WKU Geography and Geology Blog

Over the past couple of years, challenging weather conditions like hurricanes, storm surge, and snow/ice storms have highlighted the U.S.’s continuing vulnerability in the transportation arena. This past week’s scheduling disaster for JetBlue airlines (see online report) in the wake of a severe storm event in the northeast points out significant weaknesses in all areas of the U.S. transportation system. Highways are inadequate to cope with emergency evacuation, there is no emergency disaster plan to utilize America’s railroads for evacuations (how many lives could have been saved in New Orleans if 50 or 100 passengers trains had been available to whisk people away from the city), and the U.S. airline system (controllers, ground personnel, airport facilities, airline companies, and public transit)) is just too schlerotic to cope with big events like the one last week. The U.S. transportation system is broken - it needs radical surgery if America is to cope successfully with the bigger challenges of global climate change, economic globalization, and another major terrorist attack. Which of the 2008 presidential candidates is likely to tackle this issue?

One of the latest additions to the world’s growing network of high-speed rail systems is Taiwan. Work began on a dedicated high-speed rail line between Taiwan’s two major cities - Taipei and Kaohsiung - in 2000, with the 345-kilometer route expected to debut sometime in late 2007 (see report online that discusses the details). Taiwan would join countries like Japan, Germany, Italy, Britain, France, and Spain, among others, who have developed state-of-the-art high-speed rail systems. But what about the United States? High-speed rail (the ACELA service between Washington, New York, and Boston is hardly worthy of high-speed designation!) development in the US is decades behind these other countries. The US addiction to oil, autos, and freeways is not likely to encourage high-speed rail development anytime soon - unless, of course, gasoline jumps to $5 a gallon or higher!

Every second Friday, each semester, the Department convenes in EST 260 for a seminar presentation. This coming Friday Feb. 9th at 3:00 pm, Dr. Chris Groves, Director of the Hoffman Institute, a research center within the Department and part of Ogden College’s Applied Research and Technology Program (ARTP), will discuss his research on water quality issues in southwest China. This project, funded in part by a USAID grant, has evolved over many years of collaboration with colleagues in China and has led to the development of a GIS Center at the China research site and several visits to China by departmental faculty and students (both undergraduates and graduates). Members of the campus community and anyone from region can attend the seminars and learn more about research and teaching in the geosciences. Call the Department at 270-745-4555 for more information.

Globalization is a hot topic these days. The Department is offering an Honors Colloquium (Nationalism and Terrorism), as well as a senior/graduate course titled Globalization and Nationalism this Spring 2007 semester. My own research has focused on globalization’s impacts, especially the role of transportation in shaping global social and economic interactions. My article on how globalization has affected Latin America (see Journal of Latin American Geography article) argued that researchers and commentators tend to focus too much on the macro-level indicators of global change (GDP, currency, trade, etc.) and not enough on the microlevel indicators (what’s happening to people at local scales). Right here in Bowling Green, KY, you can see the impacts of global change, especially in the cultural and economic spheres. Look around your own communities and examine how landscapes, people, and the economy are changing as a consequence of greater interaction with the global community.

The Department is advertising for an instructor to teach introductory geoscience and GIS courses at the Elizabethtown and Glasgow campuses.
Visit the announcement for more details. Applicants should hold an MS in Geography or Geoscience, with at least 18 hours in geography graduate courses and must demonstrate the ability to teach Introductory GIS courses either by completion of the GIS Certificate or with appropriate professional experience. Review of applications begins on April 15 and continues until the position is filled. Commencement date is August 15, 2007. Call Dr. Keeling (270-745-4555) for more information or visit the Department’s website.

Globalization depends on improvements in transportation and communicatiion infrastructure. Around the world, many countries and trading blocs (European Union, for example) are planning or building new infrastructure to improve accessibility and mobility in the global economy. Megaprojects like the Oresund Bridge in Denmark, or the proposed Strait of Gibraltar bridge/tunnel, capture the imagination of the public and focus attention on the critical role of transport improvements. In recent years, the idea of a global bridge (see a map of proposed global bridge) has been proposed to link Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas with a network of superhighways, bridges, and railroads. Just think how the U.S. might be transformed with the construction of a nationwide high-speed rail system ! Read my Op Ed on this issue online.

Continuing a tradition established in 2001, the Department again is offering several study abroad opportunities for majors and non-majors during the current year. In June (Session A), Debbie Kreitzer and Will Blackburn are planning a Geography of North America program that will visit the Canadian Maritime provinces along with the U.S. northeast. This program is priced around $2,000 and will provide students with a great opportunity to experience some of the incredible North American landscapes along the northeast coast.
Also in June, in partnership with the Leadership Studies program, John Baker is leading a study abroad program to England and France that focuses on Leadership and the NormandyLandings. GEOG 475 - Military Geography - is offered through the Department, along with other courses through the Leadership Studies program (view the flyer online.). For more information about Study Abroad programs, contact the Department at 270-745-4555.

Prof. Keeling has just completed a comprehensive review of research on global transportation issues over the past decade. This article will be published in Vol 31(2) of Progress in Human Geography. Transportation and communication have become defining characteristics of contemporary globalization, and current research on transport issues is beginning to identify new and evolving relationships between world cities, economic regions, and consumer clusters. Nearly 15 years ago, Dr. Keeling published research that identified patterns of airline connections between world cities (see Chapter 7, transport and the world city paradigm, in World Cities in a World-System), producing a series of maps and tables that identified command and control centers in the global economy as determined by airline connectivity. Not surprisingly, New York, London, Paris, and Tokyo were highly ranked. Today, more sophisticated research using GIS, multivariate, and factor analysis is refining those early concepts of connectivity and mobility and is raising intriguing questions about global relationships in the ever-changing global system.