Dwayne Parks joins AAG as Accounting Specialist

The AAG is pleased to announce that Dwayne Parks has joined the AAG Staff at the association’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. as an Accounting Specialist. Dwayne has over 17 years of experience working with organizational data in both New York City and the Washington, D.C. metro area. Throughout this timeframe, Dwayne has managed employee payroll and record keeping in both the legal and healthcare industries including companies such as Edmond Scientific Company, Encore Legal Solutions, and Ikon Document Services (formerly Nightrider Copy Service and Alco Standards).

Dwayne holds an associates degree from Elizabeth Brant School of Business. He has also worked to provide financial reports to his former employers and is certified in QuickBooks for Federal Contractors by the Federal Contractor Services Network. In his spare time, he was volunteer head coach for the Lee Mount Vernon Sport Club over the past 8 years, from 2009-2017. The team always ranked as a number 1 or number 2 seed. Dwayne thought it was “wonderful to watch a child develop from having little skills to developing great skills.” He coached the same group of boys from 4th to 12th grades. The team was more than a team… they were a family!

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US Geographer Mei-Po Kwan honored as Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences

The UK Academy of Social Sciences announced today that it has conferred the award of Fellow on US geographer Mei-Po Kwan, among other leading social scientists.

Academy Fellows are drawn from academics, practitioners and policymakers across the social sciences. They have been recognized after an extensive peer review process for the excellence and impact of their work through the use of social science for public benefit. This includes substantial contributions and leadership in various fields, including higher education, social, economic and environmental policy, government, law, charitable foundations and think tanks.

Mei-Po Kwan, Professor of Geography and Geographic Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was the only US geographer to receive the award of Fellow by the Academy of Social Sciences this year. The Academy’s citation accompanying her selection emphasized the impact of Professor Kwan’s work, noting that she “has made significant contributions to theory, methods and practice in urban, GI science, mobility and health research.”

About the Academy of Social Sciences
The Academy of Social Sciences is the national academy of academics, learned societies and practitioners in the social sciences. Its mission is to promote social science in the United Kingdom for the public benefit. The Academy is composed of 1313 individual Fellows, 44 Learned Societies, and a number of affiliates, together representing nearly 90,000 social scientists. Fellows are distinguished scholars and practitioners from academia and the public and private sectors. Most learned societies in the social sciences in the UK are represented within the Academy. The Academy also sponsors the Campaign for Social Science.

For further information, interviews or photos contact:

Aarti Basnyat
Communications Manager
Academy of Social Sciences/Campaign for Social Sciences
+44 (0) 20 7682 4663
E: a [dot] basnyat [at] acss [dot] org [dot] uk

18 October 2018

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New Books: October 2018

Every month the AAG compiles a list of newly-published books in geography and related areas. Some are selected for review in the AAG Review of Books.

Publishers are welcome to send new volumes to the Editor-in-Chief (Kent Mathewson, Editor-in-Chief, AAG Review of BooksDepartment of Geography and Anthropology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803).

Anyone interested in reviewing these or other titles should also contact the Editor-in-Chief.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to current public health policies which have prompted the closing of most offices, we are unable to access incoming books at this time. We are working on a solution during this transition and will continue our new books processing as soon as we can. In the meantime, please feel free to peruse previous books from our archived lists.

October 2018

Adventures in Archaeology: The Wreck of the Orca II & Other Exportations by P. J. Capelotti (University Press of Florida 2018)

American Tropics: The Caribbean Roots of Biodiversity Science by Megan Raby (University of North Carolina Press 2017)

Anarchy and Geography: Reclus and Kropotkin in the UK by Federico Ferretti (Routledge 2018)

Atlas of the World, Twenty-Fifth Edition by Oxford (Oxford University Press 2018)

Edges, Fringes, Frontiers: Integral Ecology, Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainability in Guyanaby Thomas Henfrey (Berghahn Books 2018)

Eurasian Environments: Nature and Ecology in Imperial Russian and Soviet History by Nicholas Breyfogle (ed.) (University of Pittsburgh 2018)

Garbage Citizenship: Vital Infrastructures of Labor in Dakar, Senegal by Rosalind Fredericks (Duke University Press 2018)

Here and There: A Fire Survey by Stephen J. Pyne (University of Arizona Press 2018)

Imagining the Atacama Desert: A Five-Hundred-Year Journey of Discovery by Richard Francaviglia (The University of Utah Press 2018)

