Accessibility dynamics and regional cross-border cooperation (CBC) perspectives in the portuguese—spanish borderland

Accessibility plays a major role in achieving sustainable transport, and therefore urban and regional sustainability. The urban public transport system promotes mobility and realizes a large part of urban movements. Moreover, improving accessibility in order to promote sustainable transport requires the application of new concepts and indicators as a powerful tool in the process of creating a balanced urban transport system. In this regard, one of the main goals of this research is to present an overview of the relevant accessibility indicators and assessment of accessibility in regional Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) in order to transcendence challenges and obstacles for sustainable transportation in these regions along of Portuguese-Spanish border. This paper focuses on the accessibility of cross-border cooperation scenarios along the border regions of Alto Alentejo (Portugal) and Badajoz (Spain) where the Case Study Research Method (CSR) made it possible to recognize accessibility as a key factor in territorial success. Also, accessibility analysis can assess improvements as well as regional imbalances. In addition, this methodology can be used to identify missing links, which requires new investments enabling long-term sustainability.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Multivariated Effect of City Cooperation in Land Use Planning and Decision-Making Processes: A European Analysis

Spatial and urban planning processes regarding border cooperation have reached unprecedented levels in recent decades, not only due to their potential for territorial integration, i.e., infrastructure construction and planning activities worldwide. Bearing in mind the European project, for a united and strong network of nations, this scenario is more evident in European territories. In this regard, through multivariated analyzes of city cooperation on European border areas, it is possible to identify the factors that influence the territorial success and also a sustainable regional development and even their effects over the urban agglomerations. From the identified factors, the study pointed out one that is common to all cases: connectivity-movement between cities

Common Regional Development Strategies on Iberian Territories - A Framework for Comprehensive Border Corridors Governance: Establishing Integrated Territorial Development

Although the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) has made a considerable contribution to increasing transport infrastructure and improving transport services, it still often seems that border regions have reduced accessibility compared to central regions. The Iberian border regions of Alto-Alentejo (Portugal) and Badajoz (Spain) were analyzed. Studies conducted in the Iberian territories confirm some of these regions’ unsustainability and the non-impact on the inhabitants’ quality of life. Also, a few questions arise: Can we verify the change in methods and measures used by development strategies? Is it necessary to acquire a more comprehensive view of corridor flows and interactions through common regional development strategies for managing development corridors? Will we influence the change of the methodological approach to be strategic and that it does not imply a corridor only in terms of the flow and mobility of people and goods, but also the search for the causes of movements in growth corridors? So, infrastructure and connectivity planning, regional economic development, and land use planning are critical contexts in developing territorial policies in the planning of development of corridors and their integration into development processes. This study proposes a framework for strategic corridor governance to increase accessibility and regional equity

Accessibility concepts and indicators in transportation strategic planning issues

Accessibility is a well-known and studied concept within the scientific literature. Good transportation accessibility is certainly an important factor in exploiting spatial potentials. The quality of transportation infrastructure in terms of capacity, travel speed, connectivity etc., determines the quality and advantage of a location relative to other locations, which is usually measured as accessibility. Increasingly overloaded transport corridors, in the context of changing transportation flows are becoming an important issue for accessibility. This Paper gives a very brief overview of which kind of transportation networks and services indicators should be used in relevant documents and in transportation planning practice. This Paper provides a comprehensive overview of the different definitions, dimensions and indicators of accessibility in the literature of those already discovered

Analyzing Transportation Logistics and Infrastructure Sustainability in the Iberian Peninsula: The Case of Portugal Mainland

Transportation is one of the most meaningful references of unsustainability in regional urban areas. This difficulty is stimulating urban planners and decision-makers to introduce the concept of sustainability into their policy design at multiple levels. Contextually, through exploratory tools, the present study aims to analyze the impacts over the socio-economic sphere that those new plans could bring to the region and the local populations of Portugal Mainland. Also, analyses of regional disparities in Portugal focused on the socio-economic aspects and analyses on territorial cohesion concept where indicators organized in policy-oriented territorial objectives and then combined with an analytical framework. Besides, the study especially intends to cover sustainable accessibility (also one of the components of territorial cohesion), which aims to help regional planners determine the inherent obstacles and design possible alternatives at the strategic planning level for sustainable regional transport and land-use arrangement. The study shows that exist inequalities in the distribution of absolute accessibility. Value of accessibility in category “very high” in 192 towns (68,57%) settlements, in the central, coastal territory along the dual carriageway and national road corridors, live 81,7% population. Nevertheless, the regional inequalities pattern did not vary considerably in Portugal's last decade of funding policies

Tendencies in land use and land cover in Serbia towards sustainable development in 1990-2018

The overuse of natural resources by humanity in recent decades has resulted in noticeable changes in environment quality. Global environmental research is particularly interested in the topics of land use change and land cover. The Republic of Serbia has a diverse spectrum of landforms, with agricultural use taking up the largest portions, followed by forestry, water, and building land. Significant anthropogenic pressures (such as mining, deforestation, urbanization, and uncontrolled land use, among other things) have harmed Serbia's natural resources over the past two decades. This study examines the causes of specific trends in land-use change in Serbia, utilizing the CORINE Land Cover (CLC) database to track temporal and spatial changes in the major categories of land use and land cover from 1990 to 2018. The authors explained that focusing on the rational use of natural resources is the only way to promote sustainable development, legal alignment with EU law, and prompt adoption of harmonized laws and planning documents across all sectors.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Assessing Transportation Patterns in the Azores Archipelago

