Spatiotemporal Changes in Landscape Pattern in Response to Afforestation in Northeastern Turkey: A Case Study of Torul

Abstract

Monitoring and understanding of land use/forest cover dynamics as well as the factors affecting the changes in land use/forest cover are necessary for the sustainable management of natural resources. This study analyzes the spatial and temporal changes in land use and forest cover patterns in a typical mountain forest area in the Torul State Forest Enterprise area of Northeastern Turkey. The investigation evaluates the temporal changes of the spatial structure of forest conditions through the spatial analysis of forest-cover type maps from 1984 and 2005 using GIS and FRAGSTATS. The evidence presented here showed that there were drastic changes in the temporal and spatial dynamics of land use/forest cover, and between 1984 and 2005 there was a net increase of 19.9% in total forested area. Productive forest area increased by 3161 ha, although degraded forest area increased 9216 ha. In examining the changes of crown closure and development stages of the forest ecosystem during the study period, the forest stand area with low crown closures increased. The regenerated area increased because of regeneration activities while the other development stages were left to grow to older development stages in the period. These results regarding the crown closure and development stage show that forest quality has increased, and this is partly due to emigration of the rural population in Torul. In terms of spatial configuration, the landscape structure in Torul, the State Forest Enterprise area, changed substantially over the 21-year study period, resulting in fragmentation of the landscape as indicated by large patch numbers and smaller mean patch sizes, owing to heavy timber subtraction, illegal cutting, and uncontrolled stand treatments.     

Winters without women: social change,split households and gendered labour in rural Mongolia

In this article, I use absence as a lens to explore social change and masculinity in rural Mongolia, with a focus on household splitting during winter months. Since the breakdown in state-sponsored dormitory systems, many mobile pastoralists split their households to accommodate children during the school year. This results in women moving to settled centres while men remain in pastures to care for livestock. In critical reflections on rural work, both male and female herders have underscored concerns around the absence of women in rural homes. In Mongolia, absence has different implications for men and women, gendered division of labour and social roles, which are tied to household economies and pastoralist work practices. Drawing from ethnographic field research, the cases contribute to understandings of the co-constitutive nature of space and society, and attempts to dislodge ideas about the fixed nature of households in rural Mongolia.     

The changing face of Canada: the uneven geographies of population and social change

This paper attempts to convey a sense of the increasing importance of the population question for the future of Canada and its social geographies. This future will be shaped as much by changes in population processes and living conditions as by economic and political factors. Specifically, four transformations are rippling through the country's social fabric and urban landscapes: slow growth and the demographic transition modifications to family forms and living arrangements; increasing ethnocultural diversity; and the shifting relationships among households, labour markets and the welfare state. There is increasing unevenness of population growth, juxtaposing localized growth and widespread decline, massive social changes, the concentration of immigration and new sources of diversity in metropolitan areas, and fundamental shifts in social attitudes concerning family, work and gender relations. Deepening contrasts in living environments and economic wellbeing flow from these trends, and the varied challenges they pose for private actors, governments and service-providers. Questions relating to the country's future population geographies and social structures are complex, analytically difficult, and politically charged, but are too important to ignore.     

Heritage destruction in context: the case of the Roman mosaics from Zeugma,Turkey

Needs for protecting cultural manifestations marked as ‘heritage’ are often claimed when they are at the risk of destruction or when they are being destructed. Considering destruction as opposed to protection, groups concerned with heritage, such as the state agencies, archaeologists, and the locals, tend to emphasise the value of heritage. Focusing on the case of the Roman mosaics discovered in Zeugma, southeast Turkey, this paper explores the ways in which the destruction of heritage is perceived and understood, and what aspect of destruction is emphasised to claim its significance for heritage. Analysing in what way destruction of the Zeugma mosaics is problematised, this paper also considers the political aspects of presenting the destruction of heritage, in particular, in campaigns for heritage preservation. Through this, the paper examines how stories of destruction work to produce and enhance the distinction between protection and destruction, and suggests how the fragmentary or ruined state of heritage objects can be alluring.     

