Universiẗat, Diss.--Hohenheim, 1999.

Freie Univ., Diss.--Berlin, 2000. / Zsfassung in engl. Sprache.

Zugl.: Dresden, Techn. Universiẗat, Diss., 2009.

Riga has suffered a population loss of more than 29% between 1990 and 2014 which has led to increasing number of abandoned and degraded buildings in the city and optimization of the network of educational and cultural institutions. These trends are characteristics of urban shrinkage – a complex process affecting Riga for more than two decades and resulting in a pattern of growing, shrinking, and stable districts. A similar pattern has also been identified in other shrinking cities in Europe, but it has not been researched in more detail. In the given context, this research aims to narrow the knowledge gap on processes occurring in shrinking cities and to provide some understanding of the determinants of these processes on the city and local level through analysis of single embedded case study of Riga. To achieve this aim, resilience is used as an analytical concept. It allows to conceptualize urban shrinkage as a slow-burn (slowly occurring disturbance) and propose three possible responses - adaptation, transformation, and decline. These responses emerge from actions of actors on various spatial scales and lead to different outcomes. It also provides the basis for analyzing the determinants of these responses by conceptualizing them as sources of resilience and suggesting seven different aspects found in literature: leadership, networks, resources, learning, people-place connection, common cause, and system of institutions and governance. Finally, these theoretical assumptions are used to define two main research questions: (1) what are responses to urban shrinkage in Riga? (2) what are sources of resilience to urban shrinkage in Riga? The need for in-depth research of urban processes led to choosing mixed method strategy for both selecting the embedded units of analysis (districts) in Riga and finding answers to the proposed research questions. Based on combined results of secondary data analysis, controlled expert group discussion, and structured site visits, five districts in Riga were selected – Avoti, Maskavas forštate, Bolderāja, Sarkandaugava, and Ķīpsala. Further data collection and analysis included semi-structured interviews with different actors at the city and district level and document analysis. The study finds that there are four different responses to urban shrinkage in Riga: mitigation, adaptation, transformation, and possible decline. Mitigation can be identified on city (also national) level and is closely linked with the strategic actions proposed by the local and national government in response to population decline. Adaptation can be observed on the city and local level. It is the dominant response type in Riga emerging from strategic actions and different activities by various actors in response to all of the identified processes associated with urban shrinkage in Riga. Transformation, however, can be found only on local level – district (in one specific case) or unit level. It emerges from activities of mostly non-government actors that are making use of the opportunities provided by urban shrinkage in Riga. Finally, further decline is a potential response in several Riga districts resulting from strategic actions of local municipality and inability of some of the actors to deal with the existing situation. The analysis of sources of resilience reveals that there are four main determinants of adaptation and transformation – leadership, networks, resources, and learning. Other sources of resilience (people-place connection, common cause, and engaged governance) function as additional drivers or catalysts. All of these sources of resilience can be identified in Riga, but not consistently across all spatial scales and units or actor groups. The main deficiencies are linked with availability of resources (human and financial) among different actor groups, the existing system of governance (involvement of actors in the decision-making process) and leadership (on city level). The study also shows differences related to responses to urban shrinkage and different sources of resilience, especially leadership, learning, and resources. Overall, the findings support the main theoretical assumptions of the study and allow refining the understanding of responses to urban shrinkage and sources of resilience. The results can be used as the basis for developing an approach for assessment of the level of resilience to urban shrinkage or other slow burns in the urban context.

Ethiopia is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. This is because its important economic sector, agriculture, is virtually rain-fed. The role of the sector in the current economic structure and the potency of the anticipated biophysical impacts of climate change necessitates proactive adaptation in agriculture. This, however, breeds questions of adaptation costs and adaptation finance. This study attempts to derive plausible range of planned adaptation costs in agriculture along with their economy-wide and regional effects in Ethiopia. It also assess the economy-wide and regional effects of the likely options available to a government of a least-developed country to finance adaptation in agriculture. The results show that planned public adaptation in agriculture puts pressure on government surplus, impedes on manufacturing and private services, and GDP of urbanized regions. As such, it may strain the current macroeconomic endeavors of the country which puts government driven structural transformation and reducing fiscal deficit relative to GDP at the center. Government of Ethiopia may reconcile this by laying out incentives to urban agriculture and private investment in agriculture. Besides, foreign support in the form of biotechnology transfer and debt-relief may help to control the side effects of grants on foreign exchange market and trade balance.

