Modelling improved water availability through coarse woody organic matter in grassland soils under shifting preciptiaton dynamics

Extreme soil degradation is a serious problem affecting grassland ecosystems in the Great Plains, United States and globally. Long-term agricultural practices have resulted in erosion and loss of soil organic matter, with impacts on soil fertility and crop yields. Less recognised has been an associated reduction in soil moisture retention being exacerbated by climate change, with a shift in inter-annual precipitation patterns towards more intense storms and hotter, longer dry periods – presenting a new challenge. Research conducted in Mandan, ND has shown success in restoring degraded grasslands by incorporating coarse woody organic matter into top soils in order to capture and store infrequent rainfall. These woodchips were integrated into the top 20cm of the soil in replicated plots and monitored for soil moisture and temperature throughout the summer of 2015. The data were examined using a Time-Series Model based on the Penman equation and Hartge & Horn Water Content at Field Capacity to describe the relationship of interacting variables on water retention in grasslands soils under shifting precipitation dynamics. Our time-series model includes inputs such as water uptake as a function of precipitation regime and outputs reflecting evaporation rates of different coarse woody organic matter. Saturation level is a function of soil makeup modified by coarse woody organic matter directed at increasing water retention and was used to explore retention time relative to timing and variation of precipitation events. The model successfully captured the process that coarse woody organic matter increases rain capture and soil moisture retention levels in mixed grass prairies of Mandan, ND. The model is providing the basis for evaluating the water saved by reduced irrigation demand and the drought risk reduction in the presence of varying amounts, types and species of coarse woody amendments under a range of rainfall scenarios that may result from the anticipated drier climate.
FIRST AUTHOR
Verena Jauss, Cornell University
SECOND AUTHOR
Patrick J. Sullivan, Cornell University
THIRD AUTHOR
Rebecca L. Schneider, Cornell University
KEY WORDS
Great Plains; climate change; soil degradation; soil water retention; coarse woody amendments; modelling

Movers and Stayers: How Important is Cost of Living?

Recent research has highlighted the varied and contingent relationship between income and cost of living. By some measures, substantial imbalances between income and cost of living could induce individuals and households to move from less affordable to more affordable areas. However, the decision to move or stay is a complicated one, potentially influenced by dozens of counterbalancing factors. In this paper we examine the importance of geographic differences in cost of living to other variables known to influence migration. We differentiate the mobility patterns of in-migration, out-migration and non-migration while controlling for other place characteristics across 96 U.S. urban areas.  
FIRST AUTHOR 
Harrison Campbell, UNC-Charlotte
​KEY WORDS
Place Preferences; Cost of Living; Migration; United States

Nashville through the eyes of youth: Using participatory mapping as a tool for spatial justice

As cities grow and change rapidly, young people's participation in local decision-making is crucial for achieving more equitable urban spaces. Youth-led participatory mapping is an applied research modality through which young people record and represent the spatial knowledge of their communities and leverage mapping as a tool to drive policy change. This presentation traces the formation, goals, and target outcomes of the Nashville Youth Design Team (NYDT), a youth-led participatory mapping collective formed through a community-university collaboration and funded by the National Institute of Justice. NYDT is charged with creating a comprehensive spatial dataset that will allow for a deeper understanding of youth experience in Nashville. NYDT members lead mapping processes aimed at identifying the issues most pressing to young people in their communities and addressing these local issues through urban design. Through mapping, they seek to spatially represent the current state of youth wellness in Nashville by combining information from schools, community institutions, and young people themselves. This session outlines the training process used to prepare NYDT members to engage others in a participatory mapping process and the team's plans for leveraging participatory mapping to decrease disparity in the city's urban policies, systems, and environments. 
FIRST AUTHOR
Kathryn Morgan, Vanderbilt University
SECOND AUTHOR
Kayla Anderson, Vanderbilt University
KEY WORDS
Participatory mapping; youth; spatial justice; policy and advocacy

Outcomes and Suggestions from 2019 AGC "Gender Concerns in the Geography Workspace" Discussions

