[Sept 2011]Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors International Research Conf.

Dear Sir/Madam

 

I would like to bring your attention to the call for abstracts for the ‘Biodiversity and the Built Environment’ specialist stream, at the COBRA 2011 Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors International Research Conference, hosted by the University of Salford, UK, on 12th and 13th September 2011. For more information, please see: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login and here: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login.

 

In the first instance abstracts are requested by the 25th February 2011, in the following areas and can be submitted here: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login.

 

    * Defining what are the issues of biodiversity and the built environment: how should research and practice be defined in the urban, sub-urban and rural context?
    * The relationship between biodiversity and the design, planning and governance of the urban form: who is in a position to bring about change to maximise biodiversity in and around the urban form and what are the barriers that may prevent such change being implemented; and what is feasible/can realistically be achieved?
    * The points of intervention that exist in the life-cycle of the urban form, from planning, design and construction, through to ongoing use and renovation, the building form/s that encourage biodiversity in the built environment, including green roofs and green walls;
    * The skills, knowledge base and employment development of the profession:

while this session is, in essence, about enhancing the skills base, key issues to address are an analysis of the range of skills and employment development required to maximise biodiversity, water preservation, and food production following community organic principles and to minimise pollution in urban situations, which may well be fundamentally different to those that would characteristically be associated with the built environment professions;

    * Urban heat island impacts: the use of biodiversity such as trees, green roofs and green walls at the individual building level and the neighbourhood and city level as an approach to regulating and minimising temperature, humidity, and pollution within the urban form;
    * Food production strategies: through the imaginative and innovative use of space within cities, to provide a local and community food resource which both reduces food-mile impacts and encourages an increased sense of civic engagement. This food resources can include anything from vegetables and honey, to fruit and eggs;
    * Food production linkages between the rural and urban form: exploring the links between rural and urban areas in relation to localised food production supply chains, skills development and food security; how can food produced in rural areas near to the urban form benefit habitants of the urban form and visa versa;
    * Water use: the most effective approaches to responding to the potential increase in extreme weather events, particularly those involving rainfall, are likely to include approaches that include increased use of biodiversity;
    * Health and wellbeing: exploring how biodiversity and using and undertaking a variety of activities, such as the ‘green gym' in bio diverse spaces can lead to increased health and well being for inhabitants of the urban, sub-urban or rural built environment;
    * Pollution: exploring how air pollution from carbon emissions in urban environments can be minimised through biodiversity;
    * Visual & Community Amenity: exploring how biodiversity can increase or re-create the visual amenity and a sense of community in the built environment, such as green roofs, green facades, raised beds, vertical gardening on balconies, better use of green space and redundant land and trees;
    * Management: exploring the theories, practices, processes and systems which should be adopted for a bio diverse built environment.
    * Green & Blue Audits: what does this encompass as part of biodiversity and the built environment
    * Ecological Communities: how can a bio diverse built environment contribute to an ecological community.

 

If you have any queries do not hesitate to contact me.

 

I look forward to your contributions.

 

Dr John R Littlewood

Senior Lecturer & Director of EBERE,

Pathway Director (UWIC) Professional Doctorate: Ecological Building Practices,

Department of Architectural Studies,

Cardiff School of Art & Design, 

University of Wales Institute Cardiff,

Western Avenue, Llandaff Campus, T0.13

Cardiff, CF5 2YB, UK.

Tel:       +44 (0)29 20 41 66 76

Mob:     +44 (0)77 14 81 14 04

Email:   You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

Skype:   John_Littlewood_At_UWIC

 

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login