Learning from arid planning and design history and practice : from Woomera to creating the new Roxby Downs communities

The principles and knowledge about arid planning and design have much applicability to contemporary Australian planning discourses because of climate change evidence and policy shifts that sketch a hotter and more unreliable future climate with an emphasis upon a semi-arid environment for Australia. Despite this merit and intent, we appear to have learnt little from the past and are failing to draw upon the pioneering planning and design knowledge that underpinned community development and scaffolding in numerous Australian arid and semi-arid communities, and to bring this knowledge into our future planning processes and strategies.

This paper considers the essential attributes and variables of three Australian arid planning and design, drawing upon historical practice and research that have been explored in the planning of semi-arid and arid places including Port Pirie, Whyalla, Monarto, Broken Hill, Port Augusta, Leigh Creek, Andamooka, Olympic Dam Village and Roxby Downs. It specifically reviews Woomera Village (1940s) Shay Gap (1970s) and the proposed extensions to Roxby Downs (2010s) as models of how to better plan and design communities in arid environments. Instrumental in these innovations is the use of landscape-responsive urban design strategies, water harvesting and irregular rainfall capture, arid horticulture, building design, colour and materiality, orientation and shading strategies, and social community construction under difficult isolationist circumstances. The paper points to key strategies that need to be incorporated in future climate change responsive community developments and policy making.

Development of an expert system modelling the construction process

The construction industry in the UK needs to improve its performance and provide clients with an improved level of satisfaction. The inefficient design and construction process is usually criticised as one of the main causes of poor performance.

A new construction process system, CONstruction Best Practice System (CONBPS), has been developed based on the use of an expert system. CONBPS is based on the traditional procurement strategy as it is probably the most popular procurement method in the UK and yet it is subject to most criticism. This model clearly identifies the roles and responsibilities of the major parties within the building team and identifies the activities and the key issues within the project cycle. The completed model reflects the full project cycle from inception to completion.

The prototype of this system has been demonstrated to the construction participants for their comments. The practitioners included architects, quantity surveyors, planning supervisors, private and public clients. The method of collecting data was through the use of semi-structured interviews.

Following feedback from practitioners, the CONBPS has been updated. This version is more robust; besides, it is more practical and user-friendly as it incorporates the comments from practitioners, who are also the potential users.

The primary aim of this paper is to discuss the development of the updated CONBPS. The improvement of the updated CONBPS includes the information for constructing the system, the computerised functions, system structure, knowledge representation structure and the system operation.

Practitioners' opinions on a new construction process model

Construction projects have been criticised for low performance for many decades. One of the reasons for this situation is the temporary multi-organisation of the construction team; the ultimate reason may be due to the divergent background and specialist skills of the project team members. The aim of this paper is to investigate the different opinions of construction participants within the construction process. It focuses on the projects which use the traditional procurement strategy in the building sector as this process is often perceived as being far from efficient. The methodology used in this research is by interview; the targeted interviewees include architects, quantity surveyors, clients and planning supervisors. An expert system which has been developed to model the construction process, called the CONstruction Best Practice System (CONBPS), has been demonstrated and the participants’ comments sought. The findings are that different construction parties have different perceptions of the construction process and their understanding of each other’s role is ambiguous.

Temporary use 2.0, a tool for planning and developing the new urban context

Temporary urban spaces are gaining even more footing and acceptance on the political agenda as a result of their potential for creating eventful, cultural and creative urban environments. This political focus on temporary urban space is an indication of general urban regulations and development tendencies characterized by cultural planning, leisure, economy, collaborative planning and an increased focus on everyday life. Particularly economic parameters related to leisure such as creativity, culture, urban life and experiences are highly prioritized on the urban municipal agenda, with temporary uses as a concrete development tool. An interesting dichotomy has also arisen between the use of temporary space as a tool for social planning by urban designers as opposed to the use of temporary spaces by politicians as a vehicle for economic gain through leisure spaces. This paper focuses on the phenomenon of Temporary Use as a city-political focus area now and in the future as well as the use of the temporary as a planning tool. Several case studies are used to illustrate these topics.

Econometric techniques for estimating construction demand in Australia

This study aims to develop reliable demand estimation models, at both national and regional levels, for the Australia’s construction market. The developed models would benefit the industry by serving as a reliable aid to policy in the areas of tendering, pricing, resource allocating, labour and workload planning.

Building a digital library : what to expect as a technology project manager on a library construction project

The Taylor Family Digital Library is the central library opened in 2011 at the University of Calgary dedicated to supporting digital scholarship, creativity, analysis and a supportive learning environment for students. The new building is a technologically advanced converged cultural institution, with mandates to continually evolve in order to meet the needs of students and researchers. The infrastructure to support these mandates required research, collaboration and intense planning, resulting in new construction and technology standards for library renovation and construction projects. This pragmatic article is written for those who will follow in similar footsteps; it provides a roadmap for those embarking on the construction of a new technologically advanced library building.

