The Role of Smart Cities on Smart Healthcare Management

This qualitative study examines the role of Smart Cities in smart healthcare management. Interviews with eight practitioners in the field were conducted and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. The findings highlight the significant contributions of Smart Cities in healthcare, such as improved data collection, analysis, and communication between providers and patients. Challenges include the integration of healthcare technologies within Smart City infrastructures and addressing privacy and security concerns. The research underscores the importance of robust digital infrastructures and collaborative efforts between public and private sectors to support the implementation of smart healthcare services in Smart Cities. Recommendations include enhancing adaptability to new technologies and improving communication between healthcare providers and patients

Employee Behaviour as a Possible Corporate System Vulnerability when Implementing Digitalisation in Smart Cities

Digitizing processes to improve the citizen centered performance is one of the key challenges for Smart Cities (Radchenko, 2023) This paper contends that, whilst resolving those challenges, the implemented strategies could cause undesired outcomes. Also, this intersects significantly with urban planning considerations, as it involves the integration of digital technologies, including infrastructure, service and governance. At first glance, innovative digital technologies might render more transparent processes saving time and money for organizations. However, people, too often, disregard the threats associated with them. The latter can be classified in external and internal threats. Interestingly, companies feel threatened more by the internal ones since they cannot entirely be eliminated (Boce, 2023). In more detail, the importance of the topic emerges from the following research gap: “From the general point of view of companies, there are no real structures for security management. Also, they do not design policies that will minimize internal threats, they have not yet understood the importance and influence of man as a threatening factor…” (Boce, 2023, p.76). The research addresses the general question of how employee behavior contributes to internal vulnerabilities affecting the security and compliance governance of digitalization implementations in a Smart City context? The aim of this research in progress is to address this ‘human threat’ via a comprehensive systematic literature review and a consecutive empirical research design

A Comparative Analysis on the Impact of Culture, Norms and Attitudes on the Adoption of Eco-Friendly Transportation in Mannheim and Tokyo

In the conversation on eco-friendly practices, the role of cultural values, norms, and attitudes as to sustainable urban transportation remains crucial yet still understudied. A lot of work has been done to identify the facets of sustainable transportation, yet there exists a gap of how culture elements shape the adoption and effectiveness of eco-friendly practices (Brown & Wang, 2018). This exploratory comparative qualitative research in progress investigates the key indicators derived from cultural values, norms, and attitudes on the adoption and effectiveness of eco-friendly transportation practices in Germany (such as Freiburg) and Japan (such as Tokyo)

Evaluating the Potential of Vertical Farming Business Models for Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in Cameroon

This research investigates the possibility of using vertical farming business models as a sustainable solution to address issues such, as land degradation, urbanization, and climate change in Cameroon to increase agricultural output and ensure food security. The study highlights gaps in the need for a region-specific customized vertical farming business model and identifies gaps in understanding the economic and environmental feasibility of vertical farming in Cameroon. Qualitative methods, including interviews with stakeholders and content analysis using MaxQDa, were employed for analysis purposes. The research explores the advantages, challenges, barriers, and potential technologies and business models associated with vertical farming in Cameroon. It emphasizes the importance of stakeholder involvement, financial support, government support, favorable policies, sensitization and campaigns, education and training, and overall support for its adoption and profitability. Key findings indicate that vertical farming holds promise for improving food security and sustainability in urban areas of Cameroon. Additionally, aquaponics is identified as a cost-effective technology and model within this context. However, some obstacles need to be addressed to adopt vertical farming in Cameroon. These include high initial costs, technological and infrastructural challenges, the need for supportive/favorable policy frameworks, clear vertical farming policies, education and training, and the urgent need for collaboration among stakeholders. A final model “Vertical Farming Business Model for Cameroon" was suggested which proposes an implementation model specifically tailored to suit local conditions while considering stakeholder expectations. Conclusively it is going to be a very profitable business

Optimizing the Infrastructure of Electric Vehicles and Developing Business Models for Sustainability

