Jorge Ricardo da Costa Ferreira

"Com a evolução cultural das sociedades, os hábitos de mobilidade sofreram mudanças que possibilitaram melhorias na forma e nos tempos de deslocação. As elevadas taxas de mortalidade originadas pelos elevados índices de sinistralidade atingiram níveis insustentáveis.
Os trabalhos mortalidade rodoviária são escassos e limitam-se a exercícios de estatística comparativa onde não se vai além da criação de tipologias dos acidentes. Ao nível da disseminação da informação e mapeamento dos respectivos acidentes pouco se tem evoluído, além da habitual divulgação dos números, quer através de anuários, quer através de páginas na Internet.
Este artigo relata o desenvolvimento de um projecto de geo-referenciação da sinistralidade rodoviária no distrito de Lisboa, envolvendo vítimas mortais e feridos graves para o ano de 2007. Na sua fase inicial foram elaborados sumários individuais com informação sobre os sinistros, recolhida pelas forças de segurança (Polícia de Segurança Pública e Guarda Nacional Republicana). A utilização da plataforma Google Earth, permitiu a referenciação geográfica da informação com o objectivo de divulgar aos cidadãos e às entidades competentes a localização dos sinistros, a caracterização do local, as suas causas e consequências.
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A criminalidade é algo que afecta as nossas vidas, bem como a forma de viver em sociedade. O conhecimento da realidade sócio-criminal é de extrema importância para o desenvolvimento das sociedades. As temáticas da criminalidade e segurança têm vindo, nos últimos tempos, a ser alvo de enorme pressão pela comunicação social, pelo governo e pela sociedade civil. Desta forma, urge encontrar novas leituras de informação a nível regional e local, sobre áreas de ocorrências ou incidentes associados à criminalidade e incivilidade - as áreas de intervenção das forças de segurança - de forma a melhor compreender as suas causas. Só assim se poderá agir, numa óptica da prevenção e combate ao fenómeno.

