The 12th World Congress from May 29 to June 01, 2018, was held in Goa, jointly organised by RSAi and BITS Pilani. The umbrella theme of the world congress was on the 'Spatial Systems: Social Integration, Regional Development and Sustainability'. The theme of the 2018 Congress highlights the importance of analyzing spatial systems as not just physical space or social space, but shared space. Across the world, communities are striving to achieve an ecologically and socially secure future. The intricately linked ideas of sustainability and integration were the key to achieving our development goals. As regional scientists, our common pursuit of a sustainable future were attained with more efficient understanding of the ‘region’ as a spatial unit. All the sub-themes were aimed at providing a platform for debates and discussions around the key issues of contemporary regional science and carve out the way to future research agenda.
After the successful accomplishment of this congress, a large number of quality papers that were effectively presented in different sessions were selected and published in this proceeding.