scholarly journals Earth's Amphibious Transformation: Tange Kenzo, Buckminster Fuller, and marine urbanization in global environmental thought (1950s–present)

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Stefan Huebner
Keyword(s):  
Communication Networks ◽  
Communication Technology ◽  
Communication Systems ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Land Reclamation ◽  
Offshore Structures ◽  
Tokyo Bay ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Rising Sea Levels ◽  
Post War

Abstract Climate change and rising sea levels, which threaten many Asian and other coastal cities, have returned the question of adaptation to unstable marine surfaces to the global discussions about urbanization, as was illustrated by a recent United Nations (UN) roundtable. As de facto counterproposals to hydroelectric dams and similar regional development projects, floating or elevated structures reject land reclamation and terrestrialization processes. Consequently, the rapidly growing number of offshore structures, which often constitute unconventional settlements, have contributed to an amphibious transformation of Earth's surface in the course of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. This amphibious transformation meant that both terrestrial and aquatic places have turned into human habitats. This article asks how and why today's leading environmental-political strand in large-scale marine urbanization emerged from the waters of Tokyo Bay. It investigates Japanese star architect Tange Kenzō's ‘Plan for Tokyo 1960’ (1961) and world-renowned American designer R. Buckminster Fuller's floating design called ‘Tetrahedronal City’ (1966). Emphasizing the important role that Asian cities have played in shaping global urbanization ideas and practices, Tokyo Bay became a node in the global cybernetics revolution that moved urban design into the information age. Tange's and Fuller's evolution-inspired cybernetic designs used the post-war communication technology revolution to replicate, through artificial communication networks, the biological communication systems that enable organisms to interact with their environments. Applying communication technology to recreate, in floating or elevated structures, the biological processes of growth, adaptation, mobility, and autonomy became the central environmental-political strand for large-scale marine urbanization and reducing its ecological footprint.

Planning and Design of Floating Offshore Architecture

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Akane Takahashi ◽  
Ikuo Yoshida
Keyword(s):  
Offshore Structures ◽  
Tokyo Bay ◽  
Offshore Structure ◽  
Floating Structure ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Motion Response ◽  
Response Characteristics ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Movement Characteristics ◽  
Rising Sea Levels

Abstract Floating offshore structures are attracting increasing attention as a method for addressing problems such as rising sea levels due to global warming and the increasing global populations. However, unlike ground structures, floating offshore structures must consider the effects of waves. The movement characteristics of the floating offshore structure have been reported. However, no studies have compared variations in motion response characteristics according to the scale of floating structures or buildings atop them, so it is currently difficult during the initial planning and design stages to estimate the size of superstructures that can be designed for a given marine area. Therefore, with the aim of obtaining basic data for planning floating offshore structures, in this study we developed floating structure modules (a square 36m on a side) according to their superstructure and investigated the basic motion response characteristics for each. We furthermore derived tendencies for horizontal acceleration and inclination occurring in individual modules according to design waves for Tokyo Bay.

scholarly journals Tropical Cyclone-Induced Hazards Caused by Storm Surges and Large Waves on the Coast of China

Geosciences ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zai-Jin You
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Storm Surges ◽  
Chinese Economy ◽  
Coastal Hazards ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
The North ◽  
Coastal Waves ◽  
Storm Wave ◽  
Rising Sea Levels

The mainland coast of China is about 18,000 km long and houses about 70% of China’s largest cities and 50% of its population. For the last few decades, the rapid growth of the Chinese economy has resulted in extensive development of the coastal infrastructure and property, large-scale expansion of coastal ports, excessive reclamation of coastal land, and a significant increase in the coastal population. Previous studies have indicated that tropical cyclones (TCs) have struck the coast of China at a higher frequency and intensity, and TC-induced coastal hazards have resulted in heavy human losses and huge losses to the Chinese coastal economy. In analyzing the long-term and most recent coastal hazard data collected on the coast of China, this study has found that TC-induced storm surges are responsible for 88% of the direct coastal economic losses, while TC-induced large coastal waves have caused heavy loss of human lives, and that the hazard-caused losses are shown to increase spatially from the north to south, peak in the southern coastal sector, and well correlate to storm wave energy flux. The frequency and intensity of coastal hazards on the coast of China are expected to increase in response to future changing TC conditions and rising sea levels. A simple two-parameter conceptual model is also presented for the assessment of coastal inundation and erosion hazards on the coast of China.

scholarly journals Inhabiting the machine

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
George Goodwin
Keyword(s):  
Financial Management ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
Tamil Nadu ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Civil Society Organisations ◽  
Slum Dwellers ◽  
Basic Services ◽  
Rising Sea Levels

