November 16, 2012
By Daniel Schillereff
While recent years have been typified by intensely dry spells interspersed with severe flooding in many parts of the UK, this year (2012) will be remembered by many for the occurrence of both meteorological extremes. This shift was of a ‘magnitude never seen before’, according to experts at the Centre for Ecological and Hydrology (CEH), quoted in a recent Guardian article. The current issue of Area (December 2012, Volume 44, Issue 4) includes a Special Section comprising a number of articles focusing on water management and climate change, which is clearly timely.
While interaction between scientists, local residents and decision makers is commonplace when flood-risk mitigation strategies are being developed, such cooperation and communication is rarer when addressing droughts, despite the severe negative ecological, financial and societal impacts of prolonged dry periods. The media coverage of the spring drought was extensive, however drought generating mechanisms and the historical record of drought frequency and intensity were rarely discussed and public knowledge of these mechanisms appears limited. The Rahiz and New paper in this section deals specifically with meteorological drought in the UK and therefore deserves special attention.
Their paper includes a summary of historical drought literature for the UK which should be a first port of call for all readers. Among the principal findings of their study is confirmation that the North Atlantic Oscillation is an important driver of UK droughts as well indicating that the severity of drought events exhibits significant variability in different regions across the UK. If these points are considered by decision makers at water summits, similar to that which took place in Kent this month as mentioned on the BBC, there is scope for more informed responses to be implemented in the future to address water security. The public also have a vital role in water resource management and the updated drought information on the Environment Agency website and their social media feeds will hopefully lead to greater understanding among citizens when water rationing is instigated in the future.
M Rahiz, M New, 2012, Spatial coherence of meteorological droughts in the UK since 1914, Area 44 (4) 400-410.
‘Water summit’ in drought-hit South East, BBC News Online, 3 November 2012
UK’s year of drought and flooding unprecedented, experts say, The Guardian, 18 October 2012
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Area, Atmosphere & Biosphere, Climatology, Environment and Society, Global Issues, Hydrology and Water Resources | Tagged: decision makers, drought, meteorology, NAO, public awareness, UK | 
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Posted by dschillereff
May 14, 2012
The latest issue of Area (Volume 44, Issue 2, pages 134–268, June 2012) is available on Wiley Online Library.
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Leave a Comment » | Area, Content Alert | Tagged: absence, Adam Tickell, anthropogenic impact, Area, Area Prize, ‘good’ degrees, banality of evil, Brian Grabbatin, carbon emissions, cartographic literacy, Catherine Leyshon (née Brace), cattle grid, Cian O'Callaghan, Classics Revisited, Climate change, comparative, consumption, Content Alert, Cork city, Czech Republic, damage, David Wilson, defences, degree results, development education, disciplinary boundaries, displacement, editorial, Edmund C Penning‐Rowsell, Engaging global political ecologies, EU Water Framework Directive;UK Climate Change Act;private water companies;UK water regulation, external examining, flood, gentrification, Geoffrey DeVerteuil, global citizenship, global-local disorder, Google Maps API, Hannah Baleta, Hilary Geoghegan, Ilan Kelman, insurance, international organisations, International volunteering, internet mapping, Ireland, Jairus Rossi, Jamie Peck, Janet Speake, Joanna Pardoe, John E Thornes, Jon Otto, Julie MacLeavy, jungle law, Katy Appleton, Kevin Crawford, Kevin Ward, Kristina Diprose, landscape, large wood, localism, London, Los Angeles, losses, Lukáš Krejčí, methodology, Michael Watts, Michele Flippo Bolduc, moment, natural hazard, neoliberalism, new degree classification, Nick Bearman, non-profit social services, Norway, othering, Patrick Bigger, Paul Robbins, pedagogy, presence, questionnaire surveys, Rachael McDonnell, Rebecca Collins, regulation theory, Review Forum, Richard Peet, risk, risk reduction, river engineering, rivers, Russell Hitchings, Sat Nav, scale, Simon Springer, spatial awareness, spatial data collection, state of exception, state regulation, Stephen Axon, sustainability, technologies of navigation, Thatcherism, Trude Rauken, UK, urban development, urban geography, violence, visual methods, Water quality standards, waterfront redevelopment, welfare restructuring, Youth, Zdeněk Máčka | Permalink
Posted by Wil Stobbart
March 30, 2012
These Early View articles are now available on Wiley Online Library.
Adapting water management to climate change: Putting our science into practice
Ecological benefits of creating messy rivers
Nicholas C Everall, Andrew Farmer, Andrew F Heath, Timothy E Jacklin and Robert L Wilby
Article first published online: 16 MAR 2012 | DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4762.2012.01087.x
Original Articles
Anticipatory objects and uncertain imminence: cattle grids, landscape and the presencing of climate change on the Lizard Peninsula, UK
Catherine Leyshon (née Brace) and Hilary Geoghegan
Article first published online: 16 MAR 2012 | DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4762.2012.01082.x
Commentary
Researching the riots
Richard Phillips, Diane Frost and Alex Singleton
Article first published online: 21 MAR 2012 | DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4959.2012.00463.x
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Posted by Wil Stobbart
January 25, 2012
The latest issue of The Geographical Journal is available on Wiley Online Library.
