Spatial Categories Research Articles

Review article: The spatial dimension in the assessment of urban socio-economic vulnerability related to geohazards

Abstract. Society and economy are only two of the dimensions of vulnerability. This paper aims to elucidate the state of the art of data sources, spatial variables, indicators, methods, indexes and tools for the spatial assessment of socio-economic vulnerability (SEV) related to geohazards. This review was first conducted in December 2018 and re-run in March 2020 for the period between 2010 and 2020. The gross number of articles reviewed was 27, from which we identified 18 relevant references using a revised search query and six relevant references identified using the initial query, giving a total sample of 24 references. The most common source of data remains population censuses. The most recurrent spatial variable used for the assessment of SEV is households without basic services, while critical facilities are the most frequent spatial category. Traditional methods have been combined with more innovative and complex methods to select and weight spatial indicators and develop indices. The Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI®) remains the benchmark for the assessment of SEV and a reference for its spatial assessment. Geographic information systems (GIS) is the most common tool for conducting a spatial assessment of SEV regarding geohazards. For future spatial assessments of SEV regarding geohazards, we recommend considering 3-D spatial indexes at the microscale at the urban level and involving the community in the assessments.

ASSESSING LINKAGE BETWEEN THE PARENT CITY AND SATELLITE TOWNS: A CASE STUDY OF RAMANAGARA AND HOSKOTE-KARNATAKA

Metropolitan cities are progressively interlinked and dependent on secondary cities to boost trade, Investment and local economic development.According to UN Habitat, Satellite Towns are one such spatial category associated with secondary cities surrounding the large urban metropolitan region. Majorly, the expansion and development of parent cities are sprawling along the transportation corridor connected to these satellites. Subsequently, it induces the development of the satellite town along the corridor. Satellite Towns act as a catalysts and a supporting hub for production, trade, transport and transfer of goods and people in the current system of global cities. Few Satellite towns are neglected as a part of the development and often lack financial and technical influence of larger cities. In some cases, these towns are strongly considered for the further development with regard to the regional context. This paper presents the identified 5 satellite towns around Bangalore metropolis proposed by the Bangalore Metropolitan Regional Development Authority under the structure plan 2011. Furthermore, the towns which are well populated and exhibit definite spatial interaction pattern were considered for the study, analysed through gravity model of interaction. The linkages between the parent city and the satellite towns were determined by the flow analysis. The degree of dependency between the city and the towns were analysed based on core indicators from the literature and available data. The Town with maximum degree of dependency were carried out for significance test. Finally, the paper concludes whether the town with close proximity exhibit strong dependency with the parent city.

A configuração dos espaços ficcionais em O outro pé da sereia, de Mia Couto

RESUMO O objetivo deste artigo consiste em analisar a construção dos espaços nos dois eixos temporais que estruturam a obra O outro pé da sereia (2006). O percurso investigativo adotado desenvolve-se a partir da análise dos recursos empregados na composição dos espaços que estruturam o romance e revelam os diferentes tempos históricos encenados. As contribuições teóricas de Luiz Alberto Brandão (2013), Osman Lins (1976) e Ozíris Borges Filho (2007) fornecem elementos para a compreensão da dinamicidade de que se reveste a categorial espacial na narrativa. Em O outro pé da sereia (2006), a construção dos espaços ficcionais desvela poder e opressão no passado, desolação e reconstrução no presente.

Mapping legal authority for terrestrial conservation corridors along streams.

Wildlife corridors aim to promote species’ persistence by connecting habitat patches across fragmented landscapes. Their implementation is limited by patterns of land ownership and complicated by differences in the jurisdictional and regulatory authorities under which lands are managed. Terrestrial corridor conservation requires coordination across jurisdictions and sectors subject to site‐specific overlapping sources of legal authority. Mapping spatial patterns of legal authority concurrent with habitat condition can illustrate opportunities to build or leverage capacity for connectivity conservation. Streamside areas provide pragmatic opportunities to leverage existing policy mechanisms for riverine and terrestrial habitat connectivity across boundaries. Conservation planners and practitioners can make use of these opportunities by harmonizing actions for multiple conservation outcomes. We formulated an integrative, data‐driven method for mapping multiple sources of legal authority weighted by capacity for coordinating terrestrial habitat conservation along streams. We generated a map of capacity to coordinate streamside corridor protections across a wildlife habitat gap to demonstrate this approach. We combined values representing coordination capacity and naturalness to generate an integrated legal‐ecological resistance map for connectivity modeling. We then computed least‐cost corridors across the integrated map, masking the terrestrial landscape to focus on streamside areas. Streamside least‐cost corridors in the integrated, local‐scale model diverged (∼25 km) from national‐scale least‐cost corridors based on naturalness. Spatial categories comparing legal‐ and naturalness‐based resistance values by stream reach highlighted potential locations for building or leveraging existing capacity through spatial coordination of policy mechanisms or restoration actions. Agencies or nongovernmental organizations intending to restore or maintain habitat connectivity across fragmented landscapes can use this approach to inform spatial prioritization and build coordination capacity. Article impact statement: Combined mapping of legal authority and habitat condition reveals capacity to coordinate actions along streams for clean water and wildlife.

