The urban development process has been under intensive economic restructuring, socio-demographic and environmental transformations with technological innovations. Economic activities are geographically located to improve territorial competitiveness of companies as they have important role and possibilities of the economy of scale with cost effective market advantages. In this research the economic development potentials of selected urban areas (69 municipalities) in Slovenia have been defined through key development factors that are also causing the development gap as sources of external economies between selected urban areas. The selection of individual development factors of the economic potential of urban areas is based on the most important economic indicators (28) as initially implemented in the methodology of the ESPON II POLYCE project (2010-2012) Metropolisation & Polycentric Development in Central Europe for defining the potentials of MEGA (Metropolitan European Growth Areas) in Europe. The results of our analysis of economic potential of urban areas in Slovenia has emphasized the role of the capital city of Ljubljana (and functional urban area) with the highest concentration of the above average results followed with two regional urban areas (of national importance, SPRS 2004) – Nova Gorica and Novo mesto. The profiles of individual towns and urban areas are important empirically supported instrument for policy makers and other stakeholders for enhancing territorial competitiveness and cohesion, and strategic recommendations for further key urban policies.
COBISS.SI-ID: 24881126
The main purpose of the research project is to identify the main development potentials of Slovenian cities in the context of a marketoriented socio-economic system in which spatial planning in general, and the development of cities in a specific sense, is strongly dependent on economic trends. City development potentials are determined in accordance with the development and executive visions of the various stakeholders that generate or have a potential to generate the economic activity of a city, while taking into account and verifying the social and environmental parameters that further affect the increase in the quality of life in the cities. The main objective of the project is to propose urban development measures that lead to the improvement of the quality of urban areas in Slovenia by upgrading social, spatial and environmental qualities. The research project is set up interdisciplinary. The participating experts are coming from the fields of urban planning, architecture, spatial planning, management and economics. The research framework of the project follows the paradigm of sustainable urban planning and management, which aims to overcome today's mechanistic and static forms of land use planning and management. The proposed approach includes actions that ensure the presence of public interest also in private and partial interventions in urban space.
COBISS.SI-ID: 3693444
The contribution is based on the assumption that the well-organized and recognizable public spaces are a developmental advantage or the potential of a contemporary city. It discusses how the structure of urban public open space is created and interpreted in the mental image of its users in the case of Ljubljana, Slovenia. It reveals how spatially continuous urban open space is physically interconnected into the overall spatial structure of the city and how it is defined by a variety of the built form components. The question is how such space is present in the mental image of users and whether and how such space is structured into sub-units by its users. The paper aims to establish what its dimensions are, how it is divided into separate units at a mental level and what the perceived hierarchical relations between such units are, in terms of spatial, functional and intangible characteristics of space that conditions this perception. It is argued that both the overall spatial structure of the city and its constituent components play an important role in how users conceptualise urban open public space. The findings indicate the potential measures to establish a recognizable network of public spaces as a development opportunity for cities.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2849731