The livestock sector accounts for 14-15% of the global greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, the current meat consumption patterns are associated with multiple health risks and are unsustainable in the long term. Therefore, the shift to a more plant-based diet and reduced animal-source intake is desired from a societal perspective. One attempt to fuel this evolution is the new wave of meat alternatives that are designed to successfully replace meat in everyday meals. However, the current market share of meat alternatives in the Netherlands remains around 4.5%. Section 1 demonstrates that in-depth knowledge about the heterogeneity of Dutch consumer preferences regarding meat alternatives is currently lacking. This thesis contributes to identifying the sources of consumer heterogeneity regarding meat alternatives, focusing on both product-related attributes and person-related characteristics. In addition, this thesis explores and proposes strategies for the manufacturers of meat alternatives with the knowledge of consumer heterogeneity in the Netherlands. The main research question defined for this thesis is: What are the consumer profiles of the sub-segments within the potential meat alternative adopter segment, and what trade-offs do those segments make when choosing between meat and meat alternatives? As explained in Section 2, A Latent Class Choice Model (LCCM) is estimated to examine the trade-offs made when choosing between meat alternatives and conventional meat by individuals from the different consumer segments of Dutch society. Sociodemographics and psychographics are included in this model to identify the consumer profiles of these segments. The LCCM is estimated using data derived from an online stated choice experiment. In this experiment, respondents were asked to choose between two vegetarian mince options that varied in Eco-score, Nutri-score, price, taste, texture, appearance and animal-welfare label. These attributes were identified through a literature review presented in Section 3 and validated by means of a focus group. To examine the trade-offs that are made when choosing between conventional mince and vegetarian mince, one base alternative was added to each choice set that represented the average conventional mince. The person-related characteristics were selected based on the literature review of Section 3 and measured using 5-Point Likert-scales. The product-related attributes were combined to present unique alternatives based on an experimental design, as demonstrated in Section 4. The choice situations were designed to be as real as possible by presenting them as online shopping experiences. Filter questions were added to ensure that the sample population consisted of only potential adopters of meat alternatives. In total 260 complete valid responses were collected as demonstrated in Section 5. The psychographics were aggregated into 9 factors through explanatory factor analysis. The 9 resulting factors are pro-meat attitude, foodneophilia, pro-meat-alternative attitude, sustainable behaviour, foodneophobia, health consciousness, environmental concern, pro-animal attitude and preparation skills. By comparing the LCCM estimation with a multinomial logit model that completely ignores consumer heterogeneity as shown in Section 6, there can be concluded that heterogeneity exists in meat alternative preferences. Heterogeneity was best captured by estimating a three-class LCCM. The resulting classes presented in Section 7 are Price Sensitive Consumers, Health and Environment Lovers and Taste Driven Consumers. The Price Sensitive Consumers segment is unique due to the high relative importance of the price and the non-linear relationships of utility with both the Eco-score and the Nutri-score. The individuals from this segment are generally meat avoiders, students and do not have a pro-animal attitude. The preferences of the Health and Environment Lovers segment stand out because of the high importance of the Eco-score and the Nutri-score, and the low importance of taste. Individuals from this segment tend to be meat avoiders or reducers, have a university Master’s or PhD background, have a pro-animal attitude, have high objective knowledge and score low on foodneophobia. The last segment is the Taste Driven Consumers segment, this segment is only sensitive to the taste and appearance of an alternative. This segment consists predominantly of omnivores with lower educational backgrounds, individuals with low objective knowledge, foodneophobic individuals and individuals who disagree with a pro-animal attitude. In Section 8, product alteration strategies and marketing advice is proposed. In addition, a threefold of foreseeable futures are explored with expected market shares, revenues and environmental impact. If the Price Sensitive Consumers segment is chosen as the target segment, it is advised to keep the selling prices low, keep the Nutri-score above C and the Eco-score above D. In addition, it is advised to produce products that qualify for a future animal-welfare label. Marketing experts should focus on tailoring their marketing to reach the student population and aim marketing at improving objective knowledge. When targeting the Health and Environment Lovers, it is advised to optimize both the Eco-score and the Nutri-score. In addition, it is advised to keep the price low. Marketing strategies should aim at highlighting what makes a certain alternative unique as compared to other alternatives. Furthermore, it is advised to frame the alternatives as exciting and new and accentuate the animal-friendly benefits of the product. When deciding on the Taste Driven Consumers segment, it is advised to focus on producing alternatives that taste and look similar to meat. As for marketing strategies, it is advised to take the foodneophobic character of this segment into account and aim at familiarizing the individuals with meat alternatives. To conclude, there are three segments within the Dutch potential adopters of meat alternative segment. All three segments have different preferences when it comes to meat alternatives. Therefore, manufacturers of meat alternatives should decide on which of the three segments they want to target and alter their products and marketing strategies accordingly. Further research recommendations based on the current study are 1) further investigating the influence of psychographic characteristics on consumer heterogeneity regarding meat alternatives, 2) identifying the potential adopters of meat alternatives segment in the Netherlands 3) determining the generalizability of these findings to other meat alternatives and 4) developing detailed marketing strategies based on the finding of this research.

