Ambivalent greenings,collateral conservation: Negotiating ecology in a United Nations buffer zone

This article focuses on the politics of environmental conservation in the UN Buffer Zone (BZ) that divides the island of Cyprus. On the one hand, it underscores the unintended conservation benefits which resulted after the violent depopulation of the BZ. On the other hand, it shows how the protracted conflict and its transformation into a post-violent one, has ‘softened up’ the BZ, and gave rise to new demands for human access and land development. The BZ as a spatial legacy of the Cyprus conflict thus illustrates the paradoxes of conservation practices in unintended ecological zones, which we term collateral conservation. It also underscores the modi vivendi negotiated among a broadened range of actors in pursuit of rival anthropocentric or ecological goals.     

南京大学土地利用学科发展回顾与展望

南京大学是国内较早开展土地利用研究的高校之一。1949年后特别是改革开放以来,南京大学土地利用学科取得了突飞猛进的发展,目前已形成了一个相对完整的跨学科发展体系。经过长期的研究凝练,学科目前已逐步形成了"土地利用与规划"、"土地经济与政策"、"土地评价与整治"三个重点研究领域,并在"城市土地利用管理"和"农户土地利用行为"等方面形成了一定的研究特色。今后,南京大学将围绕"全面实现国内一流优势学科,达到国际同类研究一流水平"的目标,通过凝聚力量争取重大科研项目,引进或培养领军人物,加强重点实验室建设等战略举措,建成与国际接轨的具有南京大学特色的土地利用学科体系。     

Long-term agrarian landscapes in the Troodos foothills,Cyprus

We investigate the temporal and environmental relationships between the terraced hill slopes of Politiko-Koloiokremmos and the adjacent Bronze Age settlement of Politiko-Troullia in foothills of the Troodos Mountains, central Cyprus. Mapping of 102 stone walls on Koloiokremmos is compared with 66 walls farther afield on Cyprus to create a six-part terrace typology. Sherd counts from 174 2-m radius collection circles over approximately 20 ha on Troullia and Koloiokremmos were used to create interpolated sherd density surfaces revealing distinctly different patterns of land use for four major archaeological eras between the Cypriot Bronze Age and Medieval Period. We compared sherd density patterns according to terrace types, length, slope and vegetation cover determined by SAVI (Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index) from Ikonos and Quickbird satellite imagery.The most robust sherd patterning indicates Prehistoric Bronze Age settlement at Troullia, as confirmed by soil resistivity and excavation, and multi-period land use on Koloiokremmos immediately upslope of the village that may be associated with agricultural terracing. Scattered sherd concentrations indicate later use of this landscape as an agricultural hinterland for the Iron Age city of Tamassos. Sherds and a down slope spread of roof tiles from the Roman through Medieval periods suggest an isolated structure near the crest of Koloiokremmos. Longer terraces correlate with greater vegetation cover and are interpreted as agricultural, while shorter terraces, apparently for erosion control and arboriculture, are significantly related to Prehistoric Bronze Age sherd patterns. Our results suggest that coordinated analysis of archaeological, geographical and remotely sensed environmental data associated with terraced landscapes can be used to infer long-term patterns of agricultural land use.     

历史时期内蒙古LUCC时空过程及其驱动机制

本文的研究中,在内蒙古地区地质学、古地理学和环境演变方面已有研究成果以及考古与历史文献资料的基础上,修复和描述了内蒙古陆地形成以来的地质历史时期和人类历史时期内蒙古土地利用/覆盖时空演变过程,并探索其驱动机制与因素,从而为正确把握内蒙古地区近现代土地利用/覆盖变化时空轨迹提供科学依据。古代相当长的历史时期,内蒙古地区基本上被游牧民族所占据,达到了一种古代的可持续发展。清代中期以后,特别是进入20世纪以来,随着几次大规模的移民拓荒高潮,耕地面积急速扩展而草场面积日益退缩,内蒙古草原生态环境遭遇空前的破坏,沙漠化和草原退化急速加快,土地利用变化和土地利用方式成为了土地覆盖变化的最主要驱动因子。土地利用变化(开垦草原、毁林开荒)的驱动因子主要有人口因素、经济利益和政府决策等三个方面,而且每一次大规模开荒时期三者往往相辅相成,促成新一轮的开荒高潮。     

