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The water–energy–food (WEF) nexus has emerged as a leading tool for assessing integrated resource management strategies and for monitoring progress towards the WEF-related Sustainable Development Goals. A notable outcome of WEF nexus research has been the calculation of the global WEF Nexus Index, which provides a quantitative ranking of country-level WEF security for 170 nations. As valuable as this ranking is, the aggregation of country-level WEF data obscures regional differences, particularly in remote regions that are sparsely populated and differ in geography, economy, and climate. This has proven to be the case for northern Canada, which despite representing 40% of Canada’s total land area, accounts for less than 1% of the Canadian population, most of whom are Indigenous. Whereas Canada ranks 5th globally in their WEF security, northern Canada, if treated independently, would rank 67th on the global WEF Nexus Index rankings. Evaluating each WEF sector independently, northern Canada would rank 22nd in water security, 90th in energy security, and 113th in food security. Our results further reveal that considerable inter-regional variability exists between northern territories and provinces, where Nunavik would rank 54th, Northwest Territories 67th, Yukon 69th, Labrador 80th, and Nunavut 107th on the global index. By highlighting these differences, we hope that this research can aid decision-makers in developing informed, regionally specific, and integrative resource policy responses that remedy rather than amplify existing WEF-related inequalities.

The appearance of new trends and models of tourism consumption has allowed the proliferation of rural tourist facilities in northern Extremadura. This article analyzes the economic, social, and heritage (natural and cultural) variables to relate them to the tourism offer and demand in these areas. The present study used geostatistical techniques such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and their spatial location through Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to determine the distribution and degree of incidence of these variables in the territories. The results obtained confirm the existence of imbalances in the tourism sector, which made it possible to determine which tourist territories have implemented the best lines of action to receive visitors, increase economic income, and preserve the population in rural areas with deficiencies in their tourism development.

In recent years, implementing a circular economy in cities (or “circular cities”) has been proposed by policy makers as a potential solution for achieving sustainability. One strategy for circular cities is to reintroduce manufacturing into urban areas (or “urban manufacturing”), allowing resource flows to be localized at the city scale. However, the extent to which urban manufacturing contributes to circular cities is unclear in existing literature. The purpose of this paper is therefore twofold: to understand whether urban manufacturing could contribute to the circular economy, and to understand the drivers and barriers to circular urban manufacturing. By reviewing existing literature and interviewing experts, we identified the caveats for the contribution of urban manufacturing to circular cities, as well as the spatial, social, and material-related drivers and barriers for circular urban manufacturing.

By the end of the 20th century, the influence of economic globalization had impacted many aspects of society, including in particular cultural heritage. Additionally, economic globalization has brought a ‘compression’ of the cultures of different ethnic groups and regions around the world. Due to the loss of cultural confidence and economic benefits, many historical areas with cultural and social significance are no longer protected and valued. If this deficit is to be addressed, then the evaluation of heritage value is an important step in establishing effective conservation policies. China’s Grand Canal is a case in point. The loss of historical culture in the past 30 years, often due to the increasing numbers of both large and small developments, has given rise to the forfeit and distortion of many historically significant areas of China’s Grand Canal towns and cities. This research proposes a qualitative and quantitative methodology to develop a comprehensive assessment model of social value with respect to heritage value. The methodology selected conceptual framework, and questionnaire surveys as major approaches to the development of the research and is applied to the Grand Canal towns of Nanyang, Wuzhen, Tongli and Nanxun. The conceptual framework is used to establish the indicators and hypotheses for the evaluation of social value in order to develop a comprehensive assessment model for sustainable heritage management.

Tourism is of great importance to European economies, but environmental degradation could reduce the attractiveness of many European destinations considerably. This is even more evident if the future of tourism is depicted in the UN’s Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. However, official statistics on the environmental impact of tourism provide only partial information, and almost always with an “accounting scheme” approach, such as occasional and experimental experiences on integrated economic and environmental accounts of tourism. It is necessary to enrich the activity of monitoring and measuring the impact of tourism on the environment and implement policies aimed at increasing the sustainability of the sector. This work intends to contribute to extending information about the theme, providing a new approach based on the integration of official data to study the relationship between tourism and the environment. In detail, the objective of the work is to estimate the level of emissions—in terms of the primary air pollutants—produced by tourists travelling in Italy by road transport in the period 2015–2019. Even if much has to be done to improve the knowledge on the tourism–environment nexus, this paper represents a first relevant step towards an approach that can be easily implemented in all EU countries.

Innovation-based economic growth is considered to be a vital strategic aim for all economies, but environmentally friendly concepts and sustainable development (SD) must also be considered. The literature on the Global Innovation Index (GII) shows various investigations relevant to innovation, yet the lack of comprehensive consideration within the GII of environmental concerns represents a critical challenge. This paper aims to provide a holistic-perspective evaluation model for the top 15 manufacturing countries worldwide in order to resolve this. The efficiency-based Global Green Manufacturing Innovation Index (GGMII) was developed by formulating an input-oriented data envelopment analysis model. Criteria such as the value added to the gross domestic product (GDP), corresponding CO2 emissions, and unemployment rates were examined in order to represent the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of SD, respectively. Other scientific and technological dimensions were also considered. The data corresponding to all ten of the criteria were collected from World Bank Open Data. The results show a mismatch between the original GII and the proposed GGMII for the top eight manufacturing countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Korea, France, China, Japan, and Canada), while the remaining countries (Italy, Spain, Russia, India, Mexico, Brazil, and Indonesia) occupied the same rank in both indices, but showed a sizable diminution in their original GII scores. The proposed GGMII might be utilized as a benchmarking instrument for all countries worldwide in the future.

In this paper, some tactics are considered in Xinjiang tourism industrial belt based on performance evaluation. First, we applied the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) to establish an evaluation system for Xinjiang tourism development in four dimensions: tourism performance, resource utilization, basic supporting capacity, and market attention. Second, the performance of tourism development in 14 Prefectures was evaluated using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in 2018. Third, because the Prefectures were divided into four tourism industrial belts, a discussion was conducted to identify and understand the difference among them and their corresponding influence on regional tourism development using the Theil index and Entropy method. The result shows that (1) In all dimensions, the differences within each industrial belt were greater than those between industrial belts. (2) The tourism industrial belts displayed a differentiation phenomenon, in the dimension of significant difference being distinct for different belts. Finally (3), it is found that the resource utilization of all belts is significantly different.

