Storytelling beyond the anthropocene : a quest through the crises of ecocide toward new ecological paradigms

This project is a passionate and sometimes enraged thrust toward a biodiverse future. Weaving stories with deep thinking beyond the limits of the anthropocene, I am trying to recall myself in a more-than-human world. Our planet is suffering human induced ecocide which is a global crisis threatening the existence of multiple life forms. The alchemical mix of storytelling and ecological thinking could be part remedy for humanity's adaptation: a transformational mix to re-pattern the crisis into an opportunity and shift anthropocentric structures toward networks of dynamic relationships. The purpose of this project is to explore this cultural remedy. This is a quest, a search for tools that can germinate the hypothesis: storytelling in relation to ecological thinking manifests human potential in a more-than-human world. The practice-led research is guided by the philosophy and practice of Mythology, Deep ecology and Transdisciplinarity. Further navigation is sourced from Systems Thinking, Indigenous Methodologies, Biomimicry, and Quantum Physics. The journey unfolds by reawakening the Artist's function as caretaker of Mythology and pattern inciter for the collective. The resounding discovery of this adventure is Quantum Narratives: a storytelling tool for today's world, a method to connect multiple ways of knowing and diverse languages with the purpose of engaging, relating and working with living knowledge. Quantum Narratives are used to test the field study research into the Future of Water in context of Coal Seam Gas Mining in the Murray-Darling Basin and to materialise the collaborative results as the Water Stories. This thesis is a Living Script, full of imagination and complexity. Within its folds are strategies for systemic change ready to be adapted by policy and planning brokers and those who hold power for widespread remedial action.

Industry-school partnerships : an ecological approach

Internationally, Industry-School Partnerships (ISPs) are a ubiquitous government approach for enabling school to work transitions. Significant benefits of ISPs for centralised bureaucracies that are seeking to address common educational problems include: i) cost reduction; ii) supply to geographically dispersed locations, and; iii) industry access to innovative education solutions. In Queensland, there exists a government led ISP, the Gateway to Industry Schools Program. Under this initiative is the Queensland Minerals and Energy Academy, a lead industry organisation for 34 schools and 17 multinational sponsor companies. Acquiring an understanding of this strategic ISP is critical, given the current Resources Industry boom, and the workforce skills shortage experienced in Australia. This review paper adopts Ecological Systems Theory as a lens to understand the inner workings of ISPs. Acknowledging that ISPs will remain a key feature of government policy, this paper seeks to further illuminate the role of ISPs in transitioning young people from school to the working world.

An ecological dynamics approach to skill acquisition : implications for development of talent in sport.

This paper proposes how ecological dynamics, a theory focusing on the performer-environment relationship, provides a basis for understanding skill acquisition in sport. From this perspective, learners are conceptualized as complex, neurobiological systems in which inherent self-organisation tendencies support the emergence of adaptive behaviours under a range of interacting task and environmental constraints. Intentions, perceptions and actions are viewed as intertwined processes which underpin functional movement solutions assembled by each learner during skill acquisition. These ideas suggest that skill acquisition programmes need to sample information from the performance environment to guide behaviour in practice tasks. Skill acquisition task protocols should allow performers to use movement variability to explore and create opportunities for action, rather than constraining them to passively receiving information. This conceptualisation also needs to characterize the design of talent evaluation tests, which need to faithfully represent the perception-action relationships in the performance environment. Since the dynamic nature of changing task constraints in sports cannot be predicted over longer timescales, an implication is that talent programmes should focus on developing performance expertise in each individual, rather than over-relying on identification of expert performers at specific points in time.

Shadows : Re-visualising the shark. Developing a framework for hybrid photography in the illumination of nonhuman animal and ecological perspectives at Heron Island and Gladstone, Great Barrier Reef

This study investigated how and to what degree “hybrid photography”—the simultaneous use of indexical and fictional properties and strategies— innovates the representation of animals within animalcentric, ecocentric frameworks. Design theory structured this project’s Practice-led, Visual research methodology framework. Grounded theory processes articulated emerging categories of hybrid photography through systematically and comparatively treating animal photography works for reflexive analysis. Design theory then applied and clarified categories, developing practice that re-visualised shark perspectives as new ecological discourse. Shadows, a creative practice installation, realised a full-scale photographic investigation into shark and marine animal realities of a specific environment—Heron Island and Gladstone, Great Barrier Reef—facing ecological crisis from dredging and development at Gladstone Harbour. Works rendered and explored hybrid photography’s capacity for illuminating nonhuman animals, in particular, sharks, and comprise 65% of this project’s weighting. This exegetical paper offers a definition, strategies and evaluation of hybrid photography in unsettling animal perspectives as effective ecological discourse, and comprises 35%.

