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(Re)Introducing water to public spaces: The blue-green network of Lahijan, Iran
No full textWater is and has always been the vital element of life. The history of urbanization is tied to the sources of water and it contributes to the higher quality of a space in many different ways. While water and waterscapes have been considered a great asset to the cities for centuries, the growing problem of pollution of water resources and its risk to public health made the waterscape unpleasant to people, and resulted in elimination, and later disappearance of water from urban spaces. Moreover, the modernist urban planning and design of the cities contributed to less use and weakened presence of water as a visual pleasure and aesthetic quality in urban spaces. The emergence of urban water system, albeit solving a series of problems and facilitating access to clean water, was yet another reason to domesticize water and to decrease aesthetic, social and cultural significance of waterscapes in the cities. Lahijan, a small city in northern Iran is used as an example to study the multi-dimensional role of water in life of the city of the past. The paper argues how the traditional techniques can act as guiding lines to (re)define the role of water in functional structure of the city, and to (re)introduce waterscape to its public spaces. Through studying the history of Lahijan pond and its role in urban water system, the paper seeks to introduce smart techniques based on traditions to contribute to creating of generative places, and improving the wellbeing of the community and aesthetic qualities of the city
Advancing toward water-sensitive cities in Iran. Public spaces as sustainable water management measures in Lahijan, Caspian climate zone, Iran
No full textLo sviluppo delle moderne reti idriche urbane nelle città iraniane viene motivato di forze motrici quali la domanda in aumento della crescente popolazione, i progressi tecnologici, i problemi sanitari e le difficoltà di manutenzione dei sistemi idrici tradizionali. L'attuale infrastruttura idrica urbana delle città iraniane, che risale a quasi 70 anni fa, ha successo nell' assicurare l’erogazione e la distribuzione di acqua, nella raccolta e nella gestione delle acque reflue e delle acque piovane. Però, non riesce a raggiungere gli obiettivi sociali, estetici ed ambientali propri di un sistema di gestione idrica urbana reattivo.
L'attuale paradigma della gestione idrica urbana in Iran si basa principalmente su obiettivi economici. Non vengono riguardati né la sostenibilità per soddisfare la domanda delle generazioni attuali e future, né la resilienzie che serve a fare fronte alle future incertezze del cambiamento climatico e al crescente rischio di eventi meteorologici estremi. Tali carenze, insieme alla disponibilità di nuove tecnologie, sono le principali forze motrici che richiedono un cambio di paradigma nelle infrastrutture di gestione delle acque nelle città iraniane. Inoltre, le infrastrutture attuali sono funzionali solo in condizioni normali, mentre sono altamente vulnerabili sotto eventi meteorologici estremi. Così, la gestione idrica urbana in Iran dovrebbe cambiare per sfruttare ed includere tutte le varie capacità di progettazione con l'acqua per creare ambienti urbani esteticamente gradevoli, sostenibili dal punto di vista ambientale e sociale e resilienti agli impatti negativi del cambiamento climatico. In modo di raggiungere questi obiettivi, il nuovo paradigma della gestione idrica urbana delle città iraniane deve cambiare per cercare l'armonia e l'equilibrio tra i vari obiettivi ambientali, sociali, economici ed estetici.
In questo studio si hanno utilizzato: a) Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) System (IUWM), che dà priorità alla riduzione della domanda di acqua prima dello sviluppo di nuove risorse, b) Inverse Infrastructure, che promuove il decentramento delle infrastrutture, c) Placemaking, che mira a combinare la progettazione di spazi pubblici con infrastrutture idriche urbane per delineare il quadro teorico della ricerca. Seguendo tecniche di disegno urbano sensibile con l’acqua, nella ricerca si studia come l'utilizzo dell'acqua nella progettazione di spazi pubblici possa risolvere il problema del deflusso urbano, promuovendo allo stesso tempo una progettazione urbana reattiva al clima, e fornendo degli spazi urbani all'aperto confortevoli e piacevoli. Si hanno studiato ed analizzato in profondità alcune pratiche recentemente sviluppate di sistemi IUWM, tra cui Low Impact Development (LID), Green Infrastructure (GI), Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS), Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) e Sponge City model (SPC), per costituire la spina dorsale di un modello di infrastrutture idriche urbane integrate valido per l’Iran.
