Ecohydrology and Environmental Change to Lake Albacutya and Wyperfeld Park in North‐Western Victoria,Australia

Lake Albacutya is a well‐known intermittent lake in north‐western Victoria. The lake is near the termination of the Wimmera River. From time‐to‐time the lake fills and flow passes down Outlet Creek into Wyperfeld National Park. The wetlands associated with the lake have a high biodiversity value and are named in international treaties. This paper examines the hydrologic factors associated with lake filling and flow into Wyperfeld. The lake has filled approximately six times since 1880 and has partially filled on other occasions. Examination of rainfall data from 1875 at Horsham gave no indication of long term rainfall decline, and showed that rainfall at Horsham can be viewed as representative of rainfall in the Wimmera River catchment. However a double‐mass analysis showed that the relationship between the Wimmera River flow and rainfall has varied from 1890 to the present. Examination of data associated with six fillings of Lake Albacutya suggested that filling is a two‐year event requiring at least 550 GL of flow passing Horsham over the two years immediately associated with the flood. A simple model based on rainfall and this threshold reproduced observed characteristics of the data reasonably well. This suggested that the flooding frequency of Lake Albacutya has dropped from about one in 25 years in the natural state to a substantially lower frequency under current river conditions. The results also suggested that because of changes in the Wimmera River the last filling and flood into Wyperfeld in 1976 was far smaller than it would otherwise have been. This is consistent with field mapping of the flood in relation to River Red Gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehnh.) stands. Analysis of the health of these stands showed major dieback with the severity of this being roughly proportional to the distance from the 1976 flood boundaries. An examination of values associated with the lake and adjoining Wyperfeld National Park suggested that biodiversity and economic values are and will be compromised by the reduction in flooding. In particular, an internationally‐known provenance of Red Gum is at risk, and bird‐breeding opportunities have diminished.     

Storm Drains as Assemblages: The Political Ecology of Flood Risk in Post‐Colonial Bangalore

Cities around the world are increasingly prone to unequal flood risk. In this paper, I “materialize” the political ecology of urban flood risk by casting stormwater drains—a key artifact implicated in flooding—as recombinant socionatural assemblages. I examine the production of flood risk in the city of Bangalore, India, focusing on the city's informal outskirts where wetlands and circulations of global capital intermingle. Staging a conversation between Marxian and Deleuzian positions, I argue, first, that the dialectics of “flow” and “fixity” are useful in historicizing the relational politics of storm drains from the colonial to the neoliberal era. Second, flood risk has been heightened in the contemporary moment because of an intensified alignment between the flow/fixity of capital and storm drains. Storm drains—and the larger wetlands that they traverse—possess a force‐giving materiality that fuels urban capitalism's risky “becoming‐being”. This argument raises the need for supplementing political‐economic critiques of the city with sociomaterialist understandings of capitalism and risk in the post‐colonial city. The paper concludes with reflections on how assemblage thinking opens up a more distributed notion of agency and a more relational urban political ecology.     

Health hazards of floods: hospital admissions for Lismore

Severe unprecedented flooding of unprepared and inexperienced communities adversely affects community health, but the effect of severe flooding on well-prepared and experienced communities is less certain. An answer was sought for the New South Wales coastal town of Lismore. Parts are flooded every year with the last major flood occurring in 1974. Hospital admission and death certificates were analysed for the years before and after that flood. Using this data and information from an earlier survey two types of analysis were undertaken: a comparison of mortality and hospital admissions before and after the flood; and a comparison of health effects between different levels of flooding, including residents whose properties were located outside the flood plain. Although the flood did not appear to increase the number of hospital admissions or deaths, the ratio of male to female admissions showed a significant change. For those severely flooded, male admissions doubled while female admissions halved. Analysis of the data in relation to flood risk showed that for both pre-and post-flood periods hospital admissions were closely related to the degree of flood risk. Those whose dwellings were subject to a metre or more offloodwater over floor level are twice as likely to be admitted to hospital as residents of the flood free areas.     