Substance use disorders, particularly alcohol use disorder (AUD), are a major global health challenge, significantly impacting morbidity and mortality rates. In the Netherlands, around 20% of the population is affected by excessive alcohol consumption, with a notable treatment gap and disproportionate effects on the elderly. Despite increased research into AUD treatments, patient numbers remain stable, straining healthcare systems. Moreover, the Dutch government anticipates that addressing the needs of both diagnosed and undiagnosed patients, the workforce should be increased in the general healthcare sector from the current level of 16.67% to 25% of the total Dutch workforce by 2040. Furthermore, existing regulations and policies appear inadequate in effectively managing these demands.

This study aims to explore the socio-organisational drivers and policy effects on the Dutch mental health care system, focusing on AUD, to maintain sustainable quality care. It examines organizational drivers, expert perspectives, policy influence on system dynamics, and the relationship between capacity shortages and care quality. The research employs a mixed-method approach, including a literature review, exploratory interviews, a Participatory System Dynamics Modeling (PSDM) workshop, and a comparative analysis of data from 12 mental health services (MHS).

Key findings include the significance of internal factors like patient satisfaction and therapeutic alliance, and the crucial role of over and undertreatment considerations during treatment processes. External factors like self-coping, and individualization and blurring of alcohol in shops also influence both treatment effectiveness and alcohol consumption. Current policy regulations inadvertently contribute to capacity shortages and treatment gaps. System Dynamics (SD) modelling reveals that increased regulatory pressures and quality care demands lead to capacity being consumed by administrative tasks and budget gaps. This relates to a 'fixes that fail' archetype, combined with social dynamics like an ageing population and increased alcohol consumption, exacerbates the 'growth and underinvestment' archetype in the Dutch mental healthcare system.

The study highlights the unintended consequences of current policies, such as disjointed preventive measures and reduced practitioner autonomy. It also emphasizes the complexity of healthcare systems as revealed by the challenge of identifying cause-and-effect due to multiple aggregational levels, the diverse perspectives on the system both by literature and experts, the varied healthcare contexts and the multi-disciplinary and collaborative nature of (mental) healthcare. Key limitations include not fully addressing safety in health quality and challenges in integrating quantitative methods.

This thesis underscores the importance of a holistic approach in healthcare, considering both social and organizational aspects. It suggests that current policies may lead to over-regulation or insufficient prevention awareness, impacting both society and MHS organisations. Adopting a holistic system approach can enhance further understanding of policy impacts crucial for preventing a growing treatment-capacity gap and ensuring a sustainable mental health care system for society’s vulnerable members.

We find ourselves at a crossroads; without immediate and deep emissions reductions, limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius will be impossible. For the Netherlands to achieve its climate targets, Dutch municipalities have been delegated the crucial task of the heat transition. Prior research reveals that the Dutch energy transition and policy documents are often techno-economic centred and hardly stress citizens’ central role. However, it remains a thoroughly social affair as changes in energy technologies are accompanied by societal ramifications, and the exclusion of social aspects (public support and energy justice) has detrimental societal effects. This research aims to evaluate the impact of including social information in the information provided for the decision-making process on decisions made by local Dutch policymakers for the heat transition.

