Topic Review
Astana
Astana, previously known as Akmolinsk, Tselinograd, Akmola and most recently Nur-Sultan, is the capital city of Kazakhstan. The city lies on the banks of the Ishim River in the north-central part of Kazakhstan, within the Akmola Region, though administered as a city with special status separately from the rest of the region. A 2020 official estimate reported a population of 1,136,008 within the city limits, making it the second-largest city in the country, after Almaty, which had been the capital until 1997. The city became the capital of Kazakhstan in 1997; since then it has grown and developed economically into one of the most modern cities in Central Asia. In 2021, the government selected Astana as one of the 10 priority destinations for tourist development. Modern Astana is a planned city, following the process of other planned capitals. After it became the capital of Kazakhstan, the city dramatically changed its shape. The city's master-plan was designed by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa. As the seat of the government of Kazakhstan, Astana is the site of the Parliament House, the Supreme Court, the Ak Orda Presidential Palace and numerous government departments and agencies. It is home to a range of futuristic buildings, including many skyscrapers.
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  • 03 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Ecological Environment in Belt and Road Initiative Regions
With the widespread recognition and in-depth implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), especially in the context of global climate change, the ecological environment of Belt and Road Initiative regions might be confronted with pressures and challenges with rapid socioeconomic development. In response to those potential environmental challenges, China has put forward Green BRI and enriched the new Silk Road with more environmental connotations, aiming to reduce the conflict between economic development and eco-environmental protection.
  • 637
  • 03 Jan 2023
Topic Review
Agriculture in Ancient Mesopotamia
Agriculture was the main economic activity in ancient Mesopotamia. Operating under harsh constraints, notably the arid climate, the Mesopotamian farmers developed effective strategies that enabled them to support the development of the first states, the first cities, and then the first known empires, under the supervision of the institutions which dominated the economy: the royal and provincial palaces, the temples, and the domains of the elites. They focused above all on the cultivation of cereals (particularly barley) and sheep farming, but also farmed legumes, as well as date palms in the south and grapes in the north. In reality, there were two types of Mesopotamian agriculture, corresponding to the two main ecological domains, which largely overlapped with cultural distinctions. The agriculture of southern or Lower Mesopotamia, the land of Sumer and Akkad, which later became Babylonia received almost no rain and required large scale irrigation works which were supervised by temple estates, but could produce high returns. The agriculture of Northern or Upper Mesopotamia, the land that would eventually become Assyria, had enough rainfall to allow dry agriculture most of the time so that irrigation and large institutional estates were less important, but the returns were also usually lower.
  • 1.6K
  • 02 Dec 2022
Topic Review
List of Assyrian Tribes
This page features a list of Assyrian clans or tribes historically centered in the Hakkari, Sirnak and Mardin provinces in Turkey and West Azerbaijan Province in Iran, prior to 1915, or before Seyfo, when they were historically Assyrian settlements, before early 20th century resettlement in Northern Iraq (which simultaneously had Catholic-Assyrian tribes since the 1st millennium) and northwestern Syria (namely in Al-Hasakah) after they were displaced, slaughtered and driven out by Ottoman Turks in 1915 and in the early 1930s, respectively, during the Simele massacre where they endured a similar anguish and predicament. From around 2500 BC, Assyrians primarily lived in the ancient Assyrian cities of Nineveh, Assur, Nohadra, Arrapha and Arbela, which now lie in modern-day northern Iraq, and as well as the mountainous Assyrian region of Hakkari in what is now Turkey, from around 2300 BC. Though after the spread of Islam, many eventually left the ancient Assyrian cities in the Nineveh Plains, where they settled and found refuge in the highland region in southeastern Anatolia, with the existing Assyrian population, and northwestern Iran. The villages in southeastern Turkey are primarily centred in the modern-day towns of Yuksekova, Çukurca and Semdinli in Hakkâri, Uludere in Sirnak Province and Tur Abdin in Mardin Province. Most of the historical Assyrian tribes are located in the region stretching from Tur Abdin to Hakkari, in Upper Mesopotamia, which formed the Nairi lands, serving as the northern Assyrian frontier and border with their Urartian rivals. The Assyrians of this region were Nestorian Christians adhering to the Assyrian Church of the East and lived here until 1924, when the very last Assyrians who survived the Assyrian Genocide and massacres that occurred during 1918 were expelled. Most subsequently moved to the Nahla valley in northern Iraq or elsewhere. The people of these tribes are an ancient people of Mesopotamia who speak Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, a modern Syriac language that's derived from old Aramaic and has influences of Akkadian. In the early-mid 20th century, most settled in Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Iran, where many eventually immigrated to the western world in recent years.
