Physical Geography Research Articles

Газарзүйн Асуудлууд сэтгүүлийн хөгжлийн тойм шинжилгээ (2001-2021)

For the last 90 years, approximately 100 research magazines have been published in each scientific sector of Mongolia in the Mongolian, Russian and English languages. But there is not any published research which clarifies development trends of each sector involving a review and analysis in the scientific journal of any specific area or sector in Mongolia. I have undertaken a review and analysis of this research using a comparative analysis method. In this article, the research published in the journal of Geographic Issues over the last 20 years was compared. This involved the review of articles, the involvement of authors, the similarities and differences in the field of scientific content, and the development trends of research. This was all clarified. The results showed that except for Mongolian researchers, Russian, German, British, American and Japanese researchers published their articles in this journal. Within the period the research involved 168 researchers who participated as a first author and 400 researchers as other authors in the publication of a total of 359 articles in developing the journal of Geographical Issues. Regarding the scope, more than 10 articles were published in the areas of service geography, meteorology and climate science, land relations, urban geography, environmental science, hydrology, agricultural geography, recreational geography, remote sensing and geomorphological studies. Baseline study materials of physics and social geography, which are the main sectors of geography, have comparatively been published rarely. The main trend of the magazine is inter-sectoral research work based on physical geography and socio-economic geography. It was a key principle of this magazine to publish this research by filtering them in an ethical and fair manner.

Монгол орны био уур амьсгалын эмгэг үүсгэх нөхцөлийн судалгаа

At a time when climate change is affecting human health and the number of people with chronic diseases is increasing, people are trying to use natural treatments and aftercare. Although Mongolian territory for the weather evolution index is divided into three bioclimatic regions, the study about its effects on human health is rare. The aim of the study was to study the spatial and temporal patterns of bioclimatic pathogenicity on human health using daily average meteorological data of 1991-2020 from 69 weather stations representing the climate, physical geography, natural zones, and belts of Mongolia. The pathogenic bioclimatic conditions per year were calculated as a total index that includes pathogenic conditions of air temperature, temperature change between days, pressure changes, relative humidity, clouds, and wind parameters. From the estimation, 107 days were “suitable” for humans and 135 days were “unsuitable” while the remaining 123 days dominated “pathogenic conditions” in Mongolia. Seasonally, the effect of weather change on human health were suitable in summer while the pathogenicity is heavy in winter. However, pathogenicity conditions were moderately variance the transition seasons. The annual pathogenicity index was unsuitable for any natural zone in Mongolia, but in the Gobi and Desert regions, it was slightly lower around 18-20 while the index values tended to increase northward. When the percentage of meteorological variables in the total pathogenicity index was studied, the effects of daily changes in air temperature and wind speed had a significant impact on human health. This study has used the daily climate data for the last 30 years to update bio-climatic pathogenicity conditions in Mongolia, and it will be the fundamental data for exploring the relationship between weather oscillations and human disease. Therefore, it will provide an opportunity for further research in this area.

A call for a critical urban climatology: Lessons from critical physical geography

AbstractUrban climatology and environmental justice frequently share the same research site: the city. However, they study urban areas in distinct ways. Urban climatology has contributed to a better understanding of the urban boundary and canopy layer climates by embracing a broader and deeper investigation of the atmospheric and climatic specificities of the cities. Environmental justice has contributed a better understanding of how the poor and people of color are disproportionally affected by environmental problems. I argue here that we need both fields to fully understand urban climates because they are shaped both by legacies of colonialism, and race, gender, and class, and by the particularities of urban energy budgets and the variation in intra‐urban air quality and thermal‐hygrometric characteristics they drive. Critical physical geography can provide important analytical, theoretical, and methodological tools to help urban climatologists and environmental justice scholars work together toward the goal of social and environmental transformation.This article is categorized under: Climate, History, Society, Culture > Disciplinary Perspectives Climate and Development > Social Justice and the Politics of Development

