With what objectives do policymakers make transport policy? This fundamental question is subject to a paradigm shift within transport policymaking in the Netherlands. There is an increasing call to let go of the predominant focus on economic well-being and consider a broader notion of well-being instead. However, how exactly this 'broad prosperity' should be operationalized and integrated within ex-ante policy evaluations remains a challenge.

Therefore this thesis aims to aid this integration of broad prosperity, by suggesting an alternative approach to operationalizing broad prosperity. One that moves away from the content (i.e. what should it include) and towards the process (i.e. how should it be determined). By approaching broad prosperity as a context-dependent and normative concept, effective value-oriented participation becomes the vehicle to integrate broad prosperity into ex-ante policy evaluations. Through literature review and expert validation, this approach is translated into a practical framework with 5 categories of 11 process-related criteria. It is suggested that these criteria together constitute an effective integration of broad prosperity into ex-ante policy evaluations.

By performing desk research and semi-structured interviews, this practical framework is then applied to the ex-ante evaluations of two Dutch transport projects: the Meerjarenprogramma Infrastructuur, Ruimte en Transport (MIRT) projects Oeververbindingen Rotterdam and A15 Papendrecht-Gorinchem. The results suggest that while broad prosperity is being used to some extent in Dutch ex-ante policy evaluations, there is still room for improvement. The great efforts to reduce the information asymmetry among participants, appreciate the participants' knowledge, and ensure all participants' contributions within MIRT processes, suggest that the projects are on their way to integrating broad prosperity. The main areas for improvement include the limited influence of local stakeholders on project objectives and scope, the transport-oriented scope of the (MIRT) process, and the extent of representative value-oriented participation.

Future research could examine how to further improve in these areas, address the challenges of a process-based approach, improve the practical framework, or expand the data collection. Overall, a process-based approach to broad prosperity that prioritizes effective value-oriented participation is a promising direction for a more holistic transport system that better serves everyone's values.

To mitigate climate change by transforming the energy system citizen involvement is crucial. Citizen involvement can help achieve these goals as well as accelerate the transition, by harnessing local knowledge for the improvement of plans, creating a support base and the opportunity for citizens to come up with their own initiatives. Therefore this research is evaluating the preference of citizen segments for different participation methods in the energy transition, for different governance levels. A Latent Class Cluster Analysis (LCCA) is applied to data received from a survey, resulting in a classification of respondents based on attitudes towards participation, which can be identified by some characteristics resulting from demographic values and attitudes towards climate change. Additional interviews with policy-makers and citizen representatives identified challenges and opportunities for the integration of citizens' attitudes towards participation and participation processes in The Netherlands. Primary conclusions are that there are no fundamental differences in the participation methods applied to different governance levels, just as the preferences themselves do not vary significantly. Moreover, the majority of citizens appreciate being involved with participation. Therefore, the effort for participation can result in automatic alignment between the preferences and central and decentral participation. One of the main barriers identified is the disparity between the system world, where policies are formulated and the energy transition is planned, and the living world, which represents how citizens experience and perceive these changes. Opportunities for closing this gap are sharing results of participation processes with different governance levels, improving information provided to citizens and improving connection with the community by becoming more visible and organizing more participation.

The Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, responsible for major infrastructure projects in the Netherlands, is exploring methods to incorporate well-being in its project evaluations and designs. To address the limitations of expressing well-being in monetary terms, a new evaluation method called Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE) has been developed. PVE engages citizens in policy decisions, mapping their values and concerns, and providing a more inclusive approach to decision-making. This research focuses on investigating the added value of the PVE when applied to national infrastructure projects, with a case study of the Lelylijn project, a proposed railway line connecting regions in the Netherlands. The research addresses three key areas: where the PVE can be applied in the project process and its perceived added value in the research phase, how policymakers experience the PVE, and how participants perceive their involvement in the PVE. Through interviews with policymakers and analysis of PVE responses, the study found that the PVE has the potential to incorporate public values into decision-making, enhance the quality of decisions, and promote accessibility and inclusivity. Policymakers perceive the PVE as valuable in understanding public opinion comprehensively and improving decision-making. Participants appreciate the PVE's accessibility and educational aspect but suggest improvements in question design and representation of diverse groups. In conclusion, this research highlights the potential benefits of using the PVE in national infrastructure projects, providing valuable insights into its impact on decision-making and public involvement. The study contributes to the growing emphasis on well-being in policy decisions and offers important considerations for the effective implementation of the PVE in future projects.

