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Mitigating Risks of Corruption in Construction: A theoretical rationale for BIM adoption in Ethiopia
(2021)
This PhD thesis sets out to investigate the potentials of Building Information Modeling (BIM) to mitigate risks of corruption in the Ethiopian public construction sector. The wide-ranging capabilities and promises of BIM have led to the strong perception among researchers and practitioners that it is an indispensable technology. Consequently, it has become the frequent subject of science and research. Meanwhile, many countries, especially the developed ones, have committed themselves to applying the technology extensively. Increasing productivity is the most common and frequently cited reason for that.
However, both technology developers and adopters are oblivious to the potentials of BIM in addressing critical challenges in the construction sector, such as corruption. This particularly would be significant in developing countries like Ethiopia, where its problems and effects are acute. Studies reveal that bribery and corruption have long pervaded the construction industry worldwide. The complex and fragmented nature of the sector provides an environment for corruption. The Ethiopian construction sector is not immune from this epidemic reality. In fact, it is regarded as one of the most vulnerable sectors owing to varying socio-economic and political factors. Since 2015, Ethiopia has started adopting BIM, yet without clear goals and strategies. As a result, the potential of BIM for combating concrete problems of the sector remains untapped. To this end, this dissertation does pioneering work by showing how collaboration and coordination features of the technology contribute to minimizing the opportunities for corruption. Tracing loopholes, otherwise, would remain complex and ineffective in the traditional documentation processes.
Proceeding from this anticipation, this thesis brings up two primary questions: what are areas and risks of corruption in case of the Ethiopian public construction projects; and how could BIM be leveraged to mitigate these risks? To tackle these and other secondary questions, the research employs a mixed-method approach. The selected main research strategies are Survey, Grounded Theory (GT) and Archival Study. First, the author disseminates an online questionnaire among Ethiopian construction engineering professionals to pinpoint areas of vulnerability to corruption. 155 responses are compiled and scrutinized quantitatively. Then, a semi-structured in-depth interview is conducted with 20 senior professionals, primarily to comprehend opportunities for and risks of corruption in those identified highly vulnerable project stages and decision points. At the same time, open interviews (consultations) are held with 14 informants to be aware of state of the construction documentation, BIM and loopholes for corruption in the country. Consequently, these qualitative data are analyzed utilizing the principles of GT, heat/risk mapping and Social Network Analysis (SNA). The risk mapping assists the researcher in the course of prioritizing corruption risks; whilst through SNA, methodically, it is feasible to identify key actors/stakeholders in the corruption venture. Based on the generated research data, the author constructs a [substantive] grounded theory around the elements of corruption in the Ethiopian public construction sector. This theory, later, guides the subsequent strategic proposition of BIM. Finally, 85 public construction related cases are also analyzed systematically to substantiate and confirm previous findings.
By ways of these multiple research endeavors that is based, first and foremost, on the triangulation of qualitative and quantitative data analysis, the author conveys a number of key findings. First, estimations, tender document preparation and evaluation, construction material as well as quality control and additional work orders are found to be the most vulnerable stages in the design, tendering and construction phases respectively. Second, middle management personnel of contractors and clients, aided by brokers, play most critical roles in corrupt transactions within the prevalent corruption network. Third, grand corruption persists in the sector, attributed to the fact that top management and higher officials entertain their overriding power, supported by the lack of project audits and accountability. Contrarily, individuals at operation level utilize intentional and unintentional 'errors’ as an opportunity for corruption.
In light of these findings, two conceptual BIM-based risk mitigation strategies are prescribed: active and passive automation of project audits; and the monitoring of project information throughout projects’ value chain. These propositions are made in reliance on BIM’s present dimensional capabilities and the promises of Integrated Project Delivery (IPD). Moreover, BIM’s synchronous potentials with other technologies such as Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and Radio Frequency technologies are topics which received a treatment. All these arguments form the basis for the main thesis of this dissertation, that BIM is able to mitigate corruption risks in the Ethiopian public construction sector. The discourse on the skepticisms about BIM that would stem from the complex nature of corruption and strategic as well as technological limitations of BIM is also illuminated and complemented by this work. Thus, the thesis uncovers possible research gaps and lays the foundation for further studies.
Die Auseinandersetzung mit der Digitalisierung ist in den letzten Jahren in den Medien, auf Konferenzen und in Ausschüssen der Bau- und Immobilienbranche angekommen. Während manche Bereiche Neuerungen hervorbringen und einige Akteure als Pioniere zu bezeichnen sind, weisen andere Themen noch Defizite hinsichtlich der digitalen Transformation auf. Zu dieser Kategorie kann auch das Baugenehmigungsverfahren gezählt werden. Unabhängig davon, wie Architekten und Ingenieure in den Planungsbüros auf innovative Methoden setzen, bleiben die Bauvorlagen bisher zuhauf in Papierform oder werden nach der elektronischen Einreichung in der Behörde ausgedruckt. Vorhandene Ressourcen, beispielsweise in Form eines Bauwerksinformationsmodells, die Unterstützung bei der Baugenehmigungsfeststellung bieten können, werden nicht ausgeschöpft. Um mit digitalen Werkzeugen eine Entscheidungshilfe für die Baugenehmigungsbehörden zu erarbeiten, ist es notwendig, den Ist-Zustand zu verstehen und Gegebenheiten zu hinterfragen, bevor eine Gesamtautomatisierung der innerbehördlichen Vorgänge als alleinige Lösung zu verfolgen ist.
