The comparison of international and local sustainable assessment tools of landscape design for housing estate developments : case of Bangkok Metropolitan Region, Thailand

Various countries have been introducing sustainable assessment tools for real estate design to produce integrated sustainability components not just for the building, but also the landscape component of the development. This paper aims to present the comparison between international and local assessment tools of landscape design for housing estate developments in Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR), Thailand. The methodologies used are to review, then compare and identify discrepancy indicators among the tools. This paper will examine four international tools; LEED for Neighbourhood Development (LEED – ND) of United State of America (USA), EnviroDevelopment standards of Australia, Residential Landscape Sustainability of United Kingdom (UK) and Green Mark for Infrastructure of Singapore; and three BMR’s existing tools; Land Subdivision Act B.E. 2543, Environmental Impact Assessment Monitoring Awards (EIA-MA) and Thai’s Rating for Energy and Environmental Sustainability of New construction and major renovation (TREES-NC). The findings show that there are twenty two elements of three categories which are neighbourhood design, community management, and environmental condition. Moreover, only one element in neighbourhood designs different between the international and local tools. The sustainable assessment tools have existed in BMR but they are not complete in only one assessment tool. Thus, the development of new comprehensive assessment tool will be necessary in BMR; however, it should meet the specific environment and climate condition for housing estate development at BMR.

Respecting local, cultural contexts for assessment practice in an era of globalization

Dissatisfaction, internationally, with existing educational practices and outcomes since the early 1990s has led to increased educational reform. At the same time, there has also been a worldwide shift in control of education away from teachers toward the state for the purposes of restructuring economies. More bureaucratic forms of curriculum and assessment have resulted, with a return to the use of more techno-rational discourse in assessment and evaluation for purposes of efficiency, accountability, impact, and performance management. There has also been an increase in the use of economic and productivity models to study educational outcomes. These models fail to account for the range of outcomes achieved and fail to identify the factors responsible for such diversity in performance.

Sustainable urban development : formulation of indicator-based residential sustainability assessment framework for local level

Purpose–The purpose of this paper is to formulate a conceptual framework for urban sustainability indicators selection. This framework will be used to develop an indicator-based evaluation method for assessing the sustainability levels of residential neighbourhood developments in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach–We provide a brief overview of existing evaluation frameworks for sustainable development assessment. We then develop a conceptual Sustainable Residential Neighbourhood Assessment (SNA) framework utilising a four-pillar sustainability framework (environmental, social, economic and institutional) and a combination of domain-based and goal-based general frameworks. This merger offers the advantages of both individual frameworks, while also overcoming some of their weaknesses when used to develop the urban sustainability evaluation method for assessing residential neighbourhoods. Originality/value–This approach puts in evidence that many of the existing frameworks for evaluating urban sustainability do not extend their frameworks to include assessing housing sustainability at a local level. Practical implications–It is expected that the use of the indicator-based Sustainable Neighbourhood Assessment framework will present a potential mechanism for planners and developers to evaluate and monitor the sustainability performance of residential neighbourhood developments.

Development of a sewerage infrastructure buffer assessment tool for local authorities

Urban expansion continues to encroach on existing or newly implemented sewerage infrastructure. In this context, legislation and guidelines, both national and international, provide limited direction to the amenity allocation of appropriate buffering distances for land use planners and infrastructure providers. A review of published literature suggests the dominant influences include topography, wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity, existing land uses and vegetation profiles. A statistical criteria review of these factors against six years of sewerage odour complaint data was undertaken to ascertain their influence and a complaint severity hierarchy was established. These hierarchical results suggested the main criteria were: topographical location, elevation relative to the odour source and wind speed. Establishing a justifiable criterion for buffer zone allocations will assist in analytically determining a basis for buffer separations and will assist planners and infrastructure designers in assessing lower impact sewerage infrastructure locations.

Mandated literacy assessment and the reorganisation of teachers’ work : federal policy, local effects

This paper explores how mandated literacy assessment is reorganising teachers’ work in the context of Australia’s National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), which was implemented in 2008. Students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 are tested annually, with school results publicly available. The wider policy context and the emergence of different forms of interconnected educational work associated with the testing phenomenon are described. Taking an Institutional Ethnography approach, the local effects of the federal policy regime are examined through a case study of one school. What mandated literacy assessment does to educators’ work in a culturally diverse low socioeconomic school community is discussed. Key themes include strategic exclusions of students from the testing process, appropriations and adaptations of literacy theory, work intensification, and ethical mediation of results. Questions concerning equity are raised about the differential effects of policy in different school contexts.

Developing a sustainability impact assessment framework for local urban planning

In order to meet the land use and infrastructure needs of the community with the additional challenges posed by climate change and a global recession, it is essential that Queensland local governments test their proposed integrated land use and infrastructure plans to ensure the maximum achievement of triple-bottom line sus-tainability goals. Extensive regulatory impact assessment systems are in place at the Australian and state government levels to substantiate and test policy and legislative proposals, however no such requirement has been extended to the local government level. This paper contends that with the devolution of responsibility to local government and growing impacts of local government planning and development assessment activities, impact assessment of regulatory planning instruments is appropriate and overdue. This is particularly so in the Queensland context where local governments manage metropolitan and regional scale responsibilities and their planning schemes under the Sustainable Planning Act 2009 integrate land use and infrastructure planning to direct development rights, the spatial allocation of land, and infrastructure investment. It is critical that urban planners have access to fit-for-purpose impact assessment frameworks which support this challenging task and address the important relationship between local planning and sustainable urban development. This paper uses two examples of sustainability impact assessment and a case study from the Queensland local urban planning context to build an argument and potential starting point for impact assessment in local planning processes.

