Sustainable development in Southern Europe : spatial analysis of regional challenges This book discusses the future and present regional challenges of southern Europe adopting a multidisciplinary perspective concerning planning regional development the role of innovation and sustainability of cities. It offers as such an insight into the current status quo of regional development and territorial dynamics of a region of growing world interest. Southern Europe has significantly changed over the last decades. At a regional level key issues such as local and regional governance sustainability and preservation of heritage have presided as prime directives within the umbrella of the European Union. The recession had devastating consequences on the perception and the economies of southern Europe. However the resilience and capacity of southern Europe to reinvent itself have been shown over the last decade. Southern Europe has since antiquity been a cradle of invention innovation and regional development that under adequate and visionary governance may bring a growing engine towards sustainability.