182 research outputs found
The axis Vila Real/RĂ©gua/Lamego as a dilemma for action
The aim of this paper is to discuss how medium-sized cities can network effectively in order to attract population and activities in a globalizing society where urban regions keep growing often within the pattern of urban sprawl and where national governments keep sector planning still dominant over comprehensive regional planning. The case study introduces three towns (Vila Real/RĂ©gua/Lamego) located a hundred km east of the Metropolitan Area of Oporto and along the main national interior road, a connecting north-south axis. This hilly area is not sustaining its population, despite a regional plan approved in 1991 that for the first time assumed the need to develop these three towns as a major anchor in the interior northern Portugal. More than ten years past, two of these towns keep losing population to the coastal strip while the remaining other (Vila Real) has started to attract population. With significant different economic basis, split by physical constraints and historical sub-regional divides what appeared to planners to be the ideal solution and was appraised by politicians is taking a long time to develop. Infrastructure development has been lagging behind due to the high costs of building a motor way in a topographically constrained territory and in costly land as it is Port wine production area, part of it classified recently as World Heritage Area. This has probably been a major factor in hindering the interconnectivity of these three towns. In fact, what could be a 15 minutes safe trip is still taking almost one hour in ice-slippery winding roads. But other factors can be reported, namely initial lack of access to a national program with European Community funds targeting medium-sized towns for the two depressed towns. These factors among others will be put forward and discussed for further insight of the problems faced by medium-sized cities and especially their time lengthy process of reversing trends of losing population to urban regions
Using tourist employment multipliers to evaluate development policies : the case-study of the Douro Valley
The discussion of tourism development policies considering some quantitative indicators, such as employment multipliers is performed for a World Heritage area that was recently classified in Portugal: the Douro Valley. The need for classified areas to have a sustainable development, mainly in terms of preservation and tourism development is addressed. The discussion over multipliers follows and the achieved results are presented. Lastly, the detection of possible paradoxes on the evolution of the territory culminates this attempt to integrate socio and economic analytical approaches
Naturbanization and sustainability in the National Park of Peneda-GerĂȘs
This paper introduces territorial sustainability in general and within European and
Portuguese guidelines for planning and action, namely to regulate the urbanization and urban
expansion processes. This topic is relevant to discuss the dynamics of urbanization and urban
sprawl in rural areas of Northern Portugal integrated in and around the National Park of Peneda-
GerĂȘs, the park with the highest classification in the whole country. These dynamics relate to
changes that have been re-occurring over the last fifteen years with consequences on shifts in
land-use patterns, urban settlements and economic development trends. The analysis, based on
the concepts of ânaturbanizationâ and âcounterurbanizationâ, shows some evidence of both
processes. One municipality partially comprised within the National Park is selected as case
study to be further analyzed, providing deeper insight of the urbanization trends as measured by
development control indicators
References, authors, journals and scientiïŹc disciplines underlying the sustainable development literature: a citation analysis
This paper identifies the main references, authors and journals influencing the
sustainable development literature. The task is accomplished by means of a citation
analysis based on the records of ISI Web of Science. We found that the core of sustainability
thinking is framed by a pattern of landmark studies published around every 5 years.
Only 380 publications have been cited at least ten times. References with the highest
influence are those with a global dimension and large diffusion, such as Brundtland
Commissionâs ââOur common futureââ (1987) and classics such as Meadowsâ et al. ââLimits
to growthââ (1972). The list of the most influential references over the period 1960â2005 is
dominated by contributions from economics (particularly ecological economics) and
environmental science, but includes many other disciplines such as urban planning,
political sciences and sociology. References are also made to policy documents such as
ââAgenda 21ââ, one of the main outcomes of the Rio Summit in 1992. In analyzing citation
trends, we found that âclassicsâ, because of their high rates of citations per year, seem to
have a more enduring and stable influence.This paper was written as part of a PhD research. The authors would like to credit the financial support provided by Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (the Portuguese research foundation) under scholarship SFRH/BD/18588/2004 and project PTDC/ECM/73069/2006
Modelo de ciclo de vida do turismo : uma ferramenta para a gestĂŁo do turismo rural aplicada Ă Ilha da Madeira
O objetivo deste artigo Ă© apresentar um modelo que contribua para a gestĂŁo sustentĂĄvel de
destinaçÔes turĂsticas em ĂĄrea rural, assim como apresentar o estudo de caso na Ilha da
Madeira â Portugal. As investigaçÔes sobre modelos de ciclo de vida, especificamente Butler
(1980) que desenvolveu a teoria do ciclo de vida da ĂĄrea turĂstica, conhecida por TALC, e
Lourenço (2003) que criou um modelo para åreas de expansão urbana são a base para a
estruturação do modelo proposto. Ao realizar a modulação, almeja-se realizar um contributo
ao poder pĂșblico na tomada de decisĂŁo.The aim of this paper is to describe a proposed model for the management of rural tourism
destination, as well presented the case study at Madeira Island â PT. The proposed model is
based on the application of life cycle models for tourism destinations, specifically, the Tourist
Area Life Cycle theory, TALC, (Butler, 1980) and the LourençoŽs model that established one
model for areas of urban expansion. Modelling tourism development intended to be a
contribute for public administration in the decision process.ComissĂŁo Europeia - programa Alban de nÂș E04D046026B
Life cycle modelling for tourism areas
Modelling tourism development cycles associated with planning and investment cycles intends to be a contribution to the understanding of the tourism activity within a continuum process. It allows a better apprehension of the sequence of interdependencies that exist and can be addressed enlarging the well-known concept of tourism product and its life cycle. The proposed model can contribute for monitoring the tourism activity and improve its development in a sustainable way. If the tourist sites use this tool they have more probability to have success, because when the tourism life cycle is monitored it is possible to introduce some corrections upon the inadequate trend. The use of the appropriate indicators to measure the activity is essential to the success of the proposed life cycle modelling, such as can be observed in Madeira Region case study
Evaluation of plan-processes in areas for tourism development
Modelling tourism development cycles associated with planning and investment cycles intends to be a contribution to the understanding of the tourism activity within a continuum process. It allows a better apprehension of the sequence of interdependencies that exist and can be addressed enlarging the well-known concept of tourism product and its life-cycle. The model sketched in this paper is still under progress and has been adapted from the territorial plan-process model (Lourenço, 2003) which is based on the quasi-model of Holton
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