Equatorial Guinea

EQUATORIAL GUINEA is located in west-central Africa just north of the equator. It is made up of Rio Muni on the African mainland and the islands of Bioko, Annobon, Corisco, Elobey Grande, and Elobey Chico. Rio Muni is bordered by CAMEROON to the north and by GABON to the east and south. The Campo River forms part of the northern boundary with Cameroon, and the Rio Muni River forms part of the southern boundary with Gabon. These two rivers, along with the Mbini River, located in the center of Rio Muni, are the three largest rivers in the country. Rio Muni contains 93 percent of Equatorial Guinea’s total landmass, and 80 percent of the population lives here. The major urban areas in Equatorial Guinea include Malabo and Luba on Bioko Island and Bata, Mbini, Ebebiyin, Mongomo, and Evinayong on the mainland of Rio Muni. Both Bioko and Annobon islands are volcanic. Equatorial Guinea has a tropical climate that is hot and humid year-round. Along the coastal plain, the city of Bata is cooler and drier than the rest of the country. Rio Muni is mainly hilly terrain averaging about 2,000 ft (610 m) in elevation with some 4,000-ft (1,220-m) peaks.

Bioko Island, which was called Fernando Po until the 1970s, lies about 25 mi (40 km) from Cameroon and is the largest island in the Gulf of Guinea, covering 780 square mi (2,017 square km). It was discovered in 1471 by Portuguese explorer Fernando Póo, who was seeking a route to INDIA. PORTUGAL controlled the island until 1778, when it ceded this, surrounding islets, and commercial rights to the mainland between NIGER and the Ogoue River to SPAIN in the Treaty of Pardo in exchange for territory in South America (mainly territories in BRAZIL). Bioko is made up of three extinct volcanoes, the largest of which, Pico Basile, reaches up 9,870 ft (3,008 m). The coastline is 120 mi (195 km) long, very steep to the south from the volcanoes rising up, and much lower in the northwest, with good harbors at both Malabo and Luba.

Also along the northwestern coast between Malabo and Luba are several scenic beaches. Indigenous to Bioko Island are the Bubi people constituting 15 percent of the population. The Bubi are descendants of slaves liberated from western Africa by the British during the 19th century.

Originally, it is believed that the first inhabitants of Equatorial Guinea were Pygmies who still live in isolated areas of northern Rio Muni. The majority of the people of Equatorial Guinea are of Bantu origin, most of these being from the Fang tribe, which makes up 80 percent of the total population of Equatorial Guinea. Spain granted Equatorial Guinea independence on October 12, 1968. After gaining independence, they suffered for 11 years under a repressive dictatorship that suppressed the local economy. Equatorial Guinea’s economy was mainly based on developing the rich volcanic soil for agricultural use. They grow cacoa, coffee, plantains, cassavas, sweet potatoes, and palm oil. They are slowly developing their fishing industry with the help of Spain, NIGERIA, and MOROCCO. Oil and gas discovered offshore is now the main export and will continue to drive the economy for years to come.

Entrepot

AN ENTREPOT (from the Latin emporium) is a settlement founded specifically for commercial activity or a market or mart located within or on the periphery of an administrative/political center. The origins of the entrepot are traced to the commercial behavior of ancient societies.

Traders entering foreign territory were exposed to numerous natural and cultural hazards. In addition to facing harsh traveling conditions, they might be attacked by brigands or find themselves in places where they did not know the local languages or customs and were subject to territory-specific laws under which they would find no protection. Foreign merchants required neutral sites of exchange, which would offer provisions, lodging, interpreters, and legal and economic safeguards. Designated, controlled trading stations met the needs of the host society as well. Restricting stranger merchants to an entrepot protected the local population from potentially threatening foreign influences.

Moreover, elites could use control over the flow of prestige commodities, such as items of precious metal, to maintain their social position, redistributing the imported goods locally through processes of gift exchange.

