13553 research outputs found
Sort by
Urban characteristics and land surface temperature: a spatial analysis of patterns and relationships in Wellington, New Zealand
No full textThe Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, characterised by elevated land surface temperatures (LST) in urban areas compared to rural surroundings, presents significant challenges in intensifying heat-related health problems, energy consumption, and environmental degradation. In New Zealand, where UHI studies are limited, understanding its spatio-temporal dynamics is crucial for improving urban liveability and mitigating adverse impacts. This thesis examines spatio-temporal variations in LST and the relationship between urban characteristics and LST variation in Wellington, New Zealand. The study retrieved remote sensing LST data for three seasons and applied spatial analysis to identify spatio-temporal patterns in the Wellington Region. