C. Els van Daalen

Perspectives on Policy Analysis: A Framework for Understanding and Design

As made clear by the discussion in Chap. 2, policy analysis is a multifaceted field in which a variety of different activities and ambitions have found a place. Some policy analysts conduct quantitative or qualitative research, while others reconstruct and analyze political discourse or set up citizen fora.

The roles of computer models in the environmental policy life cycle

Abstract In this article, we identify four typical roles played by computer models in environmental policy-making, and explore the relationship of these roles to different stages of policy development over time. The four different roles are: models as eye-openers, models as arguments in dissent, models as vehicles in creating consensus and models for management. A general environmental policy life cycle is used to assess the different roles models play in the policy process. The relationship between the roles of models and the different stages of the policy life cycle is explored with a selection of published accounts of computer models and their use in environmental policy-making.

System Models for Policy Analysis

Although quantitative system models are only one of many tools of a policy analyst, they are an important tool. For the policy analyst, the purpose of building and using models is to estimate things that cannot be observed or measured directly. The prime example is impact assessment—estimating the outcomes of a policy that a decisionmaker may consider adopting. Other uses are diagnosis (estimating what factors have the greatest leverage to change a specified outcome or what is the primary source of a given outcome) and forecasting (estimating how a variable is likely to evolve in the future, usually assuming “present trends”). They also may be used as learning tools (to gain an understanding of how the system works, or may work in the future).

Lessons Learned from Introducing a Skills Line into a Systems Engineering Curriculum

Academic skills refer to a broad set of capabilities that students need to acquire as part of their engineering program to be able to work effectively within a professional or scientific environment. Despite the importance, skills are underemphasized in many educational and engineering programs. In this paper the development of a new skills line within the System Engineering, Policy Analysis and Management (SEPAM) bachelor and master program is presented. The skills line in the bachelor program consists of nine different skills, in the categories: project skills, personal skills and academic skills. In contrast, the skills line of the master program focuses on a set of skills categorized into design, professional and academic skills. The introduction of the skills line has helped students not only to acquire the necessary skills, but external parties also better understand the program when the typical skills are presented. Evaluation results from an Alumni survey show that the skills are important to their current jobs and the skills are treated well in the program. It is important that the relationship between education and practice is explicitly addressed.

Assessing the Residential Energy Rebound Effect by Means of a Serious Game

Residential energy efficiency improvements often have a smaller effect than expected. Although there is agreement on the existence of this effect, called the rebound effect, there is no agreement on the size of the effect. The objective of this study was to investigate the potential of using serious games to assess this effect. We used a game in which participants play home owners who manage their households in terms of energy consumption. Results of experiments with 50 players showed signs of the rebound effect when players with a low efficiency house reduced their energy consumption more than players with a high efficiency house. In addition, some issues related to previous studies were addressed, such as the possibility to perform an ex-ante assessment and to conduct the study in a controlled environment. Calculations of the size of the rebound effect depended on the approach used to determine the expected effect and showed differences between appliances.