Wind Risk Assessment in Urban Environments: The Case of Falling Trees During Windstorm Events in Lisbon

Trees bring many benefits to the urban environment. However, they may also cause hazards to human population, being the major causes of injuries and infrastructural damage during strong wind events. In the city of Lisbon, strong winds rather frequently result in tree falls, depending on the season and meteorological conditions. This paper presents a methodology to analyse tree damage due to strong wind events in urban environments. Each occurrence has been recorded by the Lisbon Fire Brigade and Rescue Services (Regimento de Sapadores Bombeiros de Lisboa - RSBL). Information provided by RSBL relating to the period of 1990-2005 was considered along with hourly wind speed and direction, species, fitossanitary conditions and urban parameters. To ensure that the fallen trees were caused by strong winds, only days with three or more occurrences of fallen trees were selected. It was found that in summer, northerly winds are responsible for 11% of tree falls, with winds from other directions (west, southwest and south) responsible for 5%. From autumn to spring, perturbed weather conditions originating from the west, southwest and south are responsible for 84% of fallen trees. The majority of tree falls occurred when wind speed surpassed 7 m/s in the six hours prior to their fall. Some recommendations to the Civil Protection Agency and the Fire Department are presented to improve the mission of collecting information. This research is a contribution to the assessment of wind risk in Lisbon

A cidade interdimensional e as práticas públicas quotidianas

O presente texto visa relacionar uma visão interdimensional da urbe com algumas das suas práticas quotidianas concretas, como o beber em público. De facto, as ações diárias dos atores sociais, se bem que se encontrem parcialmente determinadas pelas estruturas e instituições sociais que subjazem a uma situação social, igualmente condicionam, menos ou mais intensamente, essas instâncias abstratas do social. E um tal processo passa-se, em grande parte, através da mediação do espaço público urbano, onde o público e o privado se encontram e defrontam. Para tal, uma reflexão teórica preliminar articula as paisagens sociais interdimensionais à história da cidade. Em seguida, as dimensões sociais da vizinhança são consideradas e interpretadas nas diversas dimensões societais. Finalmente, fornece-se uma ilustração de uma prática de vizinhança concreta, o beber público na urbe.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mobile art flows. Tourism mobilities at the museum

This texto analyses the genealogy of the historical and social phenomenon ‘mobility’,bringing about a brief discussion on the particular phenomenon of tourism mobilities, in order to provide na understanding about tourism mobilities.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Open research for diffusion of open digital memories at Web 2.0/3.0

This paper suggests an experimental perspective of Open Research, understood as a process of deconstruction of knowledge about society that leads to its reconstruction, archiving and dissemination in the form of Open Digital Memories. This posture was developed within the Project Public Communication of Art: the Case of Global / Local Art Museums, at the University of Lisbon. The project was funded by Foundation for Science and Technology, and produced 6 books and 8 sites, among other final results. Researching and memorizing may be pursuited through an open style that includes the production and reception of investigation by both the researcher and the common citizen. This may involve multiple shared tasks: questioning the social, organization and critique of sources and data, co-participation in the use of methods, public discussions on work in progress and on research results. For this aim, Open Research must articulate Social Sciences and Humanities to New Media, specially across digital social networks, both at Web 2.0 (the Reading/Writing Internet) and at Web 3.0 (the so-called Semantic Web). Two strategies contributing to this posture will be exemplified, within the optics of Semantic-Logic Sociology: Experimental Books and Social Semantic-Logic Sites. They use the following instruments for producing/writing and receiving/reading social and semantic knowledge, some of these shown in the present paper: Visual Ontologies built from Social Hybridologies, GeoNeoLogic Methods (Multitouch Questionnaire, Trichotomies Game, etc..), Conceptual Abstracts, Present Books, Author-Actor Maps, GeoNeoLogic Novels, Visual Social Ontologies, Knowledge Interactive Windows, Visual Socio-Semantic Indexes, Visual Meta-Semantic Indexes. In short, Open Research and Open Digital Memories may constitute some of the fundamental pillars of emergent Research Society. This means a social paradigm where common citizens may become a sort of ‘lay researchers’ and, in the process, reformulate contemporary expert’s knowledge and power.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Sociological ontology of the digital public sphere : the case of Web 2.0/3.0