The aim of the paper is to reflect on the intersection of two relevant phenomena that unfolded in recent decades in all the most industrialized countries and economies—from the United States to Europe and Japan—as the shrinkage of vast urban and rural areas and the increasing role of culture as a driver for economic growth and social development. The attention is focused on the role of art as one of the main engines of territorial regeneration. Three case studies—Verzegnis in Italy, the Seto Islands in Japan, Marfa in the United States—have been selected to open a reflection on the relation between culture, art and regeneration on a global scale. To measure these effects, the research intertwined field explorations, access to primary and secondary texts, an original mapping of the sites and a series of targeted interviews through an extensive questionnaire. The research addresses the role played by art and culture both in the reuse of abandoned buildings and spaces and in the activation, involvement and self-empowerment of the inhabitants. The aim is not the definition of an immediately generalizable model but to reach the first synthesis, identifying general characters and opening future research paths that engage with the theoretical and practical implementation of politics related to heritage, culture and innovative regeneration processes.

The LEADER program is one of the European Union’s financing instruments dedicated to the development of the rural communities. The instrument was introduced in the Romanian rural territory in 2007, a territory characterised by a high level of local and regional economic inequalities. The main goal of the present research is to question whether the development level specific to the rural communities have influenced their performance in managing the LEADER program. In order to answer this question, the characteristics of the initial level of development were analysed in relation to the spatial distribution of LEADER funds. The indicators taken into consideration were the number of projects, funds per capita, funds per Local Action Group (LAG), and the percentage of employees from the total population. In order to assess the relation between the initial level of development and the LAG’s performance, the method used was the Ordinary Least Squares regression, which calculates a set of statistical parameters that highlight the presence, form, sense, and intensity of the dependency relation. The results highlight no correlation between the level of development and the spatial distribution of the LEADER funds. Analysing the data, the paper reveals that the LEADER program is an inclusive rather than a selective instrument for the development of Romanian rural communities, despite other examples researched in Western countries. The results show that the LEADER program can have an influence in reducing the rural disparities, but its effects are of low importance.

Industrial heritage tourism is aimed at promoting sustainable development in the regional social economy. Japan published Heritage Constellations of Industrial Modernization in 2007 and 2008, and treated them as an important resource to promote the activation of the local economy. Evolutionary economic geography offers a useful framework for studying the evolution of industries and has already been applied to study the different types of tourism destinations, what is often unclear, however, is under what conditions declining industrial cities can be transformed into an industrial heritage tourism destination and by whom. Thus, this article tries to employ the EEG approach to understand the development of industrial heritage tourism in Japan, using Kitakyushu City as a case. The case of Kitakyushu City illustrates the importance of initial conditions and stakeholder collaboration in promote the development of industrial heritage tourism. The results of this study also showed that participation of community residents and the application of new technologies, strong support from national and local governments are critical to the new path creation.

As a policy to promote compact cities, Japan formulated the Location Normalization Plan (LNP) in 2014. By this plan, each municipality is promoting the establishment of Urban Function Induction-encouraged Areas (UFIA) in which life service facilities are to be provided. The role of the UFIA in the region might differ depending on the city scale and the UFIA hierarchy. For this study, using the Tokyo Person Trip survey, we specifically examined the mobility of people and clarified differences in the hierarchical nature of UFIA to ascertain the current status and issues of UFIA. Consequently, we obtained the following information for the realization of compactness. (1) The actual conditions of traffic characteristics and facilities differ depending on the UFIA hierarchy. Moreover, considering these hierarchies during the study of UFIA is important. (2) Sub-core UFIA in cities with a large population have a narrow usage area and a high ratio of traffic-sharing between walking and bicycling, which might engender the construction of compact living areas. (3) However, sub-core UFIA in cities with a small population have a high ratio of traffic-sharing of automobiles and a wide usage area, which presents challenges for compact city realization.

Based on the Sustainable Development Goals and competitiveness index, an evaluation index system for sustainable development of tourism cities was established. The sustainable development level of 221 outstanding tourism cities in 2018 was evaluated, and their sustainable development paths were designed accordingly. The results show the following: (1) There is a large gap in sustainable development scores. In general, no city has achieved a strong sustainable development model. Natural and cultural resources and protection systems are the shortcomings of the systems. (2) The weights of natural and cultural resources and protection systems are the largest, and the weights of natural and cultural resources endowment, degree of tourism infrastructure construction, and economic support for natural and cultural resources are larger. Nature reserve coverage index, network popularity, and other indicators have greater weight. (3) There is a gap in the sustainable development level of tourism cities in the eight comprehensive economic zones. The economic zones in the eastern and southern coastal areas are better than those in the northwest and the middle reaches of the Yellow River. (4) The driving factors of the eight types of tourism cities distinguished by their characteristics are basically the same, but the obstacles are different.

The aim of this study was to investigate the spatio-temporal characteristics of the industry–university research (IUR) collaboration efficiency of Chinese mainland colleges and universities, from 2008 to 2018. A comparative analysis method was used to analyze the data from the Statistical Yearbook of China’s Education Funds, the Compilation of Science and Technology Statistics of Colleges and Universities, and the China Statistical Yearbook. The principal components were extracted from relevant indicators of IUR capability in colleges and universities, with a principal component analysis (PCA) method. The principal component scores and comprehensive scores of 31 provinces in mainland China were calculated. The results showed that the efficiency of IUR collaboration in Chinese colleges and universities has increased rapidly within the 11 years studied. The efficiency in the eastern region has grown faster than that in the western region, and the gap between the southern region and the northern region has also continued to widen. The results also showed that the development of IUR collaboration efficiency of colleges and universities in mainland China is unbalanced. Scientific and technological funds, and scientific and technological manpower, were excessively concentrated in the southeast. Therefore, there is large room for improvement in the overall development of IUR collaboration in Chinese colleges and universities.