<p>Like many cities across India, Chennai (capital of Tamil Nadu) has two tiers of slums — those with official government recognition and those without. Slums with official government recognition are then further categorised to either be objectionable or unobjectionable. Recognised slums receive government funding to provide new tenements and basic services on site. But recent studies have shown that 4.8 sq km of the Chennai metropolitan area are comprised of either unrecognised or objectionable slums. The current government strategy is to forcibly relocate families from unrecognised or objectionable slums to large-scale, high-rise settlement colonies on the distant outskirts of Chennai. Numerous civil society organisations, however, have documented that eviction and relocation results in extreme trauma for these families. The Transparent Chennai Project at the Institute for Financial Management and Research in Chennai argues that: “A far more reasonable strategy would be to once again implement the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Act in the spirit that it was written, and start to recognise slums and improve them in situ” (Raman and Narayan).  This thesis proposes that architectural design can improve conditions for Chennai’s urban poor without resorting to forced relocation. It argues that a new framework for slum housing can be designed that is capable of: protecting slum dwellers from environmental disasters such as rising sea levels, storm surge, and tsunamis; mitigating environmental pollution to improve hygiene; and providing economic sources of fresh water and energy through sustainable means. It further argues that this framework can be achieved in a culturally sensitive manner by acknowledging traditional and historically significant regional architectural typologies.</p>

Design of SNP Markers for Aldabra Giant Tortoises using ddRAD-seq

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Gözde Çilingir ◽  
Dennis Hansen ◽  
Arpat Ozgul ◽  
Christine Grossen
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Wild Population ◽  
Western Indian Ocean ◽  
Snp Markers ◽  
Nucleotide Polymorphisms ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Breeding Populations ◽  
Captive Populations ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Rising Sea Levels

Abstract The Aldabra giant tortoise ( Aldabrachelys gigantea ) is one of only two remaining giant tortoise species worldwide. Captive-bred A. gigantea are being used in rewilding projects in the Western Indian Ocean to functionally replace the extinct endemic giant tortoise species and restore degraded island ecosystems. Furthermore, large-scale translocations may become necessary as rising sea levels threaten the only wild population on the low-lying Aldabra Atoll. Critical management decisions would be greatly facilitated by insights on the genetic structure of breeding populations. We used a double-digest restriction-associated DNA sequencing (ddRAD-seq) approach to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) among the wild population and two additional captive populations of A. gigantea . A total of 149 unlinked, putatively neutral genome-wide SNPs were identified. The values of expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.32 to 0.5, whereas the minor allele frequency ranged from 0.20 to 0.5. These novel SNP markers will serve as useful tools for informing the conservation of A. gigantea .

Climate Change and Supply Chain Operations

2011 ◽  
pp. 93-126
Author(s):  
Costas P. Pappis
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Water Cycle ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
The World ◽  
Stern Review ◽  
Rising Sea Levels

In the previous chapter 3 the focus of the presentation has been on the implications of climate change, as felt globally, for the environment and human societies in developing as well as in developed countries. As noticed there, the Stern Review’s conclusion that “climate change will have increasingly severe impacts on people around the world, with a growing risk of abrupt and large-scale changes at higher temperatures” (Stern Review, 2006) is shared by most scientists and governments. The Review warns that “a warmer world with a more intense water cycle and rising sea levels will influence many key determinants of wealth and well-being, including water supply, food production, human health, availability of land, and the environment” (Stern Review, p. 84).

scholarly journals Design of SNP markers for Aldabra giant tortoises using low coverage ddRAD-seq

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. G. Çilingir ◽  
D. Hansen ◽  
A. Ozgul ◽  
C. Grossen
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Wild Population ◽  
Western Indian Ocean ◽  
Snp Markers ◽  
Nucleotide Polymorphisms ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Breeding Populations ◽  
Captive Populations ◽  
Rising Sea Levels ◽  
Low Coverage

AbstractThe Aldabra giant tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea) is one of only two remaining giant tortoise species worldwide. Captive-bred A. gigantea are being used in rewilding projects in the Western Indian Ocean to functionally replace the extinct endemic giant tortoise species and restore degraded island ecosystems. Furthermore, large-scale translocations may become necessary as rising sea levels threaten the only wild population on the low-lying Aldabra Atoll. Critical management decisions would be greatly facilitated by insights on the genetic structure of breeding populations. We used a double-digest restriction-associated DNA sequencing (ddRAD-seq) approach to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) among the wild population and two additional captive populations of A. gigantea. A total of 1674 unlinked, putatively neutral genome-wide SNPs were identified. The values of expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.33 to 0.5, whereas the minor allele frequency ranged from 0.20 to 0.5. These novel SNP markers will serve as useful tools for informing the conservation of A. gigantea.

scholarly journals Amphibious Worlds: Environments, Infrastructures, Ontologies

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Casper Bruun Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Land Reclamation ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Weather Patterns ◽  
Water Flows ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Mode Of Transportation ◽  
Rising Sea Levels ◽  
First Time ◽  
Engineering Projects ◽  
Global Water