  • 6.0K
  • 02 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Air Pollution Interconnections with Climate and Environmental Health
Air pollution is a major environmental problem. It is a problem that is interconnected with climate change and ecosystem health. The dynamics within the Niger Delta region of Nigeria are discovered. The high reliance of the people of the Niger Delta on their environment increases their vulnerability to environmental changes. This makes the problem an issue of environmental Justice when the drivers of air pollution in the region are factored in. Urgent and concerted action is required at the individual, local and national levels. The directions in this regard are highlighted. The emission and transmission of air pollutants cause air pollution. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation of over 200 million, is plagued with numerous environmental problems one of which is air pollution. The air quality in its major cities ranks among the worst in the world. 
  • 475
  • 02 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Kouvola
Kouvola (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈkou̯ʋolɑ]) is a city and municipality in southeastern Finland. It is located along the Kymijoki River in the region of Kymenlaakso, 62 kilometres (39 mi) kilometers east of Lahti, 87 kilometres (54 mi) west of Lappeenranta and 134 kilometres (83 mi) northeast of the capital, Helsinki. With Kotka, Kouvola is one of the capital centers and is the largest city in the Kymenlaakso region. Kouvola is bordered by the municipalities of Hamina, Heinola, Iitti, Kotka, Lapinjärvi, Loviisa, Luumäki, Miehikkälä, Mäntyharju, Pyhtää and Savitaipale. Kouvola, which had population growth as late as the 1980s, has suffered a loss of migration since the 1990s. Over time, the loss has only deepened, so that at the end of the 2010s Kouvola was Finland's worst migration loss area. Natural demographics have also trended downward; in 2017, more than 450 more people died in the city than new ones were born. The reasons for the emigration are thought to be largely due to job losses in the region.
  • 399
  • 28 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Konti–Skan
Konti–Skan (also known as Kontiskan) is the name of high-voltage direct-current transmission line between Denmark and Sweden.
  • 280
  • 21 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Ākitio
Ākitio is a coastal community in the Tararua District of the lower east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The Ākitio River runs for approximately 35 kilometres in a southeast by northwest direction, leading to the town of Weber, on Route 52, formerly State Highway 52. Ākitio is in meshblocks 2224200 (NW), 2224300 (N) and 2225100 (SW), which had a combined population of 111 people in 48 households in the 2013 New Zealand census.
  • 295
  • 04 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Systems of Multicriteria Analysis for Housing Environment
The quality of the housing environment (HE) is an important issue that has a direct impact on the life of inhabitants. Aiming for quality in residential architecture begins with a well-designed HE, with the designing process being a value that is difficult to evaluate. Nowadays, a well-designed HE takes into account the energy efficiency of a building. An appropriate degree of thermal comfort, which is required by inhabitants, needs to be considered at the design stage. Designers can use building certification programs and multi-criteria analysis to motivate investors to construct buildings in accordance with energy efficiency requirements. These systems respond to the needs of energy efficiency, thermal comfort, sustainable heating, and ventilation. Defining ways and methods to evaluate quality in architectural projects will allow the value of the HE to be improved.
  • 355
  • 31 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Regional Economic Resilience in China
The notion of resilience has been increasingly adopted in economic geography, concerning how regions resist and recover from all kinds of shocks. Most of the literature on the resilience of coastal areas focuses on biophysical stressors, such as climate change and some environmental factors.
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  • 26 Sep 2022
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