The Korean government has been continuously conducting diverse national R&D programs to discover new growth engines. The Republic of Korea is one of the countries with the largest investment in national R&D, but its efficiency was relatively low. In response, this study established a framework to identify the characteristics and direction of outstanding R&D programs. In this study, the performance of the R&D programs was identified in the sub-program unit. The efficiency of the national R&D program was analyzed using the data envelopment analysis model through the outputs of the national R&D programs such as papers and patents. However, patent and paper output would take time to be realized. Therefore, this study also calculated the diversity index of R&D programs to identify their potential expected performance. This study applied the suggested framework in the electric vehicle fields, which is one of the core growth engines of South Korea. A list of outstanding programs was identified from the National Institute of Science and Technology Information (NTIS) data. Additionally, this study also discovered the main technology areas and their current issues of outstanding and brand-new R&D programs. These results could contribute to suggesting the policy direction to conduct high-performance national R&D programs.

Countries considering high-speed rail (HSR) developments face enormous challenges because of their high deployment cost, environmental obstacles, political opposition, and their potentially adverse effects on society. Nevertheless, HSR services are importantly sustainable that can have positive and transformative effects on the economic growth of a nation. This paper systematically reviews and classifies impact areas of HSR deployments around the world as well as the analytical methods used to evaluate those impacts. We have utilized the scholarly scientific database to find articles in HSR systems. By defining some rules, we select 116 articles between 1997 and March 2020. The approach revealed interesting patterns and trends in space, time, and sentiment of the analyzed impacts on society, the economy, and the environment. The findings can inform decision-making about HSR developments and deployments, and the gaps identified in the literature can propose new research opportunities for future studies.

One significant challenge to understanding the mechanisms of urban retail areas’ transition is limited data to trace a dynamic perspective of influential actors’ experience in an extended urban area. We overcome this gap by employing text mining to collect big text data from online blogs and propose a methodology to explore the dynamic spatial transformations and interactions across multiple adjacent retail areas. We study five retail areas that currently function as a major commercial hub in Seoul—the Hongdae area and its neighboring districts. We create co-occurrence networks of the text data to capture representative place images and user experiences. Our blog-word networks systematically capture the “invasion-succession” process in land-use transition during the commercialization of Hongdae’s neighboring districts. The process mirrors the history of spatial change in the areas, which once formed a small-scale, bohemian hip neighborhood that incubated indie culture and has now fully commercialized as a global tourist attraction. The commercial transition triggered by Hongdae’s cultural capital peaked with consumer experiences of “food and eating” dominating the whole area. Finally, the text networks signal gentrification in each commercial district near Hongdae, contributing to the current discourse on commercial gentrification by adding consumers’ perspectives.

In the context of circumpolar international cooperation within the framework of the Joint Innovative Research Agenda, for the development of a systems approach, it is important to use the resources of existing platforms for multi-level mutually beneficial cooperation. The Council of Barents/Euro-Arctic Region and the University of the Arctic are unique examples of interaction and cooperation between the regions of the Arctic states. The Northern Dimension policy is also an important platform for such cooperation between Russia, the European Union, Iceland and Norway. Cross-border cooperation is integral to international relations, which stimulates the sustainable development of regions, creates growth points for innovative projects, and is focused on the evolution of international economic relationship. Universities and research institutes, as holders of expertise, and centers for studying good world practices and transferring excellence, occupy leading positions in the development of advanced ecosystems and the use of complex technologies, the training of highly qualified personnel for the Arctic, the creating of end-to-end digital technologies, the transforming of priority sectors of the states’ economies, and in the social sphere. This article discusses international project activities as one of the most effective tools contributing to the development of these issues. The authors provide examples of successful practices aimed at solving common challenges in the Arctic region, and conclude that “Arctic fever”, and the intensification of Arctic scientific partnerships through programs to support the introduction of technologies and innovations and the advancement of scientific stations in the Arctic, directly affect the development of local territories, give impetus to economic progress, and create new models of cooperation.

Natural healing resources in the form of mineral and thermal waters and climatic conditions, together with a rich history and modern medical procedures, rank Slovakia among the important European countries in the field of spas. At the same time, spa tourism has a significant economic benefit for the country. This study examined the impact of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on spa tourism in Slovakia. The Box-Jenkins methodology was used to model and forecast the time series for selected indicators. The analysis used monthly data on the capacity and performance of spa facilities for 2006–2019 and compared the forecast development for 2020–2021 with the reality as affected by the pandemic. Despite the high quality of the models, the methodology used did not take into account an unexpected event such as a pandemic. Therefore, the models were quite inaccurate and had little predictive value. At the same time, it is clear that the pandemic significantly affected spa tourism.

Agritourism has been widely promoted by governments at many levels, especially in the developed regions of Europe and North America, as a tool to revitalize rural economies and as a sustainable path. Research on agritourism has mainly focused on defining and categorizing agritourism, farmers’ perceptions, tourists’ attitudes, tourism benefits, and marketing. However, little attention has been paid to characterizing the processes and strategies of agritourism development in a relatively large region, for instance, in a state or a province. This article uses the state of Michigan in the Midwest of the USA as a case study, systematically collecting academic publications from several literature databases on agritourism, the state’s regulation and policies on agritourism, the development of agritourism associations, the participation of universities in agritourism related to academic and outreach activities, identifying key and critical developmental events, and reconstructing the historical phases of the agritourism development process. It summarizes the significant characteristics of agritourism’s development in the state of Michigan, the state government’s comprehensive strategy and leadership, the universities’ strong intellectual support, and the consistent involvement of the industrial associations, as well as the interactions of these three parties at the different developmental stages of agritourism. The discussion is set in the wider context of agritourism’s development in the USA. We conclude by presenting the implications and recommendations derived from the agritourism development experience in the state of Michigan. We specifically discuss the relevance of the Michigan experience for agritourism stakeholders in other regions worldwide, especially those that are still in the early stages of agritourism development, such as China.

