Changes in policy over the last thirty years, particularly within advanced economies, have allowed for increased financialization, deregulation and globalisation of housing. What differentiates real-estate from other financial markets is that it possesses a salient socio-spatial geography. Housing inequalities are often framed as an outcome of macro-economic structural changes or as a product of local socio-spatial conditions, but the interactions between the two are less understood. To address this gap, we develop a descriptive methodology to connect the analysis of national housing policy trends in the Netherlands with local socio-spatial trajectories of neighbourhood change using nearly 20 years of historical data across a range of socio-spatial dimensions from the City of Rotterdam. Whilst nationally there has been an increasing policy preference for home ownership associated with a narrative of social upliftment, the spatial-temporal analysis reveals that the wealthiest neighbourhoods have benefitted significantly more from capital gains and increased rates of home ownership over time. Through descriptive analysis, the results highlight the role of divergent neighbourhood characteristics and path dependencies, suggesting that housing policies could benefit from the adoption of a more localised approach. Overall, the study sheds light on housing inequalities by integrating macro socio-economic factors with micro-level neighbourhood conditions.

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The United Nations World Social Report (2020) reveals that more than two thirds of the world's population live in countries where urban inequalities have increased in the last three decades. While urban inequalities are traditionally characterized as an economic issue, scholars are increasingly applying methods from geospatial analysis to study them. In the context of these advancements, it remains unclear what underlying perspectives are guiding decisions to concentrate on certain aspects of urban inequalities, while potentially ignoring others. We address this gap by reviewing the literature centered on the geospatial analysis of urban inequalities and identify three predominant research lenses from accessibility, distribution, and policy and stakeholder perspectives. As a primary contribution of this article, we connect the perspectives with ideas drawn from complexity theory to develop an overarching socio-technical framework for how urban inequalities emerge over space and time. While traditional scientific frameworks seek to increase knowledge through causality, complexity science acknowledges the inherent challenges in defining, understanding and solving complex problems such as urban inequalities, which has profound implications for their representation, modeling and interpretation. We critically reflect on the framework through key relational themes and insights drawn from the literature and close with considerations for future research.@en

Autonomous driving services depends on active sensing from modules such as camera, LiDAR, radar, and communication units. Traditionally, these modules process the sensed data on high-performance computing units inside the vehicle, which can deploy intelligent algorithms and AI models. The sensors mentioned above can produce large volumes of data, potentially reaching up to 20 Terabytes. This data size is influenced by factors such as the duration of driving, the data rate, and the sensor specifications. Consequently, this substantial amount of data can lead to significant power consumption on the vehicle. Similarly, a substantial amount of data will be exchanged between infrastructure sensors and vehicles for collaborative vehicle applications or fully connected autonomous vehicles. This communication process generates an additional surge of energy consumption. Although the autonomous vehicle domain has seen advancements in sensory technologies, wireless communication, computing and AI/ML algorithms, the challenge still exists in how to apply and integrate these technology innovations to achieve energy efficiency. This survey reviews and compares the connected vehicular applications, vehicular communications, approximation and Edge AI techniques. The focus is on energy efficiency by covering newly proposed approximation and enabling frameworks. To the best of our knowledge, this survey is the first to review the latest approximate Edge AI frameworks and publicly available datasets in energy-efficient autonomous driving. The insights from this survey can benefit the collaborative driving service development on low-power and memory-constrained systems and the energy optimization of autonomous vehicles.@en

Governments look at explainable artificial intelligence's (XAI) potential to tackle the criticisms of the opaqueness of algorithmic decision-making with AI. Although XAI is appealing as a solution for automated decisions, the wicked nature of the challenges governments face complicates the use of XAI. Wickedness means that the facts that define a problem are ambiguous and that there is no consensus on the normative criteria for solving this problem. In such a situation, the use of algorithms can result in distrust. Whereas there is much research advancing XAI technology, the focus of this paper is on strategies for explainability. Three illustrative cases are used to show that explainable, data-driven decisions are often not perceived as objective by the public. The context might raise strong incentives to contest and distrust the explanation of AI, and as a consequence, fierce resistance from society is encountered. To overcome the inherent problems of XAI, decisions-specific strategies are proposed to lead to societal acceptance of AI-based decisions. We suggest strategies to embrace explainable decisions and processes, co-create decisions with societal actors, move away from an instrumental to an institutional approach, use competing and value-sensitive algorithms, and mobilize the tacit knowledge of professionals@en