The development of shared understandings of assessment policy : travelling between global and local contexts

In this paper, teachers’ enactment of assessment policy within demands for accountability and consistency of teacher judgements is considered. Evidence is drawn from a qualitative study involving 50 middle school teachers from Queensland, Australia, who participated in online social moderation meetings with teachers located in dispersed areas around the state. The study presents how travelling policy is embedded in local histories and cultures, in particular within systems of accountability; and the different layers of what may be considered ‘local’. The paper examines the intersections of travelling and embedded policy, and global and local contexts as these are enacted through online moderation meetings.

Probabilistic assessment of herbicide runoff from Japanese rice paddies: The effects of local meteorological conditions and site-specific water management

Uncertainty assessments of herbicide losses from rice paddies in Japan associated with local meteorological conditions and water management practices were performed using a pesticide fate and transport model, PCPF-1, under the Monte Carlo (MC) simulation scheme. First, MC simulations were conducted for five different cities with a prescribed water management scenario and a 10-year meteorological dataset of each city. The effectiveness of water management was observed regarding the reduction of pesticide runoff. However, a greater potential of pesticide runoff remained in Western Japan. Secondly, an extended analysis was attempted to evaluate the effects of local water management and meteorological conditions between the Chikugo River basin and the Sakura River basin using uncertainty inputs processed from observed water management data. The results showed that because of more severe rainfall events, significant pesticide runoff occurred in the Chikugo River basin even when appropriate irrigation practices were implemented. © Pesticide Science Society of Japan.

Sustainability at the Australian local government level: Is there room for Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA)?

Recent calls in Australia have addressed the need for better integration of planning processes. The consequent effort made by government has been, and still is, reshaping the way urban and regional planning and sustainability are managed. Focusing on planning practices at the local and regional levels, we investigate how environmental sustainability is pursued from an institutional perspective. Specifically, we analyse the way that planning in Australian cities aims to achieve sustainable strategies and reflect on the relationship with ‘Strategic Environmental Assessment’. This paper has four goals. First, sustainable planning practices at the local and regional levels are analysed considering the legislative and organizational frameworks of each state. The goal is to identify through an analysis of planning documents how much discretion is given to local councils to address sustainable strategies. Second, we focus on two regional and four cities in Queensland, to outline strengths and weaknesses of current legislative and practical frameworks. We use analytical criteria from the SEA literature to investigate these plans in more detail. Third, we examine the relationship between strategic and statutory plans, to see how sustainability is actually implemented. Finally we compare emerging issues about sustainable planning in Australia with countries overseas with different planning and SEA traditions. Considering that SEA is evolving and there are considerable international experiences, we offer recommendations on how Australia might achieve a more integrated and sustainable approach to planning.

Developing a participatory impact assessment approach and action research culture within a communication for social change organisation in Nepal

Developing an effective impact evaluation framework, managing and conducting rigorous impact evaluations, and developing a strong research and evaluation culture within development communication organisations presents many challenges. This is especially so when both the community and organisational context is continually changing and the outcomes of programs are complex and difficult to clearly identify.----- This paper presents a case study from a research project being conducted from 2007-2010 that aims to address these challenges and issues, entitled Assessing Communication for Social Change: A New Agenda in Impact Assessment. Building on previous development communication projects which used ethnographic action research, this project is developing, trailing and rigorously evaluating a participatory impact assessment methodology for assessing the social change impacts of community radio programs in Nepal. This project is a collaboration between Equal Access – Nepal (EAN), Equal Access – International, local stakeholders and listeners, a network of trained community researchers, and a research team from two Australian universities. A key element of the project is the establishment of an organisational culture within EAN that values and supports the impact assessment process being developed, which is based on continuous action learning and improvement. The paper describes the situation related to monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and impact assessment before the project began, in which EAN was often reliant on time-bound studies and ‘success stories’ derived from listener letters and feedback. We then outline the various strategies used in an effort to develop stronger and more effective impact assessment and M&E systems, and the gradual changes that have occurred to date. These changes include a greater understanding of the value of adopting a participatory, holistic, evidence-based approach to impact assessment. We also critically review the many challenges experienced in this process, including:----- • Tension between the pressure from donors to ‘prove’ impacts and the adoption of a bottom-up, participatory approach based on ‘improving’ programs in ways that meet community needs and aspirations.----- • Resistance from the content teams to changing their existing M&E practices and to the perceived complexity of the approach.----- • Lack of meaningful connection between the M&E and content teams.----- • Human resource problems and lack of capacity in analysing qualitative data and reporting results.----- • The contextual challenges, including extreme poverty, wide cultural and linguistic diversity, poor transport and communications infrastructure, and political instability.----- • A general lack of acceptance of the importance of evaluation within Nepal due to accepting everything as fate or ‘natural’ rather than requiring investigation into a problem.

