This book contributes to the discourse on planning theory by accentuating the perspective of public innovation. Extending planning theory's traditional two major perspectives - 'Communicate' and 'Calculate' - the book argues that contemporary planning theory should incorporate 'Innovate' as a third perspective. It highlights the multitude of new perspectives that innovative planning can bring to bear on planning theory, as well as showing how the interplay between the three perspectives - 'Communicate', 'Calculate' and 'Innovate' - can help to address vital issues in contemporary societal development.

This book gathers the latest advances, innovations, and applications in urban and regional planning processes and science, as presented by international researchers at the 11th International Conference on Innovation in Urban and Regional Planning (INPUT), held in Catania, Italy, on September 8-10, 2021. The overarching theme of the conference INPUT 2021 was “Integrating Nature-Based Solutions in Planning Science and Practice”, with contributes focusing on functionality of urban ecosystems toward more healthier and resilient cities, planning solutions for socio-ecological systems, technologies and hybrid models for spatial planning, geodesign, urban metabolism, computational planning, ecosystems services, green infrastructure, climate change adaptation and mitigation, rural landscapes, cultural heritage, and accessibility for urban planning. The conference brought together international scholars in the field of planning, civil engineering and architecture, ecology and social science, to build and consolidate the knowledge and evidence on NBS in urban and regional planning.

The worldwide consumption of resources is causing environmental damage at a rate that cannot be sustained. Apart from the resulting environmental and health problems, this trend could threaten economic growth due to rapidly decreasing natural resources and costly solutions. The public sector has a responsibility to stimulate the marketplace in favor of the provision of more resource-efficient and less polluting goods, services, and works in order to support environmental and wider sustainable development objectives. Developing Eco-Cities Through Policy, Planning, and Innovation: Can It Really Work? examines the economic, political, social, and environmental objectives essential to the planning and support of future communities. Highlighting a range of topics such as environmental sustainability, waste management, and green cities, this publication is an ideal reference source for environmental engineers, environmentalists, city development planners, urban planners, technology developers, policymakers, industrialists, academicians, and researchers interested in solving environmental issues.

This book aims to fill the knowledge gap on how to plan, develop and manage innovation districts that are competitive in terms of both productivity and quality of living, justifying the massive investment put into place and at the same time doing both in a delicate and harmonious way. There is a need for smart urban land use that is wired with both hard infrastructures (e.g., telecommunication and transport) and soft infrastructures (e.g., diversity and tolerance). The reader learns this knowledge through conceptual expansions for key insights, frameworks for potential and performance assessment and best practices for global innovation districts. The authors begin innovation district planning with the role and effectiveness of planning a branding in the development of innovation districts. The next key topic of place making is recognised as a key strategy for supporting knowledge generation and innovation activities in the contemporary innovation districts. Another important topic is place quality where the reader learns to identify and classify indicators of place quality by studying global innovation districts best practices. The reader also expands their understanding on the classification of innovation districts based on their key characteristics through a methodological approach. The book concludes with district smartness studied through the socio-cultural role played by anchor universities in facilitating place making in innovation districts. Smart campuses, enabled by digital transformation opportunities in higher education, are seen as a miniature replica of smart cities and serve as living labs for smart technology. The book serves as a repository for scholars, researchers, postgraduate and undergraduate students as it communicates the complex innovation district phenomenon in an easy-to-digest form by providing both the big picture view and specifics of each component of that view.

Innovation districts are physical spaces that serve to strengthen the foundations and institutions of an innovation ecosystem. The design, implementation, and management of formalized innovation districts is a new practice area. Research draws upon the experience of concentrated areas of innovation that occurred organically, such as Boston’s Route 128, as well as intentional projects to bring together innovators in large science and technology parks, such as North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park. Existing research focuses on how to define and design innovation districts and evaluate their impact, as well as general policy considerations. In this paper, we review the definitions and benefits of an innovation district, reviewing the existing empirical research on their impacts. We then propose a series of questions to guide practitioners in addressing the economic, physical, social, and governance elements of an innovation district. Finally, we outline some of the challenges in creating an innovation district and ways to measure progress, to allow practitioners to get ahead of potential issues in the future. This paper is intended to help policymakers and practitioners working in innovation and economic development translate the concepts of innovation ecosystems into actionable next steps for planning innovation districts in their communities.

This book contributes to the discourse on planning theory by accentuating the perspective of public innovation. Extending planning theory's traditional two major perspectives - 'Communicate' and 'Calculate' - the book argues that contemporary planning theory should incorporate 'Innovate' as a third perspective. It highlights the multitude of new perspectives that innovative planning can bring to bear on planning theory, as well as showing how the interplay between the three perspectives - 'Communicate', 'Calculate' and 'Innovate' - can help to address vital issues in contemporary societal development.

Despite the development of environmental initiatives, healthcare, and cultural assimilation in today’s global market, significant problems in these areas remain throughout various regions of the world. As countries continue to transition into the modern age, areas across Asia and Africa have begun implementing modern solutions in order to benefit their individual societies and keep pace with the surrounding world. Significant research is needed in order to understand current issues that persist across the globe and what is being done to solve them. Global Issues and Innovative Solutions in Healthcare, Culture, and the Environment is an essential reference source that discusses worldwide conflicts within healthcare and environmental development as well as modern resolutions that are being implemented. Featuring research on topics such as health insurance reform, sanitation development, and cultural freedom, this book is ideally designed for researchers, policymakers, physicians, government officials, sociologists, environmentalists, anthropologists, academicians, practitioners, and students seeking coverage on global societal challenges in the modern age.

This book gathers a diverse range of novel research on modeling innovation policies for sustainable economic development, based on a selection of papers from a conference on modeling innovation systems and technologies (MIST). It aims at encouraging interdisciplinary and comparative approaches, bringing together researchers and professionals interested in sustainable economic, technological development and open innovation, as well as their dissemination and practical application. The respective contributions explore a variety of topics and cases, including regional innovation policy, the effects of open innovation on firms, innovation and sustainability in tourism, and the use of information and communication technologies. All chapters share a strong focus on new research and innovation methodologies, in keeping with the Experimentation and Application Research (EAR) and Open Innovation 2.0 principles.