Reference no: EM132345188
Planning Sustainable Infrastructure Assignment - Transport
Assignment Outline: You are asked to prepare a conceptual proposal for sustainable transport infrastructure options on Mer (or Murray) Island - A Torres Strait township of approximately 450 persons.
Background - The focus of the course this year will be to redesign the existing household, using an asbestos house as a case study. As part of this objective (redesigning the existing household), the transport assignment particularly focusses on sustainable transport solutions. Solutions should cover areas such as 1) passenger transport at both household and community level, and 2) waste/garbage collection (e.g. domestic waste, asbestos retrofitting, etc.) at community level.
Currently on Mer Island, transportation is mainly by private vehicles which require petrol/diesel to the shipped to the remote island. Islanders also use small boats to travel between island and supply barge transports food supply, fuel and building materials from the mainland.
Due to its remote location and within the Quarantine Zone, residents of Mer Island face issues such as 1) infrequent, time consuming and expensive travel from and to Mer Island, and 2) higher commodity prices due to less frequent container movement. Thus, your assignment must also explore sustainable solutions which facilitate regional travel (passenger and freight).
For this assignment, you are required to clearly state all assumptions used in your analysis such as mode choice towards new transport options, energy consumption, computing CO2 emissions, etc. You must also consider regulatory requirements for waste management and disposal (of asbestos in particular), as well as the importing and exporting of goods (given the Quarantine Zone). You should also take into consideration the cultural and social background of the Torres Strait Islanders.
Your design for sustainable transport will need to be incorporated with the other assignments on water, waste and energy into your Presentation assessment.
Assessment - Technical Report to be led by one member of your group - There are four parts to the assignment.
Part 1: Contribution of transport towards household energy consumption
You must propose innovative passenger transport solutions at both household and community level (e.g. public transport) and show that they will be sustainable in comparison with the existing options. Once the sustainable modes have been established, you must then compute their energy requirements (for operation) which a household or community additionally needs to provide. You should also estimate the transport energy requirement for the scale of the entire island.
Part 2: Energy consumption of waste moving vehicles
Assess the current garbage/waste transport system. Propose a sustainable solution and show calculations that it is indeed sustainable in comparison with the existing system. You must take into consideration average household garbage along with asbestos retrofitting for movement. Compute the energy required to operate the proposed garbage/waste collection system. Consider an average trip of the waste collecting vehicle and scale up the broader benefits for the island.
Part 3: Passenger travel to and from the island
Describe the activities requiring passenger travel to and from Mer Island. Assess the current regional transport system in Mer Island and propose sustainable options which are cheaper and eco-friendly. For calculation, you should consider a single offisland journey through existing mode and your proposed intervention to scale up the broader benefits for the entire island.
Part 4: Freight and logistics
Include a qualitative description of the supply chain serving the island using a table dividing the goods and resources into imports/exports and sea freight/air freight. You should propose an alternative concept for the island that might include (but is not limited to) demand management, changes in fuels, or changes in technology/mode and the necessary infrastructure changes to the dwelling. Your proposal should be accompanied by an estimate for the scale of the impact at island level.
Data: Refer to resources on Moodle. Data from Australian Bureau of Statistics, reports from similar case studies or journal publications should be used to justify your proposal.