Elements of public asset management framework for local governments in developing countries

There is a widespread recognition to the need of better manage municipal property in most cities in the world. Structural problems across regional, state, and territorial governments that have legal powers to own and maintain real property are similar, regardless of the level of development of each country. Start from a very basic level of property inventory records. The need for better manage to the local government owned property is the result of widespread decentralisation initiatives that often have devolved huge property portfolios from central to local governments almost “overnight”. At the same time municipal or regional governments were and continue to be unprepared to deal with multiple issues related to the role of property owners and managers. The lack of discussion of public asset management especially the elements that should be incorporated in the framework creates an important challenge to study the discipline of public asset management further. The aim of this paper is to study the practices of public asset management in developed countries, especially the elements of public asset management framework, and its transferability to developing countries. A case study was selected and conducted to achieve this aim. They involved interviews and a focus group. The study found that in public asset management framework, proper asset identification, public asset needs analysis, asset life cycle and performance measurements are an important element that should be incorporated in the framework. Those elements are transferable and applicable to developing countries’ local governments. Finally, findings from this study provide useful input for the local government policy makers, scholars and asset management practitioners to establish a public asset management framework toward more efficient and effective local governments in managing their assets as well as increasing public services quality.

The application of public asset management in Indonesian local government : a case study in South Sulawesi Province

Purpose To identify the challenges faced by local government in Indonesia when adopting a Public Asset Management Framework. Design A Case Study in South Sulawesi Provincial Government was used as the approach to achieving the research objective. The case study involved two data collection techniques - interviews and document analysis. Findings The result of the study indicates there are significant challenges that the Indonesian local government need to manage when adopting a public asset management framework. Those challenges are: absence of an institutional and legal framework to support the asset management application; non-profit principle of public assets; multiple jurisdictions involved in the public asset management processes; the complexity of local government objectives; unavailability of data for managing public property; and limited human resources. Research Limitation This research is limited to one case study. It is a preliminary study from larger research that uses multiple case studies. The main research also investigates opportunities for local government by adopting and implementing public asset management. Originality/Value Findings from this study provide useful input for the policy makers, academics and asset management practitioners in Indonesia to establish a public asset management framework resulting in efficient and effective organizations, as well as an increase of public services quality. This study has a potential application for other developing countries.

An analysis of the Brisbane residential property market and the global financial crisis

The period from 2007 to 2009 covered the residential property boom from early 2000, to the property recession following the Global Financial Crisis. Since late 2008, a number of residential property markets have suffered significant falls in house prices, buth this has not been consistent across all market sectors. This paper will analyze the housing market in Brisbane Australia to determine the impact, similarities and differences that the4 GFC had on range of residential sectors across a divesified property market. Data analysis will provide an overview of residential property prices, sales and listing volumes over the study period and will provide a comparison of median house price performance across the geographic and socio-economic areas of Brisbane.

History and development of public health

- briefly describe the importance of public health history to contemporary public health - briefly describe the ancient history of public health - outline the key periods and activities in the modern history of Western public health - describe and understand the important roles of political, social, environmental and economic factors as they impact on health - consider the major factors that have influenced an understanding of contemporary public health in the past 40 years.

Opportunities of public transport experience enhancements with mobile services and urban screens

Public transportation is an environment with great potential for applying innovative ubiquitous computing services to enhance user experiences. This paper provides the underpinning rationale for research that will be looking at how real-time passenger information system deployed by transit authorities can provide a core platform to improve commuters’ user experiences during all stages of their journey. The proposal builds on this platform to inform the design and development of innovative social media, mobile computing and geospatial information applications, with the hope to create fun and meaningful experiences for passengers during their everyday travel. Furthermore, we present the findings of our pilot study that aims to offer a better understanding of passengers’ activities and social interactions during their daily commute.

Reviewing the impact of the 2008/2009 global financial crisis (GFC) on international property markets and property professions

The global financial crisis that impacted on all world economies throughout 2008 and 2009. This impact has not been confined to the finance industries but has had a direct and indirect impact on the property industry worldwide from both an ownership and investment perspective. Property markets have experienced various levels of impact from this event, but universally the greatest impact has been on the traditional commercial and industrial property sectors from the investor perspective, with investment and superannuation funds reporting significant declines in the reported value of these investments. Despite the very direct impact of these declining property markets, the GFC has also had a very significant indirect impact on the various property professions and how these professions are now operating in this declining property market. Of particular interest is the comparison of the property market forecasts in late 2007 to the actual results in 2008/2009.

A symposium of reviews of public criminology? : by Ian Loader and Richard Sparks (Oxford : Key Ideas in Criminology, Routledge, 2010, 196pp.) with contributions from Nils Christie, Elliott Currie, Helena Kennedy, Gloria Laycock, Rod Morgan, Joe Sim, Jacqueline Tombs and Reece Walters

Public or Civic Criminology : A Critique of Loader and Sparks

Augmenting public participation : enhancing planning outcomes through the use of social media and web 2.0

Social media and web 2.0 tools offer opportunities to devise novel participation strategies that can engage previously difficult to reach as well as new segments of society in urban planning. This paper examines participatory planning in the four local government areas of Brisbane City Council, Gold Coast City Council, Redland City Council, and Toowoomba Regional Council, all situated in South East Queensland, Australia. The paper discusses how social media and web 2.0 tools can deliver a more engaging planning experience to citizens, and investigates local government’s current use and receptiveness to social media tools for plan making and community engagement. The study’s research informed the development of criteria to assess the level of participation reached through the current use of social media and web 2.0 in the four local government areas. This resulted in an adaptation of the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) Toolbox to integrate these new tools which is being presented to encourage further discussion and evaluation by planning professionals.