Transportation is one of the major sources of economy for any country. But the main problem with the vehicles is the amount of pollution conducted by them. One needs a particular source that creates Net Zero Carbon Emissions. Electric vehicles are becoming a popular source of transportation as they do not produce any carbon emissions. But due to a lack of proper infrastructure and customer awareness, consumers hesitate to decide on an Electric Vehicle to date. The paper also covers the expansion of VANET Technology that can improve the traffic management system and reduce the number of accidents. For this reason, this paper aims to identify the area of improvement in building the infrastructure of electric vehicles with economic policies

A Mannheim Best Smart City Case: New Measuring System for the Complex Analysis of Spatially Distributed Environmental Data

Serving Smart City (SC) and societal objectives (i.e. contributing to better air quality and combat the Corona virus), a novel measuring device is presented as the latest offspring of the SC Ecosystem Mannheim. In this paper – based on the description of the concerted activities of the various players of the Mannheim SC ecosystem – we aim to present the findings of our study of the distribution of gases and particles and their impact on the health of SC citizens of all ages and the ecological balance. Furthermore, the relationship between CO2 and liquid aerosols is discussed. In particular, the questions of how corona-relevant droplets spread and how quickly they evaporate are investigated. A broad portfolio of possible applications suggested by Nevoox rounds off the article. The practical case is interlinked with the results of the DevOps Competences for Smart Cities project with competences being the common denominator. The case reflects necessary transversal (such as creative, innovative, entrepreneurial, networking) and technical competences (i.e. related to coding, data architechture, big data, cloud computing or AI) to exist in an ecosystem aiming for sustainable innovation

Latent Heat Storage to Improve the Urban Microclimate

Whilst the world is trying to find a way without fossil fuels it still needs to find a possibility to switch heat or cooling capacity from times generated to times needed. This will even be more of interest when all energy needs are switched to electric generation and thus to renewable energies. Coming to this point, energy will be generated when available and be stored in between. Nevertheless, there will be a large difference in case of costs using energy when it is generated and when in abundance. Therefore, energy storage, especially for heat, will be indispensable in the future, in particular for places where lots of people live and large amounts of heat are necessary. Such storages can be made of phase change materials that store heat in the phase change from solid to liquid and vice versa. Thus, this paper expands on the current discussion on traditional phase change material for latent heat storage by innovatively suggesting salt hydrates. Based on explaining the principles of phase change material, the authors illustrate the application of salt hydrates resulted from experiments of the authors. In doing so, they differentiate between integrating phase change materials in active (i.e. in the water heat system) and passive heat storages (i.e. in the building structure). With these applications shown, which are either already available or necessary to be provided in near the future, an ecologically efficient improvement of the microclimate can be engineered

MELT Plates: The Abolition of Overheating in Lightweight Buildings through an Optimised form of Latent Heat Storage

The predominant form of construction of residential and commercial buildings in the Federal Republic of Germany and other industrialized countries is that of solid construction. However, increased public awareness of the need to reduce CO2 emissions is resulting in questioning this classic way of constructing buildings as the immense energy consumption in the production of cement and concrete makes the search for alternative designs indispensable. Alternative building methods with lower CO2 impact are lightweight construction methods like prefabricated wooden buildings or even container-based buildings. One disadvantage of such buildings, even though they often are very well insulated, is their low thermal storage mass and, thus, that they overheat in summer and cool down quickly in winter, provided there are no constant sources of cooling or heat available. Technically this constant energy sources would be available in most of the cases, but as we want to use renewable energy sources, which are only available on a fluctuating basis, a thermal storage effect of the building itself is of primary interest. This paper presents the benefits and limits of so-called MELT Plates, a newly developed method of the startup MELT to apply latent heat storage technology in buildings significantly contributing to micro climate improvement, and practical applications based on relevant experimental methodologies applied by the authors. MELT’s products will make a decisive contribution to the heat transition. The previously very cost-intensive niche product “phase change material (PCM)” will become more user-friendly and significantly cheaper thanks to technical innovations and can, therefore, open up the mass market. The initial application addressed is increasing the thermal storage capacity of lightweight buildings by installing the materials in the building envelope. This serves as overheating protection in summer and in winter, through a combination with photovoltaics and/or dynamic electricity tariffs, an even more ecological and economical heating system with heat pumps is made possible. Thanks to their adaptability, MELT products are also ideally suited for numerous other applications, such as the intermediate storage of heat in industrial processes

