The city of Cairo, like many other historic cities, experienced a break in the continuum of its traditional urban pattern due to the modernisation project. The break was not only limited to the physical pattern but to social and economic activities. The swing of emphasis from the historic area to the modern quarters left the city peripheral to administrative and economic activities, augmenting urban and sociocultural decay. This study analyses these changes and forwards an argument that there is a strong need to conserve the human scale, individuality, richness and diversity of the historic city of Cairo and integrate it into the modern metropolis as a living and vigorous entity. The objective is to reconcile the old with the new through the perpetuation of culture. In this study, culture is considered as a vehicle to generate the need for conservation and regeneration of the old area, while at the same time maintaining a context for both continuity and diversity in the traditional urban fabric. In doing so, the study examines the historical and cultural urban processes that shaped the traditional city, focusing on the complex interaction between social and physical entities. The study then considers the current dimension, where tourism and small-scale manufacturing have enabled the historic city to reposition itself as the most powerful secondary economic base in the metropolis, drawing on the legacy of its urban heritage. The study argues that by learning from the past that created unity in the built environment, the future of the city could be shaped: balancing the conservation of its cultural heritage and the promotion of sustainable development to suit contemporary needs.

Since the beginning of Japan's post-war boom her major cities, notably Tokyo, have developed with remarkable speed but relatively little pre-planning and control. So the consequent economic benefits have been accompanied by a level of visual disorder. Public and governmental opinion has therefore recently begun seeking development-control guidelines for improving the visual quality of the urban scene. Some Japanese researchers, building partly on the work of their us colleagues, have responded by trying to identify the most aesthetically significant aspects of the urban visual landscape. This thesis contributes to this search a particularly quantitative approach. It begins with a review of urban-design aesthetic theory concentrating on more recent "psychometric" investigation. It then describes and discusses the main method of the thesis: representation of urban scenes through video stills, computergenerated images, or photographs and the exposure to these representation of groups of sample subjects, and statistical analysis of the subjects' questionnaires responses. Special attention is paid to the reliability with which the aesthetic qualities of a given urban configuration can be generalised from 2-d "perspective" views of it, and to the relationship in subject responses between physical elements like buildings and trees and abstract characteristics like "openness", "enclosure", "age", or "expectant space". These procedures are applied to questionnaires completed by Japanese subjects regarding representations of various Tokyo street scenes, and by largely British subjects regarding contrasting "old" and "new" landscapes in the Hampstead and Milton Keynes areas. Initial investigations suggest that the elements of predominant subjective significance include the proportion of visible sky, the abundance of foliage. This thesis ends by suggesting aesthetic guidelines drawn from these results, considering spatial elements and roles of foliage, and discussing aesthetic assessment for development-control purposes.

This thesis examines the process of urbanization in Malawi, with special reference to the new capital city, Lilongwe. At independence Malawi inherited an extremely underdeveloped urban system. It is argued that colonial Nyasaland's involvement in the migrant labour system and its reluctant membership of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland were contributory factors, both of which related to Nyasaland's economically and politically subordinate position in Southern Africa. Analysis of the static and dynamic nature of independent Malawi's urban system shows it to be very simplistic. It is emphasized that the growth of the truly 'urban' population in most of the small centres in the urban hierarchy has been slow, and that institutional hindrances and government perceptions of the urban process may dissipate the impact of policies designed to promote their development. The major aspect of urban policy since 1964 has been the development of Lilongwe, which the government emphasized had two objectives: to create a new capital replacing the colonial creation of Zomba, and to develop a growth centre to promote greater regional equality and act as a counterattraction to the commercial 'capital' of Blantyre. President Banda's key role in the: instigation of this project is empahasized, and it is suggested that the second objective was rhetorically promoted as a justificatory expedient. The results of original research on urban policy implementation and private sector investment in Blantyre and Lilongwe support the contention that government commitment to Lilongwe as a growth centre is weak, and also draws attention to problems inherent in applying such strategies in small, underdeveloped economies such as Malawi's. Lilongwe's economic development has not been in theoretical accordance with that of a growth centre. Nevertheless although it is proposed that a new capital programme per se cannot be used as a surrogate for a regional development policy, major infrastructural developments in Lilongwe have allowed it to provide a degree of economic competition to Blantyre. These are argued to be mainly associated with government commitment to its development as the capital city rather than its weakly developed growth centre role.

