We propose a method, whose purpose is to combine a set of GPS traces collected by bicyclists with a set of notifications of problematic situations to determine an optimal action plan for solving safety related problems in a traffic network. In particular, we use optimization to determine which problem locations to resolve under a given budget constraint in order to maximize the number of impediment free trips. The method aims to suggest a priority of impediments to resolve, which would be manually infeasible. The proposed method consists of two steps. First, problematic locations are clustered, where each cluster corresponds to a so-called impediment. Each impediment is associated with trips nearby using a distance function. The trip set is partitioned by matching each trip with the largest set of its affecting impediments. Solving all impediments associated with such a part induces a cost and makes the associated part of trips impediment free. The second step aims to find the set of impediments that can be solved with a given budget and that makes the maximum number of trips impediment free. A branch-and-bound optimizer for the second step is presented and evaluated. The clustering parameters affect the set of identified impediments and the extent of each of them. In order to evaluate the sensitivity of the result to the clustering parameters a technique is proposed to consistently estimate the impediment resolution cost. Our study aims to support the interactive urban designer to improve the urban bicycle road infrastructure. By providing a method to prioritize between impediments to resolve, it also aims to contribute to a safer and more attractive traffic situation for bicyclists.

Bussar och tåg ska gå i tid, vara snabba och trygga att resa med, och relativt billiga för att ses som attraktiva färdmedel. Idag säkerställs mycket av detta genom marknadsrelationer och via kontrakt mellan olika offentliga och privata aktörer. Ett vanligt antagande är att ett stort utbud av aktörer är viktigt för en välfungerande marknad. Ökad konkurrens antas leda till utveckling och innovation till lägre kostnad. På kollektivtrafikmarknaderna är utbudet av aktörer begränsat, upphandlingsprocesserna riskerar att överprövas och de olika upphandlande myndigheterna ställer olika krav när de upphandlar trafik.  

Forskningsprojektet Kollektivtrafikmarknader bortom kontrakt syftade till att utröna hur kollektivtrafikens marknader fungerar avseende hur standarder organiserar marknader, hur konkurrensen organiseras, samt hur överprövningar formar marknaderna. Utgångspunkten för forskningsprojektet har varit att marknader, i bred mening, består av mer än enbart kontraktsrelationer. I lika hög grad som kontraktsliga relationer ligger bakom utbytena mellan köpare och säljare, mellan beställare och leverantörer, finns även idéer och värderingar - ibland motstridiga sådana – om hur en marknad ska fungera, hur avtal ska utformas, hur anbud ska utvärderas och vilka följder olika val får för verksamheten.  

I detta forskningsprojekt har vi intresserat oss för hur marknaden är organiserad bortom kontraktsrelationerna på marknaden. Detta har inneburit att vi inte direkt intresserat oss för huruvida särskilda typer av avtalsformer leder till avsedda effekter, eller huruvida marknadslösningar är effektiva eller ej. Istället har vi byggt vidare på den rika forskning som genererats kring dessa frågeställningar, men rört oss bortom dem i så motto att vi intresserat oss för de utom-kontraktsliga relationer som bidrar till att organisera kollektivtrafikens marknader.

Våra resultat pekar på behovet av att förstå hur modellavtalen, som är tänkta att användas vid upphandling av trafik, standardiserar utbytena på marknaden. Dessutom pekar våra resultat på hur inträddesbarriärer på marknaden produceras i interaktionen mellan de etablerade trafikföretagen och de upphandlande myndigheterna. Likså visar våra resultat att överprövningar av upphandlingsbeslut tar sikte på transparensprincipen i utvärderingsmodellerna samt likabehandlingsprincipen i det förhandlade förfarandet.

Det finns ett fortsatt behov av att forska om kollektivtrafikens marknader. Av särskild vikt är då frågan om hur upphandlingsprocesserna kan anpassas efter de nya behov som kommer att uppkomma i och med utvecklandet av ny digital teknologi och nya tjänstelösningar. Såväl upphandlande myndigheter som trafikföretag har intresse av att marknaden kan inkorporera ny teknologi och därigenom erbjuda resenärerna en bättre upplevelse och bättre service på sikt. För att detta ska kunna uppnås krävs dock ny kunskap, både om hur ny teknologi påverkar marknaderna och hur avtalen kan anpassas för att gynna innovation och utveckling.   

The process of collecting traffic data is a key component to evaluate the current state of a transportation network and to analyze movements of vehicles. In this paper, we argue that both active stationary and mobile measurement devices should be taken into account for high-quality traffic data with sufficient geographic coverage. Stationary devices are able to collect data over time at certain locations in the network and mobile devices are able to gather data over large geographic regions. Hence, the two types of measurement devices have complementary properties and should be used in conjunction with each other in the data collection process. To evaluate the complementary characteristics of stationary and mobile devices for traffic data collection, we present a traffic simulation model, which we use to study the share of successfully identified vehicles when using both types of devices with varying identification rate. The results from our simulation study, using freight transport in southern Sweden, shows that the share of successfully identified vehicles can be significantly improved by using both stationary and mobile measurement devices. 

