Architecture Commons^™

A Comparative Analysis Of Smart City Initiatives By China And India - Lessons For India, Kayalvizhi Sundarraj Chandrasekar, Bhishna Bajracharya, Daniel O'Hare

Bhishna Bajracharya

Seamless information access enabled by mobile technology combined with realtime sensing is beginning to change the way citizens inhabit their cities. Around the globe, there is increasing evidence of smart city experiments and implementation through leadership at a city level or at a national level. The analysis of the real-time functioning of the cities using sensing techniques and data analytics is seen by city administrators as an effective strategy to achieve seamless flow within a city. India’s Smart Cities Mission is a step towards futureproofing its cities, an initiative that requires careful analysis of existing Smart City practices by other …

Planning For The Gold Coast: Processes, Challenges And Opportunities, Bhishna Bajracharya, Linda Too, Daniel O'Hare, Isara Khanjanasthiti

Bhishna Bajracharya

Extract: This chapter provides a broad overview of the Gold Coast from an urban planning perspective. What are the social and physical structures of the city? How has the city developed over time? What are some of the key planning challenges and opportunities the Gold Coast is facing? To answer these questions, the chapter provides a brief social profile of the city and examines its current land use patterns and urban form. It then discusses the planning processes and the role of key stakeholders in development of the city. Next, key current planning initiatives for the Gold Coast are outlined. …

Narrowing Gaps Between Research And Policy Development In Climate Change Adaptation Work In The Water Resources And Agriculture Sectors Of Cambodia, Dany Va, Bhishna Bajracharya, Loius Lebel, Michael Regan, Ros Taplin

Bhishna Bajracharya

Narrowing research and policy, while challenging, is especially important in climate change adaptation work (CCA) due to the high uncertainties involved in planning for climate change. This article aims to seek stakeholders’ opinions regarding how research and policy development can be bridged within the Cambodian water resources and agriculture sectors. The study used institutional ethnography methods with informants from government organizations, local academia, and development partners (DPs). This article identifies a number of challenges, and barriers for narrowing research–policy development gaps, including: limited effectiveness of governmental policies and planning; lack of relevant information required to promote evidence-based planning and policy …

Sustainable Campus: Engaging The Community In Sustainability, Linda Too, Bhishna Bajracharya

Bhishna Bajracharya

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the major factors necessary for engaging university campus community in sustainability. While general awareness in sustainability issues has improved in recent years through mass media coverage, this knowledge is not always translated into actual sustainable practice. Studies have indicated that there are many factors for engaging the community in sustainability.

Design/methodology/approach – A multi-disciplinary literature review is first undertaken to distil the drivers that enhance participation in sustainability programmes by the university community. Next, to illustrate the applicability of the factors identified in the community engagement framework, two case studies …

Supporting Active And Healthy Living In Master-Planned Communities: A Case Study, Bhishna Bajracharya, Linda Too, Isara Khanjanasthiti

Bhishna Bajracharya

Current research suggests a link between urban design and healthy and active lifestyles. As such, there is a growing emphasis within new master-planned communities to create supportive environments for physical activities. In South-East Queensland such developments provide a range of community facilities and regularly organise events to promote active and healthy living. In the light of this new direction in urban development, the objective of the paper is to examine the role of master-planned communities in supporting active and healthy living, using a case study approach. Based on critical analysis of literature, the paper first proposes a conceptual framework for …

Challenges And Opportunities To Develop A Smart City: A Case Study Of Gold Coast, Australia, Bhishna Bajracharya, David Cattell, Isara Khanjanasthiti

Bhishna Bajracharya

With the rapid growth of information and communication technologies, there is a growing interest in developing smart cities with a focus on the knowledge economy, use of sensors and mobile technologies to plan and manage cities. The proponents argue that these emerging technologies have potential application in efficiently managing the environment and infrastructure, promoting economic development and actively engaging the public, thus contributing to building safe, healthy, sustainable and resilient cities. However, are there other important elements in addition to technologies which can contribute to the creation of smart cities? What are some of the challenges and opportunities for developing …

