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Topic Review
Grid Reference System
A grid reference system, also known as grid reference or grid system, is a geographic coordinate system that defines locations in maps using Cartesian coordinates based on a particular map projection. Grid lines on maps illustrate the underlying coordinate system. Such coordinate lines are numbered to provide a unique reference to each location on the map. Grid coordinates are normally eastings and northings.
  • 23.1K
  • 25 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Early World Maps
The earliest known world maps date to classical antiquity, the oldest examples of the 6th to 5th centuries BCE still based on the flat Earth paradigm. World maps assuming a spherical Earth first appear in the Hellenistic period. The developments of Greek geography during this time, notably by Eratosthenes and Posidonius culminated in the Roman era, with Ptolemy's world map (2nd century CE), which would remain authoritative throughout the Middle Ages. Since Ptolemy, knowledge of the approximate size of the globe allowed cartographers to estimate the extent of their geographical knowledge, and to indicate parts of the globe known to exist but not yet explored as terra incognita. With the Age of Discovery, during the 15th to 18th centuries, world maps became increasingly accurate; exploration of Antarctica and the interior of Africa by western mapmakers was left to the 19th and early 20th century.
  • 9.5K
  • 28 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Urban Modelling
Urban Modelling is an approach to abstracting reality in an effort to demonstrate, classify and explain urban functions in a simplified manner.  There is a long history of modelling in urban studies.  Today's models have become more quantitative, computation, and require large data sets and intense computation due to the complex nature of modern cities. 
  • 9.4K
  • 07 Jun 2021
Topic Review
“OVERTOURISM” - AROUND THE DEFINITION
Entry includes definition of overtourism phenomenon around the world with following literature references both historical and current research.
  • 7.6K
  • 19 Apr 2021
Topic Review
Feminist Political Economy
Feminist political economy is a concept from feminist material scholarship.  It connects market relations with domestic relations. It examines the roles of women, tensions related to women’s paid and unpaid work, how production and reproduction issues affect women, and the interactions at the micro, meso, and macro level contexts within women's lives.  
  • 7.2K
  • 28 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Vegetation Optical Depth
The vegetation optical depth (VOD) parameterizes the extinction (attenuation & scattering) effects due to the vegetation affecting the microwave radiations propagating through the vegetation canopy. It is retrieved from both passive and active microwave remotely sensed observations. It is related almost linearly to the vegetation water content and indirectly to vegetation water status and biomass. It has been retrieved from several satellites operating at different frequencies and provides a long-term record of the vegetation dynamics over land surfaces since 1978. VOD is complementary to classically used vegetation indices derived from multi-spectral images but it is less affected by sun illumination and atmospheric effects than optical vegetation indices.
  • 6.8K
  • 27 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Food Heritage
The entry explores the concept of food heritage, focusing mainly on the anthropological, geographical, and sociological debate. Although the review identifies some conceptualisations that frame heritage in the food and gastronomic domains, it also shows the high degree of fragmentation of the debate. In so doing, it sheds light on how the concept of food heritage from a theoretical point of view is still in progress.
  • 6.0K
  • 02 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Zomia (Region)
Zomia is a geographical term coined in 2002 by historian Willem van Schendel of the University of Amsterdam to refer to the huge mass of mainland Southeast Asia that has historically been beyond the control of governments based in the population centers of the lowlands.
  • 5.5K
  • 25 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Human Mobility and Smart City
Human mobility, the movement of human beings in space and time, reflects the spatial-temporal characteristics of human behavior. With big data analytics, human mobility research can be used to facilitate smart city development, in multiple disciplines such as smart traffic, smart urban planning, smart health, smart safety, smart commerce, etc. A framework for linking international academic research and city-level management policy was established and applied to the case of Hong Kong. Literatures regarding human mobility research using big data are reviewed. These studies contribute to (1) discovering the spatial-temporal phenomenon, (2) identifying the difference in human behaviour or spatial attributes, (3) explaining the dynamic of mobility, and (4) applying to city management. Then, the application of the research to smart city development are scrutinised based on email queries to various governmental departments in Hong Kong. With further improvement in the practical value of data analytics and the utilization of data sourced from multiple sectors, paths to achieve smarter cities from policymaking perspectives are highlighted.
  • 5.4K
  • 06 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Location-Based Social Networks
There are several definitions for “geosocial network” or “location-based social network”: the first formal definition was given by Quercia et al. in 2010, who defined it as “a type of social networking in which geographic services and capabilities such as geocoding and geotagging are used to enable additional social dynamics”. One year later, Zheng refined this definition by stating that “a location-based social network (LBSN) does not only mean adding a location to an existing social network so that people in the social structure can share location embedded information but also consists of the new social structure made up of individuals connected by the interdependency derived from their locations in the physical world as well as their location-tagged media content, such as photos, video, and texts”. In 2013, Roick and Heuser defined LBSNs simply as “social network sites that include location information into shared contents”. Finally, one most recent definition is given by Armenatzoglou and Papadias and is the following: “geosocial network (GeoSN) is an online social network augmented by geographical information”.
