bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Geopolitics of the Environment
Authors: Woon Chih Yuan
Published: March 2017

This entry examines different geopolitical conceptions of the environment (from environmental determinism to current debates about the Anthropocene). It shows that power is fully implicated in how the environment is represented and used for specific geopolitical agendas/interests. In moving beyond critique, there is a focus on recent “planetary” thinking and how it enables critical geopolitics to advance socially and ecologically just geopolitical responses to the environment.
Quaternary Glaciations
Authors: Gibbard P.L. , Ehlers Jürgen , Hughes P.D.
Published: March 2017

The Quaternary is synonymous with extensive glaciation of Earth's mid‐ and high latitudes. Although there were local precursors, significant glaciation began in the Oligocene in eastern Antarctica. It was followed by glaciation in mountain areas through the Miocene (in Alaska, Greenland, Iceland, and Patagonia), later in the Pliocene (e.g., in the Alps, the Bolivian Andes, and possibly in Tasmania) and in the earliest Pleistocene (New Zealand, Iceland, and Greenland). Today evidence from both the land and the ocean floors demonstrates that the major continental glaciations, outside the polar regions, rather than occurring throughout the 2.6 Ma of the Quaternary, were markedly restricted to the last 1 Ma–800 Ka or less. Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 22 (ca. 870–880 Ma) included the first of the “major” worldwide events with substantial ice volumes that typify the later Pleistocene glaciations (i.e., MIS 16, 12, 10, 6, 4–2).
Soils of Cold and Permafrost‐Affected Landscapes
Authors: Tarnocai Charles , Bockheim James G.
Published: March 2017

Cold soils and permafrost‐affected soils developed in arctic and boreal climates are found in both the northern and the southern circumpolar regions as well as in high elevations in mountainous terrain. Most of the cold soils, especially those containing permafrost, are affected by cryogenic processes, giving these soils unique macro and micro morphologies. They also contain huge amounts of soil carbon. Most of this soil carbon occurs in a frozen state and could be released into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and methane if the climate were to warm and much of the permafrost were to thaw. The additional inputs of greenhouse gases could then affect the global climate and accelerate further warming.
Corporate Identity
Authors: Clifton Nick , Gärtner Stefan
Published: March 2017

This entry applies the concept of corporate identity to geography, where, due to competition and standardization in globalizing markets, authenticity and also quality of life have become increasingly important. Even if a corporation does not have one identity or one image, these are manageable, but cities and regions have many internal and external identities and perceptions, especially if different spatial layers are taken into consideration. This is a complex process, and it is virtually impossible to establish a single general rationale for, and mechanism of, action. Therefore, this entry focuses on reflexive interrelations leading to identities, between companies, brands, products, and places.
Environmental Valuation
Authors: Eaton Emily
Published: March 2017

Environmental valuation is the practice of assigning monetary values to nature and its associated functions. Because environmental “goods” and “services” are not normally traded on markets, economists have designed various methods, including stated and revealed preference, for arriving at monetary values that reflect what individuals are willing to pay. Environmental valuation is primarily undertaken with the aim of (i) incorporating environmental goods and services into cost–benefit analyses; (ii) internalizing environmental costs in market transactions; (iii) setting up markets in environmental services; and (iv) assessing compensation for environmental losses or for maintaining an ecosystem service. Human geographers have only recently engaged with environmental valuation. Some suggest that valuation practices should incorporate spatial elements such as scale and proximity, while others criticize the practice for its oversimplification of complex processes and ecologies and for its role in the commodification of nature.
Information and Communications Technology
Authors: Warf Barney
Published: March 2017

This entry offers an overview of the interrelations between information and communications technology (ICT) and space. It begins by noting the global infrastructure of fiber optics and satellites, then considers the geography and growth of the Internet; the digital divide, or social and spatial discrepancies in access; and the role of telecommunications in the success of global cities. It also looks at the role of ICTs in global financial markets, including electronic funds transfer systems and stock markets, and how ICTs have enabled the growth of offshore banking, and been used in back‐offices and clerical work. Some of the ways in which ICTs have redefined urban space are also touched on, including the use of mobile (or cellular) phones, the most common ICTs in the world today. Finally, the entry looks at social media, notably Facebook, and its implications for everyday life and the creation of the self.
Path Dependence
Authors: Hsu Jinn‐Yuh , Liao Yu‐Kai
Published: March 2017

