Due to climate change, there is an increasing severity of extreme weather events and a rising sea level. This combination will lead to more flood-prone areas and areas at higher risk of flooding, which makes real estate located in these areas more vulnerable to flooding. Especially in the Netherlands, where a majority of the land lies below sea level, the risk of flooding is increasing. Real estate assets of organisations, often located in economically attractive but flood-prone regions, are increasingly exposed to physical damage, business disruptions, reputational risks, and a potential decline in property value. Flood risks are becoming an urgent concern in real estate management (REM) in the owner occupier context. However, owner-occupiers of organisations have dual responsibilities: the asset as a workplace and operational continuity to retain business performance. While real estate owners, who also occupy the assets, continue to prioritise financial performance and operational efficiency, flood risks are not yet represented in REM strategies. This research explores how flood risks can be integrated into real estate strategies to support portfolio management on strategic, tactical and operational levels. The study answers the following main question: “How can real estate owner occupiers integrate flood risk management into their real estate strategies?”

To answer the research question, this research follows a multimethod approach, qualitative and exploratory. This study combines desk research, empirical research, and a synthesis. The desk research, a literature study, focuses on exploring different concepts and their interrelationships. Concepts covered include (corporate) real estate management, risk management, flood risks, flood risk assessment, asset management, and business operational management. Its purpose is to identify flood risks in the real estate sector and examine their impact on real estate management, both strategically and operationally, at the asset and operational level. The empirical research includes exploratory interviews, three case studies, in-depth interviews, and a cross case analysis. The purpose is to gain empirical insight into how flood risk is managed in REM and create practical knowledge to integrate flood risks into real estate management strategies. In the synthesis, the knowledge gathered in the desk research and the empirical research is combined.

This research aims to gain knowledge about the impact of flooding on real estate, integrating flood risks in REM, and to explore how owner-occupiers of real estate can start integrating flood risks into REM strategies. The practical deliverable following the academic insights delivered in this thesis is a theoretically informed roadmap that can be used to guide the integration of flood risk into real estate management strategies for owner-occupiers of corporate and public organisations. ... Read more

This research investigates how adaptability and decision-making in self-organized housing can be supported in hazard-prone Caribbean contexts, with a focus on St. Martin. Where low-income households face barriers to formal housing, self-organized housing becomes a primary means of shelter access. While offering flexibility, such housing often develops under constraints that compromise structural safety, climate comfort, and long-term functionality — challenges intensified by climate change. Assisted self-organized housing approaches offer a way to improve these conditions, yet typically focus on initial construction, providing limited guidance for long-term adaptation. This research addresses this gap by developing Designing for a Flow — a structured guidance integrating circular design principles and co-creative methods to enhance adaptability and resilience in incremental housing processes. Conceptualizing housing as a dynamic process, the approach facilitates "flows" through three interrelated dimensions. Development flow addresses incremental construction and adaptation; material flow supports easy repair and replacement of building elements; and knowledge flow enables collaborative decision-making between residents and professionals. The study adopts a transdisciplinary Participatory Action Research approach within a single-case study in St. Martin, through which collaborative tools — including the Housing Flows Cards and the Designing for a Flow co-design tool — were developed and tested. The findings advance assisted self-organized housing by strengthening adaptability and collaborative decision-making, offering transferable insights for resilient housing development in other climate-affected contexts.
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How do shared residential gardens change over time, and what can these changes teach us about designing spaces for collective life? This book explores these questions through an in-depth study of shared gardens as lived, negotiated, and evolving landscapes.
Grounded in long-term, on-site research, the dissertation approaches shared residential gardens as residential commons: spaces shaped by design intentions, everyday use, care, and collective governance. Adopting an ethnographic perspective within landscape architecture, it attends to small-scale transformations, incremental adjustments, and moments of negotiation through which gardens are continuously reinterpreted and reshaped by human and non-human actors alike.
Using landscape transformation as an analytical lens, the research examines how spatial composition, social-ecological practices, and governance arrangements interact over time. Shared gardens are treated as landscape laboratories in which patterns of change can be observed, traced, and reflected upon, revealing how design and governance co-evolve in practice. The study is based on fourteen shared gardens in the EVA-Lanxmeer neighbourhood in Culemborg, the Netherlands, and is complemented by two comparative cases: De Kersentuin in Leidsche Rijn, Utrecht, and Vrijburcht on Steigereiland, Amsterdam, totalling twenty-three shared gardens.
The findings show that the long-term quality of shared residential gardens depends less on fixed design solutions than on the capacity of spatial frameworks and collectively negotiated rules to accommodate change. Rather than treating design and governance as separate domains, this book understands them as interrelated and reflective practices that continually inform and reshape one another. In doing so, it positions landscape architecture as a time-based and relational discipline, offering insights for researchers and practitioners engaged with collective spaces and everyday landscapes. ... Read more

