This paper draws the attention to the use of urban land use as a promising and new playground for urban green space design, including viable small-scale agricultural activities. First, an overview of urban green space planning is given, followed by a typology of approaches to evaluate urban green space. Next, the specific importance of urban green space for small-scale agriculture and horticulture is highlighted. The paper concludes with an elaboration of the rich multi-tasking performance of urban green space for a modern urbanized society.

Socioeconomic growth and urban change have been an increasing concern for decision makers in recent decades

Abstract:The purpose of this paper is to point out some of the main characteristics and critical factors for success that can substantiate the proposal of a differentiation framework for maritime clusters. We conduct a benchmarking analysis intended to distinguish the most relevant aspects which can or should be observed in these types of clusters, applied to the following countries: Spain (Basque Country), Germany (Lander of Schleswig-Holstein), the Netherlands and Norway. The differentiation factors involve agglomeration economies and endogenous conditions derived from geographic proximity, essential for lowering transaction costs, strengthening the leverage of public/private cooperation through centres of maritime excellence, at the same time providing an adequate local environment that favours positive interactions between the different maritime industries and actors. The main results arising from this article are presented through a reconceptualisation of Porter's Diamond framework for diagnosing the competitiveness of maritime clusters.

The modern growth literature pays much attention to innovation and knowledge as drivers of endogenous developments in a competitive open economic system. This paper reviews concisely the literature in this field and addresses in particular micro-and macro-economic interactions at local or regional levels, based on clustering and networking principles, in which sustainability conditions also play a core role. The paper then develops a so-called knowledge circuit model comprising the relevant stakeholders, which aims to offer a novel framework for applied policy research at the meso-economic level.

The goal of this work is to detect the basic characteristics of the development of the southern border between Spain and Portugal.This trans-border area is described and analyzed comparing the region of Algarve, in The conclusions show that those indicators related to national governance systems are of utmost importance in the cluster classification. Furthermore, those municipalities with higher development levels are also less sustainable from the environmental point of viewthis is probably due to the fact that tourism supports the fragile socio-economic systems in many of such regions. Significantly, the clustering tendencies show that the Portuguese municipalities are tourism oriented (or less tourism oriented) and the Spanish ones are agribusiness (or less agribusiness oriented). Lastly, such geographic structures seem to have its roots in long term paths of development.