Worldwide, urbanization is steadily increasing, yet many modern cities are becoming less and less able to accommodate the growth in their population. Congestion, pollution, low-quality housing, social fragmentation, noise, crime and inadequate social services all contribute to a declining quality of urban life. Planners and policy makers are battling to alleviate the problems with a variety of urban renewal initiatives, and energy-environmental policies have become central to their quest for urban sustainability."Sustainable Cities in Europe" gives a comprehensive introduction to the available urban energy and environmental policies. Drawing on a detailed analysis of the CITIES programme of the Commission of the European Communities, the book includes detailed case studies of European cities which are devising and implementing alternative strategies for sustainable growth and development. The cities discussed include: Amsterdam, Besancon, Braganca, Cadiz, Dublin, Esch/Alzette, Gent, Mannheim, Newcastle, Odense, Thessaloniki and Turin.The policy discussions and case studies in this book will be invaluable for all those professionally or academically involved in the pressing issue of city planning development.

Interdisciplinary in its approach, with expert contributors from diverse backgrounds, Resilience and Regional Development brings to light the significance of multiple dimensions of resilience and its implications for the economy. Using a spectrum of analytical tools and a diverse range of geographical case studies to draw multi-faceted conclusions with practical value, chapters delve into the current dynamic and complex context in which many regions evolve. The book focuses on key subjects such as the concept of resilience, the negative effects generated by global shocks, systemic risks and vulnerabilities, and recovery and shock mitigation mechanisms. It also investigates the relevance of actionable regional initiatives in the spatial development process and how these enable a connection between decision-makers, places and people. The insightful case studies will be a useful resource for scholars in the field of regional science, international economics, growth and regional development, as well as researchers looking to expand their knowledge of resilience approaches. Students and practitioners interested in the implementation of regional policies will also find this book informative and practical.

This book addresses unexpected disasters and shocks in cities and urban systems by providing quantitative and qualitative tools for impact analysis and disaster management. Including environmental catastrophes, political turbulence and economic shocks, Resilience and Urban Disasters explores a large range of tumultuous events and key case studies to thoroughly cover these core areas. Chapters explore novel contributions on urban evolution and adjustment patterns based on studies from across the globe. Both causal mechanisms and policy responses to the high social costs of urban disasters are addressed. In particular, the book explores the socio-economic impacts on urban systems that are subject to disasters, including migration due to large earthquakes in Japan, the economic impact of terrorist attacks in Istanbul and labour market changes as a result of natural disasters in Italy. Urban planning and urban economics scholars will greatly benefit from the multidisciplinary analyses of a variety of case studies in the book. City planners and urban administrators will also find the exploration of potential paths of resilience for cities to be an invaluable tool for future planning. Contributors include: K. Borsekova, M. Dobrik, K. Fabian, R. Fabling, D.l. Felsenstein, R. Goncharov, A. Grimes, A.Y. Grinberger, T. Inal-Cekic, Y. Ishikawa, M. Morisugi, K. Nakajima, P. Nijkamp, M.D. OEzugul, F. Pagliacci, M. Russo, L. Rysova, N. Sakamoto, E. Seckin, M. Taheri Tafti, L. Timar, N. Zamyatina

Transport and mobility are critical for the economic development of cities and regions and are a key factor in achieving sustained economic growth. This collection brings together Peter Nijkamp's influential work in the areas of transport systems and transport policy. The first part offers new theoretical insights and a review of the state-of-the-art in transportation science. The essays address issues such as the costs and benefits of transport, the role of price in transport demand, the impact of information and the potential of congestion pricing. The second part focuses attention on the modelling of transport systems. The third part comprises papers on transport infrastructure and includes studies on the impact of infrastructure and superstructure on economic growth, the costs of infrastructure construction, the evaluation of airport expansion and airport efficiency. The final part considers issues of public policy, including governance principles for sustainable urban transport, welfare implications of information policy, the economic consequences of airline deregulation, the use of policy scenarios for the far future and the transferability of transport policy to other areas. This collection will be essential reading for scholars and students interested in all aspects of transport research and policy.

