Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL190100143
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$3,200,000.00
Summary
Making a sustainable tourist. This Fellowship will develop and validate a new theory that explains, predicts, and elicits pro-environmental conduct in pleasure-focused settings like tourism. It is significant in challenging the assumption of conventional theories about universal drivers of human behaviour, asserting instead that increased pleasure or changed infrastructure are needed to boost pro-environmental actions in hedonic contexts. The outcome and benefits will be in effective, evidenced- ....Making a sustainable tourist. This Fellowship will develop and validate a new theory that explains, predicts, and elicits pro-environmental conduct in pleasure-focused settings like tourism. It is significant in challenging the assumption of conventional theories about universal drivers of human behaviour, asserting instead that increased pleasure or changed infrastructure are needed to boost pro-environmental actions in hedonic contexts. The outcome and benefits will be in effective, evidenced-based social interventions that reduce the huge environmental burden of tourism and other pleasure-focused industries. Such interventions are urgently needed to manage the impacts arising from the extraordinary growth in sectors critical to the Australian economy.Read moreRead less
Reducing global tourism carbon emissions . With over 6 billion vacation trips annually, tourism is a major and fast-growing contributor to climate change. To support a climate-centred tourism policy, this Project aims to construct a world’s first global database that answers three key questions: 1) if tourism carbon footprint increases in direct proportion to its consumption, 2) how quickly tourism can decarbonise emissions, and 3) can tourism deliver better carbon performance than other sectors ....Reducing global tourism carbon emissions . With over 6 billion vacation trips annually, tourism is a major and fast-growing contributor to climate change. To support a climate-centred tourism policy, this Project aims to construct a world’s first global database that answers three key questions: 1) if tourism carbon footprint increases in direct proportion to its consumption, 2) how quickly tourism can decarbonise emissions, and 3) can tourism deliver better carbon performance than other sectors? The outcomes include new theoretical and empirical knowledge about the impacts, drivers, and trade-offs of tourism's carbon emissions. A significant benefit of this Project is to identify mitigation policies that can better balance tourism economic yield and emissions stabilisation.Read moreRead less
Developing a transformative tourism model for the South Pacific. In a South Pacific context, this project aims to develop and disseminate a model of tourism that balances economic, social and environmental objectives. In so doing, this project expects to create new knowledge in tourism and sustainable development, while advancing methods of research applicable to diverse stakeholders and settings. Expected outcomes include an enduring community of practice, and a suite of tools, guides and polic ....Developing a transformative tourism model for the South Pacific. In a South Pacific context, this project aims to develop and disseminate a model of tourism that balances economic, social and environmental objectives. In so doing, this project expects to create new knowledge in tourism and sustainable development, while advancing methods of research applicable to diverse stakeholders and settings. Expected outcomes include an enduring community of practice, and a suite of tools, guides and policy briefs for those seeking to promote tourism that enables genuine sustainable development. In addition to improving outcomes for people and places in a region where tourism is a vital industry, this project should support Australia’s engagement with the Pacific, while promoting peace and prosperity in the region.Read moreRead less
Reducing plate waste in hotels - which interventions are most effective? This project aims to quantify the comparative effectiveness of belief-based and choice-architecture-based interventions in reducing food waste generated by tourists at hotel buffets. Expected outcomes include: new insights into effective triggers of pro-environmental tourist behaviour; the first empirical data on carbon emissions caused by plate waste in tourism; an automatic plate waste measurement system and benchmarking ....Reducing plate waste in hotels - which interventions are most effective? This project aims to quantify the comparative effectiveness of belief-based and choice-architecture-based interventions in reducing food waste generated by tourists at hotel buffets. Expected outcomes include: new insights into effective triggers of pro-environmental tourist behaviour; the first empirical data on carbon emissions caused by plate waste in tourism; an automatic plate waste measurement system and benchmarking app for monitoring and comparison; and effective practical measures to reduce avoidable food leftovers generated by tourists. This should provide significant benefits by: lowering food cost for the struggling tourism industry, reducing carbon emissions, and contributing to Australia’s aim of halving food waste by 2030.Read moreRead less
Asset Intelligence: Maximising Operational Effectiveness for Digital Era . The primary aim of this project is to develop an innovative lifecycle semantic–based decision making approach through asset intelligence so as to maximize the operational effectiveness maintenance, repair and rehabilitation planning of infrastructure assets, such as concrete pavement. The research intends to address an important gap by providing logical formalisms and real-time capability to life-cycle asset information t ....Asset Intelligence: Maximising Operational Effectiveness for Digital Era . The primary aim of this project is to develop an innovative lifecycle semantic–based decision making approach through asset intelligence so as to maximize the operational effectiveness maintenance, repair and rehabilitation planning of infrastructure assets, such as concrete pavement. The research intends to address an important gap by providing logical formalisms and real-time capability to life-cycle asset information through computational intelligence. The expected outcome will be an intelligent asset management platform that provides structured and semantically enriched lifecycle asset information for optimised solutions to help reduce the cost, time and effort in asset information storage and retrieval, and decision-making. Read moreRead less