The Dutch government is committed to transitioning to a low-carbon economy. District heating networks are considered essential for achieving this transition. This research aims to compare two different methods of involving citizens in decision-making and development related to district heating networks. The novel Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE) method is compared to a general survey to explore differences in the results of these two. The research approach encompasses multiple components, including 12 stakeholder interviews, the design and use of a Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE) and survey and subsequent analysis. The survey and PVE were even and randomly distributed across 2700 citizens of the neighbourhood Blijdorp in Rotterdam. This led to 138 completed PVE’s or surveys. As a last step the results of the two different consultations were analysed in terms of reaching the stakeholders goals. The research findings indicate that a Participatory Value Evaluation and survey have different results in incorporating the goals of the involved stakeholders. The PVE was able to create more detailed input for the stakeholders and was better in creating understanding of the complexity of the problems the stakeholders are facing. However, it is important to acknowledge that respondents in the PVE took longer to complete the evaluation and the PVE was rated more challenging than the survey. As a result, the response rate for the PVE was only half as much as the survey. This research contributes to the field of research into public participation in multiple ways. Firstly, the PVE has been applied in a new context. It has been shown that a PVE can be utilised to address the challenges of engaging citizens in the establishment of heat networks. Secondly, most studies on a PVE as a participatory method lack comparative research. This study demonstrates that a PVE and survey have distinct advantages and disadvantages. The identified advantages and disadvantages have been compared to findings from other studies on PVE. While some align with existing research, others present contrasting results.

Train stations are developed by rail companies, for the benefit of travellers. Choices and trade-offs must be made. However, there are no guidelines on how to approach these trade-offs. This study aims to find out to what extent consulting train travellers from the station developer’s perspective contributes to making trade-offs in the development of train stations. We investigate how train travellers make a trade-off from the perspective of the station developer in comparison to professional station developers. Therefore, a consultation method is established using a qualitative and quantitative survey. The first part involves a trade-off in which the respondents have to distribute 100 points, representing the total available space, over eight access/egress facilities. It appears that both train travellers and station developers assign an increase or decrease in space to the same facilities. At the same time, we gain insight into how respondents approach the trade-off. Also, insight has been gained into a possible consultation method by which the making of trade-offs by train travellers and station developers can be investigated. For follow-up research, it is recommended to explore this approach for other trade-offs and in other contexts.

A relatively novel approach of public participation is the Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE) in which a dilemma of a policymaker is provided to citizens (Mouter, Shortall, et al., 2021). In a PVE, citizens face a realistic choice task in which the policy dilemma is explained to the participant (Hernandez et al., 2023). Participants have to divide a set budget over several options.
Currently, there are three main methods for analyzing PVE datasets: descriptive statistics, Latent Class Cluster Analysis (LCCA) and choice modelling. A tool that can identify relations between participant features and their preferences can provide additional insights to policy makers and researchers. If machine learning is to be applied to PVEs, it could be used to predict choice task outcomes based on features of the participant. However, the opaque algorithms in machine learning can make it difficult for a human to understand how the results were produced, which can make it difficult to interpret.
The field of Explainable AI has risen as a response to this issue: the aim of explainable AI methods is to give insight in the inner workings of the machine learning algorithm. An example we further research is SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations). This thesis focuses on the implementation of SHAP in PVE analysis, under the following research question: ”What additional insights does machine learning with SHAP provide for PVE quantitative analysis compared to conventional methods?”
To answer the research question, a case study is performed by applying the SHAP method to the PVE of the National Programme Regional Energy Strategy (NP RES). A Random Forest machine learning model provided the best fit to the dataset. When these results of SHAP analysis of the random forest model are compared to the results of the LCCA, it is apparent that SHAP provides more insights (26 versus 11). SHAP is able to reveal patterns on a smaller scale than LCCA. The resulting insights are different to the results of the LCCA analysis. Many of the insights from SHAP analysis are not seen in the LCCA.
Overall, it can be concluded that applying SHAP results in new insights that were not found with other methods used on the NP RES PVE case. This study has shown that SHAP can be a relevant tool to gather insights about the PVE data and the differences among participants. It can gather individual effects of demographic variables on the choices participants make. Therefore it can lead to more and refined policy advice to governments.
PVE experiments are still in their infancy. The ability of SHAP to provide additional insights into PVE experiments within this thesis provides an incentive to further use SHAP in PVE experiments, including academic PVEs. SHAP predominantly provides insights into the relation between participant characteristics and their valuation of options in the choice task, allowing for the diversity of groups within the participant population to be directly addressed. This direct address broadens the range of results and does justice to the diversity of our society.

