Geography Commons^™

Landmark Ruling On Whaling From The International Court Of Justice, Mark P. Simmonds

Mark P. Simmonds, OBE

On 31 March 2014, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Japan’s whaling activities in Antarctica did not comply with Article VIII of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW), which permits whaling for scientific purposes. Copious and confusing media commentary followed the decision. This included seemingly conflicting reports from within Japan, which initially indicated whole-hearted compliance with the ruling, which required this whaling to cease, but later suggested that implementation by Japan might be limited to a brief halt followed by a launch of a new Antarctic ‘research’ programme including lethal take.

Marine Noise Pollution - Increasing Recognition But Need For More Practical Action, Mark P. Simmonds, Sarah J. Dolman, Michael Jasny, E. C. M. Parsons, Lindy Weilgart, Andrew J. Wright, Russell Leaper

Mark P. Simmonds, OBE

Over the last two decades, marine noise pollution has become increasingly recognized as an issue of major significance. The issue has become a primary focus of marine mammal research, but is also of concern to the public and policy makers. The result has been efforts involving a variety of disciplines, and relevant legislation and associated guidance are now in place in many parts of the world. Most current mitigation efforts are directed at reducing the risk of injury from exposure to intense noise, although the effectiveness of such mitigation measures in terms of risk reduction has rarely been quantified. Longer-term …

Interactions Between Short-Beaked Common Dolphin (Delphinus Delphis) And The Winter Pelagic Pair-Trawl Fishery Ff Southwest England (Uk), Marijke N. De Boer, James T. Saulino, Mardik F. Leopold, Peter J.H. Reijnders, Mark P. Simmonds

Mark P. Simmonds, OBE

During offshore and onshore studies (2004 to 2009), the interactions between pair-trawls and short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) were studied to better understand the impact of bycatch. A ‘hotspot’ area where pair-trawls overlapped with high dolphin abundance was identified. We made comparisons between boat-based data collected in absence and presence of pair-trawlers. The relative abundance and group-size of dolphins was significantly higher in the presence of pair-trawlers. Dolphins were observed associating with towing and hauling procedures. Significantly, more carcasses occurred in areas with hauling-activity than those without. Body-temperatures obtained from carcasses found near operating pair-trawlers indicated that bycatch mostly occurred …

Violence As An Obstacle To Livelihood Resilience In The Context Of Climate Change, Beth Tellman, Ryan Alaniz, Andrea Rivera, Diana Contreras

Ryan C. Alaniz

Central America continues to be a violent region and is prone to increasing climatic shocks and environmental degradation. This paper explores the non-linear feedback loop between violence and climate shocks on livelihood resilience in El Salvador and Honduras, two countries experiencing high rates of violence. The nature of this complex feedback loop is examined by analysing case studies on the community scale, which include challenges in reconstructing community social capital post-Hurricane Mitch (1998) in Honduras and the importance of social capital in community resilience to Hurricane Ida (2009) in El Salvador. We conclude that social capital is central in communities …

Primary Health Centres And Patients Satisfaction Level In Haripad Community Development Block Of Kerala, India, Pankaj Roy

Pankaj Roy

Considerações Acerca Do Aglomerado Metropolitano De Curitiba Na Perspectiva Da Cidade-Região Global, Alceli Ribeiro Alves

Alves Ribeiro Alves

The aim of this paper is to critically analyse the hypothesis that the Agglomerated Metropolitan area of Curitiba (AMC) represents a spatial scale of analysis characteristic of world or global cities and, therefore, have great economic and political significance on the world stage. Amongst some of these world cities have figured in previous discussions the cities of London, New York and Tokyo, but also Los Angeles and São Paulo. Making use of a theoretical-conceptual repertoire called Global City- Regions, formulated by SCOTT et al. (2001), and a variety of quantitative data retrieved from different databases, the work presented here obtained …

The Hot Topics While In College: Wildfire Risk Perception Among University’S Population., Thomas Wuerzer

Thomas Wuerzer

In 2012, wildfires destroyed about approximate 9 million acres of US lands and 2013’s fire season was equally destructive. In many states, the number of fires, burned acreages, and destroyed lives and property are devastating and a threat to the resident’s quality of life. Research shows that the re-occurrences and intensity of wildfires in the US, particular in the West, follow similar pattern than droughts or shifting early snow-pack melts. Environmental precursors show that the 2014 will be distressing. This study is focusing primarily on college students and their risk perception of wild fires in a fire prone US State; …

Strategy Design For Community Response To Distress And Decline Using Data Analytics, Michael P. Johnson Jr.

