This paper aims to estimate the level of technical inefficiency in the hotel sector of a major tourist destination of Europe, the Canary Islands, exploring the relevance of agglomeration processes in efficiency levels. To do this, a complete dataset of the hotel supply for the period 2010–2016 is used. A translog production frontier and an inefficiency function are estimated in a single-stage sampling

This paper investigates the utility of information and communication technologies data for the measurement of visitation dynamics in third places across a large metropolitan university campus. A suite of seven metrics encompassing intensity, popularity, capacity, tempo, dwell, churn, and periodicity are employed to describe the visitation dynamics of each third place. Findings suggest that despite

Despite Sweden’s national gender-neutral family and social policies, local differences in gender contracts exist and have been related to differences in the structure of the labour market and cultural traditions. Existing studies are outdated and used relatively large administratively defined areas, which may lead to several measurement and interpretation errors. This paper examines geographical variation

The paper compares and contrasts internal migration measured by healthcard-based administrative data with census figures. This is useful because the collection of population data, its processing, and its dissemination by statistical agencies is becoming more reliant on administrative data. Statistical agencies already use healthcard data to make migration estimates and are increasingly confident about

This paper investigates the impact of the city’s urban spatial structure in shaping population density distribution over time. This research question is relevant in Barcelona because urban population grew at a sustained pace in various decades due to intense immigration inflows. When the urban spatial structure fails to behave as the backbone of population density distribution, population distribution

Human capital spillovers arise when the presence of individuals with high levels of human capital makes others more productive. If the students’ higher achievement scores are associated with human capital spillovers, a social return to education is generated. In this context, this paper developed the rationale and statistic methods for examining the association between regional human capital stocks

Environmental equity (EE) has become internationally recognized as an important research field, but in Japan limited quantitative research is available. In this paper we report the results of a quantitative study that tested whether objective and perceived accessibility to parks is disproportionately distributed between the affluent and the poor in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. Perceived accessibility is

Few studies in the Southeastern U.S. have examined county-level spatial patterning in suicide clusters, and no studies have examined clustering at the census block group. The objective of this retrospective ecological study is to identify high-risk suicide clusters and characterize the community-level factors associated with suicides inside and outside spatial clusters. We used the discrete Poisson

The UK population is predicted to grow from 65m in 2015 to 71m in 2030 and 75m in 2040, with the number aged 65-plus rising to 18m. Successive governments have been reluctant to increase taxes but this looks increasingly unsustainable, if the increasing demand for health and social care is to be met. Increasing state pension age is the customary response for keeping pension contributions and benefits

Urban planning is transitioning away from the ‘Predict and Provide’ approach that accommodates automobility and towards the ‘Demand Management’ approach that prioritises alternatives that include active, shared, and public transport and restricts the convenience of automobility. While this transition could prove a sustainable solution for urban mobility, individuals already residing within auto-dependent

Technological development of motorised transport modes has provided a greater reach to consumer markets, labour supply and the needs of the supply chain. However, this increase in mobility is limited by the infrastructure required and results in sociospatial inequalities that contrast with the relative isonomy previously provided by non-motorised transport. This paper focuses on investigating the disparity

Social systems are inherently complex and can be represented using agent-based modelling (ABM) methods. Based on the innovative work of Thomas Schelling, ABMs are used to represent, analyze, and forecast emergent spatial-temporal dynamics of residential segregation. Segregation is modelled by representing the complex dynamics between individual agents with various socio-demographic profiles who self-organize

Communities like Santa Barbara, California appear to have it all – beaches, mountains, sunshine, moderate temperatures, small urban population, and close proximity to the large metropolis of Los Angeles. What is not to love? Climate change, drought, flammable vegetation, and naturally prevailing weather conditions make a significant portion of the population vulnerable in many ways. Earthquakes and

Land Use Planning (LUP) is a central tool of public policy for promoting Sustainable Land Management (SLM) in social-ecological systems of drylands, considering the strong dependence between local communities and their natural resources. This work highlights the collective process carried out for achieving the Diagnosis of the physical-biological subsystem and for formulating conservation and SLM strategies

This paper re-examines the shifting pattern of (utility) patents across the American metropolitan landscape during the recent period 1990–2015. Patent volumes and densities (per capita volumes) are both analyzed at five-year intervals. All results reflect a reconstituted data base that addresses the demographic, economic, and geographic conditions prevailing among the nation’s n = 377 metropolitan