In order to understand the impact of new infrastructure projects, appraisal tools are used to estimate the impact it will have on society. Infrastructure is a key part of society, enabling and disabling society to work and live, playing a vital part in everyone’s lives. Former studies by Annema, Frenken, et al. (2017), Niek Mouter (2017b) and Eliasson and Lundberg (2012) have researched how appraisal tools and especially CBA are used by decision-makers to get to a decision. Other research by Van Wee (2012) has shown the ethical problems which arise when using CBA as an appraisal tool. However, there has not been any research on the impact appraisal tools have on the process and outcome of infrastructure projects. This thesis will provide insights in the impact of appraisal tools on social and process equitability. By using a framework by D. Levinson (2002), case studies, interviews and policy documents, the incorporation of social and process equity factors can be depicted per country. Results show that the Dutch appraisal tools do not incorporate a wide array of dimensions and stratifications, which are depicted in literature. This lack of information results in social inequitable decision-making as well as inequitable outcomes due to negligence of not incorporating more dimensions. Two reasons can be found for this Dutch approach, namely the funding reason which results in solution-oriented design, and the general Dutch mindset of seeing and treating everyone as equal, resulting in inequitable outcomes due to not taking differences into account. The Dutch process equity is boosted by its near-perfect transparency in terms of accessibility of documents, but hurt by the lack of participation and the lack of impact when participation is present. The United Kingdom on the other hand has an elaborate appraisal process which analyses a much wider variety of dimensions and stratifications. However, due to a solution-oriented process design, the alternatives for a project have already been shot down when the social impact information is available to a decision-maker. Another reason which hurts the social equitability in the United Kingdom is the fact that it is necessary to have a high value-for-money project to receive funding, resulting in ignoring of social impact analyses due to this economic focus. In terms of process equity, the United Kingdom has a solid consultation process which is used consistently. However, a lack of transparency in the process with regard to decisions made and the availability of (policy) documents results in poor process equity overall. This thesis shows that social and process equity cannot be improved by simply adding tools which gather social impact information to the appraisal process. Political play, the drift for efficiency and cultural differences per country makes it difficult to create a single strategy to improve equity in appraisal processes. However, by improving transparency, focusing on getting a problem-oriented design and using a third party as a validation for the incorporation of equity factors, it is possible to improve the inclusion of equity factors in appraisal processes. This thesis can be used as a basis for analysing and understanding appraisal processes in other countries.

Baumol's unbalanced growth model predicts the tendency of aggregate productivity growth to slow down in the process of tertiarisation. This thesis studies the relationship between employment structural changes and aggregate productivity growth in the case of China. William Nordhaus’s (2008) testing methodology will be applied to the China Industrial Productivity (CIP) Database that follows the KLEMS principles. The results suggest that there is a significant sign of Baumol’s cost disease in China during 1987-2010. Moreover, with more and more workers tolerating lower pay in the stagnant sectors, aggregate demand growth in the market will slow down. Eventually, the unbalanced growth may lead to economic stagnation. Hence, it is necessary to intervene in income distribution through fiscal and monetary policies to make the workers in the stagnant industries benefit from the technological progress.

