Semantic City Planning Systems (SCPS): A Literature Review

This review focuses on recent research literature on the use of Semantic Web Technologies (SWT) in city planning. The review foregrounds representational, evaluative, projective, and synthetical meta-practices as constituent practices of city planning. We structure our review around these four meta-practices that we consider fundamental to those processes. We find that significant research exists in all four metapractices. Linking across domains by combining various methods of semantic knowledge generation, processing, and management is necessary to bridge gaps between these meta-practices and will enable future Semantic City Planning Systems.

Public Interest in Spatial Planning Systems in Poland and Portugal

As the level of development increases, spatial planning is becoming more significant among public management tools. Although the issue of spatial planning and its mechanisms has been repeatedly investigated in the literature, the issue of clashing of interests of different actors remains to be examined. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the enforcement mechanisms of the public interest in the spatial planning systems of Poland and Portugal. The analysis was based on a comparative analysis of the legal basis of the spatial planning systems of the countries. The research confirmed the hypothesis that even with some sociocultural and economic similarities, different countries do not have to create similar mechanisms for the realisation of the public interest in spatial planning processes. The specific solutions adopted in Poland and Portugal differ so much that the enforcement of the public interest proceeds with very few similarities. The integrated Portuguese planning system, with its hierarchical elements, facilitates the achievement of the objectives of public entities. On the other hand, the Polish system, with the dominant position of the municipality, pushes great possibilities of influencing the planning by land administrators, and the poor location of spatial planning in all public tasks makes it difficult, and sometimes even impossible, to achieve public goals in space.

Transaction Costs in Planning Literature: A Systematic Review

“Transaction costs,” as a well-established theory in New Institutional Economics, has been used to explain and analyze various planning matters for about 30 years since its introduction to planning literature. However, there is no study on how planning-related studies have utilized the theory. This paper conducts a systematic review that aims to develop a better understanding of how transaction-cost theory is used in planning literature. The review shows that while potential contributions and implications of transaction costs have been conceptually discussed in planning literature, the empirical studies have remained limited, particularly concerning the magnitude of such costs in planning systems.

Automated Workflow Based on Transient, Multiphase Technology Improves Well Control Planning Efficiency and Reduces Risk

The use of automated workflows for engineering calculations is significantly improving the efficiency of modern well planning systems. Current automated well control solutions are at large limited to single bubble considerations. Transient, multiphase technology has proven to be more accurate and reliable for well control planning, but it has been too complex to automate and integrate into automated engineering systems. The objective of this work is to improve well control planning efficiency by using an automated workflow that enables integration of transient multiphase technology into modern well-planning systems. The workflow is based around an advanced multiphase engine that covers all relevant physical processes in the wellbore including transient temperature and acceleration. The model has an accurate equations-of-state- (EOS) based pressure-volume-temperature (PVT) model with compositional tracking that, in combination with the transient temperature, can accurately predict the transition from dissolved to free gas - a key parameter in the development of a kick. The workflow is based on Driller's method and has been automated with a controller network that moves the simulation through the distinct phases of the driller's first circulation without any interaction from the user. High-performance cloud computing ensures the workflow performance. The drilling industry has focused on risk reductions after the Deepwater Horizon (BSSE 2010) accident. But the well-control risk is still high. In Norway, the reported incidents indicate a flat or increasing trend. Geological uncertainties and inaccurate mud density (static and circulating) have been identified as root causes for the majority of the reported incidents. Transient multiphase models are reducing well-control risk by accurately modeling downhole variations in fluid pressure as a function of operational mode, fluids, influx type, geometry, water depth, and pressure and temperature conditions. Such models have been regarded as expert tools because of the complexity and numerically demanding simulations. The automated workflow enables a well control engineer to run accurate multiphase simulations with the same user effort as single bubble kick tolerance tools. In special cases where more sensitivities are required, it is easy to transfer the project to the expert mode - where the automated simulation can be finetuned.

Do cloud-based enterprise resource planning systems affect the productivity of human resources in the COVID-19 era?

