Geographical Journal最新文献

The COVID-19 pandemic catalysed a time of significant upheaval and change at multiple levels of politics and society. Early on, connections were made with the climate crisis. This featured strongly in global calls for a green recovery and the opportunities for pandemic stimulus to spur co-benefits with climate action. Highlighting the global and cascading nature of crises in the Anthropocene, the pandemic provided an opportunity to shed light on the political and societal determinants of multiple crises and the often temporary hopes for transformation that arise in their wake. While there is much literature on how crises provide these ‘windows of opportunity’ for attention and resources, there is much less attention on how the experience of, and discourses associated with, an emergent crisis reframe the politics of more chronic ones. This paper uses an analysis of media articles released during the pandemic in Aotearoa New Zealand to analyse the ways that COVID-19 reframed narratives relating to climate change politics in four key ways: the possibilities for collective action, the need for greater ambition, threats to progress and premonitions of future crises. We argue that these new narratives offer insights into how the place-specific experience and response to one crisis can reframe another, and which narratives may become elevated or obscured. In doing so, we demonstrate how the pandemic acted as more than a window of opportunity, becoming a temporary catalyst for new framings of the climate crisis and crisis-driven political change more generally.

This paper examines the spatial and social differences in people's lack of access to adequate energy and transport services in the UK. We respond to the need for developing a differentiated understanding of both the drivers and expressions of this ‘double energy vulnerability’ (DEV), while seeking to integrate and analyse relevant information from all four UK nations. Using a variety of statistically representative census and survey datasets, the paper develops a series of multi-dimensional indices to map transport- and energy-related injustices. This is followed by a cluster analysis to examine broad-level geographical patterns, and a Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) model to explore the spatial variation of vulnerabilities related to contingencies such as income, ethnicity and housing. The paper corroborates the results of previous qualitative studies, and research within selected UK nations, while revealing several unexpected territorial clusters and underpinnings of infrastructural injustice. DEV is shown to disproportionately affect coastal, highland, peripheral and rural regions, with an internal granularity that exhibits high levels of variation within urban and peri-urban settings.

Religious identities play an important role in shaping migrants' experiences. Understanding the spatiotemporal distribution of religions enhances our knowledge of both religious expansion and religious cultures. This paper aims to leverage spatiotemporal analysis to characterise the topology of the spread of multiple religions in the Taipei metropolitan area from 1660 to 2020, including Folk Taoism (853 temples/altars, 55.39%), Christianity (306 churches, 19.87%) and Buddhism (332 temples, 21.56%). Three major factors affecting religious distribution are considered: the year of establishment of religious units (churches, temples or altars), the reclamation year of religious locations, and the economic index of religious sites. The results show that Folk Taoism and Buddhism have a long history of development in early reclamation regions with a hopping expansion pattern. However, Christianity expanded later in the later reclaimed and early reclaimed areas. The Christian religious units have highly concentrated spatial patterns and are located in the higher-income districts, centralised in the core regions of the Taipei metropolis. Modern forms of highly institutionalised religion, such as Buddhism and Christianity, are more prevalent in the relatively higher-income, later-cultivated areas, which provide richer social resources for development. Folk Taoism, as a traditional religion, is maintained and developed by local communities. This macroscopic analysis helps to (1) identify the exact chronology of different growth waves and explain them in a historical context, and (2) elucidate the spatial distribution differences between institutionalised religions and folk religion. Our research shows the evolution of religious landscapes from an undeveloped city to a developed city, offering valuable insights for geographical and religious studies, and enhancing understanding of diffused and institutionalised religious expansion.

Protected areas globally serve as crucial sanctuaries for biodiversity, playing a pivotal role in conserving endangered species and maintaining ecological balance. In the United Kingdom (UK), 25% of land is currently designated as public protected areas and discussions are underway regarding the implementation of new protected areas, including the establishment of new National Parks in all four nations of the UK. Wild places have an important role to play in understanding and deciding where public protected areas should or could be. People form profound connections to wild places locally and nationally. We used two online surveys to gather information on the UK public's local and national favourite wild places, and the characteristics of those places which make them their top choice. Our analysis revealed that respondents preferred different wild places based on their survey group, with significant differences in the importance placed on characteristics like ‘Accessibility’, ‘Nature’ and ‘Scenery’ across local and national scales. Demographic factors, including age and settlement, had some impact, but the overall importance of characteristics like ‘Peace and Quiet’ and ‘Nature’ were consistently high across both surveys. Recognising the prevalence of favourite wild places outside of designated areas underscores the importance of engaging the different viewpoints of the public in conservation initiatives, and indicates that public support for conservation might extend beyond officially protected regions.

