Analysis of the needs of the East Coast cluster regional natural resource management bodies in relation to planning for climate change adaptation

The Climate Change Adaptation for Natural Resource Management (NRM) in East Coast Australia Project aims to foster and support an effective “community of practice” for climate change adaptation within the East Coast Cluster NRM regions that will increase the capacity for adaptation to climate change through enhancements in knowledge and skills and through the establishment of long‐term collaborations. It is being delivered by six consortium research partners: * The University of Queensland (project lead) * Griffith University * University of the Sunshine Coast * CSIRO * New South Wales Office of Environment and Heritage * Queensland Department of Science, IT, Innovation and the Arts (Queensland Herbarium). The project relates to the East Coast Cluster, comprising the six coastal NRM regions and regional bodies between Rockhampton and Sydney: * Fitzroy Basin Association (FBA) * Burnett‐Mary Regional Group (BMRG) * SEQ Catchments (SEQC) * Northern Rivers Catchment Management Authority (CMA) (NRCMA) * Hunter‐Central Rivers CMA (HCRCMA) * Hawkesbury Nepean CMA (HNCMA). The aims of this report are to summarise the needs of the regional bodies in relation to NRM planning for climate change adaptation, and provide a basis for developing the detailed work plan for the research consortium. Two primary methods were used to identify the needs of the regional bodies: (1) document analysis of the existing NRM/ Catchment Action Plans (CAPs) and applications by the regional bodies for funding under Stream 1 of the Regional NRM Planning for Climate Change Fund, and; (2) a needs analysis workshop, held in May 2013 involving representatives from the research consortium partners and the regional bodies. The East Coast Cluster includes five of the ten largest significant urban areas in Australia, world heritage listed natural environments, significant agriculture, mining and extensive grazing. The three NSW CMAs have recently completed strategic level CAPs, with implementation plans to be finalised in 2014/2015. SEQC and FBA are beginning a review of their existing NRM Plans, to be completed in 2014 and 2015 respectively; while BMRG is aiming to produce a NRM and Climate Variability Action Strategy. The regional bodies will receive funding from the Australian Government through the Regional NRM Planning for Climate Change Fund (NRM Fund) to improve regional planning for climate change and help guide the location of carbon and biodiversity activities, including wildlife corridors. The bulk of the funding will be available for activities in 2013/2014, with smaller amounts available in subsequent years. Most regional bodies aim to have a large proportion of the planning work complete by the end of 2014. In addition, NSW CMAs are undergoing major structural change and will be incorporated into semi‐autonomous statutory Local Land Services bodies from 2014. Boundaries will align with local government boundaries and there will be significant change in staff and structures. The regional bodies in the cluster have a varying degree of climate knowledge. All plans recognise climate change as a key driver of change, but there are few specific actions or targets addressing climate change. Regional bodies also have varying capacity to analyse large volumes of spatial or modelling data. Due to the complex nature of natural resource management, all regional bodies work with key stakeholders (e.g. local government, industry groups, and community groups) to deliver NRM outcomes. Regional bodies therefore require project outputs that can be used directly in stakeholder engagement activities, and are likely to require some form of capacity building associated with each of the outputs to maximise uptake. Some of the immediate needs of the regional bodies are a summary of information or tools that are able to be used immediately; and a summary of the key outputs and milestone dates for the project, to facilitate alignment of planning activities with research outputs. A project framework is useful to show the linkages between research elements and the relevance of the research to the adaptive management cycle for NRM planning in which the regional bodies are engaged. A draft framework is proposed to stimulate and promote discussion on research elements and linkages; this will be refined during and following the development of the detailed project work plan. The regional bodies strongly emphasised the need to incorporate a shift to a systems based resilience approach to NRM planning, and that approach is included in the framework. The regional bodies identified that information on climate projections would be most useful at regional and subregional scale, to feed into scenario planning and impact analysis. Outputs should be ‘engagement ready’ and there is a need for capacity building to enable regional bodies to understand and use the projections in stakeholder engagement. There was interest in understanding the impacts of climate change projections on ecosystems (e.g. ecosystem shift), and the consequent impacts on the production of ecosystem services. It was emphasised that any modelling should be able to be used by the regional bodies with their stakeholders to allow for community input (i.e. no black box models). The online regrowth benefits tool was of great interest to the regional bodies, as spatial mapping of carbon farming opportunities would be relevant to their funding requirements. The NSW CMAs identified an interest in development of the tool for NSW vegetation types. Needs relating to socio‐economic information included understanding the socio‐economic determinants of carbon farming uptake and managing community expectations. A need was also identified to understand the vulnerability of industry groups as well as community to climate change impacts, and in particular understanding how changes in the flow of ecosystem services would interact with the vulnerability of these groups to impact on the linked ecologicalsocio‐economic system. Responses to disasters (particularly flooding and storm surge) and recovery responses were also identified as being of interest. An ecosystem services framework was highlighted as a useful approach to synthesising biophysical and socioeconomic information in the context of a systems based, resilience approach to NRM planning. A need was identified to develop processes to move towards such an approach to NRM planning from the current asset management approach. Examples of best practice in incorporating climate science into planning, using scenarios for stakeholder engagement in planning and processes for institutionalising learning were also identified as cross‐cutting needs. The over‐arching theme identified was the need for capacity building for the NRM bodies to best use the information available at any point in time. To this end a planners working group has been established to support the building of a network of informed and articulate NRM agents with knowledge of current climate science and capacity to use current tools to engage stakeholders in NRM planning for climate change adaptation. The planners working group would form the core group of the community of practice, with the broader group of stakeholders participating when activities aligned with their interests. In this way, it is anticipated that the Project will contribute to building capacity within the wider community to effectively plan for climate change adaptation.

