Phosphorus as a limiting factor on sustainable greywater irrigation

Water reuse through greywater irrigation has been adopted worldwide and has been proposed as a potential sustainable solution to increased water demands. Despite widespread adoption there is limited domestic knowledge of greywater reuse, there is no pressure to produce lowlevel phosphorus products and current guidelines and legislation, such as those in Australia, may be inadequate due to the lack of long-term data to provide a sound scientific basis. Research has clearly identified phosphorus as a potential environmental risk to waterways from many forms of irrigation. To assess the sustainability of greywater irrigation, this study compared four residential lots that had been irrigated with greywater for four years and adjacent non-irrigated lots that acted as controls. Each lot was monitored for the volume of greywater applied and selected physic-chemical water quality parameters and soil chemistry profiles were analysed. The non-irrigated soil profiles showed low levels of phosphorus and were used as controls. The Mechlich3 Phosphorus ratio (M3PSR) and Phosphate Environmental Risk Index (PERI) were used to determine the environmental risk of phosphorus leaching from the irrigated soils. Soil phosphorus concentrations were compared to theoretical greywater irrigation loadings. The measured phosphorus soil concentrations and the estimated greywater loadings were of similar magnitude. Sustainable greywater reuse is possible; however incorrect use and/or a lack of understanding of how household products affect greywater can result in phosphorus posing a significant risk to the environment.

Predictors of initiating and maintaining active commuting to work using transport and public health perspectives in Australia

Objective To identify predictors for initiating and maintaining active commuting (AC) to work following the 2003 Australia's Walk to Work Day (WTWD) campaign. Methods Pre- and post-campaign telephone surveys of a cohort of working age (18–65years) adults (n = 1100, 55% response rate). Two dependent campaign outcomes were assessed: initiating or maintaining AC (i.e., walk/cycle and public transport) on a single day (WTWD), and increasing or maintaining health-enhancing active commuting (HEAC) level (≥ 30min/day) in a usual week following WTWD campaign. Results A significant population-level increase in HEAC (3.9%) was observed (McNemar's χ2 = 6.53, p = 0.01) with 136 (19.0%) achieving HEAC at post campaign. High confidence in incorporating walking into commute, being active pre-campaign and younger age (< 46years) were positively associated with both outcomes. The utility of AC for avoiding parking hassles (AOR = 2.1, 95% CI: 1.2–3.6), for less expense (AOR = 1.8, 95% CI: 1.1–3.1), for increasing one's health (AOR = 2.5, 95% CI: 1.1–5.6) and for clean air (AOR = 2.2, 95% CI: 1.0–4.4) predicted HEAC outcome whereas avoiding the stress of driving (AOR = 2.6, 95% CI: 1.4–5.0) and the hassle of parking predicted the single-day AC. Conclusions Transportation interventions targeting parking and costs could be further enhanced by emphasizing health benefits of AC. AC was less likely to occur among inactive employees.

Statutory right of user - its impact in practice?

Scenario 1 A buys a two storey commercial building built along the only street frontage to the property. Vehicles cannot reach the rear of the property as the building extends across the entire width of the land. A bought the building with full knowledge that vehicular access to the rest of the property had been compromised by a desire to obtain maximum street frontage for the building which was occupied by a commercial tenant. On street parking is scarce in the surrounding area. A (to the knowledge of the adjoining owner B) constructs a carpark at the rear of the building. The employees of A’s tenant have been using the carpark obtaining access via a driveway on B’s land. To formalise this arrangement, A seeks a right of way for vehicles to travel down B’s driveway to access the carpark...

Benchmarking the standard of environmental management practised in marinas

Most existing marinas are boat parking/storing and servicing facilities that have been built over a long period of time for the convenience of local boat owners.

Improving megasite management performance through incentives : lessons learned from the Shanghai Expo construction

As the biggest expo site in history, construction of the Shanghai Expo site faced a lot of challenges, including involvement of lots of investors, megaconstruction scale, concurrent construction mode, involvement of more than 40,000 migrant workers, and extremely tight completion deadlines, among others. Consequently, these challenges imposed great obstacles on accomplishing the safety, quality, and environmental goals. Through a case study of the Shanghai Expo construction, this paper paper presents the design and implementation of multicriteria incentives in megaprojects to accomplish the safety, quality, and environmental goals. Both quantitative and qualitative findings were triangulated to demonstrate the outcome of the incentives. Six critical success factors (CSFs) for the incentives, rule design, process orientation, top management support, training and promotion, communication in process, and process learning and improvement are identified and validated through case study data and content analysis. It is believed that the findings of this paper can enhance understanding of multicriteria incentive schemes in general and provide insights in implementing these incentive schemes in future megaprojects, particularly in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

Relocating a flood-affected community : good planning or good politics?

