Background: Performance based financing was introduced to Kilifi county actors in Kenya in 2015. Kilifi was identified by the Kenyan national government as one of the 20 arid and semi-arid counties (out of 47 counties) mandated to start the implementation of the scheme and potentially inform the development of a nation-wide PBF policy. This study investigates how political and bureaucratic actors at the local level in Kilifi county have subsequently influenced the extent to which PBF has been politically prioritised at the sub-national level. Methods: The study employed a single-case study design. The Shiffman and Smith (2007) political priority setting framework with adaptations proposed by Walt and Gilson (2014) was used. Data was collected through document review (n=19) and in-depth interviews (n=8). Framework analysis was used to analyse data and generate findings. Results: Throughout the study period (2015-2018), national policy elites gave sustained attention to PBF as a priority issue for implementation, this sustained attention was however not present at the sub national level in Kilifi county and funding for PBF was not prioritised post donor funding. Key factors that contributed to this in Kilifi county included: redistribution of power from national actors to sub-national actors following devolution, this affected the national Ministry of Health's ability to lead and be an effective guiding organisation; misalignment between the globally advocated idea of ‘pay for performance' and the local pre-existing centralised and rigid approaches to public financial management; and actors at the sub national level who contested the PBF intervention design features and its framing as ‘additional funding'. As a consequence, the implementation of PBF in Kilifi was for a short time only using donor resources and did not last beyond donor timelines and funding. Conclusion: This research shows that for health reforms to gain political priority in highly devolved contexts, there is need to recognise the formal and informal institutions existing at the devolved level of governance and for adequate early involvement and leadership from sub-national bureaucratic and political actors, in health and beyond the health sector. In addition, advocacy for the health reforms should embody frames that align with the political context to increase the chances of gaining political traction. Finally, the political context including political and bureaucratic power at different levels of government are crucial features that will also influence the acceptability of reform and ultimately political prioritisation.

As a response to digitalisation and new niche competitors, incumbent banks tries to increase their flexibility by adopting agile principles at their development departments. However, the flexibility of the agile departments is constrained by the flexibility of the rest of the organisation, which are still working according to the waterfall method. To address this problem, several incumbent banks are focusing towards scaling their agile work to the entire organisation. The case company for this study is a bank trying to scale their agile work by using the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). Nonetheless, there is scepticism within the bank whether Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF), the prioritisation model used in SAFe, is applicable in financial software development. The available case studies are often conducted by consultancy firms implementing the framework and are focused towards the positive effects, excluding challenges or adaptions made for specific industrial contexts. This study contributes to this gap in the literature with empirical findings by assessing the adaptability of WSJF and its ability to satisfy the prioritisation needs of financial software development. Moreover, empirical data is used to formulate recommendations for how WSJF can be adapted and integrated with the current processes of financial software development. To operationalise the study, the following research question was formulated: "How could WSJF be modified to better suit financial software development?". To answer upon this, a qualitative case study employing semi-structured interviews was conducted. The semi-structured interviews were used to identify the prioritisation needs at a selected case department. The needs were used to formulate prioritisation requirements that were structured according to an analytical framework. The framework was used to evaluate how many of the requirements WSJF were able to satisfy. Moreover, the analytical framework was used as a guideline in formulating the recommendations of modifications to better satisfy the prioritisation needs. The results showed that no single set of needs is able to conclude the prioritisation needs of all organisational levels. Employees on an operational level have a more practical approach towards prioritisation and requires a model that is easy to use and time efficient. Meanwhile, the strategic level requires a model with high precision that could estimate the value of deliveries monetarily, allowing them to track the realisation of deliveries in the financial figures. WSJF are able to satisfy the needs of the operational level but fails to satisfy the needs of the strategic level. Derived from the obtained needs of both levels, the following two modifications are recommended: Establish a uniform value definition that are used by the entire organisation and