Central to this thesis was the following main question: “What is the impact of including social information in the information provided for decision-making processes on the social responsibility of policymakers’ decisions for the heat transition?”. To assess this impact, interviews were conducted, and a 1x2 between-subjects experiment was set up where participants were randomly allocated to one of two conditions: group A: exposure to only technical and economic information, and group B: exposure to technical, economic and social information. With a Mann-Whitney U test, it was determined whether there were differences between the two groups.

The results of this study indicated that the inclusion of social aspects leads to more socially responsible decisions in the heat transition for nine out of 20 neighbourhoods, meaning that neighbourhoods with specific social characteristics are prioritised more than after including this information. These neighbourhoods often had extreme values for the social indicators. For example, neighbourhoods with high public participation or support were prioritised more. Future research should study which social factors increase residents’ participation or public support so policymakers can meaningfully include such social indicators for heat transition decision-making. Another interesting finding is that many policymakers (and therefore municipalities) seemed to have diverging approaches to the heat transition. Future studies should research what causes these differences between municipalities by focusing on personal (of the policymaker) or organisational (of the municipality) characteristics.

Small modular reactors are a new type of nuclear reactors with multiple advantages over conventional nuclear reactors. Due to their smaller size, they are safer than conventional nuclear reactors. They can be produced in factories, which solves the problem of nuclear energy projects going over budget due to delays at the installation site. With the increasing demand in energy, small modular reactors can play an important role in the energy transition. Multiple small modular reactors can be coupled together if the energy demand suddenly rises, which reduces the need for a completely new reactor site.

Currently, 72 different models of small modular reactors are being developed. However, this sector faces various challenges, such as safety and standardization challenges. Furthermore, some designs are based on conventional technologies, while others are based on new technologies. These different generations of reactors could pose to be threats to each other and delay the development of reactors. Small modular reactor designs require multiple units of the same design to be deployed in order to be profitable and offer economically competitive energy. Therefore, the sector is highly competitive as not all designs can become successful.

To deal with these challenges, a consensus on technology selection could be beneficial. The Delphi method is used to evaluate if a consensus can be reached. In the Delphi method, experts cooperate by responding to the opinions and views of other experts over multiple rounds of surveys. This creates a sense of understanding of other views which should lead to a consensus on questioned aspects.

Two rounds of the Delphi study have been held. In the first round, 19 participants have filled the survey, while the second round consisted of 14 participants. Participants were contacted via e-mail and LinkedIn. Participants work in the nuclear energy sector as either regulators, advisors, managers or engineers.

This study is based on an idea of the Organization for Economical Cooperation and Development (OECD), which states that the SMR sector could adopt a standardization model used in the aircraft sector. The aircraft sector can be used as an example for successful cooperation to deal with global licensing challenges and development of safety standards. The use of passive safety systems in SMRs could provide safe operating conditions at a fraction of the costs of active safety systems, and thus should be the aim when designing SMRs.

This study finds that cooperation within the SMR sector can lead to a consensus on standardization of parts and standardization of regulations, which reduces the financial risk for stakeholders and improves the chances for a viable global deployment of SMRs.

Climate change, unfavorable geopolitical developments and resource scarcity pushes the fossil fuel based energy sector in the direction of renewable, carbon-neutral resources. The volatile nature of these, however, created new, technical needs for increased storage capacity and interconnectedness of demand and supporting grid, providing flexibility options. Hydrogen re-emerged as a possibility in the scientific discussion because as a potentially green energy carrier it is easy to store, transport and convert to and from electricity. The economic advantages of transporting hydrogen in its original, molecular form via pipelines rather than relying simply on the electric transmission grid are connected to the amount of energy that needs to be transported – the pipeline transportation usually requiring larger upfront investment but operating with lower unit costs. The uncertainty, however, regarding the competitiveness of hydrogen in possible end-use applications translates into unpredictability in its penetration of the future economy, bringing the return on investment of pipeline transportation options into question.
This thesis, using a quantitative analysis, compares the advantages and disadvantages of the identified, technologically possible transmission options – electric transmission, blended natural gas-hydrogen transmission, or the virtual, retrofitted and dedicated pipeline options – through the resulting average hydrogen price, volatility and grid stability of the Dutch energy grid and market under different penetration scenarios. By formulating the research as a constrained optimization problem, and using the Calliope framework to find an optimal (minimum cost) solution, it is possible to extract the shadow prices of the relevant constraints and use them as an indicator for hydrogen price and grid stability.

