Adaptive Planning Approach Research Articles

Resilient Multi-Robot Coverage Path Redistribution Using Boustrophedon Decomposition for Environmental Monitoring

This study introduces a resilient and adaptive multi-robot coverage path planning approach based on the Boustrophedon Cell Decomposition algorithm, designed to dynamically redistribute coverage tasks in the event of robot failures. The proposed method ensures minimal disruption and maintains a balanced workload across operational robots through a propagation-based redistribution strategy. By iteratively reallocating the failed robot’s coverage path to neighboring robots, the method prevents any single robot from becoming overburdened, ensuring efficient task distribution and continuous environmental monitoring. Simulations conducted in five distinct environments, ranging from simple open areas to complex, obstacle-rich terrains, demonstrate the method’s robustness and adaptability. A key strength of the proposed approach is its fast and efficient task reallocation process, achieved with minimal propagation cycles, making it suitable for real-time applications even in complex scenarios. The approach reduces task variance and maintains balanced coverage throughout the mission.

Dynamic Adaptive Charging Network Planning Under Deep Uncertainties

Charging infrastructure is the backbone of electromobility. Due to new charging behaviors and power distribution and charging space constraints, the energy demand and supply patterns of electromobility and the locations of current refueling stations are misaligned. Infrastructure developers (charging point operators, fleet operators, grid operators, vehicle manufacturers, and real-estate developers) need new methodologies and tools that help reduce the cost and risk of investments. To this extent we propose a transport-energy-demand-centric, dynamic adaptive planning approach and a data-driven Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS). In the SDSS, with the help of a realistic digital twin of an electrified road transport system, infrastructure developers can quickly and accurately estimate key performance measures (e.g., charging demand, Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) enablement) of a candidate charging location or a network of locations under user-specified transport electrification scenarios and constraints and interactively and continuously calibrate and/or expand their network plans as facts about the deep uncertainties about the supply side of transport electrification (i.e., access to grid capacity and real-estate and presence of competition) are gradually discovered/observed. This paper describes the components and the planning support of the SDSS and how these can be used in competitive and collaborative settings. Qualitative user evaluations of the SDSS with 33 stakeholder organizations in commercial discussions and pilots have shown that both transport-energy-demand-centric and dynamic adaptive planning of charging infrastructure planning are useful.

Literature Review: Adaptive Planning Practices

Plans are prepared to provide direction, set goals, manage risks, and ensure timely and successful implementation to achieve desired outcomes. However, plans fail to deliver desired outcomes when an unexpected event occurs. The adaptive planning process is known for its ability to respond to an unexpected event with pre-emptive preparation. The adaptive planning approach seeks to minimise uncertainties and associated risks during each stage of the planning process by (re)assessing the feasibility of water supply needs and the effectiveness of planning decisions. The two most prevalent concepts in the integration of adaptiveness in planning processes are the dynamic adaptive policy planning and the adaptive planning cycle (Mobius loop) frameworks; these frameworks are used to address the uncertainties and associated risks at the planning stage. The Mobius loop, or infinity loop, is gaining momentum, as it clearly illustrates the iterative and continuous nature of adaptation to changing conditions. However, the data on the successful implementation of ‘adaptive’ planning practices are limited, and there is little knowledge about these practices. This study reviews the literature in this field and discusses the different interpretations of adaptiveness and its benefits and challenges while developing long-term strategic plans. The findings identify gaps for future research and recommend the way forward for policymakers to promote adaptive planning practices.

