Placing splintering urbanism: Introduction

This paper introduces a collection of case studies aimed at “Placing Splintering Urbanism”, in reference to the thesis developed by Graham and Marvin [Graham, S., Marvin, S., 2001. Splintering Urbanism. Networked Infractructures, Technoloical Moblilities and the Urban condition. Routledge, London]. Whilst acknowledging the value of the thesis as an analytical framework in opening the way to innovative understandings of contemporary urban dynamics, the paper argues that, taken together, the articles in this themed issue seriously challenge the “splintering urbanism” thesis theoretically, empirically and methodologically. They question in particular the postulated universality of the “modern infrastructural ideal” and of “unbundling” and “bypass” processes — all of which are key elements in Graham and Marvin’s argument — as well as the assertion that reforms in infrastructure sectors should generally result in more discriminatory, socially regressive patterns of provision of essential services and more splintered urban spaces. Based on these fundamental critiques, the paper concludes that one cannot speak of “splintering urbanism in general” — i.e., as a global trend — in any meaningful analytical way.     

Practical engineering approaches and infrastructure to address the problem of marine debris in Korea

As a solution to the problem of persistent solid marine debris, a nationwide project began in Korea in 1999 to develop and popularize fundamental changes to the infrastructure. The ten year project, called “A Practical Integrated System for Marine Debris,” consists of four linked types of technology: prevention, deep-water survey, removal and treatment (recycling). These reflect the characteristics of marine debris, which though widespread, vary by location and time of generation. Each technical component has each representative outcome that has been outreached the local governments and marine debris-related associations. The in situ infrastructures lead to enhance the retrieval of the marine debris and create direct and indirect benefits to industry. Both end-of-pipe technology improvement and the introduction of front-of-pipe technology should be considered as we strive to reduce the generation of marine debris in Korean coastal areas.     

From networks to uses patterns: the digital divide as seen from Africa

This paper gives an account of the work carried out in the AFRICA’NTI research network, which gathered together a hundred, mostly African, researchers. The results were presented at the conference on “the North–South Digital Divide” in 2003 and 2004 (see www.africanti.org). From network to uses patterns, it first questions the way in which the subject is defined. This is a controversial question; should we speak of a “ditch” rather than of “fracture”? This depends on the point of view, but also on the geopolitical situation, and is difficult to measure. The digital divide may be less important than it is usually believed. This paper presents several types of approaches dealing with the opportunities of new technologies for Africa, geographical aspects stressing the diversity of the situations considered, and the importance of a multilevel systemic analysis based on case studies. It is shown that a slow down in the dynamics of equipment has been observed in Africa for both mobile telephony and the Internet. This then raises the question of a risk of regression for the continent, based on the idea that inequalities in access and uses of ICTs matter less than whether these uses improve the living conditions of the poor people concerned.     

A modelling framework for the study of Spatial Data Infrastructures applied to coastal management and planning

The continuous development of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDI) provides a favourable context for environmental management and planning. However, it appears that the actual contribution of SDIs should also depend on the correlation between users’ expectations and the services delivered to them. Several studies have addressed some organizational, methodological and technological aspects of the development of SDIs. However, only a few studies have, to the best of our knowledge, studied SDI use at large. This article introduces a methodological approach oriented towards the study of the relationship between SDIs and the users interacting with them as part of their professional practices. Our study is applied to coastal zone management and planning in France. This approach combines structural and data flow modelling. The former is based on Social Network Analysis (SNA) and the latter on Data Flow Diagrams (DFD). This modelling approach has been applied to an online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The results identify the SDIs, geographical data flows and institutional levels implied in French coastal zone management and planning.     

Geological and hydrogeological environment in Shanghai with geohazards to construction and maintenance of infrastructures

Shanghai Administrative Region (SAR) is located on the deltaic deposit of the Yangtze River. The bed rock under SAR is generally buried in the depth of 200 m to 300 m except for several massifs, where the bed rock is exposed to the ground surface. The Quaternary deposit in Shanghai is soft sediment. The variation of palaeoclimate influenced the sea level and resulted in a very complicated sedimentary environment. The Quaternary deposit in SAR is composed of an alternated multi-aquifer-aquitard system (MAAS). The groundwater system is composed of one artesian aquifer and five confined aquifer layers with very high groundwater pressure head. The MAAS was formed mainly within the warm geological era updated to 2.6 million years ago. Between two aquifers, there is an aquitard which is composed of soft clayey soil formed mainly within the cold era. The aquitards are composed of very soft clayey silt with very high compressibility and humus content. The humus material was transformed into methane gas under a long-term geological process. With the development of economy, the infrastructures were (or are being) constructed in the top shallow soft clayey deposit, aquifer I and aquifer II. In SAR, the following geohazards occurred or possibly occur during the construction and maintenance of infrastructures: i) quicksand and piping hazards; ii) pumping-induced hazards and recharge-cutoff hazards; iii) long-term settlement due to the seasonal fluctuation of groundwater level; and iv) geohazards of methane gas.