The future of informal settlements: lessons in the legalization of disputed urban land in Recife, Brazil

The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between legalization of land tenure and people's capacity to compete for and sustain their stake in the urban land market. Two aspects of land regularization are taken into account: the benefits of land regularization (as collateral for investments); and the perverse aspects of disputes over improved land (due to increased scarcity of illegal, but affordable housing land). Most research on illegal urban land has systematically investigated how to legalize illegal settlements to improve the effectiveness of service provision, whilst attracting public investments. But, few understand the underlying factors motivating people to improve and consolidate their houses where no legal tenure exists. The absence of substantial understanding about people's perceptions of their tenure security has encouraged most research to conclude that improving tenure security leads to higher levels of housing consolidation. What this paper shows is that the relationship between people's perceptions of land tenure security and housing consolidation is much more malleable and complex than conventionally assumed. The subtle difference between tenure of the land and tenure of the house indicates that people are willing to invest in their housing conditions almost irrespectively of their land tenure situation. This finding challenges the orthodox views of the property rights school of thought. In addition, this paper contends that what legalization is really doing is to reduce the available land stock for the poorest families, because legalization decreases the amount of illegal land (illegal land is undesirable, but affordable for the poor). The orthodox legal system needs to be revised to include the poorest families in the urban society of the new millennium.     

桩的垂直静载试验极限承载力判定方法综述

桩的垂直静载试验极限承载力（或极限荷载）的确定是试验数据处理的关键。本文汇集编录了极限承载力的各种判定方法，但需指出的是：在具体应用判定试桩的极限承载力时，应以现行规范规定的方法为准，必要时可用其它方法进行校验。     

乡村聚落地理研究的国外动态与国内趋势

本文根据国内外乡村聚落地理研究的内容变化和理论进展，初步划分了乡村聚落地理研究的主要发展阶段。在此基础上，结合国外乡村聚落地理研究的动态及我国乡村地区发展的现实，对我国乡村聚落地理研究进行了回顾与评价，并提出若干重点研究内容与趋势。     

Tunnelling in soils – ground movements, and damage to buildings in Workington, UK

Tunnelling through soils results in ground loss, causing surface settlements and transverse movements. Where the tunnel drive passes below an existing structure, it is important to estimate the effects upon the structure. However, the free ground deformations should not simply be imposed upon a structure, because the structure contributes to stiffening of the ground. A computational soil-structure interaction analysis is required, to otain detailed stress–deformation response. First, linear finite element and Lagrangian finite difference methods are used to estimate ground movements due to a tunnel in free ground, and the results are compared with values based on empirical equations. The two linear methods and an additional hybrid FE method are then used to assess with soil-structure interaction; two cases of a typical short wall and a long wall lying across the route of tunnels of different depths. The results support the validity of the hybrid method which is used to estimate interactive ground settlements for comparison with a reported case of tunnelling below a building in central London. A more detailed case study is then undertaken to assess building damage caused by gross settlements during tunnelling in mixed soils, at a site in Workington, west Cumbria. A survey allowed estimation of free ground movements. Analysis by the hybrid method on the soils plus uncracked structures indicated intolerable horizontal stresses. Re-analysis with major cracks introduced into the structures resulted in close agreement between measured and computed settlements.     

Performance of a steel structure on Ar-Rayyas Sabkha soils

Sabkha deposits cover extensive areas along the Red Sea and the Arabian Gulf shores. They are the site of huge industrial complexes in spite of their low bearing capacity of its upper part. The strength of the Sabkha soil is controlled by several factors, among them are the evaporatic salts that cement the grains. The Standard Penetration Test (SPT) is used extensively in this terrain but its results are misleading. The Sabkha soil that may give high N value will lose most of its strength upon wetting as part of the salts are dissolved. Therefore, the design N value was adjusted for Sabkhas to account for salt migration, by relating the SPT (N) value to the Sabkha moisture and salt content. A steel structure factory that was placed in an eastern Saudi Arabian virgin Sabkha deposits was considered. After a few years of operation fresh water leaked through the ground and caused signi.cant differential collapse settlement which threatened the functional integrity of the superstructure. The differential settlement was con.ned to one area of the structure indicating that localized conditions must have contributed to the observed settlement. The subsurface conditions and the geotechnical properties of the site are presented. A statistical model was developed that quanti.es the effect of the moisture and salt content on SPT (N) values. A simple site procedure is suggested to correct the design N value in similar cases. It was found that the increase in the moisture content could reduce the SPT (N) values by as much as 60, good agreements were found between the measured and predicted N values.     

