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This study demonstrates the application of affinity propagation as a data-driven approach to identifying and mapping typologies of place along the urban-rural continuum. The authors characterize Zip Code Tabulation Areas using demographic, economic, land cover, and accessibility to transportation infrastructure, which results in 22 clusters, 15 of which have a major rural component. The spatial pattern of these clusters varies, reflecting the heterogeneity in U.S. rurality. Rural is not a single concept that can be simply defined by population density. By comparing three economic indicators before and after the global financial crisis of 2007 to 2012, the authors find that the degree of economic recovery is captured by rural typologies. They compare both the methodological results and analysis of socioeconomic resilience to two of the most used threshold-based regional typologies, one developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service and one used by the American Communities Project.

We apply recent developments in data mining and statistics, utilizing affinity propagation (AP) to identify regional typologies in the EU and characterize major factors between rural-rural and rural-urban regional differences, without predetermined thresholds. We identify representative 'exemplar' within each cluster using the drivers of Copus (2015) enriched with climate and land-cover/land-use variables to provide geographic context and pinpoint differences driven by natural and human-natural landscapes. Building upon the works of Dijkstra and Eudora Project, we expand the dimensions of regional differences, introducing a threshold-less, data-driven model able to identify exemplars, and the main characteristics of each cluster or regional typology.

The Blue Economy (BE) is rapidly becoming one of the most commonly applied regional economic paradigms in coastal and maritime regions globally. Since the late 1970s, the U.S. Great Lakes basin has searched for ways to reverse its economic decline, and the BE offers new opportunities to sustain the region's economic development, possibly sustaining its transition towards new economic sectors. In developing, applying, and critically appraising a definition of the BE in one of the largest fresh-water systems in the world, our work identifies how regional characteristics and intersectoral conflicts can pose issues to both policymakers and researchers. The use of standard metrics (e.g. location quotients) allows us to compare our findings with previous works conducted in other regions. From this comparison, and by comparing inter-state differences, we find that the BE in the region comprises highly-productive clusters, although employment specialization remains low. In addition, several BE clusters are dominated by industries that are different compared to those in other regions. To the Great Lakes basin, our work represents a benchmark analysis that builds upon existing concepts used locally by researchers and policymakers alike for crafting policies aimed at supporting economic growth in a region only recently emerging from a long period of economic and demographic decline.

This article analyses the economic size and resilience of five established definitions of the Blue Economy across two geographical locations: Scotland (UK) and Michigan (USA). The article analyses sector-level employment, labor productivity and Gross Value Added (GVA) data, and uses graphical representations to highlight the differences in conceptualizing the Blue Economy in ways that affect its weight and contribution to regional economies. Further, it analyses how each definition has fared in the post-2007/2011 crisis, assessing their resilience. This novel work tackles the emerging discourse around the Blue Economy by highlighting its regional character, and by problematizing the divergent definitions of the concept.

Grid resilience and reliability are pivotal in the transition to low and zero carbon energy systems. Tree-trimming operations (TTOs) have become a pivotal tool for increasing the resilience power grids, especially in highly forested regions. Building on recent literature, we aim at assessing the temporal and spatial extents of the benefits that TTOs produce on the grid from three perspectives: the frequency, extent, and duration of outages. We use a unique dataset provided by Eversource Energy, New England's largest utility company, with outage events from 2009 to 2015. We employ spatial econometrics to investigate both the legacy and spatial extent of TTOs. Our results show TTOs benefits occur for all three metrics for at least 4 years, and benefits spillover to up to 2 km throughout the treated areas, with significant spatial spillovers across the state greater than direct effects. Implications lead to supporting TTOs as part of the hardening policies for utility companies, especially as home-based activities increase in importance in a post-COVID19 world.