It is well-known that the ultra-peripheral territories as Islands present several limitations such as the lack of resources, restricted land, mass tourism, and barriers to movement, and connectivity between urban centers. These obstacles make ultra-peripheral regions suitable case studies considering their territorial governance and consequently, sustainable development and growth. Thus, transportation and infrastructure sustainability in these regions are not an exception. Considering all the obstacles present in these regions, the accessibility and connectivity patterns that the local population has in these territories should be assessed and monitored. Thereby, through exploratory tools, the present research assumes to examine, using accessibility and connectivity indicators, the consequences across the social-economic dimension that the regional transportation and infrastructure should convey to the Azores Islands Archipelago populations. Therefore, this article allows us to set the present situation regarding this region’s accessibility and connectivity patterns, creating an additional tool for supporting the main actors’ design and implementation of these territories’ future plans and strategies. Besides, this study enables us to recognize that Pico, Flores, and São Miguel are the ones with better accessibility patterns within the Azores Archipelago

Maritime Transportation Dynamics in the Azores Region: Analyzing the Period 1998–2019

The geography over which maritime transportation operates is unique, combining physical, strategic, and commercial imperatives. Physical issues are stable across time, but strategic, especially commercial, considerations continually shift with the ebb and flow of the globalization process. Contextually, the distance that isolates different locations in many cases plays a vital function in these interactions. Distance is the primary element that affects the values of interaction intensities. In fact, the issue is how the intensities were reduced with distance since this reduction is generally not linear. In this regard, this article intends to pursue the issues of the shape and parameters of the distance–decay functions based on the travel time value between islands. In this regard, almost all the Azores Islands were used as a case study. The study results show that the distance–decay functions established the unique dominance of Faial Island, Pico Island, and São Jorge Island, all in the Azores central group; in addition, there was an increase in the number of passengers in those. Moreover, the dominant position is the central islands, and their coexistence with others in the environment makes them more accessible than other islands, showing Terceira Island as a potential maritime passengers’ hub in the Azores. So, with this study, it becomes clear which are the main accessibility issues within the Azores archipelago as well as efficiency should be promoted through the design of policies in maritime passengers’ transportation

Maritime Transportation Dynamics in the Azores Region: Analyzing the Period 1998–2019

The geography over which maritime transportation operates is unique, combining physical, strategic, and commercial imperatives. Physical issues are stable across time, but strategic, especially commercial, considerations continually shift with the ebb and flow of the globalization process. Contextually, the distance that isolates different locations in many cases plays a vital function in these interactions. Distance is the primary element that affects the values of interaction intensities. In fact, the issue is how the intensities were reduced with distance since this reduction is generally not linear. In this regard, this article intends to pursue the issues of the shape and parameters of the distance–decay functions based on the travel time value between islands. In this regard, almost all the Azores Islands were used as a case study. The study results show that the distance–decay functions established the unique dominance of Faial Island, Pico Island, and São Jorge Island, all in the Azores central group; in addition, there was an increase in the number of passengers in those. Moreover, the dominant position is the central islands, and their coexistence with others in the environment makes them more accessible than other islands, showing Terceira Island as a potential maritime passengers’ hub in the Azores. So, with this study, it becomes clear which are the main accessibility issues within the Azores archipelago as well as efficiency should be promoted through the design of policies in maritime passengers’ transportation

Production of lactulose oligosaccharides by isomerisation of transgalactosylated cheese whey permeate obtained by β-galactosidases from dairy Kluyveromyces

β-Galactosidases from Kluyveromyces lactis and Kluyveromyces marxianus isolated from artisanal ewes' milk cheeses, were used to transgalactosylate lactose from cheese whey permeate (WP). The content of galactooligosaccharides (GOS) obtained by transgalactosylation was comparable with that formed using pure lactose as substrate. In order to obtain a mixture with higher prebiotic oligosaccharide content, isomerisation of the transgalactosylated WP was carried out using sodium aluminate as catalyst. The transgalactosylated mixtures at 6 h of reaction contained amounts of prebiotic carbohydrates (tagatose, lactulose, GOS and oligosaccharides derived from lactulose, OsLu) close to 50 g/100 g of total carbohydrates for all the strains tested, corresponding to 322 g prebiotics/kg whey permeate. Thus, the suitability of this methodology to produce mixtures of dietary non-digestible carbohydrates with prebiotic properties from WP has been demonstrated, which is interesting for the food industry since it increases the value and the applicability of this by-product from cheese manufacture.This work was funded by projects Consolider Ingenio 2010 (FUN-C-FOOD CSD2007-00063), Network Consolider AGL2014-58205-REDC and AGL2011-27884. Beatriz Padilla and Ana I. Ruiz Matute thank their JAE Predoc and JAE Doc contracts from CSIC.Peer Reviewe