DIE ERDE – Journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin
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Gender relations in global agri-food value chains – a review
Get PDFThis article reviews the research literature on gender relations in global agri-food value chains. The main focus is on the production side in countries of the Global South, with most examples from sub-Saharan Africa. After a short presentation of the underlying concepts and a review of the existing research literature, an outline is given of the major insights the analysis of gender issues in global value chains has offered. What is striking is the heterogeneity of the findings and proposed actions, as well as the scarcity of conceptual approaches that would integrate gender analyses further into the concept of global value chains
Socio-spatial change in the world heritage site Valparaíso
Get PDFValparaíso’s old town is one of five world heritage sites in Chile. Its districts of Puerto and Financiero on the coastal platform, together with the surrounding hills of Cerros Concepción and Alegre make up 0.9 % of the total urbanised area. The unique urban ensemble with its heritage of early industrialisation, the harbour installations and the many wooden funiculars have led UNESCO to make these districts a protected area. However, protection does not only mean conservation. Many morphological, functional and socio-spatial changes have taken place since the declaration as a heritage site. Some of them are due to the effects of natural and man-made disasters, but many are a result of the new function as a heritage site. Based on a morphological and functional analysis and a deeper look at the socio-spatial changes, the study returns contradictory results. Initial trends of gentrification can be observed, which may favour the conservation of the built environment, but weaken the social situation. A more severe degradation of the building stock has been halted; however, in many respects dilapidation has only been slowed down. The negative demographic trend has been exacerbated by the activities of ruthless developers who have bought up buildings with speculation in mind. Such activities have a long-term destructive effect on the immaterial cultural heritage, i.e. the vibrant and locally specific urban life in the old town. The main question is how the declaration as a world heritage site has influenced the social and economic fabric of the old town, and how the changes can be evaluated. This paper investigates the socio-economic changes, social transformations and other processes of change
Spatial analysis of hospital admissions for respiratory diseases during summer months in Berlin taking bioclimatic and socio-economic aspects into account
Get PDFInternational environmental health studies of the past years have discussed the impacts of heat stress on human health. In particular, respiratory morbidity has shown significant heat effects in European cities. Metropolitan areas such as Berlin are characterised by an intra-urban spatial variability in socio-economic and bioclimatic conditions that is assumed to result in spatial differences in respiratory health risks. In essence, the elderly, children and people with chronic diseases suffer from heat stress. A spatial epidemiological approach was chosen to map elevated risks for hospital admissions among > 64-year-olds with respiratory diseases (RD) during the summer months (June–September) from 2000 to 2009 and to link respiratory health risks to bioclimatic and socio-economic conditions in Berlin. The study aims to detect significant clusters with elevated relative risks for hospital admissions among > 64-year-olds with RD in due consideration of socio-economic conditions as a covariate for health outcomes. The findings from the purely spatial analysis show significant intra-urban disparities in the relative risks for hospital admissions among > 64-year-olds with RD. The highest relative risks within significant clusters were basically detected in the north-western and south-eastern city centre based on the study period 2000–2009 and also during the hot months of July and August in 2003 and 2006. The correlation analysis depicted significantly positive relationships between relative risks for hospital admissions among > 64-year-olds with RD and population density, socio-economic conditions and the annual mean number of days with heat loads on the basis of the period 1971–2000 and the average of the periods 1971–2000 and 2021–2050 at the zip code level in Berlin. To specifically implement health care intervention and prevention strategies into urban planning and to apply a directed practice of telemedicine for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, spatial epidemiological analyses are an important approach to identifying heat-vulnerable urban areas
Effect of relief and land use on heat stress in Kraków, Poland
