Knowledge-Based Urban Development : Planning and Applications in the Information Era

In the globalizing world, knowledge and information (and the social and technological settings for their production and communication) are now seen as keys to economic prosperity. The economy of a knowledge city creates value-added products using research, technology, and brainpower. The social benefit of knowledge-based urban development (KBUD); however, extends beyond aggregate economic growth. Knowledge-Based Urban Development: Planning and Applications in the Information Era covers the theoretical, thematic, and country-specific issues of knowledge cities to underline the growing importance of KBUD all around the world, providing academics, researchers, and practitioners with substantive research on the decisive lineaments of urban development for knowledge-based production (drawing attention to new planning processes to foster such development), and worldwide best practices and case studies in the field of urban development.

Tan Yigitcanlar has a multi-disciplinary background and almost two decades of work experience in private consulting, government, and academia. Currently a researcher at the School of Urban Development, Queensland University of Technology (Brisbane, Australia) the main focus of his research is promoting knowledge-based urban development and sustainable transportation. He has been responsible for a wide variety of teaching, training, and capacity building programmes on varied topics in urban planning, environmental science, policy analysis, and information and communication technologies in Turkish, Japanese, and Australian universities. Professor Yigitcanlar is co-editor of Knowledge-based urban development: planning and applications in the information era (2008) and Creative urban regions: harnessing urban technologies to support knowledge city initiatives (2008).

Koray Velibeyoglu is a researcher in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Izmir Institute of Technology, Izmir, Turkey. His teaching interests and methods cover project-based courses in urban planning and design as well as urban information and communication technology policy for planning. The main focus of his research clusters around urban information and communication technology policy-making and knowledge-based development processes. He is an expert in understanding networked urbanism and the impacts at the metropolitan and local level and the role of information and communication technologies in sustainable urban development. Professor Velibeyoglu is co-editor of Knowledge-based urban development: planning and applications in the information era (2008) and Creative urban regions: harnessing urban technologies to support knowledge city initiatives (2008).

Scott Baum is trained in economics and sociology and currently holds the position of deputy director in the Urban Research Program, Griffith University (Brisbane, Australia). His research focuses on understanding the economic and social outcomes of change across the settlement system. Most recently he has been involved in studying the impacts of local labor markets on the individual socio-economic outcomes. His most recent book, Fault Lines Exposed, was published by Monash University e-press in 2005. Professor Baum is co-editor of Knowledge-based urban development: planning and applications in the information era (2008) and Creative urban regions: harnessing urban technologies to support knowledge city initiatives (2008).