‘Islands within Islands?’ The Maldivian resort,between segregation and integration

Abstract

The Maldives resort islands are a type of tourist enclave subject to a dual form of borderization. The islands have an external border that coincides with each island’s coastline and with the limits of the private property of the resort; this border regulates the movement of tourists and locals. The islands also have an internal border that separates the outer edge of the island from the inner edge. The outer edge, which is supposed to represent the perfect landscape of the ‘tropical island,’ houses all of the tourist facilities, while the interior contains the structures dedicated to the metabolic activities of the resort. The frontline staff members and the tourists share the ‘dreamscape’ of the outer edge, whereas the maintenance workers live in the secluded space inside the island, where they are typically hidden from the sight of tourists by high walls, and their movement is usually restricted from staff designated areas to their location of work. For maintenance workers, these spaces, necessarily limited due to the small size of the coral islands, risk becoming ‘islands within islands.’ Recently, the Maldivian government has begun to promote projects and initiatives in support of territorial integration between the resorts and communities of neighboring islands. Thus, the outer limits of the resort islands are, today, more porous. Their internal borders, in contrast, remain very difficult to cross.     

THE IMPACT OF CRIME ON APARTMENT PRICES: EVIDENCE FROM STOCKHOLM,SWEDEN

This study uses data of about 9,000 apartment sales in Stockholm, Sweden, to assess the impact of crime on property prices. The study employs hedonic pricing modelling to estimate the impact of crime controlling for other factors (property and neighbourhood characteristics). Geographic Information System (GIS) is used to combine apartment sales by coordinates with offences, land use characteristics and demographic data of the population. The novelty of this research is threefold. First, it explores a set of land use attributes created by spatial techniques in GIS in combination with detailed geographical data in hedonic pricing modelling. Second, the effect of crime in neighbouring zones at one place can be measured by incorporating spatial lagged variables of offence rates into the model. Third, the study provides evidence of the impact of crime on housing prices in a capital city of a traditional welfare state, information otherwise lacking in the international literature. Our results indicate that apartment prices in a specific area are strongly affected by crime in its neighbouring zones, regardless of crime type. When offences were broken down by types, residential burglary, theft, vandalism, assault and robbery individually had a significant negative effect on property values. However, for residential burglary such an effect is not homogenous across space, and apartment prices in central areas are often less discounted by being exposed to crime than those in the city's outskirts.     

Simple Seismic Assessment of Traditional Unreinforced Masonry Buildings

A framework for quick seismic assessment and retrofit of traditional unreinforced masonry (URM) structures is presented. The proposed methods build on simple principles of structural dynamics and are used as an alternative to detailed time-history analysis, in recognition of the prevailing need for simple and practical methods, compatible with the low-budget and the limited level of knowledge regarding materials, internal force paths, connectivity and condition of older URM structures. An objective is to identify areas in the building that are particularly susceptible to damage and for guiding the types of the required global interventions to improve seismic response. Demand and supply are expressed in terms of relative drift ratios that quantify the intensity of out-of-plane differential translation and in-plane shear distortion of masonry walls. A characteristic traditional building type of timber-laced masonry is used as a model structure for illustration of concepts. The morphology and geometry of the building correspond to a statistical sample of the actual traditional unreinforced masonry buildings (TURM) found in historical centers of many towns in the greater region of Northern Greece. The methodology is particularly useful for setting retrofit priorities and management of the collective seismic risk of historical entities.     

The Role of the Development Industry in Shaping Urban Social Space: a Conceptual Model

Socio‐spatial differentiation or the spatial arrangement of social groups in cities has long been the subject of scholarly attention in urban studies from a variety of perspectives. In many contemporary societies, the development industry plays an important and growing role in socio‐spatial differentiation. This paper presents a conceptual model for the empirical analysis of the role of this industry in shaping urban social space.     