Sustainability development is a core issue in autonomous regions’ construction and development. The paper evaluated the sustainability development of the five autonomous regions in Western China from 2010 to 2019. In order to further analyze the sustainable development level of the autonomous regions, it is compared with the three provinces with the largest GDP in Central China in the past three years, and similarly, with the three provinces in Eastern China. A new weighting method was proposed by combining the grey relational analysis (GRA) and set pair analysis (SPA) methods that not only analyze the correlation between indicators and ideal points but also analyze the status and development trend. The method can ensure the objectivity of indicator weight. Firstly, the ideal reference point is determined by the grey correlation degree between the indicator and the ideal positive point. Secondly, the indicator and the ideal reference point constitute a set pair system, and the relation number is used further to analyze the status and development trend of the indicator to determine the weight objectively. The sustainability results showed that the progress of the autonomous regions’ sustainable development in China was increased slowly in 2010–2019. For example, Ningxia and Xinjiang saw the slowest growth. The prime reason is that economic sustainability has declined severely. Although Inner Mongolia presented the highest increasing trends, the growth rate value was 0.75%. In contrast, other autonomous regions showed a negative growth trend. Regarding sustainable development in three dimensions, the economic sustainability performance of autonomous regions is not ideal, but the environmental sustainability performance is the most ideal. This conclusion implicates the necessity and urgency of improving the coordinated development of the three dimensions of autonomous regions in China.

The outbreak of COVID-19 evoked a heated discussion of its drivers and extensive impacts on achieving sustainable development goals. Considering the deepening global interconnectedness and complex human–environment interactions, it calls for a clarity of the two concepts of risk governance and sustainability and their relationships. In this paper, a comprehensive review was provided based on scientometric analysis. A total number of 1156 published papers were studied and a considerable increase of interest in this line of research was found. The research outputs show the interdisciplinary feature of this field but with a focus on environmental issues. The journal “Sustainability” was found to be the most productive journal. Geographic and institutional focus on the line of research were also visualized. Five salient research themes were identified as follows: (1) Resilience and adaptation to climate change; (2) Urban risk governance and sustainability; (3) Environmental governance and transformation; (4) Collaborative governance and policy integration; and (5) Corporate governance and sustainability. This paper provides insights into the heterogeneity of the risk governance and sustainability research. Additionally, the study unveiled the implicit relationship linking risk governance and sustainability: risk governance can be a process of participation and coordination, and a means of coping with the uncertainty and complexity to achieve sustainable outcomes. On the other hand, risk governance is a constant aim to be optimized in the process of sustainable development.

In this paper, we analyze the progress of tourism towards sustainability and innovation through a systematic literature review summarizing the last five years of research strictly focused on innovation and sustainability applied to tourism. This research comprises a range of theories, practices, methods, and results pursuing innovation and sustainability across different levels, stages, and drivers, and in many tourism contexts. Wide, in-depth, and structured analysis, evaluation, and examination (using the PRISMA and VOSviewer tools) of a final sample of 50 scholarly papers from 27 journals, published between 2017 and the first quarter of 2021, were undertaken. Current publications emphasize qualitative, quantitative, and mixed research methods, as well as statistical and econometric methods, such as descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and structural equation modeling. This study categorizes the four major topics identified, sustainability, innovation, sustainable development, and sustainable tourism, which comprised the contextual dimensions and relevant stages of the subject areas examined. This systematic literature review highlights advances and the significantly increasing overall number of papers over recent years. Currently, sustainability is in a more advanced state compared to innovation. The outcomes highlight that the indicators of sustainability and innovation still need further analysis within the tourism context. However, more concrete process indicators are needed for continuous improvement of the front-end of innovation and sustainable tourism. The results help in better understanding the sustainability and innovation process as applied to tourism. In particular, this study explores further direct linkages between sustainability and innovation and tourism, discussing and providing new future directions aligned with the closing remarks as well as a strategic agenda for future action post-COVID-19. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Air pollution is fatal. Fine particles, such as PM2.5, in ambient air might be the cause of many physical and psychological disorders, including cognitive decline. This is why educational policymakers are adopting sustainable mobility, and other policy measures, to make their campuses carbon-neutral, however, car-dependent cities and their university campuses are still lagging behind in this area. This study attempts to model the spatial heterogeneity and determinants of PM2.5 at the King Abdulaziz University campus in Jeddah, which is ranked first among the Saudi Arabian universities, as well as in the MENA region. We developed four OLS and GWR models of different peak and off-peak periods during weekdays in order to estimate the determinants of the PM2.5 concentration. The number of cars, humidity, temperature, windspeed, distance from trees, and construction sites were the estimators in our analysis. Because of a lack of secondary data at a finer scale, we collected the samples of all dependent and independent variables at 51 locations on the KAU campus. Model selection was based on RSS, log-likelihood, adjusted R2, and AICc, and a modal comparison shows that the GWR variant of Model-2 outperformed the other models. The results of the GWR model demonstrate the geographical variability of the PM2.5 concentration on the KAU campus, to which the volume of car traffic is the key contributor. Hence, we recommend using the results of this study to support the development of a car-free and zero-carbon campus at KAU, furthermore, this study could be exploited by other campuses in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region.

A richness of tourism attractions has given Iran global importance within its border. Iran is a country with a huge cultural heritage, and is rich in historical monuments from different eras. The variety and diversity of cultural symbols allows tourists traveling in Iran to experience the cultures of other countries. The border areas of the country are therefore becoming increasingly attractive for tourism due to their distinctive social, economic and political position and the presence of many historical and natural attractions. This study analyzes border tourism in Kaleybar city using a descriptive–analytical method with a Meta-SWOT model (new strategic planning tool), with the final goal of economic development and the improvement of the welfare of the people. Through a literature review, the current and future capabilities and challenges of the county of Kaleybar as a border city are examined, and future goals and ways to achieve them have been developed using the opinions of experts and scholars via the Delphi technique. For this purpose, the Meta-SWOT model has been used. Meta-SWOT is based on resource-based theory (RBV). Data collection has been done several times using the opinions of 39 experts. After analyzing the conditions and recognizing and determining the capacities and skills of Kaleybar and its regional rivals, the results of the research show that the most important advantage of Kaleybar city concerns the existence of many attractions of a natural character. A higher strategic suitability is also ensured by the presence of parks and coastal sidewalks that attract important internal and foreign investments in this region. On the other hand, the component of political and governmental factors in attracting foreign tourists has the highest effective power, and the component of attention to integrated management in the field of tourism in the country has the highest degree of urgency.

