Microspatial Scale Research Articles

Classification of land lot shapes in real estate sector using a convolutional neural network

In the agriculture and real estate industries, land lot shapes have mostly been classified by visual inspection or hard-crafted rules. These conventional methods are time-consuming, resource-intensive, and subject to human bias. This study aims to fill this gap and alleviate problems inherent in traditional lot classification approaches. This study attempts to classify lot shapes automatically, using a convolutional neural network. A study area was chosen, image data of the lots in the area were collected and preprocessed, and an Xception neural network was specified to classify land lots according to their shapes. The test applied to a different area adjacent to the study area achieved an accuracy of 90.1% and area under the curve (AUC) of 0.96. Additionally, this study demonstrated that shape regularity can be quantified using the output scores from the neural network analysis. This is the first attempt to employ a deep learning algorithm for land management on a micro-spatial scale. The classification approach proposed in this study is expected to encourage the rapid and accurate classification of various lot shapes.

Housing Practices of Albanian Immigrants in Athens: An “in-between” Socio-Spatial Condition

Immigrants’ access to housing is often the outcome of self-settlement practices within a context of limited social policies that often characterizes Southern European metropolises. Hence, immigrants are facing multiple constraints and remain vulnerable towards diverse socioeconomic fluctuations. This article focuses on the housing practices followed by Albanian immigrants, the largest immigrant group in Athens’s municipality, to examine how spatial inequalities are intertwined with ethnicity in the Greek capital. The objective is twofold: to discuss ethnic segregation on the micro-scale of Athenian central neighborhoods and examine how immigrants’ housing practices are being challenged within a rapidly changing socio-spatial context. The methodology follows a mixed approach, aiming at identifying differentiations and inequalities both on the macro- and micro-spatial scale. First, differentiations among Greeks, Albanians, and other third-country nationals in Athens (2011) are traced and compared, based on quantitative data. Second, for the purpose of highlighting micro-geographies in the city, this article presents an analysis of collected narratives of Albanian immigrants, through semi-structured interviews held in 2023. The main results indicate that the population under study finds itself in an “in-between” socio-spatial condition: an “in-between”, compared to the housing experiences of Greek households and other third-country nationals, that produces (and reproduces) segregation trends visible on the micro-scale. Moreover, this article attempts to highlight how the lack of housing policies put in peril the successful self-settlement practices of Albanian immigrants, in the current context of financialization of the Athenian housing market.

Effects of Micro-Scale Environmental Factors on the Quantity of Questing Black-Legged Ticks in Suburban New York

The questing behaviors of blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) are largely regulated by environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, and vegetation. While this relationship is relatively clear at the macro- and meso-spatial scales, it is inadequately examined at the micro scale. Our field work in the New York City suburbs during 2017–2018 revealed significant local variations in the quantity of questing blacklegged ticks. The purpose of this study is to identify and test the environmental factors that impact the number of questing blacklegged ticks at the micro-spatial scale. In addition to the number of ticks, surface temperature, and relative humidity data collected in the field, geospatial technologies were leveraged to extract micro-scale spatial and environmental measures, including vegetation index, land cover, elevation, and ecotone, from high-resolution digital imagery and LiDAR data. Regression models were then built to identify the key factors that influence the spatiotemporal patterns of questing blacklegged ticks. The results largely align with the existing research but display characteristics of complexity such as multicollinearity, nonlinearity, and thresholds in relation to temperature, humidity, and vegetation composition at the micro scale, whereas mixed hardwood and dwarf shrubs tend to have higher numbers of questing ticks.

