No.

IOMay 1994

Jamaican Geographer
Newsletter of the Jamaican Geographical Society
ISSN t0 17-4753

FIELD TRIP
TO GOD 'S WELL,
FARQUHAR'S BEACH AND
M ILK RIVER BATH

Saturda y, March 28th, 27 JGS memhers and fr iend s par ticipated in a f ield trip to Farquhar" s Beach, God ' s Well and M ilk River Ba th, in southern C larendon , T he trip was led by Dr Stephen Donovan, ge ology departmen t, UWI. The first stop was at Gods ' Well, a spe c tacular sink hole in the Mioce ne Newpo rt Formation, north of Round Hill. It was most probably form ed by ro of collapse of a major undergro und cavern . The feat ure is ov al and measure ' b tween 25m to 40m in diameter, has near vertical sides, and the distance to tile water level he low is approximately 25m . God ' s Well is drained to the wes t, where it issues as a spring at tile head of UlC Alli gat or Hole Riv r. In tile m icl- 1980s, it was the site of tra rcdy and death, in volvi ng a group cave divers exp loring the underwater ca ves which connect into God 's Well. The next stop was unsched uled ; a brief deto ur to tile NRCA' s Can oe valley vis itor centre. Alth ou gh the y were no t see n by we group, three manatees (s a cows) have been coral lcd in the river since the 1980s, in an effo rt to en courage them to breed . The ex peri ment fa i le d an d experts ha ve recentl y determined tha t all three an ima ls are females. Man y of the JGS members present expressed the iew Ulat the time has come to release them, to rej oin the tiny population of manatees which still exists in Jamaica, The principal sto p of the field day was at the Iishmg comm unity at Farquhar's beach , and involved a beach walk along a remote and undev eloped stretch of coastline, to examine the Round Hill Beds . wh ich are ex posed as cl iffs. Farq uhar's black san d beach is com po sed pri marily of titano-magnetite and titano-haernatite crystals with lesser am ounts of feldspar , quart z and calcite. Th e deposits are located at the mouth of the Rio Minbo and westwards along the coast, so the sources of

On

The oytser bank of the Round Hill beds, dipp ing towards the beach. The Round Hill heds are Plio -Pleistocene in age and are overlain unconformably by late Quaternary conglomerates (upper right), containing soils and land mails" ph oto: Stephen K. Donovan

Two specimens of the oyster Crassostrea virgin ica p reserved it! lij po siti on and surrounded by small specimens, 171/: left hand specimen (above the 15c/IJ ruler) has j uvenile oysters attached tv the outside of the shell. p hoto: Stephen K. Donovan

