Themes:

1. ICTs and Territory
   
2. Education and Trainning
   
3. Resources, Infrastructures and Development
   
4. Entreperneuship, Inovation and Internationalization
   
5. Public Policies and Regional Development
   
6. Cities and Urban systems
   
7. Territorial and Urban Planning
   
8. Real estate location
   
9. Culture and Development
   
10. Tourism and Sustainable Development
    
11. Spacial Indicators and Methods
    
12. Demographic dynamics
    
13. Ruralities and territory
    
14. Industry and Regional Development
    
15. Nature Management Conservation
    

This year APDR Annual Meeting will be held in Angra do Heroísmo (Terceira Island, Azores) from the 5th to the 7th July 2007. Also the First Portuguese Speaking Meeting of Regional Science and the First Congress on Environmental Management and Nature Conservation will be held coincidently. This event has the support of the Department for Agriculture Sciences of the University of Azores - Angra do Heroísmo Campus and the Brazilian Regional Science Association (ABER).

Recreating and e Valuing Territories

Regional development concerns not only with accessibility to goods and services but also the creative capacity to generate goods and services at local and regional level. Territories are valued only when land use becomes an issue and there are alternative conflicting uses for land. And, finally, territories are system where institutions, technologies, markets and ecosystems relate with each other.

Holding this year’s APDR Meeting in Angra do Heroísmo (Terceira Island) brings the Meeting’s theme more closely into scene: Recreating and Valuing Territories. Located in a relatively remote place in the Atlantic Ocean, as many other peripheral regions, the Azoreans realize that development is not only based on access of goods and services, eventually granted by external support. Beyond that, it is necessary to enhance local and regional capabilities, enhancing creativity and generating value in a sustainable way.
Furthermore, in a small region as an island it becomes clear that space cannot exclusively be understood as a location or a distance. Beyond there is a need to assume space as a territory, or a system that requests many interrelated scientific approaches.

The Portuguese Regional Science Association sees regional development as a holistic discipline, where different scientific contributions bring important and useful insight. Hence, the selection of the project theme “Re-creating and Valuing Territories” is an invitation for all those who are concerned with regional sustainable development. The challenge is launched!