scholarly journals ἄριστον μέν ὕδωρ: An Examination of the Public Waterworks in Athens in the Early 5thC BCE

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seraphina Vasilodimitrakis-Hart

This article examines the design and social impact of waterways in Athens in the early 5thC BCE. While the Athenian political landscape transitioned from a series of tyrannies to democracy at the end of the Archaic period (ca. 650-480 BCE), the archaeological record also shows widespread innovation in the development of public water systems, particularly in sanitation and water supply. A movement away from buildings constructed by the Athenian tyrants facilitated the development of the Classical Agora and the creation of new public-use spaces and structures, like the Southeast Fountain House and the Great Drain in the Agora. The fountain has long been identified with the famous Peisistratid Enneakrounos (“Nine Spouts”) fountain, but through investigation into the arguments of J.M. Camp and Jessica Paga, I propose that a later date ca. 500 BCE is more suitable for the historical and archaeological context of the fountain.  I investigate several Athenian waterworks built/maintained during the late Archaic period to the Classical period (~500-323 BCE): the Great Drain in the Agora, the Southeast Fountain House, the Klepsydra fountain, and the Asklepieion on the Akropolis. The works of Hippocrates, Thucydides, and—to a lesser extent—Pausanias, inform my examination of the implications of the construction of these waterworks and the development of democracy in the 5th century. These waterways show a dedicated shift from the private use of water and tyrannical building works, to a new, fully public and communal mode of engagement with the city and its resources.

Author(s):  
Mykhailo Zubar ◽  
◽  
Oleh Mahdych ◽  

Taras Shevchenko is one of the most researched and discussed figures in Ukrainian society. In each historical period receptions and assessments around Shevchenko` personality differentiates, depending on the public circumstances or prevailing trends in humanitarian discourse. These perceptions swayed between positive and critical judgment. Authors identified several key perceptions of Shevchenko in Ukrainian public space, for instance, «national hero», «father of the nation», «poet», «revolutionary democrat». In their opinion, modern Ukraine still faces the search for Shevchenko` new image. New forms of public honour (commemoration) are being developed, including through museum exhibition projects. Authors also analyze the significance of the museum narrative expositions and exhibitions for the creation of new public images, giving the example of the exhibition project «Shevchenko by the urban tongue», which took place in the Taras Shevchenko national museum from November 4th to January 31th in 2021. Curators attempted to explore how personal experience in the city changed due to the process of urbanization from the XIX-th century and how the urban space influenced the shaping of the Taras Shevchenko figure. Specifically, in the XIX-th century, cities ultimately transformed into an environment, which created trends, emphases of the global public development that influenced Shevchenko, since exactly in the city he gained domestic freedom, profession and widened his social circle. The city gave him a sense of understanding of the culture, its influence and importance not only for consumer purposes or acceptance but also for the creation of new meanings. According to the authors, this approach allows us to better understand the significance of Taras Shevchenko, his connection to modern Ukrainian realities and world context.


1981 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 497-509 ◽  
Author(s):  
P C Forer ◽  
Helen Kivell

This paper addresses the problem of access to urban facilities for housewives without cars, and the methodology of the Lund School is used to investigate the spatial constraints affecting access to and choice between a selected group of urban facilities in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. To do this, the characteristics of the public transport system are investigated, and time-budget data used to specify typical windows of free time during a housespouse's day. From there the potential action and activity spaces of individuals in four suburbs are delimited, and these are used in assessing the variations in access to and choice between facilities in these suburbs. Finally, the social impact of the current bus provision in the context of the social structure of the city is raised as a policy issue.


Author(s):  
Daitaro Misawa ◽  
Jun Fukuyoshi ◽  
Shintaro Sengoku

There have been prior attempts to utilize machine learning to address issues in the medical field, particularly in diagnoses using medical images and developing therapeutic regimens. However, few cases have demonstrated the usefulness of machine learning for enhancing health consciousness of patients or the public in general, which is necessary to cause behavioral changes. This paper describes a novel case wherein the uptake rate for colorectal cancer examinations has significantly increased due to the application of machine learning and nudge theory. The paper also discusses the effectiveness of social impact bonds (SIBs) as a scheme for realizing these applications. During a healthcare SIB project conducted in the city of Hachioji, Tokyo, machine learning, based on historical data obtained from designated periodical health examinations, digitalized medical insurance receipts, and medical examination records for colorectal cancer, was used to deduce segments for whom the examination was recommended. The result revealed that out of the 12,162 people for whom the examination was recommended, 3264 (26.8%) received it, which exceeded the upper expectation limit of the initial plan (19.0%). We conclude that this was a successful case that stimulated discussion on potential further applications of this approach to wider regions and more diseases.


