Daniel J. Gilmour

Domestic source of phosphorus to sewage treatment works

Phosphorus is an element essential for life. Concerns regarding long-term security of supply and issues related to eutrophication of surface waters once released into the aquatic environment have led governments to consider and apply measures for reducing the use and discharge of phosphorus. Examples of source control include legislation to reduce phosphorus use in domestic detergents. This research shows that other domestic sources of phosphorus also contribute significantly to the domestic load to sewer and that overall, domestic sources dominate loads to sewage treatment works. Estimates provided here show that although the natural diet contributes 40% of the domestic phosphorus load, other potentially preventable sources contribute significantly to the estimated 44,000 tonnes of phosphorus entering UK sewage treatment works each year. In the UK, food additives are estimated to contribute 29% of the domestic load; automatic dishwashing detergents contribute 9% and potentially increasing; domestic laundry 14%, including contributions from phosphonates, but decreasing; phosphorus dosing to reduce lead levels in tap water 6%; food waste disposed of down the drain 1%; and personal care products 1%. Although UK data is presented here, it is anticipated that similar impacts would be expected for other developed economies. Consideration of alternatives to all preventable sources of phosphorus from these sources would therefore offer potentially significant reductions in phosphorus loads to sewage treatment works and hence to the aquatic environment. Combining all source control measures and applying them to their maximum extent could potentially lead to the prevention of over 22,000 tonnes-P/year entering sewage treatment works.

SWARD: decision support processes for the UK water industry

In industrialised countries water service providers (WSPs) must provide an appropriate level of service with an acceptable performance at an acceptable cost to customers. In the UK a move towards sustainable development is now also a major goal for WSPs. However, the imposition of institutional systems and regulatory targets still encourage the adoption of less sustainable technologies or solutions by the water industry. It is within this context, that the Sustainable Water industry Asset Resource Decisions (SWARD) project has developed a set of decision support processes that allow WSPs to assess the relative sustainability of water/wastewater system asset development decisions. A Guidebook has been produced that takes the WSP and its stakeholders through the processes essential to incorporating sustainability in asset investment decision‐making. Several case studies that demonstrate the SWARD principles in application are included within the Guidebook, the experience of which is described in this paper.

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.

Sustainable urban development in practice: : the SAVE concept

The need for sustainable development of the urban environment presents the research community with a number of challenges and opportunities. A considerable volume of research has been undertaken into the constituent parts of this complex problem and a number of tool kits and methodologies have been developed to enable and encourage the application of specific aspects of research in practice. However, there is limited evidence of the holistic integration of the body of knowledge arising from the research within real-life decision-making practices. In this paper we present an overview of the existing body of knowledge relating to sustainable development of the urban environment and propose a generic framework for its integration within current practices. This framework recognises the need to: understand social, economic, and environmental issues; understand the decision-making processes; provide a means of measurement, assessment, or valuation of the issues; provide analytical methods for the comparative assessment of complex data to enable an evaluation of strategies and design options and to communicate effectively throughout the process with a wide range of stakeholders. The components of a novel sustainability assessment, visualisation and enhancement (SAVE) framework, developed by the authors to ‘operationalise’ the body of knowledge are presented and justified. These include: decision-mapping methods to identify points of intervention; indicator identification and measurement approaches; appropriate mathematical and analytical tools and an interactive simulation and visualisation platform which integrates and communicates complex multivariate information to diverse stakeholder groups. We report on the application of the SAVE framework to a major urban development project and reflect on its current and potential impact on the development. Conclusions are also drawn about its general applicability.

Mobile technology and e-inclusion

This paper will describe work funded by the European Union (Intereg NSR) iAge project which attempts to address the issues surrounding accessibility to mobile devices and services. The project takes the approach of combining three approaches directed at allowing greater inclusion in mobile technologies for our increasingly aging population. Focus groups sessions are used to ascertain the real problems the older generation has with mobile devices. An iterative design process is then used to create assistive applications which not only assist the user but give them a purpose to interact with the technology. Workshops are then used to provide developers and service providers with an interactive experience of how the elderly feel when using mobile technology. Finally the paper describes how the combination of these approaches will create a transnational framework of best practice for future developers.

