On-site wastewater reuse technology options in Australia

Domestic wastewater reuse is currently not permitted anywhere in Australia but is widely supported by the community, promoted by researchers, and improvised by up to 20% of householders. Its widespread implementation will make an enormous contribution to the sustainability of water resources. Integrated with other strategies in the outdoor living environment of settlements in arid lands great benefit will be derived. This paper describes six options for wastewater reuse under research by the Remote Area Developments Group (RADG) at Murdoch University and case studies are given where productive use is being made for revegetation and food production strategies at household and community scales. Pollution control techniques, public health precautions and maintenance requirements are described. The special case of remote Aboriginal communities is explained where prototype systems have been installed by RADG to generate windbreaks and orchards. New Australian design standards and draft guidelines for domestic greywater reuse produced by the Western Australian state government agencies for mainstream communities are evaluated. It is recommended that dry composting toilets be coupled with domestic greywater reuse and the various types available in Australia are described. For situations where only the flushing toilet will suffice the unique "net composting" system can be used and this also is described. A vision for household and community-scale on-site application is presented

Knowledge and Skills of Emergency Care During Disaster for Community Health Volunteers: a Literature Review

Background: Nowadays, disaster preparedness and responses are essential for everyone to be involved since the disaster becomes increasing. The Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) in particular are the key partners required adequately prepared in emergency care during disaster event. Purpose: The study aims to examine the essential knowledge and skills of emergency care during natural disaster for CHVs. Method: The reviews published during 2000 and 2011 searching from PubMed, Science Direct, CINAHL, ProQuest Medical Library were conducted. Result: Twenty-four articles and documents related to community-based disaster preparedness programs were intensively reviewed. Based on the review, six components of knowledge and skills for emergency care in natural disaster for CHVs are required including 1) early warning, 2) disaster triage, 3) first aid, 4) search and rescue, 5) logistic and communication, and 6) team organizations. Conclusion: There was a few studies focusing on the emergency care in disaster management and some factors related to knowledge and skills were shown. It is therefore recommended that the current CHVs' knowledge and skills should be explored in order to assist people in their community following disaster event when professional responders are not immediately available to help

Non-Linear Effects in Resonant Tunneling; Bistabilities and Self-Sustained Oscillating Currents

We study non-linear phenomena in double barrier heterostructures. Systems in 3D under the effect of an external magnetic field along the current and 1D systems are analyzed. Non-linearities are reflected in the I-V characteristic curve as bistabilities, instabilities and time dependent oscillations of the currents. The nature of the non-linear behavior depends upon the parameters that define the system.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in Superlattices and Microstructure

Quantifying the benefits of residential greywater reuse

There is paucity of data on the quantification of the benefits of residential greywater reuse via direct diversion. While estimates have been made based on modelling the potential mains water savings, it is also recognised that the practicalities of system operation and occupant behaviour introduce substantial variation to these estimates. Three single residential housing projects in Fremantle, Western Australia, undertaken over ten years with a substantial focus on water efficiency and mains water substitution, have provided an opportunity to quantify these benefits. All three dwellings were intensively metered and documented. This paper describes the learnings generated along the way, including the methodology developed to effectively integrate direct diversion greywater reuse into a productive garden, along with other water sources to satisfy landscape water demand. Importantly a robust quantification of actual greywater volumes and associated mains water savings was made. The publication of actual greywater volumes will significantly contribute to this field and go a long way towards validating the merits of residential greywater reuse on mains water savings when systems are properly installed and operated. Brief considerations are also provided for energy efficiency and financial assessment

Innovative solar powered village potable water supply

The Remote Area Developments Group (RADO) at Murdoch University in collaboration with local manufacturers Venco Products Pty Ltd and Solar Energy Systems Pty Ltd have developed a self-contained water supply and treatment system which is entirely solar-powered. The system is currently undergoing on-site trials at RADG's Environmental Technology Centre and is proposed for field trials in a remote Aboriginal community in Western Australia. RADO has been involved in the research and development of appropriate water supply and treatment systems units suitable for remote areas for over ten years, Research carried out by the group while working in remote Aboriginal communities in the late I 980's resulted in development of production prototype with industry partner Venco Products of the Solarflow - a solar-powered reverse osmosis desalination unit. The most recent work has seen the Solarflow become integrated with a locally designed and manufactured water pumping system, which is also solar-powered. Most remote Aboriginal communities rely on groundwater for their potable water supplies, however, this is a source which is often highly mineralised and in excess of the recommended drinking water quality guidelines for long term human consumption. The proposed installation at a community in the central lands is able to demonstrate a self-contained, solar powered water supply system which provides 400 litres/day of high quality, desalinated drinking water, an amount of water sufficient for up to 40 people. A system capable of meeting the requirements of larger communities of up to 150 people which can provide 1500 litre/day is currently in the prototype stage and under going performance monitoring before entering commercial production. The project can be linked to training programs in the area and will also be accessible by surrounding communities. This paper will describe the findings to date and the areas where further research is indicated

An Exploratory Study of Forces and Frictions affecting Large-Scale Model-Driven Development

In this paper, we investigate model-driven engineering, reporting on an exploratory case-study conducted at a large automotive company. The study consisted of interviews with 20 engineers and managers working in different roles. We found that, in the context of a large organization, contextual forces dominate the cognitive issues of using model-driven technology. The four forces we identified that are likely independent of the particular abstractions chosen as the basis of software development are the need for diffing in software product lines, the needs for problem-specific languages and types, the need for live modeling in exploratory activities, and the need for point-to-point traceability between artifacts. We also identified triggers of accidental complexity, which we refer to as points of friction introduced by languages and tools. Examples of the friction points identified are insufficient support for model diffing, point-to-point traceability, and model changes at runtime.Comment: To appear in proceedings of MODELS 2012, LNCS Springe