Urban Textural Analysis from Remote Sensor Data: Lacunarity Measurements Based on the Differential Box Counting Method

Lacunarity is related to the spatial distribution of gap or hole sizes. For low lacunarity, all gap sizes are the same and geometric objects are deemed homogeneous; conversely, for high lacunarity, gap sizes are variable and objects are therefore heterogeneous. Textures that are homogeneous at small scales can be quite heterogeneous at large scales and vice versa, and hence, lacunarity can be considered a scale-dependent measure of heterogeneity or texture. In this article, we use a lacunarity method based on a differential box counting approach to identify urban land-use and land-cover classes from satellite sensor data. Our methodology focuses on two different gliding box methods to compute lacunarity values and demonstrate a mirror extension approach for a local moving window. The extension approach overcomes, or at least minimizes, the boundary problem. The results from our study suggest that the overlapping box approach is more effective than the skipping box approach, but that there is no significant difference between window sizes. Our work represents a contribution to not only advances in textural and spatial metrics as used in remote-sensing pattern interpretation but also for broadening understanding of the computational geometry of nonlinear shape models of which lacunarity is the reciprocal of fractal theory.     

Place leadership and the challenge of transformation: policy platforms and innovation ecosystems in promotion of green growth

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we explore how place leadership aims at producing transformational changes in the context of green growth. We ask what the main leadership strategies are that key actors pursue to gain leverage in their efforts to boost green growth. We use the well-known categories of transactional and transformational leadership. The following are the main research questions: (a) What do place leaders do to boost green institutional paths? (b) How do they aim to amplify their limited power base? and (c) How do they amplify their ability to influence both place-based and placeless agents? We scrutinize these questions in the context of green path development in two Finnish regions. The empirical study follows a two parallel single case study design. The cases in this paper deal with the cleantech-related path development in the Tampere city-region and bioeconomy-related path development in Central Finland. The two case studies were carefully chosen to illustrate the two main green growth-related industries in two different Finnish regions. The empirical data was based on 30 interviews of the national and local/regional development agencies as well as from firms and research/educational organizations. Additionally, the written material from the Internet, relevant journals, related newspaper articles and respective policy documents were analysed.     

The Stolypin Agrarian Reform in Contemporary Historiography

Through a combination of radical and moderate ideas, rejection of rigid schemas, and allowances made for the peasants’ understanding of the law and capacity for change, Stolypin’s agrarian reform produced real results even though it remained unfinished.     

Feminist geographies in Norway from the turn of the millennium

Abstract

Based on an overview of feminist and gender research over two decades, this article reflects on feminist geographies in Norway within a wider political and social context. We identify eight broad, partly overlapping themes of feminist geography: rurality; development policies and practices; entrepreneurship and economic change; migration and mobility; children and youth; sexuality and health; landscape and place; and emotions and autobiography. We find that much of the research has been collaborative, interdisciplinary, multicultural, and transnational. Feminist geographies in Norway are characterized by increasing emphasis on multiple realities and situatedness, and focus on rights and power relations among men and women in all spheres of society, including academia. Yet the gender dimension has tended to focus on geographies of women, with few studies of masculinity. Inspired in part through feminist critiques of research practices in social sciences, a recent development has been autobiographical approaches examining the significance of personal lives and emotions for the research process. We conclude that feminist geographies in Norway are diverse, empirically and contextually informed, and have become embedded within several fields of human geography.     

Evidence‐based policy: Some pitfalls in the meeting of scientific research politics (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate)

A current ambition in welfare states as diverse as Denmark, the UK, and the USA, is to base political decision‐making on rigorous research. Sound as this might seem the ambition has nevertheless been problematized by both policy‐makers and the research community. This article intends to draw out some general pitfalls in the curious meeting of science and politics by focusing on one particular attempt to make evidence‐based legislation in. These insights will be relevant for anthropological researchers of legislative processes who wish to move beyond a merely discursive approach to the study of policy and politics.