IMAGE OF THE WEEK
Lions Gate 2, a map by Harrison Cole submitted to the NACIS 2020 annual meeting General Map Gallery. Data gathered from a GPS unit left running for four days during coronavirus lockdown. Apartment symbolized by yellow square.
GOOD NEWS
Guido Cervone was elected president of the Natural Hazards section of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).
Arif Masrur, Jamie Peeler, and Julie Sanchez represented the Department of Geography at the fall 2020 Virtual EMS Graduate Research Showcase held on Nov. 13. Their research videos are posted on the department website.
November 18, 6–7 p.m., the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences will host a moderated conversation with Ibram X. Kendi, author of How To Be An AntiRacist. This livestreamed event is open to all of the Penn State community.
November 19, 3–4 p.m., The University Libraries will present a virtual behind-the-scenes tour of the Special Collections exhibit Earth Archives: Stories of Human Impact.
November 20, 2:30–3:30 p.m., University Park Allocation Committee (UPAC ),will host a seminar with cultural geographer Carolyn Finney on, “2020 Vision: Christian Cooper, John Muir and the Nature of Green Space.” To register in advance for this webinar.
November 20, 4–5 p.m., the AAG will hold a webinar on Careers in Geography: A Discussion with Business, Government, and Nonprofit Sector Geographers.
November 20 at 7:00 p.m., The Liberal Arts Collective at Penn State will host a launch party for the new podcast series Unraveling the Anthropocene: Race, Environment, and Pandemic
The AAG annual meeting will be fully virtual in 2021. The meeting will be held from Wednesday, April 7– Sunday, April 11, and will feature more than 6,900 presentations, posters, workshops, and field trips by leading scholars, experts, and researchers.
COFFEE HOUR
Next Coffee Hour is December 4 with Willie J. Wright, an assistant professor of Geography and Africana Studies at Rutgers University, on “Beyond Geographies of Race.”
NEWS
Virtual reality forests could help understanding of climate change
The effects of climate change are sometimes difficult to grasp, but now a virtual reality forest, created by geographers, can let people walk through a simulated forest of today and see what various futures may hold for the trees.
“The main problem that needs to be addressed is that climate change is abstract,” said Alexander Klippel, professor of geography, Penn State. “Its meaning only unfolds in 10, 15 or 100 years. It is very hard for people to understand and plan and make decisions.”
Air quality data during COVID-19 may help improve models, guide interventions
The measures instituted in April to help curb the spread of COVID-19 across the United States may hold clues for improving air quality, according to researchers.
The scientists examined the pandemic’s effects on two key pollutants – nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter -– and human mobility. They found that as individuals limited their travel, nitrogen dioxide levels fell significantly while levels of fine particulate matter rose in certain parts of the country. They report their findings in the Bulletin of Atmospheric Science and Technology.
University center advances energy, environmental knowledge via virtual reality
For many, seeing is believing. That is what Alex Klippel and his team have been investing in since the creation of the Penn State’s Center for Immersive Experiences. It is also what some energy and environment researchers have been exploring to better communicate their science.
RECENTLY PUBLISHED
Agrobiodiversity conservation with illegal-drug crops: An approach from the prisons in Oaxaca, Mexico
Gabriel Tamariz
Geoforum
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2020.10.012
Drawing on political-ecological vulnerability theory, this paper analyzes the impact of illegal-drug cultivation and its related violence on smallholder agrobiodiversity in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. Oaxaca is a global agrobiodiversity hotspot where cannabis and opium poppy have been widely cultivated for decades. The study is based on 76 structured/semi-structured interviews with imprisoned farmers, harvest gatherers, and former soldiers in four state prisons. Results show that illegal-drug crops and native-food crops complement each other until a threshold of violence is crossed, which leads to the abandonment of agriculture due to murder, imprisonment, and out-migration. The specialization of smallholder agriculture in illegal-drug crops tends to favor crossing the threshold of violence. In most municipalities in this study, however, rather a diversification process took place in which illegal-drug crops were incorporated to food production systems, reducing both the exposure and the sensitivity of smallholders to structural and direct violence. Other adaptation strategies involved local organization and militarization of smallholders for collective-risk management and territorial control. Ultimately, by comparing five vulnerability scenarios, this paper argues that the combination of peasant organization, militarization, and crop/livelihood diversification in Oaxaca mitigates the violent agrarian change associated with this illegal economy, while conserving agrobiodiversity.
Walking through the forests of the future: using data-driven virtual reality to visualize forests under climate change
Jiawei Huang, Melissa S. Lucash, Robert M. Scheller & Alexander Klippel
International Journal of Geographical Information Science
https://doi.org/10.1080/13658816.2020.1830997
Communicating and understanding climate induced environmental changes can be challenging, especially using traditional representations such as graphs, maps or photos. Immersive visualizations and experiences offer an intuitive, visceral approach to otherwise rather abstract concepts, but creating them scientifically is challenging. In this paper, we linked ecological modeling, procedural modeling, and virtual reality to provide an immersive experience of a future forest. We mapped current tree species composition in northern Wisconsin using the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data and then forecast forest change 50 years into the future under two climate scenarios using LANDIS-II, a spatially-explicit, mechanistic simulation model. We converted the model output (e.g., tree biomass) into parameters required for 3D visualizations with analytical modeling. Procedural rules allowed us to efficiently and reproducibly translate the parameters into a simulated forest. Data visualization, environment exploration, and information retrieval were realized using the Unreal Engine. A system evaluation with experts in ecology provided positive feedback and future topics for a comprehensive ecosystem visualization and analysis approach. Our approach to create visceral experiences of forests under climate change can facilitate communication among experts, policy-makers, and the general public.
Local-Scale Fertility Variations in a Low-Fertility Country: Evidence from Spain (2002–2017)
Burillo, P., Salvati, L., Matthews, S.A. et al.
Canadian Studies in Population
https://doi.org/10.1007/s42650-020-00036-6
Since the early 1990s, persistently low fertility in Mediterranean countries has attracted the interest of empirical research aimed at identifying factors associated with demographic change in what were traditionally high-fertility contexts. Most of these studies have been carried out at the national scale, while spatial analyses of sub-national patterns remain mostly absent. The present study aims to fill this gap, investigating the spatio-temporal changes in local fertility in Spanish municipalities over a 16-year period that covers consecutive waves of economic expansion (2002–2009) and recession (2010–2017). The analytical framework is grounded on descriptive statistics, spatial statistics (that is, Global Moran’s I and Local Indicators of Spatial Association) and non-parametric inference testing the pair-wise correlations between fertility levels and contextual variables (including population density, topography, accessibility and distance from central locations). Results of this study reveal a fertility decline in most areas of the country—especially in depopulated districts. The highest fertility is observed in Southern Spain, along the Mediterranean coast, and around the main cities. With recession, spatial heterogeneity emerges as the main trend characterizing regional fertility—a finding in line with research from other Mediterranean countries. Local fertility rates were less spatially clustered in the recession than in the expansion period, with a progressive shrinkage of high-fertility districts. A persistent decline in local fertility may be considered an early-warning indicator of depopulation in Spain’s rural districts and can be used to delineate demographically fragile areas.
