Data integration for quantitative analysis of sustainability

The development of an integrated data repository for urban sustainability analysis is presented; it aims to enhance quantitative analysis of urban sustainability on real statistical data with relevant geographic references. The method is complementary to qualitative and quantitative analyses of sample data, which are the main approaches adopted in conventional urban sustainability analysis. The paper highlights the background and importance of using statistical data for urban planning and analysis. Selected statistics sources and various geospatial objects relevant to the geo-references of the statistical data are reviewed. The conceptual model of the integrated data repository is described and the logical integration of statistics from different sources is illustrated. The detailed geospatial conceptual model shows the geospatial classes, main attributes and relationships between these geospatial classes. The paper details the procedure of setting up a server-based database to host both geospatial and non-geospatial data, and uses PostGIS query to interrogate geospatial information in the database, including how to convert the database tables from other formats. A geographic information system (GIS) is introduced as a user-side tool to reveal geospatial and non-geospatial data. Case studies of application of the database for urban sustainability analysis are described. Data maps generated for these case studies can assist planning and design professionals in analysing some urban sustainability issues. Potential applications in various sustainability analyses, barriers and future improvements are also discussed

Realising benefits in primary healthcare infrastructures

Purpose: This paper focuses upon the requirements to manage change, tangible and intangible benefits in a joint approach to deliver outputs on time, to quality and cost without failing to realise the benefits of the change. The aim of the paper is to demonstrate the need for benefits driven programme/project management as well as the importance of identifying the stakeholders’ level of involvement and contribution throughout the process, and manage their expectations. Design/methodology/approach: The methodology used is based on an action research approach, combining findings from a literature review and case studies within UK’s primary healthcare sector. Findings: Findings demonstrate development of a Benefits Realisation (BeReal) approach in healthcare through looking at case studies taking place within UK’s primary and acute healthcare sector Research limitations/implications: The framework development is based upon theoretical evidence and further research is needed to test and validate its robustness. Originality/value: The application of Benefits Realisation and Management in developing and delivering primary healthcare facilities. Keywords: Benefits management, Benefits realisation, healthcare infrastructures, process and LIF

Integrating research and teaching in higher education: Conceptual issues

Integrating new knowledge created through research with teaching has become an important area that needs prompt attention with the growing emphasis on student learning activities, quality assurance procedures and research funding mechanisms within the UK higher education system. The link between research and teaching is not automatic. Thus, it needs to be created in higher education departments in order to achieve a productive relationship and manage research activities of university staff with teaching duties. The research study, on which this paper is based on, aims to develop principles in relation to transferring research knowledge into teaching through a literature review and case studies. The paper reports conceptual issues related to such a transfer process based on the literature findings

Using virtual reality technology to facilitate web-based public participation

Virtual reality as an advanced visualisation technology is used in many aspects of urban design and management to assist the various stakeholders’ better understanding of the urban environment. This paper is based on an EPSRC funded research project – “Web-Based Participation for Campus-Scale Project Design: The West Cambridge Site”, which aims to facilitate web-based participatory consultation to allow staff, students and local residents to learn about, and debate, planning and building proposals by Cambridge University. Interactive 3D virtual reality models were created of a number of proposed urban development projects in Cambridge and published on the University web site along with mechanisms for surveying users’ opinions of the proposals. These were linked to relational databases on the web server for recording survey responses. Care was taken to provide the participants with a friendly interface and interactive functions to easily navigate the model and accurately understand the issues involved. This paper starts with reviewing the theory and practice of implementing virtual reality visualisation for public participation in urban design. The technical details of creating the 3D virtual reality models, merging them into the web site and linking objects in the virtual reality model with databases, are described. Finally the advantages of, and the barriers to, this kind of virtual reality application are addressed

Procurers, Providers and Users (PPU): towards a meta-role model for conceptualising product-service in the built environment

