| Professor Derek Clements-Croome (right) who presented the Energy Futu... Professor Derek Clements-Croome (right) who presented the Energy Futures Network lecture is pictured with Associate Professor Paul Cooper, Head of the School of Mechanical, Materials and Mechatronic Engineering |
Lectures focus on coastlines and the impacts of climate change and sustainable building solutions
4 Apr 2008 | Bernie Goldie
As part of Sustainability Week two public lectures were held at the University of Wollongong this week.
Presented by Futureworld Eco-Technology Centre in association with UOW, TAFE, Wollongong City Council and HATCH the following event was held on 1 April.
Coastal Sustainability- -The Way Ahead presented by Professor Bruce Thom, who is a member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, Emeritus Professor at the University of Sydney, and former Chair of the Australian State of the Environment Committee and the NSW Coastal Council.
Professor Thom’s particular expertise lies in coastal management and land use planning, geomorphology and coastal geology, the adaptation to and mitigation of the effects of climate change on coastal communities. He has lectured and consulted extensively in these fields and chaired an independent review panel advising the Lake Illawarra Authority and the NSW Government on the management of the entrance to Lake Illawarra.
Coastlines and the impacts of climate change: global threats and the challenge for the Illawarra South Coast Region – presented by Professor Colin Woodroffe, who is a coastal geomorphologist in the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong and is the Co-ordinator of the GeoQuest Research Centre.
He is a lead author on the coastal chapter in the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment report. He has recently received a Community Engagement Grant to build opportunities for the University of Wollongong to take a lead role in recognising climate change issues for the region, build capacity in the community and formulate practical measures that the community can implement to adapt to the impacts that the Illawarra/South Coast will face in coming decades.
And today (4 April) at the University of Wollongong, UOW – Energy Futures Network presented:
Sustainable Building Solutions: A review of lessons from the natural world – presented by Professor Derek Clements-Croome, Vice-President Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers.
Much of conventional, modern architecture is not sustainable over the long term. By clearly understanding the natural processes and their interactions with human needs, designers can create buildings that are delightful, functional, productive and regenerative by design.
Professor Clements-Croome’s lecture showed how biomimetics is relevant to building materials and design. Specific examples of sustainability from nature and the benefits that these solutions have brought to different creatures were presented, and the way in which the natural world fits into the world of sustainable buildings was explored.
Biomimetics is the abstraction of good design from nature, an enabling interdisciplinary science, particularly interested in emerging properties of materials and structures. Biomimetics provides ideas relevant to: graded functionality of materials (nano-scale), adaptive response (nano-, micro-, and macro-scales), integrated intelligence (sensing and actuation at all scales), architecture and additional functionality.
Professor Derek Clements-Croome is currently Director of Research for the School of Construction Management and Engineering at Reading University, UK; Chairman, Natural Ventilation Group and Intelligent Buildings Group CIBSE; Vice-President of CIBSE from May 2007 and Board Member, British Council of Offices.
|