Implement a prioritisation model that can combine monetarily CoD at a strategic level with relative CoD at an operational level. By implementing these changes the percentage of satisfied requirements increased from 50% to 89% on a strategic level and from 85% to 90% on an operational level. Resulting from this, the conclusion is that WSJF can be modified to better suit financial software development by implementing the recommended changes formulated in this report. / De traditionella storbankerna försöker implementera agila arbetssätt inom deras utvecklingsavdelningar för att öka flexibiliteten. Detta är ett svar på en ökad digitalisering och nya nischade konkurrenter. Dock är flexibiliteten av de agila arbetssätten begränsad av flexibiliteten av den övriga organisationen, som fortfarande jobbar enligt vattenfallsmodellen. För att adressera denna begränsning fokuserar bankerna på att skala upp det agila arbetet så att det täcker hela organisationen. I denna studie studeras en av dessa banker, som har valt att använda sig av det agila skalningsramverket Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). Trots valet av SAFe finns en viss skepticism huruvida den medföljande prioriteringsmodellen Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF) lämpar sig för finansiell mjukvaruutveckling. De studier som finns tillgängliga kring SAFe och WSJF är till stor del framtagna av konsultfirmor vars uppgift är att implementera SAFe. Således är dessa rapporter fokuserade på de positiva effekter som uppnås, samtidigt som utmaningar och anpassningar för det specifika industriella kontexten utelämnas. Detta skapar ett gap inom litteraturen, till vilket denna studie ämnar att bidra med empiriska resultat från en undersökning av WSJFs förmåga att tillfredsställa och anpassas efter prioriteringsbehoven inom finansiell mjukvaruutveckling. Därutöver ligger de empiriska resultaten till grund för rekommendationer gällande hur WSJF bättre kan anpassas och integreras inom finansiell mjukvaruutveckling. För att operationalisera studien formulerades följande forskningsfråga: "Kan WSJF modifieras för att lämpa sig bättre inom finansiell mjukvaruutveckling?". För att besvara detta genomfördes en kvalitativ fallstudie där semi-strukturerade intervjuer användes för att identifiera prioriteringsbehoven av en utvecklingsavdelning hos den undersökta banken. Behoven användes för att populera ett analytiskt ramverk, som sedan användes för att utvärdera hur många prioriteringskrav som WSJF lyckas tillfredsställa. Dessutom agerade ramverket som guide i framtagandet av rekommenderade modifikationer, för att öka antalet krav som WSJF tillfredsställer. Resultatet indikerar att ingen enskild uppsättning av behov täcker samtliga prioriteringsbehov i organisationen. Anställda på en operationell nivå har en praktisk syn på prioritering och efterfrågar en modell som är tidseffektiv och enkel att använda. Anställda på en strategisk nivå kräver en prioriteringsmodell med hög precision som kan uppskatta värdet av en leverans monetärt, då detta möjliggör en uppföljning av hur leveransvärdet realiserats genom de finansiella siffrorna. WSJF tillfredsställer prioriteringskraven från den operationella nivån medan den misslyckas med att tillfredsställa hälften av kraven från den strategiska nivån. Utifrån de prioriteringskrav som samlats in rekommenderas följande två modifikationer: Fastställ en gemensam värdedefinition som används i hela organisationen och Implementera en prioriteringsmodell som kombinerar monetärt värde på en strategisk nivå med relativt värde på en operationell nivå. Genom att implementera dessa modifikationer ökar antalet tillfredsställda krav från 50% till 89% på en strategisk nivå och från 85% till 90% på en operationell nivå. Utifrån detta är slutsatsen att WSJF kan modifieras för att bättre lämpa sig för finansiell mjukvaruutveckling.

The Health Facilities Infrastructure Management Programme in South Africa aims to ensure an appropriate and sustainable platform for the delivery of health services. Since 1994, the average number of hospital beds has decreased from 4.4 beds per 1 000 people to 2.4 beds per 1 000 people. During the same period, there was no significant reduction in the 1 372 clinic backlog. The evaluation of the performance of the Health Facilities Infrastructure Management Programme was based on a systems approach. This performance evaluation was conducted across four dimensions, with 12 assessment instruments and within 134 assessment parameters. Several of these instruments were developed as part of this study. Actual performance, per assessment parameter, was expressed in terms of a four level project management maturity scale. About one third of the parameters indicated a low level of project management maturity, one third indicating a medium-low level of maturity, with less than 10% judged to have reached maturity. It was found that the Infrastructure Unit in the National Department of Health is solely responsible for addressing more than half of the performance areas described by the assessment parameters. The proposed prioritisation model indicated that 50% of the performance areas needed to be addressed as a matter of urgency. The study concludes with 10 system transformation recommendations aimed at maturity growth in the Infrastructure Unit in the National Department of Health, as well as maturity growth in the Health Facilities Infrastructure Management Programme as a whole. The following key terms are relevant: • Health Facilities Infrastructure Management Programme • Performance evaluation • Infrastructure Unit • National Department of Health of South Africa • Project management maturity • Assessment instruments • Assessment parameters • Prioritisation model / Thesis (MArt et Scien (Urban and Regional Planning))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

