Exploratory landscape metrics for agricultural sustainability

Socioeconomic growth and urban change have been an increasing concern for decision makers in recent decades. The monitoring, mapping, and analysis of agricultural land use change, especially in areas where urban change has been high, is crucial. The collision between traditional economic activities related to agriculture in tourist areas such as the Algarve and current demand for tourism infrastructures in urban regions is also leading to loss of economic activity. This article uses a combined geographical information system approach with CORINE land cover datasets to perform a Shannon’s diversity index quantifying changes in agricultural areas. The article then expands on the nature of the agricultural changes observed, and offers a multi-temporal assessment by means of landscape metrics in order to understand the shifting land use patterns for the Algarve in land use planning and regional economic equilibrium: a) forest regions become transformed into agricultural areas and agricultural areas become urban; b) areas that are initially agricultural become scattered residential regions created by economic investors; and c) agricultural land use changes have a cyclical nature in which—in the course of the economic recession—such dynamic effects brought about a decrease in tourism and focus on traditional sectors

Regional Knowledge Management: Contrasting Skills in Science, Technology and Innovation Along the Atlantic Space

This paper represents an effort to evaluate the current position and perspectives of science, technology and innovation in several Atlantic Regions. It is based on the results of a still running European research project (REGINA) that puts together Andaluzia, Algarve, Norte, Galicia, País Vasco, Bretagne, West Midlands and Border, Midland and Western. Not discussing the large spectrum of the goals of that project, this is an exercise to discuss the possibility of setting up a lasting partnership for regional knowledge management in the politically so important Atlantic space. Comprehending Spain, Portugal, France, United Kingdom and Ireland, this part of Europe also integrates regions lagging in terms of tacit and codified knowledge environments and, consequent innovative attitudes. Would they benefit of a better territorial development balance within the Atlantic space in case of a regional innovation system common strategy? And if so, which sectors are those to show greater skills for technological transfer within cooperative performances? Highlighting an interactive model for which knowledge creation is understood in a broad perspective and innovation implicitly demands more than a simply gathering of discoveries and inventions the theoretical framing accepts the adaptation and combination of existing forms of knowledge. This interactive and dynamic concept emphasises the external environment of the firms in addition to their internal knowledge creation capacity and refers a synthetic framework based on the concept of the learning process as a driver to redress stakeholders’ attitudes and strategic choices. In such a context, the advantages that may result from institutional geographical proximity or similarity, specific knowledge diffusion and networking in coordination of common interests could build up advantages. In short, the specific construction of a territorial knowledge base and the consequent achievement of more sustainable regional development for a large part of the European Atlantic border are discussed in this practical case. Based on secondary data from the European Innovation Scoreboard, an outline over the regional innovation performances of the considered regions will be supplied. Also, based on primary data obtained near the institutional bodies of each region, an analysis of the existent governance structures is possible. The conclusion allows considerations related to the present context for the development of an Atlantic spatial development strategy.

Gravitational models and spatial foresight: from agricultural policy to agricultural loss

This paper discusses the issue and proposes a spatial land-cover accounting methodology to assess the impacts and changes occurred in the rural world, Portugal serving as a case study. So, furthermore, this paper aims to respond from a spatial perspective to the following questions: (i) Which are the most significant changes in Portuguese agricultural systems and where did they occur? (ii) Do municipalities in Portugal show dense agricultural regions that were lost, and if so, are they related to urban regions? The methods apply gravitational models to identify the compactness of agricultural areas within the different regions and detect the most significant land use variations. By comparative analyses of the different agricultural land classes, the variations in agricultural land use changes were detected. Also, the comparison of these values in a best-fit with Euclidean distances of artificial land-use questions the consequences of land-use change in Portugal over the last two decades. Finally, this paper demonstrates that the existence of spatial inventories such as the CORINE Land Cover, currently in its third assessment, provides useful information for the assessment of agricultural land-use dynamics

Spatial databases for decision support in agriculture

The Portuguese agriculture has experienced phases of change and its adaptation to the Common Agriculture Policy. Although serious problems have subsisted as structural difficulties in spite of the many public aids, it seems that, slowly, agricultural productivity increased, integrating some technological progress. However, other expectations related to food auto sufficiency or a more balanced equilibrium in the food trade were however, not achieved. For that study, after having desegregated possible determinants of growth for the agricultural sector, the econometric results showed a stationary tendency for all the vegetal production variables; contrarily, some of the detected growth factors were correlated to animal production, particularly to pork, poultry and milk production. Beside, the classical econometrics, new methods could allow us to a more in depth analysis of the state in the Portuguese agricultural activities. Our research uses Geographic Information Systems to those prompt spatial databases for monitoring land use change. This short essay opens prospects for a much better understanding of rurality when all those factors contributing to its sustainability, much broader than agricultural activities will be evaluated under the methods earlier described

Why a multidisciplinary agenda for Southern Europe?

