Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Parallel Computing Approach To Fast Geostatistical Areal Interpolation, Qingfeng Guan, Phaedon Kyriakidis, Michael Goodchild

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

Areal interpolation is the procedure of using known attribute values at a set of (source) areal units to predict unknown attribute values at another set of (target) units. Geostatistical areal interpolation employs spatial prediction algorithms, i.e., variants of Kriging, which explicitly incorporate spatial autocorrelation and scale differences between source and target units in the interpolation endeavor. When all the available source measurements are used for interpolation, i.e., when a global search neighborhood is adopted, geostatistical areal interpolation is extremely computationally intensive. Interpolation in this case requires huge memory space and massive computing power, even with the dramatic improvement introduced by …

Foreword, From Holy Places And Pilgrimages: Essays On India, Robert H. Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

This collection of twelve articles continues a long and rich body of information about pilgrimages. Written materials in the form of pamphlets, guidebooks, manuals, itineraries, and treatises about pilgrimages date from antiquity (see, e.g. the discussion in this volume by Rana Singh about ancient epics, pp. 15-20). Travelling to places regarded by worshippers as having extraordinary spiritual power is a phenomenon permeating all religious traditions so it is logical that it appears in various literary forms.

A General-Purpose Parallel Raster Processing Programming Library Test Application Using A Geographic Cellular Automata Model, Qingfeng Guan, Keith C. Clarke

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

A general-purpose parallel Raster Processing programming Library (pRPL) was developed and applied to speed up a commonly used Cellular Automaton model with known tractability limitations. The library is suitable for use by geographic information scientists with basic programming skills, but who lack knowledge and experience of parallel computing and programming. pRPL is a general-purpose programming library that provides generic support for raster processing, including local-scope, neighborhood-scope, regional-scope, and global-scope algorithms as long as they are parallelizable. The library also supports multi-layer algorithms. Besides the standard data domain decomposition methods, pRPL provides a spatially-adaptive quad-tree-based decomposition to produce more evenly distributed …

Review Of The Separatist Conflict In Sri Lanka: Terrorism, Ethnicity, Political Economy, By Asoka Bandarage, Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

Asoka Bandarage, who provides a very thorough discussion of the civil conflict in Sri Lanka, relates the particular issues and perspectives of the contending groups to major conflicts occurring elsewhere in the world. Although the following categories are not utilized specifically by Bandarage, this review considers four general principles that apply both to the Sri Lanka situation and to contemporary conflicts elsewhere. First, when competing groups claim the same land because both have occupied it “traditionally,” how far back in history is meaningful? A second issue concerns how contemporary self-determination is established. That is, what is the appropriate geographic scale …

The Geography Of Buddhist Pilgrimage In Asia, Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

A pilgrimage is a journey to a sacred place motivated by religious devotion. Although the term may be applied to a meditative search for new spiritual experiences, prolonged wanderings, or travel to a place of nostalgic meaning for an individual, here the word refers to the physical journey to a distant site regarded as holy. As defined in this essay, pilgrimage excludes local and family places of worship; therefore the spatial component of distance is critical.

Throughout the world and in numerous faiths, pilgrimages differ from other forms of worship because of the emphasis on the unique roles of movement …

Vaishno Devi, The Most Famous Goddess Shrine In The Siwāliks, Georgana Foster, Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

Vaishno Devi in Jammu has been designated as the "Elder Sister" among the six other Devi shrines in a fairly narrow belt of the Siwāliks between the Yumunii and Chenāb Rivers. During the last few decades Vaishno Devi has become especially important. Pilgrimage to the shrine has increased from 30,000 to almost 7 million since Independence, when the political geography of the region increased accessibility, both physically and perceptually. The growth in the number of visitors can be attributed also to a change in administration of the shrine and to the tremendous increase in religious tourism. Vaishno Devi is now …

Great Plains Region From Encyclopedia Of Religion In America, Volume 2, Robert H. Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

To understand the religions of a region, it is helpful to examine its environmental characteristics and the history of human occupation of that land because interpretations and forms of worship often reflect the environment with which believers cope. Although characteristics of the natural environment are intricately incorporated into most ancient religions, this relationship may be less obvious in religions with creeds and set of beliefs enunciated by historic figures. Here focus is on how the religious history of the Great Plains distinguishes it from other parts of America.