A round table discussion titled "Gender Concerns in the Geography Workspace" was conducted at the 2019 Applied Geography Conference. A preceding survey queried Applied Geography Conference listserv members and members of the AAG Applied Geography specialty group, to identify three topical areas of greatest interest for discussion at the round table. This presentation delivers the results of that survey, along with the findings and outcomes of the round table discussion. The round table discussion explored: "Career sabotage: To speak or not speak up on experiencing or being aware of gender bias and inappropriate behavior in the work place"; "Blind spots: How do we recognize and remove individual and cultural blind spots associated with gender concerns? What do we do once these are uncovered and is there recognition of gender issues? What societal and work-world dynamics might this result in?"; and "Generation-specific challenges versus ongoing prejudices: Are today's gender issues a function of generation or culture or both?" Suggestions to possible opportunities to address these and other equity-based concerns are also presented. 
FIRST AUTHOR
Dawna Cerney, Youngstown State University
SECOND AUTHOR
Michael J. Allen, Old Dominion University
THIRD AUTHOR
Clayton J. Whitesides, Coastal Carolina University
FOURTH AUTHOR
Burrell Montz, East Carolina University
KEY WORDS
Gender; Applied Geography; Career; Bias

Pandemic patterns on the plains

This study evaluates spatial dynamics of changes in economic activity across four Great Plains states (Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota) as a response to the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic (COVID-19). Using geolocated cell phone data provided by SafeGraph, Inc., foot traffic to businesses from February-July 2020 are compared with the same period in 2019. In addition to identifying industry-specific shifts and responses to local regulation, this paper also highlights and contextualizes localized differences in self-regulating behavior.
FIRST AUTHOR
Robert Shepard, University of Nebraska
KEY WORDS
Economic geography; great plains; COVID-19

Ports-To-Plains: A Case Study in Cargo Transport Infrastructure Policy and Planning

The US, Mexico and Canada form a highly competitive and globally connected regional production platform.  The implementation of the USMCA in 2020 emphasizes nearshoring of production from East Asia. As such, policymakers, manufacturing companies, and logistics companies are among the stakeholders advocating improved cargo transportation linkages between the three countries. The proposed Ports-to-Plains Corridor, linking Laredo, Denver and the Western Canadian Plains, is a rather new idea designed to expand cargo transport capabilities west of the dominant I-35 and I-69 NAFTA  corridors. Legislation filed in the US House of Representatives this year would pave the way for I-27 to expand beyond its present route in West Texas, to enhance trucking infrastructure, and ultimately to connect Mazatlan to Alberta and Manitoba. This paper explores the underlying policy implications of the corridor and the emerging political partnerships to bring it about. The paper provides a brief identification of the economic geographic regions along the corridor, a discussion of the history of the plan, and commentary on the ways that the corridor is promoted to potential users in the manufacturing, agriculture, and energy sectors. The qualitative research methods involved in the study are described, and the paper concludes that the case study method and open-ended interviews are useful in the sub-discipline of economic geography concerned with cargo transportation policy and development.
FIRST AUTHOR
Michael Yoder, Department of Geography and the Environment, University of Texas
​KEY WORDS
Transport corridors; USMCA; Great Plains; Transport planning

Poverty Suburbanization and the Changing Job Accessibility Landscape

Job decentralization and "White flight" into the suburbs during the mid 20th century created a concentration of low income and Black residents in US center cities. However, the 1990s brought urban reinvestment and jobs to the cities, pricing out lower-income households to the suburbs. Research suggests that low-income residents have a harder time accessing employment due to fewer jobs and limited public transportation in metropolitan outskirts. However, little is known from the perspective of residents who relocate in terms of experiences they encounter. This study included surveys and phone interviews with eight residents who had both moved beyond the Charlotte city limits to Charlotte MSA suburbs since 2010 and had a yearly income of below $46,297. Although commute times had increased, most interviewees were happy with their choice to leave Charlotte, mainly because of housing affordability. When asked what would provide better economic opportunities, interviewees were more likely to mention improved education or training than better transportation options, suggesting a skills mismatch rather than spatial mismatch. Although the small, all-female sample makes it difficult to create generalizing statements, interviewing low-income residents who have relocated to the suburbs offers a personal perspective on the multi-faceted nature of job accessibility.
FIRST AUTHOR
Claire Patrick, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
​KEY WORDS
Qualitative Methods; Employment; Transportation; Opportunity

Preference for Both Places: Balancing the Urban and the Rural in a Small City Context

This paper examines the question of place preferences as experienced in smaller cities with rural settings. The city of Harrisonburg, Virginia, located in the Shenandoah Valley, has experienced rapid growth and has diversified significantly, but the rural context remains important. It offers a compelling example of the variable social and economic forces working on small cities in the US today, and the tensions between rural settings and more urban characteristics in rapidly changing communities. We specifically examine the tensions around employment and residential affordability, and the opportunities and strategies in transportation and land use planning that intersect with socio-economic status. A key question framing this paper is whether small cities in rural settings truly can offer the "best of both worlds", combining the rural and the urban, and such that access to their amenities is universal, or if it is only available to a smaller segment of the population. We further investigate this by considering to what extent local businesses and industries, through their employment practices, offer the ability for residents to have access versus creating financial and temporal constraints. This work will also be connected to the authors' experience serving on Harrisonburg planning and transportation committees.
FIRST AUTHOR
Dudley Bonsal, James Madison University
SECOND AUTHOR
Henry Way, James Madison University
KEY WORDS
Place preferences; urban; rural; accessibility

