Mapping and measuring spatial connectivity of the pathways to home-based businesses within informal urban contexts

PurposeThis paper presents a mixed methodology to map and analyse the spatial connectivity of the everyday pathways that link the doorway of an individual's home–work locations to the local main commercial street. These pathways include public streets, semi-private lanes, alleys and stairs.Design/methodology/approachPathways within different morphological areas in Hanoi, Vietnam, are used as examples to illustrate the development and application of the methodology. The methodology, adapted from Conzenian, typological, and space syntax methods, combined with observations and interviews, seeks to overcome several identified limitations of each of these approaches for understanding pedestrians' horizontal and vertical movement patterns within urban settings.FindingsAnalytical diagrams of pathways are developed on figure-ground maps of the neighbourhoods and three-dimensional projections of circulation spaces within buildings. Scatter plots are used to analyse the distribution of collected samples according to their business types and distances to local main streets. Field observations and interviews with homeowners revealed the critical influence of the pathways' spatial characteristics on home-based businesses' operations.Originality/valueThe methods developed here are potentially useful for urban morphologists and urban designers in decoding the intricacies of informal urban settings and understanding their socio-economic significance for users.

Impact of artificial light at night on diurnal plant-pollinator interactions

Artificial light at night has rapidly spread around the globe over the last decades. Evidence is increasing that it has adverse effects on the behavior, physiology, and survival of animals and plants with consequences for species interactions and ecosystem functioning. For example, artificial light at night disrupts plant-pollinator interactions at night and this can have consequences for the plant reproductive output. By experimentally illuminating natural plant-pollinator communities during the night using commercial street-lamps we tested whether light at night can also change interactions of a plant-pollinator community during daytime. Here we show that artificial light at night can alter diurnal plant-pollinator interactions, but the direction of the change depends on the plant species. We conclude that the effect of artificial light at night on plant-pollinator interactions is not limited to the night, but can also propagate to the daytime with so far unknown consequences for the pollinator community and the diurnal pollination function and services they provide.

UMBRAL ENTRE EL ESPACIO INTERIOR COMERCIAL Y LA PEATONAL. CASO: PEATONAL LIJNBAAN

El objetivo de la presente investigación se basa en demostrar la ausencia de límites entre el espacio interior y el espacio exterior en un escenario comercial, se desarrolla en la calle Peatonal Lijnbaan, Rotterdam con la aspiración de entender que ocurre previo y después de una fachada -escaparate- comercial; las peatonales comerciales son fragmentos de pocos metros en donde el peatón interactúa inmediatamente con el espacio y permite contacto entre lo privado (tienda comercial) y lo público (conjunto comercial calle); los elementos compositivos tanto del interior como del exterior son los datos base para la comparación, el método relacional resulta de la abstracción teórica de textos relacionados con la guía de espacios interiores de carácter comercial así como espacios urbanos peatonales; una exploración a través de tres dimensiones, la primera focalizada sobre la calle comercial, la escala humana – urbana- del conjunto, la segunda, la escala del producto, asentada sobre elementos de un interior comercial, y por último en la búsqueda de la similitud y equilibrio de elementos surge la tercera, el umbral, como un espacio sin límites definidos. Palabras clave: Espacios intermedios, tienda comercial, relación espacial, escala, elementos del espacio. AbstractThe objective of this research was based on demonstrating the absence of limits between interior and exterior space in a commercial setting. It was developed in the Lijnbaan Pedestrian Street, Rotterdam with the aspiration of understanding what happens before and after a commercial facade - window -. The commercial pedestrian ones were fragments of few meters where the pedestrian interacted immediately with the space and allowed contact between the private (commercial store) and the public (commercial street set). The compositional elements of both the interior and the exterior were the base data for the comparison, the relational method results from the theoretical abstraction of texts related to the guide of interior spaces of commercial character as well as urban pedestrian spaces. There was an exploration through three dimensions, the first one focused on the commercial street, the human scale - urban - of the set, the second one, the scale of the product, seated on elements of a commercial interior, and finally, in the search of the similarity and balance of elements the third one arises, the threshold, as a space without defined limits. Keywords: Intermediate spaces, commercial store, spatial relationship, scale, space elements.