The urban littoral frontier : land reclamation in the history of human settlements

The urban waterfront may be regarded as the littoral frontier of human settlement. Typically, over the years, it advances, sometimes retreats, where terrestrial and aquatic processes interact and frequently contest this margin of occupation. Because most towns and cities are sited beside water bodies, many of these urban centers on or close to the sea, their physical expansion is constrained by the existence of aquatic areas in one or more directions from the core. It is usually much easier for new urban development to occur along or inland from the waterfront. Where other physical constraints, such as rugged hills or mountains, make expansion difficult or expensive, building at greater densities or construction on steep slopes is a common response. This kind of development, though technically feasible, is usually more expensive than construction on level or gently sloping land, however. Moreover, there are many reasons for developing along the shore or riverfront in preference to using sites further inland. The high cost of developing existing dry land that presents serious construction difficulties is one reason for creating new land from adjacent areas that are permanently or periodically under water. Another reason is the relatively high value of artificially created land close to the urban centre when compared with the value of existing developable space at a greater distance inland. The creation of space for development is not the only motivation for urban expansion into aquatic areas. Commonly, urban places on the margins of the sea, estuaries, rivers or great lakes are, or were once, ports where shipping played an important role in the economy. The demand for deep waterfronts to allow ships to berth and for adjacent space to accommodate various port facilities has encouraged the advance of the urban land area across marginal shallows in ports around the world. The space and locational demands of port related industry and commerce, too, have contributed to this process. Often closely related to these developments is the generation of waste, including domestic refuse, unwanted industrial by-products, site formation and demolition debris and harbor dredgings. From ancient times, the foreshore has been used as a disposal area for waste from nearby settlements, a practice that continues on a huge scale today. Land formed in this way has long been used for urban development, despite problems that can arise from the nature of the dumped material and the way in which it is deposited. Disposal of waste material is a major factor in the creation of new urban land. Pollution of the foreshore and other water margin wetlands in this way encouraged the idea that the reclamation of these areas may be desirable on public health grounds. With reference to examples from various parts of the world, the historical development of the urban littoral frontier and its effects on the morphology and character of towns and cities are illustrated and discussed. The threat of rising sea levels and the heritage value of many waterfront areas are other considerations that are addressed.

Influence of historic land use change on the biosphere-atmosphere-exchange of C and N trace gases in the humid, subtropical region of Queensland

Increases in atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) due to human activities have been linked to climate change. GHG emissions from land use change and agriculture have been identified as significant contributors to both Australia’s and the global GHG budget. This is expected to increase over the coming decades as rates of agriculture intensification and land use change accelerate to support population growth and food production. Limited data exists on CO2, CH4 and N2O trace gas fluxes from subtropical or tropical soils and land uses. To develop effective mitigation strategies a full global warming potential (GWP) accounting methodology is required that includes emissions of the three primary greenhouse gases. Mitigation strategies that focus on one gas only can inadvertently increase emissions of another. For this reason, detailed inventories of GHGs from soils and vegetation under individual land uses are urgently required for subtropical Australia. This study aimed to quantify GHG emissions over two consecutive years from three major land uses; a well-established, unfertilized subtropical grass-legume pasture, a 30 year (lychee) orchard and a remnant subtropical Gallery rainforest, all located near Mooloolah, Queensland. GHG fluxes were measured using a combination of high resolution automated sampling, coarser spatial manual sampling and laboratory incubations. Comparison between the land uses revealed that land use change can have a substantial impact on the GWP on a landscape long after the deforestation event. The conversion of rainforest to agricultural land resulted in as much as a 17 fold increase in GWP, from 251 kg CO2 eq. ha-1 yr-1 in the rainforest to 889 kg CO2 eq. ha-1 yr-1 in the pasture to 2538 kg CO2 eq. ha-1 yr-1 in the lychee plantation. This increase resulted from altered N cycling and a reduction in the aerobic capacity of the soil in the pasture and lychee systems, enhancing denitrification and nitrification events, and reducing atmospheric CH4 uptake in the soil. High infiltration, drainage and subsequent soil aeration under the rainforest limited N2O loss, as well as promoting CH4 uptake of 11.2 g CH4-C ha-1 day-1. This was among the highest reported for rainforest systems, indicating that aerated subtropical rainforests can act as substantial sink of CH4. Interannual climatic variation resulted in significantly higher N2O emission from the pasture during 2008 (5.7 g N2O-N ha day) compared to 2007 (3.9 g N2O-N ha day), despite receiving nearly 500 mm less rainfall. Nitrous oxide emissions from the pasture were highest during the summer months and were highly episodic, related more to the magnitude and distribution of rain events rather than soil moisture alone. Mean N2O emissions from the lychee plantation increased from an average of 4.0 g N2O-N ha-1 day-1, to 19.8 g N2O-N ha-1 day-1 following a split application of N fertilizer (560 kg N ha-1, equivalent to 1 kg N tree-1). The timing of the split application was found to be critical to N2O emissions, with over twice as much lost following an application in spring (emission factor (EF): 1.79%) compared to autumn (EF: 0.91%). This was attributed to the hot and moist climatic conditions and a reduction in plant N uptake during the spring creating conditions conducive to N2O loss. These findings demonstrate that land use change in subtropical Australia can be a significant source of GHGs. Moreover, the study shows that modifying the timing of fertilizer application can be an efficient way of reducing GHG emissions from subtropical horticulture.

