Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Working Paper (16)
- Master's Thesis (15)
- Report (11)
- Conference Proceeding (7)
- Bachelor Thesis (1)
- Book (Monograph) (1)
- Doctoral Thesis (1)
- Preprint (1)
Language
- English (53) (remove)
Has Fulltext
- yes (53)
Is part of the Bibliography
- yes (53) (remove)
Keywords
- Stadtplanung , Stadtentwicklung (7)
- Stadtplanung (5)
- Artificial Intelligence (Al) (1)
- Assistive robotics (1)
- Autonomes Fahrzeug , Erweiterte Realität <Informatik> , Kartierung , Lokalisation (1)
- Deutschland , Flüchtling , Weiblicher Flüchtling , Jordanien , Syrien (1)
- Dienstleistungsbetrieb , Energieversorgungsunternehmen , Vertrauen (1)
- EU Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA) (1)
- Elektromobilität , Öffentlicher Personennahverkehr , Omnibus , Mexiko (1)
- Emotional spaces (1)
Institute
- Fachbereich 1: Architektur, Bauingenieurwesen, Geomatik (24)
- Fachbereich 3: Wirtschaft und Recht (15)
- Frankfurter Forschungsinstitut für Architektur • Bauingenieurwesen • Geomatik (FFin) (7)
- Fachbereich 2: Informatik und Ingenieurwissenschaften (1)
- Fachbereich 4: Soziale Arbeit und Gesundheit (1)
- Fachbereichsübergreifend (1)
- Hochschulübergreifend (1)
Working Paper Nr. 18 des Fachbereichs 3: Wirtschaft und Recht
The possibilities of digital technologies for people with disabilities or the older population are wide-ranging, but in order for all people to be able to participate in an increasingly “digital world” it is important to quality professionals and organizations so that they are able to support, advise and help with potential risks. The article presents results of a survey among health and social care professionals in seven European countries with regard to qualification in this domain and introduces the European Union funded project DDSkills. The project aims to qualify health and social care professionals in areas such as digital Assistive Technologies, Smart Home, Robotics, Virtual and Augmented Reality and Brain-Computer-Interface, as well as their implementation and application, in order to support people with disabilities or functional decline to increase their independence and social participation.
Master's Thesis at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Faculty 1: Architecture, Civil Engineering, Geomatics, Master Program "Urban Agglomerations".
Abstract
At the intersection of issues of water scarcity and rapid urbanisation is the need to investigate sustainable urban water management practices in today’s cities. This is especially important with the undeniable impact of climate change adding to its complexity. Johannesburg is a prime example of a city facing a myriad of challenges regarding water and is therefore the focus of the thesis. This research focuses on how the city of Johannesburg can pave its way into becoming a Water Sensitive City (WSC)- an aspirational vision of a city that integrates sustainable urban water management practices. To discover this, case study research on Johannesburg is undertaken by exploring the challenges and opportunities in relation to water demand and supply in the city. A few challenges include pollution of water and issues relating to the dependency on surface water. Additionally, an Urban Water Mass Balance (UWMB) analysis was undertaken to explore the potential of alternative water service options in a city that relies predominantly on surface water. It was found that rainwater harvesting had the highest potential to replace the existing centralized system. Based on the results of the case study research and the UWMB analysis a program was proposed to assist Johannesburg’s transition into a WSC. The proposal includes proactive recommendations relating to public participation and the protection of the environment.
Veröffentlichung im Rahmen des European Parking Association Congress 2015, Berlin.
Abstract English
The world is increasingly characterized by global and national disasters and crises. To cope with these, social cohesion is indispensable—and this in turn requires that young people are taught how to become responsible citizens. Strengthening students’ personal development and social commitment are therefore key responsibilities of universities. Service-learning is one possibility to integrate these into teaching and learning, however studies on the effectiveness of service-learning in Europe—and especially in Germany—are rare. This paper examines the effects of service-learning, whereby three different study groups are compared. The study includes n=132 bachelor and master students, and shows that the groups’ outcomes hardly differ from one another. It can tentatively be said that there are only minor differences between the formats and that service-learning is equal to more traditional teaching-learning formats, but again is not superior with regard to the variables investigated.
