Földrajzi Közlemények

LINEAR CITY: A R ADICAL CONCEPT FOR URBAN RATIONALISATION THAT KEEPS REVIVING

2024-12-23T17:17:30+00:00

In January 2021, Saudi Arabia first published the vision of a 170-kilometer-long city on a single axis stretching from the Red Sea across the mountains of Tabuk Province to the Arabian Desert. Earthwork began in October 2022 and this urban utopia keeps fascinating the world. Nevertheless, the concept of a city organised along a single axis is not unexemplary in urbanism. Spanish architect Arturo Soría y Mata was the first to formulate the idea of a linear city in a

programmatic way in 1882, which he would have applied for Madrid. 150 years have passed from the original idea to present day and the concept of the linear city appears at various points in time and space. This research focuses on linear city ideas that can be considered antitypes of the Saudi vision. Namely, Soría’s Ciudad Lineal, the Soviet plan for Magnitogorsk and The Continuous City of Alan Boutwell and Michael Mitchell concentrate space and limit the main

movement of users to one direction – along a longitudinal axis. As such, this determining decision has a crucial effect on planning, operation and the lives of inhabitants. The core of this paper is the comparative analysis of similarities and differencies, advantages and disadvantages of four linear city concepts from different eras. Contemporary publications and the small number of existing comparative studies provide the basis for drawing the storyline of the linear city and for interpreting them in the history of urbanism. Such a paper is all the more necessary since the Saudi vision seems to be the first opportunity to fully realise ’The Linear City’ existing largely in the form of theories, sketches and blueprints only. After the failure of similar attempts, this urban utopia cannot avoid neither previous lessons nor hinders if it wishes to revive the recurring idea of urban revolution and rationalisation.

DIVIDED COUNTRY, CONTESTED CITY(SCAPE): THE DIMENSIONS OF THE NORTHERN IRELAND CONFLICT AND ITS REPRESENTATION ON THE BELFAST POLITICAL MURALS

2024-12-23T17:17:35+00:00

The quarter-century following the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) is considered a true success story in Northern Ireland. The decades of terror came to an end. However, Northern Ireland, as its capital, Belfast, still remains divided by the unionism and nationalism. In the study, I attempt to provide a comprehensive overview of the Northern Ireland conflict through urban geopolitics. The main goal of the study is to draw attention to the complex dimensions of the Northern Ireland conflict by the examine of the historical background, the complexity of the conflict-related identities and the urban representation of the conflict. Finally, the study displays the urban representation of the conflict and the spatial constructing of the opposing sides by the political murals of Belfast. The tradition of political murals is as old as the Northern Ireland conflict itself, and through these street artworks, we can understand the history of the conflict, its escalation and reconciliation, as well as the identities of the opposing sides, the Irish nationalists and the British unionists. These murals are storytellers, whose narrate the history of the Northern Ireland conflict, and actively form the space of Belfast city.

INDUSTRY 4.0 AND EMPLOYMENT IN THE HUNGARIAN LIGHT INDUSTRY BASED ON EMPIRICAL RESEARCH

2024-12-23T17:17:37+00:00

The fourth industrial revolution that unfolded in the last decade represents both a challenge and an opportunity for the Hungarian light industry, which has been struggling with serious difficulties for decades. Based on empirical research (company interviews), the study examines how widespread the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies is in the textile, clothing, leather and shoe industry (TCLS sector), and how it affects their employment. We found that the application of new technologies is less advanced in these branches even today. For this reason, there has been no spectacular change in the number and composition of the employed until today. This is also related to the particularities of the sector and to the unfavourable characteristics of the employed workforce. In fact, due to these factors, the new technologies of the fourth industrial revolution do not even represent a real opportunity for many enterprises in the TCLS sector in the coming years.

SPACE-USE-BASED ANALISYS OF THE DEVELOPMENT PATHS OF INFORMAL URBAN GREEN SPACES IN SZEGED

2024-12-23T17:17:39+00:00

Both the literature, and the main goals of the European Union emphasise the importance of sustainable urban planning and the more efficient use of urban green spaces. This also includes informal urban green spaces, which in many cases, have only been used in alternative ways, and whose important feature is the lack of regulation, which can lead to unique green space usage habits and activities. The aim of this research was to examine the main characteristics of the people using informal green spaces, their space use habits, especially the possible appearances of deviances. During the research, 14 sample areas from Szeged, Hungary were examined using pre-compiled survey data sheets with the method of field observation for 12 times between 2020.09.24. and 2021.07.16. In the years of 2022 and 2023 benchmarking follow-up participatory observations were conducted. As a result, we found that informal urban green spaces in Szeged are characterized by a strong diversity, for example in terms of the number of their users, which can be influenced by several factors. One of the most important is how large the green space is, how easily it is accessible, how diverse the available functions and ecosystem services are, and at what time and under what weather conditions the observation took place. Younger adults are the most frequent visitors of the investigated sample areas, where illegal activities also occur in many cases. However, these activities only turn into real conflicts in the case of the most visited green spaces, and to avoid them we have outlined four urban development scenarios: Laissez faire, application of soft or hard urban development tools, and the privatization of urban greenspaces.

THE BEHAVIOUR OF THE TEMPERATURE INVERSION IN THE MICROCLIMATE SYSTEM OF THE MOHOS SINKHOLE AT 2023 AUTUMN

2024-12-23T17:17:41+00:00

The sinkholes of the Bükk plateau appear as climatic anomalies. Due to the sinkhole’s morphometry, their dish-like, concave geometry, they collect the cold air layers from their environment by gravity and further cool it by extreme radiation processes. Thus, they can be characterized by significantly lower minimum temperature compared to their surroundings, if the conditions of the build-up are given. Although, the build-up of the inversed air stratification is not regular in every case. Geomorphologic factors and the current surface coverage of the sinkhole influences the albedo of the surface, moreover it is directly exposed to solar radiation and external weather impact. The Institute of Geography and Geoinformatics of the University of Miskolc carries out measurements in the Mohos sinkhole of Zsidó meadow, which representatively provides an outstanding medium for the understanding of the microclimate of the sinkholes. The variety of the transitional seasons enables the observation of the presence of these extremities and their study for better understanding of these phenomenon. This article summarizes the results of the complex physical geographic and meteorological study carried out in the Mohos sinkhole in the fall of 2023. Based on the records of the National Meteorological Service, the investigated autumn season of 2023 had the highest national average temperature in Hungary since the beginning of the national measurements (1901). Despite of the extremely warm weather conditions, the minimum temperature in the sinkhole fell below zero 56 days (out of the 91 days of the season), and exceeded the -10ˇC on 11 days, -15ˇC three times, and reached the lowest recorded temperature at 19.9ˇC at the end of November. These numbers show the real extremity of the sinkhole’s microclimate.