Moderation as judgement practice: Reconciling system level accountability and local level practice

Internationally, recognition of the role of assessment to inform the learning process has received much attention in recent years. Assessment for learning, not just of learning is being supported by an increasing body of literature providing strategies that teachers and their students can incorporate to support the learning process (Assessment Reform Group, 2002; Broadfoot & Black, 2004; James, 2006). Concurrently there has been an increase internationally in systemic accountability requirements of schools in terms of student results. The convergence of these two movements has resulted in some education systems promoting standards-driven reform involving authentic assessment and a re-examination of the relationship between the teacher and the student in the learning process. In this context standards are intended to be used as the basis for judgements of student achievement; while the results from assessment tasks are meant to both inform the teaching/learning process, and to report and track student progress. In such system, the role and reliability of teacher judgement takes centre stage.

Streamlining local government : evaluating an eGovernment initiative in south east Queensland

Recent initiatives around the world have highlighted the potential for information and communications technology (ICT) to foster better service delivery for businesses. Likewise, ICT has also been applied to government services and is seen to result in improved service delivery, improved citizen participation in government, and enhanced cooperation across government departments and between government departments. The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) (2006) identified local government development assessment (DA) arrangements as a ‘hot spot’ needing specific attention, as the inconsistent policies and regulations between councils impeded regional economic activity. COAG (2006) specifically suggested that trials of various ICT mechanisms be initiated which may well be able to improve DA processes for local government. While the authors have explored various regulatory mechanisms to improve harmonisation elsewhere (Brown and Furneaux 2007), the possibility of ICT being able to enhance consistency across governments is a novel notion from a public policy perspective. Consequently, this paper will explore the utility of ICT initiatives to improve harmonisation of DA across local governments. This paper examines as a case study the recent attempt to streamline Development Assessment (DA) in local governments in South East Queensland. This initiative was funded by the Regulation Reduction Incentive Fund (RRIF), and championed by the South East Queensland (SEQ) Council of Mayors. The Regulation Reduction Incentive Fund (RRIF) program was created by the Australian government with the aim to provide incentives to local councils to reduce red tape for small and medium sized businesses. The funding for the program was facilitated through a competitive merit-based grants process targeted at Local Government Authorities. Grants were awarded to projects which targeted specific areas identified for reform (AusIndustry, 2007), in SEQ this focused around improving DA processes and creating transparency in environmental health policies, regulation and compliance. An important key factor to note with this case study is that it is unusual for an eGovernment initiative. Typically individual government departments undertake eGovernment projects in order to improve their internal performance. The RRIF case study examines the implementation of an eGovernment initiative across 21 autonomous local councils in South East Queensland. In order to move ahead, agreement needed to be reached between councils at the highest level. Having reviewed the concepts of eGovernment and eGovernance, the literature review is undertaken to identify the typical cost and benefits, barriers and enablers of ICT projects in government. The specific case of the RRIF project is then examined to determine if similar costs and benefits, barriers and enablers could be found in the RRIF project. The outcomes of the project, particularly in reducing red tape by increasing harmonisation between councils are explored.

Risk assessment in life-cycle costing for road asset management

Queensland Department of Main Roads, Australia, spends approximately A$ 1 billion annually for road infrastructure asset management. To effectively manage road infrastructure, firstly road agencies not only need to optimise the expenditure for data collection, but at the same time, not jeopardise the reliability in using the optimised data to predict maintenance and rehabilitation costs. Secondly, road agencies need to accurately predict the deterioration rates of infrastructures to reflect local conditions so that the budget estimates could be accurately estimated. And finally, the prediction of budgets for maintenance and rehabilitation must provide a certain degree of reliability. This paper presents the results of case studies in using the probability-based method for an integrated approach (i.e. assessing optimal costs of pavement strength data collection; calibrating deterioration prediction models that suit local condition and assessing risk-adjusted budget estimates for road maintenance and rehabilitation for assessing life-cycle budget estimates). The probability concept is opening the path to having the means to predict life-cycle maintenance and rehabilitation budget estimates that have a known probability of success (e.g. produce budget estimates for a project life-cycle cost with 5% probability of exceeding). The paper also presents a conceptual decision-making framework in the form of risk mapping in which the life-cycle budget/cost investment could be considered in conjunction with social, environmental and political issues.

Trouble and autoethnography in assessment genre : a case for postnational design in online internationalized pedagogy

This chapter is interested in the difference between local places with implicit codes and more global spaces with explicit directions, through the case study of the design and conduct of assessment in an online internationalized MBA unit. Online learning is understood to offer new ways of belonging in 'postnational' communities less reliant on locality for their frames of reference. This study reports and analyses firstly a series of troubles which erupted over the international students' desire for more explication of the desired genre for their assessment task. Then it analyses the different, 'autoethnographic' genre structure that emerged when students started to acknowledge the diverse backgrounds within the class.The chapter then offers practical considerations for the design of online internationalized programs.