The effectiveness of an ecodrive course for heavy vehicle drivers
- Symmons, Mark, Rose, Geoffrey, Van Doorn, George
- Authors: Symmons, Mark , Rose, Geoffrey , Van Doorn, George
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Proceedings of the Australasian Road Safety Research, Policing and Education Conference 2008 p. 1-8
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- Description: Amongst other changes, ecodriving requires drivers to drive more smoothly – to “flow” the vehicle. In order to save fuel and reduce emissions drivers must operate at lower engine revolutions, change up gears as soon as possible, and anticipate traffic conditions and drive defensively. A field trial was conducted using a 30 km metropolitan circuit and B-double heavy vehicles. Compared to their pre-course measures, the trained group reduced their fuel consumption by an average of 27%, the number of gear changes by 29%, and the number of brake applications by 41%. Importantly, these gains were not offset by increases in the time taken to complete the circuit – indeed average speed increased slightly. Further, the benefits did not lose any strength 12 weeks after the training, at which point the pilot trial concluded – in fact for some variables the results continued to improve over time. The number of drivers participating in the trial was relatively small and some questions remain unanswered, including actual road safety implications, building a strong case for a larger trial.
- Authors: Symmons, Mark , Rose, Geoffrey , Van Doorn, George
- Date: 2008
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Proceedings of the Australasian Road Safety Research, Policing and Education Conference 2008 p. 1-8
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: Amongst other changes, ecodriving requires drivers to drive more smoothly – to “flow” the vehicle. In order to save fuel and reduce emissions drivers must operate at lower engine revolutions, change up gears as soon as possible, and anticipate traffic conditions and drive defensively. A field trial was conducted using a 30 km metropolitan circuit and B-double heavy vehicles. Compared to their pre-course measures, the trained group reduced their fuel consumption by an average of 27%, the number of gear changes by 29%, and the number of brake applications by 41%. Importantly, these gains were not offset by increases in the time taken to complete the circuit – indeed average speed increased slightly. Further, the benefits did not lose any strength 12 weeks after the training, at which point the pilot trial concluded – in fact for some variables the results continued to improve over time. The number of drivers participating in the trial was relatively small and some questions remain unanswered, including actual road safety implications, building a strong case for a larger trial.
Influence of demographic variables on sustainability in regional Australian SMEs
- Courvisanos, Jerry, Nayak, Ravi, Salimzadeh, Parisa
- Authors: Courvisanos, Jerry , Nayak, Ravi , Salimzadeh, Parisa
- Date: 2015
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: Proceedings of the Australasian Conference on Business and Social Sciences
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role in the economy of Regional Australia.They are significant regional development agents contributing to the increased productivity and the improved quality of local life.However,global warming and unethical social behavioursare increasingly being attributed to commercial activity. While, large businesses have accepted the need to adopt sustainability in their management process, SMEs have not paid enough attention to the sustainability issues in their management strategies.There are some demographic variables which are affectingthe adoption on sustainable practices by SMEs. This paper investigates the effects of fourdemographic variables (business size, business category, owners/managers’ experienceand educationallevel) on the sustainability adoption by SMEs in a regional context.One way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyse the survey data from 233 SMEs in the regional city of Ballarat which is located in Western Victoria, Australia.Findings reveal that business size and owners/managers’ education have a significant impact on the adoption of socially responsible practices.This paper contributes to the investigation of impacting variables on sustainable business development within SMEs, highlighting significant implications for both theory and practice in the context of a non-metropolitan urban setting.
Testing the robustness of optimal operating plans under various future hydro-climatic scenarios
- Godoy, Walter, Barton, Andrew, Wilson, K., Perera, B.
- Authors: Godoy, Walter , Barton, Andrew , Wilson, K. , Perera, B.
