Applied Geographic Studies最新文献

Immigration to the United States has shifted radically since the Immigration Act of 1965. Immigration from Europe has decreased, and that from Central and South America and Asia has increased. The 1965 Act removed previous restrictions on immigration from Asian countries. As a result, the proportion of immigrants from Asia has increased dramatically. The objective of this article is to examine the spatial patterns of relative flow of Asian immigrants to the United States. An immigration index, expressing the rate of immigration from a selected Asian country, relative to the all-Asian rate of immigration, is calculated and mapped to identify source countries of over- and under-representation. The study found that the volume of flow originated from 18 of the 29 selected countries of Asia is more or less consistent with the overall immigration rate of the continent. The remaining 11 countries sent a relatively smaller number of immigrants. This finding has important policy implications for the government agencies concerned with U.S. immigration policies. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

This study is concerned with spatial innovative behavior of firms in European cities in three countries: Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Three elements play essentially a central role in the analysis: (1) the company and its innovative behavior, (2) the local production environment, and (3) knowledge networks. Uncertainty and uncertainty reduction appear to have a strong influence on the interplay between these elements, in such a way that different innovative strategies may arise, for example, product and process innovation. In the article a comprehensive score that represents the significance of the local production environment for both product and process innovation will be proposed and explored for various cities in the countries concerned. In a comparison between the manufacturing and the service sector in the Netherlands, the local production environment appeared to have more influence on product innovation than on process innovation. Besides, the manufacturing sector appeared to perceive its environment as being relatively less important, whereas the service sector clearly has a different view. Because of the need for uncertainty reduction, local (knowledge) networks—in particular, links with local universities and colleges—turn out to be increasingly important. From our empirical results, we conclude that companies that maintain strong knowledge relationships tend to value their local environment higher than companies without such links. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

State-level wild and scenic river programs currently provide varying levels of protection to over 450 river segments covering 15,500 river miles in 32 states. Collectively, these state-level programs have surpassed the federal system under the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in terms of both the number of river miles protected and the quality of protection provided. Content analysis and location quotient analyses are used to evaluate the programmatic features of existing state programs and the spatial distribution of river mileage protected across the United States. Results of the analyses were applied to developing policy recommendations for river protection in Texas, where nine previous legislative attempts to establish a river program have failed. Policy recommendations focus on nurturing local support for watershed and greenway protection programs, and working to overcome riparian landowner fears regarding trespass, littering, and vandalism. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Economic base analysis is typically sold as a research tool on the promise that it can produce a multiplier. But it can do much more if the practitioner thinks to ask or if the applied geographer bothers to offer. This article identifies six economic development problems commonly faced by development practitioners and illustrates how solutions can be drawn from economic base studies. Two studies are featured; one is a regional economic base study that looks at both a large rural region and at five individual communities within the region. The other is a study of a single community that was initially completed in 1974 and replicated three times between 1974 and 1995. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Many empirical analyses of economic impacts are complicated by the use of different spatial scales. In the context of economic base theory, backward linkages from an event being studied can extend from the local to the global scale, inducing varying degrees of leakages and hence different estimates of multiplier effects. This article opens with a review of the ways in which scale, linkages, and multipliers are intertwined. Second, it offers a case study using an input–output analysis of the closure of Homestead Air Force Base in Florida to illustrate how the choice of different spatial scales can dramatically alter empirical results. The conclusion discusses criteria that may assist applied geographers in choosing the optimal spatial scale to deploy. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The ground-water aquifers that supply the El Paso (United States)–Ciudad Juarez (Mexico) region with fresh water are being depleted faster than they can replenish themselves through natural or induced recharge. This condition of aquifer overdraft has produced water level declines in the Hueco bolson aquifer underlying the study area and threatens water quality deterioration. Projections of future water demand indicate that ground-water supplies in the El Paso–Juarez Valley may not be sustainable beyond the year 2030. A steady-state, three-layer model of the Hueco bolson aquifer underlying the El Paso–Juarez Valley was developed to characterize vertical leakage, an indicator of ground-water extraction impacts in the study area. Based on the conceptualization of aquifer dynamics as a spatial process, a geographic information system was implemented to map and process hydrologic and geologic variables, thus allowing the calculation of the spatial pattern of vertical leakage in the Hueco bolson aquifer and how it changed in the period between 1956 and 1995. The spatial hydrologic method developed for change detection of aquifer leakage provides an important management tool in overdrafted aquifers. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

In 1993, the New York State Emergency Management Office offered county governments a software system designed for emergency planning and response management. The system provided computer-mapping support as well as plume modeling and the ready retrieval of toxic-release response data. A 1996 survey of county emergency management offices revealed deep dissatisfaction with the package, but sustained interest in geographic information systems. Overall, flooding and severe winter weather were deemed more serious threats than toxic releases and nuclear accidents, for which emergency management software are designed. Although use and expertise vary widely, counties in which emergency management officials view toxic release or nuclear plants as serious threats generally make fuller use of emergency management and GIS software than counties where technological disasters are deemed less threatening. Small county-level emergency management staffs with limited training in GIS, plume modeling, and other relevant techniques argue for fuller support and back-up by the state emergency management agency. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

This study examines ambiguities in fractal analysis, a popular technique in landscape ecology used to quantify spatial patterns by computing the average shape complexity of patches. These ambiguities may arise depending on whether analysis is based on individual patches or on the entire landscape, and whether topographic influences are considered. Using data from the Olympic National Forest, Washington, annual fractal dimensions are examined for old-growth forest from 1900 to 1990. The conventional fractal measure of landscape structure is compared with results from both patch- and landscape-based analyses. In addition, topographic effects on fractal assessments are evaluated. Results show that the approach analyzing a landscape, in its entirety, may be a promising indicator for the structural complexity of landscape fragmentation, whereas topography appears insignificant to landscape fractal analysis. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The adult entertainment industry and its outlet and distribution through sexually oriented businesses (SOBs) have moved into the mainstream of American popular culture during the last 20 years. Despite some regulatory guidelines from the Supreme Court, SOB owners, neighborhoods, business groups, and municipalities are engaged in an almost continuous battle over where such establishments should be allowed to locate. This study begins with an analysis of the legal and social context within which the SOB industry has emerged and then focuses on a case study of SOB location in Dallas, Texas. The case study examines the recent growth of SOBs in Dallas, Texas, the evolution of zoning strategies to regulate the industry, and the relationship between SOBs and the incidence of crime. The results suggest that current zoning strategies have not been successful at controlling SOB location in the past for two major reasons. First, the ability of SOB owners to either challenge successfully the existing law or to find loopholes in the law has limited the effectiveness of current regulations and, second, the constitutionally protected nature of some forms of adult entertainment makes locationally based strategies for their control marginal at best. In addition, the study finds that the covariation of arrest rates and SOB location is weak generally, although the incidence of prostitution and indecent exposure tend to be higher in areas where SOBs are concentrated. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.