Geographical Journal最新文献

The European Climate Law sets a legally binding target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. In this regard, in 2023 the EU Environmental Council decided that from 2035 onwards only CO₂-neutral new cars will be licensed in the European Union. Simultaneously, since the energy crisis caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, fuel prices increased in Germany. This has made more and more households think about purchasing an e-car. However, not every household has the opportunity to install their own wallbox, and when travelling long distances, e-car users are dependent on the availability of ample public charging stations. Against this background, with a special focus on rural areas, this paper considers the questions whether and where spatial inequalities in the accessibility of public charging stations might currently exist. To approach these questions, based on an empirical analysis of the 2023 official location data of public charging points in Germany, we examine the nationwide distribution, accessibility and available capacity of public charging stations in Germany at small-scale from the point of view of the ‘household’ as well as those who travel by e-car within Germany. In order to evaluate the location data of public charging stations we mainly use raster-based accessibility analysis methods as well as isotropic kernel intensity estimates. We found that, in contrast to the common belief, the network of public charging stations is quite dense. However, taking a closer look reveals that the charging infrastructure in Germany has so far been tailored to the needs of intra-regional travelers (commuting, shopping, leisure) rather than to those of the residential population with no access to their own wallbox (daily recharging in close proximity to one‘s home) or the mid- to long-distance travelers.

This study examined the quadratic role of renewable energy and economic growth on environment quality in Asia's five most populous countries: China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Previous literature has scarcely addressed these economies and ignores the quadratic role of GDP per capita (GDPPC) and renewable energy (REN) together in a single study. Therefore, using STIRPAT model, we first added the quadratic term of GDPPC and then REN. In both cases, a quantile regression technique is utilised to identify the inclusive relationship between CO₂ emissions and determining factors, considering different quantiles (0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 0.90, and 0.95) of CO₂ emissions. The findings show that during the annual sample period of 1983–2019, urbanisation, GDPPC, non-renewable energy, and REN all have an impact on CO₂ emissions. Urbanisation and REN have nominal effects, with a 1% change in these variables leading to a 0.19% and 0.05% change in CO₂ emissions, respectively. Non-renewable energy and GDPPC are found to be main sources of CO₂ emissions in the region. GDPPC is positively associated with CO₂ emissions across all quantiles, but higher quantiles show a stronger correlation (i.e., GDPPC coefficients vary from 0.26 to 0.66). In addition, the results also revealed that the square term of GDPPC and REN significantly reduces CO₂ emissions. This implies that our results support the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis; an inverted U-shaped is established for both GDPPC and REN. These results encourage policy makers to adopt renewable energy that is both growth and environment friendly.

International trade drives the transboundary transfer of carbon emissions. However, due to the differences in the economic development level and industrial structure of countries, the whole understanding of the inequality exchange between carbon emissions and the value added remains to be illuminated. Here, to uncover the global pattern of this inequality exchange, we construct a multi-regional input–output model (MRIO) and inequality exchange index (IEI) from 1991 to 2016, to carry out macro path research with the goal of achieving global carbon neutrality. The results show that: (1) The carbon emissions per unit of value added through trade have declined in most countries, and the decline rate of developing countries was faster than that of developed ones. (2) In general, the developed countries were in an advantageous position in the value added and carbon emission exchange, while the developing countries were in a disadvantageous position. (3) Six sectors – agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry; electrical and machinery; electricity, gas, and water; petroleum, chemical, and N-metallic mineral products; transport; and financial intermediation and business activities – accounted for more than half of the carbon emissions of global trade, but with the advancement of energy conservation and emission-reduction measures, carbon emissions have decreased to varying degrees. (4) From a global perspective, promoting cooperation on carbon reduction technologies from developed countries to developing ones might be a key and effective way to achieve global carbon reduction. The study aims to provide new insights into the formulation of global carbon neutrality and carbon emission responsibility-sharing policies.

In 2016, the UK voted to leave the European Union (EU). This outcome was not only unexpected but also had clear geographical and age-bound divisions. While people over the age of 65 tended to vote to leave, younger voters were more likely to vote to remain a part of the EU. Reflecting on 7 years of journalism, this paper explores the ways in which young people have been represented by the news media with regards to the issue of Brexit. It analyses a database of 700 news media articles published from 2016 to 2022 across the UK, equating to 100 articles per calendar year and ranging from regional sources to those with an international reach. The paper showcases how young people occupy liminal spaces within the news media through an analysis of the language used to describe their political participation, and a focus on their role within political activism. As it is this media that dominates hegemonic narratives within traditional political spheres, the retelling and representation of young people's engagement serves, we argue, to reinforce their liminality as citizens apart.

Tourism plays an important role in promoting rural transformation and development globally. Based on the logical relationship between tourism and rural development, this study constructs a tourism and rural development index using two models. The projection pursuit model is used to analyse the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of the level of tourism and rural development, while the coupling coordination degree model measures the relationship in the counties of four southern Xinjiang prefectures from 2010 to 2019. A panel regression model is used to analyse the influencing factors of the coupling coordination relationship between them. The results show the following: (1) The level of tourism and rural development fluctuates and increases in time, and both demonstrate high-level agglomeration in some counties (cities) in the northeast and southwest of the four prefectures, spatially. (2) During the study period, the level of tourism and rural development changed from ‘high coupling and serious imbalance’ to ‘high coupling and barely coordinated’. Spatially, the degree of coupling is similar to the high-value region of the coupling coordination degree. Over time, the spatial heterogeneity of the coupling degree decreases and the spatial heterogeneity of the coupling coordination degree increases. (3) The main influencing factors for the coordinated development of tourism and rural areas are tourism resource endowment, tourist density index, rural employees, rural per capita disposable income, and tourism contribution rate.

