Browsing by Subject "Spatial analysis"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5

Open Access
Developing micro-level urban ecosystem indicators for sustainability assessment
(Elsevier, 2015) Dizdaroğlu, Didem
Sustainability assessment is increasingly being viewed as an important tool to aid in the shift towards sustainable urban ecosystems. An urban ecosystem is a dynamic system and requires regular monitoring and assessment through a set of relevant indicators. An indicator is a parameter which provides information about the state of the environment by producing a quantitative value. Indicator-based sustainability assessment needs to be considered on all spatial scales to provide efficient information of urban ecosystem sustainability. The detailed data is necessary to assess environmental change in urban ecosystems at local scale and easily transfer this information to the national and global scales. This paper proposes a set of key micro-level urban ecosystem indicators for monitoring the sustainability of residential developments. The proposed indicator framework measures the sustainability performance of urban ecosystem in 3 main categories including: natural environment, built environment, and socio-economic environment which are made up of 9 sub-categories, consisting of 23 indicators. This paper also describes theoretical foundations for the selection of each indicator with reference to the literature.
Open Access
Income inequality and economic convergence in Turkey: a spatial effect analysis
(Sage Publications, 2009) Yildirim, J.; Öcal, N.; Özyildirim, S.
Even though the convergence of regional per capita income has been a highly debated issue internationally, empirical evidence regarding Turkey is limited as well as contradictory. This article is an attempt to investigate regional income inequality and the convergence dynamics in Turkey for the time period 1987-2001. First, the Theil coefficient of concentration index is used to analyze the dispersion aspects of the convergence process. The geographically based decomposition of inequality suggests a strong correlation between the share of interregional inequality and spatial clustering. Then, we estimate convergence dynamics employing alternative spatial econometric methods. In addition to the global models, we also estimate local models taking spatial variations into account. Empirical analysis indicates that geographically weighted regression improves model fitting with better explanatory power. There is considerable variation in speed of convergence of provinces, which cannot be captured by the traditional beta convergence analysis.
Open Access
Market regeneration in line with sustainable urban development
(MDPI, 2022-09-17) Borucka, Justyna; Czyż, Piotr; Gasco, Giorgio; Mazurkiewicz, Weronika; Nałęcz, Dorota; Szczepański, Marcin
This article presents the study of the optimal design solutions for regeneration of marketplaces. It examines the design variants for the revitalisation of the marketplace, in particular, investment in their modernisation in order to find the most optimal model for transforming these public spaces to have a significant impact on the city’s development. The research is a comparative analysis of the implementation of regeneration design models on the marketplace within the Oliwa district of Gdansk (Poland).The data for the case study design models includes analysis based on various optimisation criteria, taking into account the urban and economic aspects of the city landscape when selecting a specific space revitalisation design model. The implementation of regeneration investment includes a number of complex processes that must be sustainable and so require rational social and spatial planning, as well as proper organisation in terms of cost and time.
Open Access
A socio-spatial analysis of urban transformation at a neighborhood scale: the case of the relocation of Kadifekale inhabitants to TOKİ Uzundere in İzmir
(Pergamon Press, 2015) Demirli, M. E.; Ultav, Z. T.; Demirtaş-Milz, N.
Particularly in the last two decades, urban governors have presented urban transformation projects as ideal solutions to help low-income urban residents improve their living conditions. However, the way they have been carried out and their consequences mean that these projects do not, in most cases, bring the expected improvements. Most projects involve relocating residents to new, more peripheral districts of the city, which causes social isolation and certain socio-spatial incompatibilities between their previous and new habitats. Using a case from Izmir in Turkey, this study aims to analyze such socio-spatial incompatibilities in the lives of low-income residents that are caused by relocation within the framework of urban transformation projects. One of Izmir's earliest inner-city gecekondu neighborhoods, Kadifekale was chosen by Izmir Metropolitan Municipality as a site for urban transformation due to the risk of landslide in the area. Before the start of the project, the neighborhood contained 7324 housing units accommodating rural-to-urban migrants, mainly from the southeast of Turkey. This urban transformation project aimed to relocate at least some of the inhabitants from their homes in Kadifekale to recently constructed apartment blocks in the TOKI˙ Uzundere Public Housing Project on the periphery of the city. Although many residents were reluctant to exchange their houses for new apartments, some were persuaded to move to TOKI˙, which was presented as the ideal solution by the municipal officials. This study critically evaluates the Kadifekale urban transformation project, particularly with regard to the relocation of some Kadifekale residents from their one- or two-story houses in Kadifekale to apartment blocks on the periphery of the city. The analysis is based on a comparison between the socio-spatial experiences of migrants in Kadifekale and their recent experiences in Uzundere and the possibility of certain incompatibilities in these two experiences. The argument aims to demonstrate the changed conditions of social life and daily life practices as a result of altered spatial properties at a neighborhood scale: their use of outdoor spaces, the meanings they attributed to neighborhood space ("intimacy of place" within categories of sensual (visual and olfactory) recognition), and their sociospatial network. The argument draws both implicitly and explicitly on Henri Lefebvre's spatial triad and De Certeau's conceptualization of tactic versus strategy as the major conceptual inspirations for this study. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.
Open Access
Spatial organization of functional groups on bioactive supramolecular glycopeptide nanofibers for differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to brown adipogenesis
(American Chemical Society, 2016-12) Caliskan, O. S.; Sardan, Ekiz M.; Tekinay, A. B.; Güler, Mustafa O.
Spatial organization of bioactive moieties in biological materials has significant impact on the function and efficiency of these systems. Here, we demonstrate the effect of spatial organization of functional groups including carboxylate, amine, and glucose functionalities by using self-assembled peptide amphiphile (PA) nanofibers as a bioactive scaffold. We show that presentation of bioactive groups on glycopeptide nanofibers affects mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in a distinct manner by means of adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation. Strikingly, when the glutamic acid is present in the glycopeptide backbone, the PA nanofibers specifically induced differentiation of MSCs into brown adipocytes in the absence of any differentiation medium as shown by lipid droplet accumulation and adipogenic gene marker expression analyses. This effect was not evident in the other glycopeptide nanofibers, which displayed the same functional groups but with different spatial organization. Brown adipocytes are attractive targets for obesity treatment and are found in trace amounts in adults, which also makes this specific glycopeptide nanofiber system an attractive tool to study molecular pathways of brown adipocyte formation.