The Wandering Frontier. Sahel Spatial Order as Evolutionary Infrastructure

Journal title TERRITORIO
Author/s Filippo De Dominicis
Publishing Year 2017 Issue 2017/81
Language English Pages 5 P. 45-49 File size 282 KB
DOI 10.3280/TR2017-081010
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This paper aims to frame the layout of the Sahel settlement pattern in its historical perspective, as it has been depicted by three internationally renowned Italian, English and French scholars, by calling into question origins and current interpretations of some contested urbanization phenomena that occur today all along the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. Through the analysis provided by Turri, Davidson and de Planhol, which are accompanied by the first descriptions of the European travelers and compared to the most recent geospatial data, the paper will investigate mechanisms and elements that characterize the inhabited Sahelian frontier, pointing out their unstable, drifting nature deeply intertwined with the geographical support, to finally demonstrate its continental extension toward a new form of regional, evolutionary non-urbanization

Keywords: Landscape; urbanization; desert

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Filippo De Dominicis, The Wandering Frontier. Sahel Spatial Order as Evolutionary Infrastructure in "TERRITORIO" 81/2017, pp 45-49, DOI: 10.3280/TR2017-081010