What is the impact of land tenure on the sustainability of retirement village communities in Australia?

In 2005, 17.3% of Australians were aged 60 years and older according to the Australian Bureau of statistics (ABS). According to aBS this situation mirrors the poulation profile of other developed countries such as Canada, New Zealand, the United States of America and to some extent the United Kingdom (ABS). Self contained independent living units in retirement Villages are now contributing to the dwellings available for those aged 55 years and over in Australia and the retirement village sector has become a significant sector within the residential property market. However, the method of operaton of many retirement villages, and the lack of freehold tenure, impacts on the desireability of retirement village life to potential residents. This paper focuses on sustainability from the perspective of the ongoing viability of retirement village operations in light of the impact of land tenure and operational issues on the perceptions of potential residents.

Dealing with unique interests in Crown Land : a Queensland perspective

Security of tenure is the cornerstone of the land management system in Australia. Freehold title is protected throug indefeasibility of title entrenched in legislation and protection of registrable interests in land is offered through the Statutory Assurance Fund. For those with interests pertaining to Crown Land no such protection is offered, although this position is not uniform across Australia. Notably those with Crown leasehold interests or a profit a prendre on Crown Land in Queensland are not protected through registration on the freehold land register and do not have the benefit of indefeasibility of title. The issue of management of interests pertaining to Crown Land has become increasingly relevant due to the complexities associated with balancing public interests including native title with more commercial interests in land generated through carbon sequestration, forestry and mining. This paper considers the framework for the management of Crown Land in Queensland and the adequacy of this framework for commercial interests that pertain to Crown Land.

Nursing and Midwifery Services Strategic Directions, 2011-2015

This document presents the newly updated strategic directions for strengthening nursing and midwifery services (SDNM) for the period 2011–2015. Complementing and building on the 2002–2008 SDNM, it seeks to provide policymakers, practitioners and other stakeholders at every level with a flexible framework for broad-based, collaborative action to enhance the capacity of nurses and midwives to contribute to: * universal coverage * people-centred health care * policies affecting their practice and working conditions, and the * scaling up of national health systems to meet global goals and targets. The SDNM for 2011–2015 draws on several key World Health Assembly resolutions, and are underpinned by the associated global policy recommendations and codes of practice. (1,2) After two years of extensive research and consultation, a SDNM task force was developed, and a consensus on a range of specific activities revolving around 13 objectives in five interrelated key results areas (KRAs), was achieved: n health system and service strengthening n policy and practice * education, training and career development * workforce management and * partnership. Stakeholders, although free to prioritize certain parts of the framework to meet their own particular needs, are encouraged to adhere to the cornerstone of collaborative action, namely the common goal enshrined in the core SDNM 2011–2015 vision statement: improved health outcomes for individuals, families and communities through the provision of competent, culturally sensitive, evidence-based nursing and midwifery services.

