Geomorphology

What is geomorphology? In this post I aim to explore and explain what exactly geomorphology is and the way in which it links into the discipline of geography as a whole. 

Geomorphology refers to the study of the  Earth's surface and the processes in which it is shaped, both in the present and in the past. Geomorphology has many sub-topics that refer to specific locations or areas of similar geomorphology. For instance, geomorphology in arid environments such as near the Tropics (of Capricorn and Cancer). The underlying features of all the sub-topics is that they contain similar core principles, which are most likely to be climatic or tectonic processes. 

Geomorphology is studied under a number of different titles- most notably Physical Geography, but it can also be practised under the larger topics of archaeology or geology. The wide base of interest results in varying research methods, as well as different conclusions from the results of data collection.

They often aim to predict future changes in the Earth's surface through a number of methods including field observations, physical experiments and numerical observations. The latter known as Geomorphometry. 

Such processes that may be included within the Geomorphology field include eolian processes such as wind erosion or fluvial erosion such as corrosion. 

We should end with the name of a notable geomorphologist, William Morris Davis, who has been dubbed 'the father of American Geography' and he paid important attention to geomorphology as a key aspect to his research of Physical Geography. Thus proving the importance of this sub-field to the discipline as a whole. 

References: 

'International Conference Of Geomorphology', Europa Organisation. 

Tinkler, Heith J. A short history of geomorphology. Page 4. 1985

 

Tourism

The growth of tourism in recent years has provided both many benefits and drawbacks to those countries that have experienced significant changes in the number of tourists visiting their country each year. And here, I will discuss the impact of tourism on national economies. There are many reasons for such a growth in global tourism, for example; increases in the disposable incomes of millions of people, the expansion of budget airlines, such as easyJet, the greater cultural and social awareness of foreign entities. However, how beneficial is tourism to an economy? Before we look at a case study, I should specify the difference between the tourism economy and the tourism industry. The tourism economy includes all payments and those employed indirectly from tourism. For instance, those who make the carpet for a new hotel that has been built specifically for tourism. Whereas the tourism industry includes only the payments directly attributed to tourism and those directly employed in tourism, for instance, holiday reps.

Taking Spain as an example, over the past 40 years, Spain's tourism economy has grown to be the second largest in the world worth approximately $US237,898 million which was about 15.3% of Spain’s GDP (gross domestic product) in 2010. The tourism industry employed around 1,280,000 people in 2010 compared to the nation’s whole tourism economy which employed around 3,205,000 people. Now, these figures are vast and show just how important tourism is to the Spanish economy, with 14% of the total population employed in the tourism economy. The multiplier effect of this figure should not be underestimated, the growth of tourism certainly helped Spain to develop its economy into one of Europe's biggest.

Despite this, recent trends of tourism have led to Spain to become second choice for many as they search for a greater cultural experience. The ideology of crowded Spanish beaches in Benidorm has become a horror for many, although still attracting many of those wanting a home-from-home experience in the sun, with the likes of Tesco's and McDonald's along the beach front.

So what next for Spain? As we all know, Spain's economy has been suffering recently with a 57% unemployment rate for those under 25, so in order to help kick-start the economy again, it is necessary that Spain attempts to diversify into different market segments of tourism, whilst maintaining its utilisation of the main attraction factor for many - the Sun. Perhaps more emphasis on the budding ski resort of Sierra Nevada near Granada in Southern Spain, or maybe even promoting more of its cultural festivals such as the 'Running of the bulls' in Pamplona. Whatever the Spanish government resorts to, it is important Spain maintains its tourism economy, and sustains (or preferably increases) the current levels of income it brings into the economy.

Spanish Unemployment Rate

References:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/83fc03d8-c919-11e2-bb56-00144feab7de.html#axzz2XX1oQnnr

Borders

Borders define the geographic boundaries of political entities or areas of different legal jurisdiction, for instance, between states in USA. These borders may be natural such as the Niagara River which separates the USA from Canada. Another example of a natural boarder is oceans as there are very few nations that span more than one continent. These borders may also be manmade, such as the border that separates India and Pakistan, which is so large that it can be seen from space.

