Showing papers on "Human settlement published in 1990"

Community Design and the Culture of Cities: The Crossroad and the Wall

Abstract: Prologue Part I: 1. Cities today 2. The traditions in community design, or the professional as a newcomer 3. Urban form as pattern, pattern as combination of typologies Part II: 4. Below the urban surface, or how urban systems, organised in complex hierarchies, are the roots of urban form 5. Cities in evolution, or how growth and change guide urban form in time 6. Urban scale, or how urban form, size and function are interrelated through growth Part III: 7. Land use in cities, or how segregation and homogeneity have threatened the social ecology of urban areas 8. Density in communities, or the most important factor in building up urbanity 9. Distribution in cities, or a key to reconstituting the culture of cities Part IV: 10. The design roots in traditional settlements 11. The pluralistic form of traditional communities: combination and interface 12. Visual phenomena and movement through traditional settlements: orientation and variety Symbolism epilogue: An agenda for action.

Voyaging by canoe and computer: experiments in the settlement of the Pacific Ocean

Abstract: There is no expansion of human settlement to match the colonization of the Pacific islands, from Island Southeast Asia right across to Hawaii, Easter Island and down to New Zealand. The expansion is given an extra interest by the new finding that it began as early as the Pleistocene. The settlement of the remote Pacific began after 3500 BP and computer modelling and analysis of inter-island transits explains not just how settlement was possible-but how it must have followed from the controlled navigation of directed voyages and strategies for survival.

Housing Africa's Urban Poor

Abstract: The poorest of Africa's urban poor tend to be recent immigrants who gravitate to city-centre slums or shanty towns. Increasingly, housing is becoming commercialized, with the urban population stratified into owner-occupiers, landlords or tennants. This volume comprises papers from an International African Institute seminar at which participants reported on the policies of international agencies and African governments, their impact on the supply of housing, and the social consequences. It reveals the extent to which petty landlordism is developing, not only in settlements which have sprung up but also in government-sponsored, low-cost housing estates. Additionally, it explores how city housing policies are now tending to exacerbate social inequalities.

The Distribution of Daily Stock Returns and Settlement Procedures: The Paris Bourse

Abstract: In many countries settlements take place a fixed number of business days after the transaction (U.S., Japan). In other countries settlements take place periodically on a fixed date when all transactions performed before this date are settled (U.K., France, Italy). In both cases settlement procedures should cause returns not to be identically distributed over all days. The effect is likely to be the largest on markets where all trades are settled only once a month. An empirical investigation of the largest of those markets, the Paris Bourse, demonstrates the importance of the settlement procedure on the distribution of daily returns. SETTLEMENT PROCEDURES VARY CONSIDERABLY across national stock markets. In many countries settlements take place a fixed number of business days after the transaction. These countries are referred to in this paper as countries with a fixed settlement lag. In other countries settlements take place periodically on a fixed date and all transactions performed before this date are settled then. These countries are referred to as countries with a fixed settlement date. In both cases settlement procedures should cause returns not to be identically distributed over all days.

European unemployment : lessons from a multi-country econometric study

Abstract: The paper summarizes the principal empirical findings of the European Unemployment Program. It draws on 10 country studies which utilize the macroeconomic framework set out by Sneessens and Dreze (1986). The main conclusions are as follows: (i) a major problem in Europe is that productivity gains are quickly absorbed into wages and the effect of unemployment on wage settlements is generally weak; (ii) a wage-price-productivity spiral means the European economies are inflation-prone; (iii) demand pressures spill over into the balance of payments rather than leading to price increases; (iv) the major proximate determinant of employment in the 1 980s is the level of effective demand.

An ethnoarchaeological perspective on soils

Abstract: As archaeologists become increasingly sophisticated in their use of soils in understanding settlement patterns, it is necessary to consider what prehistoric food producers might have known about the soils of their landscape and how this could have influenced their land use strategies. A review of ethnopedological studies demonstrates that non‐Western soil classifications tend to be less developed than comparable folk botanical or zoological classifications and that they usually consist of no more than four or five soil categories. An analysis of historic settlement patterns of the Nigerian Kofyar shows that soil variability may not be the primary determinant in the location of early agricultural settlements. Archaeologists may wish to follow the lead of traditional agriculturalists and understand the full variety of locational constraints on agricultural settlements, before using subtle differences in the distribution of soils as the primary explanation of settlement variability.

