Infrastructure Engineering - Research Publications
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ItemNo Preview AvailableConstruction Project Managers Graduate Agile Competencies Required to Meet Industry Needs(Springer, Singapore, 2021-01-01)The construction industry is embracing new management challenges to deal with the ever-increasing needs for collaboration, environmental and social responsibilities. Improvements in construction project management competencies are essential to helping the construction sector to embrace the new challenges. Building engineering management capabilities through the correct training are therefore essential. In research involving the twenty-four largest contractors in Australia ‘Lean construction’ was identified as an important skill to be included in academic programs that has not yet fully been embraced. Contractors are not yet seeing ‘lean’ and ‘agile’ methods as important approaches to improve communication within the teams and between projects. This research highlighted that although contractors identified communication as one of themain skills needed to achieve a good performance in project construction management they do not yet recognise that training in lean and agile methodologies will help them to improve communication not only between professionals but between projects and organisations involved in each project in improving business goals.
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ItemChapter 37: Heat Pumps(CRC Press, 2020-07-29)In this second volume, Managing Air Quality and Energy Systems, the reader is introduced to the general concepts and processes of the atmosphere, with its related systems. Heat pumps capture heat energy from low-grade heat sources such as ambient air, ground, and waste heat streams and upgrade to a higher temperature level for useful applications. This entry includes a brief history, fundamentals, classifications, applications and performance parameters of heat pumps. Working principles of the thermoelectric heat pump, the absorption heat pump, the gas compression heat pump and the vapor compression heat pump are explained. Performance parameters of the heat pump systems (coefficient of performance, energy efficiency ratio, primary energy ratio, and ambient energy fraction) are presented. The short-term and long-term greenhouse gas saving potential for the use of heat pumps are discussed.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableGreen Buildings in Makassar, Indonesia(Springer Nature, 2020)Indonesia has one of the world’s largest populations, which creates a demand for buildings. Construction and operation of buildings have impacts on environment. To create sustainable cities, Indonesia applied the smart cities concept and selected Makassar as one of three role model cities. This chapter explores the current situation in Makassar with respect to green building adoption, the challenges faced and opportunities in market transformation. The Green Building Council of Indonesia (GBCI) in Makassar is heavily involved with market transformation for green building practices and has four main activities: market transformation, training and education, green building certification and stakeholder engagement. GBCI has developed the GREENSHIP rating tool, an assessment system covering categories associated with the green building concept as it applies to Indonesia. The embracing of the green building concept, however, is still low in Makassar. Market transformation is a challenging task, and there is still a lack of formal education programmes and courses available to architects, engineers and the construction industry to drive the transformation. The initial higher cost of green building presents as a major barrier to the uptake of green building even though these costs are mitigated after a period of 4–5 years through a reduction in operational costs. Government regulations that support green building practices and education of the community about the benefits of green building may support/improve uptake of green building.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableA field test to demonstrate the benefit of cool roof paints in a temperate climate(The Architectural Science Association, 2013)This volume contains the refereed papers of the 47th International Architectural Science Association Conference 2013, held at the School of Architecture, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, China, They provide a snapshot of current cutting ...
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ItemPassive and Low Energy Buildings(CRC Press (Taylor & Francis Group), 2018)Better energy efficiency in buildings can be achieved with active, passive and combined strategies. This chapter presents and discusses design strategies for passive and low energy buildings. Passive buildings fall under low energy building where special design criteria is in place to reduce the operational energy consumption in a building. Passive and low energy technologies can provide satisfactory thermal comfort in non-airconditioned buildings. Passive buildings strategies include heat gain prevention, heat modulation and heat dissipation. Building envelope aspects such as walls, glazing, roof, insulation, thermal mass, and shading are discussed. Low energy cooling technologies: ground cooling and night ventilation are presented. Embodied energy aspect of these technologies is also briefly discussed. Proper architectural design of building envelope along with passive cooling strategies which are appropriate for the local climate conditions can significantly improve the energy efficiency and reduce the related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. CONTENTS 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Design Strategies and Performance Parameters of Passive and Low Energy Buildings 4.2.1 Walls 4.2.2 Glazing 4.2.3 Roof 4.2.4 Thermal Insulation, Thermal Mass and Phase Change Materials 4.2.5 Ground Cooling 4.2.6 Night Ventilation 4.3 Embodied Energy 4.4 Conclusions References
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ItemNo Preview AvailableHow Could Sustainability Transition Theories Support Practice-Based Strategic Planning?(Springer, 2018-01-01)Theories of sustainability transitions aim to explain the processes, pathways and actors that are involved in transformations in technologies and practices. Whilst there is a growing body of research developing theoretical understandings, there has been less documented on how theories are utilised and applied by practitioners themselves. This chapter reports on a case study that investigated whether provision of targeted information on theories of sustainability transitions could strengthen organisational strategic planning. If planning is informed by transition theories, would this assist and strengthen organisational visioning, ambition and confidence? The research focuses on Moreland Energy Foundation Limited (MEFL), a community-based not-for-profit organisation working on sustainable energy and climate change action in Melbourne, Australia. During 2014–2015, MEFL developed a new strategic plan. As part of this process, theories of sustainability transitions were presented to the organisation’s Board and staff, to support the strategic planning and to investigate the theories’ roles in the planning process. It was found that inclusion of the sustainability transitions theoretical framework led to the organisation explicitly defining its shared ‘model of change’, reinforcing the organisation’s conceptualisation of its role as an ‘intermediary’ between grassroots and governments. The process demonstrated the potential impact of research-practice partnerships in strategic planning. However the findings also highlighted the continuing challenges of connecting research and practice.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableGreen Plot Ratio and MUtopia: The integration of green infrastructure into an ecological model for cities(Routledge - Taylor & Francis, 2017-07-06)
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ItemAn Integrated Simulation and Visualisation Platform for the Design of Sustainable Urban Developments in a Peri-Urban Context(SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG, 2016-01-01)Designing sustainable urban development is a multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary challenge that can benefit from next-generation modelling tools to achieve high performance outcomes and integrated assessments. This chapter presents and demonstrates the use of ‘MUtopia’, an information modelling platform for assessing alternative urban development scenarios. The use of the platform is illustrated through the application to a peri-urban development in the city of Melbourne, Australia. The modelling platform allows simulation of various transition and future scenarios at the precinct level. The platform is capable of extracting data to assist in developing and assessing the performance of different components (land use, individual buildings and infrastructure related to energy and water supply and use, waste management and transport systems) by taking advantage of the platform’s unique scalability. The selected case study is a 31.5 ha Parcel of land, a typical peri-urban development in Melbourne’s fringe located in West Cranbourne. A key aspect of the development is the design of a sustainable precinct that is affordable, provides a greater level of amenity and incorporates biolink corridors and natural open spaces critical to the preservation of native biodiversity. As a low rise suburban development this project presents a unique opportunity for the application of the MUtopia platform and to demonstrate how the tool can lead to optimum design parameters for achieving sustainable development. This chapter also describes how MUtopia can be used to optimise the selection and design of sustainable and resilient energy, water and waste infrastructure and its integration with existing infrastructure.
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ItemChapter 11: Cool Roof Retrofits as an Alternative to Green Roofs(John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., 2016-07-22)
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ItemChapter 2: Modeling, Simulation, and Optimization of Heat Pump Drying Systems(CRC Press, 2016-07-01)