Таац голын усны горимын судалгаа

Surface water resources and flow regime of the river are dependent on climate, physical geography, soil condition, geology and hydrogeological conditions of the basin. These factors vary spatially and temporally and affect the runoff. To study the flow regime of the river including snowmelt and rainfall flow is crucial information for flood mitigation, control, water harvesting, hydro construction planning, dam and other hydrologic systems, etc. Therefore, we attempted to investigate the flow regime and its changes of the Taats river which is located in the Asian internal drainage basin in this study. The study was conducted using the daily runoff, precipitation and air temperature data for the period of 1975-2019. In addition, the Mann-Kendall test was applied to detect trend analysis for the annual runoff and maximum flow of the snowmelt and rainfall events. The probability of the maximum runoff of the snowmelt was estimated through the Gringorten method. The results show that the mean annual runoff and snowmelt flow decreased and rainfall flow has increased insignificantly in the study period. However, it was observed the changes in the timing of the snowmelt runoff shifted toward later in the year 1975-1990, earlier in the year 1991-2003 and on average in the period of 2004-2019. The maximum runoff of the snowmelt and rainfall is estimated at 13.2 m3/s and 275 м3/c, respectively in the 100 years.

Between Old and New Teleology. Kant on Maupertuis’ Principle of Least Action

Abstract In the Appendix to the Transcendental Dialectic, Kant formulates teleological principles, or rather ideas, and explicates them referring to concrete examples of natural science such as chemistry, astronomy, biology, empirical psychology, and physical geography. Despite the increasing interest in the systematic relevance of the Appendix to the Transcendental Dialectic and its importance for Kant’s conception of natural science, the numerous historical sources for the regulative use of reason have not yet been investigated. One that is very central is Maupertuis’ principle of least action. In 1781, Kant transformed teleology into heuristics and methodology, but in doing so, he partially develops a teleology which was disqualified by Maupertuis because its starting point lies in the construction of animals or plants, the structure of the earth, and the immensity of the celestial bodies. Based on Maupertuis’ principle of action, it can be shown that the Appendix forms a systematic interface between Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens and Critique of Judgement which allows the reconstruction of Kant’s regulative use of reason and its specific status in the context of natural science and his critical appraisal of Maupertuis.

Fluvial processes and landforms

Abstract The period 1965–2000 saw a sustained increase in research and publications on fluvial processes and landforms. The trend towards generalization and/or mechanistic understanding, rather than site-specific history, continued. Research was multidisciplinary, with important contributions from hydraulic engineers, geologists and physical geographers and from experimental and theoretical approaches as well as geomorphological and sedimentological fieldwork. Rapidly increasing computer power underpinned new measurement methods, and greatly increased the scope of data analysis and numerical modelling. There were major advances in understanding the interaction of river process and form at reach scale, with growing recognition of differences between sand-bed and coarse-bed rivers. Field studies outside Europe and North America led to greater awareness of the diversity of river planforms and depositional landforms. Conceptual models of how rivers respond to natural or anthropogenic change in boundary conditions at different timescales were refined, taking advantage of studies of the response to land-use change, major floods and volcanic eruptions. The dating of sediments allowed greater appreciation of fluctuations in the incidence of extreme driving events over centuries and thousands of years. Towards the end of this period, research on bedrock rivers began to take off.

Applicability of Grassland Production Estimation Using Remote Sensing for the Mongolian Plateau by Comparing Typical Regions in China and Mongolia

Grasslands on the Mongolian Plateau are critical for supporting local sustainable development. Sufficient measured sample information is the basis of remote sensing modeling and estimation of grassland production. Limited by field inventory costs, it is difficult to collect sufficient and widely distributed samples in the Mongolian Plateau, especially in transboundary areas, which affects the results of grassland production estimation. Here, considering that the measured sample points are sparse, this study took Xilingol League of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in China and Dornogovi Province in Mongolia as the study areas, introduced multiple interpolation methods for interpolation experiments, established a statistical regression model based on the above measured and interpolated samples combined with the normalized differential vegetation index, and discussed the applicability of grassland production estimation. The comparison results revealed that the point estimation biased sample hospital-based area disease estimation method and radial basis function showed the best interpolation results for grassland production in Xilingol League and Dornogovi Province, respectively. The power function model was suitable for grassland production estimation in both regions. By inversion, we obtained annual grassland production for 2010–2021 and the uneven spatial distribution of grassland production in both regions. In these two regions, the spatial change in grassland production showed a decreasing trend from northeast to southwest, and the interannual change generally showed a dynamic upward trend. The growth rate of grassland output was faster in Xilingol League than in Dornogovi Province with similar physical geography and climate conditions, indicating that the animal husbandry regulation policies play important roles beyond the influence of climate change. The study recommended grassland estimation methods for an area with sparse samples and the results can be used to support decision making for sustainable animal husbandry and grassland succession management.

