This book focuses on new and innovative spatial approaches based on smart solutions and developed in the field of geography and related interdisciplinary fields such as urban and regional studies, landscape ecology and ecosystem services. It includes contributions from a conference dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Bulgarian Geographical Society. In turn, the book reveals how 21st-century geography is expected to facilitate the development of human capital and the knowledge society, while also offering place-specific solutions for sustainable regional development and utilization of the planet’s natural and human capital to improve social wellbeing. This volume is intended for the global geographical research community, as well as professionals and practitioners in all fields that deal with space, including regional planners and environmental managers.

Geography is more than just trivia, it can help you understand why we import or export certain products, predict climate change, and even show you where to place fire and police stations when planning a city. If you’re curious about the world and want to know more about this fascinating place, Geography For Dummies is a great place to start. Whether you’re sixteen or sixty, this fun and easy guide will help you make more sense of the world you live in. Geography For Dummies gives you the tools to interpret the Earth’s grid, read and interpret maps, and to appreciate the importance and implications of geographical features such as volcanoes and fault lines. Plus, you’ll see how erosion and weathering have and will change the earth’s surface and how it impacts people. You’ll get a firm hold of everything from the physical features of the world to political divisions, population, culture, and economics. You’ll also discover: How you can have a rainforest on one side of a mountain range and a desert on the other How ocean currents help to determine the geography of climates How to choose a good location for a shopping mall How you can properly put the plant to good use in everything you do How climate affects humans and how humans have affected the climate How human population has spread and the impact it has had on our world If you’re mixed up by map symbols or mystified by Mercator projections Geography For Dummies can help you find your bearings. Filled with key insights, easy-to-read maps, and cool facts, this book will expand your understanding of geography and today’s world.

Tag along on this New York Times bestselling “witty, entertaining romp” (The New York Times Book Review) as Eric Weiner travels the world, from Athens to Silicon Valley—and back through history, too—to show how creative genius flourishes in specific places at specific times. In this “intellectual odyssey, traveler’s diary, and comic novel all rolled into one” (Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness), acclaimed travel writer Weiner sets out to examine the connection between our surroundings and our most innovative ideas. A “superb travel guide: funny, knowledgeable, and self-deprecating” (The Washington Post), he explores the history of places like Vienna of 1900, Renaissance Florence, ancient Athens, Song Dynasty Hangzhou, and Silicon Valley to show how certain urban settings are conducive to ingenuity. With his trademark insightful humor, this “big-hearted humanist” (The Wall Street Journal) walks the same paths as the geniuses who flourished in these settings to see if the spirit of what inspired figures like Socrates, Michelangelo, and Leonardo remains. In these places, Weiner asks, “What was in the air, and can we bottle it?” “Fun and thought provoking” (The Miami Herald), The Geography of Genius reevaluates the importance of culture in nurturing creativity and “offers a practical map for how we can all become a bit more inventive” (Adam Grant, author of Originals).

This unique work introduces the basic principles of artificial intelligence with applications in geographical teaching and research, GIS, and planning. Written in an accessible, non-technical and witty style, this book marks the beginning of the Al revolution in geography with major implications for teaching and research. The authors provide an easy to understand basic introduction to Al relevant to geography. There are no special mathematical and statistical skills needed, indeed these might well be a hindrance. Al is a different way of looking at the world and it requires a willingness to experiment, and readers who are unhindered by the baggage of obsolete technologies and outmoded philosophies of science will probably do best. The text provides an introduction to expert systems, neural nets, genetic algorithms, smart systems and artificial life and shows how they are likely to transform geographical enquiry. A major methodological milestone in geography The first geographical book on artificial intelligence (Al) No need for previous mathematical or statistical skills/knowledge Accessible style makes a difficult subject available to a wide audience Stan Openshaw is one of the world? s leading researchers into geographical computing, spatial analysis and GIS.

