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• What Is a Case Study? | Definition, Examples & Methods

What Is a Case Study? | Definition, Examples & Methods

Published on May 8, 2019 by Shona McCombes . Revised on November 20, 2023.

A case study is a detailed study of a specific subject, such as a person, group, place, event, organization, or phenomenon. Case studies are commonly used in social, educational, clinical, and business research.

A case study research design usually involves qualitative methods , but quantitative methods are sometimes also used. Case studies are good for describing , comparing, evaluating and understanding different aspects of a research problem .

Table of contents

When to do a case study, step 1: select a case, step 2: build a theoretical framework, step 3: collect your data, step 4: describe and analyze the case, other interesting articles.

A case study is an appropriate research design when you want to gain concrete, contextual, in-depth knowledge about a specific real-world subject. It allows you to explore the key characteristics, meanings, and implications of the case.

Case studies are often a good choice in a thesis or dissertation . They keep your project focused and manageable when you don’t have the time or resources to do large-scale research.

You might use just one complex case study where you explore a single subject in depth, or conduct multiple case studies to compare and illuminate different aspects of your research problem.

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Once you have developed your problem statement and research questions , you should be ready to choose the specific case that you want to focus on. A good case study should have the potential to:

• Provide new or unexpected insights into the subject
• Challenge or complicate existing assumptions and theories
• Propose practical courses of action to resolve a problem
• Open up new directions for future research

TipIf your research is more practical in nature and aims to simultaneously investigate an issue as you solve it, consider conducting action research instead.

Unlike quantitative or experimental research , a strong case study does not require a random or representative sample. In fact, case studies often deliberately focus on unusual, neglected, or outlying cases which may shed new light on the research problem.

Example of an outlying case studyIn the 1960s the town of Roseto, Pennsylvania was discovered to have extremely low rates of heart disease compared to the US average. It became an important case study for understanding previously neglected causes of heart disease.

However, you can also choose a more common or representative case to exemplify a particular category, experience or phenomenon.

Example of a representative case studyIn the 1920s, two sociologists used Muncie, Indiana as a case study of a typical American city that supposedly exemplified the changing culture of the US at the time.

While case studies focus more on concrete details than general theories, they should usually have some connection with theory in the field. This way the case study is not just an isolated description, but is integrated into existing knowledge about the topic. It might aim to:

• Exemplify a theory by showing how it explains the case under investigation
• Expand on a theory by uncovering new concepts and ideas that need to be incorporated
• Challenge a theory by exploring an outlier case that doesn’t fit with established assumptions

To ensure that your analysis of the case has a solid academic grounding, you should conduct a literature review of sources related to the topic and develop a theoretical framework . This means identifying key concepts and theories to guide your analysis and interpretation.

There are many different research methods you can use to collect data on your subject. Case studies tend to focus on qualitative data using methods such as interviews , observations , and analysis of primary and secondary sources (e.g., newspaper articles, photographs, official records). Sometimes a case study will also collect quantitative data.

Example of a mixed methods case studyFor a case study of a wind farm development in a rural area, you could collect quantitative data on employment rates and business revenue, collect qualitative data on local people’s perceptions and experiences, and analyze local and national media coverage of the development.

The aim is to gain as thorough an understanding as possible of the case and its context.

In writing up the case study, you need to bring together all the relevant aspects to give as complete a picture as possible of the subject.

How you report your findings depends on the type of research you are doing. Some case studies are structured like a standard scientific paper or thesis , with separate sections or chapters for the methods , results and discussion .

Others are written in a more narrative style, aiming to explore the case from various angles and analyze its meanings and implications (for example, by using textual analysis or discourse analysis ).

In all cases, though, make sure to give contextual details about the case, connect it back to the literature and theory, and discuss how it fits into wider patterns or debates.

If you want to know more about statistics , methodology , or research bias , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Normal distribution
• Degrees of freedom
• Null hypothesis
• Discourse analysis
• Control groups
• Mixed methods research
• Non-probability sampling
• Quantitative research
• Ecological validity

Research bias

• Rosenthal effect
• Implicit bias
• Cognitive bias
• Selection bias
• Negativity bias
• Status quo bias

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How to write a case study — examples, templates, and tools

It’s a marketer’s job to communicate the effectiveness of a product or service to potential and current customers to convince them to buy and keep business moving. One of the best methods for doing this is to share success stories that are relatable to prospects and customers based on their pain points, experiences, and overall needs.

That’s where case studies come in. Case studies are an essential part of a content marketing plan. These in-depth stories of customer experiences are some of the most effective at demonstrating the value of a product or service. Yet many marketers don’t use them, whether because of their regimented formats or the process of customer involvement and approval.

A case study is a powerful tool for showcasing your hard work and the success your customer achieved. But writing a great case study can be difficult if you’ve never done it before or if it’s been a while. This guide will show you how to write an effective case study and provide real-world examples and templates that will keep readers engaged and support your business.

In this article, you’ll learn:

What is a case study?

How to write a case study, case study templates, case study examples, case study tools.

A case study is the detailed story of a customer’s experience with a product or service that demonstrates their success and often includes measurable outcomes. Case studies are used in a range of fields and for various reasons, from business to academic research. They’re especially impactful in marketing as brands work to convince and convert consumers with relatable, real-world stories of actual customer experiences.

The best case studies tell the story of a customer’s success, including the steps they took, the results they achieved, and the support they received from a brand along the way. To write a great case study, you need to:

• Celebrate the customer and make them — not a product or service — the star of the story.
• Craft the story with specific audiences or target segments in mind so that the story of one customer will be viewed as relatable and actionable for another customer.
• Write copy that is easy to read and engaging so that readers will gain the insights and messages intended.
• Follow a standardized format that includes all of the essentials a potential customer would find interesting and useful.
• Support all of the claims for success made in the story with data in the forms of hard numbers and customer statements.

Case studies are a type of review but more in depth, aiming to show — rather than just tell — the positive experiences that customers have with a brand. Notably, 89% of consumers read reviews before deciding to buy, and 79% view case study content as part of their purchasing process. When it comes to B2B sales, 52% of buyers rank case studies as an important part of their evaluation process.

Telling a brand story through the experience of a tried-and-true customer matters. The story is relatable to potential new customers as they imagine themselves in the shoes of the company or individual featured in the case study. Showcasing previous customers can help new ones see themselves engaging with your brand in the ways that are most meaningful to them.

Besides sharing the perspective of another customer, case studies stand out from other content marketing forms because they are based on evidence. Whether pulling from client testimonials or data-driven results, case studies tend to have more impact on new business because the story contains information that is both objective (data) and subjective (customer experience) — and the brand doesn’t sound too self-promotional.

Case studies are unique in that there’s a fairly standardized format for telling a customer’s story. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for creativity. It’s all about making sure that teams are clear on the goals for the case study — along with strategies for supporting content and channels — and understanding how the story fits within the framework of the company’s overall marketing goals.

Here are the basic steps to writing a good case study.

1. Identify your goal

Start by defining exactly who your case study will be designed to help. Case studies are about specific instances where a company works with a customer to achieve a goal. Identify which customers are likely to have these goals, as well as other needs the story should cover to appeal to them.

The answer is often found in one of the buyer personas that have been constructed as part of your larger marketing strategy. This can include anything from new leads generated by the marketing team to long-term customers that are being pressed for cross-sell opportunities. In all of these cases, demonstrating value through a relatable customer success story can be part of the solution to conversion.

2. Choose your client or subject

Who you highlight matters. Case studies tie brands together that might otherwise not cross paths. A writer will want to ensure that the highlighted customer aligns with their own company’s brand identity and offerings. Look for a customer with positive name recognition who has had great success with a product or service and is willing to be an advocate.

The client should also match up with the identified target audience. Whichever company or individual is selected should be a reflection of other potential customers who can see themselves in similar circumstances, having the same problems and possible solutions.

Some of the most compelling case studies feature customers who:

• Switch from one product or service to another while naming competitors that missed the mark.
• Experience measurable results that are relatable to others in a specific industry.
• Represent well-known brands and recognizable names that are likely to compel action.
• Advocate for a product or service as a champion and are well-versed in its advantages.

Whoever or whatever customer is selected, marketers must ensure they have the permission of the company involved before getting started. Some brands have strict review and approval procedures for any official marketing or promotional materials that include their name. Acquiring those approvals in advance will prevent any miscommunication or wasted effort if there is an issue with their legal or compliance teams.

3. Conduct research and compile data

Substantiating the claims made in a case study — either by the marketing team or customers themselves — adds validity to the story. To do this, include data and feedback from the client that defines what success looks like. This can be anything from demonstrating return on investment (ROI) to a specific metric the customer was striving to improve. Case studies should prove how an outcome was achieved and show tangible results that indicate to the customer that your solution is the right one.

This step could also include customer interviews. Make sure that the people being interviewed are key stakeholders in the purchase decision or deployment and use of the product or service that is being highlighted. Content writers should work off a set list of questions prepared in advance. It can be helpful to share these with the interviewees beforehand so they have time to consider and craft their responses. One of the best interview tactics to keep in mind is to ask questions where yes and no are not natural answers. This way, your subject will provide more open-ended responses that produce more meaningful content.

4. Choose the right format

There are a number of different ways to format a case study. Depending on what you hope to achieve, one style will be better than another. However, there are some common elements to include, such as:

• An engaging headline
• A subject and customer introduction
• The unique challenge or challenges the customer faced
• The solution the customer used to solve the problem
• The results achieved
• Data and statistics to back up claims of success
• A strong call to action (CTA) to engage with the vendor

It’s also important to note that while case studies are traditionally written as stories, they don’t have to be in a written format. Some companies choose to get more creative with their case studies and produce multimedia content, depending on their audience and objectives. Case study formats can include traditional print stories, interactive web or social content, data-heavy infographics, professionally shot videos, podcasts, and more.

5. Write your case study

We’ll go into more detail later about how exactly to write a case study, including templates and examples. Generally speaking, though, there are a few things to keep in mind when writing your case study.

• Be clear and concise. Readers want to get to the point of the story quickly and easily, and they’ll be looking to see themselves reflected in the story right from the start.
• Provide a big picture. Always make sure to explain who the client is, their goals, and how they achieved success in a short introduction to engage the reader.
• Construct a clear narrative. Stick to the story from the perspective of the customer and what they needed to solve instead of just listing product features or benefits.
• Leverage graphics. Incorporating infographics, charts, and sidebars can be a more engaging and eye-catching way to share key statistics and data in readable ways.
• Offer the right amount of detail. Most case studies are one or two pages with clear sections that a reader can skim to find the information most important to them.
• Include data to support claims. Show real results — both facts and figures and customer quotes — to demonstrate credibility and prove the solution works.

6. Promote your story

Marketers have a number of options for distribution of a freshly minted case study. Many brands choose to publish case studies on their website and post them on social media. This can help support SEO and organic content strategies while also boosting company credibility and trust as visitors see that other businesses have used the product or service.

Marketers are always looking for quality content they can use for lead generation. Consider offering a case study as gated content behind a form on a landing page or as an offer in an email message. One great way to do this is to summarize the content and tease the full story available for download after the user takes an action.

Sales teams can also leverage case studies, so be sure they are aware that the assets exist once they’re published. Especially when it comes to larger B2B sales, companies often ask for examples of similar customer challenges that have been solved.

Now that you’ve learned a bit about case studies and what they should include, you may be wondering how to start creating great customer story content. Here are a couple of templates you can use to structure your case study.

Template 1 — Challenge-solution-result format

• Start with an engaging title. This should be fewer than 70 characters long for SEO best practices. One of the best ways to approach the title is to include the customer’s name and a hint at the challenge they overcame in the end.
• Create an introduction. Lead with an explanation as to who the customer is, the need they had, and the opportunity they found with a specific product or solution. Writers can also suggest the success the customer experienced with the solution they chose.
• Present the challenge. This should be several paragraphs long and explain the problem the customer faced and the issues they were trying to solve. Details should tie into the company’s products and services naturally. This section needs to be the most relatable to the reader so they can picture themselves in a similar situation.
• Share the solution. Explain which product or service offered was the ideal fit for the customer and why. Feel free to delve into their experience setting up, purchasing, and onboarding the solution.
• Explain the results. Demonstrate the impact of the solution they chose by backing up their positive experience with data. Fill in with customer quotes and tangible, measurable results that show the effect of their choice.
• Ask for action. Include a CTA at the end of the case study that invites readers to reach out for more information, try a demo, or learn more — to nurture them further in the marketing pipeline. What you ask of the reader should tie directly into the goals that were established for the case study in the first place.

Template 2 — Data-driven format

• Start with an engaging title. Be sure to include a statistic or data point in the first 70 characters. Again, it’s best to include the customer’s name as part of the title.
• Create an overview. Share the customer’s background and a short version of the challenge they faced. Present the reason a particular product or service was chosen, and feel free to include quotes from the customer about their selection process.
• Present data point 1. Isolate the first metric that the customer used to define success and explain how the product or solution helped to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
• Present data point 2. Isolate the second metric that the customer used to define success and explain what the product or solution did to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
• Present data point 3. Isolate the final metric that the customer used to define success and explain what the product or solution did to achieve this goal. Provide data points and quotes to substantiate the claim that success was achieved.
• Summarize the results. Reiterate the fact that the customer was able to achieve success thanks to a specific product or service. Include quotes and statements that reflect customer satisfaction and suggest they plan to continue using the solution.
• Ask for action. Include a CTA at the end of the case study that asks readers to reach out for more information, try a demo, or learn more — to further nurture them in the marketing pipeline. Again, remember that this is where marketers can look to convert their content into action with the customer.

While templates are helpful, seeing a case study in action can also be a great way to learn. Here are some examples of how Adobe customers have experienced success.

Juniper Networks

One example is the Adobe and Juniper Networks case study , which puts the reader in the customer’s shoes. The beginning of the story quickly orients the reader so that they know exactly who the article is about and what they were trying to achieve. Solutions are outlined in a way that shows Adobe Experience Manager is the best choice and a natural fit for the customer. Along the way, quotes from the client are incorporated to help add validity to the statements. The results in the case study are conveyed with clear evidence of scale and volume using tangible data.

The story of Lenovo’s journey with Adobe is one that spans years of planning, implementation, and rollout. The Lenovo case study does a great job of consolidating all of this into a relatable journey that other enterprise organizations can see themselves taking, despite the project size. This case study also features descriptive headers and compelling visual elements that engage the reader and strengthen the content.

Tata Consulting

When it comes to using data to show customer results, this case study does an excellent job of conveying details and numbers in an easy-to-digest manner. Bullet points at the start break up the content while also helping the reader understand exactly what the case study will be about. Tata Consulting used Adobe to deliver elevated, engaging content experiences for a large telecommunications client of its own — an objective that’s relatable for a lot of companies.

Case studies are a vital tool for any marketing team as they enable you to demonstrate the value of your company’s products and services to others. They help marketers do their job and add credibility to a brand trying to promote its solutions by using the experiences and stories of real customers.

When you’re ready to get started with a case study:

• Think about a few goals you’d like to accomplish with your content.
• Make a list of successful clients that would be strong candidates for a case study.
• Reach out to the client to get their approval and conduct an interview.
• Gather the data to present an engaging and effective customer story.

Adobe can help

There are several Adobe products that can help you craft compelling case studies. Adobe Experience Platform helps you collect data and deliver great customer experiences across every channel. Once you’ve created your case studies, Experience Platform will help you deliver the right information to the right customer at the right time for maximum impact.

To learn more, watch the Adobe Experience Platform story .

Keep in mind that the best case studies are backed by data. That’s where Adobe Real-Time Customer Data Platform and Adobe Analytics come into play. With Real-Time CDP, you can gather the data you need to build a great case study and target specific customers to deliver the content to the right audience at the perfect moment.

Watch the Real-Time CDP overview video to learn more.

Finally, Adobe Analytics turns real-time data into real-time insights. It helps your business collect and synthesize data from multiple platforms to make more informed decisions and create the best case study possible.

Request a demo to learn more about Adobe Analytics.

https://business.adobe.com/blog/perspectives/b2b-ecommerce-10-case-studies-inspire-you

https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/business-case

https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/what-is-real-time-analytics

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• Case Study | Definition, Examples & Methods

Case Study | Definition, Examples & Methods

Published on 5 May 2022 by Shona McCombes . Revised on 30 January 2023.

A case study is a detailed study of a specific subject, such as a person, group, place, event, organisation, or phenomenon. Case studies are commonly used in social, educational, clinical, and business research.

A case study research design usually involves qualitative methods , but quantitative methods are sometimes also used. Case studies are good for describing , comparing, evaluating, and understanding different aspects of a research problem .

Table of contents

When to do a case study, step 1: select a case, step 2: build a theoretical framework, step 3: collect your data, step 4: describe and analyse the case.

A case study is an appropriate research design when you want to gain concrete, contextual, in-depth knowledge about a specific real-world subject. It allows you to explore the key characteristics, meanings, and implications of the case.

Case studies are often a good choice in a thesis or dissertation . They keep your project focused and manageable when you don’t have the time or resources to do large-scale research.

You might use just one complex case study where you explore a single subject in depth, or conduct multiple case studies to compare and illuminate different aspects of your research problem.

Prevent plagiarism, run a free check.

Once you have developed your problem statement and research questions , you should be ready to choose the specific case that you want to focus on. A good case study should have the potential to:

• Provide new or unexpected insights into the subject
• Challenge or complicate existing assumptions and theories
• Propose practical courses of action to resolve a problem
• Open up new directions for future research

Unlike quantitative or experimental research, a strong case study does not require a random or representative sample. In fact, case studies often deliberately focus on unusual, neglected, or outlying cases which may shed new light on the research problem.

If you find yourself aiming to simultaneously investigate and solve an issue, consider conducting action research . As its name suggests, action research conducts research and takes action at the same time, and is highly iterative and flexible. 

However, you can also choose a more common or representative case to exemplify a particular category, experience, or phenomenon.

While case studies focus more on concrete details than general theories, they should usually have some connection with theory in the field. This way the case study is not just an isolated description, but is integrated into existing knowledge about the topic. It might aim to:

• Exemplify a theory by showing how it explains the case under investigation
• Expand on a theory by uncovering new concepts and ideas that need to be incorporated
• Challenge a theory by exploring an outlier case that doesn’t fit with established assumptions

To ensure that your analysis of the case has a solid academic grounding, you should conduct a literature review of sources related to the topic and develop a theoretical framework . This means identifying key concepts and theories to guide your analysis and interpretation.

There are many different research methods you can use to collect data on your subject. Case studies tend to focus on qualitative data using methods such as interviews, observations, and analysis of primary and secondary sources (e.g., newspaper articles, photographs, official records). Sometimes a case study will also collect quantitative data .

The aim is to gain as thorough an understanding as possible of the case and its context.

In writing up the case study, you need to bring together all the relevant aspects to give as complete a picture as possible of the subject.

How you report your findings depends on the type of research you are doing. Some case studies are structured like a standard scientific paper or thesis, with separate sections or chapters for the methods , results , and discussion .

Others are written in a more narrative style, aiming to explore the case from various angles and analyse its meanings and implications (for example, by using textual analysis or discourse analysis ).

In all cases, though, make sure to give contextual details about the case, connect it back to the literature and theory, and discuss how it fits into wider patterns or debates.

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McCombes, S. (2023, January 30). Case Study | Definition, Examples & Methods. Scribbr. Retrieved 25 March 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/research-methods/case-studies/

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Local Marketing: 3 strategies that worked for small businesses with physical locations

This article was published in the MarketingSherpa email newsletter .

“Best is better than better, but better is still better than bad,” Flint McGlaughlin taught in Above-the-Fold Strategy: 4 ways to write powerful sub-headlines .

This lesson applies to far more than sub-headlines. It is true for all of marketing and business.

But when I hear that quote, I especially think of the small business. Especially a local business with a shop or other physical location looking to promote its product or service

An effective strategy in this case requires more than just getting a click, you must attract a customer to your brick-and-mortar location. Without the massive budgets of a B2C or B2B brand, these small businesses often must settle for “better” and overlook the shiny “best” technology and platform investments of their big-budget marketing peers.

But when you’re just trying to attract customers from your town, better can be good enough.

In this article, we bring you fairly simple tactics that can be easily replicated without a massive budget. First, a medical spa that improves social media performance by using real photos in its Facebook advertising. Then, a gym that recaptures its search engine ranking after overlooking SEO. And finally, a chiropractor that turns to event marketing (on a small scale) to attract new customers.

Quick Case Study #1: Real photos reduce advertising cost per lead from $50 to $5 for medical spa

“When we first began to advertise on Facebook, we used stock images for ads. These ads performed poorly. The cost per conversion was exorbitantly high, around $50 per lead,” said Marina Victoria, Co-Founder and CEO, CADMEN group of brands (CADMEN Barbershop, CADMEN Clinic, and CADMEN Academy).

Creative Sample #1: Facebook ads with stock images

The team decided to change the images from stock photos to real clients’ successful results from Cadmen Clinic .

Creative Sample #2: Facebook ads with real photos of customers

After only three days, cost per conversion improved from $50 per lead to five dollars per lead.

“From this experience we learned a lesson; viewers engage more with authentic imagery. They want to see the real results, what it might look like on them, and what they can expect from the treatment. It wasn’t necessary to invest in things like graphic design, just a simple picture change made all the difference,” Victoria said.

Quick Case Study #2: After letting SEO slip, gym improves search ranking from 81.7 to 4

Intent91 is a personal training gym in Worthing, West Sussex, United Kingdom. As a small local business, search ranking is crucial for its success.

“We've always heavily focused on social media (mainly Instagram), Facebook Ads and then referrals. We also often do local outreach e.g., leaflet drops,” said Miles Branford, Marketing Executive, Intent91 . “We let our website slip.”

The team stopped blogging, stopped updating keywords on its pages, and got comfortable with its SEO (search engine optimization) and position in search engine rankings.

“So comfortable I stopped analyzing our Google Search Console – terrible I know! When I did check, I was in for a BIG shock,” Branford said.

On February 17 th , 2022, the gym was ranked number 81.7 for “personal trainer Worthing.” It was also ranked pretty low for similar keywords such as “gym in Worthing,” “Worthing gym,” and “personal training Worthing.”

“I had to do something, and fast,” Branford said. “I started by getting Google Reviews, 85 to be exact. Optimized and updated all our blogs, making sure they were fresh, had ‘good’ readability and ‘good’ SEO (I use Yoast). Added keywords to photo alt text, YouTube videos, and saved the photo files as a keyword (making sure I didn't keyword stuff).”

The team wrote four new blog posts and released them over a two-week period, posting on social media as well.

“I then reached out to any website that had mentioned us over the past 12 months and asked them to link to our website. This included articles in Sussex World, BLK BOX and Robert Luff,” he said.

By March 11 th , 2022, the gym reached a position four for “personal trainer Worthing.” They also saw a big jump in the other keywords mentioned earlier.

“This has been a big wake up call for our SEO and Google ranking,” Branford said. “Saying this, we're happy with the recovery and now it's time to try and get that number one spot!”

Quick Case Study #3: Chiropractor gets 11 new clients by hosting local presentations

If you search for local marketing ideas, you’ll likely find an emphasis on tactics like local SEO and local listings on third-party websites and directories.

Important tactics, for sure, as described above.

But here’s an advantage of being in the same city as potential customers – you can actually go talk to them.

“The marketing strategy that has helped my co-founder and I generate the most revenue for our business has been hosting presentations in front of small- to mid-sized groups of people interested in improving their health,” said Dr. Kira Capozzolo DC, Chiropractor, Twin Waves Wellness Center .

The wellness center offers chiropractic services, which puts it in the health and fitness industries.

To increase their client base in 2022, the team sent out a 550-email campaign to relevant local businesses – places like yoga studios and fitness centers.

In the email, the team included a personalized video tailored to the industry of the recipient that explained why it could benefit the recipient’s clients to learn about Twin Waves’ services through a free presentation.

Out of 550 emails, the response rate was 3%. From there, the team scheduled four total presentations at local businesses and successfully signed 11 new clients from the campaign.

Related Resources

Local Marketing Chart: How do customers search for products and services?

Value Proposition: How a local business doubled its space in 9 months

Hard To Stay In Business Against Us: Raising the barrier to entry in the escape room industry (Podcast Episode #12)

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• Leading a Class Discussion
• Multiple Book Review Essay
• Reviewing Collected Works
• Writing a Case Analysis Paper
• Writing a Case Study
• About Informed Consent
• Writing Field Notes
• Writing a Policy Memo
• Writing a Reflective Paper
• Writing a Research Proposal
• Generative AI and Writing
• Acknowledgments

A case study research paper examines a person, place, event, condition, phenomenon, or other type of subject of analysis in order to extrapolate  key themes and results that help predict future trends, illuminate previously hidden issues that can be applied to practice, and/or provide a means for understanding an important research problem with greater clarity. A case study research paper usually examines a single subject of analysis, but case study papers can also be designed as a comparative investigation that shows relationships between two or more subjects. The methods used to study a case can rest within a quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-method investigative paradigm.

Case Studies. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Mills, Albert J. , Gabrielle Durepos, and Eiden Wiebe, editors. Encyclopedia of Case Study Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010 ; “What is a Case Study?” In Swanborn, Peter G. Case Study Research: What, Why and How? London: SAGE, 2010.

How to Approach Writing a Case Study Research Paper

General information about how to choose a topic to investigate can be found under the " Choosing a Research Problem " tab in the Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper writing guide. Review this page because it may help you identify a subject of analysis that can be investigated using a case study design.

However, identifying a case to investigate involves more than choosing the research problem . A case study encompasses a problem contextualized around the application of in-depth analysis, interpretation, and discussion, often resulting in specific recommendations for action or for improving existing conditions. As Seawright and Gerring note, practical considerations such as time and access to information can influence case selection, but these issues should not be the sole factors used in describing the methodological justification for identifying a particular case to study. Given this, selecting a case includes considering the following:

• The case represents an unusual or atypical example of a research problem that requires more in-depth analysis? Cases often represent a topic that rests on the fringes of prior investigations because the case may provide new ways of understanding the research problem. For example, if the research problem is to identify strategies to improve policies that support girl's access to secondary education in predominantly Muslim nations, you could consider using Azerbaijan as a case study rather than selecting a more obvious nation in the Middle East. Doing so may reveal important new insights into recommending how governments in other predominantly Muslim nations can formulate policies that support improved access to education for girls.
• The case provides important insight or illuminate a previously hidden problem? In-depth analysis of a case can be based on the hypothesis that the case study will reveal trends or issues that have not been exposed in prior research or will reveal new and important implications for practice. For example, anecdotal evidence may suggest drug use among homeless veterans is related to their patterns of travel throughout the day. Assuming prior studies have not looked at individual travel choices as a way to study access to illicit drug use, a case study that observes a homeless veteran could reveal how issues of personal mobility choices facilitate regular access to illicit drugs. Note that it is important to conduct a thorough literature review to ensure that your assumption about the need to reveal new insights or previously hidden problems is valid and evidence-based.
• The case challenges and offers a counter-point to prevailing assumptions? Over time, research on any given topic can fall into a trap of developing assumptions based on outdated studies that are still applied to new or changing conditions or the idea that something should simply be accepted as "common sense," even though the issue has not been thoroughly tested in current practice. A case study analysis may offer an opportunity to gather evidence that challenges prevailing assumptions about a research problem and provide a new set of recommendations applied to practice that have not been tested previously. For example, perhaps there has been a long practice among scholars to apply a particular theory in explaining the relationship between two subjects of analysis. Your case could challenge this assumption by applying an innovative theoretical framework [perhaps borrowed from another discipline] to explore whether this approach offers new ways of understanding the research problem. Taking a contrarian stance is one of the most important ways that new knowledge and understanding develops from existing literature.
• The case provides an opportunity to pursue action leading to the resolution of a problem? Another way to think about choosing a case to study is to consider how the results from investigating a particular case may result in findings that reveal ways in which to resolve an existing or emerging problem. For example, studying the case of an unforeseen incident, such as a fatal accident at a railroad crossing, can reveal hidden issues that could be applied to preventative measures that contribute to reducing the chance of accidents in the future. In this example, a case study investigating the accident could lead to a better understanding of where to strategically locate additional signals at other railroad crossings so as to better warn drivers of an approaching train, particularly when visibility is hindered by heavy rain, fog, or at night.
• The case offers a new direction in future research? A case study can be used as a tool for an exploratory investigation that highlights the need for further research about the problem. A case can be used when there are few studies that help predict an outcome or that establish a clear understanding about how best to proceed in addressing a problem. For example, after conducting a thorough literature review [very important!], you discover that little research exists showing the ways in which women contribute to promoting water conservation in rural communities of east central Africa. A case study of how women contribute to saving water in a rural village of Uganda can lay the foundation for understanding the need for more thorough research that documents how women in their roles as cooks and family caregivers think about water as a valuable resource within their community. This example of a case study could also point to the need for scholars to build new theoretical frameworks around the topic [e.g., applying feminist theories of work and family to the issue of water conservation].

Eisenhardt, Kathleen M. “Building Theories from Case Study Research.” Academy of Management Review 14 (October 1989): 532-550; Emmel, Nick. Sampling and Choosing Cases in Qualitative Research: A Realist Approach . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2013; Gerring, John. “What Is a Case Study and What Is It Good for?” American Political Science Review 98 (May 2004): 341-354; Mills, Albert J. , Gabrielle Durepos, and Eiden Wiebe, editors. Encyclopedia of Case Study Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010; Seawright, Jason and John Gerring. "Case Selection Techniques in Case Study Research." Political Research Quarterly 61 (June 2008): 294-308.

Structure and Writing Style

The purpose of a paper in the social sciences designed around a case study is to thoroughly investigate a subject of analysis in order to reveal a new understanding about the research problem and, in so doing, contributing new knowledge to what is already known from previous studies. In applied social sciences disciplines [e.g., education, social work, public administration, etc.], case studies may also be used to reveal best practices, highlight key programs, or investigate interesting aspects of professional work.

In general, the structure of a case study research paper is not all that different from a standard college-level research paper. However, there are subtle differences you should be aware of. Here are the key elements to organizing and writing a case study research paper.

I.  Introduction

As with any research paper, your introduction should serve as a roadmap for your readers to ascertain the scope and purpose of your study . The introduction to a case study research paper, however, should not only describe the research problem and its significance, but you should also succinctly describe why the case is being used and how it relates to addressing the problem. The two elements should be linked. With this in mind, a good introduction answers these four questions:

• What is being studied? Describe the research problem and describe the subject of analysis [the case] you have chosen to address the problem. Explain how they are linked and what elements of the case will help to expand knowledge and understanding about the problem.
• Why is this topic important to investigate? Describe the significance of the research problem and state why a case study design and the subject of analysis that the paper is designed around is appropriate in addressing the problem.
• What did we know about this topic before I did this study? Provide background that helps lead the reader into the more in-depth literature review to follow. If applicable, summarize prior case study research applied to the research problem and why it fails to adequately address the problem. Describe why your case will be useful. If no prior case studies have been used to address the research problem, explain why you have selected this subject of analysis.
• How will this study advance new knowledge or new ways of understanding? Explain why your case study will be suitable in helping to expand knowledge and understanding about the research problem.

Each of these questions should be addressed in no more than a few paragraphs. Exceptions to this can be when you are addressing a complex research problem or subject of analysis that requires more in-depth background information.

II.  Literature Review

The literature review for a case study research paper is generally structured the same as it is for any college-level research paper. The difference, however, is that the literature review is focused on providing background information and  enabling historical interpretation of the subject of analysis in relation to the research problem the case is intended to address . This includes synthesizing studies that help to:

• Place relevant works in the context of their contribution to understanding the case study being investigated . This would involve summarizing studies that have used a similar subject of analysis to investigate the research problem. If there is literature using the same or a very similar case to study, you need to explain why duplicating past research is important [e.g., conditions have changed; prior studies were conducted long ago, etc.].
• Describe the relationship each work has to the others under consideration that informs the reader why this case is applicable . Your literature review should include a description of any works that support using the case to investigate the research problem and the underlying research questions.
• Identify new ways to interpret prior research using the case study . If applicable, review any research that has examined the research problem using a different research design. Explain how your use of a case study design may reveal new knowledge or a new perspective or that can redirect research in an important new direction.
• Resolve conflicts amongst seemingly contradictory previous studies . This refers to synthesizing any literature that points to unresolved issues of concern about the research problem and describing how the subject of analysis that forms the case study can help resolve these existing contradictions.
• Point the way in fulfilling a need for additional research . Your review should examine any literature that lays a foundation for understanding why your case study design and the subject of analysis around which you have designed your study may reveal a new way of approaching the research problem or offer a perspective that points to the need for additional research.
• Expose any gaps that exist in the literature that the case study could help to fill . Summarize any literature that not only shows how your subject of analysis contributes to understanding the research problem, but how your case contributes to a new way of understanding the problem that prior research has failed to do.
• Locate your own research within the context of existing literature [very important!] . Collectively, your literature review should always place your case study within the larger domain of prior research about the problem. The overarching purpose of reviewing pertinent literature in a case study paper is to demonstrate that you have thoroughly identified and synthesized prior studies in relation to explaining the relevance of the case in addressing the research problem.