Inevitably Toxic Historical Perspectives on Contamination Exposure, and Expertise by Brinda Sarathy, Janet Brodie, and Vivien Hamilton (eds.) (University of Pittsburgh Press 2018)

The Life of Plants: A Metaphysics of Mixture by Emanuele Coccia (Polity Books 2018)

A Million Years of Music: The Emergence of Human Modernity by Gary Tomlinson (Zone Books 2015)

Mining the Borderlands: Industry, Capital, and the Emergence of Engineers in the Southwest Territories, 1855-1910 by Sarah E. M. Grossman (University of Nevada Press 2018)

Opium’s Long Shadow: From Asian Revolt to Global Drug Controlby Steffen Rimner (Harvard University Press 2018)

Origins and Destinations: The Making of the Second Generationby Renee Reichl, Luthra Thomas, and Soehl Roger Waldinger (Russell Sage Foundation 2018)

Powerful Places in the Ancient Andes by Justin Jennings and Edward R. Swenson (eds.) (University of New Mexico Press 2018)

Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study, With a New Preface by Orlando Patterson (Harvard University Press 2018)

Urgency in the Anthropocene by Amanda H. Lynch and Siri Veland (The MIT Press 2018)

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Council Meeting Minutes Fall 2018

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Newsletter – October 2018

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Geography and Climate Change in the 21st Century: Keeping our Eyes on the Prize 

By Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach

Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach“Geography has many grand challenges for the 21st Century… Another grand challenge is ensuring a harassment-, bullying-, and bias-free Geography workplace, to ensure that progress continues on our other grand challenges. This is a “climate change” that we must unite around. This is not an easy topic to write about, but it is my civic and professional duty.”

Continue Reading.


ANNUAL MEETING

Themes Announced for 2019 AAG Annual Meeting

Two themes have been selected for the Washington, D.C. annual meeting: Geography, GIScience, and Health: Building an International Geospatial Health Research Network (IGHRN) and Geographies of Human Rights: The Right to Benefit from Scientific Progress. Both themes will be soliciting papers, panels, posters, and sessions which integrate the theme topic. The AAG identifies themes to help give each annual meeting a more specific focus, though any geography related topic is welcome for presentation.

Learn more about the meeting themes.

Get Involved with the AAG Jobs and Careers Center!

The AAG seeks panelists, mentors, and workshop leaders for careers and professional development events for the AAG Annual Meeting. If interested, email careers [at] aag [dot] org, specifying topic(s) and activity(s) of interest, and attach a current C.V. or resume. For best consideration, please submit your information by October 25, 2018.

Focus on new

 

“Focus on Washington, DC and the Mid Atlantic” is an ongoing series curated by the Local Arrangements Committee to provide insight on and understanding of the geographies of Washington, DC and the greater Mid Atlantic region in preparation for the 2019 AAG Annual Meeting.

The Resilient Streams in the Urban Landscape of Washington

There are numerous tales of how urbanization takes its toll on waterways that stretch through areas growing in population. Ranbir Kang describes the hydrologic system in the nation’s capital in this month’s Focus on Washington, DC and the Mid-Atlantic with special attention to Rock Creek and its small branch, Klingle Creek.

Read more.

Registration for #aagDC Now Open! Start Planning your Trip!

Deadlines are approaching for submitting a paper abstract. Paper abstract submissions are due October 25, 2018 while poster abstract submissions are due January 31, 2019.


ASSOCIATION NEWS

Meet the Editors of AAG Journals: James McCarthy and Ling Bian

James McCarthy and Ling BianThe final two editors we will be featuring in our Meet the Editors section for this year are James McCarthy and Ling Bian. Both work as editors for the Annals of the American Association of Geographers – McCarthy as the Nature and Society editor and Bian as the Geographic Methods editor. Each brings extensive research and editorial experience to the journal.

Find out more about the AAG Journals editors.

Michelle Kinzer Joins AAG Staff as Government Relations Manager

Michelle KinzerThe AAG is pleased to welcome Michelle Kinzer to fill the role of Government Relations Manager. She will serve as AAG’s primary advocate on public policy in Washington and will continue to grow relationships with government decision makers as well as outside organizations and stakeholders. She will track and analyze relevant issues facing the AAG and work to promote the rapidly growing geography community as a whole.

Read more about Michelle.

