Georges Allaert

Colouring Inside What Lines? Interference of the Urban Growth Boundary and the Political–Administrative Border of Brussels

This paper discusses the relationship between the political–administrative border and the urban growth boundary (UGB) around Brussels, the Belgian capital. Our hypothesis is that the interests of the various regions and language groups in Belgium interfere strongly with urban planning policies, implying that the administrative border of the Brussels-Capital Region (BCR) operates in reality as an unintended UGB. Based on demographics, commuter data and property market features, we argue that this situation may cause excessive urban compaction of the BCR, while spillover effects to municipalities that are rather distant from Brussels may result in undesired forms of suburbanization and long-distance commuting.

Increasing societal discomfort about a dominant restrictive planning discourse on open space in Flanders/Belgium

The specific spatial context in the densely urbanized northern part of Belgium, Flanders, offers a sort of laboratory conditions to study, design and plan fragments of open space in an urbanizing context. A chronological analysis of documents in three periods relevant to Flemish spatial planning policy allows us to conclude that one single planning discourse has reigned spatial planning in Flanders already since the design of the first zoning plans 45 years ago. This planning discourse considers city and countryside as two separate and separated entities. Today, however, the validity of this dominant discourse is increasingly under pressure. An obvious societal need appears to be growing to turn around the perception of a possible contradiction between city and countryside. In a densely urbanized spatial context, alternative planning discourses should be based on the idea of open spaces that offer complementary services within a partnership between city and countryside.

A GIS tool for flood risk analysis in Flanders (Belgium)

In recent decades, the low-lying Flanders region (Belgium) has fallen victim to numerous flood events, causing substantial damage to buildings and infrastructure. In response to this, the Flemish government proposed a new approach that considers the level of risk as method of safety measurement. Using geographical information systems, this evolution has led to a comprehensive risk methodology, and more recently to the development of a flood risk assessment tool called LATIS. By estimating the potential damage and the number of casualties during a flood event, LATIS offers the possibility of performing risk analysis in a fast and effective way. This paper presents a brief overview of the currently used methodology for flood risk management in Flanders and its implementation in the LATIS tool. The usefulness of this new tool is demonstrated by a sequence of risk calculations, performed in the framework of climate change impacts on flood risk in Flanders.

Determining the fill rate for a periodic review inventory policy with capacitated replenishments, lost sales and zero lead time

In this paper we consider a periodic review order-up-to inventory system with capacitated replenishments, lost sales and zero lead time. We consider discrete demand. It is shown that the initial stock levels of the different review periods form a Markov chain and we determine the transition matrix. Furthermore we study for what probability mass functions of the review period demand the Markov chain has a unique stationary distribution. Finally, we present a method to determine the fill rate.

Disaster Management and Risk Reduction: Impacts of Sea Level Rise and Other Hazards Related to Tsunamis on Syrian Coastal Zone

The rapid development of economic construction and urbanization, highly dense population, infrastructure and traffic, all have caused a lot of troubles to the main cities in the Syrian coastal region. In addition, this region which is located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and among Arabian, African and European Asian plates is suffering from increasing the number of natural and man-made disasters such as earthquakes, climate change, flash flooding, and mainly the expected sea level rise. This rise effect often depends on many elements, such as seismic hazard, vulnerability, exposure and emergency response and recovery capability. It is not possible to completely avoid this rise, but the sufferings can be minimized by creating proper awareness of this hazard and its impacts through developing an integrated system of the geographical and environmental data collection and management tools with simulation and decision tools for risk reduction and assessment. Great change becomes to integrated management and more to eco-environmental safety construction, especially to the prevention for disasters destroyed structure as sea level rise. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to address the need for an integrated disaster risk management in Syrian coastal zone. This will help to manage the risk of these disasters and hazards in a more effective manner through linking up disaster management more closely and consistently with urban planning and management.

Scientific Research Based Optimisation and Geo-information Technologies for Integrating Environmental Planning in Disaster Management

Natural and environmental disasters have profound social, economic, psychological, and demographic effects on the stricken individuals and communities. The literature of disaster management of the 21th Century has pointed out that there is a missing part in the knowledge, scientific research, and technological development that can optimise disaster risk reduction. With the improvement of dynamic optimisation and geo-information technologies, it has become very important to determine optimal solutions based on the stability and accuracy of the measurements that support disaster management and risk reduction. However, a scientific approach to the solution of these disasters requires robotic algorithms that can provide a degree of functionality for spatial representation and flexibility suitable for quickly creating optimal solution that account for the uncertainty present in the changing environment of these disasters. Moreover, the volume of data collected for these disasters is growing rapidly, and sophisticated means to optimise this volume in a consistent, dynamic and economical procedure are essential. This chapter effectively links wider strategic aims of bringing together innovative ways of thinking based on scientific research, knowledge and technology in many scientific disciplines to providing optimal solutions for disaster management and risk reduction. Real-life applications using these disciplines will be presented.

Climate change and potential impacts on the structure of human activities: an analysis of the scale of the Flanders/Belgium region

Research into climate change is very much on the worldwide agenda and Flanders and Belgium are no different. Climate discourse in recent decades has mainly focused on the issue of mitigation. Through a better understanding and assessment of climate challenges, adaptation arises as a complementary strategy to mitigation. It is widely recognized that deltas worldwide, where high population densities, rich agricultural resources, high-value infrastructure, and large freshwater flows that converge at the sea, are potentially highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Belgium and the Netherlands are the two most vulnerable countries in the Northern Central Europe, as both are part of the Rhine-Meuse-Scheldt-delta (RMS-delta). In this paper the potential impacts for the structures of human activities (i.e. residential and economic) in relation to climate change are described for the Flanders region as part of the ongoing research project CcASPAR. This acronym stands for ‘Climate change And Changes in SPAtial structures in Flanders–Research project’ (2009–2012), funded by the Flanders Institute for Innovation through Science and Technology (IWT), the project is oriented towards preparing policy in the domain of adaptation possibilities in response to climate change. The aim of the research project is to formulate a spatial adaptation strategy for Flanders. The aim of this paper is to conclude on the one hand some of Flanders’s sensitivities in relation to the expected primary effects of climate change. On the other hand a reflection is made on a methodology to formulate preconditions as a scientific basis for further research by design on integrated adaptation options for the future spatial developments in function to upgrade Flanders resilience in relation to climate change challenges.

Book Review: The Stated Preference Approach to Environmental Valuation by Richard T. Carson

The Stated Preference Approach to Environmental Valuation, by Richard T. Carson. Hampshire, United Kingdom, Ashgate, 3 volumes, 2007. 593pp. (vol. 1); 639 pp. (vol. 2), 548 pp. (vol. 3). ISBN: 978-0-7546-2334-2

Book Review: Environmental Valuation, Interregional and Intraregional Perspectives by John L. Carruthers and Bill Mundy

Environmental Valuation, Interregional and Intraregional Perspectives, by John L. Carruthers and Bill Mundy. Aldershot (UK), Burlington (USA), Ashgate, 2006. 305 pp. ISBN 0-7546-4471-5

Book Review: Methodologies, Models and Instruments for Rural and Urban Land Management

Methodologies, Models and Instruments for Rural and Urban Land Management, by Mark Deakin, Robert Dixon-Gough and Reinfield Mansberger. Ashgate, 2004. 172pp. ISBN 0-7546-3415-9