Streaming and 3D mapping of AGRI-data on mobile devices

A mobile app for delivery of context aware data for crop monitoring and scouting is presented.Data intensive streaming methods were evaluated for delivering in-field AGRI-data.Customisable interactive 3D visualisation methods were evaluated for displaying AGRI-data.Testing highlights that different users prefer different 3D interactive visualisation methods.Testing highlights that data streaming and rendering is possible in low connectivity environments. Farm monitoring and operations generate heterogeneous AGRI-data from a variety of different sources that have the potential to be delivered to users on the go and in the field to inform farm decision making. A software framework capable of interfacing with existing web mapping services to deliver in-field farm data on commodity mobile hardware was developed and tested. This raised key research challenges related to: robustness of data steaming methods under typical farm connectivity scenarios, and mapping and 3D rendering of AGRI-data in an engaging and intuitive way. The presentation of AGRI-data in a 3D and interactive context was explored using different visualisation techniques; currently the 2D presentation of AGRI- data is the dominant practice, despite the fact that mobile devices can now support sophisticated 3D graphics via programmable pipelines. The testing found that WebSockets were the most reliable streaming method for high resolution image/texture data. From our focus groups there was no single visualisation technique that was preferred demonstrating that a range of methods is a good way to satisfy a large user base. Improved 3D experience on mobile phones is set to revolutionize the multimedia market and a key challenge is identifying useful 3D visualisation methods and navigation tools that support the exploration of data driven 3D interactive visualisation frameworks for AGRI-data.

Engaging stakeholders in research to address water-energy-food (WEF) nexus challenges

The water–energy–food (WEF) nexus has become a popular, and potentially powerful, frame through which to analyse interactions and interdependencies between these three systems. Though the case for transdisciplinary research in this space has been made, the extent of stakeholder engagement in research remains limited with stakeholders most commonly incorporated in research as end-users. Yet, stakeholders interact with nexus issues in a variety of ways, consequently there is much that collaboration might offer to develop nexus research and enhance its application. This paper outlines four aspects of nexus research and considers the value and potential challenges for transdisciplinary research in each. We focus on assessing and visualising nexus systems; understanding governance and capacity building; the importance of scale; and the implications of future change. The paper then proceeds to describe a novel mixed-method study that deeply integrates stakeholder knowledge with insights from multiple disciplines. We argue that mixed-method research designs—in this case orientated around a number of cases studies—are best suited to understanding and addressing real-world nexus challenges, with their inevitable complex, non-linear system characteristics. Moreover, integrating multiple forms of knowledge in the manner described in this paper enables research to assess the potential for, and processes of, scaling-up innovations in the nexus space, to contribute insights to policy and decision making.

Building Bridges Between User and Designer: Co-creation, Immersion and Perspective Taking

Designing for users rather than with users is still a common practice in technology design and innovation as opposed to taking them on board in the process. Design for inclusion aims to define and understand end-users, their needs, context of use, and, by doing so, ensure that end-users are catered for and included, while the results are geared towards universality of use. We describe the central role of end-user and designer participation, immersion and perspective to build user-driven solutions. These approaches provided a critical understanding of the counterpart role. Designer(s) could understand what the user’s needs were, experience physical impairments, and see from other’s perspective the interaction with the environment. Users could understand challenges of designing for physical impairments, build a sense of ownership with technology and explore it from a creative perspective. The understanding of the peer’s role (user and designer), needs and perspective enhanced user participation and inclusion.

Comparison of Advanced and Standard Real-Time 3D Rendering Methods for Interactive Landscapes (Short Paper Version)

The use of games-based visualisation technology allows for the development of sophisticated interactive 3D decision support tools. Components of these tools are the various real-time rendering methods that are implemented to facilitate the interactive 3D aspect of the visualisations. Modern graphics hardware allows for the implementation of both simple and complex GPU shader programs. Shaders can be used to compute material and lighting properties that can greatly influence the visual style of a 3D scene. The research presented here shows that more sophisticated 3D shading methods increase user preference when used to render close up scenes. The research also shows that simpler shading methods can still be used to render distant scenes with less visual details present.