Spatial Analysis in Physical Geography and the Challenge of Deterministic Uncertainty

The application of complex and nonlinear dynamical systems (NDS) theory in physical geography and geosciences has proceeded through several stages, and has recently entered a phase where field-testable hypotheses and historical or mechanistic explanations are being generated. However, there are some fundamental challenges. It seems clear that chaos and dynamical self-organization are present, and may be common in earth surface systems, and that these phenomena have spatial manifestations in the landscape. However, NDS theory and methods have been formulated primarily in the temporal domain and are typically ill-suited to real-world spatial data. Spatial analytical methods are not generally capable of distinguishing deterministic complexity and uncertainty from noise. Thus, the detection of the signals of complex deterministic dynamics in real landscapes and spatial data is a major challenge. Entropy-based methods of spatial analysis can be directly linked to nonlinear dynamics, and are at present the best available method to approach this problem. However, there is evidence in the spatial analysis literature suggesting that development of techniques to detect deterministic uncertainty is possible. Pending such a break-through, three general approaches are described, based on spatial analysis of chronosequences, the characteriziation of changes in spatial structure over time, and the spatial-domain testing of specific hypotheses relevant to deterministic uncertainty. Current trends generally suggest a shift in mathematical modeling and spatial analysis in physical geography away from traditional determinism toward approaches that incorporate locational, historical, and scale contingency.     

Simplexity and the Reinvention of Equifinality

Some earth surface systems apparently exhibit deterministic chaos, where small differences in initial conditions produce increasingly divergent results. This casts doubt on the venerable concept of equifinality, whereby surface features converge to similar forms. However, chaotic systems exhibit a broader-scale order, and their complex patterns occur within well-defined limits. This broad-scale order arising from smaller-scale chaos produces simplexity, where simple rules and regularities emerge from underlying complexity, when the broad-scale structures are independent of the fine-scale details. Chaos precludes equifinality, sensu stricto, at certain scales, but simplexity produces equifinality at others. Simplexity is illustrated in a case study of soil-landform relationships.     

Capturing spatial patterns of rural landscapes with point cloud

Over the past few decades, rural landscapes have been the subject of increasing international cultural heritage research, and one of the most important issues under investigation at both theoretical and pragmatic levels concerns how to identify the spatial character of rural landscapes for conservation purposes. This article establishes an innovative approach adopting a cultural landscape perspective with the support of point cloud technologies to capture spatial patterns of rural landscapes. This approach was explored by reference to Tunpu villages in Guizhou, China—these being a specific kind of military fortress settlement. Cultural landscape values and landscape characters of Tunpu villages were identified using historical research and document analysis. Aerial and terrestrial photogrammetry and laser scanning systems were combined to collect and process spatial information at environmental, village, and architectural scales. Point cloud models can quantitatively represent villages' spatial patterns and inform the interpretation of their heritage significance. We conclude that the strengths of point cloud technologies could meet the requirements of rural landscape heritage documentation from a cultural landscape perspective. This mixed‐technology approach could also greatly improve the efficiency and precision of traditional rural landscape documentation, which has the potential to change methodologies applied to rural landscape research and management.     

Endogenous Fractal Dynamics at Alpine Treeline Ecotones

Many of the hypotheses proposed to explain ecotones are based on an individualistic paradigm and are essentially static. While they include local feedbacks, they ignore the interactions between pattern and process across scales. These feedbacks in ecotones are nonlinear in nature and complicate the relations of pattern and process in vegetation, which, combined with observed fractal patterns, suggests a complexity science approach to investigate ecotone dynamics. A cellular automaton of alpine treeline, including nonlinear, local, positive, and negative feedbacks in tree establishment and mortality, as reported in field studies, is used as a model system. Fourier analysis of simulated alpine treelines shows fractal patterns across the treeline landscapes, which are created by patch development. The temporal evolution of the spatial pattern is also fractal. Landscape scale linear correlations between spatial pattern and the rate of advance of trees into tundra arise from localized nonlinear interactions. A tree-patch-landscape scale explanation of pattern–process interaction is proposed in which the endogenous feedbacks determine the spatial and temporal fractal properties of the ecotone. The simulated treeline advance exhibits self-organized complexity and may indicate a potential strategy for monitoring change.     

Water availability and landuse during the Upper and Epipaleolithic in southwestern Syria

Paleolithic research often assumes that environmental conditions played a major role in shaping human evolution. To study this relationship we present a spatially explicit approach based on the assumption that the distribution of water within the landscape is an essential component of local environmental conditions. Here, we analyze the relation of wetness and human landuse patterns from the Upper Paleolithic (UP) and Epipaleolithic (EP) of Western Syria. In particular the spatially explicit character of the approach enables the detection of a significant change in landuse patterns during the UP and EP accompanied by a significant shift in the wetness characteristics of the preferentially used areas. These results are discussed against the background of published data on climatic conditions in order to identify both a possible time frame and triggers for this change in landuse. While we conclude an increased influence of natural conditions on the spatial behavior for the UP, we suggest an additional influence of cultural circumstances in shaping EP spatial behavior. For the region studied we argue that the bounded pattern observed during the UP changes to a spatially flexible pattern during the Late Natufian.     

LANDSCAPES OUT OF ORDER: STUDYING THE INNER URBAN FRINGE BEYOND THE RURAL – URBAN DIVIDE

Contemporary accounts of the inner urban fringe tend to focus on the transition from rural to urban land use and rural–urban conflicts, rather than highlighting the landscape at the city edge in its own right. It is argued in this paper that such dichotomous accounts neglect the complexity, values and conflicts of fringe landscapes. The study illustrates that an investigation into the relationship between attempts within spatial planning to design orderly places for urban expansion and the evolvement of places out of order offers a way to analyse landscape transformations at the fringe beyond the rural–urban divide. This approach will offer a multifaceted analysis of the landscape, which in turn will facilitate a more open discussion on land use and values within planning. A theoretical discussion on the interplay between ordered and disordered places is followed by a case study of the interactions between a disordered place and the ambitions within spatial planning to create order. The study has been conducted at the fringe of Burlöv (in southernmost Sweden). By way of conclusion, the findings of the case study are summarized, along with arguments that underline the need for further case studies of fringe landscapes.     

Testing settlement models in the early Roman colonial landscapes of Venusia (291 B.C.), Cosa (273 B.C.) and Aesernia (263 B.C.)

This paper examines settlement density and settlement patterns in the Roman colonial territories of Venusia, Cosa and Aesernia, located in three different landscapes of central southern Italy (modern Basilicata, Tuscany and Molise). Using a series of GIS tools, we conducted a comparative analysis of the density and spatial distribution of sites dating to the Hellenistic period (ca. 350–50 b.c.). We used the legacy settlement data collected by previous large-scale, intensive, site-oriented field surveys to test the validity of two competing rural settlement models of early Roman colonization: the conventional model of neatly organized settlements regularly dispersed across the landscape and the recently proposed theory that colonists adopted a polynuclear settlement strategy. After calculating the extent to which the archaeological datasets conform to the regular or polynuclear model, we conclude that only a very small portion of the colonized areas actually meets traditional expectations regarding the organization of early colonial settlements. Our analyses show that the legacy survey data is more consistent with the polynuclear settlement theory, but the data also reveals some completely unexpected patterns, suggesting that early Roman colonial landscapes were more diverse than previously thought.     

城市系统演化的复杂性研究

城市演化是由复杂多样的动力和主体推动的,受全球、国家和地方尺度的多重影响,表现出复杂的演化规律和特征。笔者认为城市系统演化模式与过程的研究需要发展一个基于复杂性理论的跨学科的分析框架。本文首先提出一个城市系统演化的概念模型,然后运用层次理论分析了城市系统演化的复杂相互作用,论述了城市系统演化的组成异质性、时空复杂性、决策复杂性等复杂性表征,最后讨论了城市系统演化的各种复杂规律。     

基于眼动实验的旅游地景观视觉评价研究——以珠海市唐家古镇为例

本研究从SOR模型出发,采用眼动实验对游览唐家古镇的大学生群体进行调查,提出了旅游地的景观类型、色彩丰富程度以及新旧程度对游客感知产生影响,并进一步影响游客眼动行为的研究假设。研究发现：①旅游地景观色彩丰富程度与新旧程度对游客感知及眼动行为存在影响,而景观类型需以群体特征为条件才能进一步影响眼动行为;②景观色彩丰富程度仅对注视时间比重存在显著影响;③新景观与中立景观之间的注视频率存在显著差异,新景观与中立景观、旧景观的注视时间比重也均存在显著差异。本研究尝试在非实验室环境下开展眼动实验,补充并完善了视觉研究方法在真实人文环境中的应用。     

Toward Conceptualizing Trip-Chaining Behavior: A Review

This paper critically reviews the existing literature on multiple-trip journeys, and clarifies the need for an improved conceptualization and modeling strategy. It also suggests different ways that trip chaining can be treated and a theory constructed. Exploratory studies, from the 1960s and 1970s, are briefly surveyed (Section I). While they developed the existence and complexity of travel patterns, they lacked any comprehensive theoretical framework. However, they were useful in that they supported the conceptual framework of various kinds of stochastic processes used by transportation scientists to replicate trip-chaining behavior (Section II). Scientists subsequently improved their conceptualization of the issue by grounding individual behavior on the principle of utility maximization. In this latter area the economists have emphasized theoretical concerns while transportation researchers have emphasized operationality (Section III).     