Control of infrastructure inspection aircraft vertical dynamics in the presence of thermal disturbances

The low-altitude aircraft inspection of powerlines, or other linear infrastructure networks, is emerging as an important application requiring specialised control technologies. Despite some recent advances in automated control related to this application, control of the underactuated aircraft vertical dynamics has not been completely achieved, especially in the presence of thermal disturbances. Rejection of thermal disturbances represents a key challenge to the control of inspection aircraft due to the underactuated nature of the dynamics and specified speed, altitude, and pitch constraints. This paper proposes a new vertical controller consisting of a backstepping elevator controller with feedforward-feedback throttle controller. The performance of our proposed approach is evaluated against two existing candidate controllers.

Impact of socio-ecological variability on the transmission of malaria in Yunnan Province, China

This thesis is a population-based epidemiological study to explore the spatial and temporal pattern of malaria, and to assess the relationship between socio-ecological factors and malaria in Yunnan, China. Geospatial and temporal approaches were applied; the high risk areas of the disease were identified; and socio-ecological drivers of malaria were assessed. These findings will provide important evidence for the control and prevention of malaria in China and other countries with a similar situation of endemic malaria.

The structured and practical approach in development of decision support system for consultant selection in public sector infrastructure project

Nowadays, most of the infrastructure development projects undertaken are complex in nature. Practically, public clients who do not have a good understanding of the design and management may suffer severe losses, especially for infrastructure projects. There is a need for luring the right consultant to secure client's investment in infrastructure developments. Throughout the project life cycle, consultants play vital role from the inception to completion stage of a project. A few studies in Malaysia show that infrastructure projects involving irrigation and drainage have experience problems such as poor workmanship, delay and cost overrun due to the consultant's inability or the client incompetence of recruiting consultants in time. This highlights the need of aided decision making and an efficient system to select the best consultant by using Decision Support System (DSS). On the other hand, recent trends reveal that most DSS in construction only concentrate on decision model development. These models are impractical and unused as they are complicated or difficult for laymen such as project managers to utilize. Thus, this research attempts to develop an efficient DSS for consultant selection namely consultDeSS. Driven by the motivation and research aims, this study deployed Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) dominant with a combination of case studies at the Malaysian Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID). Two real projects involving irrigation and drainage infrastructure were used to design, implement and evaluate the artefact. The 3-tier consultDeSS was revised after the evaluation and the design was significantly improved based on user feedback. By developing desirable tools that fit client's needs will enhance the productivity and minimize conflict within groups and organisations. The tool is more usable and efficient compared to previous studies in construction. Thus, this research has demonstrated a purposeful artefact with a practical and valid structured development approach that is applicable in a variety of problems in construction discipline.

Key influences on motivations for utility cycling (cycling for transport to and from places)

Issue addressed: Although increases in cycling in Brisbane are encouraging, bicycle mode share to work in the state of Queensland remains low. The aim of this qualitative study was to draw upon the lived experiences of Queensland cyclists to understand the main motivators for utility cycling (cycling as a means to get to and from places) and compare motivators between utility cyclists (those who cycle for utility as well as for recreation) and non-utility cyclists (those who cycle only for recreation). Methods: For an online survey, members of a bicycle group (831 utility cyclists and 931 non-utility cyclists, aged 18-90 years) were asked to describe, unprompted, what would motivate them to engage in utility cycling (more often). Responses were coded into themes within four levels of an ecological model. Results: Within an ecological model, built environment influences on motivation were grouped according to whether they related to appeal (safety), convenience (accessibility) or attractiveness (more amenities) and included adequate infrastructure for short trips, bikeway connectivity, end-of-trip facilities at public locations and easy and safe bicycle access to destinations outside of cities. A key social-cultural influence related to improved interactions among different road users. Conclusions: The built and social-cultural environments need to be more supportive of utility cycling before even current utility and non-utility cyclists will be motivated to engage (more often) in utility cycling. So what?: Additional government strategies and more and better infrastructure that support utility cycling beyond commuter cycling may encourage a utility cycling culture.

Block models for improved earthwork allocation planning in linear infrastructure construction

Earthwork planning has been considered in this article and a generic block partitioning and modelling approach has been devised to provide strategic plans of various levels of detail. Conceptually this approach is more accurate and comprehensive than others, for instance those that are section based. In response to environmental concerns the metric for decision making was fuel consumption and emissions. Haulage distance and gradient are also included as they are important components of these metrics. Advantageously the fuel consumption metric is generic and captures the physical difficulties of travelling over inclines of different gradients, that is consistent across all hauling vehicles. For validation, the proposed models and techniques have been applied to a real world road project. The numerical investigations have demonstrated that the models can be solved with relatively little CPU time. The proposed block models also result in solutions of superior quality, i.e. they have reduced fuel consumption and cost. Furthermore the plans differ considerably from those based solely upon a distance based metric thus demonstrating a need for industry to reflect upon their current practices.

