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With high-speed urbanization and strict requirements on energy conservation and environmental protection, eco-city has become the priority of urban development in China. Governments of all levels promote various eco-city planning schemes within a short term, but most schemes are characterized by randomness and subjectivity. To solve the lack of scientific pre-implementation evaluation for eco-city planning and improve eco-city construction quality, a systematic analysis is conducted in this study from three dimensions, namely, eco-city planning scheme, operating mechanism, and guarantee measures. A 3D evaluation model for eco-city planning is constructed through index selection. Schemes are ranked comprehensively with the distance measure method, and projection analysis is performed with the four-grid evaluation screen. Finally, the 3D evaluation model is applied to evaluate eco-city planning for Shenzhen, Chongqing, and Weifang. Results show that the model can be used to evaluate eco-city planning schemes effectively and comprehensively and offers targeted optimization suggestions in accordance with the evaluation results. Construction of the 3D evaluation model of eco-city planning based on the distance measure to determine the reasonability of eco-city planning reduces the institutional and social costs of eco-city planning practices.

The purpose of this article is to examine issues and problems which have been identified concerning the evaluation of planned change and, in the light of these, to raise additional issues for discussion. This attempt to extend the area of discussion, will, it is hoped, increase our understanding of the complexity of problems and constraints in evaluating planned change.

A meta-evaluation is an assessment of evaluation practices. Meta-evaluations include assessments of validity and usefulness of two or more studies that focus on the same issues. Every performance audit is grounded explicitly or implicitly in one or more theories of program evaluation. A deep understanding of alternative theories of program evaluation is helpful to gain clarity about sound auditing practices. We present a review of several theories of program evaluation.

This study includes a meta-evaluation of seven government audits on the efficiency and effectiveness of tourism departments and programs. The seven tourism-marketing performance audits are program evaluations for: Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, Minnesota, Australia, and two for Hawaii. The majority of these audits are negative performance assessments. Similarly, although these audits are more useful than none at all, the central conclusion of the meta-evaluation is that most of these audit reports are inadequate assessments. These audits are too limited in the issues examined; not sufficiently grounded in relevant evaluation theory and practice; and fail to include recommendations, that if implemented, would result in substantial increases in performance.

The purpose of this paper is to use artificial intelligence to evaluate the risks of urban power network planning.

A fuzzy Bayesian least squares support vector machine (LS_SVM) model is established in this paper, which can learn the risk information of urban power network planning through artificial intelligence and acquire expert knowledge for its risk evaluation. With the advantage of possessing learning analog simulation precision and speed, the proposed model can be effectively applied in conducting a risk evaluation of an urban network planning system. First, fuzzy theory is applied to quantify qualitative risk factors of the planning to determine the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation value of the risk factors. Then, Bayesian evidence framework is utilized in LS_SVM model parameter optimization to automatically adjust the LS_SVM regularization parameters and nuclear parameters to obtain the best parameter values. Based on this, a risk comprehensive evaluation of urban network planning based on artificial intelligence is established.

The fuzzy Bayesian LS_SVM model established in this paper is an effective artificial intelligence method for risk comprehensive evaluation in urban network planning through empirical study.

The paper breaks new ground in using artificial intelligence to evaluate urban power network planning risks.

The authors explore the under-researched area of post-decision evaluation in PPPs (public–private partnerships), focusing upon how and whether Post-decision Project Evaluation (PdPE) is considered and provided for in United Kingdom (UK) public infrastructure projects.

The authors’ research design sought insights from overviewing UK PPP planning and more focused exploration of PPP operational practice. The authors combine the extensive analysis of planning documents for operational UK PPP projects with interviews of different stakeholders in PPP projects in one city. Mobilising an open critical perspective, documents were analysed using ethnographic content analysis (ECA) and interviews were analysed using thematic analysis consistent therewith. The authors theorise the absence and ambiguities of PdPE drawing on the sociology of ignorance.

The authors find a long-standing absence and lack of PdPE in PPP projects throughout planning and operational practice, reflecting a dynamic, multi-faceted ignorance. Concerning planning practice, the authors’ documentary analysis evidences a trend in PdPE from its absence in the early years (which may indicate some natural or genuine ignorance) to different levels or forms of weak inclusion later. Regarding this inclusion, the authors find strategic ignorance played a substantive role, involving “deliberate engineering” by both public sector and private partners. Interview findings indicate lack of clarity over PdPE and its under-development in PPP practice, deficiencies again suggestive of natural and strategic ignorance.

