Major Port Cities Research Articles

Floating marine debris in coastal waters of the SE-Pacific (Chile)

Herein we report on the abundance and composition of floating marine debris (FMD) in coastal waters of the SE-Pacific (off the Chilean coast) during the austral summer 2002. The observed FMD consisted mainly of plastic material (86.9%). Densities of FMD were highest between 20°S and 40°S, corresponding to the main concentrations of human population and activities. Low densities of FMD were found in the south between 40°S and 50°S (<1 item km −2). Generally, the highest densities were recorded in nearshore waters of major port cities (>20 items km −2), but occasionally high concentrations of debris were also found 50 km offshore. Densities of FMD in coastal waters of the SE-Pacific are of similar magnitudes as those found in coastal waters or inland seas of highly populated regions in the northern hemisphere, indicating the need for improved regulation and legislation in the countries of the SE-Pacific.

Neighborhood Business Development in Dempsey

J im knew he needed to concentrate his resources. He had arrived at the Dempsey Economic Development Corporation (DEDC) over a year earlier full of excitement. After his first job as an assistant program manager at a local development corporation in neighboring Giant City, he had been hired by the DEDC to create a new, citywide commercial revitalization program for Dempsey, a city of nearly a quarter million people. The DEDC's executive director, Brendan Grace, was a supportive boss. Like Jim, he believed that Dempsey could really benefit from some of the latest approaches to neighborhood economic development. But, after more than a year of working long hours, Jim had nothing concrete to show for his efforts, there were still too many worthy potential initiatives and competing priorities to address all at once, and he needed to show some results quickly. And, although Jim knew that a professional public servant should be above partisan politics, elections were coming up. If the administration changed, his entire program was likely to be canceled or dramatically changed. What should I do first, and how can I balance electoral politics with my professional priorities? Jim mused. Or should I just bail out of Dempsey and take a safe job in the bureaucracy back in Giant City? The city of Dempsey was in many ways awakening from a decades-long slumber. Once a major industrial and port city, Dempsey had fallen on hard times along with most of the surrounding area as much of the middle class moved to the suburbs, manufacturers moved away, and trucks replaced railroads. But now, there were signs of change and promise for the future. The exploding real estate market in Giant City had encouraged commercial and residential development in the parts of Dempsey and its neighboring towns that were near stations on the light rail lines leading into Giant City. New office towers and condominiums were going up, and the prices of apartments and houses in the Central Square and Downtown sections of Dempsey were skyrocketing as those neighborhoods gentrified. Long-time residents were glad for the promise of economic renewal, but many of them also resented the commuting newcomers, who

Bedrock knobs, San Francisco Bay; do navigation hazards outweigh other environmental problems?

Abstract Three bedrock knobs (Arch, Harding, and Shag rocks) rise above the unconsolidated sediment of central San Francisco Bay to a water depth of less than -12 m (&lt;-39.4 ft MLLW). These rocks are within the westbound vessel traffic area, and the northernmost, Harding Rock, is approximately 300 m (984 ft) from the two-way deep water traffic lane. The rocks pose a hazard to deep-draft vessels. Large ships with drafts deeper than -17 m (-55.8 ft) cross central San Francisco Bay bound for and returning from major port cities of the Bay estuary. Acoustic profiling data show that bedrock extends at a gentle to moderate slope away from the knobs. These data also show that two of the knobs, Harding and Shag, may be part of a bedrock ridge that extends to Alcatraz Island and perhaps southeast to Blossom Rock. The tops of these rocks should be lowered to a depth of -17 m (-55.8 ft), with a total volume of as much as 245,000 m 3 (320,460 yd 3 ), at an estimated cost of nearly 27 million dollars, to eliminate the possibility that a tanker would strike one and rupture. A resulting large oil spill would likely cost many times more than the 10 million dollars needed to clean up a small 1996 spill. If the rocks were removed, local habitat for striped bass and other game fish would be altered, with potential negative impact on sport fishing. Currently, public officials are studying the benefits to the Bay environment of lowering the rock knobs.