Mit einer inhaltlich-organisatorischen Betrachtung der relevanten Bereiche, die Einfluss auf die Baugenehmigungsfeststellung nehmen, wird eine Optimierung des Baugenehmigungsverfahrens in den
Behörden angestrebt. Es werden die komplexen Bereiche, wie die Gesetzeslage, der Einsatz von Technologie aber auch die subjektiven Handlungsalternativen, ermittelt und strukturiert. Mit der Entwicklung eines Modells zur Feststellung der Baugenehmigungsfähigkeit wird sowohl ein Verständnis für Einflussfaktoren vermittelt als auch eine Transparenzsteigerung für alle Beteiligten geschaffen.
Neben einer internationalen Literaturrecherche diente eine empirische Studie als Untersuchungsmethode. Die empirische Studie wurde in Form von qualitativen Experteninterviews durchgeführt, um den Ist-Zustand im Bereich der Baugenehmigungsverfahren festzustellen. Das erhobene Datenmaterial wurde aufbereitet und anschließend einer softwaregestützten Inhaltsanalyse unterzogen. Die Ergebnisse wurden in Kombination mit den Erkenntnissen der Literaturrecherche in verschiedenen Analysen als Modellgrundlage aufgearbeitet.
Ergebnis der Untersuchung stellt ein Entscheidungsmodell dar, welches eine Lücke zwischen den gegenwärtigen
Abläufen in den Baubehörden und einer Gesamtautomatisierung der Baugenehmigungsprüfung schließt. Die prozessorientierte Strukturierung entscheidungsrelevanter Sachverhalte im Modell ermöglicht eine Unterstützung bei der Baugenehmigungsfeststellung für Prüfer und Antragsteller. Das theoretische Modell konnte in Form einer Webanwendung in die Praxis übertragen werden.
Für die Verminderung der betonspezifischen CO2-Emissionen wird ein verstärkter Einsatz klinkerreduzierter Zemente bzw. Betone angestrebt. Die Reduzierung des Klinkergehaltes darf jedoch nicht zu einer lebensdauerrelevanten Beeinträchtigung der Betondauerhaftigkeit führen. In diesem Zusammenhang stellt der Frost-Tausalz-Widerstand eine kritische Größe dar, da er bei höheren Klinkersubstitutionsraten häufig negativ beeinflusst wird. Erschwerend kommt hinzu, dass für klinkerreduzierte Betone nur ein unzureichender Erfahrungsschatz vorliegt. Ein hoher Frost-Tausalz-Widerstand kann daher nicht ausschließlich anhand deskriptiver Vorgaben gewährleistet werden. Demgemäß sollte perspektivisch auch für frost-tausalzbeanspruchte Bauteile eine performancebasierte Lebensdauerbetrachtung erfolgen.
Eine unverzichtbare Grundlage für das Erreichen dieser Ziele ist ein Verständnis für die Schadensvorgänge beim Frost-Tausalz-Angriff. Der Forschungsstand ist jedoch geprägt von widersprüchlichen Schadenstheorien. Somit wurde als Zielstellung für diese Arbeit abgeleitet, die existierenden Schadenstheorien unter Berücksichtigung des aktuellen Wissensstandes zu bewerten und mit eigenen Untersuchungen zu prüfen und einzuordnen. Die Sichtung des Forschungsstandes zeigte, dass nur zwei Theorien das Potential haben, den Frost-Tausalz-Angriff umfassend abzubilden – die Glue Spall Theorie und die Cryogenic Suction Theorie.
Die Glue Spall Theorie führt die Entstehung von Abwitterungen auf die mechanische Schädigung der Betonoberfläche durch eine anhaftende Eisschicht zurück. Dabei sollen nur bei moderaten Tausalzkonzentrationen in der einwirkenden Lösung kritische Spannungszustände in der Eisschicht auftreten, die eine Schädigung der Betonoberfläche hervorrufen können. In dieser Arbeit konnte jedoch nachgewiesen werden, dass starke Abwitterungen auch bei Tausalz¬konzentrationen auftreten, bei denen eine mechanische Schädigung des Betons durch das Eis auszuschließen ist. Damit wurde die fehlende Eignung der Glue Spall Theorie aufgezeigt.
Die Cryogenic Suction Theorie fußt auf den eutektischen Eigenschaften von Tausalz-lösungen, die im gefrorenen Zustand immer als Mischung auf festem Wassereis und flüssiger, hochkonzentrierter Salzlösung bestehen, solange ihre Eutektikumstemperatur nicht unter¬schritten wird. Die flüssige Phase im salzhaltigen Eis stellt für gefrorenen Beton ein bisher nicht berücksichtigtes Flüssigkeitsreservoir dar, welches trotz der hohen Salzkonzentration die Eisbildung in der Betonrandzone verstärken und so die Entstehung von Abwitterungen verursachen soll. In dieser Arbeit wurde bestätigt, dass die Eisbildung im Zementstein beim Gefrieren in hochkonzentrierter Tausalzlösung tatsächlich verstärkt wird. Das Ausmaß der zusätzlichen Eisbildung wurde dabei auch von der Fähigkeit des Zementsteins zur Bindung von Chloridionen aus der Tausalzlösung beeinflusst.
