地理学展望:2050年的地理学

尽管空间、地方、区域、环境是所谓"永恒的地理命题",但大部分的人文、环境地理学研究中的"时间"主题都聚焦在研究地方、景观和区域的当前或过去,却少有研究者对其未来产生兴趣。研究的缺乏可能要归因于对此前社会、文化、政治、经济地理学者所做的相关研究不熟悉,或者对这些研究所具有的价值和意义估计不足。本文希望通过梳理在不同年代地理学界对未来地理学的研究做过哪些工作,以及未来还可以在哪些方面做出贡献,来弥补这一缺陷。20世纪70年代早期,地理学者开始关注当时正在显现的后工业经济、社会的不同特征,信息和通讯技术的革新,城市未来,变化中的社会秩序,区域和全球尺度上的资源短缺和环境改造等一系列问题。部分未来地理学者从"带有地理色彩"的科幻作家们以及其他各学科的学者那里借鉴了许多观点和概念。这些学者们的代表作品,在文中列出的书目以及两本主要的跨学科杂志The Futurist(由世界未来学会出版)以及Future Studies中可以看到。未来学家们所使用的预测方法和模型多种多样,如趋势外推、交叉影响分析、模型模拟、情景假设、德尔菲法等,这些方法各有其优势和劣势。当前,对未来的研究已经引起了企业界、教育界、政策研究界等的重视,这一点可以从学术性刊物、奖项,以及对2050年及其以后的世界规划中,对未来研究的兴趣日益增长得到证明。对未来的研究聚焦于世界南方(发展中国家)、北方(发达国家)、区域经济与人口,以及全球环境的未来,不仅需要考虑"确定性"(期待中的世界),也同样要考虑"不确定性"以及"不愿意看到却又可能出现"的一面。本文给出了当前至2050年时段地理学者可能需要考虑的29个重点研究主题,涉及经济、文化、社会、政治及环境地理领域。同时,本文还讨论了6个针对中国经济、文化、政治、环境领域未来发展的研究主题,包括中国的"绿色化",作为崛起的世界性强国的中国,中国消费者及其伦理观,作为全球创新领袖的中国,人口问题和数字鸿沟,以及未来的宗教/信仰问题。为便于对未来研究的讨论和分析,文中给出了7幅富有新意的专题图,分别描绘了欧洲世界的亚洲化趋势,未来的城市系统,重大洲际交通工程,不同区域的时间文化,自治区域和新的国家,以及环境地带迁移等。最后,本文建议中国地理学界运用德尔菲法,对中国的未来从经济、社会、环境等方面进行审视。其结果对于区域和国家层面规划制订将是非常具有价值的,也将使地理学者在推动建设社会、环境美好未来的过程中扮演更为重要的角色。同时,地理学者也需要与其他学科的学者们紧密合作,共同研究与国家、区域乃至全球未来相关的"时间"主题。     

The Politics of Location: Doing Feminist Research at “Home”*

Feminist research methodologies have many advantages over more traditional positivist methodologies. Feminist research is differentiated from nonfeminist research in terms of its critiques of universality and objectivity and its emancipatory purpose. Drawing on my own research on the survival strategies of low-waged women workers in Worcester, Massachusetts, I argue that we need to examine more critically our feminist research methods in terms of the unequal power relationships on which the research process necessarily rests.     

The conditionality of status: Experience-based reflections on the insider/outsider issue

When a researcher undertakes research into his/her own ethnic group, issues of positionality abound. These issues relate not only to the impact of inherent insider positionality when interacting with study participants but also in the interpretation and presentation of study findings. My research with contemporary Irish immigrants not only reinforced the advantages of being an insider but also highlighted the incomplete and unstable nature of insiderness. Heterogeneity within the study group, in terms of their geo-political, regional and religious origins, meant that presumptions of insiderness and outsiderness were frequently challenged. A new awareness of the conditionality of each positionality was forged from these experiences.     

