Geographia Polonica (1990) vol. 58

Abstract

There is an internationally growing evidence that sea level rise, as a consequence ofman-induced climatic changes, will affect our planet not only on a regional but also ona global scale and will create severe problems for society.In this paper we summarize the effects of climatic changes in the past, indicate thedifferent types of man-induced climatic changes and discuss the (potential) effects of thesechanges on the worldwide average sea-level. Thereafter a summary of the progress ingeomorphological survey and mapping is presented with The Netherlands serving as anexample. Finally some remarks are made on useful geomorphological data: survey andmapping can contribute in encountering the problems caused by sea-level rise on society inthe next century.

Joop A. Ten Cate, Soil Survey Institute, Wageningen, The Netherlands

Matthias Kuhle, Institute of Geography, Georg-August University, Göttingen, Federal Republic of Germany

Abstract

This paper deals with proposals of natural models of river valley evolution useful forphysical and mathematical modelling in hydrotechnical projects. Such models are knownfrom investigations of numerous valley reaches of the Wisla (Vistula) River and the Odra(Oder) River drainage basins (Fig. 1). The proposed classification of model types forms anopen system that can be supplemented with new types and subtypes, characteristic for otherregions of the world.It should be strongly underlined that the experience of author and his research team(Dr K. Krauzlis, Dr K. Laskowski, W. Granacki M.Sc., T. Falkowski M.Sc., J. KarabonM.Sc., R. Bieganowski) proves the usefulness of the morphogenetic approach in studyingthe river channels and valleys. Otherwise, wrong or non-precise conclusions can be drawn.Such approach is desirable either in basic research studies or in investigations for practicalpurposes, e.g. in hydrotechnics.

Edmund Falkowski, Institute of Hydrology and Engineering Geology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

Abstract

From the very beginning of modern agricultural geography in the United States, macroscale studies of U.S. agricultural regionalization have concentrated almost exclusively on land use types and farming systems. Smith, Baker, and Hainsworth first set the pattern with their map of the "agricultural provinces" (1916), while one of the most recent presentations, though covering just the seventeen conterminous western states, has carried the effort to a new level by using a detailed farming classification devised by the past IGU Agricultural Typology Commission under the leadership of Prof. J. Kostrowicki (Gregor 1975).1 Yet during all this time and particulary since the last world war, another set of regional patterns has been developing, one outside the traditional geographic view but reflecting an aspect of farming with many more implications for economic and social welfare: the rationalization of productivity. In no other country has the use of capital to enhance the productivity of land and labor in farming been more influential, or fateful. Productivity has reached levels hitherto unknown, but this has been bought at the expense of physical and human resources, particularly the smaller and capital-poor farmers who no longer can resist the "price-cost squeeze" and hence become victims of a growing contradiction in the American rural ethic: freedom of entreprise vs. equality of opportunity (Gregor 1982). A survey of the basic regional patterns of rationalization of agricultural production therefore seems more than due.

Howard F. Gregor, Department of Geography, University of California, Davis, California, USA

Abstract

The suburbanization of rural villages leads to the final stage in their transformation from agriculturally-oriented nodes of settlement and social units to their incorporation into cities functionally or formally or both. It thus represents a convergence of two major processes of geographical significance — the transformation of rural society and economy on one hand and urbanization on the other. The latter process has many facets but scholarship discerns these with rather varying degrees of clarity. Thus much more is known about the dimension of population growth than about spatial expansion of the city where basic problems of definition, not to mention difficulties of data sources, have hindered the precise delimitation of successive stages of growth. Even here, rather more is known of the spread of suburbs into hitherto rural areas than the less-obvious process by which small towns and villages on the metropolitan fringe are drawn into the functional fabric of the city, often while still remaining spatially separate.The incorporation of such settlement units is by no means a new phenomenon. In the 1820s, a village called Brooklyn became a dormitory for Manhattan. In West London, the British one, Acton was incorporated into the growing conurbation in 1861. But generally in the nineteenth century suburbs were essentially of two kinds: the detached villas of the very wealthy and the working-class "faubourgs" (Thorns 1972, 59). This distinction has remained to some degree despite the rise of the "mas suburb" based upon rapid transit of one kind or another, for some of the relatively-wealthy still seek the perceived benefits of a semi-rural life. Such people may be the harbingers of further change to mass suburbia which ultimately submerges, even obliterates the former rural settlement node as Dobriner's minor classic has indicated (summarized in Dobriner, 1972). Just how many such "invaded villages" there may be globally, and to what degree they are part of an overall suburban assault there is no knowing. In Japan, for example, Allinson (1979, 17) has suggested that few if any suburbs have developed on virgin soil for there has nearly always been a rural hamlet, often of considerable age, in the vicinity acting as the focus of settlement growth and itself being transformed by the invasion of "outsiders".

R.d. Hill, Department of Geography and Geology, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Kathy Ng, Department of Geography and Geology, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Tse Pui Wan, Department of Geography and Geology, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Berthold Bauer, Institute of Geography, University of Vienna, Wien, Austria