Land prices in a Mexican Metropolis, 1988-2006, Guadalajara, Mexico
Edith R. Jimenez Huerta, Heriberto Cruz Solis, and Jesus Rabago Anaya, Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico

Studies of land prices in Latin American cities are scarce. One of the problems with conducting such studies, is the lack of information. For example, for most Mexican cities, there are no public databases recording the prices of land or real estate transactions. Real estate developers and other professionals do have some databases, but they are not open to people outside the firm. It is likely that the unavailability of information on land prices has negative repercussions in the land market, pushing prices unrealistically high; and for the city as a whole, the result is to make it impossible to develop a proper understanding of important underlying aspects of the functioning of the metropolis.

The paper to be presented will introduce a project due to last for one year, with the financial support of a grant from the National Council for Science and Technology in Mexico. The aim of the project is to collect land prices for the period 1988-2006 in the second largest Mexican metropolis, Guadalajara. This length of time covers three presidential periods, within which it will be possible to explore variations in land prices, and to associate them with changes in public policies, national and global economic cyclical changes, etc. The source of land price information is in the advertisements published in a reputable local newspaper that has been in circulation throughout the whole period of study.

This project of land price analysis has a strong territorial component that varies over time: two features that will provide the raw material for constructing a Time Line, which is an excellent tool to help with understanding the material processes that shape cities. The study will produce digital maps of the metropolis, divided into sectors according to income, density and sector of the economy. The maps will be linked to different layers of information; the main one is deflected land prices for 28 years. Some of the others are changes in laws and regulations, changes in the national and global economy, etc. Once the work is finished, it will be joined to another ongoing project, a Time Line depicting the history, through maps, plus descriptions and population figures of the same metropolis. At the conference we will introduce the project and will welcome comments that can help us to improve the methodology, or the final presentation of the information in a Time Line.

Historical Aspects – Urban Planning - Construction Techniques -
An Urban Databank System Model,  The Historical Region Kumkapi from 1996 to 2006
Assist. Prof. Dr. Berna Dikcnar Sel, , Yıldız Technical University, Turkey
Dr.Olcay ÇETİNER, Yıldız Technical University, Turkey

An Urban Databank System Model was generated by proceeding especially on Kumkapı sub-region, where by this model will be providing data input for the planning projects of the historically characteristic regions, urban design projects and architectural design projects that are included within Istanbul Historical Peninsula Project by YTU Faculty of Architecture (BOAT Lab team).

The data bank of the system consist of sight establishied works at building scale, tables that show the physical and the economical status of the region, photographs of the buildings and data produced in computer aided design media. This model was introduced by submittal to the Marmara Municipalities Community and has been an example for municipality management.

Since 1996, different institutions (universities, research centers, related companies etc.) held studies by taking this model as an example.  Some of these studies continue.

In this paper we present the effects of the studies in Kumkapı sub-region at the Istanbul Historical Peninsula, starting with 1996 YTU Faculty of Architecture (BOAT) Laboratory studies and the studies held during the years 1996-2006 from the urban planning and construction techniques point of view.

OpenHistory: an Open Spatial Historical Database
Artem S. Malkov
Andrew V. Korotaev

The OpenHistory project (www.openhistory.net) includes three elements: a spatial database containing historical data series, an Adobe FlexTM -based web interface for history playback and XML Web-services for data access and submission.

The database is designed to include the spatial numeric data series on the following historical entities:

This database will be used for numerical analysis of historical data and forecast modeling. At the moment the database contains population data series for more than 1000 towns and covers the period from 4000 B.C.E. up to the present. Other entities are in the process of data accumulation as well. This database is widely used for mathematical modeling of historical dynamics. For instance, it acts as a background of the urban growth model designed to describe the phase transition of simple agrarian societies to complex agrarian societies and finally to empires.

In a more common way, the project can be used as an interactive presentation of historical processes – a rich web-interface provides user-friendly tools and enhanced user experience for dynamical historical visualization.