Since the process of southern Europe's integration in the European Union, the Mediterranean region has seen a more considerable gap between central and northern European countries and its southern European counterpart. Thus, in a European context of social cohesion, it becomes necessary to better understand Southern Europe, without escaping to the so required perception of the complexity of Mediterranean culture. As a significant player along history, Southern Europe established a platform of diversity and freedom consistently, bringing peace between different historic-cultural traditions. Moreover, the southern frontier of Europe to Africa and Asia has become a crucial determinant in the current times of change where ruptures in the political systems are also defining new patterns of regional migration.  Meanwhile, the integration of Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Greece in the European Union reinforced an essential search for stability, altering to some extent the political and economic predispositions of these countries. This has been followed by somewhat rigid institutions, that remain, to a certain extent, an obstacle to sustainable development, and justify a broader assessment of the potential of policy and governance intervention. A Mediterranean region where a context of stagnation or increasing poverty and migration is leading most impoverished areas to a deleterious deprivation of human resources and capital. In such cases towards conflict, Southern European countries may represent a bridging alternative and an exemplar representation of democracy. A co-joint positive Mediterranean agenda is necessary, where migration patterns become a substantial factor in the future of all the frontier countries: Italy and Greece, Spain, and Portugal. This special issue collects recent insights in socio-economic developments in Mediterranean countries in order to further a future agenda for Southern Europe

Theoretical foundations in support of small and medium towns

This theoretical review aims to create a comprehensive and systematic analysis based on previously published literature explaining how contemporary technological developments may promote new paths for small and medium-sized towns (SMTs) and their networking systems. Much has been said concerning the capacity of towns to absorb strategic knowledge, which is highly dependent on local governance systems. In this paper, five levels of multidisciplinary approaches will be addressed so as to pinpoint the theoretical grounds for the promotion and advocacy of small and medium-sized towns (SMTs) as major drivers of regional sustainability: agglomeration advantages and networking efficiencies-representing strict economic accounting of cost and benefits; clustering in a context of online environments, and its extension to open networking systems; sustainable innovation processes for SMTs, technology, and knowledge transfer in open innovation systems-both settings for discussions within the framing of new technological developments and artificial intelligence; knowledge and new technological developments with local spillovers-to be enhanced employing new educational programs and learning diffusion at advanced levels; the social functions of small and medium-sized towns-to be addressed in the areas of sociology, architecture, and planning.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

How corporations deal with reporting sustainability: Assessment using the multicriteria logistic biplot approach

This paper suggests a new methodology capable of accessing in detail the contribution of companies to countries' sustainability related to economic performance. The concept of sustainability has been brought up in several debates, leading to a clearer understanding of its progress in recent decades. The most adequate indicators to achieve a unique value to define sustainability have been identified. However, specific behaviors of economic agents such as exist in particularly large organizations, have rarely been exposed and evaluated regarding their positive or negative contribution to the increase of sustainability throughout the world. This paper proposes an integrated approach incorporating an evaluation of the positive and negative contributions to sustainability by means of a logistic biplot application. This allows the creation of a summarized index that combines all single sustainability indicators. These synthetic indices allow the positioning of each of the companies in a geometric representation for an original exploration of the sustainability paradigm. The supplied method permits accessing and evaluating information concerning specific behaviors of economic agents such as big companies. In our paper, we have followed the engagements towards sustainability of big corporations, individually or as groups, across the different activity sectors in Portugal and Spain

Modelling innovation support systems for development

The present article offers a concise theoretical conceptualization on the contribution of innovation to regional development. These concepts are closely related to geographical proximity, knowledge diffusion and filters, and clustering. Institutional innovation profiles and regional patterns of innovation are two mutually linked, novel conceptual elements in this article. Next to a theoretical framing, the paper offers also a new methodology to analyse institutional innovation profiles. Our case study addresses three Portuguese regions and their institutions, included in a web-based inventory of innovation agencies which offered the foundation for an extensive data base. This data set was analyzed by means of a recently developed Principal Coordinates Analysis followed by a Logistic Biplot approach (leading to a Voronoi mapping) to design a systemic typology of innovation structures where each institution is individually represented. There appears to be a significant difference in the regional innovation patterns resulting from the diverse institutional innovation profiles concerned. These profiles appear to be region-specific. Our conclusion highlights the main advantages in the use of the method used for policy-makers and business companies

New methods for resilient societies: The geographical analysis of injury data

In this paper an empirical assessment of injury patterns is supplied as an example of social endurance -resilient societies can be built by means of geographical analysis of injury data, providing better support for decision makers regarding urban safety. Preventing road traffic collisions with vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians, could help mitigate significant loses and improve infrastructure planning. In this sense, the geographical aspects of injury prevention are of clear spatial analog, and should be tested regarding the carrying capacity of urban areas as well as vulnerability for growing urban regions. The application of open source development tool for spatial analysis research in health studies is addressed. The study aims to create a framework of available open source tools through Python that enable better decision making through a systematic review of existing tools for spatial analysis. Methodologically, spatial autocorrelation indices are tested as well as influential variables are brought forward to establish a better understanding of the incremental concern of injuries in rural areas, in general, and in the Greater Toronto Area, in particular. By using Python Library for Spatial Analysis (PySAL), an integrative vision of assessing a growing epidemiological concern of injuries in Toronto, one of North America's fastest growing economic metropolises is offered. In this sense, this study promotes the use of PySAL and open source toolsets for integrating spatial analysis and geographical analysis for health practitioners. The novelty and capabilities of open source tools through methods such as PySAL allow for a cost efficiency as well as give planning an easier methodological toolbox for advances spatial modelling techniques.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Business topographies. A spatiotemporal analysis of 150 years of Indian business

One of the most growing entrepreneurial landscapes has been without a doubt in the last decade India. India, with a total population of almost 1.2 billion inhabitants, is a land of immense business opportunity within a highly competitive market. Before the eighties however, India was mainly a rural country, with a large contrast of the nexus between city and periphery. With the emergence of young generation of entrepreneurs, the economy has been growing at a rate of 8-10% for the last 20 years