Animals contribute to tourism, but tourism-related research focuses primarily on free-ranging or captive wildlife tourism. St. Moritz in Switzerland is a premium destination where horses have been used for tourism for more than 160 years, for instance in White Turf racing and Snow Polo. Therefore, the aim of this article is to analyse how horses contribute to the tourism event economy of St. Moritz and how locals and tourists perceive equestrian event tourism. To address these questions, a survey with 352 questionnaires and ten expert interviews were conducted. A total of 74.7 percent of the inhabitants surveyed found the equestrian events positive, with the main reasons they cited including the traditional nature of the events locally (equestrian events have been held regularly since 1906), the associated entertainment and marketing for St. Moritz, the horses themselves as animals and related equestrian sports. The equestrian event tourism is responsible for many primary and secondary effects that are important for the region, resulting in an added value of at least CHF 47,000,000 annually, generated by at least 60,000 visitors. The effort expended, including the preparation of infrastructure for the horse races and polo on the frozen lake in winter, is internationally unique. This equestrian tourism demonstrates how forms of animal-based tourism can contribute significantly to the economy while ensuring international recognition derived from the annually held events that contrast clearly with other established forms of animal-based tourism like zoos or safaris. This demonstrates that successful animal-based tourism can be achieved not only with unique wildlife species in their natural habitats, but with non-unique domesticated species.
Over the past two decades, Green Infrastructure (GI) has gained prominence as a strate-gic spatial planning concept aimed at integrating ecological connectivity, ecosystem ser-vices, and socio-spatial objectives within coherent territorial frameworks. Yet empirical evidence indicates that its operationalisation remains uneven, particularly in small mu-nicipalities and transitional governance contexts that are underrepresented in mainstream GI scholarship. This study examines how GI is conceptualised, operationalised, and im-plemented within the spatial planning system ofNorth Macedonia, with a specific focus on the municipalities of Struga and Vevchani. Adopting a qualitative multiple-method design, the research combines Critical Discourse Analysis of national, regional, and municipal planning documents with a structured practitioner workshop aimed at examining institu-tional interpretations, implementation constraints, and cross-sectoral coordination dy-namics. This triangulated approach enables a systematic assessment of how GI is framed, codified, and enacted in practice, while also capturing how practitioners negotiate its integration within existing regulatory mandates. The findings reveal a persistent communicative-operative gap. Although Green Infra-structure (GI) is discursively endorsed and aligned with European environmental agen-das, its operational embedding occurs primarily through pre-existing sectoral and land-use categories. Policy provisions remain predominantly aspirational, regulatory language is weak, cross-sectoral coordination limited, and monitoring mechanisms largely absent. GI is selectively embedded within protection-oriented domains, while multifunctionality, spatial connectivity, and equity dimensions are weakly codified in binding instruments. Rather than constituting an implementation failure, this configuration reflects a process of institutional adaptation, whereby GI stabilises in forms compatible with entrenched regulatory cultures and administrative mandates. The study reconceptualises Green Infrastructure (GI) mainstreaming as a process of institutional translation rather than linear policy diffusion. It advances a configurational lens for analysing multifunctional infrastructure within hybrid governance regimes and demonstrates that conceptual adoption without regulatory specificity may produce discur-sive convergence while leaving spatial allocation logics structurally unchanged. These insights contribute to ongoing debates on GI governance, planning reform, and EUpolicy alignment in peripheral and institutionally fluid contexts.