Estimation of human carrying capacity in rainforest areas

Abstract: Tropical rainiorest areas are rapidly being settled as a result of continued growth of local populations, spontaneous migration from non-rainiorest areas and planned settlement projects undertaken by governments. National decision makers frequently view rainiorest settlement as a solution to the problems of other regions undergoing population growth, land tenure concentration, environmental degradation, agricultural mechanization and population displacement by development projects. Natural habitats are replaced by settlements that often cannot support the density of population expected of them. Inappropriate assumptions can lead to estimates that are orders of magnitude too high, such as an FAO calculation that Brazil could support over seven billion people if Amazonia were converted to intensive agriculture. Inadequate information on human carrying capacity allows planners to foster unrealistic expectations.

Invisible towns: A case study in the cartography of South Africa

Abstract: Many large Black settlements are downgraded or made invisible on maps of South Africa. This form of subjective generalisation gives a false prominence to small White towns. A more realistic map of the major settlements in South Africa is presented. The problems associated with mapping of Black settlements are discussed. These include the lack of census data, absence of official recognition of places, difficulties of place naming and the lack of functional imcomparability with other places.

Population and Settlement

Abstract: Part 1 Population distribution: world population distribution variations in world population distribution population distribution in the Highlands and Islands population distribution in Japan population distribution in Brazil. Part 2 Population growth and movement: population structure the world population explosion variations in population growth migration why do people migrate types of migration in North and West Africa West German migration populating the USSR populating Australia attitudes to population control population and natural resources. Part 3 Settlements: location of settlement settlement types settlement functions settlement patterns South Wales valley settlements the changing village. Part 4 Urbanization: million cities world urbanization rural-urban migration in the developing world urban land use inner city problems urban transport the Tyneside metro spheres of influence changing shopping habits the Dutch Randstad Lagos - a city in the developing world new and expanding towns in the UK new settlements in developing countries green belts or red bricks? Part 5 Further studies: UK population migration Kenya's population problems Sheffield Washington New Town.

Dispersed Settlements in Medieval England. A case study of Pendock, Worcestershire

Abstract: DISPERSED SETTLEMENTS in a woodland parish of SW. Worcestershire provide a detailed example from which general lessons can be learned about the history of settlement. The case study explores such problems as the relationship between medieval settlements and their Romano-British predecessors, the changing use of land in the medieval period, and the evolution of a distinctive type of dispersed settlement, the ‘interrupted row’. The usual explanations of the contrasting nucleated and dispersed settlements of the Middle Ages are found wanting, and they are regarded instead as elements in complex regional cultures.

Dinámica demográfica del crecimiento urbano en México : 1940-1980

Abstract: One of the main objetives of the Mexican National Program of Urban Development for the 1990-1994 period is "the transformation of the territorial pattern of human settlements" in Mexico. In this article, it is claimed that the aforementioned objetive of national urban policy is based on two fallacies that have been recognized for some years now: 1) that it is possible to regulate or control the territorial expansion of urban populations and 2) that a homogeneus urban hierarchy can facilitate economic development. On the basis of the conclusions of various studies on the distribution of cites by size, the author claims that the growth of the cities is not a variable relevant to urban policy and that, probably, the least effective mechanism for achieving demographic deconcertation would be direct intervention. In this article, the author analyzes the relationship between growth rates and the sizes of cities to determine what kind of cities are the most dynamic ones in terms of their demographic growth during the 1940-1980 period. Based onthe hypothesis that the national urban hierarchy is a system marked by steady growth, several different regression and variance analyses are effected reaching the conclusion that, in effect, the proporcionality of the urban hierarchy is maintained during the period under review. This finding contradicts the widespread belief that in Mexico, as of 1970, there has been a process of "metropolitanization" and of "growth of intermediate cities". More than a process of urbanization or urban development, the proliferation of "intermediate" cities represents a phenomenon of demographic growth.

Natural Environment and Human Settlement over the Central European Lowland in the 13th Century

Abstract: The research carried out by English and American geophysicists (UNESCO 1963) into the changes which took place in the natural environment of Europe during the Middle Ages, is corroborated by the work of Polish researchers on climatic change and on the effect of these changes upon the patterns of human settlement in Europe during the same period (Dunin-Wasowicz 1974). Their research enables us to put forward certain hypotheses. I would like to draw special attention to two: (1) the effect of human activity in the field of irrigation in forested lowland areas; closely related to this is the exploitation of natural resources. (2) The other pertains to the general climatic changes which have taken place irrespective of man (Wigley et al. 1985).

