For an Urban History of Milan, Italy: the Role Of
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
FOR AN URBAN HISTORY OF MILAN, ITALY: THE ROLE OF GISCIENCE DISSERTATION Presented to the Graduate Council of Texas State University‐San Marcos in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of PHILOSOPHY by Michele Tucci, B.S., M.S. San Marcos, Texas May 2011 FOR AN URBAN HISTORY OF MILAN, ITALY: THE ROLE OF GISCIENCE Committee Members Approved: ________________________________ Alberto Giordano ________________________________ Sven Fuhrmann ________________________________ Yongmei Lu ________________________________ Rocco W. Ronza Approved: ______________________________________ J. Micheal Willoughby Dean of the Gradute Collage COPYRIGHT by Michele Tucci 2011 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My sincere thanks go to all those people who spent their time and effort to help me complete my studies. My dissertation committee at Texas State University‐San Marcos: Dr. Yongmei Lu who, as a professor first and as a researcher in a project we worked together then, improved and stimulated my knowledge and understanding of quantitative analysis; Dr. Sven Fuhrmann who, in many occasions, transmitted me his passion about cartography, computer cartography and geovisualization; Dr. Rocco W. Ronza who provided keen insight into my topic and valuable suggestions about historical literature; and especially Dr. Alberto Giordano, my dissertation advisor, who, with patience and determination, walked me through this process and taught me the real essence of conducting scientific research. Additional thanks are extended to several members of the stuff at the Geography Department at Texas State University‐San Marcos: Allison Glass‐Smith, Angelika Wahl and Pat Hell‐Jones whose precious suggestions and help in solving bureaucratic issues was fundamental to complete the program. My office mates Matthew Connolly and Christi Townsend for their cathartic function in listening and sharing both good thought and sometimes frustrations of being a doctoral student. I extend my special thanks to my (ex)girlfriend Emily Derkacz who unconditionally supported me with her “Everything is going to be fine” through these four years and taught me everything I know of the America culture. I thank her parents as well: Todd Derkacz and Betsy Robertson who, so kindly, welcomed me as a son in their family making me feel closer to home than I actually was. iv Last but certainly not least my mother: Rosa Maria Domenici who, since I was a child, taught me the importance of having an education in life, trusting me and supporting me regardless the choices I was making even when these led to say good bye to her son for this oversea adventure. Without her I would never have achieved this. Thank you all. This manuscript was submitted on February 17th, 2011. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................... ix ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................................... xi INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ 1 SIGNIFICANCE ................................................................................................................................... 6 MILAN THROUGH THE CENTURIES I. A Brief History of Milan ....................................................................................................... 9 II. Shaping Milan’s Urban History ......................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER I. Studying Urban History through Historical Maps ............................................................. 15 Objectives ............................................................................................................ 15 Methodology ....................................................................................................... 17 Results .................................................................................................................. 25 Discussion ............................................................................................................ 28 II. Layering the Toponymic Tapestry of the City ................................................................... 41 Objectives ............................................................................................................ 41 Methodology ....................................................................................................... 45 Results .................................................................................................................. 49 III. Positional Accuracy, Positional Uncertainty, and Feature Change Detection in Historical Maps: Results of an Experiment ....................................................................................... 73 Objectives ............................................................................................................ 73 Methodology ....................................................................................................... 80 vi Results .................................................................................................................. 83 CONCLUSIONS .............................................................................................................................. 100 First Chapter Achievements ............................................................................... 100 Second Chapter Achievements .......................................................................... 101 Third Chapter Achievements ............................................................................. 103 The Role of Scale ................................................................................................ 104 Future Directions ............................................................................................... 106 REFERENCE LIST ........................................................................................................................... 109 vii LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Probability of urban change for the periods under study. ............................................... 38 2. Comparison between relative RMSE (historical maps vs. historical maps) and absolute RMSE (historical maps vs. 2005 map) ............................................................................... 38 3. Time periods for Object Age and Object Name Age ......................................................... 61 4. Number and percent of street segments by Object Age and Object Name Age .............. 64 5. Mean length (m) of street segments by Object Age and Object Name Age .................... 65 6. The algorithm .................................................................................................................... 93 7. Distance measurement categories: combined level of inaccuracy and uncertainty ........ 94 8. Probability of change and combined levels of inaccuracy and uncertainty ..................... 94 9. Results of the Kruskal–Wallis test ..................................................................................... 99 10. Spatio‐Temporal matrix .................................................................................................. 108 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Milan is ideally placed as Italy’s gateway to Europe......................................................... 13 2. Location of historical walls and gates superimposed on a 2005 map of Milan ................ 14 3. The 1737 Cairolo map (Biblioteca Trivulziana, Milano) .................................................... 30 4. The 1820 Cagnoni map (Biblioteca Trivulziana, Milano) .................................................. 31 5. The 1884 Bassani map (Comune di Milano, Milano) ........................................................ 32 6. Control points and distortion grids of the historical maps under study (maps not to scale) ................................................................................................................................. 33 7. Neighborhood generalization and building amalgamation (map digitizing process) ....... 34 8. Historical map overlays and feature change (green: unchanged zones; red: changed zones) ................................................................................................................................ 34 9. Feature‐change detection (left) and creation of the urban‐change probabilities surface (right). The example is that of changes occurring between 1737 and 1820, draped on the 2005 map .......................................................................................................................... 35 10. Distortion grid and displacement surface of the historical maps relative to the 2005 reference map ................................................................................................................... 36 11. Derivation of the final urban‐change map; the example shown is for the 1737–1820 time interval. ............................................................................................................................. 37 12.