桂林旅游景区书法景观符号效应分析

书法景观是具有中国特色的特殊文化景观和文化符号,广泛应用于旅游景区而成为旅游景观的一种重要类型.本文以桂林旅游景区的书法景观为案例进行研究,结果表明,书法景观作为旅游景区的重要人文景观,旅游者总体上对其具有较高的认知和鉴赏兴趣;书法景观对旅游者产生了一定程度的符号效应,具体表现在书法鉴赏、文化象征、审美引导3个方面,对应于外在行为、文化环境知觉、景观审美活动3个层次的行为效应.书法景观的符号效应在书法鉴赏方面存在显著差异,而在文化象征和审美引导方面无显著差异.书法景观符号效应研究对于揭示人们的地方感和环境行为与书法景观之间的关系、旅游景区书法景观的设计和景区文化氛围的营造等具有指导意义.     

Quantifying Animal Trajectories Using Spatial Aggregation and Sequence Analysis: A Case Study of Differentiating Trajectories of Multiple Species

The increasing availability of telemetry data with high spatial and temporal resolution promises to greatly advance scientific understandings of the movement patterns of individual organisms across space and time. The amount of data provided by such methods, however, can be challenging to analyze and interpret. In this study, we present a new approach for analyzing animal movements that aggregates telemetry locations into spatial clusters and extracts the information from sequences formed by individuals passing through these spatial clusters. We applied this integrated approach of spatial aggregation and sequence analysis to quantify and compare trajectories of cattle (Bos taurus), mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus), and elk (Cervus elaphus) tracked by automated telemetry at the Starkey Experimental Forest and Range in northeastern Oregon, USA. Our approach effectively differentiated movement patterns of the three species. It provides a useful mean of quantifying movement patterns of species in a landscape.     

New Developments in the Use of Spatial Technology in Archaeology

Spatial technology is integral to how archaeologists collect, store, analyze, and represent information in digital data sets. Recent advances have improved our ability to look for and identify archaeological remains and have increased the size and complexity of our data sets. In this review we outline trends in visualization, data management, archaeological prospecting, modeling, and spatial analysis, as well as key advances in hardware and software. Due to developments in education, information technology, and landscape archaeology, the implementation of spatial technology has begun to move beyond superficial applications and is no longer limited to environmental deterministic approaches. In the future, spatial technology will increasingly change archaeology in ways that will enable us to become better practitioners, scholars, and stewards.     

A Method for Establishing some Parameters of the Morphologic Structure of Landscapes

An attempt is made to characterize the morphologic structure of natural landscapes in terms of quantitative indicators. The following parameters are suggested: (1) structural diagrams of landscapes in the form of graphs, in which the vertices represent the landscape units and subunits, and the edges the hierarchical relations between these elements, (2) structural matrices that would show, for example, whether particular types of morphologic elements occur in a set of landscapes, (3) histograms showing the total areal coverage of types of morphologic elements in particular landscapes, (4) coefficients of complexity of landscape structure, which would be directly proportional to the number of morphologic elements and inversely proportional to their mean size, (5) entropic measures of diversity of landscape structure, which would increase with the number of morphologic elements and decrease with polarization into dominant elements and elements of limited distribution, and (6) measures of the degree of contrast in the landscape structure, in the form of the variance of the number of neighbors of taxons at a particular taxonomic level.     

Re-investing in the Built Environment: A Spatial Network Approach

Before launching ambitious and expensive development programmes to induce new regional technology corridors and clusters, it is critical to appreciate existing spatial economic patterns in a region. Initial economic conditions drive location decisions of firms and a labour force such that any changes must intercede onto an existing landscape built for current economic conditions. This work adopts a simple regional economic model to integrate and review traditional and modern urban location theories in order to illustrate the power of initial conditions to determine a final result. A simple spatial dynamic simulation model captures many of the pertinent effects of real estate pricing patterns to frame both opportunities and constraints to re-shape an urban landscape. Attention to 'ground up' spatially correlated location patterns revealed in price data that suggests close attention to strategic zoning can have profound impacts on the success or failure of economic development. Relatively modest policy interventions that carefully utilize existing preferences for urban amenities and concurrent real property investments involve fewer policy risks with potentially more powerful stimulative economic consequences than promised in more ambitious programmes.     

