Campus: Building Modern Australian Universities. This project plans to examine the post-World War Two evolution of the Australian university campus. Modern campuses created opportunities for the realisation of innovative solutions in urban planning, architecture and landscape. The project plans to reveal the physical impacts of political, institutional, social and cultural demands through comparative thematic investigation, digital visualisation and detailed case studies. Foregrounding landscape ....Campus: Building Modern Australian Universities. This project plans to examine the post-World War Two evolution of the Australian university campus. Modern campuses created opportunities for the realisation of innovative solutions in urban planning, architecture and landscape. The project plans to reveal the physical impacts of political, institutional, social and cultural demands through comparative thematic investigation, digital visualisation and detailed case studies. Foregrounding landscape and site, the project aims to establish new historical knowledge, identify campuses as catalysts for urban thinking, and demonstrate strategies for their conservation and adaptation to meet future needs in the tertiary sector.Read moreRead less
Economics of Conserving Australian Tropical Wildlife: An Analysis of the Role of Economic Valuation, Property Rights and Commercialisation. Australian tropical native animals are selected to analyse economic valuation (use and non-use valuation) of wildlife species and to assess systematically the role of property rights and commercialisation in conservation. The project will (1) reduce bias of Australian economic studies in favour of temperate species; (2) answer several unresolved questions ra ....Economics of Conserving Australian Tropical Wildlife: An Analysis of the Role of Economic Valuation, Property Rights and Commercialisation. Australian tropical native animals are selected to analyse economic valuation (use and non-use valuation) of wildlife species and to assess systematically the role of property rights and commercialisation in conservation. The project will (1) reduce bias of Australian economic studies in favour of temperate species; (2) answer several unresolved questions raised in the Parlimentary Report on Commercial Utilisation of Australian Wildlife; (3) advance economic theory (e.g. relating to dynamic influences on economic valuation) and provide new insights into property rights making use of empirical and experimental results, and (4) thereby contribute to public policy decision-making.Read moreRead less
Responding to Climate Change: Australia's Environmental Law and Regulatory Framework. Climate change presents Australia with unparalleled sustainability challenges. Impacts on environmental resources will require an integrated legal and socio-economic regulatory response. An effective and adaptable environmental law framework will be crucial for adaptation and mitigation measures. The project addresses this need by undertaking a comprehensive, interdisciplinary evaluation of Australia's legal ca ....Responding to Climate Change: Australia's Environmental Law and Regulatory Framework. Climate change presents Australia with unparalleled sustainability challenges. Impacts on environmental resources will require an integrated legal and socio-economic regulatory response. An effective and adaptable environmental law framework will be crucial for adaptation and mitigation measures. The project addresses this need by undertaking a comprehensive, interdisciplinary evaluation of Australia's legal capacity to respond to climate change, so identifying appropriate governance structures and regulatory tools. This analysis is vital to positioning Australian environmental law to manage climate change impacts and associated social, ecological and economic costs and to ensure compliance with international obligations.Read moreRead less
Developing a smart repair technique towards buckling capacity enhancement for imperfect thin-walled structures. This project will contribute significantly to preventing thin-walled structural members with initial defects from abrupt or progressive buckling failure. The advanced technique developed will offer substantial national benefits, such as improved structural reliability and safety, enhanced structural performance and reduced costs in civil engineering.
The cultural logic of Queensland architecture: place, taste and economy. The project seeks a better understanding of the cultural role of architecture in Queensland, interrogating notions of place, climate, and art, as they have been used to describe local architecture past and present. This will illuminate the strategies and effects of state support for architecture as a cultural activity and object of taste.