Zusammenfassend wurde festgestellt, dass die Cryogenic Suction Theorie eine gute Beschreibung des Frost-Tausalz-Angriffes darstellt, aber um weitere Aspekte ergänzt werden muss. Die Berücksichtigung der intensiven Sättigung von Beton durch den Prozess der Mikroeislinsenpumpe stellt hier die wichtigste Erweiterung dar. Basierend auf dieser Überlegung wurde eine kombinierte Schadenstheorie aufgestellt. Wichtige Annahmen dieser Theorie konnten experimentell bestätigt werden. Im Ergebnis wurde so die Grundlage für ein tiefergehendes Verständnis des Frost-Tausalz-Angriffes geschaffen. Zudem wurde ein neuer Ansatz identifiziert, um die (potentielle) Verringerung des Frost-Tausalz-Widerstandes klinkerreduzierter Betone zu erklären.
Das Kernthema dieser Arbeit ist die Beschäftigung mit den Folgen des Uranbergbaus in dem Gebiet um die ehemalige Abbauregion der Wismut SAG/SDAG in Ronneburg (Ostthüringen). Dieses Thema wird unter historischen, sozialen, kulturanthropologischen und künstlerischen Aspekten betrachtet und in den Zusammenhang mit den weltweiten Voraussetzungen der Nuklearindustrie und Auswirkungen des Uranbergbaus und seiner Folgen gestellt. Die Arbeit legt dar, wie eine Uranbergbaufolgelandschaft entsteht und welches Wissen ist für ein angemessenes Verständnis des Phänomens wichtig ist. Es wird untersucht, ob Kunst bezüglich der Uranbergbaufolgelandschaft einen relevanten Beitrag leisten kann bzw. in welcher Form dies versucht wurde, bzw. stellte Arbeiten vor, die verwandete Themen bearbeitet haben. In Kombination dieser beiden Hauptaspekte geht die Arbeit der Frage nach, welche Faktoren die Uranbergbaufolgelandschaft prägen und ob es sinnvolle Beteiligungsfelder für künstlerisches Forschen oder Handeln gibt sowie welche Bedingungen hierfür erfüllt werdenmüssten. Die Kernthese der Arbeit ist, dass künstlerische Arbeiten im Themenfeld des Uranbergbaus unter bestimmten Bedingungen relevante Beiträge leisten können.
In den letzten Jahrzehnten unterlag der Straßenbetriebsdienst tiefgreifenden Veränderungen. Diese Veränderungen schließt auch die betriebliche Steuerungsphilosophie ein, um eine planungsrationale und ökonomische Gestaltung des Straßenbetriebsdienstes zu unterstützen. Dabei erfolgt eine verbindliche Vorgabe der Leistungsinhalte und -umfänge und ermöglicht eine Budgetierung für das vorgesehene Jahresarbeitsprogramm.
Ziel der Untersuchung ist die Entwicklung eines Modells für die Ermittlung von leistungsbezogenen Musterjahresganglinien zur Unterstützung der Jahresarbeitsplanung. Dafür lagen für jede Leistung des Leistungsbereiches „Grünpflege“ jeweils 260 einzelne Jahresganglinien vor.
Im Ergebnis der Untersuchung wird die leistungsbezogene Musterjahresganglinie in vier Schritten ermittelt. Im ersten Schritt erfolgt die Prüfung der Datenqualität; im zweiten Schritt eine Korrelationsanalyse; im dritten Schritt die fachliche Überprüfung der Leistungsausprägung und im vierten Schritt die Ermittlung der leistungsbezogenen Musterjahresganglinie aus den verbliebenen leistungsbezogenen Jahresganglinien.
“How to understand the interaction between urban space and social processes” is a significant question in urban studies. To answer that, the city needs to be recognized as both a physical and a social entity and urban theory and practice need to connect these (Hillier 2007). The present research aims to re-examine the complex correlation between spatial and social inequality manifestations in the city of Tehran regarding the concept of segregation.
It observes the causes and consequences of segregation in Tehran and provides an insight into both concepts of socio-spatial segregation and neighborhood effects and creates a link between them. First, I argue when, where, and for whom spatial locations affect the chances of social networks in Tehran. Then, I discuss how neighborhood effects can emerge via social network mechanisms and thus affect the perceptions of residents in the neighborhoods.
The computational analysis of argumentation strategies is substantial for many downstream applications. It is required for nearly all kinds of text synthesis, writing assistance, and dialogue-management tools. While various tasks have been tackled in the area of computational argumentation, such as argumentation mining and quality assessment, the task of the computational analysis of argumentation strategies in texts has so far been overlooked.
This thesis principally approaches the analysis of the strategies manifested in the persuasive argumentative discourses that aim for persuasion as well as in the deliberative argumentative discourses that aim for consensus. To this end, the thesis presents a novel view of argumentation strategies for the above two goals. Based on this view, new models for pragmatic and stylistic argument attributes are proposed, new methods for the identification of the modelled attributes have been developed, and a new set of strategy principles in texts according to the identified attributes is presented and explored.