Digital public sphere is immersed in the present conjuncture of accelerated transformation and probable rupture, which certainly will affect the way we exercise our citizenship in contemporary times. This social and political tsunami is partly based on the change of paradigm of Web 2.0 or Social Web to Web 3.0 or Semantic Web. To clarify such a process, this paper discusses some of the key issues and theoretical positions on public space, from seminal Habermas’s perspective to new problematics raised by the networked society. The author suggests the construction of a Sociological Ontology of Social and Semantic Web, based on a Semantic-Logical Sociology and Methodology. These procedures are applied through the analysis and hermeneutics of a Wikipedia page entitled ‘Web 2.0’, where sociological experimental tools are used, as Semantic-Logical fields, trees and networks, central and peripheral concepts, and trichotomies

Innovative game genres: sociological games

In the last decades, the game scene has changed irreversibly: thousands of new game titles are been produced every year. Game industry is on the top of growth rate among cultural industries. However, and strangely enough, game genres and styles suffer from a lack of innovation and changed in a very lower rythm along the very history of digital games. An interesting critique on the nature of games and about the necessity of changing our game design rules and sensibility was done by Mary Flanagan (2009). My own reserach considers this experimental and social posture. E.g. we constructed a new breed of the so-called ‘serious’ and ‘educational’ games, aiming to allow not just the learning, but the practice of Sociology, that can be called Sociological Games. In other words, Sociological Games can be defined as games that reflect deeply on the very nature of social life, while playing with it. The following examples present some possibilities and prototypes in this direction

Hibridação e pós-colonialismo

A hibridização refere-se a um modo de conhecimento e de ação associados com o híbrido. E esta última idéia denota os interstícios, a rede de relacionamentos, os lugares e as instâncias que, à medida que fundem as suas essências e experiências, geram novas produções e reproduções de si mesmos. O hibridismo é percebido por várias escolas de pensamento e por muitos autores literários como uma das principais armas contra o colonialismo. Isto é especialmente verdadeiro para os teóricos do pós-colonialismo, como Edward Said e Homi Bhabha. Se o entendimento do hibridismo é fundamental para a reflexão que os Estudos Pós-Coloniais empreendem sobre a nossa sociedade intercultural, também é verdade que essa escola de pensamento mostra-se, ela própria, híbrida desde as suas origens. Na verdade, na nossa era pós-colonial, os textos literários e até mesmo a escrita científica (histórica, sociológica, etc ) exibem uma natureza cada vez intercultural. Mas como podem estes ‘Estudos Híbridos’, de que uma manifestação recente é a Hibridologia, através de um historiador, um sociólogo, um antropólogo ou um crítico literário, detectar tais significados públicos polissémicos que conduzem a uma mais intensa comunicação intercultural? Uma das respostas possíveis pode ser a seguinte hipótese: além da leitura e escrita de saberes especializados, os conceitos comuns (um termo central na fenomenologia sociológica de Alfred Schutz), utilizados por pessoas comuns de diferentes origens culturais numa base diária, pode constituir uma das chaves para a compreensão mútua entre as diferentes culturas hoje interligadas nas nossas sociedades pós-coloniais globais

Redes lusófonas de conhecimento: multiculturais, interculturais ou transculturais?