Unravelling calcite-to-aragonite evolution from a subsurface fluid - Formation pathway, interfacial reactions and nucleation effects

Calcite-aragonite alternations are documented in sedimentary deposits worldwide, but their formation is still poorly understood and individual CaCO3 precipitation pathways are rarely confirmed experimentally. Therefore, (sub)recent CaCO3 sinter formation in a historic subsurface adit at Erzberg (Austria) was used as a natural laboratory to monitor and assess the calcite-to-aragonite evolution pathway and intergrowth mechanism in terms of solid-liquid-atmosphere dynamics and their relevance for solid-liquid interface reactions and nucleation effects. Our results indicate an initial homogeneous nucleation of low-Mg calcite (LMC: ∼3 ± 1 mol% MgCO3), induced by CO2 degassing from the percolating geogenic fluid, which is originated from seepage of local meteoric water and incongruent dissolution of Mg-Ca-Fe-bearing minerals from the host rock. Progressive LMC growth leads to an increase in the aqueous molar ratio of Mg/Ca, causing a Mg/Ca zonation pattern with transitions to high-Mg calcite (HMC: up to 7 mol% MgCO3). At a critical Mg concentration, the available Mg calcite crystal surfaces are acting as a nucleation site for heterogenous aragonite formation. In this way, fast growing acicular aragonite crystals are initiated, which impede further calcite growth. The calcite-to-aragonite transition is thus controlled by the reaction kinetics and mechanisms of Mg-calcite formation and the chemical evolution of the precipitating solution at the nano- to micro-spatial scale, creating Mg-enriched HMC surface sites for aragonite to be nucleated and preferentially grown. In the present case, the dynamics of the formation of calcite-aragonite sequences are triggered by distinct local environmental changes, in particular seasonal variations in seepage fluid flow behavior and progress in CO2 degassing. These considerations are relevant for a better understanding of proxy signal development and preservation in calcareous sedimentary sequences forming under highly dynamic environmental conditions.

The effects of flow field on the succession of the microbial community on artificial reefs

The flow field is one of the most important external conditions affecting the development of biofouling community on artificial reefs (ARs), especially the microbial community. In this article, we investigated the temporal dynamics of microbial communities between the stoss side and the lee side of ARs. The results showed that the composition and structure of microbial and macrobenthic communities between the stoss side and the lee side both presented obvious temporal variations. Microbial diversity and richness were higher on the stoss side than that on the lee side. There was a greater impact on bacterial and archaeal communities on temporal scale compared to that on micro-spatial scale, which was not suitable for the fungal community. The organism biomass, abundance and coverage of macrobenthic community on the lee side were higher than those on the stoss side, and the microbial diversity on the stoss side increased significantly with the organism coverage.

The Development of Outbreaks of Forest Insects on Different Spatial Scale

The work is dedicated to the discussion of the possibilities of describing the dynamics of the forest insect outbreaks development on different spatial scales. The properties of outbreaks were considered on a microspatial scale, where the distribution patterns of individuals across different food sources within the boundaries of a local territory or a stand were analysed, and on a macrospatial scale, where the focus of the analysis were the indicators of the photosynthetic apparatus (leaves or needles) removal over the entire territory of the locus, including primary, secondary and migratory loci. When analysing the microspatial distribution of caterpillars on trees within loci on different stages of gradation, the model of the individuals’ distribution on fodder trees was used as a second order stage transition. The macrospatial processes that occur during the outbreak development include, firstly, the growth of an existing outbreak and the emergence of new connected damaged areas of the forest, and secondly, the emergence of new unconnected secondary foci. To characterise the outbreaks, their fractal dimension D and the characteristics of the “viscous fingers” on the border of the outbreaks were used. Remote sensing data were used to calculate these characteristics. The proposed approaches can be used to predict the development of forest insects outbreak. When constructing and verifying the models, we used data from the Siberian silkworm census and the trees colonisation rate in the outbreak zone, as well as the remote sensing data on the areas and shapes of the foci in the regions of the Krasnoyarsk Territory during an outbreak of the Siberian silk moth Dendrolimus sibiricus Tschetv. in 2015–2019.