The municipality of Amsterdam is currently in the middle of a heat transition. The municipalit aims to cut down the use of natural gas for space heating in order to reduce its impact on the natural environment. For the Geerdinkhof neighborhood in Amsterdam South-East, the municipality is planning to implement a district heating system. These systems make use of a collective heat source and rely on underground isolated pipelines to deliver the heat to the end-user. These systems are a significant investment in infrastructure and require adjustments to households before they are suitable for this type of system. A heat transition like the one in Geerdinkhof is a significant challenge, as the heating alternatives that are considered are sometimes met with some resistance from households. Households might not always want to switch to a heating alternative for a variety of reasons. The heat transition therefore becomes a question of social acceptance: are households going to make use of this new system or will they resist the implementation? This master thesis is an exploratory study into reasons for social non-acceptance of a new residential heating system in Geerdinkhof, Amsterdam. Given the long life-time of energy systems and large investments necessary, the municipality of Amsterdam is interested in identifying reasons households might not accept a new heating technology. This thesis makes use of the theory on human values, value change and value conflicts to evaluate how households are affected by a heating alternative in their value fulfillment. In order to simulate the effects different configurations of heating alternatives can have on the human values of households, an agent-based model is constructed. This model is used to anticipate possible value conflicts households could experience in a transition to a new residential heating system. Three recommendations are made to the municipality of Amsterdam in support of social acceptance of a new heating alternative in Geerdinkhof: increase the affordability of the system through subsidies, prioritize household insulation for increased thermal comfort and answer to the Geerdinkhof neighborhood characteristics. The households in this neighborhood might require higher levels of participation, ownership and overall inclusion before they are to socially accept the heating alternative.

A multilateral organ, a national public and a national government are three entities that are inseparably intertwined. Together they form the dynamic policy triangle: a vibrant political system, constantly changing due to insights in the scholarly and public debate. This vibrancy leads to the fact that, despite an abundance of performed academic research, the relationship between the three entities remains a relevant field of investigation. A relatively unexplored aspect of the dynamic policy triangle is the working of a multilateral policy package within the relationship between national public and national government. An example of such a multilateral policy package is the United Nations’s collection of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The general assumption is that all the goals are of equal importance, and that no country should be left behind when attempting to achieve them. National governments seem to follow this rationale, and claim not to make any prioritisation of one SDG over another. However, literature has shown that prioritisations of certain SDGs are likely to be made by national governments. Additionally, it is conceivable that citizens also prioritise certain goals over others. Both seem previously unexplored in academic literature and government publications. This research partially fills these gaps in knowledge by performing a Discrete Choice Modelling experiment within the domain of the Netherlands. This is a method in which respondents of a survey are asked to review several hypothetical scenarios and to choose their preferred option out of a finite set of choices. In total, 36 Discrete Choice Models were estimated, either for the total sample of respondents, or for the samples of Dutch citizens and policy makers separately. The results provide indicative evidence that Dutch citizens and Dutch policy makers are to a great extent aligned in terms of their SDG preferences. For the main part, both groups do not prioritise certain goals over others. Also, when comparing individual SDGs between the two groups, no significant differences are to be found. The results, however, do suggest several differences between the two groups. Firstly, Dutch citizens relatively reject SDG 17 - to revitalise global partnership for sustainable development - to several others. In this finding, a preference for planet- and people related SDGs becomes apparent. Policy makers do not show this behaviour. Secondly, Dutch policy makers prefer SDG 15 over SDGs 7, 8, and 9 in the Netherlands. This shows that biodiversity in their own country is prioritised, and that certain economical and innovative SDGs are deemed of lesser importance. Citizens do not show this behaviour. The results suggest a preference for SDG action in the Global South; 13% more weight is attributed to SDG action in the Global South than in the Netherlands. This preference does not significantly differ between the two study groups. Also, the results indicate that both groups are loss-averse in the SDG context, meaning that SDG action is considered more important in a scenario when a certain SDG decreases than when it increases. It was found that citizens are more loss-averse than policy makers.

