scholarly journals Understanding Conceptions of ‘Nature’ for Environmental Sustainability: A Case Study in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand

Earth ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 357-373
Author(s):  
Lissy Fehnker ◽  
Diane Pearson ◽  
Peter J. Howland
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Lay Conceptions ◽  
Environmental Narratives ◽  
Inductive Research ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Respondent Group

Empirical research that inductively investigates lay conceptions of ‘nature’ is scarce, despite global environmental narratives around sustainability calling for humans to have harmonious relationships with ‘nature’. This paper presents inductive research that attends to the empirical knowledge gap by exploring how respondents self-reportedly conceive ‘nature’ using Auckland, New Zealand as a case study. Results suggested that conceptions of ‘nature’ within the respondent group are diverse and range across 17 themes. Most commonly, respondents conceived ‘nature’ as being something that neither humans nor human influence or activities are a part of. This finding is consistent with what has been found by previous deductive research approaches to understanding conceptions of ‘nature’. However, this research provides a deeper understanding by identifying that respondents form associations with over 60 ‘aspects’ of ‘nature’. By highlighting the complexity of ‘nature’ from a human perspective and being able to identify significant components of ‘nature’ that people associate with, this study not only provides valuable insight for environmental management in the New Zealand study site, but also has potential to support improved management of human–nature interactions that can have a more targeted impact towards achieving sustainability goals at the global scale.

scholarly journals Environmental Sustainability in New Zealand Museums: A Case Study of Te Manawa Museum, Gallery and Science Centre

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Nina Helen Finigan
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Bottom Line ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Current State ◽  
Science Centre ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Many

<p>Environmental sustainability is becoming an increasingly essential component of modern life. The contemporary museums’ role as public educators, and as guardians of tangible and intangible culture, places them in a unique position to address the various issues surrounding environmental sustainability, from climate change, to bio-diversity loss, to conservation. There is increasing momentum behind the idea that museums should not only engage with environmental sustainability, but that they indeed have a responsibility to. Although museums throughout New Zealand are addressing environmental sustainability, there is currently no thorough examination of how they are doing this. Therefore, the aim of this dissertation was so find out the current state of environmental sustainability in New Zealand museums, and specifically how staff are approaching it. Through engaging in a case study of Te Manawa Museum, Gallery and Science Centre, Palmerston North, and specifically the environmentally themed exhibition Te Awa/The River: Heart of the Manawatu, this dissertation analyses and discusses the realities of addressing institutional environmental sustainability. While the previous literature surrounding this topic has addressed the many reasons why museums should engage with environmental sustainability, this dissertation has expanded on this by analysing and discussing the realities of addressing environmental sustainability from a staff perspective. Through interviews with five Te Manawa staff members, this dissertation has revealed that while museum professionals agree that engagement with environmental sustainability should become part of bottom line holistic sustainable development, the status of museums as trusted democratic institutions can place them in a conflicted space ‘in-between’ when dealing with polarising issues such as the environment. This is particularly relevant to the discussion around new-museological theory, and the importance of local context and reflexive community engagement, where the community essentially help drive museological direction and content.</p>

Metrics of Local Environmental Sustainability: A Case Study in Auckland, New Zealand

2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 355-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sumita Ghosh ◽  
Robert Vale ◽  
Brenda Vale
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Environmental Sustainability

scholarly journals Environmental Sustainability in New Zealand Museums: A Case Study of Te Manawa Museum, Gallery and Science Centre

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Nina Helen Finigan
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Bottom Line ◽  
Staff Members ◽  
Current State ◽  
Science Centre ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Many

<p>Environmental sustainability is becoming an increasingly essential component of modern life. The contemporary museums’ role as public educators, and as guardians of tangible and intangible culture, places them in a unique position to address the various issues surrounding environmental sustainability, from climate change, to bio-diversity loss, to conservation. There is increasing momentum behind the idea that museums should not only engage with environmental sustainability, but that they indeed have a responsibility to. Although museums throughout New Zealand are addressing environmental sustainability, there is currently no thorough examination of how they are doing this. Therefore, the aim of this dissertation was so find out the current state of environmental sustainability in New Zealand museums, and specifically how staff are approaching it. Through engaging in a case study of Te Manawa Museum, Gallery and Science Centre, Palmerston North, and specifically the environmentally themed exhibition Te Awa/The River: Heart of the Manawatu, this dissertation analyses and discusses the realities of addressing institutional environmental sustainability. While the previous literature surrounding this topic has addressed the many reasons why museums should engage with environmental sustainability, this dissertation has expanded on this by analysing and discussing the realities of addressing environmental sustainability from a staff perspective. Through interviews with five Te Manawa staff members, this dissertation has revealed that while museum professionals agree that engagement with environmental sustainability should become part of bottom line holistic sustainable development, the status of museums as trusted democratic institutions can place them in a conflicted space ‘in-between’ when dealing with polarising issues such as the environment. This is particularly relevant to the discussion around new-museological theory, and the importance of local context and reflexive community engagement, where the community essentially help drive museological direction and content.</p>

scholarly journals Balancing Function and Environment toward Sustainable Design: A Building Insulation Case Study

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 207
Author(s):  
Celine Manoosingh
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Sustainable Design ◽  
Experimental Comparison ◽  
Heat Transfer Characteristics ◽  
Sustainable Building ◽  
Building Insulation ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Control Facility

