Analysis of land use/land cover spatio-temporal metrics and population dynamics for urban growth characterization

[EN] Promoting sustainable urbanization and limiting land consumption is a local and regional priority policy target in Europe. Monitoring and quantifying urban growth supports decision-making processes for the prevention of ecological and socio-economic consequences. In this work, we present a methodology based on spatio-temporal metrics and a new index (PUGI), that quantifies the inequality of growth between population and urban areas, to analyze and compare urban growth patterns at different levels. We computed an exhaustive set of spatio-temporal metrics at local level in a testing sample of six urban areas from the Urban Atlas database, then un-correlated metrics were selected and the data were interpreted at various levels. Results allow for a differentiation of growing patterns, discriminating between compact and sprawl trends. The index proposed complements the analysis by including demographic dynamics, being also useful for assessing the growing imbalance between the progression on residential areas and the population change at local level. The analysis at various levels contributes to a better understanding of urban growth patterns and its relation to sustainable policies not only within urban areas, but also for the comparison across Europe.This research has been funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad and FEDER, in the framework of the project CGL2016-80705-R and the Fondo de Garantia Juvenil contract PEJ-2014-A-45358.Sapena Moll, M.; Ruiz Fernández, LÁ. (2019). Analysis of land use/land cover spatio-temporal metrics and population dynamics for urban growth characterization. Computers Environment and Urban Systems. 73:27-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2018.08.001S27397

Identifying urban growth patterns through land-use/land-cover spatio-temporal metrics: Simulation and analysis

[EN] The spatial pattern of urban growth determines how the physical, socio-economic and environmental characteristics of urban areas change over time. Monitoring urban areas for early identification of spatial patterns facilitates assuring their sustainable growth. In this paper, we assess the use of spatio-temporal metrics from land-use/land-cover (LULC) maps to identify growth patterns. We applied LULC change models to simulate different scenarios of urban growth spatial patterns (i.e., expansion, compact, dispersed, road-based and leapfrog) on various baseline urban forms (i.e., monocentric, polycentric, sprawl and linear). Then, we computed the spatio-temporal metrics for the simulated scenarios, selected the most informative metrics by applying discriminant analysis and classified the growth patterns using clustering methods. Two metrics, Weighted mean expansion and Weighted Euclidean distance, which account for the densification, compactness and concentration of urban growth, were the most efficient for classifying the five growth patterns, despite the influence of the baseline urban form. These metrics have the potential to identify growth patterns for monitoring and evaluating the management of developing urban areas.This work was supported by the the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad and FEDER [CGL2016-80705-R].Sapena Moll, M.; Ruiz Fernández, LÁ. (2021). Identifying urban growth patterns through land-use/land-cover spatio-temporal metrics: Simulation and analysis. International Journal of Geographical Information Science. 35(2):375-396. https://doi.org/10.1080/13658816.2020.181746337539635

Norms That Regulate the Theorem Construction Process in an Inquiry Classroom of 3D Geometry: Teacher's Management to Promote Them

This paper aims to illustrate how a teacher instilled norms that regulate the theorem construction process in a three-dimensional geometry course. The course was part of a preservice mathematics teacher program, and it was characterized by promoting inquiry and argumentation. We analyze class excerpts in which students address tasks that require formulating conjectures, that emerge as a solution to a problem and proving such conjectures, and the teacher leads whole-class activities where students' productions are exposed. For this, we used elements of the didactical analysis proposed by the onto-semiotic approach and Toulmin's model for argumentation. The teacher's professional actions that promoted reiterative actions in students' mathematical practices were identified; we illustrate how these professional actions impelled students' actions to become norms concerning issues about the legitimacy of different types of arguments (e.g., analogical and abductive) in the theorem construction process

Field induced density wave in the heavy fermion compound CeRhIn5

Metals containing Ce often show strong electron correlations due to the proximity of the 4f state to the Fermi energy, leading to strong coupling with the conduction electrons. This coupling typically induces a variety of competing ground states, including heavy-fermion metals, magnetism and unconventional superconductivity. The d-wave superconductivity in CeTMIn5 (TM=Co, Rh, Ir) has attracted significant interest due to its qualitative similarity to the cuprate high-Tc superconductors. Here, we show evidence for a field induced phase-transition to a state akin to a density-wave (DW) in the heavy fermion CeRhIn5, existing in proximity to its unconventional superconductivity. The DW state is signaled by a hysteretic anomaly in the in-plane resistivity accompanied by the appearance of non-linear electrical transport at high magnetic fields (>27T), which are the distinctive characteristics of density-wave states. The unusually large hysteresis enables us to directly investigate the Fermi surface of a supercooled electronic system and to clearly associate a Fermi surface reconstruction with the transition. Key to our observation is the fabrication of single crystal microstructures, which are found to be highly sensitive to "subtle" phase transitions involving only small portions of the Fermi surface. Such subtle order might be a common feature among correlated electron systems, and its clear observation adds a new perspective on the similarly subtle CDW state in the cuprates.Comment: Accepted in Nature Communication