International review of environmental assessment tools and databases

Existing widely known environmental assessment models, primarily those for Life Cycle Assessment of manufactured products and buildings, were reviewed to grasp their characteristics, since the past several years have seen a significant increase in interest and research activity in the development of building environmental assessment methods. Each method or tool was assessed under the headings of description, data requirement, end-use, assessment criteria (scale of assessment and scoring/ weighting system)and present status

Developing risk assessment tools for fleet settings : where to from here?

The costs of work-related crashes In Australia and overseas, fleet safety or work-related road safety is an issue gaining increased attention from researchers, organisations, road safety practitioners and the general community. This attention is primarily in response to the substantial physical, emotional and economic costs associated with work-related road crashes. The increased risk factors and subsequent costs of work-related driving are also now well documented in the literature. For example, it is noteworthy that research has demonstrated that work-related drivers on average report a higher level of crash involvement compared to personal car drivers (Downs et al., 1999; Kweon and Kockelman, 2003) and in particular within Australia, road crashes are the most common form of work-related fatalities (Haworth et al., 2000).

The comparison of international and local sustainable assessment tools of landscape design for housing estate developments : case of Bangkok Metropolitan Region, Thailand

Various countries have been introducing sustainable assessment tools for real estate design to produce integrated sustainability components not just for the building, but also the landscape component of the development. This paper aims to present the comparison between international and local assessment tools of landscape design for housing estate developments in Bangkok Metropolitan Region (BMR), Thailand. The methodologies used are to review, then compare and identify discrepancy indicators among the tools. This paper will examine four international tools; LEED for Neighbourhood Development (LEED – ND) of United State of America (USA), EnviroDevelopment standards of Australia, Residential Landscape Sustainability of United Kingdom (UK) and Green Mark for Infrastructure of Singapore; and three BMR’s existing tools; Land Subdivision Act B.E. 2543, Environmental Impact Assessment Monitoring Awards (EIA-MA) and Thai’s Rating for Energy and Environmental Sustainability of New construction and major renovation (TREES-NC). The findings show that there are twenty two elements of three categories which are neighbourhood design, community management, and environmental condition. Moreover, only one element in neighbourhood designs different between the international and local tools. The sustainable assessment tools have existed in BMR but they are not complete in only one assessment tool. Thus, the development of new comprehensive assessment tool will be necessary in BMR; however, it should meet the specific environment and climate condition for housing estate development at BMR.

The future of sustainable building assessment tools : a case study in Australia

Sustainability issues in built environment have attracted an increasingly level of attention from both the general public and the industry. As a result, a number of green building assessment tools have been developed such as the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) and the BRE Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM), etc. This paper critically reviewed the assessment tools developed in Australian context, i.e. the Green Star rating tools developed by the Green Building Council of Australia. A particular focus is given to the recent developments of these assessment tools. The results showed that the office buildings take the biggest share of Green Star rated buildings. Similarly, sustainable building assessments seem to be more performance oriented which focuses on the operation stage of buildings. In addition, stakeholder engagement during the decision making process is encouraged. These findings provide useful references to the development of next generation of sustainable building assessment tools.

Designing online assessment tools for disengaged youth

This article reports on the development of online assessment tools for disengaged youth in flexible learning environments. Sociocultural theories of learning and assessment and Bourdieu’s sociological concepts of capital and exchange were used to design a purpose-built content management system. This design experiment engaged participants in assessment that led to the exchange of self, peer and teacher judgements for credentialing. This collaborative approach required students and teachers to adapt and amend social networking practices for students to submit and judge their own and others’ work using comments, ratings, keywords and tags. Students and teachers refined their evaluative expertise across contexts, and negotiated meanings and values of digital works, which gave rise to revised versions and emergent assessment criteria. By combining social networking tools with sociological models of capital, assessment activities related to students’ digital productions were understood as valuations and judgements within an emergent, negotiable social field of exchange.

