Massimiliano Bencardino

The Paradigm of the Modern City: SMART and SENSEable Cities for Smart, Inclusive and Sustainable Growth

The concept of the “smart city” has recently been introduced as a strategic tool to encompass the modern functioning processes of urban development and, in particular, to highlight the importance of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for developing competitive and sustainable of a city. The present paper aims to shed light on the often still elusive definition of the concept of the “smart city” and tries to define a new reading of the “smartness” of a city that includes the size of the equity as a parameter to (re)definition of the International and European rankings of smart cities. In detail, the classifications made ​​by Boyd Cohen’s of Top Ten Global Smart Cities and Top Ten Smartest European Cities based on the metric of “Smart Cities Wheel” of Vienna Polytechnic will be reinterpreted according to the values ​​of the Equity City Index, compiled by the UN-Habitat 2012. Finally, comparing the two dimensions (smartness + equity) will be presented different possible models of Smart-Equitable Cities and policies.

Demographic Changes and Urban Sprawl in Two Middle-Sized Cities of Campania Region Italy

This paper aims to show a measure of the spatial expansion of the buildings in inland areas of Campania and, through this, an analysis of the most complex phenomenon of urban sprawl. This work is a pilot study aiming to test a research methodology. Thus, at this stage, the area of investigation was restricted to two medium-sized cities: Benevento and Avellino. So, the Author proposes to investigate whether there is a sprawl in this particular context, in line with the European trend, and proposes a physical and anthropic correlation index between the changes of the built areas, seen as a measure of the taken land, and the demographic changes, to analyze the phenomenon of urban sprawl in relation to housing demand. Therefore, for examined urban areas, the Author analyzes the correlation between the change in population density between the years 2001 and 2011, extracted from the Census of the population at the fractional scale, and the change in the building coverage ratio extracted from the RTC Regional Technical Cartography in 1998 and in 2005.

Urban Sprawl, Labor Incomes and Real Estate Values

The analysis of the processes of urban growth and sprawl should be conducted taking into account the temporal evolution of a plurality of parameters: economic, demographic and socio-cultural. These factors are so related that the complex territorial system sometimes seems indecipherable. Thus, as the quantitative modeling suggests, the real phenomenon is simplified, identifying a limited number of exogenous variables and researching the effect that these variables generate on the simplersystem, object of the study. The goal is to find the functional relationships that govern the events.

Urban Growth and Real Estate Income. A Comparison of Analytical Models

Urban growth processes are notoriously complex, depending on vastly different demographic, socio-cultural and economic factors. The analysis is even more complex in the metropolitan areas, since they are the result of ancient agglomeration processes in a phase of intensive development of settlement and, more recently, of the formation of urban polycentrism. Investigation requires collection, analysis and processing of useful information at homogeneous territorial units, based on already consolidated models or through new validating protocols.

The comparative analysis of urban development in two geographic regions: the state of rio de janeiro and the campania region

In this paper we verify the possibility of implementing a regional comparative analysis between two systems, the State of Rio de Janeiro and the Campania Region. Primarily, we defined the boundaries of analysis area. Then, we will provide a comparison of the hierarchical structure of the two systems of cities, applying the rank-size distribution or Zipfs law on the top 15 cities of each one. Finally, we will analyze the specificity of each system and the metropolitan areas of Rio de Janeiro and Naples.

Paths to Change: Bio-Economic Factors, Geographical Gradients and the Land-Use Structure of Italy

This study introduces a bio-economic approach to evaluate the influence of local socioeconomic contexts on complex processes of landscape transformation (urbanization, withdrawal of farming with woodland creation and loss in crop mosaics) in a sustainable development perspective. Land-use and socioeconomic indicators (including shares of agriculture, industry and services in total product, per-worker value added, productivity by economic sector, distance from central cities, latitude and elevation) at the local district scale in Italy have been considered together in an exploratory approach based on multivariate statistics. The combined use of land-use and socioeconomic indicators was preferred to more traditional approaches based on single-variable analysis and allows identifying latent factors of landscape transformation at the local scale. Our approach sheds light in the intimate relationship between regional economic structures and land-use change in districts with varying socio-environmental attributes across Italy. Urban-rural divides, coastal–inland dichotomy and the elevation gradient were relevant factors shaping urbanization-driven landscape transformations at the country scale. Indicators of economic structure (and especially industrial production and per-worker productivity of industry and services) were also documented to influence greatly entity and direction of change in the use of land. Discontinuous and dispersed urbanization has been demonstrated to be spatially-decoupled from consolidated (continuous and compact) urbanization, expanding into undeveloped rural areas progressively far away from central cities and being spatially associated with forest land.

Spatial Correlation Analysis Among Land Values, Income Levels and Population Density

The correlation between market values of agricultural land and infrastructural, socio-demographic and productivity characteristics is widely recognized. In the present paper, the Authors intend to establish how the endowment of infrastructures, the levels of income and the demographic density are able to affect the land values of the corresponding territory.

An Estimate of Land Take in Municipal Planning of the Campania Region

The issue of land take is characterized by analytical complexity and legislative effectiveness. So, in dealing with this question, several aspects have to be evaluated.

Prefiguring a future city: urban growth, spatial planning and the economic local context in Catalonia

ABSTRACT This study undertook a quantitative analysis of town master plans to define future urban growth. Spatial direction and intensity of urban expansion were analysed in relation to local contexts using land zoning and a comprehensive database of socio-economic indicators at the municipal scale in Catalonia, Spain. Our results illustrate a progressive shift towards discontinuous settlements consolidating urban centres in most accessible rural areas. Contrary to what was hypothesized (and partly observed) in recent decades, settlement expansion will modestly contribute to a balanced urban spatial structure. Future urban development in Catalonia will not follow a polycentric model, fuelling instead the growth of medium and small urban centres. This process may consolidate the incipient divide in rural areas with high accessibility and a dynamic economic base with remote inland areas experiencing land abandonment and depopulation. The use of indicators derived from town master plans in the assessment of (scattered or polycentric) future urbanization in Europe is finally discussed.

Temporal Dynamics of Land Values and Determinants

The temporal evolution of land values is conditioned by the reference macroeconomic framework and, more strictly, by the socio-demographic and productivity characteristics of the territorial study area. If these dependencies are widely recognized in the literature, on the other hand, the correlation levels between the variables at stake, especially in relation to the parameters of the survey area, are not investigated in quantitative terms.