Site prioritization and the reproduction of inequity in the restoration of Biscayne Bay

The restoration of urban estuaries is challenging due to the complexity of prioritizing sites in a context of social and biophysical unevenness. Site prioritization and selection are crucial components of ecological success and equity in restoration. In many cases, site prioritization is conducted according to simple opportunity or political expediency, but this needs to be investigated further in local contexts, with accompanying analysis of the impacts on urban environmental equity. Using a critical physical geography framework, I explore site selection processes in the restoration of Biscayne Bay through case studies of two urban streams. I use multiple data types to present an integrated perspective on urban restoration priority and the social context that produces restoration siting decisions. I find that the logics of restoration site selection in the Biscayne Bay watershed have produced ecologically questionable decisions and inequitable outcomes. Therefore, I argue that restoration decision making needs to include environmental justice criteria.     

Land Tenure, Archaeology, and the Ancestral Pueblo Social Landscape

Archaeology relies upon evidence of past human modification of the natural landscape in order to infer past human social dynamics on the site, local, and regional levels. Given the inferential linkages between past landscape use and social relationships, archaeology can benefit from an approach that more explicitly delineates relationships between systems of land use and land tenure, the social means through which people define and assert land use rights. This research outlines a set of methods for modeling prehistoric land tenure systems and developing a middle range theory of land tenure relationships that may assist archaeologists in their investigations of prehistoric resource access systems. Land tenure systems are complex risk-buffering strategies that are conditioned by the labor invested in food production, the size of groups holding direct access to productive lands and resources, and the temporal duration of land access rights. The role of these variables is supported by cross-cultural data from a worldwide sample of food-producing societies. The land tenure model is applied to data from the prehistoric Southwest to help explain local and regional changes in food production, settlement size, and community organization in southwest Colorado between 900 and 1300 A.D.     

First Introduction and Early Exploitation of the Persian Fallow Deer on Cyprus (8000–6000 cal. bc)

The Persian fallow deer (Dama dama mesopotamica) is currently a threatened species. However, it played an important role in many Late Glacial and Early Holocene human societies in the Near and Middle East. This is especially true of the island of Cyprus, where it was introduced at the beginning of the Neolithic and held a predominant place in human subsistence throughout Cypriot prehistory until the Bronze Age. The earliest levels of the extensive Cypriot Pre‐Pottery Neolithic B site of Shillourokambos, occupied between 8400 and 7000 cal. bc , provided 3036 identified remains of this deer. It was possible to measure or determine the age‐at‐death for 1361 and 1444 remains, respectively. Analyses allow for discussions on when the fallow deer was introduced to the island of Cyprus, its origin and how populations were managed. These studies also lead to the reconstruction of acquisition and butchery techniques, as well as culinary practices, and the morphological evolution of males and females throughout time. The Persian fallow deer was introduced to Cyprus later than suids, dogs, cats, goats and cattle, and at nearly the same time as sheep, towards ca 8000 cal. bc . Despite the absence of any skeletal changes, this introduction may reflect an attempt to domesticate the fallow deer on the nearby continental mainland. However, after being introduced to the island, deer appear to have been released into the wild and hunted. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

湖泊流域社会生态系统脆弱性时空演变及调控研究——以滇池为例

脆弱性研究领域不断从自然生态系统向社会自然复合系统扩展,从社会生态系统视角动态化和人文化地研究脆弱性已成为趋势。湖泊流域是多层级的复合的社会生态系统,从流域角度、社会生态系统层面、体制机制维度,综合分析社会生态系统脆弱性的驱动机制,对系统治理和源头治理湖泊流域具有重大意义。文章以滇池为例,将"压力-状态-响应"模型和"暴露度-敏感性-恢复力"模型结合,构建脆弱性分析框架和评价模型,探寻湖泊流域社会生态系统脆弱性时空演变规律和脆弱性驱动机制,提出了湖泊流域脆弱性调控和区域可持续发展的思路。     

交通拥堵治理的空间与基础设施政策综述

交通拥堵是制约国内外城市可持续发展的瓶颈问题之一,给城市经济、社会与环境带来诸多负面影响.本文聚焦城市交通拥堵的结构性因素,系统归纳和综述了引导可持续出行行为的空间政策(如城市空间结构和土地利用政策)与基础设施供应侧政策(如道路和公共交通基础设施投资政策),及其在交通拥堵治理上的理论探讨、学术争论焦点、实证分析及当前亟...     

