Persistent robot tasking for environmental monitoring through crowd-sourcing

Persistent monitoring of the ocean is not optimally accomplished by repeatedly executing a fixed path in a fixed location. The ocean is dynamic, and so should the executed paths to monitor and observe it. An open question merging autonomy and optimal sampling is how and when to alter a path/decision, yet achieve desired science objectives. Additionally, many marine robotic deployments can last multiple weeks to months; making it very difficult for individuals to continuously monitor and retask them as needed. This problem becomes increasingly more complex when multiple platforms are operating simultaneously. There is a need for monitoring and adaptation of the robotic fleet via teams of scientists working in shifts; crowds are ideal for this task. In this paper, we present a novel application of crowd-sourcing to extend the autonomy of persistent-monitoring vehicles to enable nonrepetitious sampling over long periods of time. We present a framework that enables the control of a marine robot by anybody with an internet-enabled device. Voters are provided current vehicle location, gathered science data and predicted ocean features through the associated decision support system. Results are included from a simulated implementation of our system on a Wave Glider operating in Monterey Bay with the science objective to maximize the sum of observed nitrate values collected.

Report on a workshop to investigate the current status of environmental bio-acoustic monitoring

This workshop was supported by the Australian Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (ACEAS, http://www.aceas.org.au/), a facility of the Australian Government-funded Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (http://www.tern.org.au/), a research infrastructure facility established under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy and Education Infrastructure Fund - Super Science Initiative, through the Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education. Hosted by: Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland. (QUT, http://www.qut.edu.au/) Dates: 8-11 May 2012 Report Editors: Prof Stuart Parsons (Uni. Auckland, NZ) and Dr Michael Towsey (QUT). This report is a compilation of notes and discussion summaries contributed by those attending the Workshop. They have been assembled into a logical order by the editors. Another report (with photographs) can be obtained at: http://www.aceas.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=94&Itemid=96

Environmental factors associated with active living in retirement village residents : findings from an exploratory qualitative enquiry

This exploratory enquiry employs qualitative methods to advance knowledge and understanding of physical environmental attributes related to active living among residents of Australian retirement villages. Six focus groups (n = 51 residents) were held and participants described how their current, and subsequently ideal, retirement village and neighborhood supported active lifestyles. Thematic analysis revealed three key environmental factors associated with active living: a positive social environment within the village; services and facilities provided in the village and wider neighborhood; and the presence of suitable pedestrian infrastructure. The unique discovery that environmental factors of both the retirement village and the surrounding neighborhood were associated with residents’ active living raises many questions for study. Findings informed the development of a survey instrument, and further understanding in this area has the potential to contribute to the design and siting practices of senior housing complexes within neighborhoods.

People living in hilly residential areas in metropolitan Perth have less diabetes : spurious association or important environmental determinant?

BACKGROUND: Variations in 'slope' (how steep or flat the ground is) may be good for health. As walking up hills is a physiologically vigorous physical activity and can contribute to weight control, greater neighbourhood slopes may provide a protective barrier to weight gain, and help prevent Type 2 diabetes onset. We explored whether living in 'hilly' neighbourhoods was associated with diabetes prevalence among the Australian adult population. METHODS: Participants ([greater than or equal to]25years; n=11,406) who completed the Western Australian Health and Wellbeing Surveillance System Survey (2003-2009) were asked whether or not they had medically-diagnosed diabetes. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software was used to calculate a neighbourhood mean slope score, and other built environment measures at 1600m around each participant's home. Logistic regression models were used to predict the odds of self-reported diabetes after progressive adjustment for individual measures (i.e., age, sex), socioeconomic status (i.e., education, income), built environment, destinations, nutrition, and amount of walking. RESULTS: After full adjustment, the odds of self-reported diabetes was 0.72 (95% CI 0.55-0.95) and 0.52 (95% CI 0.39-0.69) for adults living in neighbourhoods with moderate and higher levels of slope, respectively, compared with adults living in neighbourhoods with the lowest levels of slope. The odds of having diabetes was 13% lower (odds ratio 0.87; 95% CI 0.80-0.94) for each increase of one percent in mean slope. CONCLUSIONS: Living in a hilly neighbourhood may be protective of diabetes onset or this finding is spurious. Nevertheless, the results are promising and have implications for future research and the practice of flattening land in new housing developments.

