Engineering-Geomorphology Characteristics and Regionalization of the Main River Valleys of Siberia in Connection with Hydroelectric Power Development

A geomorphic regionalization of the main river valleys of Siberia is proposed for purposes of selecting potential sites for hydroelectric power stations. The regionalization is based on geomorphic features that relate to the stability of dams and to construction conditions: valley morphology; composition and thickness of sediments; geological structure and properties of dam-foundation rocks; permafrost and slope processes; seismic activity; local availability of building materials. Six basic regions are distinguished: mountains, plains, the intermediate piedmont, trap plateau, stratified plateau, tableland. Potential dam sites are listed for each major region together with projects that have been completed or are in progress.     

The Development of new Agricultural Lands in North Vietnam in 1961–65

Despite an expansion of the irrigated area in the plains and an increase in rice yields, the food situation in North Vietnam remains strained by a mean annual population growth of 3 percent. In an effort to add to the food supply, the North Vietnamese authorities have favored an expansion of dry-field food crops (sweet potatoes, manioc, corn) in the country's mountain zone. Under this program, one million people migrated during the five-year period 1961–1965 from the densely settled plains to the mountains to join old farm cooperatives, establish new cooperatives, and work in state farms, forestry and craft industries. The movement from the plains to the mountains was reinforced by the American bombing campaign at the end of the five-year period. The mountain development drive has resulted in a slight improvement of the food situation by an 11-percent increase of the cultivated area. However, the mountain cooperatives are poorly supplied with implements and technical know-how, and poor farming practices are promoting erosion.     

Urbanization Processes in North Vietnam

The pattern of urbanization of North Vietnam is traced from 1945 through 1960 to 1970. The average contribution of the in-migration component to urban growth was 40 percent from 1945 to 1965, but a slight net out-migration from cities marked the period of American bombings of North Vietnam after 1965. As a result urban population declined from 1.9 million in 1965 to 1.84 million in 1970, while total population of North Vietnam rose from 17.5 to 20 million. Urban growth has been distinguished by rapid rates of growth in large cities, low rates in middle-size cities, and no growth or even decline of population in the small urban places.     

An Attempt to Classify the Landscapes of the USSR

The author, who regards landscapes as physical terrain types rather than as regional units, briefly surveys previous approaches to landscape classification and offers his own classification scheme. The scheme is based on a major division of all landscapes into plains (lowland and upland) and mountain types (distinguished by vertical zonality). Within the classification, soils and bioclimatic criteria are used to determine the upper rungs of the hierarchy, and geological and geomorphic criteria are taken into account mainly at the lower levels.     

Cartographic Techniques of Agricultural Regionalization

The use of a series of correlated maps is proposed as an approach to agricultural regionalization. Because of the dynamic character of farm production, two stages in the regionalization process are distinguished: a delimitation of existing agricultural regions and a delimitation of future regions. The basic principle underlying the compilation of agricultural regionalization maps IS to combine the resource base of agriculture with the actual types of farming. Maps of existing regions would also show the volume and structure of farm production, population and farm employment. In the delimitation of long-term future agricultural regions, the emphasis is on determining the potential biological productivity (climate and soils) of regions and the expected volume of production, based on food needs, industrial processing of farm products and the prospects of interregional trade in farm products.     

Late Paleolithic and Mesolithic Coastlines of Greece and the Aegean

Abstract

Reconstructions of the late Quaternary paleogeography of Greece and the Aegean show that at 18,000 years B.P. the northern Aegean and northern Adriatic formed large coastal plains traversed by many rivers. Broad plains also existed off the coast of Elis and the present Gulf of Korinth, and along the Anatolian coast. Many islands, such as Kerkira, Euboea, and the northern Sporadhes, were connected with the mainland, and most of the Cycladic islands were joined together in a Cycladic semi-peninsula. The post-glacial rise of sea level beginning ca. 15,000 B.P. restored around 9,000 B.P. the coastal geography to approximately its present configuration. The late Quaternary paleogeography and its subsequent changes have many archeological implications that are worth serious consideration. The well-watered northern coastal plains may have furnished subsistence for a plains population quite independent of the resources of the northern mountain regions, and they constituted easy access to the Greek peninsula from the NE and NW. Loss of coastal plain land during the post-glacial rise of sea level drastically changed the resource base in many areas. The island of Melos, known source of obsidian for toolmaking since at least 10,000 B.P., may have been discovered considerably earlier when access to the island was largely over land.     

p‐Functional Clusters Location Problem for Detecting Spatial Clusters with Covering Approach