Buckling of Functionally Graded Multilayer Graphene Nanocomposites. This project aims to contribute to the development of novel lightweight structural members made of graphene nanocomposites with greatly enhanced resistance to abrupt or progressive buckling failure. Abrupt or progressive buckling failure under excessive compressive loads is a common and often catastrophic problem in engineering structures. The project intends to develop a functionally graded multilayer graphene nanocomposite str ....Buckling of Functionally Graded Multilayer Graphene Nanocomposites. This project aims to contribute to the development of novel lightweight structural members made of graphene nanocomposites with greatly enhanced resistance to abrupt or progressive buckling failure. Abrupt or progressive buckling failure under excessive compressive loads is a common and often catastrophic problem in engineering structures. The project intends to develop a functionally graded multilayer graphene nanocomposite structure and to conduct a combined theoretical, numerical and experimental investigation into its buckling and postbuckling behaviours, taking into account the effect of initial imperfection. The project aims to advance the knowledge base of the mechanical behaviour of lightweight nanocomposite structures with improved structural reliability.Read moreRead less
Designing for uncertainty in conservation auctions. Economic theory and case study evidence show that tenders or auctions are more efficient than grant mechanisms for encouraging landholders to produce environmental outcomes on private land. These studies have ignored the effects of uncertainty of both bidders and administrators about factors such as landholder participation and the level of environmental benefits that will be delivered. This project will test whether distributing environmental ....Designing for uncertainty in conservation auctions. Economic theory and case study evidence show that tenders or auctions are more efficient than grant mechanisms for encouraging landholders to produce environmental outcomes on private land. These studies have ignored the effects of uncertainty of both bidders and administrators about factors such as landholder participation and the level of environmental benefits that will be delivered. This project will test whether distributing environmental funds via tenders is still efficient when uncertainty about various important factors is considered. Results from this research are expected to inform the cost effective design of systems to pay landholders for the provision of environmental benefits even when there is high uncertainty.Read moreRead less
Benefits and costs of non-market valuation for environmental management. Benefits from environmental policies are often unpriced “non-market values” (NMVs). Environmental agencies struggle to know how best to measure these relatively intangible benefits, but doing so is important to ensure value for money from public investments. Environmental economists have developed and applied a wide range of methods for estimating NMVs. The methods vary in their comprehensiveness, accuracy and cost. Yet no ....Benefits and costs of non-market valuation for environmental management. Benefits from environmental policies are often unpriced “non-market values” (NMVs). Environmental agencies struggle to know how best to measure these relatively intangible benefits, but doing so is important to ensure value for money from public investments. Environmental economists have developed and applied a wide range of methods for estimating NMVs. The methods vary in their comprehensiveness, accuracy and cost. Yet no rigorous tool is available to assess (a) which NMV method is best to implement, accounting for its cost and its potential to improve decisions, or (b) whether any NMV method improves decisions enough to warrant its cost. In creating such a tool, this project will deliver a key breakthrough in environmental economics.Read moreRead less
Protect from harm or lead into danger? The influence of peers in leisure activities on adolescent behaviour. When are peers a bad influence? This project will offer answers about the leisure settings that expose young people to risk and those that protect them from harm during the high school years. This research will also help identify those youth who may be especially vulnerable to negative effects of peer influence.
Development of Intelligent Structures that can Self-evaluate Deterioration. This project aims to transform traditional civil structures into smart structures that can accurately identify current and future structural deterioration conditions and automatically notify the infrastructure management authority for timely maintenance. Civil structures deteriorate over their long life spans. Currently, we have no effective method to identify when deterioration has reached the point where maintenance is ....Development of Intelligent Structures that can Self-evaluate Deterioration. This project aims to transform traditional civil structures into smart structures that can accurately identify current and future structural deterioration conditions and automatically notify the infrastructure management authority for timely maintenance. Civil structures deteriorate over their long life spans. Currently, we have no effective method to identify when deterioration has reached the point where maintenance is required. The project plans to develop innovative structural deterioration evaluation systems using output-only vibration data and versatile optimisation algorithms to enable long-term deterioration assessment and maintenance management even under demanding operating conditions. These could be used with both conventional data acquisition systems and modern monitoring systems with smart wireless sensors. Expected project outcomes will enhance structural safety and maintenance efficiency.Read moreRead less