Purpose

Warehouses are of crucial importance to manage increased e-commerce. This study will explore and analyse the warehouse as a relational business model.   

Design/methodology/approach

The complex reality of warehouse business development is researched by a qualitative approach analysed in terms of service logic business models. Theoretically, service innovation literature is used to develop understanding of value creation related to e-commerce warehousing.  

Findings

Facility location and warehouse management relies of theoretical premises that business is foreseeable. The business model innovation in which real estate actors and logistics actors co-create flexible warehouse solutions is in development. A substantial contribution to logistics and supply chain efficiency and effectiveness is from real estate actors. Logistics actors need logistics facilities to create value for their customers and their competences are related to their network, relations and solution making. Real estate actors’ competences are in developing logistics facilities, which is a way of servitizating service providers. The relationship between real estate actors and logistics providers thereby become of strategic importance for both.  

Research limitations/implications

The warehouse as a relational business model opens up for future research by exploring use of and need of new sets of competences.

Practical implications

Logistics service providers’ may further develop and broaden their core competences. 

Original/value

Business model considerations are of value to e-commerce logistics actors.

Traffic flow estimates play a key role in traffic network management and planning of transportation networks. Commonly it is the average daily traffic (ADT) flow for different road segments that constitute the data. This paper shows how an advanced and detailed analysis based on hourly flow measurements over the day can contribute to a deeper understanding of how hourly flows together reflect the vehicles’ routes. The proposed method identifies the shortest travel time paths between all possible origins and destinations in a transportation network, and thereafter it identifies the most significant routes in the network by performing statistical tests. For this purpose, the paper presents a mathematical model, a vehicle simulator based on this model, and a statistical framework that is able to find the most probable underlying routes. The paper contains a real test scenario based on 24-hour traffic flows (hour by hour) to demonstrate the applicability of the method.

Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are a class of antidepressants regularly detected in the environment. This indicates that the existing wastewater treatment techniques are not successfully removing them beforehand. This study investigated the potential of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) to serve as sorbents for removal of SSRIs in water treatment. Sertraline was chosen as the template for imprinting. We optimized the composition of MIPs in order to obtain materials with highest capacity, affinity, and selectivity for sertraline. We report the maximum capacity of MIP for sertraline in water at 72.6 mg g^-1, and the maximum imprinting factor at 3.7. The MIPs were cross-reactive towards other SSRIs and the metabolite norsertraline. They showed a stable performance in wastewater-relevant pH range between 6 and 8, and were reusable after a short washing cycle. Despite having a smaller surface area between 27.4 and 193.8 m²·g^-1, as compared to that of the activated carbon at 1400 m²·g^-1, their sorption capabilities in wastewaters were generally superior. The MIPs with higher surface area and pore volume that formed more non-specific interactions with the targets considerably contributed to the overall removal efficiency, which made them better suited for use in wastewater treatment.

Drawing on the conceptualisation of motility as the capacity to be mobile, this paper employs statistical and GIS-based analyses to explore the associations between travel mode choice and mobility-related attitudes, skills and opportunities to access transport modes. The study builds on survey data and spatial data from three urban contexts of Beijing, Gothenburg and Malmo to analyse both individual-level and contextual factors influencing sustainable travel behaviour. The results indicate that despite varying contexts, the three dimensions of attitude, skills and access significantly explain individuals' travel behaviour and their choice to travel by public transport, bicycle or car. Among the studied travel modes, cycling appears to be a competitive mode when the travel distances are within 5 km. In all three urban contexts, individuals who have greater environmental awareness are more likely to travel by public transport or cycling if the physical conditions facilitate using these modes. Good access to public transport is likely to increase the usage of both cycling and public transport and reduce car use. Favourable conditions for cycling within 2 km and 5 km radius can positively encourage people to use a bicycle as a feeder mode for public transport. Overall, our findings demonstrate that for mobility policies to increase individuals' motility in relation to sustainable travel modes and encourage a travel behaviour shift towards using alternatives to cars, planners need to take more holistic approaches and design policies that deal with the three motility dimensions in an integrated manner and avoid focusing on a single dimension in isolation.

I denna förstudie har kunskapsläge och förutsättningar för en kartläggning och jämförelse av kostnader i bostadsbyggnadsprojekt i Europa studerats för att se om det finns förklaringar av hur skillnader i lagstiftning och samhällets reglering, styrning, skatter, subventioner, material, klimat och kultur påverkar produktionskostnaden för byggprojekt och därmed också boendekostnaden för den boende. 

För en fortsatt studie krävs: Etablerade kontakter med projektkunniga i de undersökta länderna Noggranna förberedelser före studiebesök och intervjuer Tydlig dokumentation och insamling av underlag Bearbetning och jämförelse av data Presentation av resultat

En teknisk handbok skriven för alla på en byggarbetsplats men även användbar för andra i byggsektorn. Boken behandlar vanligt förekommande arbetsmoment vid byggande av bostäder och lokaler. Den innehåller viktiga punkter att tänka på med hänvisning till ytterligare infromationskällor. Dessutom behandlas allmänna krav på byggprocessen, kvalitet, miljö, arbetsmiljö, nyheter, innovationer med mera.