Portugal remains a country with an historical and structural problem concerning development asymmetries. That is also true when it comes to knowledge dissemination. But Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have been crucial to leverage economic growth and at the same time assumed an important role in particular aspects of the so called Information Society (IS). The ICT sector has also been responsible for the decrease of territorial asymmetries. But the difference between the reality and the numbers is sometimes hidden in the more trivial social and economic ciphers.
The information volume disseminating trough territories is growing exponentially. The Information Society generates large amounts of data. Everything is stored and the actual size of a flash disk shames the capacity of a 5 year old personal computer’ hard disk. At the same rate the prices are decreasing and telco operators due their best efforts to deliver the most attractive bandwidth package possible. But market strategies are not enough to achieve a more fair society when it comes to a global reach of information to all the population, independently of its social and economical status.
Weaknesses in competitiveness have turned Portugal in a small player when it comes to global markets. Of course there are important sectors like cork, plastic moulds or wine, but the Information sector, mainly trough Information Technologies (IT) is probably the most recent, fast and growing sector of Portuguese exporting market. Recent developments in a relatively large number of small and medium enterprises (SME) showed very good results and became more and more important on global markets (Ydreams, Chipidea, Critical software, Ovione, Bial medicine, Criostaminal etc.). This is the outcome of high investments in research and development (R&D), University collaboration and a strategic public policy, based on the National Technological Plan and on Information Society policies.
But although good results have been achieved by this strategic alignment, there are fundamental indicators that continue to be far behind the European average.
Competitiveness is played at world wide scale and communications play a major role. The need for information corridors has become crucial. Information diffusion is a catalyser for regional development and lead to informational clusters. The polarization of places contrasts with the dispersion of spaces. And all this geographical hierarchies are important to achieve higher stages of territorial development. Knowledge networks are determinant to create critical mass and are crucial to the globalization process. Today, to be out of the networks represents a non existence status.
From this point of view, Internet is still (in its multiple platforms and technologies) one of the major variables to consider when choosing the perfect location for your business. Speed, capacity, complementary services, technology, added value, quality and price are priority aspects.
Portugal has done major efforts to compensate a late start on the Information Society issues. According to the latest benchmarks, the country has achieved very good numbers on eGovernment, e-citizenship and a consistent evolution on broadband and Internet penetration on households. In some of them even achieved the first place.
The evolution of ICT sector is quite heterogeneous. But different indicators show enormous positive variations. Public policies, technology convergence, mobile telephony, xDSL technologies, wireless and triple-play are just a few examples of how much as been invested in the country over the last few years.
The slow liberalization of public telecoms, the (false) desegregation of local loops and the separation of copper from coaxial cable inside the incumbent telecom became major problems due to a lack of competition. This situation was harmful to all the players and delayed millions of Euros in new and essential telecom infrastructures. It is also obvious that IS can not be evaluated only by ‘telcos’ evolution, not even by Internet growth. But the truth is that the development of telecoms and Internet as a social and technological phenomenon were similar during its evolutionary process.
But the problem of asymmetries, socially and economically speaking can not be erased only by the success of information policies, creation of fibre-optic’ networks or by distributing computers to all the school children population. It’s also firmly supported by the quality and strength of the usual societal pillars: justice, education, heath care, social security and transparency of political options. So, information society and information literacy also depend upon basic structural variables. For example, basic human development indicators like the ones we can find in the United Nations’ Human Development Index (HDI). When it comes to quality of life, we must consider a broader definition of well-being. This index provides a composite measure of three dimensions of human development: living a long and healthy life (measured by life expectancy), being educated (measured by adult literacy and gross enrolment in education) and having a decent standard of living (measured by purchasing power parity (ppp), income). Based also on other measures like the Human Poverty Index (HPI), Portugal reveals gaps when compared with other countries.
Information society could be considered the first step on a larger objective where knowledge means a superior stage on a truly global access for citizens. Infrastructures, networks, broadband and computers belong to information society. Knowledge society is different because it considers more structural variables. Among them, education is the most important along with an information culture and a true democratic system, based on equity and justice. One might discuss the true gain of an Information Society when sometimes families’ income, the efficiency of justice or the quality of the public heath system continues to be far from the European average. It is now time to achieve realistic approaches to deal with the information gap. Begin with data, organize it in a way to retrieve as many information as possible and apply large amounts of knowledge to come out with an output that can be used as an input on an another process.
These and other thoughts are the main ingredients of this chapter and trough the next pages I will address them based on a strong belief that Portugal still has a long way ahead to be considered an example of real technological success.

O cenário de globalização das sociedades e da economia é hoje uma realidade. O acesso a bens e serviços produzidos em qualquer parte do mundo pode colocar pessoas à distância de uma ligação electrónica. Neste cenário, o desempenho avalia-se através de indicadores ligados a factores emergentes onde a Informação é a variável chave. Um desses indicadores poderá ser a existência de uma rede, a sua largura de banda, a existência de domínios Internet ou redes wireless.

As comunicações e as Tecnologias de Informação (TI), sejam elas geográficas ou não, estão assim a tornar obsoletos alguns conceitos, tornando necessária a reformulação de outros. O resultado de tais alterações traduz-se em impactes quase on-line sobre a qualidade de vida das pessoas. A informação flui a ritmos mais elevados.

A Geografia reforça assim no contexto actual, a sua importância como ciência clássica e como ciência de inovação, não só pelo valor que a sua história confirma, mas também pela capacidade de adaptação aos conceitos emergentes, essenciais para compreender o espaço onde evoluímos.

Avaliar estes novo espaço geográfico onde as redes de computadores controlam a quantidade, a qualidade e a velocidade dos elementos disponíveis, será afinal um desafio. Analisar a geografia destes novos espaços torna-se essencial.

Será por isso estimulante o desafio de perceber, o que é a Geografia da Sociedade da Informação.

