Water and development projects are development cooperation’s specifically focused on the water sector such as sanitation, drinking water, and water management. In these type of development programmes, governmental or public organizations that manage the water sector in a country are usually involved. These organizations use their financial resources to support development in low and middle income countries in the Global South, with the aim to achieve societal impact, often by contributing to the water focussed Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. As the financial resources often come from governmental agencies, it is public money. For the reason that achieving societal impact comes with its challenges, it is important that the recipients can provide accountability of what is done with the financial resources. This is done with the use of a monitoring and evaluation system, which is often required by donor agencies as a mean to provide accountability. Monitoring and evaluation systems involve a variety of actors. The system can have a variety of uses. In development cooperation they are mainly used to provide accountability towards donors and to learn how the cooperation can be improved. However, there is not always a good balance between those two uses, as the focus often lies more on accountability, which could cause missed opportunities to improve the effectiveness of the cooperation and therefore the societal impact. Therefore, this research focuses on the actor interactions in water and development cooperation and how the monitoring and evaluation systems influences the societal impact. This research is scoped as a case study of the IHE Delft Partnership Programme for Water and Development (DUPC2)...

In this thesis, the optimization of inventory management within RTI pooler networks is considered. The inventory management by RTI poolers consists of the network configurations on which the network relies, as well as the relocation schedule of RTI poolers that determines the functionality of the system.

The manufacturing processes of the Dutch ceramic plants are energy intensive with high temperatures. Most heat is generated by firing natural gas, which causes CO2 emissions. According to the Dutch Climate Agreement, the ceramic plants need to abate their CO2 emissions by 2030. This study intends to provide an analysis of applicable decarbonisation options from a techno-economic perspective. The most cost-beneficial decarbonisation options are analysed by marginal abatement cost curves and evaluated by a business case analysis. The results show that in 2030 a combination of industrial heat pumps, green gas from onsite digestion and CCS are most cost-beneficial and can theoretically abate the total CO2 emissions by 96%. However, uncertainties are present and the supply of feedstock and fuels should be considered in the decision-making process. Next steps for research could be applying a socio-technical approach or a detailed case study of one or more plants.

The increase in consumption of resources has led to more waste being generated, which then needs to be managed at the end of their life-cycle as waste. Current practices of waste management are not efficient as they lead to a release of emissions and a loss of value that is present in the resource, which is discarded as waste. New legislation for efficient waste management practices has been established, however, adopting them is hampered by factors, one of which is the high cost of these solutions. However, incentive-based approaches can be used to address this problem. This research explores the role of institutional incentives in the form of property rights bundles for such cases. Property rights are a set of formal and informal rules that define how resource allocation is done, while property rights bundles are the set of one or more property rights tied together. As per academic literature, a clear allocation of property rights leads to an economically efficient distribution of costs, benefits, risks and responsibilities associated with a resource. Based on these aspects, this research explores the influence of property rights bundles in the case of collective ownership of waste processing infrastructure by companies. Through collective ownership of the infrastructure, the investment cost would be distributed among those using the resource, thereby reducing the share of investment per company and addressing the challenge of high investment costs. Furthermore, in this situation of collective ownership, property rights need to be defined clearly so that there are no conflicts among the participants at later stages. The research is based on a case study of a few companies in Amsterdam, who are attempting to set up an initiative to improve the waste management practice in the region. For this purpose, they plan to invest collectively in a waste-processing infrastructure. This research thus explores the role of property rights in this regard. The literature on property rights forms the theoretical foundation of the research, along with the Theory of Planned Behaviour, which is the behavioural theory chosen to analyse the decision-making of the companies. The case study was analysed using the Institutional Analysis and Development framework. An agent-based model was built based on the insights obtained from these concepts to capture the interaction between the property rights and the characteristics of the companies, such as the amount of waste generated by them, the amount of budget they hold, etc. The influence of property rights bundles was analysed using the attributes of property rights: robustness, strength, duration and excludability. The results obtained were analysed using the defined Key Performance Indicators: Joining Ratio, Number of Participants and Number of times the initiative is started. It was found that for the case of the Amsterdam Zuidoost initiative, providing property rights bundles of claimants and proprietors as incentives leads to an increase in the number of participants that join the initiative. However, due to lack of statistical significance between the distributions, we cannot determine which of the two has a higher influence. Furthermore, the influence of the other property rights bundle could not be verified due to lack of statistical significance in the distribution. From the perspective of general results, it was concluded that maximum participants join when incentive 3 (property rights bundle of Proprietors) is provided, followed by when all incentives (all property rights bundles in an increasing order) are provided, and finally when property rights bundle of Claimants is provided. The influence of property rights bundle of Authorised Users could not be verified. However, the influence of property rights bundles for the selected model and agent parameters is unknown, and more research is required to determine this relationship. One of the foremost recommendations comes from the model outcomes that more research is required to explore the influence of property rights bundles with respect to the model parameters considered. This research does not take into account the property rights bundle of owners and it is recommended that future research includes this bundle to understand the influence of this bundle from a quantitative perspective. Furthermore, as property rights have not been studied from a quantitative perspective before, alternative approaches could be used to obtain more insights of this concept.