The concept of “path dependence” emphasizes that the set of decisions one can make is influenced by the decisions one has made in the past. In the late 1980s, economists introduced the concept of path dependence to investigate how economic structures are shaped by historical accidents and contingencies. With the influence of path dependence, geographers, such as Boschma, Martin, and Sunley, develop evolutionary economic geography to figure out the evolutional process of economic landscape. Evolutionary economic geographers argue that place dependence as a form of path dependence shapes the trajectory of regional economic development. Moreover, evolutionary economic geographers proposed that path dependence should be considered as a continuous process rather than a series of states of equilibrium. The evolution of economic landscape could be shaped by not only self‐reinforcing and external shock, but also multiple processes and incremental change.
New Industrial Space
Authors: Hsu Jinn‐Yuh , Chu Ling‐I
Published: March 2017

“New industrial space” describes the agglomeration of specialized firms flexibly coordinated to enjoy the reduction of transaction costs. In contrast to the existing industrial system of mass production, it is characterized by vertically disintegrated firms engaging in batch production, the interdependency between firms, and the emergence of informal, contract‐based or self‐employed workers. In the late 1970s and 1980s, this new form of production took place in various parts of the world, such as the Third Italy, Silicon Valley, and the clustering of high‐tech firms in Paris's southern suburb. This thesis posits a strong attempt to embed economic relations into a deeper social fabric, emphasizing flexible firm boundaries, cooperative competition, and the importance of trust in the formation and reproduction of industrial districts. However, this territorial‐inclined proposition drew concerns from some critics who questioned whether global forces were well considered. It was also criticized for being ignorant of the role of states, multinational corporations, and other institutions such as nongovernmental organizations. More importantly, with the rise of the service sector and cultural economy since 1990s, the explanatory limitations of the concept of new industrial space were further explored and recognized.
Cellular Automata
Authors: Crooks Andrew
Published: March 2017

Cellular automata (CA) are a class of models where one can explore how local actions generate global patterns through well‐specified rules. In such models, locations are represented by cells that are arranged in space, often in a regular lattice or tessellation. Each cell makes decisions based on its current and past characteristics, and those of its neighbors. Patterns emerge from these simple decisions, such as different forms of urban growth or deforestation, which are not coordinated centrally but instead arise from the bottom up. Such patterns emerge through the cell changing its state based on specific transition rules and the states of their surrounding cells. This entry reviews the principles of CA models, provides a background on how CA models have developed, explores a range of applications of where they have been used within the geographical sciences, and concludes with future directions for CA modeling.
Power
Authors: Allen John
Published: March 2017

Power, at base, refers to the ability to get people to do things that they would otherwise not have done. It may be exercised in an instrumental manner or as a means of enablement. Geographers have adapted and troubled both readings of power in their efforts to show the difference that space makes to the way that power works.
Population Mobility and Regional Development
Authors: Fielding Tony
Published: March 2017

A brief account of the way concepts of population mobility and regional development are used in this entry is followed by the introduction of a causal flow model of the key relationships. The main focus of the entry is the multiple ways in which regional economic development affects interregional job‐ and income‐related migration. The arguments presented are supported by evidence from Europe (notably the United Kingdom and France) and East Asia (notably China and Japan). While both short‐term processes (business cycle effects) and long‐term (deep structural) inequalities in job prospects and living standards are found to be significant in explaining migration flows, medium‐term economic restructuring processes are judged to be particularly important (and are probably the least well understood).
Clouds
Authors: Chambers Lin H.
Published: March 2017

Clouds provide an endlessly changing backdrop to our lives, attracting the interest of people of all ages and serving as harbingers of coming weather systems. Clouds strongly influence the flow of light and heat within the earth system, which has implications for the earth's climate; and they carry large quantities of water around our planet, which also affects regional climate. Clouds affect and are affected by human activities, and are the subject of careful study from satellites to better understand their role in the earth system. Clouds are also accessible to interested observers around the world and are the subject of a number of citizen science projects.
Ethnicity
Authors: Skop Emily , Li Wei
Published: March 2017

Ethnicity is a social construct that divides people into varying groups based on characteristics such as ancestral geographic and religious links, a shared sense of belonging, cultural traditions, values, political and economic interests, and historical ties. Ethnic identities are important referents to self–other and/or us‐versus‐them identifications and ethnicity may influence both individual and group behavior in various areas of social life. Ethnic identities can be self‐claimed or externally imposed, depending on circumstances. Some ethnic identities result in benefits and privileges while others can foster discrimination and subaltern positions within prevailing social systems.
Agricultural Geography
Authors: Robinson Guy M.
Published: March 2017

