M.Ing. (Engineering Management) / Logistics management has been extensively researched and implemented in the private sector, but it is gradually gaining traction in the humanitarian sector. Most humanitarian organization operations involve a mix of many activities. Some of them are involved in disaster relief, as short-term operations carried out immediately after a disaster, while some are involved in continuous aid work aimed at restoring normalcy to the disaster ravaged society and such efforts are longer term. Humanitarian organizations, particularly Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are the primary vehicle through which donors channel their contributions, but it is unfortunate to note that many of these organizations face challenges with the logistics of effectively getting the relief aid to the intended users. The purpose of this study is to improve the understanding in humanitarian logistics (HL) and identify the key challenges affecting aid agencies during humanitarian action. The study adopts a quantitative approach; data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was used to identify the most outstanding subjects and areas of interest in line with humanitarian logistics challenges identified in the literature. The findings from the research survey shows that there is an awareness of the importance of humanitarian logistics in the sector, but the results also show that only half of the participants of the survey reported that they have a logistics professional employed in their organization. Furthermore, only 50% of the participants of the survey indicated that their organization has a preparedness plan in place in the event of an emergency. Other challenges identified are: lack of fund; difficulty to obtain real time information and poor knowledge management. The author identified unavailability and tagging of funds as the most critical challenge the humanitarian organizations face because it hinders capacity building and organizational development. The study also suggests that learning and forging closer ties with private organizations is an effective means of overcoming some of the identified challenges.

Population growth and climate change have strained existing water supplies requiring municipalities to shift towards demand management strategies to ensure reliable water provisions. Particularly in the residential sector, water conservation measures and incentives have been utilized to reduce demand during short-term shortages. As water conservation programs are now being commonly utilized as a way to ensure enough water will be available for continued growth, the impacts on a basin-wide scale have yet to be established. By changing the relative water demand for indoor and outdoor uses within a municipality, the amount of water being consumed can thereby reduce the effluent available for downstream communities. This research investigates how the timing of water conservation, water conservation strategy, and population growth impact water availability in a shared basin. A generalized system dynamics model reflecting typical residential water use and availability patterns similar to the southwest United States was utilized. We found that when upstream municipalities focus their initial reductions on non-consumptive demands, downstream municipalities reliant on upstream return flow have to increase their conservation rate to meet demands and maintain population growth. When most of the basin's population is in upstream municipalities, the more influence their change in water use has on downstream water availability. Therefore, consumptive conservation should be the priority of basin-wide conservation programs to ensure return flow is sufficient to satisfy the demands of downstream municipalities. / Master of Science / Population growth and climate change have reduced water supplies for many cities across the United States. This has led to increased water conservation at the household level to reduce the amount of water needed for everyday uses. Efforts like reduced lawn watering and shorter showers have been helpful during short-term dry spells but more cities are using long-term strategies like high efficiency appliances and the removal of green lawns to "free up" enough water for population growth. However, these changes in water use can impact how much water returns to the river and goes downstream for the next city to use. This research looks at how changes in the speed of water conservation, water conservation strategy, and population impacts water availability in a shared basin. Our stylized model reflects typical residential water use and availability patterns similar to the southwest United States. We found that the faster cities within a basin reduce their indoor water use, the greater downstream cities have to reduce their water use in order to have enough available water to meet demands. Also, when most of the basin's population is in upstream cities, the harder it is for the downstream city to have enough water to maintain target population growth. However, reducing outdoor water use first is the best way for every city that shares the same river to stay satisfied.

Energy consumption in the residential sector of Ontario is expected to grow by 15%, most of which is expected to be from electricity use, with an annual average growth rate of 0.9% between 2010 and 2020. With Ontario government’s Integrated Power System Plan (IPSP) recommending phasing out coal fired generators by 2014, the execution of Conservation and Demand Management and Demand Response programs can have significant impact on reducing power consumption and peak demand in the province. Electricity generation, especially from fossil fuel, contributes 18% of total green house gas (GHG) emissions in Ontario. With climate change effects being attributed to GHG emissions and environmental regulations, it is necessary to reduce GHG emissions from power generation sector. In this context, the current Energy Hub Management System project, of which the work presented here is a part, may lead to the reduction of electricity power demand and GHG emissions in Ontario. This thesis presents the validation of Energy Hub Management System (EHMS) residential sector model. Performances of individual appliances and the results obtained from various case-studies considering the EHMS model are compared with respect to a base case representing a typical residential customer. The case-studies are carefully developed to demonstrate the capability of the EHMS model to generate optimum operational schedules to minimize energy costs, energy consumption and emissions based on user defined constraints and preferences. Furthermore, a forecasting methodology based on single variable econometric time series is developed to estimate day-ahead CO2 emissions from Ontario’s power generation sector. The forecasted emissions profile is integrated into the EHMS model to optimize a residential customer’s contribution to CO2 emissions in Ontario.