Low-cost railway level crossings - breaking down the barriers

Level crossing risk continues to be a significant safety concern for the security of rail operations around the world. Over the last decade or so, a third of railway related fatalities occurred as a direct result of collisions between road and rail vehicles in Australia. Importantly, nearly half of these collisions occurred at railway level crossings with no active protection, such as flashing lights or boom barriers. Current practice is to upgrade level crossings that have no active protection. However, the total number of level crossings found across Australia exceed 23,500, and targeting the proportion of these that are considered high risk (e.g. public crossings with passive controls) would cost in excess of AU$3.25 billion based on equipment, installation and commissioning costs of warning devices that are currently type approved. Level crossing warning devices that are low-cost provide a potentially effective control for reducing risk; however, over the last decade, there have been significant barriers and legal issues in both Australia and the US that have foreshadowed their adoption. These devices are designed to have significantly lower lifecycle costs compared with traditional warning devices. They often make use of use of alternative technologies for train detection, wireless connectivity and solar energy supply. This paper describes the barriers that have been encountered for the adoption of these devices in Australia, including the challenges associated with: (1) determining requisite safety levels for such devices; (2) legal issues relating to duty of care obligations of railway operators; and (3) issues of Tort liability around the use of less than fail-safe equipment. This paper provides an overview of a comprehensive safety justification that was developed as part of a project funded by a collaborative rail research initiative established by the Australian government, and describes the conceptual framework and processes being used to justify its adoption. The paper provides a summary of key points from peer review and discusses prospective barriers that may need to be overcome for future adoption. A successful outcome from this process would result in the development of a guideline for decision-making, providing a precedence for adopting low-cost level crossing warning devices in other parts of the world. The framework described in this paper also provides relevance to the review and adoption of analogous technologies in rail and other safety critical industries.

Enhancing itaconic acid production by Aspergillus terreus

Aspergillus terreus is successfully used for industrial production of itaconic acid. The acid is formed from cis-aconitate, an intermediate of the tricarboxylic (TCA) cycle, by catalytic action of cis-aconitate decarboxylase. It could be assumed that strong anaplerotic reactions that replenish the pool of the TCA cycle intermediates would enhance the synthesis and excretion rate of itaconic acid. In the phylogenetic close relative Aspergillus niger, upregulated metabolic flux through glycolysis has been described that acted as a strong anaplerotic reaction. Deregulated glycolytic flux was caused by posttranslational modification of 6-phosphofructo-1-kinase (PFK1) that resulted in formation of a highly active, citrate inhibition-resistant shorter form of the enzyme. In order to avoid complex posttranslational modification, the native A. niger pfkA gene has been modified to encode for an active shorter PFK1 fragment. By the insertion of the modified A. niger pfkA genes into the A. terreus strain, increased specific productivities of itaconic acid and final yields were documented by transformants in respect to the parental strain. On the other hand, growth rate of all transformants remained suppressed which is due to the low initial pH value of the medium, one of the prerequisites for the accumulation of itaconic acid by A. terreus mycelium. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.

