Abstract: Globally, incorporation of agricultural lands into the urban boundary has been a common phenomenon. Governments use various alternatives to access the required land, including land expropriation procedures, which refers to the compulsorily taking of land from the landholders without their consent by paying compensation. In Ethiopia, the urban population is growing rapidly which resulted into an increase in the demand for urban land for housing construction, public services provision, and infrastructure developments. As the Ethiopian constitution prohibits sale of landholders, governments, at various levels, have been expropriating land from the surrounding farmers to meet the demand for urban land. The general objective of this thesis is to improve the understanding of the impacts of local land deals for urbanization on socioeconomics of farmers and the environment. The findings of this thesis revealed that there are gaps in the current practices of land expropriation for urban expansion that should be improved. The results showed that the compensation paid to the affected farmers is found to be economically inappropriate, i.e., not enough to restore the affected farmers’ livelihoods, in contrast with the land laws that allows a compensation amount that would put previous land users in a better or the same wellbeing as before the land expropriation. In addition, it is indicated that the land expropriation process does not take into account the value of ecosystem services, which are benefits obtain from the land, and important for the wellbeing of the society. We conclude that while land expropriation is an important tool to obtain land from the landholders when it is needed for public purposes, the practices in the study area show it is adversely affecting the socioeconomics of farmers and the environment.

Abstract: Nanomaterials are materials that have at least one dimension in the nanometer length scale, which corresponds to a billionth of a meter. When three dimensions are confined to the nanometer scale, these materials are referred to as nanoparticles. These materials are of great interest since they exhibit unique physical and chemical properties that cannot be observed for bulk systems. Due to their unique and often superior properties, nanomaterials have become central in the field of electronics, catalysis, and medicine. Moreover, they are expected to be one of the most promising systems to tackle many challenges that our society is facing, such as reducing the emission of greenhouse gases and finding effective treatments for cancer. The unique properties of nanomaterials are linked to their size, shape, structure, and composition. If one is able to measure the positions of the atoms, their chemical nature, and the bonding between them, it becomes possible to predict the physicochemical properties of nanomaterials. In this manner, the development of novel nanostructures can be triggered. However, the morphology and structure of nanomaterials are highly sensitive to the conditions for relevant applications, such as elevated temperatures or intense light illumination. Furthermore, any small change in the local structure at higher temperatures or pressures may significantly modify their performance. Hence, three-dimensional (3D) characterization of nanomaterials under application-relevant conditions is important in designing them with desired functional properties for specific applications. Among different structural characterization approaches, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is one of the most efficient and versatile tools to investigate the structure and composition of nanomaterials since it can provide atomically resolved images, which are sensitive to the local 3D structure of the investigated sample. However, TEM only provides two-dimensional (2D) images of the 3D nanoparticle, which may lead to an incomplete understanding of their structure-property relationship. The most known and powerful technique for the 3D characterization of nanomaterials is electron tomography, where the images of a nanostructured material taken from different directions are mathematically combined to retrieve its 3D structure. Although these experiments are already state-of-the-art, 3D characterization by TEM is typically performed under ultra-high vacuum conditions and at room temperature. Such conditions are unfortunately not sufficient to understand transformations during synthesis or applications of nanomaterials. This limitation can be overcome by in situ TEM where external stimuli, such as heat, gas, and liquids, can be controllably introduced inside the TEM using specialized holders. However, there are some technical limitations to successful perform 3D in situ electron tomography experiments. For example, the long acquisition time required to collect a tilt series limits this technique when one wants to observe 3D dynamic changes with atomic resolution. A solution for this problem is the estimation of the 3D structure of nanomaterials from 2D projection images acquired along a single viewing direction. For this purpose, annular dark field scanning TEM (ADF STEM) imaging mode provides a valuable tool for quantitative structural investigation of nanomaterials from single 2D images due to its thickness and mass sensitivity. For quantitative analysis, an ADF STEM image is considered as a 2D array of pixels where relative variation of pixel intensity values is proportional to the total number of atoms and the atomic number of the elements in the sample. By applying advanced statistical approaches to these images, structural information, such as the number or types of atoms, can be retrieved with high accuracy and precision. The outcome can then be used to build a 3D starting model for energy minimization by atomistic simulations, for example, molecular dynamics simulations or the Monte Carlo method. However, this methodology needs to be further evaluated for in situ experiments. This thesis is devoted to presenting robust approaches to accurately define the 3D atomic structure of nanoparticles under application-relevant conditions and understand the mechanism behind the atomic-scale dynamics in nanoparticles in response to environmental stimuli.

Abstract: Achieving global sustainability goals will require cleaner and cheaper technologies. Public policy is central to achieving these goals and, in turn, ensuring a quicker pace of change. A major obstacle lies in the fact that technologies cannot be considered isolated entities: they are embedded in a powerful social context of cultural, organisational and institutional systems. This intertwining of different elements is referred to as a socio-technical system. This thesis discusses how socio-technical systems have, over time, allowed locked-in configurations to emerge, referring to a combination of systematic forces that perpetuate unsustainable infrastructures embedded in society. Such lock-ins can inhibit innovation and competitiveness of low-carbon and sustainable technologies, and this thesis looks to concrete solutions for unlocking them. Vital to this objective lies better understanding preferences, intentions, and behaviour of actors involved at each stage of technological development to improve public policy design. A discrete choice experiment – a quantitative non-market valuation method – was, therefore, a core method used to model preferences of key target groups. Target groups considered in the four components of the thesis include i) industry players, ii) policymakers, iii) farmers, and iv) the general public in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. The thesis seeks to establish how both economic and regulatory instruments can be leveraged to overcome lock-in. One conclusion sees that implementing an efficient environmental tax regime – an economic instrument – requires balancing political feasibility and public acceptance considerations in line with tax and environmental policy. Results indicate that public acceptance for environmental taxation increases with earmarking. Another conclusion highlights the importance of taking behavioural and habitual considerations into account – both when considering policymakers’ investment decisions, and farmers’ decisions to adopting agro-ecological practices when responding to regulatory instruments. Overall, policy design should emphasise a more continuous and systemic approach to innovation and technology policy on the road to accelerating socio-technical transitions to sustainability.