Flexibility in urbanism: Research on flexibility and transformation design for the Binckhorst

A shift is taking place in planning culture from a rational planning approach, which is mainly about production, to a dynamic city approach which is more about the transformation and development of existing urban areas. Flexibility is a relevant subject in this. This graduation project has been aimed at developing an insight in flexibility in...

Time-Dependent Polynomial Chaos

Markov processes for maintenance optimization of civil infrastructure in the Netherlands

The Netherlands, like many countries in this world, face a challenging task in managing civil infrastructures. The management of vital infrastructures, like road bridges, is necessary to ensure their safe and reliable functioning. The Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management in the Netherlands manages the structures in the...

Time-Dependent Polynomial Chaos

Generalized polynomial chaos is known to fail for long-term integration, loosing its optimal convergence behavior and developing unacceptable error-levels. In this work, we present a time-dependent alternative of polynomial chaos in order to overcome these issues. This technique exists out of an on-the-fly reinitialization of the polynomial...

Groundwater detection monitoring system design under conditions of uncertainty

Landfills represent a wide-spread and significant threat to groundwater quality. In this thesis a methodology was developed for the design of optimal groundwater moni-toring system design at landfill sites under conditions of uncertainty. First a decision analysis approach was presented for optimal design of groundwater monitoring sys-tems under...

Probabilistic Model of Uncertainties in Two-Phase Flow Through Porous Media

We present a probabilistic model of uncertainties for the two-phase flow through a porous medium. The uncertainty in the model comes from an incomplete knowledge of the saturation-dependent effective mobilities of the phases, which are consequently considered as random processes. The probability laws of these processes are derived following the...

Uncertainty-based Design Optimization of Structures with Bounded-But-Unknown Uncertainties

Spatial flood extent modelling. A performance based comparison

The rapid development of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) has together with the inherent spatial nature of hydrological modelling led to an equally rapid development in the integration between GIS and hydrological models. The advantages of integration are particularly apparent in flood extent modelling. In this thesis, the integration of...

The factor of time in life cycle assessments of housing

Defining Uncertainty: A Conceptual Basis for Uncertainty Management in Model-Based Decision Support

The aim of this paper is to provide a conceptual basis for the systematic treatment of uncertainty in model-based decision support activities such as policy analysis, integrated assessment and risk assessment. It focuses on the uncertainty perceived from the point of view of those providing information to support policy decisions (i.e., the...

Uncertainty in wind pressure coefficients for low-rise buildings

This paper reports on an analysis of the uncertainty in wind pressure (difference) coefficients, which are assessed on the basis of generic knowledge and experimental data rather than with a specific (wind tunnel) experiment. The analysis is carried out on time averaged pressure coefficients in a specific case, concerning a low-rise building in...

A study on uncertainty in the design of river training works: And the development of a method and instruments to improve a full and consistent use of probabilistic design methods

The objective of this study is to make a study on dealing with uncertainty in the design of river training works. Based on this study, a method and several instruments have been developed that aim to improve a full and consistent use of a probabilistic design approach. This study is divided into three parts. The outline is rather unconventional...

A general framework for compositional reasoning with uncertainty

Investigating an automated method for the sensitivity analysis of functions

Automated sensitivity analysis approaches in system dynamics focus primarily on model parameters. Although table functions are often subjectively approximated, they do not form the focus of most sensitivity analyses. Recently, a promising approach that allows automation of sensitivity analysis on functions was proposed by Hearne (2010), but the...