Innovation through action research in environmental education : from project to praxis

This thesis is a work-in-progress that articulates my research journey based on the development of a curriculum innovation in environmental education. This journey had two distinct, but intertwined phases: action research based fieldwork, conducted collaboratively, to create a whole school approach to environmental education curriculum planning; and a phase of analysis and reflection based on the emerging findings, as I sought to create personal "living educational theory" about change and innovation. A key stimulus for the study was the perceived theory-practice gap in environmental education, which is often presented in the literature as a criticism of teachers for failing to achieve the values and action objectives of critical environmental education. Hence, many programs and projects are considered to be superficial and inconsequential in terms of their ability to seriously address environmental issues. The intention of this study was to work with teachers in a project that would be an exemplar of critical environmental education. This would be in the form of a whole school "learnscaping" curriculum in a primary school whereby the schoolgrounds would be utilised for interdisciplinary critical environment education. Parallel with the three cycles of action research in this project, my research objectives were to identify and comment upon the factors that influence the generation of successful educational innovation. It was anticipated that the project would be a collaboration involving me, as researcher-facilitator, and many of the teachers in the school as active participants. As the project proceeded through its action cycles, however, it became obvious that the goal of developing a critical environmental education curriculum, and the use of highly participatory processes, were unrealistic. Institutional and organisational rigidities in education generally, teachers' day-to-day work demands, and the constant juggle of work, family and other responsibilities for all participants acted as significant constraints. Consequently, it became apparent that the learnscaping curriculum would not be the hoped-for exemplar. Progress was slow and, at times, the project was in danger of stalling permanently. While the curriculum had some elements of critical environmental education, these were minor and not well spread throughout the school. Overall, the outcome seemed best described as a "small win"; perhaps just another example of the theory-practice gap that I had hoped this project would bridge. Towards the project's end, however, my continuing reflection led to an exploration of chaos/complexity theory which gave new meaning to the concept of a "small win". According to this theory, change is not the product of linear processes applied methodically in purposeful and diligent ways, but emerges from serendipitous events that cannot be planned for, or forecast in advance. When this perspective of change is applied to human organisations - in this study, a busy school - the context for change is recognised not as a stable, predictable environment, but as a highly complex system where change happens all the time, cannot be controlled, and no one can be really sure where the impacts might lead. This so-called "butterfly effect" is a central idea of this theory where small changes or modifications are created - the effects of which are difficult to know, let alone determine - and which can have large-scale impacts. Allied with this effect is the belief that long term developments in an organisation that takes complexity into account, emerge by spontaneous self-organising evolution, requiring political interaction and learning in groups, rather than systematic progress towards predetermined goals or "visions". Hence, because change itself and the contexts of change are recognised as complex, chaos/complexity theory suggests that change is more likely to be slow and evolutionary - cultural change - rather than fast and revolutionary where the old is quickly ushered out by radical reforms and replaced by new structures and processes. Slow, small-scale changes are "normal", from a complexity viewpoint, while rapid, wholesale change is both unlikely and unrealistic. Therefore, the frustratingly slow, small-scale, imperfect educational changes that teachers create - including environmental education initiatives - should be seen for what they really are. They should be recognised as successful changes, the impacts of which cannot be known, but which have the potential to magnify into large-scale changes into the future. Rather than being regarded as failures for not meeting critical education criteria, "small wins" should be cause for celebration and support. The intertwined phases of collaborative action research and individual researcher reflection are mirrored in the thesis structure. The first three chapters, respectively, provide the thesis overview, the literature underpinning the study's central concern, and the research methodology. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 report on each of the three action research cycles of the study, namely Laying the Groundwork, Down to Work!, and The Never-ending Story. Each of these chapters presents a narrative of events, a literature review specific to developments in the cycle, and analysis and critique of the events, processes and outcomes of each cycle. Chapter 7 provides a synthesis of the whole of the study, outlining my interim propositions about facilitating curriculum change in schools through action research, and the implications of these for environmental education.

