Validating planning heritage : evidence and reasoning for national heritage recognition of the 'City of Adelaide Plan' and park lands

The Adelaide Park Lands and the ‘City of Adelaide Plan’ (1837), as prepared by Colonel William Light, have long been held up as an international precedent in town planning literature. The celebrated model, embraced by Ebenezer Howard to describe his Garden City theory, has several layers of cultural landscape heritage. The ‘Plan’, in recent years, has been subject to a rigorous investigation of its Indigenous and colonization evolutionary layers to inform moves to list the landscape as possessing national heritage status under relevant Australian heritage regimes, and more recently under the National Heritage List regime, as a pre-emptive strategy towards an eventual World Heritage nomination of the cultural landscape and ‘Plan’.

A critical review of performance measurement methods for healthcare facilities management

This paper aims to define the tools used for performance measurement in Healthcare Facilities Management. The research analyses relevant literature on various tools of performance measurement for healthcare facilities. Contributions made from the literature will be divided into three attributes namely soft performance measurement, hard performance measurement and a hybrid performance measurement. The findings discussed in this paper may give valuable insights to service providers with regards to the incorporation of both soft and hard attributes of performance measurement to strategically manage facilities. The organisation business strategy will eventually gain the benefits by cost saving of non-core activities.

The habitat value of Gorse Ulex europaeus L. and Hawthorn Crataegus monogyna Jacq. for birds in Quarry Hills Bushland Park, Victoria

Weeds are one of the primary threats to biodiversity; however, their impacts on wildlife can vary. This research investigated the habitat value of Gorse Ulex europaeus L. and Hawthorn Crataegus monogyna Jacq. and the impacts of its removal on birds in a bushland park in Victoria. The area search method was used to survey birds in vegetation dominated by these two weeds, in native vegetation and in areas where a weed removal program was undertaken; this included revegetated areas. The highest bird species richness and abundance was found in sites dominated by the weeds. At sites where the weed removal program was in the early stages, a much lower species richness and abundance occurred. The final stage of the weed removal program, where revegetated areas were older than five years, supported high richness and abundance of birds, but not as high as that of sites dominated by the weeds; nor was the composition the same. Thus, even after five years, revegetation may not provide for the bird community that was originally supported by weeds. This is an important weed management consideration in this park, and should be for weed removal projects elsewhere

Where shall the future student learn? Student expectations of university facilities for teaching and learning

This paper examines some of the issues surrounding educational facilities - their design and impact upon student learning now and into the future. It details some of the recent literature in this area with particular emphasis upon teaching and learning trends that match the needs of modern students. The responses of a group of first year university students in the School of Property, Construction and Project Management at RMIT University are also matched against these trends. The conclusions from these responses drawn indicate that the future university student will want flexible learning spaces that can adapt to both individual and collaborative work with a strong emphasis on social learning and advanced technology. The responses also indicate a mismatch between existing lecture theatres and tutorial rooms and the third space learning that these graduates of 2011 want. The results have implications for all higher education institutions as we enter the new millennium.

Procedural modeling facilities for hierarchical object generation

We modify a selection of interactive modeling tools for use in a procedural modeling environment. These tools are selection, extrusion, subdivision and curve shaping. We create human models to demonstrate that these tools are appropriate for use on hierarchical objects. Our tools support the main benefits of procedural modeling, which are: the use of parameterisation to control and very a model, varying levels of detail, increased model complexity, base shape independence and database amplification. We demonstrate scripts which provide each of these benefits.

A cloud of smug over outdoor education : South Park, hybrid cars and environmental morality

In an episode of South Park titled ‘Hey, People, You’ve Gotta Drive Hybrids Already’, Stan convinces townsfolk to buy hybrid cars. This reduces the rate of smog but creates a toxic cloud of ‘smug’. In this paper, I use this parody of eco-correctness to interrogate some of Outdoor Education’s environmental aims. Michel Foucault’s later work on the self, morality and governmentality is used to analyse the production of the [neo- iberal] ‘environmentally responsible citizen’. The possibilities and problems of contemporary citizenship discourse are explored in relation to findings from a longitudinal study of students undertaking a tertiary outdoor and environmental education course.

From design for ecologically sustainability to facilities management through building intelligence and knowledge management

Ecological sustainability basically concerns environmental protection and social benefits. An ecologically sustainable development is based upon reduced energy usage, increased efficiency, and upheld social responsibility; and it should be properly evaluated by financial, environmental and social aspects. Council House 2 (CH2) is claimed to change the way of Australia approaches in ecologically sustainable design and construction. This is the ‘Six-Star design and built’ green star facility assessed by the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA), and the 10-story city council building was completed and opened in 2006, totally A$11.3 million was invested for the sustainability features. CH2 protects the environment, when it compares with the old council house, and is expected to reduce electricity consumption by 85%; reduce gas consumption by 87%; produce only 13% of the emissions; and reduce water mains supply by 72%. In this paper, the author examines its design reports and the researches paper, in the form of knowledge base, to case-study how the sustainability, effectiveness and efficiency of CH2 work. By leveraging the existing CH2 sustainability knowledge, design and building professions can learn and imitate it in further ‘green’ design without ‘re-inventing the wheel’; facilities executives can also use the existing knowledge to identify steps to boost up the facilities’ operating efficiency.

Green planning heritage/industrial nature : the park lands or 'regeneration reserves' of Broken Hill

Freestone (1989+) has extensively surveyed town planning visions and model communities for Australia, but one settlement has been forgotten. The significant mining settlement of Broken Hill in far western New South Wales does not figure in his thematic and historical analyses yet its park lands are so integral to its physical cultural legacy and human health that it warrants enhanced standing. In the last 2 years the Commonwealth has been considering the potential nomination of the municipality of Broken Hill for inclusion onto the National Heritage List principally due to its mining, social and economic contributions to Australia’s heritage and identity. A component in their deliberations is the Park Lands, or ‘Regeneration Reserves’, that encompass this urban settlement and its mine leaseholds. Within these Regeneration Reserves, international arid zone ecological restoration theory and practice was pioneered by Albert and Margaret Morris in the 1930s that serves as the method for all mining revegetation practice in Australia today. This paper reviews the theory and evolution of the Broken Hill Regeneration Reserves, having regard to the Adelaide Park Lands and Garden City discourses of the 1920s-30s, arguing that the Broken Hill Regeneration Reserves have a valid and instrumental position in the planning and landscape architectural histories of Australia.