Progress in ecosystem services research: Key themes and approaches

The field of ecosystem services is of current importance since it furthers the understanding of the relationship between the ecosystem, natural capital, and human wellbeing. Although the field is progressing rapidly and researchers are increasingly incorporating the ecosystem service approach in their different areas of expertise, there is little guidance regarding how to begin research in this field. There are no systematic classification systems that have identified the different themes and approaches that are employed within ecosystem services research. Hence, this paper introduces a systematic review of key themes and approaches that have developed since the late seventies and identifies emerging and relevant areas of interest in the field. The analyses showed that "conservation of biodiversity" is one of the most active and cited key themes. Diverse key approaches/frameworks are used in the ecosystem services field. For instance, the economic approach showed the highest levels of activity, but the "conceptual framework" was the most cited. This review paper is meant to provide guidance in ecosystem service research in order to better understand its progress and potential within other fields of research.   
FIRST AUTHOR 
Angelica Valencia, University of North Texas
SECOND AUTHOR
Chetan Tiwari, University of North Texas
THIRD AUTHOR
Samuel F. Atkinson, University of North Texas
KEY WORDS
Systematic review; key themes and approaches; literature mining; guidance; emerging areas of interest; ecosystem service research

Public space as a factor of competitive advantage of the High Street. Oxford city centre example

Since at least a decade the increasing competition of e-commerce and out-of-town retail, as well as rise of the convenience culture among the consumers, undermine the position of the High Street in the UK urban retail landscape. The recent pandemic has only worsened the situation. Despite these negative processes the High Street is still alive and one of the reasons are its competitive advantages related to, among others, public space and public realm. The aim of the paper is to present the role of public spaces in creating this advantage on the example of the Oxford primary shopping area. The research is based on the survey conducted in Oxford at the beginning of 2019. The results confirm the positive role the public space can play in creating the competitive advantage of the High Street, especially in comparison to the e-commerce, although the relationships between consumers opinions and behaviours are not always direct and straightforward. Based on the results several recommendations for the retailers and policymakers in the area of city centre management were formulated. The research results and recommendations were also confronted with the new realm created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
FIRST AUTHOR 
Dorota Celinska-Janowicz, University of Warsaw, Euroreg
KEY WORDS
Retail; high street; public space; shopping behaviours

Rapid detection of COVID-19 clusters in the United States using a prospective space-time scan statistic:
​An update

Novel  coronavirus  disease  2019  (COVID-19),  caused  by  the  severe  acute  respiratory  syndrome coronavirus  2  (SARS-CoV-2),  is  a  pandemic  with  over  1,216,739  confirmed  cases  and  72,617 total  deaths  within  the  United  States.   As  the  number  of  cases  continues  to  climb,  detecting clusters  of  COVID-19  is  critical  to  alleviate  the  strain  on  our  public  health  system  through improved resource allocation and decision-making.  Here, we report on an analysis of daily case data at the county level using the prospective space-time scan statistic.  In previous work, we  performed  the  analysis  up to March  27th, 2020  (Desjardins et al. 2020),  and  here  we  report  updated  results  as  of April  27th 2020,  producing  a  new  set  of  "active"  and  emerging  clusters  present.  Our  analysis resulted  in  sixteen  significant  space-time  clusters  of  COVID-19  at  the  county  level  in  the  U.S. during the time span of March 22nd- April 27th.  The space-time pattern of significant clusters mirrors active and emerging disease hot-spots at the end of our study period.  The statistic can be rerun to support timely surveillance of COVID-19, as demonstrated here.  These timely results can inform public health officials and decision makers about where to improve the allocation of resources, testing sites; also, where to implement stricter quarantines and travel bans.
FIRST AUTHOR
Michael R. Desjardins, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
SECOND AUTHOR
Alexander Hohl, University of Utah
THIRD AUTHOR
Eric Delmelle, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
​KEY WORDS
COVID-19; SaTScan; Space-time clusters; disease surveillance

Refashioning the Contemporary Retail Landscape: A Canadian case study.

