Population growth and Australia's 2020 greenhouse gas emission commitments (journal article)
by Bob Birrell and Ernest Healy
from People and Place Vol 17 No 4 pp.18-28
"The Australian Government has stated an unconditional commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by five per cent on year 2000 levels by 2020. However, in the absence of new abatement measures, Treasury-led modelling indicates that Australia's emissions will grow from 553 milion tonnes in 2000 to 774 million tonnes in 2020. This article disaggregates the Treasury modelling in order to estimate the contribution of population expansion to this growth. It shows that 83 per cent of the forecast will be attributable to population growth. This article concludes that it is very unlikely we will achieve the target by 2020 in the absence of attention to the population growth factor."

Lessons from multi-agency information management projects: Case of the Online Business Licensing Service (OBLS) Project, Singapore (journal article)
By Thompson Teo and Tat Koon Koh
from International Journal of Information Management Vol. 30 Issue 1 Feb 2010, pp. 85-93
"Multi-agency information management projects are becoming increasingly common. Yet, there is relatively limited research in this area, particularly in the context of electronic government (e-government). This paper fills this gap in the literature by examining a successful information management project called the Online Business Licensing Service (OBLS) that aims to streamline the various licenses (managed by different agencies) required to operate a business in Singapore. The findings suggest that multi-agency projects are inherently more complex than single agency projects. A set of lessons on managing such projects is presented and these lessons should prove useful to researchers and practitioners as multi-agency information management projects become increasingly more widespread."
Contact the Library for a copy of this article.

Greening our built environment : costs, benefits, and strategies [book]

Authors: Greg Kats, Principal author ; Jon Braman and Michael James

“Green” buildings—buildings that use fewer resources to build and to sustain—are commonly thought to be too expensive to attract builders and buyers. But are they? The answer to this question has enormous consequences, since residential and commercial buildings together account for nearly 50% of American energy consumption—including at least 75% of electricity usage—according to recent government statistics.

This eye-opening book reports the results of a large-scale study based on extensive financial and technical analyses of more than 150 green buildings in the U.S. and ten other countries. It provides detailed findings on the costs and financial benefits of building green. According to the study, green buildings cost roughly 2% more to build than conventional buildings—far less than previously assumed—and provide a wide range of financial, health and social benefits. In addition, green buildings reduce energy use by an average of 33%, resulting in significant cost savings.

Find it at: 720.47 GRE 2009 or, Click here to request a copy through your library.

How Carbon Offsets Will Change The World As We Know It (article)
by Mark Schapiro
from New Matilda, January 22 2010
"With a preserve designed in large part to safeguard stored carbon, a new set of imperatives comes into play. Turning trees into carbon credits requires knowing how to extrapolate from carbon measurements to determine a forest's potential as a carbon sink. It requires knowing as precisely as possible how many trees there are and of what size — which means minimising the unpredictable activities of human beings, as small scale as they might be. "

Has Anyone Told The Transport Planners About Climate Change? (article)
by Elliot Fishman
from New Matilda, 22 January 2010
"Government investment in transport and land-use planning needs to reflect the new reality of oil depletion and climate change. Outer suburbs without rail lines and streets without bicycle lanes need to become a thing of the past. Without a change in mindset and investment, by 2030 we might just be left with empty freeways, perhaps better described as gigantic bike lanes, several bankrupt toll road operators and a number of energy analysts saying "I told you so". Let's make 2010 the year in which we confront the reality of peak oil and climate change. "

Future files : a history of the next 50 years [book]

Author: Richard Watson

"Prediction is a dangerous game - the future is never a straight, linear extrapolation from the present. Unexpected innovations and events will conspire to trip up the best-laid plans - but it's better than not thinking about the future at all. ... Filled with provocative forecasts about how the world might change in the next half century. It examines emerging patterns and developments in society, technology, economy, and business, and makes educated speculations as to where they might take us." - cover.

Want to read this book? Click here, & request a loan through your library.

Or find this book in the collection at: 303.49 FUT 2009

Retrofitting suburbia : urban design solutions for redesigning suburbs [Find this book at: 307.760973 RET 2009]

Authors: Ellen Dunham-Jones and June Williamson

"While there has been considerable attention by practitioners and academics to development in urban cores and new neighborhoods on the periphery of cities, there has been little attention to the redesign and redevelopment of existing suburbs. Here is a comprehensive guidebook for architects, planners, urban designers, and developers that illustrates how existing suburbs can be redesigned and redeveloped. The authors, both architects and noted experts on the subject, show how development in existing suburbs can absorb new growth and evolve in relation to changed demographic, technological, and economic conditions."--BOOK JACKET.