Data requirements of hedonic models in determining the impact of infrastructure charges on new housing costs

The use of hedonic models to estimate the effects of various factors on house prices is well established. This paper examines a number of international hedonic house price models that seek to quantify the effect of infrastructure charges on new house prices. This work is an important factor in the housing affordability debate, with many governments in high growth areas having user-pays infrastructure charging policies operating in tandem with housing affordability objectives, with no empirical evidence on the impact of one on the other. This research finds there is little consistency between existing models and the data sets utilised. Specification appears dependent upon data availability rather than sound theoretical grounding. This may lead to a lack of external validity with model specification dependent upon data availability rather than sound theoretical grounding.

How neoliberalism and ecological modernization shaped environmental policy in Australia

‘Sustainability’ provides the dominant frame within which environmental policy debate occurs, notwithstanding its divergent meanings. However, how different discourses combine to shape understanding of the environment, the causes of environmental issues, and the responses required, is less clear cut. Drawing primarily on the approach to critical discourse analysis (CDA) developed by Fairclough, this paper explores the way in which neoliberal and ecologically modern discourses combine to shape environmental policy. Environmental scholars have made relatively little use of this approach to CDA to date, despite the significant interest in the discursive aspects of environmental issues, and its wide use in other areas of policy interest. Using the case of environmental policy-making in Victoria, Australia, this paper illustrates how neoliberalism and weak ecological modernization represented sustainability in ways that seriously limited the importance of environmental issues.

Report on a workshop to investigate the current status of environmental bio-acoustic monitoring

This workshop was supported by the Australian Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (ACEAS, http://www.aceas.org.au/), a facility of the Australian Government-funded Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (http://www.tern.org.au/), a research infrastructure facility established under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy and Education Infrastructure Fund - Super Science Initiative, through the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education. Hosted by: Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland. (QUT, http://www.qut.edu.au/) Dates: 8-11 May 2012 Report Editors: Prof Stuart Parsons (Uni. Auckland, NZ) and Dr Michael Towsey (QUT). This report is a compilation of notes and discussion summaries contributed by those attending the Workshop. They have been assembled into a logical order by the editors. Another report (with photographs) can be obtained at: http://www.aceas.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=94&Itemid=96

Validation of an instrument to measure governance and performance on collaborative infrastructure projects

Collaborative infrastructure projects use hybrid formal and informal governance structures to manage transactions. Based on previous desk-top research, the authors identified the key mechanisms underlying project governance, and posited the performance implications of the governance (Chen et al. 2012). The current paper extends that qualitative research by testing the veracity of those findings using data from 320 Australian construction organisations. The results provide, for the first time, reliable and valid scales to measure governance and performance of collaborative projects, and the relationship between them. The results confirm seven of seven hypothesised governance mechanisms; 30 of 43 hypothesised underlying actions; eight of eight hypothesised key performance indicators; and the dual importance of formal and informal governance. A startling finding of the study was that the implementation intensity of informal mechanisms (non-contractual conditions) is a greater predictor of project performance variance than that of formal mechanisms (contractual conditions). Further, contractual conditions do not directly impact project performance; instead their impact is mediated by the non-contractual features of a project. Obligations established under the contract are not sufficient to optimise project performance.

Learning routines used by firms during construction of infrastructure projects using the alliance procurement method

Collaborative contracting has emerged over the past 15 years as an innovative project delivery framework that is particularly suited to infrastructure projects. Australia leads the world in the development of project and program alliance approaches to collaborative delivery. These approaches are considered to promise superior project results. However, very little is known about the learning routines that are most widely used in support of collaborative projects in general and alliance projects in particular. The literature on absorptive capacity and dynamic capabilities indicates that such learning enhances project performance. The learning routines employed at corporate level during the operation of collaborative infrastructure projects in Australia were examined through a large survey conducted in 2013. This paper presents a descriptive summary of the preliminary findings. The survey captured the experiences of 320 practitioners of collaborative construction projects, including public and private sector clients, contractors, consultants and suppliers (three per cent of projects were located in New Zealand, but for brevity’s sake the sample is referred to as Australian). The majority of projects identified used alliances (78.6%); whilst 9% used Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) contracts and 2.7% used Early Tender Involvement contracts, which are ‘slimmer’ types of collaborative contract. The remaining 9.7% of respondents used traditional contracts that employed some collaborative elements. The majority of projects were delivered for public sector clients (86.3%), and/or clients experienced with asset procurement (89.6%). All of the projects delivered infrastructure assets; one third in the road sector, one third in the water sector, one fifth in the rail sector, and the rest spread across energy, building and mining. Learning routines were explored within three interconnected phases: knowledge exploration, transformation and exploitation. The results show that explorative and exploitative learning routines were applied to a similar extent. Transformative routines were applied to a relatively low extent. It was also found that the most highly applied routine is ‘regularly applying new knowledge to collaborative projects’; and the least popular routine was ‘staff incentives to encourage information sharing about collaborative projects’. Future research planned by the authors will examine the impact of these routines on project performance.