Favorable Geography Research Articles

Varieties of State-Building: Ecology, Clientelism, and Bureaucratic Rule in Chile

Current research suggests that all states share a perpetual appetite for extraction and standardization. However, this research overlooks the fact that subnational regions present different appeals and challenges to ruling coalitions. While states seek to extend bureaucratic rule over peripheries with valuable assets and favorable geography, they might instead seek to preserve local patrimonial bastions when those areas offer substantial electoral support. In turn, these strategies lead to broad subnational heterogeneity in the reach of the state. This paper focuses on regions’ ecological, military, and clientelistic features to explain local trajectories of bureaucratic rule and country-level state capacity. Empirically, I examine Chile, a successful case of capacity-building in Latin America. Prompted by a fiscal crisis in the mid-1850s, Chile’s central government launched state-building projects to offset its budgetary deficit. Using GIS and original data from censuses, budgets, and other primary sources, I show that Chile’s ruling coalition paradoxically modernized the country’s peripheries while deepening its own traditionalism. These results challenge prevailing narratives about the projection of political authority and Chile’s territorial uniformity.

Smart Melon Farm System: Fertilizer IoT Solution

Embedded systems are increasingly being employed for a wide range of applications. Small and large enterprises can benefit from sensor networks and Internet of Things technologies. Farmers, particularly the next generation of farmers, are tremendously interested in the smart farm system. This is due to Thailand’s favorable geography, and young farmers are becoming more technologically literate. However, smart farm systems on the market are still too expensive and don’t meet small farms’ needs. Consequently, the study proposed a low-cost irrigation and fertilizer system for high-quality melon farms in Chiang Rai, Thailand. The system can properly carry out irrigation and fertilization operations on the melon farm, which require specific attention at various stages of production. As a result, the technique reduces human work while simultaneously supplying adequate water and nutrients to the entire plant. Moreover, farmers with Internet access can manually monitor or supervise the operation at any time, from any location, and on any device. The developed system may gather information from sensors and operational procedures for further analysis in order to increase output and reduce waste. The system is affordable since it was constructed primarily using open-source software and low-cost embedded components with an ergonomic architecture. The results of the comparison show that the automatic method outperforms the human approach in terms of quality and production yield.

Sustainable Relationship in Design: The Contribution Wisdom of Academies Landscape in Southern Jiangsu from an “Interpersonal View” Perspective

In recent years, designers have increasingly emphasized sustainability in landscape design, but they have focused more on the “human-nature” relationship while neglecting the relationship between people. As a result, problems such as inconvenient use of the landscape and waste of resources for management and renovation have been caused. To solve this problem, it is necessary to establish the correct concept at the beginning of design. Traditional Chinese ideas can often provide appropriate reference points for many contemporary issues, including design. Taking the landscapes of ancient academies in southern Jiangsu as an example, this paper tries to explore the methods and ideas of the designers to deal with the “people-people” relationship in the process of construction, as an example of sustainable landscape design. Both textual research and metrological historiography were used to examine and summarize the characteristics of the landscape construction of the academies in southern Jiangsu, combined with the analysis of the theory of “interpersonal view”. It is apparent that the landscape construction of the academies in southern Jiangsu is characterized by site selection with favorable geography and people, scale and function with the balance of supply and demand, building construction with thrift and efficiency, and a site-specific and simple courtyard built. The formation of these characteristics originates from the founder’s design concept of care about education and being kind to scholars, saving materials and taking good care of the people, benefiting others before to themselves, and portraying the Confucian idea of “great harmony in the world”. The thought and design concept of the landscape construction of the academies in southern Jiangsu can provide a reference point for landscape designers to solve the sustainable problem of the “people-people” relationship in landscape design.