Global Trends of Smart Cities provides integrated analysis of 135 cities that participated in the IBM's Smarter Cities Challenge in 2010–2017. It establishes evidence-based benchmarking of city geographies, city sizes, governance structures, and local planning contexts in smart cities. This book uses a combination of descriptive statistical analysis and real-world case study narratives to evaluate the ways in which each individual urban variable or their combination matter in the diversity of smart city approaches around the globe. It is acknowledged that the Smarter Cities Challenge offers a particular set of smart initiatives and is not representative of all smart cities around the world. Nevertheless, the global presence of the Challenge across five continents and its involvement with 135 cities of all size and socioeconomic status provides a solid foundation to conduct comparative research on smart cities. Considering limited comparative research available in the smart city debate, this book makes significant contribution in understanding the state of smart city development in urban governments worldwide. - Offers an integrated assessment of smart cities using a combination of statistical analysis and real-world case study narrations - Compares smart city interventions from the 135 cities that participated in the Smarter Cities Challenge with detailed case study narrations included for 17 cities - Demonstrates the ways in which geography, size, governance, and local planning context—each individually and in combination with each other—influence smart city development around the globe - Develops an urban research perspective to the smart city discourse otherwise dominated by digital and IT specialists, engineers, and business experts - Identifies the North–South divide as the most influential factor explaining how smart urbanism is framed worldwide and argues that the future of smart city development depends on how "smart" approaches the ongoing and increasing level of inequity and inequality not only within our cities but also at the transregional and transnational levels

"Retail Intelligence & Network Planning" baut auf dem Erfolg des Vorgängerbandes "Intelligent GIS" auf, in dem Grundlagen und Anwendungen von GIS und Raummodellen für die strategische Planung ausführlich dargelegt wurden. "Retail Intelligence & Network Planning" konzentriert sich in erster Linie auf den breiten Einzelhandelssektor; die hier behandelten Beispiele stammen aus einer Vielzahl von Branchen. Die Autoren erläutern, wie wichtig Fallstudien für die moderne Standortforschung sind und behandeln eine breite Palette von Fragen zu Standort, Distribution und Management der Vertriebskanalproblematik, die für Einzelhandels- und Dienstleistungsunternehmen von großem Interesse sind.

Lucy lives on the twenty-fourth floor. Owen lives in the basement. It's fitting, then, that they meet in the middle -- stuck between two floors of a New York City apartment building, on an elevator rendered useless by a citywide blackout. After they're rescued, Lucy and Owen spend the night wandering the darkened streets and marveling at the rare appearance of stars above Manhattan. But once the power is back, so is reality. Lucy soon moves abroad with her parents, while Owen heads out west with his father. The brief time they spend together leaves a mark. And as their lives take them to Edinburgh and to San Francisco, to Prague and to Portland, Lucy and Owen stay in touch through postcards, occasional e-mails, and phone calls. But can they -- despite the odds -- find a way to reunite? Smartly observed and wonderfully romantic, Jennifer E. Smith's new novel shows that the center of the world isn't necessarily a place. Sometimes, it can be a person.

Applied Geography, A World Perspective reviews progress in applied geography in different regions of the world. It does this through the eyes of an international panel of highly regarded academic practitioners. The book offers new prospects on the use of established approaches and explores exciting new territories. Together, the contributors provide a comprehensive picture of applied geography today. This book is of relevance to faculty and graduate students in the fields of geography, planning, public policy, regional science and other related social and behavioural sciences.

A grand tour of Maryland’s geographic past through the lens of today’s landscape. When he first laid eyes on the countryside around Chesapeake Bay in 1608, records reveal, Captain John Smith exclaimed, “Heaven and earth seemed never to have agreed better to frame a place for man’s habitation.” In Maryland Geography, James DiLisio—another admirer of the Free State—pays tribute to Maryland’s rich cultural, historical, and geographical heritage. This up-to-date, in-depth account interprets the contemporary environmental conditions of the “Marylandscape” by emphasizing its evolving political and socioeconomic contours. This closely researched volume, which is loaded with instructive charts and maps, is the result of DiLisio’s lifelong fascination with the geography of his adopted state and his thirty-five years teaching Maryland geography at Towson University. Arguing that regional geography is a product of both natural and human events, Maryland Geography provides an account of the vital geographical stage that the people of Maryland have created. DiLisio touches on Maryland’s pre-European American Indian heritage, post-colonial agriculture, and shifting industrial geography, as well as the degradation of the Chesapeake Bay and the rise of the modern economy. He considers the emergence of the isolated Eastern Shore; the rural tobacco land of southern Maryland; the rugged mining area of western Maryland; the prosperous, mixed farming area of the Piedmont; and the metropolitan Baltimore-Washington corridor. More than descriptive, the book examines major trends in the state—natural, economic, and demographic—in a way that prompts thinking about the consequences of growth and unbridled development. Aimed at college-level geography students, the book will also be of great interest to general readers, historians, politicians, and anyone involved in making policies relating to Maryland places.