Entrenchment of GIS technology for enterprise solutions in Maryland's state and local government

Beginning in 1974, the State of Maryland created spatial databases under the MAGI (Maryland's Automated Geographic Information) system. Since that early GIS, other state and local agencies have begun GISs covering a range of applications from critical lands inventories to cadastral mapping. In 1992, state agencies, local agencies, universities, and businesses began a series of GIS coordination activities, resulting in the formation of the Maryland Local Geographic Information Committee and the Maryland State Government Geographic Information Coordinating Committee. GIS activities and system installations can be found in 22 counties plus Baltimore City, and most state agencies. Maryland's decision makers rely on a variety of GIS reports and products to conduct business and to communicate complex issues more effectively. This paper presents the status of Maryland's GIS applications for local and state decision making.

Railways, Urban Development and Town Planning in Britain: 1948–2008, Haywood R. Ashgate (2009). £65.00, ISBN: 9780754673927

This book is a thorough investigation of the relationship between land use planning and the railways in Britain, through review of the factors affecting the two sectors and their integration during the period of public ownership. The rationale behind the book is explained as a timely analysis of the dynamic correlation involving town planning and management of the railway in a period when growing congestion on the road network is forcing people to look for alternative modes and capacity is badly needed to accommodate this increased demand for travel. The book calls for a modal shift from road to rail for passenger and freight traffic.

Re-Presenting/Representing Melbourne: A literary and cultural analysis of Melbourne’s inner city and outer suburbs in contemporary fiction

This article provides an overview of a research project investigating contemporary literary representations of Melbourne’s inner and outer suburban spaces. It will argue that the city represented by local writers is an often more complex way of envisioning the city than the one presented in public policy and cultural discourses. In this view, the writer’s vision of a city does not necessarily override or provide a “truer’ account but it is in the fictional city where the complexity of the everyday life of a city is most accurately portrayed. The article will also provide an overview of the theoretical framework for reading the fictional texts in this way, examining how Soja’s concept of Thirdspace (2006) provides a place to engage “critically with theoretical issues, while simultaneously being that space where the debate occurs” (Mole 2008: 3).

Self-Government and the fashioning of resilient personae : legal education, criminal justice, and the government of mental health

This paper explores attempts to shape resilient personae through relations of self-government, and highlights the way that this features as part of advanced liberal forms of rule. As an example of this process, it focuses on the way that undergraduate law students are encouraged to fashion resilient personae throughout their legal studies, so as to avoid, or effectively respond to, experiences that may have a detrimental effect on their mental health. This paper argues that the production of such resilience relies on students being encouraged to take up psychologically- and biomedically-infused subject positions, becoming well-disciplined subjects, entrepreneurs of the self, and even virtuous persons. It highlights that the fashioning of resilient personae in this way involves extensions to the targets and practices of self-government and reinforces advanced liberal government. The paper then suggests how insights into fashioning resilience in this context can inform further research on resilience, particularly resilience produced within criminal justice professionals.

Becoming a 'Bastion Against Tyranny' : Australian legal education and the government of the self

Research into legal education suggests that many students enter law school with ideals about using the law to achieve social change, but graduate with some cynicism regarding these ideals. It is often argued that law schools provide a negative, competitive, and conservative environment for students, pushing many away from social justice ideals towards more self-interested, vocational concerns. This article uses Michel Foucault’s work on the government of the self to suggest another way of understanding this process. It examines a range of prescriptive texts that provide students with advice about how to study law and ‘survive’ law school. In doing so, it posits that this apparent loss of social ideals does not necessarily always signify that the student has become politically conservative or has had a negative educational experience. While these legal personae may appear outwardly conservative, and indeed still reflect particular gendered or raced perspectives, by examining the messages that these texts offer students, this article suggests that an apparent loss of social ideals can be the result of a productive shaping of the self. The legal persona they fashion can incorporate social justice ideals and necessitate specific ways of acting on those ideals. This analysis adds to the growing body of research that uses Foucault’s work to rethink common narratives of power and the shaping of the self in legal education, and provides legal educators with new ways of reflecting on the effects of legal education.

Education in City and Suburban Communities

This chapter will discuss how environmental factors, specifically one’s backgrounds and where one lives, has an impact on teaching and learning. You have learned from previous chapters that inclusive education is underpinned by human rights and social justice issues. This chapter takes up that argument by identifying the diversity of students in city and suburban schools and how some are excluded, leading to disengagement with learning. We suggest possible pedagogy such as differentiated instruction and a ‘pedagogy of hope’ to counter student disengagement. Inclusive education, as an ‘act of imagination’ engages students in creative ways with the curriculum, where they can find meaning and purpose in what they are doing. Such engagement allows student to make connections between their school work and their own life worlds.

