IOT INTEGRATED SMART STREET FURNITURE: A CASE STUDY OF UNIVERSITY, INDUSTRY AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT COLLABORATION

This article discusses the design process and pilot program of a suite of IoT-integrated street furniture aimed to improve use and amenity of municipality assets in public open spaces in Sydney, Australia. Networked sensors were embedded in the furniture and linked to a web-based dashboard application enabling a digital twin of the asset to monitor and analyze how and when the furniture was used. The prototype and modifications to existing furniture designs provided additional utility for the local community through lighting, free wi-fi access, power outlets, USB charging, water, a weather station and bench space. Outcomes of the street-furniture installation revealed innovative protocols for design-development teams and asset managers to review product performance and efficiency. This article presents a collaborative government/industry/university project that has been recognized by The World Bank for intelligent neighborhood design practices and by the Planning Institute of Australia for its novel approach to community social infrastructure.

Digital Transformations in Planning: An Australian Context

Australia is currently undergoing sweeping changes in transforming and digitizing its planning and development sectors. However, numerous challenges still exist in consolidating and making accessible essential data in the country to effect evidence-based development policy-making. This has been argued to have tangible consequences in formulating solutions to urban problems, such as housing delivery, and driving new urban innovations that are data-focused. In this chapter, we discuss a new urban data governance model in the context of the development of a novel single housing data and analytics platform, which has been formulated based on Australia’s current issues on data disparity, ownership, and interoperability. This platform, the Australian Housing Data Analytics Platform, seeks provide researchers with an integrated data repository and transparent analytical capabilities that hopes to drive collaboration, public participation, and data democratization across the country. In line with PlanTech principles developed through the Australian Planning Institute, this chapter describes how data in Australia can be made as a public good and integral commodity for policy-makers for the better planning for our cities.

Access to the Brazilian agenda of the National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (1985)

This article seeks to understand the circumstances that culminated in the formulation and implementation of the National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (PNSR) in the 1980s, using the Multiple Streams Model as its theoretical reference. The results show that the theme’s ascension to the government agenda stemmed from a conjuncture marked by intense transitions that contributed to opening a policy window. The struggle to guarantee social rights in the Brazilian re-democratization process; the activities of social movements like the grassroots public health movement; the large sanitary deficit and its consequences for public health; the joint involvement of institutions with considerable expertise like Economic and Social Planning Institute (IPEA), Public Health Special Service Foundation (FSESP) and Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) and the availability of financial resources stemming from a partnership arrangement with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) provided a favorable environment for the elaboration of the PNSR.

A entrada na agenda brasileira do Projeto Nacional de Saneamento Rural (1985)

This article seeks to understand the circumstances that culminated in the formulation and implementation of the National Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Project (PNSR) in the 1980s, using the Multiple Streams Model as its theoretical reference. The results show that the theme’s ascension to the government agenda stemmed from a conjuncture marked by intense transitions that contributed to opening a policy window. The struggle to guarantee social rights in the Brazilian re-democratization process; the activities of social movements like the grassroots public health movement; the large sanitary deficit and its consequences for public health; the joint involvement of institutions with considerable expertise like Economic and Social Planning Institute (IPEA), Public Health Special Service Foundation (FSESP) and Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) and the availability of financial resources stemming from a partnership arrangement with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) provided a favorable environment for the elaboration of the PNSR.

Exploring Adequate Retirement Funding in South Africa: A KwaZulu-Natal Financial Planner’s View

The development of several social demographic and economic trends have created the interest among financial analysts and the general population in planning for retirement. By the year 2021 the number of South Africans past retirement age will be an estimated 4.4 million which should account for approximately 7.3% of the country’s population (currently 3.8 million or 6.8% of the population) (Statistics South Africa, 2016). The increase in South Africa’s population at large and longer retirement periods have raised questions about financial preparedness for retirement. Economic issues such as corporate downsizing, capped employer retirement contributions, changing of jobs for greater remuneration and increased daily living costs have shifted the responsibility for retirement financial well-being from employers to individuals. Adequate retirement provision does not necessarily only affect the retiree but also the family unit of the retiree as a whole, as the vast majority of households in developing countries such as South Africa rely solely on one breadwinner. A global financial planning survey “was conducted by the FPI in 2015. The survey shows that only 38% of South Africans are confident that they will achieve their financial life goals, with 55% indicating that they do not know where to start with financial planning Financial Planning Institute of South Africa (2015), Gustman et al. (1995), as sited in Greninger et al. (2000) reported that, “there is no consensus in literature regarding the definition of retirement. If we do not understand the meaning of retirement, is it possible to judge whether a population is financially prepared?” This question underlines the importance of gathering informative qualitative data such as goals and risk tolerances and quantitative data, in order to develop a capital needs analysis to establish how clients can successfully meet their retirement goals. This paper aims to explore the role of the Financial Planner in the retirement planning process.

The Urban Planning Institute building in Belgrade

The building of the Urban Planning Institute in Belgrade, designed by architect Branislav Jovin, is one of the most significant achievements of the post-WWII architecture in Belgrade. In the personal oeuvre of the author, the building is his magnum opus and one of the showpieces of Brutalist architecture in Serbia. This paper will examine the architectural and artistic values of the Belgrade Urban Planning Institute building, designed in late 1960s and completed as early as 1970. The significance of the structure was reviewed in the context of its architectural, cultural and historical values, but also by analysing social circumstances and the development of architectural scenery in the post-WWII Yugoslavia and the city of Belgrade. By considering the building in the framework of the post-WWII architecture, we can get the clearer picture of tendencies and aspirations in the architectural treatment of masses and forms, of the material used, but also of European and global influence on the development of Yugoslav architecture of the time.

Professor of the Kuibyshev Planning Institute Vasily Lvovich Pogodin: materials for the biography

The paper is based on archival materials about the activities of the Kuibyshev Planning Institute of the 1930s. It reconstructs the biography of the Russian and Soviet diplomat, military and academic of the first third of the 20th century, Vasily Lvovich Pogodin (1870 - after 1937). The study reveals a set of documentary evidence on the diplomatic and pedagogical career of V. Pogodin in the first years of the Soviet power, and determines the features of his pedagogical and party activities in Kuibyshev in 1933-1937. The author highlights a special role of the Planning Institute party committee materials as well as the high school workers trade union in the reconstruction of Pogodins biography. The paper emphasizes that Pogodin was considered to be one of the best lecturers of the Kuibyshev Planning Institute and a credible party worker. It is noted that his noble origin, service in the tsarist army and membership in the party of the Social Revolutionaries until 1937 were not the reason for penalties or prosecution by the party or the university administration. As a result, the author concludes that the fate of Vasily Lvovich Pogodin shows an extraordinary character of his personality. He made a brilliant military career in the years of the late Russian empire and became a major general of the Russian imperial army. Then he managed to integrate into the new Soviet system, radically changing the sphere of his activity and having achieved no less outstanding results in diplomacy and education. He became the plenipotentiary representative of the Far Eastern Republic in China, the director of a number of educational and cultural institutions of the Far East, then a professor of political economy in Kuibyshev.