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the impact of skills and knowledge of employees, economic situations of the company, current IT infrastructure, payment fashion, cloud availability, and cloud privacy and security on the productivity of the human resources in the COVID-19 era.Design/methodology/approachOver the past few years, the advent of cloud-assisted technologies has dramatically advanced the Information Technology (IT)-based industries by providing everything as a service. Cloud computing is recognized as a growing technology among companies around the world. One of the most critical cloud applications is deploying systems and organizational resources, especially systems whose deployment costs are high. Manpower is one of the basic and vital resources of the organization, and organizations need an efficient workforce to achieve their goals. But, in the COVID-19 era, human resources' productivity can be reduced due to stress, high labor force, reduced organizational performance and profits, unfavorable organizational conditions, inability to manage and lack of training. Therefore, this study tries to investigate the productivity of human resources in the COVID-19 era. Data were collected from the medium-sized companies through a questionnaire. Distributed questionnaires were conducted on the Likert scale. The model is assessed using the structural equation modeling technique to examine its reliability and validity. The study is a library method and literature review. A case study was conducted through a questionnaire and statistical analysis by SPSS 25 and SMART-PLS.FindingsBased on the findings, the skills and knowledge of employees, the economic situations of the company, payment fashion, cloud availability and the current IT infrastructures of the company have a positive impact on human resource efficiency in the COVID-19 era. But cloud privacy and security have a negative effect on the productivity of human resources. The findings can be the basis for companies and organizations in the COVID-19 era.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has some restrictions that need to be considered in evaluating the obtained results. First, due to the prevalence of Coronavirus, access to information from the companies under study was limited. Second, this research may have overlooked other variables that affect human resource productivity in the COVID-19 era. Prospective researchers can examine the impact of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Supply Chain Management (SCM) on the human resource's productivity in the COVID-19 era.Practical implicationsThe results of this research are applicable for all companies, their departments and human resources in the COVID-19 era.Originality/valueIn this paper, human resources' productivity in the COVID-19 era is pointed out. The presented new model provides a complete framework for investigating cloud-based enterprise resource planning systems affect the productivity of human resources in the COVID-19 era.

Planning for freedom: From human capital to human capabilities

In this article, I build on critiques of the dominant skills orthodoxies that underpin National Skills Planning Systems (NSPS). I respond to calls for a broader conceptualisation of skills planning by discussing the contribution that the capability approach brings to the reconceptualisation of the role, purpose, and orientation of NSPS. Applying the capability approach as a thinking tool for building a broader approach to skills planning led to the identification of seven dimensions that frame an emancipatory approach to skills planning. My core argument is that COVID-19 has laid bare the urgent need for new approaches to skills planning that are informed by a different set of assumptions, driven by a different set of indicators, inclusive of different voices, undertaken through different processes, and, importantly, driven by a different set of goals. Responding to the call for a broader approach to skills planning and taking seriously the seven dimensions of an emancipatory skills planning system will require an alternative vision not only of skills and of work, but of society as a whole.

Integrating Transition Processes for Regenerating the Greyfields

This book has introduced two new (linked) models for greyfield precinct regeneration—place-activated and transit-activated GPR—with a new set of processes to enable them. The need for new design, planning, and engagement tools that must be integrated into all urban development is also seen as key to unlocking greyfield regeneration. Designs for such precincts have proliferated, but planning systems are still hindering their implementation, especially those systems related to land-assembly issues in the established, occupied middle greyfield suburbs. Planning must change, and a potential way ahead involves the planning processes demonstrated in this book. A first step involves district greenlining, which enables identification of strategic planning challenges and priorities for action at a district scale along a transit corridor (transit-activated GPR) or in precinct-scale areas in typical middle suburbs with high redevelopment potential (place-activated GPR). Their key attributes are gleaned from the previous chapters and summarised in this chapter. A final plea is made here for partnerships to be created from the engagement of all stakeholders: government, community and civil society, innovators, and developers. Greyfield Precinct Redevelopment Authorities established within state governments as part of a federal Better Cities 2.0 program could guide this transition.

Decentralised development policy: A comparative study on local development interventions through municipalities in Sweden

This article investigates how the international wave of decentralisation of development policy, promoted through ideals of place-based policy, becomes practice through development interventions made by municipalities in Sweden. Based on an extensive empirical study across Swedish municipalities, the article contributes with knowledge about how the decentralisation of development policies is formed through a combination of shared and relatively heterodox conditions for development interventions across the different categories of municipalities: cities, towns and rural settlements. The results describe the varying scope of local development interventions and how decentralisation involves differentiating the involvement of municipalities into vertical and horizontal relations within the planning sector. The article’s findings about the variations in local development interventions across the different categories of municipalities contribute to the debate within geography on the varying capacities of different geographical formations to mobilise for bottom-up development, leading to the weaker regions remaining weak. The results of this article also illustrate the importance of reflecting upon how particular national planning systems shape the implications of the general international trend towards the decentralisation of local development policy.