Promoting Environmental Education for Sustainable Development: The Value of Links between Higher Education and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

Environmental sustainability education, the dissemination of environmental education for sustainable development into the community, should be a lifelong process and not one restricted to a learner's years in higher education. Informal environmental sustainability education, including personal involvement in NGO environmental action, can be an effective way of increasing the understanding of environmental and sustainability issues. NGO projects help provide practical environmental education to environmentally aware people who have built their careers in other areas. In the process, they help environmental awareness to trickle into areas of life where it would not ordinarily impinge. In this case study of a community-based land reclamation research project, supported jointly by the NGO Earthwatch and Oxford Brookes University, analysis of the motivations and experiences of project volunteers shows that their aims include making a personal contribution to enhancing the quality of the environment and networking with like-minded individuals, and that they expect to carry their new understanding back into their everyday lives to influence other people in their workplace. Engagement in practical work and action research may help overcome some of the negativity linked to many assessments of the human impact on the environment and, working together, universities and NGOs can more effectively ‘think globally and act locally’. NGOs may provide the best hope for helping to change the destructive aspects of modern society but they are vulnerable through financial dependency on sponsors, volunteers and donors.     

Climate change,environmental degradation and armed conflict

Climate change is expected to bring about major change in freshwater availability, the productive capacity of soils, and in patterns of human settlement. However, considerable uncertainties exist with regard to the extent and geographical distribution of these changes. Predicting scenarios for how climate-related environmental change may influence human societies and political systems necessarily involves an even higher degree of uncertainty. The direst predictions about the impacts of global warming warn about greatly increased risks of violent conflict over increasingly scarce resources such as freshwater and arable land. We argue that our best guess about the future has to be based on our knowledge about the relationship between demography, environment and violent conflict in the past. Previous rigorous studies in the field have mostly focused on national-level aggregates. This article represents a new approach to assess the impact of environment on internal armed conflict by using georeferenced (GIS) data and small geographical, rather than political, units of analysis. It addresses some of the most important factors assumed to be strongly influenced by global warming: land degradation, freshwater availability, and population density and change. While population growth and density are associated with increased risks, the effects of land degradation and water scarcity are weak, negligible or insignificant. The results indicate that the effects of political and economic factors far outweigh those between local level demographic/environmental factors and conflict.     

Contested migration and settler politics in Cyprus

Immigration and settler literatures provide contrasting approaches to the evaluation of conflict between ‘newcomers’ and ‘indigenous’ groups. On the one hand, immigration studies emphasize that newcomers, particularly migrants, almost never fight civil wars; on the other hand, studies on settlers in contested territories expect inherently unstable relations between settlers and native populations affected by colonization projects. While each provides strong evidence to support its argument, neither literature has adequately accounted for hybrid cases where the settler and migrant categories have become almost indistinguishable. The article focuses on Cyprus as a paradigmatic such case. Specifically, it looks at populations transferred from Turkey to the northern part of the island after 1974 described either as settlers or immigrants by rival accounts in the Cypriot conflict. While colonization constitutes a violation of international conventions and a major obstacle to peace, settlers in such places as Cyprus, Tibet or Western Sahara often meet the profile of migrant populations more interested in daily survival issues than in territorial politics. In contrast to other historical or contemporary cases of settler colonialism such as Algeria (France) or West Bank and Gaza (Israel), what is particularly puzzling in Cyprus and elsewhere is the absence of mobilization and politicization among settlers despite perceived discrimination and fear of relocation following a negotiated peace agreement. Addressing this puzzle is essential to bridging the gaps between immigration and settler literatures and in mediating the tensions between conflicting claims over space, land and the political geography of peace settlements in deeply divided societies.     

