Spatial Econometrics is a rapidly evolving field born from the joint efforts of economists, statisticians, econometricians and regional scientists. The book provides the reader with a broad view of the topic by including both methodological and application papers. Indeed the application papers relate to a number of diverse scientific fields ranging from hedonic models of house pricing to demography, from health care to regional economics, from the analysis of R&D spillovers to the study of retail market spatial characteristics. Particular emphasis is given to regional economic applications of spatial econometrics methods with a number of contributions specifically focused on the spatial concentration of economic activities and agglomeration, regional paths of economic growth, regional convergence of income and productivity and the evolution of regional employment. Most of the papers appearing in this book were solicited from the International Workshop on Spatial Econometrics and Statistics held in Rome (Italy) in 2006.

Regional development is attracting the attention of policy makers and scientists again, as regions, urban centers and rural areas, experience substantial pressures, particularly in Europe, as a consequence of globalization and geopolitical changes which lead to changes in spatial structures and dynamics. This book is based on the contributions of Greek regional science research presented at the 2006 Congress of the European Regional Science Association at Volos, Greece. The contributions selected to be presented in this book address these changes offering a fresh look into regional development. They provide an overview of regional development concerns from Greek regional scientists but the issues discussed pervade Greek particularities and stimulate thinking about regional science, regional development and regional policy in the early twenty-first century.

There are many reasons why strategic intelligence is required to support policy decisions. These primarily stem from the nature of today's kno- edge society with two contrasting trends. On the one hand, there is a trend of increasing human intelligence in the economic, social and political s- tems. On the other hand, there is a trend towards dissolving certainties about the problems and solutions of today's society. Clearly, more inf- mation does not necessary imply more certainties on how to act. What is more, the same facts are often interpreted in markedly different ways: the same policy relevant information can - and often does - results in confli- ing framing of a problem by different stakeholders. This is mainly due to competing assumptions, rather then because of inconsistent facts. The- fore, it is not surprising that policy-makers are calling for strategic intel- gence to support their understanding of today's challenges, including the relevant aspects of science and technology, their impact and their possible future developments. Over the last 15 years, Europe has rapidly adopted the practice of dev- oping and using Impact Assessment (IA) tools to support decision-making. Formal procedures and guidance for IA are well established within the European Commission and in most EU Member States. The adoption of IA procedures alone, however, does not guarantee that every policy domain is actually using the full potential of these assessment tools in the preparation of policies and legislation.

Coastal zones play a key role in Earth System functioning and form an "edge for society" providing a significant contribution to the life support systems. Goods and services derived from coastal systems depend strongly on multiple transboundary interactions with the land, atmosphere, open ocean and sea bottom. Increasing demands on coastal resources driven by human habitation, food security, recreation and transportation accelerate the exploitation of the coastal landscape and water bodies. Many coastal areas and human activities are subject to increasing risks from natural and man-induced hazards such as flooding resulting from major changes in hydrology of river systems that has reached a global scale. Changes in the hydrological cycle coupled with changes in land and water management alter fluxes of materials transmitted from river catchments to the coastal zone, which have a major effect on coastal ecosystems. The increasing complexity of underlying processes and forcing functions that drive changes on coastal systems are witnessed at a multiplicity of temporal and spatial scales.

Participatory Processes for Natural Resource Management Ortwin Renn University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany Need for analytic-deliberative processes Inviting the public to be part of the decision making process in natural resource management has been a major objective in European and American environmental policy arenas. The US-National Academy of Sciences has encouraged environmental protection agencies to foster citizen participation and public involvement for making environmental policy making and natural resource management more effective and democratic (Stern and Fineberg 1996). The report emphasizes the need for a combination of assessment and dialogue which the authors have framed the "analytic-deliberative" approach. Unfortunately, early public involvement of the public in deliberative processes may compromise, however, the objective of efficient and effective policy implementation or violate the principle of fairness (Cross 1998, Okrent 1998). Another problem is that the public consists of many groups with different value structures and preferences. Without a systematic procedure to reach consensus on values and preferences, the public's position often appears as unclear (Coglianese 1997, Rossi 1997). Participatory processes are thus needed that combine technical expertise, rational decision making, and public values and preferences. How can and should natural resource managers collect public preferences, integrate public input into the management process, and assign the appropriate roles to technical experts, stakeholders (i. e.

The International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling is the premier research forum for Geographic Information Science. The Symposium is particularly strong in respect to identifying significant new developments in this field. The papers published in this volume are carefully refereed by an international programme committee composed of experts in various areas of GIS who are especially renowned for their scientific innovation.

