ORCID Profile
0000-0003-1615-2036
Current Organisation
Northumbria University
Does something not look right? The information on this page has been harvested from data sources that may not be up to date. We continue to work with information providers to improve coverage and quality. To report an issue, use the Feedback Form.
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-05-2021
DOI: 10.1111/AEC.13045
Abstract: Half‐butt eucalypts (genera: Eucalyptus and Corymbia ) have both thick outer bark at the stem base (half‐butt) conferring resistance to surface fire, and thin photosynthetic canopy bark that reduces moisture stress. Here we examine how the functional ecology of dual outer bark types influences the wide distribution of Australian half‐butt species. We evaluate the proposition that half‐butts should predominate in semi‐arid environments prone to surface fires. We measured the bark thickness, butt height relative to flame/fire char height and tree height, height of first branch, and the location and prevalence of epicormic resprouting of co‐occurring Eucalyptus miniata (half‐butt) and E . tetrodonta (fibrous bark only) in iduals, across 15 sites with contrasting fire frequencies (2000–2015) in the Darwin region. Total tree height was compared with butt height for all E . miniata in iduals. The survival of half‐butt and other eucalypt species, as well as non‐eucalypts, was investigated at three sites affected by intense gamba grass ( Andropogon gayanus ) fire. The proportion of half‐butt species in each of Australia’s 85 bioregions was calculated from geographic distribution records of 618 eucalypt species. Mean annual fire frequency (1997–2010), fire type (crown or surface fires) and climate in each bioregion was determined from satellite‐derived records. Butt height at a site, including gamba grass sites, was not induced by flame height or affected by fire frequency and was approximately half the canopy height of the tree, suggesting it is internally regulated. The half‐butt E . miniata and full‐bark eucalypts were similarly resilient (survival) under surface fire conditions. Half‐butt species predominated in arid and semi‐arid bioregions characterised by surface fire, consistent with our proposition that half‐butt bark is an adaptation to surface fire, and thin photosynthetic outer canopy bark reduces moisture stress, accounting for the wide distribution of half‐butt eucalypts in arid and seasonally dry regions of Australia.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2022
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2022
Publisher: Emerald
Date: 19-05-2022
DOI: 10.1108/ECAM-10-2021-0963
Abstract: The unprecedented SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has further constrained the budgets of governments worldwide for delivering their much-needed infrastructure. Consequently, public-private partnerships (PPPs), with the private sector's investment and ingenuity, would appear to be an increasingly popular alternative. Value for money (VfM) has become the major criterion for evaluating PPPs against the traditional public sector procurement and, however, is plagued with controversy. Hence, it is important that governments compare and contrast their practice with similar and disparate bodies to engender best practice. This paper, therefore, aims to understand governments' assessment context and provide a cross-continental comparison of their VfM assessment. Faced with different domestic contexts (e.g. aging infrastructure, population growth, and competing demands on finance), governments tend to place different emphases when undertaking the VfM assessment. In line with the theory of boundary spanning, a cross-continental comparison is conducted between three of the most noticeable PPP markets (i.e. the United Kingdom, Australia and China) about their VfM assessment. The institutional level is interpreted by a social, economic and political framework, and the methodological level is elucidated through a qualitative and quantitative VfM assessment. There are in idual institutional characteristics that have shaped the way each country assesses VfM. For the methodological level, we identify that: (1) these global markets use a public sector comparator as the benchmark in VfM assessment (2) ambiguous qualitative assessment is conducted only against PPPs to strengthen their policy development (3) Australia's priority is in service provision whereas that of the UK and China is project finance and production and (4) all markets are seeking an amelioration of existing controversial VfM assessments so that purported VfM relates to project lifecycles. As such, an option framework is proposed to make headway towards a sensible selection of infrastructure procurement approaches in the post COVID-19 era. This study addresses a current void of enhancing the decision-making process for using PPPs within today's changing environment and then opens up an avenue for future empirical research to examine the option framework and ensuing VfM decisions. Practically, it presents a holistic VfM landscape for public sector procurers that aim to engage with PPPs for their infrastructure interventions.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2015
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
No related grants have been discovered for david greenwood.