Towards adaptive resilience for the future of integrated water systems planning

Abstract The integrated water systems (IWSs) concept involves managing water quantity and quality through dynamic interactions. This paper reviews the terrestrial water cycle, focusing on resilience and adaptive planning (AP) approaches within IWSs. We examine how integrating these approaches can improve IWS management and planning, addressing their inherent complexities. Using a performance-based resilience definition, we consider the system’s ability to absorb, recover from and adapt to adverse events. The AP focuses on flexible management pathways for uncertain future conditions. Although both resilience and AP aim to enhance water system performance and address uncertainties, they differ in their assessment and implementation approaches. We propose an Adaptive Resilience Planning (ARP) framework that merges both approaches. The ARP uses resilience metrics for performance assessment and incorporates AP’s methods for conceptualising uncertainties and optimising management portfolios. Implementing the ARP framework raises four research questions: (1) holistic characterisation of uncertainties and options in IWSs, (2) using resilience metrics for IWS adaptation, (3) balancing trade-offs among management goals through optimal portfolio selection and (4) monitoring portfolio performance and uncertainties for informed adaptation. The ARP framework offers a structured method for dynamic and adaptive resilience planning, enhancing IWS management’s responsiveness to evolving challenges.

Room for uncertainty in infrastructure planning

Infrastructure planning is increasingly confronted with a dynamic environment and an engaged society. This necessitates decision makers to interact with their environment, resulting in the adoption of adaptive and participative planning approaches such as combined infrastructure and (organic) area development (De Roo et al., 2020). Giving room to stakeholders and to unforeseen developments implies incorporating uncertainty in planning and decision making and increases the complexity of planning. In current infrastructure planning, decision makers seem to struggle to find a balance between giving room to uncertainties on the one hand, and keeping the decision-making process manageable on the other hand. This often results in attempts to reduce uncertainties, in 'certainification' (Van Asselt et al., 2007; Klijn & Koppenjan, 2016). This focus on certainification prevents adaptive and participative approaches in planning from reaching full maturity (Hajer et al., 2010; Albrechts, 2012).

The Clinical Practice and Dosimetric Outcome of the Manual Adaptive Planning during Definitive Radiotherapy Treatment for Cervical Cancer

Organ motion is challenging during primary definitive external beam radiotherapy in locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC). Our study evaluated the manual adaptive planning approach three weeks after the treatment started, compared the dosimetric consequences of the manual adaptive plans to the scheduled plans, and explored the clinical factors predicting patients suitable for this replanning strategy. We analyzed 82 patients receiving primary definitive external beam radiotherapy with weekly online cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT)-based monitoring. The re-CT simulation was performed during treatment to develop a new plan (manual adaptive plan) due to a significant deviation of the clinical target volume (CTV). To evaluate the dosimetric benefit, D98, homogeneity index (HI) and conformity index (CI) for the planning target volume (PTV), as well as D2cc of the bowel, bladder, sigmoid and rectum were compared between the manual adaptive plans and the scheduled ones. The clinical factors influencing target motion throughout treatment were analyzed by chi-square test and logistic regression analysis. The re-CT simulation was performed after 15 fractions during treatment to develop the manual adaptive plan in 41 patients. The median CI and HI of the manual adaptive plan were significantly superior to the scheduled one (P = 0.001, 0.003, respectively), demonstrating a better dose coverage of the target volume. Compared to the scheduled plans, D98 of the manual adaptive plans increased by 3.3% (P = 0.0002), the average of D2cc to the rectum, bladder decreased 0.267Gy (P = 0.0049) and 0.321Gy (P = 0.0146), respectively. In addition, the chi-square test demonstrated that age (P = 0.024), primary tumor volume (P = 0.015), and parametrial infiltration (P = 0.022) were the clinical factors influencing target motion throughout treatment. Multivariate analysis further identified the large tumor volume (≥50cm3, OR = 3.254, P = 0.039) and parametrial infiltration (OR = 3.376, P = 0.018) as the independent risk factors. We found the most significant organ motion happened after 15 fractions during treatment. The manual adaptive planning of definitive radiotherapy improved the dose coverage and decreased the volume of organs at risk of receiving clinically significant doses of RT in patients with LACC. Patients with bulky mass or with parametrial infiltration were highly suggested to receive manual adaptive planning after 15 fractions during definitive radiotherapy, a timesaving strategy compared to the daily online adaptive radiotherapy without compromising the target dose coverage.

