Contributions published at Informatics and Sustainability Research (Lorenz Hilty)

Political states are faced with new challenges when introducing e-voting via internet as a voting procedure. Particularly for countries with a direct democratic system, the impacts of an implementation concern the entire electorate. However, e-voting brings about many advantages in a society marked by computers and the internet. This thesis examines the main opportunities and risks of e-voting and analyzes the possible impacts on the voter turnout. Further on, using the example of Switzerland the main success factors for the implementation of e-voting and the views of the voters on e-voting are discussed. As opportunities resulted an easier access for voters to ballots as well as financial and ecological benefits from automation and the renunciation of printed voting documents. Although e-voting poses the risk, that vote results can be manipulated by third parties and therefore endanger the secrecy of the vote. In addition, the switch-over to e-voting could have negative impacts on the quality of the opinion-forming processes.

As part of this bachelor thesis the web application “Sustainability-Course-Catalogue” was developed to create a dynamic table of all sustainability-related courses at UZH, which is to be visible on the page sustainability.uzh.ch. For this purpose, a web server as been set up which retrieves information from the University of Zurich’s course catalogue and stores it in an internal database. What modules are to be displayed can be managed in a non-public administrator view. The purpose of the project is to simplify the administration of the website and at the same time to ensure that the publicly displayed data is always up to date.

This thesis provides researchers in the field of time use with an interactive visualization of data collected by the Centre for Time Use Research. The visualization aims to yield valua-ble insight on how time is allocated by different individuals with different backgrounds. Within the scope of this thesis, the visualization was built from scratch to fit the needs of a single researcher. The design process and critical decisions in building the visualization are illustrated and documented. The insight gained from this visualization opens up the possibility to gain an overview of the data, support the interpretation of it and help draw connections between the use of ICT and its impact on time allocation.

We present an agent-based model of wood markets and show our efforts to validate this model using empirical data from different sources, including interviews, workshops, experiments, and official statistics. Own surveys closed gaps where data was not available. Our approach to model validation used a variety of techniques, including the replication of historical production amounts, prices, and survey results, as well as a historical case study of a large sawmill entering the market and becoming insolvent only a few years later. Validating the model using this case provided additional insights, showing how the model can be used to simulate scenarios of resource availability and resource allocation. We conclude that the outcome of the rigorous validation qualifies the model to simulate scenarios concerning resource availability and allocation in our study region.

In this research project, the evaluation basis for resource-efficient software is being researched. To this end, an impact model is being developed that shows the link between the use of software and the energy consumption of hardware as well as the use of hardware. By classifying software products into local applications, remote data storage and processing applications as well as server services it is shown that energy and resources consumption may take place at different locations. Based on existing findings on resource-saving software development and software design, an evaluation methodology assigning software properties to the impact areas of resource efficiency, potential useful life of hardware and autonomy of use is being developed. Furthermore, a catalogue of criteria with a total of 25 criteria and 76 indicators for assessing the environmental impact of software products is being drawn up. Several case studies (two word processing programs, three internet browsers, three content management systems, three database systems) show that the evaluation method and the criteria developed are applicable in practice, and reveal relevant differences of software products with the same functionality. As a result, the recommendation to develop a "Blue Angel" eco-label for resource-efficient software is being formulated. In order to facilitate the application of the evaluation method, three supplementary modules are also being developed, i.e. a reference system for carrying out measurements on office software, a software for evaluating hardware utilization and energy consumption, and a recording tool for obtaining the evaluation criteria. The conclusions will provide recommendations for the application of the evaluation methodology as controlling tool for product policy. Furthermore, they will identify further-going research needs.