Michael P. Johnson

The foreclosure crisis in the U.S. has resulted in immense economic and social losses for individuals and neighborhoods. Some neighborhoods face long-term declines in population and economic activity that have been compounded by the foreclosure crisis. How can government and non-profit organizations design responses to neighborhood distress that reflect distinctive community characteristics and are consistent with long-term policy and planning goals? In this talk, I discuss alternative decision modeling strategies that support neighborhood health. Where foreclosure responses are likely to ensure that neighborhoods remain vital places for residential housing, productive strategies may include property acquisition and redevelopment. Other neighborhoods, however, …

Partisan Sorting In The United States, 1972-2012: New Evidence From A Dynamic Analysis, Corey Lang, Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz

Corey Lang

Whether Americans have “sorted” into politically like-minded counties and to what extent is hotly debated by academic and journalists. This paper examines whether or not geographic sorting has occurred and why it has occurred using a novel, dynamic analysis. Our findings indicate that geographic sorting is on the rise, but that it is a very recent phenomenon. In the 1970s and 1980s, counties tended to become more competitive, but by 1996 a pattern of partisan sorting had emerged and continued through the present. Results suggest this pattern is driven by Southern re-alignment and voting behavior in partisan stronghold counties. Lastly, …

Searching For The Determinants Of Climate Change Interest, Patrick Cavanagh, Corey Lang, Xinran Li, Haoran Miao, John David Ryder

Corey Lang

A meaningful CO2 mitigation policy is unlikely at the national level in the United States. What is currently happening and what is much more likely to occur in the future is city and regional level efforts of mitigation and adaptation. This paper aims to understand the geographic and socioeconomic characteristics of metropolitan areas and regions that lead to engagement with the issue of climate change. We use geographically explicit, internet search data from Google to measure information seeking behavior, which we take to translate into engagement, attention and interest. Our spatial hotspot analysis creates a map that potentially could be …

Progress Made With Early Warning Systems In Australia Since 2005, Neil Dufty

Neil Dufty

No abstract provided.

Hsisp Annotated Bibliography: Attitudes Toward Wildlife And The Environment (1998-2013), Erich Yahner

Erich Yahner

No abstract provided.

Cumulating Evidence About The Social Animal: Meta-Analysis In Social-Personality Psychology, Blair T. Johnson Dr., Marcella H. Boynton Dr.

Blair T. Johnson

Like most scientific fields, social-personality psychology has experienced an explosion of research related to such central topics as aggression, attraction, gender, group processes, motivation, personality, and persuasion, to name a few. The proliferation of research can be a monster unless it is tamed with the scientific review strategy of meta-analysis, literally analyses of past analyses that produce a quantitative and empirical history of research on a particular phenomenon. The purpose of this article is to outline the basic process and statistics of meta-analysis, as they pertain to social-personality psychology. Meta-analysis involves: (i) defining the problem under review; (ii) gathering qualified …

Management Regimes And Its Impact On The Wetland Fisheries Management In Assam, Ganesh Chandra

Ganesh Chandra

Assam is endowed with copious aquatic wealth in the form of beels, swamps, ponds and rivers. The floodplain wetlands (beels) extending over one lakh hectare, constitute the most important fishery resource of the state. The beels are considered as one of the most productive ecosystems owing to their characteristic interactions between land and water system. These wetlands are the common property resource and under different management regimes. These wetlands are under various management regimes, i.e., private management (individuals and groups), fishermen cooperative management, Community-based fisheries management (decentralized management, Government works as facilitator) and open access. Most of the unregistered beels …

Urban Wildlife, John Hadidian, Sydney Smith

John Hadidian, PhD

Despite the potential for difficulty, there are several reasons why urban wildlife should be valued and better understood. First is its scientific and heuristic value. Urban wildlife populations are essentially parts of ongoing natural experiments in adaptation to anthropogenic stress. How urban animals are affected by human activities— and how they cope with them— can represent, on a highly accelerated scale, a model of what is happening to species in other biomes. No other wild animals live in such intimate contact and under such constant constraint from human activities as do synanthropes. Second, urban animals are exposed to many environmental …

Urban Wildlife Control: It Starts In Our Own Backyard, John Hadidian

John Hadidian, PhD

No abstract provided.

