Measuring the performance of planning: the conformance of Italian landscape planning practices with the European Landscape Convention

The assessment of the performance of planning is debated. The evaluation of the conformance of a given national planning system with a set of principles is similarly received with critical and favourable remarks. A relevant case study consists of the conformance of European landscape planning practice with the principles of the European Landscape Convention (ELC). Italy incorporated in 2004 the principles of the ELC with the Code on Cultural Assets and Landscape (CL), which opened the way for new laws, tools, observatories and atlases. The aim of this article is to demonstrate the usefulness of an assessment exercise concerning the conformance with the ELC of planning practice in Italy. We scrutinize planning systems and tools established by peripheral administrations, according to a qualitative and comparative framework. We refine our analysis by focusing on 10 most recent cases and identifying critical issues in current landscape planning practice. The results are promising and show that landscape planning in Italy is increasingly in line with the ELC.     

Exhibiting the Field for Learning: Telling New York's Stories

This paper explores the challenges of engaging and assessing students in residential field learning. Fieldwork presents students with complex learning environments, wherein they are asked to participate in a variety of learning activities. Difficulties arise, however, over how to sustain engagement in field learning while simultaneously capturing and nurturing its different dimensions within assessment. Drawing on debates over student engagement and assessment for learning, this paper argues that engagement and assessment must coalesce for effective learning to occur. It is suggested that ‘exhibitions’ which develop the concept of ‘storytelling’ are a powerful way of promoting engagement and assessment for learning.     

Wetland assessment and impact mitigation decision support framework for linear development projects: The Louis Riel Trail,Highway 11 North project,Saskatchewan, Canada

Next to agriculture, road development is one of the most significant sources of stress to wetlands in Prairie Canada. However, there currently exists limited guidance for incorporating direct, indirect, and induced effects to wetlands in impact assessment and mitigation planning for small and often routine developments, including access roads or highway improvement initiatives. Based on the Louis Riel Trail, Highway 11 North twinning project in Saskatchewan, Canada, this article demonstrates a methodological approach and decision support framework for assessing and managing direct, indirect, and induced effects to wetlands from linear developments. No regulatory‐based environmental assessment was required for the highway project; effects were deemed to be insignificant under current wetland mitigation practices. However, our results show that 1115 ha of potentially affected wetlands are located within a 500 m impact zone on either side of the proposed highway. More than 50 percent of these wetlands are seasonal, less than 1 ha in size, and typically not included in mitigation planning. An expert‐based multi‐criteria evaluation of impact and mitigation options for wetlands in the study area indicated “no net loss” as a planning priority, and a preference for a spatially ambitious mitigation plan focused on direct, indirect, and potentially induced impacts. In practice, however, mitigation is often restrictive, focused on mitigating only direct impacts within the project's right‐of‐way, in this case less than 50 ha of wetlands, resulting in the potential for significant net loss of wetland habitat and function. If the risk to wetlands is to be given due consideration in project planning and development for roads and road improvement initiatives, then structured assessment methods and decision support frameworks should be sensitive to the time and resource constraints of small projects and screening‐type assessments. This requires also that wetland mitigation policies are developed and implementation plans formulated as part of project planning and assessment initiatives for linear developments.     

Assessment of student and faculty mentor perceptions of an international undergraduate research program in physical geography

In this study, we assess whether students and their faculty mentors in a Research Experience for Undergraduates program have similar perceptions about the relative importance of different outcomes of their study abroad experience. Results of a Q-analysis reveal a significant difference of opinion between the students and the faculty mentors. It is argued that the faculty mentors need to spend more time in the field with their students and recognize that undergraduate research provides students with skills and a confidence to conduct research in the future, rather than personal and professional development, and the ability to think like a scientist.     

Student perspectives on the teaching of geographical information systems (GIS) in geography degrees

In an era when graduate employability is a key concern, the teaching of geographical information systems (GIS) has become a subject of considerable interest. This paper reports on a study of the GIS student learning experience using student survey data from six UK geography undergraduate programmes. The findings show that although students’ satisfaction levels are generally encouraging, more could be done to capitalize on the opportunities GIS offers both for the discipline and for our students. Recommendations are made for further enhancing the profile and quality of GIS pedagogy in geography curricula.     

Quality assessment of teaching: inputs,processes and outputs

Abstract

The nature of quality in teaching and learning is outlined, as a prelude to a discussion of the processes of quality assessment to teaching being employed by the Higher Education Funding Council for England. Despite claims that the latter defines quality as ‘fitness for purpose’ there are strong indications that ‘quality as standard’ is what is generally being applied. The implications of this procedure are discussed, both generally and for English university departments of geography.     

