David J. Blackwood

Abertay University | UAD · Engineering and Food Science

This report reviews the challenges in delivering drinking water compliance for small systems experiencing declining water issues in Scotland. The full report and exec summary can be found here: https://www.crew.ac.uk/publication/investment-decisions

This paper analyses the educational collaboration model between a UK university and an educational partner in Paris that provides a joint educational programme to employees of French construction companies. The literature review evaluates 3 collaboration evaluation tools. Critical reflection on the assumptions informing the different assessment too...

This chapter presents a novel framework for the integration of the principles of sustainable development within the urban design processes. The framework recognises that decision making for sustainable urban planning is a challenging process: requiring an understanding of the complex interactions amongst environmental, economic, and social issues....

The style of induction presentation and other processes, irrespective of duration, immediately establishes the context and attitude of the construction site team and is where initial behavioural standards are established. A case study within a large contractor investigates site induction activities in practice to better understand the operational d...

Farm monitoring and operations generate heterogeneous AGRI-data from a variety of different sources that have the potential to be delivered to users ‘on the go’ and in the field to inform farm decision making. A software framework capable of interfacing with existing web mapping services to deliver in-field farm data on commodity mobile hardware wa...

The concept of transformation in relation to climate and other global change is increasingly receiving attention. The concept provides important opportunities to help examine how rapid and fundamental change to address contemporary global challenges can be facilitated. This paper contributes to discussions about transformation by providing a social...

This paper presents the initial stages of research funded by the Scottish Government to enable an evaluation of the suitability of drinking water treatment technologies at small to medium scales to facilitate the application of the Scottish Government's Sustainable Rural Communities concept. The research included a technology scan to identify relev...

Construction management research literature has identified the importance of understanding the practical realities of skills and training provision and the role of reflective practice in the development of knowledge. This paper examines vocational training of experienced site staff in the development of their knowledge through SVQ training to inves...

The speed of technological advancement of software development drives the need for individual and team learning to exploit these developments for competitive advantage. Using a major long term redevelopment as a case study a review of learning processes and project team learning in the context of a voluntary approach to adopting of BIM prior to 201...

Sustainability assessment has the potential to influence decision making and hence to improve the management of sustainability. This paper presents the development and reporting of benchmark sustainability indicators and discusses the challenges of embedding sustainability indicators into existing process for urban infrastructure development. It li...

Sustainable decision making for strategic planning is a challenging process: requiring an understanding of the complex interactions among environmental, economic and social factors. Commonly, such decisions are dominated by economic factors hence there is a need for a framework that supports inclusive decision making throughout all stages of urban...

This paper presents research which produced an overview of Scotland’s water sector in the form of a map which demonstrates the scope and scale of the sector and shows, in a manner that can be easily understood by a wide range of stakeholders, how the different parts of the sector link together. The map will support the Governments Hydro Nation visi...

This chapter presents a novel framework for the integration of the principles of sustainable development within the urban design processes. The framework recognises that decision making for sustainable urban planning is a challenging process: requiring an understanding of the complex interactions amongst environmental, economic, and social issues....

The need for sustainable development of the urban environment presents the research community with a number of challenges and opportunities. A considerable volume of research has been undertaken into the constituent parts of this complex problem and a number of tool kits and methodologies have been developed to enable and encourage the application...

Integration of Building Information Modelling (BIM) within the scope of commercial operations of Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) is becoming more important as the deadline for the 2016 UK government guidelines for collaborative information sharing approaches. Until recently, open source and more affordable BIM software tools were almost non-exis...

This paper presents and evaluates the application of a transparent knowledge elicitation and decision mapping method that has been developed as part of a sustainability assessment and enhancement framework for a major urban redevelopment project. Sustainable Urban Development requires the effective engagement of a wide range of stakeholders such as...

This paper presents a transferable and adaptable approach for selecting a suitable Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) method covering the stages of the ‘MCA cycle’ for decision making in the renewable energy sector. Selecting a suitable MCA method for an individual project or case study is a challenge due to the complexity of participatory sustainable d...

This paper presents a generic approach for selecting sustainability criteria and indicators (C&I) by using a participatory methodology. Selecting appropriate C&I to assess the sustainability of projects or developments is crucial and significantly influences the assessment results. The methodology, which consists of two processes: a pre-selection o...

The use of games-based visualisation technology allows for the development of sophisticated interactive 3D decision support tools. Components of these tools are the various real-time rendering methods that are implemented to facilitate the interactive 3D aspect of the visualisations. Modern graphics hardware allows for the implementation of both si...

Phosphorus is an element essential for life. Concerns regarding long-term security of supply and issues related to eutrophication of surface waters once released into the aquatic environment have led governments to consider and apply measures for reducing the use and discharge of phosphorus. Examples of source control include legislation to reduce...

Sustainable decision making for strategic planning is a challenging process: requiring an understanding of the complex interactions among environmental, economic and social factors. Commonly, such decisions are dominated by economic factors hence there is a need for a framework that supports inclusive decision making throughout all stages of urban...

