O impacto da urbanização na violência : Contraste urbano e rural

A urbanização mais recente em Portugal caracterizou-se por uma bipolarização concentrada em Lisboa e no Porto acompanhada também pelo crescimento de população ao longo do litoral norte e por fim pelo crescimento de algumas cidades mais pequenas. A construção de habitações sociais para albergar famílias mais carenciadas e com dificuldades económicas veio acompanhada também, ao longo do tempo, por um crescimento da violência urbana. Contudo, pode-se constatar que a criminalidade violenta e grave tem diminuído, pelo menos desde 2010. Este estudo tem o objetivo de descrever as diferenças existentes na criminalidade entre uma área predominantemente urbana e outra área predominantemente rural entre 2010 e 2015 com a finalidade de perceber o que existe nas áreas urbanas que não existe nas áreas rurais, para poder estabelecer uma relação com a criminalidade violenta e grave em ambientes urbanos. Para tal, foi calculada a taxa de criminalidade violenta e grave da área do Subdestacamento Territorial de Alcabideche e do Posto Territorial de Merceana, para perceber a incidência criminal deste fenómeno no período de estudo. Foram também conduzidos inquéritos por entrevista a comandantes e militares responsáveis pela investigação criminal em ambos os locais que exerceram funções entre 2010 e 2015. Chegou-se à conclusão que a criminalidade violenta e grave é bastante mais significativa nas áreas urbanas e a principal causa e fonte da maior parte desta criminalidade poderão ser os bairros de habitação social, no caso de Alcabideche, que albergam algumas pessoas de famílias desestruturadas, onde se concentram muitos indivíduos num mesmo local que poderão praticar crimes, nomeadamente, a crimes violentos e graves.

Demanda de las cocinas de inducción aplicado a la parroquia rural El Valle, cantón Cuenca, análisis comparativo 2014-2015

La presente investigación tiene como objetivo realizar un estudio piloto de la demanda de cocinas de inducción del año 2014-2015 y posteriormente un análisis comparativo. Este estudio es aplicado a la parroquia El Valle, perteneciente al cantón Cuenca, excluyendo el área urbana, empleando como objeto de estudio a los jefes de hogar de la parroquia, a través de dos modelos Logit binario con iguales características para realizar la comparación de ambos años. Los principales resultados en el año 2014 muestran que, en relación al tamaño de la muestra en la parroquia rural El Valle, el 33% de la población están dispuestos a adquirir la cocina de inducción, los factores que influyen en la decisión de adquirir la cocina de inducción son: el ingreso obteniendo un efecto positivo y el costo con un efecto negativo. En la estimación del costo se obtiene que, considerando que todos los hogares encuestados de la parroquia rural El Valle adquirirán la cocina de inducción, los costos totales por hogar en promedio es de $573.34. Mientras los resultados del año 2015 son, que el 20% de la población encuestada en la parroquia adquirirán la cocina de inducción, las variables edad y pago de factura eléctrica son las que tienen mayor influencia en el modelo, existiendo una relación inversa en ambas y en la determinación del costo se obtiene que es de $526.70 aproximadamente.

Young adults’ perceptions of and affective bonds to a rural tourism community

Many rural areas, in Sweden and worldwide, experience population decline where the young leave for education and work in urban areas. Employment has declined in several rural industries, such as agriculture, forestry, and fishing, while growing in other industries are often located in urban areas. Politicians and organizations have put much hope in tourism as a tool of rural development, but can tourism help reverse the rural out-migration trend among young adults? This paper explores how tourism affects young inhabitants’ perceptions of and affective bonds to a rural area in Sweden, the ski resort of Sälen. Students from the 1993–1995 elementary school graduating classes were interviewed about their migration history, childhood, and view of and ties to Sälen. The respondents experience that tourism contributes to a more vital community incorporating influences from elsewhere, but without eliminating the positive aspects of rural life. The regular flow of people – tourists, seasonal workers, and entrepreneurs – passing through Sälen presents opportunities to extend one’s social network that are widely appreciated by respondents. The high in and out mobility constitutes a key part of Sälen’s character. Contributions from tourism – such as employment, entertainment, leisure, and opportunities to forge new social relationships – are available during the adult transition, the life phase when rural areas are often perceived as least attractive. Even though out-migration occurs in Sälen, and some respondents still find Sälen too small, tourism has clearly increased the available opportunities and contributed significantly to making Sälen more attractive to young adults.

