As shown in the figure the most important factor about the economic environment in the city of the future is “geographic advantages”. The location of a city influences its economy. For instance a city being located by the sea, ports and harbors, opens it up to business enterprise zones and more. In an article on Economic Benefits of Ports and Harbors in the United States we find that ports provide sites for ocean-dependent industries (like petroleum, commercial fisheries, recreational boating and for nation defense installations) and a lot of jobs. Through transportation and access to the oceans, there is a higher standard of living possible. In an analysis of the California port and harbor system by San Francisco State University for the California Marine Affairs and Navigation Conference (C-MANC) the results show a total contribution to the nation’s economy of 1.16 million jobs and $41 billion to the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) for 1995. California ports generated $8 billion in revenue to the federal treasury, $ 161 for every dollar of the federal operation and maintenance costs for navigation projects in the state. Subsequent updates, based on cargo and employment trends, suggested a 2000 contribution to the GDP of $57 billion.
And you find a lot of information on the economic and values benefits for different geographic conditions:

• The world wetlands: The economic use values of wetlands comprise the direct use of a wetland’s goods, such as the consumption of fish for food, trees for fuel wood or as a building material, and water for drinking, cooking and washing. Use values also include the indirect use of a wetland’s services, such as water retention capacity nutrient recycling. Lastly, option value can be distinguished as a use value - this is defined as the value of a wetland to humans to preserve an environment as a potential benefit for themselves in the future.
  
• Deserts: For instance, the desert wildlands in Southeastern California provide numerous direct and indirect economic benefits to humans. Relatively undisturbed landscapes such as wilderness areas provide a natural laboratory for scientific research, serve as a storehouse for biological diversity, and provide space for recreation activities. These places also generate economic benefits and support local communities. Here is another example of economic benefits of the desert to the business.
• National heritage areas: National Heritage Areas function much like a business enterprise zone and promote and attract heritage tourism, a fast-growing segment of the total tourism market.
• Volcanic areas: Volcanoes also can bring in tourism and there are many other businesses involved.

In this whole context we had an article on geographic features and their influence on cities. There was a presentation of different geographic features like water, landforms, vegetation and soil and typical cities in these conditions.

"Geographic advantages" is followed by the factor “working environment” in second place. We have defined “working environment” as the general information about the availability and different kinds of labour. And of course, it is clear – if there are not enough job possibilities for the people in a city, there will be a lot of consequences. For instance, people will leave such city and regions and migrate (like in East Germany, as we have recently  reported on that and it seems that young women react more and earlier to poorer job possibilities and unfavourable labour markets). This leads to demographic changes and shrinking cities and in addition to many consequences for regional functions of today and for the next generations whose dimension cannot yet be calculated and foreseen so far.
Another reason why “working environment” is voted second place could be a misunderstanding of the meaning. “Working environment” also means an approach to make working life productive, rewarding, enjoyable and healthy. The University of Bristol has been developing a Positive Working Environment (PWE), focussing on this approach, over the last three years. Further information can be found here.

The factor “industry/industrial foundation” comes in third place. As an important part of a city, industry is often realized through industrial parks. An industrial park is defined as a planned industrial or technologically-based district of a city; usually intended for light manufacturing, industrial usage, research, or for warehousing; often located in open land near the city or in a renovated urban area.
This idea of setting land aside through this type of zoning is based on several concepts:

• To be able to concentrate dedicated infrastructure in a delimited area to reduce the per-business expense of that infrastructure. Such infrastructure includes roadways, railroad sidings, ports, high-power electric supplies (often including three-phase power), high-end communications cables, large-volume water supplies, and high-volume gas lines.
• To be able to attract new business by providing an integrated infrastructure in one location
• To set aside industrial uses from urban areas to try to reduce the environmental and social impact of the industrial uses
• To provide for localized environmental controls that are specific to the needs of an industrial area

Different industrial parks fulfil these criteria to different degrees. Many small communities have established industrial parks with only access to a nearby highway, and with only the basic utilities and roadways, and with few or no special environmental safeguards.
Of course, industrial parks have also been criticized because of their frequent remoteness of urban areas, one of the characteristics that has been touted as a benefit. One reason for this specific criticism is that industrial parks often destroy productive and valuable agricultural land. Another is that the industrial parks become remote to their employee pool, necessitating longer commutes and limiting employment accessibility for poorer employees. Another reason is that many urban areas have extensive areas of brownfield land that many feel should be the first priority in redeveloping as industrial sites.

Here is an example for a typical plan for an industrial park:

To get an impression of the investment environment we want to present a study to you. KPMG, has published a report called Zhenzhou Investment Environment Study. This publication presents an overview for domestic and overseas investors looking at the business environment of Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province. Being located in the centre of the mainland China, Zhengzhou’s established transportation network, extensive labour force and abundant natural resources make it an important centre for commerce and trade in China. There are a lot of interesting findings in the report.

The factor “Tourism” comes in fifth place. It is obvious that tourism and travellers bring economics benefits for a city. A study called City Tourism Impact – The economic impact of travel & tourism in Palm Beach Country, Florida by Global Insight focuses on these benefits. The purpose of this study was to estimate the economic benefits of travel & tourism to Palm Beach County. Travellers were defined as those who made an overnight trip or travelled in excess of 50 miles for a day-trip. The economic impacts reported in this study are based on traveller spending as reported in a travel survey and Office of Travel and Tourism Industries data on international visitation. These are the key findings:

    Spending by Travellers in Palm Beach County Totalled $2.83 billion in 2004

• Travellers spent $931 million on lodging, $673 million at restaurants, and $1.23 billion on abroad range of goods and services including transportation, entertainment, and shopping.
• The economic impact of these expenditures (after $230 million in import leakages) totalled $2.60 billion. This includes $1.64 billion in direct economic impact, $397 million in indirect economic impact (supplier effect), and $566 million in induced economic impact (income effect).

    Traveller Spending Supported 53,538 Jobs and $1.51 billion in Wages

• Traveller spending supported 53,538 jobs in Palm Beach County in 2004. Of these, 39,551 were directly employed by tourism sectors. Tourism generated an additional 5,198 indirect jobs and 8,789 induced jobs.
• Total tourism generated employment comprises 7% of all jobs in Palm Beach County.
• In excess of $1.51 billion in wages were generated for these employees.
• Travellers Generated Federal, State, and Local Tax Revenue totalling $572 million in 2004
• In 2004, spending by travellers in Palm Beach County generated nearly $198 million in state taxes, $145 million in local taxes, and $229 million in federal taxes. Occupancy taxes alone paid by travellers totalled nearly $21 million.
  Property tax receipts tallied in excess of $110 million in 2004.

As we can see, with tourism and travellers, there is a lot of money in a city which results in economic benefits.

Factors which are not that important in terms of economic environment but have to be mentioned are “unemployment rate” in sixth, “demographic structure” in seventh, “tax policy” in eighth and “employee structure" in ninth position.

The factor “market segmentation” has been voted in last place, maybe because that term has a stronger relation to marketing and business and is defined as the division of a market into different homogeneous groups of consumers. Prospective buyers are aggregated into groups or segments that have common needs and will respond similarly to a marketing action. This is hard to transfer into the economic environment of a city.