Regionalization or districting problems commonly require each individual spatial unit to participate exclusively in a single region or district. Although this assumption is appropriate for some regionalization problems, it is less realistic for delineating functional clusters, such as metropolitan areas and trade areas where a region does not necessarily have exclusive coverage with other regions. This paper develops a spatial optimization model for detecting functional spatial clusters, named the p‐functional clusters location problem (p‐FCLP), which has been developed based on the Covering Location Problem. By relaxing the complete and exhaustive assignment requirement, a functional cluster is delineated with the selective spatial units that have substantial spatial interaction. This model is demonstrated with applications for a functional regionalization problem using three journey‐to‐work flow datasets: (1) among the 46 counties in South Carolina, (2) the counties in the East North Central division of the US Census, and (3) all counties in the US. The computational efficiency of p‐FCLP is compared with other regionalization problems. The computational results show that detecting functional spatial clusters with contiguity constraints effectively solves problems with optimality in a mixed integer programming (MIP) approach, suggesting the ability to solve large instance applications of regionalization problems.     

Vietnam's Coastal Communities: An Assessment of Poverty

A Vietnamese geographer examines factors leading to the persistence of poverty in the coastal regions of Vietnam, against the backdrop of the country's overall recent success in poverty amelioration. After reviewing the spatial pattern of poverty for Vietnam as a whole, based on current government statistics, the author contrasts the situation in the country's interior relative to coastal locations, based on a detailed survey of over 200 households in Khanhhoa Province, located in south-central Vietnam. The changing labor market conditions in East Asia are discussed briefly in light of continued poverty reduction in the country. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: D31, I31, O15, P20. 4 figures, 5 tables, 33 references.     

Formation of beach‐ridge plains: an appreciation of the contribution by Jack L. Davies

A robust debate among coastal geomorphologists as to the processes by which beach‐ridge plains around Australia have formed was initiated by a former President of the Institute of Australian Geographers. This review gives special consideration to the work of Jack L. Davies, whose academic contributions to coastal geomorphology in Australia have not always been appropriately acknowledged when explaining how similar plains have evolved elsewhere in the world. Davies recognised that relatively steep storm waves caused erosion (cut) on beaches, whereas less steep long‐period swell waves returned sand (fill). He considered the beach berm to be the nucleus on which a beach ridge formed, which could subsequently develop into a foredune, in contrast to cobble ridges that were deposited during storms. Offshore conditions regulate supply of sand to the shoreline, partly through effects on wave refraction, with higher rates of supply where the nearshore is shallow. It was apparent to Davies that the elevation of successive ridges might, but not necessarily, provide evidence of past changes of sea level, despite adornment by variable amounts of windblown dune sand. Morphodynamic understanding of long‐term coastal evolution, based on radiocarbon dating chronologies, has demonstrated that Australian coastal plains formed over the past ~6,000 years when sea level has been close to its present level, in contrast to several documented locations in the northern hemisphere where the sea has been rising for the past few millennia. Particularly insightful were observations by Davies that ridge formation could be influenced by a range of factors including changes in sea level, storminess, or sediment supply. These factors acting singly or in combination seem likely to change in the future. Understanding such responses remains a high priority and can be addressed by new technologies, such as light detection and ranging, optically stimulated luminescence dating, ground‐penetrating radar, and computer simulation.     

IMPROVING THE ADMINISTRATIVE-TERRITORIAL DIVISION OF THE USSR

An essay devoted to improving the present system of oblasts, krays, ASSRs, etc. (i.e., political administrative units) focuses on current imbalances among these units in terms of size, population, etc. and their spatial incompatibility with emerging territorial production complexes. Historical factors contributing to current problems in territorial administration are outlined. Among the general approaches to improving the administrative-territorial system advocated by the author are the granting of political-administrative status to territorial production complexes and their incorporation within the administrative-territorial hierarchy and greater recognition of socioeconomic and environmental characteristics in the formulation of regionalization schemes. Translated by Elliott B. Urdang, Providence, RI 02906 from: Territorial'naya organizatsiya obshchestva i problemy mezhnatsional'nykh otnosheniy: Materialy k IX s'yezdu Geograficheskogo Obshchestva SSSR. Leningrad: Geograficheskoye Obshchestvo SSSR, 1990, pp. 32-38.     