Entrepots for foreign exchange were generally located at the boundaries dividing political territories or distinct economic or environmental zones, such as the SAHEL of Sub-Saharan Africa, which lay between the desert and the savannah. Situated along TRADE ROUTES, the entrepot had to be accessible to foreign merchants—for example, a place with a functional harbor— which in turn was connected to inland distribution networks. Because the entrepot also provided lodging and provisions to visiting traders, who might spend long periods there before returning home, nearby supplies of potable water and an agricultural HINTERLAND also were important.

The population and administrative organization of the entrepot varied with its function and complexity. Whether a seasonal market or year-round point of exchange, a site required a permanent population to maintain it. The permanent service population would consist either of locals or of permanent representatives of a foreign trading diaspora, who would learn the territory’s language, look after the foreign community’s temples, and cultivate relations with the host society.

If the entrepot had an ethnically and linguistically mixed population, it would be divided into distinct residential neighborhoods. Craftsmen resided at the entrepot as well, producing not only goods for exchange but also producing and repairing gear needed by the traders—everything from combs and shoes to ships and carts. Finally, port officials collected tolls and adjudicated disputes.

Energy Geography

ENERGY GEOGRAPHY IS a subdiscipline of geography that draws from many philosophical and thematic traditions, but it is primarily positioned in the interface of environmental and economic concerns. The extraction, harnessing, and consumption of the natural resources that supply society with our energy needs have always been central to economic activities. Over time, however, it has also become apparent that we face scarcity of resources and negative consequences of pollution, and the environmental component of energy analysis has grown stronger. As such, the focus on energy in geography is important because it addresses one of the central aspects of the discipline—the human environment interaction.

Energy can be defined as the capacity for, or equivalent of, doing work. Society needs energy for transportation, heating and cooling of buildings, powering production processes in industry, and various household needs. Sources of energy are classified as renewable or nonrenewable. Nonrenewable is primarily fossil fuels: oil, coal, and natural gas. More than 80 percent of U.S. energy needs are satisfied by fossil fuel. Renewable energy sources include hydro-electric, solar, and wind power. Nuclear power occupies a special position not commonly classified as either renewable or non-renewable. Often, the energy source itself has to be converted to a usable form. The most common and versatile form is electricity, which is generated in coalfired power plants, nuclear plants, or hydroelectric dams. In the transportation sector, gasoline and other oil derivatives directly power the combustion engine. Another example of this direct use is when natural gas is utilized for home heating.

Energy geography may not be as well defined as economic or cultural geography. For example, courses in energy geography are infrequent in geography departments around the country, although energy issues are often addressed in other forums. Geographers’ interest in energy has mirrored the developments in society at large. With the advent of the environmental movement in the 1960s and 1970s, and the subsequent oil crisis and surging energy costs, energy studies became increasingly popular in the 1970s in geography as well as in the research community in general. After the immediate crisis, energy concerns were not prioritized, but socioeconomic and technical solutions continue to make our energy system more efficient. There is still much work to be done, however, and in this endeavor, geographers can be found not only in academic departments but also in government agencies and laboratories and in private industry.

Enclave

AN ENCLAVE is a political unit that is completely enclosed within a foreign territory. It is called an “exclave” from the perspective of the country that has sovereignty over it. An enclave can also exist on a subnational level when a subdivision has land outside its parent territory. The enclaves can be created for geological, historical, or political reasons. Enclave is a French word of the diplomatic language, which passed into the other languages; it comes from the Latin inclavatus, meaning “closed with the key.”

Some enclaves are small nations completely surrounded by another one, for example SAN MARINO and VATICAN CITY, exclaves of ITALY, and LESOTHO, exclave of SOUTH AFRICA. Some nations can be enclaved except for a small part of the coast, as in the cases of GAMBIA, BRUNEI, and MONACO. Some other territories cannot be reached from their nation except by international waters, or are enclosed in other countries except for a small coast fragment: This is the case of the Spanish towns of Ceuta and Melilla in the north of MOROCCO and of the British colony of GIBRALTAR in the south of SPAIN. True enclaves are the Belgian municipality of Barle-Nassau in the NETHERLANDS; Busingen in GERMANY (exclave of SWITZERLAND); Campione d’Italia in Switzerland (exclave of Italy); and the town of Llivia in Spain (exclave of FRANCE). Madha is a land of OMAN enclaved in the UNITED ARAB EMIRATES; INDIA has 106 exclaves in BANGLADESH and Bangladesh has 92 exclaves in India.