III.  Method

In this section, you explain why you selected a particular case [i.e., subject of analysis] and the strategy you used to identify and ultimately decide that your case was appropriate in addressing the research problem. The way you describe the methods used varies depending on the type of subject of analysis that constitutes your case study.

If your subject of analysis is an incident or event . In the social and behavioral sciences, the event or incident that represents the case to be studied is usually bounded by time and place, with a clear beginning and end and with an identifiable location or position relative to its surroundings. The subject of analysis can be a rare or critical event or it can focus on a typical or regular event. The purpose of studying a rare event is to illuminate new ways of thinking about the broader research problem or to test a hypothesis. Critical incident case studies must describe the method by which you identified the event and explain the process by which you determined the validity of this case to inform broader perspectives about the research problem or to reveal new findings. However, the event does not have to be a rare or uniquely significant to support new thinking about the research problem or to challenge an existing hypothesis. For example, Walo, Bull, and Breen conducted a case study to identify and evaluate the direct and indirect economic benefits and costs of a local sports event in the City of Lismore, New South Wales, Australia. The purpose of their study was to provide new insights from measuring the impact of a typical local sports event that prior studies could not measure well because they focused on large "mega-events." Whether the event is rare or not, the methods section should include an explanation of the following characteristics of the event: a) when did it take place; b) what were the underlying circumstances leading to the event; and, c) what were the consequences of the event in relation to the research problem.

If your subject of analysis is a person. Explain why you selected this particular individual to be studied and describe what experiences they have had that provide an opportunity to advance new understandings about the research problem. Mention any background about this person which might help the reader understand the significance of their experiences that make them worthy of study. This includes describing the relationships this person has had with other people, institutions, and/or events that support using them as the subject for a case study research paper. It is particularly important to differentiate the person as the subject of analysis from others and to succinctly explain how the person relates to examining the research problem [e.g., why is one politician in a particular local election used to show an increase in voter turnout from any other candidate running in the election]. Note that these issues apply to a specific group of people used as a case study unit of analysis [e.g., a classroom of students].

If your subject of analysis is a place. In general, a case study that investigates a place suggests a subject of analysis that is unique or special in some way and that this uniqueness can be used to build new understanding or knowledge about the research problem. A case study of a place must not only describe its various attributes relevant to the research problem [e.g., physical, social, historical, cultural, economic, political], but you must state the method by which you determined that this place will illuminate new understandings about the research problem. It is also important to articulate why a particular place as the case for study is being used if similar places also exist [i.e., if you are studying patterns of homeless encampments of veterans in open spaces, explain why you are studying Echo Park in Los Angeles rather than Griffith Park?]. If applicable, describe what type of human activity involving this place makes it a good choice to study [e.g., prior research suggests Echo Park has more homeless veterans].

If your subject of analysis is a phenomenon. A phenomenon refers to a fact, occurrence, or circumstance that can be studied or observed but with the cause or explanation to be in question. In this sense, a phenomenon that forms your subject of analysis can encompass anything that can be observed or presumed to exist but is not fully understood. In the social and behavioral sciences, the case usually focuses on human interaction within a complex physical, social, economic, cultural, or political system. For example, the phenomenon could be the observation that many vehicles used by ISIS fighters are small trucks with English language advertisements on them. The research problem could be that ISIS fighters are difficult to combat because they are highly mobile. The research questions could be how and by what means are these vehicles used by ISIS being supplied to the militants and how might supply lines to these vehicles be cut off? How might knowing the suppliers of these trucks reveal larger networks of collaborators and financial support? A case study of a phenomenon most often encompasses an in-depth analysis of a cause and effect that is grounded in an interactive relationship between people and their environment in some way.

NOTE:   The choice of the case or set of cases to study cannot appear random. Evidence that supports the method by which you identified and chose your subject of analysis should clearly support investigation of the research problem and linked to key findings from your literature review. Be sure to cite any studies that helped you determine that the case you chose was appropriate for examining the problem.

IV.  Discussion

The main elements of your discussion section are generally the same as any research paper, but centered around interpreting and drawing conclusions about the key findings from your analysis of the case study. Note that a general social sciences research paper may contain a separate section to report findings. However, in a paper designed around a case study, it is common to combine a description of the results with the discussion about their implications. The objectives of your discussion section should include the following:

Reiterate the Research Problem/State the Major Findings Briefly reiterate the research problem you are investigating and explain why the subject of analysis around which you designed the case study were used. You should then describe the findings revealed from your study of the case using direct, declarative, and succinct proclamation of the study results. Highlight any findings that were unexpected or especially profound.

Explain the Meaning of the Findings and Why They are Important Systematically explain the meaning of your case study findings and why you believe they are important. Begin this part of the section by repeating what you consider to be your most important or surprising finding first, then systematically review each finding. Be sure to thoroughly extrapolate what your analysis of the case can tell the reader about situations or conditions beyond the actual case that was studied while, at the same time, being careful not to misconstrue or conflate a finding that undermines the external validity of your conclusions.

Relate the Findings to Similar Studies No study in the social sciences is so novel or possesses such a restricted focus that it has absolutely no relation to previously published research. The discussion section should relate your case study results to those found in other studies, particularly if questions raised from prior studies served as the motivation for choosing your subject of analysis. This is important because comparing and contrasting the findings of other studies helps support the overall importance of your results and it highlights how and in what ways your case study design and the subject of analysis differs from prior research about the topic.

Consider Alternative Explanations of the Findings Remember that the purpose of social science research is to discover and not to prove. When writing the discussion section, you should carefully consider all possible explanations revealed by the case study results, rather than just those that fit your hypothesis or prior assumptions and biases. Be alert to what the in-depth analysis of the case may reveal about the research problem, including offering a contrarian perspective to what scholars have stated in prior research if that is how the findings can be interpreted from your case.

Acknowledge the Study's Limitations You can state the study's limitations in the conclusion section of your paper but describing the limitations of your subject of analysis in the discussion section provides an opportunity to identify the limitations and explain why they are not significant. This part of the discussion section should also note any unanswered questions or issues your case study could not address. More detailed information about how to document any limitations to your research can be found here .

Suggest Areas for Further Research Although your case study may offer important insights about the research problem, there are likely additional questions related to the problem that remain unanswered or findings that unexpectedly revealed themselves as a result of your in-depth analysis of the case. Be sure that the recommendations for further research are linked to the research problem and that you explain why your recommendations are valid in other contexts and based on the original assumptions of your study.

V.  Conclusion

As with any research paper, you should summarize your conclusion in clear, simple language; emphasize how the findings from your case study differs from or supports prior research and why. Do not simply reiterate the discussion section. Provide a synthesis of key findings presented in the paper to show how these converge to address the research problem. If you haven't already done so in the discussion section, be sure to document the limitations of your case study and any need for further research.

The function of your paper's conclusion is to: 1) reiterate the main argument supported by the findings from your case study; 2) state clearly the context, background, and necessity of pursuing the research problem using a case study design in relation to an issue, controversy, or a gap found from reviewing the literature; and, 3) provide a place to persuasively and succinctly restate the significance of your research problem, given that the reader has now been presented with in-depth information about the topic.

Consider the following points to help ensure your conclusion is appropriate:

• If the argument or purpose of your paper is complex, you may need to summarize these points for your reader.
• If prior to your conclusion, you have not yet explained the significance of your findings or if you are proceeding inductively, use the conclusion of your paper to describe your main points and explain their significance.
• Move from a detailed to a general level of consideration of the case study's findings that returns the topic to the context provided by the introduction or within a new context that emerges from your case study findings.

Note that, depending on the discipline you are writing in or the preferences of your professor, the concluding paragraph may contain your final reflections on the evidence presented as it applies to practice or on the essay's central research problem. However, the nature of being introspective about the subject of analysis you have investigated will depend on whether you are explicitly asked to express your observations in this way.

Problems to Avoid

Overgeneralization One of the goals of a case study is to lay a foundation for understanding broader trends and issues applied to similar circumstances. However, be careful when drawing conclusions from your case study. They must be evidence-based and grounded in the results of the study; otherwise, it is merely speculation. Looking at a prior example, it would be incorrect to state that a factor in improving girls access to education in Azerbaijan and the policy implications this may have for improving access in other Muslim nations is due to girls access to social media if there is no documentary evidence from your case study to indicate this. There may be anecdotal evidence that retention rates were better for girls who were engaged with social media, but this observation would only point to the need for further research and would not be a definitive finding if this was not a part of your original research agenda.

Failure to Document Limitations No case is going to reveal all that needs to be understood about a research problem. Therefore, just as you have to clearly state the limitations of a general research study , you must describe the specific limitations inherent in the subject of analysis. For example, the case of studying how women conceptualize the need for water conservation in a village in Uganda could have limited application in other cultural contexts or in areas where fresh water from rivers or lakes is plentiful and, therefore, conservation is understood more in terms of managing access rather than preserving access to a scarce resource.

Failure to Extrapolate All Possible Implications Just as you don't want to over-generalize from your case study findings, you also have to be thorough in the consideration of all possible outcomes or recommendations derived from your findings. If you do not, your reader may question the validity of your analysis, particularly if you failed to document an obvious outcome from your case study research. For example, in the case of studying the accident at the railroad crossing to evaluate where and what types of warning signals should be located, you failed to take into consideration speed limit signage as well as warning signals. When designing your case study, be sure you have thoroughly addressed all aspects of the problem and do not leave gaps in your analysis that leave the reader questioning the results.

Case Studies. Writing@CSU. Colorado State University; Gerring, John. Case Study Research: Principles and Practices . New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007; Merriam, Sharan B. Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education . Rev. ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 1998; Miller, Lisa L. “The Use of Case Studies in Law and Social Science Research.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 14 (2018): TBD; Mills, Albert J., Gabrielle Durepos, and Eiden Wiebe, editors. Encyclopedia of Case Study Research . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010; Putney, LeAnn Grogan. "Case Study." In Encyclopedia of Research Design , Neil J. Salkind, editor. (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2010), pp. 116-120; Simons, Helen. Case Study Research in Practice . London: SAGE Publications, 2009;  Kratochwill,  Thomas R. and Joel R. Levin, editors. Single-Case Research Design and Analysis: New Development for Psychology and Education .  Hilldsale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1992; Swanborn, Peter G. Case Study Research: What, Why and How? London : SAGE, 2010; Yin, Robert K. Case Study Research: Design and Methods . 6th edition. Los Angeles, CA, SAGE Publications, 2014; Walo, Maree, Adrian Bull, and Helen Breen. “Achieving Economic Benefits at Local Events: A Case Study of a Local Sports Event.” Festival Management and Event Tourism 4 (1996): 95-106.

Writing Tip

At Least Five Misconceptions about Case Study Research

Social science case studies are often perceived as limited in their ability to create new knowledge because they are not randomly selected and findings cannot be generalized to larger populations. Flyvbjerg examines five misunderstandings about case study research and systematically "corrects" each one. To quote, these are:

Misunderstanding 1 :  General, theoretical [context-independent] knowledge is more valuable than concrete, practical [context-dependent] knowledge. Misunderstanding 2 :  One cannot generalize on the basis of an individual case; therefore, the case study cannot contribute to scientific development. Misunderstanding 3 :  The case study is most useful for generating hypotheses; that is, in the first stage of a total research process, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building. Misunderstanding 4 :  The case study contains a bias toward verification, that is, a tendency to confirm the researcher’s preconceived notions. Misunderstanding 5 :  It is often difficult to summarize and develop general propositions and theories on the basis of specific case studies [p. 221].

While writing your paper, think introspectively about how you addressed these misconceptions because to do so can help you strengthen the validity and reliability of your research by clarifying issues of case selection, the testing and challenging of existing assumptions, the interpretation of key findings, and the summation of case outcomes. Think of a case study research paper as a complete, in-depth narrative about the specific properties and key characteristics of your subject of analysis applied to the research problem.

Flyvbjerg, Bent. “Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research.” Qualitative Inquiry 12 (April 2006): 219-245.

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Take action: Learn how to achieve What Works Cities Certification

Local Government Fellowship Case Studies

Every day local government leaders are making tough decisions on how to best serve their residents. Increasingly, cities and counties are placing data and evidence at the center of their decision-making to achieve the best outcomes with scarce taxpayer resources.

As part of the “Invest in What Works Policy Series,” Results for America is showcasing some of the best examples of strategies by local governments to use data and evidence to drive budget and policy decisions that help address major concerns in their communities.

These case studies highlight some of the work of RFA’s  Local Government Fellows , who are developing research partnerships with academic institutions, sharing best practices and demonstration projects, and participating in a national network that is helping to advance data-driven and evidence-based policymaking.

Local Government Case Studies

Albuquerque  .

December 20, 2018

Upon entering office on December 1, 2017, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller knew he wanted to use the city government’s purchasing power as part of his economic development strategy in an effort to help boost the local economy. An analysis of city procurement indicated that an estimated $150 million to $300 million is spent annually by Albuquerque city government to purchase goods and services. Of that amount, at least 40% of funds were spent on non-local vendor contracts in 2017. As a result, the Keller Administration sought to develop strategies to maximize taxpayer dollars circulating in the local economy by contracting with local vendors.

In the City of Dallas, in recent years, there has been an increasing number of 911 calls from people who require mental health assistance. Traditionally, the response has been to transport these people to local emergency departments or, if medically stable, arrest and book them in the Dallas County Jail, where they can receive psychiatric services. Between 2012 and 2015, the number of 911 mental health calls requiring an ambulance response increased by 59% (from 2,176 to 3,452 calls). The South Central Dallas Patrol District saw the bulk of that increase during 2012 and 2015 – from 382 to 706 calls, the equivalent of an 85% spike.

New York City

In 2014, Mayor Bill de Blasio entered office with inequality as the defining core of his agenda. Across the new administration, New York City agencies organized with this priority in mind. New York City’s Center for Economic Opportunity (CEO), established under Mayor Mike Bloomberg in 2006 as the first municipal innovation lab in the United States, was initially charged with launching and evaluating new anti-poverty pilot programs to identify effective solutions; its mandate also included constructing superior methodologies for accurately measuring poverty. With an entire administration oriented to consider economic disparities, New York City now needed to consider how CEO could evolve.

Salt Lake County

In recent years, Salt Lake County has been seeking strategies to better help residents with criminal records expand their employment opportunities. Persons with criminal records face significant barriers to employment: they are 50% less likely to be called for an interview according to the National Reentry Resource Center. The Salt Lake County Mayor’s Office and the Salt Lake County Criminal Justice Advisory Council (CJAC) set out to help eligible individuals expunge their criminal records.

The Seattle Animal Shelter was experiencing a leveling off in the number of pet licenses and renewals in recent years. Data indicated that roughly 3,000 pet licenses were expiring every month, and even after accounting for the move out rate of residents, only 60% of licenses were being renewed. Pet licensing is required by the Seattle Municipal Code and the money generated from pet licenses accounts for nearly $1.5 million in annual revenue, all of which goes directly to fund the Seattle Animal Shelter. Seattle Animal Shelter staff sought to increase renewals of pet licenses across Seattle to ensure compliance and help fund their critical operations.

Washington, DC

Washington, DC’s Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department (DCFEMS) has one of the highest per capita rate of 911 calls for emergency medical services in the United States. Yet approximately one out of every four 911 calls are for situations that do not require Emergency Medical Services (EMS) care; instead, they require primary care or urgent care services. Historically, DCFEMS has provided all 911 callers who present medical needs with the same response – an EMS team visits the person and, in most cases, transports them to the nearest hospital for admission. However, the high demand for EMS services in the nation’s capital was resulting in an EMS ambulance shortage.

Cook County

December 6, 2018

Between 2015 and 2016, Cook County, Illinois experienced a 70% increase in opioid-related deaths, up from 647 deaths to 1,081 deaths. The County also experienced a growing number of gun homicide-related deaths during that same period, up from 525 deaths in 2015 to 805 deaths in 2016, a 50% increase. Law enforcement agencies and public health advocates had been requesting data more frequently from the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office (MEO) to analyze cause of death trends and understand the scope of these crises. Although not often considered a traditional partner in public health prevention, the MEO recognized they had an important role to play in informing and curtailing the growing opioid and gun homicide-related deaths occurring in Cook County and across the country by providing real-time access to quality data on cause of death

Los Angeles

Los Angeles residents consider clean streets and alleys to be among the fundamental responsibilities of their city government. However, in recent years, Los Angeles had not met its residents’ expectations for street and alley cleanliness. The City received growing numbers of complaints from residents concerned about excessive litter, illegal dumping, and other trash, especially in neighborhoods with predominantly low income and minority residents.

In the City of Tulsa, Oklahoma the Municipal Court issues approximately 22,000 extensions to unpaid court fines – called Time Pay Orders – per year. The Time Pay Order system was originally designed to give residents an additional one- to six-month extension to submit their payments for court fees at the conclusion of a criminal case. Despite the extension, over 70% – or 16,000 – of the issued Time to Pay Orders result in a failure-to-pay warrant each year. Failure to pay often results in suspended driver’s licenses, accrual of additional fines, and further involvement in the criminal justice system. In addition, unpaid Time Pay Orders also result in more than $500,000 each year in unpaid fines.

Louisville  

September 26, 2018

Louisville residents living at or below 130% of the federal poverty line rely on the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to help cover costly home energy bills each year. However, the local LIHEAP application process was inefficient and time consuming, requiring residents to make multiple in-person visits and wait in long lines to complete their applications. The application process was inefficient for Louisville government staff as well, leaving them too little time to serve all eligible clients and award all available local LIHEAP funds.

Montgomery County  

Montgomery County, Maryland has experienced a steady increase in 911 calls for emergency medical services (EMS) in recent years. Among the nearly 84,000 calls to 911 for EMS in Montgomery County in 2013, the 100 most frequent callers were responsible for 3% (over 2,500 calls) of the call load. These residents were usually experiencing non-emergency events that often stemmed from behavioral health issues, substance abuse challenges, chronic illnesses, or a combination of these factors. They also often lacked knowledge of the non-emergency resources available to them.

King County

August 22, 2018

King County created the Best Starts for Kids initiative, which, among other things, introduced an entirely new way for the government to structure contracts and do business with human services providers. The County made their contracting process more accessible to community-based organizations that work with underserved residents. New contracting practices also promoted outcomes-focused, preventive, and early intervention services based on rigorous evidence of impact, while simultaneously allowing the County to test and build evidence for innovative and community-based approaches.

January 5, 2018

Former Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s Office of Innovation Delivery and Performance reinstituted and reimagined the city’s performance management system in late 2012. The City placed departmental staff at the center of the effort and focused foremost on how data collection and review could help city staff better deliver services and respond to the needs of residents. This unique approach was in stark contrast to traditional performance management systems, which focus on first serving the needs of the Mayor and government agency leaders.

The City of Baltimore developed an advanced outcome budgeting system in 2010 to focus resources on the most effective and promising services and programs to meet the City’s priority needs, based on performance data and evidence of impact.

New Orleans

The New Orleans Mayor’s Office of Performance and Accountability used advanced analytics, open source software, and a partnership with Louisiana State University (LSU) students to integrate the City’s administrative data with the operational expertise of New Orleans EMS staff to decrease overall EMS response times and provide equitable service to all neighborhoods.

Philadelphia

In April 2016, the Philadelphia Mayor’s Office jointly created a collaborative team called the Philadelphia Behavioral Science Initiative with academic researchers. First, Philadelphia city staff identify enrollment and usage challenges within city programs and services. Then, the team connects department staff with suitable academic research partners to identify key service touch points and develop behavioral science-based evaluations. Finally, the evaluation findings help determine how to engage city residents in these programs and services more effectively and efficiently.

Conducting Case Study Research in Sociology

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A case study is a research method that relies on a single case rather than a population or sample. When researchers focus on a single case, they can make detailed observations over a long period of time, something that cannot be done with large samples without costing a lot of money. Case studies are also useful in the early stages of research when the goal is to explore ideas, test, and perfect measurement instruments, and to prepare for a larger study. The case study research method is popular not just within ​the field of sociology, but also within the fields of anthropology, psychology, education, political science, clinical science, social work, and administrative science.

Overview of the Case Study Research Method

A case study is unique within the social sciences for its focus of study on a single entity, which can be a person, group or organization, event, action, or situation. It is also unique in that, as a focus of research, a case is chosen for specific reasons, rather than randomly , as is usually done when conducting empirical research. Often, when researchers use the case study method, they focus on a case that is exceptional in some way because it is possible to learn a lot about social relationships and social forces when studying those things that deviate from norms. In doing so, a researcher is often able, through their study, to test the validity of the social theory, or to create new theories using the grounded theory method .

The first case studies in the social sciences were likely conducted by Pierre Guillaume Frédéric Le Play, a 19th-century French sociologist and economist who studied family budgets. The method has been used in sociology, psychology, and anthropology since the early 20th century.

Within sociology, case studies are typically conducted with qualitative research methods . They are considered micro rather than macro in nature , and one cannot necessarily generalize the findings of a case study to other situations. However, this is not a limitation of the method, but a strength. Through a case study based on ethnographic observation and interviews, among other methods, sociologists can illuminate otherwise hard to see and understand social relations, structures, and processes. In doing so, the findings of case studies often stimulate further research.

Types and Forms of Case Studies

There are three primary types of case studies: key cases, outlier cases, and local knowledge cases.

• Key cases are those which are chosen because the researcher has ​a particular interest in it or the circumstances surrounding it.
• Outlier cases are those that are chosen because the case stands out from other events, organizations, or situations, for some reason, and social scientists recognize that we can learn a lot from those things that differ from the norm .
• Finally, a researcher may decide to conduct a local knowledge case study when they already have amassed a usable amount of information about a given topic, person, organization, or event, and so is well-poised to conduct a study of it.

Within these types, a case study may take four different forms: illustrative, exploratory, cumulative, and critical.

• Illustrative case studies are descriptive in nature and designed to shed light on a particular situation, set of circumstances, and the social relations and processes that are embedded in them. They are useful in bringing to light something about which most people are not aware of.
• Exploratory case studies are also often known as pilot studies . This type of case study is typically used when a researcher wants to identify research questions and methods of study for a large, complex study. They are useful for clarifying the research process, which can help a researcher make the best use of time and resources in the larger study that will follow it.
• Cumulative case studies are those in which a researcher pulls together already completed case studies on a particular topic. They are useful in helping researchers to make generalizations from studies that have something in common.
• Critical instance case studies are conducted when a researcher wants to understand what happened with a unique event and/or to challenge commonly held assumptions about it that may be faulty due to a lack of critical understanding.

Whatever type and form of case study you decide to conduct, it's important to first identify the purpose, goals, and approach for conducting methodologically sound research.

• Definition of Idiographic and Nomothetic
• Pilot Study in Research
• Understanding Purposive Sampling
• The Different Types of Sampling Designs in Sociology
• Social Surveys: Questionnaires, Interviews, and Telephone Polls
• Introduction to Sociology
• All About Marxist Sociology
• Abstract Writing for Sociology
• Definition and Overview of Grounded Theory
• The Sociology of Race and Ethnicity
• Definition of Cultural Materialism
• Definition of Aggregate and Social Aggregate
• Macro- and Microsociology
• Cluster Sample in Sociology Research
• How W.E.B. Du Bois Made His Mark on Sociology
• Biography of Patricia Hill Collins, Esteemed Sociologist

Private Transit: Existing Services and Emerging Directions (2018)

Chapter: section 5 - case studies: local approaches to transportation challenges.

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32 This section presents three case studies that provide more in-depth information on specific aspects of private transit operations and regulation: • Case Study I examines the Bay Area “Tech Bus” shuttle census and SFMTA commuter shuttle program, which together provide an example of a proactive and cooperative model for arriving at a regulatory structure, despite public authorities’ lack of statutory power. • Case Study II examines consortium-based shuttles and the variety of public-private part- nerships that have been developed to support commuter access to suburban job centers, areas that would have difficulty supporting fixed-route public transit. • Case Study III addresses jitneys and dollar vans in the New York City area, focusing on the evo- lution of regulatory structures and enforcement around these informal private transit networks. Case Study I: San Francisco’s “Tech Buses”: Piloting a Cooperative Process for Prioritizing Street Use This case study examines the process of building a responsive, largely cooperative regulatory policy for the hundreds of “tech buses” that travel between the City of San Francisco and Silicon Valley, picking up and dropping off thousands of passengers per day on each end. Use of these services has grown rapidly over the last decade, and they fill an important gap in the regional transportation system. The process of policy development, although not seamless, provides a model for jurisdictions grappling with how to prioritize the needs of the numerous public and private actors who take part in a transportation system that helps keep thousands of personal automobiles off the roads. Many of the most world’s best-known technology companies—including Facebook, Google, and Apple—are based in suburban office parks in Silicon Valley, an area of no legal defini- tion that encompasses the southern end of the Bay Area. Many of these campuses are served by employer-sponsored commuter shuttles, popularly known as “tech buses,” which transport employees to Silicon Valley from the San Francisco and other communities in the central and northern Bay Area. (Many companies and institutions outside the technology sector also pro- vide these shuttles, but the “tech” moniker has proved to be persistent.) Most of the major employers are in municipalities that implemented TDM strategies in the years leading up to the SFMTA pilot program, requiring that they work to actively reduce the number of drive-alone commuters to their locations.8 Given the lack of direct public S E C T I O N 5 Case Studies: Local Approaches to Transportation Challenges 8Menlo Park first adopted TDM guidelines in 2001 (Menlo Park 2015), and an example of its application can be found in the TDM plan proposed by Facebook for a new campus in the city in 2011. Palo Alto initiated a TDM requirement and established a TMA in 2013. In 2015, Mountain View implemented a TDM district in the North Bayshore area, which includes office parks for such corporations as Google, Microsoft, Intuit, and LinkedIn.

Case Studies: Local Approaches to Transportation Challenges 33 transportation routes, local TDM requirements gave the companies an additional incentive to provide shuttle buses as an amenity for their employees. By 2012, the growing presence of large motor coaches, especially in gentrifying San Francisco neighborhoods such as the Mission District, along with the buses’ unsanctioned use of Muni bus stops for pick-ups and drop-offs, began attracting negative attention from residents and the media (Carroll 2013, McBride 2013). At that point, the shuttles were largely unregulated beyond state public utility commission requirements for licensing and vehicle operation. Local author- ity over the shuttles was limited to enforcement of traffic and parking regulations, with little say over whether, or how many, shuttles could operate in the city of San Francisco. Shuttle sponsors, transit operators, and the city began to recognize the value of regulations for the shuttles that went beyond writing tickets for parking violations. Since an effective system of curb access for passenger loading would tend to be widely distributed, clear of obstacles, and within walk- ing distance of many people—all characteristics of the existing system of Muni stops—arriving at a way to allow managed use of those stops was of interest to both the city and to private operators. In August 2014, the SFMTA, working directly with a group of shuttle sponsors and operators, launched a cooperative pilot program that rationalized private use of the public right-of-way by 1. Allowing shuttles to use designated Muni bus stops. 2. Providing dedicated shuttle stops. 3. Offering other means of planning support and data sharing. 4. Instituting an administrative fee (charge per shuttle stop) to fund the program and strengthen enforcement of its provisions. With revisions including a requirement to plan for cooperation with organized labor, the pilot was formalized as a 12-month program starting in April 2016, with evaluation of the program beginning in the fall of 2016. In the spring of 2017, the program was extended indefinitely with ongoing mandates for ADA compliance and safety provisions. Pilot Program, 2014 to 2016 The groundwork for the Commuter Shuttle Pilot Program was laid 5 years before implemen- tation. SFMTA collaborated with the SFCTA on the latter’s 2011 report, “The Role of Shuttle Services in San Francisco’s Transportation System” (SFCTA 2011). The researchers used a com- bination of community and passenger surveys and field observations to formulate a benefit- impact matrix, shown in Table 4. After consideration of alternatives, the SFMTA’s Sustainable Streets Division recommended the establishment of a “Muni Partners” program with the shuttle providers to rationalize the use of the public right-of-way, ensure safe operations, and integrate the shuttle service with other transit services. The SFCTA’s 2011 report specifically called out the following measures, which would influence the 2014 to 2016 pilot program (SFCTA 2011, 14): • Create dedicated facilities to accommodate the shuttles. • Develop a system for reporting of infractions and enforcement of relevant regulations. • Give guidance to operators and dedicate staffing resources to the program. • Create a monitoring and reporting regimen. Following SFMTA board approval, an 18-month Commuter Shuttle Pilot Program was implemented in August 2014. The initial pilot program included 16 shuttle providers, who were required to • Apply for permits. • Pay fees to support the administration of the program, initially $3.67 per “stop event” (mean- ing any stop in the city to pick up or drop off passengers). • Provide global positioning system (GPS) data on routes and stop events.

34 Private Transit: Existing Services and Emerging Directions SFMTA did not dictate routes, but the larger shuttles were not permitted to travel down cer- tain streets. The agency, in turn, designated approximately 100 Muni stops (“red zones”) where the shuttles might stop and converted on-street parking spaces to approximately 20 shuttle-only, rush hour “white zone” stops. Mid-Term Findings In October 2015, the SFMTA published a mid-program evaluation that utilized the above- mentioned reporting requirements (SFMTA 2015). The agency collected field observations in the boarding zones in June 2014, before the program started, and collected comparable data in the spring and summer of 2015. The analysis also included GPS and survey data shared by the participating shuttles as part of the terms of their pilot program agreement. Shuttle Data The following data on shuttles were reported: • Number and size of shuttles. The shuttle operators registered 479 vehicles by March 2015. Most were motor coaches (399)—either single- or double-decker buses, with a capacity of more than 40 passengers—with the remainder split between minibuses seating up to 30 pas- sengers (40), Muni-style transit buses (30), and vans (10). • Passengers carried. The shuttles in the program averaged 17,000 boardings per day (or approximately 8,500 riders per day), for 356,998 boardings per month. Of these boardings, 76% were intercity regional shuttle trips, and 24% had origins and destinations within San Francisco. Beneits Category Measure Public Private (Broad in scope, highly regionalized) Congestion Vehicle trips avoided X VMT avoided X Load factor X Environmental Emissions reduced (CO2) X Emissions reduced (ROG, NOx, PM) X Economic Local spending induced X Employee retention X Productive time gained X Accessibility X Quality of Life Car ownership reduced X X Leisure or personal time gained X (More detailed, operations level, localized) Congestion Displacement of other vehicles (cars, bikes) when parked or idling X X Displacement of Muni vehicles when parked or idling X Environmental Emissions produced (due to larger vehicle size or when idling) X Quality of Life Noise/vibrations X X Safety Unsafe sightlines if double-parked or in Muni zone X Unsafe sightlines at certain locations if moving (e.g., turning corners) X X Collisions X X Pavement Condition Wear and tear on pavement X Wear and tear on curb bulbs (e.g., turning corners) X Impacts Table 4. High-level shuttle benefits and Impacts. (Credit: SFCTA 2011)

Case Studies: Local Approaches to Transportation Challenges 35 • Stop events. Participating shuttles made an estimated 2,302 daily stop events in June 2014 in the study area, before the launch of the program. In July 2015, they estimated 2,978 daily stop events in the study area, a 29% increase. • Trip distances and shuttle VMT. The intercity shuttles traveled an average of 47 miles per trip, while the intracity shuttles traveled an average of 2 miles per trip. The study estimated the overall shuttle VMT as follows: – 47,484 per weekday – 997,156 per month – 11,965,877 per year The VMT numbers include “deadhead,” or empty, shuttle trips (SFMTA 2015, 12). Finally, the dwell times per boarding increased over the study time, although the effect was minimal on the system as whole. Rider Data and Personal VMT Reduction Attributable to Commuter Shuttles SFMTA surveyed shuttle riders in June 2015. Of nearly 550 respondents, 72% rode the shuttle daily, and 18% rode a few times a week. The survey’s split of intercity (76%) to intracity (24%) trips was almost identical to boardings data, with 55% of respondents going to Menlo Park. The survey reported that “nearly half (45%) of survey respondents do not own cars, and 45% of those who do not own cars cited shuttles as the ‘main reason’ they did not own a car” (SFMTA 2015, 16) The survey also reported that 47% of the riders would commute via single-occupancy vehicle (SOV) if the shuttles were not available. Using the shuttle and rider data, SFMTA estimated a net monthly reduction of 4,296,837 VMT (SFMTA 2015, 18). Safety and Enforcement The SFMTA pilot addressed some of the behavior of the shuttles during stop events in the shuttle zones, especially those “where shuttle activity has received significant attention” like the Mission District (SFMTA 2015, 19): • Blocking problems. Instances of the shuttles blocking Muni stops decreased by 35% year over year, but the overall increase of stop events and the addition of white zones caused increases in travel- and bike-lane blockages across the system. Stops on the near side of intersections blocked travel or bike lanes 51% of the time during the observation period. Near-side blocking also created potential hazards for pedestrians. • Vehicle idling, noise, and unauthorized street use. Some public responses were con- cerned with shuttle vehicles idling in neighborhoods and vehicle noise and presence. Other problems included shuttles traveling down unauthorized streets or making unau- thorized stops. The latter prompted reforms to the program as it approached formalization into policy. Labor Harmony and New Policy The SFMTA board formalized the pilot as a policy in February 2016, following the recom- mendations of its evaluation report. Additions to the policy stated that • Shuttles over 35 feet in length must travel only on Caltrans-designated arterial streets. • New shuttle vehicles must meet 2012 California emissions standards. • Shuttle operators must provide a Service Disruption Prevention Plan (SFMTA 2017).

