From a current population near 19 million, the Mexico City metropolis may exceed 27 million by the year 2000. The many problems associated with this massive level of urban concentration include severe levels of air pollution, paralyzing congestion, and increasing costs of urban services provision. Meanwhile, the nation's periphery continues to suffer from severe economic and social underdevelopment relative to the nation's capital. Regional policies and plans to address these problems have been dominated by the concept of decentralizing the nation's urban-industrial system: i.e., dispersing urban and industrial growth from the metropolitan core to the national periphery. Mexican regional policy makers and planners have failed to adequately evaluate these proposed policies and plans for decentralization in a critical and rigorous manner. This evaluation must be made in terms of three critical criteria. The first is effectiveness: will a proposed plan genuinely return the benefits which are expected or hoped for? The second is efficiency: among several possible planning alternatives, which will return the greatest social benefits for the smallest social costs? The third is equity: which regional interest groups will be affected, and how will the costs and benefits be distributed among these groups? Research is based on three principal data sources: Mexico's National Development Plan: 1983-1988, which has predominantly determined the nation's sectoral, social, and regional policies during the de la Madrid administration; a plan prepared for the quasi-governmental Commission for the Conurbation of the Nation's Center, for urban-industrial deconcentration from Mexico City into the nation's Central Region; and extensive fieldwork in Mexico City and several other Mexican urban centers, concerned with the actual practice of regional economic development in Mexico today. Based on this research, a regionally disaggregated cost-benefit framework is proposed for policy and planning evaluation, and particularly to facilitate conflict resolution, negotiation, and other forms of adjustment among the many powerful interest groups which compete for scarce regional development resources.

This research identifies the well components, operation factors, and the soil and hydrogeological parameters that influence the recovery of Light-Non-Aqueous-Phase-Liquids (LNAPL) in an heterogeneous environment using pumping wells. The purpose of this research is to improve the analysis of sites contaminated by LNAPLs to efficiently recover the feasible amounts of LNAPL in the sites. The focus is on heterogeneous soil environments. The model adapted to analyze the recovery of LNAPL from the contaminated sites was improved to account for a high degree of vertical heterogeneity, including the vertical variation of one or several of the soil properties within the same layer. This research also studies the optimization of the recovery of LNAPL for the system of wells both at the level of one well and a system of wells. The developed model and method are applied to a real site. Thus, the model’s ability to estimate the performance of a system of recovery wells is evaluated using real soil data and performance measurements. This research constitutes a robust background regarding the design, operation, analysis, and optimization of a system of recovery wells in a heterogeneous soil environment. / text

Thesis (D.Phil. (Town and Regional Planning)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

In the two last decades, the cities were within the transformation period of their economic and spatial structure in order to be adapted to competitive global system. In addition, the decrease of industry sector and its decentralization to outer city, increase of service sector with the help of technological developments and its centralization are the core assets of the globalization. In compatible with the socio-spatial and economical aspects of globalization phenomenon, the structural transformation of industry in Istanbul that is the most important production center of Turkey, are on the agenda. In the light with these arguments, this thesis study aims to highlight the relocation tendency of industry in Istanbul with reference to the impact and context of globalization. In this thesis, in order to determine the relocation tendency of the position of industries and sub-sectors, the questionnaire that prepared by Istanbul Metropolitan Planning Center is taken as the base data source. In compatible with the analysis that derives from this questionnaire / the industry sub-sectors, firms sizes, their spatial distributions and their tendencies to relocate or to decentralize their production sites will be clarified.

The empirical literature in economic geography has recently dealt with two fundamental questions, whether growth or innovation is spatially bounded or not and how far the economic growth is determined by knowledge. In this thesis, relations between economic growth and knowledge relation is discussed from spatial spillovers perspective with the help of spatial econometric techniques. Adding city-region discussion to the existing literature, the thesis aims to evaluate the economic growth and knowledge spillovers from a broader perspective. The selected cases are two dynamic and rapidly transforming centers, namely izmir and Antalya City-regions and the results suggest the strong relevance of proximity effects and spillovers in both of the cases. Moreover, the analyses show that growth and knowledge spillovers operate in opposite directions rather than a parallel pattern as expected in Knowledge Based Economy discussions.

Thesis (D.Phil. (Town and Regional Planning)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

Thesis (D.Phil. (Town and Regional Planning)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2008.

As metrópoles pelo mundo vêm apresentando transformações causadas pelas modificações na sua estrutura produtiva. Tais modificações, iniciadas como fenômeno da globalização das relações econômicas, são possibilitadas pelo avanço das tecnologias de informação, comunicação e transporte, que possibilita a separação entre as unidades produtivas dos seus respectivos centos de comando, além de possibilitar um modelo flexível de produção. Essas modificações têm causado forte impacto na estrutura espacial das metrópoles, contribuindo para a formação do fenômeno urbano da cidade-região. Na Metrópole de São Paulo, esta separação permite que as atividades produtivas concentradas no centro da metrópole se dispersem, ocupando áreas longínquas em um raio de até 150 Km da metrópole, originando a formação da cidade-região de São Paulo, como resultado do desadensamento da metrópole paulista.O Plano Real aparece como um marco no processo da formação da cidade-região de São Paulo. Associadas a esse fenômeno, as transformações na estrutura produtiva do município de Osasco fizeram surgir uma nova centralidade que desempenha um papel articulador na cidade-região de São Paulo. / The metropolis around the world has presenting changes caused by modifications on his productive structure. Such modifications, initiate as phenomenon of the globalization by the economical relationships, they are made possible by the progress of the technologies of information, communication and transport, that it makes possible the separation among the productive units of their respective command centers, besides to allow a flexible model of production. These modifications have been causing strong impact in the space structure of the metropolises, contributing to form an urban phenomenon of the city-region. In the Metropolis of São Paulo, this separation allows that the concentrated productive activities in the center of the metropolis are dispersed, occupying distant areas in a ray of until 150 Km far the metropolis, originating the formation of the city-region of São Paulo, as a result of the São Paulo metropolis undensification. The Plano Real appears like a mark in the process of the formation of São Paulos city-region. Associated to this phenomenon, the transformations in the productive structures of Osasco municipality had made appear a new centrality that performs an articulation paper on the São Paulo city-region.

