Ecologically sustainable development and architecture: the impact of rating tools

The concept of Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) has become an important issue – albeit often scarcely applied – in the design of commercial buildings. To encourage the adoption of sustainable strategies in the practice of design and to address the environmental problems caused by these developments, governments and organisations of various countries have proposed the adoption of scorecard rating tools to inform designers of the impact of their decisions and to present a way of establishing project goals and objectives early in the design process. In Australia, the recent introduction of the Green Star Rating Tool (Office Design) is believed to provide the architects with a ‘whole-of-building’ assessment of the environmental impact of their design by creating a checklist against which to benchmark performance. This paper follows the design of a commercial building, evaluating the impact of Green Star in the overall process. The results of the study suggest the need to include the use of scorecard rating tools in a more integrated model, where ESD is considered at every stage of design and construction rather than being a separate component applied only to promote the ‘greenness’ of a building. Rating tools can be an asset to the design team, provided sustainable requirements are reinforced throughout the entire process.

Multi-attribute preference modelling and regional land-use planning

Forest management policy decisions are complex due to the multiple-use nature of goods and services from forests, difficulty in monetary valuation of ecological services and the involvement of a large number of stakeholders. Multi-attribute decision techniques can be used to synthesise stakeholder preferences related to regional forest planning because it can accommodate conflicting, multidimensional, incommensurable and incomparable objectives. The objective of this paper is to examine how the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) can be used to incorporate stakeholder preferences in determining optimal forest land-use choices. The Australian Regional Forest Agreement Programme is taken as an illustrative case for the analysis. The results show that the AHP can formalise public participation in decision making and increase the transparency and the credibility of the process.

Development and use of a model system to monitor clubroot disease progression with an Australian field collection of Plasmodiophora brassicae

A modified sand–liquid culture method facilitated easy visualisation of the primary life cycle stages of Plasmodiophora brassicae within clean root hairs of the Arabidopsis host. Pathogen penetration occurred from day 4 onwards and then primary plasmodia developed within the host root. Several Arabidopsis ecotypes tested in varying growth conditions showed differences in disease expression. Defined growth cabinet conditions were found most suitable for studying disease progression in the ecotypes and for achieving uniform infection and disease development. Arabidopsis ecotypes Ta-0 and Tsu-0 known to be partially resistant to a German single-spore isolate of P. brassicae were susceptible to an Australian (Victorian) field population of P. brassicae. The European clubroot differential test was used to confirm virulence and describe the pathotype of the Victorian field population. Knowledge of the interaction of an Australian population of P. brassicae with its host will provide valuable information on a disease which is very difficult to control.

On representation and construction in a tectonic design studio

The study compares the roles of representation and construction in enhancing students' learning in a tectonic design studio by investigating issues of representational media use in the conception, development and communication of design processes and relating these to real-scale construction as a means of understanding tectonic design.

Relationships of land use mix with walking for transport : do land uses and geographical scale matter?

Physical activity and public health recommendations now emphasize the creation of activity-friendly neighborhoods. Mixed land use in a neighborhood is important in this regard, as it reflects the availability of destinations to which residents can walk or ride bicycles, and thus is likely to contribute to residents’ active lifestyles that in turn will influence their overall health. Relationships between land use mix (LUM) and physical activity have not been apparent in some studies, which may be because geographical scale and the specificity of hypothesized environment–behavior associations are not taken into account. We compared the strength of association of four Geographic Information Systems-derived LUM measures with walking for transport and perceived proximity to destinations. We assessed physical activity behaviors of 2,506 adults in 154 Census Collection Districts (CCDs) in Adelaide, Australia, for which ‘‘original’’ LUM measures were calculated, and then refined by either: accounting for the geographic scale of measurement; including only the most-relevant land uses; or, both. The refined (but not the ‘‘original’’) LUM measures had significant associations with the frequency of walking for transport (p < 0.05) and area-corrected measures had significant associations with the duration of walking for transport. All LUM measures had significant associations with perceived proximity to destinations, but stronger associations were seen when using the refined measures compared with the original LUM. Identifying the LUM attributes most strongly associated with walking for transport is a priority and can inform environmental and policy initiatives that are needed to promote health-enhancing physical activity.

On representation and construction in a tectonic design studio

This study investigates the roles of representationand construction in enhancing students' learning in a tectonic design studio.  Students of architecture use 3D CAD, physical models and drawings, either alone or in hybrid combinations in the the design, development and communication of their design process.  Each of these media has intrinsic attributes that limit or enhance students' ability to engage in issues of architecture.  This can have a significant influence on students' learning of conceptual and tectonic design, in particularly in their early years of study.  Tectonic design, as an element of the architectural design process that involves the designerly consideration of issues of construction, is an important skill that is integral to architectural practice.  The unique problem based learning environment of the design studio offers opportunities for the development of deep learning approaches to tectonic design, however these are limited by the way students engage in representational media.  This research is based on an ethnographis case study of a cohort of second year architecture students at Deakin University, Geelong, in 2002.

Exploring the development and assessment of work-readiness using reflective practice in construction education.