An increasingly popular approach to protected areas as places that should combine natural and socioeconomic goals, poses questions regarding the effects of achieving such goals, particularly in the context of generating local economic benefits. Therefore, the objectives of this study are as follows: (1) determining the level and diversity of the socioeconomic development of communes with national parks as compared with neighboring communes that are not protected because of national parks (treating them as a point of reference for comparisons), and (2) presenting the level of tourism development in communes with national parks as compared with neighboring areas and other components of socioeconomic development. The achievement of the research objectives is based on the use of 28 indicators which, following the standardization process, allow for constructing a synthetic index (Composite Development Index-CDI) that shows development disparities in the two analyzed groups of communes. The results indicate that communes with national parks are characterized by a slightly higher level of general development as compared with other communes and a considerably higher level of tourism development. However, it should be noted that the adopted indicators differ considerably in both groups of communes.

The purpose of this article was to identify significant differences in the hunting management process in Poland and selected European countries in the context of their impact on the preservation of biodiversity and the implementation of the idea of sustainable development. The goal was achieved through the analysis of hunting management in selected European countries through the prism of the assumptions made by Aldo Leopold in 1933. Based on the analysis carried out, it was found that hunting management in relation to Leopold’s postulates has best been undertaken by France. Moreover, the wild game management process should be actively implemented and based on the still up-to-date, universal postulates of Leopold, which can be treated as a model approach.

The urban spatial distribution of public housing is not a widely addressed issue in Spain, from a geographical perspective. This paper analyses the spatial distribution of public housing in the city of Valencia (Spain), as well as to identify its relationship with other socio-residential characteristics of the urban environment. Different techniques of spatial point pattern analysis, exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) and clustering methods are implemented. We analyse both the univariate spatial patterns of public housing and its relationship with two variables: a low-income population and median monthly rent. Analysis has revealed that public housing follows a pattern of partial agglomeration and mostly peripheral dispersion in its spatial distribution. However, there does not seem to be a univocal and immanent relationship between such distribution patterns and the characteristics of the socio-residential environment. Conversely, it is possible to point to the existence of multiple local forms of association. The lack of a clear pattern may be due to many reasons: the heterogeneity of profiles eligible for public housing, the size of the projects and the spatial dispersion in their location.

The prevailing environmental and social challenges worldwide require comprehensive and sustainability-oriented changes in central areas of society—endeavors that call for more sustainability-oriented innovations. Sustainability can be understood as a megatrend within our society comprising sustainability-oriented macro trends such as Agricultural Innovation, Circular Economy, or Clean Tech. In line with this conceptualization, the current paper analyzes to what extent different types of organizations, such as startups and established companies, have been tackling sustainability-oriented macro trends and how much they have been focusing on sustainability-oriented innovation activities within their organization types. For the study, 758 organizations from the Trendexplorer database were examined through univariate and bivariate analyses. The results underscore that sustainability can be perceived as a key driver of structural change by illustrating that different organization types focus on multiple yet diverse sustainability-oriented macro trends simultaneously while concentrating on a specific type of innovation, whereby all three types of innovations (technological, marketing, and product and service innovations) can be integrated.

The deep demographic crisis that Romania has been going through, like most Eastern European states, requires complex analyses. The present study aims at analyzing the numerical evolution of the rural population of Romania, extended for more than 100 years (1912–2020), on the basis of which a multivariate analysis was subsequently performed. The manifestation of specific patterns of territorial evolution and the identification of the incidence of some physical–geographical and socio-economic factors are investigated by means of the dynamics of certain distinct processes, such as rural depopulation or ability to adapt to various transitions. The identification of the fragile and dynamic areas allows discussions on the need for public policies better oriented towards mending excesses, illustrated by the persistence of some gaps, in terms of access to basic services. At the same time, the identification of trends towards a shrinking population system, with an increasingly evident concentration of the population in peri-urban areas or along major transport routes, calls for specific policies geared more towards environmental management in depopulated and depopulating areas, or towards creating the conditions for sustainable spatial planning in high-density areas. For the time being, the disadvantaged areas are rather ignored, while the extension of metropolitan areas is rather chaotic and poorly regulated.

The issues encompassing planning and management of the urban space are directly related to the transport system, of which the flow plays a central role. Therefore, an interdependence among urban tissue, space structuring, and demand for mobility are taken into account. The objective of this work, using the data taken from the last two Origin and Destination surveys (2002 and 2012), is to assess the possible reduced power of attraction of the Central Area of Belo Horizonte by means of the motorized flows as a result of the process of induction of power of attraction of new urban centralities through planning and management policies. The results presented in this work generally indicate that the spatial structure of Belo Horizonte has remained concentrated in the Central Area, though new flows seem to converge to the consolidation of new municipal centralities. Even if additional care in the interpretation of results is necessary due to the limited time cuts and the database used, besides the specific features of Belo Horizonte, the empirical evidence translated in the proposed indicators allow a more accurate reflection on the recent urban space configuration, with the connections established through the space mobility of the population.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the extant literature on Project Finance (PF) with a comprehensive understanding of the status quo and research trends in the mining industry. Thus, this study utilizes a scientometric review of global trends and structure of PF and mining research from 1977 to 2020 using techniques such as co-author, co-word, co-citation, and cluster analyses. A total of 80 bibliographic records from the Scopus database were analyzed to generate the study’s research through scientometric networks. The findings indicate a steady growth of the research field, which includes Environmental, Social, and Governance criteria. The most significant contributions have originated mainly from the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, and South Africa. The main research trends identified several issues related to risk, management, and financing concerns. This study provides researchers and practitioners with a comprehensive understanding of the status quo and research trends of ontology research within PF in the mining context and promotes further studies in this domain.

The year 2006 is the ‘official’ start of European Living Labs as the movement gained real momentum through European policy measures, culminating in the birth of the pan-European network ENoLL (European Network of Living Labs) [...]