It is now widely recognized that society’s over-reliance on the automobile contributes to environmental problems, especially in urban areas. Nevertheless, efforts to bring about modal shifts through transportation demand management strategies typically have had limited success. As a result, transportation research is increasingly focused on understanding the decision-making process of travel behaviour changes including mode choice and automobile ownership. The purpose of this study is to explore how individuals arrive at a decision to live either car-free or car-lite. Using a grounded-theory approach, this thesis explores the factors involved in a car-free/car-lite decision and the manner in which those factors work together to create the decision making process(es). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 driving members of a car-sharing organization, each of whom made a decision to go car-lite (car-sharing is their additional vehicle) or car-free (car-sharing is their primary vehicle). Five main interconnected themes emerged from the analysis: finances, personal values and attitudes, personal history, perceived accessibility and situational life events. In particular, the participants’ experiences reinforce the importance of situation life events in the decision-making process, a factor not commonly identified in behaviour change theory. Additionally, the participants’ narratives illustrate that intention is created from an individual’s inclination and ability to make a travel behaviour change. However, translation from intention into action appears to be conditionally dependent on contextual and/or situational changes, most often in the form of situational life events, that provide a push into or out of the decision-making process. Findings underscore the importance of life events as catalysts for bringing travel behaviour in line with an individual’s sense of what is important and what is possible. This research illustrates the relevance of qualitative work in advancing transportation research – particularly in understanding human travel decisions. While the current transportation-planning paradigm is appropriate for making short-term forecasts, we must recognize that non-linear, non-utilitarian, long-term, often qualitative factors, such as those identified in this research, are not exogenous to travel decision making. Results also provide a basis for reflecting on the appropriateness of various metrics for evaluating the effectiveness of transportation demand management initiatives.

The water soft path (WSP) has been formulated as a progressive paradigm in water management. The WSP has four main principles: water should be viewed as a service; ecological sustainability is of utmost importance; water quantity and quality should be conserved; and planning should be done from the future backwards, not projected from the present. It may be possible to use conservation-based water pricing programs, especially at the residential level, in order to incrementally implement the WSP. Moreover, the implementation of residential seasonal water rates has been suggested as a method to curb peak demand in municipal water systems, thereby deferring infrastructure expansion. The purpose of this thesis is to answer the question: what are the barriers to implementing residential seasonal water rates in the Region of Waterloo? This question is addressed using a variety of data sources, with the majority of the information coming from academic and non-academic literature, and from interviews with water professionals and local councillors. The results provide a descriptive case study concerning the barriers to implementing seasonal water rates in one particular region of southwestern Ontario, but the conclusions can be generalized to describe some of the barriers to the implementation of seasonal water rates in Ontario. Results suggest that some barriers are more severe than others, and that the more serious ones may be addressed by: expounding the potential for seasonal water rates to curb peak demand; carefully designing a rate study to be administered with non-price programs; and implementing the designed rate structure as a pilot study. It is suggested that the implementation of seasonal water rates can be used as an incremental step towards the adoption of WSP principles, but not without first envisioning a desirable future.

It is now widely recognized that society’s over-reliance on the automobile contributes to environmental problems, especially in urban areas. Nevertheless, efforts to bring about modal shifts through transportation demand management strategies typically have had limited success. As a result, transportation research is increasingly focused on understanding the decision-making process of travel behaviour changes including mode choice and automobile ownership. The purpose of this study is to explore how individuals arrive at a decision to live either car-free or car-lite. Using a grounded-theory approach, this thesis explores the factors involved in a car-free/car-lite decision and the manner in which those factors work together to create the decision making process(es). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 driving members of a car-sharing organization, each of whom made a decision to go car-lite (car-sharing is their additional vehicle) or car-free (car-sharing is their primary vehicle). Five main interconnected themes emerged from the analysis: finances, personal values and attitudes, personal history, perceived accessibility and situational life events. In particular, the participants’ experiences reinforce the importance of situation life events in the decision-making process, a factor not commonly identified in behaviour change theory. Additionally, the participants’ narratives illustrate that intention is created from an individual’s inclination and ability to make a travel behaviour change. However, translation from intention into action appears to be conditionally dependent on contextual and/or situational changes, most often in the form of situational life events, that provide a push into or out of the decision-making process. Findings underscore the importance of life events as catalysts for bringing travel behaviour in line with an individual’s sense of what is important and what is possible. This research illustrates the relevance of qualitative work in advancing transportation research – particularly in understanding human travel decisions. While the current transportation-planning paradigm is appropriate for making short-term forecasts, we must recognize that non-linear, non-utilitarian, long-term, often qualitative factors, such as those identified in this research, are not exogenous to travel decision making. Results also provide a basis for reflecting on the appropriateness of various metrics for evaluating the effectiveness of transportation demand management initiatives.