Abstract Deutsch
Die Welt ist zunehmend von globalen und nationalen Katastrophen und Krisen geprägt. Um diese zu bewältigen, ist sozialer Zusammenhalt unabdingbar - der wiederum setzt voraus, dass junge Menschen zu verantwortungsvollen Bürgern erzogen werden. Die Stärkung der Persönlichkeitsentwicklung und des gesellschaftlichen Engagements der Studierenden ist daher eine zentrale Aufgabe der Hochschulen. Service-Learning ist eine Möglichkeit, diese in die Lehre und das Lernen zu integrieren. Studien über die Wirksamkeit von Service-Learning in Europa - und insbesondere in Deutschland - sind jedoch rar. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht die Auswirkungen von Service-Learning, wobei drei verschiedene Studiengruppen verglichen werden. Die Studie umfasst n=132 Bachelor- und Master-studenten und zeigt, dass sich die Ergebnisse der Gruppen kaum voneinander unter-scheiden. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass es nur geringe Unterschiede zwischen den Formaten gibt und dass Service-Learning den traditionelleren Lehr-Lern-Formaten gleich-wertig, aber wiederum nicht überlegen ist, was die untersuchten Variablen betrifft.
Master's Thesis at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Faculty 1: Architecture, Civil Engineering, Geomatics, Master Program "Urban Agglomerations".
The advancing use of modern technology in nursing care, especially the development of technical assistance systems through robotics, digitization and Artificial Intelligence (Al), can open up new opportunities for those affected. At the same time, however, the use of these technologies also carries risks for this group of people, especially for their fundamental right to informational self-determination, due to the extensive processing of personal data. This article describes the risks for data subjects and explains the current legal framework regarding the protection of personal data in the European Union. The authors conclude, that applying data protection and data security to technical assistance systems, robots and Al from the beginning not only leads to legally compliant practices but also strengthens the trust of users and society as a whole in the use of these systems. The use of Al-based systems raises further (legal} questions that go beyond data protection and data security. The authors first address the various definitions of the term „Artificial Intelligence” in the academic literature. They then describe the European Union’s various regulatory approaches to the use of Al starting with the European Commission's “Strategy for Artificial Intelligence” published in 2018, followed by the “Al White Paper” published in 2020 and ending with the European Commission’s proposal for a Regulation laying down harmonized Rules on Artificial Intelligence- Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA) published in April 2021. Here, in particular, aspects of „scope“, „transparency” and „impact on the healthcare sector” will be examined in more detail and the still necessary need for legal policy discussion will be highlighted.
Work Package 7:
Integrating Rapid Planning Methodology into Spatial Planning and Urban Development Procedures
Task - 7.1: Review of Spatial Planning and Urban Development Systems
Task 7.2: Identification and Documentation of Sustainable Urban Development Goals
Deliverable - 7.1/7.2:
Documentation and Review of Spatial Planning Systems and Urban Development Goals in Assiut, Egypt
Work Package 7:
Integrating the Rapid Planning Methodology into Spatial Planning and Urban Development Procedures
D-07
Review of the Urban Development in Frankfurt am Main and the Lessons Learned for Trans-sectoral Planning
Abstract
The global problem with drinking water supply has increased considerably in recent decades, mainly due to accelerated population growth and unsustainable use of non-renewable resources. Ciudad Juarez, located on the northern border between Mexico and the United States, has not been excluded from this problem. Its desert characteristics and low rainfall accentuate the need for a change in water management. This paper presents water-sensitive urban design measures to help combat climate change and water scarcity problems in Ciudad Juarez.
Master's Thesis at Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Faculty 1: Architecture, Civil Engineering, Geomatics, Master Program "Urban Agglomerations".
