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Copyright of Urban Studies (Sage Publications, Ltd.) is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper critically examines how capitalist, alternative capitalist and non-capitalist ontologies and relations are negotiated in a hybrid makerspace that hosts both for-profit and non-profit entities and integrates community and commercial aspects. Despite a growing body of knowledge on the distinct characteristics of non-commercial makerspaces, few scholars have analysed them in relation to capitalism. This applies even more to commercial or hybrid makerspaces that remain so far under-researched in diverse economies literature. These spaces, however, can be of increasing interest given what we know about makerspaces as hubs of budding entrepreneurship and that some makers avidly pursue entrepreneurial objectives while others are reluctant to even consider commercialising their projects. In this paper, I employ an extended framework of diverse economies that understands capitalism as not only a form of socio-economic organisation but also a cultural and political architecture. Followed by an overview of existing literature that sheds light on beyond-capitalist dimensions of makerspaces, I explore a case study of the Keilewerf, a hybrid makerspace situated in Makers District in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, disentangling how capitalist, alternative capitalist and non-capitalist ontologies of sustainability-oriented makers co-exist and conflict with economic relations, knowledge production and relations with the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban areas are constantly developing and thereby affect the local water cycle. Real‐time control (RTC) strategies are used to operate urban drainage systems optimally during these transitions. This paper aims to develop a methodology to study the impacts of common gradual changes occurring in the urban environment (densification of the urban area and implementation of blue‐green infrastructure), forming cumulative transitions, on the functioning of real‐time optimization procedures. A new generic methodology, relying on a comprehensive evaluation strategy based on three indicators assessing the continued optimal performance of RTC was proposed. This methodology was applied to two urban drainage catchments in Eindhoven and Rotterdam using both probabilistic and projected transitional paths. Based on the results obtained it can be noted that the performances of the RTC procedures were not strongly affected by the modeled transitions although the relative performance compared to the maximum performance potential decreases significantly with the large‐scale implementation of blue‐green infrastructure, indicating that the revision of RTC procedures could improve the sewer system functioning further. The relative performance loss associated with the modeled transitions was higher for model predictive control compared to heuristic RTC procedures for one case study and vice versa for the other. Continuous re‐evaluation of the RTC strategy is, therefore, an important but overlooked part of the implementation of RTC procedures. Key Points: Urban transitions are modeled to assess the effect on optimal control (RTC) efficacyStrong divergence from optimality was associated with SUDS implementationLong‐term implementation of RTC should include a regular re‐evaluation of the strategy [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2016, the Dutch government, in pursuit of the UN's sustainable development goals, set a target that all its diesel transit bus networks should be fully electrified between 2025 and 2030. A research team from Rotterdam School of Management has since worked in close collaboration with Rotterdamse Elektrische Tram, the public transport operator in the city of Rotterdam, to accomplish this complex transition. This paper presents essential lessons learned and key practical implications derived from the project. As part of the transition process, we developed a discrete-event simulation model that can simulate the network using different settings and under uncertainty. We also formulated a mixed-integer linear programming problem to optimize the charging schedule. To mitigate the critical impact of uncertainty regarding traffic delays and energy consumption on the electrified transit bus network operation, we developed a real-time decision support system that adjusts and reoptimizes the charging schedule during the day according to the realizations of this uncertainty. We use this system to achieve better coordination between the charging schedule of the electric buses and electricity generation from renewable energy sources with the latter involving high levels of uncertainty. Our study shows the benefits of real-time optimization compared with off-line planning and other greedy strategies. We also show that even highly conservative off-line planning might not be sufficient to maintain reliability levels under extreme operational uncertainty conditions. Additionally, our results and insights have substantially contributed to the success of the first phase of the project, which involved electrifying seven essential bus lines in the city, in realizing a robust and reliable operational plan. Finally, our study shows the potential substantial positive impact of installing renewable energy generators and coordinating the electric buses' charging schedule with their output power profile. Based on our recommendations, RET developed a real-time monitoring system and is working on incorporating our charging schedule optimizer into its planning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the emerging importance of food and Urban Agriculture in the city of Rotterdam. In particular these themes are the focus of two policy documents recently launched by the municipality: the Sustainability Program and the strategic agenda Food and the City . In the process of rebranding the city for middle and upper class residents and creative workers, these strategies directly contribute to the marketing of Rotterdam as the most “sustainable world harbor city”. By way of discourse analysis, we analyze policy documents to highlight the tensions between the advertised social and economic benefits of these operations. Food and Urban Agriculture emerges as being framed to target the needs of the low-income multicultural population, and at the same time of the upper and creative class . The paper concludes that municipal experiments on food can be used strategically to foster competition and city-branding; as such these can ultimately be considered a form of creative city politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the worldwide interest in global sustainability and climate change challenges, an increasing concern is voiced on local quality of life and neighbourhood liveability. In recent urban studies, human well-being, satisfaction and happiness studies are gaining much popularity in a local context (the 'microcosmic city'). The present study seeks to identify the determinants of the residents' appreciation for their daily environment, called here ' city love '. The latter concept captures both tangible or material aspects of city life (' body ') and immaterial and emotional dimensions of local quality of life (' soul '). The present paper seeks to develop and test a new quantitative ' city love ' concept, inspired by the soul and body conceptualisation of urban attractiveness for residents and visitors – based on a novel ' feelgood ' index (FGI) and a ' human habitat' index (HHI) –, with a view to map out the citizens' contentment or appreciation (called neighbourhood love index – NLI) at a district or neighbourhood scale in the city of Rotterdam. Our study utilises data from a quantitative survey among thousands of residents located in 63 neighbourhoods in this city. In addition, the Rotterdam dataset contains not only survey data, but also register data on these neighbourhoods, e.g., real-estate values, crime statistics, and socio-demographics, while geographical information from OpenStreetMap (OSM) is added as a complement. In addition to a multivariate analysis of the rich data set, the paper employs also a quantile regression analysis extended with fixed effects. The results show that the coefficients of the feelgood index (FGI) and the human habitat index (HHI) decrease slightly as we move up the distribution of the neighbourhood love index (NLI). This means that physical and functional aspects of neighbourhoods, e.g., access to such amenities as public transportation, sport facilities, and also streets with diverse attractions or bikeable and walkable road networks, become more important for the lower end of the distribution of the neighbourhood love index (NLI). Our neighbourhood-specific analyses show that the Rotterdam districts and neighbourhoods differ substantially in many physical and social-emotional respects, which calls for place-based policies and sub-local well-being initiatives. • Develop and test a new quantitative 'city love' concept which captures local tangible and emotional dimensions. • Presenting a 'feelgood' and 'human habitat' index for assessing city's multi-faceted aspects of residents' appreciation. • Case study on Rotterdam uses advanced multi-variate modelling techniques in order to cope with the big database available. • Differentiations in neighbourhoods liveability and city love suggest the need for place-based wellbeing initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities worldwide are challenged by a high complexity of acute and chronic problems, including challenges related to economic development, social polarisation and segregation as well as climate change and ecological degradation. While all of these problems are complex in themselves, they are also interrelated. Addressing them in a meaningful way requires governance systems with systemic capacities to deal with complexity. In order to create resilience in urban systems, cities need to be able to learn, adapt and transform across sectors and levels. One definition of urban resilience is the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems within a city to survive, adapt, and grow regardless of the kinds of chronic stress and acute shocks they experience. This is the definition the Rockefeller Foundation adopts in its mission to promote the well-being of humanity throughout the world by facilitating the building of resilience in cities worldwide through its 100 Resilient Cities Programme, launched in 2013. Rotterdam is one of the first cities to participate in this programme. The city has been a front-runner in preparing for climate change and striving for urban sustainability. This paper assesses the concept of urban resilience, introduces the Rockefeller Foundation's effort in building city resilience worldwide and illustrates this with the Rotterdam case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a mapping approach to identify hot- and hard-spots for sustainability transition in cities by analyzing different stakeholder- and policy-driven land-use scenarios in Rotterdam City, the Netherlands. Rotterdam's sustainability office initiated a knowledge co-production process in which visions and transition pathways for the sustainable and resilient future of Rotterdam, considering existing challenges and opportunities, were co-created. These scenarios were analyzed using a straightforward scenario approach to spatially identify, map and analyze change. By mapping change, trade-offs and synergies between different land-use options among the scenarios, this study disentangles the complexity of a stakeholder co-production process and is able to discover crucial transition areas. Furthermore, multiple urban ecosystem services were valued for each scenario, and environmental impacts could be detected for all of the different visions. The mapping approach applied is a good method to communicate the consequences of induced land-use change back to stakeholders and decision-makers and thus contributes to the visual loop of real co-design. Identifying the hot-spots of change enables attention to be drawn to the most rewarding areas for transition, and moreover, it shows areas in which different visions are not conflicting but rather cross-benefiting each other. Additionally, hard-spots or areas in which existing visions contradict each other show that careful mediation and the revision of change options might be the way to go. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Challenges for a sustainable urban development are increasingly important in cities because urbanization and related land take come up with negative challenges for the environment and for city residents. Searching for successful solutions to environmental problems requires combined efforts of different scientific disciplines and an active dialogue between stakeholders from policy and society. In this paper, we present a comparative assessment of the way policy-science dialogues have achieved knowledge co-production about strategic urban environmental governance action using the cities of Berlin in Germany and Rotterdam in the Netherlands as case studies. The ecosystem services framework is applied as a lens for policy–science interaction and a ‘knowledge co-production operating space’ is introduced. We show how policy officers, urban planners, practitioners and scientists learned from each other, and highlight the impact of this knowledge co-production for governance practice. We found that the concerted collaboration and co-creation between researchers and policy officers have led to mutual learning and establishment of relationships and trust in both cities. Not only the policy-relevance of research and its policy uptake were achieved but also new insights for research blind spots were created. In our conclusions we reflect on co-production processes with two types of conditions that we introduced to be most influential in the way knowledge can be co-created. These are conditions that relate to the way knowledge co-production processes are set-up and, conditions that relate to the expected value or benefit that the co-produced knowledge will bring across society, policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Semestre Económico is the property of Sello Editorial de la Universidad de Medellin and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article discusses several studies related to remediation, sustainability and sustainable energy. Topics discussed include efforts of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to address greenhouse gas emissions from commercial aircraft, sustainability efforts at the Rotterdam, the Netherlands and alternatives to standard gasoline desulfurization techniques.