The loss of biodiversity has put increasing pressure on the stability and continuity of ecosystems, and their ability to provide goods and services to mankind. This valuable new book addresses this issue and presents an integrated ecological-economic perspective on the analysis of biodiversity loss and conservation. It adopts a multidisciplinary approach and attempts both to provide a definition of biodiversity benefits as well as investigate alternative perspectives on biodiversity. The book also presents a classification of biodiversity values and effectively illustrates which economic valuation methods can best measure which type of biodiversity value. The distinguished authors move on to discuss the utility of the application of the economics-ecology interface and integrated modelling for the assessment of biodiversity values. In doing so, they consider the use of multi-criteria evaluation and meta-analytical methods to deal with the aggregation of information from multiple disciplines and past valuation studies, respectively. The book concludes by addressing the role of biodiversity indicators and monetary information for policy design and biodiversity management, devoting special attention to the certification and the ecolabeling of biodiversity benefits. The integration of economic and ecological theories and methods, and the strong methodological orientation will be of immense benefit to students, academics and researchers of environmental economics, environmental science and ecology. Policymakers involved with nature policy and management will also find this volume to be of great practical value.

This handbook presents a collection of high-quality, authoritative scientific contributions on cross-border migration, written by a carefully selected group of recognized migration experts from around the globe. In recent years, cross-border migration has become an important and intriguing issue, from both a scientific and policy perspective. In the 'age of migration', the volume of cross-border movements of people continues to rise, while the nature of migration flows - in terms of the determinants, length of stay, effects on the sending and host countries, and legal status of migrants - is changing dramatically. Based on a detailed economic-geographical analysis, this handbook studies the motives for cross-border migration, the socio-economic implications for sending countries and regions, the locational choice determinants for cross-border migrants, and the manifold economic-geographic consequences for host countries and regions. Given the complexity of migration decisions and their local or regional impacts, a systematic typology of migrants (motives, legal status, level of education, gender, age, singles or families, etc.) is provided, together with an assessment of push factors in the place of origin and pull factors at the destination. On the basis of a solid analytical framework and reliable empirical evidence, it examines the impacts of emigration for sending areas and of immigration for receiving areas, and provides a comprehensive discussion of the policy dimensions of cross-border migration.

This book addresses two general questions that have arisen as a result of the uneven rise of the various Asian economies in contemporary times. First, to lift people out of poverty and to improve the quality of their lives, how do we institute policies that will ensure economic growth in the different regions of Asia? Second, what can we do to ensure that the economic growth we seek is sustainable so that the regional economic development that emerges is broad-based, inclusive, and environmentally conscious? Specifically, this edited book will provide a unified perspective on regional growth and sustainable development in Asia by focusing on the above two broad questions. The book will emphasize dynamic modeling and it will illustrate the role that sound theoretical and empirical modeling of an intertemporal nature can play in shedding light on salient public policy questions concerning regional growth and sustainable development. The specific topics to be addressed in this book include growth accounting, natural resource use and management, the regulation of environmental externalities, geographic information systems, and regional climate change. The individual chapters in this book will be written by international experts who are also active researchers in their respective fields. Therefore, this book is highly recommended to all readers who seek an in-depth and up-to-date perspective on some of the most salient issues at the interface of regional growth and sustainable development in Asia.

The aging and migration megatrends and their impact on spatial - regional and local - labor market performance is the core theme of this book, and thus together define its scope and focus. The contributions provide an overview of key aging and migration issues in various countries together with analyses of their varied impacts on regional labor markets. Systematic database research and related empirical analyses are used to map out the complex and dynamic nature of these trends, while cutting-edge economic and modeling techniques are used to analyze them. In closing, the book critically reviews and assesses selected policy measures designed to cope with the effects of aging and migration on regional labor markets.

This edited book brings together in one place new studies of rural-urban interactions and their implications for regional growth and development in different regions within Asia. Specifically, the individual chapters in the book shed light on the different kinds of rural-urban interactions that we witness in Asian regions, particularly those that are based on migration, poverty, inequality, education, economic dependence, and the flow of goods and services. The book departs from the existing literature in three ways. First, it explicitly recognizes that different kinds of rural-urban interactions have dissimilar impacts on the lives and hence on the welfare of the residents of rural and urban regions. Second, the book emphasizes the varied spatial and temporal dimensions of the interactions and the ways in which these dimensions influence rural and urban societies. Third, this book demonstrates the ways in which an understanding of the preceding two points contributes to our knowledge about economic growth and development. Because Asia is the fastest-growing and most dynamic continent in the world today, the research delineated in the individual chapters of the book provides practical guidance concerning two salient questions. First, how do we effectively address the economic development challenges stemming from the interactions between alternate rural and urban regions within Asia? Second, how do we ensure that the policies we design to address these challenges give rise to broad-based economic growth and development that is sustainable?