Abstract
Digital media today enables people to connect easily with each other,
no matter where they may be in the world. It is also a means of
connecting with the world, particulary in contemporary urban
environments. However, given the relentless and rather stressful
nature of modern city life, digital media has often been perceived as
a distraction, or as something that ‘displaces’ people, thus preventing
the formation of fulfilling or more enriching connections with places.
Thus, this thesis is an investigation into the potential of existing and
emergent digital media in enabling a sense of place in an urban
environment. This is achieved via a comprehensive review of
literature pertaining to human experience of space and place,
characterizing the role of technology and digital media as a mediator
of human-world/environment relations, identification of relevant
examples of media that can aid this process, followed by the
contextualization of the study and the formulation of digital
strategies that will enable the creation of a sense of place in the
selected context. It was determined that the creation of an integrated
digital platform will allow users to gain a sense of place by combining
the potential of social, locative, and interactive media, which further
creates a foundation for place awareness through exploration and
experience, place attachment through participation and inclusion, as
well as place memory - which in essence is a sense of place. In
conclusion, it was determined that digital media can indeed aid the
creation of sense of place in an urban environment.
Abstract: English
Environmental sustainability is one of the greatest challenges of this century. It depends on both compliance with environmental protection laws and its integration into directors’ decision-making beyond these laws. In this regard, the duty to promote the company’s success stipulates in the Companies Act 2006 that directors, who are protected by Business Judgment Rule, shall consider their companies’ environmental impacts. Since the stakeholders’ interests are regarded as a means to increase shareholder value, directors may pursue their companies’ environmental sustainability through a business case. The latest changes to the UK Corporate Governance Code 2018 further encourage directors to consider environmental sustainability in their business decisions. They may also link environmental sustainability to mandatory and voluntary disclosures through publishing their companies’ achievements. As a result, directors have broad discretion to pursue environmental sustainability beyond environmental protection laws. However, evidence shows that directors frequently neglect this discretion, the environmental sustainability’s resulting business case and that they even cause environmental damages to increase (the short-term) shareholder value. This is due to the social norm of shareholder primacy, which is now exacerbated by Brexit’s and the Ukraine war’s unclear economic impacts as well as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. In this regard, the current approach of the UK’s company law in the predominant form of narrative reporting laws is insufficient because of the resulting greenwashing possibilities. This paper’s main argument is thus that changes to the current legal framework for directors’ decision-making are needed to achieve more environmental sustainability. Accordingly, a new principle for the UK Corporate Governance Code 2018 could lead to a greater consideration of environmental sustainability in directors’ decision-making and increased shareholder value in times of rising societal awareness of climate change and a growing trend towards environmental activist shareholders.
The research project “start2park” closes a research gap by precisely measuring parking search duration (cruising for parking) – especially the starting point of search – using a mobile app developed for this purpose. Complete journeys’ location data and durations are recorded, including driving until the start of the parking search, the parking search process, and the footpath from the parking spot to the final destination. Therefore, the causal effects of parking search on driving duration as well as journey duration can be estimated. Cruising for parking is traffic that results from car drivers looking for (free) kerb parking that meets their expectations (for example, free of charge or close to their destination point) and drivers being not (fully) informed about available kerb space parking locations. Parking search traffic causes external costs. Therefore, traffic-planning options should be designed to reduce unnecessary parking search traffic. However, this requires reliable data on urban cruising for parking traffic. Previous empirical results on the share of cruising traffic in total traffic, average parking search durations and average parking search distances differ widely. We show that the causal effect of parking search on driving duration and journey duration has not yet been validly estimated in empirical studies, and we explain how this is done in the research project.
