Assessment and relative sustainability of common types of roadside noise barriers

yesThere is increasing legislative and public pressure for the design and build of road infrastructure schemes to achieve better sustainability performance. Roadside noise barriers (RNBs) form a major part of the growing road infrastructure system in mitigating undesirable road noise to impacted communities. However, the relative sustainability of common RNBs is little understood in the research and industry literature. This makes it difficult for stakeholders to make informed decisions with regards to the sustainable design and procurement of RNBs. This paper presents nowel research carried out to assess and rank the relative sustainability of 13 RNB types using three multi criteria analysis (MCA) techniques, i.e. Simple Additive Weighting (SAW), Preference Ranking Organisation MeTHod for Enrichment Evaluations (PROMETHEE), and Elimination et Choice Translating Reality (ELECTRE III). The paper concludes that the presented sustainability rankings of the main RNB types from least sustainable to most sustainable will support the relevant stakeholders, involved in the planning, design, and procurement stages, to evaluate the sustainability of RNB options as either part of a large highways scheme or standalone project. The presented results will save significant analysis time and costs in cases whereby it is unfeasible to conduct MCAs. The presented sustainability asssessment methodology may also provide the basis for an industry sustainability certification sceheme and in turn support advancing the sustainability transport agenda.FP7 Quiesst research grant funded by the EU

Making asset investment decisions for wastewater systems that include sustainability

Effective integrated water management is a key component of the World Water Vision and the way in which aspirations for water equity may be realized. Part of the vision includes the promotion of sustainability of water systems and full accountability for their interaction with other urban systems. One major problem is that “sustainability” remains an elusive concept, although those involved with the provision of urban wastewater systems now recognize that decisions involving asset investment should use the “triple bottom line” approach to society, the economy, and the environment. The Sustainable Water Industry Asset Resource Decisions project has devised a flexible and adaptable framework of decision support processes that can be used to include the principles of sustainability more effectively. Decision mapping conducted at the outset of the project has shown that only a narrow range of criteria currently influence the outcome of asset investment decisions. This paper addresses the concepts of sustainability assessment and presents two case studies that illustrate how multicriteria decision support systems can enhance the assessment of the relative sustainability of a range of options when decisions are being made about wastewater asset investment

Individual learning on environmental vocational education and training courses does not always lead to the workplace application of knowledge and skills

YesEmpirical research on three commercial environmental vocational education and training programmes revealed distinct personal, teaching and work-based presage factors, which influenced individual learning and learning transfer to the workplace. The extent to which behaviour change and learning transfer occurred depended on a diverse range of factors, notably the workplace utility of the course; student’s level of personal commitment and position within the employing organisation; strength of the organisation’s environmental culture; level of post-course managerial/supervisory support available within the workplace; and changing workplace circumstances/priorities

Transport infrastructure: making more sustainable decisions for noise reduction

There is a global and growing sustainability agenda for surface transport yet there are no specific means of assessing the relative sustainability of infrastructure equipment. Transport noise reduction devices are a significant part of the surface transport infrastructure: they specifically address environmental and social needs, have a high economic impact, and involve a wide range of raw materials raising multiple technical issues. The paper presents an account of the bespoke tool developed for assessing the sustainability of transport noise reduction devices. Regulatory standards for noise reduction devices and the relevant sustainability assessment tools and procedures adopted worldwide were reviewed in order to produce a set of pertinent sustainability criteria and indicators for NRDs projects, which were reviewed and edited during a stakeholder engagement process. A decision making process for assessing the relative sustainability of noise reduction devices was formulated following the review of the literature. Two key stages were identified: (1) collection of data for criteria fulfillment evaluation and (2) multi-criteria analysis for assessing the sustainability of noise reduction devices. Appropriate tools and methods for achieving both objectives are recommended

“Top-Down-Bottom-Up” Methodology as a Common Approach to Defining Bespoke Sets of Sustainability Assessment Criteria for the Built Environment

YesThe top-down-bottom-up (TDBU) methodology for defining bespoke sets of sustainability criteria for specific civil engineering project types is introduced and discussed. The need to define sustainability criteria for specific civil engineering project types occurs mainly in one or both of the following cases: (1) when a more comprehensive and indicative assessment of the sustainability of the project type in question is required; and/or (2) there is no readily available bespoke sustainability assessment tool, or set of criteria, for assessing the sustainability of the project type. The construction of roads, buildings, airports, tunnels, dams, flood banks, bridges, water supply, and sewage systems and their supporting systems are considered to be unique civil engineering/infrastructure project types. The normative definition of sustainable civil engineering/infrastructure projects and the framework for assessing its sustainability is defined and provided by the authors. An example of the TDBU methodology being applied to define sustainability criteria for transport noise reducing devices is presented and discussed. The end result of applying the methodology is a systematically researched and industry validated set of criteria that denotes assessing the sustainability of the civil engineering/infrastructure project type. The paper concludes that the top-down-bottom-up will support stakeholders and managers involved in assessing sustainability to consider all major research methods to define general and unique sustainability criteria to assess and so maximize sustainability