Evaluating the Decision for Cochlear Implantation in Individuals With Single-Sided Deafness (SSD); Implementing the SSD Consensus Protocol Into Clinical Routine.

To implement a unified testing framework into clinical routine that can be used by adults with single-sided deafness (SSD) to assess alternative treatment options before cochlear implantation. Retrospective data analysis. Tertiary referral center with a large CI program. Thirty four participants underwent the new implemented testing procedure, including a test trial with contralateral routing of the signal (CROS) hearing aids and bone conduction devices (BCD) on a headband, before deciding whether to proceed with cochlear implantation. A test battery was used to assess speech in noise, binaural effects (head shadow, squelch, summation, spatial release from masking), sound localization, and quality of life. For participants that chose a CI, the same test battery was repeated during the 6 and 12 months follow-up appointments. Of the 34 participants involved in the study, 11 were implanted with a CI and finished their 12 month evaluation. Sixteen participants decided to stop after the CROS/BCD trial. In the CI-recipient group, a significant head shadow effect of 5.1 to 7.1 dB was achieved with the CI. Recipients in this group received only a limited benefit with either CROS or BCD before implantation. In the non-CI-recipient group, a significant difference between the CROS and BCD, in favor for the CROS device, was found calculating the head shadow and squelch effect. Localization abilities with the CI improved significantly in the CI-recipient group, even between the 6- and 12-month follow-up appointments. In the non-CI-recipient group, localization was significantly better with the BCD during the trial period. Higher scores were obtained from the speech and spatial categories of the Speech, Spatial, and Qualities of Hearing (SSQ) questionnaire with the CI. No subjective difference could be determined in the non-CI-recipient group. Implementing the unified testing framework into a clinical routine was challenging but provided helpful insight into the best treatment option for each individual.

Mapping visual spatial prototypes: Multiple reference frames shape visual memory

Categories provide a fundamental source of information used to structure our perception of the world. For example, when people reproduce the remembered location of a dot in a circle, they implicitly impose vertical and horizontal axes onto the circle, and responses are biased towards the center of each of the resulting quadrants. Such results reveal the existence of spatial prototypes, which function as Bayesian priors and which are integrated with actual memory traces. Spatial prototypes have been extensively investigated and described in previous studies, but it remains unclear what type of information is used to create spatial categories. We developed a new approach that allowed to ‘image’ patterns of spatial bias in detail, and map the internal representational structure of objects and space. Previous studies, using circular shapes suggested that boundaries are established based on a viewer-based frame of reference, therefore using cues extrinsic to the object. Given that a circle has radial symmetry, the axes imposed cannot come from the shape itself. Here we investigated if the same applies for shapes with clearly-defined symmetry axes and thus intrinsic frames of reference. Using rotated shapes (squares and rectangles), where extrinsic and intrinsic cues are dissociated, we observed flexible usage of multiple reference frames. Furthermore, in certain contexts, participants relied mostly on cues intrinsic to the shape itself. These results show that humans divide visual space as a function of multiple reference frames, in a flexible, and context dependent manner.

The shape of theatre in the city: A theoretical and methodological approach for analyzing artistic activity in urban space

ABSTRACT This article explores the spatial and social relationship between theatre and the city through the case study of Acre, a mixed peripheral city in Israel. Despite the numerous studies dealing with artistic activity in the city, we still lack a clear, systematic method for understanding art’s role in urban space. This study attempts to overcome this lacuna by suggesting an analytical method for understanding the socio-spatial relations between theatre and the urban space in which it is practiced. The method is based on a juxtaposition of the city’s physical and social structure with the artistic activity of five theatre institutions, and uses super-positioning to combine two research methods: urban research and ethnographic fieldwork. By mapping the artistic activity, it gives shape to an abstract social phenomenon, therefore enabling its spatial analysis. The findings were analyzed according to four spatial categories: enclosure, centrality, axiality, and permeability. In the case study we explored, the artistic activity shape was limited by the city’s physical and social structure and had little effect on its immediate urban surroundings. We nonetheless emphasize the applicability of this methodology to other cities and other fields of art that could produce different shapes and lead to different outcomes.