Amsterdam has committed to ambitious climate targets and is looking for ways to innovate its energy infrastructure. To support these ambitions, the municipality of Amsterdam participates in European pilot projects that test new technologies and new forms of collaboration. These pilots create opportunities for innovation, yet they also expose governance challenges and raise questions about how lessons from these project can be integrated in the municipality.
Municipalities are expected to take an important role in pilot projects, connecting experimental initiatives to long-term strategies and public responsibilities. This role is demanding, as municipalities are large organisations with many tasks and internal layers. Coordinating across departments while working with external partners makes pilots an important but also challenging instrument. Research often describes how collaboration between public, private, civic and academic actors takes shape. Less is known about how the public actor navigates these collaborations and how their position influences the way pilots function.
This thesis explores that through the Horizon 2020 project ATELIER in Amsterdam, which develops Positive Energy Districts in collaboration between public, private, academic and civic actors. The study investigates how coordination was organised and how the municipality engaged with and recognised the knowledge produced during the project.
The research is based on a qualitative single-case study design. It combines three sources of data: project documents, semi-structured interviews with municipal officials and consortium partners, and observations during an internship at the Municipality of Amsterdam. This combination made it possible to do a qualitative analysis of how coordination and learning were experienced in practice. The analysis draws on 2 main theories. The first is the collaboration dynamics from the Collaborative Governance Regime framework from Emerson et al. (2012), which looks at how collaboration is sustained through engagement, trust and joint capacity, and the second is absorptive capacity’s first step on how organisations recognise and take up external knowledge. Together, these concepts were used to examine both the organisation of coordination and the conditions for municipal learning.
The results show that Amsterdam’s role in ATELIER lacked clear institutional anchoring. Responsibilities were unclear, leadership improvised, and coordination often relied on informal arrangements and motivated individuals. Engagement was inconsistent, staff turnover disrupted continuity, and mechanisms for transferring knowledge across departments were absent. As a result, lessons on collaboration and governance risk staying within the consortium and can’t easily reach the performances of municipality of Amsterdam.
The thesis concludes that municipal readiness is a decisive condition for effective participation in pilots. Clear purpose, defined responsibilities, and internal structures are necessary for municipalities to translate pilot lessons into practice. The study exposes the fragility of pilot scalability and provides a checklist of organisational conditions that can strengthen the role of public actors in future collaborative projects. The theoretical contribution is that, while current frameworks mainly emphasise relational factors of collaboration, this research shows the need to also account for the readiness of public actors. ... Read more

Climate change affects cities in every region of the world, and cities need to improve their urban resilience. Resilient measures are often implemented in public spaces because they are the urban voids in which infrastructures, water, biodiversity, mobility, and human life unfold. However, their institutional settings often make their design processes significantly challenging. Many complexities must be agreed upon and integrated into designing resilient public spaces. Taking a collaborative approach to designing public spaces has been said to improve their resilience by involving different actors and integrating their aims and knowledge. However, the mechanisms to do so remain unclear. This research explores how a collaborative approach can contribute to the design processes of resilient public spaces. It does so in the geographical context of Chile, a territory prone to diverse climate change impacts. It poses that revised urban design processes are crucial for implementing resilient public spaces. It focuses on co-design processes and their mechanisms and methods to integrate the diverse knowledge backgrounds of the involved actors. The studies examine the co-design processes of prominent resilient public spaces in Chile and design one in the same context. This research aims to contribute to urban design by formulating a comprehensive framework and guidelines for designing resilient public spaces collaboratively. It contributes generalisable and context-specific findings with particular emphasis on the Chilean context. ... Read more