This report documents the program and the outcomes of Dagstuhl Seminar 18351 “Modeling for Sustainability”, August 26–31, 2018. Many different kinds of models, from engineering models to scientific models, have to be integrated and coordinated to support sustainability systems such as smart grid or cities, i.e., dynamically adaptable resource management systems that aim to improve the technoeconomic, social, and environmental dimensions of sustainability. Scientific models help understand sustainability concerns and evaluate alternatives, while engineering models support the development of sustainability systems. As the complexity of these systems increases, many challenges are posed to the computing disciplines to make data and modelbased analysis results more accessible as well as integrate scientific and engineering models while balancing trade-offs among varied stakeholders. This seminar explored the intrinsic nature of both scientific and engineering models, the underlying differences in their respective foundations, and the challenges related to their integration, evolution, analysis, and simulation including the exploration of what-if scenarios. Sustainability systems must provide facilities for the curation and monitoring of data sets and models and enable flexible (open) data and model integration, e.g., physical laws, scientific models, regulations and preferences, possibly coming from different technological foundations, abstractions, scale, technological spaces, and world views. This also includes the continuous, automated acquisition and analysis of new data sets, as well as automated export of data sets, scenarios, and decisions. The main function is to support the generation of what-if scenarios to project the effects on the different sustainability dimensions, and support the evaluation of externalities, especially for non rapidly renewable resources. Since the predictions are necessarily probabilistic, the system must be able to assess the uncertainty inherent in all its actions and provide suitable representations of uncertainty understandable by users. In addition to generating what-if scenarios to explore alternate model instantiations, the tool should be capable of generating suggestions for how to reach user-specified goals including quantifiable impacts and driving the dynamic adaptation of sustainability systems. These powerful services must be made accessible to the population at large, regardless of their individual situation, social status, and level of education. This seminar explored how Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) will help to develop such an approach, and in particular i) how modeling frameworks would support the integration of the various heterogeneous models, including both engineering and scientific models; ii) how domain specific languages (DSLs) would (a) support the required socio-technical coordination, i.e., engage engineers, scientists, decision makers, communities, and the general public; and (b) integrate analysis/probabilistic/ user models into the control loop of smart CPS (cyber physical system). DSLs are also supposed to provide the right interface (in terms of abstractions/ constructs) to be used as tools for discovering problems and evaluating ideas. The seminar served to identify critical disciplines and stakeholders to address MDE for sustainability and the research roadmap of the MDE community with regards to the development of sustainability systems. In particular, the seminar identified and explored four key areas: 1) research challenges relevant to modeling for sustainability (M4S); 2) a multidisciplinary collection of relevant literature to provide the foundation for exploring the research challenges; 3) three case studies from different application domains that provide a vehicle for illustrating the M4S challenges and for validating relevant research techniques; and 4) the human and social aspects of M4S. The cumulative results of the work performed at the seminar and subsequent collaborations will help to establish the required foundations for integrating engineering and scientific models, and to explore the required management facilities for evaluating what-if scenarios and driving adaptive systems. In addition, we envision to produce as an outcome of the seminar a representative case study that will be used by the community to assess and validate contributions in the field of modeling for sustainability.

This study aims to explore the usability and user-experience of Vidyo's application VidyoConnect. By simulating a one-to-one meeting and subsequently performing qualitative questionnaires, it was found that there are a handful of counter-intuitive aspects about the software that hinder smooth and comfortable usage. There were some features the users wished the software had, to enhance the experience but were lacking in the current version of VidyoConnect. Those wishes include a more comprehensible invitation email to a virtual meeting, the setup to share one's screen with other members of the meeting and a tutorial that guides a first-time user around the software's features. As more issues of the software and possible solutions are listed throughout this paper, one of the most crucial conclusions of this study was that every additional step the software needs to be successfully set up is another potential barrier. Even if every single suggestion for improvement in this paper were implemented in VidyoConnect, different users would still have their individual perceptions. There is no such thing as a flawlessly intuitive software. Every software contains barriers and takes time getting used to.