Jama ican Geographer ( IOJ, May 1994 - 1

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JAMAICA'S
MINERAL SPRINGS

Geolo gis ts di vide Jamaica's mineraI springs into hot springs and cold springs. The hal, thermal springs can he furth er classified into three groups on the basis of location and chemistry. Milk Ri ver Bath is on e of two warm, radioactive springs located in Cl are ndon (the other is at Sal t River further east). Milk River Bat h is one of the mos t ra dioac tive springs in the world (n ine tim es more radioactive than Bath in England, and more than tifty times that a t Vichy in France). In the Blue Mountains, the springs are wann and sulphurous. Th e most famous i . at Bath \11 St Thomas, where the water tempe ratures . re ho t, ranging from 45 to 54 degrees Ce l cius, The main constituents of the water are odium , chloride and sulphate, Other hot springs are located at Garbrand Hall , and Johnson Rive r in St Thomas, and G uava Rive r in Portland . T hey are ass ociated with the Blue Mountain inlier. Th ere are histori cal reports of other hal springs in the area, but these could not be located during a geological survey in 1981. TIle third group consists of an isola ted ho t spring in St Ann, located at W indsor on the north coast. It is warm and hypersaline. Many of Jamaica's cold mineral sp rings arc at coastal locations, such as Sans Sa ud Hotel (Och o Rios ), Rockfort, and Blac k River. They usually now from limestone areas and are mixtures of sea water an d ca lcium bicarbonate groundwater. The mineral baths at Rockfort are supplied by . prings arising from a fault at the base of Long M ountain, and are enriched with sul phate . The wa t rs of Black River Spa contain traces of iron , copper, pho sphate and l1uori de. Interestingl y, hOUI Milk Rive r Bath in Clarendon and Bath in St Thomas have similar legend" about their disco very , usual ly involving a Slave who escapes after being severely beaten, and whose wound are miraculously healed after bathing in nearby waters.The slave then supposedly returns to hi master, d ivulges his secret and is rewarded in some way . the material are probabl y the Cretaceous in liers o f ce n tr a l Ja maica . E rosi on and transportation by rivers fl owing southward, would have brought the material to the coas t, whence it was dispersed westward s by longshore currents. Outcroppi ng along the coas t are cliffs composed of highly fossiliferous material . They are a succession of more or less sandy limestones and siliciclastics, with a fossil fauna dom ina ted by benthic mollu scs (clam s, oysters, snails) and benthic foram ini ferans. with less common coral s. echinoids (sea eggs), barnacles and trace fossils. The beds dip steepl y towards the sea or are vertical, and the outcro p is incis ed in places by faults. The age of the Rou nd Hill beds is uncertain, but they may be late Miocene. In one of the most remarkable sections, oyster beds of 3.3 metres thick can be ob serv ed. T hey h a ve bee n id entified a s Crassostrea virginica and individual shells are 15 inches or more in length . Giv en the reputed aphrodisiac qualities of oyster s, one can only imagine their gas tronomic impact had human beings been around in those days. Many of the individual fossils are in life pos i tion, and the beds app ear to have becn a reef-like bank sim ilar to those being forme d by the same species in the American Gul f Coast region at tile present day. At another location, there are trace fossil s. Trace fossils are so-call ed by ge ologists be cause it is not the animal itself that has bee n preserv ed, but evidence that it once lived in that location; an example would the fossilised burrowing system of a cnn tacean. At a number of locations on Ule walk, Dr Donovan gave enlighten ing disc ourses and demonstrations on the fiel d interpr etation of the orientation of bedd ing planes, how to iden tify geolog ical discon tinuities, and the field identificati on of fossils and trace fossils The final sto p was at the famous Milk River Bath and Spring. The Milk River spring discharges through an east- west trending fault at the foot of Round Hill . North of the ho tel ano ther spring flows into a shallow well. The mai n spring provides a supp ly of water to the bath house s at the Hotel. The springwater at M ilk River issues from the limes tone of the Ne wport Formation, close to the contact be tween the limestone and the allu vium of the Milk River. The temp erature of the water in the bath ho use is 33 degrees Cel sius (although at the well site it is 37 degrees. Th e springs have a high level of radioactivity due to the presence of radon. They are one of the most radio active mineral bath s in the world, and bathers are lim ited to only 20 m inutes in the bath . The spring s contain up to 16 pe rcen t more chloride th an sea water, and the calcium/sodium ratios are also higher, perhaps due to the increas ed solubility of calcium carbonate in the spring wa ter. II. is thought that mu ch of the spring water is der ived from sea wat er entering the South Coast Fault a t depth, mi xing with ground wate r from limestone near the surface . The source of the rad on is probably at an apprcc i abl e depth. On an historical note, tile land at Milk Rive r was conveyed to the Justice of Vere in 1791 by its owner Jonathan Ludford, addition al land was acquired , and the bathro oms were first opened to the pub lic in 1794 . A t the end of tile field trip a number of people in the gr oup enj oyed the reputed therapeuti c pow ers or the bathhouse, whilst the rest slaked their th irsts in the tim e honoured manner of those exh austed by field trips under the hot tropical su n.

The Society woul d like to thank Dr Stephen Donovan fo r lead ing a most inf ormat ive and entertaining fi eld trip with style and fl ourish. and f or pe rmission to borrow f reely fro m his deta iled fi eld gu ide in preparingthis report.

NETHERLANDS EMBASSY TALK

On Wedn esday 30th March . MrNicoJonker

the Netherlands Ambas sador to J amaica, pre sented an illustrated talk to lG S members. His talk began by no ting basi c features of the geography and history of the Ne therlands: half of the country is below sea level, its popula lion is 15 mi llion and its area is four times that of Jam aica . lIS colonial possessions once in cluded Indon esia , as well a" Suriname and the Netherlan ds An tilles . The country is a pr osp erou s indu stri al society, acti ve ly in volv ed in development cooperation; for exam ple the Dutch Govern ment provides Jarnaica with US $ 12 million per annum . He touch ed on his co untry 's ex

2 - Jamaica n Geogra pher (10) . May 1994

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GEOBEAT

A Newsletter of the Geography Association of Trinidad and Tobago

One of our sister socie ties in the Eastern Caribbean. the Geographical As ociation of Trinidad
and Tobago is enjoying a revival, and has introduced a 12-page newsletter for its members. Called Geo beat it is edited by Rose-Lee Brown, a teacher at St Stephen's College, Princes

NIGERIAN EMBASSY TALK

On Wcdn sday, 27tll April, Mr BJ . anna..