36 Private Transit: Existing Services and Emerging Directions The latter provision, which required companies to outline plans for preventing and deal- ing with potential service disruptions, including labor disputes, was drafted in response to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ organizing of drivers for the major shuttle provid- ers and to possible disruptions due to resistance by some employers (SF Board of Supervisors Resolution 96-15, 2015). The SFMTA Board of Directors announced its compliance with the labor resolution at the end of the pilot program. The program also permits shuttles that are free and open to the public to use the shuttle zone network without paying the stop event fee (SFMTA 2017). The permit process was codified in Section 914 of the San Francisco Transportation Code. Hub Study, 2016 Faced with shuttles’ persistent issues of conflict with other road users, use of non-arterial streets, and use of nearly all the permitted number of zones, the SFCTA and SFMTA undertook a study to explore the feasibility of concentrating over 100 red zone Muni and white zone shuttle- only stops into a small number of hubs. The study explored multiple scenarios, which ranged from simply consolidating the number of stops to 30 along arterial corridors to creating a single large hub in downtown San Francisco (SFMTA 2016b, 9). The scenarios attempted to address the goals of moving the shuttles out of neighborhoods, making them safer, and more fully integrating them into the public transit system. Mode shift and VMT analyses showed that “shuttle ridership would drop between 24% and 45%, nearly all those prior shuttle riders would switch to driving, and VMT would increase five- to eight-fold” (SFMTA 2016b, 2). A San Francisco Chronicle article published during the writing of the study illustrated a possible correlation between elimination of some stops and a decline in ridership on the shuttles (Lee 2016). 2017 Policy and Possible Changes The policy was set to expire on March 31, 2017, but was extended with modifications, including a requirement that “permitted shuttles placed in service after June 30, 2017 comply with disability access requirements.” Remaining in the resolution is the assertion that “shuttle service provides significant benefits to the community by replacing single occupant trips with more efficient transportation, contributing to a reduction in parking demand, and supporting the City’s goal of increasing trips made by sustainable modes” (SFMTA Board of Directors Res. 170221-023). Conclusion The San Francisco commuter shuttle program is a case of a public agency finding a coopera- tive way to bring unregulated, private transit companies to the table in a voluntary program, which evolved into a working policy, with beneficial outcomes for many of the stakeholders. In framing the 2017 launch of the final policy, SFMTA asserted that the Commuter Shuttle Program has improved shuttle vehicle behavior while minimizing the impacts of shuttle vehicles on the rest of the transportation network, despite a 15 percent increase in shuttle ridership and an increase in the number of shuttle vehicles on the road each day as compared to the Pilot. (2017, 1) Although the process was not seamless, it provides a model for other jurisdictions grappling with how to expand commuting options and prioritize the needs of the numerous public and private actors who take part in a transportation system that helps keep many personal auto- mobiles off the road every day.

Case Studies: Local Approaches to Transportation Challenges 37 Case Study II: Consortium-Sponsored Services: Public-Private Partnerships to Access Low-Density Areas The service model that this report has termed “consortium-sponsored services” is neither wholly sponsored by a single entity like the large employer shuttle networks, nor is it purely commercial. Instead, the consortium-sponsored shuttles examined here are the product of public-private partnerships that usually provide last-mile service in lower density areas. The case study comprises five examples, representing a variety of urban forms and transportation contexts: • San Mateo County Shuttles, coordinated by the San Mateo County (California) TDM agency, provide last-mile private transit from regional high-capacity transit services. • Austin is experimenting with employer-anchored, last-mile microtransit routes open to the public. • The Lake-Cook TMA outside Chicago combines the resources of private employers to sub- sidize public bus routes between commuter rail stops and large suburban office campuses. • Lone Tree, Colorado, provides private transit shuttle service and allows transit-oriented development to take place while waiting for planned transit facilities to be built. • In Atlanta’s northern suburbs, community improvement districts contract for private last- mile and circulator shuttles to extend the reach of MARTA rail service. In each example, the private transit services are open to the public and, with a few exceptions, are free to all users. Public-private partnerships are attractive to the private employment and residential centers because private transit provides an alternative to drive-alone commutes, helps with employee recruitment and retention, and sometimes helps to satisfy local TDM requirements. The arrangement is attractive to public entities that provide funding and/or operating assistance for the shuttles for some of the same reasons, as well as supporting ridership on existing transit lines and fulfilling clean air requirements. The most successful of these programs have documented success in diverting SOV trips, keep- ing cars off congested roads and highways, and helping to bolster regional transit ridership, with modest costs to the public. San Mateo County Shuttles: Giving Employers an Active Stake in Route Planning and Regional TDM The consortium-based service shuttle coordinated by Commute.org in San Mateo County, CA, serves as a last-mile solution from regional high-capacity transit services. San Mateo County, at the south end of the Peninsula, is served by Caltrain commuter rail, BART heavy rail, the county’s SamTrans buses, and ferries along the coast. Some of the companies in the county run the direct commuter shuttles from San Francisco, as discussed elsewhere in this report. Many also choose to participate in the county’s last-mile shuttle program. Commute.org is San Mateo County’s TDM agency, a joint-powers agency that covers 17 municipalities and the county government and receives funding through the City/County Association of Governments of San Mateo County (C/CAG), the San Mateo County Transpor- tation Authority (SMCTA), the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), and the MTC (Commute.org interview 2017). The Commute.org program features • Public and private funding. Consortium members provide a local match ranging from 25% to 50% of the cost of the service, with the remainder provided by county grant funds from

38 Private Transit: Existing Services and Emerging Directions SMCTA, C/CAG, and Measure A funds. Measure A is a sales county tax measure that was approved by voters in 1988 and renewed for 2009 through 2033. Employers or sites can apply directly for county grants to support their own shuttles, or they can work through Commute.org to build a group of employers and allow the TDM group to manage the planning and operation of the shuttles. • TDM management and coordination. In addition to spreading the risk among more private participants, Commute.org helps fund and build the consortium, plans the routes to not conflict with existing bus routes, procures a transportation vendor, and markets the system using common branding and information. • Services, costs, and ridership levels. Vehicles range in size from 20 to 40 passengers. As of June 2017, there are 21 routes, and the cost to the employer/site per month ranges from $100 to $3,000, on a 6-month billing cycle. The Commute.org program has seen a 47.3% increase in passenger trips from fiscal year 2013 to fiscal year 2016 (Commute.org 2016, Commute.org interview 2017, SMCTA 2017). The transportation vendor, MV Transportation, provides ADA-accessible buses with trained drivers and provides data for the county transit agency to report to the National Transit Data- base (NTD). The shuttles are free and open to the public and run during the weekday peak hours (Commute.org interview 2017). Employer-Anchored Microtransit in Central Austin Austin’s MetroRail light rail transit (LRT) line connects several of the growing region’s sub- urbs to the heart of downtown Austin, but with the city’s relatively low density, many employ- ment centers, even those with central city locations, are “somewhat near transit, but not quite close enough to walk comfortably,” in the words of Alix Scarborough of Movability Austin, the Downtown Austin TMA (2017b). To make the train a more useful option for employees just beyond its reach, the TMA, City of Austin, and Capital Metro partnered with the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Institute and several large employers in the 6th Street Market District, west of downtown, to pilot employer-supported microtransit routes operated by Chariot (Movability Austin 2017a). Under Chariot’s business model, routes are generally either “public” (open to anybody with the application who happens to be going that direction) or “private” (sponsored ser- vices open only to the sponsors’ employees). In Austin, two large Market District companies worked with the public-sector and nonprofit partners to sponsor their employees’ trips on a route that was otherwise open to the public—anchoring a new microtransit service for the district and creating a new fare-based mobility option for other employees in the area. The routes created under the system became Chariot’s first permanent routes in the Austin region (Velazquez 2016). Lake-Cook TMA Shuttle Bug: Private Support for Fully “Public” Routes The Shuttle Bug service in Chicago’s northern suburbs is the most visible public-private col- laboration of the consortium-sponsored shuttles, as the Pace transit agency operates the shuttle lines with buses that operate as public transit (i.e., with standard fareboxes) for the general public. Sponsored riders enjoy a free last-mile trip from Metra commuter rail stations to their work destinations. The program was initiated by the Lake-Cook TMA, which was formed in 1989 in response to drive-alone traffic generated by a proliferation of suburban office parks around the expressways

Case Studies: Local Approaches to Transportation Challenges 39 and Lake-Cook Road in Chicago’s northwestern suburbs. The Shuttle Bug program was initiated in 1996 and is a public-private partnership of the TMA, Metra commuter rail, Pace Suburban Bus, and several corporate partners. Pace owns and operates the buses as numbered routes in their system, with the operating cost supported by the private partners and whatever farebox revenue is also generated on the routes (LaBelle and Frève 2016, 30; Grzesiakowski and Gamba 2013a; TMA of Lake-Cook 2017). Program details include • Public-private financing. On the operations side, the companies contribute half the cost of the program by way of the TMA, and Metra and Pace split the other half (25% overall, each). • Services and ridership. The program currently offers 13 routes that serve 30 compa- nies with 1,000 daily rider trips and 250,000 annual trips. Although this is down from a peak of 1,700 daily trips in 2008, the TMA attributes part of the decrease to the number of employers in the area that have seen the value in providing non-automobile com- mute options to their employees and have chosen to bypass the TMA and finance private shuttles directly (increasing their control over the level of amenity). At least a dozen large employers in the TMA area now provide their own shuttles from Metra stations in the district (LaBelle and Frève 2016, 31; Grzesiakowski and Gamba 2013a and 2013b; TMA interview 2017). Lone Tree Link: Enabling Transit-Oriented Development Before the Transit Arrives The Denver metropolitan area continues to grow both geographically and economically. The south-suburban City of Lone Tree was incorporated in 1995 in response to land-use pressure and has grown rapidly since as both a job center and a residential area. According to Lone Tree’s Director of Economic Development, some 15,000 to 20,000 employees work in a city of around 13,000 residents and just under 10 square miles in area. Lone Tree straddles I-25 and currently sits at the southern terminus of the Regional Transit District’s (RTD) Southeast Corridor LRT line. Construction has begun on a southward exten- sion of the line that will open three more LRT stations in the city by 2019. The city has planned its future growth around the arrival of the additional stations and service, with dense, walkable transit-oriented development as a central part of that vision and of its eco- nomic development portfolio. In the meantime, however, Lone Tree remains a relatively low-density exurban area. Anticipating the arrival of the additional LRT stations in the city, but knowing that they were still several years away, municipal and corporate leaders in Lone Tree collaborated to provide a private local circulator service that would allow the city to start building around transit before the transit arrived (Charles Schwab interview 2017, Lone Tree interview 2017, Svaldi 2014). The financial services firm Charles Schwab & Co. decided to site a large campus in the city due to proximity to housing and transit and in anticipation of the new LRT service. In the interim, Schwab teamed with the Denver South TMA, the City of Lone Tree, and companies from two other corporate campuses—the Sky Ridge Medical Center and Park Ridge Corporate Center— to run the Lone Tree Link Shuttle, a private local circulator. The $500,000 annual cost is split among the consortium members, with Schwab pay- ing slightly more than half. Each private partner contracts separately with the city for their participation. The shuttle is contracted to a private operator that runs Link-branded vans that are free and open to the public, although work-destined users are an estimated 90% of the ridership. Although it is overwhelmingly a commuter service, the Link runs every 10 minutes throughout

40 Private Transit: Existing Services and Emerging Directions its service period (weekdays, 6am to 7pm). The latest annual report shows approximately 350 daily riders and claims an average of 5.9 riders per revenue hour, which outpaces the 3.0 ratio that the RTD sets as its standard for its public call-and-ride option. The shuttles are all ADA-compliant, but are considered a private service and do not report to the NTD. As the shuttle runs on a fixed route, it benefits the larger campuses and was always envisioned as a temporary solution while the city awaits the arrival of the new LRT stations. Charles Schwab will be two blocks from a light rail stop and will not need the shuttle. The city is launching within a year a pilot to explore a possible last-mile solution with a TNC. This would serve the smaller companies that could not afford the Link on their own. Given its popularity, the city is consider- ing a “Link 2.0” that would serve the new stations, as well (Charles Schwab interview 2017, Lone Tree interview 2017, Woullard 2014, Lone Tree 2017). Perimeter Connects: Creating a Shuttle Network at Atlanta’s Suburban Edge The Perimeter Center is an “edge city” in north suburban Atlanta that includes parts of the Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, and Brookhaven municipalities, as well as other unincorpo- rated areas. In many ways, it is an archetypal suburban activity node: it draws its name from the mall at its center that was, in turn, named after the ring road Interstate at the peak of which it is built. The district now contains a major medical center and is a one of the region’s major business districts, with some 120,000 employees working at 5,000 firms in the widely dispersed area (PCID 2012). The four northernmost stations of the MARTA rail system sit within the district, and the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority provides limited express bus service in the area. The Perimeter Community Improvement Districts (CIDs) include both the Central and Fulton Perimeter CIDs, in DeKalb and Fulton Counties, respectively. The Perimeter CIDs are self-taxing entities that have, under the Georgia model, the ability to implement a broad range of programs, including transportation services like the Perimeter Connects commuter program, which coordinates, brands, and publishes schedule information for private shut- tles operating in the district (Kuhn, Larson, and Bourdeaux 2016). While the CIDs support a branded network of about a dozen shuttles, other companies within their jurisdictions contract directly with bus operators to provide last-mile services from MARTA and within the district. The Perimeter Connect shuttles are operated by American Coach Lines. It contracts with several different businesses, who cosign under one contract governed by a memorandum of understanding and a chairperson. The bus drivers work for the company as W-2 employees, and the buses are wheelchair accessible. The contractor does not report to the NTD, but pri- vately reports 15,000 to 16,000 passengers per month. The contractor does not compare rider- ship to capacity; rather, headways and schedules appear to be the biggest concern. While the contractor does not see automation on the horizon, it looks to Chariot and other microtransit companies as a possible model for improving service (PCID 2012, American Coach Lines interview 2017). Conclusion These examples of consortium-sponsored services provide several compelling models for enhancing regional public transit investments in a variety of contexts. All are in areas where current land uses make public bus service a challenge, and walking and biking are not reasonable

Case Studies: Local Approaches to Transportation Challenges 41 options. Consortium-sponsored services are often closely coordinated with public entities, such as municipalities or TDM groups, with public monies helping to underwrite the transportation provided. In all these examples, the services are at their core an extension of regional high- capacity public transit and improve access to employment in noncore parts of their metro areas. The private-sector contribution is provided as an amenity to attract employees and customers who may not want to, or be able to, drive to a suburban location. As largely private services, the shuttles’ routes can be tailored for quick connections and more direct service and can be responsive to changes in the local mix of employers and develop- ment. With the growth of population and commercial activity in low-density land-use contexts showing no sign of abating, finding ways to support suburban trips on transit will only grow in importance. Case Study III: Dollar Vans and Jersey Jitneys: Grassroots Private Transit Evolves at the Regulatory Margins While the commuter shuttles that serve the San Francisco Bay Area serve many users who would otherwise drive alone on trips that are not practical to make via public transit, the dollar vans and jitneys in the New York City area and New Jersey included in this case study tend to serve a population less likely to have vehicles of their own. To give an idea of the scale of this mostly informal network, transportation scholar Eric Goldwyn estimates that the New York City metropolitan commuter van network serves more than 100,000 riders daily, more than many major U.S. cities’ public bus networks (Goldwyn 2017, 20). The regulatory environment that surrounds the vans and jitneys is confusing and often out of step with the services’ basic operational characteristics. Recent policy changes attempt to induce participation in licensing through lowered requirements and higher fines for rogue operators, a sign that regulators and operators are evolving in tandem. At present, however, regulatory structures for this grassroots system are still struggling to balance the transportation and safety needs of passengers, the business needs of operators, and the public policy needs of regulating authorities and public transit agencies. New York City Dollar Vans As discussed in the historical overview in Section 1 of this report, the jitney mode of private transit first arose with popular access to automobiles. The rebirth of the jitney and the mod- ern dollar van in the New York City area was born of municipal fiscal crises of the 1970s and grew especially following the 1980 transit strike. Given cuts in services, New York City and New York State (the latter controls the MTA) took a liberal approach to granting commuter van permits. The vans emerged as popular transportation options in Brooklyn and Queens, especially in immigrant communities from the West Indies and parts of Asia (Goldwyn 2017, 45; Richardson 1999). By 1992, the city was ready to take regulatory control over the vans, which was granted on a limited basis along state guidelines. New York State regulates the safe operation of what it defines as buses—any vehicle used to transport more than 10 people, including a driver (NY State Regs., 720.1). The city licensed “commuter vans,” which it defined as carrying between 9 and 20 passengers, on a route that does not travel or stop along a route traveled by MTA buses, on a prearranged

42 Private Transit: Existing Services and Emerging Directions basis (i.e., without accepting street hails) (Goldwyn 2017, 48; NYC Code §19-502 and §19-529.1). Licensing is handled by the New York City Taxi and Limousine TLC, which also regulates other FHVs under 20 passengers (NYC Code §52-02). The New York City vans often parallel New York City MTA bus routes and stop anywhere along the route, but often deliver riders to destinations at less fare and time cost to the user than a ride on MTA. The effect is magnified when vans make express trips between destinations of inter- est to specific communities. For instance, dollar vans provide express service between Chinatowns in Flushing, Queens, and Sunset Park, Brooklyn, in about 20 minutes—a trip that takes more than an hour on MTA local routes (Margonelli 2011). On their face, the commuter van route and street hail provisions place nearly every van, licensed or “pirate,” in violation of the law. The vans travel and pick up fares on the bor- oughs’ major arterials, almost all of which are MTA bus routes. Likewise, the vans are ad hoc services that do not travel on fixed schedules between stops, so by their nature they rely on street hails. The TLC appears to be heading toward a simplified regulatory environment that does more to recognize the vans’ basic operating characteristics. The latest regulatory revisions eliminated the requirement for the vans to carry a passenger manifest (a vestige of the idea that they provide a prearranged service, but which was widely ignored in practice) and emphasized the display of van license decals to make it easier for passengers to tell licensed vans from unlicensed, encour- aging their use of the former. While the relevant enforcement agencies have attempted to limit the vans to specific pick-up zones, in practice the vans, licensed or unlicensed, do not adhere to the rules (TLC interview 2017, NYCDOT interview 2017). However, as a New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) staffer noted in an interview (2017), calls for better enforcement often come from the licensed vans within the industry, as van owners that pay for inspections and licensing will report the pirate vans if they see them cutting into their business or loading passengers at the few designated commuter van stands. Likewise, the police enforce traffic behavior, not licensing issues. But the contradictions at the core of the dollar van regulatory scheme remain unresolved (King and Goldwyn 2014, Reiss 2014). New Jersey Jitneys The New Jersey–based jitneys arose in the 1990s and spread in the new millennium. Although they have their origins in the immigrant neighborhoods of the city of Paterson and Hudson County, the jitneys are more widely visible and have gained a more general ridership (Hellman interview 2017). Some of the New Jersey jitneys’ greater visibility could be due to many of the routes’ greater regulatory exposure as they cross state lines to access New York City destinations. Some routes have gained a form of sanction in Manhattan by securing their own gates in the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown and the authority’s George Washington Bridge Bus Station in far uptown Fort Washington. In the latter, jitney compa- nies operate out of four gates to NJ Transit’s seven. The Hudson County origins are served by multiple public transit modes, with NJ Transit buses and Hudson-Bergen Light Rail and the Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) Corporation heavy rail serving the county, as well as ferry service. Just as with the New York City dollar vans, the jitney form follows regulatory function. The jit- neys that cross from New Jersey to Manhattan fall under federal jurisdiction, as they are engaging in interstate commerce. At the federal level, the vehicles are classified by passenger capacity, with the relevant breaks at 9- to15-seat vehicles and those with more than 16 seats. Since the jitneys

Case Studies: Local Approaches to Transportation Challenges 43 accept direct compensation from the passenger, they are subject to full Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. As shown in Table 5, the primary concern of the regulation is vehicle safety, and the chief difference between the two categories is the level of liability insurance required (NJTPA 2011, 53–59). The regulatory considerations devolve to the state level for operations that take place entirely within New Jersey, although the Department of Motor Vehicles assists in both federal regula- tions. Here, the municipalities have the power of consent regarding operations (mainly, stops) within their jurisdiction. Most intrastate jitneys cross at least a few municipal borders. The 2011 Hudson County Jitney Study called for consideration of a Hudson County (where most of the non-Paterson service occurs) medallion/decal system, but no such system or its analogue has been implemented. The major shifts in policy have occurred with a 2013 safety law that includes a requirement that every “omnibus” (i.e., jitney) post a means of contacting the state over safety or other consumer affairs concerns (NJ P.L. 2013 c.224, Brenzel 2015). The state and counties have also launched surprise inspections. The state also distinguishes between types of buses, so that vehicles that are performing commercial services are identi- fied apart from those performing nonprofit services, e.g., transporting residents of assisted liv- ing facilities. Vehicle accessibility in compliance with ADA standards remains elusive, however (NJMVC 2013; NJDMV 2017, Code 54; NJTPA 2011, 46). Table 5. Federal and New Jersey state regulations: jitneys/commuter vans. (Source: NJTPA 2011) (continued on next page)

44 Private Transit: Existing Services and Emerging Directions Regardless of these regulations, representatives of Hudson County are still working to create greater oversight (Mota 2016). On the other hand, while safety and ADA accessibility remain issues, planners and politicians face the projection of latent demand for trans-Hudson River crossings, and the Port Authority Bus Terminal faces capacity issues (Port Authority of New York and New Jersey 2016, A-2). Conclusion In the case of both the New York City dollar vans and New Jersey jitneys, the services fill an accessibility need for transit-dependent populations. Regulation and enforcement has not proved consistent, with the latter more geared toward enforcement of general traffic violations, such as blocking bus stops. While they might face some disruption from electronic hailing tech- nologies and TNCs, the jitney mode has proven robust and persistent in the region. Table 5. (Continued).

TRB's Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) Research Report 196: Private Transit: Existing Services and Emerging Directions provides information about private transit services and ways they are addressing transportation needs in a variety of operating environments. The document contains an overview and taxonomy of private transit services in the United States, a review of their present scope and operating characteristics, and a discussion of ways they may affect the communities in which they operate along with several case studies and other supporting information.

Private transit services—including airport shuttles, shared taxis, private commuter buses, dollar vans and jitneys—have operated for decades in many American cities. Recently, business innovations and technological advances that allow real-time ride-hailing, routing, tracking, and payment have ushered in a new generation of private transit options. These include new types of public-private partnership that are helping to bridge first/last mile gaps in suburban areas.

The report also examines ways that private transit services are interacting with communities and transit agencies, as well as resulting impacts and benefits.

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Trend Report 2021 – Delivering Justice / Case Study: Local Council Courts in Uganda

Author: Manasi Nikam , Knowledge Management Officer

Introduction

During the guerilla war that took place in the National Resistance Movement (NRM) of 1981-86,  Resistance Councils were established to mobilise people as well as resolve disputes in areas dominated by rebels. In 1987, when the country was undergoing decentralisation, the Resistance Council Judicial Statute of 1988 granted judicial authority to the Resistance Councils and renamed them Local Councils (LCs) (Khadiagala 2001).

By granting LCs judicial authority, the NRM sought ‘to foster participatory democracy and political inclusiveness’ (Khadiagala 2001, p.64.). The mandate required the Local Councils to conduct meetings with community members regularly and address problems collectively. At that time, the formal judiciary in the country was in the process of being restored. In their absence, Local Council Courts filled the gap of unmet justice needs of the people in Uganda (World Bank 2009). 

Over time, the Local Councils became an alternative to the traditional, adversarial approach of the formal court system. Their primary objective was to enable popular justice that emphasises indigenous values of communal harmony, cooperation, compromise and conciliation (Khadiagala 2001, p.64) . Local Council Court members or judges therefore were given the flexibility to adjudicate cases using common sense and wisdom (Khadiagala 2001, p.56). Local norms and social ties influence the sanctions imposed by Local Council Court members (Khadiagala 2001, p.64). The involvement of community members made Local Council Courts more accessible and affordable, especially for the citizens living in rural areas. 

We chose Local Council Courts as an example of an informal justice system that delivers people-centred justice for these reasons and more. As we will see below, the model of the Local Council Courts is user-friendly. They have been designed to suit the needs of the majority of the people in Uganda. The widespread usage of Local Council Courts in Uganda distinguishes them from informal justice systems that often operate in small geographies. 

For the purpose of collecting data for this case study, we tried to contact members of Local Council Courts, government functionaries that oversee their administration and development, members of civil society organisations and academics. Unfortunately, most of the stakeholders were hard to establish contact with. Very often, stakeholders did not take ownership of this justice system. Some stakeholders were willing to share their experience of working with Local Council Courts, but had expertise only in certain domains and were unable to give us a holistic view of Local Council Courts. Similarly, literature on Local Council Courts is scant. Therefore, lack of adequate data posed a limitation while developing this case study. 

Yet, we present this case study because we believe that there is much to learn from what we do know. In the below sections, we summarise, synthesise and examine the strengths and weaknesses of this unique dispute resolution mechanism as it exists today, with the hope that justice workers can build further on it and perhaps sketch a roadmap to consolidate the position of alternative, community-based justice services such as these that exist elsewhere in the world and are better suited to deliver justice than any other justice system. 

How do Local Council Courts function?

The 2006 Local Council Courts Act led to formation of Local Council Courts in Uganda at the village (LC1), parish (LC2), town (LC3), division (LC4) and sub-county (LC5) level. The Ministry of Local Government oversees the functioning of Local Council Courts. Members or judges of the Local Council Courts are residents of the locality the LCC has jurisdiction over. Members of Local Council Courts may or may not have academic qualifications but it is essential that they are highly respected in the community, persons of integrity, have a high moral character, and speak the local language. Decisions of Local Council Courts derive their legitimacy from the fact that members of LCC are influential figures in the community (Government of Uganda 2006). 

Unlike the time-consuming manner in which cases are adjudicated in formal justice systems, procedures in Local Council Courts are not complex. The Local Council Courts use the local language rather than English: the working language of the formal court system. Both factors enable the delivery of speedy and user-friendly justice. Disputing parties have to represent themselves before the Local Council Courts in their community, or nominate a person who can speak on their behalf. Representation by lawyers is not permitted (Ibid). 

The Local Council Courts provide relief to victims in the form of reconciliation, compensation, restitution, costs, apology, fine, declaration or any other recourse deemed appropriate by law and social norms (Ibid).  

Local Council Court members are paid a fee of 10,000 shillings (2.3 euros) for every session they participate in by the government. The party approaching the LCC is also required to pay a nominal fee, which varies depending on the type of grievance for which the plaintiff seeks resolution (Ibid). 

Local Council Courts are linked to the formal system through a system of appeals from the village court through to the Magistrates courts: decisions of the village executive committee court (LC I) can be appealed to the parish executive committee court (LC II). Appeals from there are possible to the sub-county executive committee court (LC III), and in turn to the Chief Magistrates Courts (Ibid). 

Problems and impacts

How and to what extent have local council courts measured and mapped the following as a first step towards people-centred justice.

• most prevalent justice problems within the target population
• The justice problems with greatest impact on the target population
• The justice problems that are most difficult to resolve and therefore tend to remain ongoing
• The groups most vulnerable to (systemic and daily) injustices within the target population
• External/hidden factors that make solving justice problems very difficult

Nationwide surveys assessing the justice needs of Ugandans conducted in 2016 and 2020 show that the most pressing justice problems that Ugandans face are related to land, crime, family, employment and neighbours (HiiL 2016; HiiL 2020). The Local Council Courts deal with these very problems, along with a few others. To illustrate, as mandated by the Local Council Courts Act 2006, the Local Council Courts deal with civil matters ranging from debts, contracts, property damage, trespassing, and customary matters such as land issues, family disputes, identification of customary heirs, underage pregnancies or elopement among women, and customary bailment. They also deal with minor criminal matters including assault and battery (Khadiagala 2001). 

Although the above mentioned surveys indicate that these are the most pressing problems in the everyday lives of Ugandans, these problems were not identified or mapped in a systematic way. Rather, they were identified based on common knowledge of justice problems that exist in Uganda.

In theory, the Local Council Courts were meant to provide an alternative dispute resolution mechanism to women and the poor and marginalised section of the population who cannot afford and access the formal justice system. However, studies indicate that elites in the community use this community based justice service members of the Local Council Courts for their own benefit (Rugadya and Nsamba as cited in Kemigisa and Namara 2018). Moreover, patriarchal relations make women vulnerable to gender biases even while seeking justice from members of the Local Council Courts, as they are often composed of men (Ibid). The Local Council Courts Act 2006 reserves two seats for women in the Local Council Court as a way to ensure gender justice, but no other measures were undertaken to address the problems that women and marginalised people face (Government of Uganda 2006). Thus, the problems of vulnerable sections of the population were not measured or mapped in a satisfactory manner.  

Defining and monitoring outcomes

How and to what extent have local council courts researched and identified the outcomes that people expect from justice processes in the target population.

The Local Council Courts were established to deliver outcomes to people that align with the principles that Ugandan society is based on: communal harmony, cooperation, compromise and conciliation (Khadiagala 2001). In that regard, as per the 2006 Act, the remedies that are available to people who seek help from the Local Council Courts are restitution, compensation, reconciliation, community service, apology, and warning not to engage in future harmful behaviour. These remedies or outcomes that Local Council Courts offer were not based on research per se, but on intimate knowledge of principles that underlie Ugandan society. 

Additionally, apart from a broad framework of principles, people also want specific types of outcomes for each type of justice problem. For example, in a land justice problem, people may want multiple outcomes such as fair ownership of land, compensation for loss of income, agreement on use of land and so on. In case of a family justice problem, people may desire outcomes along the lines of secure housing and income for all, fair division of property and debts, no violence, respectful communication and so on (1).Local Council Courts did not map such outcomes for the different types of justice problems that they deal with. This can be explained by the fact that focus on outcomes that people want from justice processes is a recent recommendation that has emerged in international development. So it does not come as a surprise that Local Council Courts did not conduct research to identify the outcomes that people want from justice processes. 

How and to what extent have Local Council Courts determined whether existing justice processes deliver these outcomes and allow people in the target population to move on?

Local Council Courts did not undertake assessments to determine whether existing justice processes deliver the outcomes that people want. As it is, the formal justice system in Uganda was known to be inaccessible to most of the citizens in the country for a number of reasons. 

First, it is common knowledge that it follows complex procedures. Given that the majority of the people are unfamiliar with the ways of the justice system, making it difficult for them to keep up with the processes. The formal justice system also functions in adversarial ways, departing from local values of reconciliation, compromise and communal harmony. 

Second, court proceedings are conducted in the English language. Although English has been recognised as one of the official languages in 1962 after Uganda gained independence from Britain, it is still a language of the elite and privileged. The majority of the Ugandan population speaks indigenous languages such as Luganda, Swahili, Bantu, Nilotic. All in all, 40 languages are used in Uganda – none of which have been adopted by the formal justice system (with the exception of English). Thus, language poses another barrier to accessing the formal justice system. Third, the costs associated with lawyers and the formal courts further discourage people from approaching the formal justice system (Ministry of Local Government Uganda 2014).

How and to what extent have Local Council Courts created a system for monitoring whether new, people-centered justice processes deliver these outcomes and allow people in the target population to move on?

There is little evidence of a formal system that regularly monitors outcomes delivered by the Local Council Courts. In the coming few sections, we will discuss studies conducted by academics, local civil society organisations and international development organisations that track whether the Local Council Courts deliver outcomes that people need to move on do exist, but these studies are time-bound assessments  and not a systematic way of monitoring outcomes. 

Evidence-based solutions

How and to what extent have local council courts introduced interventions that are evidence-based and consistently deliver the justice outcomes that people in the target population look for.

• Causes/underlying problems
• Combinations of interventions

Uganda’s Ministry of Local Government – with the help of local civil society organisations – has introduced evidence-based interventions directed towards standardising and formalising the functioning of Local Council Courts in the country. Although evidence indicates that these interventions have brought about an improvement in the outcomes that justice processes deliver to people, the explicit focus of most of the interventions was on the process of delivering justice and not outcomes (Kemigisa and Namara 2018).  