Reaching the Paris Climate Agreement goals by 2050 is currently one of the largest societal challenges we are facing. Much is to be gained in the transport of people and goods, which accounts for 25% of the total carbon emissions in Europe. Presently, Air Passenger Transport (APT) hinders carbon emission reductions due to its large environmental impact and evermore growing market share (Van Goeverden et al., 2017). So far, the environmentally friendly high-speed rail only competes with APT up to approximately 600-800 kilometers. Hyperloop as kickstarted in 2015 by Elon Musk has the potential to substitute APT beyond that range, with electric propulsion of magnetically levitating passenger capsules within semi-vacuum tubes. However, research towards Hyperloop’s potential travel demand has remained sparse as of now. Within the financial appraisal of infrastructure projects, forecasted travel demand of the infrastructure is a vital aspect. Namely, ticket revenues and societal value through environmental benefits and travel time savings can result from travel demand. So far, only straightforward analyses have been done to forecast potential Hyperloop demand, using data from previous travel surveys that do not include Hyperloop. Used data does not cater to travellers’ overall (dis)like for Hyperloop, or travellers’ trade-offs including Hyperloop-specific transport mode attributes. Moreover, since potential Hyperloop implementation lies in the future, various future contexts surrounding travel behavior could also influence its competitive potential. To account for these issues, this research estimates future Hyperloop travel demand by conducting a Stated Choice Experiment (SCE) amongst Dutch travellers. Here, future decision-making contexts and travellers’ (dis)like for Hyperloop are included.

The main objective of this thesis is to understand the environmental risks related to geothermal operations. The aim is to provide an integrated approach from both natural and social sciences and to perform this in three different country settings. These countries are Indonesia, Turkey and the Netherlands and they were selected because of their different geothermal system types. The integrated approach in this study results in a research process that requires a broad range of measurement and analysis techniques and a clear understanding of the natural and social disciplines. From the natural sciences approach this report studies the environmental risks through a geochemical characterization of the geothermal fluids, whereas the social sciences approach studies the risk perception on geothermal operations. The outline of the process followed is visualized in Figure 0.1. From the natural sciences approach, an extensive geochemical data set is used to characterize the geothermal fluids and their environmental risk. This contains approximately 750 sample measurements from three countries that were collected through partners and third parties. The samples are characterized with help of two ternary diagrams (Na-K-Mg and Cl-SO4-HCO3), their salinity (in TDS), pH and correlation coefficients between commonly occurring elements in fluids, such as Ca, Si and F. These fluid properties help to define the maturity, origin and characteristics of geothermal fluids at a broad range of locations in each of the three countries. Through this analysis we found a strong relation between the fluid classification and the sample type (well or spring) in Indonesia. Besides, a relative high influence of volcanic activity on the geochemistry was observed. The Turkish and Dutch samples are dominated by their geothermal system types that are respectively carbonatic and clastic sedimentary systems. The concentrations of nine toxic gases and elements dissolved in the geothermal fluids are analysed and compared to guideline values to determine the relative environmental risks in the three countries. The toxic gases are H2S, CO2 and CH4 and the toxic elements Al, As, Cd, F, Hg and Pb. Their effects on the environment differ but all of them affect the health of humans, flora and fauna when they contaminate groundwater or the atmosphere. From the risk analysis in the three countries it was found that the risk of excessive H2S pollution is highest in Indonesia, for CO2 in Turkey and for CH4 in the Netherlands. The contamination risk with toxic elements differs largely per element but often occurs in specific locations, for example with high volcanic impact. For the social sciences approach, a survey was distributed to measure how the public perceives the risks of geothermal energy. The population for this survey is people affiliated with the geothermal industry because of their prior knowledge on the subject. They are asked to indicate their (risk) perception through several statements and factors to which they indicate their level of agreement. The result indicates that the perceived risks were generally higher in countries with a higher risk, like Indonesia. However, there were several interesting exceptions to this rule in which the perceived risks were low whereas a relatively high environmental risk was identified, like for potential CH4 pollution in the Netherlands.

