The scarcity of resources, the limited land, and the overstressing of tourism, as well as the estrangements of movement, make the insular territories relevant case studies in terms of their regional management and governance and, consequently, sustainable development. Thereby, Transportation and Infrastructures’ Sustainability in these territories is not an exception. In this regard, the present study, through exploratory tools, expects to analyze, using accessibility and connectivity indicators, the impacts over the social-economic sphere that the local Transportation and Infrastructures may deliver to the populations of the Canary Islands Archipelago. The study enables us to identify the islands of La Palma, El Hierro, Fuerteventura, and La Gomera as those with better accessibility patterns.

It is well-known that the ultra-peripheral territories as Islands present several limitations such as the lack of resources, restricted land, mass tourism, and barriers to movement, and connectivity between urban centers. These obstacles make ultra-peripheral regions suitable case studies considering their territorial governance and consequently, sustainable development and growth. Thus, transportation and infrastructure sustainability in these regions are not an exception. Considering all the obstacles present in these regions, the accessibility and connectivity patterns that the local population has in these territories should be assessed and monitored. Thereby, through exploratory tools, the present research assumes to examine, using accessibility and connectivity indicators, the consequences across the social-economic dimension that the regional transportation and infrastructure should convey to the Azores Islands Archipelago populations. Therefore, this article allows us to set the present situation regarding this region’s accessibility and connectivity patterns, creating an additional tool for supporting the main actors’ design and implementation of these territories’ future plans and strategies. Besides, this study enables us to recognize that Pico, Flores, and São Miguel are the ones with better accessibility patterns within the Azores Archipelago.

Human activities have been changing the Earth's cover at an unparalleled scale. In this regard, and cover mapping is a decisive advantage for several kinds of research. Also, the outcomes from these investigations could be applied to plan a sustainable regional governance policy. This article studied land-use changes in the Turkish Territories in 1990, 2000, 2012, and 2018 using the Coordination of Information on the Environment (CORINE) data. The results showed a significant and gradual land-use change from agricultural to mostly artificial surfaces. The majority of land-use changes are related to industrial and commercial units and construction sites. The most degraded agricultural land uses are non-irrigated arable land and pastures, while there is an increasing trend in permanently irrigated land. This study's outcome can be considered a surveying baseline for the comparative analysis of similar works for different land-use change trends in Europe or worldwide. Landuse change studies are reliable tools to evaluate the human activities and footprint of proposed strategies and policies in a territory. This article also enables us to understand that Turkey's decisive actors should design development policies to encourage industrial investments and agricultural ventures in Turkey and adapt the land-use/land cover strategies to mitigate agricultural land fragmentation.

Urban development in European cross-border regions significantly influences LULC changes, affecting environmental sustainability and regional planning. This study focuses on the France–Monaco borderlands, including the cities of Nice and Monaco, to analyze these dynamics between 2000 and 2018. Using the CLC dataset and GIS tools, we conducted a spatiotemporal analysis of LULC changes. Post-classification change detection and the AUEII were applied to quantify urban expansion and land conversion patterns. The built-up area in the study region expanded by approximately 28 km² over 18 years, with an average annual increase of more than 1.5 km². At the same time, natural and semi-natural areas, including forests and agricultural land, declined by approximately 11 km², reflecting a significant transformation of the landscape. Urban expansion accelerated notably after 2012, especially along major transportation corridors and coastal zones. Wetlands and water bodies remained relatively stable during this period. Rapid urbanization in the Nice–Monaco cross-border territory has led to substantial LULC changes, with implications for environmental sustainability and regional development. These findings underscore the need for integrated land management strategies that balance urban growth with conservation efforts, particularly in ecologically sensitive areas that span multiple borders. Coordinated policy and planning initiatives are crucial for mitigating environmental impacts while supporting socioeconomic development.

Borderlands have been neglected and suffered from the lack of attention and efforts of regional development due to specific inherent characteristics. They are considered geographically and socio-economically disadvantaged territories as barriers between citizens, cultures, and languages. The flows of people and goods have emerged new opportunities for cooperation and development to fulfill the issues regarding margins of political interests. The cooperation among the European borderlands provides a way to jointly tackle challenges and issues as part of mutually-beneficial and common development. The opportunities delivered by cross-border dynamics necessitate the implementation of integrated regional strategies in the light of spatial planning. In this chapter, the authors aim to illustrate the outcomes of this cooperation in the context of socio-economic and environmental concerns. The first step includes the establishment of a joint information analysis framework for developing comprehension of territorial cohesion as the main European cross-border cooperation objective.

The geography over which maritime transportation operates is unique, combining physical, strategic, and commercial imperatives. Physical issues are stable across time, but strategic, especially commercial, considerations continually shift with the ebb and flow of the globalization process. Contextually, the distance that isolates different locations in many cases plays a vital function in these interactions. Distance is the primary element that affects the values of interaction intensities. In fact, the issue is how the intensities were reduced with distance since this reduction is generally not linear. In this regard, this article intends to pursue the issues of the shape and parameters of the distance–decay functions based on the travel time value between islands. In this regard, almost all the Azores Islands were used as a case study. The study results show that the distance–decay functions established the unique dominance of Faial Island, Pico Island, and São Jorge Island, all in the Azores central group; in addition, there was an increase in the number of passengers in those. Moreover, the dominant position is the central islands, and their coexistence with others in the environment makes them more accessible than other islands, showing Terceira Island as a potential maritime passengers’ hub in the Azores. So, with this study, it becomes clear which are the main accessibility issues within the Azores archipelago as well as efficiency should be promoted through the design of policies in maritime passengers’ transportation.