In today's globalized world, modern society is characterized by rapid transitions in space that are in part the result of technological developments of previous decades. This unique book deals with the complex issues raised by these transformations, focusing particularly on the impacts on regional development, technological innovation, and the flows and mobility of ideas, knowledge, people and firms. Societies in Motion examines the dynamic forces of technological and institutional change that are affecting the design of society, the economy and the environment, and provides a base for policy makers to develop new systems for a better, more sustainable future. The leading contributors adopt a systems approach to mobility exploring knowledge, ideas, flows of information and creativity, human capital and transportation. Authoritative and detailed, this book is an ideal source of analysis and debate for research scholars and students of regional science, economics and geography. Policy makers will also find plenty of invaluable information in this original volume. Contributors include: P. Aroca, H. Aviram, G. Avnimelech, D. Banister, R. Bar-El Hillel Bar-Gera, D. Boyce, D. Constantin, J. Corcoran, H.L.F. de Groot, A. Faggian, D. Felsenstein, A. Frenkel, M. Givoni, Z. Goschin, D.A. Griffith, S. Hazam, G.J.D. Hewings, J. Knoben, M. Malul, P. McCann, P. Monkkonen, P. Nijkamp, R. Patuelli, P.H. Pellenbarg, J.M. Quigley, M.M. Ridhwan, P. Rietveld, D. Schwartz, D. Shefer, Y. Shiftan, M. Sonis, M. Tiefelsdorf

Tourism economics is partly based on established principles from the economics discipline, but it also incorporates elements from sociology, psychology, organization theory and ecology. It has over the years turned into an appealing multi-disciplinary oriented approach to the understanding of the impacts of leisure time in a modern society, including cultural heritage, sustainable quality of life, and industrial organization of the hospitality industry. The increasing dynamics in the tourist industry and its worldwide effects will continue to attract the attention of both the research and the policy sector in the years to come. Rather than speculating on non-observed facts, there is a clear need for evidence-based research in order to map out the complex dynamics of the tourist industry. The present volume comprises novel studies - mainly of a quantitative-analytical nature - on the supply, demand and contextual aspects of modern tourism. It contains a sound mix of theory, methodology, policy and case studies on various tourism issues in different parts of the world.

The idea of this book started at approximately 33.000 feet, somewhere above the Alps. On our way to a workshop in Venice we had the opportunity of appreciating the different types of landscapes and the complex patchwork of urban areas, agriculture, forests, rivers and lakes that can be seen from an aircraft. The complexity of this puzzle, and the complex task of managing its evolution, became the topic of conversation for the rest of the flight. It also became the topic of this book. Land-use management and multicriteria analysis offer countless opportunities for mutual reinforcement. These two fields have developed largely independently, but a trend towards the exploration of their synergies is now emerging. This is clear from the recent literature on land-use management, spatial analysis and spatial planning, which increasingly includes references to multicriteria methodologies and decision analysis. At the same time, a growing share of multicriteria applications now focus on environmental and land-use issues. This book includes contributions from authors coming from a variety of disciplines and backgrounds. All together they highlight current issues in multicriteria analysis and land-use management from theoretical, methodological and practical perspectives.

This book provides new roads, perspectives, and a synthesis for tourism and regional science research. Tourism has become one of the most dynamic sectors in the economy and has exhibited a structurally growing importance over the past decades. In many countries the economic significance of tourism now exceeds that of traditionally strong sectors like agriculture or transportation. It is noteworthy that in recent times, tourism research has gained great momentum from the perspective of: the leisure society; the psychological tension between hard work and a more relaxed lifestyle; and the productivity-enhancing or productivity-diminishing effects of leisure, recreation, and tourism. An abundance of new literature in the field of tourism management can also be found, for instance, in the areas of hospitality management, cultural events management, destination competitiveness policy and marketing, and transportation and logistics strategies, while much attention is also being paid to the opportunities provided by digital technology for the tourism sector. In addition, in the light of the many negative externalities of a rapidly growing tourism sector, there is also an abundant literature on the environmental and sustainability effects of tourism. This book has the following objectives: to explore the interwoven connection between regional science and tourism research; to suggest promising pathways for innovative regional science research at the interface of tourism and space; and to demonstrate the need for a new perspective on the tourism and regional science nexus by means of empirical studies.

This book explores the many challenges faced by the development and implementation of automated freight transport systems. It offers a unique overview of current applications, developments and future perspectives. The subject of automation is not covered extensively in the existing literature on freight transport and this book aims to fill the gap. In view of the increasing difficulties in coping with growing transport volumes in an efficient and sustainable way, the development of new automated freight applications could be a viable alternative. The first chapters of the book are devoted to an overview of concepts and current research developments in automated transport, outlining the opportunities, barriers and threats for further development paths for different transport modes. The authors then go on to focus on innovative tools to design and evaluate these new transport developments. The book closes with a detailed and critical analysis of what is, probably, the most critical part of system innovation; that is the implementation of automated systems. Written from a multi-disciplinary perspective, which reflects the diversity of the relevant issues needing consideration when designing, developing and implementing such systems, this book will be an invaluable source for scholars and researchers of innovation and transport studies. In addition, the book will be useful to policymakers and practitioners involved in the design, development and implementation of new technologies for freight transport. It may also appeal to wider readers with an interest in the future of freight transport systems.

