WorldMinds : geographical perspectives on 100 problems : commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Association of American Geographers 1904-2004 : celebrating geography - the next 100 years

Geography today is a vibrant amalgam of theories, methods, and data about past, current, and emerging worlds. Geography and the geographers who produce it dwell at the intersection of the natural sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities, and various admixtures of their theories, methods, and data constitute the 100 chapters included in WorldMinds. Arrayed under the rubrics of politics and power, human wellbeing, cities, livelihood, ecosystems, human­ environment interactions, hazards, natural systems, new methods, and human perceptions, these 100 short essays reveal and exemplify the conceptual and topical richness of contemporary North American geography. As is evident in these rubrics and essays, geography today is a many­ splendored enterprise ranging, as the editors note, "from feminist deconstruc­ tion to fluvial geomorphology." Geographers have something strikingly valuable to say about many, if not most of the problems that confront indi­ viduals and groups in locales and regions ranging from the plots of smallholders to the entire globe. The diverse chapters of WorldMinds well illustrate some of the key geographical perspectives that contribute usefully to the broader understanding of common problems. Front Matter....Pages i-xxii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Environmental Problems and International Democracy....Pages 3-7 Geographies of Power in the Post-Cold War World-System....Pages 9-14 Rural Property Rights in a Peace Process: Lessons from Mozambique....Pages 15-19 Globalization and Protest: Seattle and Beyond....Pages 21-24 Allah’s Mountains: Establishing a National Park in the Central Asian Pamir....Pages 25-30 Energy, Territory, and Conflict: Place-Based Research in the Caucasus....Pages 31-35 Hidden Killers: The Problem of Landmines and Unexploded Ordinance....Pages 37-41 Evaluating the Geographic Compactness of Representational Districts....Pages 43-47 Environmental Conflict, Collaborative Solutions, and the Politics of Geographic Scale....Pages 49-54 Putting Memory in its Place: The Politics of Commemoration in the American South....Pages 55-60 Banner Headlines: The Fight over Confederate Flags in the American South....Pages 61-66 Front Matter....Pages 67-67 Halting the AIDS Pandemic....Pages 69-73 Detecting Spatial Clusters of Cancer Mortality in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana....Pages 75-79 A Geographic Approach to Identifying Disease Clusters....Pages 81-85 Mortality Rates Across Time: Does Persistence Suggest “Healthy and Unhealthy Places” in the United States?....Pages 87-92 Learning Geography in the Absence of Sight....Pages 93-98 Haptic Soundscapes: Developing Novel Multi-Sensory Tools to Promote Access to Geographic Information....Pages 99-103 The Finnish Kaamos : Escapes from Short Days and Cold Winters....Pages 105-112 Applied Geography in the Provision of Educational Services....Pages 113-117 Spatial Analysis and Modeling for the School District Planning Problem....Pages 119-124 Front Matter....Pages 67-67 A Model for Collaborative Research: Building a Community-University Institute for Social Research....Pages 125-130 Struggling Against Illiteracy in a Global City: The New York Experience....Pages 131-135 Reaching New Standards: Geography’s Return to Relevance in American Education....Pages 137-141 Front Matter....Pages 143-143 Poverty and Geographical Access to Employment: Minority Women in America’s Inner Cities....Pages 145-149 Ethnic Segregation: Measurement, Causes, and Consequences....Pages 151-156 Flat Break-Ups: The British Condominium Conversion Experience....Pages 157-161 The Geography of Environmental Injustice in the Bronx, New York City....Pages 163-169 Commuting, Congestion, and Urban Transport Sustainability....Pages 171-175 Charting Urban Travelers 24–7 for Disaster Evacuation and Homeland Security....Pages 