Foraging is determinant to improve smallholders’ food security in rural areas in Mali, West Africa

Studies on the enabling factors for household food security (HFS) most often used simplified econometric models looking into the links with a selected set of variables. In this research, a livelihood approach of HFS was used and aimed at determining the most significant livelihood assets for HFS in dryland agricultural systems. Elements of the five livelihood assets were assessed through questionnaire surveys with a random sample of 180 households, and six focus group discussions in three communities along the rural-urban continuum, in Southern Mali. The coping strategy index approach was used to evaluate household food security status. Non-parametric and parametric statistical tests were combined, as appropriate, to identify the most significant determinants of HFS status. Findings indicated that most determinant factors of HFS were the diversity of wild and cultivated food plants, and hunting (natural capital); access to clean water and irrigation (infrastructural capital); and off-farm employment (financial capital). HFS also improved along the urban-rural continuum and rural households with high natural capital seemed to be more food secure. Findings call for important investment to expand the natural capital (e.g., domestication of new crops and agricultural diversification) and infrastructural capital (irrigation facilities, clean water) of the rural households

City decision-making : optimization of the location and design of urban green spaces

Le besoin grandissant pour une planification urbaine plus durable et pour des interventions publiques visant à l'amélioration du bien-être collectif, ont grandement contribué à un engouement pour les espaces verts. Les parcs sont reconnus pour leur impact positif en zone urbaine dense, et nous sommes intéressés par l'application des concepts théoriques du domaine de la recherche opérationnelle pour assister les décideurs publics afin d'améliorer l'accessibilité, la distribution et la conception des parcs. Étant donné le contexte, nous sommes particulièrement motivés par le concept d'équité, et étudions le comportement des usagers des parcs à l'aide d'un modèle d'interaction spatiale, tel qu'appliqué dans les problèmes d'emplacement d'installations dans un marché compétitif. Dans cette recherche, nous présentons un modèle d'emplacement d'installations à deux étapes pouvant être adapté pour assister les décideurs publics à l'échelle de la ville. Nous étudions spécifiquement l'application aux espaces verts urbains, mais soulignons que des extensions du modèle peuvent permettre d'aborder d'autres problèmes d'emplacements d'installations sujets à des enjeux d'équité. La première étape de notre problème d'optimisation a pour but d'évaluer l'allocation la plus équitable du budget de la ville aux arrondissements, basé sur une somme du budget pondérée par des facteurs d'équité. Dans la deuxième étape du modèle, nous cherchons l'emplacement et la conception optimale des parcs, et l'objectif consiste à maximiser la probabilité totale que les individus visitent les parcs. Étant donné la non-linéarité de la fonction objective, nous appliquons une méthode de linéarisation et obtenons un modèle de programmation linéaire mixte en nombres entiers, pouvant être résolu avec des solveurs standards. Nous introduisons aussi une méthode de regroupement pour réduire la taille du problème, et ainsi trouver des solutions quasi optimales dans un délai raisonnable. Le modèle est testé à l'aide de l'étude de cas de la ville de Montréal, Canada, et nous présentons une analyse comparative des résultats afin de justifier la performance de notre modèle.The recent promotion of sustainable urban planning combined with a growing need for public interventions to improve well-being and health in dense urban areas have led to an increased collective interest for green spaces. Parks have proven a wide range of benefits in urban areas, and we are interested in the application of theoretical concepts from the field of Operations Research to assist decision-makers to improve parks' accessibility, distribution and design. Given the context of public decision-making, we are particularly concerned with the concept of fairness, and are focused on an advanced assessment of users' behavior using a spatial interaction model (SIM) as in competitive facility locations' frameworks. In this research, we present a two-stage fair facility location and design (2SFFLD) model, which serves as a template model to assist public decision-makers at the city-level for the urban green spaces (UGSs) planning. We study the application of the 2SFFLD model to UGSs, but emphasize the potential extension to other applications to location problems concerned with fairness and equity. The first-stage of the optimization problem is about the optimal budget allocation based on a total fair-weighted budget formula. The second-stage seeks the optimal location and design of parks, and the objective consists of maximizing the total expected probability of individuals visiting parks. Given the non-linearity of the objective function, we apply a ``Method-based Linearization'' and obtain a mixed-integer linear program that can be solved with standard solvers. We further introduce a clustering method to reduce the size of the problem and determine a close to optimal solution within reasonable time constraints. The model is tested using the case study of the city of Montreal, Canada, and comparative results are discussed in detail to justify the performance of the model

Toward Sustainability: Bike-Sharing Systems Design, Simulation and Management

The goal of this Special Issue is to discuss new challenges in the simulation and management problems of both traditional and innovative bike-sharing systems, to ultimately encourage the competitiveness and attractiveness of BSSs, and contribute to the further promotion of sustainable mobility. We have selected thirteen papers for publication in this Special Issue

