizona from April through September of 1995 to 1998 are determined by relating variations in ozone levels to variations in atmospheric conditions and emissions of ozone's precursor chemicals, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and nitrogen oxides (NO_x), and by determining month-specific atmospheric conditions that are conducive to elevated ozone levels. Results show that the transport of ozone and its precursor chemicals within the Tucson area causes the highest ozone levels to be measured at a downwind monitor. The highest ozone levels occur in August, due in part to the presence of the North American monsoon. Atmospheric conditions conducive to elevated ozone concentrations differ substantially between the arid foresummer (May and June) and the core monsoon months ( July and August). Transport of pollution from Phoenix may have a substantial impact on elevated ozone concentrations during April, May, and June, while El Paso/Ciudad Juarez –derived pollution may contribute significantly to elevated ozone concentrations in August and September. Two broad policy implications derive from this work. Regional pollutant transport, both within the U.S. and between the U.S. and Mexico, is a potential issue that needs to be examined more intensively in future studies. In addition, spatiotemporal variations in sensitivities of ozone production require the adoption of both NO_x and VOC control measures to reduce ozone levels in the Tucson area.  相似文献   

The Local Articulation of Policy Conflict: Land Use,Environment, and Amerindian Rights in Eastern Amazonia     

《The Professional geographer》2013,65(2):241-258

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GEOGRAPHY AND THE LESSONS FROM EL NIÑO∗     

《The Professional geographer》2013,65(4):428-436

Recognized for years as a major environmental disruption, El Niño generated intense public interest in 1982–1983. During its last occurrence, this phenomenon, which develops in the tropical Pacific and usually affects rimlands of the Pacific basin, exceeded its boundaries and its effects were transmitted to continental North America, Europe, Africa and East Asia. Notwithstanding its vast areal extent, the interest of geographers in El Niño events, past and recent, has been comparatively less than that demonstrated by natural scientists and ecologists: little has been accomplished to place these climatic-ecological crises within global perspective. Lessons from El Niño include the acknowledgement of new concepts of climatic transitivity, ocean dynamics and energy exchanges that must find a place within the conceptual wealth of geography if this science intends to keep up with the rapid progress of other geosciences.  相似文献   

Spatial Scale and Population Assignment Choices in Environmental Justice Analyses 1     

《The Professional geographer》2013,65(4):574-586

Abstract

Environmental justice laws protect certain populations against discriminatory actions that may result from a myriad of enterprises, including transportation activities. Previous environmental equity studies examining the effects of transportation-engendered externalities have been criticized on several points, including (1) that the choice of a reference population for comparison to the criterion variable may influence the outcome of research results and (2) that the selection and use of inappropriate methodologies intended to identify and characterize populations may foreordain research outcomes. This article examines the potentially confounding effects of selected spatial scale and population assignment strategies as applied to a study of excessive noise levels at a large Midwestern airport, finding that reported outcomes can vary significantly as a function of methodological choices.  相似文献   

A spatially explicit methodology for a priori estimation of field survey effort in environmental observation networks     

Carlos Guerra  Marc J. Metzger  João Honrado  Joaquim Alonso 《International journal of geographical information science》2013,27(10):2077-2098

When establishing environmental monitoring programmes, it crucial to make reliable cost estimates, especially where a field survey is involved. This paper presents a methodology for creating a spatial measure of a field survey effort (SE). A set of relevant variables affecting a SE (e.g. areas with rough terrain, or distant from the main road network) was classified using fuzzy sets and then combined to produce spatially explicit effort indicators, which were integrated to a single measure using an analytic hierarchy process (AHP). To evaluate this approach and identify the limits for its application, three spatially nested case studies were used to test the spatial expression of SE and the scalable capacity of the method itself. The presented methodology could cope with variations in the scale and data resolution, retrieving a coherent estimate of SE across the different case studies. The presented methodology is therefore useful for (i) testing the network designs for sampling bias related to SE, (ii) comparing alternative sampling designs, (iii) assessing the sampling costs and (iv) supporting the human and logistical resource management.  相似文献   

Appropriate monitoring techniques using bomb tritium and other geochemical parameters in hydrogeological investigations     

BONIFACE C. E. EGBOKA 《水文科学杂志》2013,58(2):207-224

ABSTRACT

A critical review of earlier uses of bomb tritium spotlights problems in its applications that may result in erroneous interpretations. The old monitoring technique using boreholes causes mixing of groundwaters of different age zones. In this study, the mixing problem is overcome by using modern monitoring devices of multi-level samplers and bundle piezometers that yield groundwater samples of small volumes at closely-spaced intervals. The old method may be used to determine recharge and discharge areas of aquifers and used where pollution poses no serious threat. Otherwise, the major pumpage of the aquifer distorts and reverses flow directions, causes mixing of different waters and may spread the pollutants. The disadvantages of the modern method include its restricted use in shallow aquifers and porous media.  相似文献   

Erosive water level regime and climatic variability forcing of beach–dune systems on south‐western Vancouver Island,British Columbia,Canada     

Derek K. Heathfield  Ian J. Walker  David E. Atkinson 《地球表面变化过程与地形》2013,38(7):751-762

Increases in the frequency and magnitude of extreme water levels and storm surges are correlated with known indices of climatic variability (CV), including the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), along some areas of the British Columbia coast. Since a shift to a positive PDO regime in 1977, the effects of ENSO events have been more frequent, persistent, and intense. Teleconnected impacts include more frequent storms, higher surges, and enhanced coastal erosion. The response of oceanographic forcing mechanisms (i.e. tide, surge, wave height, wave period) to CV events and their role in coastal erosion remain unclear, particularly in western Canada. As a first step in exploring the interactions between ocean–atmosphere forcing and beach–dune responses, this paper assembles the historic erosive total water level (TWL) regime and explores relations with observed high magnitude storms that have occurred in the Tofino‐Ucluelet region (Wickaninnish Bay) on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. Extreme events where TWL exceeded an erosional threshold (i.e. elevation of the beach–foredune junction) of 5·5 m aCD are examined to identify dominant forcing mechanisms and to classify a regime that describes erosive events driven principally by wave conditions (61·5%), followed by surge (21·8%), and tidal (16·7%) effects. Furthermore, teleconnections between regional CV phenomena, extreme storm events and, by association, coastal erosion, are explored. Despite regional sea level rise (eustatic and steric), rapid crustal uplift rates have resulted in a falling relative sea level and, in some sedimentary systems, shoreline progradation at rates approaching +1·5 m a^–1 over recent decades. Foredune erosion occurs locally with a recurrence interval of approximately 1·53 years followed by rapid rebuilding due to high onshore sand supply and often in the presence of large woody debris and rapidly colonizing vegetation in the backshore. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献