Enlargement of the EU increases economic diversity and inequality between countries and regions, making cohesion difficult. This book attempts to provide a deeper understanding of the interaction between investment, knowledge spillovers and entrepreneurship; a crucial factor in reducing the economic disparity caused by the geographic expansion of the EU. The book offers new empirical evidence regarding the spatial dimension of investment, entrepreneurship and knowledge spillovers, and features both individual and cross-country analyses. FDI in accession countries is examined, as is the effect of EU integration on own-country investment. Innovative methodologies and unique new models are then used to provide lessons and policy implications for economic growth prospects in the recently enlarged EU. Researchers and policy makers working in the fields of entrepreneurship, innovation, economic growth, economic integration and regional development will find this book to be of great interest. It will also be warmly welcomed by students and academics with an interest in European studies, international economics and regional and urban economics.

This important collection brings together Peter Nijkamp's work in the area of environmental and resource economics. The essays selected pay particular attention to theory and modelling, environmental analysis as well as policy issues and implications. The first part focuses on the economic management of environmental goods and scarce resources, the analysis of spatial-environmental externalities, the study of biodiversity from an economic perspective, the economics of water use and the implications of climate change for global economic policy. The second part focuses on environmental - economic modelling. It presents new advances in modelling and evaluation, dealing with the role of endogenous technology and trade in economic growth models, the design of second-best energy policies and the implications of environmental externalities in the aviation sector. The third part considers the relevance and applicability of evaluation studies for environmental management and the final part examines the scope of environmental policy analysis. This collection will be essential reading for scholars and students in both environmental and ecological economics.

This book investigates dynamic regions in the context of greater global interaction in a world economy increasingly driven by knowledge and innovation. It offers novel empirical evidence on the underlying factors of the growth performance of these spaces. In particular, the following questions are addressed: What role is there for research, education and innovation in the development strategies of the dynamic growth regions? What are the risks and consequences of dynamic growth on patterns of world growth and development, competitiveness, inequalities, and convergence? What development strategies should be promoted at national and international levels to promote a growing and more sustainable world economy? What are the implications of the emerging new competitors for Europe's competitiveness? Using an innovative, integrated framework of analysis, the contributions in this book combine a wide array of complex theoretical and methodological approaches.

This book applies regional analysis to the challenges facing global investment agencies seeking to enhance trade in lagging regions. It shows how spatial interaction and agent-based modelling can be used as the basis for developing new plans and policies. An in-depth analysis of trade routes is presented, which can be used to develop policies for increasing efficiency and reducing costs. Landlocked Uganda and the sea-locked South Pacific Islands serve to illustrate the problems of covering sizable distances, accelerating export flows and improving supply chain efficiency. These examples also provide an excellent illustration of the power of regional science, from assembling data bases in difficult situations to developing and applying models of the trade system.

This important book collects together Peter Nijkamp's work on spatial-economic markets, particularly housing and labour markets, and the increasing impact of information technology on mobility and the location of firms, residents and job seekers.The first part deals with applied modelling and theoretical advances in housing market dynamics and research. The papers address issues such as the implications of household dynamics for relocation decisions, migration movements in Europe, and the driving forces for migration decisions of ethnic groups. The second part focuses on the spatial labour market, dealing with recruitment channel and search channel choices by job seekers and firms, vacancy durations and the opportunities offered by ethnic entrepreneurship for improving the chances of ethnic groups. The third part comprises an analysis of spatial mobility flows and interaction patterns and the final part emphasises the scope and effect of information technology in transport. This includes the effect of real-time information on the behaviour of car drivers, the effect of telematics devices on public transport users, the importance of telematics for the freight transport sector and the adoption mechanisms of ICT users and their related policy implications. This collection will be essential reading for scholars and students interested in the housing and labour markets and the impact on both of developments in IT and transport.

This collection brings together Peter Nijkamp's work in the areas of innovation, entrepreneurship, growth and spatial development. The first part comprises work of a theoretical nature and addresses issues such as the micro-economic foundation of spatial development, the relevance of spatial innovation and urban incubation theory, the role of network growth, policy and the importance of novel evolutionary perspectives for understanding regional economic dynamics. The second part focuses attention on empirical macro and meso dimensions of economic development, dealing inter alia with the economic growth impact of public policy, the local factors critical for successful innovation, the importance of networks for regional growth and the implications of the rational expectations paradigm for industrial dynamics. The third part focuses on empirical micro-studies of economic performance and the final part emphasises the scope and effect of public policy for spatial-economic performance, including policies for ICT, regional development, urban sustainability and learning capabilities. This collection will be essential reading for scholars and students interested in regional science, innovation studies, entrepreneurship and economic development.