The development of energy communities across the globe is a landmark for the development of decentralized generation, supporting the transition to renewable energy sources. However, energy communities focus on households with little attention to industries or towards the development of Industrial Community Energy Systems. A central issue is the lack of understanding of how different types of financial incentives influence the development of renewable energy in such communities, as researches and policies focus only on energy production. To solve this problem, this thesis evaluated the impact of financial incentives in Industrial Energy Community Systems through economic and community metrics to compare how each policy performed under different environments. In doing so, this thesis developed a social-technical model which was analyzed through an Agent-Based Modeling Simulation to understand how the elements of such a complex system interact with the diffusion of renewable energy through an economic perspective. This research contributes to supporting the development of policy analysis on promoting renewable energy by comparing the effects of applying different types of incentives on a simulated environment.

A trend in current society is reducing the environmental impact of products. One of the industries in which this trend is noticeable is the yachting industry. Yachts with a lower environmental impact are being demanded. Furthermore, regulations are being put in place that are likely to limit the effect yachts can have on the environment. One problem arising with this demand is that there is no clear indication of what the environmental impact of a yacht is. Therefore, the concept of the Yacht Environmental Transparency Index (YETI) has been developed. To ensure the YETI will be used in the industry, it is proposed that the development of this index be done by yacht builders and designers. However, there is no structured process how this group of stakeholders can develop a credible environmental impact index. Therefore, the goal of this research is to develop a process design towards a credible environmental impact index for yachts. The research is divided into five steps that contribute to the development of this process design and find an answer to the following main research question: How can a process design towards a credible environmental impact index for the operational lifetime of superyachts be developed? The research begins by defining an environmental impact index via a literature study. The literature study was undertaken to identify what must be developed by the yacht builders and designers and what must be the result of the process design. It was found that, to develop a credible index, a test procedure must form the basis of an environmental impact index. The second part of the literature study was executed to obtain insights into how a test procedure can be made credible. From the literature, seven principles have been identified that must be considered during the development of an environmental impact index. These seven principles can be divided into two groups. Where one groups contains principles that are regarding characteristics of the index that is developed, the other presents principles regarding the development process. The principles are not, however, specifically focused on the development of an index by stakeholders from an industry. Therefore, the IAD framework is used that structures the principles of credible index development and identifies the effects they have on the behaviour of and interactions between stakeholders during the development. Certain rules are provided by the framework that are coupled with principles. This process results in an overview of how a credible environmental impact index can be developed by stakeholders of an industry. The rules prescribe how the development process has to be governed and what has to be the outcome of the development process. The two groups of principles are assigned to the rules accordingly. From the IAD framework, it is apparent that the development of the index partly depends on the environment in which the stakeholders act and who is involved. Therefore, an analysis of the industry was executed to identify its influence on the development of an index. It was found that the technical characteristics of a yacht and the behaviour among yacht builders and designers complicate the development of an index. In addition to the influences of the industry, the development of the process design is based on the results obtained from a workshop with yacht builders and designers. This workshop had the goal to specify the rules assigned to the principles of environmental impact index development. These rules concerned how to develop a credible index that is capable of indicating the effect on the environment by a yacht during its operational lifetime. Based on these rules, a process design is developed. The process design consists of two aspects, the governance of the development process and steps that have to be executed in order to provide a credible index. The most important aspects of this process design are highly correlated with transparency. The credibility of the index is ensured when stakeholders develop it and reach a consensus on how the YETI should be developed. Any index that is developed must be made public, including the development method. A third party must verify whether what is included in the test procedure can be predicted and measured correctly and transparently. Also, standardisations must be developed for all procedures to calculate and verify the value of indicators included in the ‘test procedure’. Standardisations enable verification by stakeholders and therefore make the index credible. In general, credibility is objective and dependent on the perception stakeholders have of the index. The process design leads toward the YETI in such a way that that stakeholders are likely to perceive the index as credible.