A lot of enclaves in history do not exist anymore. Until 1861, the Pontifical State had the exclave of Benevento in south Italy, and the Papal States also had the exclave of the Comtat Venaissin, the region around the city of Avignon, enclaved in France, from 1274 until 1791. HONG KONG, until 1997 administered by Great Britain, now is part of CHINA. There are territories that are not true enclaves, but are practically. Some practical enclaves are not geographically detached from their nation, but are more easily reached by entering another country because of their location. Some villages of ESTONIA, for example, can be reached only by a road passing inside Russian land. 

The more frequent type is the subnational enclave. Administrative division of countries, often for historical reasons, can create small lands enclaved in another province, region, or municipality. In AUSTRALIA, the Australian Capital Territory is an enclave of New South Wales. In AUSTRIA, Vienna is an enclave of Lower Austria. In COLOMBIA, Bogotà is an enclave of Cundinamarca. Other examples include: In Belgium, the Brussels- Capital Region is an enclave of Flanders, and also the capital of Flanders. In Italy, a lot of municipalities have exclaves: Città di Castello, in the region Umbria, has the exclave of Mount Ruperto enclaved in the territory of the Marche region.

Ethnic enclaves are communities of an ethnic group inside an area where other ethnic groups are the majority. The historic Jewish ghettos in Europe and the Native Americans reservations in the UNITED STATES are some examples.

Elevation

ELEVATION CAN BE defined as a measure of the height above mean sea level. When specifying a location on (or above) the surface of the Earth, elevation is commonly considered to be the third coordinate, complementing measures of LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE. Similarly, bathymetric measurements provide a depth below mean sea level to the floor of a body of water. Mean sea level is defined as the still water level averaged over time so that periodic changes in sea level—such as those caused by the gravitational effects of the moon and sun—are averaged out.

The choice of mean sea level as the baseline (or datum) for elevation is an arbitrary, though reasonable, option. Based on the behavior of water, early practitioners of geodesy (the study of the shape of the Earth) believed that the oceans of the world were balanced by the Earth’s gravitational pull, forming a perfect sphere with the exception of the transitory distortions caused by waves and the periodic changes due to the tides. This decision is arbitrary since elevation could have been defined as a measure of distance from the center of the Earth or a measure of distance below the highest known point on the Earth, among other possible choices. Since there is no natural zero level for elevation,collections of elevation data should be considered to be of an interval type.

Unfortunately, mean sea level is not constant at all places. There are irregularities in mean sea level because of varying concentrations of mass in different parts of the Earth, and the resultant variations in gravitational pull. Additionally, the effects of currents and differences in water temperature and atmospheric temperature and pressure create variances in mean sea level. Moreover, mean sea level is historically measured with a tide gauge, which is an instrument that uses land-based benchmarks to record the sea level. A change in mean sea level can therefore result from a change in the actual sea level or a change in the height of the land that supports the tide gauge. Given all these distorting factors, mean sea level must be considered as the zero elevation (also termed the vertical datum) for only a local area. When mean sea level has been determined for a local area, this datum is used to compute elevations in surrounding areas with surveying tools and the techniques of leveling and triangulation. 

Elevation can be represented graphically in several different ways. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has historically produced several map series that contain elevation data both in the form of points where known elevations have been surveyed and in the form of contour lines that produce an approximate elevation surface. Contour lines connect locations on the Earth’s surface that have the same elevation value. Generally speaking, elevation contour maps use a constant contour interval (for example, 10 ft) so that the separation between contour lines represents a consistent change in elevation. This results in contour lines that are close together in areas with steep terrain, and further apart in areas with less dramatic elevation changes. The contour interval may not be constant for all maps in a map series, since the best contour interval for a given map is a function of the variation in elevation across the map and should be chosen in such a way that sufficient elevation detail can be visualized.