177-182 The Walking Security Index and Pedestrians’ Security in Urban Areas....Pages 183-189 Clean Streets — Clean Waterways: Street Sweeping, Storm-Water Runoff, and Pollution Reduction....Pages 191-196 Reclaiming Brownfield Sites: From Toxic Legacies to Sustainable Communities....Pages 197-202 Land Cover Change in the Seattle Region: Linking Patterns of Growth to Planning Efforts through Land Cover Change Assessments....Pages 203-207 How Smart is Smart Growth? the Case of Austin, Texas....Pages 209-214 Front Matter....Pages 215-215 Cultural Exploration and Understanding: A Framework for Global Business....Pages 217-224 Geography in a Crisis: Perspectives on the Asian Economic Crisis of the 1990s....Pages 225-229 Modeling Space for Regional Regeneration: High-Tech Districts in China....Pages 231-235 Why Offshore? Exploring the Geographies of Offshore Financial Centers....Pages 237-241 U.S. Call Centers: The Undiscovered Country....Pages 243-248 Gender and Globalization: Maquila Geographies....Pages 249-253 Front Matter....Pages 215-215 Promoting Development in the Canadian North....Pages 255-259 U.S. Land Cover and Land Use Change: 1973–2000....Pages 261-266 Periodic Markets Now and Then....Pages 267-270 Front Matter....Pages 271-271 The Biodiversity Crisis....Pages 273-277 Bio-Diversity Inventory: Kamiali Wildlife Management Area....Pages 279-285 Anthropogenic Soils and Sustainability in Amazonia....Pages 287-291 Tropical Deforestation....Pages 293-298 Deforestation of the Ecuadorian Amazon: Characterizing Patterns and Associated Drivers of Change....Pages 299-304 Forest Degradation and Fragmentation within Celaque National Park, Honduras....Pages 305-310 Human Interactions with Ecosystem Processes: Causes of Aspen Decline in the Intermountain West....Pages 311-316 The Colorado River Delta of Mexico: Endangered Species Refuge....Pages 317-320 Geographical Perspectives for Tackling Problems in Wetlands....Pages 321-324 Marine Geography in Support of “Reefs at Risk”....Pages 325-330 The Oculina Banks Experimental Research Reserve: A Habitat Assessment Using Multi-Media and Internet GIS....Pages 331-336 Front Matter....Pages 337-337 Geographers and Sustainability: A Missing Connection?....Pages 339-343 The Great Plains and the Buffalo Commons....Pages 345-349 Reducing Energy Shortages and Pollution in China: The World Bank’s Coal Transport Studies....Pages 351-356 Unintended Consequences: The War on Drugs and Land Use and Cover Change in the Ecuadorian Amazon....Pages 357-362 A Geographical Perspective on Coca/Cocaine Impacts in South America....Pages 363-367 Global Environments and Rural Communities: Enhancing Community Conservation Initiatives in East Africa....Pages 369-374 Front Matter....Pages 337-337 Water Management in the West: Controlling the Impact of Cumulative Pond Diversions....Pages 375-379 The Conservation Reserve Program: A Solution to the Problem of Agricultural Overproduction?....Pages 381-386 It’s the Overgrazing, Stupid! Destruction of the Global Rangelands....Pages 387-390 Forests and Management: A Case Study in Nepal Using Remote Sensing and GIS....Pages 391-396 Front Matter....Pages 397-397 Excursions Into the Toxic Past....Pages 399-403 Non-Point Sources: Historical Sedimentation and 20th Century Geography....Pages 405-410 Spatial Analysis of Hazardous Fuels and Ecological Decadence....Pages 411-417 Closed Municipal Landfills in Texas: Using GIS to Study Their Health, Safety, and Environmental Risks and Impacts....Pages 419-424 Understanding Pesticide Misuse in Developing Countries....Pages 425-429 The Biogeographic Response to Acid Rain....Pages 431-434 Thinking Outside the Circle: Using Geographical Knowledge to Focus Environmental Risk Assessment Investigations....Pages 435-442 Paleotempestology: Geographic Solutions to Hurricane Hazard Assessment and Risk Prediction....Pages 443-448 Societal Impacts of Blizzards in the Conterminous United States, 1959–2000....Pages 449-454 Coastal Hazards and Barrier Beach Development....Pages 455-460 Bridging Hazards Geography and Political Geography: