Dendrochronological Flood-frequency Analysis: An Australian Application

Dendrochronological studies have received little attention in Australia and it appears that the methodology is not well understood. This paper describes dendrochronological techniques available in riparian environments and applies them to a small reach of the Hawkesbury River. Results of field investigations into the relationships between flooding and associated tree-ring variability were used to reconstruct partial duration flood-frequency data. The ring-width chronologies of 39 trees were transformed into three indices that made interpretation with respect to flooding possible: (1) a width-index: (2) an annual-sensitivity (AS) index; and (3) a tilting vector. It was assumed that floods would either suppress growth or alter the annual distribution of new wood about the tree bole. Width-indicies and tilting vectors provided the most reliable flooding information. Much reduced growth rates at low elevations supported initial hypotheses and led to the establishment of a relationship between growth-rate and frequency of inundation. The reconstructed flood-frequency curve closely matched the historical data-set although underestimation occured at higher levels due to limited sample size. Analyses indicate that dendrochronological investigations of exotic riparian trees provide detailed flooding information, but techniques may also be used to provide minimum dates of fluvial landforms and date recent channel changes.     

TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY: DETERMINANTS OF HOME OWNERSHIP AMONG GHANAIAN IMMIGRANTS IN TORONTO

Using information collected in a questionnaire survey, this study investigates the factors influencing the housing tenure of Ghanaian immigrants in Toronto. The study finds that Ghanaian immigrants have a low home-ownership rate compared to the Canadian-born population and other immigrant groups. This is partly attributable to the recency of their migration, their relatively low incomes, and their small household sizes. Analysis also shows that social and personal factors, notably the initial motives of the immigrants, their back-home ties, their desire for home ownership back home, and their intention to return there permanently, are critical in shaping their decisions with respect to home ownership in Canada.
Dans cette étude, nous examinons, à l'aide d'un sondage, les facteurs portant sur les modes de logement des immigrants ghanéens à Toronto. Nous démontrons que les Ghanéens sont propriétaires de leurs logements moins souvent que ne le sont les personnes nées au Canada ou les membres d'autres groupes d'immigrants. Le sondage révèle que la taille inférieure des ménages, les faibles revenus, et les dates d'immigration récentes des immigrants ghanéens sont parmi les causes principales de ce phénomène. L'analyse démontre aussi que des éléments sociaux ou personnels, tels les raisons initiales de l'immigration, les liaisons avec le lieu d'origine, le désir d'être propriétaire dans le lieu d'origine et l'intention ou non des immigrants de retourner au Ghana, sont d'une importance fondamentale lorsque les immigrants ghanéens prennent une décision à l'égard de l'achat d'un logement.     

RURAL AND REGIONAL RESTRUCTURING OF APARTHEID: IDEOLOGY, DEVELOPMENT POLICY AND THE COMPETITION FOR SPACE

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A New Right to Property: Civil War Confiscation in the Reconstruction Supreme Court

During the Civil War, both the Union Congress and the Confederate Congress put in place sweeping confiscation programs designed to seize the private property of enemy citizens on a massive scale. Meeting in special session in August 1861, the U.S. Congress passed the First Confiscation Act, authorizing the federal government to seize the property of those participating directly in the rebellion. ¹ The Confederate Congress retaliated on August 30, 1861, passing the Sequestration Act. ² This law authorized the Confederate government to forever seize the real and personal property of "alien enemies," a term that included every U.S. citizen and all those living in the Confederacy who remained loyal to the Union.     

HEGEMONY,IMPERIALISM, AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF RELIGION IN EAST AND SOUTHEAST ASIA1

Edward Said's concept of Orientalism portrays the high tide of nineteenth‐century imperialism as the defining moment in the establishment of a global discursive hegemony, in which European attitudes and concepts gained a universal validity. The idea of “religion” was central to the civilizing mission of imperialism, and was shaped by the interests of a number of colonial actors in a way that remains visibly relevant today. In East and Southeast Asia, however, many of the concerns that statecraft, law, scholarship, and conversion had for religion transcended the European impact. Both before and after the period of European imperialism, states used religion to engineer social ethics and legitimate rule, scholars elaborated and enforced state theologies, and the missionary faithful voiced the need for and nature of religious conversion. The real impact of this period was to integrate pre‐existing concerns into larger discourses, transforming them in the process. The ideals of national citizenship and of legal and scholarly impartiality recast the state and its institutions with a modernist sacrality, which had the effect of banishing the religious from the public space. At the same time, the missionary discourse of transformative conversion located it in the very personal realm of sincerity and belief. The evolution of colonial‐era discourses of religion and society in Asia since the departure of European imperial power demonstrates both their lasting power and the degree of agency that remains implicit in the idea of hegemony.