Lyndon Johnson's War? Part 1: Escalation

At the beginning of 1964 there were around 20,000 US military ‘advisers’ in South Vietnam, working alongside the South Vietnamese army in the latter's campaign against the communist guerrillas, led and supplied by the government of North Vietnam. By the summer of 1965 there were 125,000 American troops in the country, with more pledged for future deployment. Most of these were not ‘advisers’, but combat forces openly engaged in fighting the communists. In addition, since March 1965, a sustained American bombing campaign had been waged against targets in North Vietnam. This transformation in the nature of the American commitment to South Vietnam had been brought about by two factors: the continued weakness of South Vietnamese governments as military and civilians struggled for control; and the growing strength and success of the communist guerrillas. South Vietnam was regarded as a vital American interest for two reasons: it was perceived as a test of US resolution throughout the rest of the world; and, following the famous ‘domino theory’, it was believed that the loss of South Vietnam to communism would precipitate the weakening and eventual collapse of other non‐communist states in the region. Although there was opposition to the escalation of the war, both in Congress and the administration, there were also voices notably in the military, who wished to press on further and faster. The administration adopted a middle course, gradually increasing its commitment and continually planning for the next step. Although political motives undoubtedly played a part in this more measured approach—there was a presidential election in November 1964—it is clear that President Johnson was not at all convinced that any policy he chose would save South Vietnam. At the same time, he feared the consequences of withdrawal, both at home and abroad. A deeply insecure man, he allowed himself to be persuaded by his principal advisers, to whom he felt indebted for personal as well as political reasons.     

Choosing Sides in the Global Cold War: Switzerland,Neutrality, and the Divided States of Korea and Vietnam

This article examines neutral Switzerland's recognition policy towards the divided states of Korea and Vietnam. Drawing comparisons with other neutrals, notably Austria and Sweden, allows us to assess the credibility of neutrality in the Global Cold War. All three neutrals explicitly or implicitly aimed to reinforce their neutrality through the principle of universality, which entailed the recognition of all regimes, no matter their political couleur. Yet this principle was not applied consistently, but rather pragmatically. Until the beginning of the 1970s, Switzerland, as well as Austria and Sweden, favoured the Western-oriented over the Communist halves of Korea and Vietnam. Thereby, this article argues, they undermined the credibility of neutrality. They were, however, willing to take that risk, because they feared that the recognition of North Korea and North Vietnam could irritate the United States, and provoke East German claims for recognition, which was undesirable due to the Hallstein doctrine and West Germany's economic weight. It was only with the rise of the Third World as a political force, and the softening of the US position that the neutrals, which saw themselves in competition with each other for status and influence, eventually recognised North Korea and North Vietnam.     

Leaving Vietnam: Nixon,Kissinger and Ford, 1969–1975, Part two: January 1972–January 1973

Although anticipated, the North Vietnamese ‘Easter offensive’ against South Vietnam in 1972 created problems for the United States. Having reached a rapprochement with Communist China, President Nixon and his foreign policy adviser, Henry Kissinger, believed that the attack could have serious repercussions for their attempt to balance it with détente with the Soviet Union, not to mention the US's credibility as a Great Power. They also feared it would damage Nixon's prospects for re‐election in November 1972. Despite opposition from his Defense Secretary, Nixon renewed the bombing of North Vietnam which had been stopped by President Johnson in 1968. This helped to bring the North Vietnamese back to the conference table and after complex negotiations, a draft peace agreement was ready for initialling in October 1972. However, President Thieu of South Vietnam saw significant drawbacks in the agreement and refused to go along with it. The North Vietnamese chose to have one more attempt to win on the battlefield and President Nixon, who had scaled down the bombing when peace seemed closer and won a landslide victory in the presidential election, launched another eleven days of concentrated bombing raids on North Vietnam at the turn of the year. This led to the final agreement initialled on 23 January 1973, which President Thieu reluctantly acceded to. Thieu's reservations were justified, but Nixon realized that, despite his electoral victory, he could not count on the continued support of Congress and the American people for the war. Far from bringing ‘peace with honor in Vietnam and Southeast Asia’, the January agreement was a fig leaf to cover American withdrawal.     

