Higher education, professionalism and skills in the built environment: the impact of the new urban agenda on teaching and learning

In the mid-to-late 1990s, the New Urban Agenda initiated a rethinking of urban development strategies placing a greater focus on regeneration of central urban spaces. The skills and competencies required by urban planners and built environment professionals to successfully implement regeneration schemes tend to differ from those required for greenfield development. The working paper summarises skills and competencies required by urban regeneration practitioners and how they are delivered through public and/or private sector providers at present. The role of the newly established regional Centres of Excellence and the professional bodies of the Built Environment professions in defining skills and educational requirements and providing training are explored. An analysis of supply and demand of skills training reveals that there is a mismatch rather than a lack of provision. The report draws on a conference where research findings were presented and discussed. It concludes with suggestions for improving the skills provision at the local government as well as community level. Skills audits were found useful tools in defining training needs. A set of sample workshop programmes outline flexible, tailor-made approaches guaranteed to address specific and identified needs.

Professionalism and skills enhancement in the built environment: the role of higher education in a changing policy context in England

Since the election of the Labour Government in 1997 there have been a series of policy initiatives emphasising the importance of co-ordinated and integrated approaches to the delivery of urban regeneration and in particular Sustainable Communities. This changing policy context has given rise to a shortage of practitioners with both the technical skills to deliver specific programmes, and more especially the generic skills to work in multi-disciplinary teams in conjunction with partnership-based management boards. This paper discusses the origins of the debate about skills shortages and deficiencies and reviews the main government reports which have advocated a new approach to the provision of skills for community regeneration. It focuses particularly on the work of the Planning Network which was funded by the Centre for Education in the Built Environment (CEBE) to examine the contribution of higher education to the wider skills debate. It concludes by arguing that higher education has an important part to play in the provision of a more appropriate skills set for professional practice within a broader and more inclusive strategy involving all key stakeholders. However, employers also have a major responsibility in ensuring that key skills are maintained and enhanced within their own organisations.

Review of survey techniques used in urban freight studies

Report produced as part of the Green Logistics project (EPSRC and Department for Transport funded). This report is based on a review of studies in which data has been collected to obtain an understanding of road-based urban freight transport activities and patterns of operation. Studies from the UK and other countries have been included in this review. While it may be thought that relatively few such studies have been conducted, approximately 60 such studies have been identified as taking place in the UK and approximately 100 elsewhere since the 1960s. In addition, other studies have been carried out in order to assess industry and policy maker opinions about urban freight transport , however this type of study and survey work is not the focus of this report. Gaining an understanding of road-based urban freight transport activities is an important element in determining the current sustainability of such activity (in economic, social and environmental terms) and how best to go about enhancing its sustainability. By reviewing the existing survey work in this subject it has been possible to draw together the methodologies developed and implemented. This should therefore be of help in understanding which techniques are most commonly used, the strengths and limitations of the various techniques, and in assessing the most suitable urban freight survey techniques for a given study.

A review of dynamic Bayesian network techniques with applications in healthcare risk modelling

Coping with an ageing population is a major concern for healthcare organisations around the world. The average cost of hospital care is higher than social care for older and terminally ill patients. Moreover, the average cost of social care increases with the age of the patient. Therefore, it is important to make efficient and fair capacity planning which also incorporates patient centred outcomes. Predictive models can provide predictions which their accuracy can be understood and quantified. Predictive modelling can help patients and carers to get the appropriate support services, and allow clinical decision-makers to improve care quality and reduce the cost of inappropriate hospital and Accident and Emergency admissions. The aim of this study is to provide a review of modelling techniques and frameworks for predictive risk modelling of patients in hospital, based on routinely collected data such as the Hospital Episode Statistics database. A number of sub-problems can be considered such as Length-of-Stay and End-of-Life predictive modelling. The methodologies in the literature are mainly focused on addressing the problems using regression methods and Markov models, and the majority lack generalisability. In some cases, the robustness, accuracy and re-usability of predictive risk models have been shown to be improved using Machine Learning methods. Dynamic Bayesian Network techniques can represent complex correlations models and include small probabilities into the solution. The main focus of this study is to provide a review of major time-varying Dynamic Bayesian Network techniques with applications in healthcare predictive risk modelling.