Young adults in rural tourism areas

This thesis examines how tourism affects conditions for young adults in rural areas. Such a study lies at the intersection of research about tourism impacts, adult transition, and rural areas. The aim is to examine how largescale tourism affects the opportunities for young adults living in rural areas; their perception of place and the perceived opportunities and obstacles that tourism provides. The thesis utilizes a mixed method approach. A quantitative study based on micro-data on individuals identifies the patterns and magnitudes of the mechanisms by which tourism affects population change among young adults. Interview methods are used in the case study area, Sälen, to investigate these mechanisms in depth. Finally, the rural–urban dichotomy is explored in a conceptual study that asks how tourism affects the perception of a local village as either rural or urban. Young inhabitants in rural areas are rarely considered in tourism research; therefore, the main contribution of this thesis is that it illuminates how tourism affects conditions for young adults in rural areas. The thesis reveals a substantial impact on the adult transition, mainly due to easier access to the labor market and a good supply of jobs during the high season. Further, the large number of people passing through creates flows of opportunities to make friends, get a job, or just meet people. All of these factors contribute to high mobility in these places, and to the perception of them as places where things happen. The high mobility in Sälen implies that fixed migrant categories (such as stayers and leavers) are largely insufficient. The tourism environment creates a space that is always under construction and continually producing new social relations mainly perceived as opportunities. Conceptualizing this as a modern rurality is a way to move beyond the often implicit notions of urban as modern and rural as traditional.

Vulnerable Rural Counties: The Changing Rural Landscape, 2000–2010

Understanding the demography of rural America is vital to understanding what programs, interventions and policy initiatives are needed to improve health care access, delivery and outcomes. Overall findings suggest that rural America experienced the recession that ended the 2000–2010 decade more severely than did urban America. Loss of income, declining population and reduced health care resources marked the period for most rural counties. Rural counties will need continued monitoring in the present decade to ascertain whether these adverse trends continue and to identify any policy approaches that can serve to ameliorate losses in health care services.

Air pollution levels measured at traffic hot spots : Brisbane urban corridor study

Air pollution levels were monitored continuously over a period of 4 weeks at four sampling sites along a busy urban corridor in Brisbane. The selected sites were representative of industrial and residential types of urban environment affected by vehicular traffic emissions. The concentration levels of submicrometer particle number, PM2.5, PM10, CO, and NOx were measured 5-10 meters from the road. Meteorological parameters and traffic flow rates were also monitored. The data were analysed in terms of the relationship between monitored pollutants and existing ambient air quality standards. The results indicate that the concentration levels of all pollutants exceeded the ambient air background levels, in certain cases by up to an order of magnitude. While the 24-hr average concentration levels did not exceed the standard, estimates for the annual averages were close to, or even higher than the annual standard levels.

How can land and urban development make houses healthier?

Traditionally, the main focus of the professional community involved with indoor air quality has been indoor pollution sources, preventing or reducing their emissions, as well as lowering the impact of the sources by replacing the polluted indoor air with "fresh" outdoor air. However, urban outdoor air cannot often be considered "fresh", as it contains high concentrations of pollutants emitted from motor vehicles - the main outdoor pollution sources in cities. Evidence from epidemiological studies conducted worldwide demonstrates that outdoor air quality has considerable effects on human health, despite the fact that people spend the majority of their time indoors. This is because pollution from outdoors penetrates indoors and becomes a major constituent of indoor pollution. Urban land and transport development has significant impact on the overall air quality of the urban airshed as well as the pollution concentration in the vicinity of high-density traffic areas. Therefore, an overall improvement in indoor air quality would be achieved by lowering urban airshed pollution, as well as by lowering the impact of the hot spots on indoor air. This paper explores the elements of urban land and vehicle transport developments, their impact on global and local air quality, and how the science of outdoor pollution generation and transport in the air could be utilized in urban development towards lowering indoor air pollution.