Combining Analytics and Simulation Methods to Assess the Impact of Shared, Autonomous Electric Vehicles on Sustainable Urban Mobility

Urban mobility is currently undergoing three fundamental transformations with the sharing economy, electrification, and autonomous vehicles changing how people and goods move across cities. In this paper, we demonstrate the valuable contribution of decision support systems that combine data-driven analytics and simulation techniques in understanding complex systems such as urban transportation. Using the city of Berlin as a case study, we show that shared, autonomous electric vehicles can substantially reduce resource investments while keeping service levels stable. Our findings inform stakeholders on the trade-off between economic and sustainability-related considerations when fostering the transition to sustainable urban mobilit

Smart Cities and Digitized Urban Management

By 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population is expected to reside in cities and urban agglomerations (UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs 2014). Cities have always showcased the best and the worst aspects of humanity – gleaming skyscrapers, art, and inventiveness on the one hand; slums, crime, and abject poverty on the other. Such challenges, which cities already face, will be further amplified by increasing urbanization, and it will be coastal cities in particular that bear the brunt of the global threat of climate change. Not without reason is the quest for “Sustainable Cities and Communities” one of the UN’s explicit sustainable development goals (United Nations 2015)

The Strategic Value of Public Sector Analytics: A Framework and a Showcase Study

The public value of information technology has received increasing attention in recent years. While most research focuses on mediating e-government technologies, we investigate the strategic value of big data and analytics in public sector decision-making. Using the strategic triangle of value, legitimacy, and operational capacity as a starting point, we derive a framework to assess the strategic value of public sector analytics, along with six guiding questions that structure the assessment process. We apply the framework to an illustrative example of a spatial analytics application developed to optimize strategic investments in urban electric vehicle charging infrastructure. While our results show that analytics helps cities to manage the trade-off between economic and ecological value more efficiently, we also discuss other types of public value, such as health and social equity. We further outline how analytics may improve the legitimacy of public sector decisionmaking through transparency and objective, data-driven criteria. As a final point, we suggest that collaborations with academia to create lightweight analytics applications may aid in strengthening organizational readiness for the use of big data and analytics in public sector organizations

Temporal city-scale matching of solar photovoltaic generation and electric vehicle charging

The number of electric vehicles (EVs) and solar photovoltaic panels (PVs) are rapidly increasing in many power grids. An important emerging challenge is managing their less desirable consequences (e.g. grid instability and peak load), particularly in urban environments. We present a solution that matches the temporal nature of PV generation and EV charging. This solution is a simple coordination strategy for EV charging which minimally affects EV availability for drivers while maximizing the PV electricity generation absorbed by EV batteries. The strategy is benchmarked with high-resolution data from a medium-sized European city. We find that this coordination provides large benefits compared to commonly-observed uncoordinated charging patterns across seasons and PV and EV integration levels. With charging coordination, almost 71%–92% of the EV charging load can be provided by solar panels in the summer. However, winter’s lower solar irradiance results in a larger range of possibilities (13%–76%), with the exact value depending on the combination of PV and EV integration level. The gains compared to uncoordinated charging are generally highest in winter and similarly vary based on PV and EV integration levels (from 5 to 63 percentage points). Additionally, these benefits do not appear to come at a significant cost to EV availability for drivers

Circulation and Oxygen Distribution in the Tropical Atlantic Cruise No. 80, Leg 1; October 26 to November 23, 2009 Mindelo (Cape Verde) to Mindelo (Cape Verde)

METEOR cruise 80/1 was a contribution to the SFB 754 “Climate-Biogeochemistry Interactions in the Tropical Ocean”. Shipboard, glider and moored observations are used to study the temporal and spatial variability of physical and biogeochemical parameters within the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) of the tropical North Atlantic. As part of the BMBF “Nordatlantik” project, it further focuses on the equatorial current system including the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) and intermediate currents below. During the cruise, hydrographic station observations were performed using a CTD/O2 rosette, including water sampling for salinity, oxygen, nutrients and other biogeochemical tracers. Underway current measurements were successfully carried out with the 75 kHz ADCP borrowed from R/V POSEIDON during the first part of the cruise, and R/V METEOR’s 38 kHz ADCP during the second part. During M80/1, an intensive mooring program was carried out with 8 mooring recoveries and 8 mooring deployments. Right at the beginning of the cruise, a multidisciplinary mooring near the Cape Verde Islands was recovered and redeployed. Within the framework of SFB 754, two moorings with CTD/O2 profilers were recovered and redeployed with other instrumentation in the center and at the southern rim of the OMZ of the tropical North Atlantic. The equatorial mooring array as part of BMBF “North Atlantic” project consists of 5 current meter moorings along 23°W between 2°S and 2°N. It is aimed at quantifying the variability of the thermocline water supply toward the equatorial cold tongue which develops east of 10°W during boreal summer. Several glider missions were performed during the cruise. One glider was recovered that was deployed two months earlier. Another glider was deployed for two short term missions, near the equator for about 8 days and near 8°N for one day. This glider was equipped with a new microstructure probe in addition to standard sensors, i.e. CTD/O2, chlorophyll and turbidity

Practical Algebraic Renormalization

A practical approach is presented which allows the use of a non-invariant regularization scheme for the computation of quantum corrections in perturbative quantum field theory. The theoretical control of algebraic renormalization over non-invariant counterterms is translated into a practical computational method. We provide a detailed introduction into the handling of the Slavnov-Taylor and Ward-Takahashi identities in the Standard Model both in the conventional and the background gauge. Explicit examples for their practical derivation are presented. After a brief introduction into the Quantum Action Principle the conventional algebraic method which allows for the restoration of the functional identities is discussed. The main point of our approach is the optimization of this procedure which results in an enormous reduction of the calculational effort. The counterterms which have to be computed are universal in the sense that they are independent of the regularization scheme. The method is explicitly illustrated for two processes of phenomenological interest: QCD corrections to the decay of the Higgs boson into two photons and two-loop electroweak corrections to the process $B \to X_s \gamma$.Comment: version to be published in Annals of Physic