Performance based planning in Queensland : A case of unintended plan-making outcomes

Performance based planning (PBP) is purported to be a viable alternative to traditional zoning. The implementation of PBP ranges between pure approaches that rely on predetermined quantifiable performance standards to determine land use suitability, and hybrid approaches that rely on a mix of activity based zones in addition to prescriptive and subjective standards. Jurisdictions in the USA, Australia and New Zealand have attempted this type of land use regulation with varying degrees of success. Despite the adoption of PBP legislation in these jurisdictions, this paper argues that a lack of extensive evaluation means that PBP is not well understood and the purported advantages of this type of planning are rarely achieved in practice. Few empirical studies have attempted to examine how PBP has been implemented in practice. In Queensland, Australia, the Integrated Planning Act 1997 (IPA) operated as Queensland's principal planning legislation between March 1998 and December 2009. While the IPA did not explicitly use the term performance based planning, the Queensland's planning system is widely considered to be performance based in practice. Significantly, the IPA prevented Local Government from prohibiting development or use and the term zone was absent from the legislation. How plan-making would be advanced under the new planning regime was not clear, and as a consequence local governments produced a variety of different plan-making approaches to comply with the new legislative regime. In order to analyse this variation the research has developed a performance adoption spectrum to classify plans ranging between pure and hybrid perspectives of PBP. The spectrum compares how land use was regulated in seventeen IPA plans across Queensland. The research found that hybrid plans predominated, and that over time a greater reliance on risk adverse drafting approaches created a quasi-prohibition plan, the exact opposite of what was intended by the IPA. This paper concludes that the drafting of the IPA and absence of plan-making guidance contributed to lack of shared understanding about the intended direction of the new planning system and resulted in many administrative interpretations of the legislation. It was a planning direction that tried too hard to be different, and as a result created a perception of land use risk and uncertainty that caused a return to more prescriptive and inflexible plan-making methods.

Book review: "Kozak, M., & Kozak, N. (Eds). 2008. Destination Marketing: An International Perspective. Wallingford, Oxon: Routledge"

This edited volume contains 18 chapters by 40 contributors from many parts the world, and is divided into four thematic sections. The focus of Part 1 is Destination image, and contains five chapters. This has arguably been the most popular topic in the destination marketing literature, underpinned by the knowledge that the image an individual holds of a destination is as important as any tangible features. Yin Chew and Siti Johari attempt to model the relationship between destination image and country image using structural equation modelling. While this does address an important gap in the literature, the measures used to operationalise the constructs are not reported and little of the data analysis is discussed to support the finding that country image is a predictor of destination image. Ana Rodriquez, Antonia Correia and Metin Kozak report the findings of an exploratory study about lakedestination image. They used a neural network content analysis of 40 lake descriptions featuring on an online directory for lake enthusiasts to derive a set of cognitive attribute themes. Yang Zhang and Yi-Wei Xiao explore the relations between literary works and tourism through the Asian voice. Whereas most literary tourism studies have been around Western culture, this is a rare perspective from Chinese culture...

Nickel(II) meso-hydroxyporphyrin complexes revisited: Palladium-catalysed synthesis, electronic structures of derived oxy radicals, and oxidative coupling to a dioxoporphodimethene dyad

We report the synthesis and characterisation of new examples of meso-hydroxynickel(II) porphyrins with 5,15-diphenyl and 10-phenyl-5,15-diphenyl/diaryl substitu- tion. The OH group was introduced by using carbonate or hydroxide as nucleophile by using palladium/phosphine cat- alysis. The NiPor OHs exist in solution in equilibrium with the corresponding oxy radicals NiPor OC. The 15-phenyl group stabilises the radicals, so that the 1H NMR spectra of {NiPor OH} are extremely broad due to chemical exchange with the paramagnetic species. The radical concentration for the diphenylporphyrin analogue is only 1%, and its NMR line-broadening was able to be studied by variable-tempera- ture NMR spectroscopy. The EPR signals of NiPor OC are con- sistent with somewhat delocalised porphyrinyloxy radicals, and the spin distributions calculated by using density func- tional theory match the EPR and NMR spectroscopic obser- vations. Nickel(II) meso-hydroxy-10,20-diphenylporphyrin was oxidatively coupled to a dioxo-terminated porphodimethene dyad, the strongly red-shifted electronic spectrum of which was successfully modelled by using time-dependent DFT calculations.

