Invitation to Speak                 
Dr Natalie Osborne was one of two 'Leading Insights' scholars invited by the Urban Geographies study group of the Institute of Australian Geographers to present at the joint New Zealand Geographical Society/Institute of Australian Geographers Conference which took place recently in Auckland, NZ. Natalie, alongside Linda Kennedy (Future Black Design Studio) presented papers that respond to the prompt: the city and Indigeneity, and feminist perspectives for and on shared urban futures. Natalie's paper, titled "For Still Possible Cities: A Politics of Failure for the Politically Depressed", draws on her ongoing participatory action research work with various grassroots groups interested in radical spatial politics in Meanjin/Brisbane.

Asia Oceania Geosciences Society Conference 2018
In early June, six Griffith University coastal and ocean researchers, five from the CRI and Griffith Centre of Coastal Management (GCCM), attended the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS) conference in Honolulu Hawaii. The conference provided a platform to highlight to a large international audience the excellent coastal and ocean research undertaken at Griffith University. This years AOGS conference was the largest in its history, with over 3600 scientists in attendance.

Promoting Griffith University’s expertise in coastal research, Dr Serena Lee convened two sessions in the Ocean Sciences Section, titled Building Resilience – Climate Change Impacts, Adaptation, and Challenges and Marine Debris – from Modelling to Management to Microplastics. Both sessions were well attended and included presentations from a diversity of institutions including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory CIT, University of Hawaii, East China Normal University, Annamalai University India, Oxford University, the U.S. National Ocean Atmosphere Administration (NOAA) and Griffith University.

PhD Candidate, Gaelle Faivre presented her first-pass of water resources on Tanna Island, Vanuatu. In the first year of her PhD, Gaelle showed some of the results of her field work in Tanna Island and in her talk addressed the challenges of working in remote regions where little or no similar research has been undertaken before.

GCCM Research Manager and Senior Research Fellow, Dr Darrell Strauss’s talk discussed the use of numerical models to guide decision making for beach nourishment projects. In his talk Dr Strauss showcased the exemplary research undertaken on Gold Coast beaches by the GCCM team.

Dr Serena Lee presented her findings linking changes in sea level to shifting tidal dynamics in estuaries in her first talk, while her second talk presented recent experimental results using drones to detect marine debris.

Towards a Typology of Tiny Houses

Dr Heather Shearer and Prof Paul Burton have just had their article 'Towards a Typology of Tiny Houses' published in the journal for Housing Theory and Society.

Abstract:
The emergent tiny house movement is gaining momentum globally, in the United States where it originated, and in countries such as Australia. Little scholarly research exists on the tiny house movement, with most information limited to social and popular media. Moreover, there is limited information on the definition of a tiny house. As an important first step in bringing a more scholarly focus, this article presents a typology of tiny houses; what is a tiny house and what defining characteristics allow a tiny dwelling to be considered a tiny house? This study involved an analysis of social media, face to face interviews with key protagonists and a questionnaire survey, to establish a preliminary classification of tiny houses. We aimed to place the movement in its wider context, and establish a foundation for future research into the movement's potential to trigger positive economic and environmental change towards more sustainable urban environments. Read article




Is life cycle assessment sufficient to investigate the carbon footprint of vegetated stormwater infrastructure?
Much of what engineers and decision makers understand about carbon footprint is limited to the four phases of the life cycle assessment method. This includes the material production, construction, operation and maintenance plus the end-of-life phases. However, with the emergence of green, or vegetated alternatives to conventional infrastructure, these systems are bridging gaps between engineering and ecology to improve sustainability and control the environmental impacts on the downstream environment of urban development.

CRI PhD Candidate Emad Kavehei, Dr Graham Jenkins from the CRI with Dr Fernanda Adame from Australian Rivers Institute along with Prof Charles Lemckert from the Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Canberra offer valuable insights into the carbon footprint of vegetated stormwater infrastructure by looking at the problem from a different angle. They have bought Engineering and Ecological science under one cover and demonstrate the carbon sequestration as a significant phase in the life cycle carbon footprint.

Their work has studied a wide range of vegetation based stormwater infrastructure including; green roofs, bioretention basins, vegetated swales, rain gardens, and stormwater ponds. The work shows that rain gardens and bioretention systems have potential to mitigate more than 70% of their total carbon footprint. This work is valuable for researchers, designers and policymakers when they consider the carbon implications of any potential green infrastructure and provides materials to estimate the net carbon footprint for vegetated stormwater basins. The research has recently been published in the journal of “Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews” (50 days free viewing).