Sustainable Development In Australia Research Articles

A study of appropriate wave energy technology for sustainable development in Australia

The deployment and development of wave energy systems to increase energy sector efficiency is essential for governments. To develop and maximize the exploitation of wave energy sources, applying appropriate technologies is extremely important. The design of decision-making tools to identify the best technology for developing energy resources optimally is one of the primary decision-making issues in the energy sector. In this article, we have proposed a Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) model to select suitable technologies among eleven wave energy harvesting technologies: OPT PowerBuoy, AquaBuoy, Archimedes Wave Swing, Salter’s Duck, Aquamarine PowerOyster, Bio Wave, SEAREV, Weptos, Mighty Whale, Wave dragon. To handle conflicting objectives during evaluation, the Fuzzy AHP method is used to calculate the weight of the criteria. Then, wave energy harvesting technology is ranked using the Fuzzy TOPSIS approach. An actual case study from Australia was examined in order to show the viability of the suggested decision-making methodology. This study applies a valuable reference to the issue of wave technology selection; Therefore, managers involved in wave energy can use the problem-solving approach in this study to identify the most suitable wave energy technology based on their criteria. Research results show that the most suitable technologies for optimal development of wave energy sources in Australia are WET-05 and WET-03 with coefficients of 0.852 and 0.806, respectively. Meanwhile, two technologies considered unsuitable for developing wave energy sources in this study are WET-06 and WET-11 with scores of 0.375 and 0.381, respectively. In this study, the combined application of the two FAHP-FTOPSIS methods is considered more appropriate because of its theoretical ease of understanding as well as the simplicity of application and robustness of the results.

The Warming Climate Aggravates Atmospheric Nitrogen Pollution in Australia.

Australia is a warm country with well-developed agriculture and a highly urbanized population. How these specific features impact the nitrogen cycle, emissions, and consequently affect environmental and human health is not well understood. Here, we find that the ratio of reactive nitrogen (Nr) losses to air over losses to water in Australia is 1.6 as compared to values less than 1.1 in the USA, the European Union, and China. Australian Nr emissions to air increased by more than 70% between 1961 and 2013, from 1.2 Tg N yr−1 to 2.1 Tg N yr−1. Previous emissions were substantially underestimated mainly due to neglecting the warming climate. The estimated health cost from atmospheric Nr emissions in Australia is 4.6 billion US dollars per year. Emissions of Nr to the environment are closely correlated with economic growth, and reduction of Nr losses to air is a priority for sustainable development in Australia.

Apples for Oranges: Disparities in Offset Legislation and Policy among Jurisdictions and its Implications for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development in Australia

As a signatory to Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (including the Sustainable Development Goals) and the Convention on Biological Diversity, Australia has an international obligation to ensure sustainable development. Biodiversity offsets are one tool used by Australian regulators to allow development to continue, whilst ensuring international obligations for sustainable development are met. In this study, legislation, policy and published guidelines for the Australian Commonwealth, states and territories were analysed to determine if the application of biodiversity offsets was consistent with the principles of sustainable development (environmentally, socially, economically) and if the allowance of biodiversity offsets in different jurisdictions created gaps in biodiversity and environmental protection across Australia. Regulation of biodiversity offsets was found to be inconsistent between the Commonwealth and the states and territories, with most jurisdictions having less than 50% similarity. This inconsistency in offset policy and legislation between jurisdictions could lead to loss of biodiversity. Additionally, jurisdictions did not adequately consider the social and economic aspects of sustainability in relation to biodiversity offsets, meaning that, through the allowance of biodiversity offsets, Australia may not be meeting their international obligations related to sustainable development. Further legislative development for biodiversity offsets is required in Australia to improve environmental protection and to adequately consider all aspects of sustainability. The Council of Australian Governments is a mechanism that could be used to ensure all jurisdictions consider the aspects of sustainability consistently in relation to biodiversity offsets.

A review on contemporary computational programs for Building's life-cycle energy consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions assessment: An empirical study in Australia

Choosing an effective and efficient building design option for energy management as well as for reducing greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions associated with a building life-cycle is always highly challenging to any designers in the battle to tackle global climate change issues. Researchers around the world are thriving in building optimization models for developing strategies that would result in an overall reduction of a building's energy consumption aside from decreasing GHG emissions.Despite using similar input data sources, challenges to get similar results which are simulated from different software to assess environmental and financial aspects in a life-cycle of a system are still the dilemma to all sustainable development designers. Another difficulty, which happens in the progress of sustainable development in Australia, is that designers may have to follow a variety of green building rating tools to minimize environmental footprint and to increase the efficiency of buildings operation during their lifetime. Time will be consumed if design options are not appropriately and automatically calculated and assessed. In order to obtain building's life-cycle assessment (LCA) along with to achieve Green Star's certificate, choosing an appropriate program to calculate life-cycle energy consumption, life-cycle cost and life-cycle GHG emissions are a necessity to designers. This paper presents a comprehensive review of all considerable researches focus on the biologically inspired algorithms to different fields of sustainable building designs and their module modelling development in recent years (up to 2016). Major fields are reviewed in detail, including building envelope design, comprehensive optimization of several areas simultaneously as well as configuration and control of building energy consumption.The outcomes of this study can assist researchers to choose which program is the best suitable for their study on sustainable assessment. In Australia, based on these design, practitioners can decide the optimum option for their project which can achieve their sustainability goals as well as can be granted the Green Star's certificate less sophisticated.