A Borderland Vulnerability Framework....Pages 461-466 Front Matter....Pages 467-467 Ecological Response to Global Climatic Change....Pages 469-473 Global Change and Assessment of the Onset of Spring....Pages 475-480 Understanding Urban Climates....Pages 481-486 Developing Heat-Warning Systems for Cities Worldwide....Pages 487-492 Using Geomorphology to Assess and Enhance Beach Habitat for Horseshoe Crabs....Pages 493-496 Front Matter....Pages 467-467 Reconstructing Past Watershed and Ecosystem Development in the Coast Mountains, British Columbia, Canada....Pages 497-501 Water Resource Development on Small Carbonate Islands: Solutions Offered by the Hydrologic Landscape Concept....Pages 503-507 The Hydrodynamic Efficiency of Non-Traditional Levee Protection Methods in the Sacramento River Delta....Pages 509-514 Reclamation of Surface Coal Mined Lands in Northwest Colorado....Pages 515-519 Front Matter....Pages 521-521 Community Mapping As A Solution To Digital Equity....Pages 523-527 Using Historical Gis to Resolve Political Boundary Disputes Along Rivers....Pages 529-534 Toward a Participatory Geographic Information Science....Pages 535-539 Empowering Indigenous Peoples and Promoting Collaborative Natural Resource Management Through Mobile Interactive Gis (Migis)....Pages 541-546 Towards Structured Public Involvement: Enhancing Community Involvement in Transportation Decision Making....Pages 547-552 Gis Evaluation for Field Dissipation in the Northern Wheat Belt....Pages 553-558 Quantitative Spatial Analysis of Remotely Sensed Imagery....Pages 559-564 Geospatial Contributions to Watershed-Scale Surface Water Quality Modeling....Pages 565-570 The Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP)....Pages 571-575 Front Matter....Pages 577-577 Placing Children at the Heart of Globalization....Pages 579-583 How Do Children Use Representations of Space?....Pages 585-588 Undocumented Immigrants in the 21st Century: Perceptions of Spatial Legitimacy....Pages 589-593 ‘Nourishing The Soul’: Geography and Matters of Meaning....Pages 595-599 The Profound Problem of Locating Humanity: The Significance and Implications of Feng-Shui ....Pages 601-605 Alexander von Humboldt and the Origins of Our Modern Geographical View of Earth....Pages 607-611 Natural and Cultural Landscapes: One Heritage or Two?....Pages 613-617 Back Matter....Pages 619-638 WorldMinds provides broad exposure to a geography that is engaged with discovery, interpretation, and problem solving. Its 100 succinct chapters demonstrate the theories, methods, and data used by geographers, and exemplify the conceptual and topical richness of contemporary geography. The 150 contributing authors and co-authors address the challenges posed by issues such as globalization, regional and ethnic conflict, environmental hazards, terrorism, poverty, and sustainable development. This volume demonstrates the utility of geography as a conceptual discipline that contributes theoretically; as an applied practice that informs policy-making; and as a coherent set of methodologies to gather and analyze data about Earth and its occupants. WorldMinds is the ideal general reader to supplement textbooks in the full range of academic geography courses. In addition to geography students and instructors, it is relevant to researchers, applied geographers and policy makers WorldMinds provides broad exposure to a geography that is engaged with discovery, interpretation, and problem solving. Its 100 succinct chapters demonstrate the theories, methods, and data used by geographers, and address the challenges posed by issues such as globalization, regional and ethnic conflict, environmental hazards, terrorism, poverty, and sustainable development. Through its theoretical and practical applications, we are reminded that the study of Geography informs policy making. International environmental problems - such as global warming, holes in the ozone layer, biodiversity loss, and the management of common resources (especially oceanic and atmospheric) - raise major problems for democratic practice.