Hugh Byrd

Reverse migration has become a more pressing issue in recent times, owing to a range of factors like economic downturns, political instability, natural disasters, and the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic, in particular, has highlighted the vulnerability of migrant workers in urban areas, leading many to return to their rural homes. As a result, reverse migration necessitates focused attention and planning by governments, policymakers, and communities to ensure favourable outcomes for all parties involved. This paper aims to provide a fundamental research framework from research that utilized a machine learning approach to classify reverse migration based on evidence from Selangor, Malaysia. The research methodology involves selecting features for reverse migration classification models and identifying optimal hyperparameters and experimental settings through auto model preliminary analysis. Furthermore, based on the findings of the auto model, the methodology was enhanced with a manual setting of machine learning. Three machine learning algorithms, namely Decision Tree, Random Forest, and Gradient Boosted Trees were used. The results of the auto model and the manual process that used different split ratios were compared. All the machine learning algorithms performed with a high accuracy of over 90% and were efficient in completing prediction tasks in under a minute across various settings. The best machine learning model with an accuracy of 97.6% is Gradient Boosted Trees with a split ratio of 60:40. The paper presents findings that could prove useful for governments, legal planners, investors, and the community in strategizing and surviving through an artificial intelligence prediction approach.

This paper reviews the historical research that has led to widespread policies on compact urban form, in particular, residential development, and collates evidence that demonstrates that dispersed urban form may be more energy efficient than compact form. This is counterintuitive but is supported by both challenging the conventional modelling of energy use of buildings as well as case studies with empirical evidence. The conclusion is that policies on urban form should be driven not by existing technologies but by the disruptive technologies of the future. The increased use in distributed energy generation in urban areas (generally roof-mounted photovoltaics), the growth in ownership of electric vehicles and the potential introduction of smart and micro-grids and the possibility of virtual power plants is changing the impact that energy has on built form and conflicts with current policies for denser, contained and compact development.

The rapid intensification of Auckland has made our visual awareness of the outdoor environment (windowscapes) more confined and restricted. The recent changes of Auckland’s windowscapes have made the shortcomings of the New Zealand Building Code more apparent. This paper aims to demonstrate the importance of windowscapes in urban dwellers’ life and suggest some changes to the current building code to provide healthier and liveable indoor environments. First, evidence from the literature on the impact of views on building occupants’ wellbeing will be reviewed. Then, New Zealand Code Clause (G7 Natural light) and its Acceptable Solution will be critically analysed to identify areas that require improvement.Our literature review indicates that private views are more relevant for health and wellbeing than building and planning legislation in New Zealand currently considers them to be. Hence, this paper suggests that windowscapes should become an essential part of future building codes and standards. This paper concludes that providing strict requirements regarding windowscapes is essential to building a healthier indoor environment.

This paper reports on a detailed analysis of the metabolism of the Island City of Mumbai should the Indian Government’s proposal for ‘smart’ cities be implemented. It focuses on the environmental impact of increased population density achieved by demolishing existing medium-rise (3-5 storey) housing and replacing it with the proposed high-rise (40-60 storey) towers. The resulting increase in density places a burden on the demand on such things as electricity and water and simultaneously increases the output flows of drainage, solid waste and greenhouse gas production.An extended urban metabolism analysis is carried out on a proposed development in Mumbai (Bhendi Bazaar) that has been put forward as an exemplar case study by the Government. The flows of energy, water and wastes are calculated based on precedents and from first principles. The results of the case study are then extrapolated across the City in order to identify the magnitude of increased demands and wastes should the ‘smart’ city proposals be fully realised. Mumbai is the densest city in the world. It already suffers from repeated blackouts, water rationing and inadequate waste and sewage treatment. The results of the study indicate, on a per capita basis, increasing density will have a significant further detrimental effect on the environment.

In this paper, we investigated the reason(s) why natural ventilation is not as popular as air-conditioned or mixed-mode ventilation systems in Green-rated office buildings in New Zealand. To achieve this, we had three objectives. Firstly, we reviewed the Green Star criteria for thermal comfort in office buildings to ascertain which ventilation system the NZ Green Star rating tool promotes. Secondly, we ascertained the perception of occupants in office buildings regarding thermal comfort. This was followed by an interview with building experts regarding factors that affect the use of natural ventilation in New Zealand offices. The findings showed that the NZ Green Star thermal comfort criteria encourage the use of mechanical ventilation over natural ventilation which results in designers opting for air conditioning systems in office designs. We observed that occupants of naturally ventilated spaces were least satisfied with the thermal comfort of their offices when compared with occupants of mixed-mode and air-conditioned offices. This study fulfils the need to encourage the use of natural ventilation in office environments by designers and building owners. Further study on other aspects of the indoor environment quality that is related to naturally ventilated systems such as lighting and noise is required in a bid to ascertain its viability in office environments.

In this paper we challenge the notion that “green” buildings can achieve greater productivity than buildings that are not accredited as “green”. For nearly two decades, research has produced apparent evidence which indicates that the design of a “green” building can enhance the productivity of its occupants. This relationship between building design and productivity is claimed to be achieved through compliance with internal environmental quality (IEQ) criteria of Green rating tools. This paper reviews methods of measuring productivity and the appropriateness of the metrics used for measuring IEQ in office environments. This review is supported by the results of a survey of office building users which identifies social factors to be significantly more important than environmental factors in trying to correlate productivity and IEQ. It also presents the findings of observations that were discretely carried out on user-response in green buildings. These findings demonstrate that, despite a building’s compliance with IEQ criteria, occupants still resort to exceptional measures to alter their working environment in a bid to achieve comfort. The work has been carried out on “green” buildings in New Zealand. These buildings are rated based on the NZ “Green Star” system which has adopted the Australian “green star” system with its roots in BREEAM. Despite this, the results of this research are applicable to many other “green” rating systems. The paper concludes that methods of measuring productivity are flawed, that IEQ criteria for building design is unrepresentative of how occupants perceive the environment and that this can lead to an architecture that has few of the inherent characteristics of good environmental design.