Knowledge based urban development in classrooms : planning Taipei's knowledge based development

Rapid urbanisation of the global population over the last two centuries has inevitably brought with it a number of challenges and opportunities for economic, environmental and social sustainability of regions. This is arguably a result of rapid globalisation and subsequent growth in knowledge and service based economic markets. This paper reviews the introduction of a specialised teaching structure where the concepts of Knowledge Based Urban Development and Knowledge Cities were taught to various students of the discipline of Urban and Regional Planning at the Queensland University of Technology, through their study tour to the city of Taipei, Taiwan. The concepts were conveyed under the name ‘Taipei Metropolis Knowledge Based Regional Planning Studio’ and its methodology reviewed a series of tasks that was considered to provide a stronger level of understanding of how Knowledge Cities and Knowledge Based Urban Development had been formed in some areas of Taiwan. Findings from this international collaborative planning studio indicate that students have gained a greater level of understanding and insight into planning systems and processes in a trans-cultural context. The students have also been exposed to ideas and knowledge that have challenged conventional perspectives and encouraged global awareness.

Exploratory investigation of atmospheric total suspended particulate matter and heavy metals in urban air

Atmospheric concentration of total suspended particulate matter (TSP) and associated heavy metals are a great concern due to their adverse health impacts and contribution to stormwater pollution. This paper discusses the outcomes of a study which investigated the variation of atmospheric TSP and heavy metal concentrations with traffic and land use characteristics during weekdays and weekends. Data for this study was gathered from fifteen sites at the Gold Coast, Australia using a high volume air sampler. The study detected consistently high TSP concentrations during weekdays compared to weekends. This confirms the significant influence of traffic related sources on TSP loads during weekdays. Both traffic and land use related sources equally contribute to TSP during weekends. Almost all the measured heavy metals showed high concentration on weekdays compared to weekends indicating significant contributions from traffic related emissions. Among the heavy metals, Zn concentration was the highest followed by Pb. It is postulated that re-suspension of previously deposited reserves was the main Pb source. Soil related sources were the main contributors of Mn.

Natural convection from a vertical plate embedded in a stratified medium with uniform heat source

Natural convection flow from an isothermal vertical plate with uniform heat source embedded in a stratified medium has been discussed in this paper. The resulting momentum and energy equations of boundary layer approximation are made non-similar by introducing the usual non-similarity transformations. Numerical solutions of these equations are obtained by an implicit finite difference method for a wide range of the stratification parameter, X. The solutions are also obtained for different values of pertinent parameters, namely, the Prandtl number, Pr and the heat generation or absorption parameter, λ and are expressed in terms of the local skin-friction and local heat transfer, which are shown in the graphical form. Effect of heat generation or absorption on the streamlines and isotherms are also shown graphically for different values of λ.

Impact of urban traffic and climate change on water quality from road runoff

Urban traffic and climate change are two phenomena that have the potential to degrade urban water quality by influencing the build-up and wash-off of pollutants, respectively. However, limited knowledge has made it difficult to establish any link between pollutant buildup and wash-off under such dynamic conditions. In order to safeguard urban water quality, adaptive water quality mitigation measures are required. In this research, pollutant build-up and wash-off have been investigated from a dynamic point of view which incorporated the impacts of changed urban traffic as well as changes in the rainfall characteristics induced by climate change. The study has developed a dynamic object classification system and thereby, conceptualised the study of pollutant build-up and wash-off under future changes in urban traffic and rainfall characteristics. This study has also characterised the buildup and wash-off processes of traffic generated heavy metals, volatile, semi-volatile and non-volatile hydrocarbons under dynamic conditions which enables the development of adaptive mitigation measures for water quality. Additionally, predictive frameworks for the build-up and wash-off of some pollutants have also been developed.

