2 results
Cities as biological computers
- Claudia Pasquero, Marco Poletto
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- Journal:
- arq: Architectural Research Quarterly / Volume 20 / Issue 1 / March 2016
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 20 July 2016, pp. 10-19
- Print publication:
- March 2016
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- Article
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In this paper the authors propose a conceptual model and a bio-computational design method to articulate the world's Urbansphere, suggesting new terms for its co-evolution with the Biosphere.
The proposed model responds to principles of biological self-organisation, and operates by embedding a numerical/computational engine, a living Physarum polycephalum, onto a spatial/morphogenetic substratum, a Satellite driven informational territory. This integration is embodied in the Physarum Machine, a bio-digital design apparatus conceived by the authors and further developed within the Urban Morphogenesis Lab at the UCL in London.
The use of specifically designed apparatus of material computation to demonstrate and solve problems of urban morphogenesis is not new and the authors refer to the work of German Architect Frei Otto and his theory for the occupation and connection of territories.
This research leads to a notion of bio-city of the future where manmade infrastructures and non-human biological systems will constitute parts of a single biotechnological whole. To this respect it can be read as a manifesto for the extension of biotechnology to the scale of the Biosphere (biosphere geo-engineering) by expanding the scope and material articulation of global informational and energetic infrastructures (the internet of things and the internet of energy).
In the tradition of design based research, the paper also suggests an application of the proposed model to a specific case study demonstrating its efficacy in the re-conceptualization of the post-industrial and ecologically depleted landscapes of eastern Arizona. In conclusion the experiment describes the potential of augmenting materiality through sensors and microprocessors so that it would become possible to harvest the computational power latent in micro-organisms like the slime mould.
The dream outlined here is for an era where descriptive computation will be superseded by our capability to simulate and compute through the world that surrounds us.
4 - Particle motion in a sea of eddies
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- By Claudia Pasquero, ESS University of California, Irvine, California, USA, Annalisa Bracco, Physical Oceanography Dept., Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA, Antonello Provenzale, ISAC-CNR, Torino, CIMA, Savona, Italy, Jeffrey B. Weiss, PAOS University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA
- Edited by Annalisa Griffa, University of Miami, A. D. Kirwan, Jr., University of Delaware, Arthur J. Mariano, University of Miami, Tamay Özgökmen, University of Miami, H. Thomas Rossby, University of Rhode Island
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- Book:
- Lagrangian Analysis and Prediction of Coastal and Ocean Dynamics
- Published online:
- 07 September 2009
- Print publication:
- 10 May 2007, pp 89-118
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Summary
Abstract
As more high-resolution observations become available, our view of ocean mesoscale turbulence more closely becomes that of a “sea of eddies.” The presence of the coherent vortices significantly affects the dynamics and the statistical properties of mesoscale flows, with important consequences on tracer dispersion and ocean stirring and mixing processes. Here we review some of the properties of particle transport in vortex-dominated flows, concentrating on the statistical properties induced by the presence of an ensemble of vortices. We discuss a possible parameterization of particle dispersion in vortex-dominated flows, adopting the view that ocean mesoscale turbulence is a two-component fluid which includes intense, localized vortical structures with non-local effects immersed in a Kolmogorovian, low-energy turbulent background which has mostly local effects. Finally, we report on some recent results regarding the role of coherent mesoscale eddies in marine ecosystem functioning, which is related to the effects that vortices have on nutrient supply.
Introduction
The ocean transports heat, salt, momentum and vorticity, nutrients and pollutants, and many other material and dynamical quantities across its vast spaces. Some of these transport processes are at the heart of the mechanisms of climate variability and of marine ecosystem functioning. In addition, a large portion of the available data on ocean dynamics are in the form of float and drifter trajectories. These provide a Lagrangian view of the ocean circulation which is not always easy to disentangle.