It is well known that the construction industry is characterized by the need for practical knowledge and skill. However, this creates special challenges for universities in the development of work readiness in graduates. This research investigates the attitudes of students towards a course which was designed to develop work-readiness skills in construction management. The paper focuses on the distinctive issues associated with Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) using a formally assessed industry-mentored course of study. Past research shows that university degrees should promote reflective thinking since, in construction, it is necessary to make reflective judgements which deal with ill-defined problems. This is a generic capability that is needed by all graduates in knowledge-based occupations. The study utilized reflective practice to examine the perceptions of construction management students towards the development of attributes which were known to improve work skills. The students were asked to capture their reflections on their experiences in the form of reflective diaries, which were prepared weekly throughout the course. The results showed that the students expressed very positive views about their learning experiences. This occurred in spite of the challenges caused by the formal assessment processes that were undertaken as part of the course. This paper compares the student perceptions with the teachers’ reflections on the ability of traditional assessment methods to measure graduate attributes and work-readiness. The research explores the issues associated with assessing work-readiness skills in higher education. The findings suggest that student reflection is a necessary precondition to the development of effective work-readiness. In addition, the research concludes that more nontraditional assessment approaches are needed in construction programmes in order to develop the type of graduate required by the industry.

Preserving the environment and traditional communities : a land use change modeling approach

Human populations can cause serious damage to the natural environment. This, however, depends on the type of society and its size. Many traditional communities have a balanced relation with the environment, using practices for managing the soil, water and natural resources in order to satisfy their needs that are compatible to the general goals of environmental preservation.

The most usual approach to environmental conservation in the world sees human beings as intruders, potentially destroyers of the nature and, as a consequence, generally requires local population to be expelled from the protected regions. This situation has generated social conflicts because many protected areas, particularly in developing countries, are inhabited by indigenous or other traditional communities.

The disagreement about expelling or maintaining traditional communities in environmental conservation areas is strengthened by the lack of diagnostics on which changes are produced or suffered by communities in the region where they live. This paper presents a methodology developed to analyse land use dynamics in region with environmental conservation and traditional communities. We seek a better understanding of the way traditional communities use their space, the spatial pattern of land uses, which factors drive land use change, which impacts can be seen in those regions and identify the effects of conservation policies on land use dynamics.

The application of the method to the National Park of Superagui, Brazil, has successfully performed characterisation, analysis and simulation of land use dynamics in a region of environmental importance. Testing different scenarios has suggested that the adoption of a less restrictive policy for environmental conservation would have resulted in less social conflict with the same environmental efficiency than the established current policy.

Aged care, Warrnambool and Bendigo, 2021 ,estimating land-use, connectivity

Ratios which correlate aged care places with Land-use requirements are developed by analysing the existing aged care facilities in the regional Victorian Local Government Areas of Greater Bendigo and Warrnambool. These ratios are used in conjunction with the government's population based measures to model scenarios of future aged care infrastructure requirements for Greater Bendigo and Warrnambool. Strategies correlating additional residential aged care facilities with at-home based aged care are explored using a Land-use and accessibility matrix governed by size and configuration. Variations in these two aspects appear to have a significant influence on location options for future facilities as well as case load demands and staffing requirements for community support teams.

Development and validation of the Diet Quality Tool for use in cardiovascular disease prevention settings

The aim of this study was to develop and evaluate a dietary screening tool for use in a secondary cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention setting to identify an individual’s overall dietary quality. The Diet Quality Tool (DQT) was validated against a 4-day food diary for 37 individuals with established CVD attending cardiac rehabilitation. Construct validity was demonstrated for % energy from saturated fat (P = 0.002, r = –0.500), dietary fibre (P < 0.001, r = 0.559) and omega-3 fatty acids (P = 0.048, r = 0.327). Criterion validity was established with a significant difference found between mean (95% CI) dietary intakes of fibre (28.2 g, 4.4 to 17.3) and % total energy from saturated fat (10.6%, –4.8 to –0.8) for those with better DQT scores (>60%) versus those with poorer scores (≤60%) when compared with 4-day food diary nutrient values. The usefulness of the DQT was confirmed by both patients (n = 25) and cardiac rehabilitation health professionals (n = 8). The DQT was found to be a valid and useful dietary assessment tool with potential for use in a secondary CVD prevention setting. The tool has the capacity to be used in a wider variety of settings and further refinement of the tool would enable a greater amount of nutrients to be reliably screened.

Impacts of mixed-use development on parking requirements

The objective of this study is to investigate the impacts of mixed use developments on parking requirements. Along with the renewed interests in mixed use development, shared parking concept has been a focus for traffic engineers, local governments and mixed use developers in recent years. With the help of a case study of Gold Coast city in Australia, this study has identified that shared parking significantly reduces the overall parking requirements of mixed use developments. However, to be shared parking more effective, the type and the size of various land uses within a particular mixed use development should favour the concept. For example, offices and hotels can go side by side as the time-of-day parking requirements and peak parking demand do not conflict each other. A series of time-of-day parking occupancy rates have been developed for typical land use categories to identify such effectiveness.