Urban System

The project Albatros-D aims at developing a structured method of urban diagnosis that integrates sustainable development stakes at the beginning of the planning stage of public infrastructures projects building, renovation or abandon. The method is innovating by providing decision based on qualitative multicriteria and systemic modelling; this, in a stage of the project where information level is at a minimum

There is a large literature on the existence of agglomeration economies, as shown in the surveys by Moomaw (1983) or Gerking (1993). The benefits of these economies arise from multiple sources, but some negative externalities might also emerge. Within the hierarchical urban system, cities at different ranks (different size) take on different economic functions with variant 'efficient sizes' (Capello and Camagni, 2000) and, indeed, the distributions of cities' relative size have been stable in many countries (Black and Henderson, 1999; Eaton and Eckstein, 1997; Nitsch, 2005) and, in many cases they obey the Zipf's law (Gabaix, 1999). If a city is able to adjust its spatial structure to offset the negative exter- nalities due to its size, it will be able to keep growing. If that is not possible, it might be more convenient to transit from a monocentric to a polycentric structure, which is usually considered as a possible strategy to eliminate diseconomies in urban econ...

This paper shows the results of a study carried out on the central area of Irbid, Jordan in order to assess the effect of the modern urbanization process on the degradation and loss of the city’s heritage. This type of work comes as a result of the need to study the interaction between modern and heritage landscapes, which are in

DOI: 10.21276/sjahss.2017.5.9.20 Abstract: Geographer who have an aspire to examine the relationship between numbers and size of settlement put forth their very own principle by using set up their own assumption about the real world to suit their analysis and reasoning for explained and proved what they are wanted, then testing it against reality. The concept of citysize distribution has riveted the attention of urban geographer form twentieth century .The existence of three types of city-size distributions has been noted in the literature on city-size distribution and settlement system. These are central place, rank-size and primate city distributions. This paper is primarily focused on last two, law of primate city and rank-size rule distribution both are the hot topics in urban geography measuring the trend in urbanization, as we are try to classify and grouping the cities of a nation or a state or some time globally to measure the trend of urbanization, dependency of main town o...

The urgency of climate proofing urban areas is increasingly recognized and various adaptation and mitigation measures are being developed. However, to combine these measures into comprehensive strategies is a challenge. The incorporation of climate change issues in day-to-day urban development requires better understanding of the urban system and the relations between climate and non-climate urban issues. In this paper we

In the present-day post-industrial society and in a globalised economy there is a strong tendency towards standardization and homologation. If we consider one of the most traditional urban functions - the commercial one - analysing what is happening in the centre of the cities of all the developed countries of the world, we notice a process of standardization regarding the offer, both in the sense of the single articles sold and in the sense of the commercial area in all its complexity (uniformity of the showcases for the exposure, diminution of the historical shops with sale of distinctive articles, diffusion of the branches of national and international chains and the phenomenon of franchising). Therefore, the central areas of our cities tend to be more and more alike. Obviously this is fruit of a more complex process, that is concretized in the tendency towards the diversification of the distributive network through the rapid diffusion of hypermarkets and commercial centres in th...

Hazardous industrial sites have always represented a threat for the community often provoking major accidents overcoming the boundaries of the plants and affecting the surrounding urban areas. If the industrial sites are located in natural hazard-prone areas, technological accidents may be triggered by natural events, generating so-called na-tech events which may modify and increase the impact and the overall damage in the areas around them. Nevertheless, natural and technological hazards are still treated as two separate issues, and up to now the methods for na-tech risk assessment have been developed mainly for specific natural hazards, generally restricted to some plant typologies and to the area of the plant itself. Based on a review of the current na-tech literature, this article illustrates a risk assessment method as a supporting tool for land use planning strategies aimed at reducing na-tech risk in urban areas. More specifically, a multi attribute decision-making method, combined with fuzzy techniques, has been developed. The method allows planners to take into account, according to different territorial units, all the individual na-tech risk factors, measured through both quantitative and qualitative parameters, while providing them with a na-tech risk index, useful to rank the territorial units and to single out the priority intervention areas. The method is designed to process information generally available about hazardous plants (safety reports), natural hazards (hazard maps) and features of urban systems mainly influencing their exposure and vulnerability to na-tech events (common statistical territorial data). Furthermore, the method implemented into a GIS framework should easily provide planners with comparable maps to figure out the hazard factors and the main territorial features influencing the exposure and vulnerability of urban systems to na-tech events. The method has been tested on a middle-sized Municipality in the Campania Region, identified as 2nd class seismic zone, according to the Ordinance 3274/2003, in which a LPG storage plant, classified as a plant with major accident potential by the Seveso II Directive (art. 9), is located just within the city core.