Discursive Analysis of ‘Yam Theory’: Mapping King Prithvi Narayan Shah’s Essence to Contemporary Geopolitics

In the light of Nepal’s geostrategic location between India and China, its physical geography has been described through several discourses and rhetoric. The discourses produce meanings, and they directly affect the political behaviour of a state. One of the persistent discourses explaining Nepal’s geopolitical situation is “Nepal as a ’yam ‘between two boulders” by King Prithvi Narayan Shah. In that sense, the ‘yam’ theory postulates the geopolitical circumstances of Nepal. The research is guided by the primary question of whether the yam theory is still relevant for Nepal in the present context. Examining the importance of 'yam theory' in the geopolitical circumstances of Nepal, the study aims at discursively analyzing the origin and development of the yam discourse, its importance for understanding and comprehending the geopolitical nature of Nepal, and its essence present in the contemporary and evolving geopolitics. Methodologically, the study adheres to the practices in the discourse analysis process, focusing on the origin and development of the 'yam' theory. Adhering to the constructive and linguistic turn in IR regarding the conceptual framework of the study, the research takes the help of historical documents, journal articles, geopolitical review reports, and commentaries to analyse the yam theory’s geopolitical relevance and relate it to the present geopolitical situation of Nepal. This paper first introduces the scope and the rationale of the topic. Notably, the following section examines the origin of ‘yam’ rhetoric as a ‘discourse’ and development as a‘theory’. Following the arguments from the discursive analysis of ‘yam’, the article then traces its essence in the present geopolitical context for Nepal. In conclusion, this research article identifies the relevance of ‘yam’ for Nepal as the strategy for accommodation, balancing, neutrality and equiproximity.

Whither physical geography Redux: Revisiting the place of physical geography in the United States

The differentiation of human and physical geography is a fundamental distinction in Geography. This commentary examines the past, present, and possible future places of physical geography within Geography, focusing on the situation in the United States. Physical geography played a major role in the establishment of Geography as an academic discipline, but became marginalized soon thereafter. For the past 80 years, Geography in the United States has largely been a social science that has uneasily accommodated a natural-science component within it. Although somewhat healthy during the latter part of the 20th century, physical geography appears to be on the decline. In part, this situation reflects the social-science identity of Geography, a lack of adequate training of physical geographers in basic science and mathematics, as well as growing emphasis on research in geomorphology, climatology, and biogeography, the major subfields of physical geography, by cognate disciplines. The future of physical geography is in doubt: it could keep struggling to compete with better-trained scientists in cognate disciplines, evolve into a geospatial methods branch of the earth and environmental sciences, or pursue integrated research with human geographers to address Anthropocene concerns. Any of these paths forward has important implications for trying to sustain the process approach to inquiry that has underpinned research in physical geography since the 1950s. Regardless of how physical geography evolves, it needs to seriously address issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion. Doing so will only enhance whatever it becomes.

Geoethical futures: A call for more-than-human physical geography

This paper aims to foster an explicit geoethical orientation in physical geography. Using examples from Aotearoa New Zealand, we approach the work of physical geography with a set of ethical coordinates derived from our research, arguing that they allow for greater sensitivity in considering what is more-than-human in our research relationships. Working with these ethical co-ordinates lays the political groundwork for thinking and doing physical geography differently in the pursuit of less exploitative social and ecological relations. Our proposition offers new potentials for the practice of geography more generally: opportunities for enactive research encounters, those that perform generative change for a decolonised, post-productivist, physical geography.

Geography needs science, science needs Geography

Physical geography continues to have complex relationships both with Geography as a whole and the natural sciences. At a time when the nature and future of physical geography and its sub-disciplines has been questioned, I explore these changing relationships and their impacts on the discipline itself and on our collective ability to understand and address environmental crises. The exploration is through the themes of disciplinary shape and institutional change, physical geography’s content and interactions, and how its practitioners badge themselves in an increasingly inter- even trans-disciplinary world. I conclude that there is now a fluidity between disciplines in which Geography holds an important place in research addressing key environmental challenges. This is evidenced by records of publication, conferences and employment mobility between the silos of academic departments. More than ever, the challenges facing environment and society today require collective, inclusive, efforts to achieve solutions that are beyond the capacity of a single discipline. Geography’s complexity and frequent rewiring position it well to be part of the research into global grand challenges that require disciplinary agility. Fears over Geography’s shape and practice can be more than offset by the need to contribute to holistic endeavours, so long as vital sub-disciplinary building blocks are not lost in desiloing endeavours.

