Changing views in Canadian geomorphology: are we seeing the landscape for the processes?

Geomorphology in Canada, as elsewhere, has evolved into an essentially bipartite discipline focusing either on ‘process’ or broader ‘historical’ (Quaternary) landscape interpretation. A growing emphasis on process‐oriented research that relies increasingly on instrumentation and computational technologies has occurred. Critics of such research note limited applicability for landscape evolution, fashionability of methods and limited societal relevance. Indeed, some say we are not seeing the landscape for the processes. This article discusses the changing nature of geomorphology since the Quantitative Revolution of the 1950s including new advances, recent trends and challenges. Publication trends and recent advances suggest that the discipline is very healthy (following a slump in the early 1990s) and continues to evolve, which may reflect increasing research infrastructure and/or funding opportunities and new publications spotlighting Canadian research. Unfortunately, fundamental (less applied) research is threatened by funding program shifts, changing institutional pressures and a decline in research capacity from retirement attrition, and student recruitment challenges. Three research priorities are recommended: (1) continued fundamental research, (2) more integrated modelling to link micro scale processes to macro scale landform behaviour and (3) improvements in profiling our discipline amongst students and related professionals.     

What Explains the Carcass Field Processing and Transport Decisions of Contemporary Hunter-Gatherers? Measures of Economic Anatomy and Zooarchaeological Skeletal Part Representation

This paper uses rationale derived from central place foraging models to explore the factors that guide the carcass processing and transport decisions of modern hunters. Using data derived from butchering experiments, I test different economic indices that purportedly reflect the field processing and transport decisions of contemporary African Hadza hunter-gatherers. The results show that no single index predicts part processing and transport for the species examined in this analysis. Processing and transport decisions are, however, patterned in ways that are consistent with theoretical predictions. While similar processes likely guide carcass treatment and transport decisions among all hunter-gatherers, different ecological, social, and historical constraints define the range of solutions to problems involving carcass treatment. In this specific example, intertaxonomic differences in carcass size and bone properties constrain how the trade-offs between field processing and transport costs are resolved. I conclude by suggesting ways in which analysts might make use of central place foraging rationale and models to explain variation in skeletal representation and abundances across time and space.

Granite‐related overpressure and volatile release in the mid crust: fluidized breccias from the Cloncurry District,Australia

The source and transport regions of fluidized (transported) breccias outcrop in the Cloncurry Fe‐oxide–Cu–Au district. Discordant dykes and pipes with rounded clasts of metasedimentary calc–silicate rocks and minor felsic and mafic intrusions extend several kilometres upwards and outwards from the contact aureole of the 1530 Ma Williams Batholith into overlying schists and amphibolites. We used analytical equations for particle transport to estimate clast velocities (≥20 m sec^?1), approaching volcanic ejecta rates. An abrupt release of overpressured magmatic‐hydrothermal fluid is suggested by the localization of the base of the breccias in intensely veined contact aureoles (at around 10 km, constrained by mineral equilibria), incorporation of juvenile magmatic clasts, the scale and discordancy of the bodies, and the wide range of pressure variation (up to 150 MPa) inferred from CO₂ fluid inclusion densities and related decrepitation textures. The abundance of clasts derived from depth, rather than from the adjacent wallrocks, suggests that the pressure in the pipes was sufficient to restrict the inwards spalling of fragments from breccia walls; that is, the breccias were explosive rather than implosive, and some may have vented to the surface. At these depths, such extreme behaviour may have been achieved by release of dissolved fluids from crystallizing magma, in combination with a strongly fractured and fluid‐laden carapace, sitting under a strong, low permeability barrier. The relationship of these breccias to the Ernest Henry iron‐oxide–Cu–Au deposit suggests they may have been sources of fluids or mechanical energy for ore genesis, or alternately provided permeable pathways for later ore fluids.     

The Making(s) of an Alternative Urban Policy: What Happens When Free Fares Come to Town?

While many urban policies and practices claim to offer an “alternative” to the “mainstream” of urban entrepreneurialism, they remain under-theorised and prone to alignment with entrepreneurial agendas. In this paper I examine fare-free public transport (FFPT) as a salient example of an alternative urban policy. Looking at Aubagne (France) and Tallinn (Estonia), I explore what happens when an alternative policy “comes to town”. I detect how FFPT enters local urban regimes, and study the (non-)participation of public transport passengers and workers in the decision-making process about whether and how to abolish public transport fares. My analysis reveals that albeit alternative policies such as FFPT seem to oppose entrepreneurialism, they may hinge on urban regimes that span across institutions, leave the local configurations of power unchallenged, and strenghten local elites. The adaptability of alternatives to diverse political and intellectual positions explains their resilience. Consequently, their radical character cannot be taken for granted and remains an object of political struggle.     

The role of aviation networks for urban development

City officials are continuously working to attract airlines willing to fly to new destinations. The inherent expectation is that a more extensive aviation network stimulates economic growth. This paper investigates empirically the causal implication of this hypothesis. Using data on nonstop flights by origin and destination over the period 1984–2013, we propose a new measure for a metropolitan area's connectivity to the national aviation network. We then use this measure to investigate its contribution to local economic development, as captured by the growth in population, in total employment, in per-capita income, and new firm entry. To ensure causality, we use instrumental variable methods that exploit geography and destination airports growth as a way to capture the exogenous variation in the likelihood to add new travel routes. Our results suggest that a metropolitan area's air connectivity, resulting from an expansive local aviation network, has a positive effect on population, on employment and on the number of businesses established in that location.     

珠江三角洲城际间运输联系的特征分析

本文分析了珠江三角洲各主要城市之间客、货流量的空间分布形态,就珠江三角洲的整体交通运输形势而言,占第一位的是广州-东莞-深圳-香港一线。由于其优越的地理位置、悠久历史、社会经济持续高速的发展、最初改革开放的优惠政策、以及由此所形成的目前较为完善的政策体系,使穗港沿线成为珠江三角洲成型的交通运输走廊。同时珠江三角洲地区的空间运输联系具有强烈的广州指向性,目前尚未形成走廊的网络模式,对整体珠三角的发展并非十分有利。     

Les corridors maritimes stratégiques dans l'Arctique canadien : un programme adapté au tourisme marin ?

The melting of summer sea ice in the Canadian Arctic allows for better accessibility and therefore increased development of marine tourism. This paper highlights a significant increase in cruise ships and pleasure craft in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago since the 1990s, especially in the strategic areas of the Lancaster Sound and southeast of Baffin Island. Based on spatial analysis, cruise ships and pleasure craft were mostly sailing inside the primary corridors and outside the secondary corridors; this is particularly obvious for the fourth secondary corridor of the western Arctic. Moreover, marine tourism activity related to cruise ships or pleasure craft occurred within a distance of 15 nautical miles and beyond the outer limit of a corridor, whether primary or secondary. The Northern Marine Transportation Corridors Initiative is an important tool to manage marine traffic in the Canadian Arctic and we need to continue to encourage its development through a multipartite approach and taking traditional Inuit knowledge into account.     

Crime highways: The effect of motorway expansion on burglary rates

Burglars can exploit a high-quality road network to transport stolen goods quickly. To study the effect of motorway connections on burglary rates, spatial variation in connectivity to the motorway network and the timing of new connections are exploited using an annual panel of 562 policing Sub Districts in Ireland during 2004–2015. On average, burglary rates rise by 10% in the year of motorway connection. This paper shows for the first time that major road construction affects the spatial distribution of crime.