Urban infrastructure and the essential services it provides – energy, housing, transport, waste management, and water – are fundamental for human and ecological wellbeing. As urban populations grow, particularly in the Global South, equitable and sustainable service delivery is increasingly identified as a strategy for addressing both environmental and socioeconomic development challenges. Existing frameworks for sustainability transitions often prioritise technological innovation at the expense of social, political, and organisational dimensions of infrastructure. Likewise, mainstream approaches to infrastructure development favour large scale, centralised, technology-driven solutions, overlooking the diverse service delivery arrangements that characterise many Southern cities. This thesis addresses this gap, combining empirical case studies with critical discourse analysis to explore how community-led and hybrid service delivery models contribute to inclusive and sustainable urban development. First, it examines how academic and policy discourses reveal a bias towards technocentric, Global North-focused perspectives on sustainable infrastructure. Next, it draws on case studies from 14 cities from across Africa, Asia, and Latin America to explore the delivery of essential services by community-based organisations, cooperatives, and informal service providers. Often considered “unorthodox,” such models can – given appropriate state support – contribute to improving service accessibility, mitigating environmental impacts, and empowering marginalised communities. Finally, these findings are used to propose refinements to sustainability transitions theory, including the Multi-Level Perspective. The thesis concludes that policy, practice, and academic theory must shift away from a narrow emphasis on technological solutions or economic efficiency, embracing broader approaches to urban service delivery that can benefit both human wellbeing and environmental sustainability in cities worldwide ... Read more

The Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) sector is a major contributor to CO₂
emissions and resource consumption. In response, the Netherlands aims to make the sector 50% circular by 2030 and fully circular by 2050. However, the transition from a linear to a circular economy is complex due to technical, organisational, and cultural barriers. This dissertation explores how interorganisational behaviour and routinised practices within and beyond construction projects influence the realisation of circular ambitions. This research highlights the importance of top-down support, equal partnerships, shared goals, and intrinsically motivated individuals in construction projects. Trust, transparency, flexibility, and a shared team identity further foster the redefinition of traditional roles so as to drive innovation. However, factors such as focus on short-term cost and risk aversion often hinder progress. The dissertation further combines Sustainability Transitions Research (STR) and Social Practice Theory (SPT) into crossover frameworks that capture both systemic change and everyday practices. These are used to analyse (mis)alignments in the system-of-practices around construction projects. It was found that using secondary materials often clashes with notions of quality, safety, and aesthetics. Increasingly, Circular Building Hubs (CBHs) are brought forward as answer to this problem. This research shows that these hubs can be accelerators in the transition, though they are seen as temporary rather than permanent solutions. Ultimately, no single intervention will enable the shift to circularity. Instead, multiple coordinated changes in practices are needed. This dissertation provides tools for researchers and practitioners to navigate this complexity and encourages learning, experimentation, and a systemic approach to support sector-wide transitioning. ... Read more