The Health Facilities Infrastructure Management Programme in South Africa aims to ensure an appropriate and sustainable platform for the delivery of health services. Since 1994, the average number of hospital beds has decreased from 4.4 beds per 1 000 people to 2.4 beds per 1 000 people. During the same period, there was no significant reduction in the 1 372 clinic backlog. The evaluation of the performance of the Health Facilities Infrastructure Management Programme was based on a systems approach. This performance evaluation was conducted across four dimensions, with 12 assessment instruments and within 134 assessment parameters. Several of these instruments were developed as part of this study. Actual performance, per assessment parameter, was expressed in terms of a four level project management maturity scale. About one third of the parameters indicated a low level of project management maturity, one third indicating a medium-low level of maturity, with less than 10% judged to have reached maturity. It was found that the Infrastructure Unit in the National Department of Health is solely responsible for addressing more than half of the performance areas described by the assessment parameters. The proposed prioritisation model indicated that 50% of the performance areas needed to be addressed as a matter of urgency. The study concludes with 10 system transformation recommendations aimed at maturity growth in the Infrastructure Unit in the National Department of Health, as well as maturity growth in the Health Facilities Infrastructure Management Programme as a whole. The following key terms are relevant: • Health Facilities Infrastructure Management Programme • Performance evaluation • Infrastructure Unit • National Department of Health of South Africa • Project management maturity • Assessment instruments • Assessment parameters • Prioritisation model / Thesis (MArt et Scien (Urban and Regional Planning))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

The global business environment has changed dramatically in recent years, as competition in complex knowledge-based economies has increased. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have been viewed as a way to manage increased business complexity, leading to the rapid adoption and implementation of such systems, as ERP can support enterprises to improve their competitiveness. Knowledge management (KM) is crucial for ERP systems implementation, however a highly demanding task. Therefore, the primary concern of this research is to examine the effectiveness of knowledge management activities that would contribute to achieve ERP implementation success. This study adopted mixed methods approach by combining semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire to collect empirical data from ERP professionals in both manufacturing and service sector organisations. In the qualitative phase, it develops the “framework of integrative knowledge” based on empirical evidence, that can improve KM competence for ERP implementation success. Data analysis has been undertaken using a combination of thematic analysis and comparative analysis with respect to 14 ERP implementations in the UK. The framework integrates multiple perspectives in terms of knowledge components to enhance KM competence, including knowledge types, knowledge layers, KM lifecycle and knowledge determinants. It discovered 19 knowledge determinants to drive knowledge management activities during ERP projects, which is another vital contribution to the existing knowledge. Furthermore, the study develops the “knowledge network model” for ERP implementations in order to facilitate the knowledge flows between various stakeholders involved in ERP implementations, which can help to understand the interactions between the knowledge components. Moreover, sub-knowledge types (knowledge elements) under each knowledge type were discovered through empirical evidence. The quantitative phase was adopted to extend the findings of the qualitative phase. The knowledge types and knowledge elements were prioritised using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method through an online AHP based questionnaire with 77 responses from ERP professionals involved in UK ERP implementations. Furthermore, knowledge prioritisation demonstrates how effectively the framework of integrative knowledge can be used during ERP implementations with the help of prioritised knowledge. In total 4 knowledge types and 21 knowledge elements were ranked based on their contribution to achieve ERP success; four variables of information quality, systems quality, individual impact and organisational impact were used to measure ERP success. This study has number of theoretical contributions including framework of integrative knowledge, knowledge network model for ERP implementations and ERP knowledge prioritisation. Moreover, the framework of integrative knowledge can provide ERP practitioners with useful guidance on what the key knowledge determinants are and how the relationships between knowledge components should be best managed to achieve ERP implementation success in business reality.