Concerns about climate change are driving the development of novel technologies for mitigation and adaptation. Some of them include electricity generating and water harvesting based on atmospheric humidity. The latter is already commercial and can generate 50 L of drinking water per day per capita for dozens of people; however, besides energy, operation requires sufficient levels and durations of humidity and temperature. Our study focuses on the 33 megacities of the world, characterising the humidity and heat stress regimes during the last decade, using data from meteorological stations in their vicinity, and ranking them by their exposure and vulnerability to intense heat stress and their suitability to use these moisture-reliant technologies. Our findings indicate the dominance of severe heat stress conditions in megacities located in developing countries. Ranking the megacities according to the intensity and duration of the heat stress shows the annual, monthly and hourly courses. The five most affected are the cities of Chennai, Bangkok, Kolkata, Karachi and New Delhi. Seven megacities suffer continuous, at least 12 h, of intense heat stress during 1–4 months. The ranking also considered the level of income of the countries, hence their vulnerability. On an annual basis, approximately half of the megacities are highly suited for moisture-reliant technologies, among them megacities ranked as the top three in exposure to intense heat stress conditions—Chennai, Bangkok and Kolkata. When focusing on the humid season, 27 out of 33 megacities (82%) obtain suitable conditions for the new technologies and thus can benefit from them, at least part of the year. The implementation of humidity technologies for green energy and clean water could be of great help as our world gets more populated, warmer with higher water demand, especially for populations with insufficient infrastructure and resources.

This paper offers reflections about the use of a longitudinal qualitative research design in a project which explored the long term impacts of flooding in two communities in North-East Scotland. A temporal turn in the social sciences has raised the profile of longitudinal qualitative approaches, research whose diachronic framing allows trajectories and nuanced understandings of change to emerge. With reference to research which utilised a planned prospective longitudinal design, we offer reflections on methodological and project management ‘lessons learnt’ from undertaking a longitudinal qualitative study. Our experiences highlighted the importance of: (i) participant recruitment processes, including a need to ‘oversample’ to accommodate anticipated attrition rates; (ii) developing and sustaining a relationship between participants and researchers; (iii) reporting interim findings to participants, the funder and flood risk management stakeholders via a project Steering Group in particular; and (iv) agreeing a regular reporting schedule which allowed the funder and stakeholders access to findings during the lifetime of the project which, in turn, allowed impact to be generated before the final report was presented. In sharing our experiences our intention is twofold: to open a debate in human geography about how longitudinal qualitative research could be used more widely, in natural hazards research, rural community change and other research areas; and to illustrate that longitudinal qualitative research generates insights that can contribute to evidence-based policy development, implementation and evaluation.

This paper explores the possibility of reading Rio's gun battles, or tiroteios, as events that produce meaning, order, and opportunities for profit and extraction, rather than as episodes of chaos and disorder. Shootouts in Rio are recurring incidents entwined with the particular historical trajectory of Rio's informal and illicit markets of different sorts – drugs, weapons, infrastructure, and security. I attempt to show how this intertwining, over time, has produced this atmosphere of war that spreads well beyond the sites where shootouts frequently occur. In the concluding section I discuss how ongoing, citizen-based efforts at quantifying shootouts produce accumulated knowledge and maps that show us that this overarching structure allows the milícias to advance their territories over areas of the city that were free of these militarised spatial routines. I conclude by suggesting that this war ‘yet to end’ produces a constellation that fosters the continuity of Rio's shootouts.

Indicators are important tools for tracking the socio-environmental impacts of droughts and building resilience to climate change. We begin with an overview of metrics used for water planning and drought management, with particular emphasis on the UK. We explain how considerations of cost, immediacy, access, consistency, relevance, reliability and others denote the suitability of information for developing new indicators. We then demonstrate the potential of Google Trends (GT) online search data as drought indicators for England and Ireland. We show that search terms such as ‘drought’, ‘water butt’ and ‘hosepipe ban’ correlate significantly with conventional hydroclimatic data as well as with newspaper reports of various drought impacts during the period 2011–2022. GT data also show evidence of rising interest in water saving technologies, especially for outdoor water use. Meanwhile, online searches for ‘Defra’ and ‘Environment Agency’ have declined and are more often associated with flood episodes than droughts. Interest in water companies in England is more likely around hosepipe bans than water leakage (although this varies by company). We discuss the implications of these findings for targeting information campaigns, plus prospects for monitoring drought impacts and public sentiment in near real-time.

This commentary explores historical efforts to diagnose the present and project the future through the specific example of medical manpower planning. To situate this, it draws on work within and across geography exploring the concept of anticipation and considers the discipline's failure to adequately engage with healthcare workers, despite the vibrancy of health geography as a subdiscipline. As it explores, ensuring adequate numbers of staff in a healthcare system has been an issue for as long as there have been healthcare systems. Planning for healthcare system needs is thus a particularly fraught form of anticipation that seeks to project future needs from a contested and often incalculable present as a basis for political decision-making and resource allocation. As this commentary explores, it is a problem that is global in scope, historically deep and thus rich in analytical possibility.