Progress in settlement systems geography

The commission on National Settlement of International Geographical Union held its eight and final General Meeting in Pisa from 22nd to 25th August 1984. The papers presented and discussed during the meeting are published here.

In the first section, a discussion on the achievement of the commission during its eight years of activities is introduced by Kazimierz Dziewonski (Poland) and developed by Robert Sinclair (Usa).

Larry S.Bourne (Canada) present his proposal for the research to be carried out by the new Commission on urban system in transition.

In the secon section, Berardo Cori, Luciano Buzzetti and Giuseppe Dematteis deal with overall view of Italian national settlement system, its structure and its development, as well as with actual changes in distibution of population, variable trends in growth of different settlement and the phenomena of so-called "counter-urbanization".

The third section is given to the discussion of settlement system trends in developed counties. Sven Illeris (Denmark) speaks on labour markets and settlement system describing the spatial differences of unemployment.

Mauri Palomaki (Finland) examines possibilities and methods fon an analysis in detail of the funcional aspects of a national settlement system.

Wim Ostendorf and Robert van Engelsdorp Gastelaars (the Netherlands) give a report on the marked difference between the settlement system viewed at two spatial level: the inter and intra regional levels.

Christopher Maher (Australia) analyses the relationships between macro-economic forces and urbanization.

The fourth section includes papers on the settlement system of some newly industrialized and developing counties: Korea (Inn Kim), Nigeria (A.T.Salau), South Africa (Ronald Davies), and Brazil (Fany Davidovich).

In an appendix, Marek Jerczynsky (poland) present a complete bibliography of pubblication connected with activities of the I.G.U. Commission on National Settlement System.