Imaginaries of a ‘Europe of the regions’

“I have not come here this evening to talk to you about a utopia; no, I am here to talk to you about an adventure ...: the federating of Europe.” These are the words of Denis de Rougemont (1948, p.1), the Swiss philosopher and scholar, given at a talk on 22nd of April 1948 at the Sorbonne, Paris. He was advocating for the cultural, historical regions to become the sub-European political units instead of nation states. I start this essay with his statement not because I necessarily agree with his views, but because he is the person who coined the term ‘Europe of the regions’ in his book The idea of Europe, which appeared in English in 1966 (de Rougemont, 1966). Donald Tusk (2016), former President of the European Union (EU), called him “a philosopher of regionalism” and “a pioneer of the EU moto of ‘unity in diversity’”. I also started this essay with de Rougemont because of his take on what constitutes Europe. In his book, he traces the history of the idea from the Greek myth of the abduction of Europa by Zeus to the 18th and 19th century federalist ideas of Napoleon and the 1960s European Community, and concludes that the search for Europe is to build Europe; that, Europe is only to be found in the process of creating it (de Rougemont, 1966). This relational perspective somewhat resonates with what I am going to discuss about ‘the region’ and a ‘Europe of the regions’

Urban form, policy packaging and sustainable urban metabolism

Since the inception of modern urban planning in the early 20th century, numerous urban planning policies have been introduced that seek to steer urban form towards desired patterns. Some have explicitly focused on promoting energy efficient urban forms to reduce carbon emissions and contribute to sustainable urban metabolism. Despite the proliferation of such policies, ‘unsustainable’ trends, such as urban sprawl and long distance car-based commuting, continue and in some cases are worsening. In this paper, we aim to explore the limited success of a number of influential urban planning policies in Europe and North America in trying to steer urban form towards a more sustainable path. Our aim is to identify their potential common shortcomings and suggest a number of principles which may help formulating more effective policy packages for sustainable urban metabolism

A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE PERTURBED-CHAIN STATISTICAL ASSOCIATING FLUID THEORY EQUATION OF STATE AND MACHINE LEARNING MODELING APPROACHES IN ASPHALTENE ONSET PRESSURE AND BUBBLE POINT PRESSURE PREDICTION DURING GAS INJECTION

Predicting asphaltene onset pressure (AOP) and bubble point pressure (Pb) is essential for optimization of gas injection for enhanced oil recovery. Pressure-Volume-Temperature or PVT studies along with equations of state (EoSs) are widely used to predict AOP and Pb. However, PVT experiments are costly and time-consuming. The perturbed-chain statistical associating fluid theory or PC-SAFT is a sophisticated EoS used for prediction of the AOP and Pb. However, this method is computationally complex and has high data requirements. Hence, developing precise and reliable smart models for prediction of the AOP and Pb is inevitable. In this paper, we used machine learning (ML) methods to develop predictive tools for the estimation of the AOP and Pb using experimental data (AOP data set: 170 samples; Pb data set: 146 samples). Extra trees (ET), support vector machine (SVM), decision tree, and k-nearest neighbors ML methods were used. Reservoir temperature, reservoir pressure, SARA fraction, API gravity, gas−oil ratio, fluid molecular weight, monophasic composition, and composition of gas injection are considered as input data. The ET (R2: 0.793, RMSE: 7.5) and the SVM models (R2: 0.988, RMSE: 0.76) attained more reliable results for estimation of the AOP and Pb, respectively. Generally, the accuracy of the PC-SAFT model is higher than that of the AI/ML models. However, our results confirm that the AI/ML approach is an acceptable alternative for the PC-SAFT model when we face lack of data and/or complex mathematical equations. The developed smart models are accurate and fast and produce reliable results with lower data requirements

Exploring urban metabolism—Towards an interdisciplinary perspective

© 2017 The Author(s) The discussion on urban metabolism has been long dominated by natural scientists focussing on natural forces shaping the energy and material flows in urban systems. However, in the anthropocene human forces such as industrialization and urbanization are mobilizing people, goods and information at an increasing pace and as such have a large impact on urban energy and material flows. In this white paper, we develop a combined natural and social science perspective on urban metabolism. More specifically, innovative conceptual and methodological interdisciplinary approaches are identified and discussed to enhance the understanding of the forces that shape urban metabolism, and how these forces affect urban living and the environment. A challenging research agenda on urban metabolism is also presented

Re-conceptualising Territorial Cohesion Through the Prism of Spatial Justice : Critical Perspectives on Academic and Policy Discourses

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