140 research outputs found
Interpreting mega-development projects as territorial traps: the case of irrigation schemes on the shores of Lake Chad (Borno State, Nigeria)
From the colonial era up to the present, mega-irrigation projects for agriculture have played a key role in the production of state space in Sahelian Africa. Transferring a concept proposed by Agnew (1994) onto a different scale, it is possible to interpret these mega-projects as \u201cterritorial traps\u201d. In fact, they set up boundaries (physical, relational, cognitive and operative) that force evolutive trajectories of the areas involved along rigid pathways. In the aftermath of the systematic failure of the mega-projects, farmers are faced with constraints determined by the trap imposed, without having any of the promised benefits in terms of productive growth, i.e. income. In many situations, the farmers have identified \u201ca means of escape\u201d from these catastrophes by transgressing the boundaries imposed by the territorial traps and reintroducing parts of the infrastructure to a common use. The case study presented regards the irrigation mega-projects on the shores of Lake Chad, in Nigeria
Forest functions and space: a geohistorical perspective of European forests
The history of man has been linked to the history of wood since prehistoric
times and because the forest is the main place where this resource is available,
forest spaces are also directly linked to the evolution of human society.
The objective of this paper is to analyze the historical evolution of the functions
assigned by humans to forests, highlighting how they affect the production
of space from a diachronic perspective. Focusing our attention on some
European countries, we highlight that although historically, wood production
was the most important function provided by wooded lands, other functions
were also attributed to forests. The awareness of these functions emerged
when an overexploitation of forest resources produced a lack of a specific service.
When these services corresponded to a societal demand, they produced
welfare benefits for the society, which were recognized as forest functions.
Thus even the functions evolved in time according to the evolution of societal
needs. Evaluating when and how each societal demand emerged, and consequently
the moment each function was recognized, is an essential prerequisite
even for a more accurate interpretation of current forest management practices.
Not only is the temporal dimension of forest functions relevant, so is the
spatial scale, which may differ considerably between them, ranging from the
specific forest area and its owner for the productive function; to the catchment
area and its inhabitants for the protective function; to a potentially
larger area for the cultural and biodiversity function; and to the entire globe
for the carbon-retention function. The strict, and sometimes competing, interactions
between these functions may also be recognized in the production of
space, which evolved in time according to the evolution of the corresponding
societal needs. A forest parcel assigned to a productive function is a material
space, marked in the field by colored signs, but it may also be virtually represented
by a forest model or be part of some protected area. But this picture
would change if, instead of looking at the present, we consider the past and
the different sensations and representations concerned with forests. These
complex interactions, between different functions and spatial dimensions, justify
the need to balance a segregative management system with a wider, multifunctional
integrated approach. What has emerged from our study is that to
reach this difficult equilibrium, it is useful to consider the production processes
of these forest spaces. Through this analytical approach, we can understand
the interactions occurring over time between the evolution of the
demands expressed by society and the main changes occurred on the forest
landscape
Appena prima del Nordest. Rileggere la civiltà rurale veneta per pensare il tempo della crisi
Il testo presenta una rilettura in termini geografici degli studi compiuti dal Gruppo di Ricerca sulla Civiltà Rurale, diretto da Terenzio Sartore negli ultimi decenni del Novecento. L'attualità dei temi trattati è resa ancora più evidente dai tanti elementi di crisi (ambientale, economica, sociale, politica) del Veneto odierno
Cómo la réplica del modelo del distrito industrial del noreste italiano ha fallado en Timisoara (Romania)
