Integrated sustainable urban infrastructure management: the Brisbane urban growth model

Sustainable urban development and the liveability of a city are increasingly important issues in the context of land use planning and infrastructure management. In recent years, the promotion of sustainable urban development in Australia and overseas is facing various physical, socio-economic and environmental challenges. These challenges and problems arise from the lack of capability of local governments to accommodate the needs of the population and economy in a relatively short timeframe. The planning of economic growth and development is often dealt with separately and not included in the conventional land use planning process. There is also a sharp rise in the responsibilities and roles of local government for infrastructure planning and management. This increase in responsibilities means that local elected officials and urban planners have less time to prepare background information and make decisions. The Brisbane Urban Growth Model has proven initially successful in providing a dynamic platform to ensure timely and coordinated delivery of urban infrastructure. Most importantly, this model is the first step for local governments in moving toward a systematic approach to pursuing sustainable and effective urban infrastructure management.

Ubiquitous eco cities : telecommunication infrastructure, technology convergence and urban management

Efficient and effective urban management systems for Ubiquitous Eco Cities require having intelligent and integrated management mechanisms. This integration includes bringing together economic, socio-cultural and urban development with a well orchestrated, transparent and open decision-making system and necessary infrastructure and technologies. In Ubiquitous Eco Cities telecommunication technologies play an important role in monitoring and managing activities via wired and wireless networks. Particularly, technology convergence creates new ways in which information and telecommunication technologies are used and formed the backbone of urban management. The 21st Century is an era where information has converged, in which people are able to access a variety of services, including internet and location based services, through multi-functional devices and provides new opportunities in the management of Ubiquitous Eco Cities. This chapter discusses developments in telecommunication infrastructure and trends in convergence technologies and their implications on the management of Ubiquitous Eco Cities

Small and medium enterprises’ solution to improve on-site waste management in office building retrofit projects

Office building retrofit projects are increasingly more intensified as existing buildings are aging. At the same time, building owners and occupants are looking for environmentally sustainable products. These retrofit projects usually take place in center business district (CBDs) with on-site waste becoming one of the critical issues. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) carry out most of the work in retrofit projects as subcontractors. Despite their large involvement, they often do not have adequate resources to deal with the specific technical challenges and project risks related to waste. Few research has been done on their performance of waste management operations. This paper identifies characteristics of on-site waste in office building retrofit projects. It examines the specific requirements for contractors to manage waste in the projects before exploring the existing performance of SMEs. By comparing requirements for SMEs and their potential areas for improvement, a framework is established for performance promotion of SMEs in on-site waste management of office building retrofit projects. The paper will raise the consciousness and commitment of SMEs as sub-contractors to waste management. It also explores ways of supporting SMEs for experience accumulation, performance promotion and project culture establishment towards effective and efficient on-site waste management in the growing sector of office building retrofit and upgrade.

GVS : A flexible, low-end, 3D visualisation framework for enhancing conceptual groundwater models for community, management and simulations

In this paper we discuss an advanced, 3D groundwater visualisation and animation system that allows scientists, government agencies and community groups to better understand the groundwater processes that effect community planning and decision-making. The system is unique in that it has been designed to optimise community engagement. Although it incorporates a powerful visualisation engine, this open-source system can be freely distributed and boasts a simple user interface allowing individuals to run and investigate the models on their own PCs and gain intimate knowledge of the groundwater systems. The initial version of the Groundwater Visualisation System (GVS v1.0), was developed from a coastal delta setting (Bundaberg, QLD), and then applied to a basalt catchment area (Obi Obi Creek, Maleny, QLD). Several major enhancements have been developed to produce higher quality visualisations, including display of more types of data, support for larger models and improved user interaction. The graphics and animation capabilities have also been enhanced, notably the display of boreholes, depth logs and time-series water level surfaces. The GVS software remains under continual development and improvement

The multiliteracies classroom

Mary Kalantzis and Bill Cope write in the foreword: “The Multiliteracies Classroom demonstrates in convincing detail how powerful learning can be achieved. Along the way, the book seamlessly weaves cutting-edge theoretical ideas into the fabric of its narrative. In one moment, we hear the lilt of the accents of the children’s discussions. In another, this is connected to the theoretical intricacies of ‘discourse’, ‘heteroglossia’, ‘multimodality’, or ‘dialogic spaces’. We witness the triumphs of a teacher who, in Mills’ words, ‘did not regard literacy as an independent variable. Rather, she regarded it as inseparable from social practices, contextualized in certain political, economic, historic and ecological contexts. Kathy Mills has produced a masterpiece of qualitative research.”