As a result, the interventions do not focus on providing people the outcomes that they want – corruption-free Local Council Court, fair adjudication of cases, no gender bias (Khadiagala 2001; World Bank 2009, p.46). So the interventions introduced by Local Council Courts are evidence-based but do not consistently deliver the justice outcomes that people look for. 

Literature indicates that various international organisations such as the UNDP, Legal Aid Basket Fund, UNCDF, Nordic Consulting Group, Defence for Children International (DCI) have conducted an evaluation of the functioning of Local Council Courts in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government over the years. Based on these evaluations, the government of Uganda – along with international aid organisations such as UNDP, UNCDF – has taken steps to improve the functioning of the Local Council Courts (UNDP 2013; Kemigisa and Namara 2018; Khadiagala 2001). Civil society organisations based in Uganda such as Democratic Governance Facility (DGF) and International Law Institute- African Centre for Legal Excellence (ILI-ACLE) have also supported capacity building initiatives for the Local Council Courts (Kemigisa and Namara 2018). 

The evidence gathered in these evaluations indicates that Local Council Courts lack standardised, up-to-date operational guidelines. The members of Local Council Courts are not adequately trained and are unaware of their rights and responsibilities as well as basic laws (Ibid). To remedy these issues, The Ministry of Local Government along with the support of UNDP, DGF, ILI-ACLE developed the Local Council Court Guidelines and a training manual for LCC members that is available in nine local languages. A Training of Trainers was also conducted at the district level and awareness campaigns were undertaken through local radio stations (Ibid).

The trainers trained by the MoLG along with the Democractic Governance Facility (DGF) and International Law Institute – African Centre for Legal Excellence successfully trained nearly 90 percent of the LC3 members across Uganda. The training included topics such as the role of Local Council Courts in administering justice, legal framework of Local Council Courts, human rights enshrined in the Constitution of Uganda, principles, ethics and standards of judicial conduct, fee structure, jurisdiction, quorum of Local Council Courts, language of court, role of witnesses, proceedings and judgement, remedies and appeal. Apart from training programmes, efforts were made to streamline the maintenance and collection of records and registers maintained by members of the Local Council Courts throughout the country (Kemigisa and Namara 2018). 

Training was also given on essential laws such as the Children’s Act and Domestic Violence Act and on laws governing customary land. To increase the capacity of members of the Local Council Courts in resolving justice problems of people, mediation training was also provided. In another instance, the UNDP supported capacity building of Local Council Courts through legislative enactments and developing regulations and manuals and providing training for local councillors in Uganda (UNDP 2013). 

A study conducted by DCI in 2000 showed that Local Council Courts did not prioritise cases pertaining to petty crimes committed by children. Instead, these cases were channelled to the formal justice system. This resulted in children receiving custodial sanctions rather than being treated with rehabilitative measures. To address this problem, DCI conducted training and sensitisation of Local Council Court members (UNHCR n.d.). 

How and to what extent have Local Council Courts used outcome-based monitoring to continuously improve these interventions and replace interventions that have proven ineffective?

HiiL made efforts to contact institutions in Uganda who are responsible for overseeing the functioning of Local Council Courts but were unsuccessful in reaching them. Based on the limited evidence that we could collate from interviews with Local Council Courts members, civil society organisations and academics, and the available literature, it appears that Local Council Courts do not use outcome-based monitoring to improve interventions or replace ineffective interventions. Rather, they have focused on improving the procedure of delivering justice. 

Literature as well as interviews conducted by HiiL indicates that the processes of the Local Council Courts are not standardised nor institutionalised (Kemigasa and Namara 2018; A. Ballamu, personal communication, November 19, 2020; LASPNET NGO, personal communication January 12, 2020). Members of the Local Council Courts often lacked knowledge of their own roles and responsibilities as well as that of laws that govern common justice issues such as land and family problems. Therefore, the interventions that have been implemented focused on building capacity of the LCC members and formalising LCC processes. Very few interventions directly train members of Local Council Courts on delivering better outcomes to people. 

Innovations and delivery models

How and to what extent has local council courts scaled their people-centered service delivery model to deliver justice outcomes for a larger target population.

Local Council Courts have become a fixture in the judicial system throughout Uganda. On average, each Local Council Court handles two cases per week. This means that close to 80,000 cases per week are heard and resolved in these courts across the country. Overall, 80 percent of Ugandans access justice through Local Council Courts (Ministry of Local Government in Uganda 2014).

A nationwide assessment of justice needs of citizens in Uganda revealed that Local Council Courts are present even in the most remote areas of the country and that the majority of Ugandans seek information and advice from their social networks and the Local Council Courts (Local Council Courts). People approach Local Council Courts to resolve problems related to crime, justice, land, employment and family disputes (HiiL 2016; HiiL 2020).

How and to what extent have Local Council Courts funded their service delivery model in a sustainable way?

We tried to obtain data on the funding model of Local Council Courts via primary as well as secondary research but we were unable to find any substantial evidence. The only document that mentions sources of funds that are available to Local Council Courts is the Local Council Courts Act 2006. As mentioned before, the Act makes provision for user fees that are to be paid by the plaintiff. The amount to be paid depends on the nature of the justice problem (Government of Uganda 2006). 

Interviews conducted with members of the Local Council Courts at the village level as well as literature indicate this amount is not sufficient to cover the expenses incurred by the Local Council Court while adjudicating a case (A. Ballamu, personal communication, November 19, 2020; Kemigasa and Namara 2018). Moreover, people who seek intervention of Local Council Courts in their justice problems do not have financial capacity to cover all expenses related to the case. So the members of Local Council Courts used their personal funds to be able to meet expenditures related to cases. Local Council Courts also lack the physical infrastructure such as courtrooms and offices, resources such as stationery and human resources (ILI-ACLE as cited in Kemigisa and Namara 2018).

Information on funding models of LCs at the higher level is not available. On the basis of the evidence at hand, it can be inferred that Local Council Courts are underfunded and that they do not have a sustainable financial model. 

• Enabling environment

To what extent has Local Council Courts leveraged the following sustainable financing strategies?

• Public-private partnerships
• Smart (user) contributions

As mentioned before, we tried to obtain data on sources of funding available to Local Council Courts via primary as well as secondary research but we were unable to find any substantial evidence. The Local Councils Courts Act 2006 makes provision for user fees, but there is no mention of public-private partnerships anywhere in literature or in primary research conducted by HiiL. 

Expanding on the former, although the Local Council Courts Act requires users to contribute financially to the adjudication of their own cases and thereby partially cover for the expenses related to functioning of Local Council Courts, the users themselves lack the financial capacity to do so (A.Ballamu, personal communication, November 19, 2020; Kemigasa and Namara 2018). The term smart user contribution refers to payments taken from users over a period of time so that they are not pressed for funds at the time of experiencing a justice problem. It also includes requiring parties to the conflict who are better positioned financially to pay for costs that arise in the process of adjudication of the problem (HiiL 2020). Going by these definitions, Local Council Courts do not employ smart user contributions.  

How and to what extent have regulatory and financial systems created/enabled by the government supported Local Council Courts and made it possible for their services/activities to scale?

The Local Council Courts are governed by Uganda’s Ministry of Local Government but also supported by other justice institutions in the country, such as the Justice, Law and Order Society (JLOS), Uganda Law Reform Commission and so on. They are widely recognised by regulators for bridging the justice gap experienced by the poor and vulnerable, however this acknowledgement has not yet materialised into consistent and steady support to bolster the performance of Local Council Courts. 

In the recent past, the capacity building initiatives spearheaded by the Ministry of Local Government and civil society organisations have supported the standardisation of Local Council Courts, but since they were done in an ad hoc and irregular manner, gains are likely to be short-lived (Kemigisa and Namara 2018). Having said that, the lack of support from regulatory systems has not prevented Local Council Courts from scaling and delivering justice to people throughout Uganda, as indicated by nationwide assessments of justice needs of Ugandans undertaken in 2016 and 2020 (HiiL 2016; HiiL 2020). 

Interviews conducted with members of Local Council Courts, civil society organisations as well as literature indicates that Local Council Courts at the village (LC1)and parish level (LC2) have not been formally constituted since 2001 (A. Ballamu, personal communication, November 19, 2020; LASPENT Ngo, personal communication, January 12, 2020; JLOS 2017). While this has not kept Local Council Courts from scaling, it is indicative of the lack of support from regulatory institutions in cementing the base of Local Council Courts in Uganda’s judicial system. 

Literature too, indicates that Local Council Courts have received wavering support from public institutions over the years. In its second Strategic Investment Plan (SIP) 2006-2011, JLOS identified strengthening the capacity of Local Council Courts as one of its key goals (JLOS 2006). In contrast, the third SIP of JLOS (2012-2017) only briefly mentions Local Council Courts. It speaks about giving priority to strengthening the Local Council Courts, but does not outline a detailed plan for their improvement (JLOS 2012). The fourth Strategic Development Plan 2017-2020 of JLOS speaks about re-establishing LC1, as they have not been formally constituted since 2001 which further indicates that support for Local Council Courts varied in the second decade of the 21st century (JLOS 2017). 

How and to what extent have the outcomes-based, people-centered services delivered by Local Council Courts been allowed to become the default procedure?

As previously mentioned, Local Council Courts are used extensively throughout Uganda. About 80 percent of the population relies on Local Council Courts to resolve their justice problems (Ministry of Local Government in Uganda 2014). It is important to note here that the Local Council Courts have existed throughout the country despite not being formally established since 2001. As mentioned before, Local Council Courts at the village (LC1) and parish (LC2) level, where members of the Local Council Courts are elected democratically, the elections have not been conducted. As a result, members who were elected when the courts were first established have continued to serve as members. To conclude, LC1 and LC2 have become the default procedure despite lacking a formal base. 

Information about the functioning of Local Council Courts at the town, division and sub-county level is not available, so it can be determined whether Local Council Courts functioning at higher levels have become a default procedure. 

Another impediment to Local Council Courts becoming a default procedure is the limited capacity of Local Council Courts to enforce their decisions. When the Local Council Courts forcefully tried to enforce decisions, they risked losing support of the public. Additionally, many Local Council Courts report having a poor relationship with the police which makes it all the more difficult to enforce decisions or investigate cases. And because the members of Local Council Courts live in the same locality as the litigants, they are fearful of imposing decisions on sensitive matters (Nordic Consulting Group and Danish Embassy in Kampala as cited in World Bank 2009). Thus, the positionality of the members of the Local Council Courts although gives them familiarity with the issues being discussed, it also limits their ability to make fair and independent decisions. This can discourage people from seeking help from Local Council Courts.

Other factors that can potentially affect the ability of Local Council Courts to become a default procedure are nepotism, cronyism and bribery (Ibid). Given that the members of Local Council Courts are selected from the community, they are susceptible to favouring certain groups of people. Members at LC1 and LC2 also perform the function of executive council or elected leaders, which further raises questions on whether they can deliver justice independent of conflict of interest. The low compensation given to members pushes them to take bribes from people. All of these factors together can erode the confidence of people in Local Council Courts and potentially keep them from becoming a default procedure. 

How and to what extent has Local Council Courts stimulated (or benefitted from) investment into justice research and development?

The Local Council Courts have benefitted from investment made by the Ministry of Local Government, local civil society organisations and international development organisations in justice research and development to a limited extent. Several development organisations such as the World Bank, Nordic Consulting Group, UNDP, Legal Aid Basket Fund, UNCDF, Defence for Children International (DCI) have conducted research to assess the functioning of Local Council Courts (World Bank 2009; Kemigisa and Namara 2018). As previously mentioned, this research has informed the design of interventions that built capacity of members of the Local Council Courts and standardised and formalised the functioning of Local Council Courts. In some cases, it has spurred international aid organisations such as ActionAid to provide financial support to improve the infrastructure (court rooms, stationery) available to Local Council Courts (Actionaid 2017). But this financial support has been of sporadic nature, so ascertaining its benefit to Local Council Courts is difficult.

These interventions have also not addressed all weaknesses of the Local Council Courts. For example, research indicates that members of the Local Council Courts have biases against women and vulnerable groups which the interventions that have been implemented so far have not tried to remedy (Khadiagala 2001; Rudadya & Nsamba as cited in Kemigisa and Namara 2018).  Moreover, interventions are undertaken on an ad hoc basis, the gains for Local Council Courts from investment in research and development become modest, despite having much more to gain. 

On the other hand, Local Council Courts have contributed to research on informal and community-based justice services in the sphere of international development. The widespread use of Local Council Courts in Uganda has prompted justice workers at the international level to start a conversation about the benefits of community justice services and their relevance in other countries where the formal justice system falls short.

Leadership and pathways

How and to what extent have justice sector leaders’ skills and collaborations enabled/hindered local council courts to increase access to justice by delivering the outcomes people need at scale.

HiiL’s experience of working in Uganda in 2016 and 2020 (2) indicates that leaders in the justice sector in Uganda are making efforts to strengthen the performance of Local Council Courts. But so far, little action has been taken to formulate or implement an action plan for the same. Hence, it can be said that Local Council Courts have not in the recent past benefited from skills and collaborations of justice leaders to increase access to justice.

How and to what extent has Local Council Courts contributed to/benefited from new high-level strategies or pathways towards people-centred justice in Uganda?

Evidence on the contribution of Local Council Courts to high-level strategies towards people-centred justice in Uganda is not available. So it is not clear if Local Council Courts have contributed to high-level strategies towards people-centred justice in Uganda.

In the past, Local Council Courts, as mentioned before, have benefited from aid and programmatic interventions of development organisations and the Ministry of Local Government. Other than that, establishing and strengthening LCI and LCII has been mentioned as a goal in the Fourth Strategic Development Plan (2017-2020) of Uganda (JLOS 2017). Prior to that, strengthening the capacity of Local Council Courts has also been mentioned in Strategic Investment Plan 2012-2017 of Uganda (JLOS 2012). 

But evidence on action taken to implement these goals is not available. To conclude, although Local Council Courts make it to high-level discussions on people-centred justice in Uganda, it is hard to ascertain if intention is being translated into action. In other words, it is not clear if Local Council Courts benefited from these high level strategies in concrete ways. 

To what extent has Local Council Courts contributed to/played a role in a broader paradigm shift towards people-centered justice?

Organisations that work on justice issues at the international level often take the Local Council Courts as an example of an informal justice system that is accessible and affordable to the people. Local Council Courts have emerged as alternative justice systems and shown that grassroots organisations are also capable of delivering justice.  Its roots in indigenous values of reconciliation and compromise set it apart from formal justice systems that deliver justice in adversarial ways. Therefore, in international development, Local Council Courts are perceived to be an example of a successful informal justice system that can be replicated in contexts where formal justice systems are inaccessible to the poor and vulnerable. Therefore, the inherent nature of Local Council Courts and their popularity among the people of Uganda has contributed to a paradigm shift at the international level in how people-centred justice can be delivered. 

View additional information

(1) For more information on outcomes to justice problems, see Problems page on the Justice Dashboard by HiiL.

(2) HiiL conducted nationwide assessments of justice needs of people in Uganda. In the process it worked with several civil society organisations and justice practitioners in Uganda.

View References

Actionaid (2017). Strategies for Justice: Access to Justice for Women .

Government of Uganda. Local Council Courts Act 2006

HiiL (2016). Justice Needs in Uganda: Legal problems in daily life

HiiL (2020). Charging for Justice Report

HiiL (2020). Justice Needs and Satisfaction in Uganda 2020: Legal problems in daily life .

Interview with a representative of LASPNET ngo in Uganda dated January 12, 2020

Interview with Allan Balamu, a member of LC-1 in Uganda dated 19 November 2020.

JLOS (2006).  Strategic Investment Plan 2006-2011 .

JLOS (2017). Fourth Strategic Development Plan .

JLOS. (2012).  The Third JLOS Strategic Investment Plan 2012-2017 .

Kemigisa, M. and Namara, R. (2018). Capacity Building of Local Council Courts and Transformational Leadership for Policy Advocacy in Uganda, Consortium for International Management, Policy and Development.

Khadiagala, L. (2001). The Failure of Popular Justice in Uganda: Local Councils and Women’s Property Rights. Development and Change, 32, 55-76.

Ministry of Local Government (2014). Decentralisation and Local Development in Uganda ;

UNDP (2013). Rule of Law and Access to Justice in Easten and Southern Africa: Showcasing Innovations and Good Practices.

UNHCR (n.d). Protecting the rights of children in conflict with the law.

World Bank, (2009). Uganda Legal and Judicial Sector Study Report .

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• Shukra Raj Subedi, Sunil Subedi. The Status Local Governance Practice: A Case Study of Local Government in Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City, Nepal. American Journal of Educational Research . Vol. 9, No. 5, 2021, pp 263-271. http://pubs.sciepub.com/education/9/5/3 ">Normal Style
• Subedi, Shukra Raj, and Sunil Subedi. 'The Status Local Governance Practice: A Case Study of Local Government in Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City, Nepal.' American Journal of Educational Research 9.5 (2021): 263-271. ">MLA Style
• Subedi, S. R. , & Subedi, S. (2021). The Status Local Governance Practice: A Case Study of Local Government in Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City, Nepal. American Journal of Educational Research , 9 (5), 263-271. ">APA Style
• Subedi, Shukra Raj, and Sunil Subedi. 'The Status Local Governance Practice: A Case Study of Local Government in Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City, Nepal.' American Journal of Educational Research 9, no. 5 (2021): 263-271. ">Chicago Style

The Status Local Governance Practice: A Case Study of Local Government in Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City, Nepal

Governance practice has become a central issue of the development process since the historical evolution of civilizations. It has counted as the heart of the process for public administration and organizations. The limited literature on the research entitled “The Status of Governance Practice has shown the clear gap in the literature on how the local groups implement and practice good governance policies and existing practices and gaps between policy and practice in the Nepalese context. Following the interpretative paradigm with a qualitative approach, the research analyzes the existing practice, the situation of participation, and the gap between policy and existing practice. The primary data has been gathered from seven selected informants of Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City through judgmental sampling, and in-depth interviews and observation have been adopted as data collection tools. The study has explored the situation of meaningful participation, accountability, and transparency in the research area. The study has shown that even after the state's reconstruction, the local governments have not severed the governance practice satisfactorily. However, Nepal's restructuring process has increased local people's access to local government, but local people's meaningful participation in developmental activities, accountability, and transparency are still unsatisfactory. The finding has indicated the essentiality of good governance at the local level for local power. The federal government needs to monitor the provincial government and provincial to local government for reasonable control. The study has become an implication for policymakers and further researchers.

1. Introduction

The worldview of local governance is to decentralize the responsibilities and budgets of governments. It has evoked the crucial question and encouraged research that emphasizes the importance of local leadership, civil society, and democratic accountability 1 . It is imperative to bring positive change in every local unit to properly develop a nation and meet citizens' needs by decentralizing the main functions, delegating to those closest to them. The local government, a local governance unit, has special powers to issue regulations or rules connecting with its legislative character. According to Abdulloh argues that local governments have become more arbitrary in the ruling. It is a reminder of whom they serve and how they come to their position must be made clear all the time in the recent decades. It improves local resources and triggers creativity and innovation for better public services and development by focusing on good planning, management, supervision, and the government's high accountability 2 . However, "The concept of good governance evoked serious criticisms as well as praises worldwide. Good governance for whom and bad for whom became the sticky questions. These are key questions raised by social scientists and many politicians" 3 . As the local governance is diversified based on the status of local government, nature of society, state, and local environment, It is worth and relevant to know the status of local governance subjectively incorporating policy and practice based on national, regional, and local planning well as policy. United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific [UNESCAP] defines 'Governance' as the practice of political, economic, and administrative authority in the management of a country's matters at all levels, including the rule of law, legitimacy of the government, accountability to the people, transparent economic sector, corruption fewer activities of government and non-governmental sector 4 .

Nepal's constitution has discussed that the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal's basic structure is three-tiered: federal, provincial, and local. These governments have formed and functioned accordingly with the particular purpose of government as guiding state policy principles. Likewise, good governance has ensured by confirming the equal and easy access of the people to the state's services and facilities. It has focussed on making fair public administration capable, unbiased, transparent, less corrupt, accountable, and participatory 5 .

Similarly, local governments are the nearby grassroots people's nearby unit, which helps institutionalize the governance system and create an enabling environment to promote democratic values and public participation, especially from the marginal section decision-making process. It also speeds up the economic progress leading to enhance peoples' capacity. It reveals that local governance is the essential part of the government's governing system responsible for maintaining linkage among local people 6 . Likewise, Mercy argued that local government represents the dispersion of political power in our society. It is the closest government to the people, and it brings development nearer to the grassroots. It is the best system of exercising good governance and engaging people in their governance 7 . In the similar vein, Addink argues properness, transparency, participation, effectiveness, accountability, and economic, social, and cultural human rights are vital aspects of good governance 8 .

Similarly, Kharel states that every local community citizen feels a respected and decisive community member in a well-governed society. A well-governed society is a society that enjoys trustworthy and reliable participation and ownership in the overall activities of the government. There is a positive relationship between good governance and development 9 .

A country with strong local governance management has possibilities of progressive development. The declining growth is due to a lack of good governance. More than six decades have been completed since the beginning of planned development in Nepal, but the development process has not run as expected. The reason behind it is the result of excluding the fundamental characters of good governance. The purpose of this research study is to investigate the local governance practice in Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City base on practice and policy.

Although the local bodies have tried to address governance and have seemed to assure accountability, transparency, and meaningful participation in service delivery, the service receivers have not been convinced that the mechanism has been adopted on the ground. There are widespread complaints about local governance service delivery maladministration, public funds abuse, abuse of authority or office, fraudulent dealings, and corrupt tendencies. It has shown that there is a problematic issue concerned with exploring the construction and implementation of good governance. The prior research studies have rarely included the issue in their researches. There is still a knowledge gap. The gap between the top-down policy implementation and on-ground practice has become the study's genuine issue at present in Nepal. This research study has been undertaken to explore governance and analyze the gap between existing practices. It has tried to explore, indicate and underpin the gap between policy and practice in the literature. The study's primary concern is how the local levels implement and practice good governance policies and issues? What are existing rules along with gaps between policy and practice? This research study has further aimed to inform the local citizen to be aware of good governance issues from evidence-based information. The awareness among the local people has been able to knock policymakers to modify the mechanism if required. As there is a gap in top-down implementation policy and ground-level practice, the study has become a genuine issue for the study and significant for the policy arbiters, interpreters, implementation agents, local stakeholders, and researchers.

2. Literature Review

The literature has highlighted as governance is the complex management system that can manage people's social, political, and economic activities among its population. This chapter has dealt with the global understanding of the Nepal government's government and local governance policy.

The World Bank has explained that governance is the exercise of the political, economic, and administrative authority to manage a nation's activities. It uses all of the methods that societies use to allocate power and manage public resources and problems to govern, to exercise power and authority over a territory system or institution 10 , whereas good governance is a concern with utilizing power, accumulation of resources to maximize the people's welfare. According to UNESCAP, good governance has eight major characteristics. It is participatory, consensus-oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive, and follows the rule of law. Similarly, Rijal stated that lack of conceptual clarity about local autonomy, corruption, law and order, institutional capacity, empowerment level of local people, bureaucratic hierarchy, and problems in people’s participation, structural constraints, power hierarchy, and psychological barriers 11 .

Governance means the structures and processes of societies where people decide and share power in terms of ordered rule and collective action or social coordination institutions 12 . Foucault has injected an idea of governmentality to institute the art of governing ssystem at the society including government's organs in 20th-century through the amalgamation of two concepts government and rationality, which has connected with classical liberalism neoliberalism 13 . In the same context, Tylor argued that governance is a collective activity practiced by a wide range of organizational forms, including governments, business firms, non-profit organizations, voluntary associations, and tribal, religious, or familial groups 14 . Similarly, Acharya states that local government is a public institution in a small geographic area, which are responsible organizations of the local citizen. He further added that local governance is a unique system gathering various actors together. It has discussed the local issues, elect their representatives, and take decisions on their behalf 6 .

On the contrary, Dahal argues that several factors are responsible for Nepal's poor governance performance. Corruption, political instability, weak civil society, unprofessional bureaucracy, unregulated private sector, lack of democratic practice in making plans and implementations, political and bureaucratic corruption, underdevelopment, unemployment are the major issues of good governance in Nepal 15 . Similarly, public service delivery at the local level is below the satisfactory level. The good governance concept is relatively new. Different organizations and researcher give their views on good governance 9 , and the aspect of good governance as properness, transparency, participation, effectiveness, accountability, and economic, social, and cultural human rights 8 .

The theory of global governance has dealt with the political system, and it is a system of political rule to form the structures of super and subordination for the exercise of basic goods and opportunities which are influencing, distributing, and expecting to be stabilized the concerning compliances 16 . Regarding good governance, Rahim has highlighted that good governance is the dynamic source of fruitful results. It has brought up the reformative nature of political and social development for governing any system 17 . Similarly to quote view of Kharel and many scholars for good governance, "Transparency and accountability initiatives have taken democratization, governance, aid and development circles by storm since the turn of the many actors involved with them regarding various donors, funders, program managers, implementers and researchers" (p.2) 18 . It is similar to Taylor's view that accountability makes for tyranny; democracy without capacity is a recipe for ineffectiveness where there is a lack of participation of authority and resources. The worldwide trend to decentralize governments' responsibilities and budgets have emphasized the importance of local leadership, civil society, and democratic accountability 1 . It seeks good governance at any level of government. In this regards, Handini and many other scholars argued that

Good governance is very urgent to be realized in the administration of government and public services at the provincial and district/city levels considering that much authority has been transferred to the government at these two levels. The realization of good governance is a catalyst and coordinator for semi-government and non-government institutions to form an effective collaboration to solve problems and meet community needs (p.3540) 19 .

Abdulloh has highlighted that the local governments have become more arbitrary in ruling in the 21st century. The position of a ruler and ruled must be clear all the time. The budget created locally with local people's participation has helped improve public services and development by focusing on good planning, management, supervision, and the government's high accountability to the public 2 .

The public trust in the local government depends on good governance practices, transparency, accountability, and responsiveness. It has created greater trust in the local administration than their counterparts 20 . In a similar vein, Lamichhane has argued that good governance is about the truthful utility of authority and utilization of belongings in imposing a coherent governing format for the super pastimes and priorities of human beings at large. It ambitions at protection and merchandising of rights, welfare, and well-being of the residents through legitimized democratic governance under the rule of law. It is an avenue for peace, crime control, equity of public desire with criminal certain guess and equality. It avails bridled governmental power, certified administration, and a device of fraud and corruption-free nation operation 21 , whereas accountability is one of the essential requirements within the general parameters of good governance and transparency 22 . The concept of local governance enriches the debate on methodological approaches such as top-down and button-top approaches. The formal top-down approach cannot capture the local reality's complexity as multiple local decision-making levels function differently. It is necessary to apply the bottom-top approach horizontally. It helps to understand the decentralization of agencies from the private sector to organizations from civil society or to other local governments under various schemes. It can integrate policies concretely, proactive political interventions and initiatives, and contribute to fundamental leverage of local autonomy; conceptually, local autonomy varies 23 .

The concept of good governance enters Nepal only after the restoration of democracy in 1990. The Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal states that the source of sovereign authority lay in the people, established the equitable distribution of power among all governance institutions, and challenged power concentration. It aims to provide social, political, and economic justice to the people, assuring every citizen of Nepal's basic human rights 24 . Meanwhile, The Interim Constitution of Nepal has set up a provision of good governance. In article 33, the constitution mentions the responsibility of the state. Governance is a system that manages political, economic, social, and developmental equality to all who are staying in the territory of the authority 25 . In Nepal's context, The Constitution of Assembly 2007 has declared the country for the Federal Democratic Republic.

Government is an organization, and governance is the system of managing. Governance and good governance have become increasingly important topics of discussion in developed and developing countries. Good governance was developed in response to the governance and development challenges of developing countries since the 1980s. It is taken as the Millennium Development Goals' main target, making political and administrative authorities responsible for development needs that help tackle poverty and enhance a state economy 26 .

The Constitution of Nepal 2015, Article 51(b) (4) has focused the governance as one of the guiding principles of the state policy to assurance good governance by confirming the equal and easy access of the people to the services and facilities distributed by the state whereas making public administration fair, unbiased, transparent, corruption less, accountable and participatory 5 . It has given a mandate to the local government for 22 exclusive powers and additional 15 concurrent powers to function locally. Further, the Local Level Restructuring Commission identified 753 local government units, including 293 urban municipalities and 460 rural municipalities. Competitively local government of Nepal has got more power, resources, roles, and responsibilities at the local level. The constitution and the act have promulgated the provision for effective and efficient local government also. However, the practices of good governance and accountability mechanism haven't been institutionalized yet.

Similarly, article 56 (1) of the constitution has divided the provisions of a three-layer ruling structure joining the center, provinces, and local governments. According to these categories, there are three government levels: federal, provincial, and local, consisting of rural and municipalities. The local government in Nepal is the third layer of government which has its managerial division of power.

There are several challenges in the governing system at the local level—problems at the policy level, lack of people's participation. Lack of conciseness of people about their role and sometimes lack of professionalism on bureaucracy is local governance issues. However, the Good Governance Act [GGA] by Nepal Law Commission 2008 ensures that good governance is expedient to make legal provision concerning good governance by making public administration of the country pro-people, accountable, transparent, inclusive, and participatory and make available its outcome to the general public 27 . It also highlights the rule of law, corruption less and smart administration, economical and competent management of community work and public services speedily and cost-effectively. Article 8 mentions that the duty of the concerned authority shall carry out the country's administrative function according to this Act or other prevailing laws, in a speedy manner, to maintain good governance and make available its outcomes to the people in time. The concern of good governance policy in Nepal is to make effective public service delivery to the lower people. Despite policy and efforts towards good governance, there are many challenges in the wake of good governance.

Reviewing the prior literature in global and national context and also a policy of Nepal on local governance, it is clear that the literature and policy have discovered what out to be the local government. However, there is a need to research local governance practice subjectively at all possible local levels to know the local governance practice's real status. It is even more significant in Nepal as the country is interring to federalism and has three different government levels. The concept arises globally, and in developing countries like Nepal, there are several challenges in governance practice, especially at the local level. Deficiencies in the political and electoral system, nepotism, favoritism, political pressure, delaying in service delivery, inability to address local people's problems, and inability to prioritize the central issue of development are some representative cases of local level, so it has become genuine to do the research study and contribute the knowledge in literature.

3. Methodology

The governance practice has directly connected with the accountability, transparency, trust, and meaningful participation of the people. The reviewed literature and policies have indicated a research gap on perceiving and understanding governance practice at the local level. This research has aimed to explore how the local groups implement and practice good governance policies and the existing practices and gaps between policy and practice in the Nepalese context.

The governance practice has depended on how people perceive it. It goes on local level practice as multiple localities are forming based societies to societies differently. It has shown the diversification of the local level after the establishment of federalism. There are three layers of government to function governance practice. It has indicated that governance practice is subjective according to governments' decentralization, which creates knowledge on governance practice at the respective government level. This research study has focused on the governance practice at local level. It is also perceiving differently as local authorities in Nepal. We have multiple knowledge on local level which need to identify from the perspective of local people. The knowledge derived from the selected informants' information is value-laden as local people perceive local governance differently. The study has based on inductive reasoning as it has followed a qualitative approach. The study has identified knowledge, verified with quality slandered, transferability, replicability, and creditability. This study has based on the interpretative research paradigm, which assumes the multiple realities derived from interaction among the various stakeholders. The researcher has tried to explore the considerable truth's subjectivity through the engaged interaction among the informants on Nepal's status of governance practice. More specifically, this research adopted a qualitative research method based on a case study to analyze the governance policy and practice. It has tried to explore the good governance policies and tried to compare existing practices and gaps between policy and practice in the Nepalese context.

The research has aimed an in-depth investigation of the phenomena through the information taken from the smaller number of informants. Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan city has been selected as a study area. It is the universe of the study. The seven total informants have selected for the case study adopting the purposive sampling design. The informants have been chosen from their sectors, such as local government representatives, government employees, and general people (service seekers). Three ward chairperson as local government representatives, three service seekers, and one government employee have chosen as informants. These informants have represented the policymaker as well as implementer, consumer, and participant of local development activities. The researchers have arranged the informants' time in their free time and visited five-time to collect in-depth information. The in-depth interviews and participatory observation have been applied to collect information from a total of seven individuals, such as local level representatives, bureaucrat, and general service seekers in the study area chosen through the purposive way. The interview data has been recorded, and some filed notes have been taken from observation. The researcher has applied the transcription of recorded information from the in-depth interview, coded them, decoded them, triangulated them, and linked them with the study theme regarding local governance practice and the policies practice. The collected information has rechecked with the multiple meeting and conversations with informants. The thick descriptive model has been applied to trace the subjective finding from the informants. The vignettes and theoretical assumptions have further supported the global themes derived from the data. The researcher has become careful on the research process's ethics by informed consensus for data collection and maintaining confidentiality. The confirmability of the research has been assured by thick description and member debriefing.

