Requirements specification to support BIM-based Thermal Comfort analysis
Friday, March 13, 2020
Abstract: Traditionally and during a building's operation, thermal comfort levels are often evaluated using equipment that is expensive to purchase and maintain. Through advanced technologies, Building Information Model (BIM) and energy simulation tools, thermal comfort and its impacts can be eva... ..
On issues of plurality and practice in considering planning’s public interest
Monday, February 10, 2020
Abstract: The ‘public interest’ has waxed and waned as a concept of concern in planning theory over the years. Even when not explicitly under discussion, it is often implicitly present beneath other monikers, such as ‘justice’, ‘rights’ or ‘capabilities’ (Basta, 2015, 2017; Fainstein, 2010; Lenno... ..
The Geography of Knowledge Creation: Technological Relatedness and Regional S...
Friday, January 10, 2020
Abstract: This chapter synthesises the literatures of evolutionary economic geography and the geography of innovation in order to demonstrate the path dependent and evolutionary logic inherent to knowledge creation and diffusion processes. Critically, this synthesis reaffirms the continued import... ..
Expert Witness: Joint Oireachtas Housing Committee on Building Standards, Fir...
Friday, November 29, 2019
Abstract: Fire safety is the most visible type of building failure; other building failures, that are damaging to health and to the environment, often go unreported because they are not so visible and because they play out in private. They need the same attention in public policy, particularly wh... ..
Expert witness: Joint Oireachtas Housing Committee, CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY REG...
Friday, November 29, 2019
Abstract: A sustainable and robust construction industry needs an effective building control system, an efficient construction sector, a flexible labour market, and a 'fighting fund' for remedying defects. Any one part cannot be looked at in isolation. Regulation of certain professions, trades, b... ..
Expert witness: Joint Oireachtas Housing Committee, January 2018
Friday, November 29, 2019
Abstract: Existing buildings are the most readily available, cheapest, quickest and most sustainable source of housing supply in the short term. In addition to 183,000 vacant dwellings recorded in Census 20161, there were more than 28,000 vacant commercial addresses in mid 2017, a national vacanc... ..
Opening Statement to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning & Lo...
Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Abstract: A sustainable and robust construction industry needs an effective building control system, an efficient construction sector, a flexible labour market, and a 'fighting fund' for remedying defects. Any one part cannot be looked at in isolation. Regulation of certain professions, trades, b... ..
Framework development for ‘just transition’ in coal producing jurisdictions
Saturday, November 2, 2019
Abstract: The rhetoric of the ‘just transition’ lies at the heart of energy and development policies internationally. In this context, it is crucial that communities dependent on fossil fuel extraction and production for employment do not become ‘victims’ of the decarbonisation process. This pape... ..
Capturing information on technology convergence, international collaboration,...
Thursday, October 31, 2019
Abstract: In addressing persistent gaps in existing theories, recent advances in data-driven research approaches offer novel perspectives and exciting insights across a spectrum of scientific fields concerned with technological change and the socio-economic impact thereof. The present investigati... ..
Extending IFC to support thermal comfort prediction during design
Tuesday, October 8, 2019
Abstract: During the early design stage, designers often rely on general rules of thumb to make critical decisions about the geometry, construction systems and materials without fully evaluating their effects on indoor thermal environment requirements and constraints. Currently, reviewing a desig... ..
The Properties of our Everyday Spectral Microclimate
Thursday, August 29, 2019
Abstract: The CIE illuminant D65 is widely adopted as defining the standard spectral power distribution (SPD) for ‘average’ daylight. Thus daylight indoors is generally assumed to approximate the SPD for D65. The weight of research on the non-visual effects of light now suggests that a key consid... ..
Development of a Model View Definition (MVD) for thermal comfort analysis in...
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Abstract: Buildings are major consumers of global energy resources. Approximately 80% of the energy used in commercial office spaces, is typically used for maintaining optimal comfort levels through delivery of heating, cooling, ventilating, and lighting. Building Information Modelling (BIM) has ... ..
Planning’s Position in the ‘Hollowing-Out’ and ‘Filling-In’ of Local Governme...
Monday, August 19, 2019
Abstract: Pausing for reflection following several years of rapid change, academia has recently witnessed a growth in literature examining how the purposes and organisational architectures of planning have been revised in a post-recessionary world awash with neoliberal critiques on inefficiencies... ..
The values and vulnerabilities of ‘Star Wars Island’: exploring tensions in t...
Friday, August 2, 2019
Abstract: This paper explores challenges in reconciling the cultural, economic and ecological pillars of the sustainable development concept. It does so by examining how conflicts in the management of an island off the Irish coast called Skellig Michael, which has been internationally designated ... ..
‘You Don’t Miss the Water ’til the Well Runs Dry’: Factors Influencing the Fa...
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
Abstract: Access to safe drinking water and wastewater services is essential for public health, and well-being, but attitudes differ regarding how such services should be funded. In Ireland, the 2014 introduction of a domestic-sector, consumption-based, charging regime was met with public protest... ..
Mainstreaming Green Infrastructure as a Health-Promoting Asset
Friday, July 12, 2019
Abstract: Drawing on recent policy and practice in Ireland, particularly as promoted by the National Planning Framework, Mark Scott, Mick Lennon and Owen Douglas look at green infrastructure’s potential as a health-promoting framework. Title: Mainstreaming Green Infrastructure as a Health-Promoti... ..
Centralising health in national spatial planning frameworks: insights from Ir...
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Abstract: This article examines attempts to embed health within national spatial planning, drawing on a case study of Ireland. We chart how national planning frameworks have shifted from a focus on spatial coordination of health-care provision towards a Health-in-All-Policies approach to centrali... ..
Rewilding as rural land management: opportunities and constraints
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Abstract: This chapter explores the potential benefits and constraints of ‘rewilding’ as a response to the challenges posed by land abandonment in rural environments. It first explores the evolution of the concept and identifies a variety of interpretations of what rewilding means. The potential ... ..
Grasping Green Infrastructure: an introduction to the theory and practice of ...
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Abstract: Green infrastructure (GI) can be a difficult to fathom concept. It is employed in different ways in different contexts: in some jurisdictions it is most commonly conceived as a tool for adjudicating on specific development proposals, while in others it is primarily employed in the formu... ..
Ireland’s New National Planning Framework: (Re)Balancing and (Re)Conceiving P...
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
Abstract: This article examines the recent evolution of national spatial planning in Ireland, focusing on the recent publication of National Planning Framework (NPF) in 2018. The NPF is Ireland’s second national strategy for spatial development and represents a further shift away from traditional... ..