A preliminary approach to Early Iron Age demography. Testing paleodemographic methodologies on a microspatial scale: The case of Punta de Muros (NW Iberia)

This paper presents an approach to the paleodemography of the Iron Age in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, choosing a microspatial study focused on the settlement of Punta de Muros. This settlement provides an excellent context for paleodemographic analysis, given the extent of its archaeological record, the chronological studies of its occupational dynamics and its condition as a fully excavated settlement. This work aims to review several demographic techniques in order to assess their weaknesses and strengths and their applicability to the case of study. Thus, the data obtained will be analysed from the point of view of their appropriateness and precision for Early Iron Age societies of the northwest, relating the results by means of several demographic markers and the archaeological data known for the settlement.

An integrated approach of logistic-MCE-CA-Markov to predict the land use structure and their micro-spatial characteristics analysis in Wuhan metropolitan area, Central China.

As human interference with the natural environment accelerates, land use has undergone great changes. However, to realize rational land development in the rural-urban ecotone, the micro-spatial (MS) unit is the best scale for the management and planning of sustainable land use. Taking Wuhan metropolitan area as research area, the integrated logistic-multi-criteria evaluation (MCE)-cellular automata (CA)-Markov model was used to simulate land use pattern for 2025. In addition, the 1 km×1 km, 2 km×2 km, 3 km×3 km, and 4 km×4 km and typical sample belt were built to reveal the spatial microcosmic expression of land use structure. The results showed that the kappa coefficient and figure of merit (FoM) were 88.01% and 26.86%, respectively, indicating the integration model has high prediction accuracy. In 2005-2025, the diversification of land use in the Wuhan metropolitan area will be generally above the medium level, and the types of land combinations will be relatively abundant. As human activities increase, the land use degree will show increases continuously, it will expand outward from Wuhan, and there is a positive correlation between cultivated land-rural residential land and urban land-cultivated land. The spatial distribution of land use structure presents regional scale characteristics, and different regions have micro-spatial scale dependence. The selection of MS scales based on local conditions can be a good way to reflect land use internal structure and provide a better reference for the compilation of regional land use optimization.

A Preliminary Approach to Early Iron Age Demography. Testing Paleodemographic Methodologies on a Microspatial Scale: The Case of Punta De Muros (Nw Iberia)

A Preliminary Approach to Early Iron Age Demography. Testing Paleodemographic Methodologies on a Microspatial Scale: The Case of Punta De Muros (Nw Iberia)

The influence of micro-places on the spatial patterns of property crime in Vancouver, Canada

ABSTRACT Research has shown that crime is concentrated at a small number of micro-places. This research has found that these spatial patterns are generalisable across different urban settings and are relatively stable over time. Despite this, little is known about the explanatory factors of crime at the micro-spatial scale. Using police incident data and land-use information obtained from the Vancouver Open-Data catalogue, zero-inflated negative binomial models are used to explain the spatial patterns of various types of property crimes at the street segment level. The results demonstrate that aspects of micro-places (multi-unit housing, restaurants (with and without liquor), and retail outlets) have a significant positive impact on these crime types at the micro-spatial level. Depending on the crime type, the strength of the relationship varies in magnitude and level of significance.

Research on the Characteristics of GIS-based Industrial Agglomeration in Shenyang

Research on industrial agglomeration using GIS spatial analysis and spatial visualization technology is still relatively few, so do the research on industrial agglomeration at the micro-spatial scale within the city. Based on the data of the legal entity of the street (township), using the Tsui-Wang Index and GIS methods, the spatial agglomeration characteristics of the secondary and tertiary industries in Shenyang are discussed from the three aspects of industrial spatial polarization, spatial differentiation and spatial correlation, and it is found that (1) there is a certain degree of polarization in various industries, with different degree of polarization of different industries, and the degree of polarization of the tertiary industry is slightly higher than that of the secondary industry; (2) the industrial spatial heterogeneity is obvious, showing spatial differentiation; (3) various industries have a certain degree of spatial correlation, but the overall degree of correlation is low, and the spatial correlation of the tertiary industry is slightly higher than that of the secondary industry; (4) there are obvious hotspots and cold spots in the industrial distribution, the secondary industry hotspots are distributed in the northern and western new cities, while the urban core areas are cold spots. The tertiary industry hotspots are concentrated in the urban core areas, while the cold spots are located at the south of the city. Inside the secondary and tertiary industries, except for the production and supply of electricity, heat and water, other industries have obvious hot and cold spots. Therefore, it can be considered that the industrial distribution has certain agglomeration characteristics, but the degree of agglomeration is not high, and the degree of agglomeration of the tertiary industry is slightly higher than that of the secondary industry.

