Mid Sweden University

The paper aims to develop a set of key variables that can be used to model accessibility for informed and sustainable regional planning for sparsely populated remote areas. Based on a thematic analysis of empirical data from a Swedish case, the study extracts regional peculiarities related to the concept of regional accessibility. These peculiarities formulate a set of key variables that can be used to develop new accessibility models or expand existing ones to support decision-making at the policy design stage through a knowledge-based approach. The findings of the paper pinpoint characteristics of destinations that unpack the regional accessibility concept. The paper contributes with a fresh perspective on regional planning, addressing the often-overlooked distinct features of sparsely populated remote areas. Based on these insights, the suggested set of key variables reflects the regional peculiarities without neglecting the uniqueness of these areas. The extracted variables may be incorporated in modeling to simulate accessibility dynamics to offer contextually informed perspectives for policymakers. As a result, the findings from this paper strengthen informed decision-making concerning accessibility in planning for sustainable regional development.

Infrastructure developments depend on decision makers' perceptions of the particular policy issue and a preferred future state. The complex relationship between accessibility and rural development and the long periods from problem recognition to transport infrastructure realisations bring further uncertainty into regional planning. Therefore, government and public administration tend to rely on narratives to explain the policy issue and to transfer their perspectives into the policy process. However, oversimplified narratives unduly limit the understanding of the problem and so the choice of solutions. This paper aims therefore to contribute to an understanding of the recognition of accessibility and transport infrastructure as a policy problem for sustainable regional development in rural areas. It investigates the narrative that emerges from local officials' perceptions about a future society, reasons for sustainable growth and the collaboration at the local and regional levels in central Sweden. The analysis details the four key perspectives of the narrative: local people, work and leisure, an urban neighbourhood and public transport services. The findings stress the narrative's lack of oversight and inclusion that accounts for societies' heterogeneity. In particular, the analysis expounds a remarkable faceless story that conveys a prevalent lack of understanding of stakeholder needs and the role of critical infrastructure for societal development in rural areas. 

For traffic safety reasons, Sweden has lowered speed limits on major roads that lack directional separation of traffic. For some of these roads, regional authorities, municipalities, and other local stakeholders have sent appeals to the government opposing the implemented speed limit reductions. The appeals have mainly referred to negative effects on regional development and have suggested that the speed limit reductions be abandoned. This paper identifies the characteristics of roads where appeals against speed limit reductions have been filed and where local stakeholders claim that speed limit reductions are a threat to accessibility and regional development. The results of logistic regression modelling show that appeals are more likely for speed limit reductions on long road sections, on European roads, and in areas with a state university, and less likely in areas with high population density and areas defined as vulnerable by the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth. We investigated these policy conflicts using frame theory. In this paper, we identify two policy frames: speed limits for traffic safety and speed limits for regional development. These two policy frames are related to different views on how to best strive towards regional accessibility and safety goals in remote areas. The different views are likely not easily aligned by more information or facts since they concern deeper questions, such as what constitutes basic accessibility of good quality and how large risks are acceptable on the road network. This study thus uncovers not only a policy disagreement but a policy controversy in the Swedish context.

The reliability of infrastructure that is critical to society's functionality, survival and progression has gained significance for both national security and research because of its large-scale and interdependent nature. However, the theoretical basis of the relatively new research field of critical infrastructure is incomplete and the common parlance about the underlying concepts is ambiguous. This article addresses this issue and presents the results of a substantial review of scientific literature on the concepts of systems, infrastructure and governance. The results demonstrate that the concepts encounter a common challenge in characterising their key elements, structures and processes because of their recursive nature. The multi-level character of critical infrastructure systems provokes governance to systemically address the properties of adaption, emergence and entropy which the complex system-of-systems exhibits. This article contributes with both a conceptual study of the terms system, infrastructure and governance and a detailed review of the state of the art regarding these concepts in the current scientific literature to an enhanced understanding of the theoretical foundations of the associated fields. Subsequent research could interrelate other concepts, such as vulnerability, resilience, sustainability and feedback with the provided state of the art. 

The purpose of this paper is to define indicators and measures of accessibility that can support decision-makers in designing policies for sustainable regional development. The study identifies aspects of accessibility that may influence the attractiveness of certain areas for population and infrastructure investments, notably sparsely populated regions that lay outside urban environments. The paper’s findings identify which accessibility indicators are relevant to the peculiarities of sparsely populated areas thereby defining the specific system requirements for possible simulation models. Such models can generate outcomes of policy scenarios that may be used to evaluate the consequences of policy-making. To support this objective, the study identifies the theoretical basis of accessibility indicators and their modeling potentials that address the complexity of the investigated domain. This paper is an important step toward developing a feasible modeling tool capable of generating policy-based scenarios that support effective decision-making in the context of regional planning.

This paper provides an overview and mapping of needs and use of data related to formal risk analysis within the context of critical infrastructures, including activities of risk assessments and risk modelling as a part of preventive work against major accidents and crises. The aim is to contribute to a greater understanding of the type of data that is actually used in published sources where different risk assessment or risk analysis methods are applied for critical infrastructure protection. The study focuses specifically on the presentation of applications of quantitative or semi-quantitative risk analysis in the scientific literature within the domain of societally important services and critical infrastructures. The survey was delimited to peer reviewed research papers between the years 2010 and 2020 and resulted in a total number of 183 papers subject for evaluation. The results provide insights into the type of data that is used, missing or difficult to obtain for an application of the identified methods. To obtain a comprehensive critical infrastructure risk analysis data needs are related to three different data dimensions; geospatial topology data, socio-economic data, and infrastructure data. However, no databases are currently available with the explicit purpose to support critical infrastructure risk analysis. Even though this is not viewed as a problem in the examined papers, collecting that data is resource intensive which is a barrier for a more systematic use of formal risk analysis methods.

This study seeks to enhance current understandings of the risk communication challenges associated with theinformation-related means employed in cyber space to exert inappropriate influence, which frequently focus onparalyzing people and undermining stability. These means can be part of a hybrid warfare strategy located in thegray zone between the poles of peace and war, which indicates the long-term and subtle character of such a strategy.Maneuvers to conceal invasive interventions that mask activities, confuse responses, and disguise actual intentionsconstitute particular challenges. This paper presents the results of a literature review that applied a snowballsampling approach and concentrated on uncovering the threat landscape and recognition of the gray zone. The resultshighlight the emergence of information and cyber conflicts, including state operations and discreditation, along withspecific techniques, such as trolling and bots, in the Swedish context and beyond. The findings illustrate somechallenges for risk communication in information and cyber warfare and their implications for research and practice.