The development of a carrying capacity assessment model for the Australian socio-environmental context

A key aim of this research was to highlight how society's understanding of constraints to the productive capacity of its resource base is vital to its long-term survival. This was achieved through the development of an online model, the Carrying Capacity Dashboard. The Dashboard was developed to estimate how much land Australian populations require for the production of their food, textiles, timber and liquid fuel. Findings reveal that Australia's estimated carrying capacity is currently over 40 million people but longer-term and more regional analyses suggest a much smaller number. Carrying capacity assessment also indicates that optimal resource security is to be found in balancing both small and large-scale self-sufficiency.

Laser-to-radar sensing redundancy for resilient perception in adverse environmental conditions

This paper presents an approach to promote the integrity of perception systems for outdoor unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) operating in challenging environmental conditions (presence of dust or smoke). The proposed technique automatically evaluates the consistency of the data provided by two sensing modalities: a 2D laser range finder and a millimetre-wave radar, allowing for perceptual failure mitigation. Experimental results, obtained with a UGV operating in rural environments, and an error analysis validate the approach.

Perception Quality Evaluation with Visual and Infrared Cameras in Challenging Environmental Conditions

This work aims to contribute to the reliability and integrity of perceptual systems of unmanned ground vehicles (UGV). A method is proposed to evaluate the quality of sensor data prior to its use in a perception system by utilising a quality metric applied to heterogeneous sensor data such as visual and infrared camera images. The concept is illustrated specifically with sensor data that is evaluated prior to the use of the data in a standard SIFT feature extraction and matching technique. The method is then evaluated using various experimental data sets that were collected from a UGV in challenging environmental conditions, represented by the presence of airborne dust and smoke. In the first series of experiments, a motionless vehicle is observing a ’reference’ scene, then the method is extended to the case of a moving vehicle by compensating for its motion. This paper shows that it is possible to anticipate degradation of a perception algorithm by evaluating the input data prior to any actual execution of the algorithm.

Physiological tolerance times while wearing explosive ordnance disposal protective clothing in simulated environmental extremes

Explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) technicians are required to wear protective clothing to protect themselves from the threat of overpressure, fragmentation, impact and heat. The engineering requirements to minimise these threats results in an extremely heavy and cumbersome clothing ensemble that increases the internal heat generation of the wearer, while the clothing’s thermal properties reduce heat dissipation. This study aimed to evaluate the heat strain encountered wearing EOD protective clothing in simulated environmental extremes across a range of differing work intensities. Eight healthy males [age 25±6 years (mean ± sd), height 180±7 cm, body mass 79±9 kg, V˙O2max 57±6 ml.kg−1.min−1] undertook nine trials while wearing an EOD9 suit (weighing 33.4 kg). The trials involved walking on a treadmill at 2.5, 4 and 5.5 km⋅h−1 at each of the following environmental conditions, 21, 30 and 37°C wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) in a randomised controlled crossover design. The trials were ceased if the participants’ core temperature reached 39°C, if heart rate exceeded 90% of maximum, if walking time reached 60 minutes or due to fatigue/nausea. Tolerance times ranged from 10–60 minutes and were significantly reduced in the higher walking speeds and environmental conditions. In a total of 15 trials (21%) participants completed 60 minutes of walking; however, this was predominantly at the slower walking speeds in the 21°C WBGT environment. Of the remaining 57 trials, 50 were ceased, due to attainment of 90% maximal heart rate. These near maximal heart rates resulted in moderate-high levels of physiological strain in all trials, despite core temperature only reaching 39°C in one of the 72 trials.

Cycling for transport and recreation : associations with socio-economic position, environmental perceptions, and psychological disposition