The development of rural areas is a significant component in social and economic activities. It is very important for optimizing the allocation of rural production and living factors, promoting the integration of urban and rural areas and sustainable development to identify the characteristics and main types of regional rural development. In this paper, 169 villages in Jingyuan County were selected as the research object, and the evaluation index system of rural development level was constructed from the perspective of “Factor-structure-function”. The rural development level and spatial structure characteristics of Jingyuan County were analyzed by using rural development index, regional function index, nearest neighbor index, and exploratory spatial data analysis, and the types and specific paths of rural development were determined. The results showed the following: Rural development of Jingyuan County is at a low level, which is characterized by “high in the south and low in the north”. The level of rural development shows significant spatial dependence in the global space, and the spatial agglomeration characteristics are obvious, which are manifested as strong agglomeration dominated by resource endowment and cultural function and weak agglomeration dominated by production function and location relationship. The local space is characterized by stable high value and high value (H-H), low value and low value (L-L) bidirectional agglomeration. According to the spatial characteristics of the rural development level, the “4 + 10 + 6 + 2” system of rural development type identification in Jingyuan County was constructed, and finally it was determined that policy leading and characteristic protection are the dominant types of rural development. Based on this, this paper put forward specific paths and development models of different types of rural development in Jingyuan County from seven dimensions: industry, population, land, tourism, space, culture and ecology, so as to provide ideas and references for the integration of urban and rural areas, the implementation of rural revitalization strategy, and sustainable development in the western poverty-stricken areas.

Tourism and climate are inextricably linked to several interactions. In recent years, there has been a greater focus on the linkages between climate change and coastal tourism. This study aims to provide an overview of the literature on climate change and coastal tourism, identify core areas of interest and important sources and authors, and examine the thematic evolution of the field. A bibliometric analysis of 92 documents related to climate change and coastal tourism published in the Web of Science Core Collection database was carried out. The analysis provides information on the most cited papers, most leading authors, the most productive countries, and the most leading institutions in this field. The study utilized the Visualization of Similarities Viewer program (VOS) to map author keyword co-occurrences, co-citations, and bibliographic coupling. The study showed that, with some fluctuations since 2008, the number of publications in this field had increased significantly. The most influential authors and most productive institutions are from the United States of America, England, Canada, and other European countries. The findings of this study will assist researchers conducting climate change and coastal tourism-related studies to understand which papers, academics, organizations, countries, and journals have a dominant influence on climate change and coastal tourism research.

Environmental behavior has become one of the most important research areas in the field of sustainable development in recent years. Based on 818 papers on environmental behavior in the Web of Science database from 2002 to 2020, this paper uses CiteSpace software to analyze the trends in publication, subject categories, influential authors and journals, countries, and institutional collaborations. The results show that environmental behavior research has steadily increased over the past 19 years and has gradually achieved diversity and intersection in research subjects. The research on environmental behavior is mainly distributed in the United States, China, and European countries, with the United States being the largest contributor in the field and at the center of the institutional collaboration network. The present research hotspots are as follows: the concept of environmental behavior, factors affecting environmental behavior, the dimension division of environmental behavior, and the construction of a sustainable environmental behavior model. The sustainable development, predictive environmental behavior indicators, factors that affect environmental behavior, and the construction of theoretical models of environmental behavior will become future research trend.

Energy plays a critical role in building a sustainable future—economically, socially, and environmentally. Energy poverty holds a similarly prominent position and covers certain economic, social and environmental issues that are underlined by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Due to its multidimensional role in plans for achieving sustainable development, there is a growing body of literature focusing on various aspects of energy poverty. This study conducts a bibliometric analysis of this literature by utilizing more extensive data from the Web of Science, covering all information on energy poverty studies. The analysis reveals how energy poverty has attracted attention over time, who the leading authors are, which studies constitute outstanding contributions to the literature, which different sides of the research topic stand out, and also highlights the potential research gaps. The results reveal all the network flows among researchers, publications, journals, keywords, organizations, co-cited publications, and bibliographic coupling for energy poverty studies. The findings confirm the increasing popularity of energy poverty as a topic and demonstrate the increasing awareness of the issue in academia over time.

Recent research shows increasing efforts to unfold the potential of Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs) for regions in order to pursue new sources of innovation, competitive edge and to manifest sustainable and inclusive growth paths driven by creativity. Due to its strong commitments to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, on the global level, the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) has become a role model in sustainable development. Yet, individual BSR countries face challenges in the implementation of those goals. In this light, by building on the intermediate results (2017–2020) of two EU Interreg projects—Creative Ports and CTCC—this research reveals CCIs’ potential for sustainable development avenues. The investigation is based on case study methodology underpinned by empirical data gathered from participating Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and topical experts met during the projects’ implementation and study visits. The present multi-project applied research reduces the research-to-practice gap pertaining to the so far underestimated role of CCIs for supporting traditional SMEs in the implementation of their sustainable ideas. Once engaged into cross-sectoral collaboration with traditional SMEs, CCIs become important brokers—sustainable innovation drivers and enablers within regional ecosystems through contribution to environmentally responsible, socially equitable and economically feasible solutions for the business they work with. Thus, on the one hand, CCIs support SMEs in their transition towards more sustainable managerial performance. On the other hand, CCIs overcome disconnection and increase their recognition through new collaboration opportunities, thus providing them with new capitalization avenues on the regional and international level.

The present research which originates from the author’s PhD dissertation awarded at the School of Politics of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in 2019, explores the comparative evolution of rural development policies and Local Action Groups (LAGs) in the United Kingdom (Argyll and the Islands LAG—Scotland and Coast, Wolds, Wetlands and Waterways LAG—England) and in Italy (Delta 2000 LAG—Emilia-Romagna Region and Capo Santa Maria di Leuca LAG—Puglia Region) in a multi-level governance framework. LAGs and in particular their public–private local partnerships have become common practice in the governance of rural areas. This governance operates within the European Union LEADER approach as a tool designed to generate the development of rural areas at local level. In order to establish the implications of the LAG practices, the following main objectives for this research have been established: (1) to explore the utility of EU strategies for rural development, (2) to explain how LAGs structure, institutional arrangements and working are positioned in the layers of MLG framework, (3) to carry out a comparative evaluation of the LAGs working in the different nations and their subnational contexts. Some significant findings from the case studies are summarized in relation to these themes: the key characteristics and the outcomes associated with the LAG working mechanisms and what do we draw about the emergence, operation and performance of local partnerships. The core argument of the research is that the partnership approach has given the rural development actors a governance platform to help increase beneficial interactions and economic activity in each of these LAGs, but it is the bottom-up leadership of key local actors, seizing opportunities provided by the EU funding, which have been the most important factors for the LAG successes.

The authors would like to make the following corrections to the published paper [...]