Overall, the thesis contributes to the theory, data, method, and evaluation aspects of the analysis of argumentation strategies. The models, methods, and principles developed and explored in this thesis can be regarded as essential for promoting the applications mentioned above, among others.
Überwachungspraktiken und –technologien sind in der heutigen Welt omnipräsent und wohl nicht mehr wegzudenken. Ob CCTV-Systeme, Biometrie oder Data Mining – unsere Gesellschaft befindet sich in einem ständigen Überwachungsmodus, der sich weit über einen begrenzten Raum oder zeitlichen Rahmen hinausstreckt. Überwacht wird überall: privat, am Arbeitsplatz oder im Cyberspace, und alles: Interaktionen, Äußerungen, Verhalten. Es werden Unmengen von Daten gesammelt, strukturiert, kombiniert, gekauft und verkauft.
Dieser Modus stellt mehr als eine bloße Neuauflage des Bentham-Foucaultschen Panoptikons dar: der aktuelle Überwachungsmodus, die informationelle Asymmetrie als ihren tragenden Pfeiler beibehaltend, dient nicht nur der Disziplinierung, sondern viel mehr der Kontrolle, die nicht primär negativ-sanktionierend, sondern positiv-leistungssteigernd wirkt: es ist nicht das Ziel, die Individuen zu bestrafen und ein bestimmtes Verhalten zu verbieten, sondern sie durch Belohnung, Interaktion und spielerische Elemente dazu zu bringen, sich auf die gewünschte Art zu verhalten und im Endeffekt sich selbst zu überwachen. Die Kontrolle wird auf diese Weise zum zentralen Schauplatz der Machtausübung, die sich über das Beobachten, Speichern, Auswerten und Sortieren vollzieht. Diese Prozesse hinterlassen keinen Frei- oder Spielraum für Ambiguität; sie verwirklichen die Diktatur der klaren Kante, der Klassifizierung und Kategorisierung ohne Schattierungen. Die Macht selbst befindet sich in einem kontinuierlichen Fluss, sie ist ubiquitär, dennoch schwer lokalisierbar. Sie fungiert nicht mehr unter dem Signum einer pseudosakralen zentralen Instanz, sondern wird durch diverse Akteure und Assemblages kolportiert. Die durch sie implizierten Praktiken der Selbstkontrolle, kulturgeschichtlich ebenfalls religiös oder zumindest philosophisch konnotiert, sind die neuen Rituale des Sehens und Gesehen-Werdens.
Im Zeitalter der elektronischen Datentechnologien gibt es diverse Agenten der Überwachung. Vom besonderen Interesse sind dabei die Wearables, weil sie intim, affektiv und haptisch arbeiten und so, über das Sehen und Gesehen-Werden hinaus, das Berühren und Berührt-Werden und somit die Neuregulierung von Nähe und Distanz ins Spiel bringen. Sie schreiben sich zwar in eine Vermessungstradition eins, die ihre Ursprünge mindestens im 19. Jahrhundert hat, unterscheiden sich aber von dieser in ihrer Intensität und Sinnlichkeit.
Die interdisziplinäre Dissertationsschrift lässt sich im Horizont internationaler Forschungen zu Denkmalwerten, neuer Ansätze in der Kultur- und Wissensvermittlung rund um Baudenkmale sowie künstlerisch- ethnographischem Forschen an und mit Denkmalen verorten.
Der erste Teil der Arbeit widmet sich Denkmalen und der Denkmalpflege im Kontext künstlerischer und sozialwissenschaftlicher Allianzen. Ausgangspunkt ist die Feststellung, dass die Denkmalpflege zwar sehr vieles über Denkmale weiß, aber kaum etwas über deren Rezeption beim breiten Publikum. Im Mittelpunkt steht die Frage, wie hier Praktiken der bildenden Kunst und Arbeitsweisen der Kulturanthropologie die Disziplin der Denkmalpflege bereichern können, oder sogar müssen.
Den zweiten Teil bildet eine empirische Studie, in der die populäre Wahrnehmung von Denkmalen qualitativ erforscht wird. Das Schloss und Rittergut Bedheim im südlichen ländlichen Thüringen dient dabei als konkreter Untersuchungsort. Reaktionen von Besucherinnen und Besuchern werden mit Hilfe von drei künstlerischen Eingriffen angeregt und diese dann ethnographisch-offen dokumentiert und ausgewertet.
Auf dieser Basis werden Zugänge zum Denkmal ermittelt. Während die meisten BesucherInnen das Denkmal als „Arbeit“ wahrnehmen, geraten einige ins „Träumen“ oder „Erinnern“, man „genießt“ das Ensemble als authentische und ästhetische Ressource, oder findet Zugang über das spontane „Erklären“ baukonstruktiver oder baulicher Situationen. Für andere bedeutet der Besuch die „Teilhabe“ an einem Prozess. Schloss Bedheim wird als Ort stetiger Veränderung geschätzt. In der Wahrnehmung der BesucherInnen verquicken sich Aspekte des Bewunderns mit solchen des Abgrenzens. Die eigene Alltagswelt und das eigene Zuhause bilden hierbei Bezugspunkte. Schloss Bedheim wird auf diese Weise zum Imaginationsraum, zur Energietankstelle und zur gern besuchten Problemwelt.
