HZ University of Applied Sciences

The quality of student-university relationships can significantly influence student engagement and experience, yet cross-cultural differences remain underexplored. This study examined Dutch (n = 407, Mage = 22.2) and French students (n = 394, Mage = 22.9), focusing on their relationship quality perceptions with staff and its impact on engagement. A quantitative correlational research design was adopted, using the Relationship Quality Scale, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale for Students, and the Relationship Quality-Based Student Loyalty Scale. The results showed that students' trust in their university and professors, alongside academic motivation, strongly predicted overall satisfaction with the institution and its programs. Motivation mediated this relationship, explaining 18% of the variance in satisfaction. French students reported higher motivation and more positive perceptions of their university than Dutch students. The study underscores the importance of trust and support in fostering student satisfaction while highlighting cultural differences in engagement and institutional perception.

The Heat Neighborhood Approach (De Wijkaanpak Hitte) is a collaborative initiative involving the municipality of Rotterdam, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, GGD Rotterdam-Rijnmond, local organizations, and residents. This initiative aims to understand the impact of heatwaves on urban neighborhoods and develop practical measures to enhance community resilience to heat stress. The research explores interventions in both the physical environment (urban and building design) and behavioral dimensions, focusing on how residents perceive and respond to heat.Data collection included focus group discussions, interviews in three Rotterdam neighborhoods, and indoor temperature monitoring. In-depth interviews revealed that many residents underestimate their personal vulnerability to heat-related risks compared to actual risk levels. For most, heat is not seen as a threat but rather welcomed as a temporary change in weather. Residents with experience in warmer climates demonstrated more adaptive behaviors during heatwaves than those less accustomed to high temperatures. The Behaviour Change Wheel Framework (Mitchie et al., 2018) was applied to identify behavioral barriers and interventions. To address gaps in risk awareness, a serious game was developed for older adults living independently in the Ommoord district. The game aimed to improve understanding of heat-related risks and promote adaptive behaviors. Preliminary results indicate that it successfully increased risk perception and encouraged behavioral changes among elderly participants.This study highlights the need to integrate both physical and behavioral interventions in urban heat adaptation strategies. The findings provide valuable insights for cities developing community-based approaches to address the increasing challenge of urban heat stress.

Nature-based solutions (NBSs) offer an opportunity to address environmental and societal challenges worldwide while simultaneously providing benefits for human well-being as well as biodiversity. Despite a growing demand and evidence base for NBSs in coastal systems, the scaling of their implementation and mainstreaming of their principles in policy and practice are constrained by multiple barriers, such as misinterpretations of concepts, effectiveness, or locked-in preferences or conventions of traditional solutions. To address these constraints, an international consortium of coastal authorities and experts in the North Sea Region collaborates to validate, document, and share learnings of NBSs to establish a framework for mainstreaming NBSs for flood and coastal erosion risk management around the North Sea. Co-creation processes of workshops, field visits, and expert knowledge sessions contributed to a theoretical framework and baseline assessments of exemplary sandy and muddy case study sites in the region, amongst others, iteratively providing and showcasing building blocks for the mainstreaming framework. This article takes stock halfway of the project’s activities, learnings, and status of the called-for common language.

Tidal marshes can contribute to nature-based shoreline protection by reducing the wave load onto the shore and reducing the erosion of the sediment bed. To implement such nature-based shoreline erosion protection requires the ability to quickly restore or create highly stable and erosion-resistant tidal marshes at places where they currently do not yet occur. Therefore, we aim to identify the drivers controlling the rate by which sediment stability builds up in young pioneer marshes. Sediment stability proxies were measured over age gradients spanning 18 years in six tidal marsh sites in the Western Scheldt estuary (SW Netherlands): Three were dominated by Spartina anglica, a densely growing pioneer species, and three by Scirpus maritimus, a less densely growing pioneer species. Our results showed that the presence of densely growing Spartina anglica increased sediment shear strength compared to the unvegetated tidal flat, while less densely growing Scirpus maritimus did not. This difference may be related to the contrasting clonal expansion strategies and related root densities of these two pioneer species. Sediment stability did not increase further beyond 6 years of coverage by Spartina anglica, implying that the observed effect of Spartina anglica on sediment stability occurs fast (<6 years). Furthermore, sediment stability often increased with decreasing inundation duration and sediment water content. This study shows that in order to create erosion-resistant sediment beds in future marsh restoration projects, the aim should be to create densely vegetated tidal marshes with well-draining, cohesive sediments at relatively high intertidal elevation. Although the development of erosion resistance takes time, our study demonstrates that in the case of densely growing Spartina anglica marshes, increased sediment bed stability can already be reached after 6 years. The ability of Spartina anglica marshes to increase sediment bed stability within 6 years, in combination with wave attenuation and sediment accretion, offers promising perspectives to implement marsh restoration projects as a nature-based shoreline protection strategy that can start to deliver its protective service within a reasonable amount of time.

