Two Corn Belt Farms

Case studies of two farms in eastern Iowa illustrate changes in the Corn Belt since World War II. The Hoffman farm was a classic example of a traditional operation that used a three-year rotation of corn, oats and leguminous hay on 160 acres of land. These crops were used to fatten feeder cattle from western range areas and hogs that were farrowed on the farm. This farm operation did not take advantage of opportunities to expand, and it has been sold because it is too small for a successful modern family farm. The Mather farm has been operated by members ol the same family lor five generations. Anders Mather was a superb cattleman who raised crops to fatten range cattle and hogs, but his grandson, Kenneth, has eliminated the livestock operation and concentrates on producing corn and soybeans for sale as cash crops. He has enlarged the farm to more than a thousand acres by buying and renting land. It is an excellent example of a contemporary Corn Belt family farm.     

URBAN UNEMPLOYMENT AND THE SPATIAL STRUCTURE OF LABOR MARKETS: AN EXAMINATION OF THE “TODARO PARADOX” IN A SPATIAL CONTEXT*

ABSTRACT The Todaro paradox and the effects of job creation in urban areas will be re-examined in our spatial model in which the radius of the labor market is endogenously determined by the rational choices of workers. The travel cost of workers plays a crucial role in the choice between two different types of response, migration or commuting. By considering travel costs, we find that the Todaro paradox can be applied to developed, as well as developing, countries. Job creation in urban areas can produce a paradoxical increase in urban unemployment in developed countries, because the low marginal cost of travel will significantly increase the radius of the urban labor market and create new labor supply without migration.     

Identification of Employment Concentration Areas

This article presents a method to identify “Absolute and Relative Employment Concentration (AREC) areas” for a particular industry. Two novel characteristics of the method are that it simultaneously analyses AREC, and that it combines spatial concentration per area with the spatial concentration in neighbouring areas. The method is easy to understand and apply. It is developed to assist regional policy makers and corporate decision-makers with their investment decisions related to new infrastructure or plants. The identification of concentration areas also allows for analysing the performance of these areas in relation to characteristics such as infrastructure availability and the housing and labour market. This can yield new academic insights that are relevant for regional planners. An application of the newly developed method to five industries in a Dutch province subdivided into 502 areas illustrates the value of the method in comparison to other methods.     

Creating Ecologically Based Land Use and Habitat Maps Quickly and Cheaply to Support Conservation Planning at Local Scales: A New Zealand Example

Effective planning to support and enhance ecological values in sites of conservation interest requires accurate, comprehensive and detailed ecologically based maps and data, not only for the conservation site but for the wider landscape in which such sites are situated. In this paper we present an efficient and low cost method for combining appropriate technologies and available data to produce such maps at a landscape level. This method is described and evaluated using a case study of a land use and habitat map, with an associated geographic information system (GIS). The map was created for the district of Dunedin, New Zealand, an area of approximately 3340 km². This paper demonstrates how the map can be adapted for use by small, locally based conservation organisations that typically do not have the resources to obtain detailed, consistent and comprehensive spatial data for the areas they manage. The example of Orokonui Ecosanctuary is used to illustrate the potential applications of the map including mapping assets and habitats within a site and for exploring the relationship between the Ecosanctuary's internal and external habitats. External habitats can form a vital habitat network for many of the endangered species being reintroduced into the Ecosanctuary as well as a source of threats through potential reinvasion by pests and land use change. Though the mapping method presented in this paper is not necessarily new, it demonstrates the potential for utilising advances in mapping techniques and available data sets to offer a pragmatic support mechanism of practical value for small conservation organisations.     

Surviving in a Competitive Spatial Market: The Threshold Capture Model

Many facility location decision models ignore the fact that for a facility to survive it needs a minimum demand level to cover costs. In this paper we present a decision model for a firm that wishes to enter a spatial market where there are several competitors already located. This market is such that for each outlet there is a demand threshold level that has to be achieved in order to survive. The firm wishes to know where to locate its outlets so as to maximize its market share taking into account the threshold level. It may happen that due to this new entrance, some competitors will not be able to meet the threshold and therefore will disappear. A formulation is presented together with a heuristic solution method and computational experience.     