Although industrial activity has brought about rapid economic growth, it also faces the dual challenges of resource constraints and environmental pressure. Industrial ecology (IE) and ecological modernization (EM) are two theories regarding the conceptualization and implementation of sustainable development that emerged from the natural and social sciences, respectively. Over the past three decades, scholars have conducted copious amounts of theoretical and applied research on IE and EM, but comparative studies from an interdisciplinary perspective on the relationship between the two remain relatively rare. On the basis of a bibliometric analysis, this study offers a comprehensive examination of the background, theoretical connotations, and main content of IE and EM, also exploring the role of both theoretical perspectives in the promotion of sustainable industrial development. The findings are fourfold: (1) the research on IE and EM has been increasing year by year, particularly in the past decade; (2) the research is mostly concentrated in developed countries such as the United States and European Union member nations, and contributions from China have increased significantly in recent years; (3) IE has a broader research community than EM and has evolved clearer and more specific research contents and methods; and (4) IE, which analyzes the problems of specific industrial systems, and EM, which constitutes a higher-level institutional policy design, exhibit a trend of cross-fertilization. This study provides a reference for building a more systematic and comprehensive theoretical system of ecological transformation and discusses the future research directions in this field.

This paper focuses on the dynamic of the recent upheaval in the tourism and hospitality sector due to the COVID-19 epidemic in Greece and Santorini island. It uses the case study of a country one-fourth of whose GDP consists of tourism. We compare the available statistical data showing the change in variables in the previous years with 2020 and look into the new challenges and opportunities posed by the drop in the numbers of visitors and flights. We focus mainly on the economic and social impact on the destination and possible future scenarios for further development in the area. Data show a significant effect of the pandemic on multiple variables, such as the long-term trend of the importance of tourism sector in GDP in Greece, the number of flights and visitors to Greece and Santorini island, and the contribution of tourism and travel to GDP. Based on the available data, we also construct three foresight scenarios that describe the possible futures for Santorini island in terms of the pandemic evolution. These scenarios may help various stakeholders and policymakers to be better prepared for different developments that may appear.

Recently, a new paradigm has emerged—the resilient city. It is an evolutionary concept rooted in recent—but more consolidated—city visions, such as a smart city or a sustainable city, from which it inherits the interweaving of different dimensions. This paper investigates the factors behind effective resilience reporting, as well as how a city should draw up an urban resilience strategy report to be accountable to its citizens. We first highlighted the main factors to design and implement reporting for the achievement of strategic resilience goals, by combining research on a resilient city and accountability practices. These factors could be organized following two different perspectives: political and sociotechnical. Then, we applied our framework to four pioneering municipalities selected as paradigmatic case studies. A qualitative content analysis applied to the city resilience reports has provided depth to our framework. We found that the “weak factor” is the ability to embed the resilience strategy in rooted connections and transform itself into an ecosystem that crosscuts different sectoral urban processes. Our exploratory research claims could be used for future research in this field, as cities are becoming increasingly complex systems, where the quality of life and well-being of a larger population depends.

“Innovation driven” is the proper term for promoting regional sustainable development under the general goal of national high-quality development. University–industry collaboration (UIC) has become an important innovation resource for regional sustainable development. The study aims to analyze the influencing factors and mediating mechanisms of university–industry collaboration scientific and technological (S&amp, T) and business activities oriented for regional sustainable development in 30 provinces in China (excluding Tibet). Specifically, we used the partial least squares (PLS) structural equation modeling method to test the effects of innovation climate and resource endowments on regional sustainable development through two mode pathways of university–industry collaboration activities. The results show that the innovation climate and resource endowments significantly affect UIC in scientific and technological innovation activities, and then affect the regional economic development and human capital. UIC S&amp, T innovation activities play positive mediating roles in promoting regional sustainable development. In addition, the innovation climate does not significantly impact the business activities of UIC. Therefore, region can get a greater sustainable development through UIC S&amp, T innovation activities than business activities. Much more UIC S&amp, T activities can improve the economic development, human capital, and environmental conditions in the region.

Since the dawn of the 21st century, Japan has switched its national industry strategy from traditional industries—manufacturing and trading—toward tourism. Regional revitalization is a particularly important issue in Japan, and by uniting regions as an integrated tourism zone, the government expects an increase in visits to tourism zones. This study quantitatively evaluates whether the regions that contain a tourism zone experience a significant increase in visitors by using a quasi-experimental pretest–posttest control group design. Additionally, it examines the effects of subsidies through regression modeling. The results indicated that the tourism zones that were comprised of a narrow region in the same prefectures experienced a significant increase in visitors. The subsidy on information transmission, measures for the secondary traffic, and space formation had a significant positive impact on the increase in visitors to these tourism zones. Implications on tourism policies, urban and regional development, and community development can be obtained through this study.

The territory of the Arctic is of interest from the point of view of the strategic development of the economy. However, the industrialization of the Arctic zone is accompanied by both a positive and a negative influence on the country’s socio-economic development. An analytical review of the research which has been published previously allows us to discuss the issue of sustainable development in the Arctic through the prism of the theory of externalities. Considering this, the paper examines some relevant issues from the standpoints of the concept of sustainable development and scientific and technological progress. Against the background of the identified problems, the purpose of the research is to clarify management decisions in the field of internalization of the externalities of economic development of the Russian Arctic zone. As research methods, the authors have applied comparative analysis, dynamic analysis, the coefficient method, correlational analysis and cluster analysis. An analytical review of scientific works, research tooling and a statistical database concerning the development of the Russian Arctic zone provided the following scientific results: the category of “externalities” in the context of industrialization of the Arctic zone’s territories and their systematization in a number of areas (environmental, innovation, investment, infrastructure, social, etc.) has been clarified, some trends in the degree of neutralization of negative environmental externalities in terms of environmental problems (pollution capture, waste disposal, recycling and wastewater treatment) have been identified, the dynamics of investment per unit of environmental pollution in the context of environmental approaches have been elucidated, the efficiency of investments in environmental preservation measures in the territories of the Russian Arctic zone have been evaluated, positive innovative externality from the investment of own funds in the fixed capital of enterprises have been revealed, the typology of the subjects of the Russian Federation that form part of the Arctic zone, according to the criteria of the intensity of costs for neutralization of negative externalities (territories with high, moderate and low intensity of costs) have been suggested, and a package of measures in order to manage the external effects of economic development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation in the context of sustainable development has been proposed. The practical significance of the results obtained lies in the possibility of taking all of them into account in the implementation of the state program “Socio-economic development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation”, contributing to the qualitative development of the territories of the Russian Arctic and improving the well-being of the population of the corresponding constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

