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Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Repositioning Urban Governments? Energy Efficiency And Australia's Changing Climate And Energy Governance Regimes, Pauline M. Mcguirk, Robyn Dowling, Harriet Bulkeley Jan 2014

Repositioning Urban Governments? Energy Efficiency And Australia's Changing Climate And Energy Governance Regimes, Pauline M. Mcguirk, Robyn Dowling, Harriet Bulkeley

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Urban local governments are important players in climate governance, and their roles are evolving. This review traces the changing nexus of Australia's climate policy, energy policy and energy efficiency imperatives and its repositioning of urban local governments. We characterise the ways urban local governments' capacities and capabilities are being mobilised in light of a changing multi-level political opportunity structure around energy efficiency. The shifts we observe not only extend local governments' role in implementing climate change responses but also engage them as partners in conceiving and operationalising new measures, suggesting new ground is being opened in the urban politics of …


Distributed Leadership: Building Capacity For Interdisciplinary Climate Change Teaching At Four Universities, Aidan Davison, Paul Brown, Emma Pharo, Kristin Warr, Helen Mcgregor, Sarah Terkes, Davina Boyd, Pamela Abuodha Jan 2014

Distributed Leadership: Building Capacity For Interdisciplinary Climate Change Teaching At Four Universities, Aidan Davison, Paul Brown, Emma Pharo, Kristin Warr, Helen Mcgregor, Sarah Terkes, Davina Boyd, Pamela Abuodha

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

Purpose - Interdisciplinary approaches to climate change teaching are well justified and arise from the complexity of climate change challenges and the integrated problem-solving responses they demand. These approaches require academic teachers to collaborate across disciplines. Yet, the fragmentation typical of universities impedes collaborative teaching practice. This paper aims to report on the outcomes of a distributed leadership project in four Australian universities aimed at enhancing interdisciplinary climate change teaching. Design/methodology/approach - Communities of teaching practice were established at four Australian universities with participants drawn from a wide range of disciplines. The establishment and operation of these communities relied on …


A Combined Experimental And Simulation Method For Appraising The Energy Performance Of Green Roofs In Ningbo's Chinese Climate, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Jo Darkwa, Kate Yuan Jan 2014

A Combined Experimental And Simulation Method For Appraising The Energy Performance Of Green Roofs In Ningbo's Chinese Climate, Georgios Kokogiannakis, Jo Darkwa, Kate Yuan

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

A passive means of lowering the energy demand of buildings is the application of green roofs. The complexity between heat and moisture exchanges in green roof layers and the large variations of green roof types make the need for experimental or simulation assessments necessary for quantifying the energy benefits from green roofs. The current treatment of green roofs in simulation programs is either over-simplistic, for example by ignoring heat and moisture exchanges such as evapotranspiration, or the more advanced models have limitations and require inputs that are rarely available in practice. In this paper a combination of experimental and modelling …


Integrated Dehumidification And Downdraft Evaporative Cooling System For A Hot-Humid Climate, Sriraj Gokarakonda, Georgios Kokogiannakis Jan 2014

Integrated Dehumidification And Downdraft Evaporative Cooling System For A Hot-Humid Climate, Sriraj Gokarakonda, Georgios Kokogiannakis

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

Unlike in hot-dry climates, in hot-humid climates evaporative cooling techniques are not readily suitable for space cooling. In order to effectively use evaporative cooling in hot-humid climates, dehumidification of ambient air is necessary before it passes over an evaporative medium for cooling. The present study explores the combined process of dehumidification and evaporation and its effect on thermal comfort in a typical small residential building located in a hot humid climate. A novel system has been investigated with the combination of an Earth Tube Ventilation (ETV) (for pre-cooling of air), a rotary wheel desiccant dehumidifier (for dehumidification) along with a …


Climate Change Mitigation With Integration Of Renewable Energy Resources In The Electricity Grid Of New South Wales, Australia, Md Abu Abdullah, Ashish Agalgaonkar, Kashem M. Muttaqi Jan 2014

Climate Change Mitigation With Integration Of Renewable Energy Resources In The Electricity Grid Of New South Wales, Australia, Md Abu Abdullah, Ashish Agalgaonkar, Kashem M. Muttaqi