Lyndon Johnson's war? Part 2: from escalation to negotiation

IThis second article on the Johnson administration's policy towards the war in Vietnam, based on published American documents, covers the period from July 1965 to March 1968. Although it is now clear that the Communist forces in Vietnam encountered considerable difficulties as a result of the steadily growing commitment of US ground forces, the Americans encountered difficulties of their own: notably the problem of persuading their South Vietnamese ally to implement what they regarded as the necessary political and military policies; and the increasing criticism of the war at home. The bombing of North Vietnam was a key issue for the administration. While the president's military advisers were continually pressing for further escalation, most of the civilians were sceptical. The latter felt that the bombing was not achieving its principal objective of reducing the flow of men and supplies from North Vietnam into South Vietnam, was unpopular at home and abroad and, if increased, posed serious risks of Chinese and Russian involvement. Although the bombing was temporarily halted or restricted more than once during this period in an attempt to facilitate a negotiated settlement, nothing was achieved. On 1 November 1967 Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara's growing disillusionment with the war prompted him to send a lengthy memorandum to President Johnson arguing for the cessation of the bombing of the North and the stabilization of the American effort in the South. Rejected at the time, this policy was partially implemented as a result of the Communist Tet offensive of February 1968, when countrywide attacks were beaten back after failing to trigger the expected popular uprising against the Americans and the South Vietnamese government, while at the same time producing a surge of hostility to the war in the United States. Three men‐McNamara's successor, Clark Clifford, Secretary of State Dean Rusk and White House aid Harry McPherson‐were largely responsible for persuading President Johnson to accept the fact that the war could not continue on the same basis as before and that de‐escalation was a better option. The president rejected the military's request for a huge increase in the number of US troops and, on 31 March 1968, announced a halt to the bombing north of the 20 th parallel and called for immediate peace talks. He also surprised the nation and his advisers by declaring that he would not run for the presidency in the election due in November 1968, preferring to concentrate on the search for peace during the remainder of his period in office.     

Book reviews

Books reviewed in this issue International Relations theory War, religion and empire: the transformation of international orders. By Andrew Phillips. Contesting democracy: political ideas in twentieth‐century Europe. By Jan‐Werner Müller. The Realist case for global reform. By William E. Scheuerman. The Anglosphere: a genealogy of a racialized identity in international relations. By Srdjan Vucetic. International organization, law and ethics Zero‐sum future: American power in an age of anxiety. By Gideon Rachman. Conflict, security and defence The changing character of war. Edited by Hew Strachan and Sibylle Scheipers. War and ideas: selected essays. By John Mueller. The Oxford international encyclopaedia of peace. Edited by Nigel J. Young. Eliminating nuclear weapons: the role of missile defense. By Tom Sauer. Governance, civil society and cultural politics Islamism. By Anders Strindberg and Mats Wärn. Thinking through Islamophobia: global perspectives. Edited by S. Sayyid and AbdoolKarim Vakil. Islamophobia: the challenge of pluralism in the 21st century. Edited by John L. Esposito and Ibrahim Kalin. Political economy, economics and development Back from the brink: 1,000 days at Number 11. By Alistair Darling. The global Minotaur: America, the true origins of the financial crisis and the future of the world economy. By Yanis Varoufakis. Economics of good and evil: the quest for economic meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street. By Tomas Sedlacek. The logic of discipline: global capitalism and the architecture of government. By Alasdair Roberts. International history 1 Human rights activism and the end of the Cold War. By Sarah B. Snyder. The most controversial decision: Truman, the atomic bombs, and the defeat of Japan. By Wilson D. Miscamble. Europe Normative power Europe: empirical and theoretical perspectives. Edited by Richard G. Whitman. Integrating the Balkans: conflict resolution and the impact of EU expansion. By Máire Braniff. The European Union diplomatic service: ideas, preferences and identities. By Caterina Carta. Russia and Eurasia Post‐imperium: a Eurasian story. By Dmitri Trenin. Change or decay: Russia's dilemma and the West's response. By Lilia Shevtsova and Andrew Wood. Middle East and North Africa Rock the Casbah: rage and rebellion across the Islamic world. By Robin Wright. Israel and Hezbollah: an asymmetric conflict in historical and comparative perspective. Edited by Clive Jones and Sergio Catignani. Sub‐Saharan Africa Kenya: between hope and despair, 1963–2011. By Daniel Branch. Politics in Africa: a new introduction. By Nana K. Poku and Anna Mdee. The new scramble for Africa. By Pádraig Carmody. South Asia India: the road ahead. By Mark Tully. India in the new South Asia: strategic, military and economic concerns in the age of nuclear diplomacy. By B. M. Jain. Ghosts of Afghanistan: the haunted battleground. By Jonathan Steele. On Afghanistan's plains: the story of Britain's Afghanistan wars. By Jules Stewart. East Asia and Pacific No exit: North Korea, nuclear weapons, and international security. By Jonathan D. Pollack. North Korea: development, human rights and democracy. By North Korea Modernization Research Group. North America 1 Haunting legacy: Vietnam and the American presidency from Ford to Obama. By Marvin Kalb and Deborah Kalb. Latin America and Caribbean The origins of Mercosur: democracy and regionalization in South America. By Gian Luca Gardini. Democratization and military transformation in Argentina and Chile: rethinking rivalry. By Kristina Mani. The Bolivian revolution and the United States, 1952 to the present. By James F. Siekmeier. Violent democratization: social movements, elites, and politics in Colombia's rural war zones, 1984–2008. By Leah Anne Carroll.     