AAG Welcomes Fall Interns

Three new interns have started working at the AAG for the fall 2018 semester. Meet Daliha Jimenez from the University of Maryland, College Park, Mike Kelly from the George Washington University, and Siri Knudsen from the George Washington University. All three interns will be helping with AAG programs and projects such as education, outreach, research, website, publications, or the Annual Meeting.

Learn more about the interns.


POLICY UPDATE

Geospatial Data Act Passes within FAA

Image-118 capitol buildingThe AAG is pleased to announce that the Geospatial Data Act (GDA) has been passed today, absent damaging exclusionary procurement provisions that were previously in the bill. AAG has been monitoring and providing expertise regarding the GDA for several years at the request of Congressional members.

Read more about this legislation.


RESOURCES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Geography Education Research Track – Call for Participation

NCRGE_logoFor the 2019 AAG Annual Meeting in Washington, DC, the National Center for Research in Geography Education (NCRGE) is welcoming abstracts and organized session proposals for a track of research-oriented sessions in geography education. This track aims to raise the visibility of research in geography education, grow the NCRGE research coordination network, and provide productive spaces for discussion about geography education research and the notion of what makes research in the field potentially transformative.

Read the full call.

Rare Book School: The Art & Science of Cartography, 200–1550

The Library of Congress is offering a short cartography course taught by John Hessler, Specialist in Modern Cartography and Geographic Information Science and Curator of the Jay I. Kislak Collection of the Archaeology of the Early Americas at the Library of Congress. The course will be offered from December 2-7, 2018 in Washington, DC.

Learn more about this short class.

National Humanities Center Fellowships Accepting Applications

Up to 40 fellowships are being offered through the National Humanities Center which will run from September 2019 to May 2020. The international center welcomes professionals and scholars from any discipline who are engaged with humanitistic projects to apply by October 17, 2018.

Apply to be a National Humanities Center Fellow.


MEMBER NEWS

Profiles of Professional Geographers

Jeremy Tasch Jeremy Tasch has had a varied geographical career. Now a professor of geography at Towson University, Tasch began his career right out of his undergraduate geography program in the Geography Field Division of the US Census Bureau. After working across the globe, Jeremy asserts that “if a geographer is curious and analytical in applying their knowledge to real-world problem solving effectively, then career opportunities are excellent.”

Learn more about geography careers.

October Member Updates

Read the latest news about AAG Members.

Ronald Wall, economic geographer and professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, has been serving as the lead researcher and author of the UN Report ‘State of African Cities 2018: the geography of African investment’. The report is now available for download. Read the report.


IN MEMORIAM

Terrence W. Haverluk

Terrence W. HaverlukTerrence W. Haverluk passed away on September 18, 2018. A Professor in the Geospatial Science Program at the United States Air Force Academy, Terry received his MA and PhD in geography from the University of Minnesota. Trained as a cultural geographer, most recently his research looked at geopolitics, publishing the textbook Geopolitics From the Ground Up.

Read more.

Arleigh H. Laycock

The AAG is sad to hear of the passing of Dr. Arleigh H. Laycock on June 7, 2018. Laycock was a Professor Emeritus of Geography at the University of Alberta where he had been a professor prior to his retirement in 1989. During World War II, he served as a pilot in the R.C.A.F., following which he obtained a bachelors in Geography from University of Toronto and a PhD in Geography from University of Minnesota.

Read more.

David Lowenthal

David Lowenthal died peacefully in his home in London on September 15, 2018. Lowenthal was well respected in the disciplines of history, geography, and heritage studies and he had been an emeritus professor of geography at University College, London since 1985. His most recent work, The Past is a Foreign Country – Revisited, published in 2015, was featured at an author meets critics session at the 2016 AAG Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

Read more.

Joseph E. Schwartzberg 

Joe SchwartzbergThe AAG morns the loss of Joe Schwartzberg who passed away on September 19, 2018. A world citizen of White Bear Lake, Schwartzberg spent the majority of his career working with the World Federalist movement and studying India. In his own words, Joe reflects on his life.

Read Joe’s Kaleidoscopic sketch.


PUBLICATIONS

August 2018 Issue of the ‘Professional Geographer’ Published

PG cover

The August 2018 (Volume 70, Issue 3) issue of The Professional Geographer is now available online! The focus of this journal is on short articles in academic or applied geography, emphasizing empirical studies and methodologies. These features may range in content and approach from rigorously analytic to broadly philosophical or prescriptive.