Clearly established conservation priorities are urgently required for taxa and ecosystems in critical need of conservation. This helps to identify and document taxa most in need of conservation attention, and provides an index of the state of degeneration of biodiversity. Including as much relevant information as possible in a prioritisation assessment will deliver the most accurate classification, yet these variables should not overly complicate the prioritisation process. Conservation assessments depend not just on the taxon’s susceptibility to threat (i.e. risk of extinction, or Red List assessments), but also the conservation value, irreplaceability and nature and intensity of the threats. Research into the value and applicability of conservation prioritisation tools at a regional scale, allowed for the assessment of the extinction risk as well as subsequent priority ranking of South African mammals. At the outset research was directed towards investigating South African mammals in accordance with their respective regional and global World Conservation Union (IUCN) Red List and Red Data Book assessments. The regional Red List assessment drastically improved local knowledge of the current extinction risk of various mammals, and identified 57 marine and terrestrial mammals to be highly threatened. Up to date regional extinction risk assessments, allowed for the investigation of whether a human activity threat index derived from six human activity variables across South Africa could be used to highlight mammals threatened with extinction while also being exposed to high human activity. Evidence indicated various threatened and lower risk mammals were exposed to high human activity throughout their range, pointing to high potential threat and future increase in extinction risk. For relevant prioritisation to take place, components of vulnerability (IUCN Red List assessments, and occupancy data), irreplaceability (endemism and taxonomic distinctiveness), and threat measures (body mass and human density in a taxa distributional range) was introduced into relational priority assessment which allowed for a simplified approach in determining conservation priorities for taxa under various region-specific conditions. The use of different sets of information clearly affected the priority rankings. South African Chiroptera and Carnivora was used as a case study to addresses whether a simple measure of taxonomic diversity can be used as a proxy for different measures of phylogenetic diversity in determining regional conservation priority of taxa, when such information is limited. Evidence does suggest that the utilisation of the simple taxonomic diversity measure may provide the appropriate information on evolutionary diversity. Two theoretical concepts were proposed to address some potential shortcomings in the conservation prioritisation arena. The Orange List method offers a system to identify “species [or taxa] of high national importance or of high conservation value” (South African National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act 2004). In turn the Green Data List essentially represents a radical shift in the traditional approach to the management of both threatened and invasive taxa. Throughout this thesis, evidence do point to smaller mammals being of high conservation concern in South Africa, with the members from the Orders Rodentia, Chiroptera and Insectivora being constantly identified as high conservation priority. Apart from contributing to our current understanding of the conservation importance/priority of South Africa mammals, this current thesis has resulted in a robust understanding of various assessment techniques. / Thesis (DPhil (Zoology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Zoology and Entomology / unrestricted

The Important Bird Areas (IBAs) network of BirdLife International aims to identify sites that are essential for the long-term conservation of the world’s avifauna. A number of global change events have the potential to negatively affect, either directly or indirectly, most bird species, biodiversity in general and associated ecological processes in these areas identified as IBAs. To assist conservation decisions, I assessed a suite of ten landscape scale anthropogenic pressures to 115 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) in South Africa, both those currently placing pressures on IBAs and those that constitute likely future vulnerability to transformation. These threats are combined with irreplaceability, a frequently used measure of conservation importance, to identify the suite of IBAs which are high priority sites for conservation interventions: those with high irreplaceability and are highly vulnerable to anthropogenic threats. A total of 22 (19%) of the South African IBAs are highly irreplaceable and are highly vulnerable to at least some of the pressures assessed. Afforestation, current and potential future patterns of alien plant invasions affect the largest number of highly irreplaceable IBAs. Only 9% of the area of highly irreplaceable IBAs is formally protected. A total of 81 IBAs (71%) are less than 5% degraded or transformed. This result, together with seven highly irreplaceable IBAs found outside of formally protected areas with lower human densities than expected by chance provides an ideal opportunity for conservation interventions. However, all the pressures assessed vary geographically, with no discernible systematic pattern that might assist conservation managers to design effective regional interventions. Furthermore, I used the newly emerging technique of ensemble forecasting to assess the impact of climate change on endemic birds in relation to the IBAs network. I used 50 endemic species, eight bioclimatic envelope models, four climate change models and two methods of transformation to presence or absence, which essentially creates 2400 projections for the years 2070-2100. The consensual projection shows that climate change impacts are