Comparing Traditional Maps with Twitter-Derived Maps: Exploring Differences and Similarities

The paper describes the use of quantitative data obtained from the social medium Twitter to analyse urban patterns. A case study in the urban neighbourhood of Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, is described to show the outcomes of a comparative analysis with traditional data used in the urban and transport planning processes of the city. The maps derived from the elaboration of Twitter data are overlapped to traditional maps providing evidence of similarities and differences. The paper illustrates the outcomes of this overlapping and discusses the possibilities given by the use of freely and quickly available data instead of costly but official data

GISualisation: a tool for visually supporting planning processes

The evaluation of quality of life in cities can be supported by the analysis of data coming from different sources and describing different aspects such as economic, social, environmental, energy, housing or mobility issues. Nevertheless, the analysis of such big amounts of data is difficult so that only expert technicians can access to their inner contents. Furthermore, the outcomes of these analyses are often presented in static outcomes which reproduce the reasoning of technicians who have not expertise in urban studies. Thus, planners and decision-makers have to base their own choices on given outcomes without opportunities for personally investigating the inner contents of data. In order to facilitate the data exploration and readability by non-technicians, a GIS-based visualization tool, namely “GISualisation”, has been realized to give to both planners and actors involved in planning processes, a decision support system useful to visualize the inter-relations between data which describe cities. The tool is a web-based interactive visual tool, which works on geo-referenced dynamic maps, currently created with free Web GIS applications. GISualisation displays data on a map and offers the possibility to select and filter data by single attributes, allowing users to interact readily with large databases and customise the visualisation of information. Thus, the tool offers a simple interface to visualise GIS data on the basis of users’ requests, providing a support for planners and decision-makers to explore data and detect issues of inefficiency, ineffectiveness or critical areas which needs further reasoning on their planning or design. Furthermore, it can be used in collaborative and participatory session so to improve the information sharing among participants. Depending on the case study, the tool can be adapted and customized to visualise different type of data, ensuring user-friendliness and possibility to explore the relationships between data. GISualisation has already been applied in investigating inefficiencies in a public transport system (Pensa, Masala, Arnone, & Rosa, 2013), in studying pedestrian paths in an urban area, in analysing urban population health and in the evaluation of social housing projects. Further developments will include the integration with the interactive Visualisation Tool (InViTo) (Pensa, Masala, & Lami, 2013; Pensa & Masala, 2014) and the possibility to include real-time data feeds. Through GISualisation, data on quality of life can be investigated and visually analysed so to offer a new tool to actors involved in planning process for detecting critical areas and improving the urban planning process

Detecting spatial features from data-maps: The visual intersection of data as support to decision-making

The assessment of spatial systems can be supported by the analysis of data coming from different sources and describing different aspects such as economic, social, environmental, energy, housing or mobility issues. Nevertheless, the analysis of such a large amount of data is difficult. In order to improve the readability of data also with non-technicians, new methods of communication are needed, which could facilitate the sharing of information among people with different skills and backgrounds. In this context, the paper shows the developments in geo-visualisation to support and improve the processes of planning and decision-making. First, the use of a map-based visualisation is suitable for intuitively understanding the location and distribution of specific elements. Second, the graphic interface can be used to drive users in the investigation of data. It can provide a linear method that is more comprehensive to the human mind in dealing with the complexity of spatial systems. In addition, the possibility to select and filter data by single attributes allows databases to be explored interactively and read by differently skilled users. The intersection and overlapping of information enables users to discover the relationships between data, the inefficiencies and critical areas, thus providing suggestions for further reasoning in planning and decision-making. Furthermore, collaborative and participatory sessions require quick answers and simple readability. Thus, the real time response to simple queries widens the opportunities for improving the discussion. A case study describes the methodology used for sharing the data collected during an Interreg IVB NWE Project named “CoDe24” (INTERREG IVB NWE, 2005; ERDF European Territorial Cooperation 2007-2013, 2010). By the use of a web-GIS visualisation tool, namely GISualisation, the project partnership was allowed to explore the data concerning the railways and train typologies along the Genoa-Rotterdam corridor. Despite the high factor of usability of the tool, it was not employed much by participants to the project so that further reasoning is needed to evaluate how digital tools are perceived by professionals

Fragmentos de un discurso musicoterapéutico

This editorial article aims to record fragments of a music therapy discourse based on interviews with Music Therapists who today reside abroad.Este artículo editorial pretende registrar fragmentos de un discurso musicoterapéutico a partir de entrevistas a Musicoterapeutas que hoy residen en el extranjero.&nbsp

Fragments of a music therapy discurse. Interviews with Music Therapists who today reside abroad

Este artículo editorial pretende registrar fragmentos de un discurso musicoterapéutico a partir de entrevistas a Musicoterapeutas que hoy residen en el extranjero.This editorial article aims to record fragments of a music therapy discourse based on interviews with Music Therapists who today reside abroad.Cátedra Libre Musicoterapi

The effects of decision-making on urban form: a tool for supporting planning processes

In wide area planning, collaboration and participation are nowadays a common approach to the creation of a land or urban design. Thus, planning involves different kinds of professionals, usually coming from different disciplines and, in particular, speaking different languages. GIS technologies are generally used as support to investigate planning and decision making questions, but knowledge process is often limited by the lack of users’ ability in reading output data. Thus, the improvement of information sharing among many users is one of main tasks of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). This is commonly achieved through the use of visual tools which allow users to understand data through intuitive perception. For this reason, the ongoing research described in this paper is investigating a modelling system to combine visual tools with GIS technologies, in order to create a shared common language which could be able to really support wide area Planning processes.Peer Reviewe