Abstract English
Urban area tessellation is a crucial aspect in many spatial analyses. While regular tessellation methods, like square-grid or hexagon-grid, are suitable for addressing pure geometry problems, they cannot take the unique characteristics of different subareas into account. Irregular tessellation methods allow the border between the subareas to be defined more realistically based on the urban features like road network or POI data. This paper studies and compares five different tessellation methods: Squares, hexagons, adaptive squares, Voronoi diagrams, and city blocks. We explain how (open-source) POI data can be integrated into the tessellation process to build what we call “Local Geo-graphic Units” (POI-based tiles). These units are flexible and adaptable to the structure of the studied area and underlying data and could improve the performance of further analyses. The results of the various tessellation methods are demonstrated for the city of Frankfurt am Main in Germany. A simple clustering of Local Geographic Units for the studied city indicates that city blocks perform better than the other methods in the city segmentation in terms of reflecting the structure of this city.
Abstract Deutsch
Die Tessellierungen urbaner Gebiete ist ein entscheidender Aspekt bei räumlichen Analysen. Regelmäßige Tessellierungen, wie die Unterteilung in Quadrate oder Hexagons, eignen sich zwar für Probleme rein geometrischer Natur, berücksichtigen aber die Charakteristika der enthaltenen kleineren geographischen Einheiten nicht. Unregelmäßige Tessellierungen ermöglichen eine realitätsnahe Unterteilung basierend auf städtischen Merkmalen, wie dem Straßennetz oder POI-Daten. In diesem Beitrag werden fünf verschiedene Tessellierungsmethoden vorgestellt und verglichen: Quadrate, Hexagons, adaptive Quadrate, Voronoi-Diagramme und City-Blocks. Die Integration von (Open-Source) POI-Daten in den Tessellierungsprozess führt zu sogenannten „Lokalen Geographischen Einheiten“. Diese POI-basierten Einheiten sind flexibel und passen sich sowohl der Struktur des zu untersuchenden Gebiets, als auch der zugrundeliegenden Daten an und erlaube dadurch darauf aufbauende, detailliertere Analysen. Alle vorgestellten Tessellierungsmethoden werden an dem Beispiel Frankfurt am Main durchgeführt und präsentiert. Ein einfaches „Clustering“ der Lokalen Geographischen Einheiten zeigt, dass City-Blocks die Struktur der Stadt besser abbilden können, als die anderen vorgestellten Methoden.
Emotional spaces
(2021)
Taking into account that architects have a pronounced influence on humans’ lives, it is their responsibility to design and build livable environments. For this, there is another crucial dimension that shapes the individual understanding of space in a way that has not yet been taken into account. This paper looks at living environments and their meaning for individual life and well-being. It introduces a theoretical background that sets its focus on buildings and exterior spaces and presents a different point of view. Here the theory of Emotional Spaces is introduced, referring to a connection between space and feelings and considering that it is not enough to plan buildings and open spaces merely with architectural qualities in mind. This paper presents a different understanding of space and proposes a new approach to the design process. It is based on a design concept that places people and all their needs in the center. In order to be able to design and plan architectural spaces according to the needs of human beings, it seems necessary to understand the individual, everyday life. The challenge is to understand the individual life story, which should then be put into a spatial context. From these insights, Emotional Spaces that are relevant for „good and successful” living can become visible.
Master thesis for the academic graduation as Master of Engineering in the interdisciplinary
study programme Environmental Management Systems and Urban Planning in Metropolitan
Areas / Umweltmanagement und Stadtplanung in Ballungsräumen at the faculty of Architecture,
Construction Engineering and Geo-Informatics.