In search of resilient urban space : Pest’s city centre at the crossroads of tradition and innovation, 1928–1944

In this paper my aim is to examine the Hungarian architectural discourse between 1928 and 1944, with special regard to the ‘historical’ centre of Pest. The observation is carried out through the review of architectural journals and theoretical essays. I undertake a historical analysis of the various uses and changes in the meaning of the concept of townscape. Analysis of the architectural discourse for this time interval might provide a better understanding of the transformation in the perception of urban space. The examined period can be boldly called the ‘dawn of urban heritage protection’, but also the age of a new urbanity that envisioned the rethinking of urban space through the reconstruction of complete urban areas. This paradox not only had a remarkable impact on rethinking of urban space, especially on determining values, but also led to experimental and hybrid spatial categories. My aim is to study this specific problem of social history, which not only made urban preservation part of the discourse but expanded it more and more as a continually growing ‘set’. This set captures and addresses the diverse aspects of urban life, making the concept of urban heritage even more complex. The fundamental questions of the study are how the discourse conceptualises urban spatial categories, more precisely, how the materiality of the built environment and representations of space are taken into account. The discourse on compatibility encompasses all strategic behaviours that seek to integrate the historic city and the new architectural solutions incorporating the needs of the present. In order to analyse the ways in which the city centre was constructed in the discourse, I incorporate the resilience model into the argument. Thus, the discussion may help understanding how changes in the interpretation of urban space result in a new attitude towards preservation, development or modernization of ‘historic’ neighbourhoods.

Melodramatic Realism: Shared Time and Temporality in Gunther Scholz's and Carlos Cerda's Ein April hat 30 Tage

Gunther Scholz's and Carlos Cerda's East German-Chilean film collaboration Ein April hat 30 Tage (1979; April has 30 days) incorporates Latin American and (East) German melodramatic traditions, socialist realist aesthetics, and internationalist commitments. Bringing temporal analysis of international artistic collaborations to a literature that privileges spatial categories, this article highlights the intersection of melodrama's bad timing with competing traditions of socialist historicity, temporality, and modernization. At the levels of form, content, and collaboration, Ein April hat 30 Tage instantiates a solidarity rooted in shared time (Marike Janzen) and the attempt to synchronize multiple—and even competing—temporalities.

“Space, Mass, Surface in Architecture”: Conceptualization of Spatial Categories and a Building as a Border in Architectural Thought and Practice of the Soviet Constructivism

“Space, Mass, Surface in Architecture”: Conceptualization of Spatial Categories and a Building as a Border in Architectural Thought and Practice of the Soviet Constructivism

»Ihr müsst mit uns rechnen, mit unserer Andersartigkeit«

While the migration literature has since long dealt with the question of alterity and worked on sharpening of contours of the »Self« and the »Other«, the contemporary authors with the so called migration background tend to focus on the overlapping rather than segregating the categories of alterity. Irena Brezná's multidimensional work looks at »constructions« such »nation as Space« and the spatial category of »Heimat« in the specific German context. This paper concentrates on Irena Brezná's attempts to overcome the alleged segregation of ideological constructs like »Heimat« and the »Foreign« and how she takes a step forward in the trans-integrational direction. The paper argues with the help of her novel »The thankless Foreigner« that her conscious polemical approach towards concepts such »land of origin« and »land of arrival« no longer serve any purpose as far as the creative expression in multiple languages is concerned.

Rationalitetens indfoldning. Rumopfattelsen i Peter Eisenmans arkitektur

The article considers a contemporary approach to architecture in a pluralistic world. This is done through a discussion of the work of the American architect Peter Eisenman. In his critique of objectivist spatial categories, Eisenman articulates an architecture based on a folded space. Parallels are drawn to the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze and his considerations of Leibniz’s philosophy of folds. The article relates Peter Eisenman’s highly individual architectural method to the common cultural space of architecture. It concludes that Eisenman’s attempt to form non-rationalistic spatial and architectural categories functions only on a metaphorical level. Finally the article describes other approaches to folded and non-linear space, including theories developed by the architect Greg Lynn.

