Implicit in any urban design is a negotiation between public and private interests. Such a negotiation is articulated and made legible in the facades, fences and even more subtle edges separating this from that. A complex variety of spatial situations are produced depending on how spaces are framed, how interfaces are materialized. In the city, the interplay of open space, building and boundary produces a patchwork of subspaces, which we can consider as potential urban territories. Most of us are familiar with the results of territorial production and recognize that fences, furniture or plantings are claims to space by an individual or group. However, the reason to conceive of this process as a territorial production may not be immediately apparent. Consequences of territorial production on percep-tions and behavior are rather under-analyzed, especially in the context of the city. This thesis looks specifically at territorial responses to urban form in the potential social arenas of shared yards in multifamily housing schemes. Drawing on territoriality- and commons-theory as a basis for morphological studies using spatial analysis (e.g. GIS), the thesis proposes that territorial uses of space are in part connected to characteristics of urban form. The thesis explores these spatial underpinnings of claims on space, examining historical, sociological and architectural perspectives and implications on current planning praxis. Parallels are drawn with the role of excludability and rivalry in the production of goods as per commons-theory. Recognizing that even territories like yards perform differently depending on built form characteristics is a step to designing open space with greater social utility. Most notably, the findings that spatial enclosure supports sense of ownership while spaciousness and size support frequency of use is knowledge useful to the practitioner with a role in the production of urban environments, whether in planning, design or construction. With increasing focus on sustainability in urbanism, factoring in social sustainability in land use means recognizing what makes yards inviting to use and elicit feelings of stewardship. Moreover, the importance of legibility at the interface of public and private has implications for design of public space as well. What appears to have been insufficiently problematized in the past are the non-excludable, rivalrous yards which appear to be parks, but do not perform as such territorially. The thesis suggests how a theoretical basis may support design inter-ventions and even densification to resolve such “territorial instability.” / <p>QC 20160310</p>

BACKGROUND:Interruption of vector-borne transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi remains an unrealized objective in many Latin American countries. The task of vector control is complicated by the emergence of vector insects in urban areas.METHODS:Utilizing data from a large-scale vector control program in Arequipa, Peru, we explored the spatial patterns of infestation by Triatoma infestans in an urban and peri-urban landscape. Multilevel logistic regression was utilized to assess the associations between household infestation and household- and locality-level socio-environmental measures.RESULTS:Of 37,229 households inspected for infestation, 6,982 (18.8% / 95% CI: 18.4 - 19.2%) were infested by T. infestans. Eighty clusters of infestation were identified, ranging in area from 0.1 to 68.7 hectares and containing as few as one and as many as 1,139 infested households. Spatial dependence between infested households was significant at distances up to 2,000 meters. Household T. infestans infestation was associated with household- and locality-level factors, including housing density, elevation, land surface temperature, and locality type.CONCLUSIONS:High levels of T. infestans infestation, characterized by spatial heterogeneity, were found across extensive urban and peri-urban areas prior to vector control. Several environmental and social factors, which may directly or indirectly influence the biology and behavior of T. infestans, were associated with infestation. Spatial clustering of infestation in the urban context may both challenge and inform surveillance and control of vector reemergence after insecticide intervention.

The majority of climate-health impacts are the result of extreme climatic events. In the Amazon region, hydrological extremes have become more frequent in recent years. Evidence exists about how these hydrological extremes affect the forest itself, yet little information is available on the impacts on human health. Hospitalisations for respiratory diseases are the leading cause of hospitalisations, excluding pregnancy related causes, for both Brazil, and the Brazilian Amazon. It has been shown elsewhere that during drought events and periods of intense fires there are statistically significant associations with respiratory health. Despite the increase in hydrological extremes and high rates of deforestation and fires observed annually in the Legal Amazon, there are limited studies linking such events and respiratory health. The lack of explicit spatial understanding about these connections restrains the ability of policymakers to plan and implement regional mitigation and adaptation policies in order to cope with predicted effects of climate change in the Amazon, one of Brazil’s poorest regions. Thus, this thesis explores the impacts of three large hydrological extremes: the 2005, and 2010 droughts and the 2009 flood, on children’s respiratory health in the Legal Amazon. The research is two-fold; firstly to establish how the extremes and associated human disturbance impact respiratory health in the region. A Geographically Weighted Poisson Regression is adopted which allows for local spatial data analysis to identify any relationships between selected variables and children’s respiratory health throughout the Legal Amazon. The second part explores local communities’ knowledge of respiratory health and the links to the environment which has assisted in creating recommendations to cope with respiratory health and environmental problems in the Legal Amazon.