A Strategic Framework for Monitoring Coastal Change in Australia's Wet-dry Tropics – Concepts and Progress

A strategic framework for monitoring natural and human-induced change in the coastal plains of the Alligator Rivers Region in the wet-dry tropics of northern Australia is presented. The framework also supports refinement of methods used to monitor the vulnerability of coastal areas to change, including human-induced climate change and sea-level rise. The information derived through the framework can be used to assess scenarios, highlight the potential significance and implications of changes, and assist land managers formulate management responses. The framework incorporates several large-scale studies for monitoring atmospheric and hydrodynamic processes as well as mapping and monitoring projects specific to environmental change in the freshwater wetlands and the floodplains of the Region. Monitoring is proposed to address processes influencing the stability and rate of change of the floodplain environments. These include large-scale processes, such as inter-annual variability in weather conditions affecting the morphology of the coastal plains, shoreline and riverbank stabilisation, headward expansion of tidal creeks, and salinisation of freshwater basins. Information management is also addressed, and a Geographic Information System structure proposed for effective data collation, analysis and management. The information management system will facilitate data sharing and participation of multiple agencies and organisations interested in coastal change, especially where a landscape perspective or whole ecosystem approach is advocated.     

Problems in the Methodology of Measuring and Mapping the Level of Economic Development of the USSR

Economic development levels in the USSR are measured and mapped on the basis of an aggregate of three density parameters: the value of plant and equipment; the value of gross output, and population numbers, all per unit area. Data on the value of plant and on gross output are not available below the oblast level, and in the case of small oblasts in Central Russia, Ukraine and Belorussia, economic development levels within oblasts have been assumed to be relatively uniform. Large oblasts, especially in Siberia, required a further breakdown within oblasts, and in such cases the value of plant and gross output were allocated in proportion to population density. Economic development levels were graded on an eight-interval scale, but no absolute values were given. A related attempt to measure and map economic productivity was made by A. F. Burghardt, in his paper on “Income density in the United States” (Annals Assoc. Amer. Geographers, Sept. 1972).     

HILLSLOPE TERRACETTES

Several systems of lines of steps or terracettes, commonly known as “cattle tracks” or “sheep tracks”, were observed on treeless, grass-covered hillslopes in the Kislovodsk area of the North Caucasus. Three types are distinguished: (1) anthropogenic, or man-made, tracks, which suggest purposeful human activity and are distinguished by flat-bottomed or concave walkways; (2) animal tracks, connecting grazing areas and distinguished by deeper and narrower walkways produced by hooves; (3) delapsive terracettes (from the Latin delapsus = slip down), produced by a creeplike downslope movement of unconsolidated slope material on top of the bedrock surface. In contrast to the man-made and animal tracks, which have walkways bare of vegetation and grassy side walls, the naturally produced pseudotracks are distinguished by grassy top surfaces and bare side walls. Downslope rates of movement of these natural terracettes are estimated at several tens of millimeters to several centimeters a year.     

An Economic Regionalization of North Vietnam

A North Vietnamese graduate student at Moscow University offers a division of North Vietnam into four economic regions and assesses their future development in terms of energy-and-production cycles (groups of technologically interrelated activities proposed by N. N. Kolosovskiy). In a second paper, the author conceptualizes economic regions as consisting of a core or center, accounting for most of the production; an inner shell dependent on the core, and an outer shell that may gravitate to any of a number of adjoining core areas depending on the purpose of the study. The original boundaries of the four-region system of North Vietnam are reviewed in light of the “outer shell” concept. The four-region system is essentially confirmed, but the allocation of some provinces in the “outer shell” is found to be disputable, and regional boundaries have been adjusted.     

The Muslim Settlement of Late Ottoman and Mandatory Palestine: Comparison with Jewish Settlement Patterns

In the late Ottoman and Mandatory periods, Palestine's rural landscape underwent a great transformation. This study examines how the Muslim population expanded beyond its traditional inhabitation in the highlands and settled the fluid inventory of marginal lands in the coastal plains and unpopulated valleys of Palestine. In settling these marginal landscapes their settlement dovetailed with Jewish settlement patterns. While most studies have emphasized the competitive aspect of this process, examining Zionist and Arab national claims, this research points to a different aspect of this new settlement—mainly how much the Jewish and Muslim settlement patterns mirrored one another and how they were part of similar physical processes and complemented one another. Relying on censuses, aerial photographs, and period maps, as well as other archival sources, this is the first systematic research to examine the full extent of new Muslim settlements in Palestine in the late Ottoman and Mandatory periods, and to draw parallels between this phenomenon and the settlement endeavors of the Zionists.