Vulnerability to climate change hazards and risks: crop and flood insurance

This paper reviews the widely used concepts of risk and vulnerability as they relate to climate and weather hazards, re‐conceptualizes these terms in the context of climate change and illustrates this development using crop and flood insurance as examples. Government subsidization of insurance against risks associated with adverse climatic conditions and weather events, such as flood damage and crop loss, may lead to individual decisions that actually increase the susceptibility of people, property and economic activities to those risks. The processes that give rise to this phenomenon are important in understanding the vulnerability of human populations to climate change. In many regions, existing conditions that give rise to flooding or crop failure are likely to be exacerbated by climate change over coming decades. In the climate change field, vulnerability has been conceptualised as a function of exposure to risk and as an ability to adapt to the effects. In this context, crop and flood insurance are possible adaptive measures. This treatment of vulnerability compares with similar concepts in insurance and risk management whereby events that cause loss are known as perils, and physical conditions, such as climate change, that increase the likelihood of a peril occurring, are known as physical hazards. Human behaviour that increases the exposure of individuals to potential perils is known as morale hazard or moral hazard, depending on the intentions of the person. Vulnerability consequently becomes a function of hazard and responses taken to reduce risk. Examples of crop and flood insurance programs from Canada, New Zealand and the U.S. are used to show how subsidized insurance might create a morale hazard in addition to physical hazards such as short‐term weather events and long‐term climate change, resulting in a higher level of vulnerability than would otherwise exist. These findings demonstrate that human behaviour affects the formation of both exposure and adaptive capacity in the context of vulnerability to climate change. Responses taken to increase adaptive capacity may in some cases be offset by individual behaviour that increases exposure.     

Critical spatial learning: participatory mapping,spatial histories,and youth civic engagement

As digital technologies become ubiquitous in many places, scholars of civic engagement, youth and political life, and geographic education have explored the potential of teaching critical and spatial thinking through digital technologies. This paper examines interactive digital mapping as a technology environment for teaching and practicing critical spatial thinking, in relation to civic engagement. From this participatory and dialogic mapping project with teenage girls in Seattle, Washington, we develop a conceptualization of critical spatial thinking that emphasizes how social and spatial processes intertwine to generate societal inequalities and show how this learning informs students’ social and spatial civic responses. We show how interactive digital mapping pedagogies offer students an opportunity to develop awareness of what happens in their urban geographies, but also how and what they might do to intervene.     

To what extent can online mapping be decolonial? A journey throughout Indigenous cartography in Canada

In this paper, we describe and reflect upon our journey through Indigenous online mapping in Canada. This journey has been planned according to an academic goal: assessing the potential of online cartography for decolonial purposes. To reach this goal, we have followed methodological directions provided by Indigenous scholar Linda Tuhiwai Smith to review 18 Indigenous web-mapping sites across Canada. Supported by a series of ten interviews, this content analysis enabled us to sketch some of the contours of contemporary Indigenous cartography. On one hand, Indigenous communities largely control the data that are shared on these websites. They also partially control the way these data are represented through the mobilization of digital storytelling technologies that are better aligned with Indigenous ways of envisioning relationships to places than conventional maps. On the other hand, they do not have much control over the technological aspects of these projects, for which they remain heavily dependent on non-Indigenous partners. Throughout this journey, we noticed that women's voices remained marginal in most of these mapping projects, but we also identified evidence supporting the idea that these voices are starting to play a vital role in the on-going effort of decolonizing mapping processes.     

An Area‐Based Approach for Estimating Extreme Precipitation Probability

Accurate estimates of heavy rainfall probabilities reduce loss of life, property, and infrastructure failure resulting from flooding. NOAA's Atlas‐14 provides point‐based precipitation exceedance probability estimates for a range of durations and recurrence intervals. While it has been used as an engineering reference, Atlas‐14 does not provide direct estimates of areal rainfall totals which provide a better predictor of flooding that leads to infrastructure failure, and more relevant input for storm water or hydrologic modeling. This study produces heavy precipitation exceedance probability estimates based on basin‐level precipitation totals. We adapted a Generalized Extreme Value distribution to estimate Intensity‐Duration‐Frequency curves from annual maximum totals. The method exploits a high‐resolution precipitation data set and uses a bootstrapping approach to borrow spatially across homogeneous regions, substituting space in lieu of long‐time series. We compared area‐based estimates of 1‐, 2‐, and 4‐day annual maximum total probabilities against point‐based estimates at rain gauges within watersheds impacted by five recent extraordinary precipitation and flooding events. We found considerable differences between point‐based and area‐based estimates. It suggests that caveats are needed when using pointed‐based estimates to represent areal estimates as model inputs for the purpose of storm water management and flood risk assessment.     