the Depu ty High Comm issioner a t the Nigerian Embassy gave an int erestin g talk about his country. He introduced th audience to its geography and its compli cated make-up of different ethnic groups. He focussed on that huge country' s search for a viable administrative structure. Prior to lY 14, the British admin ist ered iger ia through separate North and South Protec tor atc s . When the countr y gain ed its i ndependence in 1960, the unified Federal structure inherited from the British was un workable, because of UIC dominance of the North, Since the B iafr an civil war (1967-1970), the country has been seeki ng a more balanced Federation: 12 states were created hy Presi dent Gowan in the aftermath of tJ1C civil war. Th is number was increased to 19 in 1976 and 21 in 1986. A new federal system was intro duced in 1990 expanding the number of states 10 30. But the problem is where to stop the process of administrative tragmentation, he cause Nigeria has over 300 ethnic groups in thc country. In the late 1960s, Nigeria experienced an oil boom. and benefi tted fr om the high prices for oil after the OPEC crisis or the 197tls. A development programme was embarke d upon based on UIC high price of oil at II'at time ( S $40 per harrel). For example, lrcc education was introduced and there were mad)' state funded development projects , But there was little investment in UIC productive sector . After oil prices collapsed, the government hall to borrow huge , urns of money, and inc itahly the rMF stepped in. and imposed a harsh programme of structural adjustm ent. Othcr points touched on concerned minor boundary problems arisinu from 111e receding shoreline of Lake Chad (and UIC sudden ap pe a ranc e of ne w isl and s in the lak e), protracted border dispute.' with Came roon, and the location of the new capi tal. Ahuja, in the middle belt of the country, an area of minority tribes which was badly depopulated during the slave trade.

Town ncar San Fernando, and graduate of the geography department, UWl. Two issues have appeared to date . The newsletter contains a selection of news items, information on the S ciet " s activities, information and suggestions about field trips and field work, and a section called 'Play as . ou learn', containing games ami puzzles for geographers, It is intended that the two societies will share information from their new, letters, from time to time. For example. of interest in th e February issue (#2) of Geobeat was an item on John Niles. a geographer well known ill the region for his book Certificate Geograp hy f or the Caribbean (MacMillan) and his extensive work with CXC geography since 1977. A teacher of some 24 years standi ng, he war appointed as the fi rst Curriculum Officer in geography for Trinidad & Tobago by the Ministry of Education in 1993. The work he has accomplished in his new role was warmly appreciat d in the newsletter, especially through visiting school. in a monitoring and advisory capacity, and in work shops designed to facilitate the introduction of S.B.A. (School Based Assessment) for CXC g ography. Another item of interest was an interview with Judy Rocke, currently teaching at New Grant Anglican School. Jud y obtained a first class honours degree in geography at UWI in 19 3, the first 'first' in the department in seventeen years. In the interview, Judy talked about her rural backg round. her life in the south of Trinidad, her early teaching career, and particularly about her experiences and friends in Jamaica.

If you want to make contact wiLh uie Geographical Association of Trinidad & Tobago, in order to obtain their news lett r for yourself or your school, or to send them material about Jamaica, or to arrange penpals for your students, a few contact persons are listed below:
President: Charlene Costell oe, St Augustine's High School, Vice President: Patricia Ramgoolam, Naparima Girls' High School.

Secretary: Rampeyari Lalla, Pleasantville Senior Comprehensive School,

Public Relations Officer: Micha el Gabriel, Holy Faith Conven t, Penal, Editor, Newsletter: Rose-Lee Brown, St Stephen's College. Prince' s Town,

perience with the European Community. and the need for econom ic adjustment th rough market competi tion, citing the example of tile r lalivc costs of Dutch and Italian tomatoes. The Neth rlands has a vibrant tourist industry with over 700 museums . Tulips, for which the country is world famous, were originally brou eht in from Turkey, four hundred years ago. Water control and land reclama tion is very important in a country whew 60 percent of the popula tion live in low-lying areas . Over the centuries. complicated systems of dykes have been construc ted to prev nt encroach ment from the sea. The last major flood was in Fe bru ary 19 53 , when 2,0 00 peop le

perished. This major natural disaster led to the formulation and implementation of the Delta project, a complex series of gigantic engineer ing structures built to ensure that sea flooding on a similar scale would never occur again in the Netherlands. The audience were then treated to an ex c e l lent 2 5 -mi nu te film show ing th e construction of the huge Storm Surge barrier on the Eastern Scheldt, the final stage of the Delta Projec t.This mammoth engineering feat has been designed not only to prevent sea flooding but has also incorporated features to protect tne natural environment. The entire Delta project took 30 years to complete.

Jamaican Geographer ( 10), May 1994 - 3

Campus Geography

CHAIR OF ENVIRONMENTAL
MANAG EM ENT

E limbelb Thomas- Hope has been appointed to the Jame s Se ivw righllMoss Solomon SnL Chair of Environmental Management. The Chair has been endowed by the Grace Ken nedy Foundation and the appointme nt is to UWI' s Centre for Environment and Develop ment, located on M ona Campus. Professor Thomas -Hope , a Jamaican , was former ly in the geo grap hy department at the University of Li verp ool, and has published widely on population mobility and migration. Her most recent book is Explanation in Carib bean Mi gration (M acm illan , 1992). In the pas t, she was attach ed to ISER, and several of her PhD students ha ve work ed in Jamaica. She has brought groups of UK geograph y unde rgraduates here on field work. We wish he" every success in her new po st, look for wa rd to a fruitful co llabor ati on with the geograp hy dep artm ent, and welcome her to the JGS.