very likely to be severe. The majority of species (62%) lose climatically suitable space and 99% of grid cells show species turnover. Five species lose at least 85% of climatically suitable space. The current locations of the South African Important Bird Areas network is very likely ineffective to conserve endemic birds under climate change along a “business a usual” emissions scenario. Many IBAs show species loss (41%; 47 IBAs) and species turnover (77%; 95 IBAs). However, an irreplaceability analysis identified mountainous regions in South Africa as irreplaceable refugia for endemic species, and some of these regions are existing IBAs. These IBAs should receive renewed conservation attention, as they have the potential to substantially contribute to a flexible conservation network under realistic scenarios of climate change. Considering all the global change threats assessed in this study, the Amersfoort-Bethal-Carolina District and the Grassland Biosphere Reserve (IBA codes: SA018; SA020) are the key IBAs in South Africa for conservation prioritisation. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Zoology and Entomology / unrestricted

Background. Software vulnerabilities are a constant threat to organisations, businesses, and individuals. Keeping all devices patched from security software vulnerabilities is complex and time-consuming. Companies must use resources efficiently to ensure that the most severe security vulnerability is prioritised first. Today’s state-of-the-art prioritisation method only relies on the severity of the vulnerability without its environmental context. We propose a novel method that automatically prioritises the vulnerabilities in a device based on its environmental information, such as role and criticality. Objectives. This thesis aims to analyse to what extent vulnerabilities can be prioritised based on the environmental information of the device. Furthermore, we investigate the possibility of automatically estimating the role and criticality of a device and to what extent they can more accurately reflect the severity of the vulnerabilities present in the device. Methods. The proposed novel method uses environmental information found by a vulnerability scanner. Based on this information, the method estimates the role of the device. The role is then used by the method to estimate the criticality of the device. Based on the criticality and environmental information, a new vulnerability score is calculated for each vulnerability, and the list is reprioritised based on the latest score. We further apply an experimental study to analyse the assessment of the method against experts' assessment. Results. The experimental study indicates that the method performs slightly better than the state-of-the-art method. The proposed novel method estimated the primary role with an accuracy of 100% and the secondary role with an accuracy of 71.4%. The method's criticality assessment has a moderate agreement with the experts' criticality assessment. Overall, the method's reprioritised vulnerability lists correlate almost perfectly with the experts' vulnerability lists. Conclusions. Considering the environmental information during the prioritisation of vulnerabilities is beneficial. We find that our method performs slightly better than the state-of-the-art method. The proposed method needs further improvements to give a better criticality estimation. However, more research is required to claim that system administrators could benefit from using the proposed method when prioritising vulnerabilities. / Bakgrund. Sårbarheter i programvara är ett konstant hot mot organisationer och företag såväl som till privatpersoner. Att se till att enheterna är säkra är en komplex och tidskrävande uppgift. Det är därför viktigt att prioritera den tiden som finns dit där den gör mest nytta, det vill säga att åtgärda den allvarligaste sårbarheten först. Den allra bästa sårbarheter prioriterings metoden baseras på allvarlighetsgraden utan att ta hänsyn till sårbarhetens miljömetrik. Därav föreslår vi en ny prioriterings metod som automatiskt prioriterar sårbarheterna baserat på en enhets miljömetrik så som roll och kritikalitet. Syfte. Syftet med detta arbetet är att avgöra i vilken utsträckning det går att prioritera sårbarheter baserat på des miljömetrik. Utöver detta ska vi även undersöka huruvida man kan automatiskt uppskatta en enhets roll och kritikalitet för att bättre reflektera sårbarhetens allvarlighetsgrad. Metod. Den föreslagna metoden använder sig av sammanhangs information som tillhandahålls av en sårbarhets scanner. Utifrån denna information kommer enhetens roll att uppskattas. Den estimerade rollen kommer då användas av metoden för att bestämma enhetens kritikalitet. Baserat på kritikaliteten och sammanhangs informationen kommer en ny allvarlighetsgrad beräknas för all sårbarheter.  Listan av sårbarheter kommer omprioriteras med hänsyn till de senast beräknade allvarlighetsgraderna. Ett experiment utförs sedan för att analysera huruvida bra den nya prioriterings metoden är och för att validera resultatet kommer det jämföras mot experters prioritering. Resultat. Den experimentella studien indikerar på att vår metod presterar lite bättre än den den allra bästa sårbarheter prioriterings metoden. Den föreslagna metoden kan uppskatta den primära rollen med en träffsäkerhet på 100% och sekundära rollen med 71.4% träffsäkerhet. Metodens uppskattning av kritikaliteten är måttlig överensstämmande med den av experternas uppskattning. Överlag korrelerar metodens prioritiseringlista bättre med experternas än vad den allra senaste prioritiserings metoden gör. Slutsats. Genom att ta hänsyn till en enhets miljömetrik vid beräkningen av sårbarhetens allvarlighetsgrad får man ett bättre resultat än om den inte skulle varit med i beräkningen. Vi ser att vår metod fungerar bättre över lag än av den allra senaste prioritiserings metoden gör. Den föreslagna metoden behöver forskas mer på för att säkert kunna säga att den är användbar.

