Initiatives at UNSW
Photo by Brad Hall, staff
The "AudioNomad-Greentrails" is a project which takes visitors on a walking tour around UNSW that identifies a series of native plants of ecological significance around the campus. Using a GPS enabled mobile device, the AudioNomad tour immerses the visitor in a location-sensitive soundscape that not only provides information about the beauty and significance of the bush-tucker plants, but also guides them from point to point without the need for a map.
Over the past three years the AudioNomad research team have developed a powerful suite of Mac-based geo-spatial sound editing and authoring tools in conjunction with GPS enabled Pocket PC mobile devices. AudioNomad is a inter-disciplinary Art and Science, Research and Development team consisting of Dr Daniel Woo, Dr Nigel Helyer, Nick Mariette, James Salter, Ashley Butterworth and Michael Lake.
Every drop counts at UNSW
UNSW has reduced its consumption of potable water by a third over the past seven years, and is planning to cut this figure by half over the next four thanks to a plan designed to increase the University's environmental sustainability.
The University's Chief Operating Officer, Peter Graham, signed off the Water Saving Action Plan, prepared by UNSW Facilities Management for the NSW Department of Energy, Utilities and Sustainability.
The plan outlines where savings have been made since 1999, through borewater substitution, installation of water-saving devices and an active maintenance program. It also provides a framework for continued improvement of water efficiency and waste minimisation that focuses on increased borewater substitution for uses such as toilet flushing, cooling towers, and leak detection and replacement of inefficient infrastructure.
In a further move towards environmental sustainability, the University will also be replacing most of the water it is pumping out, following the installation in August of a percolation chamber to recharge the aquifer from which our borewater isdrawn.
The Water Saving Action Plan identifies further annual savings of nearly 168 megalitres (more than 60 Olympic-sized swimming pools) as a result of these measures. In dollar terms, this represents savings of $350,000 each year for an upfront cost of about $1.37 million, giving a payback period of less than four years.
K17, the home building of UNSW COMPUTING, was given the highest possible ranking for water usage in 2007. Despite being the workplace of over 115 people, we used less water than three average households in Randwick.