Die Ergebnisse der Arbeit liegen in zwei Erkenntnisfeldern: Auf einer methodischen Ebene zeigt sie, wie in der Denkmalpflege vertiefte Fachlichkeit mit einer tatsächlichen Kontaktaufnahme mit dem Publikum verbunden werden kann und damit soziale Gefüge an Baudenkmalen qualitativ ermittelt werden können. Ebenso wird deutlich, dass künstlerische Eingriffe Auslöser von Gesprächen sind, als Kontaktflächen zur Alltagswelt dienen und so zu einer vielfältigen Auseinandersetzung mit Denkmalen führen.
Auf einer inhaltlichen Ebene liefert die Arbeit Erkenntnisse zu Wahrnehmungsweisen von Denkmalen. Neben den erwähnten Zugängen, wird die Existenz und Bedeutung einer regional vernetzten Wahrnehmung von Denkmalen aufgedeckt. Des Weiteren zeigen die Ergebnisse, dass das Öffnen von Baudenkmalen als und im Prozess ungenutzte Potentiale birgt und es wird angeregt, dies in zukünftigen denkmalpflegerischen Konzepten eine größere Rolle spielen zu lassen. Die Vision eines „Kompendiums der Zugänge“ wird entwickelt, mit dessen Hilfe sich ein enormes Wissen über Rollen und Bedeutungen die Baudenkmale in unserer Gesellschaft spielen, sammeln ließe.
This thesis examines urban partition in Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, and how its changing roles and shifting perceptions in a post-conflict setting reflect power relations, and their constant renegotiation. Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, was officially divided in 1974 in the aftermath of an eighteen-year-long conflict between the island’s Turkish- and Greek-Cypriot communities. As a result, a heavily militarized Buffer Zone, established as an emergency measure against perpetuation of intercommunal violence, has been cutting through its historic centre ever since.
This thesis departs from a genuine interest in the material and ideational dimensions of urban partition. How is it constructed, not merely in physical terms but in the minds of the societies affected by conflict? How is it established in official and everyday discourses? What kinds of mechanisms have been developed to maintain it, and make an inseparable part of the urban experience? Moreover, taking into account the consensus in relevant literature pertaining to the imperative for its removal, this thesis is inquiring into the relevance of peace agreements to overcoming urban partition. For this purpose, it also looks at narratives and practices that have attempted to contest it.
The examples examined in this thesis offer pregnant analytical moments to understand Nicosia’s Buffer Zone as a dynamic social construct, accommodating multiple visions of and for the city. Its space ‘in-between’ facilitates encounters between various actors, accommodates new meanings, socio-spatial practices and diverse imaginaries. In this sense, urban partition is explored in this thesis as a phenomenon that transcends scales as well as temporalities, entwining past, present, and future.
This work presents a robust status monitoring approach for detecting damage in cantilever structures based on logistic functions. Also, a stochastic damage identification approach based on changes of eigenfrequencies is proposed. The proposed algorithms are verified using catenary poles of electrified railways track. The proposed damage features overcome the limitation of frequency-based damage identification methods available in the literature, which are valid to detect damage in structures to Level 1 only. Changes in eigenfrequencies of cantilever structures are enough to identify possible local damage at Level 3, i.e., to cover damage detection, localization, and quantification. The proposed algorithms identified the damage with relatively small errors, even at a high noise level.
Die Arbeit leistet einen wissenschaftlichen Beitrag zur Erforschung der Einsatzmöglichkeiten eines Immobilienportfoliomanagements für öffentliche museale Schlösserverwaltungen in Deutschland. Insbesondere wird ein für deren Organisation spezifisches Modell zur Investitionssteuerung herausgearbeitet und dessen Anwendbarkeit in der Praxis mit Experten diskutiert.
Natural Urban Resilience: Understanding general urban resilience through Addis Ababa’s inner city
(2021)
This dissertation describes the urban actors and spatial practices that contribute to natural urban resilience in Addis Ababa’s inner city. Natural urban resilience is a non-strategical and bottom-up, everyday form of general urban resilience – an urban system’s ability to maintain its essential characteristics under any change. This study gains significance by exposing conceptual gaps in the current un-derstanding of general urban resilience and highlighting its unconvincing applicability to African cities. This study attains further relevance by highlighting the danger of the ongoing large-scale redevelopment of the inner city. The inner city has naturally formed, and its urban memory, spaces, and social cohesion contribute to its primarily low-income population’s resilience. This thesis argues that the inner city’s demolition poses an incalculable risk of maladaptation to future stresses and shocks for Addis Ababa. The city needs a balanced urban discourse that highlights the inner city’s qualities and suggests feasible urban transformation measures. “Natural Urban Resilience” contributes an empirical study to the debate by identifying those aspects of the inner city that contribute to general resilience and identifies feasible action areas. This study develops a qualitative research design for a single case study in Addis Ababa. The data is obtained through expert interviews, interviews with resi-dents, and the analysis of street scene photos, which are abstracted using Grounded Theory. That way, this thesis provides first-time knowledge about who and what generates urban resilience in the inner city of Addis Ababa and how. Furthermore, the study complements existing theories on general urban resilience. It provides a detailed understanding of the change mechanisms in resilience, of which it identifies four: adaptation, upgrading, mitigation, and resistance. It also adapts the adaptive cycle, a widely used concept in resilience thinking, conceptually for urban environments. The study concludes that the inner city’s continued redevelopment poses an incalculable threat to the entire city. Therefore, “Natural urban resilience” recommends carefully weighing any intervention in the inner city to promote Addis Ababa’s overall resilience. This dissertation proposes a pattern language for natural urban resilience to support these efforts and to translate the model of natural urban resilience into practice.