Presently, we are witness to a global intensification of water-related disasters related to flooding, sinking erosion, and drought, reflecting changes in global water circulation, rising sea levels and changing weather patterns. Indeed, water is often the medium through which the message of climate change is delivered. Conventionally, water-related engineering projects have managed amphibious spaces through terrestrial approaches premised on removing or controlling water, for example by land reclamation and drainage. They can be contrasted with amphibious approaches that take water flows as a given and organize life around it––as exemplified by living in floating villages or houses on stilts, using water as a primary mode of transportation, or growing crops in water. Yet, the amphibious is gaining new life, as water seems to be increasingly flowing back into land, everywhere giving rise to emergencies that call for creative response. Thus, urban planners, engineers, and architects devise new infrastructures and models adaptive to environments that are becoming amphibious once again, or for the first time, and people living in watery environments everywhere find ways of adapting to increasingly amphibious circumstances. Doing so, they are contributing to the ongoing ontological transformation of amphibious worlds. This introduction to the thematic collection on “Amphibious Worlds: Environments, Infrastructures, Ontologies,” outlines some of the key issues facing STS and anthropological studies of such worlds, and introduces the papers that follow.  

scholarly journals Salty Urbanism: Toward an Adaptive Coastal Design Framework to Address Rising Seas and Climate Change

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey E. Huber
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Urban Design ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Wildlife Habitat ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Rising Sea Levels ◽  
Economic Assets

Over the next 100 years, nothing will radically change thecoastal built environment more than climate change and sea level rise. The coastal zone is home to some of our country’s most valuable ecological and socio-economic assets. Many of these locations are being demonstrably transformed dueto large-scale human and biophysical processes. The result is a potential loss of myriad ecosystem services such as storm protection, wildlife habitat, recreation and aesthetics, among others. Policy and design solutions are not truly consideringthe necessary transformation that will be required to live and work within a saturated coastal environment. The old paradigm of flood management and control will need tochange from prevention to acceptance and population will decline as businesses and individuals decide the costs are too high. The need for developing a long-term urban design and planning framework that adapts to these effects is critical. More specifically, there is a need for a “systems” approach that utilizes urban design and takes into consideration infrastructure impacts, future investments, and insurability of risk as long-term objectives to address potential impacts from both coastal flooding and rising sea levels, while at the same time guiding communities’ future land use and investment plans.

scholarly journals Sustaining observations of the unsteady ocean circulation

2014 ◽  
Vol 372 (2025) ◽  
pp. 20130335 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Frajka-Williams
Keyword(s):  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Measurement Techniques ◽  
Warming Trend ◽  
Personal Perspective ◽  
Sea Levels ◽  
Rising Sea Levels ◽  
Time Basis ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Ocean Properties

Sustained observations of ocean properties reveal a global warming trend and rising sea levels. These changes have been documented by traditional ship-based measurements of ocean properties, whereas more recent Argo profiling floats and satellite records permit estimates of ocean changes on a near real-time basis. Through these and newer methods of observing the oceans, scientists are moving from quantifying the ‘state of the ocean’ to monitoring its variability, and distinguishing the physical processes bringing signals of change. In this paper, I give a brief overview of the UK contributions to the physical oceanographic observations, and the role they have played in the wider global observing systems. While temperature and salinity are the primary measurements of physical oceanography, new transbasin mooring arrays also resolve changes in ocean circulation on daily timescales. Emerging technologies permit routine observations at higher-than-ever spatial resolutions. Following this, I then give a personal perspective on the future of sustained observations. New measurement techniques promise exciting discoveries concerning the role of smaller scales and boundary processes in setting the large-scale ocean circulation and the ocean's role in climate. The challenges now facing the scientific community include sustaining critical observations in the case of funding system changes or shifts in government priorities. These long records will enable a determination of the role and response of the ocean to climate change.

The Role of Japan DMAT in Tokyo Inland Earthquake

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (s1) ◽  
pp. s44-s44
Author(s):  
Yuichi Koido ◽  
Miho Misaki ◽  
Kayako Chishima ◽  
Yuzuru Kawashima ◽  
Hisayoshi Kondo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Disaster Preparedness ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Communication Systems ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Implementation Strategies ◽  
Tokyo Bay ◽  
Metropolitan Government ◽  
Inland Earthquake ◽  
The Government ◽  
Disaster Preparedness And Response

Introduction:An inland earthquake is expected to occur in Tokyo in the near future, and disaster preparedness and response measures have been put in place by the government of Japan and local authorities.Methods:Japan Disaster Medical Assistant Teams (DMATs) conducted two large-scale drills for the first time in preparation for a Tokyo inland earthquake, in collaboration with the following participants: the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, disaster base hospitals in Tokyo, three Staging Care Units (SCUs), and neighboring prefectures. One of the scenarios was a north Tokyo Bay earthquake affecting the Tokyo wards and had 142 Japan DMATs participation. Another scenario was Tama inland earthquake affected mid-west of Tokyo and 110 DMATs participated. The drill included headquarters operation, affected hospital support operation, patient transportation within the area and to the wider region, SCU operation, collaboration with associated organizations, and logistics operation.Results:Post-drill assessments identified the following areas that need to be addressed: review of Japan DMAT implementation strategies; improvement of SCUs; establishment of a patient air transportation framework; securing means of patient transportation; improvement of communication systems; strengthening of disaster response of all hospitals in the Tokyo Metropolis; and preparations for survival in the event of isolation caused by the disaster.

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