Commodity exports have played a crucial role in driving global economic growth, but they have also led to increased flow and consumption of natural resources worldwide. To measure and analyse the inter-regional virtual water consumption and value-added benefits driven by exports, as well as the unequal exchange between regions, we utilised the global supply chain database of Eora to construct a multi-regional input–output (MRIO) model of virtual water consumption and value-added benefits among 189 countries and regions from 1991 to 2016. We also proposed a virtual water consumption uneven index. The results highlight that relatively less developed regions accounted for 27% of the world's total export value added and 56% of virtual water exports. In contrast, relatively developed regions contributed 73% of the global export value added but only 44% of virtual water exports. The export of high-value-added products, such as financial services, was concentrated in the relatively developed regions, while water-intensive products, like agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry, were mainly exported by relatively less developed regions. Economically developed regions enjoyed a beneficiary position in terms of virtual water consumption, with each unit of export-driven added value requiring only 4–100 kg of virtual water. Conversely, economically less developed regions consumed 140–1800 kg of virtual water per unit of export-driven added value. The disparities in virtual water exchanges across different regions primarily stem from the differences between developed and less developed regions. Therefore, less developed regions and countries should focus on improving water efficiency in water-consuming industries, adjusting the structure of export industries, and striving to reduce or reverse the disadvantageous position of resource consumption, such as virtual water, in global trade exports.

The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) annual Medals and Awards recognise achievements in researching, communicating and teaching a wide range of geographical knowledge. The speeches and citations are a record of the 2024 celebrations, which occurred at the Society on 3 June 2024, with contributions from Vanessa Lawrence, Stephen Venables, Lily Kong, Chris Clark and Stefan Doerr.

In his final address as President of the Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), Nigel Clifford reflected on the work of the Society in advancing geographical knowledge and engaging with a strong network of like-minded organisations in industry, education, government, and the professional sphere. He ended by looking forward to future generations of geographers and how they might be prepared and supported to tackle the planetary problems we face today.

This paper introduces a proof-of-concept spatial decision support system (SDSS) that assists decision-makers to generate equitably distributed sensor networks and evaluate their placement with reference to specific population-based coverage criteria. Our approach centres equity in infrastructure distribution; we focus on the decision-making process required to achieve the best possible sensor coverage of the geographical area for selected vulnerable populations and visualise trade-offs in coverage inherent in infrastructure distribution. The development of the tool brings together expertise from quantitative geography, urban planning, data science and software engineering, and its technical development is underpinned and shaped by interviews with decision-makers and their iterative feedback. Through this, we ask: how can decision support tools help with the work of building equitable infrastructure? As well as a technical application, our approach develops a conceptual framework for evaluating sensor network purpose and distribution before actual placement. The unique combination of distribution algorithms, user interface and decision-maker input, developed by an interdisciplinary team, offers a novel approach to sensor network conceptualisation and generation. Our research contributes to the understanding of the distribution of essential infrastructure and can be repurposed for any sensor type and geographical location to promote equity in infrastructure distribution.

Indoor spaces are essential to most humans' lives. Furthermore, in many cases, buildings are shared indoor environments that contain diverse people and resources. Spatial patterns of use are important but under-examined aspects of human-building interactions. This study leverages perspectives from human-environment geography and mechanical engineering to examine spatial patterns of use within a network of shared indoor spaces in an academic building at a research university in the United States. Here we ask: (1) What spaces and resources do building users value? and (2) How are values associated with observed measures of use? We hypothesise that spatial patterns of use follow an ideal free distribution (IFD), a common ecological model of resource use. To test this, we define measures of value and use derived from mixed qualitative (n = 50) and survey-based social data (n = 196) and data from a building-based system of accelerometers. Our analyses provide some support for the IFD hypothesis. We discuss the implications of this finding and potential new avenues for geographic research in shared indoor environments.

Rising levels of hardship since the introduction of austerity have rendered essential items unaffordable for many on low incomes with young children. Baby Banks—organisations freely providing essential items and equipment to those with, or expecting, a baby or young infant—have grown. These organisations have received little academic attention and much of what is known about them comes from news media coverage. News media plays a critical role in raising public awareness, shaping public attitudes, and influencing policy formation. Drawing on 384 news articles, this paper explores the scale and nature of news article coverage of Baby Banks between 2009 and 2022 using sentiment analysis and topic modelling. Through employing these approaches, our research adds quantitative evidence to extant work on news media coverage under austerity. Our results show that the number of articles written about Baby Banks has grown since 2009, with peaks in coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, potentially reflecting the growing need for these organisations. While sentiment towards Baby Banks within news articles has predominantly been positive, since 2019 there has been a rise in negative coverage due to an increase in articles critical of the growing number of people requiring Baby Banks. Alongside discussions of political changes driving rising hardship, prominent underpinning narratives in articles have included charitable appeals for donations, praise for community work, the royal family, and mothers. By focusing on the sentiment and key discussions around Baby Banks, our research extends understandings of media coverage under austerity.