This paper will identify specific planning conditions that arise when planning aims at sustainable development. First, attention will be paid to socio-ethical attitudes toward sustainability issues and to the reasons why much of the sustainability debate deserves an urban focus. Then, specific...

The present paper aims to investigate the role of creative practices for settlements, with a special focus on the 'Associations of the Most Beautiful Villages' in France and Italy. The paper focuses on the critical parameters of a locality related to the attractiveness of villages from the...

The paper takes for granted that urban areas - and hence the built environ­ment - may play a catalytic role for effective environmental policy. This position is based on the fact that most residential, production and transportation activities in the developed world take place in urban areas. A...

Transport plays a pivotal role in the dynamics of our society, not only in economic terms but also in a spatial setting. New driving forces such as technologi­cal progress, privatisation and deregulation exert a structuring impact on transport systems and on their related consequences induding...

Charged by history and struggling for a spatial identity, the rural world may use specific sets of values to apply tacit knowledge and cope with an industrial model in transition. This paper prompts the opportunities for rurality in the metamorphosis of modernity challenges. Addressing issues...

Urban development combined with city expansion, has brought irreversible consequences for land use and environmental degradation. The balance between stability in urban areas and biodiversity, relates in essence to sustainability and economic development. This economic development in southern...

Nijkamp P., Rossi E. and Vindigni G. (2004) Ecological footprints in plural: a meta-analytic comparison of empirical results, Regional Studies38, 747-765. The concept of an ecological footprint is intriguing and has prompted an avalanche of theoretical and applied research. In recent...

The aim of the present paper is to design a choice model for agricultural land use, in which the demand for both nutrients and bio-fuels is taken into consideration. To that end, we employ an AEM (Agricultural Economy Model) as part of a broader integrated environmental sustainability system....

The paper takes for granted that urban areas - and hence the built environ­ment - may play a catalytic role for effective environmental policy. This position is based on the fact that most residential, production and transportation activities in the developed world take place in urban areas. A...

This paper offers a new perspective on the issue of urban sustainability. Starting from a positive perspective on city life, it makes a typology of critical roles of the city that are to be considered with a view to urban sustainability. Next, it is argued that a sine qua non for a structured...