Adaptive Nonlinear Model Predictive Horizon Using Deep Reinforcement Learning for Optimal Trajectory Planning

This paper presents an adaptive trajectory planning approach for nonlinear dynamical systems based on deep reinforcement learning (DRL). This methodology is applied to the authors’ recently published optimization-based trajectory planning approach named nonlinear model predictive horizon (NMPH). The resulting design, which we call ‘adaptive NMPH’, generates optimal trajectories for an autonomous vehicle based on the system’s states and its environment. This is done by tuning the NMPH’s parameters online using two different actor-critic DRL-based algorithms, deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) and soft actor-critic (SAC). Both adaptive NMPH variants are trained and evaluated on an aerial drone inside a high-fidelity simulation environment. The results demonstrate the learning curves, sample complexity, and stability of the DRL-based adaptation scheme and show the superior performance of adaptive NMPH relative to our earlier designs.

Strategic archetypes of planning processes: Model and evidence

Complex planning processes bear the hallmarks of evolution, in that actors seek to obtain the results that serve their needs best. That is, seek to increase their fitness. As in biological evolution, there are multiple pathways toward fitness. With the rise of adaptive planning approaches, the question how such pathways can be identified in strategic planning processes becomes pivotal. To answer this question, we adapt the fitness landscape model from biology and analyze several strategic planning processes. The analysis demonstrates that one can trace how different pathways to fitness emerge, and which pathways are more successful given the circumstances. We then synthesize these pathways into six strategic archetypes of actor behavior and of interactions between actors.

Clustering and Informative Path Planning for 3D Gas Distribution Mapping: Algorithms and Performance Evaluation

Chemical gas dispersion can represent a severe threat to human and animal lives, as well as to the environment. Constructing a map of the distribution of gas in a fast and reliable manner is critical to ensure accurate monitoring of at-risk facilities and coordinate targeted and swift rescue missions when an emergency occurs. In recent years, robots have been endowed with gas sensing capabilities, and several algorithms to generate gas maps have been studied, often producing a 2D map. Two of the major drawbacks of these studies are concerned with the fact that the robot’s path is often fixed to a predefined route, and that the tridimensionality of the gas dispersion phenomenon is not captured by the final gas maps. In this letter, we study the effect of a random walk and an adaptive path planning approach based on informative quantities to gas mapping in a 3D environment using a micro aerial vehicle with severe flight time constraints. We also introduce a clustering strategy to enhance the exploration of the environment. The strategies are compared to a lawnmower movement and evaluated against a ground truth map of the environment, both in simulation and with physical experiments, in order to assess which ones are able to provide an accurate gas map, while simultaneously achieving satisfactory coverage of the desired volume under time constraints.

Why uncertainty in community livelihood adaptation is important for adaptive delta management: A case study in polders of Southwest Bangladesh

To deal with large uncertainties about future climate and socio-economic developments, planners in deltas are adopting an integrative and adaptive planning approach referred to as Adaptive Delta Management (ADM). Bangladesh has used the ADM approach for the development of its adaptive plan; Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100 (BDP 2100). The success of policy strategies in an adaptive delta plan critically depends on a specific adaptation of livelihoods of local communities (Community Livelihood Adaptation; CLA), especially in an agriculture-oriented society like Bangladesh. For example, while triple rice cropping might be evaluated as a robust strategy in all futures considered, its success eventually depends on whether farmers’ will actually make that choice, which is deeply uncertain. In this paper, we use literature review, insights from interviews and field observations to examine how the uncertainty in CLA impacts (adaptive) delta management. We study two historical cases of livelihood adaptation of farmer communities confronted with salinization and waterlogging in the polders of southwest Bangladesh since the 1960s. We conclude that historically the uncertainty about CLA in polders has been ignored in the development of policy plans, leading to the failure of anticipated policy outcomes. We recommend planners in Bangladesh and other deltas worldwide to take account of CLA as uncertainty when developing long-term adaptive plans.