Agricultural geography has been transformed since the 1980s through the adoption of new approaches and the development of new foci. A focus on mapping agricultural distributions and using simple economic models was replaced in the 1980s by ideas from the political economy tradition acknowledging farms as part of wider global agri‐food chains. This has introduced new concepts, prompting greater consideration of the politics underpinning agricultural policies and cultural drivers of food production and consumption. New concerns have included the sustainability of the industrial model of production, the continuing divide between areas with plentiful food supplies and those facing hunger and starvation, food security at different scales, management of land‐use competition, and the continuing duality between production systems across the developing world. A recurrent theme has been the tensions between biotechnical advances in production versus greater reliance on “environmentally friendly” farming systems.
Geoarchaeology
Authors: Maher Lisa
Published: March 2017

Geoarchaeology is the study, at all scales, of the direct interrelationships between past humans and their landscape/environment, including the social, economic, technological, and ideological aspects of human–environment interactions. It covers a wide range of topics that deal directly with material culture, cultural attitudes and perceptions of landscape, landscape modification, and issues of subsistence, settlement, daily activities, and sustainability. Geoarchaeology is both a field and laboratory‐based endeavor and practitioners employ methods and techniques from a wide range of fields, namely archaeology and the earth sciences.
Neoliberalism and the Environment
Authors: Perkins Harold A.
Published: March 2017

Neoliberalism is the predominant philosophy by which capitalist globalization is coordinated, justified, and extended. It emphasizes market expansion through the rollback of Keynesian state intervention in the developed world and through profit‐oriented development initiatives and structural adjustment programs in lesser‐developed contexts. The deployment of neoliberal principles around the world has consequences for the environment and the people who live in it. Economic growth through neoliberalism expands the global middle class and some argue it enhances environmental protections at the same time. Detractors of neoliberal projects insist, however, that they instead result in environmental degradation and capital accumulation by dispossession as communities lose access to their resources. What is more certain is that the deployment of neoliberal environmental frameworks is controversial, prompting novel state interventions to “fix” neoliberalism's contradictions and maintain capital accumulation.
Air Transport
Authors: Bowen John T.
Published: March 2017

Air transportation is among the most important elements in the global circulatory system. The diffusion of aviation and its increased significance have enlarged the scale and accelerated the pace of everyday life across much of the world. Technological advances, economic development, and deregulation have fueled rapid air traffic growth. Particularly in recent decades, the emergence of many new low‐cost carriers has been catalytic in democratizing air travel. The airline industry's dominant players, however, are still mainly full‐service network carriers. Through alliances, the largest carriers have extended the reach of their networks to the global scale. That reach is vital because, while developed countries dominate air traffic flows, growth is concentrated in emerging markets. The potential for further aviation growth is vast, but containing the externalities associated with air transportation – especially its role in global climate change – will be a key challenge in the twenty‐first century.
Moral Geography
Authors: Williams Philippa
Published: March 2017

Moral geography concerns the relationship between morality, space, and power within both the material and the symbolic dimensions of life. The “moral turn” within geography was prompted by the intellectual shift to question the appearance of truth and objectivity and the emergence of new questions about development, justice and difference, distance, care, and responsibility and how moral value is linked to landscape and people. Approaches to normativity are a key debate within moral geography, as some scholars emphasize the importance of exposing normative frameworks and the negative impacts of power, while others assert the need to construct normative frameworks through which to realize universal ethical practice. Recent scholarship has pushed the boundaries of the moral turn to challenge the discipline's own normative assumptions and to forge the potential for more open and dialogical formulations of ethical practice such as cosmopolitanism and generosity.
Corporate Financialization
Authors: Aalbers Manuel B.
Published: March 2017

This entry explains the rising popularity of the concept of financialization, despite it being considered a vague and chaotic concept. It also summarizes the wide‐ranging multidisciplinary literature on financialization and makes a distinction between 10 dimensions, or elements, of financialization, upon which a new definition of financialization is put forward that suggests that the power of the financialization literature lies in how it tries to understand the increasing dominance of financial actors, markets, practices, measurements, and narratives at various scales, resulting in a structural transformation of economies, firms (including financial institutions), states, and households. In discussing the different elements of financialization, the entry focuses primarily on those that contribute to an understanding of corporate financialization. Finally, some avenues for future research are suggested.
Uncertain Geographic Context Problem
Authors: Matthews Stephen A.
Published: March 2017