1973 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 162-171
Author(s):  
Arthur B. Daugherty ◽  
J. Dean Jansma

Demands on the public water supply “industry” have been increasing steadily. Most of the existing systems have experienced increased water use per customer over time, as well as a greater number of customers. There has also been a growing interest in and concern about providing adequate quantities of safe, treated water for all of the Nation's population. The cost of providing public water systems for “an estimated 30,000 smaller communities, unincorporated settled areas and farming sectors in rural territory without systems” was estimated at $6 billion in 1966 [1, p. 978]. The cost of completing this task has probably increased, even though many water systems have been installed in these communities since 1966.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Paige Boyd

<p>When a large public building is constructed within any landscape it is often found to create adverse affects on the public life surrounding it. This investigation focuses on Te Papa in Wellington, New Zealand. It employs design strategies that emerge from site observation, analysis and exploration of design and behaviour literature. Site observations are undertaken at various scales to determine the behaviours that occur in and around the site, and analysis of this provides an understanding of why such actions can happen and why others cannot. Exploration of the literature is employed to understand past approaches to this design problem and to inform the analysis process. Design testing allows ideas to be played out in hypothetical scenarios and the outcomes of which will be compared to past approaches.  There is a strong focus on pedestrian movement as a catalyst of public life, in relation to the movement itself and the interactions people have with the surrounding environment when influenced by the movement flow. The overall goal of this thesis is to observe and analyse a large building in the public realm that, although is surrounded by movement, limits engagement in ways that results in a decrease of public life. The research leads to the exploration of how flows can be coordinated to generate eddies of interaction and pause and ways to activate and open up particular edges of this building in order to create new opportunities for the public to engage with the landscape. It finally attempts to find ways to not only create new public life, but also intensify the public life in this challenging situation.</p>


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine K. Grooms

Abstract The Safe Drinking Water Act addresses harmful contaminants in drinking water by providing states the authority to monitor public water systems, notify the public of exceedances above allowable levels, and cite persistent violators. Violating water systems are subject to intense regulatory and public scrutiny. The response of contaminant levels to violation status has not been explored empirically. This paper addresses this relationship through an event study using data on arsenic and nitrate levels in California. I find that violation status has a significant positive effect on nitrate levels post-violation, but no effect on arsenic levels. I also examine the effect of the 2006 arsenic Maximum Contaminant Level revision, finding a discontinuity in contaminant levels at revision. These results suggest that while public disclosure may deter systems from violating, once they go into violation the Public Notification Rule is not effective at encouraging a return to compliance.


2016 ◽  
Vol 93 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-25
Author(s):  
Andrew M. Shanken

The unbuilt proposals for the 1939 San Francisco World's Fair offer a cross section of designs put before the public in a formative moment just before modernism came to dominate architectural discourse and production. Projects by luminaries Bernard Maybeck and Richard Neutra joined projects by Joseph Strauss and Henry Killam Murphy. Here were architectural hopefuls at the nadir of the Great Depression attempting to draw their way into the commission of a lifetime. Thus, a Beaux-Arts bohemian competed with a sincere modernist, a self-promoting engineer, and America's leading practitioner in China. At the same time, the proposals were part of the larger economic and political landscape of San Francisco, as neighborhood associations and politicians used them to attract the fair to their part of the city. More than pie in the sky, these designs show in amplified form the way architecture is embedded in public discourse as a form of persuasion, a kind of politics by other means through which elites and other stakeholders argued for their preferred reality. As tools of intra-urban boosterism, these plans reveal the competing interests within San Francisco at a pivotal moment in its development, when its future lay in the formation of a regional metropolis that could compete with Los Angeles for commerce on the West Coast and beyond.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (22) ◽  
pp. 6380 ◽  
Author(s):  
María-Elena Sánchez del Río-Vázquez ◽  
Carlos J. Rodríguez-Rad ◽  
María-Ángeles Revilla-Camacho

