Aura of the Past: The Rehabilitation of ‘Puhipuhi Mercury Mine’

<p>Through the development of the case site ‘Puhipuhi Mercury Mines’ this design led thesis presents the fusion of ruins with new design, aiming to rehabilitate the site and its history. The delicate nature of the site’s past and its remaining relics present the potential to curate a history. The method of integrating old and new design to reestablish value is explored. Puhipuhi mine has a negative reputation today. Documented memories focus on the mine's industrial downfall and remaining areas of contamination. This has dampened its prospects. The case site has remained dormant since its closure in 1945 (Butcher). With political controversy surrounding the site, and with natural growth dominating the remains, it has become virtually inaccessible. The challenge presented by the characteristics of the site poses the following research question: ‘How can the fusion of old and new architecture add value to a forgotten and contaminated historic site as a means to preserve its history and rehabilitate it for current day use?’ Abandoned elements which lay dormant in our landscape have the opportunity to be valued as iconic elements in New Zealand's history, yet we are hesitant to seek appreciation for the narratives of their past and as a result we are presented with the possibility of historic loss. The site's processing plant presents a need to preserve its architectural heritage and document its history as a means to re mediate the damage of contamination and the devalue that has generated since the closure of the program. Attention is needed to establish it as the beautiful landscape, intriguing remains and educational opportunity that it has the potential to become. Through the establishment of age, historic and use values, new programmes are constructed: a toxicity museum and laboratory.</p>

Aura of the Past: The Rehabilitation of ‘Puhipuhi Mercury Mine’

<p>Through the development of the case site ‘Puhipuhi Mercury Mines’ this design led thesis presents the fusion of ruins with new design, aiming to rehabilitate the site and its history. The delicate nature of the site’s past and its remaining relics present the potential to curate a history. The method of integrating old and new design to reestablish value is explored. Puhipuhi mine has a negative reputation today. Documented memories focus on the mine's industrial downfall and remaining areas of contamination. This has dampened its prospects. The case site has remained dormant since its closure in 1945 (Butcher). With political controversy surrounding the site, and with natural growth dominating the remains, it has become virtually inaccessible. The challenge presented by the characteristics of the site poses the following research question: ‘How can the fusion of old and new architecture add value to a forgotten and contaminated historic site as a means to preserve its history and rehabilitate it for current day use?’ Abandoned elements which lay dormant in our landscape have the opportunity to be valued as iconic elements in New Zealand's history, yet we are hesitant to seek appreciation for the narratives of their past and as a result we are presented with the possibility of historic loss. The site's processing plant presents a need to preserve its architectural heritage and document its history as a means to re mediate the damage of contamination and the devalue that has generated since the closure of the program. Attention is needed to establish it as the beautiful landscape, intriguing remains and educational opportunity that it has the potential to become. Through the establishment of age, historic and use values, new programmes are constructed: a toxicity museum and laboratory.</p>

Climate-Smart Agriculture on Small-Scale Farms: A Systematic Literature Review

Overpopulation and climate change are among the greatest challenges the world faces. Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) provides an adequate answer by aiming for higher productivity, resilience, as well as GHG emission reduction. As small-scale farms are the cornerstone of the agricultural sector, especially in developing countries, their greater involvement in climate-related actions is essential. CSA practices seek a higher and more stable income sustainably. This systematic literature review aims to provide an overview of how CSA is realized on small-scale farms, what the major CSA practices applied are, and what factors motivate and hamper higher CSA adoption. Based on 30 selected articles, the major message of the literature is a case/site-specific approach due to the tremendous heterogeneity of small-scale farms. As agricultural production is characterized by high risks and low returns, small-scale farmers must consider the length of the payback period when they decide on any CSA practices. This is the reason smallholdings, who implement any CSA practices, must achieve economic benefits, otherwise, they need to be compensated for providing environmental benefits. Moreover, simpler methods with low labor intensity are often applied. Access to the different financial instruments and inputs, knowledge/education/information, and land use security are the critical factors of the CSA adoption. Furthermore, it is worth mentioning that, unlike off-farm activities/incomes, full-time farming is a serious commitment that positively influences CSA adoption.