Human society is increasingly influencing the planet and its environmental systems. The existing environmental problems indicate that current production and consumption patterns are not sustainable. Despite the remarkable opportunities brought about by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to improve the resource efficiency of production and consumption processes, it seems that the overall trend is still not heading towards sustainability. By promoting the utilization of available and underused resources, the ICT-enabled sharing economy has transformed, and even in some cases disrupted, the prevailing patterns of production and consumption, raising questions about opportunities and risks of shared consumption modes for sustainability. The present article attempts to conceptualize the sustainability implications of today’s sharing economy. We begin with presenting a definition for the digital sharing economy that embraces the common features of its various forms. Based on our proposed definition, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the digital sharing economy as a use case of ICT. The analysis is deepened by applying the life-cycle/enabling/structural impacts model of ICT effects to this use case. As a result, we show the various positive and negative potentials of digital sharing for sustainability at different system levels. While it is too early to project well-founded scenarios to describe the sustainability status of digital sharing, the implications discussed in our work may help outlining future research and policies in this area.

The digital transformation has direct and indirect effects on the environment. Direct effects are caused by the production, use and disposal of information and communication technology (ICT) hardware. Indirect effects include the changes to patterns of production and consumption enabled by ICT in other domains. Studies of indirect environmental effects of ICT often focus on individual applications domains and their use cases, which implies that these studies cannot capture systemic effects of ICT adoption. We argue that interaction among ICT use cases is crucial to explain systemic environmental effects of ICT. In order to capture these interactions, we suggest focusing on ICT impacts on individual lifestyles, in particular time use, because (i) time is a limited resource for everyone, a fact which makes time budget constraints a central link among different activities and (ii) many ICT use cases relax time and space constraints of individuals, thus changing time allocation. With this approach, we take into account that individual lifestyles are a major determinant of the overall environmental impact and that ICT diffusion changes individual time-use patterns and therefore lifestyles. Based on these considerations, we propose a conceptual framework that describes the causal mechanisms between ICT use, time-use patterns and environmental impacts.

Information and communication technology (ICT) has transformed our consumption patterns. The widespread use of smart devices has enabled practicing a wide variety of “sharing economy” activities, a development that brings new ways of resource consumption to our everyday life. The increasing participation in sharing economy activities calls for studies that research the sustainability of this new consumption trend. Although the concept is associated with a more collaborative resource consumption, this may in practice be limited to some resources being shared. The present paper sets the stage for better understanding of the ICT-enabled sharing economy in the context of environmental sustainability. In this work, we present a line of thought that starts with perceiving resource sharing as the core of the sharing economy and continue with a sustainability analysis using a conceptual framework of ICT impacts on sustainability. This study provides a first step towards conceptualizing the sharing economy in a sustainability context and delineates further analysis of the sustainability of digital sharing.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are, as a sector, an important actor in society and their role in sustainability transition has been acknowledged. However, their commitments to sustainability expressed through the adoption of various declarations are often not effective unless combined with other ‘internal’ and ‘external’ strategies (concerned with activities within and outside the institution, respectively). Networking is an example of the latter: universities enter into coalitions in order to discuss progress in sustainability implementation, exchange experience and formulate joint policies. The presented research explores the field of sustainability-oriented higher education networks, analyses their key areas of interest, inter-network relationships, links with the policy field, and (conditions for) cooperation in joint programs and strategy development. Based on information gained through desk-top research to map the field from 14 HE networks' web pages, a survey was designed and distributed to selected university networks, with 15 responses received (30% response rate). Qualitative analysis of the data concentrated on the elements of social capital: the diversity of the networks, heterogeneity of the membership, size, regional scope and communication formats. The networks' activity areas range from those supporting sustainability initiatives within individual HEIs (education, research, campus operations, outreach) and networking initiatives directed beyond individual institutional change (contribution to policy debate at national, regional and global level, professional development and student network initiatives). The achievements of the analysed networks show a considerable contribution to the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) in all their reported outcomes. Dialogue with key actors held after the exploratory mapping and the survey stages resulted in further delineation of the benefits and goals of cooperation: achievement of academia's cumulative impact on the sustainable development of our societies. This study highlights the significance of the autonomous character of HEIs based on data from 25 HE networks in total, and how they not only follow, but also stimulate the policy environment, consciously contributing to shared (sustainability) goals. Networking thus may be an important mechanism for systemic change in higher education, and the nature and role of social capital embedded in higher education networks should be the subject of further exploration.

