https://repos.hcu-hamburg.de:443/handle/hcu/15 Sat, 03 Oct 2026 00:12:04 GMT 2026-10-03T00:12:04Z https://repos.hcu-hamburg.de:443/handle/hcu/1309 Title: Operational Decision Support for Evacuating Nursing Home Residents: A Hamburg Benchmark and Metaheuristic Comparison Under a 5-Minute Time Budget Authors: Alexander, Nick; Tannenbaum, Milva; Noennig, Jörg Rainer Abstract: Evacuating mobility-impaired nursing home residents during urban emergencies requires routing and scheduling heterogeneous vehicles under minute-level deadlines. We introduce the Nursing Home Evacuation Vehicle Routing Problem (NH-Evac-VRP) with open-ended multi-trip shuttling, split pickups, load-dependent service times, and shelter capacities; solutions must be produced within a hard 300 s single-thread budget. We release the Hamburg-NH-Evac benchmark with two expert-specified scenarios: (i) an unexploded-ordnance exclusion-zone evacuation in Altona-Altstadt (479 evacuees, one shelter), (ii) a storm-surge evacuation in Wilhelmsburg (510 evacuees, three shelters), plus (iii) a synthetic stress test (1,348 evacuees, five shelters). Instances use real facility data and asymmetric road-network travel times. Across five scenario-fleet configurations, we compare a constructive dispatcher with a Genetic Algorithm, Memetic Algorithm, and Adaptive Large Neighborhood Search, minimizing demand-weighted average waiting time and makespan with a shelter-overfill penalty. No method dominates: ALNS attains the best makespan in two configurations; in the heterogeneous Flood-Augmented case this advantage is driven by capacity-maximizing "sweeper" tours. MA is best in three configurations by favoring rapid shuttle cycles, outperforming ALNS by 27 min in the synthetic mass-transit case. We also provide a web-based decision support system for scenario configuration, optimization, and schedule visualization. Thu, 01 Oct 2026 14:08:02 GMT https://repos.hcu-hamburg.de:443/handle/hcu/1309 2026-10-01T14:08:02Z https://repos.hcu-hamburg.de:443/handle/hcu/1308 Title: Advanced spatio-temporal source–demand matching for practical waste heat utilization in district heating Authors: Salaymeh, Abdulraheem; Holler, Stefan; Peters, Irene Abstract: Waste heat is widely recognized as a key lever for advancing climate neutrality in urban heating systems. While recent policy regulations have significantly improved the transparency of waste heat potentials, the gap between reported theoretical potentials and their practical usability remains insufficiently explored. This study develops a novel residual-aware, guided source–demand allocation approach, leveraging officially reported, technically detailed waste heat source information and high-resolution building typology data to reveal key insights into spatial and technical utilization potentials and limitations. The results also derive key distributional and operational source characteristics, combined with spatial and typological building patterns, considering three refurbishment scenarios. The proposed methodology provides a transparent and policy-relevant tool for translating reported waste heat potentials into actionable planning insights. The results indicate that the utilizable share of the reported waste heat potential is reduced to approximately 35 % due to techno-spatial constraints, decreasing further to approximately 24 % when temporal source–demand coincidence is additionally considered. Depending on building refurbishment progress, the number of potentially supplied buildings ranges from 1.8 to 5.7 million. Overall, these findings demonstrate that coordinated spatio-temporal planning, combined with efficiency measures, is essential to unlock the significant, yet primarily spatially constrained, waste heat potential. Thu, 01 Oct 2026 13:30:49 GMT https://repos.hcu-hamburg.de:443/handle/hcu/1308 2026-10-01T13:30:49Z https://repos.hcu-hamburg.de:443/handle/hcu/1307 Title: Assessing climatic change impacts on mangrove structural dynamics on the northern coasts of the Persian Gulf Authors: Shirmohammadi, Mahdieh; Mafi-Gholami, Davood; Pirasteh, Saied; Youssefi, Fahimeh; Shen, Jie; Li, Weilian; Li, Jonathan Abstract: Monitoring long-term trends in structural changes within mangrove ecosystems is essential for understanding their response to climate change and devising effective adaptation strategies in coastal regions. This study examines changes in mangrove patchiness within the Hara Biosphere Reserve (HBR) along the northern coasts of the Persian Gulf (PG) over a 31-year period (1986-2017), focusing on variations in rainfall patterns and drought occurrences. Employing a 35-year time series of monthly Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) values alongside satellite imagery analysis, trends in both the number of patches (NP) and the Largest Patch Index (LPI) were assessed at the mangrove stand level. The analysis reveals a significant correlation between structural changes in mangroves and drought events. Pre-1998, characterized by wetter conditions, witnessed a decrease in both NP and LPI, indicating patch expansion and habitat extension. Conversely, post-1998, during drought periods, both indices increased, indicating habitat degradation due to heightened drought intensity. Pre-1998 structural changes in the HBR signify habitat expansion, with increased patch extent and core areas reflecting enhanced structural integrity. However, post-1998, a concerning trend of habitat degradation emerged, with increased NP and LPI attributed to intensified droughts. These findings highlight a transitional period marked by favourable conditions for mangrove growth followed by habitat degradation linked to increased drought intensity. This underscores the vulnerability of mangrove ecosystems to climate change impacts, particularly exacerbated droughts, necessitating urgent efforts for conservation and management to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem services in coastal regions. Thu, 01 Oct 2026 13:21:17 GMT https://repos.hcu-hamburg.de:443/handle/hcu/1307 2026-10-01T13:21:17Z https://repos.hcu-hamburg.de:443/handle/hcu/1306 Title: VIRION: Virtual Reality Applied to School Education. Mapping VR in the School Education Sector - The Future of the Classroom Authors: Roncero Palomar, Ricardo; Santín Durán, Marina; García Marín, David; Mora De La Torre, Victoria; Villalba Jiménez, Rubén; Postigo Sierra, José Luis; Dally, Benjamin; Chang, Juiwen; Nematgorgani, Ghazal; Abounida, Abdelrahman; Noennig, Jörg Rainer; López Baeza, Jesús; Rintakumpu, Maiju; Herttuainen, Nina; Chamorro, Pablo; Velázquez, Félix; Mas, Juan; González, Natalia; Del Pozo, Ismael; Barba, David; Amaya, Jordan; Barahona, Manuel; Manuel, Iván; Abad, Ángela; Stoyava Todorova, Tsvetanka Thu, 01 Oct 2026 12:13:52 GMT https://repos.hcu-hamburg.de:443/handle/hcu/1306 2026-10-01T12:13:52Z