As an alternative to the car, the bicycle is considered important for obtaining more sustainable urban transport. The bicycle has many positive effects; however, bicyclists are more vulnerable than users of other transport modes, and the number of bicycle related injuries and fatalities are too high. We present a clustering analysis aiming to support the identification of the locations of bicyclists' perceived unsafety in an urban traffic network, so-called bicycle impediments. In particular, we used an iterative k-means clustering approach, which is a contribution of the current paper, and DBSCAN. In contrast to standard k-means clustering, our iterative k-means clustering approach enables to remove outliers from the data set. In our study, we used data collected by bicyclists travelling in the city of Lund, Sweden, where each data point defines a location and time of a bicyclist's perceived unsafety. The results of our study show that 1) clustering is a useful approach in order to support the identification of perceived unsafe locations for bicyclists in an urban traffic network and 2) it might be beneficial to combine different types of clustering to support the identification process. (C) 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

For the provision of efficient and high-quality public transport services in rural areas with a low population density, the introduction of Demand Responsive Transport (DRT) services is reasonable. The optimal design of such services depends on various socio-demographical and environmental factors, which is why the use of simulation is feasible to support planning and decision-making processes. A key challenge for sound simulation results is the generation of realistic demand, i.e., requests for DRT journeys. In this paper, a method for modelling and simulating commuting activities is presented, which is based on statistical real-world data. It is applied to Sjöbo and Tomelilla, two rural municipalities in southern Sweden.

The objective of the paper is to explore whether particular problematisations of cars and car use lead to sets of solutions that may not deal with all problems associated with car use, and whether this leads to any internal conflicts within the chosen policies. The paper is based on a review of local transport policy documents from 13 cities in four countries using the lens of policy problematization as an analytical framework. The paper finds that the problems most typically highlighted in the strategies reviewed are poor accessibility (as a “bad” in itself, but also because it is seen to compromise economic growth); the negative impacts of tra_c on liveability of the central part of the city and therefore its ability to attract inhabitants, especially those needed to support a knowledge economy; local air and noise pollution; and road safety. The resulting visions are for urban areas less dominated by private cars, with more green and public space, in order to maximise accessibility and liveability to attract economic development; and most cities also seek to reduce car travel as a proportion of trips. However, in many cities this vision covers mainly the central city, with car use set to remain dominant in outer cities and for regional trips. In almost all cities, only one measure, parking management, is proposed as a means of cutting car use. The differing sets of measures envisaged for outer areas of cities threatens to undermine those envisaged for more central cities.

Digitalization has the potential to radically change the way buildings are designed, produced, and operated. In this digital transformation, the establishment of information standards play an important role. However, despite substantial efforts in the development of both technology and standards, these are not yet fully adopted in construction. This study aims to review the adoption of standards and to examine whether suppliers of prefabricated concrete elements have transformed their business models. The purpose is to strengthen the understanding of the interplay between the adoption of standards and business model renewal. Driving forces for the adoption of standards are identified and coupled with suppliers' arguments for business model protection and renewal, explained in terms of a market and a hierarchy approach. The market approach embraces the adoption of open standards for improved competition and information exchange along with the further adoption of industrialized construction. This study identifies that common standards for precast elements are lacking, which leads to waste in terms of structural re-design and liability uncertainties. On the other hand, a market situation with open standards is challenging for suppliers to utilize and benefit from their existing operational platforms. Suppliers of precast elements strive for a hierarchy approach, that is, the adoption of the whole value chain, to protect their market position and continue offering structural frameworks and services. This concurs with arguments for industrialized construction, which emphasize the benefits of continuous improvements. This study contributes to the understanding of drivers and impediments for the up-take of standards versus business model renewal in construction.

Housing renovation, in contrast to new construction projects, has to take good care of the tenants who are already living in the building. What are the theoretical and practical implications concerning the transformation from a technology-and-engineering-focused renovation approach to a more user-oriented one? What are the mechanisms of strategy change? Based on our case we argue that the mechanisms of strategy change are based on the interplay between external disturbance and internal renewal. External disturbance is the trigger of strategy change, but it does not, in itself, necessarily lead to strategy change, and particularly not for an innovative new strategy. The internal new competence is the source of changing from an old strategy to an innovative new strategy. The real estate industry needs to undergo a transformation from the rationalistic technology- and engineering-focused renovation model (TEF model) to a more inclusive approach. We suggest a user-oriented model (UO model) where user involvement is seen as integrated in the whole process of renovation.

Housing renovation is a common concern to owners, tenants and to society at large. In addition to the high economic costs, the implementation of housing renovation usually have a long-term impact on the society and the built environment. This is a theoretical paper that develops a system model for understanding sustainable housing renovation as a system phenomenon which has multiple sustainability goals, complicated dynamic processes, diverse actors, and a sophisticated institutional environment. It identifies the key challenges of a sustainable housing renovation system, namely the conflicting sustainability goals and the conflicting stakeholder interests. To address these two challenges, the paper suggests an innovation approach in which the process of innovation (linear versus organic) and the typology of innovation (product versus process and business versus social) toward sustainable housing renovation are discussed.