Prpl: An Open-Source General-Purpose Parallel Raster Processing Programming Library, Qingfeng Guan

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

pRPL is an open-source general-purpose programming library developed by the author to parallelize almost any raster-processing algorithm with any arbitrary neighborhood configuration, and support any data type. This paper introduces the advanced features of pRPL, compares it with other similar programming libraries, and demonstrates the performance of a parallel geographic Cellular Automata (CA) model developed using pRPL with real-world datasets. In conclusion, pRPL effectively reduces the development complexity of parallel programming, and efficiently reduces the computing time.

Pilgrimage Places And Sacred Geometries, Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

Pilgrimage flows, often involving millions of people, attract the attention of scholars seeking to explain these patterns of movement. A multitude of explanations have been attempted, but none has provided an entirely satisfactory understanding about why certain sites attract worshippers to undertake the sacrifices of pilgrimage. It is recognized that, from the perspective of many religious traditions, Earth space is not homogeneous - that specific places are sacred and different from the surrounding profane land. The reasons certain locations are holy and attract pilgrims from afar have long evoked the geographic question: Why are pilgrimage places distributed as they are? …

The Cultural Geographer's Interest In Regions, Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

Regions are important to cultural geographers. This is because regions help in understanding the spatial distributions of social phenomena. Like any classification scheme, a set of regions provides organisation to a large body of data. Although occasionally phenomena being studied may already be grouped into regions, this is not usually the case. Consequently, cultural geographers, whether engaged in research or teaching are frequently faced with the task of defining and delineating a set of meaningful regions. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to discuss some of the methodological issues that confront geographers when they organize their data into regions.

Hinduism [In The Great Plains], Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

Hinduism is the Western name given to a religious tradition developed over thousands of years in India. Because it has no creed or major institutional structure, it is intricately intertwined with societal systems, and some scholars declare that it is impossible to separate Hinduism as a religion from other aspects of Indian society. This means it is virtually impossible to define precisely what constitutes the Hindu religion, especially when transferred into a different cultural setting such as the Great Plains.

Geography Of Religion And Belief Systems, Robert H. Stoddard, Carolyn V. Prorok

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

Spatial and environmental dimensions of religious behavior, artefacts, and attitudes are grist for the geographer’s intellectual mill because spiritually motivated convictions and actions play an important role in human affairs. It is not surprising, therefore, that the geography of religion and belief systems is an important, emerging field of study. We commence this chapter with a definition of the field, particularly as it entails distinctions that arise out of the highly personal nature that religious belief is accorded in the academy and society at large. A limited review and summary of trends in the field over the past decade follows, …

The World As A Multilevel Mosaic: Understanding Regions, Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

The geographic concern with the organization of area involves the concept of regions and regionalization—the spatial division of Earth’s surface into homogeneous classes. Because regions provide a construct that helps in comprehending the complex variations in the world, they are an essential teaching element. ... Teachers can help students understand that people construct regions to interpret Earth’s complexity. Mastering that concept is essential because understanding the idea of region and the process of regionalization is fundamental to being geographically informed.

The Geographic Contribution To Studies Of Pilgrimage: Introduction To Sacred Places, Sacred Spaces, Robert Stoddard, Alan Morinis

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

The religions of humankind, from the great traditions of Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, and Hinduism, to sectarian cults arid tribal religions, have all singled out spatial referents as places that embody or enshrine the religious ideals of the culture. These sacred referents and the complex web of logistics, demographics, economics, and related activities that associate with the visitation patterns to such sacred places are the subject of this book.

