Executive Summary - Temperatures across the Middle East region are predicted to increase by 3°C by 2050 - Warming will be felt more in cities because of the urban heat island (UHI) effect, causing heat-related health problems - City planning and management regimes are often disconnected from disaster risk and resilience building and legislation is lacking - Lacking data and information sharing across multiple levels of governance hamper heatwave warning systems - Urban building projects lead to a soaring demand for cooling systems - Traditional adaptations such as street grid design, wind catchers and mashrabiya screens could be used more - Policy response should include national Heat Health Action Plans that are translated into Local Heat Plans, coordinated and implemented by local governments
MULTIFILE
The Middle East and North Africa region has been absent form stocktaking exercises on social accountability initiatives (SAI), an umbrella term to designate citizen-led tools aimed at socio-political change. We argue that this sidelining is unwarranted, given the proliferation of participatory governance initiatives, civic associations and popular mobilisation in Arab societies after 2011. Whereas the struggle for improved accountability in the Arab world remains under-researched, analysis of authoritarian regime tactics has proliferated. The fact is, however, that many Arab societies have experimented with mechanisms to apply political pressure on corrupt elites while international donors have launched diverse SAIs, including community score cards and participatory and gender-responsive budgeting initiatives. In this chapter, we first identify this double gap: not only has the literature on SAIs overlooked the MENA region but scholarship on the Middle East has largely failed to recognise initiatives launched across the region over the past decade as SAIs. Then, we aim to address the blind spot of Arab SAI’s as pathways towards improved governance. Finally, we present an overview of extant literature and introduce a set of four research questions to better understand what social accountability means for people on the ground. These questions focus on the various meanings of social accountability (musā’ala vs muhāsaba), its modes of mobilisation, the responses from authorities to such initiatives and their overall outcomes.
MULTIFILE
The general aim of this research project has been to examine this phenomenon of tourism flow switching and consider the factors driving the geopolitical instability that can compromise destination security. On a more practical level the research has also examined what the reactions of Dutch tourists are to security threats affecting their tourism decisions and looked at the development of preventive measures against attacks by destinations and travel organisations. Finally, the research on the regional geopolitics of the MENA and European areas have together with the attitudes of Dutch tourists towards destination security been used as inputs into a scenario planning process involving the steering group of tour operators who originally commissioned this research, as participants. This process has focussed on macro environmental analysis, identification of key uncertainties, and the development of resilient strategies for the future.
DOCUMENT
‘Bomentaal’ betreft de ruimtelijke samenhang tussen boomsoorten, beplantingstypen en boomstructuren, en hun specifieke locatie (stad, wijk of straat). Dit onderzoek naar de configuraties van boombeplanting in Delft is de eerste stap om een nieuwe methodiek te ontwikkelen om dit vocabulaire van boomstructuren in Nederlandse laaglandsteden te ontrafelen, als drager en handvat voor de herziening en uitbreiding van het urban forest in Nederland. Stadsbomen zijn de ruggengraat van de groene stedelijke ruimte en leveren een belangrijke bijdrage aan het omgaan met gevolgen van klimaatverandering zoals hittestress, wateroverlast, luchtkwaliteit en achteruitgang van biodiversiteit. Dit is niet los te zien van de baten voor de gezondheid, de leefbaarheid, en het versterken van de stedelijke identiteit. Dit vraagt om een evaluatie en uitbreiding van het urban forest. Omdat de uitbreiding van het urban forest plaats zal vinden in en om bestaande steden is kennis van de bomentaal van deze steden onontbeerlijk. Het onderzoeken van de bestaande bomentaal - het scheppen van een ordening en het benoemen en tonen van essentiële eigenschappen verschillende typen boomstructuren - is onontbeerlijk bij de herziening en uitbreiding ervan. Voor dit onderzoek is gekozen voor de stad Delft: een typische laaglandstad met een lange geschiedenis van stedelijke boombeplanting, en een grote transformatieopgave wat betreft uitbreiding en vernieuwing van de woningvoorraad, klimaatadaptatie, gezondheid en welzijn, leefbaarheid en het behoud van identiteit. Door de kleine schaal van Delft kan de ontsluiting van diens bomentaal derhalve als test-case dienen voor het ontwikkelen van methodes, inzichten en perspectieven voor het urban forest van het Nederlandse laagland. Het onderzoek analyseert de kenmerkende beplantingsstructuren in Delft op drie schaalniveaus (boom, boomarrangementen, groenstructuur) in diagrammatische tekeningen, beelden en tekst op basis van veldonderzoek, historische documentatie en cartografisch onderzoek. Zowel de fysiek-ruimtelijke, technische als sensorische aspecten van de bomentaal worden in kaart gebracht.
The main aim of KiNESIS is to create a Knowledge Alliance among academia, NGOs, communities, local authorities, businesses to develop a program of multidisciplinary activities in shrinking areas with the aim of promoting and fostering ideas, projects, workforce, productivity and attractiveness. The problems affecting peripheral territories in rural or mountain areas of the interior regions, compared to small, medium or large population centres and large European capitals, are related to complex but clear phenomena: the emigration of young generations, abandonment and loneliness of elderly people, the loss of jobs, the deterioration of buildings and land, the closing of schools and related services, the disappearance of traditions and customs, the contraction of local governments, which in absence of adequate solutions can only generate worse conditions, leading to the abandonment of areas rich in history, culture and traditions. It is important that these communities - spread all over Europe - are not abandoned since they are rich in cultural traditions, which need to be preserved with a view to new developments, intended as "intelligent" rebirth and recovery.The focus of KiNESIS is to converge the interest of different stakeholders by recalling various skills around abandoned villages to make them "smart" and "attractive".Keeping in mind the triangular objectives of cooperation and innovation of research, higher education and business of the Knowledge Alliance action, the project aims are: i) revitalising depopulated areas by stimulating entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills; ii) creating local living laboratories, shared at European level, in which the exchange of knowledge, best practices, experiences can help promote social inclusion and entrepreneurial development;iii) experimenting new, innovative and multidisciplinary approaches in teaching and learning; iv) facilitating the exchange, flow and co-creation of knowledge at a local and global level.
Induced seismicity problems in the Groningen area caused by gas extraction have been one of the major challenges for the engineering and construction companies in the region and the Netherlands, not only because earthquake phenomena are new to the Dutch engineering community but also because the problem is very much complicated due to its social extents. The companies working in the structural engineering field in the region in different disciplines were forced to adapt very quickly to the earthquake related problems. It was a real size and investment problem for the SMEs, several of which benefited from this rush, however, only under certain conditions can this new skill set be sustainable. The SafeGo project aims mostly to help to facilitate sustainable development and build confidence for the SMEs in the field of earthquake engineering, rather than producing new scientific knowledge for them. SMEs are positioned in the seismic strengthening process either for collection of data or for providing and applying strengthening solutions. The proposed project aims to answer the question on how the “data-collection SMEs” can translate their data into more valuable assets to be used in the earthquake problem because the collection and the use of field data are vital. Furthermore, the question is also how the “strengthening SMEs” can verify and demonstrate their systems on a seismic shake table, because strengthening requires proven methodologies. The project goal is to combine these two central questions into findings on how the experimental and field data can efficiently be translated into suitable procedures, products and computer simulations for seismic assessment and strengthening of buildings, allowing SMEs to provide novel, integrated and accurate solutions not only in the region but also in international markets.