The water soft path (WSP) has been formulated as a progressive paradigm in water management. The WSP has four main principles: water should be viewed as a service; ecological sustainability is of utmost importance; water quantity and quality should be conserved; and planning should be done from the future backwards, not projected from the present. It may be possible to use conservation-based water pricing programs, especially at the residential level, in order to incrementally implement the WSP. Moreover, the implementation of residential seasonal water rates has been suggested as a method to curb peak demand in municipal water systems, thereby deferring infrastructure expansion. The purpose of this thesis is to answer the question: what are the barriers to implementing residential seasonal water rates in the Region of Waterloo? This question is addressed using a variety of data sources, with the majority of the information coming from academic and non-academic literature, and from interviews with water professionals and local councillors. The results provide a descriptive case study concerning the barriers to implementing seasonal water rates in one particular region of southwestern Ontario, but the conclusions can be generalized to describe some of the barriers to the implementation of seasonal water rates in Ontario. Results suggest that some barriers are more severe than others, and that the more serious ones may be addressed by: expounding the potential for seasonal water rates to curb peak demand; carefully designing a rate study to be administered with non-price programs; and implementing the designed rate structure as a pilot study. It is suggested that the implementation of seasonal water rates can be used as an incremental step towards the adoption of WSP principles, but not without first envisioning a desirable future.

<p>Purpose - The purpose of the research is to study how category management is implemented by Chinese Lianhua supermarket. Design/methodology/approach - This paper is adopted a single case study of qualitative ap-proach with explanatory and exploratory design as our research strategy. The method of the re-search is developed by the following three steps: (1) based on the previous literature, we elaborate category management background, its definition, explain category management process, analyze its demand side and the benefits it brings to retailers; (2) according to the above literature and theories, we create a working model which combines category management and its demand-driven side feature (i.e. customer focus, category management collaboration and strategic retailing positioning) in order to analyze the implementation of category management in Chinese super-market retailing; (3) we find a Chinese supermarket that is carrying out category management and conduct a case study based on it. With consideration of the working model, we explain how cate-gory management is implemented in the supermarket, find barrier and challenges during the im-plementation and make the corresponding suggestions to the current situation. The case study is based on interviews with major representatives from Lianhua supermarket and one of its suppli-ers in order to achieve insight into the essence of the problem. Findings and analysis - The implementation of category management in Lianhua supermarket includes “strong outlet” strategy aiming to deal with the supermarket development in a fierce competitive environment. Besides, Lianhua supermarket closely carries out the category management process and adapts the process according to its own positioning. Insufficient systems to support the implementation of category management, collaboration with suppliers is still on the fence, lack of internal managerial techniques and conflicts between category concentration and customers’ personalized shopping are the major barriers and challenges facing to Lianhua supermarket during its implementation of category management. Authors suggest Lianhua supermarket to invest IT resources, establish win-win strategic relationship, enhance top management commitment, improve internal collaboration and improve category performance measures. Research limitations – This research only restricts insights of category management on single case and specific geographical location. As for whether the research is also applied to other industry, the researched hasn’t been concerned and needs further research. The case study in the research is conducted only from retailer’s point of view. Findings obtained from the interviews are mostly from Lianhua supermarket side. The inadequate interview from supplier side is a clear limitation of the study, but it leaves an interest for future research.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D)--Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009. / Committee Chair: Mavris, Dimitri N.; Committee Member: Baik, Hojong; Committee Member: DeLaurentis, Daniel; Committee Member: Lewe, Jung-Ho; Committee Member: Schrage, Daniel. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

The focus of transportation planning, until the past three decades or so, was to provide adequate transportation infrastructure supply to meet the mobility needs of the population. Over the past three decades, however, in view of increasing suburban sprawl and auto dependence, the focus of transportation planning has expanded to include the objective of sustainable development. Contemporary efforts toward sustainability include, for example, integrated land-use and transportation planning, travel demand management, congestion pricing, and transit and non-motorized travel oriented development. Consequently, in an effort to understand individuals’ behavioral responses to (and to assess the effectiveness of) these policies, the travel demand modeling field evolved along three distinct directions: (a) Activity-based travel demand modeling, (b) Built environment and travel behavior modeling, and (c) Integrated land-use -- transportation modeling. The three fields of research, however, have progressed in a rather disjoint fashion. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to contribute toward the research needs that are at the intersection of the three fields of research identified above, and to bring the three research areas together into a unified research stream. This is achieved by the simultaneous consideration of the following three aspects, each of which is of high importance in each direction of research identified above: (1) The activity-based and tour-based approaches to travel behavior analysis, (2) Residential self-selection effects, and (3) Integrated modeling of long-term land-use related choices and medium- and short-term travel-related choices. To this end, a series of integrated models of multidimensional choice processes are formulated to jointly analyze long-term residential location decisions and medium- and short-term activity-travel decisions (such as auto ownership, bicycle ownership, commute mode choice, and daily time-use). The models are estimated and applied using data from the 2000 San Francisco Bay Area Travel Survey to understand and disentangle the multitude of relationships between long-, medium-, and short-term choices. This dissertation also formulates a multiple discrete-continuous nested extreme value model that can accommodate inter-alternative correlations and flexible substitution patterns across mutually exclusive subsets (or nests) of alternatives in multiple discrete-continuous choice models. / text