Buried soils in the context of geoarchaeological research—two examples from Germany and Ethiopia

Pedology is a discipline with a wide range of applications in geology, geomorphology, archaeology, geoarchaeology and geography. Especially paleopedology aims are to answer questions about climatic changes, rates of pedogenic processes, pedostratigraphy, suitability of former surface soils and human occupation. In combination to other disciplines, pedology aims to advance geoscientific methods at different scales, and during the last decades, (paleo)pedological research increasingly touched archaeological fields whereby soil research was mostly somehow included in geoarchaeology. When the term ‘archaeopedology’ was introduced in the 1940s, researchers were already aware of the importance of the subject ‘soil’ as being a key figure when answering questions of site formation history, cultural chronology and environmental change. The present paper aims to reintroduce this term to the scientific community and to accentuate the importance of buried soils within geoarchaeological research. Shown by two different studies, one from Upper Palaeolithic sites in the Ueckermünder Heide/Germany and one from ancient Yeha/Ethiopia the archaeopedological approach highlights the importance of pedological research on- and off-site excavations by clearly bridging a gap between archaeology, geoarchaeology and (paleo)pedology.     

Evaluating background noise: Assessing off-site data from field surveys around the Italic sanctuary of S. Giovanni in Galdo,Molise, Italy

Abstract

This study demonstrates the potential of intensive sampling and off-site analyses to identify evidence of human activity in the past using the off-site data collected around the Italic sanctuary of S. Giovanni in Galdo, Molise, Italy. Rather than employing general and monocausal explanatory models—e.g., large-scale erosion or ancient manuring—to account for off-site material, this study examines ceramic ware variability from surface collections within the local context. It reveals that the ceramic ware variability in samples from low density areas with low visibility can be an important indicator of past human activity. The results of this examination of background noise—or unexplained variability in off-site material—from the Sacred Landscape Project increase the number and types of sites recognized in the surface collections. Furthermore, the analysis reduces the amount of surface material that can be regarded as off-site material and thus changes its composition. The overall results shed new light on the origins of off-site material and whether it should be interpreted as evidence of human activity in historical landscapes.     

干旱区流域下游绿洲环境变化及其成因分析——以甘肃省河西地区石羊河流域下游民勤县为例

本文主要根据社会调查结果资料分析了甘肃省河西地区石羊河流域下游民勤县的环境变化趋势及其成因,认为中国西部干旱区各流域下游几乎都存在环境恶化趋势。20世纪50年代以来,该地区地下水位迅速下降,沙漠化、土壤盐渍化、植被衰退过程加快,农业生产受到很大影响。造成环境变化的人文原因主要是全流域人口增长过快所引致的耕地扩张所造成的农业用水需求无节制的增长,导致中上游截留下游淡水资源,使得下游地下水利用规模逐年扩张引致地下水位快速下降和水质迅速恶化。后者又导致盐渍化过程加剧以及农业产量的急剧下降。农业产量下降又成为盲目开垦荒地的主导因素之一。这些都导致了植被衰退和破坏,共同造成了生态环境的灾难性突变。     

Oral Histories and Scientific Knowledge in Understanding Environmental Change: a case study in the Tumut Region,NSW

What can professional land managers gain by consulting with local communities? Scientific knowledge provides valuable insights into the causes of environmental change and the processes by which it occurs but often lacks a historical dimension. Recollections of local people can supplement both historical records and scientific understandings of cause and process to achieve a more comprehensive picture of change over time. However, the process of memory is tied to life experience and is highly selective. Any attempt to use oral accounts in constructing a picture of environmental change over time must also include an analysis of the process of memory itself. Drawing on oral histories with long term residents of the Tumut region of NSW, this paper explores the nature of local environmental knowledge and evaluates oral history as a source of information for understanding environmental history and the impact of changing patterns of land use.     

