This book provides interesting insights for the identification of socioeconomic, demographic and territorial factors that affect structural disparities in local economies. Urban development is the result of demographic dynamics at the local level, connected to socioeconomic factors, and of economic growth, whose fluctuations are particularly sensitive to the economic cycle in countries, such as the ones in the Mediterranean basin, characterized by greater informality of the sector and limited public/social housing. Our objective is to provide a contribution to sustainability planning, explaining the linkage between forms of urban development and economic growth, providing policy indications for integrated spatial planning, and for cohesion policies that may leverage social and economic competitiveness.

Recent technological advancements and other related factors and trends are contributing to the production of an astoundingly large and rapidly accelerating collection of data, or ‘Big Data’. This data now allows us to examine urban and regional phenomena in ways that were previously not possible. Despite the tremendous potential of big data for regional science, its use and application in this context is fraught with issues and challenges. This book brings together leading contributors to present an interdisciplinary, agenda-setting and action-oriented platform for research and practice in the urban and regional community. This book provides a comprehensive, multidisciplinary and cutting-edge perspective on big data for regional science. Chapters contain a collection of research notes contributed by experts from all over the world with a wide array of disciplinary backgrounds. The content is organized along four themes: sources of big data; integration, processing and management of big data; analytics for big data; and, higher level policy and programmatic considerations. As well as concisely and comprehensively synthesising work done to date, the book also considers future challenges and prospects for the use of big data in regional science. Big Data for Regional Science provides a seminal contribution to the field of regional science and will appeal to a broad audience, including those at all levels of academia, industry, and government.

Changes in the use of land reflect a variety of environmental and social factors, necessitating an equally varied suite of data to be used for effective analysis. While remote sensing, both from satellites and air photos, provides a central resource for study, socio-economic surveys, censuses, and map sources also supply a wealth of valid informati

This book capitalizes on two hot topics: the Low Carbon Emission Development Strategies and climate change in Asian cities. There is resurgence in making policies to investigate more aspects of the energy-environment spectrum for the global energy market in the future. This book helps the policy makers and researchers to understand which actions should be taken to reduce the environmental impacts of economic activities in different regions in Asia. The clean energy strategy proposed in this book refers to the development and implementation of policies and strategies that simultaneously contribute to addressing climate change and solving local environmental problems, which also have other development impacts. It provides insights to a wide audience on successful ways to promote, design and implement the clean energy policies in Asian cities. To determine the global actions, it is necessary to make breakthroughs by promoting further research and to present scenarios that achieve Low Emission Development Strategies (LEDS) goals without dependence upon fossil fuels. The scenarios and case studies discussed in this book are helpful to plan for the SDGs, where various objectives have to be achieved at the same time. The UN 2030 development agenda needs innovative planning to achieve multiple goals with limited resources and generate synergy among sectors. This book will be one of the first books available on this subject.

Resources are the material basis for human development, while the environment is the fundamental condition for human development. The exploitation and utilization of resources will lead to environmental changes, which in return will have an impact on resources. At present, due to the increase of population and the continuous expansion scale of human production activities, how to address the trade-off between resources exploitation and environment protection has become an important issue for human sustainable development. Green development is a mode of economic growth and social development that emphasizes efficiency, harmony and sustainability. It can realize the coordination and sustainability among population, economy and social development, resources and environment, and is a promising means to solve the current problems associated with resources and environment.

This contributed volume presents relevant examples of socio-environmental research that highlight the challenges and opportunities of using geotechnologies in interdisciplinary settings across the vast, culturally, and environmentally mega-diverse region known as Latin America. While remote sensing has been mostly used for mapping and monitoring physical features, geographic information systems open up opportunities for the integration of socio-economic and environmental data collected through individual and community-based surveys, in-situ measurements, and other participatory research techniques to offer additional analytically grounded power when evaluating socio-environmental processes that shape Latin American landscapes. The topics addressed in this book include deforestation and land degradation, borderlands dynamics, agriculture and agroecological systems, environmental conservation and development, public health, tourism, environmental justice, archeology, volunteered geography and urban planning, among others. The book is intended for academics, graduate and undergraduate classrooms, and general audiences with interest in Latin America and the socio-environmental issues that threaten the sustainability of the region and local communities. The book will also appeal to practitioners, managers, and policy makers interested in the application of geo-technologies and field-based research to address complex socio-environmental problems in the Global South.

Establishing the mechanism of realizing the value of ecological product is an important way to realize land use change, agricultural production transformation and reduce environmental pollution. In recent years, consumers' demand for ecological products has been increasing while the supply is seriously insufficient. The realization of ecological product value faces various bottlenecks, including the realization mechanism of ecological product value, land use variation and the temporal dynamics of land use change, and the driving forces behind land dynamics and their socio-ecological feedbacks. Meanwhile, the relationship between the realization of ecological product value, land use transformation and changes in agricultural production mode are still unclear. In the process of realizing the value of ecological products, how to realize agricultural production and land use transformation, and environmental improvement is also a constant concern to be solved desperately.

"Modeling the Dynamics and Consequences of Land System Change" introduces an innovative three-tier architecture approach for modeling the dynamics and consequences of land system change. It also describes the principle, modules and the applications of the three-tier architecture model in detail. The approach holds strong potential for accurate predictions of the land use structure at the regional level, simulating the land use pattern at pixel level and evaluating the consequences of land system change. The simulation results can be used for the planning of land use, urban development, regional development, environmental protection, and also serve as valuable information for decision making concerning land management and optimal utilization of land resources. The book is intended for the researchers and professionals in land use or land systems, regional environmental change, ecological conservation, as well as the land resource administrative agencies and environmental protection agencies. Professor Xiangzheng Deng is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.

The concept of ‘sustainable urban development’ has been pushed to the forefront of policymaking and politics as the world wakes up to the impacts of climate change and the destructive effects of the Anthropocene. Climate change has emerged to be one of the biggest challenges faced by our planet today, threatening both built and natural systems with long-term consequences, which may be irreversible. While there is a vast body of literature on sustainability and sustainable urban development, there is currently limited focus on how to cohesively bring together the vital issues of the planning, development, and management of sustainable cities. Moreover, it has been widely stated that current practices and lifestyles cannot continue if we are to leave a healthy living planet to not only the next generation, but also to the generations beyond. The current global school strikes for climate action (known as Fridays for Future) evidences this. The book advocates the view that the focus needs to rest on ways in which our cities and industries can become green enough to avoid urban ecocide. This book fills a gap in the literature by bringing together issues related to the planning, development, and management of cities and focusing on a triple-bottom-line approach to sustainability.

This book attempts to introduce the theory of system science and engineering technology into the geographic research of urban-rural transformation, reveals the level-structure-function of urban-rural transformation, and promotes the scientific research on urban-rural transformation. Focusing on the systematic diagnosis of new-type urbanization, urban-rural land use, industrial structure transformation and public facilities allocation, this book explores the long-term mechanism, innovative model, and scientific way of urban-rural land optimal allocation and spatial reconstruction and develops urban-rural transformation geography. In terms of the contents, the book constructs the theory and method system of urban-rural transformation geography, analyzes the process, pattern, mechanism, and response of urban-rural transformation, reveals the evolution characteristics, types, and regional differences of urban-rural regional system, and finally puts forward the optimal decision-making of urban-rural transformation. This book not only provides references for graduate and researchers in geography, regional development, urban and rural planning, resource science, environmental science, human-earth system science, sustainability science, and other related fields but also guides the decision-making of planners and government officials.