Is there a role for contemporary practices of askesis in supporting the transition to sustainable consumption?

An investigation of the potential role of contemporary practices of askesis (Foucault) in supporting the transition to sustainable consumption.

Integrating Land-use Planning and Transportation in Belfast: A New Policy Agenda for Sustainable Development

Much of the interest in promoting sustainable development in planning for the city-region focuses on the apparently inexorable rise in the demand for car travel and the contribution that certain urban forms and land-use relationships can make to reducing energy consumption. Within this context, policy prescription has increasingly favoured a compact city approach with increasing urban residential densities to address the physical separation of daily activities and the resultant dependency on the private car. This paper aims to outline and evaluate recent efforts to integrate land use and transport policy in the Belfast Metropolitan Area in Northern Ireland. Although considerable progress has been made, this paper underlines the extent of existing car dependency in the metropolitan area and prevailing negative attitudes to public transport, and argues that although there is a rhetorical support for the principles of sustainability and the practice of land-use/transportation integration, this is combined with a selective reluctance to embrace local changes in residential environment or in lifestyle preferences which might facilitate such principles.

Evidence and Spatial Planning for Sustainable Development: A Model for Spatially Allocating Material Flows

The aspiration the spatial planning should act as the main coordinating function for the transition to a sustainable society is grounded on the assumption that it is capable of incorporating both a strong evidence base of environmental accounting for policy, coupled with opportunities for open, deliberative decision-making. While there are a number of increasingly sophisticated methods (such as material flow analysis and ecological footprinting) that can be used to longitudinally determine the impact of policy, there are fewer that can provide a robust spatial assessment of sustainability policy. In this paper, we introduce the Spatial Allocation of Material Flow Analysis (SAMFA) model, which uses the concept of socio-economic metabolism to extrapolate the impact of local consumption patterns that may occur as a result of the local spatial planning process at multiple spatial levels. The initial application the SAMFA model is based on County Kildare in the Republic of Ireland, through spatial temporal simulation and visualisation of construction material flows and associated energy use in the housing sector. Thus, while we focus on an Ireland case study, the model is applicable to spatial planning and sustainability research more generally. Through the development and evaluation of alternative scenarios, the model appears to be successful in its prediction of the cumulative resource and energy impacts arising from consumption and development patterns. This leads to some important insights in relation to the differential spatial distribution of disaggregated allocation of material balance and energy use, for example that rural areas have greater resource accumulation (and are therefore in a sense “less sustainable”) than urban areas, confirming that rural housing in Ireland is both more material and energy intensive. This therefore has the potential to identify hotspots of higher material and energy use, which can be addressed through targeted planning initiatives or focussed community engagement. Furthermore, due to the ability of the model to allow manipulation of different policy criteria (increased density, urban conservation etc), it can also act as an effective basis for multi-stakeholder engagement.

Social housing tenants, Climate Change and sustainable living: A study of awareness, behaviours and willingness to adapt

Despite a focus in the UK on providing sustainable housing in recent years, it is unlikely that targets set to reduce resource consumption in housing will be achieved without a greater focus on human behaviour. It is necessary to understand the actions of people occupying dwellings, as it is invariably the occupants rather than the buildings that decided whether or not to consume resources. In this paper the authors present a pilot study where 53 social housing tenant households in Northern Ireland were interviewed to ascertain their perceptions of Climate Change, their current behaviours and their willingness to reduce energy and water consumption in the home. The intention was to explore links between perceptions and reported behaviour as well as perceptions and willingness to reduce resource consumption. Results show that 77% of tenants believed Climate Change to be an important issue; 57% accepted that it is up to the individual to take responsibility for tackling Climate Change; and demonstrated a strong desire to make a difference to reduce their impact. The researchers identified both passive (devices) and active (behaviours) resource savings currently in place and established where further resource reduction was feasible based on tenants' willingness to alter their behaviours.

Sustainable non-automotive vehicles: The simulation challenges

Simulation is a well-established and effective approach to the development of fuel-efficient and low-emissions vehicles in both on-highway and off-highway applications.

The simulation of on-highway automotive vehicles is widely reported in literature, whereas research relating to non-automotive and off-highway vehicles is relatively sparse. This review paper focuses on the challenges of simulating such vehicles and discusses the differences in the approach to drive cycle testing and experimental validation of vehicle simulations. In particular, an inner-city diesel-electric hybrid bus and an ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) powered forklift truck will be used as case studies.

Computer prediction of fuel consumption and emissions of automotive vehicles on standardised drive cycles is well-established and commercial software packages such as AVL CRUISE have been specifically developed for this purpose. The vehicles considered in this review paper present new challenges from both the simulation and drive-cycle testing perspectives. For example, in the case of the forklift truck, the drive cycles involve reversing elements, variable mass, lifting operations, and do not specify a precise velocity-time profile. In particular, the difficulties associated with the prediction of productivity, i.e. the maximum rate of completing a series of defined operations, are discussed. In the case of the hybrid bus, the standardised drive cycles are unrepresentative of real-life use and alternative approaches are required in the development of efficient and low-emission vehicles.

Two simulation approaches are reviewed: the adaptation of a standard automotive vehicle simulation package, and the development of bespoke models using packages such as MATLAB/Simulink.