Abstract The technical and geographical characteristics of fossil fuels have shaped interstate energy relations for decades. The ongoing energy transition leads to an increasing share of renewables in the electricity mix. Since technical and geographical characteristics of renewables differ significantly from those of fossil fuels, it is likely that renewables affect energy relations between countries in a different way. It is yet unknown how these deviating characteristics will exactly influence the international energy relations, and evidence from concrete cases is missing. This study therefore examines the geopolitical implications of wind power in the Danish electricity system. The aim is to assess how interstate energy relations shifted between 1990 and 2018, and whether these shifts can be attributed to the technical and geographical characteristics of wind power. A framework of analysis is constructed to outline the geopolitical implications in 1990 and 2018. Desk research and expert interviews are used to obtain the data. The research concludes that the implications of the transition have been rather positive for Denmark. While sometimes depending on its neighbours for electricity supply, Denmark is still able to safeguard energy security, generate revenues and gain global political influence by sharing knowledge. Further research should outline the implications for other types of renewable energy sources and focus on the geopolitical implications of wind power in other regions.

The Global South is facing severe water and delta management challenges. Strong institutions are necessary to find solutions to these water challenges. To improve the understanding on institutions, development of knowledge and skills on institutions could be strengthened among local stakeholders. This process can be referred to as institutional focussed capacity development. In this study, it is explored how institutional focussed capacity development activities among local professionals in the water sector can be evaluated. An analytical evaluation framework for assessing capacity development initiatives from an institutional perspective is proposed. The framework is complemented by a step-by-step approach in which different elements necessary to identify change such as input of an intervention, the output, outcome and impact are specified. These elements are nested on an individual, organizational, and environmental level. The framework allows one to capture the relations between the elements and the interaction with the context through causal relations. To evaluate the development of institutional capacity, the framework is applied to a participatory institutional analysis project in Khulna through an illustrative case study. Moreover, the framework was validated with help of four experts. The study demonstrates that the framework and the step-by-step approach serve as an explorative analysis tool which supports in identifying the crucial elements and the relations of institutional capacity development. The framework allows us to identify different mechanisms of change caused by the process of capacity development and influenced by the contextual factors. The framework contributes to existing work by using causal relations and feedback loops to capture emergent behavior that underlies the process of capacity development. Based on the case study and expert sessions, the study proposes several recommendation to further develop the framework into a second version and to generalize the findings by application to additional cases both within and outside the water sector.