Geographies of Transport and Mobility aims to provide a comprehensive and evidenced account of the intellectual and pragmatic challenges for personal mobility in the twenty-first century. In doing so, it argues that geographers have a key role to play in shaping academic and policy debates on how personal mobility can become more sustainable. The book is structured in three parts. Part I explores how personal mobility has evolved since the mid-nineteenth century, plotting the intricate relationship between new forms of mobile technology, urban planning and design and social practices. Part II examines how researchers study transport and mobility, and outlines the different intellectual trajectories of transport geography and geographies of mobilities. Part III then outlines and discusses the discourse of sustainable mobility that has emerged in recent years; the ways in which social, economic and environmental sustainability can be promoted through different strategies, focusing on behavioural change and urban design. Geographies of Transport and Mobility provides a unique perspective on personal mobility by demonstrating how the way we travel has developed through complex economic and social processes. It argues that this historical context is critical for considering how mobility in the twenty-first century can be more sustainable, not just environmentally, but also economically and socially. As such, it argues for a renewed focus on sustainable place making as a way to radically shift mobility practices. Geographies of Transport and Mobility is designed to appeal to advanced level undergraduate students and researchers in the fields of geography, anthropology, psychology, sociology and transport studies.

Community development emerged as a recognisable occupational activity in the United Kingdom in the 1950s. Since then, whilst struggling to remain true to its basic values it has often been manipulated to serve differing policy and political purposes. This unique Reader traces its changing fortunes through a selection of readings from key writers. It will be invaluable to those pursuing community development careers, for activists, and for all those teaching, training and practising community development.

Unhealthy Housing presents an analysis of the research into the health implications of housing and the significance for legal regulation of housing conditions. Key experts present short papers, together with an overview to give an evaluation of the significance of housing on the health of occupiers.

The aim of this book is to highlight the great potential of decentralized (i.e. local or urban) energy policies in achieving environmentally-benign developments for modern cities. Urban sustainability is placed in the context of the debate on global sustainable development. A wide array of policy initiatives is discussed and evaluated, ranging from market-based energy policies to technological innovation policies for the energy sector. A theoretical framework for technology adoption processes is developed and empirically tested. The main question addressed is: which are the critical success factors for successful urban energy policies? This question is also dealt with in a meta-analytic context by assessing and comparing the performance of energy policies in various European cities, with a particular view to renewable energy.

This book presents a selection of innovative ideas currently shaping the development and testing of geographical systems models by means of statistical and computational approaches. It spans all geographic scales, deals with both individuals and aggregates, and represents natural, human, and integrated spatial systems. This book is relevant to researchers, (post and under)graduates, and professionals in the areas of quantitative geography, spatial analysis, spatial modelling, and geographical information sciences.

Graham Clarke and Moss Madden 1. 1 Background In the mid 1990s there were a number of papers in regional science that questioned the relevance and purpose of the entire sub-discipline. Bailly and Coffey (1994) for example, talked of 'regional science in crisis'. They argued that there were two fundamental problems. First, regional science was too theoretical in the sense that many of its products were models that could neither be calibrated (too complex) or operationalised (too abstract) in the real world. They suggested that regional science had not sufficiently demonstrated that it can address real-world problems and subsequently lacked a focus on relevant policy issues. Second, they argued that regional science had become too narrow in focus and had moved away too far from real people and their daily concerns or struggles in life. This was not the first time we had witnessed these sorts of arguments, both from outside the discipline and from within. Sayer (1976) was perhaps the first to argue for a shift from a model-based focus in regional science to one based on political economy. Breheny (1984) criticised the 'deep ignorance among regional scientists of the nature of practical policy making and implementation' (see also Rodwin (1987) for similar views in the mid 1980s). Such self-reflection is a feature of many disciplines as they reach maturity. There have been many similar reflections in geography (Johnston 1996, Barnes 1996) and economics (see the collection in the January edition of the Economic Journal 1991).

Applied Geography, A World Perspective reviews progress in applied geography in different regions of the world. It does this through the eyes of an international panel of highly regarded academic practitioners. The book offers new prospects on the use of established approaches and explores exciting new territories. Together, the contributors provide a comprehensive picture of applied geography today.

This book is of relevance to faculty and graduate students in the fields of geography, planning, public policy, regional science and other related social and behavioural sciences.

Over the past decade, the transport industry has become an increasingly popular scapegoat for polluting the environment with emissions and noise. Therefore, additional transport infrastructure investments, especially in road transport, are becoming more and more contentious. Conversely, the advocates of free trade stress the importance of transport to enhance economic growth and subsequently the standards of living. Thus, political decision makers and business people alike are facing the challenge of reconciling these conflicting ideas. Though being one of the most prominent topics in public discussion, hard facts are still rare.

