Methodology for Documentation and Sustainability of Cultural Heritage Landscapes: The Case of the Tajos de Alhama (Granada, Spain)

This research aims to start the process of the revitalization of peri-urban spaces with high landscape and cultural potential, dotted with a series of heritage landmarks that allude to the recent industrial, economic and cultural history of the region, currently semi-degraded or abandoned, as is the case with the impressive and steep miller landscape of the Tajos de Alhama de Granada. To achieve this, it is proposed to carry out a comprehensive documentation (historical, cartographic, planimetric, photographic and photogrammetric) of the study area since, until now, there were no similar research studies. The application of an organized and structured method of work, documentation and diagnosis using the tools and graphic techniques of the 21st century has offered extensive results that have been turned into a rigorous and systematic catalog. This catalog will serve as the basis for the promotion of integrated action plans for the recovery of this urban edge, with the triple objective of the rehabilitation of buildings of architectural interest, rehabilitation of the surrounding public space and consolidation of the historic complex that makes up the mills, the river, the landscape and the city. We conclude that the enhancement of the cultural heritage landscape of the Tajos and the guidelines provided for the rehabilitation of its historic water mills, with possible compatible uses (tourist, cultural or administrative), will favor the conservation and sustainable revitalization of such an exceptional heritage site.

Economies and employment in growing and declining urban peripheries in South Africa

Urban peripheral growth takes diverse forms, including the development of new economic centralities, raising questions about access to employment for residents, especially in contexts where unemployment is high and economies are shifting towards more skilled and service-related employment. This article explores two case studies of residents’ experience of access to employment close to economic centralities on the urban edge in South Africa: the growing northern eThekwini area (Durban), which has developed major retail and office complexes since the 1990s and more recently a new airport and industrial spaces, and a declining industrial decentralisation point established in the 1980s on the eastern edge of the City of Tshwane (Pretoria). It shows the severe impact of industrial decline in the Tshwane case, but while unemployment is less in northern eThekwini, access to employment for low-income residents in these areas is still very limited and constrained. Experiences are however differentiated, suggesting a complexity of outcomes. The cases point to the vulnerability of these economic centralities to economic change and the limits of new developments on the urban periphery to addressing unemployment. These findings have implications for the current advocacy of ‘new cities’ in economic contexts such as South Africa.

Urban Sprawl and Land Cover in Post-apartheid Johannesburg and the Gauteng City-Region, 1990–2018

Johannesburg and the broader Gauteng City-Region in which it is located are considered to be the economic powerhouse of South Africa. This has led to massive population growth in the region, as well as severe inequality. Given South Africa’s history of racially excluding black South Africans from urban areas, ongoing research in this area has to analyse land cover and define ‘sprawl’ in a context where the technical language has politically loaded overtones. This article tries to understand the scale of informality within a broader examination of urbanization and sprawl. It concludes that in the absence of a formally adopted urban edge and under massive pressure from population growth (natural and via migration), formal dwellings (residential and economic) have grown unchecked, and informality is now growing at high speed and also largely without regulation or control. With no apparent political will to stop urban sprawl, both informal and formal covers are steadily pushing towards provincial borders, while densifying in Johannesburg in particular.

Research on the Urban Edge Space Form of Tanhualin Historical Living Block in Wuhan

Edge space is not only the main place for residents’ public activities, but also the key component of urban public space. It promotes people’s spontaneous activities and social activities. Reasonable urban fringe space design can create the possibility for people to transform the city from bottom to top. While preserving the cultural background, Tanhualin historical life block has formed a rich and varied space form. This paper analyses the composition of its marginal space to explore the importance of edge space to urban public activities.