The built environment needs to become completely sustainable before 2050. Hydrogen is seen as a suitable resource to help in achieving this goal. In a hydrogen system, the predefined high level of reliability, as stands today, affects the affordability of the system. The households are the users and payers of the system. The method used is Discrete Choce Modeling. This research identifies a gap between the Willingness To Pay (WTP) for reliability and the current cost of this level of reliability. Reliability should not be a goal on its own. The maintained level of reliability should be optimized together with the affordability of the system.

Bioenergy has received less attention in recent times due to its changing negative image. For the EU, bioenergy was considered mostly for its contribution to greening and diversifying its energy mix. While its impact on CO2 emissions is hotly debated, there is a dearth of studies regarding the energy security implications of bioenergy in the EU. This opens up a window of opportunities and challenges to perform such a study. The main research question of this thesis is:What has been the impact of bioenergy on the energy security for the EU from 2000 to 2018?The main research question and the sub-research questions are addressed in the context of the EU economy and its vision for climate mitigation. The thesis starts with the literature review of energy security leading up to framing a new theoretical framework. Past implications of bioenergy that includes biofuels in the last decade and a half since 2000 have been analyzed. The thesis has assessed what bioenergy has delivered in that time. Positive and negative developments are taken into account and analyzed with respect to the selected energy security indicators and metrics.Both ES literature and PEST tool have been employed to narrow down the data gathering and relevance of energy security indicators for bioenergy. The use of the PEST analysis tool also offers a unique combination of elements in the framework and a boarder categorization, which in traditional energy security is often not employed.To get a better overview of EU bioenergy, a review of the current policy of the EU for bioenergy has been done. It presents all relevant data related to bioenergy like various bioenergy potential, total energy consumption, and demand, etc. Then, different characteristics and features of bioenergy are described along with the various conversion routes to obtain different forms of energy (namely biofuels, bio-electricity, and bio-heat) are explained. Some of the projections for 2020 for bioenergy in the EU have also been provided to better gauge the state of availability of resources and likely policy direction taken in the future. The effects on the energy security indicators of bioenergy in the EU have been derived from the data on EU bioenergy and is assessed with respect to the 22 selected energy security indicators and metrics from the analytical framework. A rating of 3.0 here implies no or a little effect for energy security indicator or metric on account of bioenergy, anything above 3.0 is positive, and below 3.0 implies a negative impact. It is found that the overall effects have been slightly positive with an average rating of 3.09 for all the 22 selected ES indicators. With 3.5, for the dimension of ‘technology development and efficiency’, it has a positive effect implying an increase in employment in the bio-sector and high research budget for bioenergy from 2000-2018. However, with a score of 2.9 for the dimension of ‘Environmental & social sustainability’, the effects have been overall negative, implying a negative impact on the environment in the last 18 years.

This paper presents a new theoretical approach to design a polycentric electricity sector. The study focuses on Lebanon and its electricity sector, and tries to reform the sector using a proposed polycentric structure. The study utilises the polycentric indicators and general structure, along with organisational modes, and electricity market design variables to come up with a standardised stepwise model, i.e. “Polycentric Market Design Framework”, to design a polycentric hybrid electricity sector. This is followed by applying it to the Lebanese case.

The island of Bonaire is planning multiple sustainable transitions in the water,
energy and food systems in response to numerous challenges, such as increas-
ing population pressure, rising sea levels, environmental damage, high consumer
prices and import dependency. The water-energy-food nexus is a relatively novel
concept that takes an integrated approach to resource security and sustainabil-
ity. This paper applies systems theory and transition management theory to
a water-energy-food nexus approach in Bonaire and proposes three pathways
to reach an integrated sustainable transition in Bonaire's water, energy and
food systems. It shows that this approach can provide valuable insights for the
integrated governance of the water, energy and food systems.

