Sustainability After Project Completion: Evidence from the GEF

This chapter examines the extent to which completed GEF projects are sustainable and the factors affecting sustainability. We considered only those projects that were covered through postcompletion evaluation at least 2 years after implementation completion, and where the evaluation reports provided adequate information related to observed sustainability during the postcompletion period. We assessed 62 projects to meet the selection criteria, then completed a desk review of the postcompletion evaluation reports and other relevant documents for these projects to assess the extent to which the project outcome was sustainable.We found that the projects covered through postcompletion evaluations were generally sustainable, with the sustainability outlook deteriorating for some projects while improving for others. The incidence of the catalytic processes that enhance sustainability—sustaining, mainstreaming, replication, scaling-up, and market change—was higher at postcompletion evaluation, as the passage of time allows long-term project outcomes to manifest. At the project level, we observed these catalytic processes in a wider set of activities at postcompletion evaluation than at implementation completion. Factors such as financial support for follow-up, political support, follow-up by and capacities of the executing agency, stakeholder buy-in, and project design seem to play a crucial role in determining project sustainability.

Government Green Procurement in Sustainable Infrastructure Development

Infrastructure development is becoming more significant to an economic growth in many countries. A systematic delivery system regardless by traditional or non-traditional procurement methods is a common condition which has considerable impact on project outcome. In recent times, Government Green Procurement (GGP) has received a great attention among stakeholders in procuring products, services and construction works, particularly in public sector. In developing countries such as Malaysia, GGP have been beneficial by enhancing environmental concern to conserve natural resources, however, the evidence in terms of its implementation is still undiscovered. Due to this deficiency, this paper aims to determine the significant attributes of GGP, and to address the significant strategies of GGP in infrastructure project development. Exploratory study was conducted by reviewing literatures extensively and followed with expert interviews. Content analysis method was used to analyse the data. The results reveal that environmental is to be likely the most significant attributes of GGP, meanwhile, GGP Long-Term Action Plan (LTAP) is seemed to be the most important strategy used in promoting green procurement. This paper provides new insights to the literature in relation to green practice strategies and it is potentially to be useful for the stakeholders in prioritizing further efforts of green-oriented public infrastructure development in the future.

The End of the Sea Wall

<p>With climate change becoming more widely understood, we are beginning to see how this phenomenon is impacting on our ability to live coastally. Coastal properties represent some of the most expensive real estate in the country, however these properties are being battered by increasing storm surges causing coastal erosion and decay to the land on which they sit. This is resulting in people fighting to keep their homes out of the water, along with an increasing need for a solution to keep the water out of their homes. In Raumati, sea walls began appearing in the 1950s with people blocking their individual properties from the ocean with wooden log walls. These walls have continued to get larger, higher and more solid until they have become the rock accumulation, stone path and concrete walls that stand today along almost the entire length of the Kapiti Coast. The impact of such walls is that, while they protect the land immediately behind them, they cause greater issues further down the coast, causing sections of the coastline to deteriorate at a far more accelerated rate. The aim of this project will be to put an end to the Kapiti sea wall by addressing the site at the southern end of Raumati where this erosion is becoming increasingly evident. Here, the delicate sand dunes are being eaten away by heightened storm surges and an ever-increasing sea level. Rather than looking at it as a negative effect, this thesis will explore the opportunities that are opened by this decay. The project proposes the reinstating and re-wetting of the once drained wetlands that lie behind the natural dunes. Above these wetlands, a ranger’s hut will act as a home, embassy and church within Queen Elizabeth Park. This allows for a greater sense of custodianship, with more people coming, going and staying within the park. The project outcome will be a building that combines public and private spaces. It will allow for the fluctuation in sea levels to interact with and become a part of the building, rather than being excluded through traditional approaches to dealing with climate change on coastlines. Hence, this ranger’s hut will put an end to the sea wall.</p>

