Research and Grants
Refereed Journal Articles
"Large City Interaction in the United States Urban System," (with
Adrian Esparza), Urban Studies, 37(4): 691-709, 2000. Abstract
Funded Research
"Interpreting the Agronomic, Economic, and Ecological Value of High Spatial-Resolution
Crop Environment Information," Deere & Corporation, 2001/2002. Abstract
Refereed Journal Articles
"Large City Interaction in the United States Urban System," (with Adrian Esparza), Urban Studies, 37(4): 691-709, 2000.
Abstract: Mounting interest
in the global system of cities has led many scholars to portray large, world-class
cities as control points in the global economy. From this position, they govern
global banking, finance and international corporate relations with the assistance
of advanced business services and telecommunications. While large cities have
taken on many global functions, recent research has cast them only as outposts
in the global economy and pays little attention to their role in regional
and national economies. This paper explores the role of five large US cities
in regional and national economies. Using primary trade data for five high-order
business services, we identify the extent to which these large cities trade
with other large cities of the US urban system, smaller-sized cities, and
test statistically the effect that firm attributes and physical characteristics
of the city system have on shaping the areal extent of large city interaction
(trade). The results indicate that: trade is consistently biased towards other
large cities; the size of origin cities is associated with the size of destination
cities; and, distance more so than destination city size plays the dominant
role in shaping large city patterns of trade.
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Funded Research
"Interpreting the Agronomic, Economic, and Ecological Value of High Spatial-Resolution Crop Environment Information," Deere & Corporation, 2001/2002.
Abstract: By many accounts,
the promise of precision agriculture is still just that, a promise. Led initially
by the development of positioning technologies (GIS and GPS), precision agriculture
remains technology-rich, but information-poor. Current controller and positioning
technologies make it possible to vary tillage depth and tool positions, nutrient
application rates, plant spacing and genetics placement, irrigation intensity,
herbicide application, and even certain types of crop harvesting down to spatial
scales of less than a meter. The effectiveness of these technologies is constrained,
however, by a lack of crop environment information databases and decision
tools, and by a general lack of understanding of the value of such information.
This project explores literature from agronomy, crop and soil science, ecology,
agricultural economics and other fields to answer three fundamental questions:
-what crop environment information is necessary for advanced precision management?
-what is the appropriate level of spatial resolution for these data and the
decision models?
-how might the use of such data and decision models improve the agronomic,
economic, ecological, and risk dimensions of modern food, oil, and fibre production
systems?
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