BENV2426 EXPERIMENTAL MODELLING: 2012

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Final Description File

Link to High Res Image: http://www.gamefront.com/files/21872639/Description+File.png

Final Constructed Physical Model

Laser Cut Model Construction Process

Final Digital Model and Iterations

Final Digital Model

Iterations

Design Stage for Final laser Cut Model

Suren N Pakeri Z3334707
Assignment 2 Tier 2 Submission – Reviews

Second major source: Geographical Data

Geographical data is essential for establishing successful human settlements.
Geographical data is a collective array of data spaning from physical geography
assessments to service routes to human geography; just to mention a few.

Physical geographic assessments: Physical Geography is a sub-discipline of two
much larger fields of study - Geography and Earth Sciences. The main purpose of
Physical Geography is to explain the spatial characteristics of the various natural
phenomena associated with the Earth's hydrosphere, biosphere, atmosphere, and
lithosphere.

Service routes: Service routes are routes utilised by privet and public transportation
to arrive at a desired location.

Human geography: Human geography is one of the two major branches of
geography (versus physical geography) and is often called cultural geography.
Human geography is the study of the many cultural aspects found throughout the
world and how they relate to the spaces and places where they originate and then
travel as people continually move across various areas.

From my own experience with geographic data; geographic data is stored then
managed using programmes such as ArcGIS to present geographical data,
document geographical changes and run numerous geographical analyses to
achieve a successful human settlement.

Different Kinds (and Notions) of Geographic Databases
• Geographic information system (GIS)
• Land information system (LIS)
• Cartographic databases

Geography data comes in three basic forms:
Map data: Map data contains the location and shape of geographic features. Maps
use three basic shapes to present real-world features: points, lines, and areas
(called polygons).

Attribute data: Attribute (tabular) data is the descriptive data that GIS links to map
features. Attribute data is collected and compiled for specific areas like states,
census tracts, cities, and so on and often comes packaged with map data. When
implementing a GIS, the most common sources of attribute data are an individual’s
organization's databases combined with data sets that can be bought or acquire from
other sources to fill in gaps.

Image data: Image data ranges from satellite images and aerial photographs to
scanned maps (maps that have been converted from printed to digital format).

Data Models
Data models are the rules the GIS follows, such as "county lines do not overlap," and
are essential for defining what is in the GIS as well as supporting the use of GIS
software. All spatial data models fall into two basic categories:

Vector data model: Discrete features, such as customer locations and data
summarized by area, are usually represented using the vector model.
Raster data model: Continuous numeric values, such as elevation, and continuous
categories, such as vegetation types, are represented using the raster model.

Some Other Applications of Geographic Databases
• Automated Mapping / Facility Management (AM/FM)
- Spatial data of a specific kind (utility lines), primarily graphic-oriented.
• Environmental Monitoring
- Remote Sensing: recording reflection of various kinds of radiation from the
earth's surface; no concept of "objects"; fixed resolution (e.g., 30*30 meters).
• Census
- importance of topological information, primarily about spatial inclusion (who
lives in which district)
- clear identification of objects (buildings) and their boundaries (administrative
boundaries of parcels, towns, etc.)
- parcel based (partition of the earth's surface) additional information such as
roads, different kinds of spatial subdivisions (school districts, voting districts).

Bibliography
http://www.spatial.maine.edu/~max/EDBT1.html
http://www.physicalgeography.net/
http://www.gis.com/content/data-types-and-models
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~jeanie/AUSTRALI2.html
http://geography.about.com/od/culturalgeography/a/humangeography.htm

Assignment 2 Tier 1

Suren N Pakeri Z3334707
Assignment 2 Tier 1 Submission – Reviews

First major source: Human Settlements
Human settlements means the totality of the human community - whether city, town
or village - with all the social, material, organizational, spiritual and cultural elements
that sustain it. The fabric of human settlements consists of physical elements and
services to which these elements provide the material support. The physical
components comprise.

Shelter: i.e. the superstructures of different shapes, size, type and materials erected
by mankind for security, privacy and protection from the elements and for his
singularity within a community.

Infrastructure: i.e. the complex networks designed to deliver to or remove from the
shelter people, goods, energy or information.

Services: cover those required by a community for the fulfilment of its functions as a
social body, such as education, health, culture, welfare, recreation and nutrition.4
Settlements are a prerequisite for social and economic development, in that no
social progress for sustainable economic growth can occur without efficient
settlements systems and settlement networks.

Urbanisation
The total urban population in the region at present is about 850 million containing
40% of the world urban population. By the year 2000, an estimated 300 million more
population will be added during the decade in urban areas in the region, including 14
of the world's 22 mega-cities with more than 10,000,000 people.
Urbanisation will however come with its issues, such as: Economic issues, Housing
and infrastructure issues, Social issues, Environmental issues.
Of all the above mentioned issues, social and natural sustainability are important for
sustainable development of human settlements (Yoshino, 1994). Coping with
flooding and drought; getting potable water, breathable air, and a stable
environment; and so forth have been prime concerns of urban planners, engineers,
governments, and citizenry for thousands of years (Priscoli, 1998). Climate change
simply adds to the challenge. Some of the adaptations probably would take place
autonomously, but some adaptations may be much improved by taking climate into
account explicitly.

Not all areas within human settlements are sufficient for populations to flourish, as
this is realised, a move will take place, gradually but surely. Thus reshaping the
structure of the settlement.
Moving from rural to urban areas within a settlement seems to be a drastic move but
the human gene pool has moved over vast areas of land as the paragraph below
shall prove.

The availability of a large data set of DNA samples from 11,000 individuals
distributed worldwide and typed at hundreds of genetic markers has led to the
description of extremely strong patterns in the geographic distribution of genetic
diversity in humans. Genetic differentiation between populations increases
essentially linearly with geographic distance, computed along landmasses. Even
more striking is the observation that geographic distance along landmasses from
East Africa (a likely origin of anatomically modern humans) is an excellent predictor
of the genetic diversity of individual populations throughout the world. Indeed,
genetic diversity decreases smoothly with increasing geographic distance from
Africa.

Summary

Human settlements are established to provide a haven for populations to thrive.
From what I gather the progression of a settlement depends on its era, technology,
inhabitants, population, economic stability, geographic location, geographical
surroundings and its physiography.
Settlements and the patterns they etch on Earth’s surface provide not only data on
current economic and social aspects of human existence but also a historical record.
Today’s settlement patterns, evident on a map, provide information about past
settlement patterns and processes, and the boundaries of counties and other
political entities indicate how people organized the land as they settled it.

Bibliography

http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/globaled/go/pid/1820#
http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0002929707631310/1-s2.0-S0002929707631310-
main.pdf?_tid=44947baf46671bf0338c1159f8a124e3&acdnat=1334070048_2cbd
fa8a3224fbdcc6c62b0e63420136
http://www.unescap.org/huset/whatis.htm
http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg2/pdf/wg2tarchap7.pdf
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/standards/12/index.html