Low-temperature plasma processing for Si photovoltaics

There has been a recent rapid expansion of the range of applications of low-temperature plasma processing in Si-based photovoltaic (PV) technologies. The desire to produce Si-based PV materials at an acceptable cost with consistent performance and reproducibility has stimulated a large number of major research and research infrastructure programs, and a rapidly increasing number of publications in the field of low-temperature plasma processing for Si photovoltaics. In this article, we introduce the low-temperature plasma sources for Si photovoltaic applications and discuss the effects of low-temperature plasma dissociation and deposition on the synthesis of Si-based thin films. We also examine the relevant growth mechanisms and plasma diagnostics, Si thin-film solar cells, Si heterojunction solar cells and silicon nitride materials for antireflection and surface passivation. Special attention is paid to the low-temperature plasma interactions with Si materials including hydrogen interaction, wafer cleaning, masked or mask-free surface texturization, the direct formation of p-n junction, and removal of phosphorus silicate glass or parasitic emitters. The chemical and physical interactions in such plasmas with Si surfaces are analyzed. Several examples of the plasma processes and techniques are selected to represent a variety of applications aimed at the improvement of Si-based solar cell performance. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.

Harnessing the influence of reactive edges and defects of graphene substrates for achieving complete cycle of room-temperature molecular sensing

Molecular doping and detection are at the forefront of graphene research, a topic of great interest in physical and materials science. Molecules adsorb strongly on graphene, leading to a change in electrical conductivity at room temperature. However, a common impediment for practical applications reported by all studies to date is the excessively slow rate of desorption of important reactive gases such as ammonia and nitrogen dioxide. Annealing at high temperatures, or exposure to strong ultraviolet light under vacuum, is employed to facilitate desorption of these gases. In this article, the molecules adsorbed on graphene nanoflakes and on chemically derived graphene-nanomesh flakes are displaced rapidly at room temperature in air by the use of gaseous polar molecules such as water and ethanol. The mechanism for desorption is proposed to arise from the electrostatic forces exerted by the polar molecules, which decouples the overlap between substrate defect states, molecule states, and graphene states near the Fermi level. Using chemiresistors prepared from water-based dispersions of single-layer graphene on mesoporous alumina membranes, the study further shows that the edges of the graphene flakes (showing p-type responses to NO2 and NH3) and the edges of graphene nanomesh structures (showing n-type responses to NO2 and NH3) have enhanced sensitivity. The measured responses towards gases are comparable to or better than those which have been obtained using devices that are more sophisticated. The higher sensitivity and rapid regeneration of the sensor at room temperature provides a clear advancement towards practical molecule detection using graphene-based materials.

Low-temperature plasmas in carbon nanostructure synthesis

Plasma-based techniques offer many unique possibilities for the synthesis of various nanostructures both on the surface and in the plasma bulk. In contrast to the conventional chemical vapor deposition and some other techniques, plasma-based processes ensure high level of controllability, good quality of the produced nanomaterials, and reduced environmental risk. In this work, the authors briefly review the unique features of the plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition approaches, namely, the techniques based on inductively coupled, microwave, and arc discharges. Specifically, the authors consider the plasmas with the ion/electron density ranging from 10^10 to 10^14 cm−3, electron energy in the discharge up to ∼10 eV, and the operating pressure ranging from 1 to 10^4 Pa (up to 105 Pa for the atmospheric-pressure arc discharges). The operating frequencies of the discharges considered range from 460 kHz for the inductively coupled plasmas, and up to 2.45 GHz for the microwave plasmas. The features of the direct-current arc discharges are also examined. The authors also discuss the principles of operation of these systems, as well as the effects of the key plasma parameters on the conditions of nucleation and growth of the carbon nanostructures, mainly carbon nanotubes and graphene. Advantages and disadvantages of these plasma systems are considered. Future trends in the development of these plasma-based systems are also discussed.

