The papers in this volume were originally presented at a conference on the analysis of human settlement systems held at IIASA. This meeting closed an IIASA research activity, started in 1975, that had the goals of identifying functional urban regions in several industrialized countries and making comparative analyses of their population and employment trends to enhance our understanding of the spatial and temporal evolution of human settlement systems. This research on human settlement systems and strategies established a wide international collaborative network and created a sizeable data base for examining demographic and economic changes. This book presents the findings of some of this work
