Smart Evaluation and Integrated Design in Regional Development puts forward an alternative approach to evaluation in spatial planning - one that focuses on 'territory' and 'landscape'. The book introduces an innovative evaluation approach, namely Territorial Integrated Evaluation (TIE), a meta-evaluation methodology for designing regional development scenarios. A research team from the Politecnico di Torino applied this methodology experimentally to the practices of spatial planning in Trentino in order to aid the Province in a process of institutional innovation that is still going on today. TIE defines territorial scenarios serving the need for regional economic development as well as the conservation of nature and landscape. A cross-border region, Trentino has a special need to harmonize economic development with the exceptional and internationally renowned value of its landscape which includes the Dolomites, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Therefore TIE set out to design regional development scenarios that integrated various topics - retail, tourism, infrastructures, nature and landscape. By testing out TIE in practice in this extraordinarily dynamic institutional context, the book makes a significant contribution to the discussion about newly emerging approaches to spatial planning that involve multidisciplinary vision, new paradigms in regional development, and institutional learning and capability in decision-making.

Smart Evaluation and Integrated Design in Regional Development puts forward an alternative approach to evaluation in spatial planning - one that focuses on 'territory' and 'landscape'. The book introduces an innovative evaluation approach, namely Territorial Integrated Evaluation (TIE), a meta-evaluation methodology for designing regional development scenarios. A research team from the Politecnico di Torino applied this methodology experimentally to the practices of spatial planning in Trentino in order to aid the Province in a process of institutional innovation that is still going on today. TIE defines territorial scenarios serving the need for regional economic development as well as the conservation of nature and landscape. A cross-border region, Trentino has a special need to harmonize economic development with the exceptional and internationally renowned value of its landscape which includes the Dolomites, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Therefore TIE set out to design regional development scenarios that integrated various topics - retail, tourism, infrastructures, nature and landscape. By testing out TIE in practice in this extraordinarily dynamic institutional context, the book makes a significant contribution to the discussion about newly emerging approaches to spatial planning that involve multidisciplinary vision, new paradigms in regional development, and institutional learning and capability in decision-making.

Both "land-use regulation" and "territorial collective services" have traditionally been accomplished in cities through coercive efforts of public administrations. Recently, land-use regulation and collective service provision regimes have emerged within "contractual communities: " territory-based organisations (usually, but not exclusively residential) such as homeowners' associations.

This book examines the problems and opportunities of contractual communities, avoiding both the alarmism and unwarranted apologies found in much of the literature on contractual communities.

The central notion is that cases in which coercive action by a public agency was deemed indispensable have been unjustly overstated, while the potential benefits of voluntary self-organising processes have been seriously understated. The authors propose a revised notion of the state role that allows ample leeway for contractual communities of all forms.