Submitted by Cláudia Bueno (claudiamoura18@gmail.com) on 2016-05-19T19:46:17Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - André Felipe Alves de Andrade - 2016.pdf: 2007118 bytes, checksum: 69341ce5bc6c459857d1feff5d92366e (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Luciana Ferreira (lucgeral@gmail.com) on 2016-05-20T13:54:17Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - André Felipe Alves de Andrade - 2016.pdf: 2007118 bytes, checksum: 69341ce5bc6c459857d1feff5d92366e (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-05-20T13:54:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação - André Felipe Alves de Andrade - 2016.pdf: 2007118 bytes, checksum: 69341ce5bc6c459857d1feff5d92366e (MD5) license_rdf: 23148 bytes, checksum: 9da0b6dfac957114c6a7714714b86306 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-26 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Coral reefs are of extreme importance to both nature and society, due to being responsible for several services and harbouring hundreds of species. Despite such critical importance, reef corals current suffered heavy losses since the Anthropocene, with 20% of world´s corals damaged beyond recovery due to human pressure and coastal development. This scenario is even worse, since corals are especially vulnerable to climate change and the entire ecosystem could go extinct by 2050. In this study we focus on comparing the already established impacts from human development and the yet happen losses from climate change on Brazilian corals, a unique fauna that still have gaps in knowledge. We created environmental suitability models for 24 species and quantified individual losses from both climate change and human activities. From the individual results we derived an overall pattern, in which we found out that future losses from climate alteration are equivalent to current losses from human activities. We then used the spatial distribution of those activities and key areas for conservation, determined with software Zonation, to select six areas in the Brazilian exclusive economic zone where proactive and reactive conservation strategies should be implanted, given its importance to biodiversity and concentrated anthropogenic impacts. Overall suitability losses were of approximately 30% for both sources and 60% of the areas will continue to be suitable in the future. Therefore, Brazilian corals will experience heavy losses from climate, especially the loss of highly suitable areas, which are compared to effects from human economic activities. Coral situation is likely to be even worse, if we were to consider bleaching, ocean acidification and diseases, events expected to increase with the rising temperature. / Ecological Niche Modelling (ENM) is widely used for conservation purposes, predicting species invasion, evolutionary aspects and a whole array of applications. However, for most cases, evaluating the efficiency of those models poses as problematic, as commonly used methods (i.e. random methods) do not assure the required independence between data used to create the model and data used to evaluate the model. We developed a new transferabilitybased framework that ensures the much-needed independence between subsets. We created an alternate approach that geographically splits occurrence datasets, while intrinsically controls issues related to previous transferability approaches, such as overfitting, extrapolation and sampling bias. We used 26 Atlantic coral species to perform three different geographical divisions quantifying the effect of different splits on model predictive efficiency. We demonstrate that transferability should be used as an effective method to evaluate ENMs. Geographical split of the area in deciles proved as a reliable evaluation method, assuring independence between datasets and being less prone to common transferability issues. Our odds-and-evens framework provides improvements to the ongoing debate of ENMs evaluating by its transferability. This new method corrects the issue of artificiality causing sampling bias and overfitting, common in previous methodologies, while also is less prone to extrapolation issues, a common problem in transferability approaches. Moreover, the framework appears as a feasible and useful alternative to the problematic and commonly used random partition of datasets evaluation.

[EN] The dilemma of development and sustainability in the local context generates multiple interests and concerns. This dissertation arises from the challenge proposed by both concepts in the framework of decision making for urban planning. Its development has been guided by two main motivations. The first and most important is to discuss sustainable development in a context where little had been said, responding to how to improve the practices used for the prioritisation of actions during the planning stages of local development projects, taking as a case study the city of Cartagena de Indias (Colombia). The second, on the other hand, responds to the interest of contributing to the field of multicriteria decision making techniques. The objective is to design a methodology to help those responsible for territorial planning to evaluate development strategies and projects. In particular, it focuses on the participation of different stakeholders and on the approach to sustainable local development. Therefore, the general research question is: how can a participatory multicriteria methodology help to evaluate local development projects with a sustainable approach? To answer this research question the present dissertation, of an exploratory and descriptive nature, has been designed, and developed from the application of three cases of iterative and complementary studies. The objective has been to propose a framework that systematically allows the taking of decisions and the integration of diverse positions, without trying to find