Le variazioni climatiche nelle diverse parti dell'Iran evidenziano la necessità di disporre di vari sistemi e strategie di gestione idricha urbana, che si adattino a ogni clima locale e si inseriscano in qualsiasi contesto. Di conseguenza, in questa ricerca si é utilizzato l’ approccio del caso studio, per analizzare se tali tecniche possano adattarsi alle città iraniane della zona climatica del Caspio, e approfondire nel come. La ricerca punta a introdurre il bilancio giusto fra pratiche di gestione delle acque "tradizionali" dell’ Iran e di "nuove" tecniche, come chiave per andare verso la sostenibilità delle risorse idriche. I risultati di un caso di studio condotto a Lahijan, una piccola città iraniana, forniscono esempi delle strategie proposte. Si hanno studiato le caratteristiche climatiche della regione, le condizioni geografiche e fisiche del contesto urbano, le caratteristiche culturali della comunità, le difficoltà tecniche e le sfide finanziarie e legali della regione, per progettare delle infrastrutture idriche urbane sostenibili ed un modello di sviluppo sensibile con le risorse idriche per le città del Caspio.
Gli studi rivelano che, contrariamente alle pratiche idriche tradizionali che seguivano l'idea di "city as urban water catchment” (città come bacino idrico urbano), l'attuale sistema di approvvigionamento di Lahijan è fortemente dipendente dalle fonti esterne di acqua, mentre le risorse d'acqua facilmente disponibili, inclusa la pioggia e le acque torrenziali, vengono trascurate. L'analisi dello stato idrico urbano della città tradizionale presenta le pratiche di gestione delle acque piovane come parte integrante nel disegno degli spazi pubblici di Lahijan per secoli. Gli spazi urbani svolgevano un ruolo nella costruzione del paesaggio della città porosa di Lahijan, attraverso le sue varie capacità di stoccaggio, trasporto, infiltrazione ed evaporazione dell’acqua. D’altra parte, l'infrastruttura attuale manca dell'architettura e del significato sociale di tali pratiche tradizionali, e sono piuttosto nascoste ed invisibili.
La ricerca conclude che, dopo un lungo periodo di assenza di acqua nei contesti urbani, l'acqua deve diventare una componente chiave nella progettazione degli spazi pubblici, i cui valori reali sono celebrati e i cui numerosi benefici vengono svelati. Di conseguenza, gli spazi urbani della futura città sensibile con l’acqua diventerebbero parte integrante di una gestione distribuita e locale dell’ acqua piovana. Il collegamento della gestione delle acque piovane con il place-making contribuirebbe a un miglioramento del tenore di vita delle persone nelle città, oltre a risolvere i problemi di carenza idrica, inondazioni e inquinamento. Le superfici urbane sensibili all'acqua offrono la possibilità di raccogliere l'acqua piovana e reintrodurla come una nuova fonte di acqua non potabile per il sistema idrico urbano; contenere gli eccessi di acqua in caso di pioggia intensa e scaricarla lentamente; aumentare il potenziale di ricarica delle acque sotterranee e ridurre le acque reflue scaricate nelle fogne pubbliche. In definitiva, gli spazi pubblici sensibili all'acqua aiutano le comunità a raggiungere la sostenibilità delle risorse idriche locali e la resilienza del loro ambiente urbano.The increasing demands of the growing population, technological advances in urban water infrastructure, sanitation concerns and maintenance difficulties of the traditional water systems were the main driving forces to exacerbate the development of modern urban water networks in Iranian cities. The current urban water infrastructure of Iranian cities dates back to almost 70 years ago, albeit is successful in meeting the primary goal of safe delivery and distribution of water and collection and management of waste- and stormwater; it fails to achieve the otherwise social, aesthetic and environmental objectives of a responsive urban water management system.
