Crina Oltean-Dumbrava

Making more sustainable decisions for asset investment in the water industry - sustainable water industry asset resource decisions - the SWARD project

Effective Integrated Water Management (IWM) is an aspiration for all those engaged in water service provision, and is a key component of the World Water Vision. Part of this includes the sustainability of water systems and their interaction with other urban systems. In the urban drainage field, there are many examples of attempts to establish effective integrated systems. A major problem, however, is the elusive nature of the concept of sustainability and how to translate what is known in terms of sustainability principles and objectives into action within the IWM perspective. Case studies are presented that illustrate how urban drainage problems can be approached in a way that takes due account of sustainability considerations. These studies utilise a new Guidebook that presents multi-criteria decision support systems to assist Water Service Providers (WSPs) to assess the relative sustainability of water/wastewater system asset development decisions. The Guidebook was developed as part of a UK government and industry funded multi-partner project over the past 4 years. An essential feature of the Guidebook is its transparency, as it is intended to be accessible to all stakeholders affected by a proposed development.

Procurement of Sustainable Noise-Reducing Devices: State-of-the-Art Review from EU Project QUIESST

There is a pressing need for the sustainability of noise-reducing devices (NRDs) for transport systems to be considered by procurement agencies, policy makers, and industry professionals/designers in order to be in line with a growing sustainable agenda for surface transport systems including the supporting infrastructure. This need has been recognized by the European Union (EU) and an appropriate research project has recently been commissioned. Quietening the Environment for a Sustainable Surface Transport (QUIESST) is a three-year project funded by the EU that began late in 2009. It is a multidisciplinary project undertaken by 13 EU partners from eight countries. Within the project, the University of Bradford is the specialist research team tasked with assessing the sustainability of noise-reducing devices. These devices are designed to control noise from surface transport (both road and rail) and include noise barriers and absorptive claddings. For the purpose of this research, sustainability was defined as: the optimal consideration of technical, environmental, economical, and social factors during the design, construction, maintenance and repair, and removal/demolition stages of NRD projects. A comprehensive literature review has been carried out of the relevant European standards, design guides used around the world by road and rail authorities, and existing research on NRDs conducted by academics and leading practitioners to identify sustainable practices and gaps in the knowledge base. It became evident that sustainability factors are not being fully considered across the whole life cycle of NRDs. At the present time and based on the available data, it is not possible to quantify and rank NRDs in terms of sustainability for a given site, project, or case study. Clearly this has major implications for the management of the procurement process. Further data collection and analysis are required to provide guidance that can be considered useful for all stakeholders. This is the aim of the further stages of this work package within the QUIESST project. This paper presents an overview of the current state of the art for the sustainability of NRDs, and describes some of the major deficiencies while highlighting knowledge gaps and the further research that is needed.

Data quality challenges in the UK social housing sector

The social housing sector has yet to realise the potential of high data quality. While other businesses, mainly in the private sector, reap the benefits of data quality, the social housing sector seems paralysed, as it is still struggling with recent government regulations and steep revenue reduction. This paper offers a succinct review of relevant literature on data quality and how it relates to social housing. The Housing and Development Board in Singapore offers a great example on how to integrate data quality initiatives in the social housing sector. Taking this example, the research presented in this paper is extrapolating cross-disciplinarily recommendations on how to implement data quality initiatives in social housing providers in the UK.

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.

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

Empirical 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.

Factors Influencing Attendance and Success on the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment Associate Membership Certificate Course.

The Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) Associate Certificate in Environmental Management course is designed to raise the professional competence of aspiring and existing environmental practitioners. Successful completion entitles the individual to become an associate IEMA member. A dedicated evaluation model was developed for this focused research, in order to determine the factors which influence student attendance and success on the course. The methodology utilised the core elements of three academically proven training evaluation models to examine presage and process factors, the student’s reaction to the course, and changes in knowledge, attitude and understanding. A range of personal, work‐related and course‐related factors were identified. These include student motivation, previous environmental experience and preferred learning style. A negative correlation was found between examination success and the need for students to also focus on work activities while attending this course.