Leaving Planet Earth (Follow-on Voucher Project).

SFC FOLLOW-ON VOUCHER The project was undertaken as a SFC Follow-on Voucher (£40K) alongside a student project with BDes (Hons) Design & Digital Arts (D&DA).James Blake (Centre for Media & Culture) brought together students and staff to develop digital content, including films, for a transmedia project and the induction video on the coaches to Ratho. Malcolm Innes, Ian Lambert, Andrew O’Dowd, and Euan Winton (Centre for Design Practice & Research) developed the Old Earth Museum (both physical and virtual), and transmedia designer and research student Beata Zemanek oversaw the transmedia strategy and making of the Gatekeeper film, supported by D&DA students and graduates.

Specification of optimum holistic building environmental and energy performance information to support informed decision making

Political drivers such as the Kyoto protocol, the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and the Energy end use and Services Directive have been implemented in response to an identified need for a reduction in human related CO2 emissions. Buildings account for a significant portion of global CO2 emissions, approximately 25-30%, and it is widely acknowledged by industry and research organisations that they operate inefficiently. In parallel, unsatisfactory indoor environmental conditions have proven to negatively impact occupant productivity. Legislative drivers and client education are seen as the key motivating factors for an improvement in the holistic environmental and energy performance of a building. A symbiotic relationship exists between building indoor environmental conditions and building energy consumption. However traditional Building Management Systems and Energy Management Systems treat these separately. Conventional performance analysis compares building energy consumption with a previously recorded value or with the consumption of a similar building and does not recognise the fact that all buildings are unique. Therefore what is required is a new framework which incorporates performance comparison against a theoretical building specific ideal benchmark. Traditionally Energy Managers, who work at the operational level of organisations with respect to building performance, do not have access to ideal performance benchmark information and as a result cannot optimally operate buildings. This thesis systematically defines Holistic Environmental and Energy Management and specifies the Scenario Modelling Technique which in turn uses an ideal performance benchmark. The holistic technique uses quantified expressions of building performance and by doing so enables the profiled Energy Manager to visualise his actions and the downstream consequences of his actions in the context of overall building operation. The Ideal Building Framework facilitates the use of this technique by acting as a Building Life Cycle (BLC) data repository through which ideal building performance benchmarks are systematically structured and stored in parallel with actual performance data. The Ideal Building Framework utilises transformed data in the form of the Ideal Set of Performance Objectives and Metrics which are capable of defining the performance of any building at any stage of the BLC. It is proposed that the union of Scenario Models for an individual building would result in a building specific Combination of Performance Metrics which would in turn be stored in the BLC data repository. The Ideal Data Set underpins the Ideal Set of Performance Objectives and Metrics and is the set of measurements required to monitor the performance of the Ideal Building. A Model View describes the unique building specific data relevant to a particular project stakeholder. The energy management data and information exchange requirements that underlie a Model View implementation are detailed and incorporate traditional and proposed energy management. This thesis also specifies the Model View Methodology which complements the Ideal Building Framework. The developed Model View and Rule Set methodology process utilises stakeholder specific rule sets to define stakeholder pertinent environmental and energy performance data. This generic process further enables each stakeholder to define the resolution of data desired. For example, basic, intermediate or detailed. The Model View methodology is applicable for all project stakeholders, each requiring its own customised rule set. Two rule sets are defined in detail, the Energy Manager rule set and the LEED Accreditor rule set. This particular measurement generation process accompanied by defined View would filter and expedite data access for all stakeholders involved in building performance. Information presentation is critical for effective use of the data provided by the Ideal Building Framework and the Energy Management View definition. The specifications for a customised Information Delivery Tool account for the established profile of Energy Managers and best practice user interface design. Components of the developed tool could also be used by Facility Managers working at the tactical and strategic levels of organisations. Informed decision making is made possible through specified decision assistance processes which incorporate the Scenario Modelling and Benchmarking techniques, the Ideal Building Framework, the Energy Manager Model View, the Information Delivery Tool and the established profile of Energy Managers. The Model View and Rule Set Methodology is effectively demonstrated on an appropriate mixed use existing ‘green’ building, the Environmental Research Institute at University College Cork, using the Energy Management and LEED rule sets. Informed Decision Making is also demonstrated using a prototype scenario for the demonstration building.