See the newest issue.

New Books in Geography — August 2018 Available

New Books in Geography illustration of stack of books

From Particles in the Air to Transitions of Power, read the latest list of new books in geography! Recently released books are compiled from various publishers each month. Some of these titles are later reviewed in the AAG Review of Books.

Browse the list of new books.

Read the September 2018 Issue of the ‘Annals of the AAG’

Annals-cvr-2017

Volume 108, Issue 5 of the Annals of the American Association of Geographers is now available! Articles spanning the breadth of geography from the four major areas of Methods, Models, and Geographic Information Science; Nature and Society; People, Place, and Region; and Physical Geography and Environmental Sciences are featured in each issue. Access to the journal is included in your AAG membership.

Full article listing available.


GEOGRAPHERS IN THE NEWS

EVENTS CALENDAR

Submit News to the AAG Newsletter. To share your news, email us!

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Oct 2018 Newsletter GDA Announcement

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Geography and Climate Change in the 21st Century: Keeping our Eyes on the Prize

Geography has many grand challenges for the 21st Century: combatting climate change and biodiversity loss; providing clean water; investigating safe refuge, health care, education, and poverty; preparing for natural hazards, and ensuring food security among many. Another grand challenge is ensuring a harassment-, bullying-, and bias-free Geography workplace, to ensure that progress continues on our other grand challenges. This is a “climate change” that we must unite around. This is not an easy topic to write about, but it is my civic and professional duty.

Donna Strickland, winner of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics (Credit: UNI, Waterloo)

On this week that Nobel Prizes are being announced, a cloud hangs over the academy and over our justice system. The Nobel Prize for Literature for 2018 will not be awarded because of sexual and financial misconduct allegations against committee members, culminating in one key figure being sentenced to jail this week for rape. Another news item notes how few women have been awarded Nobel Prizes and raises questions about bias. Fortuitously, the Nobel Prize committee just awarded Dr. Donna Strickland, the third female scientist in history (and first in 55 years), a Physics Nobel, shared three ways by scholars working on laser physics.

U.S. Supreme Court building (Credit: Joe Ravi, CC-BY-SA 3.0)

Meanwhile, the U.S. has just been through wrenching hours of testimony regarding sexual assault allegations, as part of the hearings to appoint the next U.S. Supreme Court Justice. We have not progressed far since Anita Hill testified on Capitol Hill. Another professional woman, separated by nearly three decades from Dr. Hill’s experience, gave solemn testimony last week. Both women came forward out of a sense of civic duty and opened their professional and personal lives and families to public scrutiny and far worse, for no personal gain. This testimony contrasted sharply with a privileged candidate for the highest judicial seat angrily responding during his turn, especially towards female questioners. But these are not the only allegations that have crossed our news feeds or desks. I have learned of recent sexual misconduct allegations, proceedings, and findings against a geographer at a U.S. institution. I also have received a signed request from AAG members for our organization to address a specific case and, more broadly, these issues in more depth. Broadly speaking, as a former administrator, I cannot discuss specifics of cases because victims, witnesses, and accused (and exonerated) parties must receive due process and be protected from retaliation in these proceedings. Meanwhile, the challenge for AAG is what can we do, as a professional organization, to improve the climate for and among our members?

As I wrote in my September 2018 column, the AAG Council appointed a committee to work on improving and strengthening our AAG Meeting Conduct policies, to make our Annual Meeting a safer place. The AAG Inclusion Committee will be presenting their findings and recommendations to AAG Council to consider this fall, so we can move forward with a new plan. I am grateful to the committee, led by Dr. Lorraine Dowler, for their hard work on this. Stepwise, there are other ways we can address the issue of harassment, bullying, and bias in our community and institutions. One of the informal observations by the Inclusion Committee was that science organizations seem to be ahead of the issues in several senses. For the rest of this column, I will share some of the best practices of other organizations, and set an agenda for where we may ask the AAG Council and our membership to go next.

On the topic of equity, The American Geophysical Union (AGU) President and President-elect have raised the issue of gender equity in their awards, and tasked their honors committee to study how to improve in this area, and their members to be more proactive in nominating deserving diverse members. Prompted by this published discussion, an AAG member sent me a query about gender balance in AAG Awards, and asked if AAG has undertaken a study to see where we stand, and expressed optimism that we are doing well. I would expand this to a broader examination of equity in terms of how do we honor, elevate, and retain all protected classes in our profession. This is another of our grand challenges then, to assess the equity in our recognition systems.