A Crisis of Opportunity: Market-Making,Big Data,and the Consolidation of Migration as Risk

Crisis narratives surrounding Europe’s 2015 migration influx fuelled demands for new ways of tracking, mapping and predicting human mobility. We explore how market opportunities for technology firms and data analytics start-ups created by the EU’s Global Approach to Migration led to solutionistic approaches to compiling and analysing migration statistics. We show that initiatives such as the rebranding of existing platforms and services as migration prediction systems are consolidating policy conceptualisations of migration as risk. Despite the promise of greater granularity, this “big data approach” cannot offer greater certainty about who is on the move and why. Instead such approaches are ill-suited to understanding the complex dynamics of migration and to offering protection to vulnerable people. The marketisation of migration statistics through big data offers a key case for advancing progressive approaches to both migration statistics and global data justice.     

DISPERSION FORMS: AN INTERACTION OF MARKET ACCESS,COMPETITION, AND URBAN COSTS*

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes a two‐region model including multiple industries with different transport costs. Two results are derived. First, dispersion occurs for small transport costs, but the specific dispersion patterns depend on the level of urban costs. This results from an interaction of the market‐access effect on consumers, the market‐access effect on firms, the competition effect, and the urban‐cost effect. Second, decreasing transport cost tends to let industries with lower transport costs disperse, although the shares of industries locating in the larger region are not in order of their transport costs. We further provide some empirical data concerning the second result.     

Cattle in the West African savanna: evidence from 1st millennium CE Kirikongo, Burkina Faso

The West African sahel and savanna are today home to diverse cattle breeds derived from complex social, political and environmental processes over at least the past four thousand years. Current evidence from the sahel and its floodplains indicates multiple sizes of cattle over time that may correspond to modern breeds. However, little is known about the cattle further south in the savanna, such as the West African Shorthorn. These humpless cattle are well adapted to the environmental conditions of more humid zones, including their significant resistance to trypanosomiasis, or sleeping sickness. In this paper I present new archaeozoological data from the Iron Age village of Kirikongo, Burkina Faso (100-1700 CE) that indicate the presence of small cattle in the 1st millennium CE similar in size to West African Shorthorn. These results are contextualized through comparisons with other archaeological sites and environmental data in Central West Africa, suggesting that small cattle are generally associated with the savanna environment over time, and their distributions may have oscillated with climatic changes. Lastly, interregional processes are assessed given Kirikongo’s evidence for small savanna cattle in western Burkina Faso and their subsequent adoption in the Inland Niger Delta of Mali.     

陕西省农村土地流转迟缓的供求影响因素与机制探析

农村土地流转长期受到决策者的鼓励,但我国农村土地使用权流转率一直偏低,西部地区尤其如此。本文试图以陕西省为例,通过问卷调查和访谈,分析农地社会保障功能等因素影响农地使用权流转率的作用机制;并从供给和需求两个方面,分析了经济落后地区农村土地使用权流转率偏低的原因。研究结果表明,农地流转受到现行的以提供社会保障为基本目的的农地制度的约束,任何旨在提高农地流转率的改革措施,都必须考虑现行农地制度的社会保障功能和地区差异,实行因地制宜的农地流转制度。     

New immigrant settlement in a mid-sized city: a case study of housing barriers and coping strategies in Kelowna, British Columbia

The successful integration of immigrants into a new society is based on their attainment of several basic needs, including access to adequate, suitable and affordable housing. While this has long been a concern in Canadian cities, such as Vancouver, Toronto, and Montréal, it is also increasingly an issue in growing mid-sized cities such as Kelowna, in the interior of British Columbia. While Kelowna's real estate market is one of the most expensive in the country, there is little published data or literature on the housing experiences of immigrants in the city. This study examines the housing experiences and stresses of a small group of immigrants in Kelowna's rental housing market. This study uses data from five focus groups with 34 new immigrants and 20 interviews with key informants, conducted in Kelowna in summer 2008. The evidence indicates that for this group of immigrant newcomers, the housing search process in Kelowna's rental housing market met with significant barriers in locating affordable rental housing. Of these barriers, the most commonly cited were: (a) high housing costs; (b) lack of reliable housing information, including lack of access to organizations that provide housing help (government or not); and (c) prejudice by landlords based on the immigrants' ethnic and racial background.
This study points to the need for more comparative studies on the housing experiences of immigrants in mid-sized cities in Canada to better understand which groups of immigrants are more successful than others in finding affordable housing in these mid-sized cities, and why.     