As the use of distributed energy resources increases, peer-to-peer (P2P) energy trading is becoming a promising way to harmonize the decarbonization and decentralization transformations in the energy sector. P2P markets give households the autonomy to make individual decisions and thus they may cooperate with each other to obtain economic benefits. However, existing studies on cooperative behaviors in P2P markets focus mostly on the electricity sector and P2P multi-energy markets are rarely studied. In fact, other energy carriers not only constitute a large part of the total energy demand, but their coupling can potentially benefit the system as well as the end-users. In this paper, we propose a P2P multi-energy market mechanism that allows peers to trade both electricity and heat. Two trading coalitions, i.e., an electricity-only trading coalition and an electricity–heat trading coalition, are predefined. The peers will join one of the coalitions based on their potential benefits and will trade energy inside the coalition. The energy markets are cleared separately per coalition and per energy carrier and hence, multi-energy markets are modeled. The proposed mechanism is a first-of-its-kind that explores the integrated effects of the multi-energy coupling and the cooperative behaviors in the P2P market. It is illustrated by a case study on a neighborhood in the Netherlands using realistic data. Results show that the mechanism is prosumer-centric as peers choose to join different coalitions at different time steps which benefit them the most. Compared to the reference scenario where there is no P2P trading, the P2P multi-energy market leads to higher economic benefits for all the peers altogether and benefits most individuals. The case study also demonstrates a benefit transfer from service-sector peers to residential peers.@en

This paper addresses the challenge of establishing a resilient disaster communication system that transitions seamlessly from a phone-based ad hoc network to any portable infrastructure and back. For this purpose, this paper presents a value-based design of an autonomous and self-organized protocol (SOS-hybrid). This design ensures seamless integration between various communication networks taking local context into account to increase inclusion and continuity of connectivity. SOS-hybrid has two benefits. First, local self-organization can adapt to the local situation in a disaster area. Second, context-awareness can fill in the spatial gaps of coverage associated with top-down approaches. An agent-based modelling approach was used to develop the simulation of the proposed communication network to evaluate the impact of introducing SOS-hybrid in the aftermath of a disaster. SOS-hybrid allows phones to simultaneously provide the benefits of (i) ad hoc mobile networking, allowing hard-to-reach people to connect, and (ii) infrastructure-based communication, allowing phones to more efficiently send messages over long distances. Benefits include two-way communication between community and rescue operators, inclusion and continued connectivity for immobile citizens stuck in isolated out of coverage areas, and seamless transition without loss of messages.

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Participatory resilience of disaster-struck communities requires reliable communication for self-organized rescue, as conventional communication infrastructure is damaged. Disasters often lead to blackouts preventing citizens from charging their phones, leading to disparity in battery charges and a digital divide in communication opportunities. We propose a value-based emergency communication system based on participatory fairness, ensuring equal communication opportunities for all, regardless of inequality in battery charge. The proposed infrastructure-less emergency communication network automatically and dynamically (i) assigns high-battery phones as hubs, (ii) adapts the topology to changing battery charges, and (iii) self-organizes to remain robust and reliable when links fail or phones leave the network. The novelty of the proposed mobile protocol compared to mesh communication networks is demonstrated by comparative agent-based simulations. An evaluation using the Gini coefficient demonstrates that our network design results in fairer participation of all devices and a longer network lifetime, benefiting the community and its participants.

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In the immediate aftermath of a disaster, local and international aid organisations deploy to deliver life-saving aid to the affected population. Yet pre-disaster road maps and road transportation models do not capture disruptions to the transportation network caused by the disaster or the dynamic changes of the situation, resulting in uncertainty and inefficiency in planning and decision-making. The integration of data in near real time on the status of the road infrastructure in the affected region can help aid organisations to keep track of the rapidly shifting conditions on the ground and to assess the implications for their logistics planning and operations. In this paper, we present a rapid graph-theoretical reachability information system based on a combination of OpenStreetMap and open humanitarian data. The system supports logistics planning in determining road access to affected communities. We demonstrate the results of our approach in a case study on the 2018 earthquake in Papua New Guinea. Our findings show the reachability of affected communities depending on the actual status of the road network, allowing for the prioritization of targeted locations and the identification of alternative routes to get there.@en

