Harry Coccossis – författare

Planning and management for tourism growth is becoming essential in the context of sustainable development. Particularly so since many tourist destinations are facing severe pressures from tourist flows and activities. Such pressures are evidenced in terms of dysfunctions (congestion, environmental degradation, etc) which ultimately affect the attraction and competitiveness of tourism destinations. The development of tourism should be considered in accordance with sustainability principles. In this context respecting the capacity of the local system to sustain growth becomes a key challenge. This book examines the use of various tools to define, measure and evaluate tourism carrying capacity (TCC) - a tool aiming to impose limits for entering certain tourist destinations or using certain activities. Drawing on case studies from France, Spain, Italy, Greece, the UK, the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Austria, Germany and Finland, it presents practical experiences of implementing TCC in various tourist destinations (i.e. historic towns, coastal zones, islands, etc). It draws conclusions regarding the measurement and implementation of TCC assessment and provides further guidelines towards a comprehensive methodological framework for assessing tourism sustainability in the future.

Water is one of the most essential elements for sustaining life. National, regional, and local authorities throughout the world are responsible to maintain necessary infrastructure and safeguard resources for an orderly uninterrupted supply of good quality, healthy, and safe, water for everyday needs of all the population. These needs, which are growing fast with economic growth, development, and rising prosperity include water for drinking as well as for sanitation, laundry, gardening, recreation, and other domestic uses. An adequate supply of water resources should be safeguarded also for all sectors of the economy and society including agriculture, industry, energy, tourism, ecosystem protection, and more. Drinking water is again becoming a global issue from many perspectives. There are still parts of the globe which lack the necessary water resources for their basic needs, whether in terms of quantity or quality, or both. Demographic growth in several world regions is likely to increase pressures for the development of water resources and further exploitation of existing ones. Changes in production and consumption patterns are expected to aggravate further the pressures on the quantity and quality of water resources across the world. Rising standards of living, intensive agriculture, and new industrial processes lead not only to increasing com- tition for water use and rising costs of water provision, but also to mounting risks.

Water is one of the most essential elements for sustaining life. National, regional, and local authorities throughout the world are responsible to maintain necessary infrastructure and safeguard resources for an orderly uninterrupted supply of good quality, healthy, and safe, water for everyday needs of all the population. These needs, which are growing fast with economic growth, development, and rising prosperity include water for drinking as well as for sanitation, laundry, gardening, recreation, and other domestic uses. An adequate supply of water resources should be safeguarded also for all sectors of the economy and society including agriculture, industry, energy, tourism, ecosystem protection, and more. Drinking water is again becoming a global issue from many perspectives. There are still parts of the globe which lack the necessary water resources for their basic needs, whether in terms of quantity or quality, or both. Demographic growth in several world regions is likely to increase pressures for the development of water resources and further exploitation of existing ones. Changes in production and consumption patterns are expected to aggravate further the pressures on the quantity and quality of water resources across the world. Rising standards of living, intensive agriculture, and new industrial processes lead not only to increasing com- tition for water use and rising costs of water provision, but also to mounting risks.

As European countries pursue a common effort towards establishing a European Union, various isolated -and consequently disadvantaged -regions are likely to face increasing competitive pressures due to their peripheral location. To assist such areas, regional, national and supranational bodies put much effort into developing transport and communication networks and linkages in order to ensure that such less favoured areas are better integrated in the broader European social and economic development process. This book addresses the issue of lagging development in various -mainly central and southern - European regions which are in a disadvantageous position as a result of their isolated 10cation.··The persisting problems of social and economic development in several European Union areas (e.g. islands, mountains, border areas) has turned the attention of policy-makers to "the critical importance of transport and (tele)communication linkages. The purpose of the book is to bring into perspective the role of transport and communications in regional policy for peripheral areas. This subject is currently of high priority, since the European Union through the Structural Funds interventions (i.e. the Community Support Frameworks) and the new Cohesion Fund relies heavily on transport and communication infrastructure investments to assist areas which are at a disadvantage due to their peripheral location and isolation. Furthermore, as the Union considers enlargement, some of these issues might be of wide European interest.

Regional development is attracting the attention of policy makers and scientists again, as regions, urban centers and rural areas, experience substantial pressures, particularly in Europe, as a consequence of globalization and geopolitical changes which lead to changes in spatial structures and dynamics.This book is based on the contributions of Greek regional science research presented at the 2006 Congress of the European Regional Science Association at Volos, Greece. The contributions selected to be presented in this book address these changes offering a fresh look into regional development. They provide an overview of regional development concerns from Greek regional scientists but the issues discussed pervade Greek particularities and stimulate thinking about regional science, regional development and regional policy in the early twenty-first century.