Novel application of a discrete choice experiment to identify preferences for a national healthcare-associated infection surveillance programme: A cross-sectional study

Objective: To identify key stakeholder preferences and priorities when considering a national healthcare-associated infection (HAI) surveillance programme through the use of a discrete choice experiment (DCE). Setting: Australia does not have a national HAI surveillance programme. An online web-based DCE was developed and made available to participants in Australia. Participants: A sample of 184 purposively selected healthcare workers based on their senior leadership role in infection prevention in Australia. Primary and secondary outcomes: A DCE requiring respondents to select 1 HAI surveillance programme over another based on 5 different characteristics (or attributes) in repeated hypothetical scenarios. Data were analysed using a mixed logit model to evaluate preferences and identify the relative importance of each attribute. Results: A total of 122 participants completed the survey (response rate 66%) over a 5-week period. Excluding 22 who mismatched a duplicate choice scenario, analysis was conducted on 100 responses. The key findings included: 72% of stakeholders exhibited a preference for a surveillance programme with continuous mandatory core components (mean coefficient 0.640 (p<0.01)), 65% for a standard surveillance protocol where patient-level data are collected on infected and non-infected patients (mean coefficient 0.641 (p<0.01)), and 92% for hospital-level data that are publicly reported on a website and not associated with financial penalties (mean coefficient 1.663 (p<0.01)). Conclusions: The use of the DCE has provided a unique insight to key stakeholder priorities when considering a national HAI surveillance programme. The application of a DCE offers a meaningful method to explore and quantify preferences in this setting.

Urban growth dilemmas and solutions in China: Looking forward to 2030

China’s urbanization and industrialization are occupying farmland in large amounts, which is strongly driven by land finance regime. This is due to the intensified regional/local competition for manufacturing investment opportunities that push local governments to expropriate farmland at low prices while lease land at high market value to property developers. The additional revenue obtained in this way, termed financial increment in land values, can drive local economic growth, and provide associated infrastructure and other public services. At the same time, however, a floating population of large numbers of inadequately compensated land-lost farmers, although unable to become citizens, have to migrate into the urban areas for work, causing overheated employment and housing markets, with rocketing unaffordable housing prices. This, together with various micro factors relating to the party/state’s promotion/evaluation system play an essential role leading to some serious economic, environment and social consequences, e.g., on migrant welfare, the displacement of peasants and the loss of land resources that requires immediate attention. Our question is: whether such type of urbanization is sustainable? What are the mechanisms behind such a phenomenal urbanization process? From the perspective of institutionalism, this paper aims to investigate the institutional background of the urban growth dilemma and solutions in urban China and to introduce further an inter-regional game theoretical framework to indicate why the present urbanization pattern is unsustainable. Looking forward to 2030, paradigm policy changes are made from the triple consideration of floating population, social security and urban environmental pressures. This involves: (1) changing land increment based finance regime into land stock finance system; (2) the citizenization of migrant workers with affordable housing, and; (3) creating a more enlightened local government officer appraisal system to better take into account societal issues such as welfare and beyond.

Boarding control system for improved accessibility to offshore wind turbines: Full-scale testing

This paper considers the dynamic modelling and motion control of a Surface Effect Ship (SES) for safer transfer of personnel and equipment from vessel to-and-from an offshore wind-turbine. The control system designed is referred to as Boarding Control System (BCS). The performance of this system is investigated for a specific wind-farm service vessel—The Wave Craft. On a SES, the pressurized air cushion supports the majority of the weight of the vessel. The control problem considered relates to the actuation of the pressure such that wave-induced vessel motions are minimized. Results are given through simulation, model- and full-scale experimental testing.

Comparison of partial extraction reagents for assessing potential bioavailability of heavy metals in sediments

Assessment of heavy metal bioavailability in sediments is complex because of the number of partial extraction methods available for the assessment and the general lack of certified reference materials. This study evaluates five different extraction methodologies to ascertain the relative strengths and weaknesses of each method. The results are then compared to previously published work to ascertain the most effective partial extraction technique, which was established to be dilute (0.75 – 1 M) nitric acid solutions. These results imply that single reagent; weak acid extractions provide a better assessment of potentially bioavailable metals than the chelating agents used in sequential extraction methods.