Universities of graduation:
Hochschule RheinMain
University of Applied Sciences Frankfurt am Main (FRA-UAS)
Hochschule Geisenheim University
This Article introduces two research projects towards assistive robotic arms for people with severe body impairments. Both projects aim to develop new control and interaction designs to promote accessibility and a better performance for people with functional losses in all four extremities, e.g. due to quadriplegic or multiple sclerosis. The project MobILe concentrates on using a robotic arm as drinking aid and controlling it with smart glasses, eye-tracking and augmented reality. A user oriented development process with participatory methods were pursued which brought new knowledge about the life and care situation of the future target group and the requirements a robotic drinking aid needs to meet. As a consequence the new project DoF-Adaptiv follows an even more participatory approach, including the future target group, their family and professional caregivers from the beginning into decision making and development processes within the project. DoF-Adaptiv aims to simplify the control modalities of assistive robotic arms to enhance the usability of the robotic arm for activities of daily living. lo decide on exemplary activities, like eating or open a door, the future target group, their family and professional caregivers are included in the decision making process. Furthermore all relevant stakeholders will be included in the investigation of ethical, legal and social implications as well as the identification of potential risks. This article will show the importance of the participatory design for the development and research process in MobILe and DoF-Adaptiv.
Abstract English
Empirical evidence suggests that international ownership of local firms supports firm performance and growth through various channels such as financing, technology transfer, and improved access to international markets. This is particularly true for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that otherwise may lack access to a variety of vital resources. At the same time small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) formation may promote economic development. The relationship between firm performance and international ownership has been well explored for firms in developed economies but this is not the case for firms – including SMEs – in Africa and the Middle East. Largely due to lack of relevant cross-country financial data, existing literature on African and Middle-Eastern firms has presented survey-based evidence on firm performance while evidence based on detailed financial information remains lacking. The present paper aims at filling this research gap. We identify African and Middle-Eastern SMEs operating in the formal sector and examine the impact of ownership structure on firm performance. We use cross-sectional financial data covering about 25,500 companies – including about 30% SMEs – in 69 African and Middle-Eastern countries for the years 2006 to 2015. Our results indicate that international ownership has significant positive association with firm performance. For internationally-owned SMEs this appears to be true despite lower levels of equity and debt capital, implying that internationally-owned firms use international resources – other than capital – more efficiently!
Abstract Deutsch
Empirische Erkenntnisse deuten darauf hin, dass das internationale Eigentum an lokalen Unternehmen die Leistung und das Wachstum von Unternehmen über verschiedene Kanäle wie Finanzierung, Technologietransfer und verbesserten Zugang zu internationalen Märkten unterstützt. Dies gilt insbesondere für kleine und mittlere Unternehmen (KMU), die andernfalls möglicherweise keinen Zugang zu einer Vielzahl wichtiger Ressourcen haben. Gleichzeitig kann die Gründung kleiner und mittlerer Unternehmen (KMU) die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung fördern. Die Beziehung zwischen Unternehmensleistung und internationalem Eigentum wurde für Unternehmen in Industrieländern umfassend untersucht; dies ist allerdings nicht der Fall für Unternehmen – einschließlich KMU – in Afrika und im Nahen Osten. Da relevante länderübergreifende Finanzdaten oft nicht vorlagen, hat die vorhandene Literatur über afrikanische und nahöstliche Unternehmen vor Allem umfragebasierte Untersuchungen zu Unternehmensleistungen vorgelegt, während Evidenz, die auf detaillierten Finanzinformationen basiert, nach wie vor fehlt. Ziel des vorliegenden Beitrags ist es, diese Forschungslücke zu schließen. Wir untersuchen die Auswirkungen der Eigentümerstruktur auf die Unternehmensleistung afrikanischer und nahöstlicher KMU. Wir nutzen dazu Querschnittsfinanzdaten von rund 25.500 Unternehmen – darunter etwa 30% KMU – in 69 Ländern Afrikas und des Nahen Ostens für die Jahre 2006 bis 2015. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass internationale Eigentümerschaft eine signifikante positive Assoziation mit der Unternehmensleistung hat. Für KMU in internationalem Besitz scheint dies trotz eines geringeren Eigen- und Fremdkapitals zu gelten; dies impliziert, dass in internationalem Besitz befindliche Unternehmen internationale Ressourcen – außer Kapital – effizienter nutzen!
Sustainability Report 2021
(2021)