Observer presence may alter the behaviour of reef fishes associated with coral colonies

Although underwater visual census (UVC) is the most frequently used technique for quantifying reef fish assemblages, remote video analysis has been gaining attention as a potential alternative. In the South Atlantic Ocean, Millepora spp. (class Hydrozoa) are the only branching coral species; however, little is known about the ecological role that they play for reef fish communities. We compared these two observation methods (remote video and UVC) to estimate reef fish abundance and species richness associated with colonies of the fire‐coral Millepora alcicornis at Tamandaré Reefs, Northeast Brazil. Additionally, the two different techniques were used to compare species behaviour in association with fire‐corals in order to examine the biases associated with each technique and provide useful information for behavioural ecologists studying fish–coral associations. There were no differences in reef fish abundance or species richness sampled by remote video or UVC. However, a significant difference in the behaviour of associated fish was recorded between the two methods. In the presence of a diver carrying out a UVC, fish were observed spending more time sheltered amongst the coral branches compared with passively swimming on coral colonies with the remote video technique. Specifically, on the remote video recordings agonistic interactions between fish and passive swimming accounted for 33.3% and 22.2% of the census time, respectively. By comparison, when observed by a diver fish spent 34.8% of their time sheltering amongst the coral branches. We demonstrate that both techniques are similarly effective for recording fish abundance and species richness associated with fire‐corals. However, differences were observed in the ability of each method to detect the behaviour of coral‐associated fishes. Our findings show that behavioural ecologists studying complex fish–coral associations need to ensure that their aims are clearly defined and that they choose the most appropriate technique for their study in order to minimize methodological biases.     

GPU accelerated marine data visualization method

The study of marine data visualization is of great value. Marine data, due to its large scale, random variation and multiresolution in nature, are hard to be visualized and analyzed. Nowadays, constructing an ocean model and visualizing model results have become some of the most important research topics of ‘Digital Ocean'. In this paper, a spherical ray casting method is developed to improve the traditional ray-casting algorithm and to make efficient use of GPUs. Aiming at the ocean current data, a 3D view-dependent line integral convolution method is used, in which the spatial frequency is adapted according to the distance from a camera. The study is based on a 3D virtual reality and visualization engine, namely the VV-Ocean. Some interactive operations are also provided to highlight the interesting structures and the characteristics of volumetric data. Finally, the marine data gathered in the East China Sea are displayed and analyzed. The results show that the method meets the requirements of real-time and interactive rendering.     

河流环境流量法研究进展

回顾了20世纪80年代以来,国内外在河流环境流量法方面的研究进展,包括研究现状、方法类别及发展趋势。在国外,从考虑单一水文要素的水文学法,到考虑多学科交叉的整体分析法,逐步建立起一套完整的方法研究体系,今后发展趋势是通过国际间的合作研究,开发满足不同国家国情和水情特点的综合环境流量法。在国内,研究尚处于起步阶段,大多停留在定性分析水平上,定量分析,计算比较简单,主要采用的是水文学法,如Tennant法、7Q10法等,今后的研究方向一方面要加强基础研究工作,另一方面要根据本国(或流域、或地区)特点开发出适合于国情和水情的环境流量法,研究地区也应从干旱半干旱的北方地区转移到水资源较为丰富的南方地区。     

Probabilistic and statistical relationships between number of vehicles and number of visitors at a geologic site in a National Park

The National Park Service needs to establish in all of the national parks how large the parking lots should be in order to enjoy and preserve our natural resources, for example, in the Delicate Arch in the Arches National Park. Probabilistic and statistical relationships were developed between the number of vehicles (N) at one time in the Wolfe Ranch parking lot and the number of visitors (X) at Delicate Arch 1.5 miles away in the Arches National Park, southeastern Utah. The value ofN is determined such that 30 or more visitors are at the arch only 10% of the time.     

“Placing” Interviews: Location and Scales of Power in Qualitative Research

For qualitative researchers, selecting appropriate sites in which to conduct interviews may seem to be a relatively simple research design issue. In fact it is a complicated decision with wide-reaching implications. In this paper, we argue that the interview site itself embodies and constitutes multiple scales of spatial relations and meaning, which construct the power and positionality of participants in relation to the people, places, and interactions discussed in the interview. We illustrate how observation and analysis of interview sites can offer new insights with respect to research questions, help researchers understand and interpret interview material, and highlight particular ethical considerations that researchers need to address.     

“Placing” Interviews: Location and Scales of Power in Qualitative Research

For qualitative researchers, selecting appropriate sites in which to conduct interviews may seem to be a relatively simple research design issue. In fact it is a complicated decision with wide‐reaching implications. In this paper, we argue that the interview site itself embodies and constitutes multiple scales of spatial relations and meaning, which construct the power and positionality of participants in relation to the people, places, and interactions discussed in the interview. We illustrate how observation and analysis of interview sites can offer new insights with respect to research questions, help researchers understand and interpret interview material, and highlight particular ethical considerations that researchers need to address.