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.

Water is essential for life and the trigger for this book was the growing threat to uninterrupted, good quality water to large concentrations of population.These threats include natural and man-made, whether accidental or terrorism-related. Israel in particular is acutely aware of the risks of terror, including to its water supply and it is not surprising that the initiative for a NATO workshop, the outcome of which is presented here, came from this country.This book arose from the three-day NATO Advanced Workshop entitled 'Supply of Water to Cities in Emergency Situations' organized by ICTAF at Tel-Aviv University and The University of Thessaly, Department of Planning and Regional Development.

Planning and management for tourism growth is becoming essential in the context of sustainable development. Particularly so since many tourist destinations are facing severe pressures from tourist flows and activities. Such pressures are evidenced in terms of dysfunctions (congestion, environmental degradation, etc) which ultimately affect the attraction and competitiveness of tourism destinations. The development of tourism should be considered in accordance with sustainability principles. In this context respecting the capacity of the local system to sustain growth becomes a key challenge. This book examines the use of various tools to define, measure and evaluate tourism carrying capacity (TCC) - a tool aiming to impose limits for entering certain tourist destinations or using certain activities. Drawing on case studies from France, Spain, Italy, Greece, the UK, the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Austria, Germany and Finland, it presents practical experiences of implementing TCC in various tourist destinations (i.e. historic towns, coastal zones, islands, etc). It draws conclusions regarding the measurement and implementation of TCC assessment and provides further guidelines towards a comprehensive methodological framework for assessing tourism sustainability in the future.

As European countries pursue a common effort towards establishing a European Union, various isolated -and consequently disadvantaged -regions are likely to face increasing competitive pressures due to their peripheral location. To assist such areas, regional, national and supranational bodies put much effort into developing transport and communication networks and linkages in order to ensure that such less favoured areas are better integrated in the broader European social and economic development process. This book addresses the issue of lagging development in various -mainly central and southern - European regions which are in a disadvantageous position as a result of their isolated 10cation...The persisting problems of social and economic development in several European Union areas (e.g. islands, mountains, border areas) has turned the attention of policy-makers to "the critical importance of transport and (tele)communication linkages. The purpose of the book is to bring into perspective the role of transport and communications in regional policy for peripheral areas. This subject is currently of high priority, since the European Union through the Structural Funds interventions (i.e. the Community Support Frameworks) and the new Cohesion Fund relies heavily on transport and communication infrastructure investments to assist areas which are at a disadvantage due to their peripheral location and isolation. Furthermore, as the Union considers enlargement, some of these issues might be of wide European interest."

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.

Water is essential for life and the trigger for this book is in the increasing threats to uninterrupted, good quality water to large concentrations of population, which include natural and manmade, the latter including accidental and, unfortunately, also intentional. Israel in particular is aware of the risks of terror, including to its water supply and it is not surprising that the initiative for a NATO workshop, the outcome of which is presented here, came from this country.

This book reflects the outcome of a three day NATO Advanced Workshop entitled 'Supply of Water to Cities in Emergency Situations' organized by ICTAF at Tel-Aviv University and The University of Thessaly, Department of Planning and Regional Development and sponsored by the NATO Security through Science programme. Some 35 experts from 14 countries from Europe, the Middle East and Asia assembled in Tel-Aviv for this event.

The 20 papers presented and the discussions which took place throughout the workshop illuminate a broad spectrum of problems and of concerns to the orderly water supply in the different participating countries ranging from floods, through contamination due to deteriorated infrastructure and to a surprisingly low concern related to intentional terror-related threats. We find insufficient preparedness in many countries to cope with severe disruption of water supply.

We expect publicity and discussion to raise the level of awareness of relevant decision makers worldwide to this essential issue and to encourage development and implementation of procedures and means for combating the threat.