The study entitled “Status of local Governance Practice in Nepal" has focused on exploring the perception of local people on the status of governance practice and governance policies that have enriched the gap in the literature. This section has explained the interconnection of government policy and the rule of governance at the local level. The entire research study has been guided with two major thematic aspects : meaningful participation for local-level development and accountability and transparency as an essence of local development. The responses gathered from seven selected informants have separated the thematic elements for and against exploring the ground-level governance practice situation.

Peoples' participation is an essential element of good governance at the local level regarding the planning process. There is an explicit provision of people's involvement in planning as well as the implementation process. The policy has guided the local government to incorporate public participation in the planning process at a community level by cluster meeting, but the only formality of cluster meeting is conducted at the local level. The national policy has indicated that every planned activity has to be implemented with public participation. The construction projects have the consumer cost sharing as 20% cost-sharing in normal public works, 30% contribution for maintenance and construction of blacktop, gravel, soil feel and paved road, and 10% construction work for embankment construction building of stone. This research study has tried to gather information on local governance based on the meaning of this section following depth investigation, which will adopt in-depth interviews with selected informants.

In response to the means of participation, interviewee C reported that we never interfere in the formation of Tole Bikash Samiti {1} and Upabhokta Samiti {2} . The local People use to practice democratically and make the committee for management of local-level activities. There used to be fewer women participate in the groups. Similarly, in regards to local-level activities, interviewee D has responded that the community people are willing to participate in local-level activities. They are highly motivated to involve in activities of development, but it is difficult to arrange the public contribution from the lower class {3} people due to low per capita income.

Contrary to interviewees C and D's perception, interviewee A has highlighted a competition to hold the post, such as chairperson and treasurer in the local level management committee of a big planned project but a low attraction in other non-vital posts and members of Upabhokta Samiti. Local people have less attraction in small projects sometimes, and there is a debate of trust on vital post members and conflict of interest by committee members. Similarly, interviewee B explained that it is difficult to arrange participation in Tole Bikash Samiti. Although we have formed Tole Bikash Samiti, all the members are not active. The chairperson of the committee takes a chance in every context. They are even discontinuing their regular meeting. Likewise, interviewee E has expressed that people try to select their near one but not the right man in the right place . Poor people do not have time for their work. Sometimes they do not get information about Tole Bhela {4} and sometimes, they have no time to participate in the Bhela . In a similar vein , interviewee F reported that some people get information of the meeting just after the meeting over from the neighbor involved in the meeting co-incidentally. This is because of the poor information system in Tole bhela. In the same way, interviewee G has exposed, “I do not want to participate in the meeting of Tole Bhela and local level activities though I gets the information because the leading members use to impose their own plan for the decisive process ."

Two informants out of seven have responded that there is somehow meaningful participation of local people informing local level consumer committee, involvement of local developmental activities, and willingness to support local activities with a contribution. However, seven informants have expressed their view that there is a lack of meaningful participation in local development activities and involvement in local level consumer groups due to various reasons such as trust, corruption, and lack of information.

Accountability and transparency are key aspects of good governance. This study has followed the exploration of local governance in terms of accountability and transparency. The study's primary concern is to perceive the knowledge on the status of local governance linking people view on public audit, public hearing, service delivery, placement of citizen charter, and grievance management mechanism at a local level for the assurance of accountability and transparency. The Dhangadi Sub-metropolitan City has taken as the case to observe the existing practices of transparency and accountability.

The public audit is directly related to people's participation, accountability, and transparency, and it is one of the crucial elements regarding good governance at a local level. The project progress and financial settlement have to be open to consumers and all respective stakeholders. It includes the entire implementing process, reporting, survey procedure, attachment of necessary bill of quantity, etc. This research’s concern is to collect informants' opinions regarding local activities' public auditing status in Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City.

In response to the public audit, interviewee C reported that Upabhokta Samiti uses to conduct a public auditing program by informing and gathering all the consumers. Local people use to attend the program and get detailed information of all local-level projects. It's going according to the process, as we know. Similarly, the interviewee has expressed the view that we are conscious about the public audit. It is conducted as directed by the process, but there are still some issues. As we practice a new system, there may be something lacking, but we have worked according to the rules, regulations, and system as much as we can. Interviewee A reported that there is a provision of closing the official file of every development activity after the public auditing in a similar vein. Occasionally, some complaints are coming to our office regarding the information on the project and public audit. We are trying to manage them gradually. Overall, it is in systematic form.

On the contrary, interviewee E has responded that there is no particular program for public audit I have heard so far. They come house to house to get signature in this regard. Similarly, interviewee D has expressed that Public audit is accurate on paper. Everybody knows that this is made only for the time of the payment. But it is still running.

On the one hand, the policies are created with foreigner help by staying in a star hotel in Kathmandu without knowing the local level's ground reality. On the other hand, the system being weakened under the pretext of practicality in implementation. Likewise, interviewee F has highlighted that the local development activities are not publicly audited through a mass meeting of stakeholders. In a similar vein, the interviewee has reported that we do not know about the project budget, how the activities are going, and who is implementing the activities.

According to the Good Governance act 2008 of Nepal, the head of the officer performing services at the province, district, or local level needs to provide public hearing service to people and conduct public hearings as directed. It helps to make the law clear, transparent, and objective.

In response to the question: what do you hear about public hearing? Interviewees A, B, C, D, and F have a similar view that the Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolitan City has conducted public hearings twice a year. T he municipality has continued public hearing programs to make its day-to-day administrative and development work more efficient and increase accountability for the job done as guided by the annual policy and budget program .

However, the interviewee E and G have a common understanding that the municipality's local wards have not following and organizing public hearing inward level. Their perception of a public hearing is an extra burden and unnecessary event. It might create conflict between elected representatives and the public.

As an essential component of local government, service delivery has been linked with public service at the local level. The system of service delivery needs to be systematic, maintain a level of satisfaction among local people, and ensure accountability as a good governance tool. The researchers have collected the views of informants in this regard.

In response to service delivery, interviewee A reported that we are training to accelerate the ward's service flow as much as possible. No service recipient has to come again and again for the same work. Likewise, interviewee C argues that there are no questions of delaying the work of local people. We are in touch with almost all people. We know about the ground reality of people of the word. Hence there is no problem in working for people. We have worked on time.

Similarly, interviewee D states that w e have provided service delivery fast as much as possible from the municipality level. But if there is no proper documentation according to the municipality's rule, they must be returned. It is a process.

On the contrary, interviewee B argues that though a sound mechanism is made to address local people's issues, there is a problem in a big planned project that needs to arrange support from the municipality. We have to propose big planned projects through Tole Blela, but sometimes we do not know about the plans of big-budget projects that come to our wards from the municipality. Such programs without any coordination with the ward are creating a situation of confusion in service delivery. Similarly, interviewee E focused on new trends of slowing down on service delivery by asking for tea/water, even for regular work as before. All the leaders and bureaucrats have focused only on their facilities. It does not seem that much attention has been paid to address the actual problems of local people. Likewise, interviewee F reported that we have repeatedly raised the ward's operating bank account in the executive meeting, but no hearing has been held so far. In a similar vein, interviewee G responded that Earlier, the village development committee {5} used to work from the office near the house, but now we have to go to Dhangadhi at 15/20 km. Both time and money are spent.

Placement of Citizen Charter during the field observation, the researchers have observed that some of the wards of Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City have placed the citizen charter in their wards and the central office. They are updating the citizen charter following the norms of good governance. But some wards have not placed citizen charter and adopting the mechanism of accountability and transparency. However, the majority of wards follow the compliance of the provision of the good governance act. Some local government service units are not accountable for displaying their service quality, types and procedures.

Grievance Management Mechanism according to the good governance act 2008, every governmental office has provision to arrange a complaint box in a visible place to understand the public's opinion about the respective office's activities. The field observation has helped understand that Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City has set up a grievance management mechanism in every ward. But nobody has put any written complaints and suggestions into the complaint box till the date. It shows the lack of public awareness and lack of habit to the complaint in proper place and person.

5. Discussion

The research study" Status of local Governance Practice in Nepal" has focused on exploring the situation of governance, local people's participation, accountability, and transparency of respective stakeholders in local-level governance. The research study has tried to explore the policy and practices at the local level. It has also explored the situation of meaningful participation of local people in local level development activities, accountability of local service providers, and transparency in service delivery mechanism applying the qualitative research approach. The study has reconnected the perception of local people and observation of researchers with two major thematic aspects: meaningful participation for local-level development and accountability & transparency as an essence of local development. The following sub-section has described the major finding of the study.

The government policies have seemed to be inadequately applied at the practice level. It has shown that from the beginning of the planning process, there has so-called participation. It was supposed to mean, but at the practice level, it has been affected by political issues, only competition in central post, inadequate service delivery mechanism, and unbalance behavior among service seekers. The level of consciousness and unwillingness in the local people's social activities are central to the local level. People from the local level are only in the role of clapping. In the name of participation, Cleaver among them planned and made Upabhokta Samiti. In reality, our ruler has no willingness to change society's existing pattern rather than changing the mindset of the local people they are enjoying.

According to GGA 2008, it has been explained that public participation and ownership in good governance have ensured the arrangement of broad public participation in the operation of any plans or projects 27 . In a similar vein, Dhangadhi sub-metropolitan city has formulated monitoring and evaluation procedure 2075, which clarifies that the monitoring and evaluation of any plans are in three levels: local beneficiary group level, ward level, and finally Metropolitan City Level. In the policy and program of the Fiscal Year 2066/67, Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City has prioritized in the topic such as infrastructure development (improved road), agriculture, education, health care, information and communication, entrepreneurship and cooperatives, human resources and social development, tourism, environmental conservation, natural disaster management respectively. There is also a mandatory provision of people’s participation as (10-30) % shramdan {6} by cost in every planned project at the local level. But it is not practiced that the amount of labor at the local level. The consumer committee has been adjusting bills on another topic, motivating the local consumer to increase the bills more than in reality . It is the result of lacking meaningful participation of local people in local development activities.

The study has shown that the public auditing system has not been applied inadequately in local-level development activities. It has seemed an effect on local governance, accountability, and transparency. Exploring the public hearing has declared that the municipality has continued public hearing programs to make its day-to-day administrative and development work more efficient and increase accountability to the people for the work done as guided by the annual policy and budget program 2077. The study shows that Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City has conducted Public Hearing twice a year, but it is not found organizing public Hearing inward. The study found that their perception of the public Hearing is not favorable. A public hearing is an extra burden and unnecessary event. The representative also added that it might create conflict between elected representatives and the public. Service delivery is another crucial component of local government. It is public service at the local level. The state of service delivery indicates the level of satisfaction of local people and good governance at the local level .

During the field observation, it was observed that some of the wards of Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolitan city placed the citizen charter in every ward as well as the central office. But some wards were not placed citizen charter yet. However, the majority of wards follow the compliance of the provision of the good governance act. Some local government service units are not accountable for displaying their service quality, types and procedures. The field observation shows that Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City has set up a grievance management mechanism in every ward. But nobody has put any written complaints and suggestions into the complaint box till the date. It shows that the Lack of public awareness and Lack of habit to the complaint in proper place and person. The field observation checklist shows that Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City has its updated website and notice board at the central and ward level office. It has also formed mobile apps and has disseminated most of the information through its website, Radio/FM, or published through print media. The attempt of accountability about information dissemination of Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City was found satisfactory.

As the study has limited only to meaningful participation, accountability, and transparency in local development activities, it has not covered various aspects of governance practice of the local level of Nepal due to time, research boundary, resources, and availability of information. Somehow, it has tried to explore the current situation of local governance practice in Nepal. So, the study has become the reference for policymakers, researchers, and general readers.

6. Conclusion

The study has analyzed government policies and explored local governance practice status in terms of meaningful participation, accountability, and transparency in local development activities. It may provide insight into governance practice to the policymakers and implementers for adopting the appropriate mechanism to put the policy into practice. The lack of the existing policies of Nepal and the implementation mechanism revealed by the study have been utilized to make the implementing system more inclusive, accountable, participatory, and result-oriented. As the research study has tried to explore the gap between policies and practice at a local level, it has investigated how the local levels implement and practice good governance policies and issues? What are existing rules along with gaps between policy and practice?

This study has applied the interpretative paradigm to address the research gap, which assumes the multiple realities derived from interaction among the various stakeholders. This research adopted a qualitative research approach applying an inductive process based on a case study method to analyze the governance policy and practice. The researchers have collected the information from sample informants selected by purposive sampling, employing open-structured in-depth interviews with informants and participatory observation. Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City is the universe, and seven selected informants, such as local level government representatives, bureaucrat, and general service seekers, are a sample of the study. It has two thematic aspects, such as meaningful participation and accountability as well as transparency. The seven selected respondents' responses have gathered on both thematic elements for and against exploring the ground-level situation. The research study has identified that the government policies are not inadequate application at the practice level. It has clearly shown that there is so-called participation from the beginning of the planning process to implementing the local level activities. The existing policies have supposed to be active in practice, but it has to lack practice due to the political issues, willingness, transparency and accountability. There has seemed competition to hold local consumer committees' central post, but there is not caring on the service delivery. It has indicated the inadequate service delivery mechanism and unbalanced behavior among service seekers. The study found that their perception of the public hearing is not favorable. However, the attempt of accountability about information dissemination in Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City has been found satisfactory. Though the municipality has set up grievance management mechanisms in every ward, the grievance management mechanisms are rare. Even some wards have applied the system, but the system is not effective. Local people are not a habit of putting the written complaints and suggestions into the complaint box. There has seemed a lack of public awareness and no idea of complaint in the proper place and to the proper person. It has indicated that there is inadequate local governance.

However, the majority of wards follow the compliance of the provision of the good governance act. Some local government service units are not accountable for displaying their service quality, types, and procedures, but service delivery is a problem as the ward does not operate its bank account. Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City has made a mandatory public audit requirement in the final payment of the infrastructure-related projects. However, it is ongoing just for formality, which allows many points to raise questions about public audit's effective practice. In conclusion, the study has revealed a real situation of governance that needs to be improved to implement local development. The research study has established the importance of local governance at a local level for meaningful participation, accountability, and transparency for local-level activities. Due to the limitation of time, resources, and frequent movement by the pandemic of Covid-19, many other aspects of local governance are not focused on the study. Further research can be made to niche the local governance of many local units regarding other aspects of local governance besides meaningful participation, accountability, and transparency.

Acknowledgments

This research article entitled “Status of Local Governance Practice in Nepal: A Case Study of Local Government in Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan City” is the output of the rigorous study of the researchers and the regular support and guidance of the experts from the Nepal Open University (NOU), Nepal. Firstly, we would like to extend our deep sense of profound gratitude to all the faculty members (Department of Social Science and Education, NOU) for guiding us with regular inspiration, encouragement and insightful suggestion throughout the study. We would like to acknowledge their invaluable instructions, and strong cooperation in completing this study.

We would like to express our sincere thanks to Prof. Dr. Ram Chandra Paudel (Dean of NOU) for his inspiration. We express our profound gratitude to all those friends for their regular inspiration and enthusiastic encouragement both to complete this research and in our academic life. We would like to convey hearty gratitude to all informants for their support in providing valuable perceptions and their experiences during our field stay for information collection taking part our in-depth interviews in the difficult situation of COVID-19, pandemic. Final thanks goes to our family members for invaluable support as well as encouragement for academic writing. Last but not the least, I accept responsibility for any flaws or errors found in the paper.

1. Tole Bikash Samiti is the local development committee formed to regulate local development

2. Upabhokta Samiti is a local consumer committee that utilized the local development

3. Lower Class is a group of people with low socio-economic status

4. Tole Bhela is a gathering of local community people for preparing local planning

5. The village development committee is a local government unit before Nepal's reformation.

6. Shramdan is the process and adaptation of local labor contribution in development activities.

Published with license by Science and Education Publishing, Copyright © 2021 Shukra Raj Subedi and Sunil Subedi

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A Complete Case Study Writing Guide With Examples

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It’s no surprise that writing a case study is one of the most challenging academic tasks for students. You’re definitely not alone here!

Most people don't realize that there are specific guidelines to follow when writing a case study. If you don't know where to start, it's easy to get overwhelmed and give up before you even begin.

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We've collected over 25 free case study examples with solutions just for you. These samples with solutions will help you win over your panel and score high marks on your case studies.

So, what are you waiting for? Let's dive in and learn the secrets to writing a successful case study.

• 1. An Overview of Case Studies
• 2. Case Study Examples for Students
• 3. Business Case Study Examples
• 4. Medical Case Study Examples
• 5. Psychology Case Study Examples 
• 6. Sales Case Study Examples
• 7. Interview Case Study Examples
• 8. Marketing Case Study Examples
• 9. Tips to Write a Good Case Study

An Overview of Case Studies

A case study is a research method used to study a particular individual, group, or situation in depth. It involves analyzing and interpreting data from a variety of sources to gain insight into the subject being studied. 

Case studies are often used in psychology, business, and education to explore complicated problems and find solutions. They usually have detailed descriptions of the subject, background info, and an analysis of the main issues.

The goal of a case study is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the subject. Typically, case studies can be divided into three parts, challenges, solutions, and results. 

Here is a case study sample PDF so you can have a clearer understanding of what a case study actually is:

Case Study Sample PDF

How to Write a Case Study Examples

Learn how to write a case study with the help of our comprehensive case study guide.

Case Study Examples for Students

Quite often, students are asked to present case studies in their academic journeys. The reason instructors assign case studies is for students to sharpen their critical analysis skills, understand how companies make profits, etc.

Below are some case study examples in research, suitable for students:

Case Study Example in Software Engineering

Qualitative Research Case Study Sample

Software Quality Assurance Case Study

Social Work Case Study Example

Ethical Case Study

Case Study Example PDF

These examples can guide you on how to structure and format your own case studies.

Struggling with formatting your case study? Check this case study format guide and perfect your document’s structure today.

Business Case Study Examples

A business case study examines a business’s specific challenge or goal and how it should be solved. Business case studies usually focus on several details related to the initial challenge and proposed solution. 

To help you out, here are some samples so you can create case studies that are related to businesses: 

Here are some more business case study examples:

Business Case Studies PDF

Business Case Studies Example

Typically, a business case study discovers one of your customer's stories and how you solved a problem for them. It allows your prospects to see how your solutions address their needs. 

Medical Case Study Examples

Medical case studies are an essential part of medical education. They help students to understand how to diagnose and treat patients. 

Here are some medical case study examples to help you.

Medical Case Study Example

Nursing Case Study Example

Want to understand the various types of case studies? Check out our types of case study blog to select the perfect type.

Psychology Case Study Examples 

Case studies are a great way of investigating individuals with psychological abnormalities. This is why it is a very common assignment in psychology courses. 

By examining all the aspects of your subject’s life, you discover the possible causes of exhibiting such behavior. 

For your help, here are some interesting psychology case study examples:

Psychology Case Study Example

Mental Health Case Study Example

Sales Case Study Examples

Case studies are important tools for sales teams’ performance improvement. By examining sales successes, teams can gain insights into effective strategies and create action plans to employ similar tactics.

By researching case studies of successful sales campaigns, sales teams can more accurately identify challenges and develop solutions.

Sales Case Study Example

Interview Case Study Examples

Interview case studies provide businesses with invaluable information. This data allows them to make informed decisions related to certain markets or subjects.

Interview Case Study Example

Marketing Case Study Examples

Marketing case studies are real-life stories that showcase how a business solves a problem. They typically discuss how a business achieves a goal using a specific marketing strategy or tactic.

They typically describe a challenge faced by a business, the solution implemented, and the results achieved.

This is a short sample marketing case study for you to get an idea of what an actual marketing case study looks like.

 Here are some more popular marketing studies that show how companies use case studies as a means of marketing and promotion:

“Chevrolet Discover the Unexpected” by Carol H. Williams

This case study explores Chevrolet's “ DTU Journalism Fellows ” program. The case study uses the initials “DTU” to generate interest and encourage readers to learn more. 

Multiple types of media, such as images and videos, are used to explain the challenges faced. The case study concludes with an overview of the achievements that were met.

Key points from the case study include:

• Using a well-known brand name in the title can create interest.
• Combining different media types, such as headings, images, and videos, can help engage readers and make the content more memorable.
• Providing a summary of the key achievements at the end of the case study can help readers better understand the project's impact.

“The Met” by Fantasy

“ The Met ” by Fantasy is a fictional redesign of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, created by the design studio Fantasy. The case study clearly and simply showcases the museum's website redesign.

The Met emphasizes the website’s features and interface by showcasing each section of the interface individually, allowing the readers to concentrate on the significant elements.

For those who prefer text, each feature includes an objective description. The case study also includes a “Contact Us” call-to-action at the bottom of the page, inviting visitors to contact the company.

Key points from this “The Met” include:

• Keeping the case study simple and clean can help readers focus on the most important aspects.
• Presenting the features and solutions with a visual showcase can be more effective than writing a lot of text.
• Including a clear call-to-action at the end of the case study can encourage visitors to contact the company for more information.

“Better Experiences for All” by Herman Miller

Herman Miller's minimalist approach to furniture design translates to their case study, “ Better Experiences for All ”, for a Dubai hospital. The page features a captivating video with closed-captioning and expandable text for accessibility.

The case study presents a wealth of information in a concise format, enabling users to grasp the complexities of the strategy with ease. It concludes with a client testimonial and a list of furniture items purchased from the brand.

Key points from the “Better Experiences” include:

• Make sure your case study is user-friendly by including accessibility features like closed captioning and expandable text.
• Include a list of products that were used in the project to guide potential customers.

“NetApp” by Evisort 

Evisort's case study on “ NetApp ” stands out for its informative and compelling approach. The study begins with a client-centric overview of NetApp, strategically directing attention to the client rather than the company or team involved.

The case study incorporates client quotes and explores NetApp’s challenges during COVID-19. Evisort showcases its value as a client partner by showing how its services supported NetApp through difficult times. 

• Provide an overview of the company in the client’s words, and put focus on the customer. 
• Highlight how your services can help clients during challenging times.
• Make your case study accessible by providing it in various formats.

“Red Sox Season Campaign,” by CTP Boston

The “ Red Sox Season Campaign ” showcases a perfect blend of different media, such as video, text, and images. Upon visiting the page, the video plays automatically, there are videos of Red Sox players, their images, and print ads that can be enlarged with a click.

The page features an intuitive design and invites viewers to appreciate CTP's well-rounded campaign for Boston's beloved baseball team. There’s also a CTA that prompts viewers to learn how CTP can create a similar campaign for their brand.

Some key points to take away from the “Red Sox Season Campaign”: 

• Including a variety of media such as video, images, and text can make your case study more engaging and compelling.
• Include a call-to-action at the end of your study that encourages viewers to take the next step towards becoming a customer or prospect.

“Airbnb + Zendesk” by Zendesk

The case study by Zendesk, titled “ Airbnb + Zendesk : Building a powerful solution together,” showcases a true partnership between Airbnb and Zendesk. 

The article begins with an intriguing opening statement, “Halfway around the globe is a place to stay with your name on it. At least for a weekend,” and uses stunning images of beautiful Airbnb locations to captivate readers.

Instead of solely highlighting Zendesk's product, the case study is crafted to tell a good story and highlight Airbnb's service in detail. This strategy makes the case study more authentic and relatable.

Some key points to take away from this case study are:

• Use client's offerings' images rather than just screenshots of your own product or service.
• To begin the case study, it is recommended to include a distinct CTA. For instance, Zendesk presents two alternatives, namely to initiate a trial or seek a solution.

“Influencer Marketing” by Trend and WarbyParker

The case study "Influencer Marketing" by Trend and Warby Parker highlights the potential of influencer content marketing, even when working with a limited budget. 

The “Wearing Warby” campaign involved influencers wearing Warby Parker glasses during their daily activities, providing a glimpse of the brand's products in use. 

This strategy enhanced the brand's relatability with influencers' followers. While not detailing specific tactics, the case study effectively illustrates the impact of third-person case studies in showcasing campaign results.

Key points to take away from this case study are:

• Influencer marketing can be effective even with a limited budget.
• Showcasing products being used in everyday life can make a brand more approachable and relatable.
• Third-person case studies can be useful in highlighting the success of a campaign.

Marketing Case Study Example

Marketing Case Study Template

Now that you have read multiple case study examples, hop on to our tips.

Tips to Write a Good Case Study

Here are some note-worthy tips to craft a winning case study 

• Define the purpose of the case study This will help you to focus on the most important aspects of the case. The case study objective helps to ensure that your finished product is concise and to the point.
• Choose a real-life example. One of the best ways to write a successful case study is to choose a real-life example. This will give your readers a chance to see how the concepts apply in a real-world setting.
• Keep it brief. This means that you should only include information that is directly relevant to your topic and avoid adding unnecessary details.
• Use strong evidence. To make your case study convincing, you will need to use strong evidence. This can include statistics, data from research studies, or quotes from experts in the field.
• Edit and proofread your work. Before you submit your case study, be sure to edit and proofread your work carefully. This will help to ensure that there are no errors and that your paper is clear and concise.

There you go!

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MSI Integrity

Good Practice Case Study: Local Community Engagement in the Philippines

The following case study provides examples of good practices that were observed and detailed in, Protecting the Cornerstone: Assessing the Governance of Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative Multi-Stakeholder Groups , published in February 2015.

This case study describes good practices and shows the benefits of engaging with communities and local actors, as observed in the Compostela Valley, Philippines. This case is in the report in Box 9, on page 61.

Good Practices for Engaging Communities and Local Actors in EITI (from “Box 9: The Philippines – The immense benefits of engaging communities and local actors in EITI”)

Compostela Valley is one of the 81 provinces in the Philippines. Although less than 1% of the country’s population live in the province, it accounts for a significant amount of the country’s extraction of gold.

According to national law, mining that occurs on areas determined to be “ancestral lands” first requires the free, prior, and informed consent of indigenous Filipinos in the area, and royalties of a minimum of 1% must be paid to the relevant indigenous council [FN 110]. Local communities became concerned in recent years about mismanagement of these royalties and government misuse of revenue, and began to demand greater transparency about extractive revenue related to proposed and existing large-scale mining operations, as well as the hundreds of existing small-scale operations.

Bantay Kita, the PWYP-affiliated CSO network that conducted regional consultations on EITI (see Box III in the Civil Society Guidance Note ), had invited attendees from Compostela Valley to CSO consultations when EITI was introduced in the Philippines in Through these and other exposures, local government and indigenous leaders in Compostela decided to advance their own transparency initiative modeled on the reporting requirements of EITI, but extending far beyond the minimum requirements of the EITI Standard.

Under Executive Orders issued in 2012 and 2013, the provincial government established a “provincial multi-stakeholder council for extractive industry transparency and accountability” [FN 111].  The council is made up of small-scale and large-scale companies, local government officials, national government agencies, as well as four representatives from the provincial tribal council and five locally operating NGOs. The Governor of the province chairs the council, and the vice-chairperson is a provincial government representative of the indigenous people. The council is funded by revenue collected by the provincial government from mining operations. It meets at least once every quarter and makes decisions by consensus.

The council has been involved in drafting an ordinance that includes a reporting template to cover these issues. According to the executive order, the reporting template must address issues that extend well beyond EITI. These include disclosure of:

• The level of public consultations or “free and prior consent process” undertaken, and an assessment of its sufficiency;
• Results of monitoring of the environmental, health, and cultural impact of the mining operations;
• Revenue collected by various local actors from extractive industries; and,
• How collected revenues were allocated and utilized at the local level.

As of October 1, 2014, the ordinance had not yet been finalized or released for public review. However, if it is approved, the reporting system will operate completely independently of EITI and will have considerably greater value at the local level.

Case Studies , Local Advertising

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April 8, 2021

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• 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results ( HubSpot )

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In their first month as a Google Guaranteed Business, they saw 76 leads (57 phone calls and 19 messages) at an average cost per lead of just $38.09 and had 44 appointments booked with the LSA program.

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They enabled the “Message leads” option.

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Their Marketing Success Manager also emphasized the importance of booking active leads (which shows Google that you’re taking care of its users) and moving leads through the dashboard daily the way Google instructs.

When consumers need local services, more often than not, they’re going to start their search on Google. Google’s LSA program ensures you show up at the top of the page and, with the right strategy, can be a powerful source of low-cost, high-quality leads for local businesses.

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• Published: 27 March 2024

An epidemiological modeling framework to inform institutional-level response to infectious disease outbreaks: a Covid-19 case study

• Zichen Ma 1 , 2 &
• Lior Rennert 2  

Scientific Reports volume  14 , Article number:  7221 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

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• Health care
• Infectious diseases
• Influenza virus
• Public health
• Viral infection

Institutions have an enhanced ability to implement tailored mitigation measures during infectious disease outbreaks. However, macro-level predictive models are inefficient for guiding institutional decision-making due to uncertainty in local-level model input parameters. We present an institutional-level modeling toolkit used to inform prediction, resource procurement and allocation, and policy implementation at Clemson University throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Through incorporating real-time estimation of disease surveillance and epidemiological measures based on institutional data, we argue this approach helps minimize uncertainties in input parameters presented in the broader literature and increases prediction accuracy. We demonstrate this through case studies at Clemson and other university settings during the Omicron BA.1 and BA.4/BA.5 variant surges. The input parameters of our toolkit are easily adaptable to other institutional settings during future health emergencies. This methodological approach has potential to improve public health response through increasing the capability of institutions to make data-informed decisions that better prioritize the health and safety of their communities while minimizing operational disruptions.

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Introduction

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused major devastation and disruption globally. Institutions, including industry, health systems, and educational institutions, faced the particularly difficult task of operating during Covid-19 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 . Many public health guidelines to mitigate Covid-19 spread were undeveloped at the time such institutions reopened (e.g., pre-arrival testing for university students) 5 . While disease mitigation policies implemented by governments in broad geographic regions were effective 6 , policies informed by state or county data were insufficient and/or inefficient for disease mitigation at the local level 7 , 8 . Population characteristics in institutes of higher education (IHE) can be substantially different in terms of social networks and health seeking behavior relative to the general population 9 . For example, standard mitigation policies, including social distancing and masking, were not effective for preventing outbreaks in university student populations due to high social contacts and congregated housing 10 .

Institutions with flexibility and ability to implement mitigation measures tailored to their populations have utilized predictive modeling at the local level to guide decision making throughout the pandemic. IHE implemented predictive models to inform testing strategies, mask and vaccine mandates, online instruction, and other mitigation strategies to help curb disease transmission in their student and employee populations 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 . Accurate models are especially useful for IHE in the United States (US) and abroad, since (1) IHE students, faculty, and staff account for 7% of the US population and indirectly impact tens of millions including families and local communites 13 , (2) increased disease transmission among students due to increased social contacts and congregated living 10 , and (3) IHE are able to implement mitigation policies and behavioral interventions 13 .

Several predictive Covid-19 models have been developed since the onset of the pandemic for case projections and intervention evaluation in other institutional settings 15 , including healthcare facilities 16 , long-term care facilities 17 , and K-12 schools 18 , 19 , 20 . However, many of these models rely on input parameters derived from broad geographic regions which can lead to inaccurate projections for local populations 7 . When models are not tailored to local populations, uncertainty in local-level input parameters, including initial model states (e.g., population immunity) 21 , disease transmission (e.g., vaccine protection) 9 , human behavior (e.g., voluntary testing compliance) 22 , and the unpredictable nature of the pandemic 23 , further amplify model inaccuracy 24 . While predictive models can be useful for comparing the relative effectiveness of interventions 13 , 25 , 26 , inaccurate point estimates for disease incidence can ultimately complicate institutional decision making and policy 27 . Accurate case projections are needed to inform institutional resource planning and procurement, such as testing kits, isolation beds, ventilators, staffing, etc. 5 , 11 , 28 . Fortunately, many large institutions have rich data sources that can directly estimate input parameters to guide predictive models. Such modeling frameworks allow institutions to make informed decisions that better prioritize the health and safety of their local communities while minimizing operational disruptions.

In this study, we describe the development and implementation of a novel epidemiological modeling toolkit for institutional Covid-19 surveillance, prediction, resource procurement, and evaluation of institutional mitigation strategies. This modeling framework formed the basis for Clemson University’s decision-making throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. A novel feature of our toolkit is the utilization of the entire pipeline of institutional data in all stages of the modeling framework, including (1) estimation of local disease surveillance metrics, (2) statistical modeling of local disease transmission dynamics, and (3) compartment-based modeling framework for Covid-19 prediction based on input parameters estimated in (1), (2), and publicly available data. We argue that this strategy helps minimize uncertainties in model input parameters presented in the broader literature, and demonstrate that this institutional-level modeling toolkit can accurately predict the number of Covid-19 cases, inform resource procurement, and evaluate the relative effectiveness of mitigation measures. Moreover, the generalized version of this (publicly available) toolkit can yield reasonably accurate predictions in other university settings. The input parameters of this toolkit are adaptable to other institutional settings during (respiratory) infectious disease outbreaks.