Across the social, behavioral, and health sciences there has been a growing interest in the effects of place – or geographic context – on people, specifically on how place is associated with individual attitudes, behaviors, health, and overall wellbeing. The conventional approach linking people and place uses a geocode to embed an individual into a geographical context; but this approach, in some applications, is conceptually naïve and has limitations. Kwan summarized the main limitations of this practice, and identified and labeled theuncertain geographic context problem(UGCoP). Briefly, the UGCoP identifies two sources of contextual uncertainty: uncertainty associated with the spatial configuration of geographically defined contexts, and uncertainty about the timing and duration of exposure to those contexts. The conceptual and methodological issues and challenges associated with the UGCoP originate in several disciplines and literatures. Kwan's important contribution was to synthesize the limitations of, and explore ways to address, UGCoP.
Spatial Tessellations
Authors: Okabe Atsuyuki
Published: March 2017

This entry introduces several kinds of spatial tessellations (i.e., a set of subareas that are collectively exhaustive for the area and mutually exclusive except for boundaries), including ordinary Voronoi diagrams (VDs), weighted VDs,
k
‐th nearest‐point VDs, VDs for lines, VDs for areas, VDs with Minkowski distances (including Manhattan distance), VDs on a network, cylinder, or sphere, Delaunay triangulations, random‐line mosaics and tilings. The computational methods for these are briefly described.
Cartographic Design
Authors: Kraak Menno‐Jan
Published: March 2017

Well‐designed maps offer insight into spatial patterns and relations among the mapped phenomena, and do this well because they symbolize and abstract the reality represented. Map design is guided by the cartographic visualization process and based on a proper data analysis to make sure the symbology selected matches the perceptual properties of the data. However, the map‐maker should also consider the potential users of the map as well as the environment of use.
Interpolation: Areal
Authors: Lam Nina S.N.
Published: March 2017

Areal interpolation refers to the problem of transforming one set of areal data (source zones) to another (target zones), where their boundaries do not coincide. It is increasingly an indispensable technology for integrating disparate spatial data for modeling and analysis. Areal interpolation methods that have the volume‐preserving (pycnophylactic) property are far more accurate than those that do not have such property. With ancillary data such as land‐cover categories for areal interpolation, the interpolation accuracy can be substantially improved. Key methods for areal interpolation with ancillary data include binary dasymetric, the expectation–maximization method, and a number of regression models.
Internet and Global Capitalism
Authors: Zook Matthew , Shelton Taylor
Published: March 2017

While mainstream understandings of the Internet's impact on the global economy have long focused on processes like offshoring, deskilling, financialization, and the so‐called death of distance, geographers focus on more situated understandings of the relationship between the Internet and global capitalism. Rather than rendering dominant social and spatial relationships obsolete, the Internet has facilitated a more modest, but still significant, reconfiguration of these social and economic processes. This includes the evolving role of some locations as hubs of the Internet's material infrastructure, the emergence of new kinds of digital goods and services, and the augmentation of conventional industries such as finance and logistics. Thus, while enabling some changes, the Internet and the economic relations built around it are firmly embedded in long‐standing historical and geographical contexts influencing their shape and form.
Trajectories: Analysis
Authors: Shoval Noam
Published: March 2017

A trajectory is defined in its broad sense as the path that a moving object follows through space as a function of time. In the context of human geography a trajectory or space–time activity of humans is not predefined, but a result of constraints and decisions. Time geography created some decades ago a conceptual framework for explaining and visualizing trajectories of people. However, the past decade witnessed a dramatic growth in the implementation of global positioning systems, smartphones, and other tracking technologies for collecting high‐resolution space–time data. As a result, a remarkable number of highly accurate trajectories are available for analysis and new ways of analyzing these space–time data are being developed in order to better understand various geographical phenomena. Among them, sequence alignment methods are highly suitable for trajectories analysis in geography since unlike other quantitative methods for trajectories analysis, sequence alignment is concerned with the order (or sequence) of events.
Glaciations
Authors: Kamp Ulrich
Published: March 2017

Earth periodically experienced glacial conditions throughout the second half of its geological history. Four or even five ice ages occurred during the Precambrian Supereon, and three during the following Phanerozoic Eon. The documented history of research on glaciations starts in the eighteenth century; once the first ideas about former larger ice masses had been proposed, a chain of discoveries and theories evolved. The reconstruction of former glaciations is mainly based on geological, chemical, and paleontological testimonies. Glaciations occur as a result of position changes of the continents; supercontinental cycles; orogeny; and changes of ocean currents, astronomical conditions, and the atmospheric composition. While none of these causes alone can induce a glaciation, the interaction of a multiple of them can. Although glaciations are relatively rare and short phenomena in earth's geologic history, they had manifold effects on landscapes, sea levels, ocean currents, weather patterns, tectonics, and even astronomical parameters.
Rivers and River Basin Management
Authors: Mirumachi Naho
Published: March 2017