Bildung stellt eine zentrale Möglichkeit dar, um ein Bewusstsein für die großen Herausforderungen (Reid u. a. 2011) zu schaffen und Kompetenzen zu entwickeln, die zur Lösung dieser Herausforderungen und damit zu einer nachhaltigen Entwicklung beitragen. „Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung soll Menschen befähigen, eine nachhaltige Entwicklung mitzugestalten und ihre eigenen Handlungen diesbezüglich kritisch zu reflektieren. Dazu sind individuelle Kompetenzen erforderlich, deren Erwerb durch Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung gefördert werden soll“ (Michelsen u. a. 2015, S. 21).

Peace is a basic prerequisite for social and economic development. In recent years, there has been evolvement of ICT for Peace (ICT4P) as an integral discipline of Applied Informatics. ICT4P signifies utilization of ICTs for peacebuilding operations by providing relief in natural disasters, resolving conflicts or effectively acting in crisis situations. Although, ICTs have acted as a huge enabler by evolving the world into a globalized information rich society and have generated many new avenues of participation and collaboration. But, there are still many regions around the world that experience conflicts and are cut off from development opportunities. By understanding and exploring the proper potentials of ICT in those regions, will efficiently help in minimizing conflicts or other crises related issues, thus acting as a leveraging mechanism in building peaceful and harmonious societies. Moreover, there are some international ICT for peace initiatives geared towards conducting peacebuilding operations in affected countries, but still a lot more effort is required to ensure such initiatives are properly implemented to yield maximum value for the targeted recipients. This thesis study recognizes ICTs as a new application field for peace, by synthesizing their multi-level and multi-dimensional potential to foster peace and harmony. The emphasis of the study is to analyze the ways to minimize the gap between ICT and emerging requirements of the real world, in order to combat the challenges faced by ICT for Peace, and to detail the impacts of ICT in leveraging the field, early warning & conflict prevention.

Many authors have proposed criteria to assess the “environmental friendliness” or “sustainability” of software products. However, a causal model that links observable properties of a software product to conditions of it being green or (more general) sustainable is still missing. Such a causal model is necessary because software products are intangible goods and, as such, only have indirect effects on the physical world. In particular, software products are not subject to any wear and tear, they can be copied without great effort, and generate no waste or emissions when being disposed of. Viewed in isolation, software seems to be a perfectly sustainable type of product. In real life, however, software products with the same or similar functionality can differ substantially in the burden they place on natural resources, especially if the sequence of released versions and resulting hardware obsolescence is taken into account. In this article, we present a model describing the causal chains from software products to their impacts on natural resources, including energy sources, from a life-cycle perspective. We focus on (i) the demands of software for hardware capacities (local, remote, and in the connecting network) and the resulting hardware energy demand, (ii) the expectations of users regarding such demands and how these affect hardware operating life, and (iii) the autonomy of users in managing their software use with regard to resource efficiency. We propose a hierarchical set of criteria and indicators to assess these impacts. We demonstrate the application of this set of criteria, including the definition of standard usage scenarios for chosen categories of software products. We further discuss the practicability of this type of assessment, its acceptability for several stakeholders and potential consequences for the eco-labeling of software products and sustainable software design.

