From Airport City to Airport Region? - Karlsruhe

[i]1st International Colloquium on Airports and Spatial Development[/i] University of Karlsruhe 9.-10. July 2009 The economic impact of airports as providers of regional and national prosperity is often juxtaposed to the negative externalities such as emissions and other ecological impacts. New aspects may extend this dichotomy: airports have undergone a development from pure infrastructural nodes to multifunctional service locations. Using concepts such as “Airport City” or “Aerotropolis” the airport management companies have fostered this development for different reasons. At the same time the agglomeration patterns of certain industries have changed though the relative success of air transport. Airports as nodes to the global economy can therefore be seen as users and producers of new forms of centralities. This development has put airports on the agenda of different research disciplines such as geography, economics, sociology, political science, computational, environmental and spatial research, to name a few. The impact of airports makes it necessary to develop flexible and interdisciplinary approaches to handle the positive and negative externalities for the local communities. This colloquium offers the possibility to gain insight into ongoing research on the subject of airport and region. Different viewpoints give interdisciplinary support to the topic. In the long run the aim is to link the researchers devoted to the same subject by an Airport Regions Reseach Network (ARRN). The subject of the colloquium is to examine the consequences of the changing function of airports in social, economical and ecological regards. The colloquium language is English. We are grateful that the event is made possible by funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG). The challenges of future airport development will not be met, if the urgent questions and answers are not interrelated spatially. The colloquium therefore wants to bring together experts dealing with the same subject, but having different focuses and views on the topic. The three thematic, scientific sessions of the colloquium are based on the classic pillars of sustainable activity: society, economy and ecology. A fourth „crosscutting“ session will give insight into actual, practical approaches by governmental institutions and airports regarding the changing function of airports. The sessions are each guided by a keynote-speaker renowned for his acquaintance with the topic. Registration: starting February 3rd 2009; [b]Abstracts: March 2nd 2009 [/b] Presentations:June 15th 2009 Payment: June 1st 2009 Participants: €40,- / Speakers Fee: €20,- / Students* Fee: € 10,- http://www.stba.uni-karlsruhe.de/airport