Integrated process of Ecosystem Services evaluation and urban planning. The experience of LIFE SAM4CP project towards sustainable and smart communities.

Evaluation of Ecosystem Services (ES) and related mapping tools and techniques can be used in urban planning and design to define sustainable land use strategies aimed to achieve resilience in urban planning. The analysis of ES improves the ability of politicians, administrators, planners and stakeholders to define strategies of regeneration, ecologically and energy efficient oriented. Furthermore, it allows to reflect about the sustainability of urbanization and related environmental issues, bringing attention to social and economic aspects, too. The soil, as measurable value common good, is a source of energy, requires a strong reduction of its consumption and a good use of it. The paper experienced the recent research innovations made by DIST for LIFE program SAM4CP, which integrates the process of planning and decision making with analysis and assessments of ES in order to support Municipalities to define policies and monitoring procedures oriented to limit the consumption of high quality soil. The process of evaluation and planning can also be adopted for urban resilient projects aimed at define successful methods for improving energy efficiency in communities and urban areas. The paper aims to present partial results of the project. A strong integration of evaluation and planning actions, providing multicriteria analysis techniques and adopting software (like InVEST) able to map the outcomes of the evaluation process and the inputs for the planning process will be discussed. An indicator based approach is presented as the innovative tool to achieve land use efficiency, and resilience as the main paradigm to steer Co-planning Conference

A Method to Select and Optimize Slow Tourism Routes Using a Quality Index Procedure Based on Image Segmentation and DTM Modelling Based on NURBS: The Case Study of Multimodal Access to Inner Places from the Nodes of the Adriatic Coastline’s Infrastructure Bundle

This paper tests a combination of methods that allows for the optimization of a mobility network through the multimodal interchange between fast and slow routes. These routes contribute to mending the relationship between the existing infrastructural networks and the places of interest in the landscape while respecting morphological adaptability. The case study that generated the research question explained above is the Costa dei Trabucchi in Abruzzo, Italy. The choice of a single paradigmatic case study to evaluate the method is based on the need to analyse an edge context with very scarce data, except for the coast. The advantage of this method is the efficiency based on three main conditions: overcoming limitations due to data scarcity, the use of open-source data and the multiscalarity of analyses. The result of this research work is the creation of a useful strategy to identify the most suitable routes in terms of spatial quality and walkability/cyclability. The case study is formed by the territories crossed by a railway line that has recently been decommissioned. The displacement of a railway line creates opportunities to improve the quality and use of the territory locally, with a natural evolution of the track in a greenway, and at the territorial level because it generates a network of better multimodal and sustainable mobility solutions inside and between the surrounding areas

SUB-REGIONAL DISPARITIES: AN INTEGRATED AND DYNAMIC MODEL FOR ASSESSING QUALITY OF LIFE INEQUALITY

Recently, the quality of life (QoL) has become a commonly used concept with a growing significance also in the local development policies. However, there is no sufficient attention to the QoL framework at local level. Thus, starting from the assumption that a reduction in local disparities may also favour an increase in the regional performance compared to other non-regional contexts, we propose an integrate and dynamic model able to monitor QoL components in order to assess sub-regional disparities. The model was applied to the Basilicata region, a lagging rural region of South of Italy. A dashboard of indicators within 10 QoL domains was identified, considering two periods (2001 and 2011), by applying a non-compensatory aggregation method to combine them. Despite an average improvement for most of QoL components in the considered period, the results of the spatial autocorrelation analysis highlighted, in most cases, a clustered distribution, with the tendency of clusters to generate a carry-over effect (both in positive and negative) on the neighbouring municipalities. About 32-33% of municipalities tends to move from moderate to high advantage condition, while municipalities in a risk condition tend to move on to a moderate disadvantage condition. It follows that significantly deficient QoL components, acting synergistically, generate a self- reinforcing process. The proposed model, overcoming some limits related to data availability, allows an integrated knowledge and monitoring of sub-regional inequalities in order to implement target actions to smooth out them

A GA-based household scheduler

One way of making activity-based travel analysis operational for transport planning is multi-agent micro-simulation. Modelling activity and trip generation based on individual and social characteristics are central steps in this method. The model presented here generates complete daily activity schedules based on the structure of a household and its members' activity calendars. The model assumes that the household is another basic decision-making unit for travel demand aside from individual mobility needs. Results of the model are schedules containing complete information about activity type and sequence, locations, and means of transportation, as well as activity start times and durations. The generated schedules are the outcome of a probabilistic optimisation using genetic algorithms. This iterative method improves solutions found in a random search according to the specification of a fitness criterion, which equals utility here. It contains behavioural assumptions about individuals as well as the household level. Individual utility is derived from the number of activities and their respective durations. It is reduced by costs of travelling and penalties for late, respectively early arrival. The household level is represented directly by the utility of joint activities, and indirectly by allocation of activities and means of transportation to household members. The paper presents initial tests with a three-person household, detailing resulting schedules, and discussing run-time experiences. A sensitivity analysis of the joint utility parameter impact is also include