外地游客与本地居民的城镇空间感知差异——以广东省佛山市南海区西部城镇为例

随着全球竞争的不断加剧,地方政府着力于塑造城市形象以吸引外部资源,这种效率导向的建设行为扩大了城市内部的空间差异,并使得外地游客与本地居民的空间感知产生差异。本文以语义差别法（SemanticDifferential）为分析工具,通过对广东省佛山市南海区西部城镇的实证调查,比较分析了外地游客相对于本地居民对城镇感知的评价特征。分析发现,研究对象的空间感知总体呈现平庸化的格局,但是外地游客对城镇生态环境品质、城乡空间差别方面的空间感知评价均优于本地居民,且这种评价与实地场景照片内容具有内在的一致性。研究最后提出,对旅游城镇而言,地方政府往往重点建设外地游客高频活动区域,易忽视对本地居民日常生活场所的建设投资,从而导致了两类社会群体对空间感知的语境差异。     

Coupling Hydrotoponymy and GIS Cartography: A Case Study of Hydrohistorical Issues in Urban Groundwater Systems,Porto, NW Portugal

The aim of this multidisciplinary study is to retrospectively examine hydrohistorical issues, namely hydrogeographic, hydrotoponymical and hydrogeological features, in order to assess the evolution of the Porto urban groundwater system (NW Portugal). To achieve these goals, the comparison of two main field inventories in a large urban region was performed by (i) historical mapping of sources and groundwater data from scientific reports spanning the late 17th century to the early 20th; and (ii) hydrogeologic and hydrotoponymical field inventory performed under current conditions. These field inventories permitted the location of springs, dug wells, fountains, public washing places and underground water galleries, which collected groundwater to supply the population of Porto until the early 20th century. This study also allowed the development of a hydrotoponymical classification for urban areas and a field hydrotoponymical inventory data sheet. This research integrated several techniques based on historical hydrogeography, hydrogeology and urban geosciences. The results of the field inventories were combined into both a database and a Geographical Information System (GIS) platform. This unified methodology allowed a cross‐check and analysis of several levels of information, namely hydrotoponymy, hydroclimatology, hydrogeology, structural geology and geomorphology. This perspective led to an assessment of the evolution of the quality of water resources in large urban areas over time. In addition, the role of hydrotoponymical features is presented in order to support the hydrogeological conceptual model for large urbanised areas.     

Children's perception of their city centre: a qualitative GIS methodological investigation in a Dutch city

Children represent a population group that is much neglected in the city planning process. Their perceptions, which are different from those of adults, are usually not incorporated in the design of cities. The aim of this paper is to present a qualitative GIS approach to capture children's perceptions of the urban environment. It gives a detailed insight into why certain perceptions occur and what the associated physical and social qualities are. The approach considers children as active participants and combines quantitative and qualitative methods. Twenty-eight children aged 10–17 were involved in examining the city-centre area of Enschede, the Netherlands. The results show both similarity and heterogeneity in perception (e.g. based on gender and age group) and the emergence of new location-specific qualities (e.g. natural elements, smart technologies, economic functions). It concludes with a discussion on the potential of incorporating this approach in urban planning processes.     

The Origins of the Neolithic Along the Atlantic Coast of Continental Europe: A Survey

The main aim of this work is to compare the processes of transition to the Neolithic along the Atlantic coasts of continental Europe. Archaeological data on the late Mesolithic and the early Neolithic in the best known regions (central and southern Portugal, Cantabrian Spain, Atlantic France, the shores of the North Sea, and southern Scandinavia) are discussed. The transition to the Neolithic in Atlantic Europe can be viewed as a relatively late phenomenon, with several interesting particularities. Among those, we point out the fundamentally indigenous character of the processes; the existence of a long availability phase, in which hunter-gatherer groups maintained contact with neighboring agriculturalists and probably were familiar with farming and animal husbandry without applying them in a systematic way; and the later development of megalithic monumental funerary architecture. Finally, the main hypotheses so far proposed to explain the change are contrasted with the available evidence: those that argue that the change derives from economic disequilibrium, and those that opt for the development of social inequality as the fundamental cause.     

Heritage management at the local level: rhetoric and results in the case of Gaziantep,Turkey

Following international trends, Turkey has recently introduced decentralisation reforms to its highly centralised public administration system. These reforms have also applied to the cultural heritage sector, where innovative laws since 2004 have allowed local administrations and private actors to play new entrepreneurial roles. The Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality has been a pioneer in this process, promoting policies that promote cultural tourism as an engine of economic growth. Under its leadership, hundreds of historic buildings have been restored, nine new museums and heritage sites opened, and museum visitors increased tenfold. These positive results make Gaziantep an interesting case of successful decentralisation in heritage management. Despite these successes, however, the disconnection between rhetoric and results, and the fragmentation and ambiguity of responsibilities emerging from the decentralisation process raises serious questions about its sustainability and replicability.     