The market place is comprised of small and larger retailers that compete for a finite number of customers.  Competition between small and large retailers can enhance the retail landscape. However, when a crowding-out-effect takes place at the local level the retail landscape can be significantly impacted.  This study examines this relationship using Canadian retail data during the past few years for a mid-sized Canadian city. It is shown that when a large retail chain moves into a community there are some adverse impacts on local retail activity. Additionally, when several box-stores locate within a community the impact is magnified, resulting in adverse outcomes. Not only are local retailers crowded-out by the larger invading retail chains, but that retail vacancies also increase. It is expected that as online retailing escalates this will only magnify the outcomes detected in this study. In other words, large retailers will not need to build brick and mortar as a way to phase out smaller independent retailers. As such, the findings in this study are anticipated to only magnify in the years to come.
FIRST AUTHOR
Brian Ceh, Ryerson University
SECOND AUTHOR
Tony Hernandez, Ryerson University
KEY WORDS
Retail; Canadian; small; local; economy

REIT Diversification and Resiliency: Evidence from Covid-19 

Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) are an equity investment, providing investors with consistent yields and the potential for capital appreciation. Investors purchase REITs as they historically have steady returns and are less volatile compared to other investments (i.e. stocks). For REIT management, strategies to provide this stability include different types of diversification of properties, including by class, geographically, and economically. While this diversification is typically framed as providing long-term growth, a potential benefit could be providing greater resilience against sudden "shocks" to the market. This research explores this by examining how 16 Canadian REITs responded to the Covid-19 pandemic between February and August 2020. The response of the REITs following sharp market drops in February and March 2020 (measured by % monthly growth) was compared against different forms of diversification to determine what allowed greater resiliency and a return to a stable market state. Broadly, the findings of this research show that greater diversification allowed for a quicker rebound compared to "pure-play" strategies (in April and May 2020), with preliminary evidence showing that greater diversification within a REIT portfolio also allowed a quicker return to a steady-state of growth.     
FIRST AUTHOR
Laine Gambeta, Ryerson University
SECOND AUTHOR
Evan Cleave, Ryerson University
KEY WORDS
Real Estate Investment Trusts; Diversification; Resiliency; Covid-19

Remote Sensing of Drought Disaster Events over Free State Province, South Africa

An effective disaster management approach for dynamics representation of drought events for spatio-environmental drought distribution requires space-based information. In this study, drought disaster events for three years (2016, 2017 and 2018) were evaluated using remote sensing data. 250m 16 days EVI (MOD13Q1.006) and climate data obtained from "Application for Extracting and Exploring Analysis Ready Samples (AppEEARS)" and NASA: Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resource (POWER) databases, respectively, were utilised in this study using R programming. Results revealed that the study area experienced drought disaster in years 2016, 2017 and 2018, however, it was more evident in January, February, October, November and December during the period. The southern regions of the study area witnessed more drought disaster conditions and its occurrence, where most of the areas witnessed below 20% drought index (severe to extreme drought conditions) especially in the affected months. This development denotes that the areas within this range are more vulnerable to drought disasters especially with a prolonged occurrence and a severe water dearth, decline in agricultural products, and loss of habitats and other natural ecosystems in the affected area. Findings from this study provide information hotspots for environmental and ecosystem conservation under drought-related events and shift toward ecologically-based environmental and disaster management.
FIRST AUTHOR
Israel R. Orimoloye, Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa, University of the Free State, South Africa
SECOND AUTHOR
Olusola O. Ololade, Centre for Environmental Management, University of the Free State, South Africa
THIRD AUTHOR
Johanes A. Belle, Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa, University of the Free State, South Africa
KEY WORDS
Remote sensing; drought disaster; spatiotemporal distribution

Selling the city: Place branding, place promotion and the Amazon HQ2 competition

In September 2017 Amazon released a call for proposals to "kick off" a competition to select a site for their second corporate headquarters ("HQ2"). For cities, this was a potential "game changer" represented a major opportunity to enhance their local economy. At least 238 cities from across North America provided responses to Amazon, presenting information about their locales to position themselves against other places in the competition, attract Amazon's attention, with the ultimate goal of investment. In essence, the Amazon HQ2 competition became an exercise place branding and promotion. Place brands are the network of associations in the mind of a target audience, created through the attenuation of the local attributes that comprise this network. This not only provides insight into how cities were jockeying for Amazon's attention, but also into the way prominent cities in North America "see themselves" and want to be seen. Through a comprehensive content analysis of bid response documents, this paper explores how the 20 finalist cities positioned themselves. While neoclassical economic elements were present in the promotion efforts, there were also "softer" social, behavioural, and place factors that were prominent features in the cities' efforts to "sell" themselves to Amazon.  
FIRST AUTHOR
Evan Cleave, Ryerson University
SECOND AUTHOR
Joe Aversa, Ryerson University
KEY WORDS
Amazon HQ2; Place branding; Local economic development