Aid for trade and ecologically sustainable development in Australia’s international aid program

ABSTRACTIn September 2015, Australia, along with 193 member states of the United Nations, signed the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The facilitation of international trade and increasing foreign aid for developing countries were emphasised as crucial means for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. An important role was assigned to the international Aid for Trade initiative, which is about stimulating economic growth in developing countries through removing constraints to trade. Australia has been a strong supporter of the Aid for Trade initiative since it was launched at the World Trade Organization’s Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong in 2005. Aid for trade has become a central plank of the ‘new development paradigm’ of Australia’s international aid program. This article analyses the conceptualisation and practice of aid for trade in Australia’s aid, with a focus on how it links to ecologically sustainable development. It argues that Australia’s aid for trade is reinforcing the neo-liberal development paradigm in which environmental dimensions are overall neglected and private sector development and free trade are prioritised. In order to achieve international and national development goals of poverty reduction and sustainable development, environmental sustainability needs to be fully integrated into the growing aid for trade portfolio of Australia’s international aid.

Political modernisation for ecologically sustainable development in Australia

This article considers Australia's ecologically sustainable development (ESD) trajectory through the prism of ecological modernisation (EM). As a ‘meta policy’ ESD offered the important animating principles and wide-ranging objectives of environmental reform, with the operational specifics provided by EM theory and practice. EM proposes two key interrelated strategies for achieving sustainable development: the modernisation of production and its practices and the modernisation of the political sector and its institutions. This article focuses on the latter, particularly on the political commitment to ESD at the political elite level. In considering key moments in Australia's political modernisation story, the article finds that, despite important developments and innovations, the ESD and EM experiment in Australia has had limited success in significantly and permanently shifting the government business relations of sustainability in ways that would respect the spirit and goals of ESD. This can in part be explained by the limited capacity of a reform process such as EM to shift the political dynamics of ESD's environment–development relationship.

Green buildings for greying people

Purpose – This paper aims to identify the critical issues to be considered by developers and practitioners when embarking on their first green residential retirement project in Australia. With an increasingly ageing population and widespread acceptance of the need for sustainable development in Australia, the demand for green retirement villages is increasing. Design/methodology/approach – In view of the lack of adequate historical data for quantitative analysis, a case study approach is used to examine the successful delivery of green retirement villages. Face-to-face interviews and document analyses were conducted for data collection. Findings – The findings of the study indicate that one of the major obstacles to the provision of affordable green retirement villages is the higher initial costs involved. However, positive aspects were identified, the most significant of which relate to the innovative design of site and floor plans; adoption of thermally efficient building materials; orientation of windows; installation of water harvesting and recycling systems, water conservation fittings and appliances; and waste management during the construction stage. With the adoption of these measures, it is believed that sustainable retirement development can be achieved without significant additional capital costs. Practical implications – The research findings serve as a guide for developers in decision-making throughout the project life-cycle when introducing green features into the provision of affordable retirement accommodation. Originality/value – This paper provides insights into the means by which affordable green residential retirement projects for aged people can be successfully completed.

Professional Associations: Their Role in Promoting Sustainable Development in Australia

Professional associations have a strong infl uence on what is covered in the curricula of universities, especially that of professional degrees. They also provide members with professional development throughout their careers. Professional associations have the potential to facilitate development of sustainability competency in the workforce in many professions. A survey of professional associations in Australia indicated that by the end of the 2000s, few were facilitating sustainability, either through their input to university curricula, or through professional development. The experiences of a few associations that do facilitate sustainability can be used to build a strategy for enlisting other professional associations to facilitate sustainability competency amongst their members.

Residential property development professionals attitudes towards sustainable development in australia

Buildings account for around 30% of the developed countries greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Improving energy effi ciency of buildings is one of the quickest and most cost-effective ways of reducing GHG emissions. This paper outlines the results of research carried out in Australia in 2009. The broad aims of the research are to identify policy directions to aid in the uptake of sustainability practices that will help improve building performance and reduce GHG emissions. Part of the research entailed surveying building practitioners involved in residential property development to fi out their experiences with designing and constructing homes and what they perceive to be the drivers and barriers to the uptake of sustainable building practices. Respondents have seen an increase in demand for energy-effi cient ‘green’ homes, due to an increase in awareness of climate change and also the reduced utility costs associated with these homes. The most common, client-preferred, and successful features incorporated into the design and retrofi tting of homes were passive solar design, having gas connected, solar water heating and rainwater tanks. The high sunshine hours in Australia together with the availability of Government rebates and subsidies make these features fi nancially viable. The average cost premium to build a ‘green’ home was identifi ed as 14.2% compared to the cost of building a conventional home without energy-effi cient features. The main barriers that prevent the incorporation of sustainable features into residential developments were identifi ed as cost and lack of developer awareness. Despite this, two-thirds of the respondents felt that consumers would be willing to pay up to a 10% premium for an environmentally friendly home. Unfortunately, this falls below the 14.2% premium identifi ed.

