Urban Green Innovation

This chapter has the objective to analyze the elements of urban green innovation based on the guarantee the public interest, decentralize the infrastructure to democratize the territory, and innovating the institutional design to address the complexity of the challenges in the city. The method employed is the critical analysis supported by a review of the literature and consult to experts in the field. It is concluded that the urban green innovation capacity planning has a critical role in urban innovation development in specific areas of economic growth, social inclusion and equality, environmental sustainability, health, education, business, etc. To achieve these aims, urban green innovation requires to guarantee the public interest, the democratization of the territory, and the new institutional design.

Amiais

The chapter takes a journey through the place, revisiting the central dimensions for its development, particularly, for LOCUS project – playful connected rural territories. These dimensions are playfulness, labor and school, affection, architecture, and religion. For the knowledge and understanding of all these dimensions, semi-structured interviews were conducted with key informants, agents from and in the territory (stakeholders), informal conversations with inhabitants, and participant observation of two of the oldest traditional festivals in the village. Amiais is facing some social and demographic processes, (1) search of the younger population for more densified urban areas, (2) which leads to aging population and depopulation of the territory, which tends to cause the (3) loss of cultural heritage, but, at the same time, (4) a change in local architecture.

Literary Tourism

The chapter intends to provide an overview on literary tourism valorization. The first part identifies its main benefits, main literary places (book locations, book film adaptation sets, places related to writers, literary attractions), and literary events (festivals, book fairs, and other events). The second part presents some issues on the demand side and provides the description of two possible literary journeys, with different connections with both literary places and products. The third part of the chapter is focused on how to effectively valorize literary tourism, through the design of valuable experiences.

African Cities Cultural Heritage, Urban Fragmentation, and Territorial Spatial Development

The contemporary African city tends to become a geographic platform for establishing and showing a territorial spatial–social identity. This shows that global openness and accessibility may run parallel to closed and fragmented cultural clusters. Urban scholarship calls for a broader orientation in the field of cultural heritage dynamics, with a focus on the following: citizenship and identity, economic creative activities and innovation, the impact of popular culture, and the interface between traditional societal perspectives and open attitudes regarding contemporary interwoven cultures. Against this background, African cities have always been meeting places for people of different cultures, education, and talents. The contemporary African city is an open milieu, where ideas from a diversity of cultures and nations come together. The major challenge for a modern African city will be to turn possible tensions in such a intercultural milieu into positive synergetic energy.

The Trinomial Food-Heritage-Education for Climate Emergency as a Tool for Territorial Innovation in the Euroregion of Eixo Atlântico

This chapter is dedicated to the food-heritage-education for climate emergency trinomial (FoHECE). It disseminates a study in the Euroregion of Eixo Atlântico. This Euroregion (Galicia, Spain and Northern Portugal) has been a victim of climate change (CC) due to drought. The project consisted of a participatory-action-research (PAR) with a set of environmental education facilities (EEF) that promote the connection local heritage-global reality. The main objective of the study was to help re-signifying activities in education for climate emergency based on dietary styles. Thus, a pedagogical activity was created with each facility, according to the PAR methodology, to sub-themes of the diet-CC binomial (e.g,. types of food consumed, origin, type of production, presentation) and to food aspects of each EEF surrounding. In addition to the state-of-the-art review on FoHECE, results are discussed, and recommendations are suggested for future approaches and adaptations of this methodology to other contexts.

Tradition, Inclusive Innovation, and Development in Rural Territories

This chapter discusses the relationship between inclusion and technological changes in the context of territorial development in all of its dimensions (social, economic, sustainable, and technological). In this context, the chapter aims to understand innovation processes used in rural territories, mainly those that are less developed. The regional innovation systems (RIS) approach is used to underline the collective nature and importance of learning networks in regions. Inclusiveness is another important element in this discussion in terms of the problems caused by exclusion and the opportunities offered by inclusion. Arguably, less innovative regions can make progress in inclusive innovation by relying on their cultural heritage. Empirically, this study shows an innovative experience in Amiais Village (Portugal), a rural territory, that unites tradition and informatics (internet of things).

Internet of Things

The potential of IoT applications is now recognized, namely the use the IoT as a technological solution for societal challenges such as in health, education, industries, tourism, agricultural, and for this chapter concern, in cultural heritage dissemination. This chapter presents the different evolutionary phases of IoT and its different generations, first-generation experienced embedded things, second-generation a complex social web of things, and third-generation experience the autonomous social objects and cloud computing. This chapter analyzes the characteristics of IoT, for example interconnectivity, intelligence, heterogeneity, safety, monitoring and control, big data and analytics, information sharing and collaboration. Furthermore, this chapter describes the different usage of IoT scenarios applications in some specific areas, such as agriculture, cultural heritage, and tourism.

Evaluation of Architectural Heritage by Various Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Analysis

Selection of the architectural heritage (AH) for conservation considers many dimensions and parameters, which is a multitasking process. Many parameters can be valued directly, while others indirectly. The process of evaluation should be robust for all decision-makers. As such, the multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) process seems apt. This research evaluates various MCDM methods using Odishan temple architecture as the case study. Five dimensions as architectural and aesthetic value, economic value, environmental and ecological value, historical value, and socio-cultural value have been identified. The selected MCDM methods are weighted sum method, weighted product method, weighted aggregated sum product assessment, evaluation based on distance from average solutions, techniques for the order of preference by similarity to ideal solutions, additive ratio assessment, complex proportional assessment, combinative distance-based assessment, and VIKOR. This study compares different MCDA methods for the best AH using different dimensions.

Smart Tourism and Local Heritage

Contemporary society is sustained by a growing digitalization of social processes, with exponential growth in the uses of ICT, which opened up new interaction possibilities with objects and places. In the field of tourism, these technological developments have given rise to the emergence of new concepts: smart tourism, smart destinations, smart experiences, and smart heritage. These concepts and their implications for the success of tourist activities are discussed first, and then the focus of analysis is shifted to the local tourism resources and characteristics. The case study focuses on the municipality of São Pedro do Sul, an area located in the Viseu Dão Lafões subregion, within the Central Region of Portugal. Several low-cost digital strategies are proposed to enrich tourism activities based on endogenous cultural and natural resources and empower route tourism as a relevant strategy for diversifying tourism and support the sustainable development of local communities based on a digital application that aims to integrate storytelling in the territorial context under study.

Barrires and Incentives to Territory-Based Innovation Processes

The context of territory-based innovation processes includes both barriers and incentives. This chapter presents the research and findings of a study conducted with two sets of five community-led initiatives, one composed of small-sized initiatives and another composed of larger-sized initiatives, with a view to identify barriers and incentives to territory-based innovation. Following a mixed-coding approach, data was analysed to identify barriers and incentives to territory-based innovation prompted by the use of digital tools, by the interaction among actors, and by contextual factors. Results from both types initiatives show significant technology weariness, still initiatives praise the effectiveness of some digital tools, namely social media, in reaching their audience. Both types of initiatives evidence disappointment towards cultural traits and bureaucracy, being these factors experienced as a disheartening barrier. Yet, initiatives also commend the know-how and flexibility of specific actors, with whom initiatives interact with closely when performing their activities.