A research-informed model for corporate social responsibility: towards accountability to impacted stakeholders

An Australian case study is presented of an ongoing conflict between Alcoa World Alumina, a multi-national mining company and the impacted stakeholders of Yarloop, a small rural community in Western Australia. The conflict has been subject to research by the author since the early 2000s and is the impetus for developing a model for corporate social responsibility (CSR). The model emphasises engaging impacted stakeholders in dialogue with powerful stakeholders to achieve social justice. This involves a three way set of relationships with key people in leadership positions from the relevant government departments, the corporation’s management group and the impacted stakeholders. The model is premised on an ethic of love approach which utilises the ideas of social justice, social sustainability, and the social pre-cautionary principle. An outline is presented of these ideas as well as a set of inter-linked strategies which are responsive to power inequalities in conflict situations. The ideas and strategies can guide efforts to address the social costs incurred by the impacted community stakeholders. This will involve a discerning commitment to work towards accountable government, sustainable business practices and social justice for impacted stakeholders. The approach requires a cultural shift in the business sector, and wider society, to equally value people, place and profit

Pan-cancer analysis of whole genomes

Cancer is driven by genetic change, and the advent of massively parallel sequencing has enabled systematic documentation of this variation at the whole-genome scale(1-3). Here we report the integrative analysis of 2,658 whole-cancer genomes and their matching normal tissues across 38 tumour types from the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). We describe the generation of the PCAWG resource, facilitated by international data sharing using compute clouds. On average, cancer genomes contained 4-5 driver mutations when combining coding and non-coding genomic elements; however, in around 5% of cases no drivers were identified, suggesting that cancer driver discovery is not yet complete. Chromothripsis, in which many clustered structural variants arise in a single catastrophic event, is frequently an early event in tumour evolution; in acral melanoma, for example, these events precede most somatic point mutations and affect several cancer-associated genes simultaneously. Cancers with abnormal telomere maintenance often originate from tissues with low replicative activity and show several mechanisms of preventing telomere attrition to critical levels. Common and rare germline variants affect patterns of somatic mutation, including point mutations, structural variants and somatic retrotransposition. A collection of papers from the PCAWG Consortium describes non-coding mutations that drive cancer beyond those in the TERT promoter(4); identifies new signatures of mutational processes that cause base substitutions, small insertions and deletions and structural variation(5,6); analyses timings and patterns of tumour evolution(7); describes the diverse transcriptional consequences of somatic mutation on splicing, expression levels, fusion genes and promoter activity(8,9); and evaluates a range of more-specialized features of cancer genomes(8,10-18).Peer reviewe

An overview of 3D cadastre from a physical land parcel and a legal property object perspective

The physical land parcel based model of representing, storing and manipulating cadastral data, which includes two-dimensional geometry as well as the rights, restrictions and responsibilities attached to it, has largely been very successful in dealing with the present needs of land administration. The emergence of newer objects and interests on land, like, 3D titles, non parcel-based interests, interests extending beyond the physical boundary of a parcel and use of digital cadastral databases etc. have increased discussions on the need for a legal property object. From a 3D cadastral perspective, it has become necessary to find the right balance between the geometrical representation of the surface 2D parcel and the 3D object which may have different extents and interests as in the case for underground infrastructure. This makes it essential to approach 3D cadastre from both the land parcel as well as the legal property object perspective. This paper explores the various aspects and issues related to the technical, legal and administrative framework for the development and implementation of a 3D cadastre with particular emphasis on Queensland, Australia.OTB onderzoekOTB Research Institute for the Built Environmen

