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This book explores incentives capable of enhancing the effectiveness of urban planning systems in Sub-Saharan Africa using economic theory as a framework. It argues that urban planning is fundamental to the achievement of sustainable and resilient cities, but against the backdrop of rising levels of urbanisation and growth, poverty, informal development, and climate change, such systems are failing to be promoted and successfully maintained in the region. Across ten chapters, it analyses the connection between urban planning and socio-economic development, indicators of effective urban planning systems, and the role and influence of incentives with real-world evidence. It develops quantitative models to estimate the costs and benefits of urban planning systems, focussing on the developing world where organised data is less accessible. Using Ghana as a case study, it demonstrates a step-by-step approach on how to implement the quantitative models discussed. Economic Incentives in Sub-Saharan African Urban Planning will be useful reading for researchers, policy-makers, development agencies, and students in urban planning, sustainable development, and economics.

'Over recent years Complexity Science has revealed to us new limits to our possible knowledge and control in social, cultural and economic systems. Instead of supposing that past statistics and patterns will give us predictable outcomes for possible actions, we now know the world is, and will always be, creative and surprising. Continuous structural evolution within such systems may change the mechanisms, descriptors, problems and opportunities, often negating policy aims. We therefore need to redevelop our thinking about interventions, policies and policy making, moving perhaps to a humbler, more 'learning' approach. In this Handbook, leading thinkers in multiple domains set out these new ideas and allow us to understand how these new ideas are changing policymaking and policies in this new era.' - Peter M Allen, Cranfield University, UK

Software is the essential enabling means for science and the new economy. It helps us to create a more reliable, flexible and robust society. But software often falls short of our expectations. Current methodologies, tools, and techniques remain expensive and are not yet sufficiently reliable, while many promising approaches have proved to be no more than case-by-case oriented methods. This book contains extensively reviewed papers from the thirteenth International Conference on New Trends in software Methodology, Tools and Techniques (SoMeT_14), held in Langkawi, Malaysia, in September 2014. The conference provides an opportunity for scholars from the international research community to discuss and share research experiences of new software methodologies and techniques, and the contributions presented here address issues ranging from research practices and techniques and methodologies to proposing and reporting solutions for global world business. The emphasis has been on human-centric software methodologies, end-user development techniques and emotional reasoning, for an optimally harmonized performance between the design tool and the user. Topics covered include the handling of cognitive issues in software development to adapt it to the user's mental state and intelligent software design in software utilizing new aspects on conceptual ontology and semantics reflected on knowledge base system models. This book provides an opportunity for the software science community to show where we are today and where the future may take us.

In modern business environments, ethical behavior plays a crucial role in success. Managers and business leaders must pay close attention to the ethics of their policies and behaviors to avoid a reputation-crushing scandal. Business Law and Ethics: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications explores best practices business leaders need to navigate the complex landscape of legal and ethical issues on a day-to-day basis. Utilizing both current research and established conventions, this multi-volume reference is a valuable tool for business leaders, managers, students, and professionals in a globalized marketplace.

Within the most recent discussion on smart cities and the way this vision is affecting urban changes and dynamics, this book explores the interplay between planning and design both at the level of the design and planning domains’ theories and practices. Urban transformation is widely recognized as a complex phenomenon, rich in uncertainty. It is the unpredictable consequence of complex interplay between urban forces (both top-down or bottom-up), urban resources (spatial, social, economic and infrastructural as well as political or cognitive) and transformation opportunities (endogenous or exogenous). The recent attention to Urban Living Lab and Smart City initiatives is disclosinga promising bridge between the micro-scale environments, with the dynamics of such forces and resources, and the urban governance mechanisms. This bridge is represented by those urban collaborative environments, where processes of smart service co-design take place through dialogic interaction with and among citizens within a situated and cultural-specific frame.