Data Quality Assurance in Construction Environmental Product Declarations for Whole Building Life Cycle Assessment

The construction industry strongly impacts climate change due to its contribution to environmental emissions. The rise in digital environmental product declaration (EPD), a valuable source of data for whole building life cycle assessment (WBLCA), poses significant risks to the reliability of sustainability assessments due to data quality assurance issues. In addition, there has been a lack of focus on product-level uncertainty estimation using EPD for WBLCA and exploration of the challenges and their cumulative effect on data quality assurance. This research builds on the work of researchers who have developed methods to assess EPD quality. However, these methods are not sophisticated enough to report data quality assurance quantitatively and incorporate the result in uncertainty analysis. This research aims to develop a methodology that assesses the data quality assurance of construction materials EPD to improve the reliability of WBLCA through the use of trusted data. The research adopts a mixed approach, including three major phases. The first phase entails the definition and measures of variables. The second phase includes assessing the significance of the challenges and data quality assurance (DQA) indicators, developing the DQA model, developing the intelligent knowledge-based decision support system (KB-DSS), utilising the DQA score for uncertainty analysis, and assessing EPD reporting. The third phase includes validating the research outputs through presentation and survey to experts. Content analysis was employed to analyse the qualitative data while several statistical techniques were employed to analyse the quantitative data collected from 169 respondents globally.The research reveals the top-most challenge in LCA implementation for EPD development and EPD implementation for WBLCA, which includes ‘Problems with data availability and quality for LCA’ and ‘Poor quality of several underlying PCRs’, respectively. This suggests incorporating robust data quality mechanisms into the EPD development process and integrating proper guidance for developing product category rules (PCRs). Furthermore, verification was reported to be the most significant indicator of data quality assurance. The unique classification of the challenges and DQA indicators shows critical areas for stakeholders.The relationship between the challenge in LCA implementation for EPD development, EPD implementation for WBLCA, and DQA indicators, as revealed by the PLS-SEM analysis, indicates that both categories of challenges strongly influence each other. In contrast, the ‘Challenges → Data Quality Assurance Indicator model’ reveals 39% certainty in improving DQA when the challenges are resolved. The ‘knowledge and policy awareness’ category of the challenges is critical, indicating the need for stakeholders to invest in capacity building regarding EPD development and WBLCA. Subsequently, a multi-level framework with tailored approaches to resolving the challenge categories was developed. The intelligent KB-DSS, including a DQA model based on the Fuzzy Synthetic Evaluation (FSE) method, was developed to support EPD data quality assurance assessment. The DQA model consists of eighteen (18) indicators in five groups. The ‘Data reliability’ group is the most significant indicator group. The data quality assurance index (DQAI) from the DQA model formed the basis of the DQA score computation. Following the development of the DQA model, the intelligent KB-DSS with embedded DQA model and action plans from literature was developed in Microsoft Visual Studio. In order to demonstrate the applicability of the intelligent KB-DSS and DQA score, a case study validation using the concrete element in the project was conducted, and the findings provided empirical evidence as regards the tool implementation for WBLCA reliability decision-making. Finally, all the research outputs have contributed significantly to theory, methods and practice. The study provided valuable insights into the challenges associated with EPD development and utilisation which is lacking in existing studies. Stakeholders can leverage this information to resolve the challenges in EPD development and utilisation. Furthermore, this is the first study to introduce the concept of data quality assurance in EPD context and develop a metric system to measure data quality including a decision support system that can help facilitate data quality assurance assessment process. These outputs are expected to enhance the quality of EPDs for WBLCA, support sustainable decision-making, and provide a foundation for future research on EPD data quality in sustainability assessments.</p