Evaluation of very high to medium resolution multispectral satellite imagery for geoarchaeology in arid regions – Case study from Jabali,Yemen

Archaeological research of the ancient Jabali silver mines (7th to 14th centuries ad) in northern Yemen is a multidisciplinary project covering scientific disciplines traditionally related to archaeology, a geological approach and new technologies such as very high resolution remote sensing. Mining companies envisage the development of the Jabali deposit for zinc ore. Some of the planned facilities, particularly a large open pit, will have a destructive impact on the old pits and processing heaps, already damaged by recent works. In the present study, remote sensing is used for a detailed survey of the impact of preliminary mining works from the early 1980’s with the aim to establish archaeological remains and to prioritize areas for future ground surveys, as well as for geological mapping. Results indicate that mapping using remote sensing in the visible to short wave infrared range has a great potential for the identification of gossans (iron caps) possibly related to archaeological remains. The phases of work in Jabali are clearly put into light by the study of a time series of Landsat data. Very high resolution QuickBird imagery appears particularly relevant for mapping most of the archaeological remnants, iron caps, as well as the 3D visualization of the mining site when drapped over a detailed digital elevation model.     

Diet of aurochs and early cattle in southern Scandinavia: evidence from 15N and 13C stable isotopes

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios from ¹⁴C dated bones of early Atlantic aurochs (Bos primigenius Bojanus) and late Atlantic first domestic cattle (Bos taurus Linnaeus) in eastern Denmark and southern Sweden are significantly different and provide information on the origin and feeding strategies of the two species.Radiocarbon dates generally divide the bone material of aurochs and domestic cattle in three groups: aurochs older than 4000 cal yr BP, an older group of domestic cattle around 4000 cal yr BP, and a younger, less well-defined group of domestic cattle starting at around 3500 cal yr BP. The older domestic cattle are represented mainly by fragmentary bones left over from meals, and deposited in lakes at the vicinity of the settlement areas. Bones of the younger domestic cattle group occur both as settlement debris and as single articulated skeletons in bogs, commonly in association with different types of clay pots. The latter type of finds suggests that sacrifice of domestic cattle began at this time. The dating of the early domestic cattle further indicates that they were contemporaneous with or slightly younger than the elm decline, which occurred shortly after 4000 cal yr BC on the Danish island of Sjælland. Our results indicate a sudden rapid introduction of domestic cattle into Denmark, heralding the introduction of agriculture and there is no evidence for leaf foddering or domestication of aurochs. A combination of several natural events may have created the necessary open land, providing the grazing areas for the imported cattle.     

Slash and Trash: Dendroarchaeological and Ecological Inferences from a Twentieth-Century Logging Camp in Western New Mexico

Logging related sites and features are relatively common in forested areas of the western United States. Such sites are typically investigated through site mapping and artifact recording, and if possible, oral history. We present the results of a dendroarchaeological investigation of a small-scale unauthorized logging site in western New Mexico, US. The results provide information on the economic and social forces that created the site, as well as the scale of activities conducted there. We suggest that individuals quickly responded to improved lumber market conditions and changes in public land administration to exploit what had been an economically marginal timber stand.     

恩施州乡村旅游扶贫模式及其效应差异研究

为了回答如何判别旅游扶贫模式、旅游扶贫模式是否影响旅游扶贫效应等问题,提出了由区位—产业—文化组成的旅游扶贫资源多要素协同框架作为判别旅游扶贫模式的依据,以此为指导,利用访谈数据,将恩施州南部4县的22个旅游扶贫重点村划分为4种模式：优势景区依托模式、生态农业依托模式、民宿农家乐依托模式和民族文化依托模式。而后,利用问卷调查数据,运用方差分析法比较了不同模式扶贫村居民的旅游扶贫效应感知差异,结果发现：①不同旅游扶贫模式村居民对经济收益、经济成本、环境成本和社会成本的感知具有显著差异,说明旅游扶贫模式是影响旅游扶贫效应的因素;②与其他两种模式村相比,优势景区、生态农业依托模式村居民的旅游扶贫经济效益感知更高,同时经济、环境或社会成本感知也更高,表明旅游扶贫在带来经济效益的同时,也带来了较高的经济、环境和社会成本。最后,提出了促进民族地区旅游扶贫工作改进的对策建议。     

Reality versus Policy: The Delineation and Testing of Local Labour Market and Spatial Policy Areas

As part of the empirical planning science, this article integrates theory, empirical findings and policy. It first deals with the question how to reach a theoretically well-grounded and empirical applicable delineation of local labour market areas. An inductive classification method is selected based on the behaviour of individual commuters without selecting a priori central places. By this, new urban forms like polynodality are included. In using this method for the Netherlands, 31 local labour market areas (LLAs) were distinguished. Moreover, the article elaborates some simple measures to test the optimality of LLA classifications. The 31 LLAs adequately reflect the 'reality' of actual functional labour market relationships. The article also investigates the matching between reality and the LLA classification as used in spatial policy. There is a large gap between reality and policy. This urges bringing the policy classification more in line with existing LLAs. Alternatively, if one considers the present policy classification as an instrument for future spatial structure, much additional effort will be required. The findings of the article can be easily applied to other European countries.     

