Search

Airborne wind energy (AWE) is an emerging renewable energy technology that uses kites to harvest winds at higher altitudes than wind turbines. Understanding how residents experience a local AWE system (AWES) is important as the technology approaches commercialization. Such knowledge can help adjust the design and deployment of an AWES to fit locals' needs better, thereby decreasing the technology's burden on people. Although the AWE literature claims that the technology affects nature and residents less than wind turbines, empirical evidence has been lacking. This first community acceptance study recruited residents within a 3.5 km radius of an AWE test site in Northern Germany. Using structured questionnaires, 54 residents rated the AWES and the closest wind farm on visual, sound, safety, siting, environmental, and ecological aspects. Contrary to the literature's claims, residents assessed the noise, ecological, and safety impacts similarly for the AWES and the wind farm. Only visual impacts were rated better for the AWES (e.g., no shadows were perceived). Consistent with research on wind turbines, residents who rated the site operation as fairer and the developer as more transparent tended to have more positive attitudes towards the AWES and to experience less noise annoyance. Consequently, recommendations for the AWE industry and policymakers include mitigating technology impacts and implementing evidence-based strategies to ensure just and effective project development. The findings are limited to one specific AWES using soft-wing kites. Future research should assess community responses across regions and different types of AWESs to test the findings' generalizability., Wind Energy, Organisation & Governance

The installation of solar panels by residential households is vital for the energy transition. However, the rapid uptake of solar panels by households leads to congestion in the electricity grid. Specifically, when the sun shines, these solar panels simultaneously produce a lot of electricity that is fed into the grid, which is inefficient and can destabilize the grid. Consequently, it is better if self-produced solar energy is directly consumed when the sun is shining. Loadshifting involves shifting energy use (e.g., doing laundry) to periods in which energy is produced. This necessitates behavior change within the household, and it is not yet well understood why people struggle to loadshift. To assess the individualistic and contextual factors influencing laundry loadshifting behavior in the Netherlands, we conducted a survey among 283 Dutch households with solar panels. The survey builds on a framework that integrates aspects of the theory of planned behavior and social practice theory. The framework comprises eight factors (sufficiency attitude, user beliefs, know-how, monitoring skills, habits, hassle, practical knowledge provided, and feedback provision by system design), which are quantitatively measured and analyzed. We used multiple regression analysis to explore the collected responses. Results show the relevance of monitoring skills, strong habits, passive user beliefs and practical knowledge for laundry loadshifting behavior. Findings highlight that instead of asking people to adjust to technologies, technologies should support behavior change and understand its intricacies and connections to its broader context. Additionally, it is important to strengthen households' beliefs regarding their active role in the energy system., Energy and Industry, Organisation & Governance

In the built environment sector, enhancing energy efficiency through energy retrofitting is a key strategy to mitigate climate change. Despite the efforts made by local municipalities to offer technical and financial support, the rate of home energy retrofit remains low. The decision to undertake home energy retrofit is complex for homeowners. It involves high upfront financial and nonfinancial costs, as well as various benefits over the long term. Substantial costs and ambiguous benefits may prevent homeowners from investing in retrofit measures. Moreover, existing research and policy interventions have rarely accounted for the nonfinancial costs of energy retrofitting. Therefore, this study aims to understand homeowners’ evaluation of nonfinancial transaction costs against financial upfront investment costs. To this end, we design a discrete choice experiment, in which recruited homeowners are presented with a series of decision-making scenarios where they must choose their preferred investment option from two alternatives, alongside the option to maintain the current status quo (no investment). For each retrofit package, we provide information on five attributes: upfront investment cost, time investment, disruption during implementation, energy bill savings, and energy independence. Furthermore, we investigate whether scalable behavioural interventions can be designed to boost homeowners' longtermoriented thinking, thereby increasing their tolerance to short-term costs. A treatment is designed to emphasise long-term financial and nonfinancial benefits of energy retrofitting. We expect that boosting long-term thinking will reduce the negative effects of upfront investment cost, time investment, and disruption on individual utilities, thus increasing homeowners’ preferences for energy retrofit investments., Design & Construction Management, Organisation & Governance

In democratic societies, governments cannot act in isolation from public opinion. This is especially true regarding terrorism, where public perception is the instrument targeted by terrorists to achieve their political goals. Nevertheless, governments must also be able to resist public pressure and preserve individual rights. All this suggests that researching public perception of terrorist attacks is crucial. We make an important contribution in this direction by measuring the importance the public assigns to various attributes of terrorist attacks. Using novel methodology (conjoint experiment) and survey data from the UK and The Netherlands (N = 6,315), we find that people are concerned with attacks by immigrants (in the Netherlands), and by individuals acting as part of a terror cell, and with jihadist motivation. Furthermore, past experience with specific terrorist tactics drive preference to address such attacks more than others. In both countries people strongly focus on the severity of attacks, and under-weigh probabilities. The terror attack in the Netherlands in 2019 provided an opportunity to examine perception right after an actual attack. Also there we have found that people’s concerns are driven by experience with specific attacks. A better understanding of terrorism perception can inform policymakers about the gap between optimal strategies to combat terrorism and the expectations of the public., Organisation & Governance