Developments in flood maps for flood risk management in Scotland

ABSTRACT

Sustainable flood risk management in Scotland is underpinned by the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009. Effective delivery of actions to reduce the adverse impact of flooding are dependent on a collaborative approach by Responsible Authorities and a common understanding of flood hazard and risk. Over the last few decades, flood hazard maps have established a prominent role as essential tools in supporting effective flood risk management. They have developed as a result of improved national datasets and advances in computer processing. Improvements in modelling confidence and in the spatial representation of hazard and risk-inform confident actions set out in Flood Risk Management Strategies that coordinate actions supporting adaptation to future hazard conditions. The continued development of the accurate spatial representation of flood hazard and risk is an essential component of enhancing resilience in the face of future climate change.     

Pieces of the Puzzle: The Role of lu. N. Danilov and M. V. Alekseev in Russian War Planning before 1914

International historians have long been fascinated by public opinion and its influence on policy-making, citing it frequently as one of the many factors that inform foreign-policy choices. However, historians – and international historians in particular – have yet to develop any substantial or rigorous methodological frameworks capable of revealing the actual influence of popular opinion at the highest levels of diplomatic policy. This article intends to redress this deficiency by outlining a methodological approach that elucidates the role of public opinion in the decision-making process. In so doing, it will also explore the tensions between different approaches to the study of international history, notably the apparent divergence between traditional ‘diplomatic’ history on the one hand and the more theoretically diffuse ‘international’ history on the other. The conceptual framework forwarded here will suggest that the two approaches need not be in opposition, at least when seeking to explain the formative role of public opinion on foreign-policy making. Indeed, the careful application of inter-disciplinary theoretical frameworks not only enriches our understanding of international history in its totality, but also reveals much about the diplomatic fulcrum of our discipline.     

Monitoring the 1997 flood in the Red River Valley using hydrologic regimes and RADARSAT imagery

In this study, we attempt to relate hydrologic regimes of the 1997 flood in the Red River Valley to the areal extent of flooding, determined from RADARSAT imagery. We obtained ten scenes of RADARSAT imagery, from 27 April to 1 July, including bitmaps delineating flooded areas for each date, from the Manitoba Centre of Remote Sensing. These images were co-registered using an image-to-image registration process. By overlaying these flood maps in chronological order, we compared the areal extent of flooding with the hydrologic regimes of the Red River, expressed as relative depths of flooding above the bankful stage at selected gauging stations. The results of the study indicated that the area of flooding on 4 May (1,984 km ² ) corresponded well with the highest flood levels at several gauging stations. A previous scene on 27 April showed a larger area under water, but visual inspection of the processed imagery indicated a lack of conformity between flood level regimes and the areal extent of flooding on this date due to surface detention of pre-flood storm runoff. Thus, the RADARSAT imagery represented the flood regimes adequately only when its interpretations were combined with hydrologic analysis and visual inspection of surface characteristics of the floodplain.     

Natural and unnatural complexities: flood control along Manitoba's Assiniboine River

Flooding and flood control long have been topics of concern for geographers and historians of North America, from Gilbert White's foundational work to attempts to understand the recent disaster in New Orleans. This paper considers the problem of flood control along the Assiniboine River in the province of Manitoba, Canada. The first section addresses the local landscape and the larger context, explaining changes in the relevant human and physical geography. The second section examines efforts to mitigate flooding, focusing on how the risk of inundation was shifted in location (not eliminated altogether) and compounded through time (not progressively resolved). The third focuses on a further source of complexity: the contested character of government jurisdiction. This final section also addresses major mid twentieth century changes in mitigation efforts: in the light of flooding on an unprecedented scale, governments became more open to compromise and more willing to undertake substantial projects. Gilbert White asserted that while floods are natural occurrences, flood damages are the responsibility of humanity. The question of responsibility might seem relatively clear in relation to flood mitigation, given that dykes are human constructions. The history of flood mitigation along the Assiniboine would suggest, however, that assigning responsibility for the failures and successes of flood mitigation is not so straightforward.     