Adaptive Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation for Long-Term Impact: Insights From a Water Supply Case in Bangladesh

Most water and development interventions aim to contribute to long-term sustainable impacts. Given the uncertainties involved in these longer-term water development projects, adaptive planning approaches hold promise to connect planning, implementation and evaluation. Recent innovations report promising results, but find limited wide-spread practice due to a relatively large distance from current operational realities. Therefore, in this article we set out to investigate the real-world benefits and barriers for adaptive planning, monitoring and evaluation as a tool for water development interventions. To do so, we have stripped the advanced theoretic adaptive planning approach to its essentials, for exploration in an ongoing water development project. Application of the resulting three essential adaptive planning steps to a water development project in Khulna, Bangladesh shows that these steps are feasible and can support a more adaptive planning and management. In particular, they have helped to surface critical assumptions and uncertainties, as well as associated adaptation actions for the case. These were related to spatial development, water quality, finance, and management capacity. However, results also show that the actual use of the proposed steps is likely to be hindered by strategic misrepresentation. Our findings suggest this as an additional and more fundamental barrier to the widespread use of adaptive planning practices. We reflect on this barrier of strategic misrepresentation and on possible mechanisms to counter it, in order to enable water development actors to make their planning and evaluation arrangements more adaptive.

Preparing for Sea-Level Rise through Adaptive Managed Retreat of a New Zealand Stormwater and Wastewater Network

Sea-level rise increasingly affects low-lying and exposed coastal communities due to climate change. These communities rely upon the delivery of stormwater and wastewater services which are often co-located underground in coastal areas. Due to sea-level rise and associated compounding climate-related hazards, managing these networks will progressively challenge local governments as climate change advances. Thus, responsible agencies must reconcile maintaining Levels of Service as the impacts of climate change worsen over the coming decades and beyond. A critical question is whether such networks can continue to be adapted/protected over time to retain Levels of Service, or whether eventual retreat may be the only viable adaptation option? If so, at what performance threshold? In this paper, we explore these questions for stormwater and wastewater, using a dynamic adaptive pathway planning (DAPP) approach designed to address thresholds and increasing risk over time. Involving key local stakeholders, we here use DAPP to identify thresholds for stormwater and wastewater services and retreat options, and for developing a comprehensive and area-specific retreat strategy comprising pathway portfolios, retreat phases, potential land use changes, and for exploring pathway conflicts and synergies. The result is a prototype for an area near Wellington, New Zealand, where a managed retreat of water infrastructure is being considered at some future juncture. Dynamic adaptive strategies for managed retreats can help to reduce future disruption from coastal flooding, signal land use changes early, inform maintenance, and allow for gradual budget adjustments by the agencies that can manage expenditure over time. We present this stepwise process in a pathway form that can be communicated spatially and visually, thereby making a retreat a more manageable, sequenced, adaptation option for water agencies, and the communities they serve.

Strategic adaptive management planning—Restoring a desert ecosystem by managing introduced species and native herbivores and reintroducing mammals

AbstractArid rangelands are degraded worldwide, suffering vegetation transformation, soil erosion, introductions, and extinctions. Wild deserts is restoring a desert ecosystem in Sturt National Park, New South Wales, Australia (35,000 ha), eradicating or controlling introduced animals, managing native herbivores, and reintroducing regionally extinct mammals. We describe a Strategic Adaptive Management Plan for restoration of this desert ecosystem, including a vision, model of ecosystem processes, stakeholder input, a hierarchy of objectives linked to triggers and their management actions, producing outcomes and outputs. Our management treatments included two “no restoration” areas and three “restoration” areas. The latter include two exclosures (each 2,000 ha), free of introduced animals (foxes, cats, rabbits), with previously abundant kangaroos removed and regionally extinct mammals to be reintroduced. The third management treatment is a Wild Training Zone (10,400 ha), with introduced animals and kangaroos managed at low levels, using innovative methods, improving survivorship and avoidance behavior of reintroduced mammals to introduced predators. These measures will allow populations of threatened animals to establish, initially in the exclosures, then the Wild Training Zone and potentially more widely. Our strategic adaptive management planning approach is generic and implementable for any natural resource management project, providing explicit steps and processes that track and report transparently on outcomes, fostering learning by doing.