Climate change is one of the biggest global challenges the earth faces. It comes with a need to change the way we produce, supply, distribute and use energy. For this energy transition, we not only need money and technology, we also need a change in behaviour on multiple levels. Psychological perspectives, theories, and research methods are essential to discover behavioural patterns among different stakeholders, varying from end-users, producers, policymakers and installers. This article describes the role of psychology in behavioural research on the energy transition. Furthermore, it describes how research findings are applied in energy policy and technology., Organisation & Governance

RIVM rapport:Het RIVM heeft voor het eerst vijf jaar bron- en contactonderzoek (BCO) naar tuberculose geëvalueerd. Het heeft deze taak overgenomen van het KNCV Tuberculosefonds. De evaluatie gaat over de bron- en contactonderzoeken die van 2017 tot en met 2021 zijn gedaan. De evaluatie bevestigt dat dit soort onderzoek een goede manier is om tuberculose vroeg op te sporen en verdere verspreiding te voorkomen. De infectieziekte tuberculose wordt veroorzaakt door een bacterie en kan besmettelijk zijn. Om te kunnen voorkomen dat anderen besmet raken, is tuberculose meldingsplichtig. Na een melding kunnen patiënten met tuberculose of een tuberculose-infectie onder andere met een bron- of contactonderzoek worden opgespoord. Hiervoor onderzoekt de GGD mensen in de omgeving van de patiënt, zoals gezinsleden of huisgenoten. Als iemand besmet is met de tuberculosebacterie maar nog geen tuberculose heeft, heet dat een tuberculose-infectie. Deze persoon kan op termijn wel ziek worden. Door mensen met een tuberculose-infectie op te sporen en te behandelen, kan worden voorkomen dat ze tuberculose krijgen. Ook kan hiermee worden voorkomen dat ze andere mensen besmetten. In de onderzochte periode is bij 64 procent van de tuberculosepatiënten (2303 mensen) een of meer contacten onderzocht. Dat waren in totaal 25.702 contacten; gemiddeld 11 mensen per bron- en contactonderzoek. Bij 98 procent van deze contacten is gekeken of ze een tuberculose-infectie hebben. Van de onderzochte contacten hadden in totaal 205 (0,8 procent) personen de ziekte tuberculose. Alle mensen met tuberculose zijn met een behandeling begonnen en 93 procent van hen maakte deze af. In totaal hadden 2541 (10,1 procent) van de onderzochte contacten een tuberculose-infectie. Van deze contacten begon 87 procent met een behandeling en 87 procent van hen maakte deze af., For the first time, RIVM has evaluated five years of tuberculosis (TB) source tracing and contact investigation. This task was transferred to RIVM from the KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation. The evaluation covered source tracing and contact investigations conducted from 2017 until 2021. It confirmed that source tracing and contact investigation is an effective approach to detect TB at an early stage and prevent the spread of the disease. TB is an infectious disease caused by a bacterium and notifiable. After notification, municipal health services will investigate people in close contact with the patient, such as family or household members. This allows the identification of people with TB (disease) or a TB infection. People who are infected with the bacterium but who have not developed TB yet can eventually become ill. Identifying people with a TB infection and treating them, prevents progression to TB and reducing the risk of spreading the disease. Over the period under review, source tracing and contact investigation was done in 64 percent of TB patients (2,303 people) with one or more contacts investigated. This involved a total of 25,702 contacts, averaging 11 people per source and contact investigation. Out of these contacts, 98 percent were tested for a TB infection. A total of 205 contacts (0.8 percent) had TB. All contacts with TB cases started treatment, with 93 percent completing the treatment successfully. A total of 2,541 contacts (10.1 percent) had a TB infection. Of these contacts, 87 percent started treatment and 87 percent completed it. The highest infection rates were found among close contacts of patients with highly contagious (smear-positive) pulmonary TB: 2.0 percent had TB, and 19.3 percent had a TB infection.

