Geography - Journal Articles

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Addressing the Faustian bargain of the modern food system: connecting sustainable agriculture with sustainable consumption
(Taylor & Francis Group, 2012-05-28) Sage, Colin
Aggregating the conceptualisation of movement data better captures real world and simulated animal-environment relationships
(Taylor & Francis, 2019-05-29) Holloway, Paul; University College Cork
Habitat selection analysis is a widely applied statistical framework used in spatial ecology. Many of the methods used to generate movement and couple it with the environment are strongly integrated within GIScience. The choice of movement conceptualisation and environmental space can potentially have long-lasting implications on the spatial statistics used to infer movement–environment relationships. The aim of this study was to explore how systematically altering the conceptualisation of movement, environmental space and temporal resolution affects the results of habitat selection analyses using both real-world case studies and a virtual ecologist approach. Model performance and coefficient estimates did not differ between the finest conceptualisations of movement (e.g. vector and move), while substantial differences were found for the more aggregated representations (e.g. segment and area). Only segments modelled the expected movement–environment relationship with increasing linear feature resistance in the virtual ecologist approach and altering the temporal resolution identified inversions in the movement–environment relationship for vectors and moves. The results suggest that spatial statistics employed to investigate movement–environment relationships should advance beyond conceptualising movement as the (relatively) static conceptualisation of vectors and moves and replace these with (more) dynamic aggregations of longer-lasting movement processes such as segments and areal representations.
An assessment of multiple drivers determining woody species composition and structure: a case study from the Kalahari, Botswana
(MDPI, 2019-08-05) Meyer, Thoralf; Holloway, Paul; Christiansen, Thomas B.; Miller, Jennifer A.; D’Odorico, Paolo; Okin, Gregory S.; National Science Foundation
Savannas are extremely important socio-economic landscapes, with pastoralist societies relying on these ecosystems to sustain their livelihoods and economy. Globally, there is an increase of woody vegetation in these ecosystems, degrading the potential of these multi-functional landscapes to sustain societies and wildlife. Several mechanisms have been invoked to explain the processes responsible for woody vegetation composition; however, these are often investigated separately at scales not best suited to land-managers, thereby impeding the evaluation of their relative importance. We ran six transects at 15 sites along the Kalahari transect, collecting data on species identity, diversity, and abundance. We used Poisson and Tobit regression models to investigate the relationship among woody vegetation, precipitation, grazing, borehole density, and fire. We identified 44 species across 78 transects, with the highest species richness and abundance occurring at Kuke (middle of the rainfall gradient). Precipitation was the most important environmental variable across all species and various morphological groups, while increased borehole density and livestock resulted in lower bipinnate species abundance, contradicting the consensus that these managed features increase the presence of such species. Rotating cattle between boreholes subsequently reduces the impact of trampling and grazing on the soil and maintains and/or reduces woody vegetation abundance.
Audio and ludic engagements with spiritual heritage at an Irish holy well
(SAGE Publications, 2019-12-06) Scriven, Richard; Langan, Vicky; Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht
This article reflects on audio methods and field recordings as means of examining how a cultural-spiritual space can be experienced by young people through an arts heritage project undertaken with primary school children in rural Ireland. Contributing to the growing role of sound and audio in geographical research, we consider how a series of participatory workshops at a holy well fostered curiosity and ludic engagements with the place enhancing the understanding of this location in a process that merged creative practice, spiritual heritage and wonder.