Geographical Personality of Settlement in a Subtropical Island

Abstract: This study aims at presenting some concrete features of Kohama, a Ryukyuan traditional settlement, in order to illustrate“Personality”of place, which may be considered as the whole dynamic relation of life and land. Attempts have been made to grasp their interrelations, namely“genre de vie”in Buttimer's sense, which includes not only material-social aspects but also mental-cultural phases in the analysis of a place. It should be understood, however, that the physical and socio-cultural matters examined here are quite selective, and limited to only the essential ones.The physical aspects are analyzed applying the concept of“high and low island”(by W.L. Thomas, Jr.). The basic physical features of the survey field, Kohama, can be defined as a“high island”, but since the island is relatively small, the characteristics of “high island”are not very apparent. However, the island's peculiar geologic formation, that is, the Quaternary limestone on a terrace and its unconforming position between the underlying surfaces, is favorable to hydrographic process of accumulation-drainage, and is better equipped with water supply for multiple agriculture (mainly sugar cane and rice cropping). For these aspects of the island's ecosystem, the relation between the physical aspects and subsistence form on this island is explicit. However, it is also a fact that the island's small area is a weak base for diversity. On the other hand, the siting of settlements was not necessarily disadvantageous under the medieval policy of giving preference to cultivated land. Rather, given the hydrological characteristics of the island, they can be said to be as appropriately located as the agricultural land.Regarding social matters, vertical relations, which specifically mean the relations between the upper and lower parts of social structure as suggested by hierarchies in kinship and the landlord/tenant system within the settlement, are not dominant, but equal or horizontal relations are noticeable. For instance, as for rice field possession, it is unusual for the main families to occupy well-watered rice fields. Spatial arrangement of residences also shows such a tendency: the houses of the main and branch families are not remarkably segregated. Generally speaking, in the Yaeyama Islands including Kohama, we can find no socially hierarchical system in rural communities such as that peculiar to the main island of Okinawa. It is safe to say that the horizontal social relations in the settlement have reflected a multi-centered and multi-phased rather than a centripetal and vertical social structure.Calling attention to cultural matters, particularly agricultural rites, which enable us to catch a picture of an unusual world and a hidden meaning of place, we are able to understand that, as a cultural apparatus, they embody ties of interdependence among the matters of“genre de vie”. The above-mentioned multiphased structure in the social context is ascertained not only from the different participants in those rites, but also sacred/profane territory and places implying boundaries. Besides, in the physical context, such a structure no doubt makes good use of the landscape surrounding the settlement under investigation.

La place des Alpes dans la néolithisation de l'Europe

Abstract: The role of the Alps in the Neolithisation of Europe. We propose a model for settlement trends in the Alpine region down to the Neolithic period within the context of the neolithisation of Europe, a model citing Mediterranean origins. The model attempts to go beyond descriptive accounts of settlement change, to try to provide a better understanding of the social and economic processes relevant in neolithisation. Concepts incorporated in the model include ecological niche, cultural transfers, ecological adaptation, demographic expansion, social constructs and social cohesion. The model is based on the new chronological framework of calibrated C14 dates established by J.-L. Voruz. In our model we distinguish four successions of settlement, as follows: 1) the exploitation of new territories by pioneering farmers and their initial contacts with indigenous hunters; 2) the establishment of the first permanent agricultural settlements in the region explored in 1); 3) the stabilisation of agricultural settlements marked by the reinforcement of the first settlements, especially by new settlements on the margins of the perialpine lakes; 4) the expansion and intensification of agricultural settlements, accompanied by diversification and social hierarchisation, technological intensification (copper metallurgy) and the development of long-distance exchange. This period witnessed a decline in Mediterranean contacts, while contacts with temperate Europe increased.

