Refine
Year of publication
- 2023 (37) (remove)
Document Type
- Article (37) (remove)
Language
- English (37) (remove)
Keywords
Multi-faceted stresses of social, environmental, and economic nature are increasingly challenging the existence and sustainability of our societies. Cities in particular are disproportionately threatened by global issues such as climate change, urbanization, population growth, air pollution, etc. In addition, urban space is often too limited to effectively develop sustainable, nature-based solutions while accommodating growing populations. This research aims to provide new methodologies by proposing lightweight green bridges in inner-city areas as an effective land value capture mechanism. Geometry analysis was performed using geospatial and remote sensing data to provide geometrically feasible locations of green bridges. A multi-criteria decision analysis was applied to identify suitable locations for green bridges investigating Central European urban centers with a focus on German cities as representative examples. A cost-benefit analysis was performed to assess the economic feasibility using a case study. The results of the geometry analysis identified 3249 locations that were geometrically feasible to implement a green bridge in German cities. The sample locations from the geometry analysis were proved to be validated for their implementation potential. Multi-criteria decision analysis was used to select 287 sites that fall under the highest suitable class based on several criteria. The cost-benefit analysis of the case study showed that the market value of the property alone can easily outweigh the capital and maintenance costs of a green bridge, while the indirect (monetary) benefits of the green space continue to increase the overall value of the green bridge property including its neighborhood over time. Hence, we strongly recommend light green bridges as financially sustainable and nature-based solutions in cities worldwide.
“Crowd contamination”?
(2023)
Misconduct allegations have been found to not only affect the alleged firm but also other, unalleged firms in form of reputational and financial spillover effects. It has remained unexplored, however, how the number of prior allegations against other firms matters for an individual firm currently facing an allegation. Building on behavioral decision theory, we argue that the relationship between allegation prevalence among other firms and investor reaction to a focal allegation is inverted U-shaped. The inverted U-shaped effect is theorized to emerge from the combination of two effects: In the absence of prior allegations against other firms, investors fail to anticipate the focal allegation, and hence react particularly negatively (“anticipation effect”). In the case of many prior allegations against other firms, investors also react particularly negatively because investors perceive the focal allegation as more warranted (“evaluation effect”). The multi-industry, empirical analysis of 8,802 misconduct allegations against US firms between 2007 and 2017 provides support for our predicted, inverted U-shaped effect. Our study complements recent misconduct research on spillover effects by highlighting that not only a current allegation against an individual firm can “contaminate” other, unalleged firms but that also prior allegations against other firms can “contaminate” investor reaction to a focal allegation against an individual firm.
Cities around the world are facing the implications of a changing climate as an increasingly pressing issue. The negative effects of climate change are already being felt today. Therefore, adaptation to these changes is a mission that every city must master. Leading practices worldwide demonstrate various urban efforts on climate change adaptation (CCA) which are already underway. Above all, the integration of climate data, remote sensing, and in situ data is key to a successful and measurable adaptation strategy. Furthermore, these data can act as a timely decision support tool for municipalities to develop an adaptation strategy, decide which actions to prioritize, and gain the necessary buy-in from local policymakers. The implementation of agile data workflows can facilitate the integration of climate data into climate-resilient urban planning. Due to local specificities, (supra)national, regional, and municipal policies and (by) laws, as well as geographic and related climatic differences worldwide, there is no single path to climate-resilient urban planning. Agile data workflows can support interdepartmental collaboration and, therefore, need to be integrated into existing management processes and government structures. Agile management, which has its origins in software development, can be a way to break down traditional management practices, such as static waterfall models and sluggish stage-gate processes, and enable an increased level of flexibility and agility required when urgent. This paper presents the findings of an empirical case study conducted in cooperation with the City of Constance in southern Germany, which is pursuing a transdisciplinary and trans-sectoral co-development approach to make management processes more agile in the context of climate change adaptation. The aim is to present a possible way of integrating climate data into CCA planning by changing the management approach and implementing a toolbox for low-threshold access to climate data. The city administration, in collaboration with the University of Applied Sciences Constance, the Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), and the University of Stuttgart, developed a co-creative and participatory project, CoKLIMAx, with the objective of integrating climate data into administrative processes in the form of a toolbox. One key element of CoKLIMAx is the involvement of the population, the city administration, and political decision-makers through targeted communication and regular feedback loops among all involved departments and stakeholder groups. Based on the results of a survey of 72 administrative staff members and a literature review on agile management in municipalities and city administrations, recommendations on a workflow and communication structure for cross-departmental strategies for resilient urban planning in the City of Constance were developed.