This dissertation aims to contribute to the urgent need for a circular city policy evaluation framework in European cities. By bridging the concepts of circular cities, policy coherence and policy evaluation, this dissertation provides an ex-ante policy evaluation tool, namely the circular city policy coherence framework.
The concept of a circular city is inspired by biological metabolic systems and aims to implement circular economy principles in various aspects of urban functioning, i.e. to minimise the consumption of primary resources and energy, thereby reducing environmental impacts such as waste and emissions. This approach involves redefining urban processes to close, narrow and slow down material and energy flows.
The built environment is included as an area of intervention in most European circular city policies following it is a major resource consumer and polluter through construction and demolition. These policies generally promote a circular built environment by replacing primary raw materials with at least secondary ones, standardising circular practices in design, construction and deconstruction, creating markets for secondary resources and sharing knowledge to integrate circular practices into construction value chains.
However, there are two issues that make the evaluation of circular city policies, and those specific to the built environment, difficult. On the one hand, there is the issue of process: most circular city policies have been in place for less than a decade, and the scale of the built environment makes any policy aimed at changing it a long-term one, making ex-post evaluation impractical today. On the other hand, there is the issue of content: the lack of clear and commonly used conceptualisations of circular cities hampers policy (evaluation) frameworks. Therefore, the aim of this dissertation is to explore the extent to which circular built environment policies contribute to the policy ambitions formulated by cities. This leads to the main research question:
To what extent do circular built environment policies contribute to policy ambitions as formulated by cities?
To answer this research question this dissertation is structured as five independent, but related academic studies.
The first study explores the recent conceptualisation of circular cities as found in the academic literature. It introduces the concept of circular economy and the application of circularity at different levels of the built environment. It then provides a historical narrative from the study of urban metabolism as the dominant analytical lens to the more recently developed understanding of a circular city. Existing perspectives and conceptualisations of the circular city as well as current bibliometric trends are presented.
The second study presents the relationship between a circular built environment and the policy instruments for its implementation as discussed in the academic literature. This is done through a systematic literature review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. It analyses over 140 articles in terms of circular urban development policies (i.e. circularity, ecological regeneration and adaptation) and policy instruments (i.e. regulatory, economic and information).
The third study proposes the ex-ante circular city policy coherence framework. The framework, resulting from the combination of two existing frameworks for policy coherence analysis and circular city development, is tested using the case study of the Delft University of Technology campus development as an urban development proxy.
Based on document analysis of spatial development and circular economy policies, the fourth study uses the ex-ante circular city policy coherence framework to evaluate the policy coherence - or (mis)alignment and potential synergies - of circular built environment policies in Greater London. The Greater London Authority (GLA) presents an interesting case for examining policy coherence of circular built environment policies due to its authority, governance structure, scale and the notable gap in governance research that has not been fully explored.
The fifth and last study examines an ex-ante policy evaluation of timber construction in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, given its decade-long circular city policy and recent ambitions for mass timber construction. This is done in two steps. Firstly, policy instruments from different policy documents in Amsterdam were identified and analysed in terms of how they aim to contribute to a more circular built environment. Secondly, an agent-based model was built as a tool for policy makers to simulate the emergent interactions and outcomes of selected policy instruments in increasing timber construction in Amsterdam.
Conclusions and implications
This dissertation concludes that the current understanding of a circular built environment does not see the city for the buildings. By advancing a perspective on circularity in the built environment based on the concept of circular cities, this dissertation proposes that while circular built environment policies have improved their overall coherence, particularly through business-led optimisations in construction practices, they fall short of fully realising a circular city as envisioned by the circular city policy coherence framework. The circular built environment policies of London and Amsterdam are increasingly designed to mitigate issues such as resource depletion and waste generation. However, their policies largely overlook a broader, more systemic approach, particularly in terms of assessing the need for new buildings, maintaining and adapting the existing building stock, and involving residents and communities in the development of a circular city.
The main contribution of this dissertation is to problematise circular built environment policies in relation to circular cities, with a pioneering evaluation of such policies in London and Amsterdam. It positions the built environment as a key component of circular cities, highlighting the influence of policy decisions on the design of the built environment. The work includes the first systematic literature review of policy instruments for circular built environments, identifying a technocratic trend and a focus on looping measures. It also presents an ex-ante policy evaluation framework for circular cities, tested in Amsterdam and London, which allows the assessment of policy coherence and potential impacts, complemented by an agent-based model to visualise interactions and emergent properties between policy instruments.
The circular city policy coherence framework is currently the only one (to the best of the author's knowledge at the time of writing) that not only integrates both process and content aspects within circular city policies, but also allows for the analysis of policy alignment and synergies between different urban policy areas.
Policy makers could use this framework to design more ambitious and well-rounded policies that include all three circularity actions. The policy coherence factors would provide the necessary justification to refine existing policy objectives and instruments or to propose new ones for future implementation, as well as to detect where or how a more systemic perspective of a circular city can improve its policy development.
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Participation activities areoften dominated by individuals who are easy to recruit, vocal, and comfortablein public arenas. As a result, white, older, higher-educated, and male citizenstend to overshadow other citizens, which can lead to a misinterpretation of thetrue community interests. This leaves underrepresented groups – such as ethnicminorities, youth, women, and lower-educated citizens – with a lack of voice orpower. This research examines how public participation processes of projects inthe urban environment in disadvantaged neighbourhoods can be improved to betterrepresent the voices of these vulnerable groups.