Increasing disaster resilience of people and property through fostering collaboration in coastal high hazard zones

As evidenced with the 2011 floods the state of Queensland in Australia is quite vulnerable to this kind of disaster. Climate change will increase the frequency and magnitude of such events and will have a variety of other impacts. To deal with these governments at all levels need to be prepared and work together. Since most of the population of the state is located in the coastal areas and these areas are more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change this paper examines climate change adaptation efforts in coastal Queensland. The paper is part of a more comprehensive project which looks at the critical linkages between land use and transport planning in coastal Queensland, especially in light of increased frequencies of cyclonic activity and other impacts associated with climate change. The aim is improving coordination between local and state government in addressing land use and transport planning in coastal high hazard areas. By increasing the ability of local governments and state agencies to coordinate planning activities, we can help adapt to impacts of climate change. Towards that end, we will look at the ways that these groups currently interact, especially with regard to issues involving uncertainty related to climate change impacts. Through surveys and interviews of Queensland coastal local governments and state level planning agencies on how they coordinate their planning activities at different levels as well as how much they take into account the linkage of transportation and land use we aim to identify the weaknesses of the current planning system in responding to the challenges of climate change adaptation. The project will identify opportunities for improving the ways we plan and coordinate planning, and make recommendations to improve resilience in advance of disasters so as to help speed up recovery when they occur.

Public service versus private interest : a comparative analysis of the Australian and British debates

This paper will compare and evaluate the effectiveness of commercial media lobbying and advocacy against public service media in two countries, the United Kingdom and Australia. The paper will focus empirically on the commercial media coverage of public service media issues in these countries (relating to the BBC and ABC respectively) over the period since the election of the Conservative-led Coalition in Britain in June 2010, and the election of the Gillard government in Australia in August 2010. Reference will be made to preceding periods as relevant to an understanding of the current environment. In both countries the main commercial media rival to public service media is News Corp and its associated organisations – News Ltd and Sky News in Australia, and News International and BSkyB in the UK. The paper will examine with analysis of print and online news and commentary content how News Corp outlets have reported and commented on the activities and plans of public service media as the latter have developed and extended their presence on digital TV and online platforms. It will also consider the responses of the ABC and BBC to these interventions. It will consider, thirdly, the responses of Australian and British governments to these debates, and the policy outcomes. This section of the paper will seek to evaluate the trajectory of the policy-public-private dynamic in recent years, and to draw conclusions as to the future direction of policy. Particular attention will be devoted to recent key moments in this unfolding dialogue. In Britain, debates around the efforts of News Corp to take over 100% of BSkyB, both before and after the breaking of the phone-hacking scandal in July 2011; in Australia, the debate around the National Broadband Network and the competitive tender process for ABC World, that country’s public service transnational broadcaster; and other key moments where rivalry between News Corp companies and public service media became mainstream news stories provoking wider public debate. The paper will conclude with recommendations as to how public service media organisations might engage constructively with commercial organisations in the future, including News Corp, and taking into account emerging technological and financial challenges to traditional rationales for public service provision.

The study of design elements and people’s behaviour in campus public space : how design shapes user’s behaviour

A growing body of researches provided evidence of the successful design in particular focus on design elements, ranging from colour, lighting, technology, landscape and spatial arrangement. However, no example or literature investigates the opportunities for linking these design elements in a practical base. Drawing upon existing architectural design theory, this paper investigates the relationship between design elements regards to public’s behavioural response to the public space. The aims of this paper are two-fold: first to examine whether there is a direct relationship between the two, and second to find out how the design elements could be coordinated together to influence not only the activities but also the environment, function and experience. To meet this objective, observation, behavioural mapping, interview and cognitive mapping methodologies are used. The present study involves two local case studies to find out the relationship between design elements in order to assist the design of a better public space for public activities. Correlation between the design elements shows that public activities is more likely to happen in relatively space with well balance of design. These finding provide a better understanding of public space design by gaining deeper perceptive between design and user’s behaviour, consequently improving social activities and interactions in public space. Moreover, it focuses on campus public areas which can be a vital aspect of university campus and play a valuable role in the overall success of public space design.

Sensuous geography : the role of sensuous experience and their contemporary implications in public squares, a Lefebvrian approach

This paper explores the sensuous relationship amongst people and the physical elements located in public squares. The research focuses on the study of sensuous geography and its social implications in contemporary city context. Case studies were drawn from various Western countries. A Lefebvrian approach was utilized to analyse the research findings. The study has generated a preliminary sensuous geography checklist for public squares that can predict the degree of popularity and experiential qualities of public squares. However, limits existed in the paper as sensory experiences are conditioned by individual, socio-cultural and climatic influences. The study suggests further integrated approach is needed in this field of study. The research findings indicated that better knowledge of sensuous geography is important in the design and planning disciplines.