  • 3.6K
  • 17 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Cardiff
Cardiff (/ˈkɑːrdɪf/ (listen); Welsh: Caerdydd [kairˈdiːð, kɑːɨrˈdɨːð] (listen)) is the capital of Wales, and its largest city. The eleventh-largest city in the United Kingdom , it is Wales's chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural institutions and Welsh media, and the seat of the National Assembly for Wales. The unitary authority area's 2017 population was estimated to be 362,756. Cardiff is a significant tourist centre and the most popular visitor destination in Wales with 21.3 million visitors in 2017. In 2011, Cardiff was ranked sixth in the world in National Geographic's alternative tourist destinations. Cardiff is the county town of the historic county of Glamorgan (and later South Glamorgan). Cardiff is part of the Eurocities network of the largest European cities. A small town until the early 19th century, its prominence as a major port for the transport of coal following the arrival of industry in the region contributed to its rise as a major city. The Cardiff Built-up Area covers a slightly larger area outside the county boundary and includes the towns of Dinas Powys and Penarth. In 1905, Cardiff was made a city and proclaimed the capital of Wales in 1955. Since the 1980s, Cardiff has seen significant development. A new waterfront area at Cardiff Bay contains the Senedd building, home to the Welsh Assembly and the Wales Millennium Centre arts complex. Current developments include the continuation of the redevelopment of the Cardiff Bay and city centre areas with projects such as the Cardiff International Sports Village, a BBC drama village, and a new business district in the city centre. Sporting venues in the city include the Principality Stadium—the national stadium and the home of the Wales national rugby union team—Sophia Gardens (the home of Glamorgan County Cricket Club), Cardiff City Stadium (the home of Cardiff City football team and the Wales football team), Cardiff International Sports Stadium (the home of Cardiff Amateur Athletic Club), Cardiff Arms Park (the home of Cardiff Blues and Cardiff RFC rugby union teams) and Ice Arena Wales (the home of Cardiff Devils ice hockey team). The city hosted the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. The city was awarded the title of European City of Sport twice, due to its role in hosting major international sporting events: first in 2009 and again in 2014. The Principality Stadium hosted 11 football matches as part of the 2012 Summer Olympics, including the games' opening event and the men's bronze medal match.
  • 2.8K
  • 18 Oct 2022
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Mozambique: Country Profile
Mozambique is a Southern African tropical country; it forms a 4330 km coastline on the Indian Ocean side. It is one of the continent’s five former Portuguese colonies, with the economy relying mainly on agriculture and mining.
  • 2.7K
  • 03 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Climate Change Maladaptation
Maladaptation is caused by adaptation that fails to reduce vulnerability or inadvertently increases it. Maladaptation can be defined as: ''maladaptation occurs when short-term strategies increase vulnerability in the long term'' or ''action taken ostensibly to avoid or reduce vulnerability to climate change that impacts adversely on, or increase the vulnerability of other systems, sectors, or social groups.''
  • 2.6K
  • 29 Mar 2021
Topic Review
Water on Mars
To assess Mars’ potential for both harboring life and providing useable resources for future human exploration, it is of paramount importance to comprehend the water situation on the planet. Therefore, studies have been conducted to determine any evidence of past or present water existence on Mars. While the presence of abundant water on Mars very early in its history is widely accepted, on its modern form, only a fraction of this water can be found, as either ice or locked into the structure of Mars’ plentiful water-rich materials. Water on the planet is evaluated through various evidence such as rocks and minerals, Martian achondrites, low volume transient briny outflows (e.g., dune flows, reactivated gullies, slope streaks, etc.), diurnal shallow soil moisture (e.g., measurements by Curiosity and Phoenix Lander), geomorphic representation (possibly from lakes and river valleys), and groundwater, along with further evidence obtained by probe and rover discoveries. One of the most significant lines of evidence is for an ancient streambed in Gale Crater, implying ancient amounts of “vigorous” water on Mars. Long ago, hospitable conditions for microbial life existed on the surface of Mars, as it was likely periodically wet. However, its current dry surface makes it almost impossible as an appropriate environment for living organisms; therefore, scientists have recognized the planet’s subsurface environments as the best potential locations for exploring life on Mars. As a result, modern research has aimed towards discovering underground water, leading to the discovery of a large amount of underground ice in 2016 by NASA, and a subglacial lake in 2018 by Italian scientists. Nevertheless, the presence of life in Mars’ history is still an open question. In this unifying context, the current review summarizes results from a wide variety of studies and reports related to the history of water on Mars, as well as any related discussions on the possibility of living organisms' existence on the planet.
