Pathways towards sustainable urban transport development. Investigating the transferability of Munich best practice in collaborative stakeholder dialogue to the context of Sydney

Research and practice have produced valuable recommendations on transport infrastructure elements or programs that can contribute towards more sustainable urban transport development (see Schiller, Bruun & Kenworthy 2010 for a comprehensive overview). However, conflicting values and competing interests among stakeholders in the transport policy process often create barriers to the implementation of these policies (Baumann & White 2010a). These transport stakeholders range from community organisations through to business interest groups, infrastructure and service providers and pedestrian, cyclist and motorist associations. Problem situations like these, for which there are no solutions that completely satisfy all parties, are often referred to as wicked problem (Rittel & Webber 1973)

The Evolution of National Spatial Data Infrastructure in Pakistan - Implementation Challenges and the Way Forward

Geospatial data are produced by several organizations located at various places, and that is clearly a distributed environment. Many technical and institutional issues need to be resolved to share data in such an environment and to eventually enable regional development. For this matter, many countries implement Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs) for the last 40 years. Since 2010, also Pakistan is striving to implement an SDI at the national level (NSDI). However, so far, the promised benefits have not yet been achieved. This study explores the evolution of the NSDI in Pakistan from 2010 till 2020 to reveal what kind of challenges the country is facing. Given the importance of stakeholders' support for the implementation of SDIs, we conducted a stakeholder analysis and a dedicated survey. We adopted the power-interest grid method to classify stakeholders' interests based on their authority to influence the NSDI development. Among other, the results show that stakeholders’ low participation due to insufficient technological, financial, and human resources impedes NSDI implementation efforts in the country

National Spatial Data Infrastructure Building Blocks: The Status Quo in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, geospatial data silos are common due to the absence of a proactive and collaborative geospatial sharing platform. A national sharing platform, Ethiopian National Spatial Data Infrastructure (ENSDI), is in its pre-implementation phase. It is now of crucial concern to identify and prioritize areas of investment. However, we lack information on what is already available and where, and what is still required to deliver ENSDI building blocks. The purpose of this work is to assess status quo of these building blocks. 110 organizations were addressed based on a sampling procedure that is free of personal bias. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, on-site inspections, and a review of secondary sources. The analysis revealed that many national geospatial information and other enabling policies, laws and strategies are already available. Although they do incorporate the value of sharing and accessing information, it appears that they lack details regarding interoperability, inclusiveness, and implementation. This work reveals complex institutional challenges that require better definitions of roles and responsibilities in order to overcome existing overlaps of mandates; and improved coordination of efforts with the geospatial industry. Furthermore, most legacy data sets are available in digital form, but they are neither ready to be shared on the Web nor accessible for the wider Geographic Information Systems (GIS) community. This is largely due to the absence of standardization, negligence of metadata, extended use of proprietary software, absence of clear data models and definitions, and poor (file based) data organization. The absence of Internet connectivity or low band width remains a fundamental obstacle for any web-based sharing of geospatial data. We also identify a lack of expertise in spatial data management, processing and programming. GIS and Remote Sensing specialist remain hard to find. Last but not least, this study recommends further study on data quality and data management issues

BUILDING A COLLABORATIVE ONLINE CATALOGUE OF GEOPORTALS IN BRAZIL

It is currently possible to account for several institutions with geographic data shared through the INDE portal, with more than half of it being from federal jurisdiction. However, there are subnational geoportals not integrated with this infrastructure, which is difficult to quantify. Therefore, the research problem of this study is finding the state of subnational geographic viewers’ availability, with the general objective of producing a Brazilian panorama and to identify factors that facilitate this availability. A research methodology based on different sources was applied in 27 states and 999 municipalities. As a result, we identified 17 regional, 82 state, and 274 municipal geoportals, with the highest concentration in the South and Southeast regions and lowest in the Northern region. In order to find factors related to geoportals availability, twenty characteristics of each municipality were collected, and Pearson coefficients were calculated, revealing significant correlations for population, economic and tax factors, and nonsignificant correlations for location factors. This acquired information is essential for the community and must be kept up to date. For this, an online collaborative map based on free software was created, allowing access without registration for data visualization and the registration of users for sending updates to the map

A framework for guiding cadastral systems development in customary land rights contexts

Land reform in South Africa is reported to be failing, and land tenure reform in customary contexts is the least well-addressed component of land reform. To address this failure, a framework for guiding cadastral systems development in customary land rights contexts is developed. Using a research synthesis methodology, this conceptual framework is derived from existing literature. It comprises of five evaluation areas (underlying theory, land administration system context, change drivers, change process, and review process), each of which is broken down into related aspects and elements. The three interrelated goals of success, sustainability, and significance permeate the framework. It is suggested that cadastral systems development (and, by consequence, land tenure reform) projects operating in customary land rights contexts fail when they are not sensitive to the significance of development processes and outcomes for customary land rights-holders. The conceptual framework is tested and extended through a progressive case study of four examples of cadastral systems development in Germany, the Netherlands, Mozambique, and South Africa. The elements of the framework are compared against context-specific descriptors that emerge from the case studies to assess how well they have been addressed. Thus, each case brings contextual relevance to the framework, sequentially increasing its groundedness. The European cases are chosen because they are seen to be examples of ‘good practice’ for their contexts and because developments in southern Africa have drawn from and been influenced by them. Hence, they are expected to add relevant insight to the conceptual framework. The southern African cases are chosen because they reflect the intended context of application of the framework and have been undergoing cadastral systems development for the past few decades. The framework was found to be useful in highlighting strengths and weaknesses in all four cases. Weaknesses in the European cases related to their insensitivity towards human rights, class and gender issues possibly arising from assumptions about the uniformity of their socio-economic context. There was also inadequate attention given to the review processes. Strengths arose from the developed nature of the countries as reflected in their good governance and well-functioning cadastral systems. In the southern African cases, the primary weaknesses arose from the adoption of inappropriate theory of development, leading to a loss of significance of development process and outcomes. Other weaknesses are related to the lack of developing status of southern African countries, as reflected in their poor land governance and low levels of technological capacity. Strengths related to acknowledgement of human rights issues and the need to address historical injustices in the southern African cases. The resultant, grounded framework is intended to be used as a tool by policymakers and cadastral systems developers. By taking note of the framework’s aspects and elements, it is proposed that cadastral systems development in customary land rights contexts will carry significance for the land rights-holders, encouraging their adoption and embrace of the process and outcomes of development, which in turn fosters the success and sustainability of development

Environmental Sustainability in Maritime Infrastructures

This Special Issue is entitled “Environmental Sustainability in Maritime Infrastructures”. Oceans and coastal areas are essential in our lives from several different points of view: social, economic, and health. Given the importance of these areas for human life, not only for the present but also for the future, it is necessary to plan future infrastructures, and maintain and adapt to the changes the existing ones. All of this taking into account the sustainability of our planet. A very significant percentage of the world's population lives permanently or enjoys their vacation periods in coastal zones, which makes them very sensitive areas, with a very high economic value and as a focus of adverse effects on public health and ecosystems. Therefore, it is considered very relevant and of great interest to launch this Special Issue to cover any aspects related to the vulnerability of coastal systems and their inhabitants (water pollution, coastal flooding, climate change, overpopulation, urban planning, waste water, plastics at sea, effects on ecosystems, etc.), as well as the use of ocean resources (fisheries, energy, tourism areas, etc.)