Looking for a New Direction in Mapping Your World?
When Gov. Steve Beshear named University of Kentucky geography professor Matthew Zook the state geographer this spring, Zook knew exactly how he wanted to honor his adopted state
geography
Geomorphology and Graph Theory
Tobias Heckmann, Wolfgang Schwanghart and I recently published the second of our two articles on applications of graph theory in physical geography & geosciences: Graph Theory—Recent Developments of Its Applications in Geomorphology (Geomorphology, v. 243, p. 130-146). The other paper, an overview of graph theory in geosciences, was promoted in this post.
Example of a structural graph, from the article.
Five A&S Students Named Fulbright Recipients
The University of Kentucky Office of Nationally Competitive Awards has announced that five A&S students have been selected as recipients of Fulbright U.S. Student Program scholarships.
Climate and History: Geography Matters
Just finished John Brooke’s Climate Change and the Course of Global History: A Rough Journey (Cambridge University Press, 2014). If nothing else, the book is a remarkable achievement with respect to the breadth and depth of literature and ideas brought to bear, including history, geography, geology, anthropology, economics, climatology, ecology, and archaeology. Brooke also makes a compelling case for a significant role for environmental change in general, and climate change in particular, in influencing human affairs and history (and, of course, vice-versa).
Summer Camps That Are Fun and Educational
There is a surplus of summer camps available for local children, but the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences offers a summer day camp experience beyond the norm — camps focusing on linguistics, geography, creative writing and philosophy
Geography Welcomes Carolyn Finney
The Department of Geography is proud to announce that Carolyn Finney will be joining the department's faculty this fall.
The Perfect Floods of Texas
As I write, there is flooding in central Texas, and more to come. The focus is rivers and creeks in the San Antonio and Guadalupe River systems in the Balcones Escarpment area along the San Antonio-Austin Corridor, with effects beginning to felt downstream.
Destroyed trees along banks of the Blanco River, Wimberly, TX, after the flood of 24 May, 2015 (photo by Jay Janner, Associated Press).
Froude for Thought
The Froude number is a hydraulic parameter often used to relate aquatic habitats and biotopes to flow intensity. Independently of some trenchant critiques (see, e.g., Clifford et al. 2006), there seems to be no inherent hydrological, geomorphological, or ecological reason that the Froude number (Fr) should be the best indicator of habitat or ecological niches.
Fr is a dimensionless number that describes flow regimes in open channels and is unquestionably useful in many aspects of hydrology, geomorphology, and engineering. It is the ratio of inertial and gravitational forces:
Fr = V/(g d)0.5
Fr < 1 indicates subcritical or tranquil, and Fr > 1 supercritical or rapid flow. But variations in Fr within the subcritical range (where it typically falls) can be significantly related to, e.g., geomorphic units and habitats within channels.
Shawnee Run, Kentucky
Office Hours with Kyra Hunting and Betsy Beymer-Farris
On the latest episode of Office Hours, Professor Kyra Hunting stops by to tell Brian and Sarah all about Media Arts and Studies. Join them in learning about the program, Professor Hunting's media research, and some things about your favorite type of media that you may not have known. And stick around as Betsy Beymer-Farris fills us in on her upcoming work in Tanzania.
Navigating the Changing Immigrant Health Care Landscape in Immokalee, Florida
Michele Bolduc is a PhD candidate at the University of Kentucky interested in the changing geographies of health and health care in rural places.