Optimization of Cities through Green Spaces

� reviewed paper REAL CORP 2023 Proceedings/Tagungsband 18-20 September 2023 – https://www.corp.at ISBN 978-3-9504945-2-5. Editors: M. SCHRENK, V. V: POPOVICH, P. ZEILE, P. ELISEI, C.BEYER, J. RYSER, H. R. KAUFMANN – Ljubljana, Slovenia 575 Optimization of Cities through Green Spaces Hans Rüdiger Kaufmann, Thomas Walch, Gamze Ünsal-Peter, Danny Westphal, Thomas Schäfer, Stefan Bley, Matthias Rädle (Hans Rüdiger Kaufmann, University of Applied Management Studies; Mannheim, DE; [email protected]) (Thomas Walch, Factory Agency; Mannheim, DE; [email protected]) (Gamze Ünsal-Peter, Hochschule Mannheim; Mannheim, DE; [email protected]) (Danny Westphal, Hochschule Mannheim; Mannheim, DE; [email protected]) (Thomas Schäfer, Hochschule Mannheim; Mannheim, DE; [email protected]) (Stefan Bley, City of Mannheim; Mannheim, DE; [email protected]) (Matthias Rädle, Hochschule Mannheim; Mannheim, DE; [email protected]) 1 ABSTRACT In general, the trend prevailed in recent years that the effects of civilization's interventions in environmental conditions have not been as prominent in publications as they were before the outbreak of the Corona pandemic. The Corona pandemic has focused attention on the most pressing problems in recent years, such as, in metrological terms, the dispersion of liquid aerosols. Although incidences due to Corona are still extremely high, and the number of days of illness has a massive impact on industrial and societal processes, Corona is no longer considered the No. 1 issue. This is due in particular to the lower mortality that has resulted from the immunization of the population and the attenuation of the dangerousness of the new generations of the pathogen. By pushing the topic of Corona off the front pages of journals, previously discussed priorities are increasingly resurfacing. Against this backdrop, the long ‘dead’ discussion about the occurrence and effects of particulate matter is gaining momentum again. This paper revisits a previous Real Corp conference paper (Westphal et al., 2022), in which the authors suggest and explain the contributions of an innovative measurement device (ProxiCube) developed by the City of Mannheim’s ecosystem addressing the key success factors for awarded Smart Cities and the various factors of an urban management model. This paper exemplifies the cube’s contribution by a specifically designed and conducted research experiment. In the research setting of the City of Mannheim, a city in the forefront of the Smart City movement in Germany, the empirical part of the paper comprises the parameters of liquid aerosol, dry particulate matter, CO2, humidity, temperature, pressure and light conditions which were measured by innovative and internationally awarded air quality measurement devices (ProxiCube) (see Westphal et al., 2022) simultaneously at five parallel measurement points of the city at a high data rate. With the measurement constellation, influences can be visualized such as the daily course of all these measured variables at a busy street juxtaposed to the backyard of adjacent buildings or to the building itself implying a crucial impact for the citizens’ life quality

Technology transfer model for Austrian higher education institutions

The aim of this paper is to present the findings of a PhD research (Heinzl 2007, Unpublished PhD Thesis) conducted on the Universities of Applied Sciences in Austria. Four of the models that emerge from this research are: Generic Technology Transfer Model (Sect. 5.1); Idiosyncrasies Model for the Austrian Universities of Applied Sciences (Sect. 5.2); Idiosyncrasies-Technology Transfer Effects Model (Sect. 5.3); Idiosyncrasies-Technology Transfer Cumulated Effects Model (Sect. 5.3). The primary and secondary research methods employed for this study are: literature survey, focus groups, participant observation, and interviews. The findings of the research contribute to a conceptual design of a technology transfer system which aims to enhance the higher education institutions' technology transfer performance. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC