Measuring experiential qualities of urban public spaces: users’ perspective

This paper presents an index for measuring experiential qualities (EQs) of urban public spaces through users’ perspective. The index is underpinned by interrelated qualities of comfort, diversity and vitality, inclusiveness, and image and likeability. It is then applied to two public spaces in the Australian city of Brisbane: Queen Street Mall and South Bank Parklands. The index extends the user-centred measuring tools and can be used by practitioners, authorities and scholars to highlight users’ needs and concerns. Findings from case spaces revealed deficiencies and provided a deeper insight into EQs through integrating urban design qualities, perception and management measuring items.     

Release of Bisphenol A from Polycarbonate—A Review

The release of Bisphenol A (BPA) from polycarbonate baby bottles into food and food simulants is reviewed in the perspective of the current intensive discussions on the risks of this substance. Potential factors that have been reported to influence the release of BPA are reviewed. Unlike most polymers polycarbonate is hydrolyzed under alkaline conditions by scale formation, residual alkaline detergents and boiled water. Data suggest that brushing of the bottle did not raise the release of BPA. Claims that used bottles release more BPA than new bottles and that mineral composition of the aqueous food simulant affect release could not be substantiated. There are indications that aminolysis of polycarbonate by milk and ethanolysis of polycarbonate by 50% ethanol might take place under relevant test conditions.

The relatively few migration data following the test conditions of European food contact material legislation, comply with the specific migration limit. Two test conditions were identified that reflect real use and exposure, and might cause higher release of BPA compared to the test conditions of European food contact material legislation. Further detailed studies are necessary to verify whether these two exposure scenarios are more severe.     

Diversity in real estate developer behaviour: A case for research

Abstract

The diversity of developer behaviour and its implications for the built environment require investigation. The paper illustrates this with six types of developer behaviour identified in two small but rapidly growing east coast Australian local government areas and comments on the their implications for the nature of urban development.     

Development and validation of an HPLC method with fluorescence detection for the determination of fluorescent whitening agents migrating from plastic beverage cups

An HPLC method with fluorescence detection has been developed and validated for the quantification of six fluorescent whitening agents (FWA) in plastic beverage cups after extraction and in food simulants after migration at 70°C for 2 h. The sensitivity of the method was high with LODs ranging from 0.053 to 0.251 μg kg^?1 and LOQs from 0.107 to 0.504 μg kg^?1. Accuracy and precision were highly acceptable, with recoveries greater than 82% and RSDs (%) below 16%. The expanded combined uncertainty was found to be less than 23% for the measurements of all studied FWAs. In extracting the analytes from food contact materials (FCM), accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) and Soxhlet extraction were applied using ethanol as the extraction solvent. The results obtained for FWA in 10 different food plastic cups, made from different polymers, were compared. The ASE technique proved to be faster, more effective and efficient than Soxhlet extraction. Migration tests with official food simulants from Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 showed that the substances studied could potentially migrate using the selected migration conditions. The most pronounced effect was observed in case of simulant D1 (50% w/v ethanol in water). The analytical method proved to be a simple, fast, sensitive and reliable tool for the simultaneous quantification of six of the most used FWAs in both FCM extracts and food simulants after migration experiments.     

Positive Planning in Australia: A Review of Historical and Emergent Rationales

The role of public land agencies in Australia has ebbed and flowed over the past few decades broadly reflecting political cycles. Initially, in the early 1970s, the Land Commission Program (LCP) was established under the Whitlam government on a rationale with two broad bases: to create more efficient and fairer land markets; and to produce higher quality design outcomes. At the end of the Whitlam era—partly resulting from objections from the private sector, government-sponsored critiques of the land program and the ideologies of conservative governments—the influence of government in land development was substantially reduced. Today, although the variety of activities of public land developers is considerably wider, there remains significant scope for increased government involvement in land development, based on the emergence of new imperatives arising from complex shifts in social conditions, community preferences and scientific knowledge. Furthermore, the imperatives that led to the establishment of the LCP in 1972 are still relevant today.     

Fruit quality of Italian pomegranate (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Punica granatum</Emphasis> L.) autochthonous varieties

Pomegranate is getting an increasing attention for its health-promoting effects. Collection and characterization of plants of local sources has been performed, and five accessions have been propagated and cultivated in a collection field for extra situ investigations. Accessions differ for pomological traits and chemical composition. Three of them, MG1, MG2, and MG3, belong to typology with low-medium acidity and high sugar content, while the other two, Tordimonte A and B, belong to typology with high acidity. In the juice and in the peels’ extract of Tordimonte A accession a high level of punicalin has been found through chromatographic determinations, while the presence of punicalagin was found in the juice of accession MG1. The accessions MG1, MG2, and MG3 seem particularly suitable for direct commercialization of fruits due to the fruit traits and quality (sweet varieties), while Tordimonte A and B could be valuable for juice processing (sour varieties).     

How Property Title Impacts Urban Consolidation: A Life Cycle Examination of Multi-title Developments

Continuing urbanisation is triggering an increase in multi-titled housing internationally. This trend has given rise to a substantial research interest in the social consequences of higher density living. Fewer enquiries have been directed to examining how property title subdivisions generate social issues in multi-titled housing. This is a significant gap in the literature, as the tensions inherent in multi-title developments have significant implications for individuals, developments and entire metropolitan areas. This article employs a life cycle framework to examine the profound operational and governance challenges that are associated with the fusion of private lot ownership with common property ownership. The article calls for a more explicit recognition of these challenges by academics, policymakers, practitioners and the broader community.     

Cross-Border Migration of Hong Kong Residents Under the ‘One Country,Two Systems’ Policy

In market economies the built environment is largely the product of private sector property development. Property development is a high-risk entrepreneurial activity executing expensive projects with long gestation periods in an uncertain environment and into an uncertain future. Risk lies at the core of development: the developer manages the multiple risks of development and it is the capital injection and financing that is placed at risk. From the developer's perspective the search for development capital is a quest: to access more finance, over a longer term, with fewer conditions and at lower rates. From the supply angle, capital of various sources—banks, insurance companies, superannuation funds, accumulated firm profits, retail investors and private equity—is always seeking above market returns for limited risk. Property development presents one potentially lucrative, but risky, investment opportunity. Competition for returns on capital produces a continual dynamic evolution of methods for funding property developments. Thus, the relationship between capital and development and the outcomes for the built environment are in a restless continual evolution. Little is documented about the ways development is financed in Australia and even less of the consequences for cities. Using publicly available data sources and examples of different development financing from Australian practice, this article argues that different methods of financing development have different outcomes and consequences for the built environment. This article also presents an agenda for further research into these themes.     

Shopping Streets or Malls: Changes in Retail Form in Melbourne and Brisbane

Retail facilities are a critical element of urban form often given insufficient scrutiny. While retail form has implications for matters such as consumer accessibility, quality of service and transport, there have been comparatively few investigations into the nature of retail form in Australia. The spread of the enclosed shopping mall is an international phenomenon of the last 50 years that has been embraced or resisted to various degrees in different cities across the world. Utilising data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics retail census and the Property Council of Australia, this article investigates the extent to which retailing in Brisbane and Melbourne is now dominated by corporately controlled shopping malls. The research builds a profile of each city's retail form, comprehensively at the time of the last retail census in 1992, and of the corporately controlled centres more recently in 2008. Results show that while Melbourne has retained a greater number of traditional shopping centres, the floorspace in corporate centres has substantially increased. Brisbane has a greater proportion of its retailing floorspace within malls. In both cities there is a significant concentration of the management of corporate centres in the hands of a few large corporations.     

Beyond The City-State – Metropolitan Canberra

Industrial organisation has received considerable attention over time in both political and scholarly arenas focusing on industry generally and on specific economic sectors like media, telecommunications, food retailing and air transport. Real estate development is a large industry and major shaper of the built environment whose structure has implications for the form and structure of cities, for sustainability and for power relations with industry regulators. Yet, there has been remarkably little interest in, and little is known about, the industry's structure, and little exists of a quantitative nature to describe that structure. Drawing on evidence, existing literature and case study material, this article investigates the nature of the development industry structure and suggests that it is not necessarily competitive and, in some instances, can be highly oligopolistic. It discusses factors, including industry regulation (planning), that may shape structure. This discussion further suggests that the industry is not competitive and that it is likely to concentrate further.