"Local Tourist Systems (LTS) can be analyzed according to a research structure that derives from industrial economics on industrial districts, local productive systems or learning regions. LTS concept is a useful analytical tool that can seize the resorts diversity and organization. Resorts can be conceived both as clusters or industrial districts, either with a perfect agreement between productive sphere and local community or a mere industrial juxtaposition without any economic or social connection. This paper purposes to discuss how to promote the creation of clusters grounded on sustainable tourism. The Alentejo Protected Areas - Estuário do Sado; Lagoas de Santo André e da Sancha; Vale do Guadiana; Sudoeste Alentejano e Costa Vicentina; Serra de S. Mamede - are analyzed under the principle of how specific microstructures can allow for a sustainable tourist development. The issues of “resources and competences” and “governance” are also explored.
Key-words: Tourism, Cluster, Micro-Cluster, Sustainable Development, Alentejo."

"Over the last fifty years mobility practices have changed dramatically, improving the way travel takes place, the time it takes but also on matters like road safety and prevention. High mortality caused by high accident levels has reached untenable levels.  But the research into road mortality stayed limited to comparative statistical exercises which go no further than defining accident types.
In terms of sharing information and mapping accidents, little progress has been mad, aside from the normal publication of figures, either through simplistic tables or web pages. With considerable technological advances on geographical information technologies, research and development stayed rather static with only a few good examples on dynamic mapping. The use of Global Positioning System (GPS) devices as normal equipments on automobile industry resulted in a more dynamic mobility patterns but also with higher degrees of uncertainty on road traffic. This paper describes a road accident georeferencing project for the Lisbon District involving fatalities and serious injuries during 2007. In the initial phase, individual information summaries were compiled giving information on accidents and its majour characteristics, collected by the security forces: the Public Safety Police Force (Polícia de Segurança Pública - PSP) and the National Guard (Guarda Nacional Republicana - GNR). The Google Earth platform was used to georeference the information in order to inform the public and the authorities of the accident locations, the nature of the location, and the causes and consequences of the accidents. This paper also gives future insights about augmented reality technologies, considered crucial to advances to road safety and prevention studies. 
At the end, this exercise could be considered a success because of numerous consequences, as for stakeholders who decide what to do but also for the public awareness to the problem of road mortality

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No contexto das energias renováveis, a energia eólica em Portugal tem registado um forte incremento nos últimos anos, sendo hoje uma referência incontornável no panorama europeu e mundial. A dependência externa de fontes energéticas fósseis, o crescimento da procura interna e a actual política de protecção ambiental, tornaram cada vez mais atractiva a exploração de energias renováveis. Entre as várias modalidades disponíveis (solar, hídrica, eólica, geotérmica, das marés e das ondas), a energia eólica tornou-se uma das mais exploradas, quer pelos avanços tecnológicos entretanto obtidos na sua eficiência, quer pelos incentivos e maior rentabilidade a curto e médio prazo do investimento. O seu contributo para o desenvolvimento da economia nacional é já notório e os seus efeitos podem medir-se por vários indicadores, nomeadamente pela redução da utilização de petróleo na produção de electricidade, pelos ganhos na redução da emissão de gases poluentes para a atmosfera ou pela criação de emprego e desenvolvimento económico que lhe está directa e indirectamente associado.
Este artigo pretende deste modo: (i) analisar a evolução de alguns indicadores da energia eólica em Portugal por comparação  com os de outros países;  (ii) destacar os principais desafios, nomeadamente as metas definidas pelo Protocolo de Quioto; (iii) e suscitar alguma reflexão sobre a importância deste tipo de energia nas  políticas de desenvolvimento territorial.

The transition process between information and knowledge is faster and so the inputs that influence social and political practises. The dissemination of information is now determinant in terms of territorial competitiveness and both public and private sector take large benefits when the data-information-knowledge value chain repeats itself trough space and time. Mankind depends nowadays on the creation and diffusion of good and reliable information. Speed is also important and the greater the speed, the faster the opportunities for global markets. Information must be an input for knowledge and obviously for decision. So, the power of information is unquestionable.
This paper focuses on concepts like information, knowledge and other, more geographical and tries to explain how territories change from real to virtual. Knowledge society appears on an evolutional context in which information dissemination is wider and technological potential overwrites traditional notions of Geography.
To understand the mutations over the territories, the causes and the consequences emerges the Geography of the Knowledge Society, a new discipline inside Geography with a special concern about modern society and socio-economical developing models.