Originally, borders served to separate nations and act as a defence from offensive threats of neighbouring regimes or to separate countries with political differences, however, more recently, as the world has developed there has been a global shift towards the relaxation of borders. This is because of the developments in technology that make invading other countries a non-existent feature of modern day world. Despite this, physical natural and manmade borders (as well as non-physical borders) still exist as to prevent the free movement of the population to avoid over-crowding in certain countries. They also serve to reduce trade between countries, most notably in illegal goods and services such as drugs and human trafficking. The best example of this is the Mexico-United States border that runs nearly 2,000 miles along the Rio Grande, It is thought that over 520,000 Mexicans try to cross the border in an attempt to lead a better lifestyle in the USA, of the 520,000, 40% will slip through US border control and gain illegal access to America. It is thought by Dr Douglas Massey of Princeton University that the efforts of the US to increase security along the border has led to migration flows in the most desolate and most desert places along the border and thus increasing the mortality rate of those who try to enter the US illegally. As a result of the danger posed by crossing the border, those who gain access to the US are highly likely to attempt to stay in the US and are increasingly likely to pay criminals in an attempt to have the criminals bring their families across the border to the better lifestyle the US offers. Such danger posed by the border has created a large informal economy for criminals in drug, weapon and human trafficking which has further required security resources to be deployed to this problem and therefore has cost the US more money. In the Europe, however, the borders are mostly more relaxed due to the formation of the EU that allows the free movement of people, goods, services and capital from one EU member country to another, in total, there are 27 EU member countries.

The India-Pakistan border. Image courtesy of BBC

References:

Kelly, Patricia, and Douglas Massey. "Borders for Whom? The Role of NAFTA in Mexico-U.S. Migration". The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political Science 610 (2007): 98–118.

Beaches

Many people don't realise it, but beaches are a in fact a landform of deposition caused by the sea and its sediment. They can form in many different types of coastline and bring immense enjoyment and satisfaction to many of those who use them.

Beach profiles generally fall into two extremes: those that are wide and flat (constructive) and those that are narrow and steep (destructive). The type of beaches depends on the wave energy and more specifically, the type of wave. The types of wave include;

 - Constructive waves. These wash sediment up the beach as the waves have high energy, they then deposit the sediment as the energy of the wave decreases and it flows back down as backwash and out to the sea. They are usually shallow and of a low frequency. It involves a strong swash and weak backwash, as well as a long fetch (the horizontal distance over which wave-generating winds blow).

 - Destructive waves. These pick up sediment as they run down the beach and carry it back out to sea, therefore 'destroying' the beach.  Often involve high waves and they are often of a high frequency. They have a strong backwash and a weak swash, as well as a short fetch.

(NOTE; swash - the rush of seawater up the beach after the breaking of a wave.

            backwash - The motion of receding waves, as water flows down the beach)



The type of beach also depends upon the particle size. There is a relationship between particle size and the beach slope profile; this is partly to do with grain size but also to do with percolation rates.

As a result, different beaches will have different features associated with them. For instance, destructive waves often produce steep beaches whereas the beaches formed by constructive waves are often much more gently sloping. Or, shingle beaches are steeper than sand beaches because shingle beaches have higher percolation rates.

Constructive waves (top) and Destructive waves (bottom. Images from BBC.





Desertification

Desertification is, according to the most commonly used definition, "the process of fertile land being transformed into desert typically as a result of deforestation, drought or improper/inappropriate agriculture". Unfortunately, desertification is an ever-increasing problem as more and more water is used up for the growing population, less and less water is available for vegetation leading to the death of many plants in already dry regions. This loss of vegetation is one of the main causes of desertification as the roots can no longer bind the soil together. An area that has undergone the loss of vegetation will see an increase in erosion of the soil, leaving behind an infertile plain of land that is unusable.