Prandtl number scaling of natural convection of an inclined flat plate due to uniform surface heat flux

A new scaling analysis has been performed for the unsteady natural convection boundary layer under a downward facing inclined plate with uniform heat flux. The development of the thermal or viscous boundary layers may be classified into three distinct stages including a start-up stage, a transitional stage and a steady stage, which can be clearly identified in the analytical as well as numerical results. Earlier scaling shows that the existing scaling laws of the boundary layer thickness, velocity and steady state time scale for the natural convection flow on a heated plate of uniform heat flux provide a very poor prediction of the Prandtl number dependency of the flow. However, those scalings performed very well with Rayleigh number and aspect ratio dependency. In this study, a new Prandtl number scaling has been developed using a triple-layer integral approach for Pr > 1. It is seen that in comparison to the direct numerical simulations, the new scaling performs considerably better than the previous scaling.

Free convection in a triangular enclosure with fluid-saturated porous medium and internal heat generation

Unsteady natural convection inside a triangular cavity has been studied in this study. The cavity is filled with a saturated porous medium with non-isothermal left inclined wall while the bottom surface is isothermally heated and the right inclined surface is isothermally cold. An internal heat generation is also considered which is dependent of the fluid temperature. The governing equations are solved numerically by finite element method. The Prandtl number of the fluid is considered as 0.7 (air) while the aspect ratio and the Rayleigh number are considered as 0.5 and 105 respectively. The effect of the porosity of the medium and heat generation on the fluid flow and heat transfer have been presented as a form of streamlines and isotherms. The rate of heat transfer through three surfaces of the enclosure is also presented.

Seeing the outer suburbs : addressing the urban bias in creative place thinking

Seeing the outer suburbs: addressing the urban bias in creative place thinking, Regional Studies. This paper draws upon quantitative and qualitative research into Australian cities to question the assumption that creative industries workers inherently seek to cluster in inner-urban areas. It challenges this foundational assumption by combining a critical application of the location quotient analysis of major Australian cities with qualitative research drawn from interviews with creative workers based in suburban Melbourne and Brisbane. The findings provide analyses as to why many creative industries workers prefer to locate themselves in outer suburban places. There is also discussion of the implications of these findings for future work on the cultural geography and policies of creative industries.

The exchange: an experiment in environmentally sustainable urban practice for a subtropical climate

The exchange pavilion offers a dialogue between two Expositions: 1998 in Brisbane and 2010 in Shanghai; and a chance to examine the impact that climate change will have on urban best practice outcomes in cities of the future. The Exchange exhibits the proposition that environmentally sustainable buildings need to interact responsively with a range of technical innovations to enable communities (and hence cities) to control and better manage their immediate environment. The 'Exchange' pavilion is a design experiment that integrates 3 key research elements: * An interactive digital exchange * A living green system wall (vertical and temporal) * A public urban star (horizontal and spatial) The proposition argues that the environmentally sustainability of any city is reliant on harnessing the full spectrum of intellectual and creative capital of the winder community (from universities to Government bodies to citizens) - a true knowledge city.

Urban food futures : ICTs and opportunities

Food is a vital foundation of all human life. It is essential to a myriad of political, socio-cultural, economic and environmental practices throughout history. However, those practices of food production, consumption, and distribution have the potential to now go through immensely transformative shifts as network technologies become increasingly embedded in every domain of contemporary life. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are one of the key foundations of global functionality and sustenance today and undoubtedly will continue to present new challenges and opportunities for the future. As such, this Symposium will bring together leading scholars across disciplines to address challenges and opportunities at the intersection of food and ICTs in everyday urban environment. In particular, the discussion will revolve around the question: What are the key roles that network technologies play in re-shaping the food systems at micro- to macroscopic level? The symposium will contribute a unique perspective on urban food futures through the lens of network society paradigm where ICTs enable innovations in production, organisation, and communication within society. Some of the topics addressed will include encouraging transparency in food commodity chains; value of cultural understanding and communication in global food sustainability; and technologies to social inclusion; all of which evoke and examine the question surrounding networked individuals as changes catalysts for urban food futures. The event will provide an avenue for new discussions and speculations on key issues surrounding urban food futures in the network era, with a particular focus on bottom-up micro actions that challenge the existing food systems towards a broader sociocultural, political, technological, and environmental transformations. One central area of concern is that current systems of food production, distribution, and consumption do not ensure food security for the future, but rather seriously threaten it. With the recent unprecedented scale of urban growth and rise of middle-class, the problem continues to intensify. This situation requires extensive distribution networks to feed urban residents, and therefore poses significant infrastructural challenges to both the public and private sectors. The symposium will also address the transferability of citizen empowerment that network technologies enable as demonstrated in various significant global political transformations from the bottom-up, such as the recent Egyptian Youth Revolution. Another key theme of the discussion will be the role of ICTs (and the practices that they mediate) in fostering transparency in commodity chains. The symposium will ask what differences these technologies can make on the practices of food consumption and production. After discussions, we will initiate an international network of food-thinkers and actors that will function as a platform for knowledge sharing and collaborations. The participants will be invited to engage in planning for the on-going future development of the network.