Archaeobotanical inference of Bronze Age land use and land cover in the eastern Mediterranean

Charcoal and charred seeds at five Bronze Age archaeological sites discern ancient land use in the eastern Mediterranean. Seed frequencies of orchard crops, annual cereals and pulses, and wild or weedy plants are used to characterize plant utilization at different archaeological sites on the island of Cyprus, in the Rift Valley of Jordan, and in the Jabbul Plain and along the upper Euphrates River valley in Syria. Seed to charcoal ratios provide proxies to determine the relative usage of dung versus wood for fuel across the ancient Mediterranean landscape. Greater charcoal and lower charred seed values are interpreted to represent a wooded environment, while higher amounts of charred seeds and minimal wood charcoal suggest a much great use of dung as a fuel source. Interestingly, Politiko-Troullia (Cyprus, Cypriot archaeological sites are, by convention, named for the nearest modern village (Politiko), followed by an italicized toponym (Troullia) referring to the plot of land that incorporates the site) has the lowest seed to charcoal ratio, suggesting its residents primarily burned wood and that the landscape surrounding Troullia remained relatively wooded during the Bronze Age. In contrast, villagers at Tell el-Hayyat (Jordan) utilized a mixture of wood and dung, in contrast to Tell Abu en-Ni’aj (Jordan), and especially Umm el-Marra and Tell es-Sweyhat (Syria), where inhabitants relied solely on dung fuel. Comparative analysis and interpretation of seed and charcoal evidence thus illustrates the variety of fuel use strategies necessitated by the dynamic and diverse Bronze Age landscapes of the Eastern Mediterranean.     

HOARDS D'OEUVRES: OF METALS & MEN ON BRONZE AGE CYPRUS

Summary. Diverse streams of archaeological and metallurgical research have demonstrated that Cyprus was an important regional copper producer and supplier during the eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age, at least from 1700–1100 BC. Until recently, research into metallurgical production and exchange on Bronze Age Cyprus necessarily focused on technological change and chronological division. Metals' provenience studies have begun to mature, and economic approaches related to copper production and exchange have begun to appear. In stark contrast to recent literature on "hoarding" activity in Bronze and Iron Age Europe, virtually no attention has been paid to the manner in which metals enter the archaeological record. In response to a growing body of theoretical literature, this study examines the gift-commodity model and finds it wanting; instead the deposition of Cypriote hoards is considered from a politico-economic perspective, and in light of socio-historical and metallurgical data relevant to interregional developments in the contemporary Mediterranean world.     

南京市区就业空间布局研究

本文采取就业密度分析方法,对南京市区就业空间布局进行实证研究。在南京市区现有11个区的基础上将南京市区划分为159个研究单元。依据2005年南京市1%人口抽样调查资料中"区县层面"分行业就业数据,以及2006年南京市用地现状图,修正匹配得到各个研究单元制造业、服务业、商业金融业及总的就业密度值。并运用Arcgis软件对就业密度值进行核密度分析以及3D模拟,分析南京市区制造业、服务业以及总就业的空间布局特征及原因机制。     

环境营造:中国历史上人类活动对全球变化的贡献

在古代-近现代中国,历时数千年人类活动展开所具有的时空条件、土地面积和经营方式、人口规模和质量、社会组织形式、社会形态延续条件等基本内容,在世界各国中是难有其比的。国外许多科学家将加大力度利用丰富的历史文献(中文为主),用于研究和解释人类活动对地球环境变化可能具有的作用和影响份额的希望,寄托在中国科学家和历史学家身上,是有充足理由的。本文认为,发挥国情和历史地理专业优势,现阶段可以视为全球变化研究框架中的重要内容是(1)土地利用与土地覆盖格局的变化;(2)流域生命-文化环境的构成及其成长;(3)河湖海系统的演变;(4)制度和政策因素怎样调节人类的社会经济行为;(5)提取和整理对地球环境有重大影响的自然、人文事件。为了对人类活动引起环境变化的影响和作用作出较为准确的判断,研究中需要做好的事项有(1)排查文献资料中的人为主观撰述因素;(2)核实人类活动可以影响的范围或方面;(3)分析人类活动本身包含的复杂性因素;(4)充分估计自然本身的力量;(5)尊重和学习其它专业的研究方法及其实验结果。时至今日,科学事业发展的形势,已经将历史学加入自然科学研究计划的工作提到了研究时间表上。