The development of metropolitan public transport networks often involves choosing between investing in extending radial lines or constructing ring connections. While the former enlarges network coverage the latter enhances network connectivity and reduces the need to perform detours. Moreover, investments might be better directed at increasing the capacity of already existing infrastructure. In this study we address the following question: how do transport networks in metropolitan areas evolve over time and how can we effectively model this growth as function of demand and cost function? The goal of this study is to determine the fundamental relations between population distribution, modal costs on the prevailing network structure and its evolution. The approach taken in this study offers a theoretical contribution to the field of transport network growth by combining principles from several research streams: transport geography, economics of network growth and network science. We propose an iterative investment model network analysis framework. The results of the network growth experiments manifest an overall trend in network growth with an early phase of expansion of the network, followed by a period of intensification manifested in capacity increments and finally adding some links that contribute to its densification. Furthermore, our findings suggest that bus networks include more ring-radial connections than Light Rail Train and Metro networks which are more concentrated on radial connections.

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Disaster communication has made immense progress in the last thirty years. At present, disaster research focuses on bottom-up approaches such as civilian inclusion in disaster response. With the advent of smartphones, citizen-based emergency communication has become possible. Present ad hoc communication technologies typically form a fully connected mesh network, which connects all phones that are within each other's transmission range. This facilitates low-latency direct communication between citizens, but it quickly drains the battery of phones. Alternative ad hoc communication networks form an adaptive energy-efficient network topology, that is most draining to batteries of phones that have a higher charge, while low-energy phones are spared from relaying messages, thereby preserving battery and thus maintaining their connection with the rescue communication network. Both of these approaches have their own advantages. Which one is best for communication needs depends on the context. This position paper discusses the possibility of a decision model as an approach to automatically switch between the two alternative ad hoc communication networks. This ensures that citizens in disasters can make use of the optimal communication system at all times.

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When physical communication network infrastructures fail, infrastructure-less communication networks such as mobile ad-hoc networks (MANET), can provide an alternative. This, however, requires MANETs to be adaptable to dynamic contexts characterized by the changing density and mobility of devices and availability of energy sources. To address this challenge, this paper proposes a decentralized context-adaptive topology control protocol. The protocol consists of three algorithms and uses preferential attachment based on the energy availability of devices to form a loop-free scale-free adaptive topology for an ad-hoc communication network. The proposed protocol has a number of advantages. First, it is adaptive to the environment, hence applicable in scenarios where the number of participating mobile devices and their availability of energy resources is always changing. Second, it is energy-efficient through changes in the topology. This means it can be flexibly combined with different routing protocols. Third, the protocol requires no changes on the hardware level. This means it can be implemented on all current phones, without any recalls or investments in hardware changes. The evaluation of the protocol in a simulated environment confirms the feasibility of creating and maintaining a self-adaptive ad-hoc communication network, consisting of multitudes of mobile devices for reliable communication in a dynamic context.

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Resilient critical airport infrastructures affected by a disaster need to sustain minimal functionality and quickly resume full operation, while at the same time coping with the increased operational demands imposed by the unfolding disaster response. In this paper, we develop a resilience framework and model-driven approach that focuses on the ability of the infrastructure to rapidly adapt to a new steady state under these conditions. This requires both the extension of capacity as well as the adaptation of key processes. Through discrete event simulations, we study the implications of different policies to improve airport resilience under different disaster impact scenarios for a stylized case. Our results show that although decision-makers may be tempted to focus on short-term measures that can be implemented immediately, resilience is improved most by a combination of rapid process changes and longer-term measures that structurally increase airport capacity.@en

Resilience of power systems is highly impacted by factors such as increasing severity and frequency of weather events, but also smart grid advances that introduce major operational changes in power systems. Rapidly adapting to these changing circumstances and harnessing the potential of technolo- gical advances is the key to ensuring that power systems stay operational during disturbances, thereby improving resilience. This paper addresses this challenge by presenting an approach for improving resilience through local energy resource sharing across multiple distribution systems. The approach brings together the physical and the ICT layer of power systems through a self-organization approach that automatically alters the physical grid topology and forms local energy groups in order to mitigate the effects of widespread outages. Thereby, supply and demand are locally matched, and demand met is maximized during an outage. The results demonstrate that using the proposed approach, operational resilience of impacted distribution systems is improved.@en