Characterizing the geography of potential healthcare accessibility in informal settlements in the Greater Kumasi area of Ghana

ABSTRACT Characterizing accessibility to healthcare is complex, requiring the consideration of geography, socioeconomic and cultural factors. The Three-Step Floating Catchment Area (3SFCA) was used to account for population demand, the capacity of health facilities, and the geographic separations between locations of demand and supply in the Greater Kumasi, Ghana. The results show that accessibility to healthcare is low, about 2.34 physicians per 10,000 persons. The facilities have favorable geography: high number, detailed coverage, and proximity, but plagued with low numbers of physicians and high demand. The study synthesized analytical results with questionnaire survey to better characterize accessibility to healthcare by geography.

The Oriental Republic of Uruguay: great “soft power” of a small country

The article addresses the origins, characteristics and main manifestations of the Uruguayan “soft power” that tends to be tilted towards its traditionalist, classical model in the Latin American region. The appealing inherent features of this South American country, such as favorable geography and climate, national traditions and folklore, are harmoniously complemented by active and balanced foreign policy, universally recognized progress in the development of democracy and civil freedoms, economy, social peace, as well as achievements in culture, education and sports. The author concludes that the “soft power” of Uruguay is at the stage of its formation and reflection by local elites attempting to give it a touch of national identity – somewhat different from western concepts and their “advanced alternatives” in some developing countries – which increases capabilities and capacities of traditional diplomacy coupled with modern information and communication technologies.

‘Favourable geography: Canada’s Arctic signals intelligence mission’

ABSTRACTThe Canadian signals intelligence effort during the Cold War was forged in the late 1940s and 1950s with a focus on the interceptions and processing of communications from the Soviet Arctic. Canadian authorities struggled hard to build capacity for this important mission, win bureaucratic battles at home, and convince our key SIGINT partners, the US and UK, that Canada should be granted status as the controlling agency for signals intelligence against the target-rich Soviet north. The story of the origins of Canada’s Arctic SIGINT mission has remained highly classified until now.

Urban Waterway Logistics

Although Manaus has a favorable geography for waterway transport and is not fully utilized. The objective of this research is to present a proposal for the implementation of an Urban Waterway Modal on the banks of the Rio Negro that surrounds the city of Manaus, aiming to favor the population that needs transportation to get from one point to another, and thus guarantee the decreased congestion on city streets. This project will focus on field and bibliographic research, the technical and economic feasibility also making a cost survey, and a commuting time survey of public transport users, enabling a new solution to the means of transportation in the city.

Sustainability without Subsidy: Public Case for Vertically Integrated Rail Oligopolies for Freight

Maintaining rail freight networks without subsidy is an important transportation policy concern. Today’s vertically integrated rail oligopolies (VIROs) in the United States, Canada, and Mexico have enabled rail freight to be commercially self-sustaining. A combination of favorable geography involving a choice of railroads for most longer hauls and commercial freedom for railroads to set prices without prior regulatory approval have helped create a situation in which North American freight railroads are self-sustaining without government subsidies. This research examines the development of VIROs in the United States, Canada, and Mexico today. A largely hands-off policy, combined with a willingness to allow railroads to accumulate enough money to maintain their physical plants to high standards, have led to today’s major freight railroad duopolies in the eastern and western United States, Canada, and Mexico. Despite some complaints from shipper interests, today’s VIROs are largely stable (with the possible exception of broader policy changes in Mexico). Lawmakers and regulators should ensure that any future mergers do not adversely affect the performance of what has thus far been a largely satisfactory model.

Re-Thinking Nigeria’s Foreign Policy Beyond “Big Brotherism” Towards Economic Diplomacy

Nigeria’s leadership role within the West-African sub-region and on the continent of Africa is incontestable given her tremendous and unparallel financial and human capital contributions to the freedom, peace and stability of brother and sister nations in Africa. Its favourable geography, population and immense natural resources naturally destined for the country to play leadership role on the continent of Africa and this it has done by constantly according special attention to the plight of its brothers and sisters in Africa. However, Nigeria’s leadership is yet to come to terms with the obvious that economic interests matter even when peace, freedom, sovereignty and security issues seem paramount. Nigeria’s foreign policy is conducted on the pedestal of “Big Brotherism” without concomitant and lucidly wrapped economic agenda that benefits the people and government of Nigeria. This paper examines the logic and reasonability of Nigeria’s tremendous human and material contributions to the political stability of other African states within the context of pan-Africanism without concrete strategy for economic gains to the people and government of Nigeria. The methodology of the study is mainly descriptive and analytical drawing data largely from documented materials.