The landslide hazard and human vulnerability in La Paz City, Bolivia

Landslides in the city of La Paz, Bolivia are complex in space and time. Their distribution within the city is differentiated by geographical variations in slope gradient, the nature of overlying surface deposits, and drainage density patterns. When mapped, the distribution of the most landslide-prone locations in the city coincides with the most mobile surface deposits on the higher and steeper slopes of the city. The timing of landslides is triggered when slope materials become saturated with moisture by rainfall, stream water, water seepage from high surrounding water tables, and from domestic sources. Landslide frequencies over the last 40 years show the role of inter-annual variations in summer rainfalls, especially the late summer period (Jan–Mar), and rising water tables connected to Lake Titicaca. Associations with ENSO events, both warm (El Nino) and cold (La Nina), prove negative, pointing to the importance of moisture sources from the north, south and east (Amazon) but not from the west (Pacific). The most vulnerable group exposed to the landslide hazard comprise the inhabitants of the self-built informal housing areas who occupy the more elevated steeper slopes of the northern part of the city. But societal vulnerability to earth movement in the city is widespread and interconnected. Higher income groups in the southern part of the city are affected by slower, if less dramatic, forms of land failure, and rich housing in downstream areas of the city are impacted by flash flooding encouraged by deforestation on the northern hill slopes where the poor live. Two case studies highlight the vulnerability and plight of the inhabitants of the self-built settlements in the aftermath of a major landslide, and a brief discussion of hazard mitigation and the importance of building hazard resilient communities concludes the paper.     

论乡村聚落转型

在人类聚居学、人地关系地域系统和土地利用转型等理论基础上,从物质-社会空间耦合的视角阐释乡村聚落转型的概念内涵及其表征要素,揭示不同历史阶段乡村聚落空间从同质同构转向异质异构的基本特征,剖析外缘拉力、内生推力和系统突变力综合作用下的乡村聚落转型驱动机制,设计乡村振兴目标导向下乡村聚落转型分区、分类、分模式的路径体系。研究认为,乡村聚落转型应该调节物质空间和社会空间的协同演进,着力提升乡村聚落的内生动力和应对外界干扰抵御、适应和转型的能力,分类、有序的推进乡村聚落多元化发展并驱动乡村振兴。     

Convolutional neural networks applied to semantic segmentation of landslide scars