Defining And Classifying Pilgrimages, Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

To make comparisons among the many forms of religious journeys, scholars need both an acceptable definition of the phenomenon called pilgrimages and a workable classification scheme that reveals significant differences. Following a discussion about the elements that should be incorporated into a definition of pilgrimages, a formal statement is presented. This provides a basis for separating those traveling activities that should be studied as pilgrimages from all other forms of human movement. Further differentiation among pilgrimages can be achieved by categorizing them into a few distinct classes. Several criteria that logically could be utilized for dividing pilgrimages into various types …

Review Of Losing Asia: Modernization And The Culture Of Development, By Brett Wallach., Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

When I first visited Kathmandu in the mid-1950s, the shops sold mostly local and Indian products, many of the shoppers wore Newari dress, and motor vehicles were uncommon. In the evening, one could leisurely stroll the quiet streets and gaze at temple tops silhouetted against a starlit sky. A couple of decades later, after the drug culture and other foreign interests had invaded and infected the capital city, a nighttime stroller encountered some of the same dangers on the street that occur in American cities at night. Upon my return to Kathmandu last winter, I observed retail stores, citizens' dress, …

Evolving Ethnicity In South Asia With Particular Reference To India, Joseph E. Schwartzberg, Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

This presentation considers the various historical processes that have shaped ethnic identities in South Asia, concentrating, because of limitations of time and space, on India and on the postindependence period. It also discusses specific bases for establishing ethnic identities and the periods, situations, and locales in which they assumed importance. It also notes the means by which ethnic groups seek to advance their interests and by which governments respond to such efforts. I shall not, however, strive for completeness -- the topic is simply too vast. Omitted from consideration here is any discussion of ethnic relations in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, …

Review Of Pradyumna P. Karan And Hiroshi Ishii, Nepal: Development And Change In A Landlocked Himalayan Kingdom, Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

The authors of this book have successfully provided "an outline of some of the crucial issues facing the country" (p. v), one of their declared aims. By examining Nepal's landlocked setting, natural resources, forests, agriculture, industry, transportation systems, demographic characteristics, cultural patterns, settlement patterns, and tourism, the two authors and four collaborators have summarized many current conditions. The inclusion of numerous statistics reinforces the discussion, as well as giving readers a useful collection of data about contemporary Nepal (although the lack of an index diminishes their accessibility somewhat).

Review Of Claiming The High Ground: Sherpas, Subsistence, And Environmental Change In The Highest Himalaya By Stanley F. Stevens., Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

If we were to believe everything proclaimed in the popular press, we would conclude that most of the vegetation and soil on the slopes of the Himalayas is being destroyed by humans—by either the local inhabitants or foreign tourists. To place these shrill proclamations in perspective, it is essential to have scholars carefully investigate the myriad of interrela-tionships among natural and human phenomena and to report their findings in a manner that recognizes the complexity of environmental changes. Such a service has been provided by Ives and Messerli in their book, The Himalayan Dilemma: Reconciling Development and Conservation (London, New …

Major Pilgrimage Places Of The World, Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

In their quest to learn more details about pilgrimages, geographers have trudged along many sacred trails and have experienced the jostling of numerous religious crowds. Such experiential studies about particular pilgrimage events have contributed greatly to our accumulating knowledge of pilgrimages. Along with these detailed accounts of specific pilgrimages, however, we also need to examine this phenomenon from a global perspective. This is not to imply that a broad view of pilgrimages in a variety of settings is necessarily better or more enlightening than a detailed study of a particular pilgrimage event. Nevertheless, research on the general geographic characteristics of …

Where Is The Median Center?, Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

Comment on Enedy (Journal of Geography 92:23-27)
Measurements of central tendency are more complex in two-dimensional space than for one-dimensional data. The additional complexity results not only from the second dimension but also from the arrangement of data. These conditions mean that some linear statistics cannot be converted automatically into areal statistics without careful consideration of their properties. It also means that there has been confusion about the definition of the median center.

The Disaster Of Deforestation In The Brazilian Rainforest, Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

In 1987, a major disaster occurred when an estimated eight million hectares of tropical forests in Brazil were destroyed (World Resources Institute 1990, 102). This event is considered a disaster because it was only the annual portion of an on-going process having immense spatial and temporal effects. The temporal impact is expected to remain virtually forever. In contrast to many disasters having a limited temporal impact because restoration is possible, the extermination of several biotic species associated with rainforest destruction is permanent. Likewise, some of the spatial effects have reached their potential areal maximum because they have affected the entire …

Review Of David Chuenyan Lai, Chinatowns: Towns Within Cities In Canada, Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