This paper examines the bus rapid transit (BRT) legacies of mega sporting events (MSEs) held in the Global South cities of Cape Town and Rio de Janeiro. It discusses the extent to which these transport systems have been operationally sustainable, post-MSE; in other words, their ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level and hence their ability to act as public good as planned and according to specific needs. It argues that in both cities, long-term operational challenges have emerged due to conflictual temporalities between the priorities of the MSE and the mid/long term requirements of a transport system, supplemented by a poor spatial contextualisation of BRT design. These include financial viability, providing a service with appropriate frequency and capacity, integration with other transport systems, and resilience to external shocks such as extreme weather. These findings have key academic and policy implications both by opening further areas of research towards MSEs as a tool to deliver sustainable urban transport, and provides important lessons for future MSE hosts and cities considering BRT.

Creating efficient public transport systems that attract users is a challenging task in contexts where the control of public transport is divided between various actors. Recent research on public transport has therefore seen increasing focus on issues like coordination, collaboration and steering in complex governance settings. However, more is known about what needs to be done than how to implement the necessary changes. This paper presents a systematic literature review with a focus on developing the understanding on how to improve the conditions for public transport. The reviewed articles are analysed for increasing the understanding of the critical challenges in the planning and implementation of measures to increase public transport travel; the working practices for dealing with problems described in the literature; and the advantages and disadvantages of different working practices. Based on the analysis an analytical framework is developed that can be used to study and evaluate working practices for managing critical challenges. The framework consists of three interconnected factors (i) actors, (ii) institutions (laws and rules that govern the interaction of the actors), and (iii) work processes (phases in the interaction between the actors). Drawing on the results of the systematic review a number of key issues for establishing working practices for dealing with the challenges are emphasized for each of the factors.

Att digitaliseringen innebär omvälvande förändringar i hela arbetslivet råder det ingen tvekan om. Den decentraliserade samhällsbyggnadssektorn med dess omfattande samverkan mellan olika aktörer är inget undantag. Det gäller att yrkesverksamma på alla nivåer har en grundläggande kompetens och beredskap att ta till sig och tillämpa nya metoder, verktyg och processer. Digitaliseringen ger nya möjligheter till förbättrad samverkan i byggprojekten. Mot den bakgrunden beslutade tre yrkesnämnder inom bygg- och installationsbranschen att göra en gemensam kartläggning över vad som händer i branschen och närmare studera elevers förutsättningar och yrkeslärares möjligheter att understödja utvecklingen i branschen.

In this article, we discuss the role of solidarity in collaborative housing in relation to the trajectory and discourse of the Danish idea of co-operative housing (andelstanken). Our analytical perspective draws on the concept of social mechanisms and a framework suggested by the social scientist Steinar Stjernø. We argue that collaborative housing based on individual (home) ownership of shares and user-rights to apartments are susceptible to the mechanism of “conflicting interests between different categories on the housing market”. Moreover, we suggest that this mechanism has a tendency to further the economic interests of residents, at the expense of the external solidarity with groups looking to access affordable housing. Our argument is supported by theoretical reflection, the historical trajectory of co-operative housing in Scandinavia and empirical analysis of the Danish case.

Intermodality or combining more than one transport mode during a single trip has been put forward to facilitate a modal shift from private car to more environmentally friendly modes such as public transport, cycling or walking. Bike-and-ride – that is, integrating cycling and public transport in one trip – is an attractive combination, as cycling as an active and clean mode is faster than walking and more affordable and flexible than other alternative modes of transport. Using cycling as a feeder mode to public transport could potentially allow people to reach more opportunities and improve their mobility, and ultimately, their well-being. Therefore, it is relevant to investigate the inequalities in access to bike-and-ride options across population groups.

In this context, we suggest assessing the inequalities in bicycle access to the main transport hubs of a city by developing a composite indicator based on accessibility measures and the Theil index of inequality. This indicator captures the role of both private and public bikes – part of a Bike Sharing System (BSS) – in accessing the existing public transport system. The novelty of our approach lies in bringing the distributional justice perspective in the accessibility evaluation of transport and analysing the inequalities within and between any arbitrarily defined population groups. Moreover, in addition to travel time by bike, this accessibility measure incorporates a series of bike-related features, such as the typology of bike lanes (separated from or shared with roads), the presence of a BSS in the network, and bike facilities (e.g., parking racks) in transport hubs.

The proposed methodology is applied to a real case study of the city of Malmö, Sweden, to prove its efficacy and usefulness. In particular, we examine how the level of bicycle access to the major public transport destination (including train stations and regional bus hubs) varies across the population. While considering the contextual properties of the city of Malmö, the inequalities are analysed in relation to spatial dimension and social background of the population, it is possible to extend the proposed analysis by including further features of the population, such as income or gender, and apply the same approach to different contexts.