Financial institutions want to participate in the digitization services demanded by consumers. “Banking-as-a-platform” is an increasingly popular business model. By way of this business model, traditional banks and fintechs move from a fully controlled environment, with a full end-to-end product or service without external service suppliers, to an environment where consumers are directly connected to third parties. The role of a platform is to connect different user groups; users who offer products or services via the platform are called producers, and users in need of the services or products are described as consumers. The research agenda of McIntre & Subramaniam (2017) addresses the need towards a more comprehensive view of design choices related to networks, platforms and strategy. Often network effects are mentioned as the most important reasons to introduce openness. It is unknown whether for platforms in banking, expected network effects have an impact on the choice for level of openness. It could be that network effects have an essential part herein, perhaps this is not the case, maybe there are also other factors that have impact. Therefore, this research will explore the impact of expected network effects on the choice of the platform to become more open, or not. The choice will be approached from the sponsor perspective and the provider perspective since these roles are both involved in strategic design choices on openness and related network effects. The purpose of this research is to contribute to a structured overview of possible positive and negative impact of openness in the financial sector, and thereby contribute to the knowledge base. More specifically, the research provides insight into whether openness is included in their platform strategy and if expected network effects have impact on the choice of being open in this specific sector. The scope has been narrowed because the financial sector encompasses a large variety of services and institutions. This research focuses on the (sub) sector of traditional banks with the ambition to implement the “banking-as-a-platform”. The described area of the financial sector is labelled as the Purple Banks. One Purple Bank and one connected retail platform has been selected for this case study. The platform in this research is referred to as FinCo. A case study method is used because this in dept research method allows for a deeper understanding of underlying mechanisms. To give direction to the possible impact of openness in the case study, a frame of reference indicating possible impact of platform openness is needed. In this research a theoretical framework is constructed. The theoretical framework provides an overview of possible positive and negative impacts. The theoretical framework is not suitable for immediate use, it is too generic. Therefore, it is made specific by adding 7 propositions on the financial domain resulting in a theoretical framework specified on the domain. The theoretical framework specified on the domain is used as a frame of reference to identify possible positive and negative impacts of openness. Semi-structured interviews are used to gather data on the possible positive and negative impacts of openness identified by the sponsor and provider of a platform in the financial sector. The result is a framework with only relevant propositions for the specific case study, referred to as overview of factors found in the case study.

The transition to a circular economy requires drastic changes to the economy. A tool for macro-economic analysis of structural changes in the economy, input-output analysis, lacks dynamic features. This thesis set out to integrate dynamic features representing demand change and technological change. A conceptual model is designed that integrates agent-based models representing these dynamics with an input-output model. Demand change was incorporated as individual consumers allocating their budgets with a utility function. A recursive utility function based on the notions of prospect theory was implemented with which consumers allocated their budget over several sectors. For technological change both incremental change was incorporated by implementing the Wright curve, and innovation was incorporated which can be modelled with general evolutionary algorithms. The conceptual model is assessed with a stylised implementation in a proof of concept. The conceptual model shows the potential to replace these static assumptions with dynamic models, however a more detailed representation of product quality is required.

In this research, an Agent-Based Model is developed in order to gain insight in the effect of the design principles on the robustness of collective action on community gardens. The model is based on among others Elinor Ostrom's design principles, the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework, the Theory of Reasoned Action and a case study. Results indicate that the influence of the design principles highly depends on the way in which the principles are combined.

The European Union (EU) has been regulating roaming since 1997, and has developed different policies aiming to promote transparency in prices and improve competitiveness across the members. With both positive and negative outcomes, the European Commission (EC) had a long learning process where different regulatory measures were introduced and modified according to the results obtained. Despite the fact regional mobile usage has been increasing since the first attempt on regulation, roaming has been limited by other factors such as wholesale and retail prices.