基于女性主义视角的城市住房与住区问题初探--以南京市为例

当代中国城市社会日益复杂和多元化,在以人为本和社会公平的社会思潮背景下,地理学界和规划界有必要深入关注女性这一重要亚群体单元。本文在简要引入西方女性主义地理学以及其关于城市住区发展理念的基础上,通过对南京的实证调查,从女性的角度分析了国内住房供给以及住区规划建设中存在的若干问题,揭示女性需求、性别差异在住区规划和建设中被忽视的现实,并对今后住区建设提出一些基于性别差异和维护男女平等原则的规划设想。     

农村居民点用地整治潜力测算研究——以广东省五华县为例

以广东省五华县为例,以行政村为单元,在政策指标测算法的基础上,从自然环境状况、经济保障能力和社会因素等3方面构建理论潜力修正模型,将理论潜力修正为可实现潜力,并根据土地适宜性评价估算增加耕地潜力,以期为科学编制农村土地整治规划提供依据。研究表明,五华县农村居民点用地布局分散、规模小、空间差异显著,呈现出沿河谷、沿交通线路分布的典型特征。到2020年,农村居民点整治理论潜力为5683.91 hm²,北部村庄的整治潜力较大;可实现潜力修正系数为0.54,与理论潜力相差较大,各行政村之间差异明显;新增耕地潜力系数介于0.32-0.94,预计新增耕地1943.41 hm²,琴江、五华河沿线村庄的新增耕地潜力较大。建议实施差别化的农村居民点整治对策,推进五华县农村土地整治。     

隔离与融合:新疆喀纳斯景区旅游规划中的利益博弈

旅游规划是一个地区对于未来旅游业发展的一种项目计划和制度安排,因此,在旅游规划编制以及落实过程中会涉及到各相关利益方的博弈。在我国一些少数民族地区,未被工业化的社会形态和结构成为一种稀缺的吸引物,旅游业成为当地具有较强比较优势的经济产业。但在旅游开发规划中,当地居民的利益诉求往往被忽视。新疆喀纳斯旅游规划应用了居民区与旅游区相隔离的战略,在达到了功能分区的目的的同时也引起了相关利益方之间的利益博弈,引发了我们对于编制旅游规划的程序和实体改革方向的思考。     

西方度假住宅研究进展

度假住宅是当前消费的一大热点,系统的理论研究却还十分匮乏。本文以大量的原文文献研究为基础,探寻西方度假房产研究的脉络线索,发现了以1980年代中期为分野的两个特征鲜明的阶段,进而对两个阶段的研究异同点进行了比较分析,勾勒出了西方度假住宅研究进展的轮廓,最后以西方为鉴对我国度假房产政策进行了评述。研究对于我国旅游开发、地理研究、城乡规划等具有参考价值。     

老旧住区居民地震紧急避难空间选择与行为特征分析

避难行为活动的高效开展是避难空间产生并进行合理布局的根本动因。居民自主的避难行为具有有限理性的属性,其特征是避难空间布局的重要依据。老城区的避难资源缺乏是各地的共性问题,在避难场所规划布局的工程实践和相关研究中,缺少对避难行为和空间的相关性的研究。本文以南京老旧住区为例,系统研究了居民选择紧急避难地点的空间特征和行为特征,并从心理学的角度解释了典型避难行为的产生原因;最后,基于对避难行为选择统计分析的结果,提出了未来避难场所规划中应注意的关键原则,研究结论可作为避难场所布局的重要依据。     

THE CAREER OF L. S. BERG

The following appraisal is by Eduard M. Murzayev, physical geographer and toponymist, with interests in Mongolia and Central Asia, who was a student of Berg at Leningrad University, and since this graduation in 1930 has been associated with the Institute of Geography of the Academy of Sciences USSR, first in Leningrad and after 1936 in Moscow. This article is based on a talk given by Murzayev in March 1976 at a memorial session of the Geographical Society USSR in Leningrad.