This paper presents a new practical approach to optimally allocate charging stations in large-scale transportation networks for electric vehicles (EVs). The problem is of particular importance to meet the charging demand of the growing fleet of alternative fuel vehicles. Considering the limited driving range of EVs, there is need to supply EV owners with accessible charging stations to reduce their range anxiety. The aim of the Route Node Coverage (RNC) problem, which is considered in the current paper, is to find the minimum number of charging stations, and their locations in order to cover the most probable routes in a transportation network. We propose an iterative approximation technique for RNC, where the associated Integer Problem (IP) is solved by exploiting a probabilistic random walk route selection, and thereby taking advantage of the numerical stability and efficiency of the standard IP software packages. Furthermore, our iterative RNC optimization procedure is both pertinent and straightforward to implement in computer coding and the design technique is therefore highly applicable. The proposed optimization technique is applied on the Sioux-Falls test transportation network, and in a large-scale case study covering the southern part of Sweden, where the focus is on reaching the maximum coverage with a minimum number of charging stations. The results are promising and show that the flexibility, smart route selection, and numerical efficiency of the proposed design technique, can pick out strategic locations for charging stations from thousands of possible locations without numerical difficulties.

This work presents an extension of Thompson Sampling bandit policy for orchestrating the collection of base recommendation algorithms for e-commerce. We focus on the problem of item-to-item recommendations, for which multiple behavioral and attribute-based predictors are provided to an ensemble learner. In addition, we detail the construction of a personalized predictor based on k-Nearest Neighbors (kNN), with temporal decay capabilities and event weighting. We show how to adapt Thompson Sampling to realistic situations when neither action availability nor reward stationarity is guaranteed. Furthermore, we investigate the effects of priming the sampler with pre-set parameters of reward probability distributions by utilizing the product catalog and/or event history, when such information is available. We report our experimental results based on the analysis of three real-world e-commerce datasets.

Energy efficiency measures in residential buildings typically include changes in ventilation and heating systems, and increased thermal insulation of the building envelope. The expected energy efficiency is not always reached, despite large knowledge and professional implementation of each separate measure. There is a lack in understanding of how technical systems interact, and how the occupants are influenced by and in turn influence the systems by their behaviour. A holistic view and a transdisciplinary research approach are needed to understand relevant interactions and propose integrated energy efficiency measures. The aim of this paper is to reveal challenges in transdisciplinary research projects that include real world studies on both humans and technical systems with measurements before and after renovation of multifamily housing. It is based on experiences from the PEIRE-project (People, Environment, Indoor, Renovation, Energy) carried out by a research team with expertise on environmental psychology, human behaviour, interaction design, universal design, building physics, building services, thermal comfort, aerosol technology, exposure assessment, acoustics, daylight, and complex thinking. Differences in theoretical bases and methodology needed to be dealt with. Metatheory building could help with the transition from a multi- to a transdisciplinary understanding.

Syftet med denna rapport är att ge en bild av hur Sveriges kommuner arbetar med att främja kollektivtrafiken. Trots att kommunerna i de flesta fall inte har direkt rådighet över kollektivtrafiken påverkar kommunal styrning områden såsom bebyggelseplanering och lokalisering, trafikplanering (ex omfördelning av befintlig vägkapacitet), reglering av biltrafik (ex. parkering, bilfria zoner, m.m.) mobility management och gröna resplaner. Rapporten baseras på en enkätstudie som har riktats till landets samtliga kommuner.

Resultaten visar både på likheter och skillnader mellan kommunerna avseende målsättningar, definitioner av begrepp och vilken typ av åtgärder och arbetssätt som förekommer. Ett generellt och förväntat mönster är att befolkningsmässigt större och täta kommuner jobbar mer med frågor kring kollektivtrafik, medan frågorna har mindre fokus i mindre och glesare kommuner. Samma, förväntade mönster gäller avseende målbilder och åtgärder för minskad biltrafik; det är vanligare att frågorna är i fokus i mer urbana områden.

Hur man definierar mål om att öka kollektivtrafiken varierar. Kommunerna jobbar med en bred palett av åtgärder för att främja kollektivtrafiken såsom uppgradering av bytespunkter, ny eller förbättrad infrastruktur för buss-och spårtrafik, reservation av mark för framtida behov och byte av bränsle. Analysen tyder på att det finns ett samband mellan att ha ett mål om ökad kollektivtrafik och att genomföra åtgärder, d.v.s. det är vanligare att kommuner som har ett mål om ökad kollektivtrafik genomför åtgärder för att främja kollektivtrafiken än de kommuner som inte har något mål.

Det finns inget tydligt samband mellan att ha ett mål om minskning av biltrafiken och att genomföra åtgärder för att minska biltrafiken. Det är vanligare att kommuner genomför åtgärder för att sänka hastigheten än åtgärder såsom att minska antalet parkeringsplatser, eller höjda parkeringsavgifter.

