This paper deals with the use of satellite QuickBird images to find traces of past human activity in the ancient territory of Hierapolis (Turkey). This is one of the most important archaeological sites in Turkey, and in 1988 it was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage list. Although over the years the archaeological site of Hierapolis has been excavated, restored and well documented, up to no...

Ancient cities as documented by archaeologists and historians have considerable relevance for a broader understanding of modern cities and general processes of urbanization. This article reviews three themes that illustrate such relevance: sprawl, squatter settlements and urban sustainability. Archaeology’s potential for illuminating these and other topics, however, remains largely unrealized b...

A city and its transportation network are both complicated systems. Fractal geometry provides an effective way to describe the complex property of geographical features. This paper uses a modified box-counting method to describe the fractal property of urban transportation networks. Assuming that human settlements of different sizes are all operated by the same growth procedure, this paper inve...

This article analyses DMSP/OLS night-time imagery as an information source to detect human settlements and to estimate the urban population in the Amazon region. DMSP/OLS single orbits were used to generate a DMSP stable light mosaic for 2002, in which most of the urban settlements with a population higher than 5000 inhabitants were precisely identified. DMSP/OLS night-time mosaic images from 1...

The paper reviews the relationship between spatial and transportation planning in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region of Sub-Saharan Africa. It argues that most urbanisation in the region has largely occurred subsequent to the 1950s and, accordingly, urban development has been profoundly and negatively affected by the (misguided) spatial and institutional tenets of modernis...

more than 50% of the global population already lives in urban settlements which are projected to absorb almost all the global population growth to 2050, amounting to some additional three billion people. over the next decades the increase in rural population in many developing countries will be overshadowed by population flows to cities. rural populations globally are expected to peak at a leve...

growing population and increasing urbanization has led to the expansion of informal settlements. informal settlements in developing countries, more than other urban tissues are exposed to various risks and natural disasters. this type of settlements, often develop and spread without regard to natural hazards, with no specific plan and no attention to regulations. expansion of informal settlemen...