Problem, research strategy and findings: On January 10, 2011, the town of Grantham, Queensland (Australia), was inundated with a flash flood in which 12 of the town's 370 residents drowned. The overall damage bill in Queensland was AUD∃2.38 billion (USD∃2.4 billion) with 35 deaths, and more than three-quarters of the state was declared a flood disaster zone. In this study, we focus on the unusual and even rare decision to relocate Grantham in March 2011. The Lockyer Valley Regional Council (LVRC) acquired a 377-hectare (932-acre) site to enable a voluntary swap of equivalent-sized lots. In addition, planning regulations were set aside to streamline the relocation of a portion of the town. We review the natural hazard literature as it relates to community relocation, state and local government documents related to Grantham, and reports and newspaper articles related to the flood. We also analyze data from interviews with key stakeholders. We document the process of community relocation, assess the relocation process in Grantham against best practice, examine whether the process of community relocation can be upscaled and if the Grantham relocation is an example of good planning or good politics. Takeaway for practice: Our study reveals two key messages for practice. Community relocation (albeit a small one) is possible, and the process can be done quickly; some Grantham residents moved into their new, relocated homes in December 2012, just 11 months after the flood. Moreover, the role of existing planning regulations can be a hindrance to quick action; political leadership, particularly at the local level, is key to implementing the relocation.

What is the impact of research funding on research productivity?

A research protocol for our prospective study of research funding. How much research funding improves research productivity is a question that has relevance for all funding agencies and governments around the world. Previous studies have used observational data that compares productivity between winners of different amounts of funding, but researchers who win lots of funding are usually very different from those who win little or no funding. This difference creates potentially serious confounding which biases any estimate of the effect of funding based on observational data that simply compares research output for those who did and did not win funding. This means we do not currently know the return on investment for our research dollars, of which billions are invested around the world every year. By using a study design that incorporates randomisation this will be the world’s first unbiased study of the impact of researcher funding.

Use of personal mobility devices for first-and-last mile travel: The Macquarie-Ryde trial

Electric-motored personal mobility devices (PMDs) are appearing on Australian roads. While legal to import and own, their use is typically illegal for adult riders within the road transport system. However, these devices could provide an answer to traffic congestion by getting people out of cars for short trips (“first-and-last mile” travel). City of Ryde council, Macquarie University, and Transport for NSW examined PMD use within the road transport system. Stage 1 of the project examined PMD use within a controlled pedestrian environment on the Macquarie University campus. Three PMD categories were used: one-wheelers (an electric unicycle, the Solowheel); two-wheelers (an electric scooter, the Egret); and three-wheelers (the Qugo). The two-wheeled PMD was most effective in terms of flexibility. In contrast, the three-wheeled PMD was most effective in terms of speed. One-wheeled PMD riders were very satisfied with their device, especially at speed, but significant training and practice was required. Two-wheeled PMD riders had less difficulty navigating through pedestrian precincts and favoured the manoeuvrability of the device as the relative narrowness of the two-wheeled PMD made it easier to use on a diversity of path widths. The usability of all PMDs was compromised by the weight of the devices, difficulties in ascending steeper gradients, portability, and parking. This was a limited trial, with a small number of participants and within a unique environment. However, agreement has been reached for a Stage 2 extension into the Macquarie Park business precinct for further real-world trials within a fully functional road transport system.

The effect of ground leases on house prices in Helsinki

One imperfection in housing markets is imperfect knowledge about legal interests such as ground leases. Both actual reduced legal interest as well as uncertainty surrounding rights and future lease payments for houses constructed on leased land may affect prices relative to houses built on freehold land. We use regression analysis of sales prices of condominium transactions in Helsinki to examine the effect ground leases have on house prices. We find that prices on condominiums constructed on leased lots are discounted at least 5 %, on average. In addition, we see that the announcement of potentially large increases in base rents upon renewal contributes to the discount.

Achieving medium-high density in low scale development: The Queensland experience in innovative ‘fine-grained’ urbanism

Worldwide population growth and economic agglomeration is driving increasing urban density within larger metropolitan conurbations. Population growth and housing diversity and affordability issues in Queensland have seen an increasing demand for more diverse and higher density development. Under Queensland’s flexible planning regulatory provisions, a level of ‘medium’ to ‘high density’ is being achieved by a focus on fine-grained urban design, low scale development, lot diversity, and delivery of single dwelling products. This for Queensland (and Australia) has been an unprecedented innovation in urban and dwelling design. Dwellings are being delivered on lots with zero regulatory minimum sizes providing for a range of new products including ‘apartments on the ground’. This paper reviews recent and nascent demonstrations of EDQ’s fine-grained urbanism principles, identifiable with historical ‘vernacular suburbanism’. The paper introduces and defines a concept of a ‘natural density’ linking human scale built form with walkability. The paper challenges the notion that (sub)urban development, outside major city centres, needs to be of a higher scale to achieve density and diversity aspirations. ‘Natural density’ provides a means of achieving the increasing demand for more diverse and higher density development.