Bandon in the eighteenth century. The view from a terrier and a survey
(Cumann Seanchais na Bandann, 1989) O'Flanagan, Patrick
Beneath the surface of the First World Ocean Assessment: An investigation into the global process’ support for sustainable development
(Frontiers Media, 2019-10-15) Fawkes, Kyle William; Cummins, Valerie
The United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals have articulated sustainable development requirements at the international level. SDG14: life below water, has in particular, provided a future pathway for sustainable development of the ocean environment. With the establishment of this global perspective has come a renewed emphasis on the need for global ocean knowledge production. The 2015 First World Ocean Assessment (FWOA), which was produced by the first cycle of the United Nations’ Regular Process for Global Reporting and Assessment of the State of the Marine Environment, including Socio-economic Aspects, is widely viewed as a primary tool to guiding action on SDG14. This research investigates how effective the FWOA has been at supporting these efforts toward sustainable development of the ocean environment. We use a combination of approaches, including document mining, an internationally distributed survey and semi-structured interviews to better understand the impact of the FWOA as well as the interrelated functioning of the Regular Process’ first cycle. While the FWOA was successful in compiling well accepted and credible ocean information, it was unable to generate the impact on sustainable ocean management activities that had originally been expected of it. Funding restrictions, participation issues and political anxieties seemed to derail the first cycle of the Regular Process from initial recommendations and directed the process into unorthodox operations and substantial political control. With the Second World Ocean Assessment (SWOA) well underway, it is imperative that trust is built and social learning is encouraged between participants in the Regular Process.
Cambio regional y rural en Irlanda
(Universidad de Guadalajara, 1996) O'Flanagan, Patrick
Celtic pilgrimage, past and present: from historical geography to contemporary embodied practices
(Taylor & Francis Group, 2016-02-02) Maddrell, Avril; Scriven, Richard; Irish Research Council; University College Cork; Geographical Society of Ireland; Arts and Humanities Research Council; Economic and Social Research Council
Perigrinatio, the Latin term for pilgrimage was at the heart of the medieval Celtic church, but was this was understood and practised not only as a journey to a shrine, but more broadly as a spiritual journey, which could lead to an isolated hermitage or peripatetic evangelistic mission. In this paper, we outline the beliefs and practices of the broad assemblage known as the Celtic church, particularly the interleaving of pilgrimage, asceticism and landscape poetics, and how these have informed continued and renewed pilgrimage practices to sites of the early Celtic church by particular denominations, ecumenical groups and those interested in broader spiritualities. These sacred mobilities are explored through vignettes of embodied-emotional-spiritual practices situated in the landscapes and faith communities of Lough Derg, Ireland and the Isle of Man. They share geographical marginality, a focus on multiple Celtic saints and an enduring belief in the immanence of God, expressed through embodied spiritual practice in the landscape. However, they differ widely in matters of institutionalised structure, regulation, discursive scripting and gendered hierarchy, reflecting situated and denominational preferences for the ascetic and aesthetic spiritual legacies of the medieval Celtic church.
The central lowlands of Ireland - An empty heartland?
(The Old Athlone Society, 1973) O'Flanagan, Patrick
Characterizing near-surface firn using the scattered signal component of the glacier surface return from airborne radio-echo sounding
(American Geophysical Union, 2016-12-30) Rutishauser, Anja; Grima, Cyril; Sharp, Martin; Blankenship, Donald D.; Young, Duncan A.; Cawkwell, Fiona; Dowdeswell, Julian A.; Natural Environment Research Council; National Aeronautics and Space Administration; Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada; University of Alberta; Alberta Innovates - Technology Futures; Environment Canada
We derive the scattered component (hereafter referred to as the incoherent component) of glacier surface echoes from airborne radio-echo sounding measurements over Devon Ice Cap, Arctic Canada, and compare the scattering distribution to firn stratigraphy observations from ground-based radar data. Low scattering correlates to laterally homogeneous firn above 1800 m elevation containing thin, flat, and continuous ice layers and below 1200 m elevation where firn predominantly consists of ice. Increased scattering between elevations of 1200–1800 m corresponds to firn with inhomogeneous, undulating ice layers. No correlation was found to surface roughness and its theoretical incoherent backscattering values. This indicates that the scattering component is mainly influenced by the near-surface firn stratigraphy, whereas surface roughness effects are minor. Our results suggest that analyzing the scattered signal component of glacier surface echoes is a promising approach to characterize the spatial heterogeneity of firn that is affected by melting and refreezing processes.
A classificação de áreas rurais. Que valor?
(Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, 2002) O'Flanagan, Patrick
The concerns of Irish local and regional studies: a geographical perspective
(Group for the Study of Irish Historic Settlement (GSIHS), 1995) O'Flanagan, Patrick
Coral reef socio-ecological systems analysis & restoration
(MDPI, 2018) Uribe-Castañeda, Natalia; Newton, Alice; Le Tissier, Martin; European Commission; Future Earth Coasts; Erasmus Mundus Programme
Restoration strategies for coral reefs are usually focused on the recovery of bio-physical characteristics. They seldom include an evaluation of the recovery of the socio-ecological and ecosystem services features of coral reef systems. This paper proposes a conceptual framework to address both the socio-ecological system features of coral reefs with the implementation of restoration activity for degraded coral reefs. Such a framework can lead to better societal outcomes from restoration activities while restoring bio-physical, social and ecosystem service features of such systems. We first developed a Socio Ecological System Analysis Framework, which combines the Ostrom Framework for analyzing socio-ecological systems and the Kittinger et al. human dimensions framework of coral reefs socio-ecological systems. We then constructed a Restoration of Coral Reef Framework, based on the most used and recent available coral reef restoration literature. These two frameworks were combined to present a Socio-Ecological Systems & Restoration Coral Reef Framework. These three frameworks can be used as a guide for managers, researchers and decision makers to analyze the needs of coral reef restoration in a way that addresses both socio-economic and ecological objectives to analyze, design, implement and monitor reef restoration programs.
Credit unions and community in Ireland: Towards optimising the principle of social responsibility
(New Harmony Press Ltd., 2012-10) Power, Carol; O'Connor, Ray; McCarthy, Olive; Ward, Michael
In Ireland, credit unions appeal to a broad socio-economic spectrum and have become integrated into the mainstream financial services market. As many credit unions seek to provide services comparable to conventional banking institutions, they risk eroding their distinctive co-operative ethos. A key differentiating characteristic of credit unions is concern for community and social responsibility. In a business climate where many consumers question the societal and/or environmental impact of businesses, credit unions enjoy a distinct competitive advantage. Despite this, the role of credit unions in promoting societal wellbeing has received limited attention in academic literature. In order to capitalise on its unique competitive advantage, and fulfil its objective of social responsibility, the credit union movement must develop approaches to optimising and assessing how it impacts on communities. Based on research conducted in 40 credit unions, this paper explores the key benefits accruing to communities through intentional and incidental societal impacts. It offers some suggestions for the range of instruments that credit unions can use to optimise the principle of social responsibility. It argues that the impact of credit unions on their communities cannot be left to chance but requires management through the identification and definition of social goals and through periodic assessment of the credit union's success in meeting its targets.
Daily mean sea level pressure reconstruction for the European - North Atlantic Region for the period 1850-2003
(American Meteorological Society, 2006-06-15) Ansell, T. J.; Jones, P. D.; Allan, R. J.; Lister, D.; Parker, D. E.; Brunet, M.; Moberg, A.; Jacobeit, J.; Brohan, P.; Rayner, N. A.; Aguilar, E.; Alexandersson, H.; Barriendos, M.; Brandsma, T.; Cox, N. J.; Della-Marta, P. M.; Drebs, A.; Founda, D.; Gerstengarbe, F.; Hickey, Kieran R.; Jonsson, T.; Luterbacher, J.; Nordii, O.; Oesterle, H.; Petrakis, M.; Philipp, A.; Rodwell, M. J.; Saladie, O.; Sigro, J.; Slonosky, V.; Srnec, L.; Swail, V.; Garcia-Suarez, A. M.; Tuomenvirta, H.; Wang, X.; Wanner, H.; Werner, P.; Wheeler, P.; Xoplaki, E.; European Commission; Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain; Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Switzerland
The development of a daily historical European–North Atlantic mean sea level pressure dataset (EMSLP) for 1850–2003 on a 5° latitude by longitude grid is described. This product was produced using 86 continental and island stations distributed over the region 25°–70°N, 70°W–50°E blended with marine data from the International Comprehensive Ocean–Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS). The EMSLP fields for 1850–80 are based purely on the land station data and ship observations. From 1881, the blended land and marine fields are combined with already available daily Northern Hemisphere fields. Complete coverage is obtained by employing reduced space optimal interpolation. Squared correlations (r 2) indicate that EMSLP generally captures 80%–90% of daily variability represented in an existing historical mean sea level pressure product and over 90% in modern 40-yr European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Re-Analyses (ERA-40) over most of the region. A lack of sufficient observations over Greenland and the Middle East, however, has resulted in poorer reconstructions there. Error estimates, produced as part of the reconstruction technique, flag these as regions of low confidence. It is shown that the EMSLP daily fields and associated error estimates provide a unique opportunity to examine the circulation patterns associated with extreme events across the European–North Atlantic region, such as the 2003 heat wave, in the context of historical events.