All every day activities take place in space. And it is upon this that all information and knowledge revolve. The latter are the key elements in the organisation of territories. Their creation, use and distribution should therefore occur in a balanced way throughout the whole territory in order to allow all individuals to participate in an egalitarian society, in which the flow of knowledge can take precedence over the flow of interests.

The information society depends, to a large extent, on the technological capacity to disseminate information and, consequently, the knowledge throughout territory, thereby creating conditions which allow a more balanced development, from the both the social and economic points of view thus avoiding the existence of info-exclusion territories. Internet should therefore be considered more than a mere technology, given that its importance goes well beyond the frontiers of culture and society. It is already a part of daily life and of the new forms of thinking and transmitting information, thus making it a basic necessity essential, for a full socio-economic development. Its role as a platform of creation and distribution of content is regarded as an indispensable element for education in today’s society, since it makes information a much more easily acquired benefit.”…in the same way that the new technologies of generation and distribution of energy allowed factories and large companies to establish themselves as the organisational bases of industrial society, so the internet today constitutes the technological base of the organisational form that characterises the Information Era: the network” (CASTELLS, 2004:15).

The changes taking place today in regional and urban structures are increasingly more evident due to a combination of factors such as faster means of transport, more efficient telecommunications and other cheaper and more advanced technologies of information and knowledge. Although their impact on society is obvious, society itself also has a strong influence on the evolution of these technologies. And although physical distance has lost much of the responsibility it had towards explaining particular phenomena of the economy and of society, other aspects such as telecommunications, new forms of mobility, the networks of innovation, the internet, cyberspace, etc., have become more important, and are the subject of study and profound analysis. The science of geographical information, allows, in a much more rigorous way, the analysis of problems thus integrating in a much more balanced way, the concepts of place, of space and of time.

Among the traditional disciplines that have already found their place in this process of research and analysis, we can give special attention to a geography of new spaces, which, while not being a geography of ‘innovation’, nor of the ‘Internet’, nor even ‘virtual’, which can be defined as one of the ‘Information Society’, encompassing not only the technological aspects but also including a socio-economic approach.

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Spatial Planning is always connected with a country’ development process. It aids to provide a good quality of life to the citizens, creating strategies to achieve more balanced and competitive territories. The mobility and accessibility are the main factors of cohesion, social integration and promotion of competitiveness and economic development. This paper intends to illustrate Geographic Information System transportation tools (GIS-T) in the planning of public transportation and create a model that analyzes the demand and supply in order to optimize its utilization rates. This article introduces a case-study: Almada, a Portuguese city peripheral to Lisbon, the country’s capital. The main goal of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of Geographic Information System (GIS) as a support tool in developing policies for the organization, management and promotion of transport efficiency.
The objectives of this study are:
- Demonstrate the importance of GIS in the analysis of the transport network;
- Refer examples of Models that are applicable in transport networks management;
- Refer different types of analysis tools;
- Build a model that permits automatically find new bus stops and thus define new lines.

Over the last few years a new worldwide socio-economical order lead to an increasing
number on crime rates and raised the need to find new ways to handle information about criminality.
To better understand its causes, local, regional and national security authorities turned to new
decision support tools such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and other information
technologies to help them in finding better solutions. To understand the true magnitude of all the
variables involved it was necessary to spatially capture and correlate them to better quantify and
qualify the context within the phenomena. The city of Lisbon with is new proposed administrative
division, reducing from 53 to 24 “freguesias” (minimum administrative division and similar to parish’s)
implies an enormous degree of uncertainty in the observation and location of criminal data. As the
crime is not treated with an exact point, but at the level of parish, it implies that larger parishes are
treated by the average crime regardless of place of occurrence. This research combines statistical
methods (cluster analysis) and spatial models created with GIS based on police crime reports. It also
details a framework for short-term tactical deployment of police resources in which the objective is the
identification of areas where the crime levels are high (enough) to enable accurate predictive models
as well as to produce rigorous thematic maps. In recent years police services have engaged on
proactive and Intelligence-Led Policing (ILP) methods. This advance was coincident with the
recognition of law-enforcement solutions at local level. This paper is also an approach to ILP as a
strategic methodology to provide tools for Decision Support System (DSS) by police departments.
Keywords: Crime analysis, GIS, Geostatistics, Intelligence-led Policing, Information Dissemination, Data Mining.

