The (Evolving) vineyard\u2019s age structure in the valencian community, Spain. A new demographic approach for rural development and landscape analysis

Vineyards have assumed a key role as rural landmarks in recent decades. Investigating vineyard dynamics and contexts may reveal various economic, cultural, and environmental aspects of rural landscapes, which can be linked to land-use changes and major soil degradation processes, including soil erosion. As a contribution to rural landscape studies, the purpose of this work is to investigate the spatial distribution of vineyard plots in the Valencian community, located in the eastern area of the Iberian Peninsula, focusing on the final product, the type of vineyard and how long each vineyard has been settled over time. The work provides a comprehensive analysis of a wine-growing landscape, considering strategic (spatial) assets in present and past times. Vineyards were interpreted as a distinctive landmarks that give value to local economies, basic knowledge of how long different types of wine plots have been present in the Valencian community is useful when estimating their degree of sustainability and formulating suggestions, policies, and strategies to prevent processes of landscape degradation at various spatial scales

Towards local forms of sprawl: A brief reflection on mediterranean urbanization

Urban sprawl is a complex phenomenon that requires a comprehensive reflection on the most significant patterns and underlying processes. While the "sprawl" notion parallels hegemonic concepts such as economic competitiveness, social cohesion, and polycentric development, an integrated analysis of sprawl patterns and processes in paradigmatic socioeconomic contexts is increasingly required to reconcile dierent disciplinary visions, contributing to a holistic interpretation of metropolitan change. At the same time, sprawl is an increasingly evident product of local socioeconomic contexts all over the world. A comprehensive investigation of multifaceted, form-function relationships underlying sprawl-based on a quali-quantitative analysis of representative cases-is a crucial pre-requisite of both monitoring and policy actions at multiple spatial scales, from urban/regional to national/continental levels. The present contribution proposes a contextualization of the sprawl notion in Southern Europe-a socioeconomic context characterized by compact and continuous urbanization for a long time. An integrated approach based on a visual analysis of urban and peri-urban landscapes-integrated with an extended literature survey-allows for a definition of a specific sprawl model in Southern Europe, sharing some features with the United States ideal type of sprawl and showing peculiarities with respect to common models of urban dispersion typical of Northern and Western Europe. Policies aimed at containing urban dispersion may definitely benefit from a local-based definition of sprawl, considering the specificity of form-function relationships and the underlying socioeconomic context

‘Pulsing’ cities and ‘swarming’ metropolises: A simplified, entropy-based approach to long-term urban development

Relocating activities along the fringe, re-designing economic functions, and re-modelling settlement structures across larger regions and broader spatial scales, reflect the inherent shift toward complex metropolitan systems. A refined understanding of urban change requires the adoption of a ‘complex thinking’ that focuses on adaptive behaviour of key agents and local development networks within highly volatile real estate markets. By linking ecology with regional science, our study investigates speed and spatial direction of building activity rates introducing original indicators of urban growth and an exploratory multivariate statistics of the evolving socioeconomic context in the Athens’ region, Greece. Having experienced spatially uncoordinated growth that often resulted in self-organised settlements and socially diversified neighbourhoods, Athens was a paradigmatic example of complex metropolitan systems in Europe. The empirical findings of our study identify non-linear stages of the metropolitan cycle supporting the assumption that long-term urban expansion is a recursive process, with irregular accelerations and decelerations, and a complex relationship between spatial and temporal dimensions. Urban transformations are associated with a broad spectrum of socioeconomic conditions. While playing a variable role over the last century, the most relevant factors in Athens’ growth include population dynamics, urban concentration, and wealth accumulation. Considering such dynamics, spatial planning is required to give adaptive responses to discontinuous socioeconomic development increasingly dependent on territorial aspects and environmental constraints

Neck injury patterns resulting from the use of petrol and electric chainsaws in suicides. Report on two cases.