BEYOND WALLS: Enabling Semi-Independent Living for Individuals on the Spectrum

Moving out of home is a significant milestone in one’s life. However, this milestone can cause immense anxiety for those living with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The unemployment rate for people with ASD is disproportionally high. Coupled with difficulties meeting funding requirements and an inaccessible housing market, this rate can make it extremely difficult for adults with ASD to find suitable housing options. Whilst people with ASD may be eligible to use public and community housing services, the sector currently lacks accessible housing, leaving families wondering what is going to happen when they can no longer care for their child or sibling on the spectrum.As part of the MBIE-funded Public Housing and Urban Regeneration: Maximising Wellbeing research programme (PHUR) and in partnership with Te Toi Mahana (TTM), this thesis explores how the design of future public and community housing can help enable semi-independent living for people with ASD. Beyond Walls seeks to provide potential pathways forward for those on the spectrum, their families, and housing providers by exploring architectural interventions such as apartment planning, materiality, colour, lighting design, acoustic performance, and external environment design in relation to the lived experiences and needs of those with ASD. By extension, this project may help inform the design of private housing.This thesis aims to help facilitate semi-independent living for individuals with ASD who may be deemed ‘mid-high’ functioning, or whose needs are often overlooked, by developing a speculative design and related framework for public or community housing design. The speculative design and related framework are informed by literature reviews, case studies, and data collected through a photo elicitation study and follow-up interviews with people diagnosed with ASD. These guidelines are then tested and refined through the speculative redesign of an existing TTM public housing site awaiting upgrades on Daniell Street in Newtown, Wellington. This speculative redevelopment explores new design approaches to the provision of public housing, including shared and community spaces.</p

Bona–Smith-Type systems in Bounded Domains with Slip-Wall Boundary Conditions: Theoretical Justification and a Conservative Numerical Scheme

Considered herein is a class of Boussinesq systems of Bona–Smith type that describe the propagation of long surface water waves of small amplitude in bounded two-dimensional domains with slip-wall boundary conditions and variable bottom topography. Such boundary conditions are necessary in situations involving water waves in channels, ports, and generally in basins with solid boundaries. We prove that, given appropriate initial conditions, the corresponding initial-boundary value problems have unique solutions locally in time, which is a fundamental property of deterministic mathematical modeling. Moreover, we demonstrate that the systems under consideration adhere to three basic conservation laws for water waves: mass, vorticity, and energy conservation. The theoretical analysis of these specific Boussinesq systems leads to a conservative mixed finite element formulation. Using explicit, relaxation Runge–Kutta methods for the discretization in time, we devise a fully discrete scheme for the numerical solution of initial-boundary value problems with slip-wall conditions, preserving mass, vorticity, and energy. Finally, we present a series of challenging numerical experiments to assess the applicability of the new numerical model

The Mediating Influence of Plant Communities on Alpine Soil Respiration in a Changing World

Soil respiration is a critical carbon flux from the terrestrial biosphere to the atmosphere. It is influenced by various ecological conditions including temperature, plant community composition, and insect herbivory. Global changes are altering these conditions through climate warming, the proliferation of invasive species, and promoting insect outbreaks. Understanding how these global changes influence soil respiration is essential for accurate modeling of the carbon cycle. However, the role of biotic communities as mediators of these global changes remains unclear. To address this uncertainty, I examine soil respiration dynamics through field experiments, an observational study, and a global meta-analysis. My objectives were to: 1) determine the direct and interactive influence of warming and plant community change on peak soil respiration rates across diverse alpine communities; 2) examine the influence of warming and plant community change on the effect of warming on soil respiration; 3) determine if an invasive plant modifies the effect of aboveground insect herbivore effects on soil respiration; and 4) explore potential plant-mediated mechanisms by which insect herbivores affect soil respiration.I show that plant community composition significantly modifies how soil respiration responds to warming during the height of the growing season. Specifically, I found that soil respiration in sites with high woody plant cover exhibited a higher relative sensitivity to warming across widely distributed alpine sites. I also found evidence that plant community composition modifies the temperature sensitivity of soil respiration among plots in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, United States of America. However, unlike the previous analysis, the most influential plant functional group in this study was graminoids. Across both of these studies, my results reveal plant functional groups were highly influential mediators of the relationship between temperature and alpine soil respiration on both local and global scales. I also examined how increasing insect herbivory affects soil respiration and how an invasive plant species modifies this relationship in a New Zealand alpine grassland. Insect herbivore abundance was linked to increased soil respiration, but I found no significant difference between native and invasive host plants. This investigation also revealed that soil microbial communities, particularly bacterial abundance, mediate the effects of insect herbivores on soil respiration. Results from my global meta-analysis suggest that plants regulate these mediation effects through multiple mechanisms including modifications to soil communities, plant litter composition, and plant resource allocation. Among these, belowground resource allocation showed a particularly strong relationship to herbivory. This plant-mediated response may be the dominant process by which insect herbivores alter soil microbial communities, and thereby influence soil respiration. These findings further highlight the crucial role of plants in mediating the impacts of global changes on soil respiration. By integrating studies with local and global perspectives into a single narrative, I provide substantial evidence that plant communities regulate how global changes will influence soil respiration dynamics. I show that consideration of these communities is essential for refining ecosystem carbon models, particularly as climate change and plant invasions rapidly alter plant functional group representation among alpine ecosystems. The insights in this thesis also provide direction for further studies into the mechanisms underpinning plant-microbial interactions and their implications for soil respiration. Ultimately, this knowledge will improve ecosystem carbon models and our understanding of carbon dynamics in an era of rapid ecological change.</p