The present paradigm of urban water management in Iran is based on economic targets, and it is neither sustainable to meet the water demands of the current and next generations, nor resilient enough to accommodate the future uncertainties of climatic change and the growing risk of extreme meteorological events. Such deficiencies along with the newly available technologies are the main driving forces which call for a paradigm shift in water management infrastructure of Iranian cities. One may bring the example of the importance of rainwater in the old and current Iranian cities. In traditional rain/stormwater management practices, rain was an asset to be harvested and reused for various purposes. While the rain/stormwater harvesting and storing infrastructure were also acting as social nodes to bring people together and create lively public spaces, the new systems are composed of a set of underground pipes without any representation on the ground. Additionally, the current infrastructure is only functional under normal conditions while they are highly vulnerable in extreme weather events. Therefore, the urban water management of Iranian cities should change to embrace and include all various capacities of design with water to create urban environments, which are aesthetically pleasant, environmentally and socially sustainable and also resilient to the adverse impacts of climate change. To achieve these objectives, the new paradigm of urban water management of Iranian cities must change to seek the harmony and balance among various environmental, social, economic and aesthetic objectives. Such water management system will respond to the water demands of the community, become a place-making feature in the urban environment, enhance the visual quality of the city and finally, respect the environment and minimize the environmental impact, and finally it will provide greater resilience to the climate change.
The study employs a) Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) System, which prioritizes the reduction of water demand ahead of the development of new resources, b) Inverse Infrastructure which promotes the decentralization of infrastructure, and c) Placemaking which aims to combine the design of public spaces with urban water infrastructure to shape the theoretical framework of the research. Following Water Sensitive Urban Design techniques, the research discusses how use of water in design of public spaces can solve the problem of urban runoff while promoting climate-responsive urban design and providing comfortable and pleasant outdoor urban spaces. Some recently developed practices of IUWM systems including Low Impact Development (LID), Green Infrastructure (GI), Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS), Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD), and Sponge City model (SPC) are intensely studied and analyzed to provide the backbone of an Iranian model of integrated urban water infrastructure.
The climate variations of different parts of Iran emphasize the need to have various urban water management systems and strategies, which adapt to every local climate and fit into any given context. Therefore, the research employs a case study approach to deeply investigate and analyze whether and how such techniques can fit into Iranian cities of Caspian climate zone. The research tends to introduce the right mix of “traditional” Iranian water management practices and “new” techniques as a key to move towards the sustainability of water resources. Some results of a case study conducted in Lahijan, a small Iranian city, provide examples of the proposed strategies. The climatic features of the region, geographic and physical conditions of the urban context, cultural characteristics of the community, technical difficulties as well as the financial and legal challenges of the region are studied to design the sustainable urban water infrastructure and water sensitive model of development for Caspian cities.
The studies reveal that contrary to the traditional water practices which were following the idea of ‘city as urban water catchment’, the current water supply system of Lahijan is highly dependent on external sources of water while it neglects the readily available sources of water including rain and stormwater. The analysis of the urban water state of the traditional city introduces stormwater management practices as an integrated part in design of Lahijan’s public spaces for centuries, and that the urban spaces through various storage, conveyance, infiltration, and evaporation capacities were playing a role in constructing the landscape of the porous city of Lahijan. While the current infrastructure lacks the architecture and social significance of such traditional practices, and they are rather invisible and out of sight.
The research concludes that after the long period of absence of water in urban settings, water must become a key component in design of the public spaces, which its real values are celebrated and its many benefits are revealed. Accordingly, urban spaces of the future water sensitive city would become an integrated part of a distributed on-site stormwater management. Connecting stormwater management with place-making would contribute to the higher living standards of people in cities, and it would also address the problems of water scarcity, flooding and pollution. Water sensitive urban surfaces provide the possibilities to collect rainwater and reintroduce it as a new source of non-potable water to urban water system; to hold excess amount of water in case of heavy rain and discharge it slowly; to increase the groundwater recharge potentials and decrease the discharged wastewater to public sewers, and ultimately, the water sensitive public spaces help communities to achieve the sustainability of their local water resources and the resiliency of their urban environment.DIPARTIMENTO DI ARCHITETTURA E STUDI URBANI29BASSO PERESSUT, GIAN LUC
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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