Towards defining semantic foundations for purpose-based privacy policies

We define a semantic model for purpose, based on which purpose-based privacy policies can be meaningfully expressed and enforced in a business system. The model is based on the intuition that the purpose of an action is determined by its situation among other inter-related actions. Actions and their relationships can be modeled in the form of an action graph which is based on the business processes in a system. Accordingly, a modal logic and the corresponding model checking algorithm are developed for formal expression of purpose-based policies and verifying whether a particular system complies with them. It is also shown through various examples, how various typical purpose-based policies as well as some new policy types can be expressed and checked using our model.

Elements of an environmental offsets policy : a working paper towards a policy for an environmental banking scheme appropriate for Queensland

In the past eight years, Australia has adopted the use of environmental offsets as a means to compensate for environmental degradation from development. Queensland has more environmental offsetting policies than any other Australian State or Territory. The methodology has profound effects on development companies, landowners (both private and public), regional land planning, organizations, government agencies, monetary banking institutions and environmental conservation bodies.

A national roll out of an insufficiently evaluated practice : how evidence based are our end-of-life care policies?

There has been increasing international efforts to ensure that health care policies are evidence based. One area where there is a lack of ‘effectiveness’ evidence is in the use of end-of-life care pathways (EOLCP) (1). Despite the lack of evidence supporting the efficacy of the EOCLP, their use has been endorsed in the recent national palliative care strategy document in the UK (2). In addition, a publication endorsed by the Australian Government (titled: Supporting Australians to live well at the End of Life- National Palliative Care Strategy 2010) (3), recommended a national roll out of EOLCP across all sectors (primary, acute and aged care) in Australia. According to this document, it is a measure of “appropriateness” and “effectiveness” for promoting quality end-of-life care.

Prioritizing land and sea conservation investments to protect coral reefs

Background: Coral reefs have exceptional biodiversity, support the livelihoods of millions of people, and are threatened by multiple human activities on land (e.g. farming) and in the sea (e.g. overfishing). Most conservation efforts occur at local scales and, when effective, can increase the resilience of coral reefs to global threats such as climate change (e.g. warming water and ocean acidification). Limited resources for conservation require that we efficiently prioritize where and how to best sustain coral reef ecosystems.----- ----- Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we develop the first prioritization approach that can guide regional-scale conservation investments in land-and sea-based conservation actions that cost-effectively mitigate threats to coral reefs, and apply it to the Coral Triangle, an area of significant global attention and funding. Using information on threats to marine ecosystems, effectiveness of management actions at abating threats, and the management and opportunity costs of actions, we calculate the rate of return on investment in two conservation actions in sixteen ecoregions. We discover that marine conservation almost always trumps terrestrial conservation within any ecoregion, but terrestrial conservation in one ecoregion can be a better investment than marine conservation in another. We show how these results could be used to allocate a limited budget for conservation and compare them to priorities based on individual criteria.----- ----- Conclusions/Significance: Previous prioritization approaches do not consider both land and sea-based threats or the socioeconomic costs of conserving coral reefs. A simple and transparent approach like ours is essential to support effective coral reef conservation decisions in a large and diverse region like the Coral Triangle, but can be applied at any scale and to other marine ecosystems.

Land Contracts in Queensland

This book provides a systematic and comprehensive account of the law relating to buyers and sellers of freehold land in Queensland. It analyses relevant clauses of the standard contracts in common use and the plethora of court decisions relating to the area.Its contents comprise a full transactional analysis of a conveyance from negotiation by a real estate agent through to completion. In addition, it contains chapters on special conditions, remedies, GST and stamp duty provisions.

Amendments to the Land Title Act 1994 (Qld)

Wholesale amendments to the Land Title Act 1994 (Qld) were recently introduced with the passing of the Natural Resources and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2005 (Qld). The amendments were preceded by an extensive review of issues associated with the operation of the freehold land register and consultation with a number of stakeholders. The three articles that follow address different issues associated with these statutory amendments. The first article provides a brief overview of the amendments. The second article deals with particular amendments designed to combat mortgage fraud. In the third article, the question posed is whether further statutory amendment could better protect unregistered interests.