African New Towns: An adaptive, principle-based planning approach

The New Towns (mixed use urban developments planned and built from scratch) initiated across the African continent since 1990 are overwhelmingly designed and built according to urban planning models from the previous century (Watson 2013; Marcinkowski 2018; Keeton and Provoost 2019). This has produced a generation of New Towns with rigid physical infrastructure and strict building regulations, that do not support the spatial manifestations of the ‘informal’ sector. As a result, these New Towns may become insular enclaves and informal settlements may develop adjacently to them. Residents of these adjacent areas may not have access to the services and amenities offered within the New Towns (Keeton and Provoost 2019). Coupled with the implicit vulnerabilities of emerging and threshold economies, the contextual mismatch of the imported urban models exacerbates spatial segregation at an urban scale. Additionally, contemporary New Town models often do not take current climate variability or future climate change threats into account. As implemented in the African context, they rarely respond effectively to surrounding natural landscapes or environmental sensitivities (Keeton and Nijhuis 2019). Building on the arguments that (1) equal access to resources is a key component of sustainable development and that (2) urban planning benefits from new linkages between critical social theory and environmental science, this research proposes that applying adaptive urban planning principles to New Towns in the African context can increase ecological sustainability and social inclusivity (WCED 1987; Fainstein and Campbell 2012). The objective of this research is therefore to address the spatial challenges of African New Towns by developing an alternative planning and design approach that acknowledges both social and environmental dimensions, as well as the constant state of change that all cities exhibit. This is done by addressing four main research questions: (1) What are the spatial problems of African New Towns caused by the application of common planning approaches? (2) What are the principles of a more adaptive and sustainable planning and design approach and how can they address these problems? (3) How and to what extent can the adaptive planning and design principles be improved and applied? And finally, (4) As a result of the findings, how can adaptive planning approaches and the related principles be implemented? The research first identifies the spatial challenges specific to contemporary African New Towns through a combination of empirical data collection and literature review. The research moves forward to bring these shared spatial challenges together with a set of guidelines for New Towns originally written by Michelle Provoost as an addition to UN-Habitat’s New Urban Agenda (Provoost 2016). The analysis of shared spatial challenges is used to revise, expand and refine these guidelines into a set of adaptive planning and design principles specific to African New Towns. The resulting principles are then tested by applying them through case study analysis of three existing New Towns to establish their universality as well as their ability to acknowledge local specificities. In the final phase of the research, two short-term workshops validate the results by testing implementation of the principles in two African New Towns (Tatu City, Kenya and Mahonda, Zanzibar). The research concludes that the adaptive planning and design principles can be an effective starting point for stakeholders involved in the development of New Towns across Africa. It furthermore concludes that these principles must be adapted locally to meet the individual urgencies of different sites. This research contributes to the existing body of literature on contemporary African New Towns (Watson 2014; Murray 2017; Van Noorloos and Kloosterboer 2018; Keeton and Provoost 2019). Notably, most authors working on this topic primarily employ internet sources or a single case study to build their arguments, which can be problematic in the African context where remotely-sourced data is often unreliable and New Towns as a group exhibit vast divergences that may limit the transferability of results from individual case studies. This research therefore fills a knowledge gap by bringing together empirical evidence acquired during fieldwork in Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, and Tanzania, combined with literature review and the results of interdisciplinary workshops to support its claims. It also contributes to the current debate on normative assumptions regarding planning in the Global South (Watson 2002; Watson 2016; Cirolia and Berrisford 2017), and directly addresses the disconnect between academia and practice regarding contemporary African New Towns (Grubbaur 2019; Keeton and Provoost 2019). Finally, this study aims to provide an alternative approach for planners, developers and decision-makers initiating tomorrow’s New Towns in Africa.