Developing A Sustainable Campus Through Community Engagement: An Empirical Study, Linda Too, Bhishna Bajracharya, Isara Khanjanasthiti

Bhishna Bajracharya

Sustainability is increasingly a basic tenet within the organisational philosophy of many universities. While those universities that have a sustainability strategy have largely focused on operational improvements, the engagement of staff and students is equally important for creating a sustainable campus. This paper develops a 6-P community engagement framework for promoting eco-centric practices within university campuses. The objective of the study is to apply the framework to a university community in order to establish the validity of this framework. To this end, interviews with staff and students at Bond University were undertaken. The interviews reveal that the 6-P framework is …

Participatory Project Management For Improved Disaster Resilience, Lynn Crawford, Craig Langston, Bhishna Bajracharya

Bhishna Bajracharya

Purpose – Disaster response and recovery is implemented through multiple projects with traditional project management approaches criticised as too time consuming and inflexible in circumstances of high uncertainty, requiring rapid reaction for multiple stakeholders. This research aims to understand the role of project and stakeholder management in the management of disasters as an opening for identifying improved disaster resilience opportunities using participatory project management approaches. Design/methodology/approach – Using the 2011 Queensland floods as a case study, the positioning of project management in disaster management discourse was investigated through summative content analysis. Findings – Results demonstrate that project and stakeholder engagement …

Masterplanned Communities For Healthy Living, Bhishna Bajracharya

Bhishna Bajracharya

With increasing demand for housing in large metropolitan regions, private developers are building new masterplanned communities on the fringe of major cities. Unlike conventional housing subdivisions, masterplanned communities are large scale integrated housing developments with provision for diversity of housing, shopping, open spaces and recreation facilities (McGuirk and Dowling, 2007; Minnery and Bajracharya, 1999; Schmitz et al., 1998). Due to growing health concerns linked to inactive living, a number of new masterplanned communities in South East Queensland are creating supportive environments for physical activities.

Sense In The City: Making The Gold Coast An Intelligent And Sustainable City, Bhishna Bajracharya, David Cattell, Daryl Mcphee, Linda Too, Isara Khanjanasthiti

Bhishna Bajracharya

Many cities are facing challenges of urban sprawl, traffic congestion, diminishing quality of life and increasing pressure on their natural environment. Recent advancements in information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as wireless sensor networks and ubiquitous computing are potential tools for addressing these problems. How can the emerging technologies be used to create smarter, greener and more economically efficient cities? To what extent can ubiquitous technologies add value to place, community and environment? The paper examines current trends in ICTs such as wireless sensor networks, RFID, mobile devices and their potential roles in making cities sustainable. The paper develops a …

Building Capability For Disaster Resilience, Lynn Crawford, Craig Langston, Bhishna Bajracharya

Bhishna Bajracharya

All levels of government recognise the widespread devastation of communities by natural or other disasters. They have responded with emergency management arrangements and policies to enhance government and community capacity to anticipate, withstand and recover from disastrous events. Although the construction industry has a significant role to play, particularly in recovery and reconstruction, it has not generally been considered as a key stakeholder in building capability for disaster resilience. One barrier to more active involvement of the construction industry in disaster response and management is that traditional methods of construction project management have been criticised as too time consuming and …

Transforming The Tourist City Into A Knowledge And Healthy City: Reinventing Australia's Gold Coast, Daniel O'Hare, Bhishna Bajracharya, Isara Khanjanasthiti

Bhishna Bajracharya

Purpose – With rapid growth of Australia’s Gold Coast into a tourist consumption city (Mullins 2008) of half a million people, Gold Coast City Council (GCCC) seeks to diversify the city’s economy, lifestyle and culture. This paper investigates this transformation by reviewing policies, projects and programs arising from GCCC visions of a healthy city benefiting from knowledge based urban development (KBUD) (Yigitcanlar et al., 2008). Secondly, the paper aims to identify opportunities and challenges in developing the emerging cosmopolitan city as a knowledge and healthy city. The paper focuses not only on larger knowledge and health nodes along major highways …