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Leave a Comment » | Content Alert, The Geographical Journal | Tagged: Amer Jabarin, Andrew Brooks, Benjamin D Hennig, Big Society, Conservative green paper on international development, corruption, discursive analysis, Dragos Simandan, Empire, environmental discourse, ethnic identity, forest, GIS, global production networks, globalisation, Graham Moon, Hammou Laamrani, Health, healthcare accessibility, hydropolitics, inequality, Ivan R Scales, Japan, Jordan, Klaus Dodds, Leonhardt A S van Efferink, livelihoods, Madagascar, Mark Zeitoun, Mei-Po Kwan, Mexico, mixed-method, Mozambique, Nasser Al Aulaqi, Ohio, Patricia Noxolo, peri-urban, political ecology, post-bureaucratic, power, quality care, Rolando E Díaz-Caravantes, rural, Russia, satisfaction, security, the Arctic, Tim Brown, Timothy L. Hawthorne, Tony Allan, trade, UK, US think tanks, used cars, water demand management, water policy, water supply, Yemen | Permalink
Posted by Wil Stobbart
January 24, 2012
The latest issue of Area is available on Wiley Online Library.
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Leave a Comment » | Area, Content Alert | Tagged: action, affective, Andrea Berardi, Anna R Davies, anticipation, assemblages, Beth Bee, bodies, Carey-Ann Morrison, Climbing, communication, consumption, cycling, Dartmoor, disaster risk reduction, embodied, embodiment, emergency, emotional geographies, Exploration, Fieldwork, Geoff A Wilson, geographic research, geographical imagination, governance, GPS, Guyana, Heather Buckingham, heterosexuality, Himalayas, Home, human geography, human–animal relations, Ian C Fuller, indigenous geographies, interdisciplinary, international marriage, interviews, Ireland, Jake Rom D Cadag, James Evans, Jayalaxshmi Mistry, JC Gaillard, Jessica Pape, Jon Shaw, Katrina Brown, Kelvin Mason, knowledge, knowledges, Kye Askins, Lakhbir Jassal, learning, location, Louise Ansell, love, materiality, Mike Kesby, Mobilities, more-than-representational, Mountain Rescue, mountain spaces above 8000 metres, New Zealand, non-migrant, Oliver Dunnett, outdoor access, outdoor education, outdoors, Participant observation, participation, participatory 3-dimensional mapping, participatory video, Paul Barratt, Pauline Couper, Peter Sunley, Phil Jones, Philippines, Physical Geography, practice, qualitative GIS, qualitative methodologies, Rachel Dilley, Rachel Pain, reflection, regional geography, Representation, Richard Yarwood, rock climbing, routine, rurality, Russell Hitchings, Ruth Doyle, Singapore, social constructivism, social enterprise, solicited diaries, Stefan Bouzarovski, Steven Pinch, survey evidence, sustainability transition, sustainable production, teaching, Time-space, Tom Slater, training space, transdisciplinary, transnational masculinities, UK, United Kingdom, video ethnography, visioning, walking, Yi’En Cheng | Permalink
Posted by Wil Stobbart
January 20, 2012
These Early View articles are now available on Wiley Online Library.
Original Articles
Critical distance: doing development education through international volunteering
Kristina Diprose
Article first published online: 16 JAN 2012 | DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4762.2011.01076.x
Lightness and weight: (re)reading urban potentialities through photographs
Cian O’Callaghan
Article first published online: 18 JAN 2012 | DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4762.2011.01078.x
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Posted by Wil Stobbart
October 3, 2011
These Early View articles are now available on Wiley Online Library.
Original Articles
The enigmatic regional geography of social enterprise in the UK: a conceptual framework and synthesis of the evidence
Heather Buckingham, Steven Pinch and Peter Sunley
Article first published online: 23 SEP 2011 | DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4762.2011.01043.x
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Posted by Wil Stobbart
May 24, 2011
By Sarah Mills
Airline passengers in Scotland and parts of Northern England face delays and cancelled flights today due to Saturday’s ash eruption from Grímsvötn volcano in Iceland. These scenes are similar to those in April 2010 when another Icelandic volcano – Eyjafjallajökull – erupted, prompting widespread travel chaos. However, scientists and commentators expect the disruption to be far less than last year for a number of meteorological reasons and improved aviation regulations. Transport Secretary Philip Hammond claims authorities have a “much better understanding” of the risks and that “the threshold for most aircraft is 20 times where it was last year…What we can’t promise is that there won’t be disruption when there is a major natural event like this.”
Amy Donovan and Clive Oppenheimer reflected on last year’s Eyjafjallajökull eruption in a recent article in The Geographical Journal. They reviewed the scientific background of the eruption in the context of European volcanic activity and argued that “the apparent breakdown of communication between scientific research, policy makers and the public is a manifestation of a wider problem”. Furthermore, they claimed that “transdisciplinary channels for the movement of knowledge beyond the academic community need to be enhanced” (2011: 4). In light of this new eruption at Grímsvötn, and the supposed provisions and increased levels of governance in planning for such eventualities, the coming days and weeks will reveal to what extent lessons have already been learned.