African New Towns

The New Towns (mixed use urban developments planned and built from scratch) initiated across the African continent since 1990 are overwhelmingly designed and built according to urban planning models from the previous century (Watson 2013; Marcinkowski 2018; Keeton and Provoost 2019). This has produced a generation of New Towns with rigid physical infrastructure and strict building regulations, that do not support the spatial manifestations of the ‘informal’ sector. As a result, these New Towns may become insular enclaves and informal settlements may develop adjacently to them. Residents of these adjacent areas may not have access to the services and amenities offered within the New Towns (Keeton and Provoost 2019). Coupled with the implicit vulnerabilities of emerging and threshold economies, the contextual mismatch of the imported urban models exacerbates spatial segregation at an urban scale. Additionally, contemporary New Town models often do not take current climate variability or future climate change threats into account. As implemented in the African context, they rarely respond effectively to surrounding natural landscapes or environmental sensitivities (Keeton and Nijhuis 2019). Building on the arguments that (1) equal access to resources is a key component of sustainable development and that (2) urban planning benefits from new linkages between critical social theory and environmental science, this research proposes that applying adaptive urban planning principles to New Towns in the African context can increase ecological sustainability and social inclusivity (WCED 1987; Fainstein and Campbell 2012). The objective of this research is therefore to address the spatial challenges of African New Towns by developing an alternative planning and design approach that acknowledges both social and environmental dimensions, as well as the constant state of change that all cities exhibit. This is done by addressing four main research questions: (1) What are the spatial problems of African New Towns caused by the application of common planning approaches? (2) What are the principles of a more adaptive and sustainable planning and design approach and how can they address these problems? (3) How and to what extent can the adaptive planning and design principles be improved and applied? And finally, (4) As a result of the findings, how can adaptive planning approaches and the related principles be implemented? The research first identifies the spatial challenges specific to contemporary African New Towns through a combination of empirical data collection and literature review. The research moves forward to bring these shared spatial challenges together with a set of guidelines for New Towns originally written by Michelle Provoost as an addition to UN-Habitat’s New Urban Agenda (Provoost 2016). The analysis of shared spatial challenges is used to revise, expand and refine these guidelines into a set of adaptive planning and design principles specific to African New Towns. The resulting principles are then tested by applying them through case study analysis of three existing New Towns to establish their universality as well as their ability to acknowledge local specificities. In the final phase of the research, two short-term workshops validate the results by testing implementation of the principles in two African New Towns (Tatu City, Kenya and Mahonda, Zanzibar). The research concludes that the adaptive planning and design principles can be an effective starting point for stakeholders involved in the development of New Towns across Africa. It furthermore concludes that these principles must be adapted locally to meet the individual urgencies of different sites. This research contributes to the existing body of literature on contemporary African New Towns (Watson 2014; Murray 2017; Van Noorloos and Kloosterboer 2018; Keeton and Provoost 2019). Notably, most authors working on this topic primarily employ internet sources or a single case study to build their arguments, which can be problematic in the African context where remotely-sourced data is often unreliable and New Towns as a group exhibit vast divergences that may limit the transferability of results from individual case studies. This research therefore fills a knowledge gap by bringing together empirical evidence acquired during fieldwork in Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, and Tanzania, combined with literature review and the results of interdisciplinary workshops to support its claims. It also contributes to the current debate on normative assumptions regarding planning in the Global South (Watson 2002; Watson 2016; Cirolia and Berrisford 2017), and directly addresses the disconnect between academia and practice regarding contemporary African New Towns (Grubbaur 2019; Keeton and Provoost 2019). Finally, this study aims to provide an alternative approach for planners, developers and decision-makers initiating tomorrow’s New Towns in Africa.

Regional shrinkage and planning policy change in Europe: the case of Asturias

ABSTRACT Shrinkage requires planners to move away from growth-oriented planning towards an adaptive approach. It is puzzling that even after decades of shrinkage, planners can still be stuck with a growth mindset that results in wasted resources and little gain. Existing research has done little to comprehend why planning policy adapts so slowly to shrinkage. The article revolves around the question: What shapes planning policy in shrinking regions? This question is addressed through a case study conducted in the Spanish region of Asturias. The study makes a first analysis of how ideas, interests and institutions influence policy change in shrinking regions. It finds that institutional structures and local interests can be serious obstacles to the adoption of adaptive planning approaches.