Association of Gun Violence With Emergency Department Visits for Stress-Responsive Complaints

We evaluate the association between living near a neighborhood shooting and emergency department (ED) utilization for stress-responsive complaints. In this location-based before-and-after neighborhood study, we examined variability in ED encounter volume for stress-responsive complaints after neighborhood shooting incidents around 2 academic hospitals. We included patients residing within 1/8- and 1/2-mile-diameter buffers around a shooting (place) if their ED encounter occurred 7, 30, or 60 days before or after the shooting (time). Prespecified outcomes were stress-responsive complaints (chest pain, lightheadedness, syncope, hypertension, shortness of breath, asthma, anxiety, depression, and substance use) based on prior literature for stress-responsive diseases. Conditional logistic regression was used to calculate the odds of presentation to the ED with a stress-responsive complaint after, compared with before, a neighborhood shooting incident. Between January 2013 and December 2014, 513 shooting incidents and 19,906 encounters for stress-responsive complaints were included in the analysis. Mean age was 50.3 years (SD 22.3 years), 61.5% were women, and 91% were black. We found increased odds of presenting with syncope in 2 place-time buffers: 30 days in the 1/8-mile buffer (odds ratio 2.61; 99% confidence interval 1.2 to 5.67) and 60 days in 1/8-mile buffer (odds ratio 1.56; 99% confidence interval 0.99 to 2.46). No other chief complaints met our statistical threshold for significance. This study evaluated the relationship between objectively measured gun violence exposure and short-term health effect at a microspatial scale. Overall, this was a study with largely negative results, and we did not find any consistent dose-response pattern in time or space regarding neighborhood shootings and stress-responsive presentations to the ED. Theoretic links make this relationship plausible, however, and further investigation is needed to understand the short-term health consequences of violence exposure, and whether those vary based on the circumstances that are experienced inherently by residents of a given neighborhood.

Immunoassays Using Optical-Fiber Sensor with All-Directional Chemiluminescent Collection.

While chemiluminescent optical-fiber sensors present essential advantages for immunoassays of biomarkers, an inherent limitation hampering their detection sensitivity is the low collection efficiency of chemiluminescent emission induced by samples, owing to the microspatial scale of an optical fiber for transmission of light via total internal reflection. Here we present a robust approach to overcome this limitation, based on a uniquely designed all-optical chemiluminescent collection vial (CC vial) by using a concave mirror and a coaxial tubular mirror as its bottom and wall, respectively. Using cardiac troponin I (cTnI), a highly specific but low abundance cardiac biomarker, as the test sample, we show that accurate assays can be achieved in a wide linear range of 1-80000 pg/mL. The limit of detection is as low as 0.31 pg/mL, which is about 2 orders of magnitude lower than that obtained by a normal chemiluminescent optical fiber sensor. The method is successfully applied for determination of cTnI in real human serum samples with good accuracy and repeatability. Our study shows that the method can perform an all-directional collection of the chemiluminescent emission, thus, greatly enhancing the collection efficiency and improving the sensitivity of the immunoassays. It is also worth mentioning that the proposed strategy requires neither complex equipment nor additional chemicals, making it a cost-effective and universal approach for ultrasensitive detection of trace biomarkers.

