scholarly journals Human-Centred Indicators (HCI) to Regenerate Vulnerable Cultural Heritage and Landscape towards a Circular City: From the Bronx (NY) to Ercolano (IT)

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5505
Author(s):  
Martina Bosone ◽  
Francesca Ciampa

Many cities globally are incorporating the circular economy model into their development strategies to start transitioning as “circular cities” towards the implementation of human-centred development. In many of them, one of the major challenges is represented by the large presence of cultural heritage being in a state of degradation, abandonment and underutilization, which determines waste conditions not only at physical/spatial level but also at economic level (the presence of subsistence economies) and at a social and cultural level (marginalization phenomena and high rates of unemployment). The perspective of circular economy allows rethinking these waste conditions as an opportunity to reactivate virtuous circuits capable of promoting sustainable development focused on human needs. In this perspective, the paper aims to demonstrate both the importance of participatory approaches in guiding circular and human-centred regeneration processes and of identifying evaluation tools capable of integrating the human and ecological dimension with the economic one. With this aim, a circular methodology is proposed and experimented with in Ercolano (Italy) and in the Bronx (New York), in which the adoption of a participatory approach was central in all phases of regeneration processes, from the identification and analysis of vulnerabilities and waste conditions to the definition of a strategy capable of transforming these limitations into opportunities. A first result is the elaboration of a framework of “Human-Centred Indicators” to monitor and support the adoption of the circular economy strategy toward implementing the “human-centred city”.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5547
Author(s):  
Nadia Pintossi ◽  
Deniz Ikiz Kaya ◽  
Ana Pereira Roders

Cultural heritage drives and enables sustainable urban development. The adaptive reuse of cultural heritage creates values while prolonging the lifespan of heritage. Similarly, circular economy creates value while extending the useful life of materials and elements through their reuse. Existing studies on adaptive reuse challenges seldom focus on cultural heritage properties, and they are often identified through the engagement of a limited variety of stakeholders, as compared to the actors normally involved in adaptive reuse. Filling this gap, this paper provides a preliminary baseline of challenges faced by the city of Amsterdam from the perspective of various involved stakeholders, and suggests solutions to address them. The participants represented the public, private, knowledge, and third sectors. The methods used were the following: for data collection, a multidisciplinary workshop using the steps of the Historic Urban Landscape approach as an assessment framework applied to multiple scales on adaptive reuse, and for data analysis, manifest content analysis. The results expanded the range of challenges and solutions reported by previous literature on the adaptive reuse of cultural heritage in content and scale by identifying 61 themes—e.g., knowledge and civic engagement. Tools and stakeholders were also identified. These findings provide a reference for future practice, policymaking, and decision-making, facilitating the adaptive reuse of cultural heritage to capitalize on its potential for sustainable development and circular economy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2889
Author(s):  
Gillian Foster ◽  
Ruba Saleh

A new movement in urban environmental policy, the circular economy (CE), aims to change how Europeans consume and produce materials and energy. Cities are taking up the CE challenge. This research inquires whether the infant CE programs in European cities include cultural heritage and adaptive reuse of cultural heritage (ARCH) buildings. ARCH buildings exemplify the central principal of the CE, which is a temporally long service life with multiple uses for several generations of users. In addition, culture and cultural heritage buildings are established drivers of socioeconomic development, urban landscape, and identity. Hypothetically, cultural heritage and adaptive reuse of cultural heritage (ARCH) buildings should be prominently included in European cities’ CE programs, particularly those cities that are highly ranked on the 2019 European Cultural and Creative Cities Monitor (Monitor). To test this hypothesis, this study creates a novel dataset that profiles the existing circular city plans of 190 European cities included in the Monitor’s ranking. Contrary to the hypothesis, just seven percent of cities in the dataset include cultural heritage. European cities are missing an opportunity to achieve their CE goals and preserve their unique identities as embodied in the built environment.


1979 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 711-722 ◽  
Author(s):  
David B. Madsen

A satisfactory and explicit definition of the Fremont has not been produced in over 50 years of research—a failure which suggests that no comprehensive entity exists. Attempts to define a Fremont through the use of trait lists have failed, although such lists have provided the basis for three apparently conflicting theories of origin. Analyses of subsistence economies and settlement patterns suggest that no comprehensive entity exists and that all three origin theories may possibly be valid. A Sevier "culture," based on marsh collecting and supplemented by corn agriculture, can be defined in the eastern Great Basin. A Fremont "culture," based on corn agriculture and supplemented by hunting, can be defined on the Colorado Plateau. A third unnamed, but possibly Plains-related, culture may be defined to the north of these. These "cultures" are distinctive enough to be separated on the same taxonomic level as are the Anasazi and the Sinagua.


2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
EMILIA MARÍA DURÁN-ALMARZA

The Dominican American community in New York is perhaps one of the best examples of how processes of transculturation are affecting traditional definitions of ethnic identification. Given the intense economic, social and cultural transnational exchanges between the island and the USA from the 1960s, Dominicanyorks have been challenging the illusion of homogeneity in the definition of Americanness for decades, creating transnational social networks that transcend traditional national and ethnographic boundaries. The theatrical works of Josefina Báez, a Dominican American performer living in New York, and Sherezada (Chiqui) Vicioso, a Dominican poet and playwright who lived and worked in the US metropolis for decades before moving back to the Dominican Republic, lyrically explore issues of diaspora, identity and migration and the impact these phenomena might have in the lives of migrant Dominican women. Presenting diasporic experiences from two differing but interconnected locales – New York and the Dominican Republic – these plays offer two complementary views on the ways in which ethnicity, race, social class, age and geopolitical location interact in the formation of transcultural identities, thus contributing to develop a hemispheric approach to the study of identity formation in the Americas.