Globalization And Governance: Impact On Environmental Sustainability In Nigeria’S Niger-Delta Region, Fanan Ujoh Ph.D, Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin Ph.D

Dr. Fanan Ujoh

With the discovery of oil in commercial quantities in 1958 in the Niger-Delta region came intense oil exploration within the region. Consequently, various Multi-National Oil Companies (MNOCs) commenced oil exploitation in the region. Steadily, cases of pollution, resulting from oil spillages, increased as the quantities of oil production increased over time. Almost 50 years of exploration has resulted in widespread environmental degradation in the form of land, surface and ground water pollution. This has affected the region’s livelihood capacity from farming to fishing, which reflects in endemic and systemic poverty among the communities within the region. This study focuses on …

An Analysis Of Long Lasting Insecticidal Treated Nets (Llin) In Chanchaga Lga, Niger State, Nigeria., J A. Edicha Phd, S M. Hassan Phd, J Ocholi

Confluence Journal Environmental Studies (CJES), Kogi State University, Nigeria

The study essentially examined the equity in accessing long lasting Insecticidal Treated Nets (LLIN) in Chanchaga Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria, using primary source of data. About 1007 households were sampled using systematic sampling technique; however, the first household was randomly selected using a table of random number. Thereafter, every 5th house was selected for the study. Location quotient analysis was employed in order to determine the proportion of the population to LLIN accessibility so as to determine the equity in the LLIN distribution. The study area was stratified into eleven political wards using data such as household …

Une Cohabitation Planifiée - Renforcer Le Chemin De Fer Au Coeur Des Collectivités, Barry A. Palynchuk Phd, Djemila Hadj-Hamou M.Sc.

Barry A. Palynchuk PhD

Une évaluation des opportunités de promouvoir les TOD, au sein du réseau ferroviaire historique.

Quantifying The Changes In Landscape Configuration Using Open Source Gis. Case Study: Bistrita Subcarpathian Valley, Dan A. Chelaru, Ana M. Oiste, Florin C. Mihai

Florin C MIHAI

Gradually, the study of the landscape became a core topic of enviromental studies, due to its interdisciplinary research methods, integrating both natural and socio-economic data. The goal of the study is to quantify the structural evolution of Bistrita subcarpathian valley landscape, by using several GIS applications, having an important role in highlighting its functionality. The applications were realized for the extended area limit of Bistrita subcarpathian valley, which presents a complex landscape morphology, with features ranging from forested mountains to densely populated lowlands. The analysis was based on the two land cover maps resulted from the extraction of the spatial …

Application Of Remotely-Sensed Data For Modeling Malaria Infection In Lokoja, Nigeria, Fanan Ujoh Ph.D, Olarewaju Oluseyi Ifatimehin Ph.D

Dr. Fanan Ujoh

Aims: To estimate incidences of malaria infection in an urban setting using Remotely sensed data and matching same with hospital records to validate the use of Remote sensing data as a methodology for studying the prevalence of malaria.

Study Design: Analyses of 2006 Nigeriasat-1 and Land sat ETM+satellite data for modeling malaria infection.

Place and Duration of Study: Lokoja, Capital city of Kogi State in Central Nigeria, between March 2012 and January 2013.