Rivers play an important role for livelihoods and economic development, and the river basin is vital to both terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. River basin management often focuses on the river as a hydrological unit but its purpose has evolved from a narrowly defined idea of controlling river flows to one that integrates different water uses and related resources. The hydraulic mission focusing on engineering the river is increasingly being scrutinized and new approaches to management such as integrated water resources management (IWRM) have been suggested. River basin management is mediated through legal principles, agreements, river basin organizations and other institutions at different spatial scales. River basins represent a political space where different interests of water use and allocation are negotiated, reflecting conflict and cooperation between various stakeholders. The river basin becomes the context in which ideologies of nature and modes of environmental governance are played out.
Cross‐Border, Transnational, and Interregional Cooperation
Authors: Scott James W.
Published: March 2017

In the broadest sense, subnational cooperation across national borders involves three distinct but often interconnected levels: cooperation within local and contiguous cross‐border spaces; cooperation between regions beyond local border contexts; and transnational networks that can involve cities or groups of cities. These forms of cooperation have developed primarily in European, North American, and Asian contexts. While all three cooperation modes are significant, it is cooperation between contiguous border areas that is the most intensive and most frequently studied. Local/regional cross‐border cooperation (CBC) generally involves multiple networks of public, private, and civil society actors that work in close geographical proximity. For historical reasons, it was in continental Europe's economic core that cross‐border cooperation, as it is understood today, took root. Here, the confluence of local interests, spurred by the momentum of European economic recovery and prospects of integration, has promoted the development of new forums for dialogue and conflict resolution.
Global Factory
Authors: Siddiqi Dina M.
Published: March 2017

The global factory emerged as a significant phenomenon in the last decades of the twentieth century, corresponding to the resurgence of free‐market ideologies and neoliberal approaches to economic development. The relocation of multinationals in search of ever cheaper labor led to the establishment of post‐Fordist, “flexible” assembly‐line production across national borders. Often labeled “sweatshops,” and frequently located in free trade zones that are legally outside national jurisdiction, such factories rely on a predominantly female workforce in the Global South. The collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh in 2013, the worst industrial disaster in the history of the global garment industry, has reopened debates on the merits of sweatshop employment. Questions of accountability and transparency in the production chain are now at the forefront of debates. The incident has also rejuvenated transnational activism and solidarity work.
Water Resources and Hydrological Management
Authors: Wescoat James L.
Published: March 2017

Water resources refer to fresh surface waters and groundwater that are subject to various types of hydrological management (i.e., human measurement, use, control, and conservation). Key hydrologic processes in the world's water cycle include precipitation as snow and rain, interception of rainfall by plants, infiltration into soil surfaces, evaporation and transpiration by plants, runoff and snowmelt into streams, lakes, and wetlands, erosion and sedimentation of those surface water bodies, recharge of groundwater aquifers, and ultimately discharge into saline coastal waters. Human activities convert hydrologic processes into water resources that serve various purposes. Water resources can also be defined as systems of supply, demand, treatment, use, recycling, wastewater treatment, discharge, and reuse until water ultimately returns to the atmosphere or ocean. Hydrologic management strives to mitigate water hazards that include floods, droughts, mudslides, accelerated erosion, land subsidence, and storm surge. Other water‐related risks include water pollution, dam failure, and water‐borne disease. These water problems can give rise to human conflicts, and can be aggravated by conflicts over other issues. Water resources planning strives to address such conflicts by generating alternatives for fulfilling desired water uses in ways that support efficient, equitable, and sustainable water governance from the international to national, regional, and local scales.
Migrant Settlement
Authors: Friesen Wardlow
Published: March 2017

Migrant settlement commonly relates to processes of longer‐term migration and adaptation in countries proactively seeking “permanent” immigrants, but also in other countries that receive migrants who settle for considerable periods. These kinds of longer‐term migration necessarily involve issues of arrival, settlement, and integration into society. An important aspect of migrant settlement relates to the ways in which migrant identities evolve, some aspects being self‐adopted and others imposed by host societies. Geographers have long been interested in the spatialities of migrant settlement, especially in urban areas, and have adopted various quantitative and qualitative approaches to measure and describe these.
Geocomputation
Authors: Gahegan Mark
Published: March 2017