Spatial challenges in contemporary African New Towns and potentials for alternative planning strategies

ABSTRACTNew Towns in development across Africa are overwhelmingly designed according to twentieth-century planning models ranging from functionalist Chinese grids to American gated communities. Contemporary African New Towns based on these models are often unable to adapt to stimuli and, as a result, exacerbate both spatial and ecological challenges. The objective of this paper is to argue that African New Towns require a substantial shift from current practice and that planners must imagine new, hybrid planning strategies. This paper takes an exploratory approach and identifies the spatial challenges specific to contemporary African New Towns. Building on the argument that planning benefits from linkages between critical social theory and environmental science, this paper asserts that an adaptive urban planning approach that effectively engages citizens can be a more sustainable alternative to current practice. The paper concludes with implications for future research on the translation of challenges into potentials for African New Towns.

Automated production data feedback for adaptive work planning and production control

Abstract Higher customer's expectations and new technological developments have resulted in an increased complexity of manufacturing systems. Consequently, work planning and production control have become more crucial than ever to the success of companies. Adaptive work planning and production control approaches offer high potential with respect to flexibility and complexity management. However, the approaches find little use in practice, since the automatic acquisition of all potentially relevant information with additional sensors is cost-intensive and not feasible in many cases. At the same time, the potential of already existing production data, that is stored in Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), remains untapped. This paper presents a method for automated production data feedback that guarantees a systematic update of production plan data only based on MES data. The functionality of the method is validated exemplarily at a thread manufacturer. The results reveal that an MES can provide a sufficient database for adaptive work planning and production control approaches. Moreover, the developed method can be applied to identify suitable workstations and measurement categories for additional sensor implementation.

Short-term dynamics in livelihood conditions and woody plant extraction as an environmental entitlement at Mt. Kasigau, Kenya

Climate change projections for marginal lands in East Africa emphasize seasonal variability and unpredictability in rainfall, and a challenging setting for local agriculture. This study focuses on short term dynamics in seasonal precipitation patterns, what people are doing to produce or purchase sufficient food, and how the extraction of woody-plant resources contributes as a locally available environmental entitlement at Mt. Kasigau in southeastern Kenya. In 2011, 2012, and 2013, household surveys (n = 41) described the challenges of food production and diverse income strategies to achieve food sufficiency. Monthly journal accounts (n = 16) provided a temporal and spatial analysis of extractive activities. Most households report insufficient food production and transient engagement with diverse income strategies. Households vary, especially shown among the journal accounts, in how woody plant products contribute to their livelihoods. Mapping journal records of woody plant use identifies broad utilization areas mostly at elevations near and below the homes, and when overlaid for village participants by seasons identifies areas under greater pressure. Study results show application to an adaptive planning approach that emphasizes greater support for local coping strategies, recognizes expertise, and encourages collaborative knowledge creation for sustainable livelihoods.

Back to the future: Viewing a 1992 flood risk study through a 2017 lens

Here we examine whether a study conducted 25 years ago (1992) would have had different conclusions if concepts and analytical methods developed since then had been used. The 1992 problem was to identify a strategy for reducing flood risk in the Netherlands by, for example, strengthening the river dikes against the risk of flooding. Since then, conditions related to flooding have been recognised as increasingly uncertain. In response, a new paradigm for strategic planning has emerged: the “adaptive planning approach,” which aims to identify and assess strategies allowing for change, learning, and adaptation over time. We found that using the adaptive planning approach in 1992 would not have changed the main conclusions. But, it would have made explicit the need for the identification of vulnerabilities of the chosen strategy, a monitoring system to keep track of the uncertainties, and the possible actions to deal with the vulnerabilities that can be taken as the world evolves.