Visualization of Vibrant Cities and Regions – Identification, Design and Development of 3D-GIS Applications and Modules

Facing a continuous state of transition and herewith connected financial, societal and ecological challenges such as the climate or demographic change (United Nations 2013), cities try to integrate innovative information and communication technologies in order to optimize administrative processes, legitimize decision making and to involve all relevant local actors into processes of public relevance. In this context 3D-GIS-models offer various not yet exploited potentials for all named levels of interest. This paper presents an overview over existing application fields for 3D-GIS-solutions, further proposing a categorization in order to be able to develop and implement target-oriented solutions. Moreover, this paper presents the project activities of the Fraunhofer IAO, the city of Cologne and the provider of geo-information-services ESRI, designing and developing end-user oriented applications for the 3D-GIS-tool CityEngine. Therefore various city departments such as the agencies for city planning, traffic and environment were involved in an iterative process in order to identify potential application fields and their benefits within the administrative work as well as their andvantages regarding existing solutions and processes. Aditionally, the particpants decided upon a set of focus applications to be developed within the project. Therefore, this document will concentrate on the potential benefits of the identified and cooperatively designed application fields, further outlining the first steps of the deleopment phase of the citizen particpiation application

Nachhaltige Mobilität in der Region Neckar-Alb. Marketing- und Kommunikationsstrategien zur Förderung von Elektromobilität am Beispiel der Nutzung von E-Bikes durch Auszubildende

Technische Innovationen, veränderte Mobilitätspräferenzen und Arbeitsteilung haben in den letzten Jahren dazu geführt, dass das Verkehrsaufkommen immer weiter zunimmt. Die sich verstärkende Mobilisierung der Gesellschaft impliziert neben der positiven Wirkung einer zunehmenden individuellen Flexibilität auch negative Entwicklungen, wie eine steigende Klimabelastung durch CO2-Emissionen (Bittlingmayer 2000: 45; Dalkmann et al. 2004: 11; Diller 2009: V). Es zeigen sich starke Unterschiede zwischen der aktuellen Form des Mobilitätssystems und Ansprüchen an eine nachhaltige Mobilitätsgestaltung (Dalkmann et al. 2004: 11). Integrierte Planung aber auch die Förderung von Elektromobilität, so die einhellige Annahme in der Mobilitätsforschung, stellen ein essentiell wichtiges Instrument zur Überwindung dieser Diskrepanz dar (e-mobil BW GmbH; IAW 20112: 24). In den Vordergrund rückt nicht zuletzt auch die Erkenntnis, dass die Wahl des Transportmittels neben einer rationalen auch eine emotionale Dimension hat, also individuelle Mobilitätspräferenzen eine herausragende Rolle spielen. Dabei wird immer häufiger der Fokus auf Kommunikation und Marketing nachhaltiger Mobilität gelegt. Können durch Kommunikations- und Marketingkonzepte nachhaltige Mobilität erfolgreich vermittelt und Mobilitätspräferenzen beeinflusst werden? Anhand der statistischen Untersuchung des Projekts „NRVP - Mit dem Azubi-E-Bike auf dem Weg zur Arbeit“, das im Jahr 2012 von der IHK Reutlingen initiiert wurde und durch die Arbeitsgruppe Humangeographie und Entwicklungsforschung der Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen sozialwissenschaftlich begleitet wird sowie qualitativer Interviews soll eine Antwort auf diese Fragen gefunden werden. Hierbei wird der Fokus auf die Nutzung von E-Bikes und Pedelecs durch Auszubildende als Forschungslücke gelegt. Ziel der Arbeit ist die Entwicklung eines zielgruppenspezifischen Marketing- und Kommunikationskonzepts von E-Bikes und Pedelecs für Auszubildende

SECTOR: Secure Common Information Space for the Interoperability of First Responders

AbstractThe ever-growing human, economic and environmental losses due to natural and/or man-made disasters demand a systematic, holistic, inter-governmental and multi-disciplinary approach to the management of large-scale crisis. However, crisis management is usually coordinated by local authorities, supported by a variety of different national and international crisis management organizations, all acting relatively autonomously. Coordination actions usually adopt non-interoperable information management tools, due to the heterogeneity of the involved organizations, limiting or even hindering the coordination efforts. This paper introduces the efforts conducted in the context of the EU-funded project called SECTOR, which aims at establishing the foundations of future Collaborative Crisis Management (CCM) Information Spaces by expanding the European scientific knowledge base on (cross-border) multi-agency processes and their complications when setting-up and designing the enabling information systems

The political geography of religious radicalism. A compendium of selected case studies from around the globe

Religion has neither gone away nor remained irrelevant in our world today. There is no day that we do not hear news about religion in the media. The news we hear about religion and violence, however, appears to dominate the headlines. Although the history of religions and violence is not a new one, since September 11, 2001 there has been a growing concern about religious extremism and terrorism. At the same time, there is a corresponding interest in the subject of religion and violence among many disciplines. In the course GEO-83 “Political Geography of Religious Radicalism”, we offered students an excursion into the ambivalent world of religion and conflict through an exploration of different theoretical perspectives and approaches, case studies, seminal and class discussions and extensive literature review. The unique angle of interrogation that political geography offers in terms of the spatial dimensions and the power relations between different actors as well as the discursive aspects of interreligious conflicts and extremism has proved very valuable in generating insights on this subject matter. This volume is an attempt by students of the M.A. “Human Geography – Global Studies” programme of the University of Tübingen to demonstrate acquaintance with the approach of political geography to the study of religious violence and extremism. The students took on some of the most challenging conflicts and religious insurgencies confronting the world and offered insights using diverse theoretical and analytical frameworks. The analysis contained in each chapter was based on secondary data. Thus, limitations are set based on the availability of and access to data. Given the contested nature of religious conflicts and extremism, the reader is invited to consider all the articles in this volume as primarily an academic exercise with no intention to promote a certain narrative or to take sides. Knowledge is always incremental. Therefore, what is presented here is intended to increase our understanding of the phenomenon and to stimulate further research and efforts at finding solutions to the various conflicts. No doubt, this exercise has exposed the students to the rigour of scientific writing. This experience will remain invaluable to them in their continuing academic pursuit as well as in their future endeavours. The lecturers also found this experience to be highly rewarding. The process was quite daunting, but the commitment and the dedication of the students paid off

Inter-organisational cooperation for the professional integration of volunteers in crisis management

In crisis situations volunteers provide support. In many countries well established is their affiliation to crisis management organisations, but in addition unaffiliated, spontaneous volunteers are coming on site and offer their help. Facing a continuous declining willingness of volunteers to get involved for a long period, as observed for some time in Germany, improving volunteer management in crisis response is considered crucial when addressing crisis management as a whole. Also the corporate sector plays an increasingly important role in volunteer management by supporting crisis management with financial, material and personnel resources. This role includes both, the corporate social responsibility aspects of companies being civil society actors, and more specifically the role of companies being employers of privately engaged volunteers. There is a suggestion for improved inter-organisational cooperation, starting from specific projects, with synergetic effects for the companies, the response organisations and the volunteers themselves