<p>This study utilizes a proposed sustainable design process to investigate the functional and environmental metrics associated with an alternative insulation for use in buildings. A prototype exploring the use of evacuated packets of a silica compound substituting for conventional insulation was assessed. Assessment criteria included experimental comparison of heat transfer characteristics, as compared to a control facility. Additionally, a comprehensive environmental life cycle assessment and disassembly analysis was performed. Pilot study results indicate that in the new insulation design applied to the unit, heat flux decreased by an average of 4%, and improved environmental sustainability, resulting in a savings of 1.2 metric tons of CO<sub>2</sub>e over 20 years per 100 sq. ft. of insulation replaced. Results provide an alternative insulation design for use in construction, and a framework by which to assess the efficiency and environmental performance of sustainable building products.</p>

scholarly journals Using Conjoint Analyses to Improve Cable Yarder Design Characteristics: An Austrian Yarder Case Study to Advance Cost-Effective Extraction

Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Kühmaier ◽  
Hunter Harrill ◽  
Mohammad Ghaffariyan ◽  
Manfred Hofer ◽  
Karl Stampfer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Timber Harvesting ◽  
User Preferences ◽  
Design Characteristics ◽  
Steep Terrain ◽  
Integrate Design

Steep country harvesting has been identified as the main bottleneck to achieving greater profitability in the forestry sector of New Zealand and Australia. An improvement of efficiency, work safety and environmental sustainability should be realized by developing an advanced steep terrain timber harvesting system based on innovative Austrian technology. To identify the best suitable configuration of a cable yarder for steep terrain harvesting, user preferences based on an online survey (conjoint analysis) have been evaluated to answer the following questions: (1) What attributes of a new yarder design are most important to consumers? (2) Which criteria do stakeholders consider when selecting a cable yarder? (3) What are the weights representing the relative importance of criteria? Using eight specific design scenarios a fourth question, being which cable yarder concept is the best, was also answered. This case study shows that conjoint analyses is an effective tool to assess, rate and subsequently integrate design characteristics. Based on the results of the analysis, a cable yarder prototype will be manufactured in Austria and transferred to New Zealand for testing and demonstration.

William Smyth (1838–1913), a commercial taxidermist of Dunedin, New Zealand

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 292-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosi Crane ◽  
B. J. GILL
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Museum Collections ◽  
Professional Interaction ◽  
New Zealand Birds ◽  
Public Museum

William Smyth, unable to get work in a New Zealand museum, ran a commercial taxidermy business at Caversham, Dunedin, from about 1873 to 1911 or 1912. His two decades of correspondence with Thomas Frederic Cheeseman at the Auckland Museum provide a case study of Smyth's professional interaction with one of New Zealand's main museums. We have used this and other sources to paint a picture of Smyth's activities and achievements during a time when there was great interest in New Zealand birds but few local taxidermists to preserve their bodies. Besides the Auckland Museum, Smyth supplied specimens to various people with museum connections, including Georg Thilenius (Germany) and Walter Lawry Buller (New Zealand). Smyth was probably self-taught, and his standards of preparation and labelling were variable, but he left a legacy for the historical documentation of New Zealand ornithology by the large number of his bird specimens that now reside in public museum collections in New Zealand and elsewhere.

Information-seeking to Support Personal and Community Wellbeing: Report of a study of New Zealand Men Using Focus Groups

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peta Wellstead
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Support Services ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
Structural Constraints ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Groupes De Discussion

This paper reports part of an ongoing study exploring the information behaviour of New Zealand men during periods of diminished health and wellbeing. Focus groups were used for this iteration of the study. Results indicate that New Zealand men face both personal and structural constraints to their information-seeking during periods when their health and wellbeing may be compromised. This study highlights that service providers need to develop more effective information delivery mechanisms and support services for men. These services need to be appealing to men and reflect men’s information seeking preferences. The role of LIS professionals in supporting this endeavour is discussed. Cet article présente une étude en cours explorant le comportement informationnel d’ hommes néo-zélandais durant des périodes où leur état de santé et de bien-être est amoindri. Des groupes de discussion ont été utilisés pour cette itération de l'étude. Les résultats indiquent que les hommes en Nouvelle-Zélande font face à des contraintes à la fois  personnelles et structurelles dans leur recherche d'information pendant les périodes où leur santé et leur bien-être peuvent être affaiblis. Cette étude met en évidence le besoin pour les fournisseurs de services de développer des mécanismes de diffusion de l'information plus efficaces et des services de soutien pour les hommes. Ces services doivent être attrayants et refléter les préférences des hommes dans leurs recherches d’information. Le rôle des professionnels de l'information dans le soutien à cette entreprise est discuté.

PROCESSING AND IMAGING OF MARINE SEISMIC DATA FROM THE JEQUITINHONHA BASIN (BAHIA, BRAZIL)

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lourenildo W.B. Leite ◽  
J. Mann ◽  
Wildney W.S. Vieira
Keyword(s):  
Seismic Data ◽  
Sedimentary Basins ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Marine Seismic ◽  
Present Case Study

ABSTRACT. The present case study results from a consistent processing and imaging of marine seismic data from a set collected over sedimentary basins of the East Brazilian Atlantic. Our general aim is... RESUMO. O presente artigo resulta de um processamento e imageamento consistentes de dados sísmicos marinhos de levantamento realizado em bacias sedimentares do Atlântico do Nordeste...

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