A taxonomy of spatial units in a mixed 2D and 3D cadastral database

The aim of this paper is to define the range of objects that may need to be accommodated in the development of a practical cadastral database, to also accommodate 3D spatial units, and permit a range of encodings to coexist. The level of geometric encoding as defined in the ISO19152 LADM provides a framework of categorization of spatial units recorded in a cadastre, whether formal or informal, historic, current or planned. The levels of encoding range from simple “text based” spatial unit to the “topology based” encoding (in both 2D and 3D). In our proposed categorization, there are two more aspects, in addition to the levels of encoding, which we identify: 1. types of real world spatial unit (according to law/ regulations) and 2. types of geometric descriptions. The existence of real-world examples of various combinations of 2D and 3D spatial units provide guidelines in the development of a 3D cadastral system. These include, amongst others, spatial units with: open or closed volumes (unspecified top / bottom), faces restricted or not to horizontal or vertical orientation, fixed or moving face(s) (ambulatory), faces (partly) related to physical constructions or not, 3D spatial unit within single surface parcel or crossing many surface parcels (legal space for pipeline), etc. These are characterizations of the real-world spatial unit, but there are also issues that may become important by virtue of choices made in the database implementation, such as the presence or not of “caves” (dents, holes and trough holes), non 2-manifold boundaries allowed or not, volumes with contiguous or not interiors, boundaries described by planar (flat) or curved primitives, etc. All three classification aspects, encoding level, real-world spatial unit type, geometric representation are more or less orthogonal (in theory all combinations are possible), but in practice also very much related. In developing any database, it is vital to have a complete picture of the range of possible objects that need to be modeled, if “surprises” are to be avoided in the implementation and acceptance testing. This paper provides a discussion on the type of classification that is useful for a cadastral jurisdiction and the validation requirements of these classes of objects.OTBArchitecture and The Built Environmen

Evidence-based and data-driven road safety management

Over the past decades, road safety in highly-motorised countries has made significant progress. Although we have a fair understanding of the reasons for this progress, we don't have conclusive evidence for this. A new generation of road safety management approaches has entered road safety, starting when countries decided to guide themselves by setting quantitative targets (e.g. 50% less casualties in ten years' time). Setting realistic targets, designing strategies and action plans to achieve these targets and monitoring progress have resulted in more scientific research to support decision-making on these topics. Three subjects are key in this new approach of evidence-based and data-driven road safety management: ex-post and ex-ante evaluation of both individual interventions and intervention packages in road safety strategies, and transferability (external validity) of the research results. In this article, we explore these subjects based on recent experiences in four jurisdictions (Western Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland). All four apply similar approaches and tools; differences are considered marginal. It is concluded that policy-making and political decisions were influenced to a great extent by the results of analysis and research. Nevertheless, to compensate for a relatively weak theoretical basis and to improve the power of this new approach, a number of issues will need further research. This includes ex-post and ex-ante evaluation, a better understanding of extrapolation of historical trends and the transferability of research results. This new approach cannot be realized without high-quality road safety data. Good data and knowledge are indispensable for this new and very promising approach.Transport & PlanningCivil Engineering and Geoscience

Tempest in a therapeutic community: Implementation and evaluation issues for faith-based programming

The therapeutic community (TC) is an increasingly utilized intervention model in corrections settings. Rarely do these TCs include faith-based curriculum other than that included in Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous programs as does the faith-based TC that serves as the basis for this article. Borrowing from the successful TC model, the program discussed here incorporates additional faith-based modules in a jail or work release program setting. Obstacles associated with program design and implementation, funding, data collection, efficacy, and outcomes are described with recommendations for ongoing and future stakeholders, policy-makers, and service providers.Journal articl

ISO land administration domain model and LandXML, in the development of digital survey plan lodgement for 3D cadastre in Australia

The aim of this paper is to explore the implementation issues of 3D Cadastre in Queensland, Australia, which is presently moving towards a full digital lodgement of surveying information, with a focus on validation rules. In Queensland the Electronic Access for Registry Lodgement (EARL) project has already successfully implemented EARL-I, the first of the three phases of the project where surveying information is captured digitally using tools built in-house, called Surveying Information Processing (SIP) tool which is based on LandXML. EARL-II will establish an electronic service delivery framework, where external surveyors create and lodge digital files, but paper plan still remains the legal document at this stage. EARL-III will be full digital lodgement where the digital files become the legal document. The ePlan is developed using UML class diagram and implemented using LandXML and its various schemas and protocols. LADM is a standard model from which the ePlan model can be considered a subset. This paper studies the existing methodology and proposed structure of digital lodgement based on LandXML and draws from the questionnaire survey as well as the ISO/TC211 LADM 19152 for identifying and expanding validation rules relevant to the EARL project towards implementation of a 3D cadastre in Queensland. LandXML will continue to support the development of EARL-III but will need to rely on ISO/TC211 LADM 19152 to provide guidelines and requirements for the implementation of a homogenous and comprehensive land administration model in Queensland. Digital lodgement is a joint effort by all jurisdictions of Australia and New Zealand and is coordinated by the Intergovernmental Committee on Survey and Mapping (ICSM). The third phase (EARL-III) is planned to include, among others, the implementation of electronic capture and visualisation of 3D Cadastre data. Mechanisms for digital capture, validation, storage and visualisation of 2D and some 3D data are already in place in EARL-I. An outline of the validation rules governing these capture and/or visualisation is already proposed in the department proposal papers. The survey of Australian jurisdictions has assisted in identifying common issues and workarounds independent of the project. This paper explains in detail how the ePlan model is implemented and the 3D validation rules that are proposed; illustrates the support of 3D in LADM and ends with a discussion on the need for the ePlan model to adopt further measures to implement the LADM.OTB ReseachOTB Research Institute for the Built Environmen