RIVM rapport:In 2022 is in Nederland bij 635 mensen de ziekte tuberculose (tbc(Tuberculose)) vastgesteld. Dit is 6 procent minder dan in 2021 (673 patiënten). Deze daling past bij de ontwikkeling van de afgelopen twintig jaar dat in Nederland steeds minder mensen tuberculose hebben. In 2020 daalde het aantal tbc-patiënten sterker dan in de jaren ervoor. Van maart 2020 tot en met mei 2022 golden er in Nederland coronamaatregelen, zoals afstand houden of minder contact hebben met andere mensen. Waarschijnlijk kon de tbc-bacterie zich hierdoor minder makkelijk verspreiden. Een andere reden was de daling van het aantal immigranten en asielzoekers in Nederland door de wereldwijde reisbeperkingen in 2020. Tuberculose komt vaker voor bij personen die niet in Nederland zijn geboren; in 2022 was dat bij 4 van de 5 zieken het geval. De meesten kwamen uit Eritrea (70), gevolgd door Marokko (59) en Somalië (36). In Afrika en Azië komt tuberculose veel voor. De infectieziekte tuberculose wordt veroorzaakt door een bacterie en kan besmettelijk zijn. Van de 635 tbc-patiënten in 2022 had meer dan 60 procent tuberculose in de longen, de overige patiënten hadden tuberculose buiten de longen. Een kwart van alle patiënten had de besmettelijkste vorm (open tuberculose). Als een persoon wel besmet is met de bacterie maar (nog) geen tuberculose heeft, dan wordt dat een tuberculose-infectie genoemd. Door een tuberculose-infectie vroeg op te sporen kunnen mensen worden behandeld voordat ze ziek worden. Dit zorgt ervoor dat minder mensen tuberculose krijgen. In 2022 zijn er (naast de 635 personen die ziek waren) bijna 1200 personen met een tuberculose-infectie gemeld. Ruim een kwart is gevonden door bron- en contactonderzoek in de omgeving van een tbc-patiënt. Een derde werd opgespoord door nieuwkomers te testen uit landen waar tuberculose veel voorkomt. Het RIVM rapporteert elk jaar de cijfers over tuberculose en tuberculose-infectie om te zien welke effecten maatregelen hebben om tuberculose in Nederla, In 2022, 635 tuberculosis (TB) patients were notified in the Netherlands. This is six per cent fewer than in 2021, when there were 673 patients. This decline is consistent with the downward trend in TB cases in the Netherlands over the past 20 years. In 2020 patient numbers fell more sharply than in the years prior. Between March 2020 and May 2022, coronavirus measures including social distancing and less contact with others were in effect in the Netherlands. This most likely mitigated the spread of the TB bacterium. Another mitigating factor was the decline in the number of immigrants and asylum seekers who came to the Netherlands in 2020 as a result of global travel restrictions. TB is more prevalent among those not born in the Netherlands. In 2022, this was the case for four out of every five patients. Most patients were born in Eritrea (70), followed by Morocco (59) and Somalia (36). TB is widespread in Africa and Asia. TB is an infectious and potentially contagious disease caused by a bacterium. Of the 635 patients who had TB in 2022, more than 60 per cent had pulmonary TB and the remaining patients had extrapulmonary TB. A quarter of all patients had the most contagious type (open TB). People who have become infected with the bacterium but have not developed TB (yet) are said to have contracted a TB infection. Early detection of TB infections makes it possible for these people to be treated before they become ill. This, in turn, prevents the TB from spreading to other people. In addition to the 635 people who became ill in 2022, almost 1,200 people were reported to have contracted a TB infection. More than a quarter of these people was traced using source and contact tracing among those known to have been in close contact with a TB patient. A third were traced by testing new arrivals from countries were TB is widespread. RIVM reports the number of TB cases and TB infections each year in order to monitor the effect of measures to reduce the incidence of TB in t

The complex and uncertain environment of the humanitarian response to crises can lead to data bias, which can affect decision-making. Evidence of data bias in crisis information management (CIM) remains scattered despite its potentially significant impact on crisis response. To understand what biases emerge in complex crises and how they affect CIM, we conducted a combined interview and document analysis study. Focusing on the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, i.e., the conflict in Yemen, we conducted 25 interviews with managers and analysts of response organizations, and assessed 47 reports and datasets created by response organizations in Yemen. We find evidence of a cycle of bias reinforcement through which bias cascades between field, headquarters and donor levels of crisis response. Researchers, as well as practitioners, need to consider these underlying biases and reinforcement loops because they influence what data can be collected when, by whom, from whom, and how the data is shared and used. To the CIM literature, we contribute an in-depth understanding of how four types of data bias emerge in crises: political, accessibility, topical, and sampling bias., Organisation & Governance, Engineering, Systems and Services

Advies over de toegevoegde waarde van een eventueel verbod op fossiele reclame voor het bevorderen van klimaatvriendelijk gedrag.

Public and private organisations have several instruments at hand to reduce consumer demand for energy. These instruments can take the form of information campaigns, various subsidy programs, or regulations to encourage consumers to adopt greener technology, develop energy-efficient habits or travel more sustainably. However, the well-intended programs often stumble over people’s unwillingness to change, lack of interest, or limited attention. As part of this workshop, we will introduce an online toolkit developed by the Users TCP Behavioural Insights Platform that helps policymakers consider psychological factors that might affect the success of their policy. In the workshop, participants will learn how use the tool to make energy programs and policies more behaviourally informed and ultimately more likely to succeed., Organisation & Governance