Also on the topic of honors, the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Board just passed a policy and procedure to revoke AAAS Fellowship status due to “proven scientific misconduct, serious breaches of professional ethics, or when the Fellow in the view of AAAS otherwise no longer merits the status of Fellow.“ This includes sexual misconduct. This is another grand challenge that should be considered by our organization and others as a next step, again building on our Safe Meetings, anti-harassment, and ethics policies.

Broadening out on consequences for bullying, harassment, bias, and workplace hostility, AAG needs to work in partnership with our home institutions and our sibling organizations to ensure seamless reporting, support, and action structures to deal with complicated sets of allegations and due process for all, especially when they cross multiple jurisdictions. I have heard instances where a victim was harassed at a meeting, and the perpetrator was not from their home institution, and the event was co-sponsored by two organizations. Unfortunately, the home institution had limited capacity to deal with this. Therefore, these kinds of cases can fall through institutional jurisdictional gaps when it comes to Title IX enforcement. A further complication to protect victims and witnesses from retaliation is that they are not identified and do not know the penalties handed out to perpetrators. Thus, it will often take a very long time for investigation outcomes to see the full light of day. Creating a reporting structure and clearinghouse in partnership with our home institutions is therefore another one of our grand challenges. For AAG Meetings we have made progress to build on with our Inclusion Committee, combined with our foundational anti-harassment policies, and our existing standing committee that hears meeting harassment cases.

I wish that Geography and other organizations’ “Presidential Columns” did not have to be about demanding that our memberships be more respectful and more inclusive of one another; for civility; and for basic human rights. It is the responsibility of leadership to listen to our members; to shine the light on timely and difficult professional issues that have always plagued our fields, not only recently; and to act to make our professional communities kinder, more inclusive, and in the words of Former AAG President Victoria Lawson, “caring” places, of “human and environmental well-being” (Lawson, 2009, Antipode 41(1): 210-214). I believe we geographers are all on the same page with treasuring our planet and our environment, but we still have to work on valuing and respecting each other. I salute the vast majority of geographers who do care, the women and men who write to me, who sign your names with sincerity, hope, and courage to share ideas and ask for changes, and who are already part of the positive “climate change” in Geography.

Please share your ideas with me at: slbeach (at) austin (dot) utexas (dot) edu

— Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach, President, AAG
Professor, Geography and the Environment, The University of Texas at Austin

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0045

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The Resilient Streams in the Urban Landscape of Washington, D.C.

The process of urbanization often leads to the alteration of local streams. Such alterations range from complete disappearance of streams by making them flow underground, converting them into canals, loss of their aquatic habitat, and changes in their morphology (Kang and Marston 2006; Kang 2007) . In Washington, D.C. many streams and springs have disappeared during the last 200 years of urban development and federal growth (Williams 1977) . The two rivers bordering the city, the Potomac and Anacostia rivers, and the National Mall within the city, look very different as compared to their respective landscape characteristics in the 1700s due to changing sediment and runoff volumes. In Figure 1 you can see that the current stream density within the city and the surrounding areas reveals a significant difference (Figure 1). However, some times the local conditions of streams are resilient enough to counter the effects of the urban runoff (Kang 2007; Kang and Marston 2006).

Figure 1: A Visual Depiction of the Current Variable Density of the Stream Network within and outside Washington DC (Source: USGS)

While many local streams have disappeared, the resilient Rock Creek continues to drain the western portion of the national city into the Potomac River. The prominent names among the streams that disappeared include Smith Spring, Frankling Park Springs, Gibson’s Spring, Caffrey’s Spring, City Spring, and Tiber Spring (Williams 1977) . While some of them are underground, others were converted into canals or significantly reduced in their coverage for the development of the city. However, Rock Creek has successfully survived through the impervious development of the city.

Despite ambitious urban growth, the federal government protected the Rock Creek Park so that Rock Creek could meander through its flood plain. It is also a vibrant ecosystem supporting aquatic life as well as wildlife in its flood plain. One of the cherished experiences of many Washingtonians is to witness a rich variety of wild life as they conclude their late evening commute from work through the Rock Creek Parkway that partially runs through the flood plains of Rock Creek.