Available online: 27 June 2017 Offshore wind power (OSW) plays a key role within the UK strategy for a transition towards a low-carbon economy, offering vast potential for establishing a high-tech manufacturing industry. Previous experiences in the onshore sector (OWP) suggest the UK might fail in fully capturing these macroeconomic benefits. In this work, we investigate the history of UK renewable policies, comparing its national strategy to those of other major OSW-export countries. Through the use of a numerical general equilibrium model, we quantify the macroeconomic impacts under three scenarios: a baseline, which relies on previous estimates and foresee limited local content; a 'contamination' scenario, where the UK content reaches the same levels of OWP; and a 'non-myopic' scenario, where investors expect governmental support to decrease or disappear, replicating a common path of past renewable policies. We identify the UK as a FDI-oriented country. Our results suggest that increasing the share of locally-sourced capital goods in OSP to OWP-level could generate larger income and employment effects in the UK economy. We find that under forward-looking investors the economic benefits are significantly lower than the case of myopic agents. Our results show an inherent conflict with stated purposes of UK policy for OSW.

Dr. Jasper Kenter was supported in this work by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Marine Ecosystem Services Research Programme under grant reference NE/L003058/1. Understanding the cultural contributions of ecosystems is essential for recognising how environmental policy impacts on human well-being. We developed an integrated cultural ecosystem services (CES) valuation approach involving non-monetary valuation through a eudaemonic well-being questionnaire and monetary valuation through hedonic pricing. This approach was applied to assess CES values on the west coast of Scotland. The impact of scenic area and marine protected area (MPA) designations on CES values and potential trade-offs with aquaculture, an increasingly important provisioning ecosystem service in the region, were investigated. Results confirmed a eudaemonic well-being value structure of seven factors: engagement and interaction with nature, place identity, therapeutic value, spiritual value, social bonds, memory/transformative value, and challenge and skill. Visibility of, but not proximity to aquaculture negatively influenced housing prices. In contrast, proximity to MPAs and visibility of scenic areas increased property values. All eudaemonic well-being value factors were positively and significantly associated with scenic areas and a subset of these with MPAs. The integration of the two methods can provide decision-makers with a more comprehensive picture of CES values, their relation to conservation policies and interactions and trade-offs with other activities and services. Publisher PDF

Adoption of photovoltaic systems has been thought of in some countries as a choice influenced by political preferences. In the US, this polarization may be even stronger due to political polarization around climate change. Now, research shows that photovoltaic adopters can be found in both parties and they are politically active.

Fisheries products are globally traded commodities, which have led to varying degrees of social and economic dependency for producing regions. These dependencies become more evident at times of major demand or supply shocks. Resilience to such shocks is intertwined with, and rooted in, the intra-sectoral structure and governance frameworks. This work analyses two large-scale, capital-intensive and export-oriented seafood sectors: Atlantic salmon and North-east Atlantic mackerel, responded to the environmental, economic and geopolitical shocks accompanying their development, from a UK perspective. Intra-firm controls are identified as elements, which have delivered resilience and strength in these two sectors. This work highlights the central, yet different role of the UK government in increasing their resilience and underlying producing regions. Our work contributes to the broader context of regional development and changing global food demand identifying both domestic and external threats to sustainability. Our approach aims to expand the debate around seafood production from ‘food security’ to a transdisciplinary analysis, which incorporates wider economic, social, and ecological sustainability aspects.

The diffusion of new technologies is often mediated by spatial and socioeconomic factors. This article empirically examines the diffusion of an important renewable energy technology: residential solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. Using detailed data on PV installations in Connecticut, we identify the spatial patterns of diffusion, which indicate considerable clustering of adoptions. This clustering does not simply follow the spatial distribution of income or population. We find that smaller centers contribute to adoption more than larger urban areas, in a wave-like centrifugal pattern. Our empirical estimation demonstrates a strong relationship between adoption and the number of nearby previously installed systems as well as built environment and policy variables. The effect of nearby systems diminishes with distance and time, suggesting a spatial neighbor effect conveyed through social interaction and visibility. These results disentangle the process of diffusion of PV systems and provide guidance to stakeholders in the solar market.