Lessons from the Leaders of Green Designed Commercial Buildings in Australia

This research identifies property stakeholders’ motivations for, and experiences of, achieving proven examples of best practice in sustainable development in Australia. The results can help inform others of how to design sustainable buildings that work well in both financial and non-financial terms. The results show that the most successful outcomes are achieved through the use of an integrated approach: allowing the design team to innovate solutions, and involving all parties early in the design process. Further, adopting tried and tested technologies, ensuring the tenant fit-out matches the base building, and that the building is finely tuned on a regular basis, is critical.

A Tale of Two Pulp Mills: Realising Ecologically Sustainable Development in Australia

Pulp mills can be fraught projects. This has certainly been the case in Tasmania with its two major attempts at building pulp mills generating much discord. The first project, Wesley Vale, was officially abandoned in 1989 after much conflict and conditionally controversy. The current project, Tamar Valley, has proved equally contentious and, although approved, remains problematic. Despite striking similarities between the two projects, the emergence of a new environmental policy regime in the intervening 20 years has engendered considerable differences as well. Yet the new regime's capacity to ensure smooth passage has shown itself to be limited. This article uses the opportunity presented by the two pulp mills to reflect on the merits of Australia's sustainability regime.

Stratification of environmental education and education for sustainable development in Australia: an analysis of positions vacant advertisements

Positions vacant advertisements discursively construct employment sectors, employers and employees. This paper uses content analysis, systemic functional linguistics and critical discourse analysis to investigate the discursive construction of environmental education and education for sustainable development through positions vacant advertisements placed with Australian online recruitment agencies. The results suggest a disturbing stratification between environmental education and education for sustainable development with respect to the terms and conditions, and the power dynamics operating in each sector.

An Overview of Water Sensitive Urban Design Practices in Australia

Ecologically Sustainable Development in Australia can be described as going beyond the protection of the environment from the impacts of pollution, to protecting and conserving natural resources. In an urban environmental context this means urban development (both greenfield development and urban renewal) that seeks to have no long term effects on various aspects of the environment related to aspects such as greenhouse gas levels, material resources, biodiversity and ambient water environments. Water environments, such as waterways and coastal waters, and water supply catchments are key areas where urban development can have significant impacts. Water Sensitive Urban Design in Australia has evolved from its early association with stormwater management to provide a broader framework for sustainable urban water management. It provides a common and unified method for integrating the interactions between the urban built form (including urban landscapes) and the urban water cycle. This paper presents an overview of current industry practice and research implementation of Water Sensitive Urban Design in Australia.

Exploratory research: citizen participation, local government and sustainable development in Australia

AbstractExploratory research reported in this paper was undertaken in Adelaide, Australia during 1998/99. The purpose of the research is to explore local development practice as evidenced through the experiences and actions of local citizens, community based groups and local government (Neuman, 1994). Results from this first stage research suggest that sustainability initiatives in Australia might best be implemented through a collaborative approach at the local community level involving local citizens working in partnership with local government. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment.

The need for more stringent requirements in Environmental Impact Assessment: Shell Cove Marina case study

An examination of Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) points to a clear need for change in the current process of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in Australia. The recent approval of a Boatharbour/Marina at Shellharbour, New South Wales, Australia, serves as an example that underscores some of the problems common to most EISs. Budgetary constraints imposed on the ecological consultants can lead to the use of inappropriate methodology and the collection of inaccurate biological data. The limitations in methodology must be taken into consideration in EISs and all conclusions should be substantiated with data or reference to the literature. There is a need for stricter guidelines for ecological studies and monitoring programmes. A comprehensive list of potential impacts requiring consideration in an EIS should be provided for all designated developments. Novel mitigation methods should always be subject to monitoring. The consequences of not proceeding with the development should be considered in conjunction with alternatives to the proposed development and it should be essential to consider ecotourism as an alternative to all purely tourist oriented proposals. There is a need for peer review in the EIA process. Many of the flaws in the Shell Cove EIS might have been negated by more input from independent scientists. The future of ecologically sustainable development in Australia depends on our ability to learn from, and improve on, mistakes from the past.

Ecologically sustainable development in Australia

Progress on promoting ecologically sustainable development (ESD) in Australia is presented. First, the need for promoting environmental conservation and development in Australia is outlined. Next, the contents of the ten volumes promoting ecologically sustainable development in Australia are critically appraised. Finally, some of the ways in which the ideals of ecologically sustainable development in Australia can be made operational and translated into practice are discussed.