2011 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Turek ◽  
Sam Anand

Digital measurement devices, such as coordinate measuring machines, laser scanning devices, and digital imaging, can provide highly accurate and precise coordinate data representing the sampled surface. However, this discrete measurement process can only account for measured data points, not the entire continuous form, and is heavily influenced by the algorithm that interprets the measured data. The definition of cylindrical size for an external feature as specified by ASME Y14.5.1M-1994 [The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1995, Dimensioning and Tolerancing, ASME Standard Y14.5M-1994, ASME, New York, NY; The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1995, Mathematical Definition of Dimensioning and Tolerancing Principles, ASME Standard Y14.5.1M-1994, ASME, New York, NY] matches the analytical definition of a minimum circumscribing cylinder (MCC) when rule no. 1 [The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1995, Dimensioning and Tolerancing, ASME Standard Y14.5M-1994, ASME, New York, NY; The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1995, Mathematical Definition of Dimensioning and Tolerancing Principles, ASME Standard Y14.5.1M-1994, ASME, New York, NY] is applied to ensure a linear axis. Even though the MCC is a logical choice for size determination, it is highly sensitive to the sampling method and any uncertainties encountered in that process. Determining the least-sum-of-squares solution is an alternative method commonly utilized in size determination. However, the least-squares formulation seeks an optimal solution not based on the cylindrical size definition [The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1995, Dimensioning and Tolerancing, ASME Standard Y14.5M-1994, ASME, New York, NY; The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 1995, Mathematical Definition of Dimensioning and Tolerancing Principles, ASME Standard Y14.5.1M-1994, ASME, New York, NY] and thus has been shown to be biased [Hopp, 1993, “Computational Metrology,” Manuf. Rev., 6(4), pp. 295–304; Nassef, and ElMaraghy, 1999, “Determination of Best Objective Function for Evaluating Geometric Deviations,” Int. J. Adv. Manuf. Technol., 15, pp. 90–95]. This work builds upon previous research in which the hull normal method was presented to determine the size of cylindrical bosses when rule no. 1 is applied [Turek, and Anand, 2007, “A Hull Normal Approach for Determining the Size of Cylindrical Features,” ASME, Atlanta, GA]. A thorough analysis of the hull normal method’s performance in various circumstances is presented here to validate it as a superior alternative to the least-squares and MCC solutions for size evaluation. The goal of the hull normal method is to recreate the sampled surface using computational geometry methods and to determine the cylinder’s axis and radius based upon it. Based on repetitive analyses of random samples of data from several measured parts and generated forms, it was concluded that the hull normal method outperformed all traditional solution methods. The hull normal method proved to be robust by having a lower bias and distributions that were skewed toward the true value of the radius, regardless of the amount of form error.


Author(s):  
Himanshu Prabha Ray
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  

Dong Wang, Longmen’s Stone Buddhas and Cultural Heritage: When Antiquity Met Modernity in China (Lanham/Boulder/New York/London: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2020). pp. 314, HB $95; PB $35. ISBN 9781538141120 (epub).


2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larita Killian

ABSTRACT Due to fiscal constraints and demands for increased accountability, scholars and public officials are reviewing the structure and reporting practices of local governments. These efforts are often incomplete, however, because they bypass special districts, which now comprise over 40 percent of all local governments. The proliferation of special districts has the potential to increase government costs, redirect the allocation of scarce resources, remove debt and expenditure practices from the public eye, and reduce democratic controls over elected officials. This paper highlights some of the public interest concerns related to these entities to inform future, localized research. For decades, scholars have approached special districts from two opposing theoretical perspectives: institutional reform and public choice. Literature from these opposing perspectives is used to analyze special districts along three dimensions: efficiency and economy of operations, policy alignment and allocation of resources, and democratic accountability. This paper uses the U.S. Census Bureau definition of special districts, though alternative definitions are discussed. Efforts by four states (Florida, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and New York) to improve local government, and their varying approaches to special districts, are reviewed, leading to the conclusion that the complex issues related to special districts must be resolved within state contexts.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franco Fassio

Food, the basic connecting unit of all the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, plays a crucial role in the ecological transition towards a circular economic paradigm. This paper takes scientific considerations as a starting point in order to contribute to the definition of a theoretical-operational framework in which to grow the Circular Economy for Food. This is a still-open question in a sector of the circular economy that is emerging as vital to sustainable development. The 3 C's of Capital, Cyclicality and Co-evolution offer a systemic, holistic vision of the food system's role. Within this conceptual framework, the designers can find the main boundaries of the system, within which to express their creativity. The aim must be to avoid damaging relationships with the best supplier of raw material known to humanity (Nature), respecting planetary boundaries and at the same time offering a fair space to civil society.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document