While Europe faces challenges related to political extremism, large refugee influxes, economic stagnation, and scepticism related to European integration, the EC aimed for a tangible policy that could show the benefits of the supra-national body to the citizens. After different economic analyses commissioned by the EU showed a feasible possibility of eliminating roaming surcharges, a new step was proposed. Since mid-June 2017, mobile phone users across the European Economic Area (EEA) started experiencing a new European Union (EU) policy related to the roaming usage. The Roaming Like At Home (RLAH) policy became a milestone in the European political process towards a Digital Single Market. Mobile users were benefitted by avoiding roaming surcharges when travelling across countries of the EEA, while telecom operators were limited in the maximum prices they could charge to other foreign operators for the wholesale market. Operators were protected by fixed price caps and a Fair Use Policy (FUP) aimed to avoid abuses from users, as the differences between domestic markets across Europe are still large.

The EC based the decision in a market failure of the roaming market, which needed regulation to be solved. By analysing the behaviour of the market, the prices across the Union, among other factors, the EC believed that the RLAH policy would be a correct regulatory approach to solve the market failure, while promoting a Digital Single Market across countries. However, the justification was based merely in economic values, usually obtained from a Neo-classical (NCE) or New Institutional (NIE) economic perspective. The social values behind the policy were not explicitly considered in the analysis and were not used as justification for the decision process.

As different journalists, organizations and influential persons argue that the EU has become a technocratic body where the voice of Europeans is not heard, it becomes paramount to understand what is behind the European policies and if the social values are being implicitly considered by the stakeholders involved in the decision-making process. Thus, this thesis aims to answer the following research question: “How can we assess the societal values related to the implementation of the Roaming Like At Home (RLAH) policy of the European Union for the case of the Netherlands?”

The report initially develops a deep analysis on the different steps and motivations of the EC related to the policy, especially in the regulations from 2007 and onwards. It aims to understand the reasons behind the regulations, and concludes that both NCE and NIE are not enough to justify the intervention, using Original Institutional Economics (OIE) for it. A discussion on the public and social values is followed, where specific definitions are used to determine what are the most important social values to be considered within the policy. With the help of experts, a short list of ten values is obtained.

A stakeholder analysis is used to determine which are the actors involved in the policy, including those supra-national bodies, domestic and international lobby groups, telecom operators and regulatory bodies. By using the Best-Worst Method (BWM), a Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) method which allows to determine hierarchies between non-measurable criteria, the short list of values is used as criteria for surveys performed to those stakeholders willing to answer. In order to determine the position of the Dutch population, as this report scope is limited to the Netherlands, a combination of three stakeholders is used to determine the hierarchy of the social values: the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Consumentenbond and the Bedrijfstelecommunicatie Grootgebruikers (BTG).

The results of the report show alignment between the hierarchy of values of the EC and the Dutch people’s representatives, but strong differences between the latter and the regulators and telecom representatives. Although the stakeholder analysis does show alignment regarding publicly-available interests of some of the stakeholders, such as economic values, the intangible interests seen in the results of the hierarchy demonstrate a different guiding compass for each organization.

The thesis also shows how the actual approach for the determination of the value of a policy is not considering the intangible values that are behind any human person or organization. It is proposed to promote thinking in “humane” markets, rather than perfect markets, and to consider non-measurable criteria to assess the final value of a policy. It also questions whether the policy values can be separated from the individual values, as there is a close relation between them; thus, avoiding considering the individual value perspective of citizens could lead to future problems in the values a policy defends.

As the research faces different limitations, several future steps are proposed. Firstly, it is proposed to analyse whether the results obtained can be discussed with those representatives of the Dutch population in the parliament by comparing their expectations with the answers obtained in the BWM, aiming to analyse the representativeness of political decision-makers towards this policy. Secondly, the research also proposes using the results of the value hierarchy, and attempting to create a Willingness To Pay for values, as some of the considered ones could be measurable in an utilitarian perspective. A third proposal refers to analyse how the hierarchy of values of the policy differs across the domestic markets in Europe by using theories in transplantation of policy, aiming to overcome the geographical limitation of this thesis. Finally, a different theoretical approach could be used with the capability theory, focusing the criteria to be used in the future capabilities of the population, rather than the functionings.