STRUCTURAL REHABILITATION OF DAMAGED RC BUILDINGS AFTER THE 1 OCTOBER 1995 DİNAR EARTHQUAKE

This paper contains technical information related to the Dinar project for the rehabilitation of moderately damaged reinforced concrete buildings after the 1 October 1995 Dinar earthquake. The structural appraisal of the damaged buildings, analytical studies leading to decisions regarding structural rehabilitation or demolition, the supervision on site of the rehabilitation and the overall coordination of the project was entrusted to the Middle East Technical University Earthquake Engineering Research Center [METU-EERC] by the Turkish Ministry of Public Works and Settlement. The project involved the rehabilitation of 35 moderately damaged RC buildings with a total floor plan area of 22 000 square metres.     

FRAGILITY ASSESSMENT OF SLAB-COLUMN CONNECTIONS IN EXISTING NON-DUCTILE REINFORCED CONCRETE BUILDINGS

Fragility functions that estimate the probability of exceeding different levels of damage in slab-column connections of existing non-ductile reinforced concrete buildings subjected to earthquakes are presented. The proposed fragility functions are based on experimental data from 16 investigations conducted in the last 36 years that include a total of 82 specimens. Fragility functions corresponding to four damage states are presented as functions of the level of peak interstory drift imposed on the connection. For damage states involving punching shear failure and loss of vertical carrying capacity, the fragility functions are also a function of the vertical shear in the connection produced by gravity loads normalised by the nominal vertical shear strength in the absence of unbalanced moments. Two sources of uncertainty in the estimation of damage as a function of lateral deformation are studied and discussed. The first is the specimen-to-specimen variability of the drifts associated with a damage state, and the second the epistemic uncertainty arising from using small samples of experimental data and from interpreting the experimental results. For a given peak interstorey drift ratio, the proposed fragility curves permit the estimation of the probability of experiencing different levels of damage in slab-column connections.     

EVALUATION OF CONVENTIONAL AND ADAPTIVE PUSHOVER ANALYSIS II: COMPARATIVE RESULTS

In this paper, the methodology for evaluation of conventional and adaptive pushover analysis presented in a companion paper is applied to a set of eight different reinforced concrete buildings, covering various levels of irregularity in plan and elevation, structural ductility and directional effects. An extensive series of pushover analysis results, monitored on various levels is presented and compared to inelastic dynamic analysis under various strong motion records, using a new quantitative measure. It is concluded that advanced (adaptive) pushover analysis often gives results superior to those from conventional pushover. However, the consistency of the improvement is unreliable. It is also emphasised that global response parameter comparisons often give an incomplete and sometimes even misleading impression of the performance.     

SEISMIC HAZARD ASSESSMENT OF METROPOLITAN TEHRAN,IRAN

This paper presents a probabilistic seismic hazard assessment of Tehran, the capital of Iran. Two maps have been prepared to indicate the earthquake hazard of Tehran and its vicinity in the form of iso-acceleration contour lines. They display the probabilistic estimate of Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) over bedrock for the return periods of 475 and 950 years. Tehran is a densely populated metropolitan in which more than 10 million people live. Many destructive earthquakes happened in Iran in the last centuries. It comes from historical references that at least 6 times, Tehran has been destroyed by catastrophic earthquakes. The oldest one happened in the 4th century BC. A collected catalogue, containing both historical and instrumental events and covering the period from the 4th century BC to 1999 is then used. Seismic sources are modelled and recurrence relationship is established. For this purpose the method proposed by Kijko [2000] was employed considering uncertainty in magnitude and incomplete earthquake catalogue. The calculations were performed using the logic tree method and three weighted attenuation relationships; Ramazi [1999], 0.4, Ambraseys and Bommer [1991], 0.35, and Sarma and Srbulov [1996], 0.25. Seismic hazard assessment is then carried out for 12×11 grid points using SEISRISK III. Finally, two seismic hazard maps of the studied area based on Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA) over bedrock for 10% probability of exceedance in two life cycles of 50 and 100 years are presented. The results showed that the PGA ranges from 0.27(g) to 0.46(g) for a return period of 475 years and from 0.33(g) to 0.55(g) for a return period of 950 years. Since population is very dense in Tehran and vulnerability of buildings is high, the risk of future earthquakes will be very significant.