Using ESDA with social weights to analyze spatial and social patterns of preschool children's behavior

To study the development of spatial and social behavior of preschool children, micro-level spatiotemporal data were collected for the first time in both spatial and social context using a novel behavioral coding system. These unique behavioral data enable us to explore the group-level, dynamic, spatial, and social patterns of preschool children's playing behavior from a hybrid geographic and social perspective. In this research, GIS and exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) techniques are employed together to study group-level spatial and social behavior emerging from children's everyday activities and interactions. ESDA with social weights is proposed to explore spatial and social patterns of preschool children's behavior at the same time. The results highlight the utility of this approach for studying the relationships between preschool children's playing behavior and preschool's environmental settings and the relationships between preschool children's personal activities and the formation of their social network space.     

Measuring the attractiveness of Dutch landscapes: Identifying national hotspots of highly valued places using Google Maps

In a Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) or an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), determining the value that the general public attaches to a landscape is often problematic. To aid the inclusion of this social value in such analyses, a Google Maps-based tool, called the HotSpotMonitor (HSM), was developed. The HSM determines which natural places are highly attractive by having people mark such places on a map. The definition of attractiveness remains open to avoid having marker placement being influenced by preconceived thoughts. The number of markers an area receives is considered to indicate its social value. Six regions were selected, and from these, stratified samples were drawn (total n = 3293). Participants placed markers at three spatial levels: local, regional and national. This paper focuses on the markers at the national level. The first research question is whether the HSM can produce an accurate map of highly attractive places at a national level. The results indicated that while in principle HSM can produce such a map, the spatial representativeness of the sample is important. The region of origin of the participants influenced where they placed their markers, an effect previously termed spatial discounting. The second research question considers which qualities the participants associate with the marked places. These qualities were very similar at all three spatial levels: green, natural, presence of water and quiet were often selected out of the fourteen suggested qualities. The third, and more exploratory, research question concerns which characteristics of an area predict its attractiveness. Natural and forest areas had higher marker densities than water surfaces or all other types of land use combined. The discussion evaluates the potential of the HSM to generate input on social landscape values for CBAs and EIAs.     

Metropolitan growth and the mobility and immobility of skilled and creative couples across the life course

The human capital and creative class hypotheses argue that the agglomeration of skilled and creative people is key to economic growth. Migration is assumed to play an important role in forming these agglomerations. However, the results of this study indicate that while younger cohorts of skilled and creative individuals are highly mobile, skilled and creative couples are highly immobile. This research hypothesizes that it is these relatively immobile skilled and creative couples that are behind the link between urban growth and concentrations of skill and creativity. Indeed, this analysis finds a strong empirical link between concentrations of skilled couples, but not creative class couples, and economic growth. Public policies designed to increase the size of the skilled population should be directed at retaining younger cohorts long enough for them to develop the local networks upon which spillover effects rely.     

柏林城市文脉与设计之都创意化道路

柏林的经济、文化事业发达,是世界的艺术中心、时尚设计中心,也是欧洲文学、媒体、音乐及科学的发展中心。柏林建设了完整的创意设计服务平台、国际推广的本土设计品牌、完善的创意人才培训体系等,以其深厚的文化底蕴实现了城市的创意化发展,并逐步成为国际文化创意的大熔炉。     

Developing parallel procedures for line simplification

Abstract

This paper explores parallel programming issues that are relevant to the efficient implementation of spatial data handling procedures on current parallel computers through sample implementations of the Douglas line simplification procedure. Using source code-equivalent implementations of the Douglas procedure, this paper analyses the performance characteristics of two parallel implementations, compares their performance characteristics to those of a sequential implementation, and identifies critical components of the parallel implementations that enhance or inhibit their overall performance values. The results of this work show that the selection of appropriate interprocessor communication and load balancing strategies are crucial to obtaining large speedup values over comparable sequential implementations.     

Combining AHP with GIS in synthetic evaluation of environmental suitability for living in China's 35 major cities

There are nearly 700 cities in China, each with their own particular characteristics of natural environment quality and rates of economic development. When people are able to choose a city to live in, they will take into account these characteristics in order to improve their lifestyles. Based on geographic information system technology and the analytic hierarchy process method, a model of the living environment suitability index (LESI) for the larger cities of China was designed. The LESI was constructed by using the factors of economic condition, convenience and livable degree, natural environment and natural resources. The LESI model was then applied to compare the living conditions in 35 major cities in China in 2007, including 30 provincial capitals and 5 sub-provincial cities. LESI values were higher for cities in southeast China than for cities in the northwest. The highest LESI values were mainly distributed along the Chinese southeast coast and the Yangtze River Delta. Cities with the lowest LESI values were found in the centre and north of China. Of the 35 cities, 4 had highly suitable living environments and 7 had unsuitable living environments.     