Multi-scalar urban densities: from the metropolitan to the street level

Density is a key concept in urban research and theory, yet also much confused and abused. A main source of confusion in the analysis of urban densities, is that the spatial scale of measurement has a major impact on the outcome. From the scale of an urban block to that of a metropolitan area, densities can decrease a hundred-fold. Variations in the size of administrative and statistical districts can strongly bias comparative studies. For large metropolitan areas, the conventional average density measure obscures local concentrations, that are relevant for the urban experience, walking and public transport. Addressing these issues, a multi-scalar approach for mapping and measuring density is proposed, that captures concentration patterns in cities at scales relevant to everyday life: the micro-spatial scale of direct sensory experience, the meso-scale of walkable neighbourhoods, and the macro-scale of metropolitan areas. Demonstrating this approach, the Metropolitan Walkable Density (MWD) and the Urban Experiential Density (UED) are mapped and measured for cities in North America, Australia and Europe, based on census data. These multi-scalar approaches capture concentrations at scales that relate to how we access and experience the city. The findings show that lived densities vastly differ from conventional simple averages.

Study on Urban Spatial Function Mixture and Individual Activity Space From the Perspectives of Resident Activity

The research on the relationship between residents’ daily activities and urban spatial structure is of considerable significance to urban planning engineering and the organization of urban functions. However, little research considers the perspective of micro-spatial scale or resident perception. The increasing user-generated activity check-in data in social networks provides a database for this research. In this study, we first divided the urban space into nine functions that satisfy the residents’ activities, then used the small-scale grid to divide the city blocks and used information entropy to evaluate the mixed degree of land use functions. We then introduced the latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic model to identify 15 mixed patterns of land use functions and each spatial unit’s topic distribution. Moreover, the JS divergence index was employed to measure spatial units’ similarity, fit the distance-activity intensity decay curve, and studied the influence of the individual spatial function distribution choice. We demonstrate that in urban space, residents’ daily activities mold the blending of urban area functions and shift single-function urban planning to mixed-use, consisting of single-function dominant and multi-function mixed. Besides, the functional complementarity between the activity units weakens the distance attenuation effect of the activity-space interaction intensity to some extent. The research on the interaction between active space and spatial activities expect to support the combination of urban land use types, the layout of facilities, and the guidance of residents’ activities.

Assessing environmental response of gastropod species in karst springs: what species response curves say us about niche characteristic and extinction risk?

Spring ecosystems are exceptionally threatened and their conservation is often emphasized due to high levels of endemism among the groups inhabiting these ecosystems. This study includes gastropod assemblages of 36 springs situated in the northwestern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The aims of this paper were: to determine key factors for distribution of gastropod species on microspatial scale; to define the environmental preferences of gastropod species with respect to the physicochemical properties of water, the hydrological characteristics and the sediment structure; to determine species tolerance ranges and species optimums, with special emphasis on new and endemic species. Moreover the aim was to identify the species with highest extinction risk. The contribution of endangered and rare species to the total density was extremely high (64.6%). Species Response Curves were used to predict the distribution of gastropod species along the environmental gradient in the spring environments for the first time. The most important factors in structuring gastropod spring assemblages were oxygen and temperature. HOF (Huisman–Olff–Fresco) models may determine differences in range of environmental tolerance of species with similar ecological requirements. Our results have shown that two species: Ancylus fluviatilis and A. recurvus may be distinguished by their species response curves. Although there are no data on conservation status of A. recurvus, the extinction risk should be inferred as high, suggesting that IUCN status for this species should be updated to the category Vulnerable. Our study using HOF models revealed the potential gastropod species useful as indicators of karstic springs.

Community dynamics of free-living and particle-attached bacteria following a reservoir Microcystis bloom