The advent of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) brought into play an array of tools to interpret the ever growing multitude of geographical variables. The fact that these tools exist does not, nonetheless, mean that it’s easy or clear to make valid interpretations of the available information, which ultimately means that the validity of the methods of interpretation may not be enough to make clear planning decisions. The present contribution aims to demonstrate that the geographical nature of available data is in itself an object of interpretation that must precede the use of the GIS tools, and that they must be presented to the user as a flow of reasoning, a logic-based representation of problem-solving steps. In what concerns this presentation, the authors will present what is, from their point of view, one of the most useful methods of visualizing these steps and also one of the most practical tools for local planning. The human interpretation of geographical information is vital, because it is the user that decides the nature of the relations between the data, based on its individual attributes. Also, the manner in which the information is viewed is also important because the choice of used tools is based on an ontological view of the geographical science. Some users prefer to act using only vector data set claiming that it’s the best way to represent reality, and other users state that raster data set is the best base to solve a problem providing it has a good enough resolution. The authors argue that the best way to proceed is to identify the nature of the geographical variable and to use vector or raster data considering which is most suitable for each variable. Ultimately the decision between raster or vector data lays upon the decision making agents and what they want as a final output. The article points out that the use of the ArcGis tool Model Builder is the best way to view the flow of operations and that the models built in this way are extremely valuable for local governments (assuming that the same problem may afflict different regions). As such, it is stated that the first step for GIS based problem solving is the clear distinction between context, structure, support and created information and that the models have to reflect these relations. The models also have to solve the vector/raster data problem effectively and they have to be as simple as possible. To demonstrate the stated the authors present one model to point out the preferable methodology and ontological approach of problem solving (the model being about the problem of finding the location of a Wastewater Treatment Plant in the municipality of Amadora, Portugal) and afterwards several examples of Models created with the Model Builder tool that aim to solve specific problems (Risk cartography for Urban Fires in Lisbon, Portugal; Preferable areas for the implementation of a network for urban cycling in Lisbon, Portugal; Preferable areas for the implementation of a network of urban agriculture plots).
Keywords: geographical information system, spatial modeling, information dissemination, model builder, geography.

Analisar as variáveis que se conjugam sobre o espaço, percepcionar relações entre os inúmeros elementos que o constroem e entender o território para melhor o ordenar e gerir, são algumas das premissas da Geografia. A necessidade de conhecer e captar num determinado espaço temporal, um conjunto de informação temática pertinente para uma análise mais aprofundada, leva à criação de mapas, por utilização da cartografia. Essa deve ser pois uma das competências estruturantes na formação de um geógrafo. A atracção pelas tecnologias e a exploração de novas temáticas associadas ao território e ao homem criam também um enorme manancial de campos de estudo, nem sempre devidamente explorados. Resta saber se por receio do desconhecido ou, pela também contínua evolução dos temas mais tradicionais.
É aqui que o estudo das redes sociais se contextualiza no seio da Geografia, quer pelo apelo das novas inter-relações que se estabelecem entre o Homem e o território virtual, por oposição ou complementaridade com o território físico ou pelo simples fascínio de cartografar variáveis que pela sua complexidade de análise e visualização, se tornam ainda mais cativantes. Procurar fontes de informação credíveis, quantificar estatísticas realistas ou retirar conclusões indiscutíveis, apresentam-se tarefas hercúleas, ainda mais numa temática onde o ritmo da evolução tecnológica torna obsoleta a investigação mais aplicada e dinâmica. Este trabalho explora porventura os campos de uma “demografia dos espaços virtuais” ou de uma demografia das redes sociais. A evolução destas redes tem levado a um crescimento do interesse da pesquisa académica nos mais diversos campos da ciência. Da sociologia à psicologia comportamental, da engenharia informática à publicidade e ao marketing, passando pela geografia.
O Homem encontra-se perante um novo paradigma informacional. Ao passar de um mero leitor de conteúdos na Internet para um criador de conteúdos, ele altera a sua forma de viver em sociedade e de conviver em rede. Foi precisamente o que aconteceu quando passou a ser possível criar blogs, participar em fóruns on-line, criar páginas no Facebook, no MySpace ou “tweetar em permanência”. Chamou-se a este fenómeno, a WEB 2.0., uma nova rede global onde é possível estar presente, mas agora de uma forma plenamente activa.
Pretende-se pois através desta comunicação analisar e pesquisar sobre um tema que tem uma expressão territorial cada vez mais global, com níveis de evolução extremamente rápidos e que do ponto de vista social, económico e cultural representa (provavelmente) uma das maiores revoluções na forma do Homem comunicar e se relacionar. Mais especificamente e tendo como referencial a utilização de alguns softwares de quantificação de tráfego e respectiva localização de utilizadores, pretende-se mostrar como se disseminam as redes sociais em alguns dos países que, segundo estudos recentes, são líderes na sua utilização.

