The Indigenous Franchise and Assimilation

This article explores the connections between Indigenous enfranchisement and assimilation in Australia. Focusing on testimony given by Indigenous people to the 1961 Select Committee on Voting Rights for Aborigines, and assessing the political and discursive overlaps between enfranchisement and assimilation at this time, the article argues that enfranchisement could both demand and produce forms of social and cultural change that involved Indigenous people becoming more like settler Australians. Indigenous witnesses recognised and often welcomed the acculturation presaged by enfranchisement. But this embrace was not unanimous or unqualified, especially in evidence given by and on behalf of Indigenous people whose lives were partly or wholly beyond the reach of settler institutions.     

A Multiobjective Approach to Locate Emergency Shelters and Identify Evacuation Routes in Urban Areas

Evacuation planning is an important component of emergency preparedness in urban areas. The number and location of rescue facilities is an important aspect of this planning, as is the identification of primary and secondary evacuation routes for residents to take. This article introduces a multiobjective approach to identify these aspects of evacuation planning. The approach incorporates a multiobjective model into a geographical information systems–based decision support system that planners can access via the Internet. The proposed approach is demonstrated with a case study for the City of Coimbra, Portugal, for evacuation during major fires. Although presented in this context, this approach is applicable to other emergency situations such as earthquakes, floods, and acts of terrorism.