The impact of European Cohesion Policy in urban and rural regions

ABSTRACTThe impact of European Cohesion Policy in urban and rural regions. Regional Studies. This paper presents an evaluation exercise on the impact of European Cohesion Policy on the economic performance of the most disadvantaged European areas (Objective 1 regions) for the programming period 2000–06. By performing the analysis at NUTS-3 rather than NUTS-2 level to exploit the exogeneity of the treatment status in the context of a regression discontinuity design (RDD), the analysis shows that European Cohesion funds have positively contributed to generating economic growth in lagging areas. However, their effect is mainly driven by the successful performance of rural areas close to the main urban agglomerates. Favourable geography and the progressive suburbanization of the rural landscape created new opportunities for rural areas close to cities, thus boosting the effect of the policy.

Drivers and Draggers of Regional Economic Cooperation and Integration in Asia and the Pacific

This paper examines the major drivers and draggers of regional economic cooperation and integration (RECI) in Asia and the Pacific (AP). Using both quantitative measures and qualitative evidence, it assesses the roles played by four key determinants of RECI across AP, its subregions, and countries: geography and connectivity; national economic policies; governance and rule of law; and institutions and geopolitics. The assessment suggests that East Asia has been fortunate to have been endowed with favorable geography. At the same time, its national economic policies and governance standards (in terms of government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption) have been key drivers of its cross-border economic integration, despite its much less democratic political regime. South Asia is almost the obverse image of East Asia – despite a reasonably favorable geography and decades of democratic political regime, its national economic policies and governance standards have been major draggers of cross-border integration. In many ways, Southeast Asia is somewhat closer to East Asia, while the Pacific is somewhat similar to South Asia (except that the Pacific had to content with an unfavorable geography that has been a major dragger of its cross-border integration). Central Asia presents a much more mixed case – it’s land-locked geography as well as somewhat poor governance parameters have acted as draggers on the subregion’s cross-border integration, even as its trade and investment policies have been relatively more open and hence integration-friendly. Political commitment – perhaps the overarching driver of RECI and its institutionalization – is lackluster almost across AP. That said, political commitment seems to be the highest in Southeast Asia and the least in South Asia, with other subregions falling somewhere in the middle of this spectrum.

Wealthiest is Not Always Healthiest: What Explains Differences in Child Mortality in West Africa?

Ghana has the lowest under-five mortality rate in West Africa. Understanding why Ghana’s child mortality rate is lower than in neighboring countries may offer useful insights for other developing countries that are trying to improve child health. This paper explores whether Ghana’s lower mortality rate is mostly a result of greater household wealth, better implementation of national health policies, or more favorable geography. The paper uses micro level data for children under five to examine relative child mortality risk between Ghana and each of its three immediate neighbors — Burkina Faso, the Ivory Coast and Togo. A Cox proportional hazards model is used to test which of the three ‘contenders’ — health policy, wealth or geography — best explains Ghana’s mortality advantage. The results of the analysis indicate that wealth variables are not able to explain any of the child mortality variation between Ghana and its neighbors. Geography and health policy variables each explain about 40% of the mortality gap between Ghana and Burkina Faso. Health policy differences alone are able to explain about 70% of the child mortality gap between Ghana and the Ivory Coast. These results suggest that even poor countries that have been 'cursed' by bad geography can potentially improve development outcomes and save children’s lives.

Wealthiest Is Not Always Healthiest: What Explains Differences in Child Mortality in West Africa?