Förekomsten av tydliga definitioner av begrepp såsom kollektivtrafiknära läge och täthet i landets kommuner varierar. Många kommuner har en definition av kollektivtrafiknära läge (vars innebörd dock kan variera betydligt), medan definitioner av begreppet täthet är betydligt ovanligare. Resultaten från enkätstudien indikerar att här finns potential för vidareutveckling av metoder och arbetssätt kopplade till definitionerna av begreppen. Vissa kommuners arbetssätt borde också kunna ligga till grund för kunskapsöverföring mellan kommuner.

När det gäller attityd-och beteendepåverkan är det relativt vanligt med vissa typer av åtgärder, såsom kommuninterna resepolicies som prioriterar kollektivtrafik före bil, informationskampanjer och ”prova på” kampanjer. Det är mer ovanligt att man jobbar för att andra aktörer ska införa resepolicies. Även här finns det en potential för utveckling och kunskapsöverföring mellan kommuner.

Limitations of urban constructions in the form of rules and regulations with the aim of controlling city physicaldevelopment is the product of city development plans and documents. Actually, construction rules and regulationsin a metropolis like Tehran is the tool of performing urban development plans and development process in shorttermurban projects and long-term development plans is controlled by means of these rules and regulations.Therefore, how these rules and regulations are performed is a decisive factor in achieving goals and prospects ofurban development plans. Quantity and quality of construction regulations in Tehran from the first comprehensiveplan approved in 1970 to the strategic-structural plan in 2007 was changed along with the evolution of generalurban developments and special development policies in Tehran. Also, necessity of updating rules and regulationsof urban development is considered according to lack of full performance or low performance of many of the rulesand regulations of previous plans. A major part of challenges about non-implementation of these regulations canbe studied in the form of anomalies of constructional violations. This research analyzes and evaluates the wayof performing these regulations and status of constructional violations with the goal of analyzing challenges ofperforming rules and regulations of urban development in Tehran metropolis using descriptive-analytical method.Hence, four time intervals: the interval between performing regulations of first comprehensive plan of Tehran andfinancial self-sufficiency of municipal, the interval between implementing density sales policy and modifyingregulations of Tehran, the interval between performing Amendment of planning regulations of Tehran andannouncing the rules of detailed and comprehensive plan of Tehran and after that are evaluated. Also, causes ofcreation of constructional violations and their consequences in the failure of urban development plans were analyzedand the results demonstrate that the factors such as physical field and limitations and natural tendencies of urbandevelopment, underlying society and economy of city, defects of construction rules and regulations and inefficienturban management system are the most important causes of constructional violations in Tehran metropolis.

Megaprojects as extensive investment projects are increasing recently in large and metropolitan cities in Iran. The projects, mostly based on public-private partnership, are defined to stimulate urban development or provide necessary facilities and infrastructure. They are considered as tools to promote the city conditions at national and international levels. However, some theorists argue the negative consequences of the projects while explaining the risky, problematic, and deceiving side of the megaprojects. Many megaprojects have been constructed in Mashhad. The city, as a destination for many pilgrims and tourists, and a hub for commercial and industrial activities in the east of Iran, has considerable potentials for development and competitiveness. Mashhad’s municipality encourages the urban projects based on public-private partnership in various ways due to its dependence on the revenues of construction work. While the projects are considered to provide better and modern services to facilitate, it seems that they have had a reverse effect by the saturation of built-up areas and commercial spaces in Mashhad. This paper tries to assess the effectiveness of megaprojects in Mashhad and their compatibility with urban context through sustainability assessment of the projects.Megaprojects are considered as urban catalysts according to the neoliberalism ideology. The recent generation of the projects is mostly brownfield developments related to tourism and sport facilities based on the public-private partnership approach. The globalization, regional competitiveness, and privatization along with the technological improvement have led to the boom of mega and large-scale projects in cities.Megaprojects may result in the provision of public spaces, services or infrastructure improvement. However, the economic prosperity which the projects usually seek are incompatible with the local economy and may hurt it. They also change the physical identity and the existing urban structure while damaging the social capital with social segregation and exclusion. In addition, compared to the normal projects, the projects have considerable environmental footprints.2. MethodologyFocusing on megaprojects in Mashhad, the present study analyzes the effectiveness of megaprojects through the concept of sustainability circles. The concept assesses the sustainability through four dimensions: economic prosperity, social improvement, physical and cultural vitality, and environmental resiliency. The main approaches to the research are case study and survey. The case studies include large-scale renewal projects (Great Project of Shohada Square and Majd Project) and brownfield development (Sepad Tourism Zone). The survey which was administered to 387 persons including the experts, residents, and businesses in or surrounding the projects. Alpha Cronbach was used to test the reliability of the questionnaire. Based on the result of the coefficient (0.94), the questionnaire proved to be reliable.3. ResultsThe results show the megaprojects in Mashhad are far from the sustainability concept in almost all aspects. All projects have not been satisfactory which it can be related to opposites of these projects with previous owners, residents and tenants of their fields. Majd and Shohada projects have been shaped in distressed areas. Thus, they destroyed the buildings, and they changed the urban structure, the place identity, and the urban spaces in order to build modern areas. Also, the projects led to a lot of commercial and office areas which are more than the city demands, so many of which are not strong enough to result in economic prosperity. Sepad, in its reproduction has created some picturesque architecture, commercial and recreational complexes, and related public spaces. It has also addressed the demands of general pilgrims and tourists of Mashhad through widespread advertisements to attract the people’s attention. Thus, Sepad has been more successful than other megaprojects regarding the economic and physical aspects.4. ConclusionsMegaprojects in Mashhad are built to solve the challenges of distressed areas, mitigate traffic problems and provide modern services and infrastructure while they bring new challenges to the cities. The challenges could be related to the nature of megaprojects and their conflict with sustainable development to some extent. As the projects inherently seek for the place promotion and social improvement through the creation of new urban spaces and the attraction of the more affluent citizens, they may damage the historical identity and the social capitals as well. The projects include extensive environmental footprints and change in the urban ecological system. In addition, although the projects may promote some economic indexes of competitiveness, they may result in the degradation of the local economy which is relied on the urban assets and the residents’ skills.Generally, megaprojects in Mashhad have not taken appropriate steps to economic prosperity, social improvement, place promotion, and environmental improvement. But, their wrong orientation and the lack of long-term vision in economic development have led to the saturation of commercial spaces and intensification of the building recession in Mashhad. The projects, also, delimit the probable trend of investment in other industries and entrepreneurship activities. In addition, although the projects have provided transit station, public parking, and streets, they put multiple pressure on urban networks, infrastructure including power, water, and sewage systems by overloading the built-up area.In conclusion, megaprojects are inherently in conflict with sustainability and context-oriented development, especially, if they are defined based on an up-down decision-making process and lobbying exclusively between developers and urban managers.There are forces in urban development arena that cause the continuation of megaprojects in large and even smaller cities in Iran. Therefore, the practical way to control and limit the forces and eliminate the negative impacts of megaprojects, would be the empowerment and legalization of the system of control along with supervising mega and large-scale urban projects. Using the sustainability factors, economic prosperity, physical and cultural vitality, social improvement, and environmental resiliency are recommended as the conditions for the approval of megaprojects.