Planning And Design Of Master-Planned Communities For Healthy Living, Bhishna Bajracharya, Linda Too

Bhishna Bajracharya

Due to growing health concerns linked to inactive living, a number of new master-planned communities in South East Queensland are creating supportive environments for physical activities. Varsity Lakes in Gold Coast is an example of such community which provides both infrastructures and programs to encourage active living. The objective of the paper is to examine the relationship between built environment and healthy communities through a review of current literature. Synthesising these findings, a conceptual framework is developed for supporting active and healthy living in master-planned communities. The three key factors are 1) place; 2) program and 3) partnership. This framework …

Climate Change Adaptation Through Land Use Planning And Disaster Management: Local Government Perspectives From Queensland, Bhishna Bajracharya, Iraphne Childs, Peter Hastings

Bhishna Bajracharya

Climate change will manifest in altered regimes of natural hazard occurrence, and therefore can be conceptualised as a disaster management issue. Strategic land use planning is a critical tool to mitigate and adapt to hazardous events. Local governments in Queensland have the responsibility for aspects of disaster management and land use planning as core functions of the council. Together they form part of the Prevention Preparedness, Response and Recovery (PPRR) framework for disaster management. In many local governments, however, there seems to be divergence between land use planning and disaster management due to the lack of integration between different functions …

Public-Private Partnership In Disaster Management: A Case Study Of The Gold Coast, Bhishna Bajracharya, Peter Hastings, Iraphne Childs, Peter Mcnamee

Bhishna Bajracharya

Public-private partnership has important roles to play in disaster management, including building business and community resilience, developing community risk awareness and providing essential services. This paper reports on two recent initiatives in public-private partnerships on Queensland’s Gold Coast. The first is an initiative by a local community group ‘Varsity Lakes Community Limited’ to prepare a disaster management guide for the masterplanned community of Varsity Lakes with support from NRMA insurance company and the local council. The second is the ‘Community Watch’ program initiated by the Gold Coast City Council to involve local community groups in various parts of the City …

Promoting: Programs For And Challenges Of The Knowledge-Based Small Business, Joan Imukuka, Bhishna Bajracharya, Linda Too, Greg Hearn

Bhishna Bajracharya

ExtractSmall businesses have long been recognized for their contributions to innovation, job creation and the overall health of most economies (Audretsch, 2004; North et al., 2001; Tilley and Tonge, 2003). Government policies in most countries, therefore, often include support measures and infrastructure to help nurture small businesses, particularly in relation to their innovation-related needs (North et al., 2001). Most recently, there has been growing interest in fostering the emergence of new and innovative small businesses, especially in the high-technology and knowledge-intensive sectors (Bridge et al., 2009). The ’high technology’ and ’knowledge-intensive sectors’ are those sectors of the economy that have …

Engaging Local Communities In Disaster Management: Perspectives From Korea, Taeho Kwon, Shahed Khan, Bhishna Bajracharya

Bhishna Bajracharya

In many countries, natural disaster management plans to address events like cyclones, flooding, storm surge and sea level rises have been developed and/ or revised in response to the wider realisation of climate change forecasts over the past few years. Opportunities to learn from overseas initiatives should be availed to search for effective ways of involving local communities in building community resilience and in adapting to natural disasters. The objective of the paper is to examine the evolving disaster management approach in Korea. The paper will analyse the roles of government as well as the ‘citizen corps’ in disaster management. …

Building Active And Healthy Communities: An Analysis Of Council Initiatives, Bhishna Bajracharya, Shahed Khan

Bhishna Bajracharya

Extract:
Historically, Town Planning has been concerned with protecting public health and safety. Indeed, earliest town planning legislation in the UK grew out of public health legislation. Over time planning broadened its focus and the role of planners by adding new areas within its scope of concerns. Meanwhile, public health organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) expanded their focus from extension of health services into the rural areas to also include urban areas. This has resulted in the Healthy Cities Movement in the 1990s.

