Kh Md Nahiduzzaman

Are People Responsive to a More Sustainable, Decentralized, and User-Driven Management of Urban Metabolism?

Smart, green, and resilient city paradigms have been mainly promoted through top-down and technocratic approaches. However, based on the notion to return to “the right to the city”, emerging community-driven initiatives are providing self-managed infrastructures contributing to urban sustainability transitions. This paper explores the relevance of the behavioral aspects of people-centered approaches in dealing with two different facets of urban metabolism: physical infrastructure (involvement with the management of decentralized infrastructures) and consumption patterns (involvement in proactive reduction of resources used). In the first case we assessed community perceptions about the roles, benefits, and willingness to proactively engage in the management of decentralized green infrastructures in Bogota City, Colombia. For the second facet, we measured the effectiveness of change agents in re-shaping energy consumption decisions within urban social networks in South Africa and Saudi Arabia. This paper’s results show that pre-determined and standardized strategies do not guarantee positive, nor homogeneous, results in terms of meeting sustainability targets, or promoting community involvement. Hence, a better integration of people-centered and top-down approaches is needed through context-dependent policies, for enhancing both users’ appreciation of and commitment to urban metabolism participative management.

From a Town to a Megacity: 400 Years of Growth

The continued expansion of Dhaka means that within the next 20 years, it will become one of the most populated megacities in the world. Considering the importance, to its development, of understanding the nature of its pattern of growth and evolution, we examined that growth over a period of 400 years. The dynamics of Dhaka’s urbanisation along with its trajectory over this period are discussed in this chapter. The pace of urbanisation was found to be increasingly rapid after independence from Pakistan in 1971. This rapid pace has caused a number of multifaceted problems, including severe environmental degradation. Issues associated with the urban planning process in Dhaka have been reviewed along with the major plans developed over the past 65 years. The chapter concludes with a critical and comparative analysis of those plans.

A futuristic discourse of higher education system linkages with the labour markets in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

This research paper reports on the policy analysis of higher education policy debate together with a survey conducted among the alumni of College of Environmental Design (CED) at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM). The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is accelerating its development procedures in all levels with the priority towards the human resources development (HRD). On account of which, the Government of KSA established schools, universities and training centres in every city to reduce the augmented reliance on the rising foreign workforce that is in many ways creating unemployment among the Saudi labour. This research emphasises to explore the linkages and gap between the higher education system in KSA and the facts behind the employer demands for skilled human resources in the labour market. This is concluded by making a futuristic recommendation aimed at facing the challenge of protecting local workforce from being unemployed.

Building related PV systems in GCC countries: A SWOT analysis

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have over 50% and 30% of global oil and gas reserves respectively and have therefore traditionally relied on fossil fuels to meet all their energy requirements. In recent years however there has been a realization to diversify their energy mix and tap on their rich solar energy potential. While buildings account for as much as 80% of the total national power generation in these countries, the emphasis thus far has been on large scale solar energy projects. The article examines the prospects of application of PV in building by undertaking a strength, weakness, opportunities and threat (SWOT) analysis. In this respect wide ranging technical, cultural, economic and policy related factors have been highlighted. A modeling exercise has also been undertaken to examine the rooftop applicability of PV in residential buildings. Underlying examples from developed countries, the paper concludes with policy recommendations to promote the application of solar.

Disease: Social business for a malaria free world -BASF Grameen Limited

Badische Aniline und Soda Fabrik (BASF) (Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik (English: Baden Aniline and Soda Factory) Grameen Limited was formed in 2009 as a social business joint venture between BASF and Grameen Healthcare Trust to improve the health condition of the low-income people of Bangladesh. The chemical (interceptor) mosquito nets are the first product of this venture aiming to reduce insect-borne diseases such as malaria which has been a health risk for the poor living in urban and rural areas of Bangladesh. The World Health Organization (WHO) suggests that protection provided by these nets against the night-active vector mosquitoes is the most effective means of preventing malaria infections. Against this backdrop, this chapter considers critical issues of this business venture attempting to solve societal needs including: the cost of each LLIN (Long Lasting Impregnated Net) as opposed to the average financial affordability of the poor, and the marketing mechanism of LLIN to target the poor living in the rural, slum and other disadvantaged areas.

Information Technology: Marriage Between IT and Social Business – Grameen Intel Social Business Ltd.

Aiming to reduce infant mortality, improve the mother’s health, and help Bangladeshi rural farmers improve agricultural production, Grameen Intel Social Business Limited was formed in 2009 by Grameen Trust and Intel – linking an organization with decades of experience in addressing poverty to a company with decades of know-how in technology innovation. Grameen Intel is devoted to looking at different ways and means to assist the rural poor by investigating their real needs to find suitable solutions using information and technology (IT). In the agriculture care program, mrittika analyzes soil nutrients to find the deficit nutrition required for enhanced production while ankur is a seed selection application for the rural farmers. Under maternal health programs, shumata is ante-natal care monitoring and tracking software for pregnant women, and dolna is a vaccine scheduling and tracking software for newborns and infants. Given this background, this part of the book attempts to discuss these ongoing programs to view the current and potential effects on the villagers. Moreover, a critical look is given on the geographic dissemination, costs associated with these services and actual benefits.

Assessing Adequacy of Leisure and Recreation Facilities in KFUPM Campus: A Futuristic Need-Gap Perspective

Leisure and recreation facilities are strongly intertwined due to their mutual dependencies. Thus, they build up invisible networks. Leisure and recreation facilities are one of the imperative components for socio-cultural, psychological, and economic development. In the spectrum of sustainable development, it is not possible to initiate development process without strategically planning for leisure and recreation activities. KFUPM was developed with specific leisure and recreation facilities for its community members. This paper examines their adequacy and possible set of actions to minimize the inadequacies in relation to growing and changing needs of the diversified-culture based community. Preparation of a proposed alterative (strategic) action plan to improve leisure and recreation facilities is based on conducting an internal assessment of current and forecasting amenities, and the need-gap analysis. The proposed action plan covers the estimated cost and urgency level for each of the alternative leisure and recreation improvement options. KFUPM must be committed to embracing the vision and strategies presented by this study, and allocate resources to implement strategic plans for improving leisure and recreation facilities that foster productivity and help shape systems for human resource development.