Feeling Safe in the Dark : Examining the Effect of Entrapment, Lighting Levels, and Gender on Feelings of Safety and Lighting Policy Acceptability

This research examined to what extent physical factors, notably lighting and entrapment (blocked escape), and individual factors, notably gender, affect feelings of safety and the acceptability of reduced lighting levels. The authors reasoned that acceptability of reduced street lighting depends on perceived safety, which in turn depends on entrapment, lighting, and gender. Virtual representations of a residential street were used, systematically manipulating entrapment and lighting levels. As expected, people felt less safe in lower lighting and higher entrapment settings, and these settings were evaluated as less acceptable. Although women perceived a situation as less safe compared with men, the authors found no gender differences in acceptability, which extends previous research. Importantly, as hypothesized, perceived safety mediated the effect of lighting on acceptability levels, suggesting that people can accept lower lighting levels when social safety is not threatened

Complexity and Transition Management

This article presents a framework, transition management, for managing complex societal systems. The principal contribution of this article is to articulate the relationship between transition management and complex systems theory. A better understanding of the dynamics of complex, adaptive systems provides insight into the opportunities, limitations, and conditions under which it is possible to influence such systems. Transition management is based on key notions of complex systems theory, such as variation and selection, emergence, coevolution, and self-organization. It involves a cyclical process of phases at various scale levels: stimulating niche development at the micro level, finding new attractors at the macro level by developing a sustainability vision, creating diversity by setting out experiments, and selecting successful experiments that can be scaled up

The Sustainable City: An Analytical–Deliberative Approach to Assess Policy in the Context of Sustainable Urban Development

The Sustainable City study of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) uses an analytical-deliberative approach to generate integrated options for strategic, long-term urban development policies in the Netherlands. Scenarios for the sustainable city were designed using visions and roadmaps that were actively developed by actors involved in urban development and planning. The subsequent scenario analysis on potential, coherence and distributional effects across socio-economic groups was combined with the narratives from the stakeholder dialogues to develop model-based narratives. These model-based narratives indicate the necessity of extensive national and international policy choices in the fields of energy, transport and spatial planning for the ecological sustainability of cities. The local level emerges as crucial when it comes to social sustainability. A transition that would benefit sustainability on all dimensions may be reached when citizens and civic and private organizations start to value (more) aspects of urban design and development that contribute to and create a sustainable quality of life. Thus far, little attention has been paid to policy-relevant knowledge on the urgency and complexity of triggering any such transitions. Based on the lessons learnt from this study, it can be concluded that, in the follow-up to this study, issues crucial to urban sustainable development have to be made more specific and concrete and more attention is needed for technological, institutional and societal feasibility. Interaction with policy makers and other stakeholders is again crucial. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Ex Post Evaluation of Thirty Years of Compact Urban Development in the Netherlands

Despite the wide array of academic research, the impacts of compact urban development are not very well understood. What is lacking are, firstly, the insights into how a region or country would have appeared under policy regimes other than those realised and, secondly, a broad evaluation of relevant land-use, transport, accessibility and related societal and ecological impacts. Here, we report on an initial attempt to establish a methodology and evaluation framework for analysing the effectiveness of Dutch compact urbanisation policies implemented between 1970 and 2000. Our conclusion is that without compact urban development policies, urban sprawl in the Netherlands would have likely been greater, car use would have been higher at the cost of alternative modes, emission and noise levels in residential and natural environments, and the fragmentation of wildlife habitats would have been higher.Technology, Policy and Managemen

The public health implications of a sporadic case of culture-proven Legionnaires' disease

Legionella pneumophila is an important cause of community-acquired pneumonia. Domestic sources of infection have been increasingly recognised among community-acquired cases. This report summarises the public health investigations and management of a single community-acquired case of Legionnaires' disease in Queensland, commenced in the context of a suspected outbreak. Legionellae from the case's domestic water supply were indistinguishable from the clinical isolate. The implications for future investigation of sporadic cases are discussed