Young People’s Pre-Conceptions of the Interactions between Climate Change and Soils – Looking at a Physical Geography Topic from a Climate Change Education Perspective

The interactions of climate change and soils (ICCS) are scarcely examined in Climate Change Education (CCE). Analyzing the pre-conceptions of secondary school students (n = 421) reveals a high number of missing answers (48.2%), while residual participants responded with either medium (33.3%) or low (11.5%) complexity levels. The natural and the human sphere are scarcely interconnected and mentioned positive feedback effects indicate students’ spatial distance to the ICCS that occur in Alpine regions. In order to bridge these gaps with more elaborated and regional concepts, a careful consideration of ICCS content is urgently recommended for CCE.

Using Portable X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry (PXRF) to Explore the Origins of the Sarsen Megaliths at Stonehenge

Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument that is considered a British cultural icon and one of the most famous landmarks in Europe. The origin of the sarsen megaliths that comprise Stonehenge have interested archaeologists for decades. What can spectroscopic techniques, such as portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (PXRF), reveal about the sarsen megaliths and where they originated? David Nash, a professor of physical geography at the University of Brighton in Brighton, United Kingdom, is exploring this question. We recently spoke with Professor Nash about his team’s discovery and what it means for the future of archaeology.

Communication Mechanism and Optimization Strategies of Short Fitness-Based Videos on TikTok During COVID-19 Epidemic Period in China

Scientific and moderate exercise is an effective remedy to boost the immune system and minimize the risk of infection in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic period. In this context, social media platforms play an essential role in communicating scientific fitness at home. Based on the integrated analysis of communication, physical geography, and health geography, this article takes short fitness-based videos on TikTok as the research object and comprehensively uses text analysis, mathematical statistics, and spatial analysis to reveal the characteristics of communication elements, fitness preferences, and the spatiotemporal evolution of these short videos, and to explore the communication mechanism and optimization path of short videos. The results show that: (1) the communication information focusing on “fighting against the epidemic and keeping fit at home” is made into short videos by female youth. Through the communication channels mainly composed of texts, pictures, and audio, the communication subjects carry out multilevel interactive communication with the communication objects; (2) fitness preferences are mainly composed of dances, unarmed fitness, and fitness with equipment; (3) from the perspective of time, taking February 20 as the node, the daily number of released short videos shows a trend of “increase before decrease”; from the perspective of space, the distribution is significantly unbalanced across provinces, and the direction is not apparent; and (4) this article explores the communication mechanism and targeted optimization countermeasures of short fitness-based videos on TikTok in China's COVID-19 epidemic period.

Between Flood and Drought: Environmental Racism, Settler Waterscapes, and Indigenous Water Justice in South America’s Chaco

This article advances a novel approach to investigating geographies of settler colonialism and environmental justice through a critical physical geography (CPG) of water scarcity in the South American Chaco. Drawing from multimethod research conducted in collaboration with Enxet and Sanapaná communities in Paraguay, I evaluate how waterscape change produces social vulnerability with a focus on Indigenous access to safe drinking water. Stemming from a seemingly simple question—how have annual flood and drought events in the Chaco become malignant for Enxet and Sanapaná peoples—my analysis centers on current struggles for Indigenous rights amidst Paraguay’s booming ranching industry. I use an eclectic data set—from historical missionary accounts, seventy-two household questionnaires, mapping new waterscapes, and a political economy of cattle ranching—to show how settler waterscapes produce environmental racism by limiting Indigenous access to “good” water. I argue that the prevalence of water scarcity in Indigenous communities across the Bajo Chaco is not a natural result of biophysical geography but a socially produced outcome of how settler waterscapes rework hydrosocial relations along racial lines. CPG offers a way to bridge biophysical analysis with critical social theory to expand geographic understandings of settler colonialism and its effects on Indigenous environmental justice.