Translating emotional insights into digital channel designs: Opportunities to enhance the airport experience

Purpose The purpose of this study is to identify and understand the emotions behind a passenger’s airport experience and how this can inform digital channel engagements. Design/methodology/approach This study investigates the emotional experience of two hundred (200) passengers’ journeys at an Australian domestic airport. A survey was conducted which implemented the use of Emocards and an interview approach of laddering. The responses were then analysed into attributes, consequences and values. Findings The results indicate that across key stages of the airport (parking, retail, gates and arrivals) passengers had different emotional experiences (positive, negative and neutral). The attributes, consequences and values behind these emotions were then used to propose digital channel content and purpose of various future digital channel engagements. Research limitations/implications By gaining emotional insights airports are able to generate digital channel engagements, which align with passengers’ needs and values rather than internal operational motivations. Theoretical contributions include the development of the Technology Acceptance Model to include emotional drivers as influences in the use of digital channels. Originality/value This research provides a unique method to understand the passengers’ emotional journey across the airport infrastructure and suggest how to better design digital channel engagements to address passenger latent needs.

Performing immobility / protesting immobility: The risks & rewards of public space protest performances

Though there is much interest in mobilities and performing mobilities as a characteristic of modern, urban, social life today, this is not always matched by attention to immobilities, as the flipside of mobility in modern life. In this paper, I investigate public space performances designed to draw attention to precisely this counterpoint to current discourses of mobilities – performances about the socially produced immobilities many people with disabilities find a more fundamental feature of day-to-day life, the fight for mobility, and the freedom found when accommodations for alternative mobilities are made available. Although public policy is increasingly aligned with a social model of disability, which sees disability as socially constructed through systems, institutions and infrastructure deliberately designed to exclude specific bodies – stairs, curbs, queues and so forth – and although governments in the US, UK, and to a lesser degree Australia, New Zealand and other Commonwealth nations aim to address these inequalities, the experience of immobility is still every-present for many people. This often comes not just from pain, or from impairment, or event from lack of accommodations for alternative mobilities, but from fellow social performers’ antipathy to, appropriation of, or destruction of accommodations designed to facilitate access for a range of different bodies in public space, and thus the public sphere. The archetypal instance of this tension between the mobile, and those needing accommodations to allow mobility, is, of course, the antipathy many able bodied people feel towards the provision of disabled parking spaces. A cursory search online shows thousands of accounts of antagonism, vitriol, and even violence prompted by disputes which began when a disabled person asked an able person to exit a designated disabled parking space. For many, it seems, expecting them to pass by such parks so others can experience the mobility they take for granted is too much. In this paper, I examine a number of protest performances in public space in which activist present actions – for example, placing wheelchairs in every regular parking space in a precinct – to give bystanders, passersby and spectators, as well as antagonistic fellow social performers, a sense of what socially produced immobility feels like. I examine responses to such protest performances, and what they say about the potential social, political and ethical impacts of such protests, in terms of their potential to produce new attitudes to mobility, alternative mobility, and access to alternative modes of mobility.

Theatre, networked performance, and notions of ‘democratised’ spectatorship

The potential to cultivate new relationships with spectators has long been cited as a primary motivator for those using digital technologies to construct networked or telematics performances or para-performance encounters in which performers and spectators come together in virtual – or at least virtually augmented – spaces and places. Today, with Web 2.0 technologies such as social media platforms becoming increasingly ubiquitous, and increasingly easy to use, more and more theatre makers are developing digitally mediated relationships with spectators. Sometimes for the purpose of an aesthetic encounter, sometimes for critical encounter, or sometimes as part of an audience politicisation, development or engagement agenda. Sometimes because this is genuinely an interest, and sometimes because spectators or funding bodies expect at least some engagement via Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. In this paper, I examine peculiarities and paradoxes emerging in some of these efforts to engage spectators via networked performance or para-performance encounters. I use examples ranging from theatre, to performance art, to political activism – from ‘cyberformaces’ on Helen Varley Jamieson’s Upstage Avatar Performance Platform, to Wafaa Bilal’s Domestic Tension installation where spectators around the world could use a webcam in a chat room to target him with paintballs while he was in residence in a living room set up in a gallery for a week, as a comment on use of drone technology in war, to Liz Crow’s Bedding Out where she invited people to physically and virtually join her in her bedroom to discuss the impact of an anti-disabled austerity politics emerging in her country, to Dislife’s use of holograms of disabled people popping up in disabled parking spaces when able bodied drivers attempted to pull into them, amongst others. I note the frequency with which these performance practices deploy discourses of democratisation, participation, power and agency to argue that these technologies assist in positioning spectators as co-creators actively engaged in the evolution of a performance (and, in politicised pieces that point to racism, sexism, or ableism, pushing spectators to reflect on their agency in that dramatic or daily-cum-dramatic performance of prejudice). I investigate how a range of issues – from the scenographic challenges in deploying networked technologies for both participant and bystander audiences others have already noted, to the siloisation of aesthetic, critical and audience activation activities on networked technologies, to conventionalised dramaturgies of response informed by power, politics and impression management that play out in online as much as offline performances, to the high personal, social and professional stakes involved in participating in a form where spectators responses are almost always documented, recorded and re-represented to secondary and tertiary sets of spectators via the circulation into new networks social media platforms so readily facilitate – complicate discourses of democratic co-creativity associated with networked performance and para-performance activities.