Logistics clusters, including inter-firm relations through community detection

This paper studies clusters in the logistics sector. Like traditional cluster research, indicators of concentration to detect co-location of employment are calculated. However, this approach is enhanced by including a quantitative analysis of the inter-firm relations between logistics companies through the use of a community detection algorithm on a microeconomic dataset of buyer-supplier relations. Combining both results in a typology of logistics clusters. Next to the big clusters characterized by employment concentration and many internal and external relations, spill-over and polycentric clusters are identified. This approach seems promising to detect in future research clusters in other sectors and place

framework of the ESPON 2013 Programme, partly financed by the European Regional Development Fund.

consists of the EU Commission and the Member States of the EU27, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. Each partner is represented in the ESPON Monitoring Committee. This report does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the members of the Monitoring Committee. Information on the ESPON Programme and projects can be found on www.espon.eu The web site provides the possibility to download and examine the most recent documents produced by finalised and ongoing ESPON projects. This basic report exists only in an electroni

Development of a conceptual framework for integrated analysis and assessment of agricultural systems in SEAMLESS-IF

Production Economics,

Urban Variation Through Evolutionary Development: Evolutionary Processes in Design and the Impact of Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithms Generating Urban Form

The extent to which the mathematics of nature can serve as a generative model to design variation of urban form is dependent upon an understanding of the impact of natural systems on phenotypic variation across natural species, and in specific, the role that evolutionary developmental biology has on the application of these processes in an urban context. Through a thorough analysis of the intersection between the three primary fields of urban variation, biology and computation; multiple methods, that are both generative and analytic, are developed with the aim of establishing an efficient, effective and robust modus operandi for the application of biological evolutionary principles in generating urban variation. Utilising urban blocks and superblocks within multiple urban tissues that differ in location, environment and historical context; the research is developed through a progression of 5 key experiments that advance the methods and tools developed for their application in design problems that range in both scale and complexity; demonstrating the advantages of utilising regulatory mechanisms towards generating varied populations of context-specific morphologies that provide for greater diversity between the phenotypic attributes that characterise the urban superblock

Commuting flows & local labour markets: Spatial interaction modelling of travel-to-work

One of the most promising approaches to mitigating land-use and transportation problems is continued research on urban commuting. Commuting is essential to many individuals, allowing them to participate in the labour market and earn a living to meet their essential needs. As such, a better understanding of the determinants of commuting will ultimately lead to a better understanding of the complexities of employment, housing, and the many spatial processes underlying commuting. However, in order to understand the commuting process, it is important to examine the milieu within which commuting takes place: the local labour market (LLM). In this thesis, the interplay between commuting and LLMs is explored through the use of regionalisation techniques and spatial interaction models. It is shown that LLM characteristics play a significant role in intra-regional commuting patterns and that a failure to account for LLM conditions may seriously hinder the applicability of models of commuting. Specically, it is found that there are many dierent LLMs across Ireland, and that these LLMs characterise the commuting patterns of population sub-groups. By incorporating these LLMs into models of commuting, this thesis shows that in addition to distance and working population size, the spatial structure of origins and destinations and a number of non-spatial attributes such as unemployment, housing density, and education, all signi- cantly aect commuting ows. Furthermore, the distance decay component of these models appears to be capturing a combination of geographical distance and regional dierentiation due to LLM boundaries, leading to `functional' distance decay. This concept of functional distance decay is a key nding of this thesis, and indicates that in addition to the conguration of origins and destinations, distance decay is also dependent on the spatial structure of LLMs, or more generally, the totality of surrounding conditions within which spatial interaction takes place

Countercurrent Heat Exchange Building Envelope Using Ceramic Components

Research and development in building envelope design have promoted the convergence of two system types, Thermo-Active Building Systems and Adaptive Building Envelopes, that re- conceptualize the envelope as a distributed energy transfer function that captures, transforms, stores, and even re-distributes energy resources. The widespread deployment of Thermo-Active Building Systems as a building envelope will depend on several factors. These factors include the value of the design attributes that impact energy transfer in relation to the performance of the building envelope assembly and the return on investment that these attributes individually or in the aggregate can provide as a reduction in Energy Use Intensity. The research focus is on the design development, testing, and energy reduction potential of a Thermo-Active Building System as an adaptive countercurrent energy exchange envelope system using ceramic components: the Thermal Adaptive Ceramic Envelope