M.PHIL FOR
PAULETT E MEIKLE

Pau lette Meikle has been awarded an M .Phil degree for her thesis entitled 'The chan ging patterns of root crop production and market ing in Jamaica' . The research anal ysed the spa tial and tem poral pattern s of root cr op production in Jamaica over a fifteen year period. Th e focus was two communities, Sawyers in Trel awny, an area specializing in yellow yam for tile ex po rt market, and Cascade in Hanover, which produces for the domestic market. Detailed field data on cropping syst ems, agronom ic practices and decision-mak ing, in the realms of crop production and marketing, were compiled an d analysed, and the rural dev elopment contexts of the two comm unities were contrasted . The project' s fieldwork was funded by an IAFIUWI Fellow ship. Pa ulette presented a paper on her researc h at the 1992 Br itish-Car ibbean Geography Sem inar which has been published (see Ibis page). In addition to tutoring and demon strating, Paulette lectured first year climatolog y when the department was short-staffed. Presentl y, she is empl oyed as a research offi cer on the Ri o Gran de Vall e y Rural D evelopment Proj ect, a project funded jointly by the Dutch and Jamai can Governments. She is working with Dr W im Ettema, a Dutch geog rapher and rura l de vel opment co ns u lta nt, wh o was form erly editor of the well known j ournal TESG. Wim is a recent recruit to the lGS.

FIRST FACULTY
OF NATURAL SCIENCES
CO NFEREN CE

T wo pap ers were presented by members of

me geography de partment a t the first FNS Conference held in May, on 'Mona campus. A n n e L y e w -A y e e a n d W i lm a Ba i le y presented a paper e ntitled 'An anal ysis of the pattern of family plan ning service deli very points in Jam aica ' . The second paper was present ed by pos tgraduate s tudent Vileitha Davis-Morrison entitled ' Agriculture, rural develo pment and the environment in the Rio G rande Valley, Portland ' .

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY
COURSES EXPANDED

F ortner graduates of the dep artment will rememb er that in final year , geomorphology and clima tology we re once taught as a single co urs e. Recentl y, the physical geography teaching programm e has been ex panded to accommodate the growing interest in tile en vironrnent, and the skills and research ex periencc of its presentcomp lemen t of physical geo graphy lecturers. Two cour ses, Advanced Physical Geography I (Geomorphology) and. from Ibis semes ter, Advanced Physical Geog raphy III (Cli matology) hav e replaced the single co urse which was previously offered.

IAFIUWI SEMINAR IN
TRINIDAD

P ostgraduate Alth ea Joh nson presen ted a paper based on re search in progress at the annual IAFIUW I Fell ows sem inar , held in Jun this year at the St Aug ustine Cam pus, UWl. He r work is documenting the pressure on traditional resource management sys tems of five com m unities located in the Black River lower m orass wetland. The area is sla ted to become a National Park, and is opening up to eco tourism .

QUIZ:
MATCHING PAIRS

Match ten of the new countries of the fa n ner USSR w ith their capitals

Recent Journal Articles by Memb ers of Geography Department

Bailey. W. ( 1994 ) 'Th e effec t uf user fees o n the util izatiun uf fam ily planning service s' , West Indian Medical Journal , 43(2), pp 46 -47. Bailey. W. (199 4) 'S ho w, No-s how and sterilization', Wes{ Indian Medical Journal. 43 (2) pp 43-45. Barker. D . ( 1992) ' Th e UWI Scho lars hip examina tion in geography : an analy sis o f the 1992 results' , Caribbean Geog raphy, 3(4) pp 270-274 . Harker . D . ( 1993) ' D ualism and dis tasters on a tropical isla nd : cons traints Oll agricultur al devel opment in Jamaica '. TESG. 84( 5) . pp 332-340. Barker, D . ( 1993) 'T he progress of Caribbean Geography. 1983-93 ' , Caribbean Geograp hy, 4 (2), pp 76-87 . Meik le, P. (1992) ' Spatia -temporal trend s in roo t cro p prod uction and mark etin g in Jamaic a ' , Caribbea n Geograph y . 3(4) , pp 223-235. Mille r. D.J .. Ahm ad , R. & A. M ansingh (1993 for I992) ' Effec ts of popul ation pres sure on the phy sical env ironment of Jamaica. Jamaican Journ al ofScience and Technology' , 3(2) pp 1-5.

