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The construction of regional financial center can gather a large amount of financial production elements and capital, which plays an important role in promoting regional economic development. Based on this, the analysis of the planning and design of regional financial center based on the financial structure was studied. Firstly, the research progress of regional financial center and financial structure was expounded. Then, on the basis of the functional demand of the financial center, the planning and design method of the regional financial center was put forward. The regional center building in Nanjing was taken as an example, and the specific planning and design of the traffic, super high-rise landmark buildings, squares and other buildings were analyzed with the advantage of location. The research shows that the design and planning of the regional financial center can provide the new coordinates of globalization for the local finance.

Regionalism implying some form of city-region or metropolitan-level planning and governance has long been promoted for multiple reasons albeit with varied success. Experiencing a resurgence in 1990s, regional coordination and cooperation has proven effective in pursuing economic development and bolstering competitiveness. Unfortunately, other voices, such as those promoting regional scale land use planning and management to cultivate more sustainable urban form and settlement patterns became comparatively crowded out. With climate change-related environmental and ecological pressures mounting, the chapter suggests it is time to frame regions as socio-ecological rather than mere socio-economic spaces, thereby placing greater emphasis on ecosystems and ecological land management and a circular, regenerative economy. Using the city-region of Stuttgart (Germany) as exemplar, our contribution initiates an exploration into whether statutory regional planning in combination with various informal tools and a multi-level governance framework allows actors to begin to embed and implement these emerging ecological sustainability concepts.

The purpose of this paper is to critically explore the role of place branding, specifically at the regional scale, as an instrument for the attainment of strategic spatial planning goals. It also aims to contribute to the academic debate on place branding by discussing its relevance and effectiveness in supporting economic and social spatial realignment through civic participation and the shaping of clearly envisioned agreed futures.

Exploratory in nature, this paper’s theoretical exploration is developed by detailing relevant findings from a case study on the significance of a regional branding initiative, integrated in a wider planning strategy for northern Portugal (NUTS II). In conducting this exploratory research, primary data were gathered through 16 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with key regional actors and organizations with a stake (and expertise) in the region.

Findings show the key strategic domains in which the region excels. These domains could fuel a potential regional branding initiative. However, the key regional actors interviewed agree that the diverse and fragmented regional assets and the socioeconomic scenario all require and yet hinder regional coordination efforts. In addition, territorial reorganization and the definition of a regional economic model, plus decentralization of decision-making and the establishment of leadership, are imperative for the effectiveness of a regional branding strategy aligned with the ongoing strategic spatial planning initiatives.

Managerial implications of integrating the opinions and perspectives of regional actors into a potential place-branding initiative as strategic spatial planning instrument include improving socio-spatial and spatial-economic condition of the region and envisioning shared futures.

By guiding the thoughts of scholars, practitioners and policymakers towards a strategic spatial planning approach to place branding, the paper contributes to the advancement and maturation of the place-branding field, by lending a more strategic approach and geographical/spatial consciousness to the process of place branding. The paper also sheds light on the challenges and complexity of branding regions, a scale of analysis seldom explored in place-branding literature.

Drawing on changes in the nature of European metropolitan development planning in general, and the example of the Randstad, in particular, the purpose of this paper is to argue for an improved interconnectedness between regions and their public and private sector agencies. These should be linked to “flows of social and economic interaction”, and, as such, complement conventional notions of “bounded spaces” and “nested territorial jurisdictions”. This is in response to the now crucial question for metropolitan planning of how to develop and renew effective institutional capacity to deal with the increasing spatial complexities at regional or metropolitan level.

The paper is a case study‐based theoretical review of types of metropolitan planning, drawing on original policy documents and interviews with relevant policymakers.

It is shown that the answer to addressing the challenges of development planning at the city‐regional level is not primarily to enlarge the steering powers of regional planning per se, but to broaden its strategic network capacity through enlarging the coordinative and communicative intelligence of the intermediate regional planning bodies. This allows better responsiveness to the evident transformation processes within spatial development planning as such, with a growing emphasis on a strategic element within it. This, again, is more in line with the changeability of urban space.

The paper shows that the notion of spatial development planning has made a strong revival in the last ten years. It has been spatial planning that has attracted the key focus of debate, more so than adjacent policy‐making sectors (economic policy in particular).

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate significant problems in the US' development pattern of regional automobile‐dependent sprawl and local growth management and to make suggestions about adopting a regional growth management model that might better provide for more sustainable development of the built environment.

This paper reviews trends in the USA and elsewhere to determine the negative effects of the current system of sprawl and the potential benefits of developing higher‐density urban centers. The paper also looks to models in some US cities and Europe to further analyze potential legal and political issues related to this type of regional sustainable development.

