Utility networks are critical components of urban infrastructure, providing essential services such as water supply, electricity, gas, and telecommunications. The traditional method for mapping these networks is typically two-dimensional (2D) schematic representations rather than topographically and geometrically correct maps. These representations lack the capacity to convey the complexity and vertical intricacies of urban infrastructures. This limitation hampers comprehensive planning, efficient management, and risk mitigation during construction activities because 2D maps do not effectively represent the multi-layered and interconnected nature of urban utilities, leading to potential oversights and inaccuracies. This thesis addresses the challenge of enriching utility network data by integrating detailed data from utility trench surveys. These surveys provide precise positional and attribute information about utilities that are often missing in standard maps, such as the exact depth, spatial configuration, and physical characteristics of the utility lines.

Data from utility trenches in three Dutch cities—Enschede, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam—was acquired and analyzed. Methodologies were developed to extract, standardize, and integrate this data into existing utility network maps, enhancing their semantic content and spatial accuracy. The research demonstrated that integrating trench data can reveal inaccuracies in traditional utility network maps at the utility trench locations.

Key findings include the development of algorithms for extracting and processing utility trench data, the identification of common challenges between cities such as cable/pipeline labeling inconsistencies, and the comparison of enriched utility data and that of traditional utility networks. The research also highlights the importance of standardizing data models and the potential of three-dimensional models to provide a more comprehensive understanding of utility networks. A resulting recommendation was to improve data collection by including all information found and providing properly geo-referenced data.

The office architecture of the 1970s and 1980s makes up a large part of Dutch office building stock, at about 30%. Most buildings are now in need of major renovation and often no longer correspond to today's aesthetic perception. In addition, the function of the buildings must be adapted to today's needs and technological standards. This is not least due to the rapidly changing world of work, especially after the climax of the Corona pandemic. In order to prevent the possible destruction of buildings or building parts with a potential to become protected heritage, this master project offers a first approach to collecting characteristics of this period for heritage and sustainability reasons. A focus is placed on those that lend themselves to a particularly sustainable strategy, as the study shows that the early sustainability movement of the 1970s also left its mark on the construction methods of the time. The results together with the results of a value assessment are applied to the adaptive re-design of the police building in the Mathildelaan in Eindhoven. Further, aspects with a particular sustainability perspective are incorporated in an extension. In this way, the existing building is integrated into a modern urban context.

Huis ‘t Velde is an estate first mentioned in 1326 and located in Warnsveld, in the east of the Netherlands. During the analysis of the building and site it became clear that it fell under a particular typology. Huis ‘t Velde was known as ‘havezate’, a specific type of castle which provided privileges and political rights. It was an ensemble of estate and buildings that evolved over time and was used as fortified house. Many similar buildings are seen across the region and seemed to have various similarities. Often, those havezaten were not publicly accessible, resulting in nescience of the typology among many people. The term ‘havezate’ was often even replaced by ‘kasteel’ or ‘landhuis’, while the definition was not identical. These analysis resulted in the following research- and design question:
How can fourteenth-century havezaten from Het Kwartier van Zutphen be characterized to formulate a building typology and how can this be made experienceable to the public in the re-design of Huis ‘t Velde?

Since the current use of Huis ‘t Velde does not make the typology experienceable, the whole estate and buildings will be re-designed to be publicly accessible. By attracting people and allowing them on the estate and inside the buildings they can become acquainted with the characteristics of the typology and take in the atmosphere that makes it so special. Huis ‘t Velde will host a hotel, with restaurant and wine tasting area, combined with some rental rooms, a shop and various outside spaces like a flower-, vegetable- and monumental garden. The majority of the (spatial) interventions are based on the conducted individual research into havezaten in the area around Zutphen. The results are combined into a design toolbox with interventions to use to make the characteristics of a havezate (more) experienceable to the public. These design tools are implemented and testing in the re-design of Huis ‘t Velde.

The Indonesian government mentioned the urge to accelerate the process of providing detailed spatial plan maps. Moreover, to have one standard of reference, detailed spatial plan maps need to use large-scale (1:5.000) base maps as reference. Furthermore, the Indonesian government established the One Map Policy agenda as a legal basis for accelerating large-scale data. The Geospatial Information Act (2011) mentioned that the National Mapping of Agency (NMA) of Indonesia is responsible for providing nationwide large-scale (1:5.000) base maps. However, until now, only 2.7% of large-scale (1:5.000) base maps are available from all over Indonesia . One issue is the gap between the budget needed and received annually from the national government. Dependent on the national government, the NMA faces budget uncertainty between the budget requested and received during the annual process. Moreover, the budget was focused on supplying a national program of large-scale (1:5.000) base maps. Therefore, the NMA tend to innovate its funding model to accelerate the production of large-scale (1:5.000) base maps. Innovative funding models are assessed by using Analytical Hierarcy Process, one of the Multi-Criteria Analysis. Moreover, to achieve categorize the stakeholder, a stakeholder analysis is conducted. This project shows that sharing financial resources between local and national authority is a viable option. However, both national and local government needs to set several parameters and create a proper relationship among stakeholders.

