Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI)No Descriptionhttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/1836342024-03-29T08:27:35Z2024-03-29T08:27:35Z5641A historical geography of Halley research station, Antarctica, 1956 – presentOates, Alicehttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/3658492024-03-20T01:45:41Zdc.title: A historical geography of Halley research station, Antarctica, 1956 – present
dc.contributor.author: Oates, Alice
dc.description.abstract: This thesis investigates the historical geographies of Halley research station, a British research station in East Antarctica. This study is the first in-depth history of Halley station, a site unique even among the already remarkable category of Antarctic research stations. Established for the International Geophysical Year of 1957-58, just a few years before the signing of the Antarctic Treaty in December 1959, Halley is deeply connected to one of the most important periods of change in Antarctic science and governance. It is also a geophysical observatory with a scientific record that includes the discovery of the hole in the ozone layer, connected to an international community of scientists through its atmospheric and space weather programmes. Halley is also a place where people live and work, whether for a summer, a winter, or multiple seasons. Through its exploration of these facets of Halley’s past and present, the thesis contributes to scholarship on the history of Antarctic science and governance, life and work in extreme environments, and the connections between Antarctica and the world beyond the ice. More broadly, it contributes to historical geographical scholarship on people and places of science, and human engagements with remote and extreme environments.
The primary source material consists of archival records and in-depth interviews. The subsequent analysis of this material is structured thematically around four answers to the central question of this thesis: What is Halley? Halley is characterised by constant change; there have been four ‘Halleys’, situated on a floating ice shelf in constant motion, populated by an ever-changing group of scientists and technical/support staff. Grappling with the issue of identity through change, the thesis examines four ‘identities’ of Halley: an International Geophysical Year legacy, lived infrastructure, colonial settlement, and geophysical observatory. In doing so, the thesis also draws on different theoretical frameworks: assemblage, scientific boundary work, settler colonial studies, and history of science. Overall, this thesis contributes an in-depth case study to research on the people, places, and politics of science in extreme environments.
Larsen C Ice Shelf velocity data supporting "Oscillatory response of Larsen C Ice Shelf flow to the calving of iceberg A-68"Deakin, KatherineChristie, FrazerBoxall, KarlaWillis, Ianhttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/3639102024-01-30T09:46:06Zdc.title: Larsen C Ice Shelf velocity data supporting "Oscillatory response of Larsen C Ice Shelf flow to the calving of iceberg A-68"
dc.contributor.author: Deakin, Katherine; Christie, Frazer; Boxall, Karla; Willis, Ian
dc.description: This dataset contains the error filtered velocity, velocity difference and velocity difference error estimations for Larsen C Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula, as reported in Deakin et al. (Journal of Glaciology, 2023). The data are presented in two subdirectories entitled ‘velocity_filt’ and ‘velocity_diff’, whose contents are detailed in the README file included in the dataset package.
The compressed size of this dataset is 322Mb.