The city of New Orleans is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina and continues to experience numerous negative effects from the lingering storm damage to its urban forest cover. The goal of this study was to analyze recent changes in area coverage of all trees, shrubs, and herbaceous lawns in neighborhoods of New Orleans, particularly in three of the most severely areas damaged by the flooding of

Public policies are inherently spatial in nature yet their geographical dimensions remain frequently underdeveloped and marginalised in policy practice and scholarship. This paper reflects critically on these common spatial blind spots, using as its case study example the UK’s Work Programme employment support policy. Whilst social ‘creaming’ (i.e. deliberate prioritisation) and ‘parking’ (i.e. deliberate

In response to changing consumer habits driven by the advance of online services and mobile apps, substantial reductions in the provision of bank branches have been widely documented over the last decade. Such closures have economic consequences for the sustainability of local businesses and the state of local high streets and may disproportionately affect demographic groups such as the elderly, those

Geodemographic classifications are used to understand social phenomena. Within the private sector, for business planning accounting for underlying spatial differences in economic, social and demographic composition of geographical areas. In the public sector geodemographics is used in health, local governance and social research. Bespoke geodemographic systems help public health authorities to target

To develop a mobile clinic influence index, which could allow mobile clinic managers to prioritize geographic regions and allocate resources systematically. The mobile clinic primary care service index was constructed taking into account miles traveled by the mobile clinic, the speed of the mobile clinic, number of primary care providers available in a primary care service area (PCSA), the total population

The future of the meat industry will require the management of important trade-offs between economic, environmental and health aspects of both humans and animals. Understanding the patterns and trends of meat expenditure and consumption is crucial for assessing the current resilience of the system and for economic, planning, health and environmental applications. Here, we show how the technique of

Geodemographics is a tool to summarize the characteristics of spatial units based on socio-economic data. It has been used over several decades to classify the characteristics of areas based on the similarities in such data, generally working by identifying groups or clusters of similar areas. It has seen use in the academic and private sectors but mostly became popular by 1980s for market research

Since the 1990s, Russia (the former Soviet Union, FSU) has undergone radical institutional transformation and drastic economic, political, and social changes. These changes have resulted in complex transformations of the urban land-use patterns. We extracted four major urban land-use classes (residential, industrial, social well-being, and green land) before (1987) and after (2015) the transformation

The main objective of this study is to test and compare the prediction performance of three of the most common predictive policing methods. A near-repeat model, a supervised machine learning model, and a risk terrain model are tested and compared against each other using retrospective analysis of home burglary crime data from a Belgian city. Hotspot analysis is included as a baseline. Predictions are

This research focuses on the intermediate city, composed of urban areas located right outside the city center typically maintaining an in-between urban/suburban character. It aims to explore the degree to which this segment of the city exhibits urban activity and social life through the identification of activity areas in the so-called Third Places. Four intermediate city neighborhoods in Gothenburg

Despite the impacts of economic growth uncertainty, few studies have explicitly focused on how payments for ecosystem services (PES) can account for uncertainty in their benefits and costs caused by economic growth fluctuations. The objective of our study was to identify spatial targets for county-level PES by maximizing the expected future cost efficiency of ecological benefits under two growth scenarios

Geodemographics conventionally refers to the classification of geographical areas based on the socioeconomic characteristics of their residents. In this paper, we develop the novel concept of a classification based on the characteristics of workers and workplaces. The paper describes the implementation of this concept at the small area level for the whole of the UK, which has involved reconciliation

There is growing need for reliable survey-based small area estimates of crime and confidence in police work to design and evaluate place-based policing strategies. Crime and confidence in policing are geographically aggregated and police resources can be targeted to areas with the most problems. High levels of spatial autocorrelation in these variables allow for using spatial random effects to improve

Processes of agricultural expansion and retreat have provoked an emerging global debate and driven more focused research, due to its socio-environmental consequences. This paper evaluates large-scale LU/LC changes over 32 years from 1986 to 2018 at eight-year increments, based on freely available Landsat imagery processed with open-source QGIS tos. The results are the first quantification of surface

With the rapid developments in internet and communication technologies, activities take within the city create a reflection in virtual environments and these traces make visible the relation ties of the city’s dynamic structure. The data generated by mobile devices that take part in everyday life and become integrated with the user’s activities gives valuable information about users’ behavioural trends