Those in charge of tourism destinations face the need to create tourism development models compatible with the essence of the localities that they manage. These models have to be sustainable, both environmentally and socially, and also must become drivers of the local economy. However, tourists also generate negative impacts in the locality which, when they are perceived by the residents, can give rise to a rejection of visitors. Hence, improving the tourism management is necessary. This is why to know the residents’ perceptions about the impacts of tourism is essential. Moreover, measuring the impact effects on their satisfaction with the public administration of the destination can be of great usefulness. This study falls into this research line, as it proposes a model to measure these impacts and their effect on satisfaction. To do so, an empirical study is performed among residents in the city of Seville (southern Spain, one of the most visited destinations in the world), based on subjective economic, social, and environmental indicators. The results show that the citizens value three types of impacts, the social impact coming after the economic impact as to its influence on their satisfaction with the administration. Based on this, we postulate that the efforts made to attract events to the city, or to improve connections to access a broader market, must be approached as public procurements in which selection criteria that are compatible with the destination’s positioning and strategy prevail. Social and environmental criteria should be considered among these criteria.


Author(s):  
Д. Е. Чистов

В ходе раскопок архаического поселения на о. Березань в устье Днепро-Бугского лимана в 1970 г. была сделана важная находка, значению которой ранее не уделялось должного внимания. Экспедицией ИА АН УССР под руководством В. В. Лапина раскрыто двойное захоронение - кремация. Два ионийских сосуда, использованные в качестве урн для помещения праха, и аттическая чаша на ножке, послужившая в качестве крышки одного из них, позволяют датировать погребение концом VI или рубежом VI-V вв. до н. э. Понимание контекста захоронения затруднено плохой сохранностью окружающих архаических строительных остатков - они в значительной степени уничтожены при строительстве на этом месте большого комплекса построек в IV в. до н. э. Однако установлено, что двойное погребение находилось на значительном удалении от некрополя, в центральной части городского квартала, и всего в 18 метрах от общественного здания - т. н. «дома с апсидой». Возможно, здесь был расположен героон. Раскрытые В. В. Лапиным погребения вполне могли бы принадлежать кому-то из лидеров колонистов, основавших и построивших на Березани урбанизированное поселение несколькими десятилетиями ранее - в начале третьей четверти VI в. до н. э. Захоронение с двойной кремацией своей датировкой приблизительно совпадает со сменой строительных фаз II-A и II-B в периодизации Березанского поселения. Завершение фазы II-A отмечается пожарами, разрушениями и последующими перестройками, прослеженными в разных частях памятника. Нельзя исключить того, что гибель двух человек, погребенных неподалеку от «дома с апсидой», также была связана с этой катастрофой, причины которой пока не установлены. During the excavations of an Archaic period settlement on the Berezan island in the mouth of the Dnieper-Bug silted estuary in 1970 an important find was made that was not given due consideration. The expedition of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences led by V. V. Lapin discovered a double cremation burial. Two Ionian vessels (Fig. 3) used as urns with ashes and an Attic footed cup that was used as a lid of one of these vessels suggest that the burial dates to the end of the 6th c. BC or the end of the 6th - early 5th cc. BC. Understanding the burial context is hampered by poor preservation conditions of archaic buildings debris which were mostly pulled down during construction of a group of buildings in the 4th c. BC. However, it has been found that the double burial was located at a long distance from the necropolis in the central part of the city blocks, only 18 m away from the public building, the so called house with an apse (Fig. 2). Maybe, a heroon was located there. The burials uncovered by V. V. Lapin probably belonged to one of the colonists’ leaders who had founded this urban settlement on the Berezan island several decades before, i.e. in the early third quarter of the 6th c. BC. Chronologically the double cremation burial almost coincides with the replacement of construction phases II-A and II-B according to the Berezan settlement periodization. The end of construction phases II-A was marked by fires, collapse of buildings and subsequent rebuilding traced in various parts of the site. We cannot exclude that the death of two individuals buried not far from the house with the apse was also linked to this disaster by factors not yet identified


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rayson Wong

Public art is a creative placemaking tool to enhance the quality of civic life and foster a sense of community. There is growing enthusiasm for public art to be integrated into the suburban environment in fostering a more culturally vibrant place. This paper explores the unique challenges faced in suburban public art planning. The City of Markham’s new public art program is used as a case study. Successful public art in the suburb should reflect the local community’s history, values, or needs. Public engagement and collaboration is critical to creating public art that garners intrinsic connections. Generally, since suburban municipalities have smaller populations and lower developmental demand than urban cores, they should incorporate a variety of funding tools to effectively sustain their public art programs. Markham should increase its efforts on engaging the public in all aspects of public art commissioning, and maximize their financial resources in order to increase the presence of its program.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document