Model structure

For each affiliate subpopulation (in-state residential student, out-of-state residential student, non-residential student, faculty, staff, community), individuals were assigned into an immunity (or protection) level: no immunity, previous SARS-CoV-2 infection only, full vaccination, boosted, full vaccination with previous infection, boosted with previous infection (additional detail provided in Methods and Supplementary Text). Within each affiliate/immunity level subpopulation, individuals were placed in one of the compartments detailed in Fig.  1 . Details on statistical models, estimation of protection parameters, disease transmission and transition parameters, including those derived from scientific literature or institutional protocol, is provided in Methods Supplementary Text. Initial compartment states and disease transmission/transition parameters were then inserted as input parameters into the compartment-based modeling (CBM) framework. The CBM provides predictions of the weekly number of cases and infection rates, the daily number of isolated individuals, and the daily number of isolated and quarantined individuals (by affiliate subpopulation). In addition, the toolkit also displays a summary of the initial states and the estimated disease transmission dynamics. A step-by-step tutorial of this publicly available toolkit is included as a supplement to this article.

Modeling framework. The modeling framework of the toolkit includes estimating local disease surveillance metrics, statistical modeling of local disease transmission dynamics, and compartment-based modeling framework for Covid-19 prediction based on estimated input parameters and publicly available data.

Main analysis—Clemson University Analysis (Spring 2022)

There were 27,516 individuals in the main-campus population, including 22,634 students (4853 in-state residential students, 2265 out-of-state residential students, 15,516 non-residential students) and 4882 employees (1611 faculty, 3271 staff). Also included were 17,681 from the local community 29 . The residential population was split into in-state and out-of-state, since out-of-state residential students were more likely to use university-provided housing (if SARS-CoV-2 positive) due to travel restrictions. Students and employees were subject to mandatory arrival testing and weekly surveillance testing during in-person instruction. Initial values for students and employees in each compartment are based on empirical data with adjustments for underreporting (Table S1 ) at the start of the prediction period (January 10, 2022). During this period, the omicron BA.1 variant accounted for 99.2% of SARS-CoV-2 cases in South Carolina 9 .

Estimated student and employee disease prevalence at baseline (January 6th through 9th) was 15.1% and 4.8%, respectively. The number of individuals in each immunity level, along with estimated protection by immunity level, is provided in Table S9 . The disease reproductive number for each subpopulation was validated using empirical data from the Spring and Fall 2021 semesters and published literature (Methods and Supplementary Appendix 1). Predicted SARS-CoV-2 cases under weekly surveillance testing for students and employees during the 5-week follow-up period (January 10–February 13, 2022) are provided in Fig.  2 . Observed cases represent the total number of tests with positive results during the indicated prediction period. Predicted cases represent the total number of students and employees tested positive during the indicated prediction period. Total predicted student and employee cases (%) during this 5-week period was 4947 (21.9%) and 891 (19.2%). Total observed cases (%) for these populations were 4876 (21.5%) and 876 (17.9%), respectively.

Predicted student and employee Covid-19 cases (percent of population) under weekly testing during first 5 weeks of Spring ’22 at Clemson University. Week 1 started on January 10, 2022. Over the five weeks, the observed student cases were 2035, 1678, 732, 296, and 135, respectively (total observed cases = 4876; % agreement = 98.6%). The observed employee cases over the five weeks were 308, 264, 160, 90, and 54, respectively (total observed cases = 876; % agreement = 93.2%). The % Agreement is calculated as min(O ij ,P ij ) / max(O ij ,P ij ) , where O ij and P ij are the observed and predicted Covid-19 cases in week i for subpopulation j .

Further, the percent-agreement for total detected cases was 98.6% for students and 93.2% for employees. In addition, the percent agreement for the peak number of weekly detected cases is 81.9% for students (observed N = 2035; predicted N = 1667) and 79.5% for employees (observed N = 308; predicted N = 245). The predicted peak for students concurred with the observed peak at Week 1 (Jan. 10–16), but the predicted peak for employees occurred a week later than the observed peak.

Observed and predicted students in isolation over the 5-week prediction period are presented in Fig.  3 . Clemson University’s Isolation and Quarantine (I/Q) policies were based on the latest CDC guidelines 30 . We were interested in the maximum number of students in isolation, since this is directly linked to procurement of rooms. Predicted and observed peak isolation counts were 1710 and 1881, respectively, corresponding to an agreement of 91.8%. The residential population is of particular interest since this population lives in congregated housing and, therefore, cannot isolate/quarantine in place. Among residential students, predicted and observed peak isolation counts were 673 and 649 (% agreement: 96.3%). In addition, among out-of-state residential students, predicted and observed peak isolation capacity were 264 and 194 (% agreement: 73.5%).

Observed and predicted number of maximum student isolation beds needed each week under weekly testing during first 5 weeks of Spring ’22 at Clemson University.

There was some daily variation in observed peak isolation (relative to predicted). Of note is the discrepancy between peak capacity towards the end of week 2 (predicted peak: 1086, observed peak: 1515; agreement: 72%). This was primarily due to daily fluctuation in student testing schedules and limited weekend testing, which was not incorporated into the modeling framework.

Prior to the start of each semester, we were tasked with evaluating the impact of testing strategies on mitigating disease spread. This has been extensively studied for previous variants (prior to omicron), which have concluded that testing at least once per week is sufficient for mitigating disease spread 12 , 13 . Here we compared the projected cases during the five-week projection period under four different testing strategies: weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, and voluntary testing. We consider two time periods: Spring 2022 semester (omicron BA.1 variant) and Fall 2022 semester (omicron BA.5 variant).

For voluntary testing, we estimated that only 10% of total SARS-CoV-2 infections would be detected for students and 15% for employees. Results for the Spring 2022 semester are presented in Fig.  4 . Weekly testing led to 1.10, 1.50, and 2.57 times more detected student cases compared to bi-weekly, monthly, and voluntary testing (weekly: 4947, bi-weekly: 4492, monthly: 3293, voluntary: 1928) and 1.02, 1.30, and 1.92 times more detected employee cases compared to bi-weekly, monthly, and voluntary testing (weekly: 891, bi-weekly: 871, monthly: 688, voluntary: 463), respectively. The opposite was true for total cases (both symptomatic and asymptomatic). Here, voluntary testing led to 1.65, 1.19, and 1.06 times more total student cases compared to weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly testing (weekly: 5669, bi-weekly: 7859, monthly: 8851, voluntary: 9379) and 1.79, 1.29, and 1.10 times more total employee cases compared to weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly testing (weekly: 1206, bi-weekly: 1671, monthly: 1954, voluntary: 2153), respectively. Based on these findings, Clemson University continued with weekly testing during the first half of the Spring 2022 semester. While similar (relative) trends were observed when comparing testing strategies prior to the Fall 2022 semester (Fig. S1), overall predicted cases were lower under the four testing strategies. This is primarily due to the substantial increase in population immunity from the Omicron BA.1 variant, which resulted in a lower susceptible population 9 , 31 .

Comparison of predicted cases under different SARS-CoV-2 testing strategies at Clemson University during first 5 weeks of Spring ’22.

Extension to other institutions and time periods

We generalized the modeling framework above to obtain predictions in three other settings. The first two projections were conducted for the University of Georgia (UGA) and Pennsylvania State University (PSU) during the Spring ’22 semester. These institutions were natural choices for external validation, as both are land-grant universities with publicly accessible data on weekly Covid-19 cases. Because institutional vaccination data was unavailable, we used literature-based estimates of vaccine protection for these populations (Table S7 ). The third set of projections utilized the generalized modeling framework for predictions at Clemson University during the Fall 2022 semester (omicron BA.5 variant).

For UGA and PSU, we obtained the total number of students and employees in each university and the number of infections during the week prior to the prediction start (January 10th, 2022) from institutional websites and Covid-19 dashboards 32 , 33 . Because UGA and PSU did not implement mandatory surveillance testing, reported Covid-19 cases are from voluntary testing and therefore overall case prevalence is underreported. We adjust these estimates by an (estimated) constant to obtain the asymptomatic/undetected infection rate at baseline (see Methods and Supplementary Appendix 1). Due to lack of information on vaccination and previous infection rates, we estimate these quantities using a combination of Clemson institutional data and data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 34 . The calculation of subpopulation sizes and other details are provided in Supplementary Appendix 1.

We used our toolkit to predict the number of weekly cases and the maximum number of weekly cases for university students and employees at UGA and PSU over the 5-week period (January 10 to February 13, 2022). The results are provided in Table 1 . Additional information on the initial values, estimated individuals in each protection level, and model input parameters is given in the Supplementary Materials (Table S3–4 , S7 , S10–11 ). The percent agreement for the total detected cases over the prediction period was 96.7% for UGA (observed N = 2550; predicted N = 2467) and 89.5% for PSU (observed N = 1708; predicted N = 1983). In addition, we examined the peak number of cases during the five weeks, as this informs decisions on health resources (isolation beds, meals, medical staff, contact tracers, etc.). The percent agreement for peak weekly cases was 65.4% (observed N = 1003; predicted N = 656) for UGA and 75.6% (observed N = 631; predicted N = 477) for PSU. In both scenarios, the predicted peak occurred one week after the observed peak.

Clemson University Analysis (Fall 2022)

We used the model to project the number of cases and number in isolation for the beginning of the Fall ’22 semester (August 24–September 27, 2022) at Clemson University, where the BA.5 omicron variant was the dominant SARS-CoV-2 in the population 35 . The notable difference, compared to the main analysis, is that the University implemented a voluntary/symptomatic testing strategy mid-way through the Spring ’22 semester. Consequently, many infections between this period and the Fall ’22 semester went unreported. We therefore imputed estimates of unreported infections during periods of voluntary testing (December 12, 2021–January 2, 2022 and April 2–May 22, 2022) into the previously infected compartments. Estimated unreported infections occurring in the 90-day window between May 23, 2022 and the start of follow-up were imputed into the recovered compartment. Estimated unreported infections during the 90-day window prior to start of the Fall 2022 semester (May 23–August 21, 2022) were added to the recovered compartment. Details on the estimation procedures are provided in Methods and Supplementary Text. Due to lack of mandatory pre-arrival or arrival testing which resulting in small sample sizes at the semester start, these predictions no longer utilize statistical models to estimate protection from vaccine or previous infection. Rather, the protection parameter for each protection level was set according to existing literature 36 . Full details on initial values and model input parameters for this analysis are provided in Supplementary Materials (Table S5 and S8 , respectively).

There were 24,264 individuals in the main-campus population, including 19,082 students (4670 in-state residential students, 2323 out-of-state residential students, 12,089 non-residential students) and 5183 employees (1754 faculty, 3429 staff). Estimated student and employee disease prevalence at baseline was 29.3% and 14.1%, respectively. The number of individuals in each immunity level, along with estimated protection by immunity level, is provided in Table S12 . Predicted Covid-19 symptomatic infections for students and employees during the follow-up period are provided in Fig.  5 .

Predicted student and employee Covid-19 cases under voluntary testing during first 5 weeks of Fall ’22 at Clemson University. Week 1 started on August 24, 2022. Over the five weeks, the observed student cases were 197, 254, 115, 49, and 21, respectively (total observed cases = 636; % agreement = 98.8%). The observed employee cases over the five weeks were 32, 33, 22, 15, and 16, respectively (total observed cases = 118; % agreement = 64.5%). The % Agreement is calculated as min(O ij ,P ij ) / max(O ij ,P ij ) , where O ij and P ij are the observed and predicted Covid-19 cases in week i for subpopulation j .

Predicted student and employee symptomatic infections (% of population) during this 5-week period were 644 (3.4%) and 183 (3.6%). Total observed cases (% of population) for these populations were 636 (3.3%) and 118 (2.2%), respectively. Figure  5 provides a weekly comparison between the projected and observed number of detected cases during the five-week prediction period. The percent agreement for total detected cases was 98.8% for students and 64.5% for employees. In addition, the percent agreement for the peak number of weekly detected cases is 61.0% for students (observed N = 254; predicted N = 155) and 40.7% for employees (observed N = 33; predicted N = 81). The predicted peak occurred two weeks later than the observed peak for students and one week prior to the observed peak for employees.

Input parameter sensitivity

Sensitivity of predictions to model input parameters have been extensively studied for Covid-19 12 , 13 , 37 , 38 . In this section, we explore sensitivity to some of the parameters unique to our modeling framework. One novel feature is accounting for protection from previous infection. We conduct a sensitivity analysis ignoring this assumption by assuming no protection from previous infection. In all settings, cases were substantially overestimated (range: 5.7–62.7%, see Table S13 – S15 ). At Clemson University, ignoring this assumption would have led to an estimated increase in necessary I/Q capacity of 137.7% during the Fall 2022 semester, but is estimated to have had no impact on I/Q during the Spring 2022 (which is expected, since previous infection offered little protection against the omicron BA.1 variant).

In addition, there are many individuals whose infection history was unknown. We overcome this limitation by estimating the number of individuals who were previously infected by omicron but not recorded in institutional databases. If we ignore this assumption and assume that no previously infected individuals were missed, this lead to substantial overestimation in the number of predicted cases (range across scenarios: 64.2% to 343.0%, see Table S13 – S15 ). At Clemson University, ignoring this assumption would have led to an estimated increase in necessary I/Q capacity of 39.8% (Spring 2022) and 96.5% (Fall 2022).

The proportion of individuals who voluntarily seek a Covid-19 test when infected is an important assumption in prediction modeling. Increasing the proportion of infectious individuals who seek a Covid-19 test from our assumption of 10% to 20% for students and from 15 to 30% for employees, the predicted number of cases in Spring 2022 when mandatory weekly testing was implemented, increased by 0.3% for students and 2.2% for employees. This result is expected, as increasing voluntary testing rates under mandatory weekly testing would only impact how soon symptomatic individuals would seek a test after infection, but would not impact their decision to obtain a test. In Fall 2022, when mandatory testing was no longer in place, doubling the proportion of infectious individuals who seek a Covid-19 test would have led to an estimated 77.0% increase in detected cases among students and a 69.4% increase among employees.

At multiple periods throughout the pandemic, this toolkit was used to inform the removal of mitigation measures, including social distancing requirements, mask mandates, and mandatory testing. Because it is difficult to model the precise impact of a masking or social distancing mandate, we instead compared predicted cases under two scenarios: strong effect of the mitigation measure versus no effect of the mitigation measure. For example, our team was tasked with evaluating the impact of the classroom mask mandate mid-way through the Spring 2022 semester (after the omicron BA.1 wave had resided). To evaluate sensitivity of model predictions to changes in mitigation measures, we incorporated six daily time steps (4 h each) into our model. Under the reference setting (corresponding to 4 weekday time steps), which was assumed to represent non-work or school hours, we assumed minimal contact between students and employees or community members 13 . During class hours (1 weekday time step) and work/study hours (1 weekday time step), we assumed increased contact between students and faculty, but decreased rates of transmission. Weekend time steps assumed increased transmission rates and higher contact rates between students and employees with community members. Transmission rates across time steps were calibrated to correspond to reference transmission levels (on average). Full details on the contact network matrix and transmission rates by time step are provided in Supplementary Appendix 1.

Assuming masks decrease disease transmission by 50% 39 , we conservatively assumed absence of a mask mandate would double transmission during the classroom time step. During the first 5 weeks of the Spring 2022 semester, removing the mask mandate would have led to an estimated increase of 171 student cases and 119 employee cases. During the first 5 weeks of the Fall 2022 semester, implementing the mask mandate would have led to a decrease of 15 student cases and 9 employee cases. Negligible differences in Fall 2022 are not surprising given that most high-density social interactions occur outside of the classroom. Since Covid-19 prevalence was relatively low compared to previous states of the pandemic and a high majority of the population had protection from previous infection or vaccination, a mask mandate implemented during a period of the day in which social contact was reduced would have minimal impact on overall disease spread.

Our results were not overly sensitive to the choice of contact network structure. To assess sensitivity to assumptions of contact network, we increased contact rates between students and employees/community members by 25%. This led to a decrease of 21 student cases and an increase of 13 employee cases in Spring 2022 and a decrease of 6 student cases and an increase of 3 employee cases in Fall 2022.

The methodological approach applied in this study is novel in that it utilizes the entire pipeline of institutional data in all stages of the modeling framework, incorporating real-time estimation of disease surveillance and epidemiological measures based on institutional data. This institutional-level modeling toolkit can accurately predict the number of Covid-19 cases, inform resource procurement, and evaluate the relative effectiveness of mitigation measures. Therefore, through incorporation of (1) estimation of local disease surveillance metrics, (2) statistical modeling of local disease transmission dynamics, and (3) compartment-based modeling framework for Covid-19 prediction based on input parameters estimated in (1), (2), and publicly available data into the modeling framework, there models can minimize uncertainties in model input parameters presented in the broader literature. Moreover, the generalized version of this (publicly available) toolkit can yield reasonably accurate predictions in other university settings. The input parameters of this toolkit are easily adaptable to other institutional settings during (respiratory) infectious disease outbreaks.

The modeling framework presented in this study was directly used to inform resource allocation and decision making around both implementing, and removing, mitigation measures at Clemson University beginning in the Fall 2020 semester. Early versions of this modeling framework helped inform the number of Covid-19 testing kits needed for arrival and surveillance testing strategies, phased reopening strategies, and the number of necessary isolation/quarantine rooms prior to reopening in the fall of 2020 5 , 11 , 12 . Due to the changing nature of the pandemic, including added protection from previous infection 40 , vaccination 41 , and the introduction of new SARS-CoV-2 variants which altered disease transmission dynamics 9 , 42 , our toolkit was continuously modified to evaluate effective testing strategies in future semesters.

Beginning in summer of 2021, this toolkit was also used to scale back testing strategies and other mitigation measures that were projected to have a small impact on disease spread. For example, the weekly Covid-19 testing mandate for student and employee populations was not predicted to have a substantial impact on disease spread during summer 2021 due to strong protection from vaccination and previous infection combined with low disease prevalence. Findings of reduced impact of mitigation measures during periods of low disease prevalence in IHE settings are consistent with other settings 43 . The testing mandate was subsequently removed during this time, but reimplemented at the start of the Fall 2021 semester as the Delta variant began circulating 41 . The weekly testing mandate was again removed after the omicron (BA.1) wave had subsided in mid-spring of 2022.

Utilizing a contact matrix that broke down social contact patterns and disease transmission by time of day, day of week, and between student, employee, and community populations, we were able to evaluate sensitivity to additional mitigation measures including on-campus social distancing and mask mandates. For example, we projected that social distancing policies had little impact on overall transmission rates due to the majority of social interactions, and hence disease transmission, occurring off campus or in residential halls. Similarly, the toolkit showed that when disease prevalence is low and protection in the population is high, classroom mask mandates no longer had a substantial impact on overall cases due to low adherence to masking off-campus (where the majority of transmission occurs).

Utilizing the entire pipeline of Clemson Institutional Data, our toolkit was able to predict cases with high accuracy (students: 98.6%, employees: 93.2%). Furthermore, incorporating input parameter estimates based on Clemson data yielded high prediction accuracy for total Covid-19 cases at other institutions (UGA: 96.7%, PSU: 89.5%). Lower prediction accuracy for PSU relative to UGA may be explained by the relatively closer demographic similarities between Georgia and South Carolina. When replacing institutional-level estimates of disease transmission parameters with literature-based estimates, the modeling toolkit still yielded fairly high predictions for the omicron BA.5 variant during the Fall 2022 semester at Clemson University for students (accuracy: 98.8%) but overestimated total employee cases (accuracy: 64.5%).

Similar to other studies conducted prior to introduction of the Omicron variant, we found that high-frequency testing was effective in reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission 12 , 13 . This finding was consistent throughout each semester despite the introduction of more transmissible variants and the introduction of effective vaccinations 41 , as the impact of higher transmission was offset by increased protection in the population 40 , 41 . However, the introduction of the omicron variant that plagued the nation in early 2022 complicated selection of optimal testing strategies, since increased disease transmission and lower vaccine protection 9 reduced the effectiveness of weekly testing strategies relative to previous variants. While institutions could theoretically increase the frequency of testing, this would have required procuring additional testing kits, lab equipment, and personnel in a relatively short time period. Without sufficiently scaling up in a timely manner, which was unrealistic for many institutions in the month between introduction of the Omicron variant and the start of Spring 2022 semester, an increase in frequency of testing would have caused a significant lag in test diagnostics, thus allowing infectious individuals to transmit the disease for a longer period of time and potentially reducing the effectiveness of the testing strategy 44 .

In addition to predicting the total number of cases, the toolkit was reasonably accurate in predicting the maximum number of isolations at Clemson University during the Spring 2022 semester (90.9% accuracy) and Fall 2022 semester (79.5% accuracy). At Clemson University, this had important implications for procuring sufficient isolation/quarantine rooms between Fall of 2020 through Spring of 2022. Based on these predictions, the university procured an off-campus hotel that could house over 800 students.

Due to unavailability of isolation/quarantine data at other institutions, we predicted the peak number of weekly cases and the timing of the peak as a surrogate for total isolations each week. Prediction accuracy ranged from 79.9 to 83.3%. While reasonable for model-based predictions, the model underestimated the maximum number of weekly infections by 17–20%. Furthermore, the predicted timing of the peak was off by one week. However, this has little implications for decision making as isolation/quarantine rooms must be procured well in advance.

One of the biggest factors leading to more precise predictions was the ability of the modeling toolkit to accurately estimate initial model states and protection from previous infection. In particular, there are a substantial number of individuals in this population with unrecorded previous infections, which has a substantial impact on predictions in IHE 13 and other settings 45 . Specifically, we showed that ignoring these features leads to underestimating the amount of immunity in the population and thus substantially overestimating the number of infections.

Extension to other institutional settings

With some modifications, our modeling framework can be applied to other institutional settings. Large health care systems or hospitals are the most natural setting for extension, since such institutions are both impacted by, and required to respond to, health emergencies 16 . Furthermore, such institutions have agency to implement their own policies and presumably have access to most, if not all, of the necessary data sources. However, additional compartments may need to be added if the focus is on severe health outcomes (e.g., hospitalizations or deaths).

Even without the entire pipeline of institutional data, our modeling framework was fairly accurate for external predictions in IHE settings through extrapolation of Clemson institutional data or through use of publicly available CDC/Census data in conjunction with literature-based estimates for input parameters. The framework for our modeling toolkit can serve large workforces and other private or public institutions, including K-12 schools, requiring updates to initial state input parameters that reflect subpopulations in each institution. However, disease transmission and transition parameters during Omicron are unlikely reflective of current or future variants. The predictive performance of such models for new scenarios will therefore depend on the accuracy of the input parameters provided by the user. Furthermore, for each institutional setting, the current IHE-based contact network matrix would need to be updated to reflect reasonable assumptions for that institution. Additionally, as noted by a Reviewer, the risk of infection can vary by subpopulation type which would require furthermore modification of the contact matrix 46 , 47 . Future adaptations of this framework may benefit from leveraging digital traces and other contextual information to estimate contact networks and transmission 48 , 49 , 50 . In the absence of this information, one could use an “equal coupling” contact matrix 51 . However, incorrect specification may result in biased predictions.

Extension to other diseases

Our proposed toolkit is readily adaptable to other respiratory infectious diseases. This would require data sources relevant to the disease of interest or literature-based estimates. For example, new SARS-CoV-2 variants or other respiratory viruses would require updating the disease reproductive number/transmissibility, infectivity period, level of protection in the population, and other disease transition and transmission parameters that are disease-specific. However, estimation procedures for initial model states and disease transmission parameters, along with the compartments in the prediction framework, would remain the same. For non-respiratory infectious diseases, additional modifications to the compartments would also be needed.

Limitations

Our proposed modeling framework faces many of the limitations shared by other modeling studies. First, the high prediction accuracy of our toolkit does not imply that estimates of model input parameters and disease transmission parameters are necessarily accurate. Due to the large number of parameters, there are likely several reasonable combinations of parameters that yield similar predictions. This can have important implications to model predictions given strong sensitivity to input parameters 13 . In our framework, we attempted to minimize the impact of parameter uncertainty through estimation of influential model parameters using over 1 million data records, internal validation, and external validation through comparison to estimates in the published literature. As an extension to this modeling framework, a stochastic component can be incorporated to provide credible intervals for predicted point estimates in order to account for uncertainty in model input parameters (e.g., disease reproductive number) 13 .

Additional limitations of our modeling framework include the simplifying assumptions often made in compartment-based modeling, including homogeneity of input parameters within each subpopulation, uniform transmission rates over infectivity period that do not vary by days since infection or severity of infection, and assuming the community is a homogeneous population. To reduce the impact of homogeneous populations, we split the populations into subpopulations including non-residential and residential students (both in-state and out-of-state), faculty, staff, and community. The contact network structure for these subpopulations was based on reasonable approximations from existing literature and input from university students, faculty, staff, and administrators. However, validation of the proposed network structure is not feasible due to parameter identifiability issues previously discussed. While model predictions were not overly sensitive to the choice of contact network structure in the IHE setting of this study, such features may not translate to other institutional settings.

Due to underreporting of booster doses at Clemson University, use of Clemson vaccination data to define protection levels yields (1) a boosted group containing only a fraction of the individuals receiving a booster dose and (2) a fully vaccinated group containing a mix of fully vaccinated and boosted individuals. We therefore supplemented analyses based on Clemson vaccination data with CDC-based estimated, which yielded similar results. Given the population-averaged nature of compartment-based models, this finding is not surprising given the use of institutional data to estimate both vaccine protection and vaccination groups. Vaccine protection is estimated from this mixed population and, therefore, represents a weighted estimate of vaccine effectiveness in fully vaccinated and boosted individuals, limiting the downstream impact of misclassification on predictions.

However, prediction accuracy may not translate to future waves of the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, estimation of population-level immunity from previous infection will become more difficult given the decreasing in testing or use of at-home testing kits 52 , 53 . One potential solution in the absence of reliable data or estimation is to simplify the model through merging of compartments 24 . For example, merging asymptomatic and symptomatic infections into single infectious compartment, merging vaccination groups, or merging previously infected individuals into the reference compartment. While such a shift does not directly mimic the natural course of disease progression, reasonable predictions can still be obtained given that compartment-based models are population-averaged models to begin with. Studies suggest that in the absence of reliable data for model input parameters (including initial states and disease transmission/transition parameters), this strategy will result in improved prediction accuracy 24 , 54 . Even if prediction accuracy is reduced, previous studies have shown that evaluation of mitigation measures can be robust to variation of model input parameters 12 , 13 .

Conclusions

The institutional modeling framework developed in this study is informative for disease monitoring and projections, procurement and allocation of resources, and intervention implementation, and the publicly available modeling toolkit can be directly used to guide institutional-level decision-making. Covid-19 will unlikely be the last pandemic in our lifetime. It is very possible that high impact pathogens, including coronaviruses and influenza A viruses, will emerge and reemerge 55 . The methodological approach presented here advances the field of public health preparedness and response by improving the ability of institutions to make data-informed decisions that better prioritize the health and safety of their communities while minimizing operational disruptions. Institutions must therefore be prepared and ensure that proper data collection and processing protocols are in place. In the event of a future respiratory infectious disease outbreak, our proposed modeling framework can easily be adapted to inform decision-making in large institutional settings.

Data collection

Prior to the start of each semester at Clemson University (through Spring 2022), all students and employees were required to submit a pre-arrival testing result through the COVID-19 Test Upload Tool within 10 days of in-person instruction. Accepted tests for pre-arrival testing included nasal, throat or saliva-based polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests or antigen tests. Testing was available on campus through the University’s clinical diagnostics lab, Student Health Services, or could upload their PCR test result through an online portal. Additional details on testing protocols for the Spring ’22, Fall ’21, Spring ’21, and Fall ’20 semesters are provided elsewhere 9 , 12 , 40 , 41 . Testing records, and associated individual demographics (including location of residence), were collected by Rymedi software and provided in excel files.

Vaccination records

Full vaccination is defined as being vaccinated with one dose of Ad26.COV2.S or two doses of any other vaccine at least 14 days prior to the prediction start 41 . Individuals are boosted if they received a booster dose of BNT162b2, mRNA-1273 or Ad26.COV2.S at least 7 days prior to the prediction start. Individuals are considered as having no protection from vaccination if they are either unvaccinated or only received one dose of an mRNA vaccine.

During the Fall 2021 semester, the university created a Covid-19 vaccine upload toolkit and provided strong financial incentives to individuals uploading proof of complete vaccination. While data on whether an individual received full vaccination was likely captured with high accuracy 41 , data on the number of individuals with a booster dose is subject to underreporting 9 . Therefore, the fully vaccinated group in the compartment-based modeling framework likely contains a mixed population of fully vaccinated and boosted individuals 9 . Because estimated protection for the fully vaccinated group is based on this population as well, the resulting downstream bias in model prediction is expected to be minimal. We assess sensitivity to this assumption by replacing institutional level estimates of the number of boosted individuals for each population with CDC demographic data of vaccination rates by age group and replace institutional level estimates of protection with literature-based estimates.

Isolation/quarantine

Student isolation and quarantine was tracked using a management system, including the software Atlassian Jira 56 . A description for the data application and collection processes are illustrated in McMahan et al. (Figure S1) 57 . Ethical review for this study and obtained by Institutional Review Board of Clemson University (IRB # 2021-043-02).

Additional data sources are provided in Table 2 .

Modeling framework

Compartment-based model.

We developed a metapopulation compartmental model that projects weekly SARS-CoV-2 cases, symptomatic cases, and daily isolations and quarantines. This model generalizes the metapopulation SEIR model 51 . A diagram of the dynamics across all compartments is presented in Fig.  1 .

Each compartment comprises of six sub-populations—in-state residential students, out-of-state residential students, non-residential students, faculty, staff, and community. In addition, each compartment is indexed by \(j=0, 1,\dots , 5\) , representing each of the following six protection levels:

\(j=0\) : unprotected (unvaccinated, no previous infection)

\(j=1\) : fully vaccinated without previous infection

\(j=2\) : boosted without previous infection

\(j=3\) : previously infected, unvaccinated

\(j=4\) : fully vaccinated with previous infection

\(j=5\) : boosted with previous infection

Within each protection level, individuals are assigned into one of the following compartments at baseline: susceptible individuals ( S j ), individuals exposed to the disease but not yet infectious ( E j ), symptomatic ( \({I}_{{S}_{j}}\) ) or asymptomatically/mild ( \({I}_{{A}_{j}}\) ) infectious, exposed or infectious individuals testing positive ( \({T}_{{E}_{j}}\) and \({T}_{{I}_{j}}\) , respectively), individuals in isolation housing ( H j ), quarantine for close-contacts of infected individuals who did not contract disease and remain susceptible ( \({Q}_{{S}_{j}}\) ), quarantine for close-contacts of infected individuals who were exposed to the disease ( \({Q}_{{E}_{j}}\) ), and recovered ( R j ) for all individuals no longer infectious or susceptible to the disease during the follow-up period. Projections were carried out using the forward Euler method. Each day is divided into six time-steps, four hours each. Details of all model equations of the forward Euler method are provided in Table S1 .

Since the five-week projection period is short, we assume that there is no transition from one protection level to another during the projection period. Specifically, there is no transition from unvaccinated to fully vaccinated or from fully vaccinated to boosted. For instance, unprotected susceptible individuals ( S 0 ) do not transition into fully vaccinated without previous infection ( S 1 ) during the projection period.

In addition, we also assume that symptomatic individuals are voluntarily tested and automatically moved to isolation housing. On the other hand, asymptomatic individuals are only tested under mandatory testing policies. The implication is that under voluntary testing strategy the detected cases are all symptomatic, while under mandatory testing the detected cases include both symptomatic and asymptomatic cases.

Transmission

Transmission is governed by the basic reproductive number ( R 0 ), contact matrix, and infectivity period. For the no immunity group, R 0 is computed by affiliation subpopulation for each SARS-CoV-2 variant based on scientific literature and is internally validated using institutional data. Transmission in the no immunity group is modeled by the parameter β 0  =  R 0  ×  ϕ , where 1/ ϕ is the infectivity period 58 . For the other immunity groups j  = 1,2,…,5, the transmission parameter is β j  =  β 0  × (1 −  hr j ) , where hr j is the estimated protection for level j (estimation discussed in next section). These parameters, along with the contact network matrix, are adjusted to reflect time-dependent changes within and between subpopulations. These time steps correspond to time of day and day of week in order to reflect varying social engagements, including time spent in class, work, and weekends.

R 0 for each affiliation in the Spring ’22 analysis is validated using testing data collected during the Fall ’21 semester. Holding all other parameters constant, we searched for the optimal R 0 that minimizes the mean squared error between the projected cases and the observed cases in Fall ’21.

Estimated protection

In the main analysis (Clemson University Spring ’22), we estimated the protection r j due to vaccination and/or previous infection using a Cox proportional hazard model. The outcome was the testing results during the pre-arrival testing period prior to semester start between December 31, 2021 and January 9, 2022. Information of vaccination status and previous infections prior to January 9, 2022 was collected from institutional data. To account for the differences between students and employees, we fitted two separate models.