In the past, a Chinatown was “a self-contained urban enclave” where nearly all Chinese people, their businesses, and their social institutions were confined. Today, however, a Chinatown “is an ill-defined perceptual area because its characteristics, structure, images, and townscape have changed over time.” Lai classifies Chinatowns into four types, one of which, an old Chinatown, is the topic of most of the book. He summarizes the history of Old Chinatowns as involving four stages: budding, blooming, withering, and reviving. For example, Chinatown in Victoria experienced these four particular stages during the following periods: 1858-1870s, 1880s-1910s, 1920s-1970s, and 1980s. The Chinatowns …

Review Of Refugees: A Third World Dllemma, John R. Rogge, Editor, Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

The mass movement of humans takes on considerable geographic importance because of the associated changes in the source area, in the region of destination, and in the people who leave a home territory for a foreign environment. These repercussions are often accentuated when people are forced to flee their homeland and to beg for asylum in a strange setting. With the number of contemporary refugees in the world greatly exceeding the volume of voluntary international migration, the need among geographers for information about refugees is great. Refugees: A Third World Dilemma, a collection of thirty papers about various aspects …

Review Of Michael Bradshaw, Regions And Regionalism In The United States, Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

The terms region and regionalism carry various meanings, so the book's emphasis is not conveyed by just the title. Unfortunately this confusion persists, even after reading the book. ... Nevertheless, the text is written clearly (in British English), the maps are pertinent, the index is helpful, and the various subtopics (see below) are presented succinctly.

After reviewing some familiar regionalizations of United States (e.g., the Census divisions, Trewartha's climatic regions, Zelinsky'S cultural area, and ones in regional geography textbooks), the author does a nice job of describing the historical conditions that produced regional differences within the United States. Also cultural …

Characteristics Of Buddhist Pilgrimages In Sri Lanka, Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

Although pilgrimages have been studied by geographers for many decades, we still are uncertain about the universality of certain basic geographic characteristics of this religious activity. It is true that NOLAN (1983; 1984; forthcoming) has provided a wealth of data on Christian pilgrimages, especially in Western Europe, and several geographers have analyzed aspects of the hajj. But, there have been relatively few studies about groups in many other settings, such as the Muslems in the Philippines, the Christians in India, and the Hindus in Africa. We need to expand our collective knowledge about pilgrimages by studying them in a wide …

Pilgrimages Along Sacred Paths, Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

Geographic explanations about circulation and movement are largely concerned with the role of distance in spatial behavior. More specifically, many geographic principles of location are based on the friction of distance as it tends to restrict circulation and movement of humans. Likewise, the geography of routes usually involves concepts of least effort and the minimization of travel distance. A few path. ways of movement, however, do not seem to entirely fit these basic geographic concepts.

When people engage in religious activities that involve travel along a prescribed path, the role of distance seems to function quite differently than expressed by …

Field Techniques And Research Methods In Geography, Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

Inexperienced researchers seeking to solve geographic problems are often confronted with a wide choice of techniques available for acquiring data. Unfortunately, information about these techniques is scattered among various publications. This text was written, therefore, for the purpose of assembling several potential field methods into one publication. It provides aspiring researchers with the opportunity to compare alternative types of data-gathering techniques and to select those appropriate to particular research problems.

Although the emphasis is on research in human geography, the techniques presented are useful for other groups of readers such as urban planners, regional planners, sociologists, and others concerned with …

High School Students' Images Of Geography: An Exploratory Analysis, Raymond Hubbard, Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

Almost since its introduction into American high schools and colleges, geography has been plagued with the problem of justifying its existence as a bona fide academic discipline. This identity problem has been attributed to a variety of circumstances and conditions, including the common explanation that geography is a virtually unbounded discipline. For many individuals this unduly amorphous characteristic is particularly burdensome when attempts are made to define the subject matter of geography. This, in turn, hampers the presentation of a clear and distinct image of the discipline to nongeographers. Closely related to the problem of geography's diverse content and delineation …

Spatial Characteristics Of Tertiary Activities In Kathmandu, Robert Stoddard

Department of Geography: Faculty Publications

How are retail establishments arranged in urban areas? Numerous urban and marketing geographers have addressed this question, and a sizeable body of literature deals with the issue. However, most studies have pertained to western cities that have large monetary flows between various sectors of a specialized economy. This study supplements the existing knowledge by examining some spatial characteristics of tertiary activities in an Asian city functioning within a more traditional economy.