Role Of Local Government In Disaster Management: Findings From Regional Towns In Queensland, Bhishna Bajracharya, Iraphne Childs, Peter Hastings

Bhishna Bajracharya

This paper reports selected results from a survey of Queensland local governments, conducted in late 2009, that investigated their adoption of state-level disaster management policies and guidelines. The survey comprised an online questionnaire distributed to all Queensland local governments, augmented by focus groups held in the regional coastal and inland administrative centres of Cairns, Mackay, Rockhampton, Emerald, Charleville and the Gold Coast. The paper identifies and analyses the issues and strategies of local governments in adopting state government disaster management policies and guidelines, and engaging their communities in disaster management.

A Governance Framework For Eco-Centric Behaviour In Communities, Linda Too, Bhishna Bajracharya

Bhishna Bajracharya

Climate change and its impacts have taken centre-stage in the media as well as academic research in recent years. This has led to better awareness of the sustainability issue among the general public. However, knowledge about sustainability is not necessarily matched by actual sustainable practices. The community plays an important role to effect lasting changes towards a more eco-centric behaviour. While various disciples such as marketing, psychology and urban design have undertaken research on this topic, these have often been done in isolation. The purpose of this paper is to draw together the knowledge from these well-established disciplines and develop …

Climate Change Adaption Through Land Use Planning And Disaster Management: Local Government Perspectives From Queensland, Bhishna Bajracharya, Iraphne Childs, Peter Hastings

Bhishna Bajracharya

Climate change will manifest in altered regimes of natural hazard occurrence, and therefore can be conceptualised as a disaster management issue. Strategic land use planning is a critical tool to mitigate and adapt to hazardous events. Local governments in Queensland have the responsibility for aspects of disaster management and land use planning as core functions of the council. Together they form part of the Prevention Preparedness, Response and Recovery (PPRR) framework for disaster management. In many local governments, however, there seems to be divergence between land use planning and disaster management due to the lack of integration between different functions …

Evolving Governance Model For Community Building: Collaborative Partnerships In Master Planned Communities, Bhishna Bajracharya, Shahed Khan

Bhishna Bajracharya

The development and management of master planned communities (MPCs) involve achieving the twin goals of building a sense of community and creating a distinctive place. The roles of private, public and community sectors in realising these goals of MPCs are evolving over time. The article reports on a case study of the MPC of Varsity Lakes in Gold Coast to investigate the role of key stakeholders as well as their collaborative initiatives for community building. It examines the community governance model being introduced by the developer for the management of the development once the developer has completed work on the …

Integrating Regional And Infrastructure Planning: Lessons From South East Queensland, Australia, Michael Regan, Bhishna Bajracharya

Bhishna Bajracharya

Economic and social infrastructure provision presents a conundrum for urban planners, especially in high growth regional economies experiencing strong population growth, increasing demand for infrastructure services and limits to their capacity to sustain long-term investment strategies. This chapter considers the South East Queensland (SEQ) regional economy and the policy decisions taken in recent years to embed and integrate both regional planning and regional infrastructure investment strategies through the statutory SEQ Regional Plan and SEQ Infrastructure Plans and Programs. This case study examines the benefits from this integrated approach as well as the challenges facing the region. Some of the benefits …

Green Transit Oriented Development And Subtropical Design, Bhishna Bajracharya, Daniel O'Hare, Jason Byrne

Bhishna Bajracharya

Extract: In this chapter we review the historical development of TOD as an idea in Queensland, and discuss its evolution from an incipient 'walkability-oriented' design trend (intended to reduce car dependence, congestion and pollution while bolstering the efficient use of infrastructure and services) to a more holistic concern with environmental quality.