English village street names

Abstract: Place-names are important evidence about past geographies and geographical change. This article examines the significance of village street names in two settings in the English Midlands: six villages in the relatively rural Vale of Belvoir, and six former villages that are now part of the Nottingham metropolitan area. In the village cores, streets retain traditional names; twentieth- century appellations are rare. A five-part typology is presented as a focus for future research. THE layout of roads and streets is one of the least changing human-made features of the landscape. Most villages in England date from the Middle Ages, and there is no reason to assume that the original street layout in them has changed greatly (Hoskins 1970; Gelling 1978, 1985). The purpose of this article is to investigate the significance of street names in these villages and their role as indicators of geographical changes and evolution over time. The case study presented here comprises two areas in the Midlands (Fig. 1). One is a group of six villages in the Vale of Belvoir, a small agricultural region eight to twelve miles southeast of the city of Nottingham. The other includes six villages that have been absorbed in some way into the urbanized area of this city. This sample is not offered as representative; instead, the villages are examples illustrating how settlements respond to changing cir- cumstance and how place-names, in this instance, of streets, provide evidence about geographical transformations. The Vale of Belvoir is not a valley in the traditional sense. The sandstone Middle Lias escarpment is on its southeastern border, but otherwise it is a low-lying, very gently undulating area of clay, drained by small streams that converge into the River Trent. By the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, the vale had an estimated population density of 10.3 persons per square mile (Holly 1954, 353-354). The distribution of villages there originated in the medieval pattern of agriculture. The villages in more intensely farmed areas are usually situated about 1.2 to 2 miles apart, with each village having easy access to fields and pastures within a .5- to .75-mile radius. Some large villages in the vale lie on a northeast-southwest axis from Bottesford to Long Clawson. This location may have been determined by a line of springs found at about the 150-foot contour level. Additionally, their territory as shown by the old parish boundaries combined the flat-area clays

The End of Imperial Town Planning in Upper Canada

Abstract: In the years following the War of 1812 imperial officials, for reasons of strategic and domestic concern, founded a series of towns along the route from Kingston to the Ottawa River. Three of the "military settlements", Perth, Richmond and Lanark, reflected aspects of an earlier town planning tradition in Upper Canada and enjoyed a limited success as the nuclei for a certain type of society A fourth town, By town, was founded with less planning but quickly became the major urban centre in the Ottawa Valley Conflicting aims of the military planners and the towns civilians made By town's experience very different from the other three towns.

Kérdőjelek és hiányjelek a tanyakutatásban

Abstract: Scattered farmstead (tanya) is a specific element in the Hungarian settlement pattern. Eacl major period of its development left marked changes on its essential features. At the beginniN it served as shepards' accomodation. In its golden age it became an agricultural centre. Its inha bitants, as citizens of rural market towns, were attached to the town by highly intensive relation ships. By the 1960s, it became the accomodation of workers oflarge-scale socialist farms. Toda: it is again in a new socio-economic situation. Depending on future changes, it can either be come a slum or a modern farm. Its position within the settlement-, economic- and social system should be reconsidered. What is at all to be considered as a tanya—is an issue for discussion. In the case of tanyas the unity of places of home and work cannot be a criterion of the settle ment. These functions are spatially so much apart that the settlement itself can no longer identified on that basis. It is the morphological features (loosely built-up area, low populatioi density, long distances) that define a scattered farmstead region. By gradual „densification" however, this very feature is decreasing on the long run. The major distinction between tanya and most other European scattered settlements is tha here mainly only household or auxiliary farming is done. And this is the tanya's intrinsic fea ture. It is possible that this is the only economic function to strengthen in the filmre. People living in tanyas can no longer be exclusively identified as workers of large-scal( farms: more than 40 % of them no longer work in agriculture. Their living environment is however, still very much underprivileged. They are, still today, intensively linked to the paren settlement by their social links but relationships can also be significant among tanyas them selves and with other settlements. The building up of genuine local governments would, hope fully, improve the situation of tanya population and may also modify the direction of its spatia links. The most important features of conceptual criteria of the tanya are therefore the scattered character, the private-, household- or auxiliary farming, a relatively large rural population and a specific history and development path.

A polgárosodás törékeny váza – Városhálózatunk a századfordulón I. (Városhierarchia – vázlat, tényképekkel)

