Tomaz Dentinho

Spatial interaction model of land use - An application to Corvo Island from the 16th, 19th and 20th centuries

Abstract This paper aims to understand the interaction between economy and land use through a spatial interaction model that highlights the relationships between activities and zones based on relative accessibilities, bid-rents, capacities and technical coefficients. The novelty regarding operational spatial models is the consideration of non-urban uses such as the hinterland agricultural activities and the respective aptitudes of land use. The equilibrium between supply and demand for each activity in each zone is achieved by adjusting bid-rents for each activity per zone, thereby enabling the restriction of the available area for each type of soil in each zone. The model allows the simulation of historical and future scenarios, illustrated by the example of Corvo Island in the Azores.

The impact of water quality changes on the socio-economic system of the Guadiana Estuary: an assessment of management options.

Tourism related to bathing has a growing economic importance in the Guadiana Estuary in southern Spain and Portugal. Polls of local public opinion showed an awareness of potential and current threats to the aquatic environment posed by regulation of river flow and untreated/poorly-treated urban sewage discharge. Because of this strong concern for water quality, it was selected as the policy issue for our application of the Systems Approach Framework (SAF). We developed an integrated simulation model of the Guadiana estuarine system in which the ecological system and socioeconomic components are linked by means of beach eco-label (Blue Flag Award) through its dependence on fecal bacterial thresholds. We quantified the socioeconomic impacts of water quality through an Economic Base Model that is used to portray the effect of increasing employment on resident population as a result of change in coastal water quality. A Cost-Benefit Analysis provides monetary indicators for scenario evaluation. It includes a monetary valuation of changes in water quality on human welfare using a Contingent Valuation Method. Because the population has a strong seasonal influence on the wastewater discharge into the estuary, we were able to simulate the feedback loop between the human activities that control water quality and those that benefit from it. We organized a critical evaluation of our efforts with the stakeholders, which allowed us to better understand their perceptions of the strengths, limitations, and opportunities for future SAF applications. Here we describe several aspects of our efforts that demonstrate the potential value of the SAF to environmental managers and stakeholders in clarifying some of the causal mechanisms, management options, and costs for resolution of the conflictual problem between water quality and tourism in the Guadiana estuary.

Putting transdisciplinarity into practice: a mixed mode procedure for stakeholder participation in natural resource management

The definition of management actions in natural resource management requires the integration of all types of knowledge involved. An appropriate approach for such a challenge is the ideal of transdisciplinarity. A transdisciplinary process can be considered “consultative” when knowledge is simply gathered and collated, or “participatory” when knowledge integration is undertaken collectively. In this paper, we present a mixed mode procedure (i.e., using interviews, questionnaires, and group discussions) that empirically demonstrates the difference between consultative and participatory transdisciplinary processes. The mixed mode procedure is used for identifying the most relevant problems occurring in the coastal system of Praia da Vitória bay, Azores, Portugal. This mixed mode procedure is likely to be useful for other studies, because the results highlight the need to promote face-to-face interaction at the earliest opportunity, and because it allows an understanding to be gained of social learning processes, the influence of power, and participant behaviour during interaction with others.

New challenges for sustainable growth

The expert contributors illustrate that sources of regional competitiveness are strongly linked with spatially observable yet increasingly flexible realities, and include building advanced and efficient transport, communications and energy networks, changing urban and rural landscapes, and creating strategic and forward-looking competitiveness policies. They investigate long-term interactions between regional competitiveness and urban mobility, as well as the connections that link global sustainability with local technological and institutional innovations, and the intrinsic diversity of spatially rooted innovation processes. A prospective analysis on networks and innovation infrastructure is presented, global environmental issues such as climate change and energy are explored, and new policy perspectives – relevant world-wide – are prescribed.

A multi-criteria decision aid methodology to design electric vehicles public charging networks

This article presents a new multi-criteria decision aid methodology, dynamic-PROMETHEE, here used to design electric vehicle charging networks. In applying this methodology to a Portuguese city, results suggest that it is effective in designing electric vehicle charging networks, generating time and policy based scenarios, considering offer and demand and the city’s urban structure. Dynamic-PROMETHE adds to the already known PROMETHEE’s characteristics other useful features, such as decision memory over time, versatility and adaptability. The case study, used here to present the dynamic-PROMETHEE, served as inspiration and base to create this new methodology. It can be used to model different problems and scenarios that may present similar requirement characteristics.