For the i th subject, the hazard function is given by

where V i is an indicator for fully vaccinated without booster, B i an indicator for boosted, and P i an indicator for previously infected. Based on preliminary analyses, the interaction between vaccination status and previous infection is not statistically significant (student P-values: \({P}_{V\times P}=0.719\) , \({P}_{B\times P}=0.308\) ; employee P-values: \({P}_{V\times P}=0.157\) , \({P}_{B\times P}=0.070\) ). Hence the effects due to vaccination and due to previous infection are additive.

For protection level j  = 1, …, 5, the estimated protection is given by 1 −  hr j , where hr j is the hazard ratio relative to the unprotected individuals. Specifically,

Fully vaccinated without previous infection: \(h{r}_{1}={\text{exp}}({a}_{V})\)

Boosted without previous infection: \(h{r}_{2}={\text{exp}}({a}_{B})\)

Previously infected without vaccination: \(h{r}_{3}={\text{exp}}({a}_{P})\)

Fully vaccinated with previous infection: \(h{r}_{4}={\text{exp}}({a}_{V}+{a}_{P})\)

Boosted with previous infection: \(h{r}_{5}={\text{exp}}({a}_{B}+{a}_{P})\)

These estimates for the hazard ratio and the protection level were used in the Spring ’22 analysis for Clemson University, UGA, and PSU. For the Clemson University Fall ’22 analysis, we adopted estimates for the relative risk of infection/reinfection from recent literature, which studied the effect of vaccination and previous infection against the omicron strain.

Contact matrix

The interaction among the six subpopulations (in-state residential student, out-of-state residential student, non-residential student, faculty, staff, and community) is modeled via the contact matrix C . Individuals in each protection level j transition from the susceptible to the exposed compartment at a rate of

where I tot is the total number of infectious individuals, N is the subpopulation size. Following Lloyd and Jansen (2004), C is a \(6\times 6\) matrix, where the component C kl represents the proportion of individuals in subpopulation k making contacts with individuals in subpopulation l in each time step, with k, l  = 1, …, 6 denoting subpopulations in the order of in-state residential student, out-of-state residential student, non-residential student, faculty, staff, and community.

To account for different interaction patterns across different time periods of the day and day of the week, the contact matrix C assumes different structures during (1) classroom time (weekday, time step 1), (2) work time (weekday, time step 2), (3) after hours (weekday, time step 3–6), and (4) weekend. Full specification of the contact matrix is presented in the Supplementary Appendix 1.

Initial model states

Here we give an overview of the estimation procedure for initial model states in the main analysis. Details are provided in the Supplementary Appendix 1. Briefly, the number of currently infected individuals are estimated by the total number of infections within 5-days prior to the follow-up period. Under mandated pre-arrival or arrival testing, infections are divided between the exposed, asymptomatic infectious, and symptomatic infectious compartments. The distribution of infections to each of these compartments is based on the symptomatic infection rate, test sensitivity, and length of the infectivity period for each compartment. The number of individuals in isolation/quarantine is estimated based on the total number of individuals with an exit date from isolation/quarantine after the prediction start date (infected individuals exiting form isolation/quarantine prior to start of follow-up are considered recovered if within 90 days of follow-up).

The recovered compartment consists of all individuals infected between 5 and 90 days prior to follow-up. The Spring 2022 and Fall 2022 analyses are subject to underreporting of both previously infected and recovered compartments due to shifts in university testing strategy (from weekly testing to voluntary testing). To account for underreporting, we estimate the number of unrecorded infections and add them to previously infected compartments (if > 90 days since infection) or recovered (if ≤ 90 days since infection) 40 .

In the community, the proportion of individuals in each protection level is assumed to be the same as the employee subpopulation at Clemson University. Initial values for the testing, isolation and quarantine compartments are all set to 0. The community baseline infection rate, baseline recovery rate, and the proportion of additional recovered individuals can all be customized in the toolkit.

Extension to other settings

The estimation of initial states for UGA and PSU has several major differences compared to the main analysis. First, from the university dashboard, we do not have sufficient information of the full vaccination rate, the booster rate, the proportion of the previously infected, or the recently recovered. For other institutions, we estimate the missing information using a combination of data collected by Clemson University and data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The calculation of subpopulation sizes and other details are provided in the Supplementary Appendix 1. Second, the reported positive cases during the week prior to the prediction start are based on results from voluntary testing, as opposed to mandatory arrival testing in the main analysis based on Clemson University. These cases are assumed to be \({I}_{s}(0)\) , the symptomatically infectious at the baseline. The initial in the exposed compartment is given by \(E\left(0\right)=\frac{{I}_{s}\left(0\right)}{s{e}_{I}}\times \frac{\sigma }{\gamma }\) and the initial in the asymptotic infection compartment is given by \({I}_{A}\left(0\right)=\frac{{I}_{s}(0)}{s{e}_{I}}\times \frac{\phi }{\gamma }\) , where 1/σ , 1/γ , and 1/ϕ are the mean incubation time, mean symptomatic infectious time before isolation, and mean asymptomatic infectious time.

Compared to the main analysis, in the Fall ’22 semester analysis the most notable difference is that the University implemented a voluntary testing strategy in the Fall ’22 semester instead of weekly surveillance testing. Consequently, all baseline infections were assumed to be symptomatic. Due to potential underreporting, potential unreported infections prior to May 23, 2022 (90 days before prediction start) when a voluntary testing policy was in place (December 12, 2021–January 2, 2022; April 2–May 22, 2022) were imputed and added to the previously infected compartments. This is similar to the calculation of additional recovered in the main analysis. In addition, comparing the ratio of Rymedi tests and self-uploaded tests between Summer ’21 and Summer ’22, there was substantial decrease in the self-uploaded testing results in Summer ’22 because of a lack of incentive to do so. We first calculated the additional symptomatic infections in Summer ’22 so that the ratio between self-uploaded results in Summer ’22 matched the results in Summer ’21, and then calculated the asymptomatic infections similar to the additional recovered the main analysis. The total number of additional recovered in Summer ’22 is the additional symptomatic and asymptomatic infections combined.

Output metrics

We now describe the output metrics in the Toolkit and the associated statistical methods. The Toolkit displays the projection of the weekly symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 cases and the weekly total cases. The weekly cases are provided in two versions: (1) residential students, non-residential students, faculty, staff; and (2) students, employees.

In addition, the Toolkit also displays the projected daily number of university students and employees in isolation housing or quarantine. The projected isolation and quarantine for students includes numbers for out-of-state residential students, all residential students, and all students.

Daily and weekly symptomatic cases Daily symptomatic cases under this framework consist of two groups of individuals, those who are detected at the beginning of the day, and those who are isolated at each time step of the day. Let \(\Delta\) be the time step in hours and \(h=\Delta /24\) be the time step in days, so that \({h}^{-1}=24/\Delta\) is the number of time steps per day. The number of new symptomatic cases on day t is

where p is the daily testing proportion, se I is the testing sensitivity for symptomatic infections, and 1/γ is the mean time of symptomatic infection before isolation. Weekly symptomatic cases are computed by aggregating the daily symptomatic cases over 7 days.

Daily and weekly detected cases Daily detected cases include the daily symptomatic cases in Eq. ( 1 ), the daily detected asymptomatic cases, and the daily detected exposed individuals. The number of new detected cases on day t is

where se E is the testing sensitivity for the exposed individuals. Weekly detected cases are computed by aggregating the daily detected cases over 7 days.

Total cases Daily new cases on each day are calculated via the difference in the susceptible compartments between day t-1 and t. The number of new cases on day t is given by

Weekly new cases aggregate daily new infections over 7 days. Note that the total cases include both detected and undetected cases.

Daily isolation The number of isolations on day t is the total number of individuals in all isolation compartments, i.e., \(H\left(t\right)=\sum_{j=0}^{5}{H}_{j}(t)\) .

Daily isolation and quarantine The number of isolations and quarantine on day t is the number of individuals in all isolation/quarantine compartments, i.e., \(IQ\left(t\right)=\sum_{j=0}^{5}\left[{H}_{j}\left(t\right)+{Q}_{{s}_{j}}\left(t\right)+{Q}_{{E}_{j}}\left(t\right)\right]\) .

Data and materials availability

All data and R code needed to reproduce the conclusions of this paper are present in the Supplementary Materials. Data and code for this work, including the publicly available toolkit, can be accessed in the following links: https://github.com/ZichenM/CampusPredictionApp and https://zmstats.shinyapps.io/CampusPrediction/ . Requests for additional aggregated, de-identified data related to this study should be submitted to L. Rennert ([email protected]).

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Acknowledgements

We thank Clemson University's Computing & Information Technology department for their role in data procurement, management, and protocol development. We thank the Clemson University's administration, Emergency Operations Center, REDDI Lab, medical staff, housing staff, modeling team, and all other providers who helped implement and manage SARS-CoV-2 testing and other mitigation measures at Clemson University throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. We would like to thank Dr. Christopher McMahan for his role in the development of the preliminary models used in this study and Dr. Delphine Dean for her role in collecting the vast majority of SARS-CoV-2 testing data used in this study. We thank Dr. Kerry Howard for assistance in editing this manuscript.

This project has been funded (in part) by the National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health under award number R01LM014193. Clemson University provided salary support for Z.M. and L.R. for consulting and modeling work pertaining to development and evaluation of public health strategies (Project #1502934). The content and decision to publish is solely based on the authors of this study and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or Clemson University.

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Z.M. and L.R. wrote the first draft of this study and reviewed the final draft. Z.M. conducted the statistical analyses and mathematical modeling in this study and developed the publicly available toolkit accompanying this study and L.R. oversaw data collection and processing. L.R. conceptualized and supervised the study and oversaw project administration.

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Correspondence to Lior Rennert .

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Ma, Z., Rennert, L. An epidemiological modeling framework to inform institutional-level response to infectious disease outbreaks: a Covid-19 case study. Sci Rep 14 , 7221 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-57488-y

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-57488-y

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Local SEO Ranking Case Study

Boosting Local Business Visibility: A Local SEO Ranking Case Study Navigating the complexities of local search engine optimization requires a deep understanding of both the search engine […]

Boosting Local Business Visibility: A Local SEO Ranking Case Study

Navigating the complexities of local search engine optimization requires a deep understanding of both the search engine dynamics and consumer behavior within a specific locale.

The following case study explores how a small business dramatically enhanced its visibility through a strategic and focused application of Local SEO Services provided by LinkGraph.

By dissecting the journey from audit to execution, the narrative brings to light the meticulous process behind triumphing in the local SERPs.

Insights from this investigation reveal not only the potential of Local SEO for business growth but also the iterative nature of SEO strategies adapting to ever-evolving search algorithms.

Keep reading to uncover the transformative impact of Local SEO and gain actionable strategies for your own business.

Key Takeaways

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• A Tailored Local SEO Strategy, Including on-Page Optimization and Local Content Creation, Is Critical for Surpassing Competitors in Local Search Rankings
• An Ongoing Process of Monitoring and Data-Driven Optimization Ensures the Effectiveness and Responsiveness of Local SEO Campaigns
• Managing a Google Business Profile and Local Social Signals Are Key Components of a Comprehensive Local SEO Strategy

Introduction to the Local SEO Case Study

The importance of local SEO in establishing and maintaining the online presence of a business is underscored through the meticulous efforts of a burgeoning entity nestled within a bustling community.

This case study introduces the tale of a company as it embarks on a transformative journey to bolster its search engine footprint.

Initially, a thorough assessment reveals a need for significant enhancement in the company’s local visibility.

Staring at an uphill battle, goals are set with precision, aiming to refine the local SEO services that will guide this enterprise toward dominance in local search.

The study will explore the steps taken to achieve marked improvements, from mapping the business’s key information to curating a robust SEO content strategy designed to captivate the local audience.

Overview of the Business and Its Locality

Embedded within the fabric of an energetic metropolitan area lies a business poised to connect with the pulse of its community. The company’s odyssey to amplify its online footprint starts with a deep dive into the current status of its local search engine ranking and online visibility.

Charting a path to increased exposure, the business recognizes the necessity of stitching its brand into the fabric of local searches. In response, LinkGraph’s SEO services are engaged, leveraging user-centric strategies tailored to the business’s specific locality and audience demographics:

Initial Local Online Visibility Assessment

The path to amplifying a local business’s visibility begins with a meticulous analysis of its current standing in search engine results pages. Taking into account the existing digital footprint, an incisive assessment was conducted using LinkGraph’s comprehensive SEO services and SearchAtlas SEO software .

The assessment scrutinized various facets of online presence, including load speed, user experience, and clarity of the company’s business profile. A need to elevate visibility across local SERPs and Google’s coveted map pack was identified, setting the stage for a multifaceted SEO campaign:

Armed with these insights and a strategic plan sharpened by data, LinkGraph prepared to embark on a campaign tailored to the unique digital landscape of the local market surrounding the business.

Goals for Enhancing Local SEO Performance

Setting tangible objectives is the cornerstone of a results-driven local SEO strategy. The company lays out its aspirations: surging into the top search engine rankings for relevant local queries and earning a prominent spot in the map pack to ensure heightened visibility among its regional consumers.

Engagement and conversion climb the priority ladder, with the business eyeing both to be the markers of success for the implemented SEO campaign. Delineating clear goals, LinkGraph’s SEO team tailors its suite of services to expedite the ascent towards these milestones:

Analyzing the Competitive Landscape

The journey to elevate a local business’s online prominence must traverse the territory held by existing competitors who have laid claim to top ranks in the local search domain.

Through a strategic process, it is vital to identify these rivals to understand the competitive ecosystem of the niche.

Comprehensive benchmarking against the top players reveals the strengths to emulate and the deficiencies to exploit.

Assessing the competitive landscape paves the way for uncovering the gaps and leveraging the untapped opportunities, setting the scene for strategic maneuvers that will propel the business to the forefront of local search visibility.

Identifying Local Competitors in the Niche

In the arena of local SEO, discerning who the local competitors are marks a pivotal step for a business intent on fortifying its online presence. LinkGraph’s SEO services employ nuanced keyword research and market analysis to pinpoint the organizations contending for visibility within the same geographical confines.

By leveraging SearchAtlas SEO software’s advanced analytical capabilities, a business gains a clear view of competitors’ performances in search rankings, enabling the strategic development of marketing campaigns that address gaps and capitalize on the competitor’s overlooked areas.

Benchmarking Against Top-Ranking Local Businesses

Adept benchmarking against flourishing local businesses granted the subject company the intelligence to discern the benchmarks for success in their specific regional market. LinkGraph’s SEO services meticulously evaluated the prevailing SEO tactics and digital marketing strategies that were pushing these competitors to the apex of local search rankings, enlightening the subject company with actionable insights.

This reconnaissance offered a treasure trove of data, elucidating the necessary steps to not only meet but exceed the established local SEO benchmarks. The expert utilization of SearchAtlas SEO software facilitated a tailored approach, ensuring that the company’s strategy was both informed by competitor success and fine-tuned to exploit opportunities unique to their own brand and local presence.

Gaps and Opportunities in Local Search Visibility

Unveiling the disparities between current local search standings and the desired SEO achievements exposes potential for growth and development. Identification of gaps such as inadequate keyword optimization or the absence of appealing local content creation initiatives reveals where the company can direct its SEO efforts more effectively.

Capitalizing on these identified opportunities, LinkGraph embarks on deploying targeted SEO services to fill these voids. By crafting a localized SEO content strategy and amplifying backlink quality through white-label link building , the company aims to transcend the competition by addressing areas of weakness with strategic precision:

Crafting a Tailored Local SEO Strategy

Amid the bustling digital marketplace, local businesses vie for the coveted attention of nearby consumers, necessitating strategic agility to outshine competitors.

The profound impact of a meticulously crafted local SEO strategy becomes apparent when a business aligns its digital marketing efforts with the behaviors and needs of its community.

By selecting keywords that resonate with the local vernacular, refining the intricacies of their Google Business Profile, and deploying vibrant local content marketing tactics, businesses can harness the potent combination of relevance and authority to ascend local search rankings and capture the essence of community engagement.

Selection of Locally Relevant Keywords

The journey to securing a spot at the top of local search results begins with the meticulous selection of keywords that speak directly to the community’s heart and its search behaviors. Selecting region-specific terms ensures that a business’s content resonates deeply with local users, fostering relevance and proximity in an increasingly competitive digital space.

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Multimodal seismic assessment of infrastructures retrofitted with exoskeletons: insights from the Foggia Airport case study

• Original Article
• Open access
• Published: 29 March 2024

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• Raffaele Cucuzza   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9344-6006 1 ,
• Angelo Aloisio 2 ,
• Marco Domaneschi 1 &
• Roberto Nascimbene 3  

Addressing the seismic vulnerability of infrastructures is critical, especially for those built before the introduction of the current seismic regulations. One of the primary challenges lies in retrofitting these buildings without interrupting their functionality. In this context, the use of exoskeletons for seismic retrofitting represents an effective solution. This approach increases the seismic resistance and ensures the continuous operation of the building during retrofitting. This advantage is especially crucial for critical infrastructures, such as airports. Nevertheless, traditional seismic assessment methods based on pushover analyses might not accurately predict the seismic capacity of complex infrastructures dominated by local vibration modes. To bridge this gap, the study proposes refining the multimodal pushover analysis tailored for seismic vulnerability assessments of large infrastructures with exoskeletons characterized by low modal participation ratios. The Foggia Airport case study exemplifies these points and highlights the practical applications of the discussed advancements. The authors compared two force distributions for push-over analysis, addressing the fine-tuning of exoskeletons to maximize their seismic resistance.

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1 Introduction

Recent seismic events have underscored the fragility of infrastructures in seismically active regions (Kawashima et al. 2009 ; Pang et al. 2020 ; Xiang et al. 2021 ; Salkhordeh et al. 2021 ). Many infrastructures were built before the adoption of contemporary European and International seismic guidelines (Wardhana and Hadipriono 2003 ; Afsar Dizaj et al. 2023 ; Zucca et al. 2023 ), leading to high seismic vulnerability (Wallace et al. 2001 ; Yen 2002 ). Ageing infrastructures, especially after the Morandi bridge collapse (Malomo et al. 2020 ; Calvi et al. 2019 ) and other events (Scattarreggia et al. 2022 ), are raising global concerns. To prevent future damages and losses, it is crucial to evaluate vulnerabilities and identify effective retrofitting solutions (Collura and Nascimbene 2023 ; Ghazal and Mwafy 2022 ; Markou 2021 ; Zanini et al. 2020 ; Reggia et al. 2020 ).

Recent studies have emphasized the benefits of seismic isolation or the introduction of dissipative devices as a primary retrofitting method (Cucuzza et al. 2023 ). This technique effectively reduces base shear, minimizes lateral drifts, and prevents inelastic deformations in the structure (Nestovito and Occhiuzzi 2016 ; Martelli et al. 2014 ). While seismic isolation is undoubtedly a valuable strategy, the uninterrupted operation of critical infrastructures, such as commercial hubs and airports, is paramount during seismic retrofitting. Therefore, for vital facilities, alternative solutions like external structures, including exoskeletons (Di Lorenzo et al. 2020 ; Formisano and Messineo 2022 ), rocking walls (Di Egidio et al. 2020 , 2021 , 2023 ), are more appropriate to guarantee continuous functionality.

Historically, seismic retrofitting interventions were based on steelwork (Mazzolani 2007 ). However, in recent times, alternative materials and techniques have come to the forefront, gradually replacing steel-based systems (Rowe and Walther 1993 ; Agency 2006 ). Still, in scenarios where it is imperative to conduct external-only modifications without compromising the building functionality, steel exoskeletons represent an optimal choice (Bellini et al. 2018 ; Caverzan et al. 2016 ; Foraboschi and Giani 2017 , 2018 ; Landolfo et al. 2021 ; Barbagallo et al. 2022 ). Exoskeletons improve the whole building, from its aesthetics and capacity to its impact on the environment (Marini et al. 2014 , 2015 , 2017 ). Such interventions proved their effectiveness in several experimental tests and during earthquakes (Foutch et al. 1989 ; Kaltakci et al. 2008 ; Wada et al. 2010 ; Görgülü et al. 2012 ).

Exoskeletons have been used on various structures, but their application to airports is rare. This study presents a case study where steel exoskeletons are employed for seismic retrofitting an existing airport in Foggia (Italy). The authors address the optimization of the in-plane configuration of the exoskeletons using multiple strategies addressing the influence of local modes on the seismic response. One of the significant challenges, besides the structural optimization, is accurately assessing the seismic performance. Given that these structures exhibit prevalent local modes, conventional uni-modal pushover analysis can lead to biased assessments.

Pushover analysis is a standard nonlinear method for assessing structural performance. Traditionally, this method focuses on the first mode and overlooks the effects of higher vibration modes (Habibi et al. 2022 ). Pushover analysis generally requires applying a lateral force pattern corresponding to the first mode. However, this assumption has several limitations, particularly in buildings with dynamic responses dominated by the higher modes (Saiidi and Sozen 1981 ; Fajfar 2000 ). As a result, its primary application is for low-rise buildings, necessitating adjustments for taller structures to consider higher-mode effects. Given these limitations, many researchers attempted to improve pushover analyses accounting for higher vibration modes. For instance, Sasaki et al. ( 1998 ) introduced the multi-mode pushover (MMP). Other methodologies, like the modal pushover analysis (MPA) by Chopra and Goel ( 2002 ), also used varied load patterns related to each mode shape. However, some methods do not account for variations in the structural stiffness (Kalkan and Kunnath 2007 ). Thus, adaptive pushover methods have emerged, such as the adaptive modal combination (AMC) (Kalkan and Kunnath 2006 ), which integrates adaptive mode-based force patterns. Some researchers, like Antoniou and Pinho ( 2004 ), compared the accuracy of adaptive vs. non-adaptive techniques, while others, like Mao et al. ( 2008 ), enhanced existing modal pushover analyses. There have been continuous efforts to enhance pushover analysis accuracy, with numerous studies proposing new lateral load patterns (Chen et al. 2014 ; Amini and Poursha 2018 ; Bergami et al. 2020 ).

Still, while various methodologies exist in pushover analysis, the prevailing focus in much of the research remains on the load pattern. A significant gap in the literature pertains to the optimal transformation factor for converting the multi-degree of freedom (MDOF) system to the single-degree of freedom (SDOF) system, especially when dealing with a multimodal force distribution. This topic is contentious and requires more attention from scholars.

This paper examines a case study where the local modes play a primary role, and the first mode is not well representative of the building’s dynamics. The study first compares two force distributions: one derived from a modal combination and the other uniformly proportionate to masses. They then adopt a novel approach for scaling the MDOF to SDOF, having evaluated and compared multiple transformation factors for model reduction. Therefore, in addition to presenting this peculiar case study on seismic retrofitting using exoskeletons, this work addresses specific flaws of standard multimodal pushover analysis.

The paper’s structure is as follows: beginning with an introduction to the case study, the authors discuss the seismic retrofitting measures and the procedures for vulnerability assessment, considering loads and seismic demand. A subsequent section on exoskeleton optimization determines the ideal configuration. The paper then evaluates seismic vulnerability pre and post-retrofit using the multi-modal pushover method. Before this, the authors outline the limitations of current methods, suggesting a refined approach for pushover analyses.

2 Case study description: the Foggia Airport

Established in 1968 for civil purposes, the Foggia Airport has intermittently served as a critical hub for commercial flights in the northern part of Puglia (Italy). Given the growth in activities at the airport, local authorities felt the urgency to commission a seismic vulnerability assessment and retrofitting measures. This initiative aims to ensure uninterrupted operations and provide the utmost safety for its users while achieving an architectural rehabilitation of the entire building.

2.1 As-built structure

The Foggia Airport consists of a steel moment resisting frame without additional lateral resisting systems (NEHRP 2006 ). The building has three floors, each with a different weight distribution. The raised floor carries much more of the loads than the other floors as it accommodates the entire flow of passengers. It is located 1.40 cm respect the ground level in fact stairs along the entire perimeter of the building were realized to cover this gap in elevation. The second floor has two main parts: one section supports a corrugated sheet roof made of a 10 cm steel deck filled with concrete (approximately 80% of the entire footprint), and the remaining area is used for executive offices. The third floor mainly acts as a protective cover for the offices below.

The Foggia Airport covers an area of roughly 2960 m \(^2\) , with 320 m \(^2\) dedicated to executive spaces on the + 6.15 m level. The total height measured with respect to the ground floor is 10.40 m (Fig. 1 ).

a Front view of the main entrance. b Perspective view of the air-side

The steel moment-resisting frames consist of HEA 160, mainly adopted for the realization of the short columns supporting the ground floor, and HEA 180 profiles as supports of the roof above the first and second floor. The main truss beams are connected to the columns, while secondary beams hinge on primary ones; see Fig.  4 . Specifically, half-joint connections (Rosso et al. 2022 ) were realized in situ to guarantee the continuity of both main and secondary beams. Above, the first storey at + 1.4 m has a thin steel deck slab, realized by a composite system of corrugated sheet (see Fig.  2 ) and concrete upheld by IPE 320 and/or IPE 300 beams adopted for the main beams and IPE 220 for the secondary ones.

Detail of the columns-main beams ( a ) and columns-secondary beams ( b ) connection supporting the deck of the raised floor. Measures are expressed in millimeters

The subsequent levels employ several truss beams obtained from assemblages of double angles and IPE sections. The second storey ( see Fig.  3 ), elevated at + 6.15 m, mainly serves as a roof, except for a portion of internal offices. The slab, similar to that in executive zones and atop the structure, adopts a lean steel deck design similar to the roof system of industrial buildings.

As depicted in Fig.  3 , the geometrical scheme intended as positions of vertical and horizontal elements is similar for both the ground and first floor. More in detail, consecutive main and secondary beams are located at 6.0 m and 2.5 m each other, respectively. However, despite the columns supporting the raised floor which are placed in correspondence of each connection joint between the main and secondary beams, vertical elements of the raised floor exhibit variable length spans ranging from 5.0 up to 30.0 m . Obviously, the need to cover larger roof spans is peculiar to this type of strategic building so as to ensure maximum functionality during the activities of the airport. Specifically, the truss beams along the y-direction, which cover the airport area dedicated to the security service and preliminary passenger screening, show the most critical span.

The beam-to-column connections with welded plates allow for some bending moment transfer. Additionally, several connections, see Fig.  4 b, lacked professionalism, perhaps due to transportation challenges during construction.

Layout of the second floor + 6.15 m

a HEA160 short column supporting the raised floor; b detail of a hinged connection at the raised floor level; c close-up of a rigid connection on the primary truss beams

2.2 Geometric and structural survey

The concept of“knowledge level”is fundamental when dealing with existing structures, rehabilitations, or retrofit projects. It pertains to the amount and quality of information available about a structure, encompassing its design, construction, material properties, previous modifications, and current condition.

Three primary factors influence the determination of knowledge level: (1) documentation: availability and comprehensiveness of original design drawings, as-built records, construction notes, and any subsequent modifications. (2) Physical inspection: a detailed assessment of the structure, which includes visual inspections and non-destructive testing. (3) Material testing: in some cases, invasive testing is needed to determine the condition and properties of materials, connections, and elements.

Based on the combined insights from these sources, an engineer can classify the structure into specific knowledge levels. This classification can then guide the subsequent analysis, design decisions, and safety evaluations, ensuring that the structure meets current standards and safety requirements. According to the Italian standard, there are three knowledge levels: minor, moderate, and extensive, labelled LC1, LC2, and LC3, respectively.

The Italian standards highlight three primary criteria for determining the knowledge level (LC) for steel structures: (1) presence of original and exhaustive as-built record drawings. (2) detailed survey covering elements and connections. (3) Verification of element mechanical properties. According to the Italian code, at least three samples per 300  \(m^2\) of storey’s footprint are required for a survey to be classified as extensive (LC3), covering both main elements and connections. By this metric, the survey aligns well with the LC3 knowledge level. Nonetheless, the final designation has been at LC2 due to the lack of original drawings and ambiguities in the typology and position of certain connections, especially at the raised floor and roof levels. Additionally, either the presence of an unusual assemblage of steel pieces so far to the current practice and the impossibility of extending the geometric survey to all the structural elements suggests a more conservative approach

A comprehensive geometric survey was conducted, and tensile tests on steel samples revealed an average yield resistance of 290 MPa for steel members. This indicates that the predominant steel type aligns with the S275 category per European standards. Tests conducted on the welded plates indicated a steel type consistent with S355. The foundation elements have a thick concrete cover that restricts rotation, acting like stiffened connections. According to this result, the foundation will be not considered in the modelling. Additionally, no corrosion was found on the elements.

With LC2, the confidence factor FC for assessing the design strengths must be set at 1.2. Thus, the steel design strength values ( \(f_{yd}\) ) are

2.3 Load evaluation

The load evaluation for the Foggia Airport structure was conducted to ensure compliance with Italian standards. Table  1 shows the gravitational loads acting on different sections of the airport structure. The loads are divided coherently with their nature:

G1 represents the permanent load due to structural components like slabs and decks.

G2 identifies permanent non-structural loads.

Q denotes variable loads, such as airport traffic for the rising floor or office-related loads for administrative sections, maintenance and snow loads for the planar roofs.

The primary lateral forces come from wind and earthquake hazards.

Wind loads are dynamic forces that can significantly affect the stability and safety of a structure, especially in open areas like airports. Table  2 presents the key parameters to determine the equivalent static wind loads on the Foggia Airport structure recommended by the Italian Code.

Regarding the seismic action, following Italian regulations, the authors undertook seismic assessments with an elastic response spectrum based on pseudo-acceleration and a 5% damping ratio. This spectrum corresponds to the life safety limit state (SLV). The design spectrum has been scaled using a behaviour factor of 1.5 for the as-built structure and 1 for the retrofitted structure. While the as-built steel structure, as later shown, preserves small ductility sources, the retrofitted one has none.

Expressly, the as-built structure has limited ductility sources and vulnerability to brittle failures, evident from the short columns on the raised floor and the absence of bracings. According to the code, the airport has been assigned a nominal lifespan of 50 years (building with ordinary performance level) and is categorized under usage class III. Though strategic buildings like airports are usually categorized under class IV, in this specific case the Foggia airport represents a secondary hub with respect to the principal one located in the regional capital (i.e. Bari). Moreover, at the present time, the limited number of passengers hosted by the building makes the choice a reasonable assumption.

Table 3 presents the elastic spectrum parameters as per Italian seismic regulation.

2.4 FE modeling

The main structure consists of 15 frames in the y -direction and 17 in the x -direction, as shown in Fig.  5 .

View of a FE model module-type indicating the applied vertical loads acting on the main beams according to the floors’ warping

The authors did not model the control tower. The tower does not meet essential safety and stability standards, making demolition a likely option. Because of these issues, most modelling approaches suggest not including the tower in the structural analysis. This decision is backed by a recent rule from the ENAC (Italian Civil Aviation Authority), which now allows control towers to be built separate from the main airport building.

The stories do not meet the slab thickness requirements as per Italian regulations, showing flexibility. Therefore, rigid body behaviour was not adopted for the floors as well as shell elements were avoided. Issues arose with mesh refinement between shell and frame elements, leading to stability problems. Hence, the authors applied equivalent loads directly to frames. However, with the aim to simulate the low constraint level exhibited by the deck, dummy beams with zero masses and low stiffness have been modelled as virtual bracings lying on the horizontal plane of the slab. All the structural elements composing the main and secondary truss beams as well as the beams lying on the raised floor and the columns have been modelled by using the beam element of SAP2000. Elastic hinges have been modelled in correspondence of the half-joint connections and column-beam connections detected during the survey.

The structural nonlinearities have been lumped in the plastic hinges at the end of beams and columns. Typically, these hinges appear at the beam ends before manifesting in columns. The study utilized the plastic hinge guidelines set by FEMA-356 and ASCE 41-13, tailored for steel structures. These hinges account for axial force interactions and have a length corresponding to the height of the member’s cross-section.

3 Seismic retrofitting using exoskeletons

The structure under consideration exhibits a limited dissipating behaviour. Given the challenges of increasing the dissipation sources while maintaining the operational infrastructure, exoskeletons represent a valid solution. Moreover, adherence to guidelines set by the airport administration is paramount. Specifically, the design has prioritised preserving the facades of the main entrances and the bus arrival area.

The authors aimed to reduce the structure’s displacements by strategically placing a series of exoskeletons around the base perimeter. While the optimal placement of exoskeletons can effectively reduce torsional effects and improve structural performance, an overabundance might stiffen the structure excessively, potentially amplifying seismic forces. It should be remarked that the exoskeletons are intended to rest on a foundation system distinct from the primary structure.

a Design parameters of the exoskeletons and b related FE model

As depicted in Fig.  6 , the exoskeleton under consideration is characterized by a triangular geometry characterized by intrinsic robustness and rigidity deriving also from the arch shapes of the three vertical chords. This structure is designed with a tiered approach, each level decreasing in size as it progresses upwards, with a tapering profile. Its cross-braces are integral to the triangular configuration, contrasting the lateral forces. In Fig.  6 b, the pink elements indicate the primary vertical members while in red the secondary horizontal ones.

