Radar and Air Defence in the 1930s

The article sets out to demonstrate that radar played a central,but hitherto unrecognized, role in the formation of Britishair policy during the 1930s. It is generally conceived thatthe secret of radar was stumbled across, as if by accident,in early 1935, and was then employed to devastating effect inthe Battle of Britain. The article, however, shows that thedesire for an effective instrument for air defence had gestatedduring the First World Wart—when Britain sought to fightoff the Zeppelin and Gotha bombing raids—and the searchcontinued throughout the 1920s and early 1930s. Moreover, theprinciple of radar had been known since 1904, but scientificbackwardness precluded practical progress. There is detailedexamination of the intricate political manoeuvring by PrimeMinister Stanley Baldwin and others which accompanied the adoptionof radar as Britain's primary line of defence against the Luftwaffein preference to the increasingly obsolete doctrine of bomberdeterrence. In conclusion, radar was deliberately developed,and consciously conceived of, as a device that would be slottedinto a proved framework of observation and organization constructedon top of Britain's First World War air defence system.     

The Third Review Conference of the Chemical Weapons Convention and beyond: key themes and the prospects of incremental change

States parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) will convene for the Third Review Conference of the treaty in April 2013. With the destruction of chemical weapon stockpiles more than 75 per cent complete and ongoing changes in the scientific, industrial and security environment in which the CWC operates, some have argued that major adaptations in the implementation of the treaty are required. However, on the basis of regular participant observation at CWC meetings of states parties and extensive document analysis this article argues that changes in treaty implementation will be only of an incremental nature with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) taking on new tasks in the areas of chemical terrorism and safety and security, alongside traditional core areas of activity in CWC implementation such as verification of chemical weapon disarmament, non‐proliferation or, rather, non‐acquisition of chemical weapons, protection and assistance against the threat or use of chemical weapons, and international cooperation in the peaceful uses of chemistry. Taking into account the evolution of these areas of concern in combination with the consensus‐based institutional culture of the OPCW supports the expectation of only incremental changes being adopted at the Third CWC Review Conference. These expectations tie in with the findings of organizational analyses in other political contexts, which highlight the path dependency of many institutions once they are created.     

Let it Lie Upon the Table: The Status of Black Women's Biography in the UK

Whereas the Queen's majesty, tendering the good and welfare of her own natural subjects, greatly distressed in these hard times of dearth, is highly discontented to understand the great numbers of negars and Blackamoores which (as she is informed) are crept into this realm … who are fostered and relieved here to the great annoyance of her liege people that want the relief which those people consume, as also for that most of them are infidels, having no understanding of Christ or his Gospel: hath given special commandment that the said kind of people shall be with all speed avoided and discharged out of this Her Majesty's dominion.¹     

Data Integration Issues in Research Supporting Sustainable Natural Resource Management

Current decision‐making in natural resource use and management aims at delivering ecologically‐sustainable development to achieve conservation and economic benefits. The process of guiding natural resource use requires the integration of social, economic and biophysical information on which to base management decisions. This paper discusses the integration of socio‐economic information for natural resource management (NRM) planning and decision‐making in the Australian context. A comprehensive resource of socio‐economic data is the Census, which is undertaken every five years by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) for the whole of Australia. Unfortunately there are qualitative and quantitative issues stemming from the use of ABS census data maps for NRM decision‐making, as they are at a different scale to and the boundaries do not coincide with biophysical information. These issues include the variable shape of collection districts, the use of enumerated data for population‐based statistics, the large size of collection districts in low populated areas, and the averaging of socio‐economic information over the collection districts. Examples highlight these issues and show a way forwards in improving data integration, which includes simple spatial overlay methods and regression modelling.     

Ethnically Diverse Transport Behaviours: An Australian Perspective

Rates of car ownership in Australia are among the highest in the world. Private cars have shaped the urban form of Australian cities and the daily routines of their residents, making it possible to fulfil geographically stretched responsibilities for work, family, and social lives. But the dominance of the private car in Australian lives and landscapes should not be confused with universality. Aggregate, population‐wide statistics of car ownership and use mask the fact that not all Australians are equally car dependent. In this paper, we report on the results of a household sustainability survey conducted in metropolitan Sydney and Wollongong. Overseas‐born persons, migrants, and (some) ethnic minority groups were found to own fewer cars – and to use them less – than their Anglo‐Australian and Australian‐born counterparts. These differences were not attributable to socio‐economic or demographic factors. Our findings, which point towards the existence of diverse cultures of transport within the Australian population, are significant for transport planning and policymaking. Given profound concerns about the environmental implications of car use, the environmentally (more) sustainable transport behaviours of ethnic minorities and migrants should be supported. A shift in research focus away from the most car‐dependent groups in Australian society may also be more widely instructive. The transport practices, experiences, and strategies of those who own and drive cars at below‐average rates may indeed contribute practical lessons to inform planning for more environmentally sustainable transport futures.     

Snow-tracking and GIS: using multiple species-environment models to determine optimal wildlife crossing sites and evaluate highway mitigation plans on the Trans-Canada Highway

Snow-tracking data were collected for cougars (  Felis concolor ), lynx (  Lynx canadensis ), martens ( Martes americana ) and wolves ( Canis lupus ) and combined with remotely sensed imagery in a geographic information system (GIS) to identify wildlife crossing sites on the Trans-Canada Highway in Banff National Park, Alberta. We used logistic regression to assess the dependent (species presence/absence) relative to measures of topography and vegetation. The exponent form of each logistic regression equation was used to predict crossing sites in a GIS, which were then contrasted with mitigation sites proposed by Parks Canada. We found that: (1) cougars were influenced positively by normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI); negatively by northness and distance to ruggedness, (2) lynx were influenced positively by wetness, greenness, rugged terrain, eastness and distance to rugged terrain; negatively by slope, (3) martens were related positively to wetness, elevation, eastness, and distance to rugged terrain; negatively to northness, (4) wolves were influenced positively by distance to ruggedness; negatively by brightness, elevation, eastness and terrain ruggedness. There were few sympatric crossing sites for all species, supporting the use of species-specific mitigation or wide structures that capture multiple species needs. Inconsistencies were observed between the crossing sites predicted in this study and the Parks Canada proposal. The usefulness of GIS and track data to enhance mitigation projects is illustrated.