In order to analyze the question from a different perspective, this book sets out to combine different approaches from economics as well as business administration to stimulate scientific discourse and to support decision-makers in their efforts to ameliorate the situation.

The first part of this book contributes to the empirics of the relationship between transport and economic growth, or more specifically, whether "decoupling" of transport and economic growth appears possible. For this purpose previously unavailable regional data for Italy and Germany were collected and analyzed. The results indicate that transport makes an important contribution to economic growth.

Therefore, the second part of this book goes into more detail. Given the economic importance of transport and the resistance against the expansion of the transport infrastructure, it is essential to make efficient use of the already existing transportation network. For this purpose the author investigates which characteristics of transport are perceived as most important by decision makers, applying an adaptive conjoint analysis. The results show that transport quality in terms of timeliness, reliability, etc. seems to be at least as important as the monetary transport costs.

Economic growth and globalisation create traffic growth, leading to congestion, which again increases travel times and costs. Road pricing is an instrument that may efficiently reduce the negative impacts. This volume is a collection of research papers on the use of road pricing. The focus is on passenger transport, and the papers cover a wide range of approaches, including theoretical modelling and empirical studies of road pricing experience from different cities.

This book provides a balanced, empirically-based view of the "Digital Economy," and explores its regional and geographical import in areas where the Digital Economy meets more traditional patterns. More than just an interpretive analysis, this book utilizes empirical evidence in its assessment of the dynamics of specific regions in different parts of the world. The book also examines the policy implications of the rising Digital Economy.

Social housing appears to offer a solution for the housing of poor and disadvantaged people. The French "right to housing" offers poor and disadvantaged citizens priority in social housing allocation, and even a legal action against the State to obtain a social home. Despite this, France is suffering a long-lasting housing crisis with disadvantaged people having particular difficulties of access, often despite the efforts of local housing actors. This situation is affected by the European Court of Human Rights and EU decisions limiting diverse national housing and rental policies.

Between historic French revolutions and the modern riots, negotiated solutions to social dilemmas emerged. Despite progress in constitutional principles, complex local negotiations still ultimately determine who is housed. Local social landlords, mayors and employee and tenant representatives use their privileges to house their insiders: existing tenants, locals and employees, with rent insufficiently subsidized. Insider Outsider theory is used for an economic analysis of exclusion in social housing allocation: its processes, institutional context, and stigmatizing effects. This highlights the spatial effects of nimbyism, excluding disadvantaged outsiders, and concentrating them in deprived areas. Simultaneously, urban regeneration reduced affordable housing stock and social mix became a reason to refuse a social home.

History, comparative law, economic theory and local interviews with housing actors give a detailed picture of what happens in and around French social housing allocation for an interdisciplinary housing policy audience. Constitutional principles appear in an unfamiliar guise as negotiating positions, with the "right to property" supporting landlords and the "right to housing" supporting tenants. French debates about the function of social landlords are echoed across Europe and reflected in European policies concerning rights, and the exclusion of disadvantaged minorities.

This volume is dedicated to the memory of Barclay G. Jones, Professor of City and Regional Planning and Regional Science at Cornell University. Over a decade ago, Barclay took on a fledgling area of study - economic modeling of disasters - and nurtured its early development. He served as the social science program director at the National Center for Earthquake Engineering Research (NCEER), a university consortium sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the Federal Emergency Management Agency of the United States. In this capacity, Barclay shepherded and attracted a number of regional scientists to the study of disasters. He organized a conference, held in the ill-fated World Trade Center in September 1995, on "The Economic Consequences of Earthquakes: Preparing for the Unexpected. " He persistently advocated the importance of social science research in an establishment dominated by less-than-sympathetic natural scientists and engineers. In 1993, Barclay organized the first of a series of sessions on "Measuring Regional Economic Effects of Unscheduled Events" at the North American Meetings of the Regional Science Association International (RSAI). This unusual nomenclature brought attention to the challenge that disasters -largely unanticipated, often sudden, and always disorderly - pose to the regional science modeling tradition. The sessions provided an annual forum for a growing coalition of researchers, where previously the literature had been fragmentary, scattered, and episodic. Since Barclay's unexpected passing in 1997, we have continued this effort in his tradition.