Spaces of Urban Citizenship: Two European Examples from Milan and Rotterdam

This article aims to highlight the emergence of urban citizenship spaces in two European cities—Milan, Italy, and Rotterdam, the Netherlands—where marginality and social exclusion are faced and coped with through social participation, appropriation of space, and the construction of a peculiar place-based sense of belonging. To do so, the article will present the results of comparative research conducted in Milan and Rotterdam by means of 60 semi-structured interviews (30 in each city) with inhabitants of peculiar neighbourhoods in the two cities. The analysis will adopt an intersectional perspective (Crenshaw, 1989), paying attention to the intersection between personal characteristics and spatial features to highlight the processes occurring at the crossroads between the social and spatial categories. In particular, this work will present two examples, one from each city involved in the research, in which urban citizenship practices are enacted and create a Lefebvrian space of representation where dominant discourses and narratives are overcome and overturned by people otherwise excluded from dominant spaces and mainstream forms of urban citizenship. A comparison of the fieldwork from the two cities shows how in both cases, subaltern and/or marginalised groups (women, the poor, and migrants in particular) manage to appropriate interstitial spaces within the city where they can find room for expression and well-being and for the performance of urban citizenship practices. At the same time, though, external (political and economic) factors can transform those spaces of representation into self-constraining places which can expose these marginal groups to further vulnerability.

Reconsidering the spatiality of religion and the state: relationality and the mosque not built

ABSTRACTInteractions between religious groups and state actors in cities across Europe are increasingly marked by complex relations that transcend the limitations usually associated with ‘local’ context, religion, or politics. However, scholars often fail to adequately conceptualise the multiple connections between religion and the state across various spatial dimensions. This contribution addresses this lacuna by introducing a relational approach to understanding the nexus of space, religion, and state. It is argued that a relational understanding of space helps to avoid the fallacy of neglecting other spatial categories such as the translocal or the global. This contribution’s conceptual arguments are based on an investigation of the spatial implications of the puzzle of why one of the largest mosque projects in Germany, the Munich Forum for Islam, failed to materialise.

Spatial Humanities 3.0: Qualitative Spatial Representation and Semantic Triples as New Means of Exploration of Complex Indigenous Spatial Representations in Sixteenth Century Early Colonial Mexican Maps

For some time now, the field of Spatial Humanities has acknowledged the need for a system capable of the spatial exploration of historical and archaeological phenomena beyond Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This idea comes from the need to analyse holistically spatial information, including that which is not geographic (i.e. vague, symbolic and imaginary space). In addition, this need becomes more apparent when dealing with traditions that do not conform to the Modern/European/Cartesian conception of space in which GIS is rooted. This article, explores the use of Qualitative Spatial Representation (QSR) and Semantic Triples as possible alternative means to model complex and diverse expressions of spatial information, including social and symbolic conceptions in 16th century Mexican maps. Using as case study the map from the region of Atengo-Misquiahuala (Hidalgo) which combine the Mesoamerican and European traditions, we explore how these approaches might open new venues of research, potentially shedding light to long discussed and problematic Mesoamerican spatial categories. Focusing on a contained and partial example, we examine from a theoretical perspective and as a starting point, the possible future implementation of these approaches for historical and archaeological research.

Paisajes en transición: gradientes urbano-rurales y antropización del bosque templado andino del sur de Chile

La asignación de categorías espaciales arbitrarias en los análisis de paisaje es un factor limitante al interpretar procesos socio-ecológicos que ocurren de forma continua en el paisaje. La noción de gradiente urbano-rural se ha utilizado para sortear dicho límite. En este trabajo analizamos la relación entre la estructura de los parches de vegetación nativa y el grado de antropización del paisaje en una cuenca del sur de Chile, con relación a la distancia a la ciudad. Se utilizaron 14 transectos para testear la disposición en gradientes de la antropización utilizando el Índice de Hemerobia, métricas de paisaje y topogra-fía. Los resultados presentaron gradientes de intervención antrópica y de dominancia de clases en base a la distancia del centro urbano. Se distinguen tres secciones asociadas a una dominancia del área urbana, un sector de transición y de la clase bosque. Las transiciones del gradiente son la base para la vinculación entre patrones espaciales, procesos socio-ecológicos e intervención antrópica.