"Croatia has overcome a series of historical and cultural happenings. A war and serious internal conflicts
after the break of Yugoslavia have left the country with structural problems that will need a few years to
solve. With astonishing landscapes and a large stretch of coastline, Croatia has opened itself to tourism.
Presidential and parliamentary elections at the beginning of 2000 ushered in politicians who pledged
commitment to Croatia's integration into the European mainstream. Croatia Constitution was changed
to accommodate the shift of power away from the President to the Parliament. Croatia joined the World
Trade Organization and opened the economy.
European Union accession talks were held up because the country's most prominent war crimes
suspect, Ante Gotovina, remained at large until 2005. When finally convicted by the UN War Crimes
Tribunal in The Hague in April 2011, Croatia successfully completed its EU accession negotiations. It is
due to become the EU's 28th member state in 2013.
A dispute with Slovenia over the sea and land borders - dating back to the break-up of Yugoslavia - also
threatened to delay Croatia's membership until June 2010. The country's EU accession treaty was finally
signed in December 2011, after years of tortuous negotiations. A referendum was made on the
following month.
Croatia was badly affected by the global financial crisis from 2008 up to 2009 and its tourism-oriented
economy has suffered tremendous effects and the country has mostly been in recession since 2009.
Confronted like other countries in transition periods, with fast privatizations, inefficient legal and
administrative system, high unemployment rates, Croatia has imposed itself has one of the leading
countries in the Balkans. After the conflicts that broke Yugoslavia apart, Croatia established his
monetary and fiscal system initiating the first steps into a market economy. But the rigid mechanism
used to regulate the national Kuna introduced several problems and generated an overvalued currency.
The situation worsened the trade deficit and threatened the economic stability. The success of tourism,
foreign investment and a considerable growth domestic product (above some European countries) can
guarantee to Croatia a place among the EU like a modern democracy and a truly free market economy.
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The European Council granted the status of “candidate country” to Croatia in 2004 and Croatia opened
EU accession negotiations on October 2005 and concluded them on June 2011. From an external
observer, that is to be considered a tremendous success. However weaknesses in competitiveness have
turned Croatia in a relatively small competitor when it comes to global markets. But although good
results have been achieved by a strategic country alignment, the business’ location remains traditional -
near big cities and large metropolitan areas, mainly Zagreb, Rijeka, Split and Dubrovnik. Like Portugal,
Croatia seems to suffer from urban macrocephaly and rural exodus.
Croatia remains a country with an historical problem concerning development asymmetries. That is also
true when it comes to knowledge dissemination. But the Information and Communication Technologies
sector (ICT) has to be considered crucial to leverage economic growth assuming at the same time an
important role in particular aspects of the so called Information Society (IS). The ICT sector is also crucial
for the decrease of territorial asymmetries. But the difference between numbers is larger when it comes
to the big cities or metropolitan areas compared with its peripheries or rural regions."