Due to the urbanization, it is expected the world’s population will increasingly live in urban areas. Therefore, there is a growing concern about diverse urban problems, such as climate change, emissions, congestion and the quality of life in cities. Hereby, urban mobility systems can be an important factor to solve these problems. Besides, new developments in ICT, the adaptation of smartphones, the increasing availability of data and are changing current mobility systems in cities by creating new possibilities for the application of smart solutions. An example of these new smart solutions is new shared mobility services. New shared mobility services (.e.g. car sharing, ride-hailing and bike-sharing, etc) are technology-based, on-demand and provide alternatives to traditional transport models. These services are seen as an opportunity for more sustainable transport in the city and to address equity in transportation. But without thoughtful planning, there is no guarantee this will happen. Moreover, giving the fact that virtual mobility is growing by the enhancement of ICT and will potentially be a replacement for physical mobility these shared mobility services can bring new equity barriers and opportunities for disadvantaged neighbourhoods. This research will focus on shared mobility services in the context of Rotterdam-South. The area of Rotterdam-South is an urban renewal area, which is struggling with large concentration socio-economic problems. Besides, studies have shown that the inhabitants of Rotterdam-South are the least mobile and suffer from transportation poverty, causing them to come across more barriers to the accessibility of various services and opportunities. Based on the defined problem, the following main research question is formulated for this research: “In what way can public parties use shared mobility services to stimulate urban neighbourhood renewal in Rotterdam-South?”. To answer the main research question it was decided that a qualitative approach would be appropriate. The qualitative method includes the review of literature, interviews with advisors, the municipality and providers of shared mobility service in combination with a case study of the neighbourhood Tarwewijk, which is located in Rotterdam-South. From the results, it can be concluded that by the implementation of shared mobility services in a disadvantaged neighbourhood, public parties can positively affect and stimulate two aspects of urban renewal. These are the social and environmental conditions of a neighbourhood. Although the implementation of shared mobilities can offer opportunities for urban renewal areas, it can also bring several barriers and challenges. So, before implementing shared mobility services to stimulate urban renewal, public parties must consider how to implement policies/strategies. This to ensure that the barriers to using these shared mobilities are eliminated. Hereby, this research has suggested several policies and strategies for public parties.

This thesis is focused on benchmarking municipal sport policy. Physical activity is used by the Dutch government as a policy tool to create a healthy society. The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport stimulate people to adopt active life styles in order to combat the prosperity diseases: overweight, diabetes and depression. In benchmarking municipal sport policy there are the following complexities. Firstly complexities related to the governance of municipal sport policy, there are many actors involved with contradictory interests. In addition municipal sport policy is focussed within municipal boundaries and evolves on previously pursued policies. Secondly complexities related to benchmarking. Benchmarking is from origin a method developed for the industrial industry and now is also applied in the public sector, but the applicability of the method is contested. Moreover benchmarking is not straightforward and is dependent on its design, data reliability and the way of processing data.

An essential actor in sport policy are the municipalities: they conduct sport policy in order to heave healthy citizens and focus their policy to a large extent on sport facilities. Currently municipalities lack insight in whether the output of the sport policy (namely the quantity, type, and location of sport facilities) leads to the desired effects (namely healthy citizens), which we define as a lack of insight in the effectiveness of the sport policy. This insight is crucial for municipalities, since it can be used in the policy evaluation to assess the performance of their policy.

A method that has been proven useful for measuring and comparing of performance is benchmarking. Benchmarking is the research in which the output between organisations can be compared. However, there is a lack of literature describing how sport policy by municipalities can be compared, whereas comparison with other municipalities can provide additional insights and stimulate learning. In this study a benchmarking method for municipal sport policy aspects is developed and conducted.

The benchmarking method is designed based on a benchmarking literature review. Based on the review it was established that the design of the benchmarking method consists of phases, process steps and criteria. Subsequently with the literature review a benchmarking model is designed consisting of phases, steps, and criteria directed at assessing the performance of municipal sport policy. In the benchmarking criteria common elements are: the usage of indicators, transparency in performance measurement method and self-assessment of performance. In the benchmarking models common process steps are: set objectives, define indicators, select benchmark groups, collecting data, preparing data, analyzing data, determining significant different findings and reporting findings.

With the designed benchmarking model the benchmark is conducted, resulting in the following findings. The benchmarking results found no significant correlation between the dimensions, the output and the outcome of municipal sport policy. This study found that for benchmarking both the benchmarking design as the benchmarking process are crucial. Currently literature focuses on the design of the benchmarking method. This study found that the benchmarking process confronts challenges mainly related to data analytics.