Student-Teachers’ Abilities and Attitudes towards Scratch as a Multimedia Construction tool to Represent Physical Geography Phenomena

The aim of this paper is to describe a didactic intervention that aimed to introduce pre-service teachers to visual programming with the ultimate goal of enabling them to support their students on constructing multimedia in the context of Geography in the future. Students created multimedia software about Physical Geography topics using MIT Scratch. The way the students used scientific knowledge and did the didactic transformation in order to build their artefacts has been presented elsewhere. In this article students’ ability and attitudes on programming are examined. More specifically, we study the techniques and programming structures students use, as an indicator of what students learned. Furthermore, we study difficulties on programming and other technical difficulties they confront, as well as their attitudes towards Scratch which developed through the didactic intervention. The results are encouraging since students create software that work properly and develop a positive attitude toward Scratch.

English Landscapes

English Landscapes

The Chosŏn Border Defense Council’s Drifting Records of Chinese Vessels in Early Modern East Asia

Abstract This study aims at building a part-of-speech tagged corpus for all the drifting conversation records from Pibyŏnsa Tŭngnok, which is the official record of the daily affairs of the Border Defense Council of the Chosŏn dynasty, and conducting a quantitative analysis of the statistically salient place names and common nouns therein. The author also establishes a methodological framework and demonstrates how to conduct quantitative analysis when extrapolating patterned information in a vast corpus by using techniques like a word frequency table and co-occurrence analysis to uncover hidden patterns and correlations in a large dataset. Our results show that Fujian was the major source of the crew members and passengers of these sailboats, while some crew members were hired in Thailand. Beijing is the most frequently observed non-native place in the conversation records, since the officials were deeply interested in the distance between Beijing and other places in China. The Chosŏn officials appeared to grasp every opportunity to inquire about the physical geography, political institutions, military power, current maritime situation, newsworthy events, and the recent development of Qing China.

The Archaeology of Hittite Landscapes

ABSTRACT This article layers material, physical, and textual landscapes of the Hittite Empire in a compact borderland region. We argue that a real strength of landscape archaeology is in understanding and articulating medium-scale landscapes through archaeological survey methods and critical study of physical geography. Medium-scale landscapes are a milieu of daily human experience, movement, and visuality that spawn a densely textured countryside involving settlements, sacred places, quarries, roads, transhumance routes, and water infrastructures. Using the data and the experience from eight field seasons by the Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Research Project team since 2010, we offer accounts of three specific landscapes: the Ilgın Plain, the Bulasan River valley near the Hittite fortress of Kale Tepesi, and the pastoral uplands of Yalburt Yaylası. For each, we demonstrate different sets of relationships and landscape dynamics during the Late Bronze Age, with specific emphasis on movement, settlement, taskscapes, land use, and human experience.

Classification of Settlement Names in the Turkish Cypriot Geography

The subject of this study is the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), and its purpose is the geographical classification of the settlement names of the country. The examination of the settlement names given by the influence of the physical and human geography elements of the country (Nicosia, Famagusta, Girne, Güzelyurt, İskele and Lefke districts) will shed light on its past and the importance of the settlement names that the Turkish people living in Northern Cyprus want to commemorate for their homeland will be determined. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which was established after the Cyprus Peace Operation (1974), has given Turkish names to the lands of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus by the "Continuous Committee for the Standardization of Geographical Systems" as of 1974, as an indicator of sovereignty. It has continued with the transfer of their identities to the places where they became homeland by the tribes that settled in the TRNC lands, which witnessed many migration events in history. Each civilization reflects its own cultural characteristics in place names. Settlement names are cultural pools of nations. In the study, document analysis technique, one of the qualitative research methods, was used. Factors arising from the interrelationship of nature and human relations have been taken into account. It has been systematically discussed and discussed in order to create a national awareness level. In this context, it is aimed to contribute to Turkish culture by examining the names of settlements. In the administrative structure of the TRNC in 2021, there are 261 settlements as central district, sub-district and neighborhood/village. It is seen that the majority of these settlement names take their source from geographical elements. 122 (46%) settlements are the names of settlements given by being influenced by physical geography and 136 (51%) human geography elements. It has been determined that settlement names related to landforms are more common in physical elements, and settlement names related to person, lineage and clan name among human elements are more common in the field. Each civilization reflects its own cultural characteristics in place names. Settlement names are cultural pools of nations. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which has been the last manifestation of the Turkish presence on the island for centuries, transferred this ancient culture to the settlement names with the effect of Physical and Human geography. In this direction, the effects of Turkish culture can be seen in the naming of the settlements of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.