Suicides due to neck injuries caused by chainsaws are uncommon events. The cutting elements of petrol and electric chainsaws produce different features in lethal neck injuries. The accurate evaluation of the death scene, of the power and mechanical characteristics of the chainsaw and of wound morphology are all essential in distinguishing a case of suicide. \ua9 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Factors underlying life quality in urban contexts: Evidence from an industrial city (arak, iran)

Cities play a vital role in local development providing a high education level, specialized jobs and advanced services. When assessing living conditions and wellbeing in cities, economic indicators alone are generally unable to evaluate the inherent complexity of the 'quality of life' issue in urban environments. With rapid urbanization, shortage of infrastructures and services emerged in metropolitan regions of developing countries, leading to disadvantaged settlements, urban poverty, lower citizens' satisfaction, and an overall decline in life quality. Based on these premises, the present study illustrates a subjective investigation of life quality in an emerging economy such as Iran, focusing on Arak, the fourth largest industrial pole of the country. Based on a literature review on quality of life in industrial cities of emerging economies, subjective indicators of citizens' satisfaction on living quality in Arak were identified and quantified using empirical results from a field survey. Results of our study show that the overall satisfaction for living quality in Arak is rather low, reaching the lowest rank in the issues of environmental sanitation and public transportation. Lack of investments in urban infrastructure justifies the low citizens' perception of life quality in Arak city. The paper concludes outlining the urgent need of homogeneous and comparable macro-and micro-data on multiple aspects of quality of life at both city-level and metropolitan-level in emerging economies

Population dynamics and agglomeration factors: A non-linear threshold estimation of density effects

Abstract: Although Southern Europe is relatively homogeneous in terms of settlement characteristics and urban dynamics, spatial heterogeneity in its population distribution is still high, and differences across regions outline specific demographic patterns that require in-depth investigation. In such contexts, density-dependent mechanisms of population growth are a key factor regulating socio-demographic dynamics at various spatial levels. Results of a spatio-temporal analysis of the distribution of the resident population in Greece contributes to identifying latent (density-dependent) processes of metropolitan growth over a sufficiently long time interval (1961-2011). Identification of density-dependent patterns of population growth contributes to the analysis of socioeconomic factors underlying demographic divides, possibly distinguishing between the effects of population concentration and dispersion. Population growth rates were non-linearly correlated with population density, highlighting a positive (or negative) impact of urban concentration on demographic growth when population is lower (or higher) than a fixed threshold (2800 and 1300 inhabitants/km2 in 1961 and 2011, respectively). In a context of low population density (less than 20 inhabitants/km2), the relationship between density and growth was again negative, contrasting with the positive and linear relationship observed in denser contexts. This result evidences a sort of 'depopulation' trap that leads to accelerated population decline under a defined density threshold. An improved understanding of density-dependent mechanisms of population growth and decline contributes to rethinking strategies of sustainable development and social policies more adapted to heterogeneous regional contexts

Rapidity of change in population age structures: A local approach based on multiway factor analysis

In the light of complex adaptive system thinking, population age structures in Europe have increasingly reflected the interplay between 'fast' and 'slow' socioeconomic dynamics driven by natural population growth and migration. Assuming the importance of demographic dynamics shaping regional growth in recent times, a diachronic analysis of local-scale population age structures was developed for 156 districts of Greece between 1971 and 2011. By using appropriate indicators, the analysis was aimed at demonstrating how 'fast' and 'slow' transitions contribute to socioeconomic change in both urban and rural areas. Acomprehensive analysis of change in population age structures between 1971 and 2011 allows identification of latent spatial structures as a result of population re-distribution from urban cores to broader rural regions. Following residential mobility, the empirical results of this study indicate (i) a late phase of urbanization (1971-1981) with population densification and settlement compactness, (i) a rapid suburbanization (1981-1991) consolidating distinctive demographic structures in urban and rural areas, (ii) a mild counter-urbanization (1991-2001) with moderate aging of suburban populations and (iii) a latent re-urbanization (2001-2011) reducing the suburban-urban divide in population age structures. Residential mobility contributed to a more balanced age structure during suburbanization and an increased demographic divide in the subsequent urban waves. A refined analysis of long-term population dynamics in metropolitan regions reflects spatial outcomes and latent aspects of demographic transitions shedding light on the debate over the future development of urban and rural societies in advanced economies

Risk analysis of agricultural, forestry and green maintenance working sites

This work is focused on serious and fatal accidents which occur at forestry, agricultural and green maintenance working sites. In these sites are performed operations related to tree cutting or felling with continuous use of chainsaws. During this study we investigated 123 professional as well as non-professional working sites. We considered all characteristics necessary to determine the operating conditions and to identify possible steps for an effective protection. The work highlights a very serious situation in both investigated working environments where all measures of job safety are systematically ignored. In conclusion, we recommend that for a significant reduction of serious and fatal accidents, a mandatory training should be extended to all chainsaws users. Passive and active safety systems which interrupt the operation of the saw when it does not comply with all obligatory safety rules (i.e. human vicinity to cutting chain, falling down of the operator and others) should be define