Knowledge Management for Regional Policymaking

The present publication focusses the attention on new avenues in regional information and knowledge management, while we will zoom in particularly on the potential promises and hurdles of digital technology. This digital challenge has already generated a wealth of implications in the area of smart or intelligent cities, but as yet far less has been achieved in the field of regional planning and regional science. There is clearly a need for a more systematic and wide-ranging assessment and presentation of emerging approaches and concepts in this field, for instance, in regard to principles (e.g. geographic rule modeling), methodologies (e.g. blockchain systems), data analytics (e.g. machine learning) and data governance (e.g. data sovereignty) of regional information and knowledge. Especially in our ‘big data’ era, a systematic, comprehensible and reliable acquisition, storage, sharing and handling of data (e.g. on the basis of systematic decomposition and filtering principles) is more needed than ever before.

The present study seeks to present a selection of state-of-the-art contributions on advanced – often digitally-oriented – regional information and knowledge management foundations, principles and practices written by several experts in the field of spatial informatics. These contributions were collected with a view to the design of a comprehensive knowledge and research agenda, which was discussed during a brainstorm workshop in Lyon, France (October 2021).

Dr. Robert Laurini, presently professor emeritus at the Knowledge Systems Institute, after being distinguished professor at INSA-Lyon, University of Lyon, France, is a well-known specialist in GIS. He was among the first (‘86-87) to teach GIS at the University of Maryland, USA, at the IUAV University of Venice, Italy, and at several other universities especially in Latin America. He has supervised or co-supervised more than 40 PhD's in GIS. His present interests are geographic knowledge, territorial intelligence, and digital aspects in Smart Cities. He was vice-president of the Urban Data Management Society whose goal is to promote information systems in municipality, and now in smart cities. He authored or co-authored more than 10 books and more than 250 papers in those domains. His last book is entitled “Geographic Knowledge Infrastructure: Applications to Territorial Intelligence and Smart Cities”.

Dr. Peter Nijkamp is emeritus Professorin regional and urban economics and in economic geography at the VU University, and associated with The Open University of the Netherlands (OU), Heerlen (The Netherlands), and the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Iasi (Romania). He has published more than 2000 articles and books in the field of regional development, urban growth, transport and the environment. He is a fellow of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW). He has served as president of the governing board of the Netherlands Research Council (NWO). In 1996, he was awarded the most prestigious scientific prize in the Netherlands, the Spinoza award.  He is vice-president of The Regional Science Academy (TRSA) and involved in many international research activities.

Dr. Karima Kourtit is at the Open University, Heerlen, The Netherlands. Her main scientific research is in the field of creative industries, urban development, cultural heritage, digital technology, and strategic performance management. Her academic profile is characterized by a profound involvement in evidence-based urban and spatial research on smart city policy and data metrics, by a strong commitment to educational support to young researchers and by an active role in many international scientific and managerial activities. Furthermore, she has been an editor of several books and guest editor for many international journals, and has published a wide array of scientific articles, papers, special issues of journals and edited volumes in the field of geography and the spatial sciences. She is also managing director of The Regional Science Academy (TRSA).

Dr. Louafi Bouzouina is a Researcher in Transport and Urban Economics, at LAET-Transportation Urban Planning Economics Laboratory, and a Professor at ENTPE-Ecole Nationale des Travaux Public l’Etat, graduate school of Civil, Environmental and Urban Engineering, member of University of Lyon (France). He is also invited Professor at The Open University of the Netherlands (OU), Heerlen (The Netherlands). His research work focuses on metropolitan dynamics, daily mobility and urban segregation, dealing with interactions between the locations of households and businesses, land use, accessibility and uses of transport with an aim to model and evaluate urban policies with the constraint of sustainability.