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Cities today are dense networks of interchanging investments, information, goods and people, as well as centers of innovation and knowledge management. In such a complex framework of housing, social and economic interrelationships, cities become large consumers of resources and producers of greenhouse gases. Therefore, and in order to preserve resources and guarantee social services and the well-being of citizens, planning and policy actions are required that contribute to achieving sustainable growth. Beyond the environmental perspective, a socio-economic analysis is essential to make a comprehensive sustainability diagnosis of urban and rural systems. This paper presents a methodology for sustainability assessment, based on 38 indicators that include the three pillars of sustainability: social, economic and environmental. To carry out this assessment, 64 municipalities out of 313 located in Galicia (Northwest Spain) were selected and classified in three categories according to their population size (Medium Size, Small Size and Village). Moreover, two weighting methods have been considered (equal weighting and measured weighting attributed through Analytic Hierarchy Process method). The results show that most sustainable municipalities are located in the north of the region. On the other hand, regardless of the weighting method, 57% of the medium-sized municipalities are rated sustainable compared to 45% of those of the categories of Village and Small Size categories. Therefore, municipal size is relevant for measuring sustainability and there are no significant differences between the results obtained with the two weighting methodologies, indicating that the method developed is robust and could be applied to other municipalities and cities. Image 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of technology on tourist cities and destinations has led to the emergence of renewed management approaches that seek to adapt the planning processes to new challenges and opportunities derived from the smart scenario. The smart city and smart tourist destination approaches are aimed at improving efficiency in management, the quality of life of the residents and the tourist experiences. However, little is known about how these ideas are being translated into real policies and whether they are having a real impact. The objective of this paper is to understand how the smart approach is being deployed in the planning processes of Spanish tourist cities and destinations, and its implications in terms of the governance, sustainability and data-driven public management. The planning instruments that guide the smart strategies of different Spanish cities are identified and analysed. This is complemented with a questionnaire administered among managers of the smart city and smart destination initiatives. The findings reveal the diversity of smart initiatives, their benefits and limitations. The results contribute to generating a necessary debate on the implications of the smart discourse for urban and tourism planning and enrich the international debate around this approach. • Contrasts the theoretical and international smart discourse with practical application in Spanish cities • Critically analyses smart city and smart destination plans, identifying categories • Surveys smart city and destination managers to unveil their perception of impacts • Contributes to overcome the insufficient consideration of tourism within the analysis and development of smart cities • Identifies implications for global urban and tourism planning of the uneven development of the smart approach [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Depopulation is a major challenge for many rural inland areas, as is the case in a considerable number of rural municipalities in Galicia (north-western Spain). The pandemic had a considerable impact on internal migration in 2020, but it was far from being anywhere near high enough to reverse the ongoing trend of population decline, highlighting the need for further action. Thus, this paper has a twofold objective: firstly, to propose an index of rural sustainable development for the rural Galician municipalities, and secondly, to identify the factors related to it. In so doing, a composite index stemming from the Benefit of the Doubt methodology has been proposed in the first stage, an index built from four-dimension factors– economic, demographic, social, and environmental. The empirical evidence of this index has been compared with three additional ones (namely, common weights, super-efficiency, and geometric mean and logistic normalization models). In the second stage, the relationship between the composite index and a set of exogenous variables that affect rural development has been analyzed, the data confirming that the rates of female immigration and occupancy in the hospitality sector favors sustainable development, whereas the distance from the provincial capital hinders it. This paper paves the way for an assessment of the potentialities of each territory, and the evidence found allows actions to be supported that generate sustainable progress in rural Galician municipalities and that are useful for tackling this complex problem. • A new rural sustainable development index based on four dimensions is proposed. • Strengths and weaknesses for each Galician rural municipality are identified. • Environmental factors constitute a driver of rural development in Galicia. • Social aspects (i.e., health, education, services) stand out as main weaknesses. • Policies to boost social care and attract childbearing-age inhabitants are paramount. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the responsible operating space (ROS) framework, a framework that includes both the common governance of the global environmental concerns and the comprehensive management of environmental sustainability. The ROS framework determines environmental objectives regarding the global concerns using a footprint perspective, and defines coherent integrated environmental objectives for the production and consumption processes at different territorial scales. In this case study, we firstly estimated the global ROS, as well as both the consumption-side ROS and the production-side ROS of Spain. Then, the national ROS was transferred to the 17 Spanish regions and was further extended to the 313 municipalities of one of the regions (Galicia). Finally, we transferred the ROS to 163 sectors, as well as to one industrial park and several companies. Our results demonstrate that, even assuming the methodological limitations and scarcity of data, it is already possible to allocate objectives and decentralize the management of global environmental concerns even at municipal and company levels. The role of circular economy under the ROS framework is also discussed on the basis of the potential coexistence of circularity with an unsustainable production-consumption system. • Coherent reduction targets at municipal and company levels can be calculated. • The framework allows integrating circular economy actions at different scales. • Decentralized management of the global environmental concerns is achievable. • The framework boosts the operationalization of environmental sustainability. • The framework can be integrated into a holistic sustainable development plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]