Rapid, simultaneous activation of thin nanowire growth in low-temperature, low-pressure chemically active plasmas

Multiscale numerical modeling of the species balance and transport in the ionized gas phase and on the nanostructured solid surface complemented by the heat exchange model is used to demonstrate the possibility of minimizing the Gibbs-Thompson effect in low-temperature, low-pressure chemically active plasma-assisted growth of uniform arrays of very thin Si nanowires, impossible otherwise. It is shown that plasma-specific effects drastically shorten and decrease the dispersion of the incubation times for the nucleation of nanowires on non-uniform Au catalyst nanoparticle arrays. The fast nucleation makes it possible to avoid a common problem of small catalyst nanoparticle burying by amorphous silicon. These results explain a multitude of experimental observations on chemically active plasma-assisted Si nanowire growth and can be used for the synthesis of a range of inorganic nanowires for environmental, biomedical, energy conversion, and optoelectronic applications.

Minimizing the Gibbs–Thomson effect in the low-temperature plasma synthesis of thin Si nanowires

An advanced combination of numerical models, including plasma sheath, ion- and radical-induced species creation and plasma heating effects on the surface and within a Au catalyst nanoparticle, is used to describe the catalyzed growth of Si nanowires in the sheath of a low-temperature and low-pressure plasma. These models have been used to explain the higher nanowire growth rates, low-energy barriers, much thinner Si nanowire nucleation and the less effective Gibbs–Thomson effect in reactive plasma processes, compared with those of neutral gas thermal processes. The effects of variation in the plasma sheath parameters and substrate potential on Si nanowire nucleation and growth have also been investigated. It is shown that increasing the plasma-related effects leads to decreases in the nucleation energy barrier and the critical nanoparticle radius, with the Gibbs–Thomson effect diminished, even at low temperatures. The results obtained are consistent with available experimental results and open a path toward the energy- and matter-efficient nucleation and growth of a broad range of one-dimensional quantum structures.

Heating and plasma sheath effects in low-temperature, plasma-assisted growth of carbon nanofibers

Plasma sheath, nanostructure growth, and thermal models are used to describe carbon nanofiber (CNF) growth and heating in a low-temperature plasma. It is found that when the H2 partial pressure is increased, H atom recombination and H ion neutralization are the main mechanisms responsible for energy release on the catalyst surface. Numerical results also show that process parameters such as the substrate potential, electron temperature and number density mainly affect the CNF growth rate and plasma heating at low catalyst temperatures. In contrast, gas pressure, ion temperature, and the C2H2:H2 supply ratio affect the CNF growth at all temperatures. It is shown that plasma-related processes substantially increase the catalyst particle temperature, in comparison to the substrate and the substrate-holding platform temperatures.

Real-time monitoring of nucleation-growth cycle of carbon nanoparticles in acetylene plasmas

Quantum cascade laserabsorption spectroscopy was used to measure the absolute concentration of acetylene in situ during the nanoparticle growth in Ar + C2H2 RF plasmas. It is demonstrated that the nanoparticle growth exhibits a periodical behavior, with the growth cycle period strongly dependent on the initial acetylene concentration in the chamber. Being 300 s at 7.5% of acetylene in the gas mixture, the growth cycle period decreases with the acetylene concentration increasing; the growth eventually disappears when the acetylene concentration exceeds 32%. During the nanoparticle growth, the acetylene concentration is small and does not exceed 4.2% at radio frequency (RF) power of 4 W, and 0.5% at RF power of 20 W. An injection of a single acetylene pulse into the discharge also results in the nanoparticlenucleation and growth. The absorption spectroscopy technique was found to be very effective for the time-resolved measurement of the hydrocarbon content in nanoparticle-generatingplasmas.