O objetivo da presente tese é compreender as relações entre a industrialização, o território e o desenvolvimento desigual da Região Metropolitana de Campinas RMC. Partindo da constatação de que a industrialização contemporânea é marcada por dinâmicas de concentração, dispersão e especialização territorial da produção industrial, são analisadas as novas relações das empresas industriais com o território, assim como as novas funções do Estado, das cidades e das regiões nos processos de produção. Os processos de concentração e dispersão territorial da indústria, bem como de especialização produtiva, são condição e produto das modificações da lógica da produção e das relações desta com o território. Mediadas pelas políticas estatais e novas formas de governança, essas alterações mútuas na produção e no território vêm favorecendo a redução dos custos de produção (de mão de obra, de transporte, de pesquisa e inovação etc.) e a implementação de processos produtivos mais flexíveis (evidenciada pelo crescimento das pequenas e médias empresas e a formação de arranjos produtivos locais), possibilitando a continuidade da industrialização na RMC. Além disso, a conformação da territorialidade da indústria, sobretudo de alta tecnologia, está implicada às progressivas modificações nas funções exercidas pelas cidades da região, a exemplo do crescimento e da concentração do setor terciário (e do setor de software, tecnologia da comunicação e informação), principalmente no município de Campinas, processos solidários à atividade industrial, que reafirmam a continuidade do desenvolvimento desigual (e combinado) e a importância da região na produção industrial contemporânea. / The purpose of this thesis is to understand the relations between industrialization, territory and the unequal development of the Metropolitan Region of Campinas RMC. Starting from the fact that contemporary industrialization is marked by concentration dynamics, dispersion and territorial specialization of industrial production, the new relations between industrial enterprises and the territory are analyzed, as well as the new roles played by the state, of cities and regions in production processes. Processes related to concentration and territorial dispersion of industry, as well as productive specialization, are condition and product of logic modifications in production and its relations with the territory. Mediated by state policies and new forms of governance, these mutual changes in production and in the territory have favored the reduction of production costs (labor, transport, research and innovation, etc.) and the implementation of more flexible production processes (as evidenced by the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises and the formation of local productive arrangements), enabling the industrialization permanence in the RMC. In addition, the conformation industrys territoriality, especially of high technology, is implicated in progressive changes in the functions performed by the regions cities, such as the growth and concentration of the tertiary sector (and the sector of software and communication and information technology), mainly in the city of Campinas, processes that are sympathetic to industrial activity, which reaffirm the continuity of uneven development (and combined) and the importance of such region in contemporary industrial production.

As metrópoles pelo mundo vêm apresentando transformações causadas pelas modificações na sua estrutura produtiva. Tais modificações, iniciadas como fenômeno da globalização das relações econômicas, são possibilitadas pelo avanço das tecnologias de informação, comunicação e transporte, que possibilita a separação entre as unidades produtivas dos seus respectivos centos de comando, além de possibilitar um modelo flexível de produção. Essas modificações têm causado forte impacto na estrutura espacial das metrópoles, contribuindo para a formação do fenômeno urbano da cidade-região. Na Metrópole de São Paulo, esta separação permite que as atividades produtivas concentradas no centro da metrópole se dispersem, ocupando áreas longínquas em um raio de até 150 Km da metrópole, originando a formação da cidade-região de São Paulo, como resultado do desadensamento da metrópole paulista.O Plano Real aparece como um marco no processo da formação da cidade-região de São Paulo. Associadas a esse fenômeno, as transformações na estrutura produtiva do município de Osasco fizeram surgir uma nova centralidade que desempenha um papel articulador na cidade-região de São Paulo. / The metropolis around the world has presenting changes caused by modifications on his productive structure. Such modifications, initiate as phenomenon of the globalization by the economical relationships, they are made possible by the progress of the technologies of information, communication and transport, that it makes possible the separation among the productive units of their respective command centers, besides to allow a flexible model of production. These modifications have been causing strong impact in the space structure of the metropolises, contributing to form an urban phenomenon of the city-region. In the Metropolis of São Paulo, this separation allows that the concentrated productive activities in the center of the metropolis are dispersed, occupying distant areas in a ray of until 150 Km far the metropolis, originating the formation of the city-region of São Paulo, as a result of the São Paulo metropolis undensification. The Plano Real appears like a mark in the process of the formation of São Paulos city-region. Associated to this phenomenon, the transformations in the productive structures of Osasco municipality had made appear a new centrality that performs an articulation paper on the São Paulo city-region.