Transport costs: measures, determinants, and regional policy implications for France

We develop a methodology to accurately compute transport costs.Based on the real transport network, our measure encompassesthe characteristics of infrastructure, vehicle and energy used,as well as labor, insurance, tax and general charges borne bytransport carriers. Computed for the 341 French employment areas,road transport shipments and the period 1978–1998, thisnew measure is compared to alternative ones such as great circledistance, real distance, or real time. We conclude that theseproxies do a very good job in capturing transport costs in cross-sectionanalysis. However, important discrepancies limit the possibilityof using them in time series analysis. Moreover, our measureallows us to identify the policies that most impact transportcosts. We show that transport technology and market structureare responsible for most of the transport cost decrease. Infrastructureimprovements only condition the spatial distribution of thegains. Finally, some implications for researchers and regionalpolicy makers are derived.     

劳工地理研究新进展评述

在经济地理学的研究中,劳工常常被看作是与自然资源、资金、技术等同类的经济要素,只重视劳动成本,忽视了劳工作为社会活动主要参与者的角色。近年来,劳工地理研究取得了长足的进展,弥补了传统地理学研究的不足。全球化背景下的工人运动、劳工组织和地方劳工控制体制,劳工市场的空间分割,不同政治、经济和文化背景下的农区劳工地方化逐渐成为劳工地理的重要研究方向。     

URBAN GROWTH EXTERNALITIES AND NEIGHBORHOOD INCENTIVES: ANOTHER CAUSE OF URBAN SPRAWL?*

ABSTRACT This paper suggests a cause of low density urban development or urban sprawl that has not been given much attention in the literature. There have been a number of arguments put forward for market failures that may account for urban sprawl, including incomplete pricing of infrastructure, environmental externalities, and unpriced congestion. The problem analyzed here is that urban growth creates benefits for an entire urban area, but the costs of growth are borne by individual neighborhoods. An externality problem arises because existing residents perceive the costs associated with the new residents locating in their neighborhoods, but not the full benefits of new entrants which accrue to the city as a whole. The result is that existing residents have an incentive to block new residents to their neighborhoods, resulting in cities that are less dense than is optimal, or too spread out. The paper models several different types of urban growth, and examines the optimal and local choice outcomes under each type. In the first model, population growth is endogenous and the physical limits of the city are fixed. The second model examines the case in which population growth in the region is given, but the city boundary is allowed to vary. We show that in both cases the city will tend to be larger and less dense than is optimal. In each, we examine the sensitivity of the model to the number of neighborhoods and to the size of infrastructure and transportation costs. Finally, we examine optimal subsidies and see how they compare to current policies such as impact fees on new development.     

A CONTEXTUAL THEORY OF RETAIL CENTRAL PLACES ON A LINEAR MARKET*

ABSTRACT. This paper presents an initial version of a new theory of central places for retailing activities. Confined to a linear market and using the Contextual Theory of Demand to model consumer behavior, the model extends the economic theory of central places (Eaton and Lipsey, 1982). In its present form, the model specifies four parameters that control the spatial relationship between the locations of households and the equilibrium locations of central places: expenditure shares in consumption, transportation cost functions, storage costs by commodity, and capital costs of retailers. The locational equilibria of the model are optima when all costs are considered.     

A method of fitting the gravity model based on the Poisson distribution

"In this paper, [the authors] suggest an alternative method for fitting the gravity model. In this method, the interaction variable is treated as the outcome of a discrete probability process, whose mean is a function of the size and distance variables. This treatment seems appropriate when the dependent variable represents a count of the number of items (people, vehicles, shipments) moving from one place to another. It would seem to have special advantages where there are some pairs of places between which few items move. The argument will be illustrated with reference to data on the numbers of migrants moving in 1970-1971 between pairs of the 126 labor market areas defined for Great Britain...."