Located at the edges of cities, suburbs have a role to play in urban resilience to disasters caused or exacerbated by climate change.
The Australian and Victorian governments have both promised funding for a Melbourne Airport rail link, but a private consortium’s unsolicited proposal is also on the table.
Stefan Postles/AAP
Unsolicited market proposals are not transparently assessed. Infrastructure should be built to serve the public interest, not shaped by its private backers, but the checks to ensure this are broken.
“[The Westpac scandal] comes at a bad time for the government which has legislation before parliament to crack down on union behaviour that goes off the rails, and here you have business behaviour being even worse,” says Michelle Grattan.
Joel Carrett/AAP
University of Canberra VC Deep Saini and Michelle Grattan discuss this week in politics, and talk about what to expect in the last parliamentary sitting fortnight, which starts this Monday.
Communications systems after a disaster can be affected by behaviour such as the number of times a person tries to access emergency systems.
(Shutterstock)
Communications networks are a crucial part of any disaster planning. Resilient communications systems determine how effective emergency responses can be.
A bus got caught in a sinkhole in downtown Pittsburgh on Oct. 28, 2019.
(Darrell Sapp/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)
Irregular weather is destabilizing the soil that supports railroad tracks, roads, buildings and pipelines.
In a speech on Wednesday night, Morrison will insist this bring-forward does not mean the government is panicking about Australia’s economic conditions.
Lukas Coch/AAP
Following increasing calls for stimulus to be injected into the economy, the government will outline an infrastructure bring-forward of A$3.8 billion over the next four years.
Peter Martin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy says its up to the Reserve Bank to boost the economy. In normal times, that’s not his job.
In Victoria, the Andrews government’s level crossing removal project has lifted property prices by up to 28% around sites where work has been completed.
Tracey Nearmy/AAP
Value capture depends on infrastructure increasing the value of affected areas in the first place. Victoria’s level crossing removal project shows the impact on property values can be significant.
Our cities need to adapt to cope with more extreme weather events and other impacts from climate change.
Flickr/Shaun Johnston
Qi Bing, University of California, Irvine y Maura C. Allaire, University of California, Irvine
Newark is the latest US city to struggle with high lead levels in drinking water. Ending this public health crisis will require more money and enforcement, plus stricter water testing standards.
Slowly, Chinese and African researchers are beginning to collaborate more.
Blablo101/Shutterstock
Peruvian glaciers have shrunk by 25% since 1987, causing water shortages in rural villages. But ancient technology could help manage this precious resource.
The damage to the dam holding back a reservoir just a mile from the nearest town downriver should focus minds on ensuring civil infrastructure is maintained.
Maya the detection dog was part of a team sniffing out koalas.
Marie Colibri/USC
South Africa’s introducing coding as a school subject but until teacher education, IT infrastructure and internet connectivity issues, among others are addressed, the country has a long way to go.