The new demand for rurality raises new issues: it is no longer a question of sustaining a traditional agricultural model based exclusively on productivity and profit maximisation, but rather agriculture strongly oriented towards the production of non-commodity outputs that very often have the characteristics of externalities or public goods. Based on these assumptions, the paper intends to frame the role of multifunctional agriculture for the development of peri-urban areas looking in particular to the agricultural parks phenomenon, in which innovative and multifunctional agriculture is practiced (with environmental, landscape, and social functions), to asses if they can represent a strategic resource for the tourist enhancement of territories on the edge of urban and rural areas. With this perspective, two Italian case studies, Parco agricolo di Ciaculli (Palermo and Parco agricolo Sud Milano (Milano), have been analyzed highlighting their main characteristics and under which conditions they can play the role of tourism development driver.

International audience; This paper presents empirical research that supports territorial approaches to tourism product development that ground tourism in science, as a mechanism to support sustainable tourism heritage conservation goals. Scientific Tourism (ST), in this context, builds on the scientific heritage of a geography, matching researchers with local actors and tourists, through a five-stage iterative process that leads to new scientific knowledge, advancing theory and building relevance for communities through socio-cultural and economic development. This article focuses on the initial stage of the ST product development process, documenting empirical research conducted within the geographies surrounding the Palena River watershed in the Aysén Region of Chilean Patagonia. Both geo-structured literature review methods and results are presented and discussed to illustrate how the outcomes, including a series of maps, can inform and ground actors’ processes of heritage resource identification, justification, conservation, and exhibition, through the development of pilot ST initiatives within the territory. Similar research approaches may prove valuable for other low-density and peripheral geographies that share an interest in grounding tourism on the science taking place within their geography.; Cet article présente une recherche empirique qui permet de renforcer une approche territorialisée du développement de produits touristiques. En ancrant le tourisme sur les connaissances scientifiques, cette démarche peut aider à la mise en valeur et conservation du patrimoine pour un tourisme durable. Le tourisme scientifique (TS) s'appuie sur le patrimoine scientifique d'une région géographique, en mettant en relation les chercheurs avec les acteurs locaux et les touristes. Par le biais d'un processus en cinq étapes qui débouche sur la création de nouvelles connaissances scientifiques, il permet de faire progresser les connaissances théoriques et renforce la pertinence des savoirs scientifiques pour les communautés locales et aide son développement socioculturel et économique. Cet article se concentre sur l'étape initiale du processus de développement de produits de TS en identifiant les recherches menées sur l'aire du bassin hydrographique de la rivière Palena, dans la région d'Aysén en Patagonie chilienne. Les résultats de l'analyse des publications scientifique sont géoréférencés et leur répartition spatiale analysée. Ce procédé illustre comment les données peuvent utilement informer les acteurs du territoire et aider à l'identification, la justification, la conservation et l'exposition de connaissances pouvant être intégrées dans la création d'initiatives pilotes de TS. Cette approche peut s'avérer précieuse pour d'autres territoires à faible densité, périphériques et naturels, qui partagent un intérêt à ancrer le développement du tourisme sur des connaissances scientifiques.

Climate change is an existential threat to small island developing states. Policy coherence aims to create synergies and avoid conflicts between policies. Mainstreaming adaptation across multiple sectors and achieving greater coherence amongst policies is needed. The paper applies qualitative document analysis, content analysis, and expert interviews to examine the degree of coherence between climate-sensitive sector policies in framing climate change adaptation and the adaptation goals outlined in the national development plan and national climate change policies in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), Grenada, and Saint Lucia. The results indicate that adaptation is not fully integrated into the water, agriculture, coastal zone, and forestry policies. For example, while adaptation was explicitly addressed in Saint Lucia’s water policy, it was not explicitly addressed in SVG’s and Grenada’s water policy. The results show that Saint Lucia has the highest coherence score (93.52) while St. Vincent and the Grenadines has the lowest (91.12). The optimal coherence score that can be possibly obtained is 147, which indicates partial coherence in adaptation mainstreaming in sectoral policies. Expert interviews highlighted problems such as institutional arrangements, a silo approach, funding mechanisms, and policy implementation. Using the knowledge provided by the experts, a seven-step process is proposed to practically achieve policy coherence and operationalize the policies.

The spatial arrangement of a metropolis is of utmost importance to carry out daily activities, which are constrained by space and time. Accessibility is not only shaped by the spatial and temporal dimension, but it is also defined by individual characteristics, such as gender, impairments, or socioeconomic characteristics of the citizens living or commuting in this area. This study analyzes mobility trends and patterns in the metropolitan area of Barcelona before and after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, with special emphasis on gender and equality. The study draws on multiple sources of information, however, two main datasets are analyzed: two traditional travel surveys from the transport metropolitan area of Barcelona and two coming from smartphone data. The results show that gender plays a relevant role when analyzing mobility patterns, as already highlighted in other studies, but, after the pandemic outbreak, some population groups were more likely to change their mobility patterns, for example, highly educated population groups and those with higher income. This study also highlights that e-activities may shape new mobility patterns and living conditions for some population segments, but some activities cannot be replaced by IT technologies. For all these reasons, city and transport planning should foster sustainable development policies, which will provide the maximum benefit for society.

Italy is among the most important countries in Europe for milk production. The new European policies encourage a transition towards sustainability and are leading European dairy farms to follow new trajectories to increase their economic efficiency, reduce their environmental impact, and ensure social sustainability. Few studies have attempted to classify dairy farms by analyzing the relationships between the structural profiles of farms and the social, environmental, and economic dimensions of sustainability. This work intends to pursue this aim through an exploratory analysis in the Italian production context. The cluster analysis technique made it possible to identify three types of dairy farms, which were characterized on the basis of indicators that represented the three dimensions of sustainability (environmental, social, and economic sustainability) and the emerging structural relationships based on the structural characteristics of the dairy farms. The classification made it possible to describe the state of the art of the Italian dairy sector in terms of sustainability and to understand how different types of farms can respond to the new European trajectories.