Geocomputation represents a relatively new approach to geographical analysis that began in the mid‐1990s and is concerned primarily with the improvement of analytical methods. In doing so, the practitioners typically draw inspiration from a wide range of methods, often extending beyond classical statistical and spatial analytical approaches to machine learning, agent‐based modeling, information visualization, and high‐performance computing. It has also, in more recent times, become synonymous with any new computational method applied in GIScience. This entry briefly discusses the history of geocomputation and then describes the two major research themes that have arisen so far: (i) improving analytical insights and (ii) scaling up analysis to address bigger and more complex datasets. With the ongoing increase in complexity and volume of geographical data, these two themes are likely to become even more important over time.
Geography Education, Informal and for Public Engagement
Authors: Noor Sajid , Fatima Munazza , Klein Phil
Published: March 2017

Learning outside the classroom in an informal setting is a growing trend in geography education. This entry explores the basic concepts and importance of learning geography through community engagement and in informal settings such as field trips, museums, and exhibitions. Such informal learning and engagement with the public and local communities may enhance research, teaching, and learning outcomes. Examples of informal learning within geography are found mostly in the United States and Western Europe, but some types are also practiced in developing countries such as Pakistan. Although engaged and informal learning have some weaknesses and challenges, the strengths of these approaches make them the appropriate learning pedagogies to complement formal geography education.
Space of Exception
Authors: Minca Claudio
Published: March 2017

The concept of space of exception is often used to refer to extraterritorial enclavic spaces where the juridical order is suspended, and where arbitrary power is exercised and justified as exceptional political interventions either temporarily or permanently. Discussions of spaces of exception in geography and the social sciences in general have emerged in the context of the US‐led “war on terror” after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, with concentration or detention camps as the prime examples. The parallel concept,
state of exception
, and its connection to the contemporary workings of sovereign power, has been influential in the shaping of these debates. Geographies of exception have further focused on the normalization of the spatialities of exception, the global geopolitics of exception, as well as the production of bare life in spaces of exception as fundamental to biopolitical regimes.
Environmental Governance
Authors: Benson David , Jordan Andrew
Published: March 2017

Environmental governance denotes the processes through which different actors govern the environment. Geographers have actively researched them from empirical, theoretical, and normative perspectives. From an empirical perspective, environmental governance involves a variety of actors (including governments and also businesses, nongovernmental organizations, and local communities), modes of governing (such as actor networks), and the means to achieve governance (which includes regulation and also taxation, voluntary approaches, and information provision). When viewed historically, the locus of environmental decision‐making has extended, both vertically and horizontally, from local or subnational levels prior to the late 1960s to national and international scales in the early twenty‐first century. Different theories, such as those focusing on networks of actors, can be employed by geographers to understand the emergence of new forms of governance. Finally, many normative arguments exist on the potential form that environmental governance should take, as well as what objectives to aim at.
Regional Inequalities
Authors: Dunford Michael
Published: March 2017

Analyses of regional inequalities involve the examination of differences in shared, and therefore abstract, characteristics of regional economies. Most attention is paid to relative income and wealth and to the way in which they change: if inequalities get smaller, convergence or catch‐up occurs, and if they get wider, divergence is said to occur. This entry outlines the steps involved in examining regional inequalities and their evolution, starting with the definition of suitable territorial entities, the identification of indicators of wealth and income, and the definition of ways of measuring inequality. These methods are used to outline the degree of regional inequality in the world, in the European Union, and in Italy and China. The empirical evidence indicates that regional economies can diverge or converge depending on the relative weight of equalizing and unequalizing forces.
Dams
Authors: Renwick William H.
Published: March 2017

Today millions of dams exist around the world. Dams vary widely in size, from large dams that impound at least 0.1 km
3
of water, down to those that create small ponds of 1 ha or less. Worldwide, dams impound over 6000 km
3
of water, or about 16% of total annual stream flow, significantly altering downstream aquatic and riparian environments. Reservoirs trap sediment, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and other key components of global ecosystems and alter the distribution of plants and animals. Most of the world's large dams were built in the mid‐ to late twentieth century. In some areas older dams are being removed to reverse some of their negative impacts.
Property and Environment
Authors: Graham Nicole G.
Published: March 2017

Property is one of the most important regulatory mechanisms of human societies because it controls the use, distribution, and disposal of environmental resources and processes on which they depend. Property regimes vary across time, space, and culture but their common and foundational conditions and effects are environmental. Private property, however, is concerned primarily with human relationships through which the environment is externalized as a series of tradable commodities. Until recently, scholarly analyses of the ideas and practices of property have shared an anthropocentric lens, concerned with questions of distributive justice and economic efficiency. However, contemporary property research does explore the environmental conditions and effects of various property regimes – proposing reform of property models and regulatory frameworks based on revised environmental epistemologies in which humans are connected with, rather than detached from, the environment.
Plate Tectonics in Biogeography
Authors: Trewick Steve
Published: March 2017