Countries
1. Armenia 2. Azerb aijan 3. Belaru s 4. Estonia 5. Georgia 6. Kazakhs tan 7. Latvia
8. L i thuani a

Capitals
A. Baku B. Kie v

C. Mensk
D. Riga
E. Sumarkand

F. Talli nn
G. Tashkent

H. Thilisi
I. Vilnius

9. Ukraine
10. Uzbekistan

.f.Yerevan

4 - Jamaican Geogra pher (10), Ma y 1994

Classroom Geography

1VIAY PEN
SPHERE OF INFLUENCE
SURVEY

P erez Cr oss writes ...T he JGS or ganised a sphere of in fluence survey for secondary schools on Saturda y. Febru ary 5th . It involved some fifty students and seven teacher s fro m eight schools (M an ches ter, S t Jago , Holy Ch ild h ood , Im m acu late C onc e p t io n, St Andrew , Exce lsior and Cal a bar . T he da y' s acti vities were ce ntred on central Jam aica ' s larges t town , M ay Pen (pop. 47,0(0). T he e xe rc ise w as aimed at e xp osing seco ndary students , espec ially 5th and 6th fa nners, to fie ld surve y meth ods in a wa y which al lows them t explore and discover inform ati on prev ious ly unknown to them. The large number of part ici pating st udent'; m ade the exercise easi er to complete in the al lotted time. For th e question naire surve y. the stu dents fanned out in pairs a long th e Ce ntral Business District (CBD) to inter view pe rsons engag ed in business ac tiv ities.
S tude n ts were allowed to interview as many pe op le a ' possible within the all otted time . TIle main objective was to ascertain how ncar to, or far from , the tow n the resp ond ents travell ed to shop or to se ll. M ay Pen is a major m arket and administra tive cen tre for its pari sh , Cl are ndo n. l t has all the feat ures and service s typical of a sub re gional centre, such a. a larg e market, loca l go vern ment offi ces, some reg ional offices of central gove rnme nt, som e stannary depar t mcnt s , regi on a l soci al serv ices/institutions like Pol ice, Fire, Health, Postal and Edu ca tion, branches o f major financia l institution s and a w ide range of commercial, retaili ng and who le. ali ng ac tivities. businessman and unemplo yed. Th e sample incl uded both vendors and shoppers, and they were asked about their main reas ons fo r doin g bus iness in May Pen. Th e main reason s cited were proxim ity (distanc e) to home (46 % of v endors and 36% o f sh op p er s ) , a n d sa les/pr ice. (I 80/, of vendors an d 27 % of shoppers), res pec tively. Most respondents gave May Pen a good rati ng for service functions ; 82% gave the town an approval rating of 6 or greater (on a scale whos e max imum 10 was 'excellen t') . Th e maj or services used (excl uding the market) were banks. health and po stal service foll owed by edu cational and entertainme nt facili ties. Items cited most frequently as ab sent or poor: infrastruc ture improvements (road repairs and renovation of the town 's bu ildi ngs); and job crea tion/enhan cement op port unities (ie new factory or train ing ce ntr e).

Table 1: Comme rcial acti vities and other land uses along May Pen 's CnD
Type of Land Use No. of establishments

Clothing, Shoes , Variety Stores & Haberd ashery Restaurants, Fast Foo d &
Bakery Pro fessional (A ttorne y,
R eal Esta te etc)
Bars & N igbt Clubs Supermarke ts, Meat & Gro cery Shops Phannacies
Banks

11 11
10 8 7 5
5

Furniture & Appliance s Hardware & Agriculture Supplies Doc tors, Dentists & M edic al Lab s D welling Home, Gas Stations A uto Parts/C ycle shop Bett ing Sbop s Insurance Government Offi ces Dressmake rs & Tailors Photo Stud ios Beau ty Salons & Barbers T ravel Serv ice Church Library Buildi ng Society Cinem a

5 5 4 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 I 1 I 1 1

May Pen's CaD and Land Use patterns

May Pen is esse ntiall y a 'one road town' wi th the majorit y of its commercial activity con centrated along a com mercial strip from Main Street, where it cro sses the train lines , to Manches ter Avenue and to M uirhead Ro ad. These roads, in spit e of junctions, tend to om in to ea ch other. Commercial activ ity along sid e stree ts tend. to fade afte r fou r or five lots, gi ving way to residenti al landusc . TIle town docs not have a grid patten! road network, like Kin gston or Span ish Town, but a linear, rib bon development f rrn. Th e studen ts were given group assign m ents to m ap partic ular stretches of the comm ercial strip betw een the railway tracks at the eastern end of main Street and the Ch apc lton road j unction in the west. Table 1 summarizes the find ings ; we can see that May Pen offers a wide ran ge of com mercial retailing and service ac tivities, as well as oth er non-commercia l and service estab lis hments. Relative t other towns in central Jamaica, May Pen rank s very high in terms of the rang e of facilities offered. The students handled the exe rcise we ll. No follow- up we ekend was organised , bu t students and teachers were encouraged to co l late and use the data as a sch ool projec t

