Author: caulhub

Urban development often impedes the movement of animals across the landscape and between habitat patches – which can ultimately lead to species’ local extinction. When evaluating how to maintain biodiversity in urban spaces, ecological connectivity (the ability of landscape attributes such as vegetation patches and corridors to facilitate or impede species movement) is therefore a key consideration.

Last year, the CAUL Hub collaborated with the City of Melbourne to measure ecological connectivity across the municipality. Using GIS and existing data, a framework was developed to generate a connectivity index. The tool can be applied to scenarios that either remove or add habitat, such as road development or adding habitat corridors, by calculating consequent connectivity for a series of animal groups, including amongst others, amphibians, insect pollinators and woodland birds. If applied more broadly, this framework enables benchmarking with other cities locally and around the world.

Learn more about the framework in this two-page brochure or read the full research report here.

When you think of air pollution, car exhaust pipes and factory smokestakes might come to mind. But there are certain pollutants that we are exposed to while indoors. Despite this, indoor air is essentially unregulated and unmonitored in Australia.

One group of pervasive indoor air pollutants is known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). They are emitted by consumer products, such as air fresheners, cleaning supplies, and personal care products, and react with ozone to generate secondary pollutants such as formaldehyde. In industrialized cities, consumer products now constitute half of the VOC emissions from fossil fuel sources.

The aim of our work was to better understand the concentration and prevalence of VOCs within indoor environments in Australia. And from this, future work can now examine the effectiveness of strategies to reduce pollutants, to achieve healthier indoor environments.

Our work involved systematically evaluating 25 years (1991–2016) of peer reviewed scientific investigations into indoor concentrations of VOCs. We found that new homes had the highest VOC levels among all studies of domestic housing, and for nearly all pollutants, indoor levels were several times higher than outdoor levels. Among the most prevalent compounds indoors were terpenes, such as d-limonene and a-pinene.

Next, motivated by one of the gaps in the literature, we conducted our own indoor air quality investigation, by evaluating the concentration and prevalence of VOCs at a large Australian university.

We analysed 41 VOCs across 20 locations and found that indoor concentrations were higher than outdoor concentrations for 97% of all VOC measurements. We also found that certain types of VOCs were concentrated in particular buildings eg. The highest indoor to outdoor concentration ratios of formaldehyde (27), toluene (9), p-xylene (12), and m-xylene (11) were in a green building; highest of benzene (6) in renovated offices; and highest of o-xylene (9) in meeting areas.

This highlights that building materials and fragranced consumer products continue to be important sources of indoor VOCs, even in buildings with green certifications. Overall we have found that university indoor environments may be important sources of pollutants. Our assessment of the literature revealed that to enable comparisons among studies and with exposure guidelines, a standard approach for sampling and reporting VOC data is needed. Greater attention should be focused on indoor environments that are underreported and with vulnerable populations. Finally, what is also needed, and what has not yet been conducted, is a nationally representative study of indoor VOCs in Australia.

Building on the results from our university VOC study, future work can examine the effectiveness of strategies to reduce pollutants, such as through fragrance-free policies, selection of low-emitting construction materials and furnishings, evaluation of the green building certification scheme, and ongoing monitoring and assessment of indoor environments.

Our research has been presented by Professor Peter Rayner, and Dr. Cathy Oke at the CAUL Roadshow events in Canberra, Melbourne, and Sydney. Professor Anne Steinemann presented our research at a University of Melbourne public lecture titled “Hidden Hazards: Common Consumer Products and Indoor Environments.” Our research has generated enthusiastic discussion and keen interest from attendees. Nigel Goodman presented our research at an international conference in Philadelphia PA, USA (Indoor Air, July 22-27, 2018).

Image: Fragranced consumer products like these can contribute negatively to indoor air quality. Credit: Your Best Digs via Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Excerpt from the CAUL Hub 2018 Annual Progress Report. 

The Living Pavilion team were excited to facilitate sound recordings today with Mandy Nicholson and the Djirri Djirri Dancers – to be used as part of the soundscape for The Living Pavilion. Even more exciting, Lou Bennett (internationally acclaimed performer and songwriter) dropped in.

The Djirri Djirris sing of Country, Creation and culture and we are honoured to be given permission to use and share the recordings made in the studio with all those who visit The Living Pavilion later this year. Woi Wurrung language on Woi Wurrung Country.

Language is embedded in all aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing, and language, especially language which is sung, has always been a fundamental part of knowledge transmission. This year is the International Year of Indigenous Languages. Long may they be an umbilical cord between our past, present and future. Indigenous languages are at the forefront of First People’s ways of knowing and call out to be celebrated, re-awakened, reinvigorated and nurtured so that they may nurture us. 

Special thanks to the Djirri Djirri Dancers (especially Mandy Nicholson), Cathy Oke (CAUL Hub), Professor Mark Pollard (Melbourne Conservatorium of Music), Alex Beck and the Brian Brown Recording Studio for making this happen.

–  Zena Cumpston, CAUL Hub Research Fellow.

Featured image: L-R, sound technician extraordinaire Alex Beck, Lou Bennett, Sally-Anne Hunter, Jedda and Mandy Nicholson. 

People living in urban locations are especially vulnerable to the negative impacts of increased temperatures, resulting from climate change and urban heat island effects. As urban areas grow and redevelop then, it is important for urban planners to implement policies that protect city dwellers from heat exposure.

In this article for Science of the Total Environment, CAUL Hub researchers analysed the relationship between urban vegetation and land surface temperatures. Using satellite data and high resolution aerial imagery, the researchers assessed how different urban vegetation configurations, such as trees, shrubs and grass, could reduce temperatures in cities. In their case study of Perth, the researchers found that an increase in urban vegetation reduced summer and winter land surface temperatures, and that this effect was larger in summer months. They also found that increased tree and shrub cover had a larger cooling effect than grass coverage.

These findings illustrate the exciting potential to develop locally-detailed and spatially explicit tools to guide planning of vegetation configuration to maximise cooling in urban areas.

Featured image credit: Cecily Maller

Australia’s leading researchers in atmospheric composition measurement and modelling came together earlier this month for the Atmospheric Composition and Chemistry Observations and Modelling Conference, hosted by CSIRO.

The purpose of this conference was to better understand the role of atmospheric chemistry and composition in global atmospheric change. The conference also provided the forum for multi-disciplinary collaboration in developing a coordinated regional approach to characterising atmospheric processes.

Given CAUL Hub’s leading research into urban air quality, Clare Murphy and Elise-Andreé Guérette each presented on Project 1 and 7 research and findings. Clare outlined CAUL Hub’s campaign ‘Characterising Organic Aerosol Loading in Australia – Joint Organic Emissions Year-round Study’ and Elise discussed the research project’s characterisation of biogenic volatile organic compounds in the greater Sydney region. Researchers were excited by the many advances being made in atmospheric modelling, including efforts to model pollen pollution and the thunderstorm asthma effect.

Featured image credit: https://wp.csiro.au/accomc_cgasm/