Figure 2: Location of Klingle Creek in Washington, D.C. (Source: USGS)

The successful survival of Rock Creek during the last century of urban growth is also because of its equally resilient tributaries that kept it alive and strong. Tributaries such as Klingle Creek (Figure 2), offer a microcosm to understand the resilient structure and ecology of this national creek. Klingle Creek is a small urban branch of Rock Creek and flows through the neighborhoods of Woodley Park, Cleveland Park, and Mount Pleasant in the city of Washington. It is unique to Rock Creek because of its geomorphic survival during the changing land cover politics around it. Surrounded by highly urbanized landscape, Klingle Creek presents a healthy ecosystem with a variety of fluvial processes. The stream has adjusted to the surrounding highly impervious landscape in a synergistic fashion. Starting as a narrow channel at the headwater, its capacity gradually increases in the downstream direction to accommodate the urban run-off. Various sections in the upstream portion of Klingle Creek experience bank erosion allowing for a sediment supply for the lower portion. The lower portion of the creek includes large rocks creating beautiful waterfalls (Figure 3) while reducing the velocity of the urban flow. It also provides sediment traps for various types of aquatic habitat (Figure 4). Many portions of the creek present lush moss covered rocks and woody debris offering a soothing experience to nature lovers.

Figure 3: Large rocks creating a waterfall in the lower portion of Klingle Creek (Source: Ranbir Kang, 2015)
Figure 4: A medium resolution point cloud (draped with colors from orthoimages) showing the sorting of large rocks in the lower portion of Klingle Creek to trap sediment (Source: Ranbir Kang, 2015)

Despite a highly urban landscape comprising its watershed, Klingle Creek is lined by a riparian corridor with a thick tree canopy. While the occasional tree fall offers woody debris to regulate the eco-geomorphology of the stream, a thick tree canopy helps promote the interception of rainwater. Therefore, it has played an important role in the survival of Rock Creek against the urban sprawl in the heart of our capital. For a long time, Klingle road (which ran parallel to Klingle Creek) was used by locals as a quick access between Cortland Place and Porter Street. However, the frequent flooding and maintenance costs of the road made the city think about alternatives to the road which led to the calls for saving Klingle Valley. While various groups of the community gathered support to remove the road, other groups gathered in favor of keeping the road. The battle grew until the dispute reached the City Council and in 1991, the road was barricaded (Figure 5).

Figure 5: The barricaded entrance to Klingle Road in 2015. The Creek is located on the left of the barricade while facing it. (Source: Ranbir Kang)

Figure 6: The entrance to the new multi-use Klingle Trail in 2015. The Creek is located on the left while facing the trash can. (Source: Ranbir Kang)

After more than two decades of dispute, in 2015 the barricaded portion of Klingle Road was replaced by a multi-use trail (Figure 6). The trail offers a variety of recreational opportunities for users of all age groups. One side of the new trail is bordered by Klingle Creek and the other side includes the historical woodland garden of the Tregaron Conservancy. While benches along the trail offer a view of the creek (Figure 7), the trail also connects the recreational communities of two neighborhoods in the city.

Figure 7: Benches along the new Klingle Trail to enjoy the view of the Klingle Creek. (Source: Ranbir Kang)

Figure 8: Post restoration use of a matting to protect the stream banks of the restored portion of Klingle Creek. (Source: Ranbir Kang)
 

The process of replacing the road with a trail included restoring various sections of Klingle Creek through alterations of the stream banks and creating a sequence of steps and pools along the stream. It also included efforts to modify the banks by planting native vegetation and covering various portions of the bank with protective matting (Figure 8)..

The replacement of the road with a trail along Klingle Creek is an example of geodesign. There are numerous cases of urban areas across the globe where communities and city officials worked together in geodesigning their cities with a sustainable futuristic approach (Beatley 2016). The high line project in New York City and the urban parks in the city of Singapore are just two more examples where cities introduced green zones within the highly urbanized landscapes to connect their communities with nature using softer sustainable architectural designs. Economics is often one of the major driving forces behind such conservation and restoration initiatives so that the long term future demands are met with minimal cost. The ecological challenges and experiences of residents in Klingle Valley during the next decade will determine the effects of the restored creek on the larger Rock Creek, the role and functions of the new trail, and the appropriateness of restoration design and expenditures in the Klingle Valley restoration project. Klingle Valley, an urban creek along with its sister tributaries of Rock Creek offer us a soothing experience and a quick get away from the urban stress. With Washington moving forward as a sustainable city, Klingle Creek complements that ambition as a resilient hydrology of Anthropocene.