A spatial approach to upland vegetation change and human impact: the Aber Valley,Snowdonia

Abstract

Uplands have long been considered important ‘barometers’ for human-environment relationships. Five pollen sequences from the upper Aber Valley (Snowdonia), across an altitudinal gradient, reveal that human impacts have varied temporally on small spatial scales in the region. Woodland taxa persisted into the later Holocene at lower altitudes and sites located at higher altitude reveal a more open landscape history, possibly as a result of increased exposure limiting tree growth at high elevation. Continuous pastoral human land use is evident in the high upland (400 to >600 m AOD) landscape with evidence of clearing, burning and grazing indicators throughout the records covering the last ～6000 years, with increased activity apparent during the last 2000 years. There is no clear evidence to suggest that climate change (e.g. deteriorating climatic conditions from ～850 BC) resulted in land abandonment and it appears more likely that climatic shifts could have led to changes in human land management. The results demonstrate that pastoral land use varied at different altitudes across the Aber Valley upland, and have highlighted the value and potential of high/fine spatial sampling in providing insights into land use history and the mosaic of habitats that result.     

Not Only Helpless but also Hopeless: Changing Dynamics of Urban Poverty in Turkey,the Case of Sultanbeyli,Istanbul

This paper is an attempt to understand the changing characteristics of urban poverty in Turkey since 1980. First, it analyses how the urban poor in Turkey had adopted aggressive survival strategies by strengthening their solidarity networks on religious, ethnic and cultural bases until the 2000s. Then it sheds light on how those networks have dissolved later on thanks to a set of internal and external factors and concludes that Turkey now faces deepening poverty levels and engendering new forms and dynamics of poverty. This paper is based on the Sultanbeyli district of Istanbul, a district almost entirely composed of unauthorized houses whose population grew at an unprecedented rate after 1980; and it is a perfect case for the study of issues relating to migration, urbanization and poverty in Turkish cities.     

A Methodology for Assessing the Heritage of Planned Urban Environments: An Australian Study of National Heritage Values

Although urban planning has made strategic and notable contributions to the production of the built environment, these are under‐represented in heritage discourse. Planned environments deserve more attention as a particular class of place because a better understanding of planning and planning excellence can inform best heritage practice. A stepwise methodology for the heritage assessment of planned environments is presented. It is drawn from an Australian study concerned with the identification of places of possible national heritage significance. The approach is constructed around the identification of historical themes (for the categorisation and benchmarking of places based on historical research), indicators (pertaining to the nature of significance in planning terms) and thresholds (pertaining to the degree of significance). The analytical approach is capable of adaptation to diverse settings in which the heritage contribution of planning may be recognised.     

The place of children among the Guji of southern Ethiopia: school,work and play

This article explores everyday life among Guji children in southern Ethiopia and the place of children in an intergenerational social order. Based on data generated through ethnographic fieldwork among the Guji, we show that work, school and play are significant and intertwined social practices. Local knowledge and skills of importance for sustainable livelihood are acquired through children's participation in these different social practices. Oral tradition represents a key element of local knowledge and social practices in everyday life. However, political and social changes, such as settlement policies and the introduction of schools, affect the dynamic interconnectedness of these practices, as well as relations between different generations. These changes also have implications for local knowledge and local livelihoods.     

Hidden in plain sight: mixed methods and the marble orchards of the Vlach Rom (Gypsies) in Toledo,Ohio

While American Romanies live a remarkably secretive cultural existence, their grave locations and memorial stones offer accessible evidence about their history and active, on-going communities. This article elaborates a less-intrusive ethnographic method that uses Romani cemetery data to explore and map the distributions and social networks of American Romani communities. This case study identifies Vlach Rom memorial sites located in Toledo, Ohio's Calvary Catholic Cemetery. Data were gathered on the memorials and spatially cataloged using a global positioning system (GPS). Additionally, genealogical data on the families were collected whenever available in order to construct and map family networks. Conjectures explaining the spatial distribution were tested by empirically investigating geographic information system (GIS) maps of different gravesite attributes. Land availability was the most likely factor determining the distribution. Evidence of Toledo Rom history and cultural practices were also gathered and reviewed from a qualitative analysis of the memorial stones. These discoveries have the potential to advance Romany studies—by applying modern analytic tools, GPS and GIS hardware and software to reveal otherwise “hidden” knowledge.     

The changing nature of GIS and the provision of formal GIS education in the UK: a case study

The arrival of the term Geographical Information System (GIS) in the 1960s soon created a demand for training and education in the use of this specialist hardware and software. Initially the main focus was on training people to use GIS, formal named degree programmes leading to postgraduate and undergraduate qualifications arrived later. This paper explores the changing landscape of U.K. degree level GIS education drawing on contemporary information from Higher Education Institution websites and a case study of the first single honours degree in GIS in Europe. The paper identifies a rise and fall in the number of named undergraduate “GIS” degrees since the late 1980s sandwiched between the continuation and development of postgraduate qualifications. In parallel with this trend the teaching and learning of GIS skills has emerged as a core component of undergraduate degree programmes with “Geography” in their title and in national school and degree level benchmarking statements for the discipline.     