Rockfort Temple at Tiruchirapalli,India: Conservation of a Sacred Landscape

Sacred sites in India are subject to many development pressures. Unlike heritage monuments, cultural and historic landscapes have not been the focus of institutional protection and preservation efforts. Using Rockfort Temple complex at Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, as a case study, we propose that an integrated conservation approach be based upon restoring the natural and spatial archetypes that constitute the landscape vocabulary. A group of excavated and structural temples are located on a hill on the banks of the river Kaveri surrounded by a medieval fort that became the nucleus of urban growth over time. Overwhelming growth of commerce within the last half century has resulted in many problems such as traffic congestion, confusing circulation, and visual chaos, which in turn have led to the loss of sanctity. The structure of the pilgrim landscape constituted by circumambulatory paths, tanks and groves, shrines and temples can be clarified and made legible by minor design interventions such as restoring historic buildings, reviving the holy tanks, planting sacred trees, and building rest pavilions along the pilgrim path.     

基于GIS的南方传统聚落景观基因信息图谱的探索

南方地区环境生态因子多样,历史文化底蕴深厚,形成了极富特色的聚落景观。研究其所隐含的景观基因,对传统聚落的保护、开发都具有重要意义。本文分析了聚落景观基因的研究现状,探讨了聚落景观基因的概念、识别原则。在此基础上,探讨了构建聚落景观基因信息图谱的基本信息单元及其提取方法,并对建立景观基因信息图谱的技术思路进行了一定的尝试。最后,展望了景观基因信息图谱的研究意义和研究价值。     

Historic landscape management: a validation of quantitative soil thin-section analyses

The archaeological interpretation of past land management practices can be greatly enhanced through examination of soil thin sections. Features relating to manuring practice are among those key to interpreting agricultural practices. The sources and the processes leading to the distribution of these manure materials may further improve knowledge of the past landscape utilisation. The use of quantitative analyses to examine soil thin sections opens the possibility of considering these relationships between manured areas in greater detail and to extract more subtle spatial and temporal changes in past management. In this study the validation of this methodology has been tested with quantitative image analysis methods used to examine manure inputs to a well-documented historical landscape of Papa Stour, Shetland, where intensive manuring has been practised until the 1960s. By using both historic and ethnographic evidence to validate the image analysis protocol, differences in spatial and temporal distribution are examined for the practices of manuring with both fuel residues and with turf. The validation of the hypotheses expected from ethnographic and historical data that quantitative soils-based evidence allows the definition of variations in manuring strategies and provides a more secure basis from which to interpret manuring management strategies in archaeological landscapes.     

A DEFENSE OF ANTHROPOGENIC LANDSCAPE SCIENCE

A founder of the Soviet school of anthropogenic landscape science defends the discipline against charges that it ignores the fundamentals of geographic landscape theory and confuses anthropogenic landscapes with types of land use and engineering structures. The development of a separate anthropogenic approach in landscape science is justified on the ground that maninduced landscapes, such as cropland, pasture, vineyards, secondary forest, reservoirs, open pits and spoil banks play an increasing role in the environment and require separate investigation. Anthropogenic landscapes, far from being counterposed to natural landscapes, are treated as a distinctive genetic group of landscapes that owe their origin to human interference, but follow natural laws of development. Anthropogenic landscape science is said to be concerned with the physical-geographic and ecological aspects of human impact on the environment, while the study of types of land use focuses on the technology and economic benefit of such impact. [For previous translations on the issue, see Soviet Geography, October 1974 and December 1975.]     

Multiscalar Settlement Ecology Study of Piedmont Village Tradition Communities,A.D. 1000–1600

This research analyzes the spatial patterning of settlement sites in relation to landscape features to determine the factors that influenced settlement location choices for Late Precontact (A.D. 1000–1600) Piedmont Village Tradition (PVT) communities in the Yadkin, Dan, Haw, and Eno river valleys of the Piedmont Southeast. We employ geographic information systems to estimate characteristics of past landscapes, nearest neighbor analysis to describe basic settlement patterns, and discriminant function analysis to determine spatial correlations between settlements and landscape features. We examine the data on three scales and also assess potential changes over time. Results indicate that settlement location choices were broadly similar on the regional scale, but specific influences varied between and within valleys and over time. When examined with current archaeological, ethnohistoric, and linguistic information, the results suggest that PVT communities engaged in regional interaction networks in highly variable ways and that the relationship between subsistence and settlement varied according to settlement size. Using these results, we explore the roles PVT communities played in the formation and maintenance of natural and cultural landscapes in the Late Precontact Southeast.