There is a growing use of green roofs on urban buildings around the world with a focus on reducing energy consumption of buildings. Energy consumption of buildings results mostly from heating or cooling of indoor spaces. When mechanical air conditioners are operating, windows (natural ventilation) are shut. This paper studied 2 field models, one with a living green roof and the other left bare (conventional), both without any sensible or latent heat loss or gain via their ventilation systems. Microclimatic data was collected at the field for the 2 rooms for a period of 25 days. Two microclimate parameters, air temperature and relative humidity which determines the highest effect on indoor thermal comfort were compared for the two models and with the ambient conditions. Result shows that both air temperature and relative humidity of the room with the green roof were lower than the bare roofed house. Fluctuations were also minimal for the green roofed urban building.

Activities of moulds from domestic dwellings are normally classified into three groupsprimary, secondary, and tertiary colonizersaccording to the minimum relative humidity they require to colonize a substrate. With the help of isothermal calorimetry it is possible to directly measure the thermal activity from moulds as a function of climatic parameters. This makes it possible to provide more precise and detailed information of the growth behavior of these types of moulds under different temperature and relative humidity level than traditional methods. From this study, it is found that the optimal relative humidities and the recovery from drying are different for these three different colonizers. The fungal activities during desorption process are higher than during adsorption processes under the same relative humidity level for all of the samples. Such information makes it possible to model mould behavior indoors and can be used to access the risk for mould growth in the buildings.

The majority of the Tehran metropolitan region’s problems are associated with building contraventions, which intensified after migration from other parts of the country to the region increased. This migration coincided with a boom in the construction sector and an increase in density selling by the Tehran municipality.

Because of the far-reaching consequences of this phenomenon and the Tehran municipality’s inefficient and inappropriate building controls, it is important to identify the reasons and origins of these contraventions so that solutions and mitigation measures can be developed.

After conducting a literature review and a questionnaire study, the reasons for the occurrence of one of the most common building contraventions, namely non-compliance with floor area ratio (FAR) regulations, are discussed in this paper. The questionnaire investigated the following indicators: level of awareness, violation of regulations to meet the minimum needs of housing (housing-related motives), violation of regulations with the aim of gaining financial profit (profit-making motives), owners’ income level, the experience and expertise level of the developers, and the quality of supervision and monitoring. The questionnaire was answered by 150 persons whose cases were under investigation in the municipality, and the results were utilized to evaluate each of the above-mentioned indicators. A Pearson correlation test and a path analysis were used to analyze the data. The study revealed that developers’ level of awareness is the most influential factor leading to non-compliance with FAR requirements. Following this indicator, income level and housing-related motives have the greatest influence on non-compliance with FAR regulations.

