Defining The Spatial Scale In Modern Regional Analysis

This book explores different approaches to defining the concept of region depending on the specific question that needs to be answered. While the typical administrative spatial data division fits certain research questions well, in many cases, defining regions in a different way is fundamental in order to obtain significant empirical evidence. The book is divided into three parts: The first part is dedicated to a methodological discussion of the concept of region and the different potential approaches from different perspectives. The problem of having sufficient information to define different regional units is always present. This justifies the second part of the book, which focuses on the techniques of ecological inference applied to estimating disaggregated data from observable aggregates. Finally, the book closes by presenting several applications that are in line with the functional areas definition in regional analysis.

This book presents cutting‐edge research on urban and regional systems applying modern spatial analytical techniques of Geographic Information Science & Technologies (GIS&T), spatial statistics, and location modeling. The contributions, written by leading scholars from around the globe, adopt a spatially explicit analytical perspective and highlight methodological innovations and substantive breakthroughs on many facets of the socioeconomic and environmental reality of urban and regional contexts. The book is divided into three parts: The first part offers an introduction to the research field, while the second part discusses critical issues in urban growth and urban management, presenting case studies on city and urban environments, their growth, data infrastructures and spatial and management issues. The third part then broadens the analysis to the regional scale, addressing growth, convergence and adaptation to new economic and information‐based realities. This book appeals to scholars of spatial and regional sciences as well as to policy decision-makers interested in advanced methods of spatial analysis, location modeling, and GIS&T.

Resilience has emerged as a recurrent notion to explain how territorial socio-economic systems adapt successfully (or not) to negative events. In this book, the authors use resilience as a bridging notion to connect different types of theoretical and empirical approaches to help understand the impacts of economic turbulence at the system and actor levels. The book provides a unique overview of the financial crisis and the important dimension of innovation dynamics for regional resilience. It also offers an engaging debate as to how regional resilience can be improved and explores the social aspects of vulnerability, resilience and innovation.

This book discusses the concept and practice of a smart metropolitan region, and how smart cities promote healthy economic and spatial development. It highlights how smart metropolitan regional development can energize, reorganize and transform the legacy economy into a smart economy; how it can help embrace Information and Communications Technology (ICT); and how it can foster a shared economy. In addition, it outlines how the five pillars of the third industrial revolution can be achieved by smart communities. In addition, the book draws on 16 in-depth city case studies from ten countries to explore the state of the art regarding the smart economy in smart cities – and to apply the lessons learned to shape smart metropolitan economic and spatial development.

In recent years and decades, we observe the reality of a new urban world: the percentage of the world population living in urban areas has increased from around 30 in 1950 to around 54 in 2015, and is expected to reach 66 by 2050. However, in most cases the focus of research has been on the dynamics of the developed world. By contrast, our understanding of regional and urban dynamics in the developing world remains very limited. Developing countries will by 2030 host more than 85% of the world population, and more than 90% of the new urban residents of the world will live in cities in the developing world according to the United Nations. This special issue on "Cities in the 21st century: A view from the developing world" consists of an introductory editorial and four papers. They all study aspects of the reality of developing countries in the 21st century, always from a spatial perspective. Each paper focuses on a different topic, but they nicely complement each other. While three papers focus on Latin America and the fourth one on the reality of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, they all have broader implications for the developing world in general.

Now ubiquitous in modern life, spatial data present great opportunities to transform many of the processes on which we base our everyday lives. However, not only do these data depend on the scale of measurement, but also handling these data (e.g., to make suitable maps) requires that we account for the scale of measurement explicitly. Scale in Spat

This book reflects a large number of intellectual debts that I owe to friends and colleagues. The concepts and methods described here were developed and tested in field projects funded by the United States Agency for International Development. Eric Chetwynd, Jr., played a central role in the Urban Functions in Rural Development (UFRD) projects on which the book is based. Without his advocacy, interest and support for nearly a decade, the projects could not have been undertaken.

This report provides a framework to understand the changing relationships between urban and rural areas. Specifically, it documents the characteristics of these partnerships and the factors that can hinder as well as enable rural-urban co-operation.