Gully erosion is a special form of water-induced soil erosion and is often accompanied by devastating geomorphological effects on the landscape. It is characterised not only by high rates of soil loss, but also by lasting changes in the landscape as well as its degradation. Extensive research on gully erosion has increased in the last two decades. Although studies on this topic had been conducted previously too, they were rather scarce. In Austria, only few studies have dealt with this specific form of soil erosion to date. Accordingly, one of the main objectives of this study was to issue an inventory of gully erosion in a selected study area in Lower Austria. To this end, identified erosion sites were mapped and displayed on a hotspot map to provide an overview of where accumulations of gullying can be found. In addition, a geomorphometric analysis was carried out to provide information about soil and sediment loss induced by gully erosion, as well as other specific characteristics of selected erosion phenomena. As the results reveal, 2,065 permanent gullies and 289 sunken lanes could be detected in the study area, concentrated in regions characterised by thick loess layers and intensive land use. Moreover, it has been shown that the gullies contribute to considerable soil loss rates. In three representative catchment areas, detailed examinations of the geomorphometric characteristics showed that gully erosion is responsible for more than 1,000,000 m3 of sediment loss. Not only does this lead to the emergence of 'scars' in the affected landscapes, but it also leaves agricultural land unusable. Since heavy rainfall events are expected to become more frequent in Austria due to the advance of climate change, soil erosion may likewise increase in the future. Therefore, there is an urgent need to intensify research on soil erosion in order to take corresponding measures and protect the soil from devastating erosion events.
The aim of this paper is to investigate the characteristics of internal migration trends in the Republic of Serbia by employing various statistical methodologies to analyse patterns at national and district levels. The main objectives are to examine the temporal aspects of overall migration intensity, spatial patterns, and the relationships between internal migration and selected demographic and socio-economic development factors. The results indicate a stagnant trend, with no statistical significance, in the dynamics of internal migration in Serbia from 2002 to 2023, as well as contrasting patterns between total population dynamics and internal migration. The study highlights differences in net internal migration, in-migration, and out-migration trends in districts, establishing that population size and GDP per capita are the most significant factors determining the character of internal migration trends at the district level. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the contemporary internal migration process in Serbia.
The history of the institutionalisation of geography as a discipline within the Habsburg Empire is a well-researched topic in the literature. However, this body of literature remains highly fragmented, as the development ofgeography within the Empires' multiethnic context has almost exclusively been examined through nationalistic lenses. As a result, the institutions and leading figures of Austrian, Hungarian, Czech, Polish(-Ukrainian), and Croatian geography are discussed in separate pieces of literature, written predominantly by scholars from the respective nations and often in different languages. This phenomenon is not surprising, given that geography initially played a crucial role in shaping national identities. Even today, scholars'perspectives remain influenced by this legacy. Nonetheless, there is an alternative and still largely unexplored approach: a non-nationalistic perspective grounded in the constitutional and administrative realities of the time. From this standpoint, it is reasonable to argue that, within the framework of a single state, subject to the same (or at least partially shared) legal and educational policies, the development of geographical institutions should be studied as part of a unified process. While it is well established that leading figures, their theories, and methodologies of German geography had a significant impact on the development of geography across the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, there is still no comprehensive comparative analysis of the various national traditions or the interactions between them. This paper aims to adopt this non-nationalistic, state-centred perspective to examine the institutionalisation of geography across the unified space of the Habsburg Empire. It focuses on the work of leading academics at the heads offourteen geography departments from the establishment of the first institutions up to the collapse of the Monarchy in 1918. However, this study is not merely a synthesis ofexisting literature on Austrian, Hungarian, Czech, Polish(-Ukrainian), and Croatian geography in this period. Rather, it offers a comparative biographical analysis of all department heads within the Empire, with particular attention to the methodological and thematic development of both physical and human geography, in relation to the broader theoretical trends in German geography.
Many rural areas in China have experienced a fast industrialisation process since 1978 when the "reform and opening-up" policy was initiated. The evolution of market institutions is a specific institutional manifestation of decentralisation and marketisation (accompanied by the globalisation) in this national economic reform. From the actor perspective considering the firm heterogeneity, how these successive institutions interact with each other and co-evolve with the industrial agglomerations has rarely been investigated in literature. Three major forms of market institutions which represent the milestones in Chinese industrial development history-specialised market, trade fair and electronic market-are identified. Drawing on the evolutionary concepts and approaches of institutional economics and political economy and through a case study of the Lecong-Longjiang-Jiujiang furniture industrial agglomeration in Guangdong, China, this paper seeks to better explain how market institutions evolve and how do heterogeneous firms in the industrial agglomeration evolve differently with the institutional change. Findings include that the evolution of the market institution system is a path-dependent layering process, with partial replacement and conversion of older institutions. Local firms evolve from single-institution followers into seven groups with different market institution portfolios. Results suggest the limitations of a single theoretical model of evaluation, and the usefulness of a neoclassical approach in institution-agglomeration research is reemphasised.