Who Counts? A Critical Approach to Indigenous Language Demography in the YukonPalmer, Leahhttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/3616472023-12-22T14:42:23Zdc.title: Who Counts? A Critical Approach to Indigenous Language Demography in the Yukon
dc.contributor.author: Palmer, Leah
dc.description.abstract: Language demography is the practice of counting speakers of different languages. It is a common discourse technique used when discussing Indigenous languages around the world. However, there is much debate and controversy over how language demography should be practiced, to produce accurate numbers of speakers, and to produce data that is relevant and useful to those working in Indigenous language revitalisation. Alongside this debate on language demography, recent years have seen the emergence of the Indigenous Data Governance (IDG) movement. The IDG movement asks researchers to address the historical wrongdoings against Indigenous people for the sake of ‘research’, by ensuring Indigenous people have control over the research they are a part of, and access to the data that comes from that research. Indigenous organisations and researchers working within IDG frameworks argue that giving Indigenous people control of research processes concerning them, and the ability to own and freely access their own data, produces data that is more accurate, relevant, and useful to Indigenous people. The language demography debate and the IDG movement have proceeded entirely separately until this dissertation. This dissertation examines six demographies of First Nations languages in the Yukon through the lens of IDG principles, to discover how IDG influences the data collected in language demographies, within the unique context of the First Nations self-governance movements of the Yukon. It is the first study to examine the intersection of language demography and IDG. A combination of document analysis of the methodology of different language demographies, data analysis of the demographies, and attempts at interviews with language revitalisation experts working in the Yukon are used. It is found that incorporating principles of IDG into the methodology of language demographies from the start changes the nature of the data that they collect; what data is collected (who counts as a speaker?), how it is collected (who counts the speakers?), and how the data is accessed and stewarded. Incorporating IDG into language demographies produces data that is more accurate, relevant, and useful to First Nations communities. This is because IDG empowers communities to collect the data that is most relevant for their priorities, reduces the harmful effects of extractive research, and enables communities to have free access to their own data. However, there also exist significant barriers to the full implementation of IDG in language demographies. The future of language demography in Indigenous communities must work to dismantle those barriers and to incorporate principles of IDG.
On Indigenous Tax Consciousness: The Socio-Legal History of the Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government, 1938-1987Zahnd, Maximilienhttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/3608952023-12-22T14:27:02Zdc.title: On Indigenous Tax Consciousness: The Socio-Legal History of the Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government, 1938-1987
dc.contributor.author: Zahnd, Maximilien
dc.description.abstract: This thesis explores the relationship between taxation, Indigenous sovereignty, and settler colonialism. Specifically, it chronicles the socio-legal history of the Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government, a Gwich’in tribe from the Alaska interior region. The tribe gained national attention when it attempted to tax a school construction project in the 1980s, triggering a fierce but ultimately unsuccessful judicial battle with the state of Alaska. The thesis seeks to answer the following research questions: How does a tribe develop the idea to use taxation, and why does it decide to use it? The thesis thus strives to explore the origins and contours of what I call ‘Indigenous tax consciousness’. Drawing on archival and field research, I argue that a tribe’s tax consciousness consists of a long and delicate process that often takes years to crystallize. It requires a favorable politico-legal climate, good timing, a few key individuals, and some serendipity. Most importantly, however, Indigenous tax consciousness goes hand in hand with a profound desire to seek political, economic, and cultural empowerment.
The Rise of a Technoscientific Third Pole: Environmental Data Practices in High Mountain AsiaPatel, Samirahttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/3539922023-12-22T14:15:50Zdc.title: The Rise of a Technoscientific Third Pole: Environmental Data Practices in High Mountain Asia
dc.contributor.author: Patel, Samira
dc.description.abstract: Recent studies have revealed decades of glacial melt in the Hindu Kush Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau (“High Mountain Asia”). A region with a dearth of in-situ environmental data and opaque, fragmented governance, remote sensing data plays a key role in uncovering the region’s environmental concerns. These range from disasters such as flooding and earthquakes that have devastated the region to the glacial melt that impacts water supply for local livelihoods and agricultural systems. In this growing environmental discourse surrounding High Mountain Asia (HMA), analogies such as “water tower of Asia” and “Third Pole” have become correspondingly popular.
The focus of this dissertation is on how the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), an intergovernmental organization, participates in region-building. Primarily this dissertation focuses on ICIMOD’s efforts to respond to concerns over the lack of environmental data in the region, and critically examines the role of environmental data and its use in environmental governance. This dissertation engages in science and technology studies, geographies of science, and institutional ethnography in order to understand the confluence of region-building in a highly contested space and a growing focus on environmental monitoring programs due to the region’s sensitivity to climate change, natural disasters, and infrastructure development.
