· · · Institutional Repository

In recent years, Latin America has experienced a rapid urbanization process, which leads to the increase of transportation demands in their main cities. In light of this, governments are working to enlarge infrastructure in the transport sector. However, some limitations such as the availability of public funds for enormous investment in these projects make it impossible for the government to promote new projects. These constraints have led some countries to develop agreements with private partners in order to promote new delivery methods such as Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in the transport sector. This new approach has been used in different regions including Latin America. Peru, with its urban rail project - Lima Urban Rail - is using one of the schemes of PPP, but with peculiar characteristics that have not permitted to finish the project since 1986. Other countries, such as Argentina and Brazil, have already had a history of PPP in the same sector, but with discouraging results. PPP also carries many new challenges for transportation projects. Thus, achieving success in this area and specifically knowing what influences the success of PPP projects, is not a straightforward task. In other words, this research aims to know the path to achieve success in PPP projects in Latin America through the study of the most influential factors. Therefore, considering this motivation, this research first studies the theory of Public-Private Part- nership (PPP). In this context, the analysis of the benefits and detriments of PPP are examined in detail in order to understand the issues that first hinder the success in these projects. Moreover, the definition of success in our environment is defined in relation to the different phases of the project (Contract Success, Implementation Success and Post-Implementation Success). This is particularly important because it allows us to create a new theoretical framework of the most important factors that influence the success of a PPP project. In other words, a set of factors related to the context and to the project itself are extracted by theory providing the creation of a framework of important factors in PPP. They served as input for evaluation through the different cases of studies. Thus, in order to evaluate this framework, we examinated four PPP cases in the urban rail or subway sector in Latin America. These cases correspond to subways/urban train of the cities of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires and Lima. This analysis was focused on the study of the relevant factors which can produce or disturb successful projects in Latin America. Moreover, the review of the main characteristics produced important reflections on our work. First, the Latin American plan lacks a long-term vision for the durability of their projects. Most of the Latin projects failed to provide an acceptable quality of service after some years of implementation. Transport failures embrace problems in the frequency of the trains, bad maintenance of stations and poor security personel. Some of the sources of these issues are encountered on the lack of funding guarantees to support the durability of the project and the poor monitoring system of some PPP units. Secondly, three factors were found as critical in all the phases of a PPP project: Institutional & Legal Environment, Political & Socio-Economic Environment and Risk Allocation. The Institutional & Legal Environment of Latin countries is characterized by the lack of transparency law, independent judicial system but with some progress in unifying PPP laws. The Socio-Economic Environment is distinguished by the volatility which can reach long periods of economic growth but also long periods of unexpected economic crisis. The Risk allocation is still a challenge that can affect the total duration of a project. Thirdly, a new set of framework which fits in the Latin environment was contrasted, making real recommendations for the Peruvian government and general suggestions for Latin governments. These findings gave new light upon the success of PPP projects in Latin America. Among the most important recommendations in order to achieve success, we can advise the Peruvian government to create a new guarantee fund in order to deal with possible economic crisis. The Peruvian economy can be very changeable and thus the government should be prepared to face any probable economic risks. Moreover, the congress should also work on establish a new transparency law in PPP projects. The information of all the phases of the project should be opened to public in relation to the different phases of PPP. Public participation is important on the acceptance of high-investment projects, thus it should be included in the process of the projects. Furthermore, an independent monitoring system for the long-term of the project is a “must”. The research showed that the long-term duration of a PPP project in Latin America can not be easily achieve due to the lack of monitoring methods through the life of the project. Additionally, we also suggest to the Latin governments to see PPP as a new model for the market. Some of the projects are done independently without looking at previous experience and thus the same mistakes are made. Projects can be an example of new ones, creating a new market for other cities. Finally, government should also give some incentives or penalties in order to deter private parties from strategic behavior, providing stimulus to accomplish their goals. These are feasible recommendations in the specific Lima case and general Latin projects, however it will also depend predominatly on the commitment of the parties to overcome the detriments of PPP projects. Taken the definition of “success”, emphasizing on the context-related factors and risk allocation and using our created framework, recommendations based on the most important factors influencing the different parts of the projects are put forward, aiming at building up an efficient transport environment for Latin America and in the case of Lima.