Die europäische Fertigungsindustrie steht vor großen Veränderungen, die durch die zunehmende Nachfrage der Kunden nach maßgeschneiderten und/oder intelligenten Produkten, Industrie 4.0 Lösungen und Öffnung der Produktionsketten für Newcomer getrieben werden sowie durch die Veränderung hin zu Wertschöpfungsketten, in denen die Rollen von Lieferanten, Herstellern und Einzelhändlern verschwimmen. Diese sich dynamisch wandelnde Umwelt erfordert eine Anpassungsfähigkeit der Mitarbeiter, Fertigungswerkzeuge und Prozesse. Neue IKT-basierte Lösungen erleichtern einen Paradigmenwechsel, der Fabrikarbeiter als zukünftige "Wissensarbeiter" in den intelligenten Fabriken sieht, welcher nicht nur durch die Einführung neuer Technologien in die Fabriken gelingen kann. Arbeitsabläufe müssen umgestaltet werden und neue Ansätze zur kontinuierlichen Weiterentwicklung sind erforderlich. Bei der Verschiebung der Arbeitsaufgaben hin zur Wissensarbeit müssen bei der Anpassung der Arbeitsumgebungen zunehmend die Unterschiede bei den kognitiven Fähigkeiten berücksichtigt werden. Das hier vorgestellte Forschungsprojekt Factory2Fit zielt darauf ab, die menschlich zentrierte Fertigung auf ein neues Niveau zu bringen, indem den Mitarbeitern eine führende Rolle bei der Anpassung und Entwicklung ihrer eigenen Aufgaben zukommt. Das Hauptziel des Projektes ist es, adaptive Automatisierungslösungen zu entwickeln und zu pilotieren, die den Arbeitsablauf verbessern, den Arbeitnehmer dabei unterstützen, seine Kompetenzen zu entwickeln und die Mitarbeiter dazu befähigen, Wissen zu teilen und sich an der Gestaltung ihrer eigenen Arbeit zu beteiligen. Das Projekt Factory2Fit wird von Horizon 2020 (H2020/2014-2020), dem Programm für Forschung und Innovation der Europäischen Union, unter der Zuwendungsvereinbarung Nr. 723277 gefördert.

Changes of habitats are amongst the main drivers of evolutionary processes. Corresponding shifts in the behaviour and life history traits of species might in turn also alter ecosystem attributes. The reproduction of Western European fire salamanders (Salamandra salamandra), in small pond habitats instead of first order streams, is one example of a recent local adaptation. Since fire salamander larvae are important top-predators in these fish free habitats, their presence likely changes various aspects of ecosystem functioning. Here, it was analysed how the ecological performance of salamander larvae in ponds in the Kottenforst in Western Germany changed in comparison to sympatric stream populations. Further, it was analysed how their presence in ponds influenced key ecosystem attributes such as prey density and diversity and aquatic-terrestrial linkage. To assess the impact of the life cycle shifts in salamanders on the pond functioning, detailed investigations of salamander larvae population dynamics, phenology, and macroinvertebrate community development in ponds were combined with experimental manipulations of the salamander presence. In the first part of this study, the impact of pond presence of fire salamanders in terms of ecosystem functioning focussing on aquatic terrestrial subsidy transfer was calculated. The study could show, that the adaptation of fire salamanders to breed in pools led to strong increases of animal-mediated import of terrestrial matter into the aquatic habitats. The hypothesis about the impact on macroinvertebrate communities derived from these calculations was then tested experimentally. It was shown, that presence of salamander larvae could influence some taxa of macroinvertebrates but they had only limited effects on the food web structure in their aquatic habitats. Yet, a high relevance of the subsidy exchange from aquatic to terrestrial and its high relevance for the predator persistence in the system could again be confirmed. Moreover, it was demonstrated, that the larval behaviour and performance could have a high inter-annual variability as a reaction to contrasting ecosystem constraints in comparison to the stream habitats. A fact that integrally separates the pond ecotype from stream ecotype conspecifics.