One might consider HMA far from the usual suspects of a study on technoscientific practices. Typically sites such as Silicon Valley or the Antarctic are recognized as principal producers of science and technologies. However, it is in a region like HMA where conceptions of scientific knowledge are most deeply felt. Where ideas and policies of climate change debated in global scientific communities have deep ramifications for millions of people vulnerable to its impacts living in the high mountains or relying on its resources downstream. The diversity of these communities and the landscapes they inhabit problematize the epistemologies of climate change knowledge production. How does one capture such diversity in the understanding of environment? Therefore, it becomes impossible to consider these technoscientific methods without placing them within a broader pluralistic understanding of the mountain environment.
Natural Resources Development in the Republic of Sakha: Russia's Diamond Producing RegionTichotsky, Johnhttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/3539382023-12-22T13:54:04Zdc.title: Natural Resources Development in the Republic of Sakha: Russia's Diamond Producing Region
dc.contributor.author: Tichotsky, John
dc.description.abstract: This thesis is an empirical study of a regional economy that is undergoing rapid social and economic change. The principal objective of the thesis is to advance a comprehensive view of past and present development of the Republic of Sakha, using available economic and historical information.
The Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is one of Russia’s most resource-rich regions, the political unit with the largest land area within the Russian Federation, and a region with a particularly strong, ethnically-based local government. The current economic structure of the Republic of Sakha is primarily defined by an export-based diamond industry. In Sakha, enormous real and potential windfall from natural resource development amplifies the existing chaos, typical in Russia, caused by the tangle of economic transition, regionalism, ethnic politics, and corruption.
The last one hundred years of development and reform in the Republic of Sakha can be addressed by a unified explanation. This thesis proposes that, rather than create a new paradigm in development economics, the Sakha case study is extremely consistent with existing explanations of a subset of economies that rely heavily on export-led growth of primary resource production. Historical evidence suggests that the successive development of specific natural resources ("staples”) for use or sale outside the republic defines the development of the Republic of Sakha since the I9th century and throughout the entire Soviet period. The current state of Sakha's general economy, the recent changes in the structure of this economy and the performance of the main industries and firms continue to function through the exploitation and export of the region’s natural resources. The process of privatization and the mechanism for export and sale of resource production are paramount issues in understanding the current structure of the Sakha economy.
Management of natural resource rents is closely linked with the current and future possibilities for the Republic of Sakha to achieve long-term economic growth and significantly higher standards of living for the people living within the region. Different views about Sakha’s development are discussed in the context of development policy. A comparison is made between available options for Sakha’s development and management of resource rents with parallel choices made in the State of Alaska (United States).
dc.description: The file processed with OCR is smaller and allows copying and pasting (though this may contain errors).
The file without OCR is much larger and does not allow copying and pasting but the visual quality is generally superior.
Natural resource development after Perestroika: Gold and tin mining in the Russian NortheastTichotsky, Johnhttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/3527862023-12-22T12:52:55Zdc.title: Natural resource development after Perestroika: Gold and tin mining in the Russian Northeast
dc.contributor.author: Tichotsky, John
dc.description.abstract: In this thesis I will examine the process of economic and political decentralisation in Russia by looking at the current changes affecting the gold and tin mining industry of the Russian Northeast. These processes are linked with an alternation of authoritarianism and liberalism, and to general attitudes about economic factors of production. The mining industry, the Russian Northeast's principal economic sector, originated as an integral part of the Stalinist labour camp system and faces great problems functioning in the post-*perestroika* world. These problems include: conflicts between the centre (Moscow) and the region, falling mineral production, difficulties in privatising the mining industry, a recent large emigration of non-Native people, and difficulties in addressing the concerns of indigenous people and environmentalists.
dc.description: The file processed with OCR is smaller and allows copying and pasting (though this may contain errors).
The file without OCR is much larger and does not allow copying and pasting but the visual quality is generally superior.