To deal with increasing complexity and connectivity of socio-technical systems it becomes unlikely for individuals to be able to oversee all possible changes. These systems are riddled with a plurality of actors with differing interests, disciplines, institutions and ecological limitations. Examples of systems like these are energy and gas grids. If one wants to tackle problems on these systems one would ideally understand possible results of changing things in these systems as a change in one part of the system can lead to results in other subsystems. If a tree falls down on an energy pole, for example, chemical plants can stop functioning. This in turn can cause orders to be late, influencing a whole production chain.
To this end one would ideally one would ideally apply systems thinking: ”Systems thinking is a set of synergistic analytic skills used to improve the capability of identifying and understanding systems, predicting their behaviors, and devising modifications to them in order to produce desired effects. These skills work together as a system.”
However, because the earlier pluralities it unlikely for a single individual or organisation to have all the required information for this. Processes are required where information is collected and co-created with multiple parties in such as system to enable the creation of comprehensive solutions for these problems. What is required is social learning. Social learning (SL)is learning that happens by people participating in so called communities of practice. A community of practice can be seen as a group of people with converging interests and skills. An example would be a grid operator, which have their own sub-communities (E.G. cable technician or systems manager). They can be smaller groups, E.G. a family, and participation is often not mutually exclusive. Rather than being part of a community of practice one could be seen as being part of the landscape of practice, consisting out of multiple communities. By partaking in these communities people gain experiences by both learning and expanding on a communities’ knowledge.
The aim of this thesis is to gain insights into: 1. mechanics shaping and steering social learning 2. how to measure social learning processes for in vivo experimentation 3. design mechanics for participatory modelling processes and Social learning in general to improve development of such processes 
To do this a theory has been made on the mechanics and behaviour of individuals in a SL process. This has been done in chapters 4, 5 and 6. To do this a PM perspective has been used as this give a structure on the actions someone can take and requires shared information to be structured. Additionally it is seen as a useful tool for tackling socio-technical problems.
The theory thus focussed on the main action of PM, namely sending information, receiving and processing information and deciding upon the model. To develop the theory knowledge from multiple disciplines is needed. To this end a theory has been developed using supersynthesis. This is a research method where multiple theories are combined to make a new on to explain something. The aim is not to supersed the combined theories, but to explain something new. The fields that have been the focus are communication science, helping understand how information is processed and sent, and social psychology, helping understand why and when individuals take certain actions. The theories have been synthesised in two rounds of conceptualisation, with the first focussing on conceptualising every possible action and mechanic. The ones that were deemed most interesting or useful have been conceptualised more in depth. To this an additional conceptualisation of knowledge and information is made. The final theory is as follows:
Knowledge takes the shape of a knowledge graph. In this graph fields of expertise are called topics. One can think about the weather as such a topic. These topics consist out of information items, think cloudiness or temperature, and links between these items indicating their relation, think cloudiness leads to lower temperatures. These items may have links to items from other topics. For example cloudiness is related to sun hours and yields of Photovoltaics from th topic of Photovoltaics.
It is assumed that a complete knowledge graph exists. Each individual knows part of this graph, signifying knowledge or expertise in the topic. The larger part of a topic they know the more expertise they have in that topic. This includes both information items as their links (relationships). All these items, links and topics also have a perceived relevance for people. This is based on interests or affiliation. Affiliation means relationship with a group of people, for example, meteorologists. Something is also seen as more relevant if it is discussed often, attributed to common knowledge effects. In a social learning process there are several individuals. Each round they are able to share information. Information is seen as information items and/or their links. A topic as a whole can also be discussed, but this is not seen as actual information for learning. What they share is based on the amount of energy they have and are willing to spend on sharing information. This is dependent on perceived relevance of the item they are considering to share, their expertise on the related topic and their tiredness. It is assumed that the energy one has decays over rounds.
Shared energy is received by others and they start to process it. Here something is integrated or learned if they are able or willing to invest enough energy in the processing. This is dependent on their expertise of the related topic, their perceived relevance of what is shared and their attitude with regards to the sender. If expertise, relevance and attitudes are high enough someone will process and integrate information. Processing energy is also assumed to decay each round.
In addition to information on knowledge, individuals can also share relational information. These are details like hobbies and other personal details. These are processed as either positive or negative and influence attitudes.
Processing of shared information may also happen during breaks or downtime. Here one has more energy to spend and attitudes are less relevant. Total recall of information is assumed in the whole model (I.E. people do not forget anything).
To allow for further reflection on the theory and to act as a proof of concept of the theory the theory has been translated into an agent based simulation model. This model has been analysed in a sensitivity experiment using LHS and extremely randomised forest in addition to a variety of plotting techniques in R. 
Additionally two experiments are designed, inspired by real cases. These are used to reflect on the theory and find less noticeable quirks from the ABM. 
Based on the theory and ABM the following things have been concluded:  -While communication science theories and social psychology theories have been used for theory development, they are not a be all end all. One can apply other fields if one wants. This specific combination, however works especially well for an individual perspective.-The theory can be used to reflect on SL by practitioners as it tells why and how people can act. Furthermore the idea of the knowledge graph can be connected to landscapes of practice, with topics relating to a community and links between items of these topics to those of other relating places where boundaries interact -Matters like conflict and increasing conflict, coalitions, personal inhibitions and norms are some of the values that would make sense to include in the theory. This would make the theory less usable for simulation modelling, however and would add a lot of behaviour that is not directly related to the learning process. To implement these additional behaviour could be conceptualised and added, making the theory more complete but less comprehensive. The most important addition that could be made according to me would be an extension on the actions influencing attitudes and the actual definition of a process result (a participatory built model or a plan). -This new theory is valuable as this individual based perspective has not been taken before, inviting to reflection on practice.-The knowledge graph could be used as a means for building new theories that are comparable. Additionally it is a way to explicitly learning. -The combination between social learning and Participatory modelling has not been made this explicit before. It would allow participatory modellers to reflect on their practice.-The ideas of energy for sharing and processing are quite influential in the ABM. They are interesting as they give clear reasons why learning may not happen or happen suboptimally. For learning to happen information need to be shared. If people lack the energy or the willingness to spend energy sharing will not happen. If they do not have the energy to process this they will also fail to learn. This highlights the need for keeping energy levels in mind when designing these processes. It is assumed that these energy levels decay linearly. While arguably too simplistic still it does show how intensive processes or boring processes can fail.
The following design mechanics are proposed:1. Usage of a knowledge graph to keep track of what is learned by researchers 2. Usage of knowledge graph to steer the process order that makes learning more likely (topics that closely relate to all participants first and expand that towards specific participants later down the line). 3. Use set structures, conceptual modelling, drawings and other tools to make information sharing and processing easier and less intensive. This would make the process spend less energy if the used tools are chosen well (I.E. a conceptual drawing of what is said or what someone wants to explain using causal diagramming is probably better to explain ideas than doing so via live programming of a simulation model). 4. Use actions like summarizing what has been said to slow down the process if it becomes to quick, leading to a processing energy deficit. 5. Use means like using an agenda to ensure the speed of the process does not become to slow, leading to boredom and potential energy decays