The role of culture in knowledge management : the case of developing economies

This paper explores the role of culture in Knowledge Management (KM) through a spectrum of cultural and institutional perspectives. The case studies cover a wide range of countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America as well as transition economies of the former socialist countries in Eastern Europe. The paper demonstrates how knowledge management processes and practices are influenced by local culture and institutions as well as interaction with the broader international community.

“Entrepreneurial management” as a strategic choice in firm behavior : linking it with performance

Establishing the core principals of “entrepreneurial management” within an organization describes a certain strategic choice that affects a company in six dimensions, according to Stevenson (1983). Our aim is to empirically measure entrepreneurial management (it’s existence and degree) and to link this measured strategic choice (for or against) entrepreneurial management with firm performance. Our argument here is that companies that follow core principals of entrepreneurial management should outperform other more administrative firms in certain measures of strategic performance. This paper builds on an empirical investigation published by Brown, Davidson & Wiklund (2001), who have developed and tested a reliable measurement instrument for Stevenson’s definition of “entrepreneurial management” (Stevenson 1983, Stevenson & Jarillo 1990). In the first part of our paper we aim to replicate and to some extent improve this study. In the second part we link the measured degree of “entrepreneurial management” with firm performance. To our knowledge, even so Stevenson’s definition of entrepreneurial management is commonly acknowledged and Brown et al. (2001) developed a reliable instrument to empirically capture this behavioral approach to management, the construct of entrepreneurial management never before has been linked to firm performance in an empirical study. Since most papers on corporate entrepreneurship and firm performance are based on Covin & Slevin’s (1991) or Miller’s (1983) concept of entrepreneurial orientation, we contribute to the literature on corporate entrepreneurship in a novel way, given the fact that the entrepreneurial management dimensions measured in our study can theoretically and empirically be clearly distinguished from the construct of entrepreneurial orientation as defined by Covin & Selvin (1991).

Transnational business masculinities : media representations of gender and management in global mining corporations

This paper examines Australian media representations of the male managers of two global mining corporations, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton. These organizations are transnational (or multinational) corporations with assets and/or operations across national boundaries (Dunning and Lundan, 2008), and indeed their respective Chief Executive Officers, Tom Albanese and Marius Kloppers are two of the most economically (and arguably politically) powerful in the world overseeing 37 000 and 39 000 employees internationally. With a 2008 profit of US$15.962 billion and assets of US$ 75.889 Billion BHP Billiton is the world's largest mining company. In terms of its profits and assets Rio Tinto ranks fourth in the world, but with operations in six countries (mainly Canada and Australia) and a 2008 profit of US$10.3 billion it is also emblematic of the transnational in that its ‘budget is larger than that of all but a few nations’ (Giddens, 2003, p. 62).

Sustainable urban stormwater management : water sensitive urban design perceptions, drivers and barriers

Stormwater has been recognised as one of the main culprits of aquatic ecosystem pollution and as a significant threat to the goal of ecological sustainable development. Water sensitive urban design is one of the key responses to the need to better manage urban stormwater runoff, the objectives of which go beyond rapid and efficient conveyance. Underpinned by the concepts of sustainable urban development, water sensitive urban design has proven to be an efficient and environmentally-friendly approach to urban stormwater management, with the necessary technical know-how and skills already available. However, large-scale implementation of water sensitive urban design is still lacking in Australia due to significant impediments and negative perceptions. Identification of the issues, barriers and drivers that affect sustainability outcomes of urban stormwater management is one of the first steps towards encouraging the wide-scale uptake of water sensitive urban design features which integrate sustainable urban stormwater management. This chapter investigates key water sensitive urban design perceptions, drivers and barriers in order to improve sustainable urban stormwater management efforts.