The frequent occurrence of extreme weather events has rendered numerous landslides to a global natural disaster issue. It is crucial to rapidly and accurately determine the boundaries of landslides for geohazards evaluation and emergency response. Therefore, the Skip Connection DeepLab neural network (SCDnn), a deep learning model based on 770 optical remote sensing images of landslide, is proposed to improve the accuracy of landslide boundary detection. The SCDnn model is optimized for the over-segmentation issue which occurs in conventional deep learning models when there is a significant degree of similarity between topographical geomorphic features. SCDnn exhibits notable improvements in landslide feature extraction and semantic segmentation by combining an enhanced Atrous Spatial Pyramid Convolutional Block (ASPC) with a coding structure that reduces model complexity. The experimental results demonstrate that SCDnn can identify landslide boundaries in 119 images with MIoU values between 0.8 and 0.9; while 52 images with MIoU values exceeding 0.9, which exceeds the identification accuracy of existing techniques. This work can offer a novel technique for the automatic extensive identification of landslide boundaries in remote sensing images in addition to establishing the groundwork for future investigations and applications in related domains.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article: Women, Work, and Ideology in the Third World . Haleh Afshar, ed. The Birth of the National Park Service. The Founding Years 1913–33 . Horace M. Albright Theatres of Accumulation: Studies in Asian and Latin American Urbanization . Warwick Armstrong and T.G. McGee. New Tools for Social Scientists, Advances and Applications in Research Methods . William D. Berry and Michael S. Lewis -Beck , eds . Uncertain Dimensions: Western Overseas Empires in the Twentieth Century . Raymond F. Betts. Geography of Sugar Cane . Helmut Blume. The Mines of Neptune: Minerals and Metals from the Sea . Elisabeth Mann Borgese. Geographical Dimensions of Energy . F.J. Calzonetti and B.D. Solomon, eds. Statistical Methods for Geographers . W. A. V. Clark and P. L. Hosking. In The Wake of Columbus, Islands and Controversy . John DeVorsey, Jr., and John Parker, eds. Housing, States and Localities . Peter Dickens, Simon Duncan, Mark Goodwin and Fred Gray. Physician Location and Specialty Choice . Richard L. Ernst and Donald E. Yett. Practical Ecology for Geography and Biology: Survey, Mapping, and Data Analysis . D.D. Gilbertson , M. Kent and F.B. Pyatt Large Scale Water Transfers: Emerging Environmental and Social Experiences . Genady N. Golubev and Asit K. Biswas, eds. The Nature of the Environment . Andrew Goudie. Planning for Population Change . W.T.S. Gould and R. Lawton. The Niger and its Neighbors: Environmental History and Hydrobiology. Human Use and Health Hazards of the Major West African Rivers . A.T. Grove, ed. Remote Sensing of Ice and Snow . Dorothy K. Hall and Jaroslav Martinec. Atlas of Antebellum Southern Agriculture . Sam Bowers Hilliard. Galilee Divided; The Israel-Lebanon Frontier, 1916-1984 . Frederic C. Hor . Plains Country Towns . John C. Hudson. Agricultural Geography: A Social and Economic Analysis . Brian W. Ilbery. Industry in the 1980s: Structural Change and Interdependence . U.N. Industrial Development Organization. Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States . Kenneth T. Jackson. The Industrial Geography of Italy . Russell King. Studies in Linguistic Geography: The Dialects of English in Britain and Ireland . John M. Kirk, Stewart Sanderson, J.D.A. Widdowson, eds. Tourism: A Community Approach . Peter E. Murphy. Cities and Services: The Geography of Collective Consumption . Steven Pinch. An Historical Geography of Europe 1800–1914 . Norman J. G. Pounds. An Introduction to Human Ecology Research on Agricultural Systems in Southeast Asia . A. Terry Rambo and Percy E. Sajise, eds. Discovering Past Landscapes . Michael Reed, ed. Managing the Ocean: Resources, Research, Law . Jacques G. Richardson, ed. Carta fitosociologica de la transecta botanica de la Patagonia Austral . F.A. Roig , Juan Anchorema , Orlando Dollenz , A.M. Faggi and Eduardo Mandez Intermetropolitan Migration in Canada: Changing Determinants over Three Decades . R. Paul Shaw. Chinese Cities—The Growth of the Metropolis since 1949 . Victor F. Sit, ed. Urbanization in the World-Economy . Michael Timberlake, ed. The Al Business: Commercial Uses of Artificial Intelligence . Patrick H. Winston and Karen A. Prendergast, eds.     

汾河特大桥大直径超深旋挖钻孔灌注桩施工技术

蒙华铁路汾河特大桥桩基具有桩径大、钻孔深、地层复杂等特点。在施工过程中遇到了钻孔成孔后缩径、沉渣超标、钢筋笼位移等问题。通过认真分析探索,总结出了旋挖钻机在松散砂层施工条件下的泥浆配置方法、膨胀土缩径现象的处理措施、防止钢筋笼位移的有效工具,有效保障了工程质量、降低了施工成本,产生了一定的社会效益和经济效益。