Floods,communal conflict and the role of local state institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa

Does the occurrence of flood disaster increase the risk of communal conflict and if so, does trust in state political institutions mitigate the adverse effect? This study addresses these questions by studying the intervening effect of trust in local governmental institutions at a sub-national level. The effect of flood disasters on the risk of communal violence is expected to be contingent on peoples’ trust that local political structures are able to address potential disputes between groups. Violent conflicts, in that sense, are neither inevitable nor directly determined by the occurrence of disasters. They largely depend on the context of a given society and political response to these external shocks. To test this expectation, the study uses survey data on trust in local state institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa from the Afrobarometer (2005–2018), combined with geo-referenced communal conflict and flood data. In line with theoretical expectations, results suggest that flood disasters are associated with communal violence only for administrative districts that are governed by distrusted local state institutions. Conversely, flood disasters tend to be negatively associated with the risk of communal clashes in the presence of highly trusted local government councils and (especially) trusted judicial courts. Changing model specifications and estimation techniques produces similar results. An out-of-sample cross-validation also shows that accounting for political variables, in addition to flood disasters, improves the predictive performance of the model.     

Beyond perception: Spatial analysis of detached ADU potential on residential lots in Windsor,Ontario

This paper analyzes the spatial potential of detached additional dwelling units (ADUs) in Windsor, Ontario. A new GIS model, which integrates various geoprocessing commands in ArcGIS 10.8.1, is developed to calculate whether the minimum allowable size of a detached ADU can fit within the total buildable area of a residential property, based on the setbacks, the lot coverage requirements, and other factors (such as parking and flood plain areas). The model uses publicly sourced data that were obtained from the City of Windsor's Open Data Portal. More specifically, individual residential parcels and associated building footprints along with street centerlines are used as inputs to the model. The outputs are then categorized into three types (suitable, potentially suitable, and not suitable) to demonstrate where detached ADUs can be built in compliance with the local zoning bylaws, on both an individual lot basis and at an aggregate level. The conducted analysis reveals the potential of existing residential neighbourhoods in a mid-size city, and has many implications for homeowners, policymakers, and researchers with respect to increasing housing supply within current Canadian municipalities.     

A missing link? Network analysis as an empirical approach for critical physical geography

Critical physical geography (CPG) calls for integrative research on material landscapes and the socio-political dynamics of scientific knowledge production. Network analysis, a rich tradition of tools and approaches for analyzing relational information, has seen little use in the CPG literature to date. This represents a fruitful opportunity, as many of CPG's core interests—knowledge politics, histories of scientific concepts, and ecosocial relations—can be effectively analyzed using network techniques. In this article, I argue for adapting network approaches to CPG. First, I provide an overview of various network concepts, approaches, and their origins. I then discuss bibliometric network techniques for “science mapping” including co-word, co-authorship, and citation analyses. Next, I describe discourse network analysis, a recent mixed-method approach from political science. Finally, I discuss overlaps with emerging approaches from qualitative and visual network analysis. In each section, I provide existing and hypothetical examples, as well as software and visualization techniques, that demonstrate how network approaches could add new insights to CPG and related scholarship. Linking CPG with the diverse traditions of network analysis has the potential to produce new empirical understandings and bring the field into conversation with a growing body of research that spans the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities.     

明清时期山西的城市洪灾及其防治

明清时期山西的城市洪灾普遍而严重,曾遭受洪水冲击的城市达到62座。地方社会的防治措施大致可以归纳为“拦”、“疏”、“蓄”三类。具体而言,“拦”,即在城郊修筑拦洪堤堰以障水,这是明清山西城市防洪的主要措施,其中某些城市堤堰的筑造技术值得关注;“疏”,即通过开凿水口、疏浚城壕及新凿河渠等手段,使洪水远离城区;“蓄”,就是在城内利用既有低洼之地或新凿陂池,以蓄积雨洪。以上举措并未能彻底改变山西城市洪灾普遍且严重的状况,探究起来,城市的地理坐落、生态环境破坏导致的水土流失、城市建成区的扩展等,是不容忽视的三大诱发因素。     

Spectres,monstres et fantômes: Les Chants de Maldoror et le spectacle de la fantasmagorie

As an introduction to his show in the Capucins' convent, Etienne Robertson states, "Gentlemen, the spectacle about to take place under your very eyes is not a frivolous one. It was created for the thinking man, for the philosopher who enjoys wandering among the tombs" (qtd. in Remise 41). The nineteenth century, and Robertson in particular, grant phantasmagoria a large place in history, even though the concept and the technique existed long before.