Some survey findings

Smnpl e respondents fanne d a ratio of mal e 450/, to femal e 55% , Approximately 64% of the sam ple we re under 30 ye ars of age. and 73% Iived within a ten-m ile radi us of the town and its immediat e envir o ns. The furthes t point from which an y of tile resp ondents travelled was Mandeville. Mode of travel to May Pen wa. divided eq ually be tween public transp ort (bus or tax i) and walkin g . Occu pa tional sta tus w as " uite q varie d, includin g the following cat egories: housewife , farmer, market vendo r, tail or, stu de nt, m ode l. s tore clerk, handy worker,

SCHOOL BASED ASSESSMENT (SBA) AND CXC

T he new Schoo l Based Asses sm ent for CXC

geo graphy is creating cons iderable interest and co m m ent amo ng s t teach e rs bo th in Jam aica and around tile Caribbe an . Teachers are encouraged to write to the Newsletter to share thei r exp rie nces and ideas about this imp ortan t new develop ment in the geography curriculu m in Cari bbea n sch ools .

Perez Cross is a geography graduate who works in the Town P lanning Depart ment. He was assisted in organising this proj ect hy his colleague Janet Hyde.

Jamaic an Geographe r (10 ), May 1994 - 5

The Cockpits

Development and Implementation of a Land Information System

Cecile Blake
The Mini ' try of Agriculture with assistance from the Intemational Development Bank (IDB) are currentIy implementing the Land Titling Project, One of tne major objectives of the project is to establish a Land Information System (LIS) across three departments; the Office of Titles, the Lands Administration Division and the Survey Department A LIS can be d fined as the set of com ponents (hardware, sottv are and people) for the c ollection , st orag e, transformation , analysis, display and dissemination of spatial data which will enabl e the efti cient and effec ti ve ma nagem ent of land resources and improve the plannin g and decision-making process . The Surve y D e partm ent manages cadas tral (parcel) and topographic mapping programmes of government. The mapping and sur veying functions are done manually, therefore the department can be considered to be technologicaIJy deficient . Because it uses manual operations, the delivery time for standard mapping products is typ icall y way above comparabl e private sector times, uninterrupted power supply systems (UPS) for regulating voltage tluctua uons and grace time to enable system shutdown in time of utility outages , digital analytic stereo -plotters, for c mpilation of digital maps from rec tified photographs. Software acquired to operate on the sys tem covers two main areas. The textual portion of the system is heing developed on the lnformix (4GLlRDS) set of database tools and the graphical portion will be done on ARCIINFO (ESRI) geographi cal infonnation system tool box. Additional softwar e to com plement the above have also been acquired. For example. Wordperfect and Lotus 123 for UNIX for day-to-day office operations; Hy pcrscript for the execution of user queries to e n a b le decision su pport; S -P lus for AR C/INFO which will provide tools for sta tistic al analysis ; MicroStation for the manipulati on of field data and ARCView for front-end users to execute query and browse operations. Seven applications being developed are:
(a) For Office of Titles

Project Objectives
The projeet aims to address some of the major problems outlined in the preceding section by establishing an intelligent, wide-are a network of a land information (graphical and textual ) da tabase linking the three departments. The system should provide efficient storage , quick acce ss, prompt delive ry of informati on to users, enable government to mana ge its land assets, provide current and up-to-date map ping products and, in addition,' deliver new sets of land information products; for ex ampl e, ortho-photomaps, cadastral maps, and digitial topographic mapping tiles.

Present Situation
T he three departments each function under separate statutes and execute different func tions. However, their activities in relation to the processin g of land matters are interrelated; that is, the work of one departmen t has an impact and complements the other operations. Presently, they operate manual systems reo' quiring the storage, processing and handling of large quantities of paper records, The Offi ce of T itl es processes a p proximatel y 40,000 legal instruments yearly. It has inade quate storage facilities and filing systems. There fore, records are subject to deterioration and damage by insects and pests. The de partm e nt has an ever-increasing work load which is driven by a pressing demand for new tilles and enquiries about existin g ones. Thus, the present system is un able to process expeditiously new titles and to provide answers and docume nts request ed by users . The Lands Adminisration Divis ion faces similar storage and management problem s. The depar tment manages a store of ap proximately 60,000 land records and 32,500 land settlers' accounts . The filing system is in poor condition and consequently the govern ment is unable to determi ne the true extent of its land holdings, and settler accounts arc generally in severe arrears.

