Abstract

International audience Industrial development can generate hazardous situations – in particular, when there is a need to deal with dangerous substances, such as those in chemical or petrochemical plants. Too often, these industries are located in the heart of urbanized areas with high-density populations, as urbanization intrudes on the hazardous sites (originally established outside of cities). Protecting civil populations from these risks – either through precautionary measures or special crisis management plans, if a catastrophe occurs – is a key issue. To better protect citizens, identifying the risks to which they are exposed and also how they perceive the risks in their area can help authorities and stakeholders better understand the risks (Glatron & Beck, 2008). Adequate knowledge of these risks can also dissuade populations from settling in certain zones and thus lower their vulnerability. Finally, authorities need to assess the exposure of populations to hazards – through modelling – to set up appropriate and efficient risk management plans based on land planning. The present chapter – founded on responses to a questionnaire-based investigation (see the Annex) carried out in the Milazzo–Valle del Mela area of Sicily, in 2008 – explores two main aspects of exposure assessment: space-time-pattern methodological challenges and results of individual space-time activity data extracted from the investigation in the Milazzo–Valle del Mela area. Document type: Part of book or chapter of book

Abstract

Mobility and transport evolve with time and the passing generations. Interactions are numerous between daily mobility and household migration (here defined as house moving implying a municipality change). The evolution of the transport system has deeply modified the barrier of distance and has largely opened the choices in terms of residence place. The continuing urban sprawl phenomenon resulting from these modifications has itself resulted in a strengthening of the property and housing market in certain territories, pushing people (young couples in particular) towards a residential localization which is further and further away from the traditional, urban activity centres. The tensions between daily and residential mobility have therefore increased, notwithstanding the recent rise in energy costs. This in turn generates unsustainable effects on society and environment. But these new residential choices have in parallel induced new mobility behaviours, based on an extensive (and probably excessive) use of the private car in daily trips (home-work/school, shopping, leisure ...). Social life itself (visits to friend and family) has become more spatially dispersed. One already knows that the propensity to change residence is determined by a number of individual or household characteristics such as age, citizenship or income, but the effects of long-term trends as population ageing, the evolution of the household/family structure on both residential choices and mobility behaviours remain so far largely unanticipated. This research project aimed at analyzing interactions between demographics and the evolution of mobilities at different time-scales. In particular, localization choice for household, daily accessibility and internal migrations ap pear to have strong relations. Document type: Report

Abstract

International audience; HSR and tourism: what can we learn from the past 50 years?Important investements in High Speed Rail (HSR) lines have been carried out all over the world since the opening of the first line in 1964. The analysis of the wider effects brought by these systems has been the core of major publications in the literature with the objective of investigating the benefits of the investments themselves.One aspect, less treated but of great interest, is the impact of HSR systems on the tourism market. Indeed, for an optimal assessment of this impact, some variables should be taken into account: firstly, how many tourists would not have gone to a given destination had the HSR not existed? Secondly, what are the characteristics of the tourists choosing to visit a destination served by a HSR line and what is the duration of their journey? ? Thirdly, do visitors spending justify the returns on investment?Some studies confirm that there is an impact, for example during the period between 1999 and 2010, the emerging HSR services did have significant impacts on boosting tourism in China. Provinces with HSR services were likely to have approximate 20% additional numbers of foreign arrivals and 25% greater tourism revenues than provinces without such systems (Chen and Haynes, 2012). But other authors show that it is not always the case in all the served cities (Todorovitch et al., 2011) and sometimes, a decrease of the journey has also been observed (Delaplace et al., 2014).The objective of this contribution is to show, through a literature review of studies carried out ex-post, that the effects are not systematic, since they depend on the implementation of the HSR service and on the characteristics of the places served. Indeed, if the HSR allows, in some cases, the increase in the number of tourists, a decrease of the length stay might follow. Some of the main findings of the scientific literature over the past 40 years are that the changes of accessibility of a destination served by a new HSR link is not the only element playing a role in tourism dynamism. It is necessary to take also into account the way HSR systems improve the image of the destination itself and the way they contribute to the coordination of the local stakeholders.