Short-Term Firm-Level Energy-Consumption Forecasting for Energy-Intensive Manufacturing: A Comparison of Machine Learning and Deep Learning Models

To minimise environmental impact, to avoid regulatory penalties, and to improve competitiveness, energy-intensive manufacturing firms require accurate forecasts of their energy consumption so that precautionary and mitigation measures can be taken. Deep learning is widely touted as a superior analytical technique to traditional artificial neural networks, machine learning, and other classical time-series models due to its high dimensionality and problem-solving capabilities. Despite this, research on its application in demand-side energy forecasting is limited. We compare two benchmarks (Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) and an existing manual technique used at the case site) against three deep-learning models (simple Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), and Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU)) and two machine-learning models (Support Vector Regression (SVR) and Random Forest) for short-term load forecasting (STLF) using data from a Brazilian thermoplastic resin manufacturing plant. We use the grid search method to identify the best configurations for each model and then use Diebold–Mariano testing to confirm the results. The results suggests that the legacy approach used at the case site is the worst performing and that the GRU model outperformed all other models tested.

Short-Term Firm-Level Energy Consumption Forecasting for Energy-Intensive Manufacturing: A Comparison of Machine Learning and Deep Learning Models

To minimise environmental impact, avoid regulatory penalties, and improve competitiveness, energy-intensive manufacturing firms require accurate forecasts of their energy consumption so that precautionary and mitigation measures can be taken. Deep learning is widely touted as a superior analytical technique to traditional artificial neural networks, machine learning, and other classical time series models due to its high dimensionality and problem solving capabilities. Despite this, research on its application in demand-side energy forecasting is limited. We compare two benchmarks (Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA), and an existing manual technique used at the case site) against three deep learning models (simple Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), and Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU)) and three machine learning models (Support Vector Regression (SVM), Random Forest, and K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN)) for short term load forecasting (STLF) using data from a Brazilian thermoplastic resin manufacturing plant. We use the grid search method to identify the best configurations for each model, and then use Diebold-Mariano testing to confirm the results. Results suggests that the legacy approach used at the case site is the worst performing, and that the GRU model outperformed all other models tested.

THE TOOL FOR SCHOOL LEADERS IN MEASURING CLIMATE FACTORS FOR BETTER EDUCATIONAL IMPROVEMENT

Different schools that are nestled in different locality possess different climate factors. For this paper, it emphasizes mainly on how climate factors of a school influence pupils and teachers in the teaching and learning processes in the English language. The case site is a low-performing rural primary school in a bucolic setting in the state of Sabah which is 130km away from the nearest urban centre. The main purpose of this paper is to delineate the building of an instrument as a tool for school leaders to start analysing climate factors for better educational improvement. There are four general concepts depicted under the climate factors – physical environment, social relationship/system, orderliness, and expectations on student outcomes (and teacher behaviours). To ensure a more holistic measurement of these indicators, five measurement dimensions – frequency, focus, stage, differentiation, and quality are adopted. Sources of data are from various data collection methods namely peripheral observation, classroom observation, classroom participation, formal interview, conversational interview, focus group interview as well as documents. Multiple sources of data ascertain triangulation and better trustworthiness of the data to facilitate the building of a comprehensive instrument with wide-ranging constructs. This instrument can be used as a self-evaluation guide for school leaders to further understand the weaknesses as well as strengths of their schools. Through the synthesis of the data collected using this instrument, it has facilitated clear discernment of the capacities for the case school under-investigated and how the roles of financial, human, time, and programme capacity affect the pupils’ performance in the English Language.

What Counts as Success? Wider Implications of Achieving Planning Permission in a Low-Impact Ecovillage

The need for energy system change in order to address the energy 'trilemma' of security, affordability and sustainability is well documented and requires the active involvement of individuals, families and communities who currently engage with these systems and technologies. Alongside technical developments designed to address these challenges, alternative ways of living are increasingly being envisaged by those involved in low-impact development. This article draws on data from a qualitative longitudinal study involving residents of a low-impact ecovillage in West Wales, UK, in order to consider how the successful meeting of their planning targets has not been without personal and social troubles, which are absent from official measures of the project's success. We argue that, in exploring issues pertaining to scaling up, policy timescales and the legacy of such projects (such as inspiring others), insights drawn from this study have a wider relevance beyond the specific case site.

The ‘Reality’ of Participation During Community Partnership in Management of Forest Resource: Evidences from Bankura District, Eastern India

The notion of ‘participation’ and its association with the concept of planning and governance has increasingly become important both in rural and urban governance. However the impact of the participation has been different in different settings. The present study is an attempt to examine the participatory processes in planning within an already existing participatory programme in India, namely the Joint Forest Management (JFM) Programme, empowering forest communities within rural forest dwelling units with management functions, through a participative approach. In recent times, within the framework of JFM, Microplan has to be prepared for each village, under the National Afforestation Programme of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. The study aims to address the nature and extent of participation and the factors which have affected the outcome of participatory processes in a representative case site, within broader context of participatory governance.