Why Wales Don't Freeze or Kidney-Shaped Airports: Spatial Analysis and Spatial Design

Abstract

Whales are warm bodies in a cold sea. Heat flow is a function of temperature gradient and, given long exposure and the large temperature difference between the interior of the whale's body and its water environment (even with very good insulation), it seems as though whales should freeze. The arrangement of the blood vessels near the surface of the whale's skin creates a counter-current action that prevents this outcome. Kidneys contain similar counter-current processes that perm it concentration and transfer of waste products from blood vessels to urine tract. The shape of the kidney is an important feature in this process. An airport is a transfer point between travel domains in which two unlike carriers, motor vehicles and airplanes, must interact to exchange people and luggage. The exchange is facilitated by kidney-shaped airports. These unlike phenomena share some funatmental spatial properties, which when acknowledged, provide understanding and oppoturnity for design. Do airports have to be kidney-shaped? Certainly they do not, but it helps if they are. Spatial analysis addresses the spatial/temporal context in which things happen, an approach that has proven to be very useful for understanding spatial processes and for contributing to the design of effective spatial systems. Geographers have learned much through spatial analysis but have been little concerned with spatial design. Planners and architects focus on spatial design but often without addressing underlying spatial properties. The advent of GIS refocuses attention on fundament spatial properties; geographers can play a pivotal role in this not interdisciplinary endeavor.