The European Union considers demand response to be an integral part of its future energy vision, in particular as a supporting mechanism for renewable resource integration. To achieve high demand response participation, the European Union recognises the need for adequate financial incentives for all consumers, especially for residential and service sector consumers. However, the European Energy Tax Directive, which regulates energy taxation in the European Union, is currently not in alignment with this vision, as it does not provide any financial incentives for demand response participation. This paper explores the potential of energy taxes to provide such incentives. First, through an analysis of the current energy taxation and demand response literature. Second, by quantifying the difference in financial incentives between two tax designs (per-unit and ad valorem taxes) in a simulation case study of consumers heat pumps in the Netherlands. Results show that financial incentives are 3.5 times higher for the ad valorem tax than for the per-unit tax. The paper concludes with recommendations for policy makers for the design of energy taxes that provide residential and service sector consumers with adequate financial incentives for demand response participation.@en

The attitude-behaviour gap in energy consumption refers to the imparity between people's environmental values (and attitudes) and their actual behavior in consumption. This paper calls for the facilitation of the behaviour change process that is implementable in the context of one's everyday life to address the attitude-behaviour gap in household energy consumption. Two interrelated intervention design constructs are proposed based on the results of literature review, namely (1) providing consumers accurate information about actionable suggestions in the specific context of their everyday life, and (2) fostering consumers' motivation to engage in the behavior change process towards energy conservation. Smart Grid technologies are instrumental in both intervention types.

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Ensuring access to reliable and sustainable power supply is becoming more and more challenging due to a combination of factors such as more frequent power grid outages caused by extreme weather events, the large-scale introduction of renewable energy resources that increases the complexity of the power system, but also aging infrastructure, supply and demand imbalance and power theft in some areas. Combined, all these factors can cause outages and together they can make electricity supply unreliable. The implications of this are many, ranging from minor inconveniences to major failures of critical infrastructures. A potential solution to ensure power supply during outages is to use local generation in the form of renewable resources to supply energy. This paper proposes a community-based mechanism that demonstrates that when community members can determine for themselves how excess energy generation is distributed, the power supply of specific members can be ensured. Self-determination is achieved by prioritizing and differentiating between community members as well as automatically and continuously redistributing energy, thereby adapting to sudden changes in supply and demand. Simulation results show that the proposed mechanism can be used to empower local communities to decide for themselves how local resources are distributed during events such as outages, ensuring prolonged power supply for differentiated members of affected communities. Harnessing the potential of renewable resources and smart technologies for intelligent coordination through empowerment of consumers to become pro-active participants is a promising solution for the future power systems.@en

Residential energy interventions aim to structurally influence the way people behave in order to achieve a more sustainable behavior. However, the effectiveness of concrete residential energy interventions in specific circumstances varies widely: depending on the context interventions are more or less successful. This paper studies the effect of the context on the effectiveness of concrete residential energy interventions. We do this by means of a large meta analysis of literature. Our review consists of two main parts. First, we give an overview and categorization of all major types of residential energy interventions. Second, we use this categorization to study the effectiveness of different types of interventions in specific contexts: physical (environmental); socioeconomic; cultural; and political and governmental contexts. In addition, we propose to extend well known design methodologies for successful energy interventions by making the role the context plays in these explicit. Our ultimate goal is to provide both practitioners and researchers with a framework that helps with the design of successful energy interventions, hopefully leading to a more sustainable future.

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In a globalising world, cities find themselves competing for visitors, residents, investors, and companies. They use place branding strategies to become more visible. However, conceptual and analytical confusion exists on the subjects of place image and brand identity, and current studies are limited to single cities, neglecting inter-city relationships at the regional level. In this paper, we examine how place image and brand identity of cities in polycentric regions can be compared with each other. Inspired by Zenker and Beckmann’s network analysis approach for studying place branding (J Place Manag Dev 6(1): 6–17, 2013), a method is introduced to compare image and identity networks for polycentric regions. We use this to complement traditional steps of concept mapping (i.e. elicitation, mapping, and aggregation), and apply it to analyse the illustrative case of four cities in the MRDH region within the Netherlands. Results of the comparative analysis between the image network and the identity network provide both visual and quantitative insights revealing structural differences. The network analysis research approach can be useful to both policy-makers and researchers in analysing city image and brand identity, and to develop place branding strategies accordingly, even at the regional level.

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