Projects
The Role of Data Visualization in Urban Studies KU Leuven
As large volumes of data become increasingly available, new opportunities arise to harness their potential for urban studies. Data visualization is vital for this purpose, particularly in tackling fuzzy problems that require an explorative process of discovery to re-frame. This research investigates how data visualization can be used to harness big data for domain specific challenges in urban studies. To address this question, I demonstrate ...
Preventive Conservation of Historic Urban Areas Addressing Cultural Values and Socio-Economic Dynamics. Case Study of the Vista Alegre District in Santiago de Cuba KU Leuven
Historic urban areas are threatened continuously by time- and context-specific political, economic, socio-cultural and technological factors that determine the changing nature of socio-economic dynamics, which in turn, also influence the meanings and perceptions of cultural values attributed these areas. Therefore, the interrelationship between cultural values and socio-economic dynamics is essential in heritage preservation. In particular, ...
Brussels Centre for Urban Studies Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Cities and Newcomers: Regulating Neighbourhoods of Arrival in Periods of Urban Transition, 1880-1914 and 1980-2015 Vrije Universiteit Brussel
The Emergent Urbanism(s) of Suburbio, GuayaquilA spatial ethnography of incremental grassroots development in times of a changing society and environment KU Leuven
Guayaquil – Ecuador’s main port and largest settlement – is a 70 per cent self-built city located amidst the most biodiverse estuarine complex of the South Pacific: the Guayas River Estuary. The city’s first suburbs proliferated in ecologically fragile zones in which the urban fabric and public spaces were crafted incrementally by various generations and through a multitude of design decisions. These now consolidated low-income neighbourhoods ...
Essays in development economics KU Leuven
This dissertation collects four essays that study how the environment in which people reside shapes their well-being and economic opportunities. Starting from the observation that, in spite of impressive growth accelerations in some resource-rich developing countries, human development indicators are lagging behind, the first two essays investigate how natural resource wealth affects government prioritization of human capital building. The ...
Essays in Development Economics: Evidence from East Africa KU Leuven
This dissertation is divided into four chapters, each built around a different research paper that falls under the broad field of `development economics'. The analysis in all chapters is mostly empirical, relying on primary data collected in recent years from East Africa. Of course, theory plays a key role in directing the analysis. Chapters 1 and 2 study different aspects of female empowerment and household decisions in Tanzania. Chapters 3 ...