Colour violence, deadly geographies, and the meanings of “race” in Brazil

ABSTRACTThis paper analyses the relationships between “race” and violent victimization, and between “race” and support for violent practices of social control in Brazil, using nationally representative survey data. I start from the premise that “race” is a set of relational practices rather than bounded “racial groups”. I operationalize this relational understanding of “race” methodologically by triangulating three measures of “race” – self-identified “census race”, interviewer-identified skin colour, and racial composition of the municipality – in conjunction with measures of class, gender and space. I find that whiter geographic spaces have lower overall levels of violent victimization, but that interviewer-identified darker-skinned individuals are disproportionately victimized in these whiter geographic spaces. Controlling for other variables, self-identified census race is not correlated with violent victimization. I find that public support for violent practices can best be understood by considering people’s simultaneous relationships to race, gender, class and spatial categories and hierarchies.

The transfer of location-based control requires location-based conflict

It is well supported that stimulus-driven control of attention varies depending on the degree of conflict previously encountered in a given location. Previous research has further shown that control settings established in conflict-biased locations can transfer to nearby unbiased items. However, these spatial transfer effects have only been shown using incompatible flanking arrows (i.e., stimuli that trigger spatial information) to elicit conflict in a flanker task. Here we examine the generalizability of transfer of control by examining if it can occur across a range of tasks. We employ a classic Stroop task (Experiment 1), a spatially segregated Stroop task (Experiment 2), and a spatial Stroop task (Experiment 3). Location-specific proportion compatibility effects were observed in all variations of the Stroop task tested; however, transfer to unbiased items occurred only in the spatial Stroop task in Experiment 3. This suggests that the transfer of cognitive control settings within spatial categories may occur only in tasks where the source of conflict is spatial, as arises in tasks with arrow and direction word stimuli.

Rethinking the place of students intermediated by the Geographic, Historical and Cultural School Atlas of the Federal District, Brazil

Abstract. The Basic Education teachers in Brazil face difficulties inherent in working with the geographical categories: Landscape, territory, region and place. These difficulties are related to the training of teachers who do not understand these categories and the lack of appropriate didactic material. The absence of local thematic maps prevents the understanding of the place as a living space and as a correlation of stories in the different scenarios of the city "The study of the place as a proposal for the continuing education of teachers of Basic Education from the School Atlas" is a project that allows teachers and students of the DF to approach these categories. The project is divided into two stages. The first stage was the preparation of the Geographic, Historical and Cultural School Atlas of the Federal District (AEGHC DF), completed in 2018. The second stage will be the training course for Basic Education teachers with exercises that involve the place category as a daily space that allows the construction of identities. The purpose of this article is to investigate the use of the AEGHC DF as an important mediator in the construction of spatial categories such as place and landscape in Geography classes. The Atlas is presented as a teaching methodology and strategy in the development of cartographic skills in the development of spatial reasoning. The AEGHC DF invites students and teachers to know more about maps, visualizing spaces, creating narratives and getting to know the place where they live.

Spatial distribution of undulating flight displays of territorial Golden Eagles Aquila chrysaetos in Lewis, Scotland

ABSTRACTCapsule: The undulating display flight of Golden Eagles Aquila chrysaetos has a territorial function on current consensus: we found that displays could occur at any location within a home range of territorial birds and were not more frequent at the territorial limits (as documented by a previous study) or around the nest site.Aims: To test the null hypothesis that display activity does not spatially differ within the home range of territorial Golden Eagles.Methods: We used 1488 h of observations of Golden Eagles between April 2003 and October 2004 (excluding November through January inclusive) on the Isle of Lewis, northwest Scotland involving primarily four territories. Territorial boundaries and nest sites were determined by the behaviour of the focal territorial birds. All flight activity was cast into three spatial categories (near-boundary, near-nest and elsewhere) and the relative occurrence of displays was referenced by overall flight activity recorded in these spatial categories.Results: We failed to reject the null hypothesis. Prior findings of greater display rate at territory limits were not confirmed. Territorial Golden Eagles apparently displayed wherever they happened to be in their home range. There was no difference in display frequency between successful and failed breeding pairs and, within pairs, between successful and failed breeding seasons. Monthly changes in display activity did not differ from monthly changes in the presence of ‘intruding’ sub-adults. A peak in non-territorial bird activity in August and September was not reflected by a peak in display, however, we could not distinguish recently fledged ‘non-threatening’ birds in this period.Conclusions: Undulating flight displays of Golden Eagles focused neither on territory boundaries nor the nest. Displays may be spontaneous or occur in response to the detection of potential trespassers or neighbours, however, we could not rule out any role of pair-bonding.