Although printed contour maps continue to prove useful for many applications, elevation data are increasingly processed digitally. There are several common digital formats, also known as digital elevation models (DEMs). One such DEM is termed a triangulated irregular network (TIN). A TIN begins with a set of points where the elevation has been calculated. These points can occur at any location but ought to occur at points where there is a major change in the shape of the elevation surface, such as at mountain peaks, valley floors, or the edge of cliffs. The denser the number of elevation points, the greater the detail captured by the TIN. In order to generate the elevation surface, a set of nonoverlapping triangles are created by connecting neighboring points.

Each triangle represents a planar elevation surface, and the slope and aspect (the orientation angle of the slope with respect to north) are constant for each triangle. TINs are a very efficient method for storing elevation data, in part because they allow for variation in the density of elevation points based on variability in the elevations being mapped. A more widely used method for digitally representing elevation data is the raster (or grid) method. A raster DEM divides a portion of the Earth’s surface into regularly spaced (and usually rectangular) grid cells, arranged into rows and columns. Each cell contains a single elevation value. Based on the cell values and the values in neighboring cells, the slope and aspect can be calculated for the elevation surface. The raster method allows for easier manipulation of elevation data than the TIN method, although it requires greater amounts of computer disk space to store the large number of regularly spaced elevation values. Rasters are always regularly spaced, so there is no way to vary the density of elevation observations within a single raster to account for greater or lesser variability in relief. High-quality DEMs in raster format are available at several different cell resolutions.

Electoral Geography

ELECTORAL GEOGRAPHY is a part of POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY. It is the geographical study of political space in democratic states. Electoral research in dictatorships can be useful although, their citizens are not really freely choosing. Electoral geography is therefore a special study of electoral processes and districts to map election results and then to test the results for the causes. Electoral geography as the study of election districts and the voting behavior in them has been of interest to politicians, political scientists, geographers and others since the rise of democracies in place of other forms of government in the last several centuries. 

In England before the American Revolution and in the UNITED STATES since the adoption of its present constitution the practical politicians who have had the power to shape legislative districts have found that the boundaries of districts can be drawn to favor one political party over another. The American term for this is gerrymandering. The term was first applied to election districts drawn in the late 1700s in MASSACHUSETTS by the Federalist Party. At the time Elbridge Gerry was the governor. One of the districts looked like a salamander; however, a political wit punned the district from a salamander into a “Gerrymander.”

In England, concern with “rotten boroughs” was a concern with electoral geography and the malapportionment of the size of the districts. Ultimately, the lack of equal representativeness in districts is a concern with the legitimacy of a political system. Democratic regimes are based upon the principle of the equality of the “voters” or the people who are citizens and thus have the right to make political decisions. This means that political sovereignty of the people in elections is entailed in the shape and the demographic contents of each district. When districts are drawn by legislatures or other decision-making bodies to increase the power of one group over another, the resulting legislative or other districts become inherently unjust.

In America, the courts and ultimately the Supreme Court of the United States has tolerated political gerrymandering, but it has ruled as unconstitutional racial gerrymandering. Cases such as Gomillian v. Lightfoot (364 U.S. 339) (1960) or the cases of Shaw v. Reno (509 U. S. 630) (1993) and Miller v. Johnson (515 U.S. 900) (1995), in NORTH CAROLINA and GEORGIA respectively, have dealt with the subject. The Gomillian case considered racial gerrymandering in Tuskegee, ALABAMA. Ordered to allow African Americans to vote and aware that whites were greatly outnumbered, the city government gerrymandered the city’s territory from a square to a contorted figure that excluded all but about seven or eight nonwhite voters. The Supreme Court in this case was dealing with electoral geography, as it was in the recent cases of Shaw and Miller, where the Department of Justice had ordered southern states to draw some districts with African American majorities. Again the court had to rule on an issue of racial gerrymandering. 