Today, engineering systems offer a variety of local and webbased applications to support collaboration by assisting groups in structuring activities, generating and sharing data, and improving group communication. To ensure the quality of collaboration, engineering system design needs to analyze and define possible collaboration processes. Currently, engineering system design focuses on collaboration processes in a static environment. However, today’s world is characterized by dynamic environments that can influence the requirements of a collaboration process and require to adapt the process during runtime. This paper introduces a new approach for engineering systems design that provides adaptive collaboration support for changing environments. This approach is based upon a conceptual architecture for engineering systems that uses data streams to analyze the dynamic environment and adapts a collaboration process on demand according to varying goals, time and data.

The need for computer supported collaboration has grown over the last years and made collaboration processes an important factor within organizations. This trend has resulted in the development of a variety of tools and technologies to support the various forms of collaboration. Many collaborative processes, e.g. strategy building, scenario analysis, root cause analysis and requirements engineering, require various collaboration support tools. Within these synchronous collaborative applications to create, evaluate, elaborate, discuss, and revise graphical models, e.g. data flow, fishbone and brainstorming diagrams, play an important role. Currently, the necessary tools are not integrated and flexible enough to support such processes. In this paper, we introduce a synchronous collaborative brainstorming diagram editor that is integrated in a flexible group support system. By this our approach goes beyond the current state of the art as we can be seamlessly integrated with other collaboration support tools such as textbased brainstorming, voting, etc.

The need for computer supported collaboration has grown over the last years and made collaboration processes an important factor within organizations. This trend has resulted in the development of a variety of tools and technologies to support the various forms of collaboration. Many collaborative processes, e.g. strategy building, scenario analysis, root cause analysis and requirements engineering, require various collaboration support tools. Within these synchronous collaborative applications to create, evaluate, elaborate, discuss, and revise graphical models, e.g. data flow, fishbone and brainstorming diagrams, play an important role. Currently, the necessary tools are not integrated and flexible enough to support such processes. In this paper, we introduce a synchronous collaborative brainstorming diagram editor that is integrated in a flexible group support system. By this our approach goes beyond the current state of the art as we can be seamlessly integrated with other collaboration support tools such as textbased brainstorming, voting, etc.

There is an increasing awareness of the role of mangrove forests in coastal ecosystems and coastal protection. At the transition between ocean and land, they have to absorb the energy that comes from the motion of the water. Little quantitative in formation is available, however, on wave transmission in these forests. In this paper the possibilities of the use of mathematical models to determine the influence of mangroves on waves are being explored. Both short and long waves have been examined. The results also been used to try to say something on phenomena encountered in nature .

Worldwide there is a need for training of engineers to work within the framework of Coastal Zone Management. This has effects on the education of engineers. Moreover, the requirements for an educational program for coastal engineers from developing countries are quite different from the requirements for the training of engineers from the industrialized world. In a university course for engineers from developing countries more attention has to be paid to the development of capabilities to come to practical solutions given the local constraints and to be able to assess the work done by foreign consultants.

The paper discusses innovations for both income growth and the generation of better environmental qualities. This is possible in theory but progress in practices is slow. We argue that social pressures to contain pollution were effective insofar they invoked environmental policies all over the world, which enabled to reduce pollution in some countries at decreasing costs. This is achieved in the past five decades despite fierce resistance of vested interests in industries and policymaking. Economies are still extremely wasteful but there is progress in many countries toward ecoefficiency, which is illustrated for the European Union. In the future, a growing demand for sustainability is expected. This demand is not primarily because of costly natural resource in consumption, they decrease in real prices, but due to the changes in social structures towards more knowledge work and growing leisure time. The knowledge work and leisure time require more personal interactions even though the labour costs increase and more environmental qualities through cleaner production and consumption. These demands invoke innovations that blend environmental qualities with artefacts. Such natural blends are highly demanded and the qualified blends are highly paid. Sustainable innovations through blending of natural and cultural attributes are in progress. Innovators become a driving force for sustainability and the innovative networks key elements for the resulting outcomes. These networks entail distributed business models. Environmental qualities constitute highly demanded values. The challenge is to translate this social sense of urgency into new policies and market arrangements in support of innovators for sustainable development.