A Revolutionary Gaming Style in Motion

From the timeline of the year, 2012 MONECT has been aiming towards the conceptuality for developing the formulation of making a virtual remote controller for a wide range of variety within the context considering various types of devices and peripherals consisting within the prospective realm of virtual controlling. Moving forward, where recently in the timeline for the year of 2017, the including of the functionality of that very same aspect with numerous advancements which was termed and computed as a remote desktop session with gaming control for a wide variety of games which includes games like Racing, Frames Per Seconds (FPS), Role-Playing Game (RPG) along with many more where each type of gaming aspect was equipped with its own perspective type of setup and a familiar type layout for the users who were considered for having different types of controllers for each specific gaming style and associated gameplay render. The project prospect evolved further within the year timeline of 2019–2021 which introduced and revolved around the rapidly deployable features and functionality with integrated advancements in terms of computing and gaming as a whole. Based on that deployment project outcome and developmental scope of the research, the application utilized the full use of the provided onboard sensors to give the user the ultimate experience while performing gameplay (for example, like the Accelerometer sensor, G-Sensor, Gyroscope sensor, Camera sensor etc. with many more). Each of the sensors controlled a different particular aspect of control. For instance, Frames Per Second (FPS) mode triggered and enabled the Gyroscope sensor which would allow the user to aim at their perspective targets for a solid headshot kill. On the other hand, the Race mode used the G-Sensor to enable steering mode of movement in the form of any vehicle. Besides that, the virtual remote sessions brought about the privilege and also gave each user a simultaneous interaction among devices and peripherals with real-time remote access at any given moment in time of usage.

Uncertainty and Risk Assessment Using Ensemble Modeling for Major Development Decision

This paper summarizes a risk framing and assessment exercise to support a major development decision in Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli field located in Azerbaijani sector of Caspian Sea, using at scale implementation of ensemble modelling technique. A multi-disciplinary team identified a comprehensive list of geological and mechanical uncertainties and their inter-dependencies that could impact the project outcome. 20000 subsurface scenarios with unique uncertainty parameter combinations, based on Monte Carlo approach, were modeled using reservoir simulation software. Match quality to the actual performance helped to select an ensemble of unique subsurface scenarios. With the non-subsurface uncertainties in the predictive stage, the ensemble was used to inform the investment case's incremental value range. The ensemble predicted a cloud of outcomes around the reference case with -25% and +12% uncertainty range. This cloud assumed the same (reference case) sequence and location of the wells. The team selected distinct scenarios from the cloud to communicate the risks on key project metrics. Incremental recovery and production ramp-up variation against significant uncertainties guided the selection of distinct downside and upside scenarios for economic evaluation to ensure the robustness of development decision. The initial cloud was considered to be unmanaged as the well locations were exposed to reservoir property, connectivity, sweep, and other uncertainties for a specific scenario in the ensemble. The team recognized the long duration of development activities and tangible subsurface learning opportunities from drilling through multiple reservoirs and other surveillances, particularly on the key uncertainties ("heavy hitters"). This observation was leveraged to manage uncertainties and make appropriate well location and sequence decisions. Overall uncertainty range slightly narrowed down to -20 % and +16 % while providing an appropriate downside and upside profiles for the investment case. Assessing the impact of key uncertainties on investment value helped refining surveillance and risk management plan with focus areas on well and facility design to ensure risk management measures are executable.

Sensitization of Online Users for Social Resilience: A Case-based Analysis of Learning Outcomes

The article is based on the learning outcomes of a sensitization session held with students enrolled in eleven universities of the twin cities under a project titled Sensitization of Youth for Socially Resilient Communities in the Digitalizing World. The objectives were to sensitize youth for safe digital behaviour, spread the message of respecting human values, personal space, and privacy in digital communication, communicate the harassment policy concerns, and promote the emerging normative order for respecting cultural diversity and harmony for self-actualization behavioural change. Around 500 students directly participated in online and in-person sessions. The findings are based on the post-session assessment results recorded from 374 responses. The project outcome reflects a better understanding of the notion of privacy, personal space, cyber-bullying, cyber-crimes, online sexual assaults, types & legislation against harassment through a US-Pakistan diplomatic soft intervention and initiative for Pakistani youth.