In the last two decades, Peridynamics (PD) attracts much attention in the field of fracture mechanics. One key feature of PD is the nonlocality, which is quite different from the ideas in conventional methods such as FEM and meshless method. However, conventional PD suffers from problems such as constant horizon, explicit algorithm, hourglass mode. In this thesis, by examining the nonlocality with scrutiny, we proposed several new concepts such as dual-horizon (DH) in PD, dual-support (DS) in smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), nonlocal operators and operator energy functional. The conventional PD (SPH) is incorporated in the DH-PD (DS-SPH), which can adopt an inhomogeneous discretization and inhomogeneous support domains. The DH-PD (DS-SPH) can be viewed as some fundamental improvement on the conventional PD (SPH). Dual formulation of PD and SPH allows h-adaptivity while satisfying the conservations of linear momentum, angular momentum and energy. By developing the concept of nonlocality further, we introduced the nonlocal operator method as a generalization of DH-PD. Combined with energy functional of various physical models, the nonlocal forms based on dual-support concept are derived. In addition, the variation of the energy functional allows implicit formulation of the nonlocal theory. At last, we developed the higher order nonlocal operator method which is capable of solving higher order partial differential equations on arbitrary domain in higher dimensional space. Since the concepts are developed gradually, we described our findings chronologically.
In chapter 2, we developed a DH-PD formulation that includes varying horizon sizes and solves the "ghost force" issue. The concept of dual-horizon considers the unbalanced interactions between the particles with different horizon sizes. The present formulation fulfills both the balances of linear momentum and angular momentum exactly with arbitrary particle discretization. All three peridynamic formulations, namely bond based, ordinary state based and non-ordinary state based peridynamics can be implemented within the DH-PD framework. A simple adaptive refinement procedure (h-adaptivity) is proposed reducing the computational cost. Both two- and three- dimensional examples including the Kalthoff-Winkler experiment and plate with branching cracks are tested to demonstrate the capability of the method.
In chapter 3, a nonlocal operator method (NOM) based on the variational principle is proposed for the solution of waveguide problem in computational electromagnetic field. Common differential operators as well as the variational forms are defined within the context of nonlocal operators. The present nonlocal formulation allows the assembling of the tangent stiffness matrix with ease, which is necessary for the eigenvalue analysis of the waveguide problem. The present formulation is applied to solve 1D Schrodinger equation, 2D electrostatic problem and the differential electromagnetic vector wave equations based on electric fields.
In chapter 4, a general nonlocal operator method is proposed which is applicable for solving partial differential equations (PDEs) of mechanical problems. The nonlocal operator can be regarded as the integral form, ``equivalent'' to the differential form in the sense of a nonlocal interaction model. The variation of a nonlocal operator plays an equivalent role as the derivatives of the shape functions in the meshless methods or those of the finite element method. Based on the variational principle, the residual and the tangent stiffness matrix can be obtained with ease. The nonlocal operator method is enhanced here also with an operator energy functional to satisfy the linear consistency of the field. A highlight of the present method is the functional derived based on the nonlocal operator can convert the construction of residual and stiffness matrix into a series of matrix multiplications using the predefined nonlocal operators. The nonlocal strong forms of different functionals can be obtained easily via the concept of support and dual-support. Several numerical examples of different types of PDEs are presented.
In chapter 5, we extended the NOM to higher order scheme by using a higher order Taylor series expansion of the unknown field. Such a higher order scheme improves the original NOM in chapter 3 and chapter 4, which can only achieve one-order convergence. The higher order NOM obtains all partial derivatives with specified maximal order simultaneously without resorting to shape functions. The functional based on the nonlocal operators converts the construction of residual and stiffness matrix into a series of matrix multiplication on the nonlocal operator matrix. Several numerical examples solved by strong form or weak form are presented to show the capabilities of this method.
In chapter 6, the NOM proposed as a particle-based method in chapter 3,4,5, has difficulty in imposing accurately the boundary conditions of various orders. In this paper, we converted the particle-based NOM into a scheme with interpolation property. The new scheme describes partial derivatives of various orders at a point by the nodes in the support and takes advantage of the background mesh for numerical integration. The boundary conditions are enforced via the modified variational principle. The particle-based NOM can be viewed a special case of NOM with interpolation property when nodal integration is used. The scheme based on numerical integration greatly improves the stability of the method, as a consequence, the operator energy functional in particle-based NOM is not required. We demonstrated the capabilities of current method by solving the gradient solid problems and comparing the numerical results with the available exact solutions.