Nurturing Small Firms In The Knowledge-Based Economy: Programs And Challenges, Kay Imukuka, Bhishna Bajracharya, Linda Too, Greg Hearn

Bhishna Bajracharya

This paper aims at providing some insights into how the knowledge-based economy trend has been embraced by Australia’s Queensland State Government, through its signature policy known as the Smart State Strategy. Through significant investments in building new research institutes, upgrading the skills of locals to attracting and retaining knowledge workers and providing support to businesses, the Smart State Strategy has helped position Queensland as an important player in the global knowledge-based economy. A key initiative of the Smart State Strategy involves providing support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which are now widely recognised as playing a vital role in …

Parking And Access Issues In Transit Oriented Developments, Shahed Khan, Bhishna Bajracharya

Bhishna Bajracharya

The objective of this paper is to examine the planning issues relating to parking and access around transit nodes. It reviews Perth's current strategy of providing park-and-ride facilities and promoting transit oriented developments. The paper is based on review of planning documents, site visits and interviews with planners from the local council and Public Transit Authority in Perth. Using a case study of suburban railway station in Murdoch, the paper identifies a number of planning challenges such as congestion in park-and-ride facilities, spill-over parking in surrounding neighbourhoods, poor access by walking and cycling, and public safety concerns. The paper discusses …

Building A Sustainable University Campus: A Case Study Of Bond University, Bhishna Bajracharya, Linda Too

Bhishna Bajracharya

Given the increasing evidence of an ailing earth, many would today agree and accept that there is a need to move towards a more sustainable form of development. While change has been inclined towards a top-down approach, it is equally important to work bottom-up, i.e., through communities, whose support underpins sustainability policies. The focus of this paper is on sustainability within universities. Through a review of current sustainability practices of universities in the US, UK and Australia, this paper has identified ten principles for developing a sustainable campus. These principles are then used as a framework for analysing the sustainable …

Developing Knowledge Precincts In Regional Towns: Opportunities And Challenges, Bhishna Bajracharya, Linda Too, Joan Imukuka, Greg Hearn

Bhishna Bajracharya

While extensive literature exists on creative cities and knowledge-based urban development focusing on large metropolitan cities, there is a paucity of literature looking into similar developments in small regional towns. The major aim of the paper is to examine the nature and potential for building knowledge-based urban development and creative precincts in regional towns. The paper will review national and international literature on creative/knowledge precincts in small towns to examine their key ideas and principles. The paper will also report on a case study of a small town of Cooroy in Noosa, Australia. The Cooroy Lower Mill Site and its …

Partnerships For Community Building And Governance In Master Planned Communities: A Study Of Varsity Lakes At Gold Coast, Bhishna Bajracharya, George Earl, Shahed Khan

Bhishna Bajracharya

The development and management of master planned communities (MPCs) involve achieving the twin goals of building a sense of community and creating a distinctive place identity. The roles of private, public and community sectors in realising these goals of MPCs have been evolving over time with the increasing role of developers in provision of services with the local government playing a regulatory/facilitative role and community calling for greater engagement and local control. The major objective of the paper is to critically examine the nature and outcomes of collaboration between developers, local/state governments and existing/emerging community groups in the development of …

The Second Life Of Urban Planning? Using Neogeography Tools For Community Engagement, Marcus Foth, Bhishna Bajracharya, Ross Brown, Greg Hearn

Bhishna Bajracharya

The majority of the world's citizens now live in cities. Although urban planning can thus be thought of as a field with significant ramifications on the human condition, many practitioners feel that it has reached the crossroads in thought leadership between traditional practice and a new, more participatory and open approach. Conventional ways to engage people in participatory planning exercises are limited in reach and scope. At the same time, socio-cultural trends and technology innovation offer opportunities to re-think the status quo in urban planning. NeoGeography introduces tools and services that allow non-geographers to use advanced geographical information systems. Similarly, …