The product-service paradigm requires a shift in focus for many engineering disciplines, forcing them to change from providing products to providing products and associated services. Such a shift is likely to present several challenges to the built environment due to its inherent organisational fragmentations and through-life discontinuities. This paper presents a preliminary conceptualisation of the product-service paradigm as seen from a built environment perspective. The proposed PPU model represents the meta-roles and the information flows, considered as key to sustaining the product-service concept within the built environment

An integrated life cycle costing database: a conceptual framework

Life cycle costing (LCC) is a management technique that has been available to the industry for some time, but despite this it continues to languish in obscurity. Some clients, most apparently from the public sector, are fostering the technique by commissioning studies based on the LCC appraisal techniques. However, the majority of building designs are still currently produced unsullied by thoughts of maintenance implications, life expectancy or energy consumption. Recent technological developments, particularly in Web, Virtual Reality (VR), and Object Oriented technologies and mathematical and computational modelling techniques will undoubtedly help in resolving some of the problems associated with life cycle costing techniques. This paper outlines a conceptual framework for an innovative system that facilitates the implementation of LCC in various design and occupancy stages. This system is being developed within an EPSRC-funded research project, undertaken through a joint collaboration between the Robert Gordon University and the University of Salford

AN IT TOOL FOR MANAGING THE PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

ABSTRACT Throughout the last two decades a number of improved product development processes have been suggested that illustrate and clearly define the nature, scope and holistic representation of the issues involved in understanding and managing the product development process (PDP). The degree to which they have actually added value in the industry, even when lean principles have been incorporated, has been debated by many authors. Many agree that one of the main reasons for the above is that those processes/models are rarely implemented fully or the integrity of the embedded philosophy has been diluted through wrong adaptation. One such model of an improved PDP is the Process Protocol. This paper presents how the development of an IT tool can enable the easy and fast adaptation of the Process Protocol Model without loosing the integrity of the holistic approach and without diluting the Philosophies on which it was based. The IT tool adopts the Process Protocol model as a template with enough information that makes it appropriate but flexible enough to allow individual company innovations to be part of the model in a nonprescriptive nature

HyCon - a virtual reality design support tool for hybrid concrete structural frames

Hybrid concrete can provide high quality, cost effective structural frames in a variety of situations when compared to other, more conventional, solutions such as in-situ concrete and steel frames. The key players in the design and construction supply chain process for hybrid concrete are lead frame contractors and design engineers. The use of hybrid concrete, however, is sometimes not considered by contractors and designers during the initial stages of design. This is often because of a lack of reliable and accessible hybrid concrete cost and production time information. Without this information, contractors and designers may disregard hybrid concrete as a design alternative, potentially omitting the most appropriate solution before it has even been considered. This paper reports on a collaborative research project in the United Kingdom which has developed HyCon - a prototype design support tool which allows contractors and designers at the conceptual design stage to carry out "what if?" analysis in a virtual reality environment to consider various hybrid concrete alternatives against a range of 'hard' and 'soft' performance criteria. The 'hard' criteria allow contractors and designers to assess initial and whole life cycle cost and production duration implications. The 'soft' criteria encourage the whole project team to assess and prioritise the importance and performance of design alternatives against criteria such as physical form and space

Rethinking construction : the generic design and construction process protocol.

The complexity of construction projects and the fragmentation of the construction industry undertaking those projects has effectively resulted in linear, uncoordinated and highly variable project processes in the UK construction sector. Research undertaken at the University of Salford resulted in the development of an improved project process, the Process Protocol, which considers the whole lifecycle of a construction project whilst integrating its participants under a common framework. The Process Protocol identifies the various phases of a construction project with particular emphasis on what is described in the manufacturing industry as the ‘fuzzy front end’. The participants in the process are described in terms of the activities that need to be undertaken in order to achieve a successful project and process execution. In addition, the decision-making mechanisms, from a client perspective, are illustrated and the foundations for a learning organization/industry are facilitated within a consistent Process Protocol