To be able to solve the increasingly complex problems, governments need to collaborate with various parties. This way of policy development is called interactive policy making. Citizen participation is a specific form of interactive policy making and focusses on involving citizens in the policy making process. A relatively new online participation method is Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE). It aims to facilitate mass citizen participation and to be inclusive. Everyone who wants to participate in the process should get the change to do so. At the same time PVE is an evaluation method for public policy. To be able to provide an accurate advice about the preferences of citizens regarding a set of policy options, the sample under study needs to be representative. Representativity and inclusivity seem to conflict with each other as making the research available for the public very often leads to a biased sample. The aim of this study is to examine the consequences of the trade-off between representativity and inclusivity for the usability of PVE in the policy context.

This study investigates paternalistic and non-paternalistic altruistic preferences in the Willingness to Allocate Public Budget approach (WTAPB) in a transport context. To the best of my knowledge the extent to which citizens are willing to sacrifice effects for themselves to realize effects for other people, has not been studied in a WTAPB setting. This is the most important research gap that this study aims to alleviate. Furthermore, it is investigated to what extent citizens express paternalistic and non-paternalistic altruistic preferences. Two stated choice experiments were conducted by asking citizens to advice the government with regard to an investment in a bicycle infrastructure project which differ in travel time savings and safety. The first experiment focused on altruistic preferences for 10.000 citizens including themselves and 10.000 other citizens respectively. The second experiment focused on paternalistic and non-paternalistic preferences for 10.000 other citizens. This research has shown that respondents are willing to sacrifice more than 6 minutes travel time savings for 10.000 citizens including themselves, for a 10% risk reduction for 10.000 other citizens. Furthermore, individuals are willing to sacrifice 7% risk reduction for 10.000 citizens including themselves for 10% risk reduction for 10.000 other citizens.

Water challenges the livelihood of all living beings through its scarcity and its abundance. Due to climate change these extremes will intensify in the future. As mankind continues to cluster in economic centre points, housing areas as well as infrastructure increases. This situation forces the water to run off rather than infiltrate. Inundated areas place a threat to health and mankind will be forced to increase the resilience in urban areas. Adaptation to more extreme weather situation on private terrain is necessary as private space contributes 50% of the area. In order to stimulate inhabitants to adapt different measures it is essential to get an idea of their receptivity. The receptivity model of Jeffrey and Seaton (2009) offers a framework to understand with which of the 4 A’s (Awareness, Association, Acquisition and Application) residents are struggling most. A sequential mixed method of combining questionnaires and focus groups was used to collect data on residents’ receptivity and perceived effectiveness of potential rainproof measures. Additionally, the hydrologic expected effectiveness of selected rainproof measures was analysed with help of the Adaptation Support Tool and compared to the perceived effectiveness. Although residents are developing all 4 A’s simultaneously to different extend and speed, it appears that residents are struggling with Awareness. Their experience with flooding and water damage reveals awareness of the issue itself; however, hesitation to implement countermeasures was noticed. The awareness of solutions is missing for more than half of the respondents. The association with their own agenda and recognising the benefits is not yet widespread among residents. The acquisition requirement of receptivity – the knowledge about implementation, operation and maintenance – is missing. It is evident that the application requirement cannot be accomplished as acquisition is absent. Residents demand additional information. The development of the 4 A’s, specifically Association and Acquisition, require more attention. Residents recognise their own responsibility for the private lot, but also shared responsibility and thus community actions are expected. Residents insist that the municipality and Waternet fulfil their tasks within their responsibilities. Transparency and communication with residents are important features, whereby provision of tailor-made advice has high importance. Recognising responsibilities and also dependencies between different stakeholders as well as knowledge requests reveal lacking receptivity and further encouragement is required. Frontrunners can hereby play an important role. The effectiveness of countermeasures is an important consideration for increasing resilience. Evidently respondents indicated rainwater barrels as possible measure to temporarily store water. Green roofs were also well known. The perceived effectiveness scored relatively high for all temporary water storage measures. The Adaptation Support Tool (AST ) calculated effectiveness between 2% and 42%, where this is a percentage of a 60mm precipitation storage target. The highest effectiveness of 42% is achieved by intensive green roofs, whereas the costs are relatively high. A rainwater pond on the other hand has low investment and maintenance costs and scored an effectiveness of 22%. Green gardens reveal higher costs, but also greater effectiveness. It is expected that all gardens already have some green spaces and a simple intervention as reducing tiles could contribute up to 30% of the target. The calculations demonstrate that none of the measures could achieve the target alone. A combination is required, whereby the order of implementation can be guided by their effectiveness and costs. For improving receptivity of residents, several points should be considered. First of all connect residents with similar issues, they possibly motivate each other and develop an urge to action. Tailor-made information improves information distribution. Residents are reluctant due to unfamiliarity with alternatives for their specific situation. It is also important that residents are aware of the effectiveness and the costs of measures for when they need to chose. The AST calculations give insight in the effectiveness and costs of measures. Transparency of tasks, responsibilities and choices of the municipality, Waternet and Amsterdam Rainproof could provide a positive mindset towards the implementation of rainproof measures. Communication about (possible) barriers might be helpful in order to prepare residents. It is important that the municipality promotes climate adaptation throughout the entire legal and organisational levels.

