Sustainable urban metabolism as a link between bio-physical sciences and urban planning: the BRIDGE project

Urban metabolism considers a city as a system with flows of energy and material between it and the environment. Recent advances in bio-physical sciences provide methods and models to estimate local scale energy, water, carbon and pollutant fluxes. However, good communication is required to provide this new knowledge and its implications to endusers (such as urban planners, architects and engineers). The FP7 project BRIDGE (sustainaBle uRban plannIng Decision support accountinG for urban mEtabolism) aimed to address this gap by illustrating the advantages of considering these issues in urban planning. The BRIDGE Decision Support System (DSS) aids the evaluation of the sustainability of urban planning interventions. The Multi Criteria Analysis approach adopted provides a method to cope with the complexity of urban metabolism. In consultation with targeted end-users, objectives were defined in relation to the interactions between the environmental elements (fluxes of energy, water, carbon and pollutants) and socioeconomic components (investment costs, housing, employment, etc.) of urban sustainability. The tool was tested in five case study cities: Helsinki, Athens, London, Florence and Gliwice; and sub-models were evaluated using flux data selected. This overview of the BRIDGE project covers the methods and tools used to measure and model the physical flows, the selected set of sustainability indicators, the methodological framework for evaluating urban planning alternatives and the resulting DSS prototype.

The swimmer (The Bridge Project)

The Bridge Project (The Swimmer). The project produces two substantive outcomes: 1. The creation of a (multi-projection) video installation work for the Kingston Art Centre. The work transforms a redundant 3rd story walk-bridge into a virtual swimming pool. 2. In the process of transforming the walk-bridge, the project creates a new permanent and highly visible exhibition space for artists working in digital media. This allows the possibility for producing a series of works (or “outputs” if you like) that respond to the site and its cultural setting. It also provides an exhibition space for other staff and students working in digital media.

Structural health monitoring for long span bridges : Hong Kong experience and continuing onto Australia

Structural health monitoring has been accepted as a justified effort for long-span bridges, which are critical to a region's economic vitality. As the most heavily instrumented bridge project in the world, WASHMS - Wind And Structural Health Monitoring System has been developed and installed on the cable-supported bridges in Hong Kong (Wong and Ni 2009a). This chapter aims to share some of the experience gained through the operations and studies on the application of WASHMS. It is concluded that Structural Health Monitoring should be composed of two main components: Structural Performance Monitoring (SPM) and Structural Safety Evaluation (SSE). As an example to illustrate how the WASHMS could be used for structural performance monitoring, the layout of the sensory system installed on the Tsing Ma Bridge is briefly described. To demonstrate the two broad approaches of structural safety evaluation - Structural Health Assessment and Damage Detection, three examples in the application of SHM information are presented. These three examples can be considered as pioneer works for the research and development of the structural diagnosis and prognosis tools required by the structural health monitoring for monitoring and evaluation applications.

Traceability applications based on Discovery Services

RFID, in its different forms, but especially following EPCglobal standards, has become a key enabling technology for many applications. An essential component to develop track and trace applications in a complex multi-vendor scenario are the Discovery Services. Although they are already envisaged as part of the EPCglobal network architecture, the functional definition and standardization of the Discovery Service is still at a very early stage. Within the scope of the BRIDGE project, a specification for the interfaces of Discovery Services has been developed, together with a prototype to validate the design and different models to enhance supply-chain control through track and trace applications. © 2008 IEEE.

A research-based approach to exploring the adoption of novel UK-based concrete test methods in Chinese construction sector

As part of a UK-China science bridge project - a UK government funded initiative linking leading universities and businesses in selective partnering countries in 2009 a collaborative research programme was initiated between Queen's University and the Research Institute of High Performance Concrete (part of the Central Research Institute of Building and Construction) in Beijing.

For further details email b.magee@ulster.ac.uk

A renovação permanente: uma investigação sobre a arte do actor

Tese de doutoramento, Comunicação, Cultura e Artes, Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais, Universidade do Algarve, 2014

Colapsos de pontes: lições aprendidas

Trabalho Final de Mestrado para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Civil na Área de Especialização em Estruturas

Formica

The title of the work, Formica, speaks both to the work’s insect motif – formica is Latin for ant - but also to the 2-dimensional nature of the projection screen – Formica is also a kind of decorative laminate surface. This is Grennan’s second video installation work commissioned specifically for the Kingston Art Centre’s Bridge Space. Following on from the first project - which transformed a dilapidated 3rd story pedestrian corridor into a virtual swimming pool - this work continues to explore the residual meanings of the corridor as a liminal, in-between, or non-space. The new work seeks to again reply aesthetically and poetically to the site’s external setting dominated as it is by the heavy commuter traffic along the Nepean Highway. Scale is central to the work. In Formica, Grennan constructs a scaled-down Perspex replica of the walk-bridge, and with the help of Patrick Honan and Museum Victoria (where Patrick, an entomologist, is head of live exhibits), he populates the corridor with live Bull Ants. The work records these colossal ants as they negotiate the non-space of the corridor and fulfil their metaphorical roles as standardised commuters. With nowhere to go, however, the ants subvert this assigned role and exhibit far more nuanced and individuated behaviour as they investigate, probe, prevaricate, dawdle, or preen idly as though performing some insectile version of Waiting for Godot.

La evaluación social de proyectos y la estimación del impacto ambiental: un puente teórico necesario pero complicado = Social project appraisal and environmental impact assessment: a necessary but complicated theoretical bridge

Incluye Bibliografía

Effect of implementing project-based education in high school physics : file folder bridge engineering

Project-based education and portfolio assessments are at the forefront of educational research. This research follows the implementation of a project-based unit in a high school physics class. Students played the role of an engineering firm who designed, built and tested file folder bridges. The purpose was to determine if projectbased learning could improve student attitude toward science and related careers like engineering. Teams of students presented their work in a portfolio for a final assessment of the process of designing, building and testing their bridges.

Alameda Corridor (Alameda Railroad Corridor) consolidated project, from Downtown Los Angeles to Badger Avenue Bridge : environmental impact statement.

FRA co-lead agency

Impact of I-664 bridge/tunnel project on wave conditions at Newport News Harbor, Virginia : hydraulic model investigation /

"October 1984."

Road and bridge construction specifications for AASHO road test project.

Research authority: National Academy of Sciences, Highway Research Board.