Friday, November 22, 2013
A Paragraph to Ponder
From Ceres, Inaction on Climate Change:The Cost to Taxpayers:
"As the frequency and severity of extreme weather events intensify with the effects of climate change, our federal and state disaster relief and insurance programs will become increasingly unsustainable as losses from such events increase. The net present value of the federal government’s liability for unfunded disaster assistance over the next 75 years could be greater than the net present value of the unfunded liability for the Social Security program."
"As the frequency and severity of extreme weather events intensify with the effects of climate change, our federal and state disaster relief and insurance programs will become increasingly unsustainable as losses from such events increase. The net present value of the federal government’s liability for unfunded disaster assistance over the next 75 years could be greater than the net present value of the unfunded liability for the Social Security program."
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Integrated Watercyle Management
Interesting paper/presentation by Low et al - Resiliency of Urban Water System. Link to the presentation.
Great slide - -
Great slide - -
What is Good Design?
From Why design matters by Tristram Carfrae of Arup:
"Consider the three main ingredients of a typical project: quality, time and money. Without the inspiration that comes from design, they remain interdependent. So, for example, you can improve quality, but it will take longer and cost more. You can do things more cheaply but it will take longer and reduce the quality.
Design is what enables you to adjust these factors independently – ideally improving all three. So the genius of great design is that it allows you to improve quality while reducing programme time and cost. You can deliver a building that meets the client’s aspirations but also saves them money and is more sustainable than they thought possible.
The skill of the designer lies in sieving through the different opportunities to do this and using hunch and emotional response to find the most appropriate one. You can test the solution using analysis, but – as I’ve written about before on Thoughts – you can’t solve open-ended problems with mathematics alone. You need both sides of your brain; you need intuition as well as logic."
"Consider the three main ingredients of a typical project: quality, time and money. Without the inspiration that comes from design, they remain interdependent. So, for example, you can improve quality, but it will take longer and cost more. You can do things more cheaply but it will take longer and reduce the quality.
Design is what enables you to adjust these factors independently – ideally improving all three. So the genius of great design is that it allows you to improve quality while reducing programme time and cost. You can deliver a building that meets the client’s aspirations but also saves them money and is more sustainable than they thought possible.
The skill of the designer lies in sieving through the different opportunities to do this and using hunch and emotional response to find the most appropriate one. You can test the solution using analysis, but – as I’ve written about before on Thoughts – you can’t solve open-ended problems with mathematics alone. You need both sides of your brain; you need intuition as well as logic."
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
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