The Tille Enqu iry System, to store and retrieve titled property information. The Deal ings Tracking System, to track all applications and instruments being processed in the office.
(b)For Lands Administration Division

Product Activities
The projec t is at the stage of systems im plementation, having passed through the stages of system definition and specification, tendering, evaluation, and equipment acquisi tion. Fujitsu -ICL Caribbean was awarded the contrac t for the implementati on of the land information system. The system is based on a UNIX worksta tion solution, comprised of 23 workstations and 3 servers . Complementing these arc peripheral equipment such as: printers (line and laser), for hard copy output, CD ROM , diskette and tape drives for storage and retrieval of information, plotters (pen and elec trostatic) for hard copy map generation, digilisers (back-lit and non-back-lit) for me capture of digital map data, mode m, for the transfer/ xchange of digital information,

Land Sealers In/ orma tion System, to store and retrieve data on settlers assigned lots under a land settlement scheme. Government Land Managem ent Svstem, to store and retrieve data on ach parcel of land owned hy government. Land Settler Account System , to manage the repayment of settle r accounts.
(c) For Survey Department

Graph ical Property Da tabase, for the storage and retrie val of information on any parcel of land, tilled or untitled. Digital Cadast ral Dat abase, to pro vide graphical dimen sion to the Title Enquiry System.

To date, five of these applications arc in me process of being developed. Three ap plications for the Land Ad mi nistra tion Division ar virtually complete and are cur rently being reviewed by users. The other two applications for the Office ofTitles are in their primary stage of development. Under a separate contract, the photograrn metric section of the Survey Departm ent will

6 - Jamaican Geographe r (10), May 1994

The Cae

its

GIS GLOSSARY

No ti fication of reject ion Notification of app ro val

Notificati on for amendmen t

Land Valuation Digital Data Fil es Encoded data ex tra cted fr om exis ting titles

<,
Ap pli catio n to register deali ng

/
DEALINGS TRACKING SYSTEM
Registered dealin g

Data capture Acquisition of data either by digitising map features (based on vec tor methods) or or by scanning (based raster method ) Digitiser A device for entering spatial coor dinate,' of mapped features from a map or docum nt into a computer

1
TITLES
INFORM ATION
SYSTEM

........_
, Top ographic

----, - --" -

Digitising Proc ess of converting a drawing, picture or ma p information, in the form of XY coordinates, into di gital form using an instrument known as a digitiser
Mod em A 'modular-demodular' device that all ows data to be co nverte d into a form whereby they can be transmitted as a set of pulses down a cabl e and then reas sembled at the other end Overlay Procedure in whic h two or more maps representing different features of the same geographic area are superimposed; and /or the process of stacking digital data representations of vari ous spat ial data on top of each other so that eac h position in tile area can be analysed in terms of these data Pixel Sma llest unit of in formation in a grid cell map or scanner image. Derived from tile term ' picture element' Ras ter A regular grid of cells covering an area, usually recorded aut oma ticall y by scanning Ra.ster datahase A database co ntaining all mapped, spatial informa tion in the form of regular grid cells Remote Sensing Th e technique of det er mining data ab out the env ironment from its spectral image as seen from a distance (usually, from a satellite) Scanner Adevice for converting linag es from maps, photographs , or from part of the real world into digital form aut omatically, that is, not using m anual data input meth ods Vector A quantity having both magnitude and direction which, in a spatial data base, is usuall y stored as a pair of coordinates Vector data Data rep resented as a strin g of connected line segments, as in the case of roa ds or streams

Titl es particulars \ p aJel )

id ent ifier

maP/P lans~
Subdi visio n pla ns - - - - - - - Single-lot di agrams _

1
DIGITAL CADASTRAL DATABASE

Parcel m ap

Land Valuati on Plans

bc implementing applications to a utomate the map ping proces s us ing soft copy anal ytical , tcreo-plot ters and photo scan ners to produ ce di gital to pogra phic maps. It has been es timated that the digital compilation of maps will significantly redu ce the time required to compile topogr aph ic maps. To speed up the process of cadas tral surveys the department has also acqu ired mod ern digi tal surveyi ng equipment such as to tal stati ons and global positioning station s , Training and user in terac tion is a large component of the implementa tion exercise , Th e re h a ve be e n c on ti nu o u s trai ning programmes for SI< IT, locally and overseas, in 1. the are as o f lan d mana gem ent, land law, program ming, da tabase management an d ap plication usage, Anoth er maj o r component of the project has been th e con structio n of a new building

for the Offi ce of Titles, and the refurbishing of the Lands Admin istra tion Division and the Survey Department. Th is is bein g done to provide additional space for operations, par ticularly for the Office of Ti tles. The other departm ents are being refurbishe d to pro vide the required infrastructure for the installation of a com puterised system, such as , the running of ne twor k cables and the installation of air conditioning. After two years of construction and refurbish ing, only the Lands Administra tion Division is complete . Non-completion of the other departments is seve rely retarding projec t implemen tation.

