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Pidgins and creoles come into being in situations of language contact, when speakers lacking a common language quickly have to create new languages out of diverse and often sparse linguistic raw material. For example, when Europeans started visiting the West African coast in the late 15th century, Africans and Europeans needed a common trade language. To fulfil this need, Pidgin Portuguese and later Pidgin English (and many other trade Pidgins) emerged.

This presentation will employ a diverse range of data visualisations to demonstrate how natural resource conditions - such as land and energy - influence the physical development of cities, and how, once established, the urban spatial structure leads to varying patterns of resource use and relationships between city form, housing and mobility.