Features and Transport Properties of 2D Topological-Insulator Polygonal Flakes

Conventional topological insulators in d-dimensions are characterised by gapless states localised at their boundaries with topologically trivial insulators, such as the vacuum. These gapless states exist in (d−1)-dimensions. Higher-order topological insulators host gapless boundary states in fewer dimensions, along hinges (d= 3) or at the corners (d= 3, 2) of a system. This thesis focuses on two-dimensional second- order topological insulators with localised states at their corners. Two models are considered, where the topological character is protected by i) a combined fourfold rotation and time-reversal symmetry or ii) inversion symmetry. In both cases a low-energy theory along an edge is used to derive conditions on the features, locations and total number of these states in polygonal flakes.Multi-terminal transport through a rectangular flake is studied, where the leads are first-order topological insulators supporting helical edge states. It is demonstrated that these setups function as topological switches, where the transmission between neighbouring contacts is controlled by an in-plane magnetic field. This functionality is shown to be remarkably robust to the presence of strong disorder due to the topological nature of the states contributing to transport. Introducing a proximity-induced s-wave pairing in the leads of a two-terminal setup provides a new perspective to Fu and Kane’s study of a superconductor/quantum-spin-Hall/superconductor junction: the edge states in the leads resemble Kitaev’s one-dimensional p-wave superconducting wire, in which Majorana zero-modes are predicted to localise at the ends (near the flake). The current phase relation has 4π rather than 2π periodicity due to the hybridisation of these modes. This is a well known Majorana signature, and many proposals have been made to realise it in other systems. The connection between the work in this thesis and the literature is discussed.</p

Identity categories and the dilemma of calling police about family violence

The under-reporting of family violence is a global problem. Multiple barriers to help-seeking have been identified, including some associated with social identities like race, age and gender. This discursive psychology study examines identity and help-seeking in social interaction. We analysed 200 calls classified by police call-takers as family harm using conversation analysis and membership categorization analysis. We found that callers oriented to a locally generated identity category ‘the one who called police’ as problematic. Callers sought anonymity or proposed cover stories to avoid being identified by others. Anonymity raised practical problems for recording callers' names and cover stories raised questions about the legitimacy of alternative accounts for police contact. We found callers' concerns with being identified create a dilemma produced through competing moral judgements tied to coexisting institutional and relational identity categories. Participants display understandings that calling the police may be the right thing to do as a help-seeker, but the wrong thing to do as a friend or family member. Our findings reveal how a locally generated identity category was observable as a force shaping help-seeking in real-time high-stakes encounters

Collective Mode: How Could Psychology Respond to Increases in Common Mental Health Concerns Among Secondary School Students in 2020s Aotearoa New Zealand? A Critical Realist Exploration