  • 2.3K
  • 06 Feb 2022
Topic Review
Black Belt (Region of Alabama)
The Black Belt is a region of the U.S. state of Alabama. The term originally referred to the region's rich, black topsoil, much of it in the soil order Vertisols. The term took on an additional meaning in the 19th century, when the region was developed for cotton plantation agriculture, in which the workers were enslaved African Americans. After the American Civil War, many freedmen stayed in the area as sharecroppers and tenant farmers, continuing to comprise a majority of the population in many of these counties. The sociological definition of the "Black Belt," as related to the history of this cotton-dependent region, refers to a much larger region of the Southern United States, stretching from Delaware to Texas but centered on the Black Belt of uplands areas of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. In the antebellum and Jim Crow eras, the white elite of the Black Belt dominated Alabama state politics well into the 1960s. As in other Southern states, the white-dominated state legislature of Alabama passed laws and a constitution that created barriers to voter registration, essentially disfranchising most blacks and many poor whites. In addition, the state legislature did not redistrict congressional or state legislative districts after 1901 until it did so in the 1960s under US Supreme Court order. The white rural elite continued to dominate the state despite the rise of urbanized, industrial cities such as Birmingham, Alabama. Montgomery, the Black Belt's largest city, has been the capital of Alabama since 1846. Montgomery and Selma and other parts of the Black Belt were important centers of African-American public activism during the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s to 1968. Since the black population gained the renewed ability to exercise their franchise after 1965 under the Voting Rights Act, they have largely supported Democratic Party candidates. This is in contrast to the majority-white areas of the state, where since the late 20th century, conservatives have largely shifted from the Democratic to the Republican Party.
  • 2.3K
  • 10 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Tools for Shoreline Change Analysis and Detection
A shoreline is the point of the physical border between land and water. While this definition looks simple, it is indeed challenging in its practical application. The position of the shoreline changes through time due to cross-shore and alongshore sediment movement in the littoral zone, and through changes in water levels. Shoreline change analysis and detection studies have progressed from using simple observation (description) from historical maps and topographical maps to employing high-resolution multi-temporal satellite images with remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) approaches for a better understanding of the subject.
  • 2.0K
  • 05 May 2022
Topic Review
Tourism, Indigenous Peoples and Economic Development
Academic interest in the involvement of indigenous peoples with tourism has grown considerably over the past two decades, but the focus has been on traditional activities and facilities and there is little tourism literature which looks at non-traditional forms of tourism involvement. The entry suggests this reflects the motivations and interests of researchers and suggests that increased indigenous participation in research is to be encouraged and may be reflected in different emphases and subjects.
  • 1.8K
  • 10 Dec 2021
Topic Review
Sense of Belonging
A sense of belonging is a conjunctive interchange between the interests and the influences that guide our relationship to place. A sense of belonging is also its result: it is the formation of identity and of personhood, through participating in the production of place. To belong is a need of those experiencing place, but we can understand a sense of belonging as developed through the need to become part of the place through associative elements of kinship: responsibility to care for and strengthen place and the ability to subsist through place.
  • 1.5K
  • 20 Jan 2021
Topic Review
The Factors Impacting Commuting Time
Commuting time holds a significant role in people’s daily routines, representing the duration spent traveling between home and work in the context of daily time use. In the context of rapid urbanization in developing countries, commuting time is increasing. However, excessive commuting time can have significant economic, social, and environmental consequences. For example, longer commuting time hampers per capita income growth and reduces productivity. It also impedes social interactions among residents, leading to a decline in social and economic vitality. Moreover, commuting accounts for a large proportion of urban transportation demand and is closely linked to urban carbon emissions. Additionally, it has detrimental effects on both physical and mental health, as well as the well-being of individuals. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate the factors that influence commuting time in order to mitigate its continual increase.
  • 1.5K
  • 29 Aug 2023
Topic Review
Urban Food Market Development Post-Covid
Congestion of cities following rapid urbanization is a global concern that has necessitated global initiatives such as the Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG 11), which focuses on making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. Decongestion efforts so far have focused on evicting street vendors from public spaces, and this had short-lived results because the traders spontaneously return to the streets as soon as the enforcement activities cease. Little attention has been paid to food market decongestion and development, whereby food markets are provided water facilities, wash bays, public toilets, upgraded stalls and other facilities that will ensure the safe use of the market place. This entry discusses the broader benefits of food market decongestion and development, including the prevention of the spread of COVID-19. The entry further discusses the considerations of public-private partnerships in food market decongestion and development.   
  • 1.5K
  • 02 Nov 2020
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