There are several ways in which gerrymandered districts are drawn. In the first approach, the goal is to populate each district with a 51 percent majority for the party in power and 49 percent district vote for the minority party. Another approach is to locate as much of the minority party’s voting strength into a few “super” districts that will be carried by huge majorities approaching 99 percent. The effect is that the minority party carries a few districts but loses all the rest and thus has a much smaller legislative representation than it would have if the election districts were drawn in a way that spread the votes of the major parties in a more competitive manner. A third approach is a combination of the first two approaches. The party doing the gerrymandering can push significant numbers of minority party voters into a few districts and then spread the rest into districts where the minority party is always outvoted. This method allows the majority party to carry a large number of seats in the legislature or parliament.

Electoral geographers study votes of plebiscites. These are often votes for constitutional amendments or some form of referendum. Studies of plebiscites focus on the spatial elements associated with the vote in order to explain why people in one area voted differently from those in another area. Electoral geographers also study the votes of deliberative assemblies such as legislatures or parliaments. The electoral geographer then seeks to move beyond the pattern of votes cast in elections or plebiscites. The focus of these types of studies is to explain blocs of votes or to determine whether the votes are in the “best interests” of the people being represented. Studies of votes in the United Nations and other legislative bodies can verify bloc voting. The challenge for the electoral geographer is then to interpret the descriptive results in order to explain why votes were cast as they were.

Analysis of votes of deliberative bodies is risky because the motivations for voting may be hidden in a veil of diplomacy or motives in an hidden agenda. Electoral geographers then have to move beyond the description of the votes to reveal the real causes of the voting patterns. It should be noted that elections are conducted according to rules. These rules may be used to create the illusion of fairness in an election. Or they may be used to slant the results for the benefit of one group over another. Electoral geographers can reveal these types of machinations, but at the same time, of the approximately 200 states in the world today, less than half are democratic enough for analysis of their votes by the techniques used by electoral geographers to be meaningful.

Elburz Mountains

THE ELBURZ (or Alborz) Mountains are a narrow mountain range that curve along the southern shore of the Caspian Sea in the north of IRAN. From west to east, the range measures about 600 mi or 970 km long. The Elburz range forms a climatic barrier between the Caspian and the Central Iranian Plateau. The northern side receives a good deal of snow and rain and is blanketed by lush forests and a fertile coastal plain. The southern side, in stark contrast, has few trees and is characterized by barren brown slopes and desert below.

The Elburz Mountains and their neighboring range to the east, the Kopet Dag, were originally volcanic. They retain the verticality typical of this origin and rise almost as a sheer wall from the southern shores of the Caspian Sea. As relatively recent formations, the Elburz range is among the highest in the region and includes Iran’s highest point, Damavand (18,934 ft or 5,771 m). Elburz was important in Persian mythology as a remote resting place of heroes and gods. The abrupt south face of Mount Damavand (Demavend, or Dem Âvend Kuh) towers over the city of Tehran. Other highest peaks are Alamkuh and Takht-i-Suleiman, both above 14,850 ft (4,500 m). The average peak height is 9,000 ft (2,730 m).

Numerous subordinate parallel ridges enclose fertile valleys. The main navigable river that passes through one of these and into the CASPIAN SEA is the Kizil Uzen, which joins with the river Shah south of the range, then cuts a gap through the western end of the range. This gap divides the Elburz Mountains from the Talish Mountains to the north. On the northern side of this gap, the combined rivers are known as the Safid in the few kilometers before it reaches the sea. Smaller seasonal rivers that drain off the southern slopes of the Elburz disappear through evaporation in Iran’s northern Salt Desert. At the foothills of the Elburz is the most significant Iranian port on the Caspian, Bandar-e Anzali, the center of the Iranian caviar industry. It is connected to the larger city of Rasht, the terminus of rail and oil lines. At the other end of the range, the city of Bandar Torkoman lies near the frontier with Turkmenistan and has long been a trade and communications ENTREPOT between the MIDDLE EAST and Central Asia.