a unique solution with the best decision model. The proposed methodology has been developed from the combination of two techniques known from the field of Operations Research, Analytic Network Process (ANP) and Social Network Analysis (SNA). SNA is used to find out how the network of actors related to a problem is structured, to study and evaluate the relationships between the actors that make it up, to determine their degree of cohesion, the actors in the most relevant positions and the existing structural gaps. All of this permits the selection of participants in the decision making process carried out through ANP. ANP is a wellknown multicriteria decision method, which provides a framework for addressing decision making or problem assessment. It defines a prioritisation model as a network with complex, interdependent and feedback relationships between elements. The elements represent characteristics, requirements, conditions or criteria related to a problem, as well as possible alternative solutions. ANP is used to discover the opinions of the participants, to obtain their decision profiles and to reach a consensus on the prioritisation of projects and strategies. Additionally, this methodological proposal, based on the SNA-ANP combination, can be completed with other techniques, for example, geographic information systems to add some components that improve the decision. The results suggest that this SNA-ANP methodology is a novel and useful combination for evaluating local development plans with a multicriteria, sustainable and participatory approach. The results establish a basis for proposing new applications and generating new discussions with the local administration and other actors. With the inclusion of the local and sustainable development approach in the decision framework, throughout this dissertation, the value of different heritages is highlighted, as is the promotion of a more adapted strategic planning and the recognition and inclusion of multiple groups of actors. In addition, the use of practical and replicable methodologies that account for the results is promoted, to be applied at different scales, in order to improve planning and prioritisation of actions. The proposal has considered the dimensions of sustainability in decision models, the active participation of decision-makers and a better selection of participants. In short, it has facilitated the construction of a more participatory decision making process. Finally, it also allows us to explore future applications and to continue the discussion related to the problem of decision making during the planning and evaluation stages of strategic projects, whether for local sustainable development or for other types of objectives. / [ES] El dilema del desarrollo y la sostenibilidad en el contexto local genera múltiples intereses e inquietudes. Esta disertación surge entorno al desafío propuesto por ambos conceptos en el marco de la toma de decisiones para la planeación urbana. Su desarrollo se ha orientado a partir de dos motivaciones principales. La primera y más importante es discutir sobre desarrollo sostenible en un contexto en el que se había hablado poco, respondiendo a cómo mejorar las prácticas utilizadas para la priorización de acciones durante las etapas de planeación de proyectos de desarrollo local, tomando como objeto de estudio la ciudad de Cartagena de Indias (Colombia). La segunda, por su parte, responde al interés por contribuir en el campo de las técnicas de toma de decisiones multicriterio. El objetivo es diseñar una metodología para ayudar a los responsables de la planificación territorial a evaluar estrategias y proyectos de desarrollo. En particular, se centra en la participación de diferentes partes interesadas y en el enfoque al desarrollo local sostenible. Por lo tanto, la pregunta general de investigación es: ¿Cómo puede una metodología multicriterio participativa ayudar a evaluar proyectos de desarrollo local con un enfoque sostenible? Para responder a esta pregunta de investigación se ha diseñado la presente disertación, de naturaleza exploratoria y descriptiva, desarrollada a partir de la aplicación de tres casos de estudios iterativos y complementarios. El objetivo ha sido proponer un marco que de forma sistemática permita tomar decisiones e integrar diversas posiciones, sin pretender hallar una solución única con el mejor modelo de decisión. La metodología propuesta se ha construido a partir de la combinación de dos técnicas conocidas del campo de la Investigación de Operaciones, el Proceso Analítico en Red (ANP) y el Análisis de Redes Sociales (SNA). El SNA se utiliza para conocer cómo se estructura la red de actores relacionados con un problema, estudiar y evaluar las relaciones entre los actores que la componen, determinar su grado de cohesión, los actores en posiciones más relevantes y los vacíos estructurales existentes. Todo ello permite seleccionar a los participantes en el proceso de toma de decisiones realizado a través del ANP. El ANP es un conocido método de decisión multicriterio, que proporciona un marco para abordar la toma de decisiones o la evaluación de problemas. Define un modelo de priorización como una red con relaciones complejas, interdependientes y retroalimentadas entre elementos. Los elementos representan características, requerimientos, condiciones o criterios relacionados con un problema, así como las posibles alternativas de solución. El ANP se utiliza para conocer las opiniones de los participantes, obtener sus perfiles de decisión y alcanzar un consenso sobre la priorización de proyectos y estrategias. Adicionalmente, esta propuesta metodológica, basada en la combinación SNA-ANP, se puede completar con otras técnicas, por ejemplo, los sistemas de información geográfica para agregar algunos componentes que mejoren la decisión. Los resultados sugieren que esta metodología SNA-ANP, es una combinación novedosa