A mixed-methods research to study the effect of a mediated environment on player experience and the result of the game Cue Kitchen, that aims to increase awareness about the invisible symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease in the social environment of people with Parkinson’s

Whether your research pertains to design, engineering, technology, mathematics or architecture, the freedom to challenge, change and impact the future of energy transition is here at TU Delft – because the future of sustainable energy is the future of our planet. Sparked your interest? Visit www.tudelft.nl/jobs/energy and meet our heroes. @en

This study's objective is to assess the effect of parking arrangements and the physical environment of a car restricted residential area on car owners’ willingness to move to a car restricted residential area compared to a conventional residential area. A car restricted area in this study is distinguished as a visually car-free area, in which access to vehicles is restricted and car parking is either provided in-building, underground or at the edge of the neighbourhood, but there is no attempt to restrict car use or ownership. The preferences regarding seven variables affecting car restricted residential choice were studied: (1) walking time to the car, (2) type of car parking facility, (3) monthly parking costs, (4) type of building, (5) liveliness level, (6) amount of facilities, and (7) the degree of green areas. A stated preference (SP) survey was used to determine which characteristics affect this preference, and to what extent. The results indicate that only a few car owners are willing to move to a car restricted residential area over a conventional residential area. Overall, the walking time to car parking significantly harms to the willingness to move to a car restricted residential area, while the physical environment of a car restricted residential seems to be of less importance. This implies that the physical environment is only to a limitate extent able to compensate for distant car parking in these residential areas. However, future research may increase the understanding into car owners’ willingness to move to a car restricted residential area by scrutinising people’s underlying association towards car restricted residential areas.