OBJECTIVE Interest is growing in promoting utility cycling (i.e., for transport) as a means of incorporating daily physical activity (PA) into people’s lives, but little is known about correlates of utility cycling. Our primary aim was to examine cross-sectional relationships between socio-economic characteristics, neighborhood environment perceptions and psychological disposition with utility cycling (with or without additional recreational cycling). A secondary aim was to compare these relationships with those for recreation-only cycling. METHOD Baseline survey data (2007) from 10,233 participants in HABITAT, a multilevel longitudinal study of PA, sedentary behavior, and health in Brisbane adults aged 40-65 years, were analysed using multinomial regression modelling. RESULTS Greater income, habitual PA, and positive beliefs about PA were associated with utility and recreation-only cycling (p<0.05). Always having vehicle access and not in the labor force were associated with recreation-only cycling (p<0.05). Some or no vehicle access, part-time employment, and perceived environmental factors (little crime, few cul-de-sacs, nearby transport and recreational destinations) were associated with utility cycling (p<0.05). CONCLUSION Our findings suggest differences in associations between socio-economic, neighborhood perceptions and psychological factors and utility and recreation-only cycling in Brisbane residents aged 40-65 years. Tailored approaches appear to be required to promote utility and recreational cycling.

Supermarkets’ governance of the agri-food supply chain : is the ‘corporate-environmental’ food regime evident in Australia?

This article investigates the extent to which the purported greening of food retailing and consumption in Australia is consistent with the development of a corporate-environmental food regime. Recent developments in food regime theory, particularly the concept of an emerging third food regime (the so-called ‘corporate-environmental food regime’), provide a useful organizing framework for understanding recent agri-restructuring trends. We find that, while a globally based, third food regime is becoming more apparent, the attributes that relate to corporate retail-driven greening of the supply chain are less evident within Australia’s domestic market than in its EU counterparts. However, there is some evidence that Australia’s export market is subject to some degree of ‘greening at a distance’ due to private regulations imposed by supermarkets overseas. We argue that while broader agri-restructuring trends may be evident at an international level, elements of greening specific to national contexts are important for determining the trajectory of any third food regime.

Acoustic emission condition monitoring : an application for wind turbine fault detection

Low speed rotating machines which are the most critical components in drive train of wind turbines are often menaced by several technical and environmental defects. These factors contribute to mount the economic requirement for Health Monitoring and Condition Monitoring of the systems. When a defect is happened in such system result in reduced energy loss rates from related process and due to it Condition Monitoring techniques that detecting energy loss are very difficult if not possible to use. However, in the case of Acoustic Emission (AE) technique this issue is partly overcome and is well suited for detecting very small energy release rates. Acoustic Emission (AE) as a technique is more than 50 years old and in this new technology the sounds associated with the failure of materials were detected. Acoustic wave is a non-stationary signal which can discover elastic stress waves in a failure component, capable of online monitoring, and is very sensitive to the fault diagnosis. In this paper the history and background of discovering and developing AE is discussed, different ages of developing AE which include Age of Enlightenment (1950-1967), Golden Age of AE (1967-1980), Period of Transition (1980-Present). In the next section the application of AE condition monitoring in machinery process and various systems that applied AE technique in their health monitoring is discussed. In the end an experimental result is proposed by QUT test rig which an outer race bearing fault was simulated to depict the sensitivity of AE for detecting incipient faults in low speed high frequency machine.

A history of environmental management in the field in Queensland : episodes of activity

This paper reviews a wide range of literature on environmental management in the field in Queensland, and analyzes this by period and by author. An episodic pattern of activities since European settlement is evident. Periods of exploration (pre-1950) and inventory- compilation (ca. 1950-1970) were followed by two decades of media and non-government organization campaigning (ca. 1970-1990), then an era dominated by government regulatory action (ca. 1990-2010). These eras dominated public perception of what was happening in environmental practice. They were delineated by historic ‘interventions’ (summarily, the end of World War II, the 1971 inflationary crisis, and computerization respectively).

Regulatory compliance as a means to achieve environmental sustainability at some large coastal developments in Queensland

The growing public concern about the complexity, cost and uncertain efficacy of the statuary environmental impact assessment process applying to large-scale projects in Queensland is reviewed. This is based on field data gathered over the past six years sat large-scale marina developments that access major environmental reserves along the coast. An ecological design proposal to broaden the process consisted with both government aspirations and regional ecological parameters - termed Regional Landscape Strategies - would allow the existing Environmental Impact Asessment to be modified alone potentially more practicable and effective lines.

Benchmarking the standard of environmental management practised in marinas

Most existing marinas are boat parking/storing and servicing facilities that have been built over a long period of time for the convenience of local boat owners.