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Cycling-based mobility services or 'Cycling as a Service' (CaaS) have recently expanded in number and scale in the Netherlands. In contrast to the contexts of most other CaaS studies to date, cycling has a high modal share and strong institutions in the Dutch context. However, these supportive features have not translated into straightforward success for CaaS providers. Instead, responses to CaaS providers have varied widely, from tolerance to opposition. In this study we employ a combined business model and transition perspective to investigate this variation and its implications for CaaS in Dutch urban mobility systems. We present value propositions derived from business models, and integrate these into Hoogma's fit-and-stretch strategy framework for emerging niches. This enables a comparison between technology design and value propositions, and an analysis of the CaaS niche's transitions potential. Our findings clarify the strategies used by niche actors to enter and operate within established cycling regimes.

Automobiles with internal combustion engine using diesel fuel have large harmful emissions of nitrogen oxides and soot, which affect the health of the population and especially children and carbon dioxide, which is dangerous for the planet as a whole. Biodiesel is used in Europe as an additive to diesel fuel to reduce soot emissions (including carcinogens), as well as to improve the balance of carbon dioxide on the planet. Using the biodiesel in internal combustion engines tends to show higher nitrogen oxides emissions compared to diesel. In this paper, the impact of flame temperature, ignition delay and density on NOx formation of biodiesel and its component for both stationary engine and automotive engine were analysed. Emissions of nitrogen oxides increase with increasing load. In no-load modes, biodiesel shows lower emissions of nitrogen oxides than diesel.

AbstractVampyroteuthis infernalis Chun, 1903, is a widely distributed deepwater cephalopod with unique morphology and phylogenetic position. We assessed its habitat and trophic ecology on a global scale via stable isotope analyses of a unique collection of beaks from 104 specimens from the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Cephalopods typically are active predators occupying a high trophic level (TL) and exhibit an ontogenetic increase in δ15N and TL. Our results, presenting the first global comparison for a deep-sea invertebrate, demonstrate that V. infernalis has an ontogenetic decrease in δ15N and TL, coupled with niche broadening. Juveniles are mobile zooplanktivores, while larger Vampyroteuthis are slow-swimming opportunistic consumers and ingest particulate organic matter. Vampyroteuthis infernalis occupies the same TL (3.0–4.3) over its global range and has a unique niche in deep-sea ecosystems. These traits have enabled the success and abundance of this relict species inhabiting the largest ecological realm on the planet.

Abstract Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a key technology to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from industrial processes in a feasible, substantial, and timely manner. For geological CO2 storage to be safe, reliable, and accepted by society, robust strategies for CO2 leakage detection, quantification and management are crucial. The STEMM-CCS (Strategies for Environmental Monitoring of Marine Carbon Capture and Storage) project aimed to provide techniques and understanding to enable and inform cost-effective monitoring of CCS sites in the marine environment. A controlled CO2 release experiment was carried out in the central North Sea, designed to mimic an unintended emission of CO2 from a subsurface CO2 storage site to the seafloor. A total of 675 kg of CO2 were released into the shallow sediments (∼3 m below seafloor), at flow rates between 6 and 143 kg/d. A combination of novel techniques, adapted versions of existing techniques, and well-proven standard techniques were used to detect, characterise and quantify gaseous and dissolved CO2 in the sediments and the overlying seawater. This paper provides an overview of this ambitious field experiment. We describe the preparatory work prior to the release experiment, the experimental layout and procedures, the methods tested, and summarise the main results and the lessons learnt.

The urban heat island effect is often associated with large metropolises. However, in the Netherlands even small cities will be affected by the phenomenon in the future (Hove et al., 2011), due to the dispersed or mosaic urbanisation patterns in particularly the southern part of the country: the province of North Brabant. This study analyses the average night time land surface temperature (LST) of 21 North-Brabant urban areas through 22 satellite images retrieved by Modis 11A1 during the 2006 heat wave and uses Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper to map albedo and normalized difference temperature index (NDVI) values. Albedo, NDVI and imperviousness are found to play the most relevant role in the increase of night-time LST. The surface cover cluster analysis of these three parameters reveals that the 12 “urban living environment” categories used in the region of North Brabant can actually be reduced to 7 categories, which simplifies the design guidelines to improve the surface thermal behaviour of the different neighbourhoods thus reducing the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect in existing medium size cities and future developments adjacent to those cities. Tema. Journal of Land Use, Mobility and Environment, Vol 9, N° 1 (2016): Planning for livable and safe cities: Extreme weather events caused by climate change

Abstract Recent fuel price increases, together with future scarcity of fossil fuels and pollution have raised awareness about the efficient use of energy. Expenditure on marine fuel represents a significant component of the operational costs of the fishing fleets and, as a result, the profitability of the fishing fleets is very sensitive to fuel price variations. By assembling data from 54 fishing fleets around Europe, representing one fourth of the European Union (EU) fishing fleet in terms of vessel numbers and one third in terms of the volume of landings, the effects of the fuel price increase on the economic performance and the energy efficiency of the EU fleet, were estimated for the period 2002–2008. Results demonstrate declining trends in the economic indicators through the years, with a 33% reduction in profitability of the fleets since the beginning of the study. Most energy efficiency indicators, which featured a deteriorating trend over time, have improved their performance after 2004, when the first fuel price increase of the period was observed. However, results do vary across fleet segments.

The article deals with the features for determination of the efficiency of vehicle modernization compared to the base one. They propose the model for determining the efficiency of vehicle mod-ernization compared with the base one. The model takes into account technical, economic and envi-ronmental parameters of the vehicle.