Shaping Oakland: The evolution of Oakland's land use and functionality from post-WWII to now

After WWII, Pittsburgh's future direction swiftly moved away from steelstacks and railroads. Especially in the Oakland neighborhoods where the University of Pittsburgh's campus buildings and medical centers intersect with the local residences, the impacts of the growing "Eds and Meds" economy are clear to see. At the end of 2019 the University released its 25-year Institutional Master Plan, a sweeping comprehensive vision that sets to improve infrastructure, design, and mobility on campus all while being mindful and protective of the local community. In order to study how land use in Oakland has changed over time, GIS applications and historical research were used to measure and analyze both the physical and social changes in land use since post-WWII. Content analysis of news articles and other sources regarding the Plan was then performed to measure the local community sentiment towards the impending changes. The results of the study concluded that there has been a significant shift in land use and expansion that has increasingly benefitted the University over time, and that the local community is largely distrustful of the Plan due to inadequate community inclusion and empowerment in the decision-making process.
FIRST AUTHOR
Emilianna Kim, University of Pittsburgh
KEY WORDS
Land use; zoning; Pittsburgh; institutional master plan; community engagement

Spatiotemporal shoreline change  from (2000-2019) at Umllajj province coast, Western Saudi Arabia, using a series of  quality-control

Monitoring shoreline positions is critical not only for coastal evolution, geomorphology, and ecosystem but also for development and planning. Remote sensing data is proving to be a valuable means for monitoring shorelines. Most of the studies related to long-term variability/changes in shorelines using remote sensing are based on two data points (beginning and end of the study period), using a single instant-observation per data point. These practices would not capture the actual situations as shorelines are highly dynamic through space and time. To account for shoreline dynamic and perform a long-term analysis, we used seasonal averages, in which three or more Landsat images were used in a given year. Further, a series of quality-control was applied, including atmospheric correction, image registration, and accuracy assessment. Umllajj province, west coast of Saudi Arabia, was selected as a case study (2000-2019), given the ongoing development and investment (i.e., NEOM project). We hope this work would promote more comprehensive procedures for short and long-term shoreline monitoring.
FIRST AUTHOR
Khalid H. Alharbi, Department of Geography, King Saud University
SECOND AUTHOR
Ali S. Alghamdi, Department of Geography, King Saud University
KEY WORDS
Shoreline change; Landsat; DSAS; Red Sea coast; quality-control

Split Communities and Unequal Representation: The effects of Texas House of Representatives district boundaries in Houston 

At its core, partisan gerrymandering is the manipulation of electoral districts in order to favor one political party over another. This often results in oddly-shaped districts which are neither compact nor an accurate representation of an area's population. As a result of this partisan gerrymandering, communities of interest are often divided and not truly represented in legislative bodies. Communities of interest are defined here using a number of different characteristics, ranging from race and ethnicity to common physical geography attributes to school districts. This research use geospatial technology analysis tools to examine public data identifying the different ways that communities of interest in the Houston, Texas area are divided across state House of Representatives district lines, the impacts on the services available to district residents, and identifies the communities with the most incongruent representation. Although Texas House of Representatives electoral districts have been consistently challenged in courts since the most recent redistricting process in 2011, there is still a significant degree of division of communities, resulting in disparate policy priorities and representation at the state levels.
FIRST AUTHOR NAME
Rebecca Theobald, University of Colorado - Colorado Springs
SECOND AUTHOR
Madeline Kresin, Middlebury College
KEY WORDS
Elections; redistricting; gerrymandering; communities of interest; social justice; Texas; Houston; geospatial technology

Teaching Historical Geography through French Landscapes 

This presentation discusses a ten-day, study-abroad trip to France that focused on landscapes to explore heritage production as the outcome of tensions between modernization and preservation across space and over time. We assigned the same readings to all students- geography and history majors alike- and co-taught all field lectures. This promoted group cohesion and underscored the entangled contributions that geographical and historical vectors contribute toward landscape and heritage production. We examined the role of humans in shaping built and natural environments, landscapes as material and symbolic with meaning produced at various scales, and the [often purposefully designed] sensorial and affective experiences of people in landscapes. The course facilitated student learning through the levels of Bloom's taxonomy:  understanding the concepts above and applying them to components of landscapes; analyzing landscapes at broader spatial scales as complex systems that integrate diverse components; and evaluating how landscapes are curated, politicized and contested. 
​FIRST AUTHOR
Philip Whalen, Coastal Carolina University
SECOND AUTHOR
Dominique Cagalanan, Coastal Carolina University
KEY WORDS
Landscape; Heritage; Modernization; France; Study Abroad