 To stop desertification, in a sustainable way that will allow the communities of the effected areas to develop as normal, is a hard challenge to many governments. One of the best solutions so far is to grow the Jatropha Cactus, this cactus has long roots that bind soils together and when grown around crops, it creates a wall-like-barrier to stop water leaking out of the agricultural areas. To further that, the cactus produces oil that can be sold to provide extra incomes for farmers and the cactus when no longer needed, or dead, can be burnt to reduce the need for deforestation and thus reducing desertification even more.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia. The band of land across Central Africa that has very high vulnerability of desertification is called The Sahel and is one of the worst affected areas across the World.

Which diseases does our aid need to be focused on?

The WHO

Which diseases does our aid need to be focused on? Many immediately say "AIDS - Kenya" or "Malaria - Africa". But is this really what we should be focusing our aid on?

The WHO (world health organisation) has three types of classification for disease;

Group 1 - Infectious/Communicable diseases grouped with maternal, perinatal and nutritional conditions

Group 2 - Non-communicable diseases (NCD's) such as cardiovascular diseases and cancers or diabetes

Group 3 - Injury related disease, which can be intentional or not intentional (note: the definition of disease is anything that harms the normal functioning of the body thus injuries are counted as a disease).

During 1990-2002 there was a great change in the types of diseases affecting most people;

 - Group 1 (before 1992) was responsible for 32% of all global deaths, with the major diseases of AIDS, TB and Malaria accounting for 10% of that. However during '92-'02, deaths from HIV/AIDS accelerated from 2% to 14% but most other infectious diseases declined (bar TB and Malaria). This left the group 1 figure unchanged at 32% for 2002.

- Group 2 saw its figure rise by 10% and therefore accounted for 59% of global deaths in 2002. Over 80% of deaths from diseases in group 2 came from low and middle income countries.

- Group 3 remained unchanged like group 1, accounting for 9 % of global deaths.

The interesting fact is that in 2005, non-communicable diseases killed more people than AIDS, TB and malaria combined, but yet we see much of our aid donated to the diseases such as AIDS, TB and malaria. But why is this?

The answer is probably because these communicable diseases are treatable and/or preventable more easily and more cheaply than the NCD's but with NCD's accounting for more and more deaths each year, the government should constantly be reviewing their recipients of the aid to ensure that it is beneficial for the development of the global community in the future.

Wilderness

Wilderness, a term that is commonly used, a term that most people feel they know and understand, but how would you define it?

You could possibly define it as 'an area of open space'? Or maybe as 'an area of woodland and forest'? Perhaps even a combination of the two, 'a mixture of open space and forestry combining to form a landscape known as wilderness'? But these are all less-correct, but not wrong, than the definition that is most frequently used by geographers and conservationists around the world which is 'a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity'.

Areas of wilderness status are often areas of outstanding natural beauty, or of great interests to scientists, locals, conservationists, natural biologists etc. Such areas can often contain flora or fauna that is hard to replicate in zoos or is endemic to the area. However wilderness doesn’t mean that the area has never been discovered or disturbed by humans, which is almost impossible now. Wilderness can be said to be wilderness if natural processes occur without human interference. This is the only type of wilderness thought to be left on our planet.



Wilderness at Monument Valley, Utah, USA



Preserving wilderness has become such a problem that governments have had to start passing laws on certain areas to stop the growth of human activity, a negative effect of our currently booming world population. But should the wilderness be conserved or preserved? The difference is that conservationists would allow the land to be used but heavily regulated, whereas preservationists would insist that the land is 100% preserved with no human interference. Which is better? Many say that preserving the few natural wonders left in the world is vital, however, with the growing population the space is going to need to be conserved and a balance will need to be struck.





Wilderness at Biogradska Gora National Park, Montenegro