The position and movement of tectonic plates, some of which emerge through the oceans as land, influences the distribution of life on Earth. Separation and connection of land and ocean have long been viewed as central to biogeography because they can influence the distribution of species through biological exchange. More precisely, changes in the continuity of habitats can influence rates of gene flow among populations (a process studied as vicariance) and thus affect patterns of speciation and ecological assemblage. Features including land bridges, sea barriers, and mountain ranges join or sunder populations. Deep‐sea hydrothermal vents, volcanic islands, and changes in topography resulting from plate tectonics influence environmental conditions that in turn may mediate evolution. Modern biogeographic research is focused on identifying how environmental factors influence evolution at the species level; this is essential if we are to interpret the outcome of past processes.
Aging
Authors: Milligan Christine
Published: March 2017

Arguably
the
major demographic challenge of the twenty‐first century, population aging will have profound consequences and implications for all places and all aspects of human life. Within human geography this challenge has been addressed at a population level, with its links to spatial demography and epidemiology. Second, there has been a concern with the relationship between older people and their environments, incorporating the meaning of place and its relationship with memory and identity. Work in this vein has also addressed the needs of older people and the locational dimensions of (the sometimes changing) circumstances in older people's lives. Third, the importance of understanding the different landscapes of aging and care provision and how shifting political‐economic processes shape the linkages between aging and place has been addressed. Finally, geographical work has engaged with the critical turn to consider embodiment, ageism, and the aging body.
Economic Geography: Spatial Interaction
Authors: Wang Jiaoe
Published: March 2017

Spatial interaction is a basic concept that considers how locations interact with each other in terms of the movement of people, freight, services, energy, or information. Complementarity, intervening opportunity, and transferability are the three bases for spatial interactions. Complementarity refers to a demand for or deficit in a product in a place and a supply or surplus of the same product in another place; intervening opportunity explains the absence or insufficiency of interactions between two complementary locations; and transferability is the possibility of interactions between locations that can be achieved by overcoming the distance, time, and cost.
Corporations and the Nation‐State
Authors: Yeung Henry Wai‐chung
Published: March 2017

Corporations and the nation‐state are often analyzed in separate subfields of human geography: economic and political geography. This entry traces the historical evolution of geographical analyses of corporations from the geography of enterprise approach to contemporary geographical political economy. It then examines the different roles of the nation‐state in relation to regulating and promoting corporations in contrasting varieties of capitalism. Finally, it explores how bargaining firm–state relations evolve into a form of territorial embeddedness and, more recently, how nation‐states are assuming the corporate role as global investors, through sovereign wealth funds. Some implications and challenges for future economic‐geographical research are provided.
Environment and Celebrity
Authors: Brockington Dan
Published: March 2017

The use of celebrity for environmental causes varies enormously according to the cause being supported. There are many forms of environmentalism, but celebrity is perhaps best suited to supporting mainstream forms, characterized by their engagement with, and origins in, alliances with capitalism. This entry explores the varieties of celebrity work for the environment and some of the forces producing it.
Nature Conservation
Authors: Jepson Paul
Published: March 2017

Nature conservation is an attempt to protect valued elements of the nonhuman world from deliberate or accidental harm caused by human activities. Because not everyone agrees on what should be conserved, nature conservation can be politically contentious. With origins in the late nineteenth century, it was a defining cultural movement of the twentieth century that gained high‐level policy attention on several occasions and manifested in different ways in different places and at different times. Interdependencies between international agencies, governments, universities, and civil society have created influential nature conservation institutions that have been relatively stable for four decades. However, advances in ecology and technology combined with ageing regulatory frameworks, the influence of markets, and increasingly fractious debates within conservation have produced a post‐millennial period of “unsettling” with uncertain outcomes.
Cities and Development
Authors: Myers Garth A.
Published: March 2017

Considerable debate in geography around the world has centered on the relationship between cities and both economic and social development. In moving away from conventional geographical divides between Global North and Global South scholarship at the intersections between cities and development, recent research has emphasized how varied the processes of urban development are in different parts of the world, and even within one country's cities. Yet there is great potential value in comparative global urban studies which address commonalities and the differentiations across the world in terms of: urbanization itself; economic versus social development; poverty and inequality; housing; urban governance and planning; urban services and infrastructure; and urban environments.
Social Justice
Authors: Loyd Jenna M.
Published: March 2017