The exoskeleton’s dimensions, depth and width are related to the building’s height. The depth is half the building’s height; see Fig.  6 . The radius was chosen to quadruple the depth of the exoskeleton aiming to give more stability in either the main directions as well as ensuring an efficient arch behavior of the main chords. While arches with reduced radii might demonstrate enhanced performance, they demand increased depth in the exoskeleton, potentially leading to a disproportionate retrofit.

During the design of these specific external retrofitting structures, the connections with the existing building play a crucial role. Only with well-realized connections the coupled system can work efficiently and preserve the reference structure by simultaneously unloading the existing building and capturing the majority of the horizontal seismic actions. The exoskeletons will be rigidly anchored to the top and bottom chord of the truss beams at each level of the building’s floor. Specifically, column-beam connections have been preferred to guarantee the best transfer path of the load. The structural redundancy of the connection, vitally important during a seismic event, and an adequate stiffness level has been assured by a truss system shown in Fig.  6 b.

3.1 Sensitivity of the modal parameters to the exoskeleton position

The structural survey identified the lack of horizontal bracings, which hindered the assumption of a rigid body. A lack of rigid in-plane behaviour can undermine the force transfer between the structure and the exoskeletons. Therefore, the authors, before assessing the sensitivity of the modal parameters to the exoskeleton’s position, first attempted to improve the in-plane stiffness using in-plane bracings. The position of the bracings aimed to increase the mass participation factors in the orthogonal directions. Figure  7 displays the chosen bracings configuration based on functional and architectural needs.

Optimal bracings placement in the final configuration

Given the configuration with improved in-plane stiffness, the authors assessed the modal parameters’ sensitivity to the exoskeletons’ placement.

Achieving global behavior of the coupled system with few fundamental modes associated with significant mass participation factors represents the final aim of this preliminary investigation.

During the initial phase, exoskeletons were positioned along the primary axes of the structural frames, with their placement influenced by non-structural elements. The final configuration of these exoskeletons does not follow a fixed method, evolving through iterative adjustments, considering the number of exoskeletons, their locations, and the properties of their cross-sections.

The authors analyzed five different exoskeleton configurations, highlighting how modal parameters are affected by the positioning of the exoskeletons. While exoskeletons increase structural stiffness, they could unintentionally push the structure into a zone of high acceleration in the elastic response spectrum. Furthermore, these exoskeletons aim to limit the number of local modes, ensuring that the main modes’ cumulative mass participation ratio stays at or above 85%.

Figure  7 displays the considered five configurations investigated at this stage. The external arch exoskeletons added to the main structure exhibit distinct positions in the five configurations. In the first configuration, the exoskeleton arches are evenly distributed along the perimeter of the main structure. They extend outward symmetrically on both sides of the structure, parallel to the plane. This first attempt presents several issues mainly related to the obstacles provided by the exoskeletons along the air-side of the airport. However, the investigated scenario fails to achieve satisfactory global behaviors due to the presence of several local modes mainly chargeable to the perimeter elements of the existing buildings between consecutive exoskeletons. In the second configuration, similar to the first configuration, the exoskeleton arches are also uniformly distributed but extend outward asymmetrically. They are concentrated on the principal facade while the area of the air-side, devoted to the passengers’ transport, is not constrained. It is worth noting that in the second scenario, the number of fundamental modes along the x-direction is reduced to two with significant mass participation factors. As expected, an increase of the local modes’s number along the y-direction is recognized. The third, fourth and fifth configurations are characterized by slight modifications in the final arrangement of the exoskeletons aiming to respect the constraints on the main facade (i.e. main entrances) and on the air-side. In the last configuration, though the number of exoskeletons is dramatically reduced with respect to the first scenario, an improvement in terms of both the numbers of vibration modes and the significance of corresponding mass mobilization can be observed as reported in Table  4 . It is worth noting that the high-order modes assessed for the last configuration are mainly determined by vibrations of a few elements (eternal beams) lying on the raised floor (Fig. 8 ).

Considered five configurations of the exoskeletons

Table 4 reports the modes characterized by the highest modal participation ratios for the five configurations in the x and y directions. In almost all configurations, the first mode tends to dominate the x direction, with almost 70% mass participation ratio. For the y direction, modal participation varies across configurations. As expected, by decreasing the number of exoskeletons, high-order modes appear and the first one becomes less dominant (from 50% of the 1st configuration to 26% of the 5th configuration). Interestingly, the addition of exoskeletons leads to an increment of the number of modes necessary to achieve 85% of the mass participation. The base structure was initially analyzed for 40 vibration modes, capturing a minimum of 85% of the modal mass participation. In contrast, the coupled system model required a minimum of 250 vibration modes to achieve the same level of participation.

However, even if the last configuration seems to maintain a reasonable number of vibration modes with significant mass mobilization if compared with configurations in which a limited number of exoskeletons have been considered, the structural efficiency is not satisfactory. The total shear base capture by the exoskeletons does not achieve 30% of the total seismic demand in all the investigated scenarios. The optimal configuration should almost totally unload the base structure to guarantee structural safety under horizontal forces.

For this reason, the optimal configuration obtained, by considering this aspect, is reported in Fig.  9 .

View of the optimal placement of the exoskeletons in the final configuration

The peculiarity of this configuration consists of the presence of short exoskeletons along the area devoted to the main entrance of the airport. In this way, the architectural and logistic constraints imposed by the clients have been respected. Moreover, the local modes along the y-direction shown for the fifth configuration disappeared and an integral behavior of the coupled system was achieved.

Finally, as demonstrated by the results of the nonstatic analysis reported in the next section, 50% of the total seismic demand is captured by the external retrofitting systems.

Table  5 reports the cross-section properties of the exoskeletons in the optimal configuration.

In this preliminary stage, it could be interesting to observe how the modal shapes change after the retrofitting aiming to assess the goodness of the proposed intervention. Either the in-plane bracings or the exoskeletons lead to an integrated behavior of the coupled structure with few fundamental frequencies associated to significant mass participation factors as shown in Fig.  10 .

Representation of the three fundamental modes with the most significant participation mass factors along x-direction ( a – c ) and y-direction ( d – f ) for the best retrofitting scenario

4 Seismic performance evaluation

4.1 linear dynamic analysis.

Linear dynamic analyses with seismic response spectra have been carried out. Specifically, the structural analysis comprised the following sub-phases:

Determine the response spectrum: compute the design response spectrum based on the site-specific hazard parameters specified by the Italian Seismic code.

Conduct linear dynamic analysis and assess seismic demand: apply the response spectrum and estimate the seismic demand for all structural elements. The demand is computed through modal superposition, using the complete quadratic combination (CQC) method (Humar 2012 ), as per Italian Standards.

Evaluate building’s capacity: calculate the seismic capacity of all structural elements. The capacity of the building corresponds to the minimum capacity among all structural elements. The capacity for each structural element is calculated from the analytical expressions specified in the Italian Code (e dei Trasporti 2008 ), aligning closely with the Eurocodes.

Compute the seismic vulnerability index, obtained as follows:

Here \(C_i\) and \(D_i\) indicate the capacity and demand of the ith structural element, respectively.

Progressively scaling the response spectrum and repeating steps No.2-4 in order to identify the structural element associated with the first failure. This step provides evidence of the most vulnerable structural elements requiring specific care in the retrofitting; see Fig.  11 .

Illustration of the scaling procedure of the design spectrum to identify the first structural element to fail

The authors compared the vulnerability indexes obtained from linear dynamic analyses and pushover analysis, outlined in the following subsection, highlighting the pros and cons of the two evaluation methods.

4.2 Non-linear static analysis background

The seismic assessment of the retrofitted structure has been based on nonlinear pushover analyses (Fajfar 1996 ). There are multiple pushover methods, each with strengths and weaknesses. At the core of conventional pushover analysis is the assumption that a single mode predominantly influences the structural response and remains unchanged throughout the structural performance. Many studies have confirmed that such an approach provides reasonably accurate estimates of the seismic response in MDOF systems only when the first mode dominates the response.

To investigate the structural behaviour when the higher modes are significant, many variants of unimodal procedures have been proposed, adopting load profiles derived from the mode shape combination. Therefore, the authors adopted two load profiles, one proportional to the masses and one obtained from the modal combination according to the Italian Standard regulation. The so-called uniform profile ( \(\varvec{\Psi }\) ) proportional to the storey masses can be written as:

where \(\varvec{M}\) is the mass matrix and \(I = [1, 1, \dots ,1]^T\) is the unitary vector. Additionally, they adopted the Freeman distribution, square root of the sum squares (SRSS) distribution, based on spectral analysis, including the effect of the higher modes in the distribution of combined lateral loads. In this formulation, the distribution of lateral loads depends on the pseudo-acceleration spectrum of each mode \(S^m_a\) according to the following relationship:

where \(\Psi _i\) is the ith component of the \(\varvec{\Psi }\) vector proportional to the load pattern, \(N_m\) the number of modes to excite at least 85% of the total mass, \(F_{mi}\) the shear at the ith plane of the mth mode determined by linear analysis on the response spectrum, \(m_i\) is the mass of the ith plane, \(\phi _{mi}\) the mth mode shape at the ith plane, \(S_a^{(m)}\) the mth pseudo-acceleration spectral mode and \(\Gamma _m\) the mth modal participation factor defined as

In both load profiles, the transition from an MDOF system to its SDOF equivalent is not straightforward and does not exist shared assumptions. In conventional pushover analysis with a load profile proportional to the first mode, the force and displacement are scaled with the modal participation factor of the first mode ( \(\Gamma _1\) ) as follows.

where \(a_C\) is the acceleration capacity, \(V_b\) the base shear, M the total mass of the structure and \(\alpha _1\) the modal mass coefficient of the first mode.

where \(d_c\) is the displacement capacity, \(D_t\) is the top storey displacement, and \(\phi _{1t}\) is the modal component of the first mode corresponding to the top floor.

Yet, this approach cannot be considered reliable in the current application due to the absence of a unique representative fundamental mode. Additionally, there is no official recommendation in the Italian code for assessing the transformation factor \(\Gamma\) from MDOF to SDOF (Pinho et al. 2019 ).

Table  6 compares five methods for assessing the transformation factor in the x -direction which are largely adopted by practitioners and researchers. The first, labeled first mode, corresponds to the modal participation factor of the first mode. The second, named average, is the average of all the modal participation factors, while the third is the weighted average, with weights of the participation masses. The fourth, following the load profile assumption, is the SRSS of all modal participation factors. The fifth, named load distribution and proposed in this research, is obtained as follows:

where \(\phi _{lp}\) is the displacement pattern obtained in the linear field, assuming a load profile proportional to \(\varvec{\Psi }\) in Eq.  4 with SRSS combination or from a uniform profile proportional to the storey masses. In other words, due to the fact that no unique fundamental mode can be obtained, the seismic response directly obtained from the pushover analysis is a candidate for being the most representative of the real structural behavior of the building since it involves all the significant vibration modes of the structures.

More in detail, once the uniform profile proportional to the storey masses is obtained (refers to Fig.  12 a) the corresponding displacement profile derived from the adopted load distribution can be assessed (see Fig.  12 b).

a Load profile obtained from SRSS combination of all the profile of forces proportional to each mode and b corresponding displacement profile when the building is pushed along the x-direction

Because of the no diaphragmatic behavior, the final vector \(\phi _{i,eq}\) , at each deck of the building, is obtained by simply computing an average of the displacements exhibited by the control points of all the frames along the x and y-direction, respectively (depending on the direction for which the pushover is performed). This operation makes sense since the discrepancies among all the control points lying on the same quote are negligible.

In conclusion, by adopting the proposed approach, the representativeness of the structural response, achieved by involving all the significant vibration modes, is maintained by assuming the displacement profile equivalent to the eigenvectors. Obviously, all the displacements have been scaled with respect to the maximum displacement experienced by the frame of competence in order to obtain the correct nondimensional form of the eigenvectors. Following this procedure, \(\Gamma _{ld}\) does not originate from the eigenvalue problem but from a rigorous analysis procedure.

The transformation factor corresponding to the mode participation factor for the first mode is approximately 2, which cannot be considered acceptable. This value reduces to an average of 1.6, implying that estimates using the first mode are more conservative than those derived from averages or weighted averages. However, when adopting the SRSS method and following the logic of the load pattern, the transformation factor increases significantly, reaching almost 6. This means that transitioning from MDOF to SDOF could lead to a substantial loss in capacity, resulting in an overly conservative design. Therefore, while the first two methods do not align with the assumed load profile, the fourth, although derived from SRSS, is excessively large. As a result, the authors chose a transformation factor related to load distribution, the smallest among the five options, which does not unduly compromise the capacity of the equivalent SDOF. The deformed configuration, after the application of the assumed load profile, is coherent with the idea behind the pushover analysis.

According to the National Building Code, the procedure for calculating vulnerability follows these steps: (1) obtain capacity curves for an MDOF system; (2) calculate the transformation factor and equivalent mass of the SDOF system; (3) transform the MDOF system into an SDOF system. (4) Determine the performance point of the structure and verify if it exceeds the minimum limit established by the regulations.

Figure  13 displays the load distribution assumed in the pushover analysis in the x and y directions for the two methods, one with loads proportional to the storey masses (uniform) and one multi-modal, from SRSS mode combination (SRSS).

Load distribution in the x and y directions for the two methods, one with loads proportional to the storey masses (uniform) and one, multi-modal, from SRSS mode combination (SRSS)

In the x -direction, the load pattern is mainly unaffected by the method chosen for determining the force distribution, be it uniform or SRSS. However, in the y -direction, there are notable differences. The uniform method concentrates most of the force at the first level, which is the heaviest. In contrast, SRSS allocates most of the force to the mid-storey.

The observed differences are also tied to how the exoskeletons connect with the main structure in these two orthogonal directions. In the x -direction, they attach to the structure, concentrating the forces at the + 1.15 m level. Conversely, in the y -direction, the force concentration occurs at the + 6.15 m level. This distinct behaviour in force distribution in the y -direction suggests that one condition might be more adverse than the other.

Table  7 presents the relative values of load vectors for both uniform and SRSS distributions in the x and y directions. These relative values indicate the proportion of total shear force each frame bears to the overall base shears in the two orthogonal directions. In the x and y directions, the 23 and 37 plane frames experience uneven loading. This discrepancy is highlighted by colour-coded formatting, with green indicating the highest contributions and red signifying the lowest to the overall force. The most significant share of the total force is allocated to frame No. 9 in the x direction and frames No. 27 and 28 in the y direction. The frames at the perimeters are the least loaded, with some receiving a minimal contribution, even less than 0.01%. Notable differences between the Uniform and SRSS methods are observed in the y -direction. The uniform distribution generally allocates the load more evenly, while the SRSS distribution shows more significant variability among adjacent frames. This variability in the SRSS method is attributed to the complexity of the mode shape.

4.3 Seismic vulnerability assessment

The linear dynamic analyses revealed that the most vulnerable elements are the columns supporting the longest length roof span, which require specific care and need to be unloaded to achieve satisfactory seismic performance. Specifically, by adopting the scaling procedure described in Sect.  4.1 , the first collapse of the building was detected when the building was subjected to 30% of the elastic spectrum. At this configuration, fundamental columns for the overall stability of the building exhibit DCRs largely over the safety threshold with safety ratios ranging from 1.2 up to 1.5. It follows that the pertinent vulnerability index obtained from linear dynamic analysis is \(\zeta _E=0.3\) .

Interesting results could be provided by comparing the results obtained by the linear dynamic analysis with those from the Pushover analysis. In the following, the vulnerability index and the capacity curves obtained by following the procedure described in Sect.  4.2 will be shown.

Figure  14 displays the capacity curves of the structure as-built and with the seismic retrofitting in the x and y directions.

Capacity curves of the structure as-built and with the seismic retrofitting in the x and y directions

In the x direction, the as-built configurations of the uniform and SRSS load patterns show similar trends. Still, the uniform load pattern leads to slightly higher base shear values across all displacements. With the inclusion of exoskeletons, the difference becomes more pronounced, especially in the positive displacement range. The y-direction as-built reveals a notable distinction between the two load distributions. The uniform peaks quicker (lesser displacement) than the SRSS, revealing higher stiffness. When exoskeletons are integrated, the y -direction curves display a different trend. Both load patterns converge more closely in the positive displacement range, although distinctions still exist. Such difference recognized along the y-direction is strictly related to the different load distribution already discussed in Fig.  13 .

Regarding capacity increment, the addition of exoskeletons leads to a manifest increase in the base shear capacity (nearly two orders of magnitude), especially in the positive displacement range.

Nonetheless, ductility, as inferred by the displacement range before reaching peak values, appears reduced with the exoskeletons. The as-built configuration, especially under SRSS load distribution, shows a broader displacement range, indicating more ductile behaviour. The as-built curves in the y-direction also reveal higher ductility when compared to the curves with exoskeletons. Once exoskeletons are integrated, the structures resist forces more rigidly, sacrificing some ductility for strength.

Integrating exoskeletons into the structure leads to a manifest increase in capacity in both directions. While this benefits the capacity, there is a trade-off in ductility, which appears to be reduced. Additionally, it should be remarked that the load distribution, either uniform or SRSS, plays a significant role in determining the capacity and ductility, with variations seen in both directions and configurations. Uniform distributions lead, in general, to a stiffer response with higher force peaks.

Table  8 resumes the parameters of the equivalent SDOF, specifically the mass \(m^*\) and the transformation factor.

The mass differences between the x and y directions reveal the structural asymmetry and the mass concentration in the x direction. Additionally, the transformation factors corresponding to a uniform distribution yield a slightly more conservative (higher) value than SRSS in both directions.

Figure  15 displays the acceleration displacement response spectrum (ADSR) verification for equivalent capacity curves of the SDOF system in both the x and y directions. The plots compare the elastic response spectrum with the behaviour of the structure under two load distributions (uniform and SRSS) and in two configurations (as-built and retrofitted with exoskeletons).

Equivalent capacity curves of the SDOF system in the ADSR (acceleration displacement response spectrum) plane in the as-built and retrofitted configuration with exoskeletons

In the x direction, for both the as-built and retrofitted conditions, the uniform loading yields higher acceleration capacity than the SRSS loading. A similar trend repeats in the y direction.

As expected, the capacity of the retrofitted configurations is higher than the demand. Nonetheless, the retrofitted configurations generally exhibit reduced displacements compared to the as-built. This is related to the higher stiffness the exoskeletons provide, thereby reducing the displacement under the same loading. The effect of the load distribution is also evident: in the x direction, the uniform load distribution results in slightly larger displacements than the SRSS distribution for both configurations. This trend reverses in the y direction. As already observed in the results from the pushover analysis, the retrofitting improves capacity and reduces ductility. Additionally, it should be noted that the less performing direction remains the y before and after seismic retrofitting.

Further considerations should be devoted in order to assess the structural efficiency of the exoskeletons and their capacity to capture the majority of the horizontal actions by unloading the existing structure. In Fig.  16 , the values of the shear base of the structure before and after interventions have been reported. In both directions, a dramatic reduction of the shear base close to 50% has been experienced by the retrofitted structure. Specifically, more than 80% of the total shear base has been captured by the exoskeletons. However, it is worth noting that after the introduction of the retrofitting solution, the total shear base increases from 2009 up to 14,610 kN in the x-direction and from 4090 to 12,456 kN in the y-direction. As mentioned before, such a significant increase is proportional to the increase of the extra stiffness provided by the exoskeletons as well as an increase in the seismic demand.

Shear base of the no-retrofitted structure, the shear base of the coupled system splits between the reference structure and the exoskeletons and the total shear base of the retrofitted structures respect to a X and b y-direction

Table  9 resumes the numerical results of the pushover analyses. Following the nomenclature of the Italian Building Code, the table reports the maximum displacement capacity of the MDOF system ( \(d_{e,max}\) ), the ultimate ( \(d_u^*\) ) and yielding ( \(d_u^*\) ) displacements of the equivalent bi-linear capacity curve of the SDOF system, together with the behaviour factor of the SDOF system ( \(q^*\) ) and the vulnerability index \(\zeta _E\) , estimates as the ratio between displacement capacity and demand of the SDOF oscillator.

All aspects highlighted in the comment of Fig.  15 can be quantitatively assessed from Table  9 , which confirms the main aspects of such retrofitting: increased capacity, reduced stiffness and reduced ductility. Additionally, it is worth noting that a significant discrepancy can be observed by comparing the vulnerability index \(\zeta _E\) obtained by the Pushover analysis (e.g. the smallest value among all the different profile loads’ directions) and that one derived from the Linear Dynamic Analysis. As expected, the latter leads to more conservative results mainly due to the application type of the load profile as well as it does not take into account the correct plastic hinges placement along the incremental step-by-step analysis. Finally, although the structure does not possess significant plastic capacity, this aspect plays a crucial role in the final vulnerability assessment of the retrofitted building.

The main consequence, as illustrated in Fig.  17 , is that an increase in stiffness leads to a shift of the fundamental period from the right to the left side of the spectrum, characterized by higher acceleration demand.

Elastic response spectrum indicating the fundamental period in the x direction before and after retrofitting

Implementing exoskeletons for retrofitting underscores the complexities of attempting to reduce seismic demand. Introducing exoskeletons significantly increases stiffness, leading to a leftward shift in the modes of the elastic response spectrum, potentially increasing demand. Thus, retrofitting primarily enhances capacity without necessarily improving ductility or decreasing demand. In terms of seismic demand, merely adding minimal stiffness to reduce demand is counterproductive. It results in a considerable rise in demand, corresponding to the plateau of the elastic response spectrum. However, by significantly increasing stiffness, the structure can be positioned below the plateau. This ensures the coupled system mitigates the final seismic demand exerted on the main structure. It is crucial to note that maintaining the structure within the elastic range aligns with its intended function of remaining operational after seismic events. While staying in this range may cause higher demands, it aligns with the anticipated outcomes. Moreover, the manifest stiffness difference between the exoskeletons and the main structure results in the exoskeletons bearing most seismic forces, leaving the main structure largely unaffected. It should be outlined that the x -direction has been identified as the most critical in this context.

5 Conclusions

This paper presents a comprehensive assessment of the seismic vulnerability of Foggia Airport (Italy) and an innovative seismic retrofitting solution using 3D arch exoskeletons. The primary objective was the evaluation of the seismic safety of the structure following the Italian Building Regulation.

The initial phase entailed an extensive review of historical records, technical drawings, and material testing to achieve an LC2 knowledge level. Then, the authors carried out a nonlinear pushover analysis based on a nonlinear FE model of the structure. A vital element of this evaluation was adopting a proper factor \(\Gamma\) to transform the multi-degree-of-freedom into the single-degree-of-freedom system. Different methods were compared, and the proposed approach for this research was derived from a preliminary static analysis under the assumed load profiles, one proportional to the storey masses (uniform) and one obtained from the SRSS mode combination (square root of the sum of the squares).

The analyses revealed that the airport does not fulfill the seismic safety criteria. To address this, 3D trussed arch exoskeletons have been added for seismic retrofitting. This solution proved effective, as the external exoskeleton system offloaded nearly 50% of the structural load, ensuring its safety during seismic events.

The main aspects of such retrofitting are increased capacity, reduced stiffness and reduced ductility. Most importantly, exoskeletons increase stiffness, causing a leftward transition of the modal response in the elastic response spectrum. Therefore, while retrofitting improves capacity, it reduces ductility and may increase seismic demand. Still, a substantial rise in stiffness enabled the positioning of the structure beneath the plateau in the elastic response spectrum, ensuring the coupled system also has a reduced seismic demand.

Additionally, keeping the structure within the elastic spectrum is consistent with its purpose of remaining functional after seismic actions. In conclusion, this research not only underscores the potential of 3D arch exoskeletons in enhancing seismic resilience but also highlights the challenges associated with their seismic evaluation using nonlinear static pushover analysis.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Eng. Carlos Orozco Bustamante for the support given during the modelling phase into the SAP2000 environment.

Open access funding provided by Politecnico di Torino within the CRUI-CARE Agreement. The research leading to these results has received funding from (i) the European Research Council under the Grant agreement ID: 101007595 of the project ADDOPTML, MSCA RISE 2020 Marie Skodowska Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE); (ii) the European Union HORIZON-MSCA-2021-SE-01, grant agreement No: 101086413, ReCharged - Climate-aware Resilience for Sustainable Critical and interdependent Infrastructure Systems enhanced by emerging Digital Technologies.

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Cucuzza, R., Aloisio, A., Domaneschi, M. et al. Multimodal seismic assessment of infrastructures retrofitted with exoskeletons: insights from the Foggia Airport case study. Bull Earthquake Eng (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10518-024-01894-0

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The Effects of Climate Change

The effects of human-caused global warming are happening now, are irreversible for people alive today, and will worsen as long as humans add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

• We already see effects scientists predicted, such as the loss of sea ice, melting glaciers and ice sheets, sea level rise, and more intense heat waves.
• Scientists predict global temperature increases from human-made greenhouse gases will continue. Severe weather damage will also increase and intensify.

Earth Will Continue to Warm and the Effects Will Be Profound

Global climate change is not a future problem. Changes to Earth’s climate driven by increased human emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are already having widespread effects on the environment: glaciers and ice sheets are shrinking, river and lake ice is breaking up earlier, plant and animal geographic ranges are shifting, and plants and trees are blooming sooner.

Effects that scientists had long predicted would result from global climate change are now occurring, such as sea ice loss, accelerated sea level rise, and longer, more intense heat waves.

The magnitude and rate of climate change and associated risks depend strongly on near-term mitigation and adaptation actions, and projected adverse impacts and related losses and damages escalate with every increment of global warming.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Some changes (such as droughts, wildfires, and extreme rainfall) are happening faster than scientists previously assessed. In fact, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — the United Nations body established to assess the science related to climate change — modern humans have never before seen the observed changes in our global climate, and some of these changes are irreversible over the next hundreds to thousands of years.

Scientists have high confidence that global temperatures will continue to rise for many decades, mainly due to greenhouse gases produced by human activities.

The IPCC’s Sixth Assessment report, published in 2021, found that human emissions of heat-trapping gases have already warmed the climate by nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) since 1850-1900. 1 The global average temperature is expected to reach or exceed 1.5 degrees C (about 3 degrees F) within the next few decades. These changes will affect all regions of Earth.

The severity of effects caused by climate change will depend on the path of future human activities. More greenhouse gas emissions will lead to more climate extremes and widespread damaging effects across our planet. However, those future effects depend on the total amount of carbon dioxide we emit. So, if we can reduce emissions, we may avoid some of the worst effects.

The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet. Any further delay in concerted global action will miss the brief, rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future.

Here are some of the expected effects of global climate change on the United States, according to the Third and Fourth National Climate Assessment Reports:

Future effects of global climate change in the United States:

U.S. Sea Level Likely to Rise 1 to 6.6 Feet by 2100

Global sea level has risen about 8 inches (0.2 meters) since reliable record-keeping began in 1880. By 2100, scientists project that it will rise at least another foot (0.3 meters), but possibly as high as 6.6 feet (2 meters) in a high-emissions scenario. Sea level is rising because of added water from melting land ice and the expansion of seawater as it warms. Image credit: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0

Climate Changes Will Continue Through This Century and Beyond

Global climate is projected to continue warming over this century and beyond. Image credit: Khagani Hasanov, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

Hurricanes Will Become Stronger and More Intense

Scientists project that hurricane-associated storm intensity and rainfall rates will increase as the climate continues to warm. Image credit: NASA

More Droughts and Heat Waves

Droughts in the Southwest and heat waves (periods of abnormally hot weather lasting days to weeks) are projected to become more intense, and cold waves less intense and less frequent. Image credit: NOAA

Longer Wildfire Season

Warming temperatures have extended and intensified wildfire season in the West, where long-term drought in the region has heightened the risk of fires. Scientists estimate that human-caused climate change has already doubled the area of forest burned in recent decades. By around 2050, the amount of land consumed by wildfires in Western states is projected to further increase by two to six times. Even in traditionally rainy regions like the Southeast, wildfires are projected to increase by about 30%.

Changes in Precipitation Patterns

Climate change is having an uneven effect on precipitation (rain and snow) in the United States, with some locations experiencing increased precipitation and flooding, while others suffer from drought. On average, more winter and spring precipitation is projected for the northern United States, and less for the Southwest, over this century. Image credit: Marvin Nauman/FEMA

Frost-Free Season (and Growing Season) will Lengthen

The length of the frost-free season, and the corresponding growing season, has been increasing since the 1980s, with the largest increases occurring in the western United States. Across the United States, the growing season is projected to continue to lengthen, which will affect ecosystems and agriculture.

Global Temperatures Will Continue to Rise

Summer of 2023 was Earth's hottest summer on record, 0.41 degrees Fahrenheit (F) (0.23 degrees Celsius (C)) warmer than any other summer in NASA’s record and 2.1 degrees F (1.2 C) warmer than the average summer between 1951 and 1980. Image credit: NASA

Arctic Is Very Likely to Become Ice-Free

Sea ice cover in the Arctic Ocean is expected to continue decreasing, and the Arctic Ocean will very likely become essentially ice-free in late summer if current projections hold. This change is expected to occur before mid-century.

U.S. Regional Effects

Climate change is bringing different types of challenges to each region of the country. Some of the current and future impacts are summarized below. These findings are from the Third 3 and Fourth 4 National Climate Assessment Reports, released by the U.S. Global Change Research Program .

• Northeast. Heat waves, heavy downpours, and sea level rise pose increasing challenges to many aspects of life in the Northeast. Infrastructure, agriculture, fisheries, and ecosystems will be increasingly compromised. Farmers can explore new crop options, but these adaptations are not cost- or risk-free. Moreover, adaptive capacity , which varies throughout the region, could be overwhelmed by a changing climate. Many states and cities are beginning to incorporate climate change into their planning.
• Northwest. Changes in the timing of peak flows in rivers and streams are reducing water supplies and worsening competing demands for water. Sea level rise, erosion, flooding, risks to infrastructure, and increasing ocean acidity pose major threats. Increasing wildfire incidence and severity, heat waves, insect outbreaks, and tree diseases are causing widespread forest die-off.
• Southeast. Sea level rise poses widespread and continuing threats to the region’s economy and environment. Extreme heat will affect health, energy, agriculture, and more. Decreased water availability will have economic and environmental impacts.
• Midwest. Extreme heat, heavy downpours, and flooding will affect infrastructure, health, agriculture, forestry, transportation, air and water quality, and more. Climate change will also worsen a range of risks to the Great Lakes.
• Southwest. Climate change has caused increased heat, drought, and insect outbreaks. In turn, these changes have made wildfires more numerous and severe. The warming climate has also caused a decline in water supplies, reduced agricultural yields, and triggered heat-related health impacts in cities. In coastal areas, flooding and erosion are additional concerns.

1. IPCC 2021, Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis , the Working Group I contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.

2. IPCC, 2013: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Stocker, T.F., D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S.K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.

3. USGCRP 2014, Third Climate Assessment .

4. USGCRP 2017, Fourth Climate Assessment .

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A Degree of Difference

So, the Earth's average temperature has increased about 2 degrees Fahrenheit during the 20th century. What's the big deal?

What’s the difference between climate change and global warming?

“Global warming” refers to the long-term warming of the planet. “Climate change” encompasses global warming, but refers to the broader range of changes that are happening to our planet, including rising sea levels; shrinking mountain glaciers; accelerating ice melt in Greenland, Antarctica and the Arctic; and shifts in flower/plant blooming times.

Is it too late to prevent climate change?

Humans have caused major climate changes to happen already, and we have set in motion more changes still. However, if we stopped emitting greenhouse gases today, the rise in global temperatures would begin to flatten within a few years. Temperatures would then plateau but remain well-elevated for many, many centuries.

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Trump’s attorneys seek dismissal of election interference case in georgia court.

Ben Kennedy , Washington Bureau Chief

WASHINGTON – Attorneys for former President Donald Trump appeared before Georgia Judge Scott McAfee on Thursday, where they requested the court to dismiss the election interference case.

“By applying the law, these forgery counts in our view must go,” said Trump’s attorney Steve Sadow.

Trump’s legal team argued that his political actions related to the 2020 election constituted “political speech and advocacy that lie at the heart of the First Amendment.

“There is nothing alleged factually against President Trump that is not political speech,” said Sadow.

Trump is facing 10 felony charges, including violating the RICO Act, engaging in conspiracy to replace public officials with fake electors and plotting to tamper with voting machines.

“It’s not just that he lied over and over again, as counsel for the defendant points out by listing all the instances in the indictment. It’s that each of those was employed as part of criminal activity,” said Fulton County prosecutor Donald Wakeford.

This marked the first hearing since the judge ruled that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis could continue with the case, provided lead prosecutor Nathan Wade stepped down amid ethics allegations.

Neither the District Attorney nor Trump was present in court Thursday as the former president traveled to New York to attend the wake of Officer Jonathan Diller , who was fatally shot in Queens during a routine traffic stop.

“Such a sad, sad event, such a horrible thing,” said Trump while attending the wake.

President Joe Biden also spoke with New York City Mayor Eric Adams and offered his condolences and support to the New York Police Department.

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