Protection Motivation Theory and Contingent Valuation: Perceived Realism, Threat and WTP Estimates for Biodiversity Protection

We report on a discrete-choice CV study conducted in Germany to value the WTP for biodiversity protection in less developed countries. To systematically investigate survey realism and subjective threat assessment from the loss of biodiversity described in the scenario the study includes questions to uncover the constructs of Protection Motivation Theory, which is introduced to the CV literature. The patterns of responses to such questions are analysed using an Expectation-Maximization algorithm to derive class membership probabilities. These are found to match the predictions of Protection Motivation Theory and systematically improve the logistic analysis of the WTP responses.Biodiversity valuation, Protection motivation theory, Latent class analysis, Expectation-Maximization algorithm, Contingent valuation

Social marketing and public health

The public health field exists to safeguard the general public from health risks by controlling risk factors, classically through immunization programmes that prevent or control epidemics, or through actions such as monitoring the quality of drinking water. In our post-industrialised society, risk factors other than the environment, such as diet, exercise, tobacco and alcohol use, have grown in importance. The policy response to the growing demand upon healthcare services arising from chronic diseases caused by changing lifestyle factors has taking different forms, and these include targeting vulnerable groups using health promoting campaigns. This thesis addresses some of the challenges and opportunities in public health campaigns and healthcare planning that arise from the growing repositories of data that can be made available for targeting at the individual and small area level in a public health setting. The first part sets the scene by describing the concepts of health, public health and social marketing. The intention is to pave the way for broader discussions – in the progress of the thesis – about healthcare planning, population health, and social processes in the light of targeted public health interventions. Part two addresses the problems and possible solutions to a number issues in healthcare planning, starting with studies at the individual, then moving to organisations and ending with area classifications. The thesis draws on a number of case studies for targeting in a public health context including frequent accident and emergency users, teenage users of abortion services, women’s breast screening uptake, GP registration, and the neighbourhood characteristics of chronic disease patients. Finally, part three provides a synopsis of both context (part one), results (part two) and future perspectives on how routinely collected healthcare data can be used to create evidence for the planning of new cost-effective interventions

Three essays on the use of neural networks for financial prediction

The number of studies trying to explain the causes and consequences of the economic and financial crises usually rises considerably after a banking crisis occurs. The dramatic effects of the most recent financial crisis on the real economy around the world call for a better comprehension of previous crises as a way to anticipate future crisis episodes. It is precisely this objective, preventing future crises, the main motivation of this PhD dissertation. We identify two important mechanisms that have failed during the latest years and that are closely related to the onset of the financial crisis: The assessment of the solvency of banks along with the systemic risk over the time, and the detection of the macroeconomic imbalances in some countries, especially in Europe, which made the financial crisis evolve through a sovereign crisis. Our dissertation is made up of three different essays, trying to go a step ahead in the knowledge of these mechanisms.Departamento de Economía Financiera y ContabilidadDoctorado en Economía de la Empres

Advances on Smart Cities and Smart Buildings

Modern cities are facing the challenge of combining competitiveness at the global city scale and sustainable urban development to become smart cities. A smart city is a high-tech, intensive and advanced city that connects people, information, and city elements using new technologies in order to create a sustainable, greener city; competitive and innovative commerce; and an increased quality of life. This Special Issue collects the recent advancements in smart cities and covers different topics and aspects

Factoring community welfare estimates into freshwater allocation decision making in New Zealand : a common good case study : a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Natural Resource Management at Massey University, New Zealand

The study recognises the centrality of the ‘common good’ by working to improve the intergenerational well-being of all people in society. The research adopts the Tukituki River catchment in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand as a case study to demonstrate how community welfare estimates can be factored into freshwater allocation planning and decision-making. The Tukituki catchment faces water pollution and allocation challenges that are typical of agricultural landscapes with summer water scarcity. A survey measured both current and future perceptions of the catchment, focussing on comparing perceptions of anglers and gamebird hunters with other recreational users. A second survey estimated the marginal welfare benefits generated by improved water quality and the welfare associated with trust in freshwater advocates and policy-oriented organisations. Most users felt the catchment was in a poor state and wanted a future with improved water quality. There was little or no difference between the perceptions of anglers and other recreational users. Gamebird hunter’s perceptions were different from other recreational users at the p<.05 level. Recreational users were willing to pay a mean $6.67 a month for ten years to improve water quality to a level representative of the successful delivery of current policy goals by 2030. Bayesian trust scores were used to model social capital in the form of a novel social trust economy, which proved to be an effective descriptor of the known political economy. Keywords: Freshwater, Welfare, Perceptions, Trust, Common good, Latent Class Analysis, Best-worst scaling, Non-market valuation, Contingent valuation