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: 2018 Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium: Water and Communities, HWRS 2018 p. 267-283
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- Description: A key challenge for water resources planning processes around the world is to develop operating plans that are optimal under a range of hydro-climatic conditions. The consequences of such long term planning decisions can vary in terms of the social, economic, and environmental impacts. Given these potential impacts, it is important that operating plans are tested under a range of hydro-climatic conditions to ensure that they are sufficiently robust to withstand future changes in climate. The aim of this study is to present a procedure for testing the robustness of optimal operating plans for complex water resources systems using a combined multi-objective optimisation and sustainability assessment approach. The approach embeds an optimisation-simulation (O-S) model which is applied to an 18-objective function multi-objective optimisation problem of the Wimmera-Mallee Water Supply System (WMWSS). The WMWSS is a multi-reservoir system located in Western Victoria (Australia) which is operated to meet a range of competing interests for water using complex operating rules. The O-S model is applied to the WMWSS to search for optimal operating plans over a 100-year period into the future assuming two plausible greenhouse gas (GHG) emission levels. The two GHG emission scenarios represent lower and higher ends of the estimated range of projected GHG emissions, providing a wide range of future hydro-climatic conditions. A robustness test is used to evaluate the validity of the most sustainable optimal operating plans under the two GHG emmission scenarios and also those found previously under a historic hydro-climatic sequence. The test results show that the status quo or base case operating plan is optimal but is neither the highest nor the lowest in terms of the level of sustainability that could be achieved in the WMWSS, under historic and the higher GHG emission scenario. Moreover, the results show that the most sustainable optimal operating plans found under the three hydro-climatic scenarios are sufficiently robust to withstand the full range of hydro-climatic conditions considered whereas the base case operating plan is not as robust. The risks involved in the implementation of operating plans which exhibit large deviations from the base case operating plan are discussed. These risks highlight the importance of problem formulation and sensitivity analysis of the optimal operating plans in order to find real world solutions to real world problems. © CURRAN-CONFERENCE. All rights reserved.
- Authors: Godoy, Walter , Barton, Andrew , Wilson, K. , Perera, B.
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: 2018 Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium: Water and Communities, HWRS 2018 p. 267-283
- Full Text:
- Reviewed:
- Description: A key challenge for water resources planning processes around the world is to develop operating plans that are optimal under a range of hydro-climatic conditions. The consequences of such long term planning decisions can vary in terms of the social, economic, and environmental impacts. Given these potential impacts, it is important that operating plans are tested under a range of hydro-climatic conditions to ensure that they are sufficiently robust to withstand future changes in climate. The aim of this study is to present a procedure for testing the robustness of optimal operating plans for complex water resources systems using a combined multi-objective optimisation and sustainability assessment approach. The approach embeds an optimisation-simulation (O-S) model which is applied to an 18-objective function multi-objective optimisation problem of the Wimmera-Mallee Water Supply System (WMWSS). The WMWSS is a multi-reservoir system located in Western Victoria (Australia) which is operated to meet a range of competing interests for water using complex operating rules. The O-S model is applied to the WMWSS to search for optimal operating plans over a 100-year period into the future assuming two plausible greenhouse gas (GHG) emission levels. The two GHG emission scenarios represent lower and higher ends of the estimated range of projected GHG emissions, providing a wide range of future hydro-climatic conditions. A robustness test is used to evaluate the validity of the most sustainable optimal operating plans under the two GHG emmission scenarios and also those found previously under a historic hydro-climatic sequence. The test results show that the status quo or base case operating plan is optimal but is neither the highest nor the lowest in terms of the level of sustainability that could be achieved in the WMWSS, under historic and the higher GHG emission scenario. Moreover, the results show that the most sustainable optimal operating plans found under the three hydro-climatic scenarios are sufficiently robust to withstand the full range of hydro-climatic conditions considered whereas the base case operating plan is not as robust. The risks involved in the implementation of operating plans which exhibit large deviations from the base case operating plan are discussed. These risks highlight the importance of problem formulation and sensitivity analysis of the optimal operating plans in order to find real world solutions to real world problems. © CURRAN-CONFERENCE. All rights reserved.
- Prayag, Girish, Hall, Michael, Fieger, Peter, Chen, Ning
- Authors: Prayag, Girish , Hall, Michael , Fieger, Peter , Chen, Ning
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Conference paper
- Relation: CAUTHE 2020: 20: 20 Vision: New Perspectives on the Diversity of Hospitality, Tourism and Events; Auckland,NZ; 10-13th February 2020 p. 588-590
- Full Text: false
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- Description: Despite sustainability being a key concern in tourism studies, surprisingly few studies exist on international visitors' perceptions of destination sustainability. One of the difficulties in assessing studies of sustainability is that the concept is used in an inconsistent manner. With a tourism strategy that focuses on tourism growth that is productive, sustainable and inclusive, the tourism industry in New Zealand has put sustainability at the core of its destination strategy. However, there is little evidence to support whether international tourists are concerned about destination sustainability and if they are, which facets matter the most to them. These are the two research questions that this study attempts to answer. UGC from Trip Advisor and Expedia was analysed using keywords representing different facets of economic, socio-cultural and environmental sustainability for the Canterbury region. Based on 67181 online comments, the findings showed that price was the most pressing economic sustainability issue, while friendliness of staff and locals was the most mentioned socio-cultural sustainability issue. Recycling was among the words that were most often mentioned about hotels in online comments. Implications for destination management are offered.
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