Validating adult and paediatric nutrition screening and assessment tools in Vietnamese language in two acute hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Despite being commonly prevalent in acute care hospitals worldwide, malnutrition often goes unidentified and untreated due to a lack in the implementation of a nutrition care pathway. The aim of this study was to validate nutrition screening and assessment tools in Vietnamese language. After converting into Vietnamese, Malnutrition Screening Tool (MST) and Subjective Global Assessment (SGA) were used to identify malnutrition in the adult setting; and the Paediatric Nutrition Screening Tool (PNST) and paediatric Subjective Global Nutritional Assessment (SGNA) were used in the paediatric setting in two acute care hospitals in Vietnam. This cross-sectional observational study sampled 123 adults (median age 78 years [39–96 years], 63% males) and 105 children (median age 20 months [2–100 months], 66% males). In adults, nutrition risk and malnutrition were identified in 29% and 45% of the cohort respectively. Nutrition risk and malnutrition were identified in 71% and 43% of the paediatric cohort respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of the screening tools were: 62% and 99% for the MST compared to the SGA; 89% and 42% for the PNST compared to the SGNA. This study provides a stepping stone to the potential use of evidence-based nutrition screening and assessment tools in Vietnamese language within the adult and paediatric Vietnamese acute care setting. Further work is required into integrating a complete nutrition care pathway within the acute care setting in Vietnamese hospitals.

Effectiveness of resilience assessment tools in different case studies

Tese de doutoramento, Biologia (Biologia Marinha e Aquacultura), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2015

The Development of Environmental Assessment Tools to Support the Creation of Dementia Friendly Care Environments: Innovative Practice

The need for more dementia friendly design in hospitals and other care settings is now widely acknowledged. Working with 26 NHS Trusts in England as part of a Department of Health commissioned programme, The King’s Fund developed a set of overarching design principles and an environmental assessment tool for hospital wards in 2012. Following requests from other sectors, additional tools were developed for hospitals, care homes, health centres and housing with care. The tools have proven to be effective in both disseminating the principles of dementia friendly design and in enabling the case to be made for improvements that have a positive effect on patient outcomes and staff morale. This paper reports on the development,use and review of the environmental assessment tools, including further work that is now being taken forward by The Association for Dementia Studies, University of Worcester.

Stock assessment for fishery management - A framework guide to the stock assessment tools of the Fisheries Management Science Programme (FMSP)

This document provides guidelines for fish stock assessment and fishery management using the software tools and other outputs developed by the United Kingdom's Department for International Development's Fisheries Management Science Programme (FMSP) from 1992 to 2004. It explains some key elements of the precautionary approach to fisheries management and outlines a range of alternative stock assessment approaches that can provide the information needed for such precautionary management. Four FMSP software tools, LFDA (Length Frequency Data Analysis), CEDA (Catch Effort Data Analysis), YIELD and ParFish (Participatory Fisheries Stock Assessment), are described with which intermediary parameters, performance indicators and reference points may be estimated. The document also contains examples of the assessment and management of multispecies fisheries, the use of Bayesian methodologies, the use of empirical modelling approaches for estimating yields and in analysing fishery systems, and the assessment and management of inland fisheries. It also provides a comparison of length- and age-based stock assessment methods. A CD-ROM with the FMSP software packages CEDA, LFDA, YIELD and ParFish is included.

Investigating the level of awareness of building assessment tools in the construction industry of Botswana

Environmental building assessment tools have been developed to measure how well or poorly a building is performing, or likely to perform, against a declared set of criteria, or environmental considerations, in order to achieve sustainability principles. Knowledge of environmental building assessment tools is therefore important for successful design and construction of environmentally friendly buildings for countries. The purpose of the research is to investigate the knowledge and level of awareness of environmental building assessment tools among industry practitioners in Botswana. One hundred and seven paper-based questionnaires were delivered to industry practitioners, including architects, engineers, quantity surveyors, real estate developers and academics. Users were asked what they know about building assessment, whether they have used any building assessment tool in the past, and what they perceive as possible barriers to the implementation of environmental building assessment tools in Botswana. Sixty five were returned and statistical analysis, using IBM SPSS V19 software, was used for analysis. Almost 85 per cent of respondents indicate that they are extremely or moderately aware of environmental design. Furthermore, the results indicate that 32 per cent of respondents have gone through formal training, which suggests ‘reasonable knowledge’. This however does not correspond with the use of the tools on the ground as 69 per cent of practitioners report never to have used any environmental building assessment tool in any project. The study highlights the need to develop an assessment tool for Botswana to enhance knowledge and further improve the level of awareness of environmental issues relating to building design and construction.