The study involved a policydocument analysis and semi-structured interviews with ten experts and thirteencitizens from two disadvantaged neighbourhoods, Feijenoord and Meerwijk.Through this secondary and empirical data, this research found that expertsemploy various strategies in the following areas: accessibility, communication,existing networks, human aspect, location, and rewards. This study alsoformulated a definition of disadvantaged neighbourhoods based on literature andthrough the perspective of the experts. Next, experts formulated multiplechallenges they experienced during participation processes in terms ofengagement, expectations, outside influence, participation design,representation, and understanding the neighbourhood. Lastly, the barriers andmotivators of residents of disadvantaged neighbourhoods to participate arediscussed. The thesis concludes with eleven recommendations for policy andpractice aimed at improving inclusivity and effectiveness in publicparticipation for disadvantaged communities.  ... Read more

Transdisciplinary approaches are increasingly prevalent in higher education curricula. These approaches involve partnering with real-world actors to tackle real-world problems, perhaps most notably the contemporary sustainability challenge. How to balance environmental sustainability with social and economic goals is a contested issue, with varying perspectives on the problems and solutions, even among experts. Furthermore, sustainability education is shaped amidst an unpredictable political landscape and yet unknown technological advancements. This diversity of viewpoints, unpredictability, and a lack of knowledge makes uncertainty an inescapable part of transdisciplinary sustainability education.

Until now, little research has informed teachers and students how to deal with uncertainty. The central question in this research is therefore: How can transdisciplinary education be designed so that students learn to deal with uncertainty in sustainability challenges? The purpose of this dissertation is twofold: (1) to further refine the theoretical understanding of uncertainty in transdisciplinary education and learn to deal with it; and (2) to highlight principles for designing education that empowers both students and teachers to navigate uncertainty effectively. The research approach is based on Educational Design Research (EDR), which aims to combine scientific research findings with practical experiences from people involved in education.

The research highlights how learning to deal with uncertainty is an uncomfortable struggle for students and teachers. The conclusion suggests six design principles to help transform this struggle into a well-guided learning experience. These design principles focus on defining transdisciplinary learning objectives, making uncertainty attitudes explicit, and emphasizing personal development and emotional awareness in future sustainability education. ... Read more

Being both a low-lying delta and having one of the most significant mortgage-to-debt-to-GDP ratios in the world, the Dutch economy is vulnerable to damages to real estate due to floods as this could lead to large-scale householder default and ultimately destabilize their economy. Notwithstanding, a generic and widely adopted tool to assess flood risks and their subsequent effect on real estate values in practice is yet to be constructed. This research aimed to understand the potential impact of flood vulnerability on real estate values, the economic models guiding the assessment, and the subsequent role of stakeholders in maintaining the stability of the values.

A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was employed throughout this study to answer the primary research question. First, state-of-the-art models for examining the effect of floods were explained through a literature review. Second, a framework was constructed to define flood vulnerability, including socio-economic status, disaster-bearing capabilities, and flood exposure. This enabled the quantification of flood vulnerability levels of neighborhoods in the case study. Third, qualitative methods in the form of a literature review and exploratory semi-structured interviews with stakeholders were utilized to understand their barriers, drivers, and enablers and the ensuing opportunities to contribute to maintaining the stability of real estate values.