Meta-analysis is a formal synthesis of results and findings of scientific studies, which can assist in gaining new insights, explaining differences between results of similar studies, or determine useful directions of research. In this book we focus on the use of meta-analysis in environmental economics and related fields of study. The first part of the book covers the overall meta-approach methodology for social sciences and economics in particular. This is followed by technical and non-technical discussions of statistical and rough-set techniques for analysis. At appropriate places this is supplemented with reviews of applications in environmental economics and related fields. In the second part of the book a number of case studies show different aspects of the application of meta-analysis. The research areas considered include, among others, tourism multipliers, air pollution valuation, risk and value of life, pesticide price policy, travel time savings, and transport externality and policy issues. The benefits of the appropriate application of meta-analysis in environmental economics are a better use of existing information and knowledge, removal of some of the subjectivity from analysis and forecasting, and greater clarity as to where future efforts in environmental economic analysis can most gainfully be deployed.

Transport networks are becoming increasingly important now that free trade, open access, increased competition and greater market orientation are fundamental to the current restructuring of Europe. Infrastructure networks are the corner stones of European integration and this book provides a comprehensive overview of the current concepts and policies which are being examined by researchers, government officials and policy makers. Transport Networks in Europe explores current debates and presents new proposals for well-functioning infrastructure networks. Key issues discussed include: * regional development * congestion * urban transport policy * private-public cooperation * environmental sustainability * transport borders and barriers The authors place emphasis on sustainable transport and provide a wide spectrum of policy recommendations for sustainable transport networks at the European, national and urban levels. The growing significance of transport networks in the European Union will ensure that this timely book is an essential companion for those actively engaged in transport policy formulation and implementation. It will also be welcomed by transport analysts, geographers and regional scientists.

Complex systems analysis has become a fascinating topic in modern research on non-linear dynamics, not only in the physical sciences but also in the life sciences and the social sciences. After the era of bifurcation theory, chaos theory, syn- getics, resilience analysis, network dynamics and evolutionary thinking, currently we observe an increasing interest in critical transitions of dynamic real-world systems in many disciplines, such as demography, biology, psychology, economics, earth sciences, geology, seismology, medical sciences, and so on. The relevance of this approach is clearly re?ected in such phenomena as traf?c congestion, ?nancial crisis, ethnic con?icts, eco-system breakdown, health failures, etc. This has prompted a world-wide interest in complex systems. Geographical space is one of the playgrounds for complex dynamics, as is witnessed by population movements, transport ?ows, retail developments, urban expansion, lowland ?ooding and so forth. All such dynamic phenomena have one feature in common: the low predictability of uncertain interrelated events occurring at different interconnected spatio-temporal scale levels and often originating from different disciplinary backgrounds. The study of the associated non-linear (fast and slow) dynamic transition paths calls for a joint research effort of scientists from different disciplines in order to understand the nature, the roots and the con- quences of unexpected or unpredictable changes in complex spatial systems.

This important and timely book is at the forefront of the increasing interest in regional competitiveness in the face of ever stronger global forces. Distinguished contributors discuss issues including the impact and implications of European expansion as well as developments in the Asia-Pacific region. They also examine the driving forces, backgrounds, obstacles and opportunities for regions to become powerful global players. This highly topical book contains a wealth of empirical material and is underpinned by a thorough investigation of the theory and methodology of policy strategies for the positioning of regions in the new global economy. It will be a major source of reference for scholars, policymakers, economic planners and institutions alike in the field of regional science.

The need for informed and effective insights into key concepts and models of regional development and growth, from an endogenous growth perspective, has risen over the past decade. These recent advances address in particular local and regional assets and characteristics comprising inter alia creativity, knowledge, innovation forces and entrepreneurship. Access to and exploitation of these modern forms of human and social capital are of paramount importance for the dynamic regional economic environment in a city or region. This volume offers an overview and critical treatment of the spatial-economic roots, opportunities and impacts of new growth strategies, mainly from an evidence-based perspective. In the various contributions to this volume, relevant findings and strategic options are interpreted and discussed from both an analytical and a policy perspective to help cultivate creativity, human capital development and innovation as well as entrepreneurial activity, with a view to exploit the drivers of economic development, in order to strengthen the competitive edge of cities and regions.