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I am sure you do not need reminding of the flood of scientific information that is available today and the estimates of its growth in the next two decades. In 1967, Olaf Helmer, then Senior Mathematician at the Rand Corporation, forecast that scientists and engineers would increase from five million, in 1967, to twenty‐five million by the year 2000 and their total productivity would go up by a factor of ten. He declined to assess the associated growth of, and need for, scientific information but merely stated that there would be substantial changes in the way in which science would actually be transacted. It is these ‘substantial changes’ that concern the publisher, editor, information scientist and librarian, because if we do not anticipate—or at least keep pace with these changes—then we will not be able to meet the information needs of our readers and we will become redundant. Scientific information is a growing industry and it would be ironic if we could not survive amid an abundance of information. I regard the chance to do something about the flow of information as a response to opportunity, not as an act of desperation. The big problem is to sort out what is pertinent among this information and, in this world of rapid change, select and develop the technological devices that will match the needs of the scientist to this mass of information. As a first step, I suggest we should define an ideal information system so that our progress can be planned and measured against the best possible datum.

Discusses ecology and marketing, showing that while ecology may not provide a methodology for marketing, spatial science and systems theory provide findings which may prove to be of importance with regard to marketing. Maintains that ecology is criticised both for its hazy definition and its approach of argument by analogy. Explains that emerging patterns can give clues to the multi‐dimensional environmental processes affecting human decisions. Documents that the relevance of geography to marketing may, therefore, be great even though that of ‘human ecology’ as traditionally defined may be just an illusion.

“Physical and Human Dimensions of Growth” was the title of the first part of this paper, published in our last issue. In the following pages the writer concerns himself with the responsibility of the retailer to society in a wide sense — in terms of store location, shop design, multi‐national retailing and in terms of its economic contribution. Throughout the paper Jan de Somogyi stresses identity of interest rather than friction and conflict in human relations. The paper is published by kind permission of the Manchester Statistical Society, from whom copies may be obtained.

Urban areas whose dominant economic activities are those of providing an array of recreational services to tourists normally reflect this specialization in their land use patterns. Although precise statistical definition of the relative importance of recreational functions within an urban economy has certain inherent difficulties, some towns are so obviously dependent on tourism that they are universally recognized as resorts. In these towns, a characteristic urban morphology is apparent. Their unique physical qualities, so readily observed in the basic urban structure of resorts, may provide students of the science of tourism with insight into their function. Function and form, in tourism as in other urban activities, are, necessarily, closely interwined. ‘The landscape of a town, or if the word is accepted, the “townscape”, is worthy of far more geographical research than it now receives.’ The objective of this paper is the description of this interrelationship as observed in a representative American seaside resort, together with a brief historical interpretation of urban development in this resort.

The broad results of surveys on the ways in which Wellcome scientists handle foreign language technical texts are discussed. Areas of co‐operation between organizations leading to a reduction in costs and an increase in coverage are suggested with a view to Aslib acting as co‐ordinator and arranging discussions between interested parties.

“Seaside standards and culture patterns have now reached such stages of refinement that it is possible to judge a man's status, tastes, and income by the beach he attends…”. Some of the most intensive and highly specialized recreational land use exists along the ocean beaches of northeastern United States, providing a great range of social group appeal. In contrast to the essentially extensive recreational land use patterns of the rural, resource‐oriented parks and forests under Federal or state control, the development of these intermediate and user oriented recreational facilities, frequently resourced‐based, has been accomplished primarily through private enterprise operating in urban areas.

The results indicate that land prices exert pressure on retail performance (RP) and that the enhancement of digital means has a positive effect on RP. Additionally, digital instruments (DI) play a significant moderating role in the relationship between land prices and RP.

This paper empirically examines the impact of land prices on RP using panel data from 239 Chinese cities between 2011 and 2022.

The use of lagged land prices as instrumental variables effectively alleviates endogeneity issues. Both two-stage least squares (2SLS) and generalized method of moments (GMM) regression results suggest that higher land prices are associated with improved RP. Further analysis reveals that the increase in land prices leads to scale effects, structural effects and technological effects, contributing to the enhancement of RP. The impact of land prices on RP becomes more pronounced in larger cities and economically developed regions experience the pressure from land prices earlier.

The findings of this study have practical implications for discussions on retail industry development, site selection for retail businesses and the establishment of sustainable mechanisms for expanding domestic demand.

Models of the commercial property market have become increasingly sophisticated in recent years. However, the retail sector and, more specifically, analysis of retail markets at the local level, have been comparatively neglected. This paper makes inroads into this gap in property research. Retail rental change at the local level is explored, focusing on consumer expenditure as the key determinant of change. The appropriateness of proxy variables is investigated and the mechanisms of rental change are examined. This highlights issues and difficulties unique to local level analysis. Following this, the relationship between rental change and underlying changes in consumer expenditure is investigated. The stability of a panel model of rental change is examined, with differences in market functioning identified across diverse groups of key local retail investment markets. These differences highlight the re‐emergence of northern markets during both the economic decline and recovery phases of the last decade of the 20th century. Rental levels in larger and smaller markets are also seen to respond to changes in consumer expenditure to significantly different degrees, in periods of both decline and recovery.

The urban population in Indian cities is increasing at an alarming speed. Accommodating such a huge population while sustaining the environment is a challenge in urban areas. Compact urban forms with high-density planning is claimed to be a sustainable solution in such situations. Thus, this approach needs to be tested for Indian urban areas.

This paper formulates a neighbourhood sustainability assessment (NSA) framework for monitoring, assessing and managing the population density of urban neighbourhoods. The paper identifies context-specific built density indicators at the neighbourhood scale. It assesses the indicators in neighbourhoods with varying population density by physical and perceived measures. This helps in verifying the feasibility of density by physical density assessment and verifies the acceptability of density by perceived density assessment.

When tested in the Indian context, the framework shows that although high-density neighbourhoods are sustainable, certain indicators may endorse differing densities. The result displays that high-density planning is sustainable compared to low- and medium-density neighbourhoods in the selected cities.

The study demonstrates the application of formulated assessment system in three central Indian cities with useful results. Similar studies can be conducted to identify the gaps for improving sustainability and achieve a livable density pattern.

Although sustainable development goals are part of new planning policies, there exist very few assessment systems to determine the sustainability of neighbourhoods, especially for density. The methodology will assist in developing sustainability assessment frameworks and encourage the practice of sustainability assessment in developing countries like India.