This paper compares two popular scripting implementations for hardware prototyping: Python scripts exe- cut from User-Space and C-based Linux-Driver processes executed from Kernel-Space, which can provide information to researchers when considering one or another in their implementations. Conclusions exhibit that deploying software scripts in the kernel space makes it possible to grant a certain quality of sensor information using a Raspberry Pi without the need for advanced real-time operational systems.
This paper applies the concept of Soja’s Thirdspace to the phenomenon of Lazgi dance and tourism in Uzbekistan. In doing so it analyses the different levels of perception (including Firstspace and Secondspace) of Lazgi and tourism via an autoethnographic lens. Complemented by expert interviews, the interaction of Lazgi and tourism is examined and characteristics of the Lazgisphere (world of Lazgi) in Uzbekistan are distilled. The results show that Lazgi is often directly or indirectly connected with tourism in Uzbekistan, but even more so serves to reaffirm national identity.
A post-growth economy is a comparatively new paradigm in the tourism discourse. The aim of this article is to find out the commonalities between this concept and Māori tourism and in which way the latter can contribute to a post-growth economy. A qualitative mixed method approach, including in-depth-interviews, participant observation, and secondary analysis is applied. The results show that there is a lot of overlap between Māori tourism and a post-growth economy. Differences are visible, as well, regarding the value approach of Māori tourism and the indicator approach of a post-growth economy. Especially the social innovation created in Aotearoa New Zealand at the instigation of Māori groups of granting legal personhood to parts of nature may serve as a driver for a form of tourism that is in line with the idea of a post-growth economy.
The aim of this paper is to find out in how accommodation providers in the Seychelles perceive climate change and what mitigation and adaptation measures they can provide. In order to answer these questions, a qualitative mixed-method-approach, comprised of twenty semi-structured interviews, an online-survey and participant observation was used. Results show that accommodation providers especially perceive the effects of climate change that directly affect their business and that they have already partly implemented some mitigation and adaptation measures. However, strategies and regulations are needed at the Seychelles’ government level and on a global level to actually achieve CO2 neutral travel.
Large-scale quantum computers threaten the security of today's public-key cryptography. The McEliece cryptosystem is one of the most promising candidates for post-quantum cryptography. However, the McEliece system has the drawback of large key sizes for the public key. Similar to other public-key cryptosystems, the McEliece system has a comparably high computational complexity. Embedded devices often lack the required computational resources to compute those systems with sufficiently low latency. Hence, those systems require hardware acceleration. Lately, a generalized concatenated code construction was proposed together with a restrictive channel model, which allows for much smaller public keys for comparable security levels. In this work, we propose a hardware decoder suitable for a McEliece system based on these generalized concatenated codes. The results show that those systems are suitable for resource-constrained embedded devices.
Infrastructure-making in interwar India was a dynamic, multilayered process involving roads and vehicles in urban and rural sites. One of their strongest playgrounds was Bombay Presidency and the Central Provinces in central and western India. Focusing on this region in the interwar period, this paper analyzes the varied relationship between peasant households and town-centred modernizing agents in the making of road transport infrastructures. The central argument of this paper is about the persistence of bullock carts over motor cars in the region. This persistence was grounded in the specific regional environment, the effects of the 1930s economic depression, and the priorities of social classes. Pinpointing these connections, the paper highlights that “modernization” of infrastructure was not a simple, linear process of progressivist change, nor did it mean the survival of apparently “old” technologies in the modern era. Instead, the paper pays attention to conflicting social complexities, implications, and meanings of the connection between infrastructure and modernity that modernization assumptions often overlook. Here, the paper shows how technological change occurred as a result of real, material class interests pulling infrastructural technology in different directions. This was where and why arguments of road-motor lobbyists and cart advocates eventually clashed, and Gandhian social workers resisted motor transport in defense of peasant interests.
Purpose
In order to combat climate change and safeguard a liveable future we need fundamental and rapid social change. Climate communication can play an important role to nurture the public engagement needed for this change, and higher education for sustainability can learn from climate communication.
Approach
The scientific evidence base on climate communication for effective public engagement is summarised into ten key principles, including ‘basing communication on people’s values’, ‘conscious use of framing’, and ‘turning concern into action’. Based on the author’s perspective and experience in the university context, implications are explored for sustainability in higher education.
Findings
The article provides suggestions for teaching (e.g. complement information with consistent behaviour by the lecturer, integrate local stories, and provide students with basic skills to communicate climate effectively), for research (e.g. make teaching for effective engagement the subject of applied research), for universities’ third mission to contribute to sustainable development
in the society (e.g. provide climate communication trainings to empower local stakeholders), andgreening the campus (develop a proper engagement infrastructure, e.g. by a university storytelling exchange on climate action).
Originality
The article provides an up-to-date overview of climate communication research, which is in itself original. This evidence base holds interesting learnings for institutions of higher education, and the link between climate communication and universities has so far not been explored comprehensively.