Teaching information literacy in an undergraduate area studies class

Scholarship on teaching and learning has made it clear that students' existing misperceptions can impede the acquisition of new knowledge, especially when these misperceptions are not isolated ideas but part of an overarching and deeply-entrenched way-of-seeing.  In this presentation, I report on one attempt to facilitate students' examination of the nature and genealogy of their existing beliefs, as well as the source of many socially-dominant ideas: a two-week information literacy module included at the start of an undergraduate Geography of the Middle East course.  I also report on the results of an online questionnaire designed to assess whether the module was effective.  I conclude with some thoughts on how to improve the module, as well as on the future research that may guide those improvements.  
FIRST AUTHOR 
Reecia Orzeck, Illinois State University
KEY WORDS
Information literacy; media; geography education; Middle East; pedagogy; scholarship of teaching and learning

Temperature Variability in the South-central United States and Relationship to Atmospheric Teleconnections

Local manifestations of global warming are examined through the lens of linear temperature trends and atmospheric teleconnection patterns from 1950 to 2019 over the south-central U.S.A., consisting of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Breakpoints that maximize the difference in the slope of time series of surface air temperature are identified for the weather stations within the climate region.  The temperature time series are then correlated with indices representing the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and Pacific North American (PNA) pattern, two of the most prominent modes of low-frequency variability in the Northern Hemisphere (NH). Results suggest that both of these teleconnections show strongly significant correlations with surface air temperature except for the last few decades. This study can be extended to other climate regions to observe spatial variability of the temporal temperature trend and their links to these and other decadal and multi-decadal oscillations of atmospheric mass or oceanic temperature.     
FIRST AUTHOR
Nazla Bushra, Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University
SECOND AUTHOR
Rubayet Bin Mostafiz, Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University
KEY WORDS
SRCC climate region; temperature trend; breakpoint; NAO; PNA

TESTING ACCESSBILITY PERFORMANCE OF NEW URBANISM COMMUNITIES IN FLORIDA, USA

New Urbanism is believed by some advocates to prevent sprawl and reduce auto-dependency through its design principles. promoting This article focuses on accessibility. The study presented here tested four indicators: distance between new urbanism communities and existing city center, transit service, road connectivity and walkability. The empirical evidence shows the accessibility performance of New Urbanist developments and how well the principles of the design movement have been applied to actual communities. The results showed that the communities in Florida did not meet criteria for New Urbanist ideals. 
​FIRST AUTHOR
Sunhui Sim, University of North Alabama
SECOND AUTHOR
Kathryn Ziewitz, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
THIRD AUTHOR
Jimmy Hilley, Optimal GEO
KEY WORDS
New Urbanism; Accessbility; Transportation; Walkability

The Effects of Renewable Energy, Economic Growth, and Fossil Fuels Consumption on Carbon Emissions: An empirical study on Ontario

This study attempts to investigate the relationships of carbon emissions with renewable energy, fossil fuels consumption and economic growth using data for Ontario province of Canada for the period from 1981 to 2018. After performing a battery of diagnostic tests, this paper applied  Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model to estimate the long-run and short-run coefficients of the independent variables on the dependent variable. Empirical findings suggest that there are significant long-run and short-run negative effects of renewable energy, hydroelectricity, nuclear power, solar energy, wind energy, and biomass energy on carbon emissions. On the contrary, fossil fuel consumption, refined petroleum products, natural gas and economic growth have both long-run and short-run positive effects on carbon emissions. Toda-Yamamato causality test was also performed to find the direction of causality between the variables. Results revealed that there are unidirectional causal link running from carbon emissions to total renewable energy, hydroelectricity, petroleum products, nuclear power and from solar energy, wind energy, and biomass energy to carbon emissions. Bidirectional causal links is also observed between economic growth and carbon emissions, and between natural gas and carbon emissions. Policy implications are discussed.
FIRST AUTHOR
Idris Ali, Ryerson University
SECOND AUTHOR
Brian Ceh, Ryerson University
KEY WORDS
Renewable energy; fossil fuels; carbon emissions; Ontario