Methodology: Extraction of land use types, NDVI and LST maps using ILWIS 3.3 and Idrisi software. Cross tabulation of extracted maps to carry out correlational analyses while …

Rural Waste Generation : A Geographical Survey At Local Scale, Florin C. Mihai, Ana M. Oiste, Dan A. Chelaru

Florin C MIHAI

The paper examines the per capita waste generation rates from from rural areas of Neamț County (Romania) using thematic cartography. Geographical approach of this issue is difficult because the lack of a geostatistic database at commune scale. Spatial analysis of waste indicators reveals several disparities between localities. Comparability of data between communes located in various geographical conditions must be carrefully made according to local waste management systems. Several dysfunctionalities are outlined in order to compare these results, on the one hand, between localities and on the one hand, between recent years. Geographical analysis of waste generation rates is imperative for …

Aligarh Muslim University: A Centre Of Excellence.. A Way Of Life, Mohammad Muqeet Khan

Dr. Mohammad Muqeet Khan

What Is Disaster Resilience Education?, Neil Dufty

Neil Dufty

Community disaster education, communication and engagement (ECE) is an integral component of emergency management in Australia and around the world. Its main goal is to promote public safety and, to a lesser extent, reduce damages. However, many governments around the world, including Australia, aim to also build community disaster resilience, with learning viewed as a critical mechanism. There is therefore a need to examine current community disaster ECE practices with a view to aligning them to the broader goal of disaster resilience. To attempt this, an exploratory research methodology was utilised to examine possible education content and processes that could …

Magnitude Of Floods And Its Consequences In Puthimari River Basin Of Assam, India, Pankaj Roy

Pankaj Roy

The Role Of Geospatial Technology In Bridging The Gap Between Physical And Human Geography, Pankaj Roy

Pankaj Roy

The Role Of Interdisciplinary Gis And Data Curation Librarians In Enhancing Authentic Scientific Research In The Classroom, Benjamin D. Branch, Michael Fosmire

Michael Fosmire

Data science is a recently evolved area of scientific inquiry, where data, often collected by others, is analyzed by independent investigators to draw new conclusions. As such, data literacy needs to be incorporated into authentic research activities. The earth sciences in particular have a trove of data that resides in national data centers as well as individual investigators’ labs, which can be repurposed to provide the inputs for students to make their own inquiries into the data. With the amount of data available, students can make more substantive conclusions than if relying just on data they’ve collected themselves.

Applying The Principles Of Spatial Modelling To The Management Of Biodiversity In The Fragmented Landscapes Of South-Western Australia, Shaun Molloy

Shaun W Molloy Dr

Biodiversity conservation throughout the world is challenged by the impacts of a changing climate on fragmented landscapes. To mitigate these threats, conservation managers require models which can demonstrate the consequences of both negative impacts and management actions. This need can be addressed through spatial modelling applications. Unfortunately, throughout much of the world, spatial modelling is forgone, being seen as requiring skills and resources beyond the means of many conservation planners and managers. This thesis seeks to address this dilemma by delivering criteria for a successful modelling application and by providing case studies which demonstrate how appropriate modelling can be undertaken …

Appraisal Of Social And Health Impact Of A Cement Plant At Host Communities In Yandev, Nigeria, Fanan Ujoh Ph.D, Frederick Terkuma Ujoh Mr

Dr. Fanan Ujoh

Nigeria has extensive mineral and natural resources hence, developmental projects are being proposed and executed on a daily basis, many of which involve large-scale alteration of human, animal and plant ecosystems. Limestone mining and cement production commenced in 1980 at the study area, Yandev, without an environmental impact assessment to ascertain the extent of impact these activities could bring to bear on the physical and living conditions of the host environment. This study was carried out to appraise the social and health impact that mining of limestone and production of cement has inflicted on the host communities. Descriptive statistics and …

Evaluating Wetlands Along The Libyan Mediterranean Coastline, Mansour M. Elbabour, Esam O. Abdulsamad

Mansour M Elbabour

Nature conservation efforts in Libya focus mainly on the protection of some forest and wildlife areas in small designated national parks in the Jabal al-Akhdar and few other locations in the west of the country. However, wetlands did not receive equal recognition. Perhaps, lack of environmental awareness and the absence of functional and legal definitions of wetlands and their habitats in the country contributed to their exclusion from national protection programs and, consequently, to their degradation. Evaluation of wetlands, both within and outside urban areas, conducted as part of the Designation and Classification of Nature Reserves project in Libya, represents …