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part A

The implementation of climate change mitigation strategies may significantly affect the current practices for electricity network operation. Increasing penetration of renewable energy generation technologies into electricity networks is one of the key mitigation strategies to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. Additional climate change mitigation strategies can also contribute to emission reduction thereby supplementing the renewable energy generation participation, which may be limited due to technical constraints of the network. In this paper, the penetration requirements for different renewable energy generation resources are assessed while concurrently examining other mitigation strategies to reduce overall emissions from electricity networks and meet requisite …


Changing The Intellectual Climate, Noel Castree, William Adams, John Barry, Daniel Brockington, Bram Buscher, Esteve Corbera, David Demeritt, Rosaleen Duffy, Ulrike Felt, Katja Neves, Peter Newell, Luigi Pellizzoni, Kate Rigby, Paul Robbins, Libby Robin, Deborah B. Rose, Andrew Ross, David Schlosberg, Sverker Sorlin, Paige West, Mark Whitehead, Brian Wynne Jan 2014

Changing The Intellectual Climate, Noel Castree, William Adams, John Barry, Daniel Brockington, Bram Buscher, Esteve Corbera, David Demeritt, Rosaleen Duffy, Ulrike Felt, Katja Neves, Peter Newell, Luigi Pellizzoni, Kate Rigby, Paul Robbins, Libby Robin, Deborah B. Rose, Andrew Ross, David Schlosberg, Sverker Sorlin, Paige West, Mark Whitehead, Brian Wynne

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Calls for more broad-based, integrated, useful knowledge now abound in the world of global environmental change science. They evidence many scientists' desire to help humanity confront the momentous biophysical implications of its own actions. But they also reveal a limited conception of social science and virtually ignore the humanities. They thereby endorse a stunted conception of 'human dimensions' at a time when the challenges posed by global environmental change are increasing in magnitude, scale and scope. Here, we make the case for a richer conception predicated on broader intellectual engagement and identify some preconditions for its practical fulfilment. Interdisciplinary dialogue, …


Climate Change And Australia, Lesley Head, Michael Adams, Helen Mcgregor, Stephanie Toole Jan 2014

Climate Change And Australia, Lesley Head, Michael Adams, Helen Mcgregor, Stephanie Toole

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Australia has had a variable and mostly arid climate as long as humans have been on the continent. Historically observed trends toward increased warming, with rainfall increases in many tropical areas and rainfall decreases in many temperate areas, are projected to continue. Impacts will be geographically variable but mostly negative for biodiversity, agriculture, and infrastructure. Extreme events such as bushfires and floods will increase in frequency and intensity, concentrated in summer. With an economy heavily dependent on coal for domestic electricity generation and as an export commodity, Australians are high per capita contributors to anthropogenic climate change. A quarter-century of …


Pliocene To Pleistocene Climate And Environmental History Of Lake El'gygytgyn, Far East Russian Arctic, Based On High-Resolution Inorganic Geochemistry Data, V Wennrich, P S. Minyuk, V Borkhodoev, Alexander Francke, B Ritter, Norbert R. Nowaczyk, M A. Sauerbrey, J Brigham-Grette, Martin Melles Jan 2014

Pliocene To Pleistocene Climate And Environmental History Of Lake El'gygytgyn, Far East Russian Arctic, Based On High-Resolution Inorganic Geochemistry Data, V Wennrich, P S. Minyuk, V Borkhodoev, Alexander Francke, B Ritter, Norbert R. Nowaczyk, M A. Sauerbrey, J Brigham-Grette, Martin Melles

Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A

The 3.6 Ma sediment record of Lake El'gygytgyn/NE Russia, Far East Russian Arctic, represents the longest continuous climate archive of the terrestrial Arctic. Its elemental composition as determined by X-ray fluorescence scanning exhibits significant changes since the mid-Pliocene caused by climate-driven variations in primary production, postdepositional diagenetic processes, and lake circulation as well as weathering processes in its catchment. During the mid- to late Pliocene, warmer and wetter climatic conditions are reflected by elevated Si / Ti ratios, indicating enhanced diatom production in the lake. Prior to 3.3 Ma, this signal is overprinted by intensified detrital input from the catchment, …