Sustainable Development Policies in Europe

The objective of this paper is to investigate the actual situation in the shift towards the implementation of Sustainable Development Policies in Europe. The aim is to highlight the key role of the European Union in bringing about sustainable development within Europe and also on the wider global stage. It will show how the European Commission performs its commitment in reaching a sustainable regulation by issuing some documents and declarations. The paper frames the EU action into an international framework of strategies, agreements and policies on SD and, at the same time, provides an overview on experiences of SD strategy implementations at the national level, according to the commission pressing on MS to produce their own SD strategy and implement it. Indicators systems, issues of interest and fields of actions are compared: the analysis of these elements aims to highlight common scenarios of SD strategies that reveal the trends towards a more sustainable growth in the European Union.Sustainable Development, Globalization, Environment Policy, Strategy for Sustainable Development, Good Governance, Participation

European Regional Science: Between Economy of Culture and Economy of Catastrophes (Review of the ERSA 2005 Amsterdam Congress Reports)

ERSA Congress can be seen as laboratory of ideas with broad representation not only European, but also scientists from US, Japan, Korea, Brazil, African and Asian countries. With very high speed new thoughts and phenomena from the European regional scientific community appear on the stages of the ERSA annual Congresses. Three new features were characteristic for the 2005 ERSA Congress in comparison with the previous ones. First, special focus on the factors of density in the regional development. That was not surprising as the meeting was held in the city of Amsterdam with the highest density in Europe where land and space are scarce goods. Second, integrative tendencies in attempt to use natural factors to explain traditional phenomena of the regional science. Issues of land and water management coincide with economic growth and regional development in many reports. Third, for the first time theme of networks and network society was embedded in many sections of the Congress and in the very title of the Congress itself. All these aspects as participants demonstrated could be positive creative factors increasing cultural assets of the European regions, efficiency of the knowledge transfer, leisure activities; or negative as the source of disaster and risk for human beings. Density factors (lack of people or lack of space?) divide European regional science into two sciences – urban for the populated regions and regional for the territories scarcely populated with very different themes, methods and tools of research. Housing markets, urban sprawl and commuting patterns are popular topics in the first case; labour markets and human capital in the second case. New Economic Geography models work smoothly in the first regions but are inappropriate in the second. Competition is harder in the labour markets of the populated regions but is softer in the regions with scattered population where it is substituted by the forces of cooperation. Contemporary regional society can be sustainable only as network society. In the reports networks were examined on different levels: a) as transportation networks in the investment national or interregional projects; b) as policentricity urban structures replacing Cristaller’s hierarchy of central places; c) as public-public, public-private partnerships combining public and private stakeholders in the decision-making process. Transition of the European regions from the industrial to network/service has begun 25 years ago. Position of the concrete region on this route determines clearly the type and intensity of its problem and research agenda. The more advanced is the region or nation on this route the more often terms like “reinventâ€, “rethinkâ€, “revisited†are used in the scientific community. Rediscovery of the old concepts, definitions, essence (as Amsterdam Congress demonstrated) is very creative and challenging process of the post-industrial regional science.

The Allure of Technology: How France and California Promoted Electric Vehicles to Reduce Urban Air Pollution

All advanced industrialized societies face the problem of air pollution produced by motor vehicles. In spite of striking improvements in internal combustion engine technology, air pollution in most urban areas is still measured at levels determined to be harmful to human health. Throughout the 1990s and beyond, California and France both chose to improve air quality by means of technological innovation, adopting legislation that promoted clean vehicles, prominently among them, electric vehicles (EVs). In California, policymakers chose a technology-forcing approach, setting ambitious goals (e.g., zero emission vehicles), establishing strict deadlines and issuing penalties for non-compliance. The policy process in California called for substantial participation from the public, the media, the academic community and the interest groups affected by the regulation. The automobile and oil industries bitterly contested the regulation, in public and in the courts. In contrast, in France the policy process was non-adversarial, with minimal public participation and negligible debate in academic circles. We argue that California's stringent regulation spurred the development of innovative hybrid and fuel cell vehicles more effectively than the French approach. However, in spite of the differences, both California and France have been unable to put a substantial number of EVs on the road. Our comparison offers some broad lessons about how policy developments within a culture influence both the development of technology and the impact of humans on the environment.Environmental policy, Electric vehicles, Air pollution, Technology policy, Sustainable transport

Real estate investment choices and decision support systems

The evaluation of real estate assets is currently one of the main focal points addressed by territorial marketing strategies, with the view of developing high-performing or competitive cities. Given the complexity of the driving forces that determine the behavior of actors in a real estate market, it is necessary to identify a priori the factors that determine the competitive capacity of a city, to attract investments. The decision support system allows taking into account the key factors that determine the “attractiveness” of real estate investments in competitive urban contexts. This study proposes an integrated complex evaluation model that is able to map out and encapsulate the multidimensional spectrum of factors that shape the attractiveness of alternative real estate options. The conceptual–methodological approach is illustrated by an application of the model to a real-world case study of investment choice in the residential sector of Naples

An Agent-Based Decision Support Model for the Development of E-Services in the Tourist Sector

This paper regards cultural heritage as a strategic development tool for urban tourist policy. It highlights the use of e-services as a central instrument in a competitive tourist sector. The appropriate choice of e-services - and packages thereof - depends on the various strategic considerations of urban stakeholders (agents) and may differ for each individual city. The paper offers a systematic analysis framework for supporting these choices and deploys multi-criteria analysis as a systematic evaluation methodology, in particular the Regime method. The evaluation framework is exemplified through an application to three field cases in Europe, viz. the cities of Amsterdam, Genoa and Leipzig. Our analysis concludes that tailor-made packages of e-services that serve the needs of the stakeholders can be made with the help of our evaluation tools.cultural heritage, e-services, city marketing, agent-based decision support model