Ranbir Kang is an associate professor at Western Illinois University. With a long term research interest in the Washington metropolitan area, he specializes in urban hydrology, human impact on fluvial systems, and high resolution river surveys.

DOI: 10.14433/2017.0044

References:

Beatley, Tim. 2016. Geodesigning nature into cities. ArcNews Winter 2016:20-21.

Kang, R. S. 2007. Effects of urbanization on channel morphology of three streams in the central redbed plains of Oklahoma, Graduate College of Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK.

Kang, R. S., and R. A. Marston. 2006. Geomorphic effects of rural-to-urban land use conversion on three streams in the Central Redbed Plains of Oklahoma. Geomorphology 79:488-506.

Williams, Garnett. P. 1977. Washington D.C.’s Vanishing Springs and Waterways. Arlington, VA 22202: U. S. Geological Survey.

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Michelle Kinzer Joins AAG Staff as Government Relations Manager

The AAG is pleased to welcome Michelle Kinzer to fill the role of Government Relations Manager. She will serve as AAG’s primary advocate on public policy in Washington and will continue to grow relationships with government decision makers as well as outside organizations and stakeholders. She will track and analyze relevant issues facing the AAG and work to promote the rapidly growing geography community as a whole.

Michelle brings with her several years of government relations experience from both the public and private sectors. She began her career answering constituent phone calls in the office of Senator Tim Kaine and eventually went on to manage the Senator’s constituent correspondence database. She employed her budding passion for geospatial data by compiling targeted email lists for press releases and town halls in the Commonwealth, and mapping internal correspondence metrics. After some crash courses in ArcGIS Online, she created an interactive Virginia map for the National Park Service’s 2016 Centennial that was featured on Senator Kaine’s website. Michelle later went on to join the government relations firm Public Strategies Washington as a Senior Legislative Assistant. Her client work focused on the issues of renewable energy, small business & seasonal visas, agriculture, and transportation.

Michelle is a graduate of Virginia Tech where she earned her B.A. in Urban Planning with a concentration in Global Development and minors in Political Science and Spanish. She developed a working proficiency in Spanish while studying abroad in Valparaíso, Chile.

In her free time, Michelle enjoys DC theater, bluegrass music, Hokie football, and arguing with friends and family over the quickest way to get somewhere.

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AAG Welcomes Fall 2018 Interns

Three new interns have joined the AAG staff this fall semester! The AAG would like to welcome Daliha, Mike, and Siri to the organization.

Daliha Jimenez is a senior at the University of Maryland, College Park, pursuing a B.S in Geographic Information Systems and a minor in Remote Sensing. Daliha hopes to use her skills to collect data and create maps to analyze the effects of land and climate change along the East Coast. She is also interested in urban planning and analyzing growth in densely populated areas. After graduating this December, she wishes to work as a GIS analyst in the District / Maryland / Virginia area. In her spare time, she likes to watch movies, explore new museums & restaurants, and embroider different designs.

Mike Kelly is currently a junior at the George Washington University studying Geography and Finance. Prior to joining AAG, Mike served as a Membership and Marketing Intern at the Council on Foundations in Arlington, VA. At the COF, he was heavily involved with database management and creating content to be distributed on social media and mailing lists. Born and raised in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Mike spent most of his childhood in Bucks County rooting for the Eagles, Sixers, and Phillies. In his spare time, Mike enjoys producing and listening to music, running, following college basketball and reading up on the latest trends in new urbanism.

Siri Knudsen is a senior at the George Washington University pursuing a B.A in Geography and International Affairs and minors in Spanish and GIS. Over the summer she worked at the Port of Seattle in Washington State as a data management intern in their environmental department. Siri got to participate in many of their habitat restoration projects including monitoring and mapping kelp growth in Elliott Bay. Aside from her interest in environmental issues, she is an active participant in open source mapping and hope to one day bridge her disciplines and continue working in this field. Siri’s love for geography came from childhood boating trips in British Columbia where her family explored the intricate groups of islands, navigating them using nautical charts. In her spare time, Siri likes to read, travel, ski, and be at the beach with her dog!

If you or someone you know is interested in applying for an internship at the AAG, the AAG seeks interns on a year-round basis for the spring, summer, and fall semesters. More information on internships at the AAG is also available on the Jobs & Careers section of the AAG website at: https://www.aag.org/internships.

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