The results indicated that the definition and usage of the parameters are vital to assess the effects of flood risks on residential real estate values. In addition, the results showed significant effects on flood vulnerability when including a subset of indicators besides flood exposure. When constructing a more accessible tool for all stakeholders, employing a more integral definition of flood vulnerability may thus be more socially just. Stakeholders may contribute to the stability of real estate values by actively adapting and incentivizing each other to similar behavior.

In addition, organized irresponsibility (i.e., stakeholders contributing to an issue without wanting to take responsibility for the caused risks) and pillarization appear to be embedded within the system in the Netherlands. Through cooperation, division of responsibilities, and taking ownership, devaluation risks may be diminished and the phenomenon of organized irresponsibility reduced. Moreover, by prolonged engagement of initiating stakeholders, a shift from short-term profit to long-term real estate values may be stimulated, potentially contributing to the prevention of enlarged social injustice due to flood risks. Within the shift towards organized responsibility, this research hints towards a vital role for both the government and insurers. ... Read more

Cities worldwide are facing increasing impacts from climate hazards such as heavy precipitation, heat stress, flooding, and drought, exacerbated by climate change. This study focuses on unembanked areas (NL: buitendijkse gebieden), vulnerable to flooding due to factors like sea-level rise, river peak discharges, and land subsidence. However, there are many plans for (re)development in Dutch unembanked areas for the coming years. To address these challenges and avoid passing on consequences of what we build now to future generations, effective adaptation measures are crucial. The study investigates the decision-making process for local flood risk measures in unembanked areas, examining appropriate evaluation methods and stakeholders' needs. Qualitative research methods, including expert interactions, a literature review, case studies, and interviews, were employed. Although there are not evaluation methods, the Dutch multi-level safety approach and resilience-based planning methods like adaptative pathway and adaptative tipping point were found applicable to guide the decision-making process in unembanked area development.
For evaluation methods, multi-criteria analysis (MCA) emerged as a suitable tool for decision-making in unembanked area development, considering social values and intangible criteria. Combining MCA with cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) or a form of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) proved effective in balancing quantitative and qualitative criteria, facilitating inclusive decision-making. The research emphasizes the extensive involvement of various stakeholders and identifies barriers related to legal aspects, risk awareness, and communication. Stakeholders call for well-defined guidelines, legal regulations, and collaboration between private and public entities. The study recommends establishing principles for unembanked area development and translating them into MCA criteria, addressing both social values and local characteristics. Further research is suggested to address legal assurance for climate-adaptive construction, increase awareness, enhance flood risk assessment methods and communication, and strengthen collaboration between private and public stakeholders in flood risk management and spatial planning. ... Read more

This thesis investigates the challenges and opportunities associated with implementing climate adaptation policies in municipalities, focusing on understanding the barriers, contextual elements, and stakeholder dynamics that shape the process. The study utilizes a multifaceted approach, analyzing policy documents, conducting stakeholder assessments, and exploring contextual factors through interviews. The findings reveal a complex landscape characterized by numerous policies and diverse stakeholders.

Despite having numerous documents at all levels of government, the Netherlands struggles with the slow implementation of climate adaptation strategies. As a result of the “Maatlat groene klimaatadaptieve gebouwde omgeving” and the National Adaptation Strategy (NAS) falling short of expectations, the national government must take more proactive measures and engage in long-term planning. The country is still in the understanding and planning stages, with little implementation. Effective climate adaptation depends on including multiple stakeholders throughout the process, as well as on government involvement.

The identified barriers to effective climate adaptation implementation include insufficient signal detection, limited interest and focus, knowledge gaps, and feasibility thresholds. Challenges also arise in developing and agreeing on viable options that align with established goals, inadequate resources, and legal and procedural obstacles inherent in non-binding climate adaptation policies. However, the study highlights enablers tied to some barriers, such as the motivating effects of climate change, dedicated policy employees driving interest, and cost competitiveness of certain measures compared to non-adaptive alternatives.