State Response to Contemporary Urban Movements in Turkey: A Critical Overview of State Entrepreneurialism and Authoritarian Interventions

This paper grapples with the state's response to contemporary urban movements. In light of recent debates on the changing nature of urban movements, it presents an overview of the responses of states in different modes of regulation, ranging from a Keynesian regime to sequential stages of neoliberalisation. Examples of authoritarianism and the entrepreneurial roles of the state are drawn from the Turkish experience to show how economic liberalism can be combined with increasing social control, restrictions, penalisation and exclusion. Reviewing Turkish urban policies and practice, the urban mobilisations against them, and the varying positions of the state will shed light not only on what is happening in Turkey but also on the transformative nature of neoliberalisation. © 2013 The Author Antipode© 2013 Antipode Foundation Ltd.     

Hegemonic power relations in real practices of spatial planning: the case of Turkey

There is a wide gap between planning ideology and planning practice in some regimes. In planning practice, contextual differences and traditional practices affect urban spatial configurations and their related societal dimensions, and also influence the legislative and administrative systems that dictate the process and production of the built environment. This is linked to situations where hidden practices and power relations among key actors may limit democratic participation in the planning process and challenge ethical practice. This paper focuses on the emerging traditions of planning practice in Turkey. We argue that by understanding the role(s) of the key actors in the process and investigating approval processes in detail, it can become evident that planning ‘on the ground’ is often tokenistic and circumvented by hegemonic power relations and tactical actions. These latter in turn side-step a requirement for democratic participation and encourage a ‘loosening’ of planning ethics.     

A tale of ambiguity: citizenship,nationalism and democracy in Turkey

ABSTRACT. We argue that historically the official Turkish nationalism and citizenship regime have been marked by an ambiguity that arises from the simultaneous existence of – and repeatedly occurring swings between – the ethno‐centric and civic‐political understandings of citizenship. We also suggest that the concept of territoriality, which took precedence over other factors in the creation of a new state in 1923, has functioned as a hegemonic reference in the official conceptualisations of the Turkish nation and self. The territorial focus, over time, has been conflated with the ethnic conceptualisations of the nation: both become the underlining elements of the discourse of official nationalism in Turkey, and are utilised in the successive reformulations of citizenship into the 2000s. Through the analysis of schoolbooks and curricula, we further argue that the major oscillations in nationalism nevertheless coincided with the ruptures that characterised the making of modern Turkey: modernisation, democratisation, globalisation and Europeanisation.     

Envisioning gender,indigeneity and urban change: the case of La Paz,Bolivia

La Paz, Bolivia, and its neighbouring city, El Alto, have been experiencing patterns of urban accumulation, dispossession and displacement that demonstrate the importance of social, cultural and historical logics to understanding the politics of urban space. A striking feature of these patterns is that the image of the person who has accumulated enough wealth to displace people, is that of an indigenous woman. The Aymaran woman, traditionally dressed in pollera skirt and Derby hat, who pays in cash for luxurious properties in the affluent, white area of the Zona Sur, is a trope that has entered popular culture and political discourse. In this article, I explore the development of this cultural trope from its emergence in the 2009 film named after the area in question, Zona Sur, and subsequent uses of images of this film in social media to describe and resist political changes in the city as related to space, property and belonging. My contention is that the trope of the rich Aymaran woman, and the reversal of expected patterns of urban development that she represents, places the colonial, cultural and gendered dynamics that structure how capital shapes urban space, into sharp relief. The rich Aymaran woman who has made her money in informal commerce transgresses ideas of propriety and belonging in La Paz, and also received ideas about urban processes and gender in critical geographical literature.     

Integrating LiDAR data and conventional mapping of the Fort Center site in south-central Florida: A comparative approach

Abstract

Publicly available LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data provide a potential windfall for archaeologists, permitting the creation of detailed topographic site maps with little more than an internet-connected computer and appropriate software. The quality of these LiDAR data for site mapping is variable, however, and may need to be supplemented with data obtained from conventional mapping techniques. We share insights from recent mapping of the Fort Center site (8GL13) in southern Florida. Specifically, we suggest a method—based on trial and error—for integrating LiDAR and total station survey data. We compare the results of our work with previous efforts at mapping the site based solely on conventional archaeological survey methods, as well as with results based on LiDAR data alone. We conclude that our combination of LiDAR data, corrected by conventional survey data, produces the most accurate map.