Author: admin

Telstra, Cisco helped: With Telstra and Cisco, Ergon quickly
made available additional bandwidth to both locations, building a
network to connect teams of laptop-enabled staff, as well as a voice
over internet protocol system for use on its private network.

Email essential: Access to email was critical for co-ordination
of Ergon’s internal resources and to co-ordinate company requests to
the civilian management authority run by General Peter Cosgrove, as
well as with the Defence personnel who were moved to the region. The
network was also needed to run Ergon’s fault management software.

Call centre capacity augmented: As Cyclone Larry loomed on the
horizon, Ergon had beefed up its call centre capability. It received
about 7000 calls daily in the aftermath – about double the average it
would normally get for a severe storm.

QFRS wireless voice system utilised: To help restore
communications, the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service also
participated in the work, having recently equipped itself with a
wireless voice over internet protocol command system from Cisco. Power
outages and phone system problems are not unusual in a cyclone, and
Queensland Fire Service district inspector Wayne Waltisbuhl says the
mobile VoIP gave it access to portable voice and data services to share
and forward strategic and tactical information for the response.

Tactical information sharing capability: “The portable system
allows fire officers to access and share tactical information such as
incident plans, front-line status reports, maps and weather reports
downloaded from the Bureau of Meteorology,” Waltisbuhl says.

The Australian, 4/4/2006

Source: Erisk Net

Reference: Mario Molina, 1995 Chemistry Nobel Prize Laureate, on the theme of “Risk Management”

Erisk Net, 4/4/2006

Not as bad as mainland: ECA International general manager Lee
Quane said that for Asian employees, Hong Kong was falling behind
cities such as Oslo, San Francisco and Washington it had previously
beaten. “However. it is still ranked more favourably than mainland
Chinese cities,” he said.

KL drops a notch: Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital
occasionally blanketed by smoke from Indonesian forest fire, also
dropped down in the survey because of air pollution.

Survey criteria: The ECA survey is based on assessment of
criteria such as crime and climate, not on the opinions of employees or
on financial costs.

Blame Guangdong: Hong Kong’s pollution, blown in from the
factories, vehicles and power stations of the neighbouring Chinese
province of Guangdong, has worsened but authorities have been slow to
respond and are reluctant to confront their counterparts in Guangdong
and Beijing.

High pollution score: Air Pollution is given 20 out of a total
Of 330 Points in the ranking system (with the highest score being the
worst). Hong Kong’s air pollution score is 14 compared with two for
Singapore.

Unpopular Baghdad: For expatriates, the worst cities ranked in the survey were Baghdad, Kabul and Karachi.

The Australian, 4/4/2006

Source: Erisk Net  

Already operating in Docklands
As a result of work by Melbourne
Water and other organizations, including Monash, the rain gardens are
already operating in new residential developments, including Docklands,
and in inner urban areas such as Richmond.

Water-friendly plants
Averaging around five square metres in
size, the gardens “clean” stormwater run-off as it passes through a bed
of sandy loam soil which is filled with reeds and other water-friendly
plants.

Conference this week
These world-leading developments will be
highlighted this week at a major international conference in Melbourne,
organised by Dr Fletcher and Dr Ana Deletic from the Institute. The 7th
International Conference on Urban Drainage Modelling and the
International Conference on Water Sensitive Urban Design are being held
concurrently at the Grand Hyatt.

Reference: Ms Robyn Anns, Monash Media Communications, on +613 9906
9317 or 0417 568 781. Dr Tim Fletcher on 0407 617 662, or Dr Ana
Deletic on 0422 986 720.

Erisk Net, 4/4/2006

1.5m households involved: Academics at the University of NSW
used figures from Sydney Water, the census and the Department of Lands,
and rainfall modelling from Australian National University to gauge
water consumption across 140 Sydney districts and 1.5 million
households.

14pc more per person: They found that while residents of the
western suburbs used more water per household, residents of northern
and eastern Sydney used up to 14 per cent more water per person. The
suburbs with the highest per capita water use included northern Sydney,
the northern beaches, the inner and central west and Sutherland.

Results consistent across the board: The research found
residents of the eastern suburbs used more water than their western
counterparts in all four categories; freestanding houses, semis, small
and large blocks.

Dwelling type makes no difference: The study also revealed that
the amount of water used per person varied little between the different
types of dwellings. For example, in freestanding houses the average
annual per capita use was 104 kilolitres, and in high-rise units the
per capita use was 99 kilolitres. The lowest per capita users of
domestic water were residents of low-rise flats.

State Govt system flawed: Spokesperson Professor Randolph said
the finding had serious implications for the State Government’s
commitment to urban consolidation, based on an assumption that medium-
and high-density housing lead to substantially lower domestic water
use.

Consumption reduction unlikely: “Households in higher-density
flats are certainly smaller than those in houses, but on a per capita
basis there is little to be gained in terms of overall water
conservation between high- and low-density housing. Therefore policies
designed to reduce water consumption based on dwelling types alone are
unlike to achieve any significant reductions in consumption levels,”
Randolph said.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 1-2/4/2006, p. 9

Source: Erisk  

Babcock and Brown not returning calls: Babcock & Brown is a
global investment company with offices across the United States,
Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa. David Griffin, listed on the
development application as the chief executive officer of Renewable
Power, did not return calls made by The Canberra Times on 29 March.

Extensive construction to cause traffic problems: The
development would include construction of a substation, 12km of
overhead transmission lines and trenching to install 20km of
underground cables. An environmental assessment by the developer
estimated transporting and installing the turbines would raise
significant traffic and transport issues, including road safety and the
ability of local roads to handle the high volume of construction
traffic.

Development will damage endangered environment: A flora and
fauna assessment prepared for the project warned that the development
would involve “significant clearing” of high conservation value yellow
box woodlands. This type of woodland is listed in NSW as an endangered
ecological community.

Telecommunications may suffer from development: The assessment
also raised concerns about the possible impact on telecommunications –
including television reception, radar and mobile telephones – in the
region.

Local residents concerned by noise: William Hoorweg, who lives
on a property 18km from Bungendore, said he had “been bailed up at the
letterbox” some months ago by Mr Griffin. “He told me that wind
turbines would be going in around 1000m behind my place,” Mr Hoorweg
said. Mr Hoorweg said he was concerned that “the thumping noise” from
the turbines would “make life unbearable” and destroy the peace and
quiet of rural life in the region.

The Canberra Times, 30/3/2006, p. 2

Source: Erisk