Cecile is a UWf geography graduate who is employed at the Survey Department. She also suc cessfully completed postagraduate work in this area at fT C in Holland

Jamaican Geographer (10), Ma y 1994 - 7

Look Behind

CARIBBEAN GEOGRAPHY 1994 VOLUME 5 NUMBER 1

Issues ill Caribbean Sustainable Develop ment, edited by Elizabeth Thomas-Hope and David Barker
Davin Ramphall:Contradic tion: in Cari b bea p Ind ustrializati on as Sus tainable Development Robert B. Potter & Graham M.S. Dann: Gl o balization, Posunodernity and Sus ta in abl e Development in th e Commonwealth Caribbean Robert E. Maguire: Grassroots Develop ment and Community Conflic t in Haiti Thomas Klak: Maidenfo rming the Cari b bean : A re view of Jamaica's Industrial Promotion Policy Mark Wilson: Jam aica 's Bencb Offices: Direct Dial Dependency Debra Sharkey: Alternative T ourism in Dom inica : Problems and Prospects Janet Momsen:Gender an d Sustainable small-scale agric ulLure in Barbados Paul Lorah: Legacies of Environmental Degradation and Political Mismanagement: Antigua's Unsustai nable Path

The Nature of Geography

Geog raph y explores the relationship between ea rth and soci ety . ... the geographer' s highest interest is to study the relationship between earth and pe ople on earth. That way he bu ilds a bridge betwe en natural and social science. When geographers look at spatial relations and interactions they ask the questions: Where iii what? How io; it? Why is it there? Where and how should it be ? Th e answers to these questions de scribe and explain the location, situation, and interaction withi n and betw een places and regi ons in the worl d. Ce ntral concepts of geo graphical studies are Location, Place, Space, Spatial Interaction, Region. Location: People an d places have different absolute and relative location s on ear th. These ar e linked by flows of goods, people, and idea s. The knowl dge of the locati on of people and places is tile precondition to understanding regional, national and global interdep endence . Places: Places have different natural an d human characteristics. Nature produces landform s, soil, climate, waterbodics, ve getation. animal an d human life. HUIll<Ul S shape dif fer nt cultures, settlem ents, socio-eco nomic systems and lifesty les according to their beliefs and phi losoph ies, Knowl edge or the phy sical characteristics of places and the people' s e nviro n mental perception is the basis to understand the interr elations betw een peopl e and their places. Space: People make different use of their environment where they live and work . That way they create differen t cul tural landscapes throu gh di fferen t patterns of ac tivities . On one hand they are influ enced by their ph ysical setting but on tile oth er the y tran sform their surrounding s into different man -made environments. Understanding these complex int eracti ons within space provides an im portant basis for responsible environmental pl anning, management and protection. Spatial Interaction: Resources and h umans arc unevenly distributed across tile earth. Th at way they cause a global interdependence . No country is self-suffi cie nt. Transport and comm unicati on system s link the parts of the world. Changes of loca tions change spatial interrelations and interactions. Insight into spatial in teracti on leads to the und erstand ing of the current co-operation of people by exchang ing goods and information and by migration, but als o to the detection of the curren t prob lems and to ideas to improve regi onal. nati onal and international interactions . Regions: A region is an area that is characterise I by selected criteria. Political cri teri a define, for example, state s and cities; phy sical criteria, climatic and vegetation zo nes; socioeconomic cri teria, developed and less developed coun tries . Regi ons are ma nag eabl e units for stu dying and deve loping environments. Geographers defi ne regi ons of different scale from local to co ntinental and global dimensions. Th e integrat ed system of regi ons lead s to the con cept of planetary ecosystem . Th e understanding of the structure and processes of these d ifferent regions within the global sys tem is the bas is of the reg ional and nati onal identity of people and their international solidarity as well.

David Watts : Enviro nm ental Degradation,

th e Wa ter R es ource a n d Sustainable Development in the Eastern Caribbean Dennis Con wa y & Paul Lorah: Environ mental Pro tectio n Po licies in Cari bbean small islands

QUIZ ANSWERS
Countries
l . Georgia 2. Armenia 3. Ukraine

Capitals
Tbilisi Y erevan Kiev Riga V ilnius Bak u

Source: Inte rnational Charter on Geographical Educ ation, Commi ssion on Geograph ical Education, International Geographical Union, Washington, 1992

4. Latvia 5. Lithuania
6. Azerbaij an 7. Uzbek istan 8. Kazakhstan 9. Estonia 10. Belarus

Jamaican Geographer
ISSN 1017-47 53 Editor: Addre ss: T ypesetting: Printing: Da vid Barker Department of Geography, TIle University of tile West Indi es, Mona Campus. King ston 7, phone 927 -2129 David Barker & Donny Miller University Printery. The University of the We st Ind ies , M ona Cam pus, Kingston 7.

Samarkand
Tashkent Tallinn Mensk

8 - Jamaican Geographer (10 ), May 1994