The Post Carbon City and Smart Metering

Buildings and districts are an appropriate focus for smart metering infrastructure in the urban environment. While properties and buildings have traditionally been metered for revenue recovery purposes, energy management of these buildings has not been available. In the way we account for money, we should account for energy; energy in its own right carries a direct cost with it to the end user. Along with carrying a cost, energy also carries carbon emissions. Smart meters are a vital component to the making and management of post carbon cities and can be used to monitor not only electricity use but also water and gas consumption. Energy Management Systems combined with structured metering also enable consumers with renewable energy generation such as photovoltaic (PV) panels to monitor their own generation, consumption, import and export. As battery storage becomes integrated with renewable energy generation, consumers will have the ability to consume cheaper renewable energy than can be bought from the grid and sell energy back to the grid at the most economically viable times. While uncertainty surrounds the grid and its impact on rising electricity prices, smart metering, intelligent control systems and utilities offering consumers more amenities and the ability for consumers to participate in the wholesale market will ensure the smart grid can contribute to future carbon neutral urban environments

ARTIFICIAL RECHARGE FOR SUSTAINABLE GROUNDWATER MANAGEMENT PLAN IN YOGYAKARTA

Aim: This study investigates the development of a sustainable groundwater management strategy in Yogyakarta province through groundwater recharge technologies. This study also compares technologies used in the province and the one already implemented in Perth due to its similar nature in site geology and hydrogeology. Methodology and Results: Primary and secondary data were collected and analyzed. Water depth and hydraulic conductivity data were analyzed using permeameter and GIS program. GIS image analysis of water depth and hydraulic conductivity suggested that the placement of potential aquifer recharge sites would be best suited in the north-east part of the province, slightly outside the study area, to provide water for all. Two recharge schemes of an infiltration basin and an injection well with storm water detention tank were proposed. The injection well was decided upon, despite its higher cost, due to the impermeability of soils in Yogyakarta and possible water seepage to the environment. Similar to Perth’s Hartfield park scheme, an injection well would directly bypass these soil layers to recharge the aquifers with rainwater and storm water. Hartfield Park injects 4400 kL of water/year. Conclusion, significance and impact study: The findings of this study indicate aquifer recharge is a possible solution to overcome Yogyakarta’s high abstraction. Further studies recommend that injection well trials are further developed in terms of location, depth and sizing

ARTIFICIAL RECHARGE FOR SUSTAINABLE GROUNDWATER MANAGEMENT PLAN IN YOGYAKARTA

Aim: This study investigates the development of a sustainable groundwater management strategy in Yogyakarta province through groundwater recharge technologies. This study also compares technologies used in the province and the one already implemented in Perth due to its similar nature in site geology and hydrogeology. Methodology and Results: Primary and secondary data were collected and analyzed. Water depth and hydraulic conductivity data were analyzed using permeameter and GIS program. GIS image analysis of water depth and hydraulic conductivity suggested that the placement of potential aquifer recharge sites would be best suited in the north-east part of the province, slightly outside the study area, to provide water for all. Two recharge schemes of an infiltration basin and an injection well with storm water detention tank were proposed. The injection well was decided upon, despite its higher cost, due to the impermeability of soils in Yogyakarta and possible water seepage to the environment. Similar to Perth’s Hartfield park scheme, an injection well would directly bypass these soil layers to recharge the aquifers with rainwater and storm water. Hartfield Park injects 4400 kL of water/year. Conclusion, significance and impact study: The findings of this study indicate aquifer recharge is a possible solution to overcome Yogyakarta’s high abstraction. Further studies recommend that injection well trials are further developed in terms of location, depth and sizing

Kondo effect in a double quantum-dot molecule under the effect of an electric and magnetic field