This paper presents a transferable and adaptable GIS-based approach to identify suitable locations of medium scale CHP bioenergy plants. Location suitability of bioenergy plants is of particular importance in planning decentralized bioenergy generation, as both biomass feedstock supplies and heat demand have to be considered in location selection w...

The SAVE framework promotes an integrated and iterative approach to inclusive decision making for Sustainable Development, involving three inter-related components; Assessment, Visualisation and Enhancement. The assessment and enhancement components are highly interrelated and must commence together at the visioning stages of projects. This enhance...

There is a body of research which asserts that exfiltration from urban sewers can be a major contributor to groundwater pollution. Test rig studies by the authors and others have demonstrated a capacity for defects in sewer systems to be partially self-sealing due to sewer sediments and associated solids, wall slimes and biofilm growth. This sealin...

This paper presents the results of an initial application of a prototype simulation and visualisation tool (S-City VT) thatwas developed to enable all stakeholders, regardless of background or experience, to understand, interact with and influence decisions made on the sustainability of urban design. The tool takes the unique approach of combining...

The paper presents ongoing research to develop a sustainability enhancement framework for the major Dundee Central Waterfront urban re-development project. The enhancement concept recognises a need to ensure that sustainability is considered in decision-making at all stages of major projects to ensure a more sustainable outcome overall. The paper d...

Sustainable urban planning decisions must not only consider the physical structure of the urban development but the economic, social and environmental factors. Due to the prolonged times scales of major urban development projects the current and future impacts of any decision made must be fully understood. Many key project decisions are made early...

This review discusses the relative merits of sweet sorghum and sugarcane crops for the expanding bioethanol sector in Nigeria. We have compared, from a number of perspectives, sugarcane molasses and sweet sorghum stalk juice as biomass sources for Nigerian fuel alcohol fermentations and the findings indicate that sweet sorghum is most suited in ter...

Sustainable decision making in urban design is a complex and non-linear process, which requires the education and interaction of wide variety of stakeholders. A number of sustainable decision support tools have been developed but previous research by the authors has demonstrated that a major barrier to the implementation of tools is the complexity...

Major urban development projects extend over prolonged timescales, involve a large number of stakeholders and necessitate complex decision making. This paper describes part of ongoing research to develop a Sustainability Enhancement Framework for urban re-development projects. This requires an understanding of stakeholder interaction and their infl...

Rapidly increasing urban populations are placing increased pressure on social, economic and environmental resources. For our cities to cope with this demand we must ensure that any growth is sustainable. Tools already exist which attempt to support sustainable urban decision making. However, as previous work by the authors shows, many of these exis...

Rapidly increasing urban populations are placing increased pressure on social, economic and environmental resources. For our cities to cope with this demand we must ensure that any growth is sustainable. Tools already exist which attempt to support sustainable urban decision making. However, as previous work by the authors shows, many of these exis...

Major urban development projects extend over prolonged timescales (up to 25 years in the case of major regeneration projects), involve a large number of stakeholders, and necessitate complex decision making. Comprehensive assessment of critical information will involve a number of domains, such as social, economic and environmental, and input from...

Sewer rig studies demonstrate a rapid exponential decline in exfiltration rates from gaps and joints to establish an ultimate steady-state equilibrium varying between 10(-3)-10(-6) l s(-1), with minimum average daily rates per standardised leak area and sewer length varying between 0.02-9.0 l d(-1)cm(-2) and 0.0002-2.0 l s(-1) km(-1) respectively....

Sustainable decision making in urban design is a complex and non-linear process which requires the interaction of a wide variety of stakeholders. Tools to support the decision process are commonplace but are dominated by the perceptions of the “expert” decision makers (e.g. planners, architects, and design engineers). This paper describes a prototy...

Chemicals in household detergents and cleansing products can have an adverse effect on the environment when they pass through the urban drainage system. The removal of such chemicals at wastewater treatment plants is expensive and it may be cost effective to encourage behavioural change in domestic households to reduce the amounts being introduced...

Developing sustainable urban environments is complex as it requires consideration of interacting social, economic and environmental sustain ability factors. The task is made even more difficult by the wide variety of stakeholders (e.g. planners, architects, businesses and the public) that may be involved in the process and the lack of a common lang...

Effective integrated water management is a key component of the World Water Vision and the way in which aspirations for water equity may be realized. Part of the vision includes the promotion of sustainability of water systems and full accountability for their interaction with other urban systems. One major problem is that "sustainability" remains...

The Dunfermline Eastern Expansion (DEX) is a 350 ha mixed development which commenced in 1996. Downstream water quality and flooding issues necessitated a holistic approach to drainage planning and the site has become a European showcase for the application of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS). However, there is minimal data available regar...

Developing sustainable urban environments is complex and requires a number of factors – including social, economic and environmental sustainability - to be taken into account. This project is prototype software that produces a 3D virtual model of urban developments allowing viewers to see the short and long-term implications of courses of action.

Multi criteria methods for supporting decision-making procedures are widely used in sustainability assessment. One of the most important steps in decision-making procedures is the evaluation of policy options or alternatives in order to find a hierarchy of option choices. Utility function value distributions are often constructed for the range of i...