SPRI Time-and Position-Tagged Radio Echo Profiles for Severnaya Zemlya (SZ), 1997, plus derived Ice Thickness point data and Digital Elevation Models (DEMs)Dowdeswell, JulianBassford, RobinMichael, GormanWilliams, MeredithGlazovsky, AndreyMacheret, Yurihttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/3526572023-06-22T08:45:56Zdc.title: SPRI Time-and Position-Tagged Radio Echo Profiles for Severnaya Zemlya (SZ), 1997, plus derived Ice Thickness point data and Digital Elevation Models (DEMs)
dc.contributor.author: Dowdeswell, Julian; Bassford, Robin; Michael, Gorman; Williams, Meredith; Glazovsky, Andrey; Macheret, Yuri
dc.description: This data set contains radar sounder echo strength profiles from the SPRI 100 MHz ice penetrating radar instrument deployed over Severnaya Zemlya (SZ), Russian Arctic, in 1997 as well as ice thickness and related products generated from these data. The data were collected during survey flights between 9 and 24 April 1997 under funding from: U.K. Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) grants GR3/9958 and GST/02/2195; EU Environment Programme grants ENV4CT97-0490 and 0426; Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Germany; and Russian Fund for Fundamental Studies. Participants from the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI)/Bristol Glaciology Centre were J. A. Dowdeswell, M. R. Gorman and R. P. Bassford. The project was a collaboration between UK scientists and those from Russian institutions, principally the Institute of Geography at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow (Drs A.F Glazovsky and Y.Y. Macheret).
Dataset prepared for archive by J. A. Dowdeswell, T. J. Benham and F. D. W. Christie of SPRI, 2023.
Total file size: 1.60 Gb (zipped); 6.11 Gb (unzipped)
Transverse Mercator coordinate conversionsRees, GarethSwirad, Zuzannahttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/3503742023-06-23T11:41:10Zdc.title: Transverse Mercator coordinate conversions
dc.contributor.author: Rees, Gareth; Swirad, Zuzanna
dc.description: Utility functions to convert terrestrial map coordinates from latitude-longitude pairs (in degrees) to eastings-northings pairs (in metres), and vice-versa. The routines can handle Transverse Mercator (TM) projections, including the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain (OSGB) projection and a number of Universal Transverse Mercator-type projections including the UTM projections based on the WGS84 and Hayford (International 1924) ellipsoids and the Gauss-Krüger projection using the Pulkovo 1942 ellipsoid. Other TM projections can be added to the code straightforwardly if the projection parameters are known (instructions are given within the code). The functions are based on the OSGB implementation of the Redfearn series and are accurate to around 1 metre. They are written in the GBU Octave language and should therefore also work correctly in MATLAB.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transverse_Mercator:_Redfearn_series
https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/documents/resources/guide-coordinate-systems-great-britain.pdf
Wrangell Island: From political conflict to Russian sovereigntyVdovenko, Annahttps://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/3499062023-12-22T12:51:06Zdc.title: Wrangell Island: From political conflict to Russian sovereignty
dc.contributor.author: Vdovenko, Anna
dc.description.abstract: This dissertation describes the discovery, exploration and mapping of Wrangell and Herald Islands. Political disputes about sovereignty over the islands will be examined from the early 20th century until the present. The attempts at early settlement by Canadian, United States and Russian parties are described. Regarding current plans for the National Reserve, a brief explanation will be given of scientific themes relevant to the islands and their future, such as biology and geology. The analysis of the sovereignty disputes will demonstrate effective <i>de facto</i> sovereignty by Russia. If the Russian government proceeds with conservation policies, the islands may qualify as the first World Heritage Site in the Arctic regions. This designation would permit Russia to advance Arctic conservation achievements, thus allowing Wrangell Island and Herald Island to assume an important place comparable with other World Heritage Site islands such as the Galapagos, Aldabra and Heard Island. This would facilitate conclusion of a Treaty with the United States Government which would thence annul any basis for contention over sovereignty, thus confirming the <i>de jure</i> rights of Russia.
dc.description: The file processed with OCR is smaller and allows copying and pasting (though this may contain errors).
The file without OCR is much larger and does not allow copying and pasting but the visual quality is generally superior.