y útil para evaluar planes de desarrollo local con un enfoque multicriterio, sostenible y participativo. Los resultados establecen una base para proponer nuevas aplicaciones y generar nuevas discusiones con la administración local y otros actores. Con la inclusión del enfoque del desarrollo local y sostenible en el marco de las decisiones, a lo largo de esta disertación, se resalta el valor de distintos patrimonios, la promoción de una planeación estratégica más adaptada y el reconocimiento e inclusión de múltiples grupos de actores. Además, se promueve el uso de metodologías prácticas y replicables que den cuenta de los resultados, para ser aplicadas a diferentes escalas, con el fin de mejorar la planeación y la priorización de acciones. La propuesta ha considerado las dimensiones de la sostenibilidad en los modelos de decisión, la participación activa de los decisores y una mejor selección de los participantes. En síntesis, ha facilitado la construcción de un proceso de decisión más participativo. Finalmente, también permite explorar futuras aplicaciones y continuar la discusión relacionada con el problema de la toma de decisiones durante las etapas de planeación y evaluación de proyectos estratégicos sean para el desarrollo local sostenible o para otro tipo de objetivos. / [CA] El dilema del desenvolupament i la sostenibilitat en el context local genera múltiples interessos i inquietuds. Aquesta dissertació sorgeix entorn al desafiament proposat per ambdós conceptes en el marc de la presa de decisions per a la planificació urbana. El seu desenvolupament s'ha orientat a partir de dues motivacions principals. La primera i més important és discutir sobre desenvolupament sostenible en un context en què s'havia parlat poc, responent a com millorar les pràctiques utilitzades per a la priorització d'accions durant les etapes de planificació de projectes de desenvolupament local, prenent com a objecte d'estudi la ciutat de Cartagena d'Índies (Colòmbia). La segona, per la seva banda, respon a l'interès per contribuir en el camp de les tècniques de presa de decisions multicriteri. L'objectiu és dissenyar una metodologia per ajudar els responsables de la planificació territorial a avaluar estratègies i projectes de desenvolupament. En particular, es centra en la participació de diferents parts interessades i en l'enfocament al desenvolupament local sostenible. Per tant, la pregunta general d'investigació és: Com pot una metodologia multicriteri participativa ajudar a avaluar projectes de desenvolupament local amb un enfocament sostenible? Per respondre a aquesta pregunta de recerca s'ha dissenyat la present dissertació, de naturalesa exploratòria i descriptiva, desenvolupada a partir de l'aplicació de tres casos d'estudi iteratius i complementaris. L'objectiu ha estat proposar un marc que de forma sistemàtica permeti prendre decisions i integrar diverses posicions, sense pretendre trobar una solució única amb el millor model de decisió. La metodologia proposada s'ha construït a partir de la combinació de dues tècniques conegudes del camp de la Investigació d'Operacions, el Procés Analític en Xarxa (ANP) i l'anàlisi de xarxes socials (SNA). El SNA s'utilitza per conèixer com s'estructura la xarxa d'actors relacionats amb un problema, estudiar i avaluar les relacions entre els actors que la componen, determinar el seu grau de cohesió, els actors en posicions més rellevants i els buits estructurals existents. Tot això permet seleccionar els participants en el procés de presa de decisions realitzat a través de l'ANP. L'ANP és un conegut mètode de decisió multicriteri, que proporciona un marc per abordar la presa de decisions o l'avaluació de problemes. Defineix un model de priorització com una xarxa amb relacions complexes, interdependents i retroalimentades entre elements. Els elements representen característiques, requeriments, condicions o criteris relacionats amb un problema, així com les possibles alternatives de solució. El ANP s'utilitza per conèixer les opinions dels participants, obtenir els seus perfils de decisió i arribar a un consens sobre la priorització de projectes i estratègies. Addicionalment, aquesta proposta metodològica, basada en la combinació SNA-ANP, es pot completar amb altres tècniques, per exemple, els sistemes d'informació geogràfica per afegir alguns components que millorin la decisió. Els resultats suggereixen que aquesta metodologia SNA-ANP, és una combinació innovadora i útil per avaluar plans de desenvolupament local amb un enfocament multicriteri, sostenible i participatiu. Els resultats estableixen una base per proposar noves aplicacions i generar noves discussions amb l'administració local i altres actors. Amb la inclusió de l'enfocament del desenvolupament local i sostenible en el marc de les decisions, al llarg d'aquesta dissertació, es ressalta el valor de diferents patrimonis, la promoció d'una planificació estratègica més adaptada i el reconeixement i inclusió de múltiples grups d'actors . A més, es promou l'ús de metodologies pràctiques i replicables que donin compte dels resultats, per ser aplicades a diferents escales, per tal de millorar la planificació i la priorització d'accions. La proposta ha considerat les dimensions de la sostenibilitat en els models de decisió, la participació activa dels decisors i una millor selecció dels participants. En síntesi, ha facilitat la construcció d'un procés de decisió més participatiu. Finalment, també permet explorar futures aplicacions i continuar la discussió relacionada amb el problema de la presa de decisions durant les etapes de planificació i avaluació de projectes estratègics siguin per al desenvolupament local sostenible o per a un altre tipus d'objectius. / Gonzalez Urango, HK. (2020). A participatory multicriteria approach to evaluate strategic projects for local sustainable development [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/149490 / TESIS