Resource efficiency for sustainable growth: global trends and European policy scenarios

A framework for the evaluation of winery servicescapes: A New Zealand case

Santa Claus, place branding and competition

Hall, C.M. 2008, Santa Claus, place branding and competition. Fennia: International Journal of Geography, 186(1): 59-67.

Santa Claus has been described as the world’s strongest brand. Although Santa Claus has been examined in the context of product and retail branding the Santa mythology has been little discussed with respect to place branding. The article examines Santa Claus in relation to place branding and competition and provides a number of international examples where Santa is integrated into place branding strategies in order to construct regional advantage, particularly with respect to attracting tourists. Such strategies are regarded as extremely significant for peripheral areas which otherwise do not have the resources available for place branding that urban areas do. The paper concludes by noting potential future issues for Santa related place branding and Christmas tourism including the impact of climate change and issues of authenticity.

draft manuscript provided

The Challenges of Tourism as a Development Strategy in an Era of Global Climate Change

Predictive mapping of fish species richness across shallow-water seascapes in the Caribbean

Published in Ecological Modelling 204 (2007)

Effective management of coral reef ecosystems requires accurate, quantitative and spatially explicit information on patterns of species richness at spatial scales relevant to the management process.We combined empirical modelling techniques, remotely sensed data, field observations and GIS to develop a novel multi-scale approach for predicting fish species richness across a compositionally and topographically complex mosaic of marine habitat types in the U.S. Caribbean. First, the performance of three different modelling techniques (multiple linear regression, neural networks and regression trees) was compared using data from southwestern Puerto Rico and evaluated using multiple measures of predictive accuracy. Second, the best performing model was selected. Third, the generality of the best performing modelwas assessed through application to two geographically distinct coral reef ecosystems in the neighbouring U.S. Virgin Islands. Overall, regression trees outperformed multiple linear regression and neural networks. The best performing regression tree model of fish species richness (high, medium, lowclasses) in southwestern Puerto Rico exhibited an overall map accuracy of 75%; 83.4% when only high and low species richness areaswere evaluated. In agreement with well recognised ecological relationships, areas of high fish species richness were predicted for the most bathymetrically complex areas with high mean rugosity and high bathymetric variance quantified at two different spatial extents (≤0.01km2). Water depth and the amount of seagrasses and hard-bottom habitat in the seascape were of secondary importance. This model also provided good predictions in two geographically distinct regions indicating a high level of generality in the habitat variables selected. Results indicated that accurate predictions of fish species richness could be achieved in future studies using remotely sensed measures of topographic complexity alone. This integration of empirical modelling techniques with spatial technologies provides an important new tool in support of ecosystem-based management for coral reef ecosystems.

The Participation of Younger People within Intentional Communities: Evidence from Two Case Studies.

Maxey, L. (2004) ‘The Participation of Younger People within Intentional Communities: Evidence from Two Case Studies.’ Children’s Geographies, 2, 1, pp.29-48.

A growing body of literature has begun to address the value and heterogeneity of younger people’s experiences. However, younger people often remain one of society’s most disempowered groups. Whilst children’s right to participate is now enshrined following the 1991 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, levels of participation commonly experienced by younger people remain low. This article considers the role participation may potentially play in overcoming adultist bias. It draws on participatory research within two small-scale intentional communities to evaluate what can be learnt from younger people’s participation in such groupings. Whilst both case study communities are located in South Wales, the insights provided by this research can be used to inform practice and research on participation across many other settings.

The Future in Our Hands: Low Impact Development and Sustainability Transitions

In this paper I consider the sustainability crises as the overlapping challenges of current social, environmental and economic melt-down. The science is clear that we have too much CO2e in the atmosphere and therefore I propose we shift from a carbon emission society through a low carbon society to a carbon capture society. I then explore the role of Low Impact Development as one response to this challenge which can be applied in every seetting from Urban to Rural. i also look at other forms of direct action everyone can take.
the accompanying video is here mms://mrcstr1.swan.ac.uk/geog/larch maxey.wmv

Climate change and human origins in southern Arabia