The authors draw from the sociology of ignorance vis-à-vis accounting's absence and ambiguity in the context of PPP, contributing to an under-researched area.

The aim of this chapter is to investigate the relationship between the uses of budgets with financial performance in start-ups’ business environment. For this reason, an empirical survey was carried out, using a questionnaire in 134 start-up companies, which are based in 10 different European countries. Results show that there is a positive association between the use of budgets for planning, resource allocation and performance evaluation with financial performance. The CEO’s business educational background, as well as CEO’s beliefs about planning, has a strong influence in the use of budgets in start-up firms. We also concluded that there is a positive association between perceived environmental uncertainty (PEU) and the use of budgets for planning and resource allocation and a negative association between PEU and the use of budgets for performance evaluation.

The purpose of this paper is to present a new method for evaluation of emergency plans for unconventional emergency events by using the soft fuzzy rough set theory and methodology.

In response to the problems of insufficient risk identification, incomplete and inaccurate data and different preference of decision makers, a new model for emergency plan evaluation is established by combining soft set theory with classical fuzzy rough set theory. Moreover, by combining the TOPSIS method with soft fuzzy rough set theory, the score value of the soft fuzzy lower and upper approximation is defined for the optimal object and the worst object. Finally, emergency plans are comprehensively evaluated according to the soft close degree of the soft fuzzy rough set theory.

This paper presents a new perspective on emergency management decision making in unconventional emergency events. Also, the paper provides an effective model for evaluating emergency plans for unconventional events.

The paper contributes to decision making in emergency management of unconventional emergency events. The model is useful for dealing with decision making with uncertain information.

This article aims to analytically review the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) model used in the Pacesetters national programme evaluation.

The evaluation team's two-fold role is outlined: supporting project teams to develop PDSA plans and collect evaluation data. Four case studies are used to show the PDSA model's application and effect in a participatory action learning approach. Despite limitations, it is clear that all four case studies illustrate the PDSA model's potential benefits in a participatory evaluation approach, which involves public and patients.

The model's effectiveness is premised on several enabling factors such as: teams appreciating the model; a climate that values all learning and open to re-planning; engaging any external evaluators whose role is clearly communicated to all project stakeholders in a timely fashion.

There are clear intentions to promote evidence-based commissioning in the UK that values patient and public involvement. The PDSA model has the potential to test and implement changes in real work-place settings and to involve the public in evaluation.

Case study analysis identifies new reflections on the PDSA model's use to support innovative NHS practice development with public involvement in a participatory approach.

The contradiction between urban development and urban ecology is becoming more distinct with the global population growth and rapid economic development. This study investigated the construction of an evaluation index system for the ecological planning of modern industrial cities based on the low carbon concept to address the ecological crisis brought by the economic development of industrial cities. The entropy and weight calculation methods were adopted. The three-level evaluation system of the low-carbon ecological planning evaluation index was constructed. The basic model STIRPAT and the SPSS statistical analysis method were adopted. Regression analysis was conducted on the influencing factors of the low carbon ecological planning of a port city. The analytic hierarchy process was used, and the ecological construction of an industrial city was evaluated. Research results show that the evaluation index system of this study is suitable for the low carbon planning of industrial cities. The results of the ecological planning in Tianjin were analyzed, and several countermeasures and suggestions for the ecological planning and construction of industrial cities were provided. Thus, this study has a significant reference value.

The disagreement concerning basic concepts and definitions is still characteristic of strategic management as a field of study. Strategic plans can be elaborated within different frameworks, for example, the descriptive or prescriptive (Mintzberg 1987, pp. 2–6). Since varying, even conflicting paradigms and methodologies are employed, strategic plans for the same organisation elaborated by independent researchers are different. Varying solutions show strengths and weaknesses, unavoidably inherited from the frameworks within which they were formulated. This circumstance, in turn, creates problems in comparing different strategic plans in order to choose the best alternative, or to make use of their strengths in an attempt to prepare somewhat eclectic, but comprehensive, plans. Such a situation is reinforced by the lack of meta‐paradigm which allows us to evaluate different outcomes resulting from different paradigms.