Temperature-dependent growth mechanisms of low-dimensional ZnO nanostructures

One-dimensional ZnO nanostructures were successfully synthesized on single-crystal silicon substrates via a simple thermal evaporation and vapour-phase transport method under different process temperatures from 500 to 1000 °C. The detailed and in-depth analysis of the experimental results shows that the growth of ZnO nanostructures at process temperatures of 500, 800, and 1000 °C is governed by different growth mechanisms. At a low process temperature of 500 °C, the ZnO nanostructures feature flat and smooth tips, and their growth is primarily governed by the vapour-solid mechanism. At an intermediate process temperature of 800 °C, the ZnO nanostructures feature cone-shape tips, and their growth is primarily governed by the self-catalyzed and saturated vapour–liquid–solid mechanism. At a high process temperature of 1000 °C, the alloy tip appears on the front side of the ZnO nanostructures, and their growth is primarily governed by the common catalyst-assisted vapour–liquid–solid mechanism. It is also shown that the morphological, structural, optical, and compositional properties of the synthesized ZnO nanostructures are closely related to the process temperature. These results are highly relevant to the development of light-emitting diodes, chemical sensors, energy conversion devices, and other advanced applications.

Ion-assisted precursor dissociation and surface diffusion : enabling rapid, low-temperature growth of carbon nanofibers

Growth kinetics of carbon nanofibers in a hydrocarbon plasma is studied. In addition to gas-phase and surface processes common to chemical vapor deposition, the model includes (unique to plasma-exposed catalyst surfaces) ion-induced dissociation of hydrocarbons, interaction of adsorbed species with incoming hydrogen atoms, and dissociation of hydrocarbon ions. It is shown that at low, nanodevice-friendly process temperatures the nanofibers grow via surface diffusion of carbon adatoms produced on the catalyst particle via ion-induced dissociation of a hydrocarbon precursor. These results explain a lower activation energy of nanofiber growth in a plasma and can be used for the synthesis of other nanoassemblies. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.

Plasma-controlled adatom delivery and (re)distribution: Enabling uninterrupted, low-temperature growth of ultralong vertically aligned single walled carbon nanotubes

Large-scale (∼109 atoms) numerical simulations reveal that plasma-controlled dynamic delivery and redistribution of carbon atoms between the substrate and nanotube surfaces enable the growth of ultralong single walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and explain the common experimental observation of slower growth at advanced stages. It is shown that the plasma-based processes feature up to two orders of magnitude higher growth rates than equivalent neutral-gas systems and are better suited for the SWCNT synthesis at low nanodevice friendly temperatures. © 2008 American Institute of Physics.

Low-pressure planar magnetron discharge for surface deposition and nanofabrication

Current-voltage characteristics of the planar magnetron are studied experimentally and by numerical simulation. Based on the measured current-voltage characteristics, a model of the planar magnetron discharge is developed with the background gas pressure and magnetic field used as parameters. The discharge pressure was varied in a range of 0.7-1.7 Pa, the magnetic field of the magnetron was of 0.033-0.12 T near the cathode surface, the discharge current was from 1 to 25 A, and the magnetic field lines were tangential to the substrate surface in the region of the magnetron discharge ignition. The discharge model describes the motion of energetic secondary electrons that gain energy by passing the cathode sheath across the magnetic field, and the power required to sustain the plasma generation in the bulk. The plasma electrons, in turn, are accelerated in the electric field and ionize effectively the background gas species. The model is based on the assumption about the prevailing Bohm mechanism of electron conductivity across the magnetic field. A criterion of the self-sustained discharge ignition is used to establish the dependence of the discharge voltage on the discharge current. The dependence of the background gas density on the current is also observed from the experiment. The model is consistent with the experimental results. © 2010 American Institute of Physics.

Single-step, rapid low-temperature synthesis of Si quantum dots embedded in an amorphous SiC matrix in high-density reactive plasmas

A simple, effective and innovative approach based on low-pressure, thermally nonequilibrium, high-density inductively coupled plasmas is proposed to rapidly synthesize Si quantum dots (QDs) embedded in an amorphous SiC (a-SiC) matrix at a low substrate temperature and without any commonly used hydrogen dilution. The experimental results clearly demonstrate that uniform crystalline Si QDs with a size of 3-4 nm embedded in the silicon-rich (carbon content up to 10.7at.%) a-SiC matrix can be formed from the reactive mixture of silane and methane gases, with high growth rates of ∼1.27-2.34 nm s-1 and at a low substrate temperature of 200 °C. The achievement of the high-rate growth of Si QDs embedded in the a-SiC without any commonly used hydrogen dilution is discussed based on the unique properties of the inductively coupled plasma-based process. This work is particularly important for the development of the all-Si tandem cell-based third generation photovoltaic solar cells.