Urban management revolution: intelligent management systems for ubiquitous cities

A successful urban management support system requires an integrated approach. This integration includes bringing together economic, socio-cultural and urban development with a well orchestrated transparent and open decision making mechanism. The paper emphasises the importance of integrated urban management to better tackle the climate change, and to achieve sustainable urban development and sound urban growth management. This paper introduces recent approaches on urban management systems, such as intelligent urban management systems, that are suitable for ubiquitous cities. The paper discusses the essential role of online collaborative decision making in urban and infrastructure planning, development and management, and advocates transparent, fully democratic and participatory mechanisms for an effective urban management system that is particularly suitable for ubiquitous cities. This paper also sheds light on some of the unclear processes of urban management of ubiquitous cities and online collaborative decision making, and reveals the key benefits of integrated and participatory mechanisms in successfully constructing sustainable ubiquitous cities

Conceptual models of urban environmental information systems - toward improved information provision

Cities are the hub of European society - for over a millennium, they are the locus of social, political and economic development. As the core of intensive and creative human activity, they are also the place where the environmental externalities that accompany rapid development are most visible. The environmental consequences of urban development have been recognised long ago, as in the case of London, where in 1388 legislation was introduced to control pollutant emissions (Lowenthal, 1990). Similar historical environmental regulations can be demonstrated for many cities in Europe. However, while for most of history those who govern the city (be it the sovereign, city elders or local government) where responsible for the control, mitigation and management of the common environment in the city, the last 30 years are a period of profound change. This is due to the trend toward improved participation in environmental decision making . a more inclusive and open approach to decisions that deal with the city commons. This change did not occurre overnight but rather gradually. For example, in the United Kingdom, it was the Town and Country Planning Act of 1947 which introduced public scrutiny to changes in the urban form (Rydin, 1998), or the development of public involvement in environmental impact assessment of urban projects as developed in many countries throughout the developed world during the 1970s and 1980s (Gilpin 1995). These changes accelerate within the last three decades, and especially since the publication of .Our Common Future. (WCED and Brundtland 1987), the acceptance of the .Sustainable Development. principles and the Rio conference. A quiet (mini) revolution happened in Europe not long ago, toward the end of 1998 when the members of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) signed the .Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters. - the Aarhus Convention (UN/ECE 1998). The convention is expected to come into force by the end of 2001, and calls the governments and public authorities to open up access to environmental information as a means to improve public participation in environmental decision making and awareness of environmental issues (UN/ECE, 1998). However, these declarations on the value and importance of environmental information do not match our level of understanding on the role of environmental information in decision making processes, and especially on the role of information in improving awareness and participation. Therefore, it is useful to take a step back, and to try and evaluate how environmental information and access to it and its use support public involvement in such processes. This paper is aimed to offer a framework that can assist us in the analytical process of understanding environmental information use. It focuses on public access and assumes that environmental information will be delivered to the public through the Internet. Such assumption is based on the current trend within public authorities is to use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a major delivery medium and it seems that it will become more so in the near future (OECD 2000). The framework which this paper presents, is based on Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) study which unpacked some of the core issues relating to public access and use of environmental information (Haklay, 2001). Although the aim here is not to discuss the merits of SSM, but to focus on the conceptual models, some introduction to the techniques that are used here is needed. Therefore, the following section opens with introduction to SSM and its techniques. The core of the paper is dedicated to the development of conceptual models. After presenting the conceptual models, some conclusions about these models and their applications are drown

Evaluating Conflicts in the Use and Development of Geographic Information Systems

Use of geographic information systems is increasing in governments, commercial companies, and by individual users. With such pervasive use of GIs there has been surprisingly little investigation of the values that various parties would support in the development of geographic technologies. There are many parties involved in the use of GIs each with opinions of what are good goals for developing and using such systems. This research seeks to determine differences and similarities among parties in the importance placed on supporting specific societal goals germane to the use of geographic technologies and databases. Previous research determined six areas where the potential for disagreement between different parties involved in GIs might be high. The first phase of the research involved creating a survey. The survey was designed to determine to what extent conflicts are perceived to exist by those using and creating GIs and those who are subjects of such systems. Those sampled in the survey were asked how much value they would place on various societal goals. Each goal is believed to be a laudable goal by some parties using GIs. Response options ranged from unimportant societal goal to highly important societal goal. Statistical analysis of the results was performed. This allowed researchers to see if differences exist among the groups sampled for the value they place on supporting the goals. Various professional organizations with members involved in the use and development of geographic information systems are discussing the development of codes of conduct and recommendations for ethical education. The work done for this project hopes to serve as an initial step for creating ethical learning materials. The research also identifies areas where there is disagreement about what is beneficial for society so further research may be performed

Digital Earth: The Impact of Geographic Technology Through the Ages

Geographic technology encompasses a wide range of geographic knowledge, concepts, processes, and artifacts. Because of its interdisciplinarity and integration with other technologies, the paper examines the diffuse impacts of geographic technology within the evolving relationship between technological and societal developments over time

THE DEVELOPMENT OF A METHODOLOGY FOR CREATING AN EARTHEN BUILDING INVENTORY

This thesis addresses the issue of cataloguing traditional earthen architecture. It proposes a methodology that will permit the systematic collection and analysis of objective and quantifiable data relating to historic earthen, or cob, buildings in a parish in mid Devon. The brief given for this project requhes a multi-disciplinary approach to be taken, one that considers the topographical surroundings and the historic context of the buildings as well as the architectural characteristics. A triangular concept is expounded, with the three elements providing a sound basis for the development of an holistic methodology for creating an earthen building inventory. To comply with the requirements of the brief, a comprehensive review of a wide range of relevant literature is described. Historic and current literature on the use of earth as a constructional material is considered, as well as literature on landscape history and historic documentation. The rationale is that a broad based understanding of the key elements will guide the selection of data for inclusion in the proposed inventory database. Data included in existing methodologies, devised for inventorying historic buildings, is assessed, and the necessity to develop a methodology to manage cob buildings is evaluated. The selection of the study area, the parish of Sandford, in which to demonstrate the proposed methodology, and the collection of the descriptive and the spatial data relating to the cob buildings is explained in detail. The use of a relational database, linked to a Geographical Information System, to collate the collected data and the results achieved fi"om analysis is fiilly described and discussed. The potential use of the methodology as a powerfiil conservation tool, indicated by the results of case studies undertaken, is also considered. The conclusions drawn are that the developed methodology represents the first systematic study on cob buildings inDevon, and that the important results achieved, and discoveries made, present a distinct and significant contribution to the current knowledge of cob buildings in mid Devon