Retracing Rivers and drawing swamps: Using a drawing tablet to reconstruct an historical hydroscape from army corps survey maps

Abstract

This article presents a novel geospatial approach to reconstructing and analyzing environmental change over extensive spatial and temporal scales, even in systems such as rivers and streams that are comparatively difficult to digitize. We used a drawing tablet and stylus to digitize features found on historical Army Corps maps across the spatially extensive landscape of the Lower Wabash River’s riparian zone, in Indiana and Illinois, USA. The methodology allows for an efficient reconstruction of sinuous and irregular environmental features, such as sloughs, and demonstrates the utility of digitizing historical maps to understand the evolution of surface water quantity and location across a landscape. We then compared these historical data to contemporary environmental datasets for the same study area to understand what changes have occurred over a 100?year period. This reveals that the hydroscape of the Lower Wabash River has been significantly altered by past human activity, notably through the reduction of swamps, wetlands, and sandbars, and the increase in drainage ditches and overall stream area. Notably, many of these historical alterations are not captured within current environmental datasets.     

PATH DEPENDENCE AND LANDSCAPE: INITIAL CONDITIONS,CONTINGENCY AND SEQUENCES OF EVENTS IN LATGALE,LATVIA

The notion of path dependence has not yet been well explored as a tool for analysing landscape change. Within geography it is primarily economic geographers who have, up until now, shown a keen interest in this concept which stresses the role of social agency and institutions in understanding the development trajectories of regions. Further, the notion of path dependence usefully captures the idea of contingency in historical sequences. This article presents such a perspective on landscape change analysis, discussing two dominant types of sequences in path‐dependent systems. Self‐reinforcing sequences characterize the formation and long‐term reproduction of a given institutional pattern, while reactive sequences describe chains of temporally ordered and causally connected events. From a landscape point of view, by the former we can describe the fixity of practices, by the latter the particular development of (or changes in) landscapes. Within such a framework of path dependence analysis, examples from south‐eastern Latvia, the historical region of Latgale, are used to account for the institution of partible inheritance and to explain its impact on landscapes. The landscape biographies of two villages are studied in order to understand the particular key breaking points and the (series of) reactions that follow from these events. The challenge of using the tool of path dependence analysis lies in its openness for various interpretations, suggesting the need for supplementary theory.     

Mapping the Nation for War: Landscape in Danish Military Cartography 1800–2000

The focus in this article is on the way the post eighteenth-century cartographic turn in military practices developed into a particular military perception of landscape that continues to set the standard of Danish topographical mapping. My argument is that the development of modern topographical maps is the result of a long process of military comprehension and measurement of the terrain in order to conduct field operations. The demand for spatial data for actual or potential military operations had a direct impact on the specifications of maps produced by the military, as landscape representation was adapted to meet operational demands and as lessons learned from war experience were incorporated. In this and other respects, the development of Danish topographical maps in and after the nineteenth century followed the general trend of European military mapping as regards methods and standards.     

中国传统村落文化景观研究进展与展望

传统村落文化景观作为特定地域范围内具有乡土文化气息的自然与人文因素综合体，承载着中华农耕文明的精髓，具有“传统村落”和“文化景观”研究的双重价值，是中国乡村地理学探究的热点领域。通过定量与定性相结合的研究方法，以中国知网为基础数据库，深入剖析1990—2020年中国传统村落文化景观的研究内容及进展，评述前人研究成果并展望未来研究方向，以期为拓展传统村落文化景观研究维度提供重要参考。研究发现，近30年传统村落文化景观研究随时代的发展愈发细化，研究内容主要集中于传统村落文化景观特征与价值、形成与演化、保护与发展等3方面。但现有研究深度和广度还有待加强，传统村落文化景观多尺度研究还需深化、研究议题有待丰富、学科融合与方法集成仍需强化。今后应注重系统化的理论分析，拓宽传统村落文化景观的研究尺度；深化与拓展研究内容，挖掘传统村落文化景观的研究议题；强化学科融合与方法集成，完善传统村落文化景观的研究框架。