Geographical information systems and cost benefit analysis-based approach for wind power feasibility: A case study of Terceira Island

Wind power reduces our exposure to fuel price volatility and abrupt supply disruptions; it has no CO2 emissions and increases energy security through the diversification of the energy portfolio. If well sited and dimensioned, wind farms may contribute to decreased electricity generation costs. This article presents a combined GISs (Geographical Information Systems) and CBA (Cost Benefit Analysis) approach, in determining the most feasible sites that would be suitable for the generation of wind energy in Terceira Island, which is aimed towards efficient policy designs. Data corrected with Wind Atlas Analysis and Application Program, from local effects of the territory, are used to determine potential energy. Furthermore, a CBA is performed, without taking into consideration subsidies and economic indicators are displayed in maps using GIS. Results indicated that Terceira Island has large available areas capable of generating wind energy at low prices. On Terceira Island, while considering a 1500 kW wind fa...

Globalization Trends and Regional Development

This timely book investigates the challenges that emerge for local economies when faced with the new globalization trends that characterize today’s world economy.

Globalization Trends and their Challenges for Regional Development

This book investigates the challenges which emerge for local economies when faced with the new globalization trends that characterize the world economy. The novel aspect of this book lies in the particular perspective from which globalization trends are analysed. It emphasizes the changes that have recently occurred in globalization trends. Qualitative rather than quantitative changes have characterized the reshaping of the global economy and the creation of new challenges for regional growth in recent times; the globalization of production no longer only involves the off shoring and outsourcing of production phases in developing countries; it no longer simply aff ects the division of labour between emerging and advanced countries and developed and developing economies; and it is no longer confi ned to the manufacturing industries. The globalization of tasks rather than sectors, the off shoring and outsourcing of service functions, deindustrialization in favour of services, and the decentralization of intertwined functions (manufacturing and related services) are recent and established trends in globalization which are reshaping the division of labour in the subnational economies of advanced countries, and regional economies are increasingly competing to seize the opportunities which these new trends off er (Capello et al., 2011). Globalization is interpreted in this book as a process of internationalization of production and markets which can take various forms – such as increasing international trade or increasing foreign direct investments – all of which give rise to the growing integration and interdependency of European economies with regard to the other main world economies. When conceptualized in this way, globalization is far from being a new phenomenon, and indeed in many periods during the last century it reached very high levels which were sometimes even comparable with those of today. Moreover, it did not manifest itself as a single, catastrophic leap, as the sudden adoption by, and success of the term in political debate

Causes and Effects of Foreign Direct Investment in South Asia

South Asia is at the centre of globalization. Nevertheless, there are many institutional barriers that constrain the flow of goods, investment and knowledge. The aim of this chapter is to improve the understanding of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in South Asia, on the one hand by analysing the literature and on the other hand by the formulation and estimation of an FDI model for South Asia based on factors that have major influence. Investment flows within South Asia have been historically lower than those connecting the region with the developed world. The approach is to understand the causes and effects of FDI in South Asia and to inform policies that can promote cooperation and development in the region. First, we propose some thoughts and questions based on the facts of FDI in South Asia. Then, a model of understanding is formulated and estimated to derive consistent past and future explanations for South Asia investment flows and the causes that influence them. Finally, it is concluded that institutional factors, mostly related to regional conflicts, are the main constraints that influence cooperation and development in the region.

Urbanisation and sustainability: the role of the spatial allocation of property rights and public investment

The aim of this paper is to perceive the sustainability of urban development around the world looking into the effect on urbanisation of unsustainable factors such as the spatial distribution of rents from natural resources and the spatial allocation of public investment. First, a principal component analysis on World Bank data is undertaken to understand the specific contexts where cities emerge. Second, a regression analysis is done to relate the level and rate of urbanisation not only with the GDPpc, as suggested by the literature, but also with the variables that differentiate the specific contexts of urbanisation. It is concluded that, beyond the importance of the GDPpc, the level of urbanisation can be explained by less sustainable factors such as the spatial allocation of property rights of natural resources and the spatial distribution of public investment. It is also shown that remittances from migrants and population aging have a crucial impact on the rate of urbanisation.