Bridge performance assessment through advanced sensing and modelling. Bridge performance assessment through advanced sensing and modelling. This project aims to create cyber infrastructure to manage and maintain civil infrastructure, specifically bridges. Current sensor data interpretation approaches are not good at assessing the performance of civil infrastructure or evaluating the reserve capacity; in particular, they do not adequately account for high levels of systematic modelling uncertaint ....Bridge performance assessment through advanced sensing and modelling. Bridge performance assessment through advanced sensing and modelling. This project aims to create cyber infrastructure to manage and maintain civil infrastructure, specifically bridges. Current sensor data interpretation approaches are not good at assessing the performance of civil infrastructure or evaluating the reserve capacity; in particular, they do not adequately account for high levels of systematic modelling uncertainties. This project intends to ease the current scientific data interpretation bottleneck. Expected outcomes are better infrastructure management and maintenance planning, fewer redundant interventions, modified infrastructure and improved future design.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100909
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$350,000.00
Summary
Innovative Soft-computing for Condition Assessment of Large Infrastructure. Health conditions of large infrastructure, such as bridges, have been difficult to determine due to their large scales, associated incomplete data and high uncertainties in measurement and system identification. This project will develop an innovative condition assessment method based on the advancements in structural dynamics analysis, multi-objective topology and soft-computing techniques, for reliably evaluating the h ....Innovative Soft-computing for Condition Assessment of Large Infrastructure. Health conditions of large infrastructure, such as bridges, have been difficult to determine due to their large scales, associated incomplete data and high uncertainties in measurement and system identification. This project will develop an innovative condition assessment method based on the advancements in structural dynamics analysis, multi-objective topology and soft-computing techniques, for reliably evaluating the health conditions of large infrastructure. The outcomes will enhance the current practices in infrastructure asset management to deliver timely retrofitting and extended life cycle. The development will provide benefits to Australia by enhancing operational efficiency and preventing catastrophic failure of infrastructure.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200100235
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$422,241.00
Summary
The impact of mass gathering events on emergency healthcare services. Mass gathering events (MGEs) occur frequently across Australia. The preparation of a MGE from an emergency healthcare service perspective is conducted with limited evidence to support decision-making. Using routinely collected data from Tourism and Events Queensland, Queensland Ambulance Service, Queensland Emergency Departments, and the Bureau of Meteorology, this research aims to determine the impact on ambulance and emergen ....The impact of mass gathering events on emergency healthcare services. Mass gathering events (MGEs) occur frequently across Australia. The preparation of a MGE from an emergency healthcare service perspective is conducted with limited evidence to support decision-making. Using routinely collected data from Tourism and Events Queensland, Queensland Ambulance Service, Queensland Emergency Departments, and the Bureau of Meteorology, this research aims to determine the impact on ambulance and emergency department services in the vicinity of 750 planned MGEs over a five year period (2015 - 2019). The expected outcome includes an enhanced ability to predict the required emergency healthcare services for a MGE, therefore enhancing the planning and response, benefiting MGE attendees and the MGE host community.Read moreRead less
Condition-Based Maintenance Optimisation for Queensland’s Railways. Rail maintainers currently use time-based (scheduled) approaches to balance the costs and benefits of inspections and maintenance. Changing to condition-based maintenance has the potential to reduce costs and improve track condition. This project aims to enable this approach for rail by developing: 1) new track degradation prediction techniques combining Big Data and engineering knowledge; 2) new on-board sensing capabilities fo ....Condition-Based Maintenance Optimisation for Queensland’s Railways. Rail maintainers currently use time-based (scheduled) approaches to balance the costs and benefits of inspections and maintenance. Changing to condition-based maintenance has the potential to reduce costs and improve track condition. This project aims to enable this approach for rail by developing: 1) new track degradation prediction techniques combining Big Data and engineering knowledge; 2) new on-board sensing capabilities for frequent, low-cost track monitoring; 3) novel inspection and maintenance optimisation methods to efficiently allocate resources. The knowledge generated by this project is expected to decrease maintenance costs, safety risk, and track closures and therefore enhance the affordability and reliability of rail travel.Read moreRead less
Optimal Fundraising Design in a Competitive Market: A Unifying Framework. Increased competition from over 57,000 registered charities and a recent 6% decrease in individual donations, have increased the need for charities to improve their fundraising strategies. This project aims to develop a comprehensive framework – based on theories from marketing, psychology, economics, sociology, and philanthropy— and develop novel methodologies to determine effective charitable fundraising strategies in ....Optimal Fundraising Design in a Competitive Market: A Unifying Framework. Increased competition from over 57,000 registered charities and a recent 6% decrease in individual donations, have increased the need for charities to improve their fundraising strategies. This project aims to develop a comprehensive framework – based on theories from marketing, psychology, economics, sociology, and philanthropy— and develop novel methodologies to determine effective charitable fundraising strategies in a competitive marketplace. Key outcomes will include the theoretical model, and tests using conjoint choice-experiments, controlled field experiments and 10 years of giving data from 4 million Australian donors. These outcomes will enhance fundraising practice, ensuring charities can better serve the Australian public.Read moreRead less