The sustainable potential of the resource wood is currently not tapped in Switzerland, as the amount of wood harvested is smaller than the amount that regrows. There are many possible reasons for this, such as the fine-grained supply structure: in Switzerland, there are approximately 250'000 private forest owners who own on average a forest area of approximately 1.5 ha. This makes the sale of wood financially not very attractive for them. Also, public forest enterprises in Switzerland manage rather small forest areas compared to other European countries. Personal relationships play an important role in the Swiss wood markets, so potential business transactions are not solely evaluated based on economic criteria. In alpine areas, harvesting wood is associated with high costs. At the same time, wood prices are largely determined by international wood prices, which comes along with a dependency of the Swiss wood markets on the exchange rate EUR-CHF. Computer simulation is one possibility to examine how these and other characteristics of the Swiss wood markets influence the availability of wood. The development of a computer model allows the simulation of different scenarios in order to gain insights that are otherwise difficult to gain. For example, the impact of the market participants' decision-making behavior on the quantities of wood available on the market can be investigated, i.e. which market participants can get what amount of wood at what time, and what prices they have to pay for it. The influence of the market structure, such as the existence of intermediaries or potential consequences of combining smaller forest enterprises to larger ones, can also be examined. The characteristics of these markets make agent-based modeling a promising approach to simulate these markets. In an agent-based model (ABM), a system is modeled by describing its constituting entities, referred to as agents. In the given case, these agents represent the market participants. Each agent can be attributed with individual characteristics and behavior. When these agents are simulated, the aggregate behavior can be observed, e.g. the quantities traded on the market and the corresponding prices. This aggregate behavior emerges from the many interactions and decisions of the individual agents. The behavior of the entire system is often unpredictable, sometimes even counterintuitive, if only the behavior of the individual elements of the system is considered. It is only the interplay of these elements which makes emergent phenomena observable. The ability to observe emergent phenomena is a central strength of agent-based simulation. The bottom-up description of the system also allows the modeling of the structures and relationships at the level of individual market participants. These play an important role in the Swiss wood markets. This dissertation was conducted according to the design science research paradigm. Concerning the specific requirements of this thesis, this means that the aim was to create a model that represents the Swiss wood markets with sufficient accuracy, so that it can be used to gain new insights into these markets. This cumulative PhD thesis comprises four peer-reviewed journal publications, three of them are already published, the fourth is submitted. Each of these publications deals with a central step towards the overall goal: the first shows a simplified agent-based model of the sawlogs and energy wood market in the canton of Aargau. Simple scenarios demonstrate the suitability of the approach, but also reveal issues which need further research. The second publication focuses on how discrete choice experiments can be used to enhance the empirical foundation of the agents' decision-making behavior. The third publication describes the validation of the model, which now represents the sawmill, energy wood and industrial wood markets (all three further divided into one market for softwood and one for hardwood). Validating the model is an important prerequisite to use it for scenario analysis. The last publication in this thesis finally shows the simulation and analysis of various politically relevant scenarios. This includes an analysis of how the market is influenced by the presence of intermediaries or by the intensity of profit orientation of forest owners. The developed model can be parameterized for different Swiss regions in order to simulate the regional wood markets. The necessary empirical data was gathered for the cantons of Aargau, Bern and Grisons. Currently, the model is parameterized and validated for the canton of Grisons. Particularly the last publication demonstrated that the model can be used to provide insights into these markets by simulating and analyzing different scenarios. However, the model itself is not the only contribution of this thesis. On the one hand, to develop this model, several problems had to be solved that could be of interest to modelers of other markets. One example is the problem of defining the geographical model boundaries in a market that is heavily influenced by the surrounding international markets. On the other hand, the creation of such a model already provides many valuable insights into the markets under study, since knowledge about them must be gathered and interpreted. This makes the journey a considerable part of the reward.