The study presented is an example of the assessment of the relative sustainability of either option for disposal of domestic sanitary waste, either via the toilet or via the solid waste route. This required an evaluation of the total (social, economic, environmental, and technical) benefit/cost of implementing and adopting the alternative routes an...

Exfiltration from sewers is widespread and emerging legislation may require water service providers to identify, and rectify, its sources in sewerage systems. This paper describes exfiltration test apparatus and a series of experiments undertaken using sewage to gain a better understanding of the influence of sewage solids and sediments on leakage...

This paper contends that estimates of exfiltration leakage from sewers, and the problems arising from it may be too high due to an underestimation of the "self-repairing" action of sewage and sewage sediments in raw sewage. Two aspects of a continuing programme of research are reported; (i) the measurement of exfiltration rates from a range of defe...

In industrialised countries water service providers (WSPs) must provide an appropriate level of service with an acceptable performance at an acceptable cost to customers. In the UK a move towards sustainable development is now also a major goal for WSPs. However, the imposition of institutional systems and regulatory targets still encourage the ado...

This paper discusses the control of brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) in sewers in the UK. The results of research undertaken on behalf of the UK's water industry revealed that there is no evidence that sewer rat populations are increasing, or that related problems are getting any worse. It is apparent, however, that most sewerage utilities do not mai...

Large existing sewers are considerable assets which wastewater utilities will require to operate for the foreseeable future to maintain health and the quality of life in cities. Despite their existence for more than a century there is surprisingly little guidance available to manage these systems to minimise problems associated with in-sewer solids...

Sustainable development serves as a comprehensive framework for the formation of policies and actions that integrate environmental, economic, and social issues. It recognises that the Earth's natural systems are not only critical to basic economic needs, but also to human quality of life. There are now increasing public and legislative demands for...

Effective Integrated Water Management (IWM) is an aspiration for all those engaged in water service provision, and is a key component of the World Water Vision. Part of this includes the sustainability of water systems and their interaction with other urban systems. In the urban drainage field, there are many examples of attempts to establish effec...

The task of arriving at an engineering decision typically involves extensive and complex analyses, the evaluation of alternatives, and the resolution of conflicts between stakeholders. Research into institutional frameworks, decision making, and decision support tools have guided improvements in the quality of decisions. However, existing organisat...

The task of arriving at an engineering decision typically involves extensive and complex analyses, the evaluation of alternatives, and the resolution of conflicts between stakeholders. Research into institutional frameworks, decision making, and decision support tools have guided improvements in the quality of decisions. However, existing organisat...

Decision-making to determine the preferred way of upgrading or constructing new developments is becoming more complex. In the drive towards sustainability, the social, economic and environmental aspects now share equal weighting with the technical and cost-effective elements of each option. The process of evaluating trade-offs between, say, cost be...

Decision-making to determine the preferred way of upgrading or constructing new developments is becoming more complex. In the drive towards sustainability, the social, economic and environmental aspects now share equal weighting with the technical and cost-effective elements of each option. The process of evaluating trade-offs between, say, cost be...

The use of fee competition by construction industry clients has increased the need for design consultants to predict more accurately the cost of their professional services. There is evidence of concern among clients that fee reductions resulting from fee competition have been accompanied in many cases by a reduction in the level of services provid...

Sewer rig studies demonstrate a rapid exponential decline in exfiltration rates from gaps and joints to establish an ultimate steady-state equilibrium varying between 10 -2 – 10 -6 l s -1 , with minimum average daily rates per standardised leak area and sewer length varying between 0.02 – 9.0 l d -1 cm -2 and 0.0002 – 2.0 l s -1 km -1 respectively....

The paper presents ongoing research to develop a sustainability enhancement framework for the major Dundee Central Waterfront urban re-development project. The enhancement concept recognises a need to ensure that sustainability is considered in decision making at all stages of major projects to ensure a more sustainable outcome overall. The paper d...

Staines, H J (1999) High-rise building construction in Bangladesh: experience of questionnaire development and on-site data collection. In Bangladesh, the growth in the building industry, particularly in residential high-rise construction, is having considerable influence on the country's economic develop-ment. But this type of construction often s...

Many combined sewer networks are currently constrained due to lack of capacity. Surface water entering the network may have an impact on the local environment by causing additional spills from Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) and flooding events. With the increasing number of developments taking place in Scotland, more and more demands are being pla...

Sustainable decision making in urban design is a complex and non-linear process that requires the interaction of a wide variety of stakeholders. A number of sustainable decision support tools have previously been developed but a major barrier to the implementation of these tools is the complexity of the environment in which decisions are made. In p...

Sustainable decision making in Urban Design is a complex process that requires the interaction of a wide variety of stakeholders. The engagement of a range of stakeholders throughout the decision making process presents challenges including the need to communicate the complex and interdependent facets of sustainability and the need to demonstrate t...

In developed countries domestic sewage is normally disposed using waterborne collection systems (sewers) leading to wastewater treatment plants (WTPs). Such waste includes a range of solid material, generally introduced via the water closet (WC): faecal matter, toilet paper and 'sanitary refuse'. There are a number of initiatives in the UK to encou...