Planning Support Systems: Retrospect and Prospect It has been nearly twenty years since the term 'planning support systems' (PSS) first appeared in an article by Britton Harris (Harris 1989) and more than ten years since the concept was more broadly introduced in the academic literature (Harris and Batty 1993; Batty 1995; Klosterman 1997). As a result, the publication of a new book on PSS provides an excellent opportunity to assess past progress in the field and speculate on future developments. PSS have clearly become very popular in the academic world. This is the fourth edited book devoted to the topic following Brail and Klosterman (2001), Geertman and Stillwell (2003), and a third by Brail (2008). Papers devoted to PSS have been published in the leading planning journals and the topic has become a regular theme at academic conferences around the world; it has even spawned intellectual o- spring such as spatial planning and decision support systems (SPDSS) and public participation planning support systems (PP-PSS). However, as Geertman and Stillwell point out in their introductory chapter, the experience with PSS in the world of professional practice has been disappointing. A substantial number of PSS have been developed but most of them are academic p- totypes or 'one off' professional applications that have not been adopted elsewhere.

One aspect of the new economy is a transition to a networked society, and the emergence of a highly interconnected, interdependent and complex system of networks to move people, goods and information. An example of this is the in creasing reliance of networked systems (e. g. , air transportation networks, electric power grid, maritime transport, etc. ) on telecommunications and information in frastructure. Many of the networks that evolved today have an added complexity in that they have both a spatial structure - i. e. , they are located in physical space but also an a spatial dimension brought on largely by their dependence on infor mation technology. They are also often just one component of a larger system of geographically integrated and overlapping networks operating at different spatial levels. An understanding of these complexities is imperative for the design of plans and policies that can be used to optimize the efficiency, performance and safety of transportation, telecommunications and other networked systems. In one sense, technological advances along with economic forces that encourage the clustering of activities in space to reduce transaction costs have led to more efficient network structures. At the same time the very properties that make these networks more ef ficient have also put them at a greater risk for becoming disconnected or signifi cantly disruptedwh en super connected nodes are removed either intentionally or through a targeted attack.

This book is a major contribution to the debate on future land development strategies, as well as helping to supporting land use decision making at all levels. Scientists from across Europe installed the Landscape Tomorrow network to prepare for upcoming challenges in research on sustainable land development. The book 's interdisciplinary perspective analyses, among other things, the general principles of land use multifunctionality and reports on a variety of success stories.

This handbook presents the foundations of modern rural analysis. The first part of the book presents a comprehensive description of the elements of rural analysis, providing the basis for a synthetic view of rural landscapes in the second part. Included is a comprehensive description and explanation of the rural landscapes from throughout the world, which leads to a complete management scheme for rural landscapes.

This book covers fundamental aspects of spatial data modelling specifically on the aspect of three-dimensional (3D) modelling and structuring. Realisation of "true" 3D GIS spatial system needs a lot of effort, and the process is taking place in various research centres and universities in some countries. The development of spatial data modelling for 3D objects is the focus of this book.

This book is a non-technical interdisciplinary collection of 12 essays, each of which uses natural or social science methods. The essays analyze a representative set of environmental issues in Latin America and the Caribbean. They consider problems at international, regional, national, and local levels and examine current and historical environmental policy. The essays are organized according to theme and approach into five parts:

-conservation challenges;

-national policies, local communities, and rural development;

-market mechanisms for protecting public goods;

-public participation and environmental justice;

-the effects of development policies on the environment.

Contributors are researchers from Canada, Europe, Latin America, and the United States.

This book serves as a reader for undergraduates or master s students in interdisciplinary courses, a rich source of case studies for courses within one discipline, and an example of cutting-edge analyses for the educated reader interested in environmental issues in general or specific to the region."

The ''Aral Sea Encyclopedia'' is the first one in the new series of encyclopedias about the seas of the former Soviet Union. Preparing it we faced certain difficulties. The thing is that this encyclopedia is a monument to the sea that is disappearing during our lifetime. The world community considers the situation with the Aral Sea and all changes that occurred in its whereabouts in the recent decades as one of the most serious, if not disastrous anthropogenic environmental crises of the 20th century. Before 1960, this was a water-abundant sea-lake that was fourth among world lakes after the Caspian Sea (USSR, Iran), the Great Lakes (USA, Canada) and Victoria Lake (Africa). This was a real ''pearl'' among the sands of the largest deserts, the Karakums and the Kyzylkums. Navigation between the sea ports Muinak and Aralsk and fisheries famous for the Aral breams, barbells, sturgeons, shemaya, and others were developed here. One could find beautiful recreational zones and beaches here. The deltas of the Amudarya, the major river of Central Asia, and the Syrdarya bringing their waters into the Aral Sea were famous for their biodiversity, fishery, muskrat rearing, reed prod- tion. The local population found occupations related to the water infrastructure.