As businesses are becoming increasingly aware of their ever changing market environments; constraints and opportunities arise which result in organisations evolving and re-structuring accordingly. Therefore, their organisational spaces are evolving to follow suit. A theoretical shift has occurred in OT, from considerations of space as an 'organisation' to 'organising' viewing space as processual which involves an understanding of space as something which is continually produced and re-produced through social relations (Dale & Burrell, 2008). While in the past organisational space often referred to the interior space of an organisation, consideration of recent literature demonstrates that organisational space is not limited to the internal, but also includes the external space of an organisational building. The key points of the literature review are centred on the users in the space, as well as the materialisation of power through spatial design and space as an experience. A mixed-method approach of observation, interviews and a questionnaire are used to understand the Forum user; defined here as a form of multi-locational worker. The case study approach on the Forum Building at the University of Exeter is used to position a typology of University open workspaces in the wider context of open, public and communal [OPC] workspaces, with the intention of generating research directions that extend current theory. Key results of this study are the 'unspoken reciprocity' among Forum users and the importance of 'visuality'; the act of seeing while being seen, in motivating individuals. Furthermore, the spatial elements of 'flexible accessibility', 'flexible workspaces' and active atmosphere are major contributors to making the Forum space an attractive workspace in the current University trend of 'interdisciplinary spaces' (Coulson et al., 2014; Temple, 2014). This thesis makes both a theoretical and methodological contribution to the organisational studies literature through the holistic case study approach to viewing organisational spaces. Through a socio-spatial perspective of multi-locational users' perceptions of their changing everyday working environment, the research provides significant insight into the conceptualisation, design, operations and management of such spaces.

Relying upon two common trends in modern castle studies, this exploratory study works to combine the landscape context and the spatial interaction of the main building to create an assessment of the spatial and social interaction between the main residential structure of a noble’s estate and the landscape features attached to surrounding property features. To explore questions about this kind of interaction this project has taken the sheriffdom of Angus, Scotland, between the year 1450 and 1542, to examine non-royal residences in an area that offered a diverse topography. This project aims to gain a better understanding of the surroundings of late fifteenth and early sixteenth century noble residences in Angus while contributing to the growing discussion of castles and their landscapes, and testing methods for addressing the spatial and social interaction between the main structure and the landscape features. Section A discusses the three source types used for compiling the dataset for this project within the context of three key categories needed to create a GIS dataset: location, object, and attributes. From the landscape features the mills and fishings were the most commonly mentioned and further details regarding the contents of the lordly landscapes were rare. Section B explores three methods of examining the relationships between the main residence and the landscape features: a modified RA and RRA values assessment, which measured levels of segregation within the noble residence site as a whole; a version of the gravity model, which helped identify the draw for interaction within the arrangement of the noble’s landscape; and network analysis questions, which facilitated a clear assessment of any connections between the use of structural terms and landscape features mentioned over both temporal and social contexts. This exploration of spatial and social interaction opens up a discussion about Scottish noble landscape creation and new methods for studying the relationship between the main structure and the wider complex of a noble residence.

Arctic ecosystems are undergoing rapid environmental transformations. Climate change is affecting permafrost temperature, vegetation structure, and wildlife populations, and increasing human development is impacting a range of ecological processes. Arctic indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable to environmental change, as subsistence harvesting plays a major role in local lifestyles. In the Inuvialuit Settlement Region (ISR), in the western Canadian Arctic, indigenous land-users are witnessing a broad spectrum of environmental changes, which threaten subsistence practices. Local cumulative effects monitoring programs acknowledge the importance of subsistence land use; however there are few cumulative effects assessments that measure the impact of environmental change on land-based activities. My MSc addresses this gap with a broad-scale spatial inventory that measures the distribution of multiple disturbances in the mainland ISR, and assesses their overlap with community planning areas, land management zones, and caribou harvesting areas. I also generated nine future disturbance scenarios that simulate increases in both human development and wildfire occurrence, in order to understand how additional environmental change may affect the availability of un-impacted harvesting lands. I used the conservation planning software, Marxan, to assess the impact of increasing environmental perturbations on the availability and contiguity of 40 subsistence harvesting areas. Results show that the study region is already impacted by multiple environmental disturbances, and that these disturbances overlap considerably with wildlife harvesting areas. This limits the success of Marxan runs that attempt to conserve high percentages of subsistence use areas. It becomes increasingly difficult to conserve large, contiguous assortments of wildlife harvesting areas when using Marxan to assess conservation potential in future disturbance scenarios. In a separate study, I conducted 20 semi-structured interviews in the communities of Inuvik, Aklavik, and Tuktoyaktuk that explored the impact of environmental change on Inuvialuit land-users. Participants in my study indicated that wildlife harvesting in the region is being affected by a range of environmental disturbances and that this change is typically considered to be negative. Climate change-related disturbances were noted to affect travel routes, access to harvesting areas, wildlife dynamics, and the quality of meat and pelts. Human activity, such as oil exploration, was noted to impact both wildlife populations and harvesters’ ability to use the land. These observations are an important contribution to local cumulative effects monitoring because they highlight local accounts of environmental change, which are often missed in broad-scale assessments, and they emphasize the concerns of local land-users. This underscores the importance of including indigenous insights in cumulative effects monitoring and suggests that combining quantitative assessments of environmental change with the knowledge of local land-users can improve regional cumulative effects monitoring. / Graduate