With such a success, it should not be surprising that phantasmagoria found its home in literature, especially in Isidore Ducasse's (Comte de Lautréamont's) texts. Indeed, Maldoror's Cantos, in which visual effects hold a significant place, seem to occur behind a thick fog that the reader appears to have difficulty escaping. Just as the spectacles of phantasmagoria are not meant for a "frivolous" audience, as Robertson said, the Cantos are not meant for a reader whom Lautréamont defines as "naive." This article will focus on the visual arts that were prevalent at the time and their influence on the Cantos. Using Roland Barthes's theory, the author shows that Maldoror's Cantos can be read as a spectacle of phantasmagoria in writing.     

Managing flood risk in the UK: towards an integration of social and technical perspectives

In recent years, an apparent increase in the frequency and severity of floods in the UK has led to growing concerns about societal exposure and vulnerability to flooding, particularly in the context of climate change, floodplain development and changing insurance practices. Despite the important link between assessments of exposure to flooding (hazard assessments) and issues of societal vulnerability, this link has rarely been explored in detail and has often been reflected in policy terms by a highly technocratic approach to flood risk management. Indeed, more comprehensive studies have usually favoured rigid and deterministic definitions of vulnerability, in keeping with the wider technocratic paradigm pervading management institutions. In an attempt to redress the balance, this paper considers the role of hazard assessment and issues of societal vulnerability as mutually informative debates and advocates a movement away from the technocratic ideals currently favoured in the UK.     

Teaching creative geovisualization: Imagining the creative in/of GIS

Creative geovisualization is situated at the intersection of geography, arts, and digital humanities with a particular emphasis on visualization and mapping that preserves, represents, and generates more authentic, contextual, and nuanced meanings of space and people with an artistic and humanistic perspective and approach. This is a creative expansion in critical GIS practices and a new alternative to traditionally science-rooted approaches to GIS and mapping. Reflecting the experience of teaching a “creative geovisualization” course in an interdisciplinary curriculum, I demonstrate how critical and creative scholarship with mapping and geovisualization is introduced in the classroom and is illuminated in the students' creative practices. The class encompasses key epistemological and methodological groundings of creative geovisualization—including non-representational theories; critical cartography and GIS; the convergence of geography, arts, and humanities; psychogeography; and qualitative and affective geovisualization. Empirical examples of students' works illustrate the blending of different modes of creative engagements with GIS and geovisualization and specific ways to work with various forms of embodied, relational, interpretive, and expressive geographies. GIS and mapping become creative as they continue evolving in process, and it is time that we deeply (re-)imagine “the creative” in/of GIS in critical GIS pedagogies.     

Natural flood management: small-scale progress and larger-scale challenges

ABSTRACT

Management of fluvial flood risk in the UK is undergoing a paradigm shift, with a change in emphasis from solely working with structural defences to considering catchment-based measures which attenuate flood runoff. Natural Flood Management (NFM) is promoted as a method that can reduce flood risk through the alteration, restoration or use of landscape features. Here we highlight the potential to manage runoff locally in the rural landscape using NFM by targeting flow pathways and utilising floodplains and riparian zones. Using two case study examples from the UK, we show that by accumulating dispersed small-scale storage in small catchment areas (<10 km²) can assist in attenuating flood runoff. However, there is currently a lack of evidence of measure effectiveness at larger catchment scales and for managing extreme flood events. Nevertheless, there is a strong evidence base to suggest many of these measures deliver a range of different ecosystem services if installed in the correct location in the landscape.     

The affordable housing,transportation, and food nexus: Community gardens and healthy affordable living in Calgary

This study examining community gardens in Calgary was initiated in collaboration with the non-profit organization, Sustainable Calgary, as part of their housing-transportation-food nexus initiative. The main research objectives were to determine the socio-economic demographics of neighbourhoods that support community gardens and the proximity of community gardens to active transportation and public transit. Methods included the use of GIS visualization and quantitative analyses to investigate relationships between demographic variables of neighbourhoods that support community gardens, as well as the accessibility of active transit routes and Light Rail Transit stations. Findings show that community garden neighbourhoods are located in neighbourhoods with significantly fewer visible minorities, higher levels of educational attainment, and more attached dwellings such as apartments and townhomes. The average distance of community gardens from a major bike lane is 330 m, while the average distance from a Light Rail Transit station is 1.78 km. This study suggests potential inequities that may be present within the proliferation of public community gardens based on socio-economic factors other than economic capital. This paper concludes with a discussion surrounding implications and recommendations to further the equitable expansion of community gardens.