Canadian Geographer-Geographe Canadien最新文献

This paper critically examines how data availability and algorithmic constraints reshape research design, relevance, and outcomes in GIScience. Through a case study of automated curb ramp detection in Seattle, Washington, I demonstrate how the limitations of data, tools, and computational frameworks frequently shape the ambitions of early-stage geographic inquiry. While GeoAI and machine learning offer new possibilities for spatial analysis, they also embed assumptions, value hierarchies, and technical limitations that influence what questions can be asked and what answers can be obtained. Using a random forest model and open-source LiDAR and imagery data, I show how data sparsity, class imbalance, and aspatial training techniques complicate both accuracy and utility. Drawing on visual methods and explainable AI, I interrogate how the algorithm “learned” patterns and where it failed, revealing that AI-identified relevance often diverges from socially meaningful goals. I argue for a reflexive approach to GeoAI—one that embraces error, foregrounds relevance, and resists the allure of algorithmic objectivity. The paper ultimately calls for centering research relevance alongside reproducibility and replicability in spatial data science, advocating for humility in the face of technological complexity.

The 2020s have seen increasing environmental change and it is nearly impossible to deny that human actions are driving it. Individual-level actions are important for mitigating environmental change and facilitating adaptation. However, there is debate over the relationship between perceptions of the risks of environmental change and taking pro-environmental actions that can mitigate them. Few studies examine how perceptions of environmental change influence perceptions of the most effective actions to mitigate environmental change, a mediating step between perception and action. This paper examines these relationships and finds that people are most likely to perceive environmental changes they can experience firsthand, in natural bodies of water and green spaces. It also finds that those who perceive change may be more sceptical of symbolic flagship behaviours than those who are less aware of environmental changes. Findings identify leverage points where environmental education can be most effective in translating perception to pro-environmental action.

Gender and toilets are intimately connected. According to the United Nations (UN), access to sanitation, inclusive of toilets, within public spaces is a human right, and tied to the Sustainable Development Goals to achieve gender equality. A framework was developed to assess the provision of toilets in public spaces and includes five criteria: availability; accessibility; affordability; quality and safety; and acceptability, privacy and dignity. The framework links access to sanitation/public toilets and gendered rights. Canada lacks good quality public toilets in most places, including public parks, and there is no research on how Canadian cities consider the needs of women and transgender and gender-diverse people for public toilets in their parks and recreation master plans. Therefore, we undertook a content analysis of parks and recreation master plans of Canadian municipalities using the UN framework. We did so to understand if decision makers consider gendered access to sanitation in public parks, and whether cities are meeting their human rights obligation on toilets as determined by the UN. Our results found there is a planning gap around gendered access to public toilets in planning policies and many municipalities are not meeting their human rights obligations to access to sanitation and gender equality.

In Canada, climate change and the rising cost of fossil fuel-based energy are driving a transition to cleaner local energy systems—combining renewable energy, storage, and smart devices. While these technologies are important, without public support and participation, they will not ensure a just and sustainable transition. In this context, we analyze data from a nationally representative survey (n = 941) of Canadians’ views towards local energy system change, with a focus on three actions (hosting generation, agreeing to external control, and trading electricity) that will be vital. We are interested in overall trends across Canada, though given regional differences and the need to understand the people likely to support these actions, we utilize geographic, socio-demographic, and political variables to explore variations. In this, four key distinctions were found: females were more likely to support local generation; Quebec residents were more likely to consider coordination by letting an authority take control of their household's appliances; younger Canadians were more interested in all actions; and there was a left-right divide along political lines, with those supporting left-leaning parties being more interested in energy management. We locate these findings within broader discussions and close our article with recommendations for further research and policy.

This article uses a geohistorical analysis approach to explore the Italian school population in Cap Bon, Tunisia, during the French Protectorate period (1881–1956). This study intends to contribute to a better understanding of the complex interactions between colonization, education, and immigration within a colonial context. Through the analysis of private school archives and enrollment records, it reveals that Italian children were widely present in various schools and highlights the spatial distribution of Italian students and their integration into local educational institutions. The article also examines the impact of global socio-economic and political contexts, such as world wars and economic crisis, on this population. Education, seen as a cultural and identity issue, was influenced by tensions between the Italian and French languages, reflecting the paradoxical challenges of social integration and cultural preservation. Overall, Italian immigration, mainly from Sicily, shaped the socio-economic and linguistic landscape of Cap Bon, contributing to the region's agricultural and wine-growing development as well as the local multicultural mosaic.

Geography has had a long legacy of research investigating the lived experiences of individuals with chronic illness, particularly women. Health geographers have also begun to focus beyond health to wellbeing, defined as that space between expectation and reality. Individuals living with chronic illness often experience complex impacts to their lifestyle, relationships, aspirations, and employment that affect this space, expressed as emotional, mental, and psychosocial health and wellbeing impacts. Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic autoimmune condition disproportionately affecting women. Lupus nephritis (LN) is a manifestation of SLE that affects the kidneys, developing in up to 60% of those with SLE. Impacts extend beyond the physiological, as LN affects capacity to conceive and carry a child. Individuals aged ≥18 years with LN were recruited from a Canadian lupus cohort to participate in semi-structured in-depth interviews (n = 30). At the individual level, participants reported emotional impacts experienced at LN diagnosis (e.g., uncertainty, fear, surprise, relief) and in daily life (e.g., fear of future, stigmatization). At the meso level, participants shared how relationships (e.g., feeling supported, treated differently), leisure activities (e.g., modifying activities), paid employment and education (e.g., altered career paths), and family planning (e.g., conception challenges) impacted wellbeing. Results increase our understanding of how living with chronic illness impacts wellbeing and can inform policy and practice change.

This article recounts the development of an ongoing community-engaged research project that maps environmental injustice in Peterborough/Nogojiwanong, Ontario. Drawing insight and inspiration from the activism and scholarship in environmental injustice in Canada and a specific understanding of environmental injustice as slow violence, this project seeks to understand how community members experience environmental risk. In this article we explore two spatial methods we undertook to understand the landscape of environmental inequality in Peterborough: the development of an environmental injustice index using GIS mapping, complemented by participatory mapping with community members. In presenting the results of these interlinked mapping efforts, we make the argument that while both methods centred community needs, either taken alone would be insufficient to understand the complexity of environmental injustice in Peterborough. Instead, we call for environmental justice projects that combine both big and small data for research that is critical, community-engaged, and focused on justice.