Synecology in soft sediment bivalves: the influence of parasites, physiological processes, and environmental stressors on health and disease

Ecosystem goods and services provided by estuarine and near coastal regions are being increasingly recognised for their immense value, as is the biodiversity in these areas and these near coastal communities have been identified as sentinels of climate change also. Population structure and reproductive biology of two bivalve molluscs, Cerastoderma edule and, Mytilus edulis were assessed at two study sites over a 16-month study period. Following an anomalously harsh winter, advancement of spawning time was observed in both species. Throughout Ireland and Europe the cockle has experienced mass surfacings in geographically distinct regions, and a concurrent study of cockles was undertaken to explore this phenomenon. Surfaced and buried cockles were collected on a monthly basis and their health compared. Age was highlighted as a source of variation between dying and healthy animals with a parasite threshold being reached possibly around age three. Local factors dominated when looking at the cause of surfacing at each site. The health of mussels was explored too on a temporal and seasonal basis in an attempt to assess what constitutes a healthy organism. In essence external drivers can tip the balance between “acceptable” levels of infection where the mussel can still function physiologically and “unacceptable” where prevalence and intensity of infection can result in physiological impairment at the individual and population level. Synecological studies of intertidal ecosystems are lacking, so all bivalves encountered during the sampling were assessed in terms of population structure, reproduction, and health. It became clear, that some parasites might specialize on one host species while others are not so specific in host choice. Furthermore the population genetics of the cockle, its parasite Meiogymnophallus minutus, and its hyperparasite Unikaryon legeri were examined too. A small nucleotide polymorphism was detected upon comparison of Ireland and Morocco.

Identification and assessment of potential wind energy project sites in the State of Maryland

Gemstone Team Renewables

Should governments use a declining discount rate in project analysis?

At a workshop held at Resources for the Future in September 2011, twelve of the authors were asked by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide advice on the principles to be used in discounting the benefits and costs of projects that affect future generations. Maureen L. Cropper chaired the workshop. Much of the discussion in this article is based on the authors' recommendations and advice presented at the workshop. © The Author 2014.

Decision models - an analytical framework for the Watertime Project

This paper suggests a possible framework for the encapsulation of the decision making process for the Waterime project. The final outcome maybe a computerised model, but the process advocated is not prescriptive, and involves the production of a "paper model" as mediating representation between the knowledge acquired and any computerised system. This paper model may suffice in terms of the project's goals.

Putting meaning into NETMAR – the open service network for marine environmental data

The open service network for marine environmental data (NETMAR) project uses semantic web technologies in its pilot system which aims to allow users to search, download and integrate satellite, in situ and model data from open ocean and coastal areas. The semantic web is an extension of the fundamental ideas of the World Wide Web, building a web of data through annotation of metadata and data with hyperlinked resources. Within the framework of the NETMAR project, an interconnected semantic web resource was developed to aid in data and web service discovery and to validate Open Geospatial Consortium Web Processing Service orchestration. A second semantic resource was developed to support interoperability of coastal web atlases across jurisdictional boundaries. This paper outlines the approach taken to producing the resource registry used within the NETMAR project and demonstrates the use of these semantic resources to support user interactions with systems. Such interconnected semantic resources allow the increased ability to share and disseminate data through the facilitation of interoperability between data providers. The formal representation of geospatial knowledge to advance geospatial interoperability is a growing research area. Tools and methods such as those outlined in this paper have the potential to support these efforts.

Projecting marine fish production and catch potential in Bangladesh in the 21st century under long-term environmental change and management scenarios

The fisheries sector is crucial to the Bangladeshi economy and wellbeing, accounting for 4.4% of national Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 22.8% of agriculture sector production, and supplying ca.60% of the national animal protein intake. Fish is vital to the 16 million Bangladeshis living near the coast, a number that has doubled since the 1980s. Here we develop and apply tools to project the long term productive capacity of Bangladesh marine fisheries under climate and fisheries management scenarios, based on downscaling a global climate model, using associated river flow and nutrient loading estimates, projecting high resolution changes in physical and biochemical ocean properties, and eventually projecting fish production and catch potential under different fishing mortality targets. We place particular interest on Hilsa shad (Tenualosa ilisha), which accounts for ca.11% of total catches, and Bombay duck (Harpadon nehereus), a low price fish that is the second highest catch in Bangladesh and is highly consumed by low income communities. It is concluded that the impacts of climate change, under greenhouse emissions scenario A1B, are likely to reduce the potential fish production in the Bangladesh Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) by less than 10%. However, these impacts are larger for the two target species. Under sustainable management practices we expect Hilsa shad catches to show a minor decline in potential catch by 2030 but a significant (25%) decline by 2060. However, if overexploitation is allowed catches are projected to fall much further, by almost 95% by 2060, compared to the Business as Usual scenario for the start of the 21st century. For Bombay duck, potential catches by 2060 under sustainable scenarios will produce a decline of less than 20% compared to current catches. The results demonstrate that management can mitigate or exacerbate the effects of climate change on ecosystem productivity.