Abstract: The way of establishment of Kingdom in Hungary at about 1000 A. D. related Hungary to the socio-economic development of West-European region (adoption of western Christianity and western legal and state organizations, relations with papacy, "import" of experts—soldiers, clergymen, priests, monastic orders, etc.). By the l3th century, West-European type towns developed in Hungary as well. However, the country (similar to other nations of Eastern Europe) could not follow the processes speeding up at the turn of 15th-16th centuries and leading to and resulting in bourgeois development. In addition to this, the expansion of Osmanli Turk Empire also exerted far-reaching negative influences on the country (conquest of a large part of Hungary for 150 years, constant wars). Until the mid-19th century, Hungary was a feudal state, with slow pace of modernization. After driving the Turks out (1680s and 1690s), the urban network revived in Medieval form, and towns functioned as moderate market centers of small regions or small towns inhabited by craftsmen. Bourgeois development speeded up in the second third of the 19th century: feudalism was eliminated legally in 1848. While in Western Europe, towns were the heads and instructors of civil society, they did not become the pioneers of bourgeois development in Hungary: They had to catch up with bourgeois transformation and had to fitt out the frame obtained (or received). Our 19th-century urban development took place within the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, in an agrarian country. In 1870, the proportion of farming population was close to 80%. This number decreased to 60% by 1910. Capitalist transformation of agriculture, commerce and transport of agricultural goods (the most important incentive of railroad construction in Hungary), their processing and the development of credit and insurance institutions were in the center of our economic development, and at the same time, these factors were the most important factors of our urban development. The other stimulating force of urban development was the need to develop civil administration for the centers. Our investigation shows the hierarchy of urban network developed by 1900. Urban hierarchy was determined by the quantity and differentiation of institutions representing urban basic functions ("central-place" functions) and by defining the hierarchical rank of these institutions. Determining the hierarchical level of some of our institutions is facilitated by frequency values ("dispersion values"). This value indicates the number of settlements where the institution in question operates: the rarer an institution is, the higher hierarchical levet it indicates. When reconstructing the situation in 1900, we found 6 hierarchical levels including Budapest. I. 1. Budapest II. 2. Regional centers (of complete value) 3. Regional centers (partial) III. 4. Developed county seats (of complete value) 5. Developed county seats (partial) IV. 6. Towns of county-seat level (of complete value) 7. Towns of county-seat level (partial) V. 8. Medium-level towns (of complete value) 9. Medium-level towns (partial) VI. 10. Small towns Our findings are shown in Figure I and the appendix. Nevertheless they prove that the changes in Hungarian urban network at the turn of 19th century are primarily the result of external factors and, above alt, state intervention. One of the basic means of this was to settle government and administrative functions. Thus a great number of small settlements without urban functions, urban society and significant bourgeoisie got urban institutions and got onto relatively high hierarchical levels. This special contradiction (high hierarchical rank—low levet of urbanization) characterized the majority of Hungarian towns and made them somewhat similar to East-European towns (lack of real bourgeoisie, dominance of civil servants, etc.). In Hungary, there were big differences among the circles of urban categories created on the basic of legal, functional and social terms (Fig. 3.). Manyfold, general urbanization was characteristic only of Budapest. At the turn of the century, the only bridgehead of modernization was Budapest, which — together with its outskirts — became a modern city with 1 million inhabitants.

Role of Accessibility in Development and Functioning of Settlements

Abstract: The economic structure, development ability, and functioning of settlements in a region are significantly influenced by the measure of connections of settlements of various importance. Transportation network is a growth factor playing an important role in the life of settlements. The connection of large settlements to each other and to less important settlements in their gravity zones is closely related to the development and functioning of the settlements. This paper intends to analyze the connection system of settlements with the concept of transportation accessibility. Only mass transportation is included in the analysis. Accessibility has two distinctive sides: the first is physical or spatial dimension, which mostly belongs to transportation geography, the other side is social dimension, which is closest to sociology. The author examines the accessibility among centres and that between centres and the settlements in their gravity zones by measuring the physical side. The accessibility studies were carried out according to settlement network hierarchy.

Social organization for ecological sustainability: towards a more sustainable settlement pattern

Abstract: The unsustainability of settlement patterns is reviewed by presenting data on the growth of high energy using, low density suburbia, the loss of rural population (particularly from village or small country town settlements) and the growth of mega cities over diverse small towns. Social reorganization for more sustainable settlements is suggested under these three areas. It is suggested that cities need to be more urban through: (i) Re-urbanizing city centres and sub-centres; (ii) Re-orienting transport infrastructure away from the automobile; (iii) Removing subsidies on the automobile; and (iv) Providing a more public oriented urban culture. It is suggested that the countryside needs to be more rural through: (i) Permaculture villages being established in depopulated rural areas; (ii) Bio-regionalism becoming the basis of local authority boundaries and responsibilities including energy production; and (iii) Tree farm incentives being extended. It is suggested that diverse small towns need to be made more viable through: (i) Industrial location and relocation to small towns becoming part of sustainable industry policy whereby pollution taxes and Greenhouse credits are directed to location incentives. (ii) Bottom-up economic facilitation being concentrated in small towns; (iii) Environmental attractions of small towns being the focus of civic attention.