Interested in borrowing this book? Click here, and send an email to the library!

Total quality in the construction supply chain [book]

Authors: John Oakland & Morton Marosszeky

"Organizations in the construction industry struggle with three key issues: quality management or better meeting customer expectations, supply chain management or more effectively working with suppliers to provide a seamless service to customers, and knowledge management, the challenge of learning between collaborating organisations and between people working on similar projects around the world. Excellence in these key aspects of business is the hallmark of great companies. This book tackles each of these themes, demonstrating their significance as strategic concepts for the construction sector and illustrating how development goals in each of the areas can be met." - cover.

Want to read this book? Click here, & request a loan through your library.

The Effect of IT Governance Maturity on IT Governance Performance (journal article)
By Mårten Simonsson, Pontus Johnson and Mathias Ekstedt
from Information Systems Management Vol. 27 Issue 1 Winter 2010, pp. 10-24
"There are several best practice based frameworks that detail effective arrangements for the internal structure of an IT organization. Although it is reasonable that there is a correlation
between the quality of the internal structure of an IT organization – labeled IT governance maturity, and the external impact of the same IT organization on the business – labeled IT governance performance, this has not been validated. The results, based on 35 case studies, confirm the hypotheses of a positive correlation between IT governance maturity and IT governance performance. Among IT processes described in 34 references, the internal structure of the IT organization, clearly defined organizational structures and relationships, mature quality management, and cost allocation show the strongest positive correlation to IT governance performance. The maturity of project management and service level management, as well as performance and capacity management, show almost no correlation to IT governance
performance. The findings can be used to improve current frameworks for IT governance."

Balanced Scorecard Implementation of Security Strategies: A Framework
for IT Security Performance Management (journal article)
By Tejaswini Herath Hemantha Herath and Wayne G Bremser
from Information Systems Management Vol. 27 Issue 1 Winter 2010, pp. 72-81
"The article develops a conceptual framework for strategic implementation of IT security using a balanced scorecard (BSC) approach. Current research has mostly looked at economics of IT security, technical considerations, and behavioral aspects of what counter measures are available to firms instead of how successful or cost effective the investments or counter measures are. More specifically, our article provides a framework for building and implementing scorecards for information security performance management."

Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant (journal article)
from Issues in Science & Technology Vol. 26 Issue 2 Winter 2010, pp. 81-84
"The article focuses on the competition regarding clean energy markets of Asia and the U.S. It speculates that Asian countries China, Japan and South Korea will outperform the U.S. for clean energy market dominance due to its big government investments as a support for research and innovation, domestic markets, manufacturing capability, and related infrastructures. It projects that the U.S. will be out-invested by those Asian countries with three-to-one margin in 2015 albeit the passing of the former's climate and energy legislation bill. It notes that the Chinese government provides free land, research and development (R&D) money, and loans with lower interest rates for clean technology firms than the U.S. Several graphs are also presented depicting the energy-related data of the countries."

Changing Climate, More Damaging Weather (journal article)
By Robert Repetto and Robert Easton
from Issues in Science & Technology Vol. 26 Issue 2 Winter 2010, pp. 67-74
"The article discusses the impact of changing climate on infrastructure and public safety investments in the U.S. It notes that the failure to acknowledge the effects of climate change results to dangerously inaccurate guidance for significant infrastructure and public safety investments. It suggests to speed up research programs which associate climate change and extreme weather events on the embodiment of its estimates. It states that underestimation of future weather probabilities can lead to unreliable decisions regarding investment and programs that make communities and infrastructure resist extreme weather. It explains that climatic change impact will heighten the possibilities that New York will be hit by more severe hurricanes in which infrastructure investors will be affected."

Enforcement of planning and environmental laws in Queensland [book]

Author: Leanne O'Brien

This book provides a detailed guide to handling enforcement issues and proceedings in the planning and environment jurisdiction in Queensland.

Written for lawyers, compliance officers and local government prosecutors who are new to the field, topics covered include planning and environmental offences, conditions of development approvals, investigations, statutory notices, duplicity, negotiations, compromising prosecutions, court proceedings, defences and sentencing. Explanations of the law are supported by analyses of cases, practical commentary and practice tips. While aimed primarily at new-comers to the jurisdiction, the text's extensive scope and analyses mean aspects of the work will also be of interest to experienced practitioners.

