Many urban bridges and quay walls (UBQs) in historic cities, such as Amsterdam and The Hague, show significant signs of overdue maintenance and require inspection, renovation and renewal. Municipalities need to maintain safety, while considering multiple functional and societal values (e.g. accessibility, sustainability, and circularity). To meet these values, municipalities – oftentimes in collaboration with partners – are continuously seeking to innovate. This includes the co-development and adoption of both technical and organisational innovations, such as i) remote sensing for the inspection and assessment of UBQs, ii) grout injection poles and buoycrete for the renovation of UBQs and iii) multi-objective decision-making for the long-term management of UBQs. These innovations enable and demand a shift in UBQ asset management practices, from short-term and technical practices to proactive and sustainable practices. However, municipalities are struggling to implement innovations and change their practices. In this research project, you will explore one or multiple existing UBQ asset management innovations and how these innovations affect municipal asset management practices.
The MSc thesis research will take place in the context of the UBQ4 project. The UBQ4 project aims to develop knowledge and actionable approaches for responsive and value-based asset management and decision-making practices. Within the UBQ4, we work together with the municipalities of Amsterdam, The Hague and Zwolle (UBQ4 partners). The MSc thesis will take place at the municipality of Amsterdam or The Hague, depending on your preferences and language skills. Both municipalities work together with other municipalities in the CityDeal ‘Tijdloze Grachten’, which provides opportunities for collaboration and extension of data collection activities in other municipalities (such as Utrecht, Leiden, Delft, Dordrecht and Den Bosch). The research will likely involve the collection and analysis of qualitative data (e.g. interviews, observations, documents), organisation of focus groups or workshops, or a combination (e.g. survey among experts and systematic review of literature).
References
- Goldbohm, P. C. R., M. Wolfert, A. R., G. de Gijt, J., De Bruijne, M. L. C., & Van Heesch, M. A. (2018). Beneficial Inner-City Quay Walls? Journal of Advanced Civil and Environmental Engineering, 1(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.30659/jacee.1.1.1-8
- Rønning, R., Hartley, J., Fuglsang, L., & Geuijen, K. (2022). Valuing Public Innovation. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15203-0
- Cinar, E., Trott, P., & Simms, C. (2019). A systematic review of barriers to public sector innovation process. Public Management Review, 21(2), 264–290. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2018.1473477
- MSc thesis of Bejarano Macias, D (2024) How uncertainties impact municipal decision-making processes about urban quay walls: An Amsterdam case study https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/103284
- MSc thesis of de Boer, R (2023) Successfully implementing innovations in public construction projects: Determining the impact of a public project team’s innovation capability https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/95406
- MSc thesis of Heming, S (2021) Balancing of interests between the clients and contractors within infrastructure innovation partnership projects https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/88518
Supervision
Are you interested in this assignment? Contact the Master thesis coordinator.
