Theorizing construction industry practice within a disaster risk reduction setting: is it a panacea or an illusion?

Construction industry practice is strongly influenced by the culture surrounding its operations and, with the prevailing emphasis on achieving efficiency, there is a strong focus on outcome metrics such as profitability and employee productivity. With the recent increases in natural hazard events worldwide, and the likelihood that this will worsen still further with anticipated climate changes, the industry is increasingly contributing to building resilience within disaster-affected communities. Existing industry expertise, its educational approaches and the related theoretical frameworks, however, all require adjustment if these changing needs are to be fully addressed. Most importantly, an agenda shift is required from the philosophical side and a more pragmatic approach is needed if community resilience goals and objectives are to be met, rather than the narrower focus of the current metrics-driven management system. A synthesis of the current literature is therefore presented, along with relevant case histories illustrating how such an agenda shift within a disaster management context may influence the development of appropriate theory, as well as impacting upon grass-roots educational requirements. The research concludes by discussing how the ‘mainstreaming’ of disaster management within construction industry practice could drive forward developments in theorizing expertise and educational provisions across the constituent discipline

The Battle of the Water Networks II (BWN-II)

The Battle of the Water Networks II (BWN-II) is the latest of a series of competitions related to the design and operation of water distribution systems (WDSs) undertaken within the Water Distribution Systems Analysis (WDSA) Symposium series. The BWN-II problem specification involved a broadly defined design and operation problem for an existing network that has to be upgraded for increased future demands, and the addition of a new development area. The design decisions involved addition of new and parallel pipes, storage, operational controls for pumps and valves, and sizing of backup power supply. Design criteria involved hydraulic, water quality, reliability, and environmental performance measures. Fourteen teams participated in the Battle and presented their results at the 14th Water Distribution Systems Analysis (WDSA 2012) conference in Adelaide, Australia, September 2012. This paper summarizes the approaches used by the participants and the results they obtained. Given the complexity of the BWN-II problem and the innovative methods required to deal with the multi-objective, high dimensional and computationally demanding nature of the problem, this paper represents a snap-shot of state of the art methods for the design and operation of water distribution systems. A general finding of this paper is that there is benefit in using a combination of heuristic engineering experience and sophisticated optimization algorithms when tackling complex real-world water distribution system design problems.Angela Marchi...Angus R. Simpson, Aaron C. Zecchin, Holger R. Maier...Christopher Stokes, Wenyan Wu, Graeme C. Dandy...et al

The Battle of the Water Networks II (BWN-II)

The Battle of the Water Networks II (BWN-II) is the latest of a series of competitions related to the design and operation of water distribution systems (WDSs) undertaken within the Water Distribution Systems Analysis (WDSA) Symposium series. The BWN-II problem specification involved a broadly defined design and operation problem for an existing network that has to be upgraded for increased future demands, and the addition of a new development area. The design decisions involved addition of new and parallel pipes, storage, operational controls for pumps and valves, and sizing of backup power supply. Design criteria involved hydraulic, water quality, reliability, and environmental performance measures. Fourteen teams participated in the Battle and presented their results at the 14th Water Distribution Systems Analysis (WDSA 2012) conference in Adelaide, Australia, September 2012. This paper summarizes the approaches used by the participants and the results they obtained. Given the complexity of the BWN-II problem and the innovative methods required to deal with the multi-objective, high dimensional and computationally demanding nature of the problem, this paper represents a snap-shot of state of the art methods for the design and operation of water distribution systems. A general finding of this paper is that there is benefit in using a combination of heuristic engineering experience and sophisticated optimization algorithms when tackling complex real-world water distribution system design problems.Angela Marchi...Angus R. Simpson, Aaron C. Zecchin, Holger R. Maier...Christopher Stokes, Wenyan Wu, Graeme C. Dandy...et al

Transmission System Restoration: Co-optimization of repairs, load pickups, and generation dispatch

This paper studies the restoration of a transmission system after a significant disruption (e.g., a natural disaster). It considers the co-optimization of repairs, load pickups, and generation dispatch to produce a sequencing of the repairs that minimizes the size of the blackout over time. The core of this process is a Restoration Ordering Problem (ROP), a non-convex mixed-integer nonlinear program that is outside the capabilities of existing solver technologies. To address this computational barrier, the paper examines two approximations of the power flow equations: The DC model and the recently proposed LPAC model. Systematic, large-scale testing indicates that the DC model is not sufficiently accurate for solving the ROP. In contrast, the LPAC power flow model, which captures reactive power and voltage magnitudes, is sufficiently accurate to obtain restoration plans that can be converted into AC-feasible power flows. Experiments also suggest that the LPAC model provides a robust and appealing tradeoff of accuracy and computational performance for solving the ROP

Water distribution expansion planning with decomposition

In recent years, the water distribution expansion planning (WDEP) problem has become increasingly complex as the demands on water distribution systems have evolved to meet modern requirements. This paper describes an algorithm that combines the strength

O estágio curricular supervisionado e a organização do trabalho pedagógico: um estudo no curso de Licenciatura em Educação Física da Universidade Federal do Pará/Guamá

This research has the central objective of analyze the development of Supervised Curricular Internship at Elementary, Middle and High School from the Pedagogical Work Organization perspective in the Physical Education degree of the Federal University of Pará, Campus Guama, because it is a discipline that could contribute directly in the process of practice to the future teacher and in a constitution of your professional identity. The locus of the research was the graduation in Physical Education of the Federal University of Pará, Campus Guamá, with the participation of 08 (eight) teachers, because they have a big relation of professional performance with the discipline. Besides the literature review about the researched theme, the semi-structured interview was used in a data collect, using a qualitative analysis of a critical-dialectical nature from which the data were treated. The results obtained allow us to affirm that discipline is of extreme relevance for the teachers of graduation trainees, and that pass by difficulties to carrying out yours activities, due to the fact of Internship has a pedagogical specificities that differentiate this from other disciplines, such as the time of accomplishment and its accomplishment of external internship, the established institutional links between the Colleges and the Basic Eschool, the approximation between theory and practice is perceived so many times in a dichotomous way which directly influences the Pedagogical Work Organization of the teachers involved, in case University professors and Ementary and High Scholl teachers.Este estudo tem como objetivo central analisar o desenvolvimento da disciplina Estágio Curricular Supervisionado no Ensino Fundamental a partir da Organização do Trabalho Pedagógico no curso de Licenciatura em Educação Física da Universidade Federal do Pará, campus Guamá, já que se trata de uma disciplina que pode contribuir de maneira direta no processo de formação do futuro professor e para a constituição de sua identidade profissional. O lócus da pesquisa foi o curso de Licenciatura em Educação Física da Universidade Federal do Pará, campus Guamá, com a participação de 08 (oito) sujeitos, os quais possuem relação direta de atuação profissional com a disciplina. Além da revisão bibliográfica referente ao tema pesquisado, utilizou-se na coleta dos dados a entrevista semiestruturada, valendo-se de análise qualitativa de caráter crítico-dialético a partir dos quais os dados foram tratados. Os resultados obtidos permitem afirmar que se trata de uma disciplina de extrema relevância para a formação profissional docente dos alunos estagiários, e que enfrenta dificuldades na realização de suas atividades, devido possuir especificidades pedagógicas que as diferencia de outras disciplinas, como o tempo de realização e sua organização no campo de estágio, os vínculos institucionais estabelecidos entre a IES e as redes de ensino, a aproximação entre teoria e prática muitas vezes percebida de forma dicotômica o que influencia diretamente a Organização do Trabalho Pedagógico dos professores envolvidos, no caso professores da Educação Superior e da Educação Básica