Unsustainable, automobile‐dependent regional sprawl is a result of local zoning, growth management, and parking programs and has negative effects both now and for the future. The result has been more time, money, and resources wasted in automobile transit instead of new planning models that would lead to a more sustainable and less automobile‐dependent future.

A metropolitan sustainable development governing framework for growth management in the twenty‐first century is essential for a sustainable future. This includes higher‐density urban centers, transit‐oriented development centers, and a change in public attitude away from “not in my back yard” thinking.

This paper provides the potential benefits of creating a metropolitan governing framework to identify and regulate “growth areas” in a region. It further demonstrates how linking these areas to regional transit planning will help achieve the development of higher‐density, mixed use, and intensive urban core job/housing areas where people could live, work, shop, and play without the use of the automobile.

Planning under conditions of uncertainty is more demanding than doing the same under less uncertain circumstances. Planning which is coupled to high level of uncertainty requires good strategic thinking by the planners. There are a number of methods used for planning under such circumstances. Among these methods is scenario planning. Scenario planning has been used for classical management to help organizations and firms in their decision‐making activities. One area where scenario planning has not been used intensively, according to the authors’ understanding, is in a regional development context and especially in relation to the innovation aspects and policy issues.

In this paper, the authors discuss and exemplify the possible utilization of scenario planning to promote innovation in a regional development context. They look at the hidden potential of the method and discuss the challenges of its utilization. To run their analysis, they use a number of cases from the health sector. These cases are unique because they also involved input from a number of actors of the regional innovation system.

The authors found that scenario planning is a valuable tool to deal with regional development schemes under high level of uncertainty and where diverse actors from the regional innovation system are involved.

The authors argue in this work that scenario planning has the potential to be used, at a more intense scale, in promoting innovation activities in organizations within the context of a regional development drive. Surely, scenario planning need be considered when discussing innovation in relation to introduction of new therapies, new educational schemes, and other regional development initiatives.

Regional development agencies (RDAs) have recently been established in Turkey as a policy vehicle to support local governments and coordinate stakeholders’ activities. In compliance with the European Union policy guidelines, regional-level planning and policymaking are introduced for the first time in Turkey. Within the new system, tourism is designated as one of the critical development tools and thus the RDAs have become actively involved in tourism planning and development. The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the role of these organizations in the enhancement of tourism in less developed areas, examining the case of Thrace and North Anatolia regions in Turkey, and the activities of these respective agencies.

This paper aims to identify and determine regional tourism axes in Hormozgan Province, Iran, as a region with significant potential

The research method is quantitative and uses the fuzzy accreditation tool and TOPSIS model; the identification, determination and ranking of regional tourism axes have been performed by analyzing the spatial distribution of tourism attractions in the GIS environment.

The results show that given the capacities of Hormozgan Province, at least 15 axes are recognizable. This paper highlights regional tourism planning as a tool for urban and rural socio-economic development in potential provinces such Hormozgan.

This study provides a number of practical implications for regional tourism development as follows: it identifies some of the most important potential axes in Hormozgan Province, which can be considered as investment areas in the national and regional tourism development strategy. The spatial results of this study could be embedded in all urban and rural developmental plans in the province. Tourism investment should shift its spatial concentration from the spot approach, especially islands and cities, to the axis approach while equipping those axes as comprehensive spatial strategic regional tourism plans. Sectoral tourism in each sector including sports, economy and nature could be planned as if sectoral institutions and organizations are going to develop their own tourism goals.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the framework of the EU cohesion policy 2014-2020 with respect to its potential to secure not only the resources necessary for climate action in EU regions but also an integrated climate adaptation approach. It also examines the prospects for Greek regions with respect to climate adaptation.

Using the regional policy approach as it is generally formulated and applied in the context of the EU cohesion policy, this paper seeks to identify the policy objectives, the funding opportunities and the conditionalities for climate adaptation action. It also examines the above-mentioned elements for Greek regions.

The context of the EU cohesion policy constitutes a necessary but not sufficient condition for developing and implementing successful regional adaptation strategies. The process and content of regional policies are of significant importance in order for this context to be fully exploited.

Since this is the first time that climate adaptation at the regional level is directly addressed by cohesion policy, there is not much evidence on this issue, at least for Greek regions.

The approach followed in this paper may constitute a useful contribution to the formulation of regional adaptation strategies. This is of particular importance as climate adaptation, together with risk prevention, is one of the key thematic objectives of the EU cohesion policy 2014-2020.

This paper makes an original contribution by introducing and explaining a new challenging issue for the regional policies agenda, namely, the climate adaptation strategy, and stresses the need for a comprehensive approach to it, especially for Greek regions.