Italy's industrial districts of the Northeast are often cited as beings models of success due to their economic organisation, thus they have almost become an archetypal myth. One of the reasons for the Northeastern firms' success is proximity (both geographical and relational), particularly with regard to the creation and development of the districts and their innovative and competitive capacity on a global scale. Our research compares the structures of proximity in Montebelluna, an industrial district in Northeast Italy, with Timisoara (in Romania), which has been one of the more favoured areas of delocalisation for Veneto firms. This comparison made it possible to focus on the non-economic categories (such as trust, face-to-face relations, cooperative attitudes, local context…) that have contributed to a large part of their success, although, in reality, they are often overvalued. Above all, the analysis reveals how these Italian industrial districts have concealed an unequal distribution of power, not only inside the firms and between the firms, but also between the firms and their delocalised territories. Today the "Northeast" model is questioned and debated; however a rethinking of regional dynamics is only possible if these hidden dimensions of district development are taken into consideration. Los distritos industriales del noreste italiano son considerados frecuentemente como modelos de éxito por su organización económica y por eso se han vuelto casi un mito arquetÃpico. Una de las razones de este éxito es la proximidad (sea geográfica que relacional), particularmente en lo que respecta a la creación y desarrollo de los distritos y a sus capacidades de innovación y competitividad global. Esta investigación compara Montebelluna, un distrito en el noreste italiano, con Timisoara (Romania) que ha sido una de las áreas de deslocalización preferidas de las firmas vénetas. Esta comparación ha permitido centrar la atención en las categorÃas no económicas (como la confianza, las relaciones cara a cara, las actitudes cooperativas y el contexto local...) que han contribuido a su éxito, pero que en realidad son a menudo sobrevalorados. Sobre todo, este análisis revela como estos distritos han ocultado una distribución inicua del poder, no solo al interno de las firmas y entre ellas, sino también entre las firmas y sus territorios deslocalizados. Hoy el modelo "noreste" es cuestionado y discutido; sin embargo, un replanteamiento de las dinámicas regionales solo es posible si se toman en consideración estas dimensiones ocultas de desarrollo de distrito
Distributed Reinforcement Learning for Flexible and Efficient UAV Swarm Control
Over the past few years, the use of swarms of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
in monitoring and remote area surveillance applications has become widespread
thanks to the price reduction and the increased capabilities of drones. The
drones in the swarm need to cooperatively explore an unknown area, in order to
identify and monitor interesting targets, while minimizing their movements. In
this work, we propose a distributed Reinforcement Learning (RL) approach that
scales to larger swarms without modifications. The proposed framework relies on
the possibility for the UAVs to exchange some information through a
communication channel, in order to achieve context-awareness and implicitly
coordinate the swarm's actions. Our experiments show that the proposed method
can yield effective strategies, which are robust to communication channel
impairments, and that can easily deal with non-uniform distributions of targets
and obstacles. Moreover, when agents are trained in a specific scenario, they
can adapt to a new one with minimal additional training. We also show that our
approach achieves better performance compared to a computationally intensive
look-ahead heuristic.Comment: Preprint of the paper published in IEEE Transactions on Cognitive
Communications and Networking ( Early Access
La fissazione del confine nel Delta del Po tra Settecento e Ottocento.
The article presents the historical evolution of the border between Repubblica di Venezia and Stato della Chiesa in the Po Delta area
Il confine in Africa: dal risolto all'irrisolto
The article presents a reconstruction of the colonial borders establishing practices, an interpretation of the results that this process has determined, finally an analysis of the problems arising from open paths due to the continuity between colonial borders and independent States borders
Ipotesi per la ricostruzione della triangolazione effettuata da Giovanni Valle per la costruzione della Pianta di Padova
The brief paper presents the historical sources about the design of the "Map of Padua" by Giovanni Valle
Una favola di disciplina
Intervento all'interno di "Opinioni e dibattiti" nel Forum dedicato a Giuseppe Dematteis e al suo volume: Geografia come immaginazione. Tra piacere della scoperta e ricerca di futuri possibili (2021). L'intervento cerca di illuminare alcune relazioni tra le metafore geografiche e il pensiero psicoanalitico
Gli ATO e il modello strutturale degli acquedotti
The article introduces an overview on the water resources management in Veneto by means of ATO strategies
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