Electron tunneling through a double quantum dot molecule, in the Kondo regime, under the effect of a magnetic field and an applied voltage, is studied. This system possesses a complex response to the applied fields characterized by a tristable solution for the conductance. The different nature of the solutions are studied in and out thermodynamical equilibrium. It is shown that the interdot coupling and the fields can be used to control the region of multistability. The mean-field slave-boson formalism is used to obtain the solution of the problem.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. To appear in Sol. State Com

Modelling residential water consumers’ behaviors by feature selection and feature weighting

Identifying the most relevant determinants of water consuming or saving behaviors at the household level is key to building mathematical models that predict urban water demand variability in space and time and to explore the effects of different Water Demand Management Strategies for the residential sector. This work contributes a novel approach based on feature selection and feature weighting to model the single-user consumption behavior at the household level. A two-step procedure consisting of the extraction of the most relevant determinants of users’ consumption and the identification of a predictive model of water consumers’ profile is proposed and tested on a real case study. Results show the effectiveness of the proposed method in capturing the influence of candidate determinants on residential water consumption, as well as in attaining sufficiently accurate predictions of users’ consumption profiles, which constitutes essential information to support residential water demand management

STUDY OF MODIFIED PERFORATED BREAKWATER AS RENEWABLE ENERGY DEVICE

Aim: This study investigates to determine the influence of wave steepness, relative freeboard, and breaker parameters on overtopping discharge at a perforated breakwater. Methodology and results: The research method used was using both a numerical model simulations on three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling software namely FLOW-3D; and empirical equation computation. The evaluation of both approaches were performed for understanding the characteristics of wave discharge that overtopping the perforated breakwater. The experimental results of modified perforated breakwater revealed that the lowest slope possible with the highest porosity possible can generate the highest value of dimensionless overtopping discharge for wave energy harvesting. Conclusion, significance and impact study: The findings of this study formulated the optimum slope and porosity to the highest wave energy harvested. Further studies recommend that data collection from onsite trials of modified perforated breakwater are performed

Examining the methodology of participatory design to create innovative sanitation technologies in rural Malawi

Top-down sanitation programs that promote a specific sanitation technology based on the presumptions of ‘outside experts’ have been criticised for endorsing unsustainable, expensive and inappropriate technologies. In response to these failings, a new era of demand-led sanitation programs (including community-led total sanitation and sanitation marketing) encourage greater participation of users to create appropriate sanitation technologies. This paper examines the use of participatory design sessions with local builders and householders in three rural districts in Malawi. The paper provides an account of the participatory design methodology and critically reflects on the processes and challenges in relation to power, creativity and ownership. The designs created during the sessions are presented with recommendations for further testing and structural refinement

Carbon footprint management of unconventional natural gas development in the export scenario

In Australia, exploitation of shale gas is at an early stage. Western Australia has estimated its technically recoverable gas resources at 235 trillion cubic feet (tcf). It is viewed as an exciting economic prospect and decarbonising option for transition to climate change mitigation. The central focus of this paper is to estimate the climate impacts of Australian shale gas fracking and compare with other energy sources. Electricity generation has been considered as end use of gas in export scenarios to Japan and China. Analysis has been done for resource development periods of 20 and 40 years. Carbon footprints of shale gas range from 604MtCO2e to 543 MtCO2e per annum for China and Japan export cases, respectively, for 20 years field lifetime, if 66 tcf of shale gas is exploited and used. This result is roughly equivalent to 115% of Australia's total national emissions for the year 2014. If all technically recoverable shale gas (235tcf) from the Canning Basin in the Kimberley is exploited and exported to China and Japan over 40 years, the annual emissions are double the total Australian national emissions. The result suggests that shale gas has low carbon intensity compared to coal and oil but solar PV and wind are much cleaner energy options for GHG mitigation. The solar PV and wind electricity would produce 8% and 5% of the shale gas electricity emissions, respectively. Unless accompanied by stringent regulation and compliance on the upstream resource development, stage shale gas cannot be an appropriate energy source for sustainable development as opposed to renewable energy sources

Water usage in Australian indigenous communities

Water usage in Australian indigenous communitie