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The island environment has unique characteristics in terms of structures, functioning and processes involved in its genesis and dynamics. Combined with these specificities, it consists of unique geoecological systems of relevant scientific, ecological and sociocultural interest, especially for the local population. These particularities require management practices from systemic and participatory perspectives, capable of understanding the interrelationships between ecological and sociocultural aspects in the incessant re/construction of landscapes and in determining quality of life. Thus, the present research had as its theoretical basis the Geoecology of landscapes, in the direction of qualitative analysis, aiming to understand the limitations, potentialities of each local environmental system and their interactions with the different forms of land use and occupation. To achieve the results, a methodological guide was followed based on a bibliographic survey (including legal regulations focused on environmental management) and cartography, field research and application of geoprocessing in cartographic analysis and preparation through the use of Landsat, SRTM images and WorldView 2. Although generally presenting landscapes in good states of conservation, the results call for integrated and participatory environmental management interventions, from the perspective of conserving biodiversity and traditional communities, aiming at sustainability in the exploitation of local natural resources, especially in the application of strategic actions in the development of tourism, promoting greater inclusion and prevention of land conflicts in the medium and long term. As a mitigating and preventive strategy for socioenvironmental impacts, functional zoning was presented at a scale of 1:150,000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article has the objective of study the inter-island aerial accessibility in the Azores Islands (Portugal). As a space with a particular territorial fragmentation and, furthermore, distant between the different islands, air transport is of vital importance for the socioeconomic development of the Archipelago, promoting the mobility of residents and the increase in tourism. This is penalized in the Azores by the low demographic and economic weight, and also by the notorious imbalance between islands. Methodologically, we study several accessibility parameters, focusing on hourly operations, since it is the one that we detected that presents the worst ratios. For this, we take the inter-island air schedules of 12 years (2009-2020) of the winter seasons, with a greater probability of use by residents and, therefore, for reasons of travel related to business, health, administration, etc. As a result of this article, we discovered that although positive work has been done with the introduction of air public service obligations, imposing a certain number of frequencies, seats, rate caps, etc., the little interest in working in an adaptation of the operating hours based on demand, is leading to availability of time for travelers at destination - in a round-trip operation on the same day, very frequent in inter-island mobility, hardly positive for travelers in more than 70% of the operational routes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production of the metropolitan peripheries in Latin America has been characterized by the development of urban, residential and commercial enclaves. These enclaves encompass both large urban housing projects of social interest and subdivisions and gated communities for high-income populations. Both peripheries respond to very different social reasons but have a common spatial logic: the enclave, which deepens the isolation and social distance with its surroundings, generating segregation and fragmentation. We seek to rescue the social and spatial processes of 'enclosing' or 'insularity' in two cases: a gated community in the northeast -- Zona Esmeralda-- and a social housing urban complex in the east --San Buenaventura--, both bordering the metropolitan area of the Mexico Valley. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines an apparent paradox at the heart of Chamoiseau's work: a postmodern embrace of diaspora and mobility and, simultaneously, a resolutely local and island-based agenda. She identifies a fault line between his theory (essays, interviews, and especially his collaborative ventures with Glissant) and his fiction, which remains resolutely trained on Martinique. This supposed “insularity" has meant that his fiction has been read as a nostalgic lament for an idealized past. Rather than fetishizing the past, McCusker suggests instead that his island-centredness allows Chamoiseau to engage more profoundly with the histories of slavery. Increasingly, indeed, the underground functions as a powerful alternative to the surface, and superficial, spaces of historical and cultural amnesia explored in earlier novels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]