Pretende-se articular o fenómeno das redes de cooperação cultural globais/locais aos processos de comunicação entre culturas, a partir da desconstrução de dois conceitos centrais, as ideias de rede e de comunicação entre culturas, em termos de consenso/dissenso entre essas realidades. O conceito de rede não se esgota na configuração das redes sociais digitais. Uma tipologia, entre outras, distingue redes sociais pré-modernas, modernas e pós-modernas. Também é possível diferenciar as redes coloniais das redes póscoloniais. Na contemporaneidade, estes tipos de rede podem ser utilizados num contexto lusófono e global, em termos seja de partilha de conteúdos (informação ou conhecimento), seja no quadro de partilha de culturas. Em particular, os conteúdos mudam segundo as culturas que os transmitem, e de acordo com os modos de comunicação que subjazem a essas culturas. Nas últimas décadas, a comunicação multicultural ou intercultural emergiu como um tema central de embate, combate e debate contemporâneos. Basta pensar na atualidade dos fenómenos de choque de civilizações (Samuel Huntington, 1996), processo em grande parte decorrente de um défice de comunicação entre as sociedades e culturas ocidentais e orientais. Um segundo exemplo é a teoria do multiculturalismo engendrada por Charles Taylor (1994). Mas é preciso ir um pouco mais além, porque este conceito, como o interculturalismo e o transculturalismo, têm adquirido diversas conotações, ambiguidades ou incorreções interpretativas. No caso dos processos comunicativos, a comunicação multicultural postula diferenças de informação ou de conhecimento entre (múltiplas) culturas, que podem não se relacionar entre si. Por seu lado, a comunicação intercultural procura (inter)-relacionar a informação e o conhecimento dessas culturas distintas. Finalmente, a comunicação transcultural afirma que estamos a entrar num mundo para além (daí o prefixo trans) da comunicação cultural tal como hoje a conhecemos: por outras palavras, a comunicação transcultural transforma a própria cultura em formas de informação/conhecimento nunca dantes vistas.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sociologie sémantico-logique des ruines : pour une herméneutique hybride de la ruine du Web 2.0 au Web 3.0

Le terme ruine renvoie, à la fois, à un processus social complexe et à un concept polysémique. Les ruines constituent également un phénomène qui a une nature relationnelle. Par conséquent, une étude sociologique possible se constitue à partir des deux piliers suivants : (a) des concepts interprétés en utilisant une posture sémantique à l’égard du social et du sociologique ; (b) des relations sociales de nature logique et hybride. Ce texte développe ce type de réflexion en utilisant les outils théoriques et méthodologiques construits au sein d’un paradigme sociologique nommé Sociologie sémantico-logique et à l’intérieur de l’une de ses tactiques, l’Hybridologie sociale, qui utilise en particulier un style d’interprétation désigné Herméneutique hybride. Cette méthodologie est appliquée à l’analyse de contenu et de discours de la page « Ruins » de Wikipédia, en essayant d’y extraire les sens polymorphes qui traduisent l’imaginaire subjacent à la forme sociale «ruine»

Wind risk assessment in urban environments: the case of falling trees during windstorm events in Lisbon

Trees bring many benefits to the urban environment. However, they may also cause hazards to human population, being the major causes of injuries and infrastructural damage during strong wind events. In the city of Lisbon, strong winds rather frequently result in tree falls, depending on the season and meteorological conditions. This paper presents a methodology to analyse tree damage due to strong wind events in urban environments. Each occurrence has been recorded by the Lisbon Fire Brigade and Rescue Services (Regimento de Sapadores Bombeiros de Lisboa - RSBL). Information provided by RSBL relating to the period of 1990-2005 was considered along with hourly wind speed and direction, species, fitossanitary conditions and urban parameters. To ensure that the fallen trees were caused by strong winds, only days with three or more occurrences of fallen trees were selected. It was found that in summer, northerly winds are responsible for 11% of tree falls, with winds from other directions (west, southwest and south) responsible for 5%. From autumn to spring, perturbed weather conditions originating from the west, southwest and south are responsible for 84% of fallen trees. The majority of tree falls occurred when wind speed surpassed 7 m/s in the six hours prior to their fall. Some recommendations to the Civil Protection Agency and the Fire Department are presented to improve the mission of collecting information. This research is a contribution to the assessment of wind risk in Lisbon