3D Cadastres Best Practices, Chapter 3: 3D Cadastral Information Modelling

In this chapter we address various aspects of 3D Cadastral Information Modelling. Of course, this is closely related to the legal framework and initial registration as presented in the first two chapters. Cadastral data models, such as the Land Administration Domain Model, which include 3D support, have been developed for legal information modelling and management purposes without providing correspondence to the object’s physical counterparts. Building Information Models and virtual 3D topographic/ city models (e.g. LandXML, InfraGML, CityGML, IndoorGML) can be used to describe the physical reality. The main focus of such models is on the physical and functional characteristics of urban structures (Aien et al, 2015). However, by definition, those two aspects need to be interrelated; i.e. a tunnel, a building, a mine, etc. always have both a legal status and boundaries as well as a physical description; while it is evident that their integration would maximise their utility and flexibility to support different applications. A model driven architecture approach, including the formalization of constraints is preferred. In the model driven architecture design approach as proposed by the Object Management Group the information model, often expressed in the form of a UML class diagram is the core of the development. This so-called Platform Independent Model (PIM, as presented in the current chapter) is then transformed into Platform Specific Model (PSM). This could be a relational database schema for a spatial DBMS (as will be discussed in the next chapter), or XML schema for a data exchange format or the structure of maps, forms and tables as used in the graphic user interface of a spatial application. Constraints have proved effective in providing the solutions needed to avoid errors and enable maintenance of data quality; thus the need to specify and implement them. This chapter explores possibilities of linking 3D legal right, restriction, responsibilities spaces, modelled with the Land Administration Domain Model (ISO 19152), with physical reality of 3D objects (described via CityGML, IFC, InfraGML, etc).OLD Department of GIS Technology3D Geo-Informatio

Initial analysis of the second FIG 3D cadastres questionnaire: Status in 2014 and expectations for 2018

Valuation of real estate/ properties is in many countries/ cities the basis for fair taxation. The value depends on many aspects, including the physical real world aspects (geometries, material of object as build) and legal/virtual aspects (rights, restrictions, responsibilities, zoning/development plans applicable to the objects spaces). Current property valuation and taxation seems not to be significantly benefiting from digital 3D building models and/or 3D Cadastres as a result of low awareness regarding the possibilities provided by semantically rich 3D models. The current valuation practices in various countries are analyzed: Turkey, United Kingdom, USA, Germany, and the Netherlands. The (possible) role of semantically rich 3D building models and 3D cadastres in relation to valuation and taxation is explored.OTB ResearchArchitecture and The Built Environmen

Monitoring the extent of flooding: Based on a case study in Queensland

“Of droughts and flooding rains” (Dorothea Mackellar 1885-1968, “My Country”). The recent flooding in Queensland affected rural areas, mines, towns and cities including the state capital. Tracking such an event on a day-by day basis raises practical and theoretical issues. While this year’s floods captured world headlines, there is a major flooding event in Queensland about every second year. There are obvious costs resulting from serious flooding, and some can be reduced significantly if the public are reliably informed (whether to evacuate, what property to save, where to evacuate to, what route to take, where to store property). There are also indirect costs to be reduced by the dissemination of reliable information. For example, losses to the tourist industry caused by exaggerated reporting. The paper explores strategies to provide advice to the public by presenting: available raw imagery leaving users to make an interpretation, processed data with information for probable inundation, processed data overlaid with a quality mask indicating reliability, corrected data using a variety of sources, or combination of existing numerical flood models with topographic information to predict flood extent. The paper addresses various sensor products that can be used, their combination with flood modelling techniques, a historical record of inundations, direct measurements (river gauges, rainfall measurements, sensor webs etc.) and more diffuse inputs (crowd sourcing) to supply the best possible decision support information to the public.OTB ResearchOTB Research Institute for the Built Environmen