Discrete element modeling of vibration compaction effect of the vibratory roller in roundtrips on gravels
(ASTM International, 2020-05-04) Wu, Kai; Sun, Weichen; Liu, Songyu; Huang, Haibo; National Natural Science Foundation of China; National Key Research and Development Program of China; Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
This paper aims to study the vibration compaction mechanism of the vibratory roller on gravels using a two-dimensional discrete element method. The roadbed model was established by gravel particles with irregular shapes, which was closer to reality. The performance parameters of the vibratory roller, such as operating frequency and rolling velocity, were investigated to explore their influences on the operating efficiency of the vibratory roller in roundtrips. The frequencies of 15 Hz and 17 Hz were proved to be the optimal frequency and resonance frequency in the current simulations, respectively. The vibratory roller could achieve a better vibration compaction effect with less power consumption at the optimal frequency. In addition, the number of roundtrips and power consumption should be considered in the selection of the optimal rolling velocity. The movement direction and the contact force distribution of gravels were illustrated by the displacement field, velocity field, as well as the contact force chains. Our results provide a better understanding of the mechanical behavior of gravel particles and their interactions with the vibratory roller.
Drawing lines on pages: remaking the Catholic parish maps of Ireland as a tidal public geography
(Geographical Society of Ireland, 2017-11) O'Mahony, Eoin; Murphy, Michael J.
The Catholic parish is arguably the most fundamental unit of territory in Ireland. Over 1,300 of these units cover the entire land surface of the island. Their history and development tells the story of the accretion of institutional power by the Roman Catholic Church. Over the course of the nineteenth century, the Catholic parish became a means of organisation for an institutional church struggling with prohibition only later to become a key unit of social and political activity. Parishes are a vitally important way in which local identity in Ireland is connected with place. However, despite widespread use, the cartographical boundaries of Catholic parishes are not widely known. The boundaries have not been widely used on maps. This paper outlines the results of a project that attempted the initial digitisation of Catholic parish boundaries to make them more available. In the first part of the paper, we outline the historical and geographical significance of the Catholic parish in Ireland. It is argued that the Catholic parish is both a social and a cartographic representation. The parish materialises a sense of place for Catholics and non-Catholics alike. In the second part of the paper, we report on the work of a project to digitally represent the boundaries of the Catholic parish and diocesan boundaries. It involved six years of work across two universities and a number of other state and nonstate actors. More than a technical task, the cartographical representation of digital parish boundaries uncovered a series of local contestations. These contestations point to what are conceptualised here as a tidal geography: an understanding of the meaning of place that recedes and advances. The paper concludes with some challenges to the process of digitisation and a brief discussion of tidal geographies.
Drivers of land abandonment in the Irish uplands: A case study
(Sciendo/ De Gruyter, 2019-07-04) O'Rourke, Eileen
Land abandonment is a complex multi-dimensional process with interlinked economic, environmental and social aspects. This paper presents a case study of an isolated hill sheep farming community in SW Ireland, where a combination of low incomes, ageing population, lack of successors and strong environmental constraints are perceived to be among the main factors leading to their demise. However, the uplands they have grazed for generations are of high nature conservation value, and depend on active management to maintain both their ecology and landscapes. The research, which is based on a combination of interviews and farming systems research, highlights the misfit between what the mountain can produce, light hill lamb, and what the globalised market demands. The paper argues that if ‘farming for conservation’ is the new function of such farming systems, then we should consider decoupling public goods payments from agricultural subsidies, along with integrating agriculture in disadvantaged areas within a broader rural development framework. The research aims to fill the gap between macro policy and the micro reality of an upland community on a self-declared ‘tipping point’.
