In the wake of climate change and its impact on increasing the number and intensity of floods, adaptability of cities to and resistance against the flood hazard is critical to retain functionality of the cities. Vulnerability of urban infrastructure and its resilience to flooding from different points of view have been important and worth investigating for experts in different fields of science. Flood hazards as physical phenomena are influenced by form of the cities and thus the magnitude of their impacts can be intensified by urban infrastructures such as street networks and buildings (Bacchin et. al, 2011). In this paper, we aim to develop a method to assess the resilience of a river city (the city of Gothenburg in Sweden), which is prone to flood events, against such disturbances and find out how the city reacts to river floods and to what extent the city retains its accessibility to essential amenities after a flood occurs. To do so, collecting required data; we, firstly, simulate flood inundation with two different return periods (50 and 1000 years) and then the impact areas overlay on the street networks. Evaluating the resilience of the city, syntactic properties of the street networks before and after flooding are measured at different scales. Additionally, accessibility and the minimum distance of the street networks to essential amenities such as healthcare centers, schools and commercial centers, at a medium distance (3 Km) is examined. The results show that flooding influences the city configuration at global scale more than the local scale based on comparison of syntactic properties before and after flooding. However, the results of accessibility and the minimum distance show that the impact of flooding on the functionality of the city is more limited to the riparian areas and the city is not affected globally.

This paper addresses how ‘culture’ is or can be present in a city, where culture is understood in a wide sense as cultural activities and output of creative activity as well as partaking in or making use of the same. The main line of argument is that this requires consideration of how to work with configurational analysis, which has implications for a wider set of issues but made apparent in the specific focus.

While this is anchored in empirical analysis, the main point is a theoretical-methodological discussion. In short, the paper proposes a model where culture needs to be understood from four perspectives—to witness, to engage with, to show, and to do—since these are differently related to the built environment in the conditions for how they appear, what effects they might have, and in what ways they are affected by and affect urban environments.

Specifically, the empirical analyses point to how inequalities between areas can be understood. The conditions for making sculptures and how this affects and is affected by its surrounding, simply put, is different from the effects and conditions for the placing of public sculptures, as are their effects on public and private life.

By use of specific and particular examples of activities or outputs, the article will also highlight qualitative aspects that need to be considered in relation to more precisely what kind of ‘culture’ that is intended to be supported, and how this relates to questions of democratic development and social equality.

As cities are growing the need for complementary sub centres increases, both in order to distribute amenities and to make resources more accessible for citizens, as well as to relieve the pressure on the city core. Such planning strategy, a kind of decentralized concentration, has been seen as a mean for holding back urban sprawl in Stockholm. Lately, urban centres are also argued to contribute to the development of more equal living conditions making opportunities, service, and urban life accessible also in more peripheral urban locations. The values of ‘suburban urbanities’ has also been highlighted in a way that reach far beyond the commercial activities (Vaughan 2015).The Regional planning authority in Stockholm as well as the City of Stockholm identifies a number of regional subcentres and ‘urban boulevards’ that should connect the city since and make it less fragmented. The social incentive for this strategy is prominent in both plans. However, these subcentres are dependent on urban centrality which needs to be taken into consideration.The strength, or the success, of a subcentre is partly influenced by urban design interventions and is argued to be related to 1) the configurative properties (distribution of space) and 2) land use parameters and density (distribution in and through space) (Koch 2016; Hillier 1999; Vaughan 2010). In order to increase the understanding for what urban design interventions that may be efficient, this paper will draw from the concepts developed by Stan Allen (1999) of point, line and field and John McMorrough (2001). The combination of the configurative perspective and the point-line-field perspective is argued to contribute with knowledge of how urban form generates and supports the emergence of urban centrality and the development of subcentres with implications not only for consumption and mobility, but also for social outcomes such as urban life and equal living conditions. The empirical application aims to illustrate how configurative analysis complement the point-line-field theory in describing the character of the centres and the findings are argued to contribute to the identification of more precise and efficient urban design interventions of how to develop the centres.

It is estimated that more than half of city dwellers in sub-Saharan Africa currently live in deprived urban areas, often called slums or informal settlements, although these terms cover different urban realities. While the first target of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 is “to ensure access for all to adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services and upgrade slums,” there is a huge gap in timely spatial data to support evidence-based policies and monitor progress toward that objective. In this study, we document the potential of Earth Observation (EO) for mapping and characterizing deprived urban areas (DUAs) to narrow this gap. First, we provide a synthesis of user requirements that can be met without resorting to ancillary sources such as censuses and socioeconomic surveys, and we propose a list of cost criteria that should be minimized in EO workflows. Next, we present the city-scale and DUA-scale workflows that we developed based on three case studies and an assessment of their suitability for supporting pro-poor policies, in light of the cost criteria. We also share the main lessons learned and propose some avenues for future research. 

This is not conceived as an exclusive work but rather a demonstrably inclusive one (albeit resistant to the logic of circular reproduction). Within the process of artistic research and a developing practice, new methods might constitute another form of art. The project has been centered upon the idea of a round table at which a number of people with different competences have collaborated productively to build the project. The divergent competences that make up the project team have all contributed to the development of A Place in Europe, and moreover worked to challenge conventional practices and forms of knowledge belonging to the various fields of expertise in order to foster a spirit of experimentation and novelty. The key point of departure for all collaborators has been the value of approaching the topic from a creative base, and in doing so striving to exchange ideas in a productive manner with others, both at the site and within the process of developing the project and presentation. We have also been collectively mindful of the potentially asymmetrical power relations at play in any process during which “we” film and interact with “them”. We do not seek to speak for ”them” but rather use our collective desire to explore a more inclusive society.