The paper summarizes (not exhaustively) opinions on the potential convergence and divergence of population developments in general and within Europe particularly. There is an attempt to answer the question, whether the convergence concept is irrefutable or not. We discuss the major geographical factors of future convergence/divergence. We also present the empirical demographic projection of the EU

Over 80% of lung cancer incidence in the USA has been linked with smoking, yet causes of lung cancer mortality (LCM) are more complex and have been linked with a range of cultural, environmental, economic and health, lifestyle variables. These all vary spatially yet spatial studies of lung cancer are rare. This paper investigates spatial patterns in county-level LCM and the factors related to it in

Metropolitan regions in Europe experienced intense demographic change from accelerated population expansion sustained by high fertility and immigration to zero (or negative) growth and aging. Such transformations are particularly complex in Southern Europe and lead to a shift from the impressive urban growth driven by industrialization to a more recent de-concentration of inner cities and scattered

This study analyzed the spatial distribution of violent crime (murder, robbery, rape, assault, and larceny) in Korea and the relationship between violent crime and the governance, administrative, physical, and socio-economic factors of local communities. The occurrence of violent crime was approached from the perspective of the community, not from a personal perspective, based on the theoretical ecological

We measure the empirical distribution of the accuracy of projected population in sub-national areas of England, developing the concept of ‘shelf life’: the furthest horizon for which the subsequent best estimate of population is within 10% of the forecast, for at least 80% of areas projected. Since local government reorganisation in 1974, the official statistics agency has projected the population

City-driven open data initiatives have made spatially referenced crime and risk factor data more readily available online, allowing for significance tests to determine the relationship between environment and crime. This paper uses a variety of open source data to assess risk factors for specific violent crime types (assault, homicide, rape, robbery) in three different cities. The results contribute

Labour market areas and other functional regions (FRs) are increasingly used within research and policy, but how FRs are best defined is an unresolved issue. This is important because the policy impacts, or the research results, will differ depending on the specific FR boundaries used. As a result of this sensitivity (termed the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem), quantitative metrics are needed so that

A growing literature is pointing towards the prevalence of healthy lifestyles, such as adequate walking, in the Central Business District (CBD) of many cities. However, only one study has investigated the presence of walking hotpsots. Using coarsely geocoded, routinely collected survey data from the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), and a unique ‘overlap of spatial clusters’ approach, we investigated

The size and composition of the Australian population has shifted since the dismantling of the discriminatory White Australia Policy during the 1970s, yet its immigration system and border control remain highly regulated. Despite this, detailed information about the specific locations that immigrants arrive to or depart from within Australia are not available. The picture is further compounded by inconsistencies

This paper examines the factors of interregional migration in Russia for people of different ages. Basing on 2010 census data, we estimate negative binomial regression models for total migration flows and migration flows disaggregated by age with socio-economic, demographic, geographical factors of the regions of departure and arrival. The analysis showed that only two flows: migrants of economically

Day care centers for the elderly (DC centers) in the Tokyo metropolitan area are urgently needed with the increasing population of elderly people. The departments have tried to make efficient use of existing kindergartens as potential locations of DC centers, considering the shortage of available new sites for DC centers. The present study aims to identify the potential location of DC centers from

Most trauma and out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) deaths occur prior to arrival at hospital, with increased risk for rural compared to urban patients. Essex and Hertfordshire Air Ambulance Trust (EHAAT) and Kent Surrey Sussex Air Ambulance Trust (KSS) provide a physician-paramedic Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) in two regions of the United Kingdom. We investigated whether an association

Using a combination of data derived from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration’s Behavioral Health Systems Locator and the Boston Police Department’s Incident Reports, this study examines the spatio-temporal distribution of calls for medical assistance following a heroin-related injury between 2015 and 2018. As well, an examination is conducted regarding

With the recent growth in markets in the U.S., freight transportation systems have become more intricate, and are affected by the variety of static and dynamic elements associated with roadways. It is imperative to find effective ways to manage freight systems with smart transportation solutions so that governments can facilitate policy decisions to use their resources more efficiently. To make such

There has been an extensive tradition of geographical studies7 conducted to analyse the access to urban parks or green spaces. Several studies deploy approaches to measure the potential spatial accessibility and congestion of children’s playgrounds in urban areas. Identifying inequalities in terms of spatial access to children’s playgrounds is an important issue that could be useful for urban planners

The original article unfortunately contains an incorrect statement in the Acknowledgments section.

