Distribution centres are becoming more and more relevant for spatial planning, due to their rapidly increasing size and number. There is little literature, however, that provides a generalized analysis of the size and functional attributes of distribution centres, and none that discusses the relationships between these attributes. Our aim is to fill this gap by providing new evidence and analysis to understand this relationship. We make use of an extensive database of 2888 DCs in the Netherlands to develop a new typology of DCs based on the geographical location of DCs, their functional attributes and client sector characteristics. The analysis shows that the context in which medium sized DCs are operating is more heterogeneous than in the case of very large and small size DCs. This study is a first attempt to analyse this relationship between facility size and functions based on a rich and extensive dataset of large population of DCs. The results can serve as input for further quantitative statistical analysis and international comparison.
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The emergence of organic planning practices in the Netherlands introduces new, non-conventional, local actors initiating bottom-up urban developments. Dissatisfied with conventional practices and using opportunities during the 2008 financial crisis, these actors aim to create social value, thus challenging prevailing institutions. Intrigued by such actors becoming more present and influential in urban planning and development processes, we aim to identify who they are. We use social entrepreneurship and niche formation theories to analyse and identify three types of social entrepreneurs. The first are early pioneers, adopting roles of a developer and end-user, but lacking position and power to realize goals. Secondly, by acting as boundary spanners and niche entrepreneurs, they evolve towards consolidated third sector organizations in the position to realize developments. A third type are intermediate agents facilitating developments as boundary spanners and policy entrepreneurs, without pursuing urban development themselves but aiming at realizing broader policy goals. Our general typology provides a rich picture of actors involved in bottom-up urban developments by applying theories from domains of innovation management and business transition management to urban planning and development studies. It shows that the social entrepreneurs in bottom-up urban development can be considered the result of social innovation, but this social innovation is set within a neoliberal context, and in many cases passively or actively conditioned by states and markets.
MULTIFILE
The understanding of charging behavior has been recognized as a crucial element in optimizing roll out of charging infrastructure. While current literature provides charging choices and categorizations of charging behavior, these seem oversimplified and limitedly based on charging data. In this research we provide a typology of charging behavior and electric vehicle user types based on 4.9 million charging transactions from January 2017 until March 2019 and 27,000 users on 7079 Charging Points the public level 2 charging infrastructure of 4 largest cities and metropolitan areas of the Netherlands. We overcome predefined stereotypical expectations of user behavior by using a bottom-up data driven two-step clustering approach that first clusters charging sessions and thereafter portfolios of charging sessions per user. From the first clustering (Gaussian Mixture) 13 distinct charging session types were found; 7 types of daytime charging sessions (4 short, 3 medium duration) and 6 types of overnight charging sessions. The second clustering (Partition Around Medoids) clustering result in 9 user types based on their distinct portfolio of charging session types. We found (i) 3 daytime office hours charging user types (ii) 3 overnight user types and (iii) 3 non-typical user types (mixed day and overnight chargers, visitors and car sharing). Three user types show significant peaks at larger battery sizes which affects the time between sessions. Results show that none of the user types display solely stereotypical behavior as the range of behaviors is more varied and more subtle. Analysis of population composition over time revealed that large battery users increase over time in the population. From this we expect that shifts charging portfolios will be observed in future, while the types of charging remain stable.
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