Get PDFHeat stress in urban areas is controlled mainly by the impact of anthropogenic land use on the active surface heat balance. This paper shows the role of land form superimposed on the land-use impact, using the example of Krakow, Poland. The city is located in a concave land form, on the Wisla (Vistula) River. The automatic measurements of air temperature and humidity were realised in Kraków from April to October, in the years 2010-2012. For the daytime conditions, ANOVA test and Tukey’s test showed significant differences in the number of very hot days and number of heat waves, between urban areas in the valley and rural areas, both in the valley and on the slope. For the nighttime, significant differences were found for the number of tropical nights, not only between urban and rural areas, but also between urban areas located in various landforms and between urban areas in the valley floor and rural areas located in various landforms. Both urban and rural measurement points located in the river valley floor experienced the highest numbers of very hot days, heat waves and extreme air temperature duration. For measurement points elevated about 50 m above the valley floor, the indices’ values were lower by about 50 %
Potato contract farming and ‘privileged spaces’: preliminary insights from rural Maharashtra
Get PDFThe emergence of modern value chain schemes such as contract farming in rural India is exposing households to new forms of agricultural production. Evidently, the spread of such schemes in India will have spatial implications for rural development. This short communication offers preliminary insights of the contours of these spatial implications from a case study of potato contract farming in three villages in Maharashtra, India. It is proposed that studies that combine a local-scale livelihoods approach with global value chain analysis can strengthen understanding of agricultural change and rural development by grounding value chain analysis in the place-based everyday realities of rural households. Using this approach to adopt an evolutionary view of livelihoods and value chains will lead to a much deeper understanding of possible future development pathways for rural households under conditions of agricultural transformation
Festifavelisation: mega-events, slums and strategic city-staging – the example of Rio de Janeiro
Get PDFMega-events are increasingly often taking place in countries of the Global South. In the socio-spatially deeply fragmented host cities these spectacles encompass extremely transformative urban processes. This paper will consider the festivalisation of Rio de Janeiro in the preparatory phase of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics. It focuses on the urban policy in relation to how Rio deals with its favelas. The aim of the article is to critically assess current measures of ‘invisibilisation’, ‘pacification’, ‘beautification’ and ‘touristic staging’ of favelas against the backdrop of the upcoming events
BioCAS: Biometeorological Climate impact Assessment System for building-scale impact assessment of heat-stress related mortality
Get PDFAn urban climate analysis system for Seoul was combined with biometeorological models for the spatially distributed assessment of heat stress risks. The Biometeorological Climate impact Assessment System (BioCAS) is based on the Climate Analysis Seoul (CAS) workbench which provides urban planners with gridded data relevant for local climate assessment at 25 m and 5 m spatial resolutions. The influence of building morphology and vegetation on mean radiant temperature Tmrt was simulated by the SOLWEIG model. Gridded hourly perceived temperature PT was computed using the Klima-Michel Model for a hot day in 2012. Daily maximum perceived temperature PTmax was then derived from these data and applied to an empirical-statistical model that explains the relationship between PTmax and excess mortality rate rEM in Seoul. The resultant rEM map quantifies the detrimental impact of hot weather at the building scale. Mean (maximum) values of rEM in old and new town areas in an urban re-development site in Seoul were estimated at 2.3 % (50.7 %) and 0 % (8.6 %), respectively, indicating that urban re-development in the new town area has generally resulted in a strong reduction of heat-stress related mortality. The study illustrates that BioCAS can generally be applied for the quantification of the impacts of hot weather on human health for different urban development scenarios. Further improvements are required, particularly to consider indoor climate conditions causing heat stress, as well as socio-economic status and population structure of local residents
Italian organisations within the European nanotechnology network: presence, dynamics and effects
Get PDFNanotechnology is an emerging interdisciplinary field that, according to the European Commission, represents one of the world’s new technological frontiers. Nanoscience and nanotechnology play a key role in European Union research policies; they have been included among the “seven priority thematic areas” of the Sixth Framework Programme and the “nine themes” of the Cooperation Programme of the Seventh Framework Programme. The purpose of this study is to assess the role of Italian organisations in the existing European nanotechnology innovation network and to illuminate several aspects of relational and geographical dynamics as well as the scientific and economic effects of these partnerships in Italy. Using an official document issued by the European Commission entitled “Mapping Portal for Nanotechnology Research” and adopting social network analysis techniques, statistics and qualitative interviews, it is determined that Italy plays a central role in the European nanotechnology network, that Italian organisations have tended to replicate satisfactory prior collaborations, that other factors have been more significant than geographical proximity in creating research groups and developing projects, and, finally, that scientific effects have been substantially more significant than economic effects at the national level