La gestión de los residuos sólidos urbanos y la salud: aportes desde el Derecho ambiental

Este trabajo tiene por objetivo comentar la sentencia en los autos caratulados: “Complejo Ambiental de Tratamiento, Valoración y Disposición Final de Residuos Sólidos Urbanos de Córdoba y otros – Cuestión Ambiental” de la Cámara Contencioso Administrativa de 1° Nominación de la Provincia de Córdoba. El Tribunal, en dicho decisorio de diciembre de 2019, niega la instalación del “Complejo Ambiental” para la disposición final de los residuos de la ciudad de Córdoba y otros municipios y comunas, en el sito seleccionado por CORMECOR (Corporación Intercomunal para la Gestión Sustentable de los Residuos Sólidos Urbanos del Área Metropolitana de Córdoba). Los principales fundamentos del Tribunal para así decidir fueron: que no se respeta la distancia entre el predio para el enterramiento y el borde urbano de Villa Parque Santa Ana, conforme recomiendan estudios técnicos confirmados por las pericias oficiales; que no se llevó a cabo de manera adecuada el proceso de Evaluación de Impacto Ambiental y su audiencia pública, como establece la ley de Política Ambiental Provincial N°10208. Este fallo nos invita a reflexionar en torno a dos derechos humanos íntimamente relacionados: el derecho a la salud y el derecho a un ambiente sano. Con el foco en éste vínculo, y desde una perspectiva ambiental, se repasarán los puntos centrales del caso, exponiendo cuestiones conceptuales y normativas. The objective of this work is to comment on the judgment in the proceedings entitled: "Environmental Complex for Treatment, Assessment and Final Disposal of Urban Solid Waste of Córdoba and others - Environmental Issue" of the Administrative Litigation Chamber of 1st Nomination of the Province of Córdoba. This Court, in said decision of December 2019, denies the installation of the "Environmental Complex" for the final disposal of waste from the city of Córdoba and other municipalities and communes, at the site selected by CORMECOR (Intercommunal Corporation for Sustainable Management Solid Urban Waste of the Córdoba Metropolitan Area). The main grounds for the Court to decide this were: that the distance between the burial site and the urban edge of Villa Parque Santa Ana is not respected, as recommended by technical studies confirmed by official expertise; that the Environmental Impact Assessment process and its public hearing were not adequately carried out, as established by the Provincial Environmental Policy Law N° 10208. This ruling invites us to reflect on two closely related human rights: the right to health and the right to a healthy environment. With the focus on this link, and from an environmental perspective, the central points of the case will be reviewed, exposing conceptual and normative issues.

An Unsupervised Urban Extent Extraction Method from NPP-VIIRS Nighttime Light Data

An accelerating trend of global urbanization accompanying various environmental and urban issues makes frequently urban mapping. Nighttime light data (NTL) has shown great advantages in urban mapping at regional and global scales over long time series because of its appropriate spatial and temporal resolution, free access, and global coverage. However, the existing urban extent extraction methods based on nighttime light data rely on auxiliary data and training samples, which require labor and time for data preparation, leading to the difficulty to extract urban extent at a large scale. This study seeks to develop an unsupervised method to extract urban extent from nighttime light data rapidly and accurately without ancillary data. The clustering algorithm is applied to segment urban areas from the background and multi-scale spatial context constraints are utilized to reduce errors arising from the low brightness areas and increase detail information in urban edge district. Firstly, the urban edge district is detected using spatial context constrained clustering, and the NTL image is divided into urban interior district, urban edge district and non-urban interior district. Secondly, the urban edge pixels are classified by an adaptive direction filtering clustering. Finally, the full urban extent is obtained by merging the urban inner pixels and the urban pixels in urban edge district. The proposed method was validated using the urban extents of 25 Chinese cities, obtained by Landsat8 images and compared with two common methods, the local-optimized threshold method (LOT) and the integrated night light, normalized vegetation index, and surface temperature support vector machine classification method (INNL-SVM). The Kappa coefficient ranged from 0.687 to 0.829 with an average of 0.7686 (1.80% higher than LOT and 4.88% higher than INNL-SVM). The results in this study show that the proposed method is a reliable and efficient method for extracting urban extent with high accuracy and simple operation. These imply the significant potential for urban mapping and urban expansion research at regional and global scales automatically and accurately.