In chapter 7, we derived the DS-SPH in solid within the framework of variational principle. The tangent stiffness matrix of SPH can be obtained with ease, and can be served as the basis for the present implicit SPH. We proposed an hourglass energy functional, which allows the direct derivation of hourglass force and hourglass tangent stiffness matrix. The dual-support is {involved} in all derivations based on variational principles and is automatically satisfied in the assembling of stiffness matrix. The implementation of stiffness matrix comprises with two steps, the nodal assembly based on deformation gradient and global assembly on all nodes. Several numerical examples are presented to validate the method.
This dissertation investigates the interactions between urban form, allocation of activities, and pedestrian movement in the context of urban planning. The ability to assess the long-term impact of urban planning decisions on what people do and how they get there is of central importance, with various disciplines addressing this topic. This study focuses on approaches proposed by urban morphologists, urban economists, and transportation planners, each aiming the attention at a different part of the form-activity-movement interaction. Even though there is no doubt about the advantages of these highly focused approaches, it remains unclear what is the cost of ignoring the effect of some interactions while considering others. The general aim of this dissertation is to empirically test the validity of the individual models and quantify the impact of this isolationist approach on their precision and bias.
For this purpose, we propose a joined form-activity-movement interaction model and conduct an empirical study in Weimar, Germany. We estimate how the urban form and activities affect movement as well as how movement and urban form affect activities. By estimating these effects in isolation and simultaneously, we assess the bias of the individual models.
On the one hand, the empirical study results confirm the significance of all interactions suggested by the individual models. On the other hand, we were able to show that when these interactions are estimated in isolation, the resulting predictions are biased. To conclude, we do not question the knowledge brought by transportation planners, urban morphologists, and urban economists. However, we argue that it might be of little use on its own.
We see the relevance of this study as being twofold. On the one hand, we proposed a novel methodological framework for the simultaneous estimation of the form-activity-movement interactions. On the other hand, we provide empirical evidence about the strengths and limitations of current approaches.
Although it is impractical to avert subsequent natural disasters, advances in simulation science and seismological studies make it possible to lessen the catastrophic damage. There currently exists in many urban areas a large number of structures, which are prone to damage by earthquakes. These were constructed without the guidance of a national seismic code, either before it existed or before it was enforced. For instance, in Istanbul, Turkey, as a high seismic area, around 90% of buildings are substandard, which can be generalized into other earthquakeprone regions in Turkey. The reliability of this building stock resulting from earthquake-induced collapse is currently uncertain. Nonetheless, it is also not feasible to perform a detailed seismic vulnerability analysis on each building as a solution to the scenario, as it will be too complicated and expensive. This indicates the necessity of a reliable, rapid, and computationally easy method for seismic vulnerability assessment, commonly known as Rapid Visual Screening (RVS). In RVS methodology, an observational survey of buildings is performed, and according to the data collected during the visual inspection, a structural score is calculated without performing any structural calculations to determine the expected damage of a building and whether the building needs detailed assessment. Although this method might save time and resources due to the subjective/qualitative judgments of experts who performed the inspection, the evaluation process is dominated by vagueness and uncertainties, where the vagueness can be handled adequately through the fuzzy set theory but do not cover all sort of uncertainties due to its crisp membership functions. In this study, a novel method of rapid visual hazard safety assessment of buildings against earthquake is introduced in which an interval type-2 fuzzy logic system (IT2FLS) is used to cover uncertainties. In addition, the proposed method provides the possibility to evaluate the earthquake risk of the building by considering factors related to the building importance and exposure. A smartphone app prototype of the method has been introduced. For validation of the proposed method, two case studies have been selected, and the result of the analysis presents the robust efficiency of the proposed method.
Housing estates were fundamentally conceived upon state socialist utopia ideas to provide standard housing for citizens. While former state socialist housing estates have been extensively researched in the field of architecture, urban and sociology studies, there is still a gap in identifying how production processes affect morphological changes during the post-socialist era. This thesis compares the processes in the production of the largest housing estates of Marzahn in GDR and Petržalka in Czechoslovakia from 1970 to 1989 through contextual analysis of primary and secondary sources, which include visual maps, diagrams from professional architecture and planning journals, government documents and textbooks, as well as academic journals, books and newspaper articles. Then it discusses how these processes inadvertently created conducive conditions affecting their development in the market economy after 1989. It then interprets the results through application of Actor-Network Theory and Historical Institutionalism, while conceptualising them through David Harvey’s dialectical utopianism theory. Harvey (2000) delineates two types of utopia, one of spatial form and one of process. The former refers to materialised ideals in physical forms whereas the latter refers to the ongoing process of spatializing. The thesis aims to show how the production of Marzahn in GDR was more path dependent on policies established in 1950s and 1960s whereas Petržalka was a product of new Czechoslovakian policies in 1970s, changing aspects of the urban planning process, a manifestation of a more emphatic technocratic thinking on a wider scale. This ultimately influences the trajectories of development after 1989, showing more effects in Petržalka.
In the last decades, Finite Element Method has become the main method in statics and dynamics analysis in engineering practice. For current problems, this method provides a faster, more flexible solution than the analytic approach. Prognoses of complex engineer problems that used to be almost impossible to solve are now feasible.
Although the finite element method is a robust tool, it leads to new questions about engineering solutions. Among these new problems, it is possible to divide into two major groups: the first group is regarding computer performance; the second one is related to understanding the digital solution.
