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This case study concerns S-City VT, a Simulated-City Visualisation Toolkit. S-City VT is an urban planning tool based on computer games technology and computational modeling for efficient 3D real-time and interactive visualisation of complex data sets. S-City VT is founded on computational models that assess environmental, societal and financial measures of buildings and their functions. We have researched methodologies to enable stakeholders to explore city spaces, change construction properties and locations of buildings, and observe the consequences of those changes through intuitive 3D representations. SAVE has contributed to the £1B development of the Dundee Waterfront, one of the largest regeneration projects in the UK. Stakeholders impacted were local government organisations, the public, water companies and their regulators. The application of the research has changed not only public policy and services, but also how information is displayed to stakeholders, and in so doing has enabled sustainability assessment, supporting stakeholders in making informed decisions.
Brunel researchers assisted practitioners within the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to develop and explore a range of climate change policy scenarios in agriculture as part of the UK government's climate change strategy to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) CO2 emissions by 3 million tonnes to 2020. This led to:
Environmental and Policy Impact through:
- the novel application of the Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping (FCM) technique, to enable effective scenario modelling at DEFRA in pursuit of improved management of environmental risks;
- enhanced capacity and capability within and across climate change mitigation project teams and experts, allowing DEFRA practitioners to add the FCM technique to their repertoire of futures modelling.
Practitioner Impact through:
- Improved professional standards, guidelines and training — along with the development of DEFRA resources to enhance their professional practice.
The development of a decision support system in close partnership with London's Inward Investment agency (Think London) enabled the latter to win strategic high-value and competitive inward investment projects to the city. The technologies developed played a key role in building the business case for London as a destination for inward investors and were estimated to have contributed towards 45% of 600+ successful completions, leading to the creation or retention of over 18,000 new jobs and the contribution of £2 billion to London's economy. Among the hundreds of successful outcomes was the establishment of Microsoft's Search Technology Centre in London.
Developing sustainable consumption and production policies and practices in industry requires analysis of technical, environmental, economic and social performance of supply chains delivering goods and services. In a programme covering the 20 years since its foundation, the University of Surrey's Centre for Environmental Strategy (CES) has played a major role in developing a systematic "whole system" approach to assessing and managing supply chains, starting from Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Management (LCM) and progressing to sustainability analysis.
This approach underpins current national and international standards and policy and is embodied in the corporate strategies of a number of major companies (for example Unilever and M&S); the approach is also starting to be adopted in guiding the development of new consumer products.
It is widely acknowledged that conventional approaches to planning and development exacerbate environmental problems with consequential negative social and economic impacts. This award winning research proposes alternatives by examining the systems and techniques used in the design of autonomous eco-building in order to identify best practice in the procurement of low carbon buildings. The research findings were first tested and subsequently validated, through the design and construction of a community building in Lincolnshire. This building has won multiple awards for innovations in sustainability and the underpinning research has impacted at regional, national and international level through direct application to design, changes to professional practice and through enhanced public awareness
This impact relates to the research and development of the SuBETool, a new framework and method for assessment of spatial master-plans. International use of this framework by planning professionals has set a new bench-mark for master-planning, and re-positioned master-planning as a critical stage in the development process.
The SuBETool research has:
Human health risks and population vulnerabilities are easily identifiable globally in communities exposed to the effects of climate change and the legacy of industrial contamination. Research by Dr Gagnon and Professor Hursthouse pioneered decision support frameworks and web tools that have been applied at local and national strategy level to improve environment links to public health. Authoritative Guidebooks developed by UWS researchers facilitated locally grounded adaptation to risks from climate change, while web tools enable robust case evaluation, prioritisation and new resources to be secured for the management of a variety of risks to human health from environmental contamination.
This case study presents a dynamic development framework route-map (the Precinct Planning Design Standard, PPDS) that enhances sustainability and the delivery of a development's goals, aims, and objectives for medium-large mixed-use precinct developments and tourist resorts in developing countries. The standard shortens pre-planning timescales, achieves greater certainty in actual performance delivery and reduces environmental impact for developers, developments, and their infrastructure.
Through Earthcheck Pty PPDS is now commercially available and has been used to benchmark and certify ecological performance improvements of 30 Asia Pacific projects (US$ 25 billion development value). These range from 8,000 person community projects to medium sized tourism resorts and island developments. Our research has challenged existing standards and consequently influenced practitioners to rethink and improve the efficacy of their development processes.
The Construction Management Research Unit (CMRU) has exploited its research into productivity improvement, whole life costing and sustainability assessment through a University spin-out company, Whole Life Consultants Ltd, that has achieved economic impact. With sales exceeding £1M since its inception, the company's post-2008 achievements include: the development of a labour forecasting tool that has generated contracts worth more than £100k to the Construction Industry Training Board in 2011-13; on-going implementation of a productivity improvement programme for Tayside Contracts that has produced an increase in turnover of £6.8M and a threefold increase in profitability since 2009; on-going support of the Croatian PPP/PFI programme that has contributed to the successful implementation of 11 projects since 2008.
Exeter Engineering's Centre for Water Systems (CWS) undertakes internationally leading fundamental and applied research in the $500bn global water sector. EPSRC-funded research has underpinned impacts with both reach and significance in the areas of practitioner and professional services and economic impact. CWS staff have co-authored authoritative best practice guides with highly respected practitioner publishers: the Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA), the Building Research Establishment (BRE) and Spon Press. These have been widely used in the water sector, and construction and built environment sector. CWS software and knowhow have been used extensively by water service providers (such as Scottish Water) and their consultants (including SEAMS, originally an Exeter spinout) to enhance business performance by identifying efficiencies, saving costs and improving operation. Optimisation software has been made freely available and has hundreds of users worldwide including consultants and financial organisations.