Critical success factors of project management for Brunei construction projects : improving project performance

The problem of delays in the construction industry is a global phenomenon and the construction industry in Brunei Darussalam is no exception. The goal of all parties involved in construction projects – owners, contractors, engineers and consultants in either the public or private sector is to successfully complete the project on schedule, within planned budget, with the highest quality and in the safest manner. Construction projects are frequently influenced by either success factors that help project parties reach their goal as planned, or delay factors that stifle or postpone project completion. The purpose of this research is to identify success and delay factors which can help project parties reach their intended goals with greater efficiency. This research extracted seven of the most important success factors according to the literature and seven of the most important delay factors identified by project parties, and then examined correlations between them to determine which were the most influential in preventing project delays. This research uses a comprehensive literature review to design and conduct a survey to investigate success and delay factors and then obtain a consensus of expert opinion using the Delphi methodology to rank the most needed critical success factors for Brunei construction projects. A specific survey was distributed to owners, contractors and engineers to examine the most critical delay factors. A general survey was distributed to examine the correlation between the identified delay factors and the seven most important critical success factors selected. A consensus of expert opinion using the Delphi methodology was used to rank the most needed critical success factors for Brunei building construction. Data was collected and evaluated by statistical methods to identify the most significant causes of delay and to measure the strength and direction of the relationship between critical success factors and delay factors in order to examine project parties’ evaluation of projects’ critical success and delay factors, and to evaluate the influence of critical success factors on critical delay factors. A relative importance index has been used to determine the relative importance of the various causes of delays. A one and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) has been used to examine how the group or groups evaluated the influence of the critical success factors in avoiding or preventing each of the delay factors, and which success factors were perceived as most influential in avoiding or preventing critical delay factors. Finally the Delphi method, using consensus from an expert panel, was employed to identify the seven most critical success factors used to avoid the delay factors, and thereby improve project performance.

Brisbane urban growth model : an integrated infrastructure management framework for Brisbane, Australia

In recent years, local government infrastructure management practices have evolved from conventional land use planning to more wide ranging and integrated urban growth and infrastructure management approaches. The roles and responsibilities of local government are no longer simply to manage daily operational functions of a city and provide basic infrastructure. Local governments are now required to undertake economic planning, manage urban growth; be involved in major infrastructure planning; and even engage in achieving sustainable development objectives. The Brisbane Urban Growth model has proven initially successful to ensure timely and coordinated delivery of urban infrastructure. This model may be the first step for many local governments to move toward an integrated, sustainable and effective infrastructure management.

Concept building

In this world of continuous change, there’s probably one certainty: more change lies ahead. Our students will encounter challenges and opportunities that we can’t even imagine. How do we prepare our students as future citizens for the challenges of the 21st century? One of the most influential public intellectuals of our time, Howard Gardner, suggests that in the future individuals will depend to a great extent on the capacity to synthesise large amounts of information. ‘They will need to be able to gather together information from disparate sources and put it together in ways that work for themselves and can be communicated to other persons’(Gardner 2008, p. xiii). One of the first steps in ‘putting things together’ so they ‘work’ in the mind is ‘to group objects and events together on the basis of some similarity between them’ (Lee & das Gupta 1995, p. 116). When we do this and give them a collective name, we are conceptualising. Apart from helping to save our sanity by simplifying the vast amounts of data we encounter every day, concepts help us to understand and gain meaning from what we experience. Concepts are essential for synthesising information and they also help us to communicate with others. Put simply, concepts serve as building blocks for knowledge, understanding and communication. This chapter addresses the importance of teaching and learning about concepts and conceptual development in studies of society and environment. It proceeds as follows: first, it considers how individuals use concepts, and, second, it explores the characteristics of concepts; the third section presents a discussion of approaches that might be adopted by teachers intending to help their students build concepts in the classroom.

“Now I know their secrets” : Kineikonic texts in the literacy classroom

Kineikonic texts – sites of the moving image – are increasingly prevalent with the rise of digital television, Web 2.0 tools, broadband Internet, and sophisticated mobile technologies. Digital practices are changing the shape of the literacy curriculum, calling for new metalanguages to describe digital and multimodal texts. This paper combines multiliteracies and functional approaches to map conventional and new textual features of a popular kineikonic text – the claymation movie. Enlivened with data from an ethnically diverse, Year 6 classroom, the author outlines filmic conventions to enable teachers and students to analyse and design movies