Increased climate impacts threaten coastal functions globally, highlighting the need for multifunctional coastal climate adaptation. Sand nourishment can adapt sandy coasts to sea level rise, mitigate erosion, increase flood safety, enhance ecological habitats and expand recreational space. Therefore, sand nourishment is increasingly regarded as a promising nature-based strategy for coastal climate adaptation. However, despite this growing recognition, the assessment of how sand nourishment design impacts multifunctional adaptation remains limited. In this perspective article, we argue for three key lessons for researchers to optimise assessing multifunctional coastal climate adaptation by sand nourishment. We conducted stakeholder workshops to scope and inform our perspective, performed semi-structured literature reviews to concretise and validate this for international applications, built a qualitative model to visualise our interdisciplinary overview of how nourishments impact coastal multifunctionality, reflected on this in expert workshops, and identified implications for researchers. In this manner, we assessed the effects of nourishment design on coastal morphology, ecology, socio-economics and ecosystem services in realising the key policy goals of flood safety, nature and recreation. We found that sand nourishment design can result in conflicts between policy goals, generate ambiguous outcomes and lead to system-wide feedback effects. As such, we identified three key lessons: (1) conflicts between policy goals require informing political decision-making on prioritisation between coastal functions, (2) concreteness is needed on otherwise ambiguous functions, and (3) ongoing, multidisciplinary system-wide monitoring is essential. We thus call for a holistic approach to sand nourishment design and encourage researchers from diverse expertise and localities to expand on and adapt our findings to optimise informing sand nourishment design for delivering multifunctional coastal climate adaptation worldwide.

Restoration engineering measures, such as managed realignments or building groins, modify the environmental characteristics of coastal intertidal ecosystems. Creating physical modifications that are beneficial to an intertidal system's ecology necessitates an in‐depth understanding of the relationships between the abiotic and biotic components of a given intertidal habitat. In this study, we evaluate how hydrodynamics and sediment characteristics drive the development of the benthic macrofauna community during the first 5 years following engineering measures to enhance benthic macrofauna diversity at three locations. The creation of low‐energy habitats through groins (Knuitershoek and Baalhoek) and a managed realignment dike breach (Perkpolder) led to the accumulation of fine sediments in all three impact sites. Biomass of benthic macrofauna quickly increased between 2016 and 2020, with successional processes being more important in Perkpolder, where the habitat was started completely from scratch due to a managed realignment, than at Knuitershoek or Baalhoek, where habitat conditions were improved by adding groins. In addition, the density of benthos‐eating birds, especially oystercatchers, increased at some of the modified sites. While a low‐energy habitat may harbor more diverse assemblages of benthic macrofauna than a highly dynamic one, the extremely high silt content, which is typical for low‐energy habitats, may slow benthic community development. The observed increase of biomass at our impact sites highlights the value of the interventions, while the delays in the response of the benthic macrofauna community emphasizes the need for extensive monitoring both in time and space and the identification of underlying abiotic–biotic mechanisms.

AimThe aim of this study is to further develop a preliminary framework into a model that can translate mechanisms into output and impact, based on the views of those working in practice and the relations between the mechanisms: a model that can inform practitioners and organizations on what has to be in place to shape a learning and innovating environment in nursing. BackgroundA Learning and Innovation Network (LIN) is a network of healthcare professionals, students and education representatives who come together to be part of a nursing community to integrate education, research and practice to contribute to quality of care. In a previous study a preliminary framework was developed through a concept analysis based on publications. The preliminary framework describes input, throughput and output factors in a linear model that does not explain what the components entail in practice and how the components work together. DesignFocus groups. MethodsWe designed a Theory of Change (ToC) in four phases. This was based on a focus group interview with lecturer practitioners (Phase 1); a first concept ToC based on thematic analysis of the focus group interview (Phase 2); three paired interviews where the ToC was presented to other lecturer practitioners to complement and verify the ToC model (Phase 3); and adjustment of the model based on the feedback of phase 3 (Phase 4). ResultsThe developed ToC model describes important preconditions that have to be in place to start a LIN: a shared vision, a facilitating support system and a diversity of participants who are open to change. It describes the mechanisms by which a wide range of activities can lead to an improvement of the quality of care through collaboration between practice, education and research by working, learning, performing practice based research and implementing new methods together. ConclusionThis study gives a comprehensive overview of the concept of the ‘Learning and Innovation Network’ (LIN); how the activities in the LIN can lead to impact; and under what conditions. Previously published findings supported elements of the ToC model. The overarching ToC model and the detailed appendix offer a theoretical and practice-based model for practitioners, managers and policy makers.