Read ‘Volcanic ash cloud: thousands face flight delays and cancellations’ in The Guardian
Read A. Donovan and C. Oppenheimer (2011) The 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption and the reconstruction of geography. The Geographical Journal, 177: 4-11.
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Posted by slmills0
August 10, 2010
By Alexander Leo Phillips
Originally coined by Winston Churchill in 1946, the ‘Special Relationship’ between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America has been tested in recent months. With splits in Middle East policy, the BP oil spill and anti-UK rhetoric by the US administration; it appears to some that maintaining the closest of ties to the US is no longer in the UK’s national interest. So much so that a committee of MPs have even suggested that the term be officially dropped in all UK documentation. They concluded that “the overuse of the phrase by some politicians and many in the media serves simultaneously to de-value its meaning and to raise unrealistic expectations about the benefits the relationship can deliver to the UK.”
It’s been clear for many years now that the balance of global power has shifted away from the once dominate United States to the emerging BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) economies, who look set to dictate the course of the 21st Century. The UK has embraced this transition with unrivaled vigor and sort closer links with these nations. India in particular has been the target of Britain’s new coalition government; exemplified by Prime Minister Cameron’s visit there last week where he stated his intent to “take the relationship between India and Britain to the next level. [He] want[s] to make it stronger, wider and deeper.”
Britain’s ever evolving relationship with the USA has long been of interest to Human Geographers, focusing in particular on how the UK has situated itself as a bridge between America and European states such as France and Germany. This relationship has been charted by Simon Tate in Area, who suggests that the diplomatic failures of the former Labour government where the result of an outdated geopolitical strategy.
Tate, S. 2009. ‘The high wire act: a comparison of British transatlantic foreign policies in the Second World War and the war in Iraq, 2001-2003′, Area, 41 (2). pp. 207 – 218.
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1 Comment | Cultural Geography, Development, Economic Geography, General, Global Issues, Political Geography, Social Geography | Tagged: 21st Century Challenges, Afghanistan, Barack Obama, BP, Brazil, BRIC, China, David Cameron, EU, European Union, France, GB, Germany, Great Britain, India, Iraq, middle east, MP, Oil spill, Russia, UK, United States, United States of America, USA, Winston Churchill | Permalink
Posted by ALP
June 13, 2010
by Michelle Brooks
This week is Refugee Week with events around the UK revealing the socio-economic contributions of refugees to the UK through events ranging from small community exhibitions to big music festivals. In Leicester alone 30,000 jobs have been created by former refugees (http://www.refugeeweek.org.uk/). It is perhaps also an opportunity for us as geographers to consider our contributions to debates around this issue. New research by geographer, Professor Heaven Crawley, shows that contrary to popular misconceptions, refugees (those who may be re-classified as asylum seekers upon arrival) often have little knowledge of where they will end up until they arrive in the United Kingdom. Having fled their homes and often their families, travelling for days or weeks by various methods they are often entirely reliant on other agents to reach safety, wherever that may be. The empirical research in the report for The Refugee Council challenges the accusation against asylum seekers as ‘benefit tourists’ (who choose the UK because it is soft on benefits etc) making obvious the fact that when fleeing an environment of fear, violence and persecution, there is little space or time for choice of destination.
It is possible that the act of entering the UK illegally lends weight to the idea of refugee asylum seekers as exercising choice in coming to the UK. However, as the report for The Refugee Council states, there is no legal route to enter the UK in order to make an application for asylum, which is extraordinary considering the UK commitment to the Refugee Convention (1951). Importantly, it can be argued that criminalising this process is the first step of adding discrimination to the long list of injustices that many such people have already suffered. Such discrimination in a legal framework can be seen to percolate into the public consciousness through for example, the news media and entertainment industries, leading to judgements based on assumption rather than research grounded in empirical data. In addition to the report ‘Chance or Choice’ for The Refugee Council it is interesting to also read an article by Jonathon Darling for Area on activities since 2007 in Sheffield as a ‘City of Sanctuary’ and an article by Heaven Crawley for Area on the forced migration of children and their experiences upon entry to the United Kingdom.
The UNHCR World Refugee Day is Sunday 20th June which will be marked by an umbrella parade in central London and celebrates the fact that the United Kingdom still offers a place of refuge for those fleeing war, torture and persecution (http://www.unhcr.org.uk/about-us/events.html). The UNHCR supports Refugee Week.
It is an opportunity for those of us who are lucky enough to have never known life as a forced migrant or refugee to feel proud that as a nation we can collectively, as a community of communities, provide safety for those who are not so lucky.
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3 Comments | Cultural Geography, Development, Economic Geography, Environment and Society, General, Global Issues, Political Geography, Social Geography, Urban Geography | Tagged: Asylum, London, refugee, sanctuary, UK, umbrella parade, UNHCR | Permalink
Posted by Michelle Sushikala Brooks