GENOVATE conference digital stories - 8

YesGENOVATE conference digital story with Crina Oltean-Dumbrava.FP

"Moving closer" maximising benefits to university courses, students and employers through undergraduate civil enginering placements.

yesThis project built on research from university and employer perspectives exploring relationships between expectations of employers, professional bodies, students and universities on what constitutes a good work placement. Qualitative information on good practice was gathered in order to identify areas for improving placement practice and to illuminate employer engagement processes. Impact and benefits of different approaches to placements and curricula and/or staff Continuing Professional Development (CPD) implications were identified, together with recommendations on how improvements in understanding are shared and disseminated among employer groups and universities. Findings included that, although there were already guidelines on placement practice from a number of bodies, good practice identified at a wide range of points seemed more the result of academic staff drawing on their own experience, formed in the light of good knowledge of professional institution requirements, rather than use of guidelines. Employers mentioned professional institution requirements almost as a matter of course. That guidelines are not used as intended by those that produce them may be a general tendency, but this project¿s guidelines specifically reflect the organised voice of employers thanks to the involvement of their senior groupings, Sector Skills Councils and similar, in addition to individual employers. This project¿s guidelines are also more up to date than others identified, including particular issues affecting provision of placements that may face universities over the next few years. Students seem to recognise the benefits of placements more in retrospect than in advance. Some universities seem more flexible than others, adapting provision of placements as economic and other conditions have changed and to meet the needs of employers and placements. As one employer put it, ¿employers gravitate towards universities that make it easier¿. Employers also want to see academic credit awarded for placement learning and understandable processes with which they can help in support of this. The guidelines will be made available through a number of channels.Royal Academy of Engineerin

Sustainability criteria for standardisation of noise reducing devices, http://www.acoustics.asn.au/conference_proceedings/INTERNOISE2014/index.htm

NoThis paper presents an overview of generic database of sustainability criteria values for a range of noise reducing devices (NRDs) for surface transport developed as part of the research carried out in the EU project "Quietening the Environment for a Sustainable Surface Transport" (QUIESST) (1) and how these criteria can be used for sustainability assessment of noise barriers standards. The NRD Industry has been involved in this research and NRD's manufacturers have always shown a great interest in sustainability assessment. This is coupled with the new Construction Product Regulation (305/2011/EU -CPR) (2) that came into force in July 2013 that promotes a new approach in products qualification based on the declaration of performance against seven essential requirements. Sustainability has been specifically addressed with the new 7th basic requirement, 'sustainable usage of natural resources'. The method developed within this research is used to define evaluation procedures to meet sustainability as the 7th basic requirement as part of new standards.EU 7th Framework Programm

Thermal rehabilitation of Romanian housing: a low cost assessment tool

The numerous buildings that currently require thermal rehabilitation in Romania means that substantial resources and a large number of competent people are required to carry out surveys and energy audits. However, commercial energy balance software is mostly unaffordable for those organisations involved in this process. This paper describes an energy balance programme – ENEFControl – developed to be a rapid, low cost, local tool able to assist in the choice of energy efficient solutions for buildings. To test the software, thermal and energy analyses were carried out on a 1970s built apartment block in Transylvania. Based on these analyses, three constructive scenarios were proposed for thermal rehabilitation. Compared to the performance of the analysed building, the thermal and energy performance of the retrofitted building in all three scenarios significantly improved. Since European Union accession in 2007, rapidly rising energy costs have affected the Romanian population. ENEFControl offers Romanian engineers and architects an opportunity to speed up the rehabilitation programme of buildings without the need for more expensive expertise and tools

Whole life cost performance of domestic rainwater harvesting systems in the United Kingdom

Rainwater harvesting (RWH) can be used to reduce the demand for potable mains water. At the single-building scale, previous research has focused on water-saving potential, while financial assessment has either been omitted or considered in an ad hoc manner. This paper reports on the application of a more rigorous financial analysis of domestic RWH systems than had been conducted previously. Whole life costing was selected as the most appropriate financial assessment technique. A total of 3840 domestic system configurations were assessed at a daily time step, taking into account various stakeholder perspectives and future cost scenarios. In each case, it was found that harvesting rainwater was significantly less cost effective than relying solely on mains-only water. The domestic RWH systems generally resulted in financial losses approximately equal to their capital costs. Without significant financial support, domestic RWH is unlikely to be cost effective for all reasonably foreseeable scenarios