Many grand challenges like climate change or health security cannot be solved by only the policymakers. Support and expertise of citizens is needed to solve these challenges (Gerton & Mitchell, 2019). Due to the demand for public participation, Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE) fulfils the needs of involving many participants in a scalable way in the process of participation and evaluation. PVE is unique in the way that it allows people to be a virtual decision-maker in a specific context. This method is not a decision-making tool in itself, but it allows participants to make their quantitative decisions and asks them to motivate their answers qualitatively. This results in qualitative and quantitative data about their choices. This research has explored opportunities of Natural Language Processing to automate the qualitative data processing of motivations given by citizens regarding a policy. The focus of this research has been set on human values to categorize the motivations of participants.Results from qualitative data analysis can support the process of policymaking. The outcomes of this exploratory study have been reflected by stakeholders involved in the case study to validate the application within the domain of decision-making. One outcome is that results from qualitative data analysis in PVE should never become a decision-making tool by itself. These outcomes help in creativity and reflection of the policy. Policymakers want to have outcomes of public evaluation and they want to be to act upon them. Analysing the qualitative data based on values give substance to certain values and can give guidelines on how to take these values into account. One way of doing this is visualising the values, norms and design principles in a value hierarchy using Value Sensitive Design. By doing this, knowledge of ‘the public’ can be used to support making policies.

Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE) is a webtool-based participation method that is used to increase participation by others than the usual suspects. In PVE, respondents are asked to allocate a budget or points to a portfolio of projects that reflect real policy options, therewith evaluating the projects by stating their preferences. However, the provision of information in PVE on complex subjects such as urban climate adaptation still is characterized by some problems such as susceptibility by framing, misinterpretation and self-selection. In other words, information provision often does not comply with wishes and needs of participants. In this research, two information provision approaches are tested in PVE in an information manipulation experiment. From the research both quantitative as qualitative results are obtained, analysed by using a mixed methods approach. It is observed that the tested information provision approaches do not affect the choices made in PVE or participants’ feeling of empowerment. Moreover, it appears that the wishes and needs for information in PVE vary widely between participants. It is concluded that this heterogeneity should be the starting point in designing information provision. Deliberative participation and progressive disclosure of information are ways to accomplish this. It is recommended to apply these approaches in PVE in future research.