Background: Since around 2010, significant increases in common mental health concerns, such as anxiety and depression, have been reported among adolescents in various countries, placing considerable strain on mental health services. While anecdotal evidence suggests a similar trend in Aotearoa New Zealand (Aotearoa), comprehensive data has been lacking. In this rapidly changing environment, it is crucial to develop timely responses that consider the unique Aotearoa context, including upholding commitments made in Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Psychologists, as key players within a broader ecosystem, must explore new approaches to address these challenges effectively.Aims: I aimed to consider how psychology could respond to apparent increases in common mental health concerns among secondary school students in 2020s Aotearoa. This involved empirically investigating the nature, extent, and consequences of the purported increases; identifying patterns of need from a population perspective; describing adolescents’ use of mental health and wellbeing supports; and exploring adolescents’ and service providers’ priorities in addressing the need.Methods: As part of the Youth19 Rangatahi Smart Survey team (the most recent wave of the Youth2000 survey series), I shaped key survey questions and contributed to ethics and survey implementation. We surveyed 7721 Aotearoa secondary school students (13–18 years) in 2019, providing data for four of the five studies presented here. I adopted a critical realist theoretical framework and mixed-methods approach. Studies 1–4 used Youth19 data to: describe need in 2019, and changes between the 2012 and 2019 Youth2000 surveys (Study 1); derive clusters of students based on their responses to mental health and wellbeing variables and identify predictors of cluster membership (Study 2); describe students’ use of supports for mental health according to derived cluster (Study 3); and analyse responses from students in the most severe clusters to an open-ended question regarding what could make things better (Study 4). I conducted Study 5 outside the Youth19 umbrella. I present thematic analysis of interviews with eight experienced psychologists and other service providers regarding the effects of perceived levels of need on services and potential future directions. I then integrated results across studies in a concluding discussion.Results: I found that symptoms of common mental health concerns were high among Aotearoa secondary school students in 2019 and had increased markedly between 2012 and 2019, overall and especially among females, rangatahi Māori, Pacific students, and those living with higher socioeconomic deprivation, increasing inequity. For example, clinically significant depressive symptoms assessed using the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (Short Form) increased from 17% among females in 2012 to 29% in 2019 (Study 1). Mental health need clustered into distinct profiles, with 40% of Youth19 participants reporting minimal symptoms and good wellbeing, 28% reporting signs of elevated anxiety, 9% reporting elevated but subclinical depressive and anxiety symptoms, 16% reporting above cut-off depressive and anxiety symptoms and high suicide ideation, and 6% reporting high symptoms across indicators and 100% prevalence of suicide attempt (Study 2). Fewer than a third (29%) of students with high need reported that they had accessed formal supports such as counsellors or health professionals in the past year, although many (82%) had talked with peers or family members (Study 3). In response to an open-ended question about what would help young people who were having a hard time or feeling bad, distressed students emphasised the need for young people to feel loved, accepted, and connected, as a foundation for talking and sharing the load with others and developing their own coping skills. They asked for more nurturing, less harmful environments and systems, including updated mental health services, and noted the importance of thinking and talking about mental health in helpful ways (Study 4). Psychologists and other service providers in the youth mental health sector reported that they have been hugely affected by increased demand, with services overloaded and clinicians facing burn out, further compounding service overwhelm. They highlighted the need for collaboration, new approaches and, crucially, a substantial workforce boost (Study 5).Implications: This thesis provides converging findings from population survey and clinical perspectives that there are major increases in demand for addressing mental health and wellbeing concerns among adolescents, and suggests that current responses are inadequate, to the detriment of young people, whānau (extended family), and providers. I propose that multi-factor solutions are needed, by which psychology, along with other disciplines: -Contributes to understanding needs and opportunities (e.g., via research and evaluation of needs and initiatives) -Considers ways to support and retain new and existing psychology staff in pressured services -Considers ways to meet increased demand while upholding competency and ethical practice (e.g., increased training and service provision focused on group therapy, brief interventions, utilising broader workforces, or other resources such as digital tools) -Contributes to, or at least does not block, the expansion of the talking therapy or mental health and wellbeing workforce (e.g., via training more people, training people more quickly, providing supervision, and support for new roles) -Contributes to, or at least does not block, community efforts to support adolescents (e.g., supporting whānau, school staff, and community to respond to adolescents’ needs) -Contributes to or supports prevention and health promotion efforts (e.g., via data and information sharing, advocacy, and contributing regarding helpful ways of communicating about mental health with adolescents and others).All actions should respond to the needs of taiohi Māori (young Māori), given commitments made in Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The needs of Pacific students, and students living with greater economic deprivation, should also be prioritised, among those of other underserved groups. Developing clinicians and approaches that increase equity is essential.While none of these ideas are new to psychology and other disciplines, this research emphasises the urgency for psychology to be part of systems that contribute to population wellbeing as well as addressing individual needs. While I have listed a variety of actions, none are the responsibility of any one psychologist or group alone. Some are actions for psychology as an academic discipline, or groups such as researchers, the New Zealand Psychologists Board, training institutions, and others. I consider a range of theories and models to guide and structure collective thinking.Conclusions: Reports of common mental health concerns among Aotearoa adolescents appear to be high, increasing, and uneven, consistent with international trends. Current responses are a poor fit, and bravery and fresh thinking are required, while ensuring to uphold competent and ethical practice. We can learn from international approaches, and responses for Aotearoa must be grounded in Te Tiriti o Waitangi, with youth, Māori, and underserved groups at the centre. Psychology has an important role to play as part of the complex system supporting mental health and wellbeing among adolescents in Aotearoa. There is a clear need for a substantial workforce boost, as well as attention to connection, integration, and working relationally across disciplines, communities, and government to achieve positive collective impact for young people and whānau.</p