Management of Innovation and Intellectual Property in Outsourcing Projects

Innovation outsourcing creates two critical risks for a client firm. The first risk arises when a client discloses his/her technological knowhow and intellectual property (IP) with the service provider but the latter misappropriates the IP toward its own commercial benefit. Second, in the absence of perfect monitoring, the service provider might exert suboptimal effort on the innovation project. Management of client’s technology and innovation effort of agent are both crucially important in innovation outsourcing. It is shown that client can deter these risks by designing an appropriate contract. Two distinct regimes are considered. In Regime1, the client operates in an environment where IP cannot be protected. In Regime2, client’s IP is fully protected either due to strong legal enforcement or due to availability of a technological solution. First, it is found that an incentive payment scheme linked with project outcome can mitigate the shirking problem. Second, in Regime1, the client must provide higher compensation to the agent when compared to Regime2. A carrot and stick strategy involving higher incentive payments along with reduced sharing of background IP can deter the opportunistic behavior of the service provider. Third, if the cost of operating in Regime2 is prohibitively high, then the client can operate in Regime1 and yet obtain higher profits. In such a scenario, the client must use the carrot and stick strategy. Finally, due to predominant motive to reduce costs, clients might not be compensating their service providers appropriately. Such myopic cost-cutting strategy would exacerbate the IP misappropriation and suboptimal quality problems associated with outsourcing.

Construction project performance: the role of client knowledge and procurement systems

Purpose This study aims to investigate whether clients’ knowledge about construction procurement systems influence project performance objectives and the role of procurement systems on project performance objectives in South Africa. Design/methodology/approach Using a two-round survey, 90 usable questionnaires from construction professionals in South Africa plus 3 expert clients were collected. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics – means, percentages and the analytical hierarchy process to determine the rank of client project performance criteria, while inferential statistics – Pearson product-moment correlation was used in establishing the relationship between the level of clients’ knowledge and project performance. Findings It was found that the common procurement systems used are traditional, followed by management-oriented and integrated procurement systems. In addition, it emerged that client’s knowledge of procurement systems shows a positive relationship with the achievement of project performance objectives. Based on these findings, it is concluded that some procurement systems being selected by clients in South Africa are inappropriately selected. This is despite the emergence of more efficient procurement systems. If procurement systems are selected based on the knowledge of the client, it will give better chances of a successful project outcome. Practical implications The research suggests the need for clients to seek ways to improve their understanding or increase their knowledge of procurement systems in construction. Policymakers’ responsibilities in driving policies that will place responsibilities on clients to seek a reasonable way to improve their knowledge where possible is implied in the study. Originality/value It contributes to improving project performance by examining whether the level of knowledge possessed by a client influences project performance.

SUPPORTING HUMAN-CENTERED DESIGN IN PSYCHOLOGICALLY DISTANT PROBLEM DOMAINS: THE DESIGN FOR CYBERSECURITY CARDS

Increasingly digital products and services make cybersecurity a crucial issue for designers. However, human-centered designers struggle to consider it in their work, partially a consequence of the high psychological distance between designers and cybersecurity. In this work, we build on the Design for Cybersecurity (DfC) Cards, an intervention to help designers consider cybersecurity, and examine a project-based design course to understand how and why specific DfC cards were used. Three findings result. First, designers found the intervention useful across all design phases and activities. Second, the cards helped design teams refocus their attention on the problem domain and project outcome. Third, we identify a need for support in framing and converging during user research, opportunity identification, and prototyping. We argue that the psychological distance between designers and the problem space of cybersecurity partially explains these findings, and ultimately exacerbates existing challenges in the design process. These findings suggest that design interventions must consider the psychological distance between designer and problem space, and have application in design practice across many complex problem domains.

Using non-structural mitigation measures to maintain business continuity: a multi-stakeholder engagement strategy

Encouraging property owners and individuals to adopt mitigation measures to improve the resilience of their buildings and equipments to seismic hazard has been a major challenge in many earthquake- prone countries. Few business leaders are aware of the fragility of their supply chains or other critical systems due to earthquake hazard. Bridging the gap between research production and research use is another crucial challenge for the earthquake risk research process. The KnowRISK project outcome is aimed at encouraging the proactive engagement of multi- stakeholders (community at large, schools, business community and local govern-ment groups) undertaking non-structural mitigation measures that will minimize earthquake losses to individuals and communities. Engaging stakeholders, taking into account their needs and inputs to maintain critical and urgent business activities, can contribute to the research findings and ensure that our data collection is thorough and complete. Engagement with stakeholders, during the whole process can lead to improved outcomes and for the development of viable solutions, for business and society, because of stakeholder’s role and influence within the organizations.