Building survey forms for heterogeneous urban areas in seismically hazardous zones. Application to the historical center of Valparaíso,Chile

ABSTRACT

Building survey is an essential data-collection procedure to feed large-scale seismic vulnerability assessment. The available strategies usually consider survey forms to gather information about the urban buildings. The application of the available survey forms poses important challenges for the case of the heterogeneous urban centers including different structural typologies. This work proposes four specific survey forms for traditional structural typologies constructed with masonry, reinforced concrete, mixed steel-reinforced concrete, and timber. The proposed forms request essential information on the parameters necessary for seismic vulnerability assessment, by evaluating the lateral-load resistant system, regularity, condition of conservation, and existing damages. The survey forms were applied to the study of 111 buildings of the historical center of Valparaíso, Chile. The proposed methodology was complemented with the use of Geographic Information Systems to obtain a complete database with the structural characterization of the most representative typologies for future works of large-scale seismic vulnerability assessment.     

Biodiversity Conservation: The Process of Economic Assessment and Establishment of a Protected Area in Vanuatu

This article describes the framework adopted for the socio-economic assessment of protected areas intended to safeguard biodiversity. This framework, which can be described as a three-tiered approach to conservation, is applied to the process of assessment and establishment of a protected area (PA) in Vanuatu. The potential benefits that the landowners of the PA could derive from logging activities, and the subsistence values derived from the PA are considered. It appears that if the PA was to be established without the payment of any compensation, the landowners would face substantial net costs. During the research process, it was suggested that the Government of Vanuatu could take up a lease on the land to compensate the landowners for the loss of potential logging royalties. When the benefits accruing to the landowners from a lease agreement are compared with the foregone logging royalties, it is found that the net present value of a seventy-five year lease agreement is approximately equivalent to the net present value of logging royalties.     

When megaprojects meet archaeology: a research framework and case study from Yenikapi,Istanbul

From 2004 to 2012, 37 well-preserved Byzantine shipwrecks were discovered during construction of two underground train stations at Yenikap?, Istanbul. Despite its complexity, archaeology is rarely studied through organisational and management lens. This paper investigates the Yenikap? rescue excavations using two innovative analytical frameworks for archaeology – the Heritage Chain and Structure Conduct Performance analysis – which highlight the crucial but too often overlooked role of practices (or emerging strategies) in public policy, helping identifying strengths and weaknesses of the project. In this sense, two elements of the system seem fundamental: its extreme centralisation and its ongoing process of decentralisation. The research, based on a phenomenon-driven approach to management of archaeological and cultural heritage projects, highlights how Turkey’s uncertain legal environment for rescue archaeology led to emergent, ad hoc management and funding solutions that mixed state and private involvement in novel ways through a multi-level outsourcing.     

Prefiguring a future city: urban growth,spatial planning and the economic local context in Catalonia

This study undertook a quantitative analysis of town master plans to define future urban growth. Spatial direction and intensity of urban expansion were analysed in relation to local contexts using land zoning and a comprehensive database of socio-economic indicators at the municipal scale in Catalonia, Spain. Our results illustrate a progressive shift towards discontinuous settlements consolidating urban centres in most accessible rural areas. Contrary to what was hypothesized (and partly observed) in recent decades, settlement expansion will modestly contribute to a balanced urban spatial structure. Future urban development in Catalonia will not follow a polycentric model, fuelling instead the growth of medium and small urban centres. This process may consolidate the incipient divide in rural areas with high accessibility and a dynamic economic base with remote inland areas experiencing land abandonment and depopulation. The use of indicators derived from town master plans in the assessment of (scattered or polycentric) future urbanization in Europe is finally discussed.     

Palaeolithic engravings and sedimentary environments in the Côa River Valley (Portugal): implications for the detection,interpretation and dating of open-air rock art

The pre-Magdalenian phase of the Côa River Valley open-air rock art is mostly distributed at the boundary between the rocky valley slopes and the floodplain that correspond to the most favourable geomorphological setting for the preservation of pecked and deeply superposed engravings of the most famous artistic phase of the area. The natural vertical panels of the engraved art located at this geomorphological interface have suffered weathering during two cold events of the Lateglacial. They were buried by several colluvial and alluvial deposits. The reconstruction of the sedimentary and archaeological context of the CôaRiver Valley engraving permits a better assessment of the preservation processes and interpretation of Palaeolithic open-air rock art.     

Retheorizing Mana: Bible Translation and Discourse of Loss in Fiji

‘Mana’ has been a key term in anthropological theory since the late nineteenth century, but, as Roger Keesing argued more than twenty years ago, it is necessary to rethink mana theoretically based on its changing usage in Oceanic discourse. Keesing criticized mana's nominalization and substantivization by anthropologists. In this paper I review his criticisms and expand upon his argument, making three related claims based on data from Fiji. First, mana is canonically a verb in Fijian, but contemporary speakers frequently use it in its nominalized and substantivized form. Second, a key reason for this nominalization is mana's use in the Fijian Bible to denote ‘miracles’ as well as homonymous ‘manna,’ the food given by God to the Israelites. Third, in order to understand mana in present‐day Fiji, scholars must consider it in the context of widespread discourse about decline, loss, and diminution.     

Tomorrow’s Country: Practice-oriented principles for Indigenous cultural fire research in south-east Australia

First Nations peoples are revitalising diverse cultural fire practices and knowledge. Institutional and societal recognition of these practices is growing. Yet there has been little academic research on these fire practices in south-east Australia, let alone research led by Aboriginal people. We are a group of Indigenous and settler academics, practitioners, and experts focused on cultural fire management in the Victorian Loddon Mallee region. Using interviews and workshops, we facilitated knowledge sharing and discussion. In this paper, we describe three practice-oriented principles to develop and maintain collaborations across Aboriginal groups, researchers, and government in the Indigenous-led revitalisation of fire on Country: relationships (creating reciprocity and trust), Country (working with place and people), and power (acknowledging structures and values). Collaborations based on these principles will be unique to each temporal, social, cultural, and geographic context. Considering our findings, we acknowledge the challenges that exist and the opportunities that emerge to constructively hold space to grow genuinely collaborative research that creates change. We suggest that the principles we identify can be applied by anyone wanting to form genuine collaborations around the world as the need for social–ecological justice grows.