Rex J. Rowley

Rapid and highly variable warming of lake surface waters around the globe

In this first worldwide synthesis of in situ and satellite-derived lake data, we find that lake summer surface water temperatures rose rapidly (global mean = 0.34°C decade−1) between 1985 and 2009. Our analyses show that surface water warming rates are dependent on combinations of climate and local characteristics, rather than just lake location, leading to the counterintuitive result that regional consistency in lake warming is the exception, rather than the rule. The most rapidly warming lakes are widely geographically distributed, and their warming is associated with interactions among different climatic factors—from seasonally ice-covered lakes in areas where temperature and solar radiation are increasing while cloud cover is diminishing (0.72°C decade−1) to ice-free lakes experiencing increases in air temperature and solar radiation (0.53°C decade−1). The pervasive and rapid warming observed here signals the urgent need to incorporate climate impacts into vulnerability assessments and adaptation efforts for lakes.

Faith Islands in Hedonopolis: Ambivalent Adaptation in Las Vegas

As a so-called Sin City, Las Vegas is a unique city to explore the interaction between religion and place. Within the realm of faith tradition, the membership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons or LDS) has played a historically significant role in the city’s development and, today, it is ranked second in total local membership after Catholics. I invoke the metaphor of a “faith island” to understand the LDS connection to and negotiation with the Sin City, “hedonopolis” image that is often at odds with church teachings, but that is also a prominent part of daily life in southern Nevada. I analyze this relationship using interviews, participant observation and informal interactions within the local LDS population over the course of many years I have lived in and visited the city. Las Vegas Mormons look to the membership and teachings of their church as a source of protection and strength against influences that may challenge their faith. The tension between faith and the surrounding hedonopolis is itself a motivating force helping many Mormons avoid the temptations all around them. At the same time, many church members interact with the popular image of Las Vegas, either by choice or necessity, as they visit a casino to view a movie or go bowling, work in the gaming industry, or drive along streets bordered by revealing billboards for strip clubs. This complex interaction leads to an ambivalent adaptation to the cultural context in which they live. Understanding the experience of Mormons in Las Vegas can be instructive as religious scholars consider other “faith islands” throughout the world.

The Hub's Metropolis: Greater Boston's Development from Railroad Suburbs to Smart Growth

City dwellers often realize and relate to the popular images that represent their place. They also typically identify with the legend and folklore surrounding their city’s history. But few comprehend the intricacies behind how a city’s layout and landscape came to be. As residents walk through neighborhoods, drive between suburb and urban core, or commute along a beltway between one suburb and another, they are likely to recognize architectural or functional differences in landscapes they see, but rarely will understand, without a guide, why such differences exist. James O’Connell, in The Hub’s Metropolis: Greater Boston’s Development from Railroad Suburbs to Smart Growth, provides such a guide for Boston, and does so from the perspective of a well-trained eye.

Voluntary regions and the case of Las Vegas

ABSTRACT A shifting American cultural geography, stemming from clustering of like-minded people, has been much-discussed in recent years. The “voluntary region”, proposed by Wilbur Zelinsky in his path-breaking The cultural geography of the United States, is a regional construct relatively unexplored by cultural geographers that may help in their contributions to such conversations. As described by Zelinsky, voluntary regions are places that attract individual, like-minded people away from long-standing “traditional regions” based on a desire for amenity and economic opportunity. I review the concept and its sparse embrace in the literature and suggest that it has much to offer our discipline. Using Las Vegas as a paradigmatic example, I explore methods that can be used to explore the formation and character of voluntary regions. I argue that the voluntary region framework is an encompassing lens through which cultural geographers can examine the complex nature of place and regional construction at the hands of dynamic forces that lead people to resettle in new places.

Pinpoint: How GPS is Changing Technology, Culture, and Our Minds

Geographers understand and are attentive to the growth and influence of the Global Positioning System (GPS) in the world today. The ubiquitous role of geospatial technology in business, agriculture, military, and everyday life validates what we have been teaching and researching for decades regarding the power of place and the inherently spatial functioning of people and cultures. In fact, we often tout our discipline’s role in geospatial technology’s infiltration in society; after all, potential jobs for our students and research projects for academics abound as a result. Even those geographers not oriented to geospatial techniques might show interest in GPS for the changes it has brought about in society’s relationship to space and place. Pinpoint: How GPS Is Changing Technology, Culture, and Our Minds is a new book by journalist Greg Milner that provides an approachable, wide-ranging, and illuminating narrative about one of the greatest and most influential inventions of the twentieth century. Milner addresses the development of GPS, discussing its cognitive, security, sociocultural, and economic impacts and how the technology has become indelibly integrated into our lives as a universal utility. Accordingly, Pinpoint contributes to a larger discussion of the role that geospatial technologies play in the world today.

Optimizing DEM resolution inputs and number of stream gauges in GIS predictions of flood inundation

Spatial analysis using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is evaluated for its ability to predict the potential hazard of a flood event in the Illinois River region in the state of Illinois, USA. The data employed in the analysis are available to the public from trusted organizations such as Illinois State Geological Survey and the US Geological Survey (USGS). Since available GIS data may be limited for flood risk modeling in some parts of the world, the purposes of this study are to examine the use of spatial analysis in a GIS to determine flood inundation risk and to produce an accurate flood inundation vulnerability map employing the least amount of data. This study concentrates on areas that have stream gauge data with definable flood stage(s) and utilizes the inverse distance weighted (IDW) interpolation method on different digital elevation models (DEM) with different spatial resolutions (1 m, 10 m, and 30 m) to determine the extent of flooding over the study area. Resulting maps created for the Illinois River region yielded about 80% agreement to the effects of an actual flood event on the Illinois River near Peoria, IL on April 23, 2013. A four-gauge distribution scenario using a 10 m DEM produced the most accurate results, but all scenarios generated reasonable flood simulation. Thus, we speculate that it is possible to create a flood prediction map with a reasonable amount of accuracy using only two initial input data layers: stream gauges and a DEM.

The garage: automobility and building innovation in America’s early auto age

meanings over time, rather than the creation of an alternative order of Lankan sacred natural modernity outside the contours of the enlightenment and its afterlives. Jazeel powerfully focuses in on Sinhala Buddhist nationalist poetics, which makes me wonder how the story might look if we were to factor in other narratives, Hindu, Catholic, Protestant and islamic. indeed one is reminded of the layered stories tied to ‘Sri Pada’ or ‘Adam’s Peak’: is the footprint at the top of this mountain an imprint of Buddha’s foot or Adam’s foot, or St. Thomas’ or connected to Shiva? By suggestively placing the nature park next to the realm of architecture, Jazeel is able to show how this kind of nationalism can be rather cosmopolitan. it would have been good to know when the secular re-enters the story. Another critical conception of nature that may require further investigation is the cult of the commodity. extractive visions of the island are still rather powerful and prop up the politics of regimes and bosses: witness recent Chinesesponsored highway building which ‘opened up’ nature anew or indeed the continuing role of colonial plantations in the aesthetics of the highland. This is certainly to ask Jazeel for too much. one hopes that in the wake of this important book, we may be able to place Sinhala Buddhist aesthetics of nature in relation to a series of other narrations of sacred or non-sacred modernity and indeed to work across this dichotomy too by showing the plural origins of Lankan thought. in sum as is hopefully clear from my musings, this is a terrific work of criticism, which is valuable for the way it helps us think with and in Sri Lanka. it deserves to be widely read on the island and amongst scholars of postcolonialism and the environment.