Simultaneously with the development of the finite element method for numerical solutions, a theory between beam theory and shell theory was developed: Generalized Beam Theory, GBT. This theory has not only a systematic and analytical clear presentation of complicated structural problems, but also a compact and elegant calculation approach that can improve computer performance.
Regrettably, GBT was not internationally known since the most publications of this theory were written in German, especially in the first years. Only in recent years, GBT has gradually become a fertile research topic, with developments from linear to non-linear analysis.
Another reason for the misuse of GBT is the isolated application of the theory. Although recently researches apply finite element method to solve the GBT's problems numerically, the coupling between finite elements of GBT and other theories (shell, solid, etc) is not the subject of previous research. Thus, the main goal of this dissertation is the coupling between GBT and shell/membrane elements. Consequently, one achieves the benefits of both sides: the versatility of shell elements with the high performance of GBT elements.
Based on the assumptions of GBT, this dissertation presents how the separation of variables leads to two calculation's domains of a beam structure: a cross-section modal analysis and the longitudinal amplification axis. Therefore, there is the possibility of applying the finite element method not only in the cross-section analysis, but also the development for an exact GBT's finite element in the longitudinal direction.
For the cross-section analysis, this dissertation presents the solution of the quadratic eigenvalue problem with an original separation between plate and membrane mechanism. Subsequently, one obtains a clearer representation of the deformation mode, as well as a reduced quadratic eigenvalue problem.
Concerning the longitudinal direction, this dissertation develops the novel exact elements, based on hyperbolic and trigonometric shape functions. Although these functions do not have trivial expressions, they provide a recursive procedure that allows periodic derivatives to systematise the development of stiffness matrices. Also, these shape functions enable a single-element discretisation of the beam structure and ensure a smooth stress field.
From these developments, this dissertation achieves the formulation of its primary objective: the connection of GBT and shell elements in a mixed model. Based on the displacement field, it is possible to define the coupling equations applied in the master-slave method. Therefore, one can model the structural connections and joints with finite shell elements and the structural beams and columns with GBT finite element.
As a side effect, the coupling equations limit the displacement field of the shell elements under the assumptions of GBT, in particular in the neighbourhood of the coupling cross-section.
Although these side effects are almost unnoticeable in linear analysis, they lead to cumulative errors in non-linear analysis. Therefore, this thesis finishes with the evaluation of the mixed GBT-shell models in non-linear analysis.
This thesis presents the advances and applications of phase field modeling in fracture analysis. In this approach, the sharp crack surface topology in a solid is approximated by a diffusive crack zone governed by a scalar auxiliary variable. The uniqueness of phase field modeling is that the crack paths are automatically determined as part of the solution and no interface tracking is required. The damage parameter varies continuously over the domain. But this flexibility comes with associated difficulties: (1) a very fine spatial discretization is required to represent sharp local gradients correctly; (2) fine discretization results in high computational cost; (3) computation of higher-order derivatives for improved convergence rates and (4) curse of dimensionality in conventional numerical integration techniques. As a consequence, the practical applicability of phase field models is severely limited.
The research presented in this thesis addresses the difficulties of the conventional numerical integration techniques for phase field modeling in quasi-static brittle fracture analysis. The first method relies on polynomial splines over hierarchical T-meshes (PHT-splines) in the framework of isogeometric analysis (IGA). An adaptive h-refinement scheme is developed based on the variational energy formulation of phase field modeling. The fourth-order phase field model provides increased regularity in the exact solution of the phase field equation and improved convergence rates for numerical solutions on a coarser discretization, compared to the second-order model. However, second-order derivatives of the phase field are required in the fourth-order model. Hence, at least a minimum of C1 continuous basis functions are essential, which is achieved using hierarchical cubic B-splines in IGA. PHT-splines enable the refinement to remain local at singularities and high gradients, consequently reducing the computational cost greatly. Unfortunately, when modeling complex geometries, multiple parameter spaces (patches) are joined together to describe the physical domain and there is typically a loss of continuity at the patch boundaries. This decrease of smoothness is dictated by the geometry description, where C0 parameterizations are normally used to deal with kinks and corners in the domain. Hence, the application of the fourth-order model is severely restricted. To overcome the high computational cost for the second-order model, we develop a dual-mesh adaptive h-refinement approach. This approach uses a coarser discretization for the elastic field and a finer discretization for the phase field. Independent refinement strategies have been used for each field.
The next contribution is based on physics informed deep neural networks. The network is trained based on the minimization of the variational energy of the system described by general non-linear partial differential equations while respecting any given law of physics, hence the name physics informed neural network (PINN). The developed approach needs only a set of points to define the geometry, contrary to the conventional mesh-based discretization techniques. The concept of `transfer learning' is integrated with the developed PINN approach to improve the computational efficiency of the network at each displacement step. This approach allows a numerically stable crack growth even with larger displacement steps. An adaptive h-refinement scheme based on the generation of more quadrature points in the damage zone is developed in this framework. For all the developed methods, displacement-controlled loading is considered. The accuracy and the efficiency of both methods are studied numerically showing that the developed methods are powerful and computationally efficient tools for accurately predicting fractures.