Ghana has the lowest under-five mortality rate in West Africa. Understanding why Ghana’s child mortality rate is lower than in neighboring countries may offer useful insights for other developing countries that are trying to improve child health. This paper explores whether Ghana’s lower mortality rate is mostly a result of greater household wealth, better implementation of national health policies, or more favorable geography. The paper uses micro level data for children under five to examine relative child mortality risk between Ghana and each of its three immediate neighbors -- Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, and Togo. A Cox proportional hazards model is used to test which of the three ‘contenders’ – health policy, wealth, or geography – best explains Ghana’s mortality advantage. The results of the analysis indicate that wealth variables are not able to explain any of the child mortality variation between Ghana and its neighbors. Geography and health policy variables each explain about 40% of the mortality gap between Ghana and Burkina Faso. Health policy differences alone are able to explain about 70% of the child mortality gap between Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. These results suggest that even poor countries that have been ‘cursed’ by bad geography can potentially improve development outcomes and save children’s lives.

Introduction: Simultaneously Global and Local: Reassessing Smallpox Vaccination and Its Spread, 1789–1900

The last two decades have seen a reawakening of scholarly interest in the history of smallpox prevention. Accounts of vaccination and others efforts at controlling smallpox have moved away from heroic narratives toward more nuanced and contextualized understandings. It is now accepted that several viruses traveled under the vaccine label from the outset, and it has been demonstrated that a variety of techniques were used to perform vaccination operations. The character of nineteenth century sea voyages that took the vaccine to distant territories has also been re-examined; sometimes the spread of the vaccine was caused by private networks and ad hoc decisions, while at other times it was the result of enterprises with close resemblances to contemporary centralized vaccination campaigns. Looking beyond Europe and North America we encounter a variety of state attitudes toward vaccination, ranging from concentrated efforts to spread the technique to efforts more uncertain and diluted. Although the reluctance to accept vaccination has been amply documented, recent studies emphasize this should not be attributed to simplistic dichotomies of modernity versus tradition or science versus culture; instead, instances of resistance are best studied as specific contextualized interactions. Indeed, factors like favorable geography, strong bureaucratic structures, and the absence of variolation seem to have helped the relatively smooth transfer of vaccination technologies. Perhaps most important, recent research encourages us to continue to study smallpox vaccination as a phenomenon that was simultaneously global and local.

Buying Prosperity

Though Fort William and Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay) used the full gamut of promotional tools to attract industry in the three decades before 1914, they relied most heavily on bonusing. Together they granted more money in bonuses to manufacturers than perhaps any other community in Canada. Such a policy occasioned much debate locally over the usefulness and propriety of using tax dollars to subsidize industry. This article examines both the extent and effects of bonusing at the Lakehead and the debate it raised. It concludes that while bonuses could, in the short run, greatly affect the rate of industrial growth, the long-term survival of manufacturing depended on favourable geography and a supportive economic environment.

CORPUS CHRISTI CATASTROPHE: CASE OF A CLASSIC CLEANUP1

ABSTRACT At 10:50 p.m. on July 13, 1988, the 800-foot, 107,776 dwt Singapore-flag motor tankship Nord Pacific, loaded with 625,000 barrels of Beatrice (North Sea) crude, sustained hull damage while docking at No. 3 dock of the Southwestern Refinery in the Corpus Christi, Texas, inner harbor. The impact opened an 8 ft by 1 ft gash in No. 6 port wing tank 1 ft above the waterline, spilling 15,350 barrels of crude oil into the harbor over a one-hour period before the tank could be pumped down. The cleanup that followed was a textbook case in which everything went right. The relative ease and rapidity of cleanup are attributed to favorable geography, weather, accessibility, fast response, and luck. The amount of spilled oil recovered amounted to 11,344 bbls, a recovery rate of almost 74 percent. All free-floating oil in the harbor was recovered in 2½ days. The majority of shoreside cleanup, including two affected marsh areas, was completed one week after the spill. Minor mop-up to conclude the cleanup continued for three days after. The Corpus Christi inner harbor was closed for 2½ days during the spill, with daylight one-way traffic commencing Saturday, July 16. Regular traffic resumed Monday morning, July 18. Environmental impact was minimal, with very little wildlife affected. Permanent repairs were made to the Nord Pacific and she sailed for Venezuela on July 21, 1988.