Building on these insights, the thesis provides a practical roadmap, addressing the central question: “How can climate adaptation policies be implemented in the Netherlands?” This roadmap serves as a valuable guide for municipalities, offering a systematic approach that considers stakeholders, contextual factors, and potential barriers. Particularly beneficial for collaborative efforts, the roadmap fosters a shared language for knowledge exchange and coordinated policy creation across different government levels. With this tool, municipalities are empowered to efficiently accelerate the implementation of climate adaptation measures in an organized and collaborative manner. ... Read more

The Paris Agreement set goals to minimize global warming by reducing CO2 emissions. In the Netherlands, the Paris Agreement is translated into policies that aim for circularity and sustainability at different governmental levels. These policies are directed at the sustainability transitions within different fields, such as the built environment. The construction sector is responsible for high levels of CO2 emissions, however, there is a big housing shortage in the Netherlands and the aim is to construct 900.000 new houses by the end of 2030. This challenge requires a transition to a more sustainable way of constructing, to stay below the critical threshold of 1.5 °C global warming. The transition from traditional housing constructions to timber constructions can arguably be a solution to this challenge. To accelerate this transition, the Metropole Region of Amsterdam (MRA) has written a covenant that aims to construct 20% of the total housing production in the MRA by timber, by 2025. This is a high ambition, as currently only some pilot projects are constructed out of timber. While the covenant might give body to this transition in the MRA, there are still a lot of questions about how different policy instruments can foster the timber transition in the MRA. Many studies have been conducted on transitions and innovation policies, and affluent policy instruments for the transition of innovations are presented in literature. However, literature lacks in presenting how a combination of different policy instruments can foster a sustainability transition. This research, which is case study based, therefore researches the different policy instruments that are or can be implemented to foster the transition of timber constructions in the MRA. The literature study presents the theories that make up the theoretical framework and give a deeper understanding of the concepts that are used. The empirical research consists of a document analysis, a stakeholder analysis, interviews with stakeholders and an expert session for validation. The stakeholders within the empirical research are stakeholders that are actively involved in the timber transition in the MRA. This research finally gives answer to the question ‘How can a combination of policy instruments foster the transition to timber housing constructions in the MRA?’. It contributes to the existing literature on policy instruments for transitions by providing concrete methods and an operationalization of the analytical framework for the development of a combination of policy instruments for the timber transition. Furthermore, this research provides policymakers with recommendations on the development of a combination of policy instruments for the timber transition, as well as for sustainability transitions in general. Lastly, this research contributes to broadening the knowledge on the timber transition, as much is yet unknown and there is a great demand for more knowledge on this topic. ... Read more

Due to the stricter sustainability requirements and associated governmental regulations, the real estate development process in the Netherlands is becoming increasingly complex, narrowing the real estate developer’s opportunity space and increasing the uncertainty regarding the feasibility of the real estate development project. Recently developed AI powered generative design tooling could potentially be used to decrease this uncertainty during the concept design process. However, there is currently no scientific method that helps the (concept) developer evaluate the concept design with the use of this AI powered generative design tooling and make decisions based on more objective design criteria instead of estimated guesses. The goal of this research is to develop an evaluation framework for the concept design process that can be used by real estate development professionals in the Netherlands, during the concept design stage of inner-city apartment buildings, to make more informed choices (based on additional objective information) earlier on in the design process to decrease the uncertainty with regards to the feasibility of the real estate development project. The framework will be developed considering the current visualisation and simulation abilities of AI powered generative design tooling.