夏垫断裂带深部构造特征与第四纪活动性讨论

利用重力、浅层地震和高密度电阻率法物探工作成果,由深及浅垂向上“接力拼接”的方式,结合钻探等手段,把夏垫断裂带分解为基岩断裂带和第四纪断裂带2个部分进行研究,结果表明:1)夏垫断裂带的基岩断裂带由主干断裂和次级断裂构成.其北段(马坊-西集一带)较窄,由2条主干断裂构成.其南段(西集-凤河营一带)较宽,由3条主干断裂构成.2)第四纪断裂带是基岩断裂带向上延伸的部分,是断裂带最新活动的直观表现,并受控于基岩断裂带.夏垫第四纪断裂带同样由主干和次级断裂构成,北段(马坊-西集一带)由2条主干断裂和分布于北端尾部次级断裂构成,与基岩断裂带一一对应关系较好.2条主干断裂产状差异较大,最新活动时间均为全新世.而南段(西集-凤河营一带)断裂分布不连续,很难分清主次断裂,同基岩断裂带的对应关系较差,推测为基岩断裂中夏垫断裂的活动.这些主、次级断裂产状均较为陡立,最新活动时间为晚更新世晚期-全新世早期.3)夏垫断裂带内上、下两盘全新世沉积底界垂向累积位错量为1.7 ～4.8m,晚、中、早更新世以来则分别为6 ～ 26m、26 ～ 167m和44 ～ 330m,其中最大累积位错量位于夏垫地区,向南、北逐渐减小.4)以张家湾断裂为界把夏垫断裂带划分为南、北2段.北段第四纪活动性强,中强震及微小地震时有发生,而南段第四纪活动性弱,仅发生微小地震.     

Social Mix and the Problematisation of Social Housing

Social housing in Australia is at a significant juncture. High levels of housing stress, increasing levels of socio-spatial polarisation and reduced government funding are posing complex policy challenges. Social mix policies are one response to these challenges, arising from the problematisation of social housing estates as socially excluded. This problematisation is examined through case studies of two Sydney social housing renewal projects: Telopea and Riverwood North. Drawing on interviews with government, private-sector and not-for-profit housing practitioners, the paper identifies two distinct discourses of social exclusion within this problematisation—culture of poverty discourse and equity discourse—that shape the implementation of social mix. These discourses reveal that implementing social mix is more complex than simply managing the cohabitation of residents in different tenures. Rather, the practice of social mix is embedded within discourses about the nature and causes of social exclusion. These discourses, in their turn, inform the multiple and sometimes conflicting aspirations pursued through social mix policies.     

Elements of viral cartography

ABSTRACT

Making and sharing maps is easier than ever, and social media platforms make it possible for maps to rapidly attain widespread visibility and engagement. Such maps can be considered examples of viral cartography – maps that reach rapid popularity via social media dissemination. In this research we propose a framework for evaluating the design and social dissemination characteristics of viral maps. We apply this framework in two case studies using maps that reached wide audiences on Twitter. We then analyze collections of maps derived from and inspired by viral maps using image analysis and machine learning to characterize their design elements. Based on our initial work to conceptualize and analyze virality in cartography, we propose a set of new research challenges to better understand viral mapmaking and leverage its social affordances.     

The tragedy of the commodity is not inevitable: Indigenous resistance prevents high-value fisheries collapse in the Pacific islands

The emergence of export markets for high-value seafood products tends to produce a predictable pattern of serial depletion of resources and social disruption in coastal communities, a phenomenon described as ‘the tragedy of the commodity’. The sea cucumber trade epitomizes these challenges, with cases of rapid growth followed by fishery collapse documented across the Indo-Pacific and the majority of assessed stocks worldwide overexploited. Is this ‘boom-bust’ sequence inevitable? We examine three cases of resistance to the sea cucumber trade from Palau, Pohnpei, and Yap. Despite the overwhelming short-term financial incentives to export, fishers, youth, elected and traditional leaders, and civil society organizations coordinated to ban the trade at its peak, using public protest, court battles, and customary and statutory law. We show that, like the tragedy of the commons, Indigenous peoples and local communities can organize to resist the tragedy of the commodity. They do so by asserting Indigenous values, rights, and institutions, recommonizing the resource and preventing fisheries collapse. These cases challenge the inevitability of the tragedy of the commodity and the narrative of poor fishers as vulnerable and disempowered.