In this article I investigate spatial scale as an aspect that needs to be more carefully addressed in the discussion and planning of ‘sustainable urban forms’. Focusing on the Malmö-Lund region in Sweden, I discuss problems of scale as related to the new take on sustainability in Malmö planning documents, especially the update of the Malmö comprehensive plan from 2005. The paper is divided into three sections. First, I discuss the concept and problem of spatial scale, contextualising it in theory as well as in recent discussions on urban transformations. Second, I briefly discuss the discourse of sustainable urban forms, pointing out some scale-related issues that need to be more carefully addressed. In the third and main section of the article, I investigate plans and projects for urban development in Malmö, focusing and elaborating on spatial scale and discussing the findings in terms of three kinds of scale stabilisation: in terms of territory, size and hierarchy. The article concludes with a call for further work for the possibilities of a more dynamic and multi-scalar approach in urban planning.

Syftet med forskningen är att öka förståelsen för individuell mätning och debitering av värme och vatten i flera bostadshus, ett system som syftar till att individuellt fördela kostnader. Individuell mätning är för närvarande på dagordningen i Sverige, inte bara på grund av EU’s påtryckningar på byggsektorn för att förbättra energiprestandan, men även på grund av brister i mätmetoderna för debitering av värme samt om huruvida individuell mätning faktiskt är nödvändigt och gör någon nytta. En undersökning har genomförts genom enkäter och intervjuer med fastighetsägare och boende i flerbostadshus samt genom litteraturstudier. Undersökningen visar på ett behov av individuellmätning och debitering. De boende anser att de som använder mer också ska betala mer. Men brister i mätmetoderna gör det svårt att uppnå en rättvis fördelning av värmekostnaderna. Dessutom är mätningarna svåra att förstå för de boende. Två huvudsakliga incitament för fastighetsägare att installera individuell mätning och debitering ärenergibesparingar och därmed miljön samt rättvis kostnadsfördelning. Undersökningen visar dock att kritik från de boende kan leda till ytterligare administrativa kostnader som kan påverka lönsamheten med mätningarna. Undersökningen visar också att det är mer ekonomiskt lönsamt med individuell mätning av vatten än värme. Några av fastighetsägarna får inte någon vinst alls med individuell mätning av värmen. Men individuell mätning och debitering är ändå en möjlighet att minska energianvändningen i flerbostadshus.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to look more closely at the residents’ attitude to individual heat metering and charging systems (IMC) of multi-family dwellings in residential properties, and to evaluate the tenant’s perception of IMC and how it may affect the continued expansion of such systems. Design/methodology/approach – The research in this paper is based on a questionnaire and interviews with tenants at two municipal housing companies, in Sweden, that currently are using IMC. Findings – The studies in this paper show certain dissatisfaction with the applied IMC systems. This depends partly on the tenant’s perceived lack of knowledge and partly because of the technical shortcomings of the IMC system. Originality/value – In order to increase the extension of IMC a better understanding is required of how the systems work and why they are used. Information to the tenants needs to be improved and techniques need to be developed to create fairer systems of IMC and thus increase the level of acceptance from both landlords and tenants. Keywords Heat measurement, Residential property, Tenancy, Sweden

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to look more closely at incentives for a landlord to use individual metering and charging of heat and water. This paper also aims to look at the possible reasons for the differences in use of individual metering and charging between Sweden and Germany. Design/methodology/approach – The research in this paper is based on a questionnaire and interviews with landlords, in Sweden, using individual metering and charging. Findings – The two main incentives for the landlords in the survey to use individual metering are the possibility to save energy and the possibility to create a fair allocation of heating cost between tenants. Sweden has a long history of heat and water included in the rent leading to a possibly tougher transition to individual metering. Originality/value – To see the overall picture and understand the purpose of individual metering is important to avoid conflicts between landlords and tenants. The paper aids this process. Keywords Energy consumption, Residential property, Sweden, Tenancy, Incentive schemes Paper type Research paper

In this study, mould growth on wood was investigated by image analysis. The studied parameters were drying and heat-treatment temperatures (20–210°C), original and resawn surface and different wood species (spruce and larch). Small specimens—some of which were inoculated with a spore suspension—were stored under humid conditions and photographed once a week. Mould growth was assessed by image analysis. In general, results found in earlier studies regarding the influence of several parameters could be confirmed. Image analysis was found to be a useful method to quantify mould growth in an objective and reproducible way. 

The positive benefits of cycling cannot be realized in the absence of inclusive policies that improve cycling possibilities for all in society and effectively increase cycling. A more comprehensive understanding of the factors shaping individuals’ potential to cycle and the way the vary across social groups could provide valuable insights to support crafting such policies that could make cycling accessible for more diverse groups in society. Employing the motility framework this study examines the inequalities in cycling potential among individuals living in the municipalities of Gothenburg and Malmö in Sweden.Moreover, it adopts Nancy Fraser’s three-dimensional justice lens to explore the links between social groups’ differences in terms of cycling motility and sources of injustice in cycling practices and policies. The findings indicate that age and income are associated with significant variations in all three dimensions of cycling motility (i.e., access portfolio, competence, and appropriation).Additionally, the significant inequalities observed among the social groups in terms of cycling motility indicators could be traced to broader injustices in society – namely maldistribution, misrecognition, and misrepresentation. The paper argues that justice in cycling motility requires recognizing the diversity of needs and preferences, redistributing cycling-related resources, and including more voices in planning and decisionmaking.