Riga has suffered a population loss of more than 29% between 1990 and 2014 which has led to increasing number of abandoned and degraded buildings in the city and optimization of the network of educational and cultural institutions. These trends are characteristics of urban shrinkage – a complex process affecting Riga for more than two decades and resulting in a pattern of growing, shrinking, and stable districts. A similar pattern has also been identified in other shrinking cities in Europe, but it has not been researched in more detail. In the given context, this research aims to narrow the knowledge gap on processes occurring in shrinking cities and to provide some understanding of the determinants of these processes on the city and local level through analysis of single embedded case study of Riga. To achieve this aim, resilience is used as an analytical concept. It allows to conceptualize urban shrinkage as a slow-burn (slowly occurring disturbance) and propose three possible responses - adaptation, transformation, and decline. These responses emerge from actions of actors on various spatial scales and lead to different outcomes. It also provides the basis for analyzing the determinants of these responses by conceptualizing them as sources of resilience and suggesting seven different aspects found in literature: leadership, networks, resources, learning, people-place connection, common cause, and system of institutions and governance. Finally, these theoretical assumptions are used to define two main research questions: (1) what are responses to urban shrinkage in Riga? (2) what are sources of resilience to urban shrinkage in Riga? The need for in-depth research of urban processes led to choosing mixed method strategy for both selecting the embedded units of analysis (districts) in Riga and finding answers to the proposed research questions. Based on combined results of secondary data analysis, controlled expert group discussion, and structured site visits, five districts in Riga were selected – Avoti, Maskavas forštate, Bolderāja, Sarkandaugava, and Ķīpsala. Further data collection and analysis included semi-structured interviews with different actors at the city and district level and document analysis. The study finds that there are four different responses to urban shrinkage in Riga: mitigation, adaptation, transformation, and possible decline. Mitigation can be identified on city (also national) level and is closely linked with the strategic actions proposed by the local and national government in response to population decline. Adaptation can be observed on the city and local level. It is the dominant response type in Riga emerging from strategic actions and different activities by various actors in response to all of the identified processes associated with urban shrinkage in Riga. Transformation, however, can be found only on local level – district (in one specific case) or unit level. It emerges from activities of mostly non-government actors that are making use of the opportunities provided by urban shrinkage in Riga. Finally, further decline is a potential response in several Riga districts resulting from strategic actions of local municipality and inability of some of the actors to deal with the existing situation. The analysis of sources of resilience reveals that there are four main determinants of adaptation and transformation – leadership, networks, resources, and learning. Other sources of resilience (people-place connection, common cause, and engaged governance) function as additional drivers or catalysts. All of these sources of resilience can be identified in Riga, but not consistently across all spatial scales and units or actor groups. The main deficiencies are linked with availability of resources (human and financial) among different actor groups, the existing system of governance (involvement of actors in the decision-making process) and leadership (on city level). The study also shows differences related to responses to urban shrinkage and different sources of resilience, especially leadership, learning, and resources. Overall, the findings support the main theoretical assumptions of the study and allow refining the understanding of responses to urban shrinkage and sources of resilience. The results can be used as the basis for developing an approach for assessment of the level of resilience to urban shrinkage or other slow burns in the urban context.

Der 4. Sachstandsbericht des IPCC im Jahre 2007 enthielt die deutliche Warnung an die globale Weltgemeinschaft, dass der Klimawandel bereits im Gange ist und umfassende Maßnahmen notwendig sein werden, um seine Folgen für Mensch und Umwelt im erträglichen Maß zu halten. Nicht zuletzt ist dies auch ein deutliches Signal an die Weltwirtschaft, sich intensiv mit dem Thema Klimawandel auseinander zu setzen und daraus geeignete Maßnahmen insbesondere zur Anpassung an den Klimawandel abzuleiten. Der Sachstandbericht des IPCC richtet seinen Appell aber auch an die Regionen, sich mit der Thematik auseinanderzusetzen, um Anpassungsstrategien an die besonderen klimatischen lokalen Besonderheiten zu entwickeln. Im Rahmen des Projektes REGKLAM, dem Regionalen Klimaanpassungsprogramm, werden in der Modellregion Sachsen eben diese Forderungen umgesetzt. Als ein für diese Region bedeutsamer Wirtschaftszweig ist unter anderem die Baubranche identifiziert worden. Zur Verschaffung eines ersten Überblicks über die Auswirkungen des Klimawandels und mögliche Anpassungsstrategien der Baubranche in der Modellregion Dresden sind Experteninterviews mit Vertretern von Bauunternehmen durchgeführt worden. Deren Aussagen werden mit Hilfe der Inhaltsanalyse untersucht, um neben den Erkenntnissen für die Region einen Abgleich mit der gegenwärtig existierenden Literatur zu diesem Thema vorzunehmen. In der wissenschaftlichen Literatur wird die Baubranche als Gewinner des Klimawandels angesehen. Die Ursache liegt in dem enormen Schadenspotential, das durch den Klimawandel verursacht wird und daher sich daher positiv auf den Absatz der Baubranche niederschlagen soll. Dass diese Aussage kritisch zu betrachten ist, zeigt die vorliegende wissenschaftliche Abhandlung, die die einzelnen Wertschöpfungsstufen, Stakeholder und unternehmerischen Rahmenbedingungen näher betrachtet, um daraus die von der Baubranche selber wahrgenommen Chancen und Risiken zu identifizieren.

Context-dependent applications are relatively complex due to their multiple variations caused by context activation, especially in the presence of unanticipated adaptation. Testing these systems is challenging, as it is hard to reproduce the same execution environments. Therefore, a software failure caused by bugs is no exception. This paper presents a rollback mechanism to recover from software failures as part of a role-based runtime with support for unanticipated adaptation. The mechanism performs checkpoints before each adaptation and employs specialized sensors to detect bugs resulting from recent configuration changes. When the runtime detects a bug, it assumes that the bug belongs to the latest configuration. The runtime rolls back to the recent checkpoint to recover and subsequently notifes the developer to fix the bug and re-applying the adaptation through unanticipated adaptation. We prototype the concept as part of our role-based runtime engine LyRT and demonstrate the applicability of the rollback recovery mechanism for unanticipated adaptation in erroneous situations.