AbstractWhat roles do cities play in fostering general social movements? This article maintains that cities facilitate particular types of relations that are good at making high-quality resources available to mobilizations operating at a variety of spatial scales. However, while large and complex urban systems may be well suited for these types of relations, whether they actually develop depends on the nature of local power relations between political authorities and civic organizations. In certain cities local configurations of political power may favor the growth of these relations, with these cities becoming important nodal points in geographically extended social movement networks. In other cities, by contrast, local configurations of political power may hamper the formation of these relations. This is a theoretical article that draws on network theory to inform the conceptual framework and a variety of empirical cases for illustrative purposes.What roles do cities play in fostering general social movements? This article maintains that cities facilitate particular types of relations that are good at making high-quality resources available to mobilizations operating at a variety of spatial scales. However, while large and complex urban systems may be well suited for these types of relations, whether they actually develop depends on the nature of local power relations between political authorities and civic organizations. In certain cities local configurations of political power may favor the growth of these relations, with these cities becoming important nodal points in geographically extended social movement networks. In other cities, by contrast, local configurations of political power may hamper the formation of these relations. This is a theoretical article that draws on network theory to inform the conceptual framework and a variety of empirical cases for illustrative purposes.RésuméQuels rôles les villes jouent-elles dans l’alimentation des mouvements sociaux généraux? Elles facilitent des types particuliers de relations qui réussissent à rendre des ressources de qualité accessibles à des mobilisations opérant à divers échelons spatiaux. Pourtant, si les grands réseaux urbains complexes sont sans doute bien adaptés à ces types de relations, leur développement effectif dépend de la nature des relations de pouvoir locales entre les autorités politiques et les organisations de citoyens. Dans certaines villes, les configurations locales du pouvoir politique peuvent favoriser l’intensification de ces relations, ces villes devenant d’importants points nodaux au sein de réseaux de mouvements sociaux de grande ampleur géographique. Dans d’autres, en revanche, les configurations locales du pouvoir politique peuvent gêner la constitution de ces relations. Cet article théorique utilise la théorie des réseaux pour éclairer le cadre conceptuel et plusieurs cas empiriques à titre indicatif.Quels rôles les villes jouent-elles dans l’alimentation des mouvements sociaux généraux? Elles facilitent des types particuliers de relations qui réussissent à rendre des ressources de qualité accessibles à des mobilisations opérant à divers échelons spatiaux. Pourtant, si les grands réseaux urbains complexes sont sans doute bien adaptés à ces types de relations, leur développement effectif dépend de la nature des relations de pouvoir locales entre les autorités politiques et les organisations de citoyens. Dans certaines villes, les configurations locales du pouvoir politique peuvent favoriser l’intensification de ces relations, ces villes devenant d’importants points nodaux au sein de réseaux de mouvements sociaux de grande ampleur géographique. Dans d’autres, en revanche, les configurations locales du pouvoir politique peuvent gêner la constitution de ces relations. Cet article théorique utilise la théorie des réseaux pour éclairer le cadre conceptuel et plusieurs cas empiriques à titre indicatif.

Did living standards stagnate before the Industrial Revolution? Traditional real-wage indices typically show broadly constant living standards before 1800. In this paper, we show that living standards rose substantially, but surreptitiously because of the growing availability of new goods. Colonial luxuries such as tea, coffee, and sugar transformed European diets after the discovery of America and the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope. These goods became household items in many countries by the end of the 18th century. We use the Greenwood-Kopecky (2009) method to calculate welfare gains based on data about price changes and the rate of adoption of new colonial goods. Our results suggest that by 1850, the average Englishman would have been willing to forego 15% or more of his income in order to maintain access to sugar and tea alone. These findings are robust to a wide range of alternative assumptions, data series, and valuation methods.

This paper is part of ongoing research to explore (a) descriptive and generative potentials of shape grammars to unveil the order of urban morphological complexity underlying Portuguese treatises, and (b) the knowledge embedded in Portuguese urban cartographic representations produced from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries for purposes of architecture and military engineering. The shape grammar made it possible to infer the grammatical rules of composition based only on the written descriptions provided by the Portuguese treatises, as well as to decode the geometry of ideal urban plans and built cities. This paper suggests that these historical cities, both built and ideal were based on a structured knowledge-based process from where it is possible not only to retrieve a generative parametric urban grammar but also to construct a computational model, UrbanGENE, capable of iteratively generating Portuguese planimetric proportional and symmetrical urban systems. The paper suggests that the knowledge and computational tools achieved could be successfully deployed in the teaching and learning of architectural history.