Free convection heat transfer through coupled thermal boundary layers in a partitioned triangular enclosure

A numerical investigation has been carried out for the coupled thermal boundary layers on both sides of a partition placed in an isosceles triangular enclosure along its middle symmetric line. The working fluid is considered as air which is initially quiescent. A sudden temperature difference between two zones of the enclosure has been imposed to trigger the natural convection. It is anticipated from the numerical simulations that the coupled thermal boundary layers development adjacent to the partition undergoes three distinct stages; namely an initial stage, a transitional stage and a steady state stage. Time dependent features of the coupled thermal boundary layers as well as the overall natural convection flow in the partitioned enclosure have been discussed and compared with the non-partitioned enclosure. Moreover, heat transfer as a form of local and overall average Nusselt number through the coupled thermal boundary layers and the inclined walls is also examined. The details results will be discussed in the full paper.

Position paper : redefining knowledge-based urban development

The concept of knowledge-based urban development has first come to the urban planning and development agenda during the very last years of the 20th century as a promising paradigm to support the transformation process of cities into knowledge cities and their societies into knowledge societies. However, soon after the exponentially rapid advancements experienced, during the first decade of the 21st century, particularly, in the domains of economy, society, management and technology along with the severe impacts of climate change, have made the redefinition of the term a necessity. This paper, first, reports the findings of the review of the relatively short but dynamic history of urbanisation experiences of our cities around the globe. The paper, then, focuses on the 21st century urbanisation context and discusses the conceptual base of the knowledge-based development of cities and how this concept found application ground in many parts of the world. Following this, the paper speculates development of future cities by particularly highlighting potential challenges and opportunities that previously have not been fully considered. This paper, lastly, introduces and elaborates how relevant theories support the better conceptualisation of this relatively new, but rapidly emerging paradigm, and redefines it accordingly.

Creative suburbia : rethinking urban cultural policy – the Australian case

This article considers the question of whether creative workers demonstrate a preference for inner cities or suburbs, drawing upon research findings from the ‘Creative Suburbia’ project undertaken by a team of Australian researchers over 2008–2010 in selected suburban areas of Brisbane and Melbourne. Locating this question in wider debates about the relationship of the suburbs to the city, as well as the development of new suburban forms such as master-planned communities, the article finds that the number of creative industries workers located in the suburbs is significant, and those creative workforce members living and working in suburban areas are generally happy with this experience, locating in the suburbs out of personal choice rather than economic necessity. This runs counter to the received wisdom on creative cities, which emphasize cultural amenity in inner city areas as a primary driver of location decisions for the ‘creative class’. The article draws out some implications of the findings for urban cultural policy, arguing that the focus on developing inner urban cultural amenity has been overplayed, and that more attention should be given to how to better enable distributed knowledge systems through high-speed broadband infrastructure.

Influencing the experience of people in urban public places through mobile mediated interactions

This paper introduces our research on influencing the experience of people in urban public places through mobile mediated interactions. Information and communication technology (ICT) devices are sometimes used to create personal space while in public. ICT devices could also be utilised to digitally augment the urban space with non-privacy sensitive data enabling mobile mediated interactions in an anonymous way between collocated strangers. We present what motivates the research on digital augmentations and mobile mediated interactions between unknown urban dwellers, define the research problem that drives this study and why it is significant research in the field of pervasive social networking. The paper illustrates three design interventions enabling social pervasive content sharing and employing pervasive presence, awareness and anonymous social user interaction in urban public places. The paper concludes with an outlook and summarises the research effort.