title: Using remote sensing and GIS to investigate the impacts of tourism on forest cover in the Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal

authors: Chaplin, James Andrew

subjects: Nepal

abstract: Tourism is Nepal's largest industry, giving people in rural areas an alternative to subsistence farming. Tourism can have an impact on the forest cover of a region as trees provide firewood for cooking and heating and timber for building accommodation. In 1986 the Annapurna Conservation Area Project was established to ensure that tourism was managed more sustainably, which includes minimising its impact on the forest cover. This study assesses the impacts of tourism on the forest cover in the Annapurna region by comparing Landsat images from 1999 to 2011. This was achieved through spectral classification of different land cover and by assessing the change in forest cover in relation to increasing distances from tourism villages. A major problem with remote sensing in mountainous regions such as Nepal is shadow caused by the relief. This issue was addressed by only assessing areas which were free from shadow, which in effect meant a sample was used rather than the whole study region. The results indicate that there has been an 8 percent reduction in overall forest extent, but this change varies by region. In the northern, drier regions there has been a net increase in forest cover, while in the southern regions there has been a net reduction in forests. The influence of tourism facilities on forest is also variable. Around each of the tourism villages sampled there was a general trend of forest removal decreasing as the distance from each village increased, which indicates tourism does have a negative impact on forests. However, there was an opposite trend in the northern villages that were well inside the conservation area.

text: Using remote sensing and GIS to investigate the impacts of tourism on forest cover in the Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal Tourism is Nepal's largest industry, giving people in rural areas an alternative to subsistence farming. Tourism can have an impact on the forest cover of a region as trees provide firewood for cooking and heating and timber for building accommodation. In 1986 the Annapurna Conservation Area Project was established to ensure that tourism was managed more sustainably, which includes minimising its impact on the forest cover. This study assesses the impacts of tourism on the forest cover in the Annapurna region by comparing Landsat images from 1999 to 2011. This was achieved through spectral classification of different land cover and by assessing the change in forest cover in relation to increasing distances from tourism villages. A major problem with remote sensing in mountainous regions such as Nepal is shadow caused by the relief. This issue was addressed by only assessing areas which were free from shadow, which in effect meant a sample was used rather than the whole study region. The results indicate that there has been an 8 percent reduction in overall forest extent, but this change varies by region. In the northern, drier regions there has been a net increase in forest cover, while in the southern regions there has been a net reduction in forests. The influence of tourism facilities on forest is also variable. Around each of the tourism villages sampled there was a general trend of forest removal decreasing as the distance from each village increased, which indicates tourism does have a negative impact on forests. However, there was an opposite trend in the northern villages that were well inside the conservation area.

year: 2013

title: The textual expression of critical thinking in PhD discussions in applied linguistics

authors: Bruce, Ian

abstract: The purpose of this study was to identify the textual resources used to express critical thinking in the Discussion chapters or chapter sections of PhD theses from the discipline of Applied Linguistics. Five Discussions were manually analysed using the social genre/cognitive genre model of the author (Bruce, 2008a) as the analytical framework. Three generic elements, used integratively, were found to express critical evaluations as part of constructing an overall argument in the Discussion chapters examined. The first element was the recursive use of an organizing content schema (move pattern), described as: Point, Support, Evaluation. The second was the use of key coherence relations to make critical statements in the ‘Evaluation’ part of this content schema. The third element was the embedding within the critical statements of the metadiscourse devices of hedging and attitude markers (Hyland, 2005). While not providing a prescriptive approach to expressing critical evaluation in this genre, the findings offer an analytical lens through which novice writers may examine and develop awareness of the types of textual resource used to develop this important element of Discussions

text: The textual expression of critical thinking in PhD discussions in applied linguistics The purpose of this study was to identify the textual resources used to express critical thinking in the Discussion chapters or chapter sections of PhD theses from the discipline of Applied Linguistics. Five Discussions were manually analysed using the social genre/cognitive genre model of the author (Bruce, 2008a) as the analytical framework. Three generic elements, used integratively, were found to express critical evaluations as part of constructing an overall argument in the Discussion chapters examined. The first element was the recursive use of an organizing content schema (move pattern), described as: Point, Support, Evaluation. The second was the use of key coherence relations to make critical statements in the ‘Evaluation’ part of this content schema. The third element was the embedding within the critical statements of the metadiscourse devices of hedging and attitude markers (Hyland, 2005). While not providing a prescriptive approach to expressing critical evaluation in this genre, the findings offer an analytical lens through which novice writers may examine and develop awareness of the types of textual resource used to develop this important element of Discussions

year: 2018

title: Worlded object and its presentation: A Māori philosophy of language

authors: Mika, Carl Te Hira

abstract: In an era concerned with the survival of Indigenous languages, language as a general phenomenon needs to be thought of as thoroughly connected to one’s worldview. In this article, I propose a different conception of language that sides more with what I call ‘the worlding of things’ than linguistics. To foreshadow my speculations on language, I consider the possibility that, within the representation of one entity in perception, there exist all other entities. An entity is hence ‘worlded’—a key aspect of the term ‘whakapapa’. I then turn to think about language as a general phenomenon for Mäori, and its complex ability to world an entity even as it adumbrates that thing’s backdrop. I consider the verb ‘to be’ in that light, arguing that Mäori identify language as a sort of gathering of entities rather than an instrument for singling out one thing as thoroughly and separably evident. This article is therefore as much about the full participation of the world as it is about language; it also aims to counter the belief that language is merely a conveyor of ideas.

text: Worlded object and its presentation: A Māori philosophy of language In an era concerned with the survival of Indigenous languages, language as a general phenomenon needs to be thought of as thoroughly connected to one’s worldview. In this article, I propose a different conception of language that sides more with what I call ‘the worlding of things’ than linguistics. To foreshadow my speculations on language, I consider the possibility that, within the representation of one entity in perception, there exist all other entities. An entity is hence ‘worlded’—a key aspect of the term ‘whakapapa’. I then turn to think about language as a general phenomenon for Mäori, and its complex ability to world an entity even as it adumbrates that thing’s backdrop. I consider the verb ‘to be’ in that light, arguing that Mäori identify language as a sort of gathering of entities rather than an instrument for singling out one thing as thoroughly and separably evident. This article is therefore as much about the full participation of the world as it is about language; it also aims to counter the belief that language is merely a conveyor of ideas.

year: 2016