Risk Terrain Modeling (RTM) — an innovative geospatial approach to analyze the locations of high crime areas within cities— was used to analyze criminogenic spaces and identify the riskiest places contributing to vehicle and residential burglary in the city of Coral Gables, Florida from 2004 to 2016. Official crime incident data on residential and vehicle burglary were provided by the Coral Gables

Residential rents are analysed in the Walloon region in Belgium. In this region, affected by urban sprawl, households rent accommodation in urbanised areas as well as in their peripheries. While there is no statistical difference between the average observed rents per square meter in urban agglomerations and suburbs, does it mean that these areas compose a single market with identical rent determinants

Public attitudes to welfare are key issues in social policy research and practice given their important roles in shaping demands for different types of welfare policies as well as the political parameters within which those welfare decisions are made by governments. Research into headline trends has shown important hardenings in public attitudes to welfare cross-nationally. However, more detailed geographical

Tonga has recently adopted the consensual approach to produce its official multidimensional poverty measure. This index is computed using data from the Household’s Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES). The population of Tonga is scattered across 5 main groups of islands and high-quality spatial data is vital to inform policies. One limitation is that HIES data originate from a nationally representative

The core of this study is to implement a statistical tool for measuring employability and identify its main functional factors using a theoretical model based on literary experience. The E-index explores the main elements of the Hungarian spatial structure and evaluates the territorial differentiation factors. The quantification of employability, beyond the complex indicator, is based on three more

Nuclear power plants accidents should be seen as very complex issues, once they encompass environmental and social aspects that must be integrated to sustain appropriate management measures in a potential disaster event. Therefore, emergency plans require sounds spatial information knowledge and the interactions of their environments. The herein study aims to contribute to the emergency plans, especially

Colorectal Cancer (CRC) is ranked the third most common cancer in women and the fourth in men in Iran. Many factors contribute to CRC occurrence, and most of them are interrelated. The present study aimed to explore the spatial pattern of CRC incidence in Hamadan province, Iran. We collected and analyzed data on patients’ location, gender, age, and date of diagnosis recorded in the CRC registry between

As an obstacle to the hedonic model’s reliability, housing submarkets have drawn plenty of scholarly attention because they lack an integrated and standardized classification framework and validation methods. By incorporating multiple spatial statistics and data mining techniques into a hybrid spatial data mining method, this study develops an innovative classification methodology that replaces spatial

This paper seeks to provide further evidence about ‘league table’ orderings for deprivation in local areas, especially for two domains – employment and education – which seem likely to be closely related. Rather than relying solely on administrative Local Authority areas and functional economic areas, our focus is to refine the concentric banding approach introduced in Nolan et al. (Local Economy 27(4):

This paper examines the application of spatial disaggregation model in forecasting long-term land use change. It discusses an approach for disaggregating the predicted results on the basis of zonal data. The zonal data are disaggregated for each cell and the aggregated cell data, obtained based on the building units in the base year, are then employed for land use forecasting. The requirements of the

Re-introduction of Eurasian Lynx to Scotland is being considered. Work by others has provided an ecological rationale for reintroduction and trial re-introductions are proposed on the Scottish border. This paper presents an Agent Based Model which simulates the potential for individual lynx to successfully disperse from a release point, using movement rules derived from observation of wild lynx in

To assess the implementation of Planning Support Systems (PSSs) and scenario planning strategies, a common understanding of model goals, performance, and usability are among several issues that need to be addressed. Without a common understanding, resulting policies that are drawn from model outcomes could be compromised. Reporting methods of PSS results should be objective, reasonable, understandable

A large body of research has found that crime is much more likely to occur at certain places relative to others. Attempting to capitalize on this finding to maximize crime prevention, many police administrators have sought to narrow their department’s operational focus and allocate resources and attention to the most problematic locations. However, in the face of a growing number of technological advances

Most human phenomena vary considerably over space and time. Historically, GIS research has focussed on developing approaches that allow spatial phenomena to be recorded, investigated, and displayed. This emphasis on the spatial meant that time was largely relegated to a simple column amongst other attribute data. This uncertainty about how to handle time is evident through the debates and work produced