The composition of microbial communities can vary at the microspatial scale between free-living (FL) and particle-attached (PA) niches. However, it remains unclear how FL and PA bacterial communities respond to cyanobacterial blooms across water depths. Here, we examined the community dynamics of the FL (0.2–3 μm) and PA (>3 μm) bacterioplankton based on 16S rRNA gene high-throughput sequencing in a subtropical stratified reservoir under Microcystis aeruginosa bloom and non-bloom conditions. Both FL and PA bacterioplankton communities showed different responses in alpha- and beta-diversities to the bloom, suggesting the idea that the responses of bacterial community could depend on lifestyle. Specifically, abundant PA subcommunities showed a greater variation between bloom and non-bloom groups than abundant FL ones. In contrast, rare FL subcommunities exhibited a stronger response to water depth than rare PA ones. Furthermore, the rare taxa exhibited a preference for PA status, shaped and stimulated by the M. aeruginosa bloom. Our analyses also showed that PA bacterial communities were generally more diverse and appeared to be more responsive to routinely measured environmental variables than FL bacteria. Microcystis blooms had a facilitative influence on specific bacteria by mediating the transitions from free-living to particle-attached lifestyles. Altogether, these findings highlight the importance of bacterial lifestyle and abundance in understanding the dynamics of microbial community in cyanobacterial bloom aquatic ecosystem.

A multi-scale fine-grained LUTI model to simulate land use scenarios in Luxembourg

The increasing attractiveness of Luxembourg as a place to work and live
 puts its land use and transport systems under high pressure. Understanding how the country can accommodate residential growth and additional traffic in a sustainable manner is a key and difficult challenge that requires a policy relevant, flexible and responsive modelling framework. We describe the first fully-fletched land use and transport interaction framework (MOEBIUS) applied to the whole of Luxembourg. We stress its multi-scalar nature and detail the articulation of two of its main components: a dynamic demographic microsimulation at the scale of individuals and a micro-spatial scale simulation of residential choice. Conversely to traditional zone-based approaches, the framework keeps full details of households and individuals for residential and travel mode choice, making the model highly consistent with theory. In addition, results and policy constraints are implemented at a very fine resolution (20m) and can thus incorporate local effects (residential externalities, local urban design). Conversely to fully disaggregated approaches, a linkage is organized at an intermediate scale, which allows (i) to simplify the generation and spatial distribution of trips, (ii) to parallelise parts of the residential choice simulation, and (iii) to ensure a good calibration of the population and real estate market estimates. We show model outputs for different scenarios at the horizon 2030 and compare them along sustainability criteria.

Assessing anthropogenic disturbance on forest health based on fragment grading in Durgapur Forest Range, West Bengal, India

With the increasing degradation and encroachment of natural landscape environmentalists are now highly concerned with declining forest cover as well as increasing forest fragmentation at different scales across the world for last several decades. Considering the major fourfold effect of forest fragmentation i.e., reduction in habitat area, increased number of fragmented habitats, decrease in area coverage of habitat patch and increased number of isolated patches forest fragmentation is recognized as a major threat to forest ecosystems. Indicators of forest fragmentation are thereby gaining gradual importance at national and international environmental programs. But Spatio-temporal change of forest cover using forest fragmentation along with incorporation of population growth and associated anthropogenic intervention, at a micro-spatial scale has become the major thrust area in the present study. Kanksa is one of the few forest dominated block in Barddhaman District mostly affected by the rapid population growth, land use change in terms of increase in irrigated area as well as agricultural land, rapid urbanization in the last three decades. Present study focuses on forest fragmentation and spatio-temporal dynamics of forest cover from the beginning of 1990s up to present using geospatial techniques.

Highly Accurate Compact Difference Scheme for SPL Heat Conduction Model of General Body

Abstract Heat transport based on SPL model is of vital importance in microtechnological applications. The heat transport equation is different from the traditional heat conduction equation due to the presence of lagging parameter. In this article, the heat transport in the general body based on SPL heat conduction model under Neumann (insulated) boundary condition is solved by high-order compact difference scheme. The solution is obtained by extending the idea of Dai for discretising Neumann (insulated) boundary condition of heat conduction to the SPL heat conduction model and avoid the need of discretising Neumann boundary conditions. The stability of the numerical scheme has been discussed and observed that the present scheme is unconditionally stable. Model is validated for the thin film of silicon and found that SPL model give the satisfactory results in the macro- and microtemporal scales and up to microspatial scale. A numerical example of particular interest has been studied and discussed in details.