The Geography of Consumption and Local Economic Shocks: The Case of the Great Recession

Geographic analysis of consumption is often constrained by geographic borders such as counties or MSAs, but economic agents often cross-borders to consume. Using unique card transaction data we estimate across-county spending flows between firms and consumers for every county in the U.S. and for 15 NAICS industries to provide a new consumption-link across counties that has not previously been studied. To demonstrate the importance of this consumption-link, we re-examine the 2007-2009 Great Recession following the work of Mian and Sufi (2013) and Mian, Rao, and Sufi (2014) who demonstrate that those counties with the greatest decline in housing net worth also had the largest declines in consumption and employment. We show that the effect of the housing wealth decline crosses borders to affect consumption and employment in a pattern consistent with our spending flows, even for the non-tradable sector. We find that not accounting for cross-border effects tends to understate the impact of local housing wealth shocks on employment and spending by 26 percent and 17 percent, respectively; and also mis-allocates where those changes are occurring, by about 11 percent for both spending and employment
FIRST AUTHOR
Abe Dunn, Bureau of Economic Analysis
SECOND AUTHOR
Mahsa Gholizadeh, Bureau of Economic Analysis
KEY WORDS
Great recession; spending; employment; across-county spending; house prices

The impact of project development on land-use changes in urban regions

Land-use change is a direct consequence of the organizations, technologies and principles of human society. The aim of the study is to demonstrate the impact of the urban development projects from the perspective of the investments' characteristics, including objectives, spatial distribution and  environmental, social, economic issues and benefits. The process associated with the implementation of the projects is the change in land cover determined by the expansion or diminution of the area of land used for different purposes (industrial, commercial, residential etc.). In the present study, we analyzed the development projects, proposed in urban areas, in Romania, during 2009 - 2017, for which regulatory documents were issued by the environmental protection authorities. Thus, we used GIS instruments to locate the projects and the activities existing in the proximity which can be negatively impacted. The results highlight that many of the development projects that have been implemented were industrial activities with an impact on residential spaces and protected natural areas. Further, we need to emphasize that not all proposed  actions are  economically viable, socially equitable and environmentally sustainable. In conclusion, more efforts should be made to manage uncontrolled and unplanned urban expansion and population growth. These findings can be used by the environmental protection authorities as a reference in the formulation and implementation of sustainable policies.
​FIRST AUTHOR
Cristina-Gabriela Mitincu, Centre for Environmental Research and Impact Studies, University of Bucharest
SECOND AUTHOR
Ioan-Cristian Ioja, Centre for Environmental Research and Impact Studies, University of Bucharest
KEY WORDS
Urban area; development project; land-use; spatial analysis; policy makers involvement

The Impacts of Unexpected Events: A Simulation of the Impacts of Earthquake in Istanbul

Analyzing economic impacts of disasters has attracted interest from a wide audience in recent years. According to Munich Re (2001), the economic losses to the world in the 1990s increased to nearly nine times that incurred in the 1960s. This is because human population and assets tend to be concentrated in disaster prone areas. Istanbul is an earthquake prone city. And Istanbul which has an area corresponding to around 0.6 % of the country and includes 19 % of the population, produces around 34 % of GDP. Also the most important highway and railway traffic routes passes trough Istanbul region. This study aims to illustrate a case study on the economic impacts of transport infrastructure disruptions caused by the hypothetical Istanbul earthquakes in Turkey. We formulate a spatial computable general equilibrium (SCGE) model, which integrates a transportation model that can include interregional flows of freight movement. To our knowledge, this model is the first spatial CGE model for Turkey. The model consists of NUTS-2 level 11 regions and 8 production sectors. And it has an integrated transport network model which provide us to calculate transport margins endogenously within the model. 
FIRST AUTHOR
Metin Piskin, Istanbul Zaim University
KEY WORDS
Economic impacts of disasters; Earthquakes; Spatial Computable General Equilibrium Modeling

The Redevelopment of Shopping Centres amid Retail Disruption: Evidence from Canada