Using the concept design evaluation matrix, the real estate developer and other relevant stakeholders are encouraged to 1) carefully determine what they consider important for the specific real estate development project, taking into account the site-specific characteristics, prior to the evaluation and decision-making process. 2) By subsequently focusing on these priorities during the location/market investigation and concept design process (for example by focusing on identifying any uncertainties and/or risks related to environmental factors such as noise pollution), the expert panel expects that the developer 3) can better steer the process because the different interests are clear and the developer can better evaluate the results with stakeholders by using the analysis results and ranking scores of the different parameters in negotiations/discussions. The expectation is that the evaluation matrix combined with the use of AI powered generative design tooling will decrease the uncertainty regarding the feasibility of the real estate development project, and will provide the developer with a handle to ultimately achieve an even better real estate development result.
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Nationale opgaven zoals het woningbouwbeleid, de energietransitie en klimaatadaptatie zijn vraagstukken die door regionale instanties concreet moeten worden gemaakt in samenhang met de vraagstukken van de regio zelf. De regio, het niveau tussen de gemeenten en de provincie, heeft meestal geen duidelijke bestuurlijke grens en geen formele plaats in het Nederlandse bestuur.
In het proefschrift is gezocht naar de invloed van de provincie als regionale gebiedsautoriteit in een omgeving waarin diverse publieke en private partijen samenwerken en maatschappelijke organisaties hun stem laten horen. Het onderzoek is gericht op gebieden tussen grote steden waar een aanmerkelijke verstedelijking, ingebed in groen- en waterstructuren, was voorzien. Plannen en planprocessen zijn geanalyseerd, net als het handelen van de provincie in drie regio’s: de regio Rotterdam-Zoetermeer-Gouda, het gebied tussen Arnhem en Nijmegen en de regio Eindhoven-Helmond.
Het proefschrift laat onder meer zien dat planologische sturing een zwakker instrument is dan financiële sturing. Na de decentralisatie van ruimtelijke ordening en landinrichting is de invloed van de rijksoverheid op regionale gebiedsontwikkeling groot gebleven. Voorts blijkt dat planconcepten in de praktijk flexibel zijn. Als de uitvoering aan de orde komt neemt het risico toe dat het planconcept uit elkaar valt. Het onderzoek toont aan dat de provincie haar rol als regionale gebiedsregisseur actiever zou kunnen invullen. De Omgevingswet zou dat mogelijk moeten maken.

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Many countries have committed themselves to the target for a circular economy (CE) in 2050. In this transition, the construction sector is important. One of the tools governments can use to stimulate circular building, is by incorporating circular tender criteria in land tendering. This thesis aims to improve circular land tendering requests by giving an insight in municipal land tendering goals and the translation of these goals in tender proposals. The current state of circularity in land tendering is studied by a case study of four cases. Subsequently, the findings from these cases are verified and refined in interviews with expert in the field of circular land tendering. This leads to two sets of recommendations: a land tender process and tender criteria. The circular land tendering process consists of six steps: - CE tender policy, where the available policy regarding circular land tendering must be studies - Context, where the context must be studied - Project goals, where three or four project goals must be defined, which are pursued in the tender. To stimulate circularity, this must be one of the core aims. - Tender procedure, where the best procedure is selected, which must incorporate a dialogue - Tender criteria, where tender goals are translated into awarding criteria, either quantitative or qualitative. - Awarding & control: Where the contract is drawn up and enforced. The step of tender criteria has been further explored, where criteria for circular material use and adaptive building are designed. ... Read more

With the development of knowledge economy, innovation ecosystems emerged and science parks as localized innovation ecosystems have been adopted as strategies of business support and technology transfer largely around the world. The establishment of science parks aims to create knowledge spillovers and work as catalyst to stimulate regional and national economic growth. However, as literature shows, although widespread perception of SPs as facilitators of linkages building of on-park actors and many empirical studies confirm this perception, considerable numbers of empirical studies have provided weak and even contradictory results. A reason why some science parks are not as successful as they are expected is the weak innovation network building environment and insufficient using of innovative resources. Therefore, this study proposed innovation network building and governance that can contribute to the interaction between different parties and stimulate resources flow. The triple helices of university-industry-government interaction play essential roles in the innovation network building and governance processed. They can provide variety of resources in to science parks, thus stimulating innovation through their collaboration. This research aims to provide a theoretical debate on whether innovation network building and governance can influence innovative linkages building of on-park actors and build a conceptual framework of the roles of university, local government and industry played in the innovation network building and governance processes. ... Read more

The aim of this research is to provide potential advice to district managers how to attract and retain startups into UIDs, thereby creating an innovative environment and filling the research gap about the part of startups preferences. The results of this research contain the theoretical framework of attraction and retention of startups in UIDs as well as possible advice on how to attract and retain startups in Merwe-Vierhavens (M4H) in Rotterdam. ... Read more