Recent years the Netherlands have been shocked by a series of earthquakes. Normally an earthquake would be considered as a natural hazard, however extracting gas induces these earthquakes. Whenever a hazard is induced, it is perceived as man-made and therefore controllable. This leads to differences in risk acceptance in relation to natural hazards. When ambiguity about risks exists, a participatory strategy should be used with involvement of the local community. In cases of induced hazards, low trust between local communities and authorities exists, leading to ineffective risk mitigation. The first step of improving mitigation measures is finding out whether differences in risk acceptance lead to differences in mitigation measure preferences. In this paper this research objective is carried out by gathering data in the earthquake area in Groningen with the Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE) method. Next the data is analysed using factor analysis and logistic regression. Based on the results is concluded that citizens with lower trust in authorities prefer measures that directly target the consequences of the induced hazard. While citizens with more trust in authorities and more belief in the benefits of the activity causing the hazard are more open for measures that target the indirect consequences of the hazard. During this research, assumptions were made to construct the context of the PVE method. To improve the validity of this research it is suggested to repeat the research with different variables.

One of the pillars of Dutch municipal decision-making is to stimulate citizen participation in agenda- setting and decision-making (VNG, 2018). Involving citizens in the allocation of the public budget for addressing specific challenges is a novel approach to participatory decision-making. This thesis examines the applicability of the Participatory Value Evaluation (PVE) as a participatory budgeting tool to improve the economic assessment of investments with public funds on Urban Storm Water Management (USWM). The PVE method was developed by Mouter, Koster and Dekker (2017) to overcome the economical dispute on the use of consumer Willingness to Pay (WTP) for the valuation of investments with public funds. The PVE-method could be a valuable means to improve the assessment of public investment opportunities and facilitate participation in the decision-making process. However, due to a lack of experience with the actual application of the method in different sectors, scientists and practitioners lack the knowledge to understand whether and how the PVE- method can be applied in different fields and administrative levels of public decision-making. The PVE-method has so far only been applied twice; in a transportation study in the Metropolitan Region of Amsterdam (Mouter, Koster & Dekker, 2017) and in a national Water Safety study by the ministry of Economic Affairs in the Netherlands (Mouter, Koster, Dekker & Borst, 2018a, 2018b). These applications of the PVE-method are significantly different from applying the PVE-method to assess measures for USWM in terms of the scale level of the administration and specific characteristics of the USWM context. Therefore, the applicability of the PVE-method on a municipal level is assessed through the development of a case study in the municipality of The Hague that focused on the topical societal challenge of managing superfluous storm water in the urban environment. In this context, the application of the PVE could help to steer future investments in climate adaptation and USWM strategies, such that the highest value-for-money can be achieved.

This thesis discusses the way individuals in their role as citizens make trade-offs between open education data attributes. The Dutch government agencies lack of insight in the citizen preferences for open data policy attributes lead them to evaluate and develop their open data policy only from the data provider perspective. In order to address the problem, this research aims to identify the citizens preferences for the open education data policy using the citizens stated choice experiments. The experiment is based on Random Utility Maximization theory, the study infers the citizen preferences of open education data attributes based on their choices for several hypothetical open education data policy. The study combines 4 attributes with 3 attribute levels to create the hypothetical open education data policy: mode of information presentation, number of free engaging hackathon events, number of free citizen data skill training events, and risk of your personal data exposed to the public. The citizens significantly value risk of your personal data exposed to the public and mode of information presentation. Government agencies have limited option if it wants to extend the open education data implementation because citizens reluctance to compromise the data protection attribute. This research is a first attempt to extend citizen stated choice experiment approach for the valuation of citizen preferences in the context of open education data policy. It provides an alternative method for governments to evaluate and develop their open data policy alongside the commonly used government/data provider perspective

World population growth and in-urbanisation are challenging the policymakers and urban designers in finding an alternative way to develop sustainable and liveable cities. The researchers have already acknowledged the use of the subterranean space, especially when it can serve multiple functions, as a valuable mean towards this goal. However, despite many examples of underground structures already implemented, it is not clear which are, in practice, the reasons behind the choice of building them...