It Takes a Kāinga

Education is the primary foundation for economically and socially marginalised children to lift themselves from adversity and realise their potential. However, learning environments in Aotearoa are not currently providing children with equal opportunity to succeed and are therefore contributing to the ongoing cycle of adversity. This research aims to highlight the potential for architectural design to make an impact on closing the equity gap in New Zealand’s education system through exploring the question: How could a place-based design framework contribute to creating more equitable learning environments for students in Aotearoa?The first step in the process is to understand what role architectural design currently plays in facilitating the structured inequity, in order to begin to deconstruct biases that operate through education as a result of colonisation. The key findings highlight the negative implications of globalisation and standardisation on indigenous culture and identity. Acting as a white wash replacing the stories told through localised community and whenua. This led me on a journey of research-through-design to explore the potential benefit of place-based educational design within a small community close to home. In which I endeavour to understand aspects of community, culture and environment to a depth that enables responsive and meaningful design. My goal is to help mend historic ties that have been broken through generations of koronitanga through the exploration of place-conscious architectural design and the impact it can make on students in Aotearoa today.</p

Envisaging Data Nirvana: A Delphi study of ideal data culture

AbstractIn recent decades, the proliferation of data and advances in information technology have led organizations to value data more highly and aim to build a data culture that is suitable for promoting and sustaining data‐related strategic outcomes. However, what a “good” data culture comprises is often expressed abstractly and there is no consensus about how such a culture should manifest in practice. This study explores the key dimensions and attributes of an ideal data culture, as perceived by expert practitioners in large, data‐rich public sector organizations. Using a two‐stage Delphi method, we engaged with 14 data management experts from Aotearoa New Zealand to understand their views on achieving “Data Nirvana” in practice, focusing on the attributes that explain an ideal data culture. Five categories of ideal data culture are identified: strategic agility, ethical use, human centricity, capability, and controls and discipline. These are linked through two unifying themes: trust and trustworthiness, and value integration. The resulting framework for data culture comprises seven elements. The study provides insights into the aspirational potential of data and the realities of organizational data practice, contributing to a deeper understanding of data culture

OLD HOUSE AT THE EDGE OF THE SEA: SKETCHING PERSONAL AND PLANETARY HISTORIES - Full Paper

Just at the edge of the sea in South Bay, Te Waero o te Hiku,1 Kaikōura,2 Aotearoa3 sits an old, rundown family house. It’s a tiny shed-turned-home hand-built in 1953. Earthquakes and southerlies have battered its yellow painted 50’s optimism over the years, and it’s more like flotsam from the sea and reef than a statement of human resistance. The little house seems to be in conversation with its vast context. It has complex miniature microclimates: tiny variations in surface, dust, light, air, sound, birds nesting in the roof—as well as memory, lost gardens, clumsy attempts at repair. Outside are enormous weather systems, immense sea, dynamic rock. Old House explores the strange architecture of this personal and planetary conversation through a multi-media architectural drawing installation. 4 Multiple ‘sketch creatures’ roam through Te Auaha gallery drawn from hand bent music wire, projected images, graphite, stones, seaweed, as well as VR portals, smell and sound. Participants engage with these multi-sensorial architectural sketches, becoming immersed in unruly architectures of the old Kaikōura house and its dynamic landscape context. Old House is part of an ongoing project exploring relations between personal and planetary dynamics through ‘expanded’ architectural drawings. 5 This paper attempts to articulate the research: its poiétic scalar relations—how intimate, personal histories of the house intersect and intra-act with abstract histories in the vast ‘planetary’ landscape beyond. The Old House research looks to destabilise relations between drawing, drawer and the worlds being drawn, and in doing so, highlight the intertwining of personal and planetary histories