Ce travail analyse la localisation du commerce de détail bruxellois sous l'angle des facteurs de localisation différentielle, c'est-à-dire en examinant les caractéristiques des lieux qui ont une influence sur le fonctionnement du commerce, en terme de chiffre d'affaire ou de bénéfice, qui contribuent à la survie d'un commerce et qui engendrent des localisations diverses selon les types de commerces. Pour mettre en évidence ces facteurs, les analyses exploitent le postulat selon lequel la localisation à un moment donné d’un commerce ayant certaines caractéristiques répond à des contraintes, les facteurs de localisation, qui sont prises en compte de manière explicite ou implicite. La géographie du commerce dans la ville à un moment donné en traduit l'influence combinée. L'analyse mobilise un inventaire détaillé décrivant la localisation du commerce bruxellois en 1997. Une première exploitation, dans une logique déductive, a permis de tester systématiquement l'effet de distinctions spatiales jugées pertinentes sur la structure des fonctions commerciales. Cela a surtout eu pour objet de mettre en évidence, sur une base empirique cohérente (unité de temps, de lieu et de nomenclature), la sensibilité des divers types de commerces aux facteurs de localisation différentielle les plus communément cités (hiérarchie, micro-centralité, spécialisation, standing, population non-résidentes, caractéristiques de l'environnement et du bâtiment). Pour ce faire, on a d'abord cherché à classer les lieux selon leurs propriétés vis-à-vis du facteur de localisation considéré et à discerner si ces différenciations contribuaient à moduler les profils de localisation des différents types de commerces. Sur base de ce profil de localisation, la réponse des types de commerces aux contraintes imposées par le facteur de localisation et les mécanismes de différenciation qu'il entraîne ont été mis en lumière. Enfin, le classement des types de commerces vis-à-vis de chaque facteur de localisation différentielle a servi à construire de nouveaux indicateurs permettant de décrire les caractéristiques et le fonctionnement de l'espace commercial sur la base d'inventaires commerciaux. Une seconde démarche, dans une logique inductive, a consisté à explorer l'ensemble des données disponibles dans la SitEx en vue d'en dégager les discriminations les plus marquantes. Cette analyse de la structuration spatiale du commerce à Bruxelles avait pour but la recherche d'affinités spatiales, qui ont ensuite été interprétées en terme de facteur de localisation différentielle. Les résultats ont confirmé qu'il est possible de discerner par des outils géostatistiques classiques les affinités spatiales du commerce dans la ville et que ces affinités peuvent être souvent raccrochées aux facteurs de localisation énumérés par la littérature. Mais surtout, ces analyses multivariées contribuent à l'évaluation de l'importance relative de ces différents facteurs dans la différenciation des paysages commerciaux. Après avoir examiné l'impact des évolutions récentes (1997-2002, dans les principaux nodules commerçants) sur les résultats engrangés sur base des données exhaustives de 1997, les éléments en faveur d'une approche des facteurs de localisation différentielle par l'analyse des inventaires commerciaux ont été synthétisés, des applications pratiques évoquées et des compléments d'investigation proposés.

We reconstructed historical fire regimes of montane forest-grassland ecotones in the ~40,000 ha Valles Caldera National Preserve, New Mexico. We used a targeted approach to sample ancient fire-scarred trees along the ecotone, and compared variations in historical fire occurrence within and among valles in the grassland-forest. The resulting tree-ring record extends from 1240-2008 C.E., comprised of 2,443 fire scars from 330 trees representing 238 fire years during the period of analysis, 1601-1902 C.E. Our results confirm pre-1900 historical occurrence of high-frequency, low-severity surface fires over multiple centuries in the ecotone. Mean fire intervals for all fires were 5.5-22.5 years (~6-123 ha) at individual sites, 2.7-10 years (~67-4955 ha) in individual valles, and 1.6 years (~10 386 ha) across the landscape. Synchronous fires burned extensively and occurred at ~10 year intervals during years with significantly low PDSI. Results will be useful in planning forest/grassland restoration actions and reinstituting fire regimes.