Monitoring and benchmarking government policies and actions to improve the healthiness of food environments : a proposed Government Healthy Food Environment Policy Index

Government action is essential to increase the healthiness of food environments and reduce obesity, diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and their related inequalities. This paper proposes a monitoring framework to assess government policies and actions for creating healthy food environments. Recommendations from relevant authoritative organizations and expert advisory groups for reducing obesity and NCDs were examined, and pertinent components were incorporated into a comprehensive framework for monitoring government policies and actions. A Government Healthy Food Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI) was developed, which comprises a ‘policy’ component with seven domains on specific aspects of food environments, and an ‘infrastructure support’ component with seven domains to strengthen systems to prevent obesity and NCDs. These were revised through a week-long consultation process with international experts. Examples of good practice statements are proposed within each domain, and these will evolve into benchmarks established by governments at the forefront of creating and implementing food policies for good health. A rating process is proposed to assess a government's level of policy implementation towards good practice. The Food-EPI will be pre-tested and piloted in countries of varying size and income levels. The benchmarking of government policy implementation has the potential to catalyse greater action to reduce obesity and NCDs.

Changes in atmospheric concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and polychlorinated biphenyls between the 1990s and 2010s in an Australian city and the role of bushfires as a source

Over recent decades, efforts have been made to reduce human exposure to atmospheric pollutants including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) through emission control and abatement. Along with the potential changes in their concentrations resulting from these efforts, profiles of emission sources may have also changed over such extended timeframes. However relevant data are quite limited in the Southern Hemisphere. We revisited two sampling sites in an Australian city, where the concentration data in 1994/5 for atmospheric PAHs and PCBs were available. Monthly air samples from July 2013 to June 2014 at the two sites were collected and analysed for these compounds, using similar protocols to the original study. A prominent seasonal pattern was observed for PAHs with elevated concentrations in cooler months whereas PCB levels showed little seasonal variation. Compared to two decades ago, atmospheric concentrations of ∑13 PAHs (gaseous + particle-associated) in this city have decreased by approximately one order of magnitude and the apparent halving time ( t 1 / 2 ) was estimated as 6.2 ± 0.56 years. ∑6 iPCBs concentrations (median value; gaseous + particle-associated) have decreased by 80% with an estimated t 1 / 2 of 11 ± 2.9 years. These trends and values are similar to those reported for comparable sites in the Northern Hemisphere. To characterise emission source profiles, samples were also collected from a bushfire event and within a vehicular tunnel. Emissions from bushfires are suggested to be an important contributor to the current atmospheric concentrations of PAHs in this city. This contribution is more important in cooler months, i.e. June, July and August, and its importance may have increased over the last two decades.

Gender and municipal politics : problems, perspectives and possibilities

Scholars of local government have repeatedly lamented the lack of literature on the subject (e.g., Mowbray 1997; Pini, Previte, Haslam & McKenzie 2007). As Dollery, Marshall and Worthington (2003: 1) have commented, local government has often been the ‘poor cousin of its more exalted relatives in terms of the attention it attracts from the research community.’ The exalted relatives Dollery et al. (2003) refer to are national political environments, where women’s participation has elicited significant attention. However, the dearth of research on the specific subject of women’s representation in local government is rarely acknowledged (Neyland & Tucker 1996; Whip & Fletcher 1999). This edited book attempts to redress this situation. Each chapter applies an explicit gender analysis to their specific topic of focus, making ‘gender visible in social phenomenon; [and] asking if, how, and why social processes, standards, and opportunities differ systematically for women and men’ (Howard, Risman & Sprague 2003: 1). These analyses in the local government context are critical for understanding the extent and nature of balanced representation at all levels of government. Furthermore, some women start their elective careers serving on school boards, city or town councils or as mayors, before progressing to state and national legislative offices. Hence, the experiences of women in local government illustrate broader notions of democracy and may for some individual women, shape their opportunities further along the political pipeline.

Their space, my space, our space? Report of the 2009 Redland City Council Youth and Public Space Survey

This report analyses data collected through the Redland City Council’s Young People and Public Space Survey of 2148 high school students aged 12-19. The survey conducted in 2009 explored their sense of safety and experiences in public spaces across the City, and views on what Council could do to improve these. It is apparent they base their assessment of a space as ‘public’ on their ‘use’ of a space alone or with friends, and where strangers may be present, rather than on a type of ownership of a space (public/ private). The findings of the survey are summarised according to the themes of safety, community attitudes towards young people being in public spaces, young people and authorities, young people’s views of what is needed, and understanding different young people’s experiences of public space.

Augmenting public participation : enhancing planning outcomes through the use of social media and web 2.0

Social media and web 2.0 tools offer opportunities to devise novel participation strategies that can engage previously difficult to reach as well as new segments of society in urban planning. This paper examines participatory planning in the four local government areas of Brisbane City Council, Gold Coast City Council, Redland City Council, and Toowoomba Regional Council, all situated in South East Queensland, Australia. The paper discusses how social media and web 2.0 tools can deliver a more engaging planning experience to citizens, and investigates local government’s current use and receptiveness to social media tools for plan making and community engagement. The study’s research informed the development of criteria to assess the level of participation reached through the current use of social media and web 2.0 in the four local government areas. This resulted in an adaptation of the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) Toolbox to integrate these new tools which is being presented to encourage further discussion and evaluation by planning professionals.