Urban identity through quantifiable spatial attributes: coherence and dispersion of local identity through the automated comparative analysis of building block plans

This analysis investigates whether and to what degree quantifiable spatial attrib-utes, as expressed in plan representations, can capture elements related to the ex-perience of spatial identity. By combining different methods of shape and spatial analysis it attempts to quantify spatial attributes, predominantly derived from plans, in order to illustrate patterns of interrelations between spaces through an ob-jective automated process. The study focuses on the scale of the urban block as the basic modular unit for the formation of urban configurations and the issue of spa-tial identity is perceived through consistency and differentiation within and amongst urban neighbourhoods

Space and exclusion: does urban morphology play a part in social deprivation?

There is currently a growing interest in the spatial causes of poverty, particularly its persistence. This paper presents methodological innovations that have been developed for investigating the relationship between physical segregation and economic marginalization in the urban environment. Using GIS to layer historical poverty data, contemporary deprivation indexes and space syntax measures of spatial segregation, a multivariate system has been created to enable the understanding of the spatial process involved in the creation and stagnation of poverty areas as well as to analyse the street segment scale of configuration

Recurrence networks - A novel paradigm for nonlinear time series analysis

This paper presents a new approach for analysing structural properties of time series from complex systems. Starting from the concept of recurrences in phase space, the recurrence matrix of a time series is interpreted as the adjacency matrix of an associated complex network which links different points in time if the evolution of the considered states is very similar. A critical comparison of these recurrence networks with similar existing techniques is presented, revealing strong conceptual benefits of the new approach which can be considered as a unifying framework for transforming time series into complex networks that also includes other methods as special cases. It is demonstrated that there are fundamental relationships between the topological properties of recurrence networks and the statistical properties of the phase space density of the underlying dynamical system. Hence, the network description yields new quantitative characteristics of the dynamical complexity of a time series, which substantially complement existing measures of recurrence quantification analysis

Unveiling connectivity patterns of categories in complex systems: an application to human needs in urban places

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of mathematical sociology on 06/09/2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0022250X.2016.1219855We present a methodology based on weighted networks and dependence coefficients aimed at revealing connectivity patterns between categories. As a case study, it is applied to an urban place and at two spatial levels—neighborhood and square—where categories correspond to human needs. Our results show that diverse spatial levels present different and nontrivial patterns of need emergence. A numerical model indicates that these patterns depend on the probability distribution of weights. We suggest that this way of analyzing the connectivity of categories (human needs in our case study) in social and ecological systems can be used to define new strategies to cope with complex processes, such as those related to transition management and governance, urban-making, and integrated planning.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

A holistic approach to the evaluation of sustainable housing

Residential housing is often evaluated against single or at best a limited number of similar criteria. These include quantifiable indicators such as energy use and its associated greenhouse gas emissions. It might also include material consumption from an embodied energy or resource use perspective. Social factors or qualitative indicators may be evaluated but are rarely placed or juxtaposed alongside these quantifiable indicators. A one-dimensional approach will be limiting because sustainable development includes both environmental and social factors. This paper describes the methodologies that have been developed to assess housing developments against five quite different criteria. These are: energy use, resource use, neighbourhood character, neighbourhood connectedness and diversity. In each case, high and low sustainability practice has been identified so that ranking is possible. These methodologies have then been tested by evaluating a typical precinct (approximately 400 m by 400 m) of a 1970-80s housing development in a suburb of Geelong. The rankings of the particular precinct have then been combined in a visual way to assist in the evaluation of the housing in a more holistic way. The results of this evaluation method are presented, along with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the methodologies. The research is the outcome of collaboration by a cross-disciplinary group of academics within Deakin’s School of Architecture and Building

Operationalizing the circular city model for naples' city-port: A hybrid development strategy

The city-port context involves a decisive reality for the economic development of territories and nations, capable of significantly influencing the conditions of well-being and quality of life, and of making the Circular City Model (CCM) operational, preserving and enhancing seas and marine resources in a sustainable way. This can be achieved through the construction of appropriate production and consumption models, with attention to relations with the urban and territorial system. This paper presents an adaptive decision-making process for Naples (Italy) commercial port's development strategies, aimed at re-establishing a sustainable city-port relationship and making Circular Economy (CE) principles operative. The approach has aimed at implementing a CCM by operationalizing European recommendations provided within both the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework-specifically focusing on goals 9, 11 and 12-and the Maritime Spatial Planning European Directive 2014/89, to face conflicts about the overlapping areas of the city-port through multidimensional evaluations' principles and tools. In this perspective, a four-step methodological framework has been structured applying a place-based approach with mixed evaluation methods, eliciting soft and hard knowledge domains, which have been expressed and assessed by a core set of Sustainability Indicators (SI), linked to SDGs. The contribution outcomes have been centred on the assessment of three design alternatives for the East Naples port and the development of a hybrid regeneration scenario consistent with CE and sustainability principles. The structured decision-making process has allowed us to test how an adaptive approach can expand the knowledge base underpinning policy design and decisions to achieve better outcomes and cultivate a broad civic and technical engagement, that can enhance the legitimacy and transparency of policies

Model Checking Spatial Logics for Closure Spaces

Spatial aspects of computation are becoming increasingly relevant in Computer Science, especially in the field of collective adaptive systems and when dealing with systems distributed in physical space. Traditional formal verification techniques are well suited to analyse the temporal evolution of programs; however, properties of space are typically not taken into account explicitly. We present a topology-based approach to formal verification of spatial properties depending upon physical space. We define an appropriate logic, stemming from the tradition of topological interpretations of modal logics, dating back to earlier logicians such as Tarski, where modalities describe neighbourhood. We lift the topological definitions to the more general setting of closure spaces, also encompassing discrete, graph-based structures. We extend the framework with a spatial surrounded operator, a propagation operator and with some collective operators. The latter are interpreted over arbitrary sets of points instead of individual points in space. We define efficient model checking procedures, both for the individual and the collective spatial fragments of the logic and provide a proof-of-concept tool

Rethinking network governance: new forms of analysis and the implications for IGR/MLG

Our position is that network governance can be understood as a communicative arena. Networks, then, are not defined by frequency of interactions between actors but by sharing of and contest between different clusters of ideas, theories and normative orientations (discourses) in relation to the specific context within which actors operate. A discourse comprises an ensemble of ideas, concepts and causal theories that give meaning to and reproduce ways of understanding the world (Chouliaraki and Fairclough 1999). Consequently, network governance can be understood as the inherently political process through which discourses are produced, reproduced and transformed. Democratic network governance thus becomes the study of the way in which the core challenges of democratic practice are addressed – how is legitimacy awarded, by what mechanisms are decisions reached, and how is accountability enabled. Three approaches to the discursive analysis of democracy in network governance are considered - argumentation analysis, inter-subjectivity, and critical discourse analysis – and their implications for the study of intergovernmental relations and multi-level governance (IGR/MLG) are discussed. Case examples are provided. We conclude that the value for the study of MLG/IGR is to complement existing forms of analysis by opening up the communicative and ideational aspects of interactions between levels of government and other actors