Online retailing and associated omnichannel shopping behaviours have widely led to the media heralding a new era for the shopping centre industry - the retail apocalypse. While there is no clear consensus as to the future for retail, the prevailing storyline, largely from the US and Europe, has been framed as the death of the mall, with virtual digital shopping channels replacing physical brick-and-mortar stores. Retailers and service firms have been reassessing the space needs of their store (offline) networks and, in turn, shopping centre landlords, owners, commercial real estate developers and investors have had to re-examine the scale, function and form of the commercial spaces within their property and investment portfolios. This paper delves beneath the sensationalist headlines and examines the actual changes taking place within shopping centre industry within Canada. Based on a preliminary data-gathering exercise, the shopping centre inventory and planning data presented highlights that shopping centre space in Canada is undergoing a wave of transformation with widespread redevelopment, adaptive re-use and mixed-use development as the emerging real estate trends. The paper concludes by discussing future trajectories for the shopping centre industry in Canada.
FIRST AUTHOR
Tony Hernandez, Ryerson University
KEY WORDS
Retail Geography; Shopping Centres; Canada

The Relative Timing of Human Migration and Land-Cover and Land-Use Change

Urban expansion can be driven by and drive population growth, but determining the cause-effect relationships is challenging due to the temporal resolution of decadal censuses for most countries. The relative timing of urban land expansion and population change was explored for north Taiwan from 1990 to 2015. Data on urban expansion were derived from Landsat imagery, and population change from annual population registers at the district level.
A novel algorithm for identifying the time of urban expansion was developed and tested based on dense time series of Vegetation-Impervious-Soil proportion maps derived from Landsat imagery. The time of urbanization estimated by logistic regression was determined from the Impervious cover time series. Random forest classifiers were applied to Landsat image dated at 2015 for urban land-use mapping. Areal extents of annual urban land categories (Residential, Employment, and Transportation corridor) were derived by based on overlay analysis of the urban expansion map and the 2015 land-use map. 
The relative timing and general relationship between urban land-use and population dynamics was explored at the district level with linear regression and lag correlation. Residential land was most related to population. Population growth occurred 2.5 years later than Residential expansion based on the median time lag.
FIRST AUTHOR
Hsiao-Chien Shih, San Diego State University
SECOND AUTHOR
Douglas Stow, San Diego State University
KEY WORDS
Population; land use; urbanization; cause-effect​

The spatiotemporal dynamics of mobility pattern during COVID-19 in the USA and its associations with COVID cases.

COVID-19 has impacted every aspect of life and this ranges from global to local scale as well as from personal to national level. This led to a great transportation freeze as the highly used modes, in particular, transit and ride-sourcing for having a greater health risk have witnessed a massive decline in its ridership. To this end, this study first aims at to understand the spatiotemporal pattern of mobility indicators that includes transit mode share, trips/person, miles/person, percentage of out-of-county trips, percentage or work and non-work trips and percentage of people maintaining social distance and working from home. The second objective is to examine the spatial association of the above-mentioned indicators with COVID severity. This county-level study encompasses all the counties in the USA. The timeline is basically divided into three parts; before-stay-at-home order (SHO), from SHO to reopening, and after reopening. Regarding the first objective, along with classical pattern mining tools, I used several state-of-the-art spatial tools ”space-time pattern mining tools” which enabled to understand the emerging hotspots and time series clusters. While the use of these tools developed a strong idea regarding the spatiotemporal dynamics, only the logical and comprehensive results are presented. Regarding the second objective, Geographically Weighted Regression is used to understand the above-mentioned spatial association as non-spatial modeling doesn't account for spatial autocorrelation. The finding, in total, presents a panorama of the dynamics of mobility in the USA.
FIRST AUTHOR
Ahmad Ilderim Tokey, University of Toledo
KEY WORDS
COVID-19; Mobility; Spatiotemporal pattern; Spatial modeling

The stories we tell about geography: The role of syllabi in graduate education

In this presentation, we approach syllabi as key sites for understanding and situating debates about geography's history, present, and future. We analyzed syllabi from "introduction to geography" courses in the United States to understand how histories of geography are represented to graduate students. Through this analysis, we identified a recurring narrative about geography: geography is often represented as a "contested discipline." In this presentation, we critically examine the idea of geography as a contested discipline to see what work this narrative does and does not do to shape the histories we teach. On the one hand, this narrative signals an acknowledgement of the breadth and diversity of the discipline; but on the other hand, we find that this narrative fails to critically examine and incorporate ongoing debates in the discipline about its exclusionary past and present. We provide some examples of more and less effective ways to curate a syllabus that is attentive to the contested and power-laden histories of the field. We urge geography instructors to more deeply reflect on the idea of geography as a contested discipline and to examine how exclusions are (re)produced in "introduction to geography" syllabi.  
FIRST AUTHOR
Eden Kinkaid, University of Arizona
SECOND AUTHOR
Lauren Fritzche, University of Arizona
KEY WORDS
Curriculum; syllabus; history of geography; education

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