This thesis undertakes a complete reinvestigation of the archaeology of a large Early Bronze Age cemetery at İkiztepe in northern Turkey, by utilizing oxygen and strontium isotope analysis of human remains in combination with spatial and biodistance analysis and various dating techniques to identify potential immigrants to the site and to examine larger issues of residential mobility and social organization. The occupation of the Northern Anatolian site of İkiztepe is traditionally assigned to the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Ages. However, the site’s chronological framework has been challenged in recent years. These chronological issues have been addressed by applying fluoride and AMS radiocarbon dating to the skeletal remains from the İkiztepe cemetery, to develop an absolute and relative chronology for the burials. These results have shown that the cemetery dates at least a millennium earlier than previously supposed. Oxygen and strontium isotope analyses allowed the identification of individuals whose bone chemistry suggests that they were possible long distance immigrants to the site of İkiztepe, as well as suggesting the existence of a group of mobile individuals who may represent a transhumant segment of the İkiztepe population. Spatial and biodistance analyses suggest that principles of cemetery organization in this period were highly complex. Immigrant individuals and nomadic or semi-nomadic segments of the population do not appear to have been distinguished in any observable way from their sedentary local counterparts, displaying similar burial types, grave goods and spatial locations. Furthermore, burial within the İkiztepe cemetery does not appear to have been kin structured. These results suggest that assumptions about funerary practices as important indicators of cultural identity and lineage affiliation may represent an over-simplification of complex patterns of interaction and integration among and within populations and cultural groups.

Darbas parengtas nustatant esamą situaciją užliejamose teritorijose. Tyrimo metu nustatyta, kad ūkininkauti tokiose vietose nėra lengva, nes yra taikomi apribojimai. Nustatyta, kad taikant šiuolaikines GIS technologijas būtų galima palengvinti ūkininkavimą, išskiriant vietas, kuriose palankiau ūkininkauti. Iškeltiems tyrimo uždaviniams pasiekti, buvo atlikta anketinė apklausa ir erdvinė duomenų analizė. Tyrimo tikslas – išanalizuoti Šilutės rajono užliejamų teritorijų ūkinio naudojimo tikslingumą ir numatyti perspektyvas. Tyrimo objektas – Šilutės rajono užliejamos teritorijos, išsamiau tirti trys vasaros polderiai: Uostadvario, Vorusnės, Pakalnės. Tyrimo uždaviniai: 1. Nustatyti esamą užliejamų teritorijų žemės naudojimą. 2. Aptarti duomenų, reikalingų erdvinei analizei atlikti, surinkimo ir naudojimo ypatumus. 3. Naudojant ArcGIS erdvinės duomenų analizės metodus, įvertinti žemės vertės variaciją erdvėje. 4. Įvertinti kaimo plėtros priemonių taikymą užliejamoms teritorijoms. Siekiant nustatyti Šilutės rajono užliejamų teritorijų ūkinio naudojimo tikslingumą ir perspektyvas buvo panaudoti šie metodai: anketinės apklausos, matematinės statistikos metodai, GIS duomenų erdvinė analizė. Tyrimas atliktas siekiant pademonstruoti, kaip šiuolaikinėmis GIS technologijomis galime daug tiksliau ir efektyviau įvertinti žemės vertės variaciją erdvėje bei žemės naudojimą. Polderiai išanalizuoti atliekant anketinę apklausą bei panaudojant ArcGIS 10.0 programą atlikta erdvinė duomenų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The work was done by determining the current situation of flooded areas. During the research it was found that farming in such areas is not easy because of the restrictions. It was found that the application of modern GIS technology to facilitate farming, highlighting areas where favored. Raised by the study was carried out to achieve the objectives of a survey and analysis of spatial data. The goal of research is to analyze farm usage expediency and perspectives of flooded areas in Šilutės district. The object of survey is territories of flooded areas in Šilutės district, three summer polders were analyzed more comprehensively: Uostadvaris, Vorusnė, Pakalnė. Objectives of the survey: 1. To set the current land use of flooded areas. 2. To discuss the data necessary to perform spatial analysis, collection and usage. 3. To evaluate the variation of the value of land space using the ArcGIS Spatial data analysis methods. 4. Summarize applications measures of rural developments for flooded areas. The following methods: logical thinking, statistical clustering, comparison and analysis of GIS data were used to identify farm usage expediency and perspectives of flooded areas in Šilutės district. The research was completed to demonstrate how modern GIS technology can more accurately and efficiently assess the value of the land distribution and usage. Polders were analyzed via the questionnaire survey, also by use of ArcGIS 10.0 program accomplished a spatial analysis of the data... [to full text]