Ivan Townshend

BACTERIAL PATHOGENS IN RURAL WATER SUPPLIES IN SOUTHERN ALBERTA, CANADA

Raw river and irrigation water in the Oldman River Basin in southern Alberta was tested for the presence of two bacterial pathogens, Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella spp., over the last 2 yr (2000–2001). The number of E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella spp. isolated from raw water peaked during the summer months. While E. coli O157:H7 was only isolated from 11/802 (1.3%) of raw water samples over the entire sampling season in 2000 and from 16/806 (2.0%) of the samples in 2001, the pathogen was isolated one or more times from 10/35 (28.5%) sampling sites in 2000 and from 13/40 (32.5%) sampling sites in 2001. Salmonella was isolated from 44/802 (5.5%) of raw water samples in 2000 and from 122/822 (14.9%) of the samples in 2001; the pathogen was isolated one or more times from 25/35 (71.4%) sampling sites in 2000 and from 29/40 (72.5%) sampling sites in 2001. Certain sites had multiple pathogen isolations in the same year and from year to year. Salmonella Rublislaw was the most common Salmonella serovar isolated in both years, accounting for 52.4% of isolates.

Social cohesion and resilience across communities that have experienced a disaster

Disasters are unpredictable events that have catastrophic impacts. There is now a focus on disaster resilience and capacity building in the recovery of the community. Resilience literature also suggests a staged model of disaster impacts and likelihood of staged manifestations of resilience. It also points to a potentially important link between place-based social cohesion and resilience. This article reports on comparative findings of cohesion and resilience indices in four Canadian rural communities that experienced disasters and evacuation in potentially different phases of coping and resilience. Buckner’s Index of Cohesion and the Index of Perceived Community Resilience are examined in each community for relationships (correlation) between cohesion and resilience and for differences in the intensity of these variables. Our findings show a consistent significant positive correlation between cohesion and resilience, although the strength of the relationship varies. Findings also show place-specific differentiation in the mean intensity of both cohesion and resilience scores; temporal phases of disaster recovery for each community are also noted. This information can help in disaster recovery planning by ensuring supports are available at key points in time for communities that experience disasters. Other research is needed that compares communities that have experienced different types of disasters and over time periods to document any changes to resilience or cohesion thereby assisting with disaster policy development and programme planning.

Age-segregated and gated retirement communities in the third age: the differential contribution of place - community to self-actualization

The author focuses on the role of place-based community both in in-situ aging and in age-segregated (often gated and walled) retirement villages within cities as a potential contributor towards self-actualization. Elderly individuals in a case study in Calgary, Alberta, were measured on the short index of self actualization and a series of multivariate ‘structures’ of place — community associated with behavioral, cognitive, and affective features of community derived from a principal components analysis of community indicator variables. Self-actualization tendencies were not found to differ by residential context. Multiple regression models showed a similar overall contribution of all community structures to self-actualization in the different residential contexts, but different sets of community structures were identified as unique and significant predictors of self-actualization in the two residential settings. This differential impact may signal that a variety of forms and structures of person–environment congruence amongst the elderly yield similar psychological outcomes.

How Do Community Associations Vary? The Structure of Community Associations in Calgary, Alberta

The growth in territorial community associations has been one of the major trends in Western cities in recent years, but there are few comprehensive studies of the range of variation of these organisations in a single city. This case study of Calgary, a Canadian city of three-quarters of a million people in 1991, addresses this gap in our understanding by showing the variation in the character of all 118 community associations in the city. The city contained 94 local community buildings; 21 with an insured value of over 1m dollars. Yet membership levels were relatively low with a mean of 18.9 per cent. A factor analysis of 11 key variables of the variations in community association characteristics revealed 5 basic sources of differentiation, summarised as: resources; programmes and organisation; age and rental revenue dependency; membership; and salaries. A further factor analysis of the social structural characteristics of the community areas identified nine axes called: economic status; family status; age-participation; early middle age; mobility; immigrant-Charter Group; each European ethnic; central and southern European ethnic; and Dutch ethnic-old housing. In general, there were few strong associations between the two sets of generalised axes, demonstrating that the contextual effects of the variations in community association activity were not strong. The only exceptions were that membership levels had medium positive correlates with economic status, and old age areas had community associations that depended highly on revenues from the rental of community facilities to non-member groups.

The Lost Creek Fire: managing social relations under disaster conditions.

This paper examines some of the social processes associated with disaster conditions. Utilising an asset-based perspective of community capacity, it focuses on four types of normative systems to interpret the ability of communities to manage disasters through market-, bureaucratic-, associative-, and communal-based norms. Drawing on experience of a wildfire in the Crowsnest Pass region of southwest Alberta, Canada, in 2003, the tensions and compatibilities among these normative systems are evaluated through interviews with 30 community leaders. The results confirm the contributions of all types of social capital to resiliency, the necessity for rapid use of place-based knowledge, and the importance of communication among all types and levels of agents. In addition, they point to the value of identifying and managing potential conflicts among the normative systems as a means to maximising their contributions. The integration of local networks and groups into the more general disaster response minimised the impacts on health and property.

The Survival of Commercial Hierarchies: Rural Service Centres in Western Victoria, Australia

Container assembly comprises a plurality of containers having similar externally ridged caps and a carrier bar provided with holes bordered by internally ridged sleeves which are a force fit onto said caps.

“Hope is in Our Hands:” Impacts of the Slave Lake Wildfires in Alberta, Canada on Children

Wildfires are increasingly common events that in some instances have led to mass evacuations and devastation. Although there is an increased interest in assessing the impacts on humans, there is limited information about the impacts on children. This chapter is based upon research after the devastating 2011 wildfires in a rural area of western Canada where the entire population was evacuated, homes and businesses were lost, and the communities underwent an extensive recovery and rebuilding effort. School surveys were conducted with children (n = 58 in Grades 3 and 4 and n = 82 in Grades 5–12). The PTSD-RI – DSM-IV-TR for Children and Adolescents instrument was used 6 and 12 months after the fires. Results focus on the younger age group and indicate that younger children experienced higher levels of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as did those whose homes burned despite their age. Implications for teachers, related professionals, and schools are included.

New Urbanisms: From Neo-Traditional Neighbourhoods to New Regionalism

In 1996 the New Urbanism Charter was developed by Americans who advocated a new approach to urban planning, outlining a series of principles at various scales to address contemporary problems. Since many ideas from older cities were used for new community designs, the approach is often described as Neo-Traditional in character, although design issues are only part of the principles identified. The ideas subsequently led to the development of related concepts, such as Smart Growth, Urban Villages and Transit Orientated Development. A review of the basic features of these various types of New Urbanism is followed by a critique of the concepts and their utility. Although the Charter has provided a useful summary of needed changes, not all have been given adequate attention, and many other problems of contemporary cities are not dealt with. In addition, few New Urbanists tackled the problems of creating effective governances in the fragmented political jurisdictions around central cities. New Regionalism ideas have partially filled this gap but most just cobble together existing jurisdictions in a variety of political forms to provide overview plans and sometimes services for a city region, often with limited effectiveness.