195th ECS Meeting Program - Seattle (May 2-6, 1999)

Welcome to Seattle. Returning to Seattle for the first time since 1990, the 195th Meeting will provide attendees with the opportunity to explore “The Emerald City.” Founded in 1869, the City of Seattle is located on Puget Sound, 113 miles from the U.S.-Canadian border. Seattle is a commercial, cultural, and advanced technology hub of the U.S. Northwest and a major port city for trans-Pacific and European trade. Surrounded by mountains and water, the greater Seattle area features picture-perfect views and abundant recreational activities year-round.

Progressive failure on the North Anatolian fault since 1939 by earthquake stress triggering

SUMMARY 10 M ≥ 6.7 earthquakes ruptured 1000 km of the North Anatolian fault (Turkey) during 1939–1992, providing an unsurpassed opportunity to study how one large shock sets up the next. We use the mapped surface slip and fault geometry to infer the transfer of stress throughout the sequence. Calculations of the change in Coulomb failure stress reveal that nine out of 10 ruptures were brought closer to failure by the preceding shocks, typically by 1–10 bar, equivalent to 3–30 years of secular stressing. We translate the calculated stress changes into earthquake probability gains using an earthquake-nucleation constitutive relation, which includes both permanent and transient effects of the sudden stress changes. The transient effects of the stress changes dominate during the mean 10 yr period between triggering and subsequent rupturing shocks in the Anatolia sequence. The stress changes result in an average three-fold gain in the net earthquake probability during the decade after each event. Stress is calculated to be high today at several isolated sites along the fault. During the next 30 years, we estimate a 15 per cent probability of a M ≥ 6.7 earthquake east of the major eastern centre of Ercinzan, and a 12 per cent probability for a large event south of the major western port city of Izmit. Such stress-based probability calculations may thus be useful to assess and update earthquake hazards elsewhere.

Role of stress triggering in earthquake migration on the North Anatolian fault

Ten M≥6.7 earthquakes ruptured 1,000 km of the North Anatolian fault (Turkey) during 1939–1992, providing an unsurpassed opportunity to study how one large shock sets up the next. Calculations of the change in Coulomb failure stress reveal that 9 out of 10 ruptures were brought closer to failure by the preceding shocks, typically by 5 bars, equivalent to 20 years of secular stressing. We translate the calculated stress changes into earthquake probabilities using an earthquake-nucleation constitutive relation, which includes both permanent and transient stress effects. For the typical 10-year period between triggering and subsequent rupturing shocks in the Anatolia sequence, the stress changes yield an average three-fold gain in the ensuing earthquake probability. Stress is now calculated to be high at several isolated sites along the fault. During the next 30 years, we estimate a 15% probability of a M≥6.7 earthquake east of the major eastern center of Erzincan, and a 12% probability for a large event south of the major western port city of Izmit. Such stress-based probability calculations may thus be useful to assess and update earthquake hazards elsewhere.

Valuing the rain forest: Economic strategies by small-scale forest extractivists in the Amazon estuary

The current interest in non-timber forest products as an economic option for the Brazilian Amazon represents a radical departure from the policies that have guided development in the region during recent decades. Despite this interest, little is currently known about the forms of resource management or economic strategies practiced by populations dependent on such resources. In this study, we measured the annual income and expenditures of ten households on Combu Island, located in the Amazon estuary near the major port city of Belem; in addition, we documented local uses and management of natural resources on the island Average annual income per household was found to be over U.S. $4000, derived primarily from the harvest and sale of non-timber forest products. The results of this study show that the combination of proximity to a major market and appropriate resource management can lead to high and apparently sustainable economic returns.