Purpose: Sustainable development (SD) does not usually form part of the curriculum of ICT-related study programs such as Computer Science, Information Technology, Information Systems, and Informatics. However, many topics form a bridge between SD and ICT and could potentially be integrated into ICT-related study programs. This paper reports the findings of a study into which specific topics in the field of SD have the greatest potential to motivate students on ICT-related study programs to engage with the topic of sustainability. Design/methodology/approach: In this exploratory study, the authors evaluated Bachelor’s and Master’s courses that introduced the topic of SD to students on ICT-related study programs. The evaluation focuses on the insights that the students gained into sustainability and the extent to which their motivation to engage with the subject was increased. The evaluation combines qualitative and quantitative approaches. Findings: The authors identify five thematic clusters with the greatest potential to motivate students to engage with the topic of sustainability: A conceptual model of the positive and negative impacts of ICT; Reports on the recycling of ICT hardware; Examples of using ICT to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with a focus on the substitution of virtual for physical presence; Statistical data on post-industrial seemingly dematerialized economies and the contradiction with regard to the total material demand of such economies; Evidence for rebound effects that lead to increasing demand for goods or services that are produced with less energy input or can be consumed faster. Originality/value: ICT is a transformational and to a certain extent disruptive technology. It is therefore important to discuss the development of ICT and its applications in the context of SD. Several authors have pointed out the need to integrate the topic of sustainability into ICT courses at universities and similar, but few have discussed how this can be done in practice. Our study is the first to explore which topics have the greatest potential to motivate students on ICT-related programs to engage with the area of SD.

The ubiquity of information and communication technologies (ICT) results in substantial amounts of energy consumption and thus, CO2 -emissions. Since software induces the energy consumption of hardware, some reliable procedures and tests for measuring software are necessary. We present such a method and prove our measurement concept by applying it to two software product groups: word processors and content management systems. Even though the two groups are very different in terms of their requirements, we were successful in the creation of a measurement environment that supports the production of reliable, verifi able results, allowing the comparison of the energy consumption induced by software systems with similar functionality. The method shows viable results for desktop and client-server systems, paving the way for further setups like e.g. mobile and embedded devices.

Product lifetime is an essential aspect of dynamic material flow analyses and has been modeled using lifetime distribution functions, mostly average lifetimes. Existing data regarding the lifetime of electronic equipment (EE) are based on diverging definitions of lifetime as well as different temporal and regional scopes. After its active use, EE is often not disposed of immediately, but remains in storage for some time. Specific data on the share of EE that is stored and the time they remain in storage are scarce. This article investigates the service lifetime, storage time, and disposal pathways of ten electronic device types, based on data from an online survey complemented by structured interviews. We distinguish between new and secondhand devices and compute histograms, averages, and medians of the different lifetimes and their change over time. The average service lifetime varies from 3.3 years for mobile phones to 10.8 years for large loudspeakers, the average storage time from 0.8 years for flat panel display televisions to 3.6 years for large loudspeakers. Most service lifetime histograms are positively skewed and show substantial differences among device types. The storage time histograms, being more similar to one another, indicate that the storage behavior is similar for most device types. The data on disposal pathways show that a large proportion of devices are stored and reused before they reach the collection scheme.

Die Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie (IKT) ist eine wichtige Wegbereiterin für eine kohlenstoffarme Wirtschaft in der Schweiz. Die IKT hat das Potenzial, im Jahr 2025 in der Schweiz bis zu 3,4 Mal mehr Treibhausgasemissionen (THG-Emissionen) zu vermeiden, als IKT-Geräte und -Infrastrukturen durch deren Produktion, Betrieb und Entsorgung insgesamt verursachen werden.

Online communities are attractive sources of ideas relevant for new product development and innovation. However, making sense of the ‘big data’ in these communities is a complex analytical task. A systematic way of dealing with these data is needed to exploit their potential for boosting companies' innovation performance. We propose a method for analysing online community data with a special focus on identifying ideas. We employ a research design where two human raters classified 3,000 texts extracted from an online community, according to whether the text contained an idea. Among the 3,000, 137 idea texts and 2,666 non-idea texts were identified. The human raters could not agree on the remaining 197 texts. These texts were omitted from the analysis. The remaining 2,803 texts were processed by using text mining techniques and used to train a classification model. We describe how to tune the model and which text mining steps to perform. We conclude that machine learning and text mining can be useful for detecting ideas in online communities. The method can help researchers and firms identify ideas hidden in large amounts of texts. Also, it is interesting in its own right that machine learning can be used to detect ideas.