Vandermotten C., Halbert L., Roelandts M. and Cornut P. European planning and the polycentric consensus: wishful thinking?, Regional Studies. European Union planning documents enhance the values of polycentrism as a tool to promote a more efficient, equitable and sustainable development. This paper highlights how and suggests why a descriptive approach of the European urban system became progressively a normative concept. It examines how biases in the measurement of polycentricity in the European Spatial Observatory Network (ESPON) 1.1.1. report (2005) are related to this normative approach. The empirical findings do not suggest any clear correlation between more polycentricity and more economic efficiency or even more spatial equity. The paper examines the reasons for the European Union tenacity to promote polycentrism. This concept seems to be the result of a political compromise and a strange hybrid between two competing approaches for the future of the European space. Vandermotten C., Halbert L., Roelandts M. et Cornut P. La planification européenne et le consensus du polycentrisme: un mythe politique?, Regional Studies. Les documents de planification de l'Union européenne promeuvent le polycentrisme, présenté comme un outil au service d'un développement plus efficace, plus équitable et plus durable. Cet article examine comment et pourquoi une approche descriptive du système urbain européen est progressivement devenue un concept normatif. Il examine les liaisons entre les biais dans la mesure de la polycentricité telle qu'elle a été pratiquée par l'étude European Spatial Observatory Network (ESPON) 1.1.1. (2005) et cette approche normative. Nos résultats empiriques ne montrent pas de corrélation significative entre des systèmes urbains plus polycentriques, plus d'efficacité économique ou plus d'équité spatiale. L'article examine les raisons de la volonté de promotion du polycentrisme par les autorités européennes. Cette promotion semble résulter d'un compromis politique et le concept apparaît comme un étrange hybride entre deux conceptions opposées du futur de la construction spatiale de l'Europe.Armatures urbaines Polycentrisme Polycentricité European Spatial Observatory Network (ESPON) Politiques de planification européennesVandermotten C., Halbert L., Roelandts M. und Cornut P. Europäische Raumplanung und der Polyzentrismuskonsens: politische Wunschvorstellung?, Regional Studies. Offizielle europäische Raumplanungsdokumente vertreten die Idee des Polyzentrismus als Werkzeug für eine effizientere, gerechtere und nachhaltigere Entwicklung. Dieser Artikel untersucht wie und warum ein ursprünglich beschreibendes Konzept zu einem normativen Konzept geworden ist. Er erforscht die Verbindungen zwischen voreingenommenen Messungen des Polyzentrismus, so wie in der European Spatial Observatory Network (ESPON) 1.1.1-Studie (2005), und dieser normativen Ausrichtung des Konzepts. Unsere empirischen Ergebnisse zeigen keine signifikante Korrelation zwischen polyzentrischen Städtesystemen und wirtschaftlicher Effizienz oder räumlicher Gerechtigkeit. Der Artikel untersucht die Gründe für den Willen der europäischen Behörden zur Förderung des Polyzentrismus. Diese Förderung scheint das Resultat eines politischen Kompromisses, und das Konzept wirkt wie eine merkwürdige Hybride zwischen zwei gegensätzlichen Konzeptionen der Zukunft der räumlichen Konstruktion Europas.Urbane Stuktur Polyzentrismus European Spatial Observatory Network (ESPON) Europäische RaumplanungVandermotten C., Halbert L., Roelandts M. y Cornut P. Planificación europea y el consenso policéntrico: ¿una ilusión?, Regional Studies. Los documentos de planificación de la UE mejoran los valores de policentrismo como herramienta para fomentar un desarrollo más eficaz, justo y sostenible. En este artículo destacamos cómo y por qué motivo el planteamiento descriptivo del sistema urbano europeo se convirtió poco a poco en un concepto normativo. Examinamos qué relación tiene este planteamiento normativo con los sesgos al medir la policentralidad en el informe European Spatial Observatory Network (ESPON) 1.1.1. (2005). Nuestros resultados empíricos no sugieren una clara relación entre más policentralidad y más eficacia económica o incluso más igualdad espacial. Aquí analizamos los motivos de la tenacidad de la UE por fomentar el policentrismo. Este concepto parece ser el resultado de un compromiso político y un extraño híbrido entre dos planteamientos competitivos para el futuro del espacio europeo.Redes urbanas Policentrismo Policentralidad European Spatial Observatory Network (ESPON) Políticas europeas de planificación