Subsidence in New Orleans: A Photographic Case History of the Lakeview Subdivision

ABSTRACT The development of New Orleans' strategic location as the major port city on the lower Mississippi River required the drainage of extensive cypress swamps and marshes as well as protection from river flooding and hurricane storm surges. New Orleans overcame these natural barriers, grew rapidly and prospered during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. However, the early development of the city was confined largely to the higher ground of the broad natural levees along the Mississippi and to the smaller natural levees along Bayou Sauvage and Bayou Metairie. In order to accommodate expansion during the first decade of the twentieth century, a series of drainage canals were dredged, each equipped with a large, heavy duty electric pump. These canals drained large areas of cypress swamp in the central and northern part of the city. The Lakeview subdivision, located in northwest New Orleans, was built on drained cypress swamp land near Lake Pontchartrain. Land filling was begun in the early 1920's and continued through the 1930's. Most of the structures in the neighborhood are single family dwellings constructed during the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's. The older homes were built on raised foundations supported by masonry pillars. When constructed on drained cypress swamp, they nearly always require periodic levelling and other foundation maintenance. Many of the later houses were built on concrete slab foundations. Some of the early slab foundations were poured directly on the ground, but this technique proved unsatisfactory, as the unsupported slabs quickly settled and cracked in the soft underlying swamp sediment. In order to stabilize slab foundations, a slab-on-piling foundation was developed, in which a concrete foundation cap is poured over a base of driven wooden foundation pilings. A series of photographs were taken over a 51 year span of time, during which a single family lived in the residence on Colbert Street in Lakeview. These photographs illustrate the periodic subsidence of the adjacent land relative to the house, which was constructed in 1941. The house, built using the slab-on-piling technique, is located near the center of Lakeview between the 17th Street Canal on the west and the Orleans Canal on the east. Subsidence rates documented in the photographs are related in time to modifications in the pumped drainage system. The series of photographs, dating from the construction of the house in 1941 to the present, document periods of incremental subsidence, which now totals 32 inches (81 cm). End_of_Record - Last_Page 857-------

The Role of Cities in the Economic Development of the Lower South

THIS ARTICLE DEFINES major political and demographic characteristics of an economically underdeveloped region—he Lower Mississippi Delta. It focuses on the relationship of the major Delta port cities, their periphery, and the effects of five major past federal and state intervention efforts in explaining rural underdevelopment in the Delta region. Discussion of recent attempts at regional cooperation in the Lower Mississippi Delta is contrasted to past intervention efforts and cultural‐political realities, [regionalism, port cities, underdevelopment, economic growth and development, U.S. federal and state interventions]

Metropolitan Manila in the Great Depression: Crisis for Whom?

Despite its Importance, “the exact course and depth of the recession in the [Philippine] Islands have never been seriously studied” (Richardson 1984:208). Indeed, studies that attempt to calculate the impact of global trade cycles, including that of the Great Depression, on the employment economies of the primate cities of Southeast Asia form a special lacuna within the generally underdeveloped literature on the economic history of Southeast Asia. This article opens both research questions by presenting a time-specific assessment of the impact of this international business contraction on important segments of the economy and society of metropolitan Manila, the capital and major port-city of the Philippines. In particular, this article focuses on the depression experience of the large Filipino bureaucratic middle class, of Filipino manual workers in commodities handling, manufacturing, and construction, and finally of the Chinese commercial sector. The article provides a first-cut disaggregation and analysis of relevant statistical data—much of it assembled here for the first time, as well as commercial reports and the contemporary press. The result is a picture of selective dislocation and hardship but one that is at once more variegated and generally less severe than anticipated.

