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Geography Custom Essays Samples
Free Online Research Papers, College Papers, English Papers, Admission Essays, Thesis, Analyzed Essays, Essay Papers, Term Papers, Coursework Essays, Custom Papers, Non-Plagiarized Essays
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|  Coastal Erosion |
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| In 1985, Bird reported on a project undertaken by the International Geographical Union's Commission on the Coastal Environment: this found 70 per cent of the world's sandy coastline undergoing net erosion. As 60 per cent of the global population (or nearly 3 billion people) live in the planet's coastal zones, and two-thirds of the world's cities with populations of 2.5 million or more are located in open coast or estuarine locations (Viles and Spencer 1995), Bird's (1985) statistic identifies a major environmental issue. It is an issue already strongly imprinted on many local, and national, consciences. Strong conflicts can arise in the tackling of coastal erosion between local residents; local, regional and national regulatory bodies and interest groups; and consultant scientists: the interaction of physical processes and economic, social and political forces makes coastal erosion a strongly geographical problem. Furthermore, any coastal study must take account of the great diversity of coastal settings and of the role of environmental change over the last 10,000 years in determining contemporary shoreline morphology. There has been a growing concern in the last decade that coastlines are at risk and under pressure. Two broad sets of processes, both potentially accelerating, have been identified. |
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| Earthquakes and Vulcanism |
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| Earthquakes and vulcanism are a subset of the general interdisciplinary field of natural hazards. The approach to these varies from geophysical to social and psychological. Between these end members there is a broad spectrum that includes studies of hazard, vulnerability, risk, perception, economic conditions, historical aspects, remote sensing, cartography, and the technical aspects of monitoring and warning. Since they were first conceived, natural hazard studies have maintained a strong applied dimension, sustained by the need to make the environment of life safe against extreme natural events and thus to reduce the toll of casualties and damage. |
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| Geography of France |
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| ...Both of France's most famous industries (fashion and wine) have suffered a decline of market share in recent years. Imports of ready-to-wear clothing from Asian and Mediterranean countries that came in at a cheaper price hurt the French fashion industry in the 1990s. Also, less expensive wines from Australia, Eastern Europe and South America have added more rivalry for French vineyards.
Like much of Europe, the French economy in the mid-1990s was in economic recession. The growth rate declined. For three weeks in late 1995 Paris was crippled by public sector strikes that battered the economy and increased the doubt that France could qualify for the scheduled European economic and monetary union. In 1996, France's unemployment rate was 13%. Efforts to normalize and update French industry have been slowed by the fact that small firms outnumber large conglomerates. In the late 20th century, France's major industries include steel, motor vehicles, aircraft, mechanical and electrical products, textiles, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, food products, and luxury goods. |
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| Global Warming |
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| Global warming is a term that entered the domain of both popular and scientific literature during the 1980s. It is closely linked with the idea of an increasing greenhouse effect, which was first calculated by a Swedish chemist, Svente August Arrhenius, in 1896 (Arrhenius 1997). It is believed that our atmosphere acts rather like a greenhouse, in which the glass allows solar radiation to pass through, where it is converted into heat. This heat is absorbed by the soil before being radiated out as long-wave radiation and intercepted this time by the glass, which re-radiates some of the energy back into the greenhouse. The atmosphere has properties rather similar to the glass of the greenhouse, hence the "greenhouse effect", originally postulated by the French mathematician Jean-Baptiste Fourier (1824).
Global warming would seem to imply that the whole atmospheric system is warming up as a result of the greenhouse effect, but this is far from certain. Once the nature of the problem has been outlined, three main areas of investigation will be addressed. First, there is the scientific evidence for global warming; second, the study of the likely impacts and third, the formulation and implementation of strategies to cope with such impacts. The contribution of geographers has chiefly been in the applied field of impact studies. |
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| Landslides |
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| Landslides are of interest to geographers for three main reasons. First, by eroding, transporting and depositing soil and rock, they represent one of the important geomorphic processes involved in shaping the surface of the Earth. In unstable areas, they may displace up to 2000 m3/km2/year (Crozier 1989), severely depleting the soil resource and threatening the sustainability of primary production (Sidle et al. 1985). Although they are particularly common in tectonically active mountainous areas, and along river banks and coasts, they may also occur in other areas that have weak material or a susceptible geological structure.
The second reason for geographical interest is that landslides are sensitive indicators of environmental change. As a geomorphic process, a landslide represents a short-term adjustment to disturbance of the natural system. As they take place, they rapidly convert unstable slopes to a more stable condition, allowing other slow-acting processes to assume the role of denudation. In terms of landform evolution, this means that most slopes are stable for most of the time. Thus when landslides occur they are generally responding to some significant change within the natural system. Initiating factors may include tectonic activity, climate change, and natural or human-induced disturbance to the vegetation cover, slope hydrology or slope form. Knowledge of both past and present landslide activity can therefore provide useful information on environmental change. Indeed, there has been a major international research effort aimed at reconstructing past climates and climatic change in Europe, based on landslide evidence preserved in the landscape (Crozier 1997).
The third reason landslides are often studied by geographers is that landslides can present a serious natural hazard (Varnes 1984; Crozier 1996). A full appreciation of hazard requires knowledge not only of the physical process but also of the nature of the threatened society. In a sense, hazards are an aspect of human ecology. They involve interrelationships between physical, social and economic systems; as such, they constitute a field of study in which geographers are able to make a valuable contribution. |
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