Dynamic selection of environmental variables to improve the prediction of aphid phenology: A machine learning approach
(Elsevier, 2018-02-19) Holloway, Paul; Kudenko, Daniel; Bell, James R.; Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council; Innovate UK
Insect pests now pose a greater threat to crop production given the recent emergence of insecticide resistance, the removal of effective compounds from the market (e.g. neonicotinoids) and the changing climate that promotes successful overwintering and earlier migration of pests. As surveillance tools, predictive models are important to mitigate against pest outbreaks. Currently they provide decision support on species emergence, distribution, and migration patterns and their use effectively gives growers more time to take strategic crop interventions such as delayed sowing or targeted insecticide use. Existing techniques may have met their optimal usefulness, particularly in complex systems and changing climates. Machine learning (ML) arguably is an advance over current capabilities because it has the potential to efficiently identify the most informative time-windows whilst simultaneously improving species predictions. In doing so, ML is likely to advance the length of any integrated pest management opportunity when growers can intervene. As an example, we studied the migration of 51 species of aphids, which include some of the most economically important pests worldwide. We used a combination of entropy and C5.0 boosted decision trees to identify the most informative time windows to link meteorological variables to aphid migration patterns across the UK. Decision trees significantly improved the accuracy of first flight prediction by 20% compared to general additive models; further, meteorological variables that were selected by entropy significantly improved the accuracy by a further 3–5% compared to expert derived variables. Coarser (e.g. monthly) weather variables resulted in similar accuracies to finer (e.g. daily) variables but the most accurate model included multiple temporal resolutions with different period lengths. This combined resolution model alone highlights the ability of machine learning to accurately predict complex relationships between species and their meteorological drivers, largely beyond the experience of experts in the field. Finally, we identified the potential of these models to predict long-term first flight patterns in which machine learning attained equally high predictive ability as shorter-term forecasts. Whilst machine learning is a statistical advance, it is not necessarily a panacea: experts will be needed to underpin results with a mechanistic understanding, thus avoiding spurious relationships. The results of this study should provide researchers with an automated methodology to derive and select the most appropriate environmental variables when predicting ecological phenomena, while simultaneously improving the accuracy of such models.
Earth observation applications for coastal sustainability: potential and challenges for implementation
(Canadian Science Publishing, 2019-09-20) Politi, Eirini; Paterson, Shona K.; Scarrott, Rory; Tuohy, Eimear; O'Mahony, Cathal; Cámaro-García, Walther C. A.; Horizon 2020; Natural Environment Research Council
The coast is home to unique ecosystems, where complex ecological processes take place through the interaction of terrestrial, aquatic, atmospheric, and human landscapes. However, there are considerable knowledge and data gaps in achieving effective and future change-proof sustainable management of coastal zones around the world due to both technical and social barriers, as well as governance challenges. Currently, the role of Earth observation (EO) in addressing many of the recognised information gaps is small and under-utilised. While EO can provide much of the spatiotemporal information required for historical analysis and current status mapping, and offers the advantage of global coverage; its uptake can be limited by technical and methodological challenges associated mostly with lack of capacity and infrastructure, product accuracy and accessibility, costs, and institutional acceptance. While new initiatives and recent technological progress in the EO and information technology arena aim to tackle some of these issues so that EO products can be more easily used by non-EO experts, uptake is still limited. This paper discusses how EO can potentially inform transformative practices of planning in the coastal water zone, by using examples to demonstrate the EO potential in providing information relevant to decision-making framed by international agreements, such as the United Nations Agenda 2030, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Sendai Framework for Risk Reduction. By presenting evidence for how EO can contribute to innovative opportunities and data synergies at scale, the paper discusses opportunities and challenges for a more solution-led approach to sustainable coastal management.

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