This article analyses the condition and development of historic town and village centres in Upper Austria and closes a research gap in the empirical recording of these central settlement areas. Based on a semi-automated delimitation using the Franciscan cadastre ('Franziszeischer Kataster )' (1817-1861) and statistical data from 2001 and 2018, a methodologically robust procedure was developed that makes historical centres morphologically and functionally comparable. The results show an area of tension between structural redensification and social depopulation: despite rising building and housing numbers, most town and village centres recorded declining populations, increasing vacancy rates and the loss of their commercial functions. The shift towards a (semi-)public service sector and the erosion of architectural heritage are particularly characteristic of this development in peripheral regions. A cluster analysis identifies five types of historic town and village centres with widely diverging development paths-from dynamic centres of densification to structurally endangered centres. The study illustrates that historic town and village centres are neither static relics nor self-sustaining resilient spaces. Their future viability depends on integrated, data-based and type-specific strategies that take revitalisation, mobility and building culture into account in equal measure.
Despite growing recognition of the importance to foster students' agency in climate change education, approaches that are both integrated and interdisciplinary remain limited. This paper addresses this gap by examining an interdisciplinary approach, developed within the "Shape2Gether" project, that combines geotechnologies, education for sustainable development (ESD), experiential learning, and game-based methods within a coherent pedagogicalframework for sustainability and climate-change education. It examines how this approach can help students develop knowledge, confidence, and action competence in communicating complex sustainability issues. Shape2Gether (S2G) is a three-year Erasmus+ project uniting seven European universities. The project aims to support students in becoming "agents of change" capable of critically engaging with, communicating, and addressing complex socio-environmental challenges. Across three international summer schools (held in Norway, Malta, and Germany), students participated in a cumulative learning trajectory supported by online preparation and inter-summer-school assignments. They worked with advanced geotechnologies, engaged in place-based fieldwork, collaborated in interdisciplinary teams, and used discursive game design to communicate sustainability issues through virtual reality tours, multimedia products, and playable game prototypes. Student evaluations indicate strong gains in sustainability literacy, technological skills, intercultural competence, and confidence in communicating climate-change topics. Participants particularly valued experiential learning, international collaboration, and creative communication methods, which together fostered action competence and personal growth. A systematic review ofEuropean study programmes revealed that although geotechnologies, sustainability education, and game-based learning are each well represented individually, no existing long-term higher-education programme integrates all three domains. This highlights a structural educational gap and further supports the relevance of the Shape2Gether pedagogical model. The findings provide both empirical evidence and conceptual guidance for designing a joint international curriculum that combines geotechnologies, education for sustainable development, experiential methods, and discursive game design. The paper contributes to the conceptualisation of students as "agents of change", provides empirical insights into the implementation of an interdisciplinary curriculum prototype, and lays the groundwork for the development of a joint international higher-education programme.
Jean GOTTMANN proposed the concept of Megalopolis and Megalopolis-like cluster (MMLC) in 1957. However, he did not provide an exact definition of the MMLC. As a result, a series of controversial issues has emerged in the related research. This article systematically explores the practical controversies faced by MMLC from multiple perspectives, including the confusion of concepts, disputes over spatial categories, and differences among stakeholders. Then, it analyses the causes of these controversies. Moreover, this paper carries out philosophical reflections and puts forward effective ways to deal with the controversies. Finally, it is not difficult to see that, although the MMLC describe cities with a relatively dominant level of socio-economic development, there are always differences among different urban areas in the MMLC and the tendency for different types of people to form distinct groups continues to exist. Essentially, the specific geographical phenomenon referred to as MMLC does not constitute a fully coherent or stable geospatial system. Rather, it should be understood as a complex geographical region with boundaries that remain inherently vague.