Social justice concerns social, political, and economic institutions and the social and environmental processes that produce and reproduce group oppression and domination and the inequitable distributions of goods and oppressive spaces. Movements for social justice have sought to reshape relations of production and distribution, broaden spaces and procedures for democratic decision‐making, and challenge dominant cultural norms and knowledge hierarchies. Geographers have contended that theorizing the production of unjust and oppressive geographies is necessarily related to collective efforts to
transform
their constitutive spaces and power relations.
Physical Geography
Authors: Orme Antony R.
Published: March 2017

Physical geography seeks to describe and explain the natural world across space and time, for its intrinsic interest and human significance. Here, the changing nature of this theme is explored through time, from the first literate peoples, through classical Greek and Roman scholarship, early Islamic and Asian studies, European medieval and Renaissance time, the seventeenth‐century Scientific Revolution and eighteenth‐century Enlightenment, the agrarian and industrial revolutions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, nineteenth‐century scholarship, and advances in science and technology from the twentieth century to the present. For each stage, scientific progress and selected leaders in the field (rarely called geographers but contributors to the field nonetheless) are viewed against the cultural milieu and technological assets of the time.
Art
Authors: Hawkins Harriet
Published: March 2017

Geography has a long history of relations with art and artists. To overlook this rich history is to pass over the chance to explore the form and import of geography's contemporary engagement with art. If early relations were based around art in the service of geographical science and empire, more recently art practices have become empirical objects for geographical study. In the context of questions around landscape and environment, politics and practices of urban space, and the body and our sensing of space and knowledge of place, art is understood less as a mode of representation than as being bound up with the making of our worlds. Furthermore, in the context of the growth of the GeoHumanities, we find the ongoing evolution of creative‐practice based research methods, wherein geographers work with artistic practices, and with artists as part of the methods and dissemination of their research.
Environment and Gender
Authors: Nightingale Andrea J.
Published: March 2017

The environment and gender debate has transformed significantly over the past forty years, contributing important insights to wider social science debates of environment–society questions along the way. This entry traces the history of thinking on environment and gender from 1970s ecofeminism through historical materialist contributions and the current “new” feminist political ecologies. The scholarship on environment and gender has contributed to a reconceptualization of how boundaries are drawn between humans and environment, as well as fundamental shifts in what gender itself means. The themes of politics, intersectonality, and co‐emergence are used to frame the key concepts that run through the field.
Environmental Planning
Authors: Haughton Graham
Published: March 2017

Environmental planning has long fascinated both physical and human geographers as it provides the statutory instruments for changing land‐use designations, for instance protecting national parks from certain types of development. It is also a key forum for mediating between those with different views of the future for particular areas, most notably with regard to whether or not to allow development on a particular piece of land and, if allowed, what kind of development should be permitted. Necessarily, environmental planning involves dealing with a range of different geographies – embracing both the political boundaries of national and local government and various functional environmental geographies, such as river catchments, ecosystems, or landscape character. It is important to recognize that the practices of environmental planning have evolved substantially over time, albeit manifesting themselves in different ways in different states and nations.
Spatial Organization and Structure
Authors: Wang Jiaoe
Published: March 2017

Spatial organization, as one of the basic themes of geography, focuses on how to recognize and organize geographic space in which human activities occur, giving rise to spatial structures. The patterns of spatial structure can be classified into three types: contiguous structures (including uniform regions and functional regions), discrete structures (such as settlements and network cities), and integrated structures that combine both. The development of research dealing with spatial organization and structure can be divided into four periods: (i) early development in geography (pre‐1920s), (ii) emergence of spatial organization as a focus of geographical research (1920s–1940s), (iii) quantitative revolution (1950s–1970s), and (iv) new challenges since the 1980s.
Stratospheric and Tropospheric Ozone
Authors: Godin‐Beekmann Sophie
Published: March 2017

Ozone is an essential component of the Earth's atmosphere. It is beneficial to life when located in the high atmosphere, but it can be harmful in high concentration at ground level. The dual ozone issues, pollution in the troposphere and depletion of the ozone layer in the stratosphere, are different. However, they both are related to the emission of air pollutants from industry and other human activities.
Virtual Reality
Authors: Che Weitao
Published: March 2017

Virtual reality, which allows a user to interact with computer‐simulated environments, is often used in a wide variety of applications and is commonly associated with their immersive, highly visual, 3‐D environments. This entry reviews virtual reality with regard to its developmental history, input devices, output devices, representation technologies, and modeling methods.