Click here to request a copy through your library.

Can Technology Really Save Us from Climate Change? (journal article)
By Alex Rau, Rob Toker and Joanne Howard
from Harvard Business Review Vol 88 Iss 1 Jan 2010, pp. 21-23
"The article presents the authors' views on the outlook for the development of technological innovations and entrepreneurial industries that can reverse global warming. The discussion focuses on Moore's Law in the context of how long it takes to develop and implement energy-related innovations. The efficient use of capital investment and government regulations for clean technology and cost-benefit analysis for projections of emission rates and abatements in new energy technologies such as wind energy and solar photovoltaics are discussed."

OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2009 [online]

Author: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

"At a time when world economy is in the midst of the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression, the OECD Science, Technology and Industry Scoreboard 2009 provides the statistical information necessary to define a response to these global challenges.
This edition of the Scoreboard illustrates and analyses a wide set of indicators of science, technology, globalisation and industrial performance in OECD and major non OECD countries (notably Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, China and South Africa). Indicators are organised around five issues: responding to the economic crisis, targeting new growth areas, competing in the world economy, connecting to global research, and investing in the knowledge economy."

Investigating the Ipswich to Brisbane commuting pattern: a quantitative approach (journal article)
by Jonathan Corcoran et al.
from Australian Planner, Vol 46 No 2 2009
"Through a quantitative analysis of JTW data available in the Census of Population and Households we add to the current planning debate on traffic congestion in the Ipswich·Brisbane corridor. The analysis of JTW data enables investigation of the notion that there are high levels of leakage of Ipswich's residents commuting from Ipswich to the neighbouring Brisbane Local Government Area (LGA). In doing so we use quantitative methods to firstly calculate the degree of self containment (i.e. the proportion of people living and working within an area) within the Ipswich sub-region and secondly to map the mean direction of commuting. More specifically, the policy problem addressed in this paper is to determine the extent to which commuters living in Ipswich have a tendency for an easterly direction of JTW travel (i.e. towards Brisbane City and Brisbane's CBD using the main east-west corridor). We suggest
that the visual exploration of the JTW data can enhance the analytical capability through the integration of statistical and cartographic measures to assist in transport planning."

It's how you use it that counts. (journal article)
by Michael Bond
from New Scientist Vol 204 No 2732, pp.36-39
"The article suggests that having a high intelligence quotient (IQ) does not guaranty all-round intelligence. According to professor Keith Stanovich of the University of Toronto, IQ tests fail in measuring abilities that are crucial to making good judgments in real-life situations. The palaentologist Stephen Jay Gould also claimed that general intelligence was a mathematic artefact."

A Green Grid Rolls off the Blueprint - special report
from China Today, November 2009
"The Renewable Energy Law of 2006 has put the development of China's new energy industry onto the fast track. Government investment in this sector has grown at an annual rate of 20 percent over the past few years. In 2008 support for new energy enterprises reached RMB 3.8 billion. This is just the beginning for this industry....
China plans to increase the share of renewable energy in the total amount of energy consumption from the current 9 percent to around 40 percent by 2050. According to Wang Jun, director of the New and Renewable Energy Department of the National Energy Bureau, this is not merely expediency in the face of unpredictable oil prices on the international market. More important than that, the application of green energy will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and have a significant impact on global climate change."

Innovation and growth : chasing a moving frontier [online]

Authors: OECD / World Bank

"Innovation is crucial to long-term economic growth, even more so in the aftermath of the financial and economic crisis. Making innovation-driven growth happen requires action in a wide range of policy areas, from education and science and technology to product and labour markets and trade." - abstract.

Business process mapping : improving customer satisfaction [book]

Authors: J. Mike Jacka, Paulette J. Keller

"Business Process Mapping is a powerful tool that offers a solid understanding of any given process, as well as the methods for that process to be more effective, and ensures that true value is being provided to customers. From management to internal auditor to external consultant, the new edition includes more detailed work and examples related to ERM [Enterprise Risk Management] practices, particularly focusing on how objectives, risks, and key performance indicators are fundamental to understanding and analyzing processes. As well, new tools are included toward enhancing and enriching the basic work done with process mapping." - from publisher.

Want it? Click here to request a loan from your library.