Teacher change in implementing a research developed representation construction pedagogy

The Representations in Learning Science (RiLS) project developed a representation construction approach to teaching and learning in science, which has successfully demonstrated enhanced student learning through sustained engagement with ideas, and enhancement of teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and understandings of how knowledge in science is developed and communicated. The current Constructing Representations in Science Pedagogy (CRISP) project aims at wider scale implementation of the representation construction approach. This paper explores a range of issues that confronted four Year 8 teachers in implementing this research-developed approach, such as: preparedness of the teacher in terms of epistemological positioning and positioning as a learner, significant support for planning and modelling by the university expert, and a team ethos where teachers share ideas and plan jointly. The Year 8 teachers implemented a representation construction approach to the teaching of the topic of astronomy. The Interconnected Model of Teacher Growth (IMTG) (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002) was used to analyse the teachers’ experience in planning and delivering the teaching sequence. This model was found to be flexible in identifying the experiences of teachers in different situations and useful in identifying issues for implementation of a research developed pedagogy.

Tertiary architecture and construction management students' academic performance: role of demographic variables

This study presents an account of how different demographic variables affect students’ academic performance. The studied sample comprises a cohort of 133 Architecture and Construction Management (ACM) students in a third-year unit allocated to construction methodology and structural knowledge required for high-rise construction. Data is collected for these students studying at the School of Architecture and Built Environment at Deakin University (A+B). Outcomes of group and individual task (exam) are analysed deploying statistical methods. The findings show no significant difference between students coming to university from Year-12-to-and those that come from the vocational education sector. Furthermore, the findings indicate significant discrepancy in terms of performance amongst the students enrolled in construction management course with double-degree and architecture students. Additionally, the study reveals that female students outperform male students in individual tasks. The findings could be applicable to redesigning assessments as well as planning of prerequisite units in the studied curricula.

GIS-based dynamic modelling and analysis of flash floods considering land-use planning

Flood inundation is a common natural disaster and a growing development challenge for many cities and thousands of small towns around the world. Soil features have frequently altered with the rapid development of urbanised regions, which has led to more frequent and longer duration of flooding in urban flood-prone regions. Thus, this paper presents a geographic information system (GIS)-based methodology for measuring and visualising the effects on urban flash floods generated by land-use changes over time. The measurement is formulated with a time series in order to perform a dynamic analysis. A catchment mesh is introduced into a hydrological model for reflecting the spatial layouts of infrastructure and structures over different construction periods. The Geelong Waurn Ponds campus of Deakin University is then selected as a case study. Based on GIS simulation and mapping technologies, this research illustrates the evolutionary process of flash floods. The paper then describes flood inundation for different built environments and presents a comparison by quantifying the flooding extents for infrastructure and structures. The results reveal that the GIS-based estimation model can examine urban flash floods in different development phases and identify the change of flooding extents in terms of land-use planning. This study will bring benefits to urban planners in raising awareness of flood impact and the approach proposed here could be used for flood mitigation through future urban planning.

Teacher change in implementing a research-developed representation construction pedagogy

The Representations in Learning Science (RiLS) project developed arepresentation construction approach to teaching and learning in science, which has successfully demonstrated enhanced student learning through sustained engagement with ideas, and enhancement of teachers’ pedagogical knowledge and understandings of how knowledge in science is developed and communicated. The current Constructing Representations in Science Pedagogy (CRISP) project aims at widerscale implementation of the representation construction approach. This paper explores a range of issues that confronted four Year-8 teachers in implementing this research-developed approach, such as: preparedness of the teacher in terms of epistemological positioning and positioning as a learner, significant support for planning and modelling by the university expert, and a team ethos where teachers share ideas and plan jointly. The Year-8 teachers implemented a representation construction approach to the teaching of the topic of astronomy. The Interconnected Model of Teacher Growth (IMTG) (Clarke and Hollingworth, Teach. Educ., 18 (2001) 947) was used to analyse the teachers’ experience in planning and delivering the teaching sequence. This model was found to be flexible in identifying the experiences of teachers in different situations and useful in identifying issues for implementation of a research-developed pedagogy.

A survey of the factors affecting the productivity of construction projects in Iran

The intense competition between the Iranian construction companies has led them to take all appropriate measures to decrease the costs as much as possible. Hence, due to the pivotal role of human resources in construction projects cost, a major part of Iranian construction companies seek their profitability and survival in maximizing the productivity of their operatives. Because of the widespread belief among contractors about the low productivity of daily workers and operatives with basic salary, they commit a major part of their projects activities to sub-contractors. Deployment of sub-contractors by construction firms has become largely conventional in country's construction projects. The aims of this paper is defined as determining the factors and grounds affecting sub-contractors productivity and evaluate their overall negative side effects on project productivity via a structured questionnaire. A total of 31 factors selected and were divided into 7 broad categories. The perceptions of companies managers were asked about the level of effect brought about by the mentioned factors and groups upon productivity on a time based criterion. The analysis indicated that the most important grounds affecting sub-contractors productivity in descending order include: Materials/Tools, Construction technology and method, Planning, Supervision system, Reworks, Weather, and Jobsite condition. Project managers should focus on the identified major grounds and relevant factors in order to improve productivity as long as they commit construction activities to sub-contractors. © 2012 Copyright Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (VGTU) Press Technika.