This thesis examines the diffusion of infonnation and communication technologies (lCTs) in Wales, the Republic of Ireland and the South East of England in the computer service and electronics sectors. The study is significant as it contributes to academic and policy debates concerning the role of leTs in regional development. The European Community has invested considerable resources in the early introduction of advanced telecommunication services in the peripheral regions through the STAR (Special Telecommunications Action for Regional Development) and Telematique programmes. leTs are emphasised in the academic literature either as elements of infrastructure provision or, more significantly, as being integral to radical changes in organisations and regions. The research examines diffusion of ICTs in the three regions in order to assess the role of ICT in the regional development processes in the electronics and computer service sectors and to investigate the types of organisational and regional changes that are occurring through the applications of ICTs. The Republic of Ireland, Wales and the South East of England were chosen for study as they offered a basis for comparison of the use of ICTs by finns in core, peripheral and semi-peripheral regions. Research methods included a large scale survey in the three regions and in-depth interviews with a number of selected finns. The research focused on both indigenous finns and inward investing finns The survey results provide an indication of the degree of diffusion of particular components of ICTs in the three regions. The analysis also examines the types of finns in the electronics and computer service sector and demonstrates differences in the use of leTs between inward investing, multi-site finns and indigenous firms. The in-depth interviews provides further basis for exploration of the results from the survey but concentrate mainly on the assessment of the organisational and regional implications of the diffusion of ICTs. The main conclusions of the thesis are that leTs, in general, are of less importance in the process of organisational change and regional development than has been claimed by theories which argue that the diffusion of ICTs creates a basis for radical change in these areas. The results show that the diffusion of ICTs is unbalanced across regions and finn sizes. Furthennore, the use of computer networks by SMEs does not appear to be a central factor for their economic viability and the provision of infrastructure and services is not of central importance in Iocational decisions of large firms. The results suggest that other factors apart from the use of ICTs should be given more importance in explanations of patterns of regional development and regional policy-makers should give more weight to these matters. These factors include research on the impacts and extent of take-overs in different regions, and factors which encourage the emergence and sustained growth of indigenous firms and the increased embeddedness of inward investing finns.

In a little more than a decade regional planning has emerged as a vital component of the development planning process in Saudi Arabia. From its limi ted beginnings in physical planning its scope has rapidly widened and the latest plans attempt comprehensive regional planning within the context of a multi-level development planning effort. This experience has been rich and varied, and various innovatory approaches and techniques have been introduced. This study was conducted with a view to evaluating Saudi experience and placing it in an international perspective. With these aims in mind, a comprehensive planning model has been developed and a number of key questions posed, the answers to which reflect the acceptability and practicality of the planning system. The model is based upon a review of international experience of countries with different political, social and cultural settings, and at different stages of development. The model consists of four main components: planning activities, plan making bodies, decision making bodies and implementing bodies with a feedback from the public and private sectors. The model was tested against the planning experience of three countries with widely differing political, social and economic settings: Canada with its laissez-faire economy, the United Kingdom with its mixed economy, and Poland with its command economy. It was concluded that the model is sufficiently robust to act as a framework wi thin which to describe and analyse the Saudi experience. The context for regional planning in Saudi Arabia was analysed. The study included the political and administrative systems, the economy,the settlement structure, the sectoral planning process, the spatial planning process, and the past experience in regional planning. Then, the current regional planning experience which includes the National Settlement Strategy and the Regional Comprehensive Planning Project were discussed and analysed, taking the five comprehensive regional development plans (Hail, Qassim, Baha, Tabuk and Makkah) as case studies. This "current" experience was evaluated against the comprehensive planning model and the key questions for an acceptable planning system. It has been found that the Saudi planning system is fairly well developed at the national and local scales. However, at the regional scale, although there is political commitment there is little in the way of administrative arrangements for plan making and implementation. A set of proposals for improving the planning system has been presented for future action.

Airline schedule punctuality is a complex problem and one of the major concerns of the airline top management. Flight schedule disturbances may occur as delays and/or cancellations. There are many internal and external reasons for delays. These delays may propagate in the aircraft cycles and cause a large schedule disturbance. This may influences passenger satisfaction and airline resources. The objective of this research is to formulate a systematic approach for schedule punctuality which supports management decision making. The punctuality management system is structured to combine all schedule punctuality components, input and output variables. Five models are incorporated in this system. The first model is the disturbance model which generates random delays based on an estimated Lognormal delay distribution function. The delay analysis is carried out from a one year sample of delay statistics in which general, original , reactionary and other delay types are classified. The second model is the recovery model which incorporates the disturbance model with management strategies to determine delay propagation. A PC based simulation model (SKDMOD) is developed as a prototype which integrates disturbance and recovery models using SIMSCRIPT 11.5. 18 management strategies are simulated covering ground times (30, 40 and 50 minutes), maximum delay times to assign spare aircraft (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 hours) and spare aircraft using part of the domestic network of Saudi Arabia. The third model is the passengers' attitude model which determines the delay impact functions and the maximum passenger revenue loss based on 262 responses from a passenger interview survey. The fourth model is the revenue model which estimates the passengers' revenue loss. The fifth model is the cost model which estimates the extra cost resulting from implementation of the management strategies. All strategies are evaluated to determine the optimum based on profit and profit margin. OPTIM is the optimization program developed to find the optimum strategy(ies). This approach provides a guidelines for the management of punctuality. It integrates all the tools developed in a decision support system framework.

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