The Making of the Chinese Working Class

In the 1920s, the standard story goes, China's nascent industrial working class made its tumultuous d?but on the historical stage. Through coordinated strikes and boycotts centered in large foreign-owned enterprises in major treaty port cities and involving hundreds of thousands of workers, an organized and class-conscious working class directly challenged capitalists, warlords, and the imperialist powers. These militant actions, coordinated and led by the Chinese Communist party, culminated in the wave of revolution which swept China in the years 1924-27 and reached its crescendo in the Shanghai Insurrection. Nevertheless, Jiang Jieshi, in collusion with the Guomindang right wing, virtually annihilated the labor and communist movements in a 1927 coup d'?tat. The pioneering research of Jean Chesneaux, embodied in his book The Chinese Labor Movement, 1919-1927, advanced this perspective. Thirty years later, Gail Hershatter and Emily Honig have fruitfully applied the lenses of the new social history to the making of the Chinese working class in ways which newly interpret its class, gender, and urban/rural character, as well as its emerging consciousness, organization, and revolutionary role. Hershatter and Honig belong to the first generation of American researchers to enjoy access to extensive documentary and interview sources in China. Their studies of the formation of the working class in Shanghai and Tianjin shed new light on the relationship of labor and the labor movement to the Chinese revolution. To the familiar triad ?working class, capitalism, imperialism?these vol umes add a formidable but elusive force at the center of working-class formation: the Green Gang and the underworld of urban crime. Countering the prevailing image of the industrial worker as urban and male, they offer compelling portraits of the rural roots and continuing rural ties of an industrial working class that included numerous women and children. In place of strikeand party-centered perspectives on the new working class, they explore manifold dimensions of working-class life including social and cultural relations, and diverse worker responses to the frequently harsh, unstable, and life-threatening conditions they confronted.

Kampungs and Conflict in Colonial Semarang

By the beginning of the twentieth century, Semarang was a major port city and administrative centre on Java. Attainment of this position was due partly to the expansion of its hinterland during the nineteenth century. This expansion was closely related to developments in the means of transportation and the consequent ability of plantation owners to bring the products of their plantations to the port for shipment to foreign markets. By the end of the century virtually the whole economic life of central Java focused upon Semarang. The city also exercised administrative functions in the Dutch colonial administration and generally had been responsible for Dutch interests in the middle and eastern parts of the island. The importance of Semarang as an administrative centre increased after 1906. In that year the government incorporated the city as an urban municipality (stadsgemeente). In 1914 it had consular representation from the United States, Belgium, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Italy, Norway, Germany, and Thailand. Subsequently, in 1926 it became the capital of the Province of Central Java under the terms of an administrative reform fostered by the colonial government at Batavia. Status as an urban municipality meant that local officials sitting on a city council would govern the domestic affairs of the city. The members of the city council at first were appointed from Batavia, subsequently some of them were elected by residents of the city. By the beginning of the twentieth century Semarang had enhanced its position as a major port on the north coast of the island of Java. It was one of the foremost cities of the Dutch East Indies, along with Batavia and Surabaya, a leading port and a centre of administration and trade. This article outlines the growth of the port of Semarang during the nineteenth century and discusses some of the conflict related to this growth over living conditions in parts of the city during the twentieth century, a conflict which smouldered for several decades among the government, members of the city council, and the non-European residents of the city, one which remained unresolved at the end of the colonial era.

Deviant Insiders: Legalized Prostitutes and a Consciousness of Women in Early Modern Seville

Three men who visited the riverfront shacks of Seville's public brothel on 22 July 1620 left a report of their visit. No ordinary customers, they came as officials sent by the governing council of this major port city in early moder Spain. Their report provides an insider's view of legalized prostitution. It also provides insights into a consciousness of gender and deviance that extends far beyond prostitutes in the seventeenth century. In their report, the officials noted that they ordered the padres, the three men who administered the brothel, to assemble their prostitutes. They included a list of the women, eighteen in all, and the supervising padre for each. For a time a clergyman preached and tried to convert the women on this, the feast day of Mary Magdalen. Then, after dutifully noting that others also had attended the sermon, the three officials briskly turned to business. They imposed a fine on one padre who had accepted an unlicensed prostitute into the brothel, and they threatened her with a hundred lashes if she did not leave at once. They ordered Angela del Castillo to leave of her age and the long time that she had been in the brothel. They also banished Ana Maria from the brothel because she appeared to be ill and could infect others. The three officials agreed to notify a city resident that he had been nominated to accompany a doctor in examining the prostitutes. Finally, they forbad padres from giving help or shelter to any woman who had been ordered to leave the