This volume focuses on frontiers in regional research and identifies trends and future developments in the areas of innovation, regional growth and migration. It also addresses topics such as mobility, regional forecasting, and regional policy, and includes expert contributions on disasters, resilience, and sustainability. Building on recent methodological and modelling advances, as well as on extensive policy-analysis experience, top international regional scientists identify and evaluate emerging new conceptual and methodological trends and directions in regional research. This book will appeal to a wide readership, from regional scientists and economists to geographers, quantitatively oriented regional planners and other related disciplines. It offers a source of relevant information for academic researchers and policy analysts in government, and is also suitable for advanced teaching courses on regional and spatial science, economics and political science.

Dr. Randall Jacksonjoined the West Virginia University faculty as Regional Research Institute Director and Professor of Geology and Geography in January 2002. Previous appointments include the geography department and the Center for Governmental Studies at Northern Illinois University and the geography department at The Ohio State University. While at OSU, he also served two years as Associate Director for Research Computing. He is Adjunct Professor in Economics and Agricultural and Resource Economics at WVU, and in Geography at The Ohio State University. He is a past-president and Fellow of the Southern Regional Science Association, and sits on the Board of Directors for the Western Regional Science Association. He was 2007 Chair of the North American Regional Science Council, and he has received the David E. Boyce Award for Distinguished Service to the Regional Science Association International, having served as its Newsletter Editor and established and maintained its primary Internet website. He has received the Benedum Distinguished Scholar Award, West Virginia Universitys highest research and scholarship recognition.

Dr. Peter Schaefferis Professor of Regional Economics and Public Policy at West Virginia University and a Faculty Research Associate in the Regional Research Institute. He has previously served on the faculties of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of Colorado at Denver, as a visiting professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, and a visiting scholar at the International Labor Organization in Geneva. He has consulted on regional economic development in North America, Europe, and the Peoples Republic of China. Dr. Schaeffer is a past chair of the North American Regional Science Council and past-president of the Southern Regional Science Association. He obtained a licentiate in economics from the University of Zurich and the M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Southern California.