This book explains the potential value of using mobile phone data to monitor urban practices and identify rhythms of use in today’s cities. Drawing upon research conducted in the Italian region of Lombardy, the authors demonstrate how maps based on mobile phone data, which are better tailored to the dynamic processes at work in cities, can document urban practices, provide new insights into spatial and temporal patterns of mobility, and assist in recognizing different communities of practice. The described methodology permits detailed visualization of the spatial distribution of mobility flows and offers a more extensive and refined description of the distribution of urban activity than is provided by traditional travel surveys. The book also details how maps derived by processing mobile phone data can assist in the definition of urban policies that will deliver services that match cities’ needs, facilitate the management of large events (inflow, outflow, and monitoring), and reflect time-dependent phenomena not included in traditional analyses.

This book explores mobilities as a key to understanding the practices that both frame and generate contemporary everyday life in the urban context. At the same time, it investigates the challenges arising from the interpretation of mobility as a socio-spatial phenomenon both in the social sciences and in urban studies. Leading sociologists, economists, urban planners and architects address the ways in which spatial mobilities contribute to producing diversified uses of the city and describe forms and rhythms of different life practices, including unexpected uses and conflicts. The individual sections of the book focus on the role of mobility in transforming contemporary cities; the consequences of interpreting mobility as a socio-spatial phenomenon for urban projects and policies; the conflicts and inequalities generated by the co-presence of different populations due to mobility and by the interests gathered around major mobility projects; and the use of new data and mapping of mobilities to enhance comprehension of cities. The theoretical discussion is complemented by references to practical experiences, helping readers gain a broader understanding of mobilities in relation to the capacity to analyze, plan and design contemporary cities.

The book presents a comprehensive vision of the impact of ICT on the contemporary city, heritage, public spaces and meta-cities on both urban and metropolitan scales, not only in producing innovative perspectives but also related to newly discovered scientific methods, which can be used to stimulate the emerging reciprocal relations between cities and information technologies. Using the principles established by multi-disciplinary interventions as examples and then expanding on them, this book demonstrates how by using ICT and new devices, metropolises can be organized for a future that preserves the historic nucleus of the city and the environment while preparing the necessary expansion of transportation, housing and industrial facilities.

Social Sensing and Big Data Computing for Disaster Management captures recent advancements in leveraging social sensing and big data computing for supporting disaster management. Specifically, analysed within this book are some of the promises and pitfalls of social sensing data for disaster relevant information extraction, impact area assessment, population mapping, occurrence patterns, geographical disparities in social media use, and inclusion in larger decision support systems. Traditional data collection methods such as remote sensing and field surveying often fail to offer timely information during or immediately following disaster events. Social sensing enables all citizens to become part of a large sensor network which is low cost, more comprehensive, and always broadcasting situational awareness information. However, data collected with social sensing is often massive, heterogeneous, noisy, and unreliable in some aspects. It comes in continuous streams, and often lacks geospatial reference information. Together, these issues represent a grand challenge toward fully leveraging social sensing for emergency management decision making under extreme duress. Meanwhile, big data computing methods and technologies such as high-performance computing, deep learning, and multi-source data fusion become critical components of using social sensing to understand the impact of and response to the disaster events in a timely fashion. This book was originally published as a special issue of the International Journal of Digital Earth.

This book collects innovative research presented at the 19th Conference of the Association of Geographic Information Laboratories in Europe (AGILE) on Geographic Information Science, held in Helsinki, Finland in 2016.

Processes of multi-scalar regional urbanization are occurring worldwide. Such processes are clearly distinguishable from those of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries due to the shifting concepts of both the city and the metropolis. International literature highlights how what we have historically associated with the idea of cities has long been subjected to consistent reconfiguration, which involves stressing some of the typical features of the idea of "cityness". Post-Metropolitan Territories: Looking for a New Urbanity is the product of a research project funded by the Italian Ministry for Education, Universities and Research (MIUR). It constitutes a thorough overview of a country that is one of Europe's most diverse in terms of regional development and performance: Italy. This book brings together case studies of a number of Italian cities and their hinterlands and looks at new forms of urbanization, exploring themes of sustainability, industrialization, de-industrialization, governance, city planning and quality of life. This volume will be of great interest to academics and students who study regional development, economic geography and urban studies, as well as civil servants and policymakers in the field of spatial planning, urban policy, territorial policies and governance.

Making Prestigious Places investigates the spatial dimension of luxury, both as a sector involving activities, operators and investments, and as a system of values acting as a catalyst for recent urban transformations. Luxury shares a well-established connection to the city, as a place of production, consumption and self-representation, and continues to grow despite economic difficulties. This edited collection includes case studies from Europe, North and South America, Asia and the Middle East to create a dialogue around these developments and the challenges presented, such as the tension between the idea of prestige and current values in urban planning, the discussion between academic reflections and operational practices, and how these interact with the long-term economic and social dynamic of the city. With rich analysis and a preface written by Patsy Healey, this book will be an important addition to the discourse on luxury for urban planners and researchers.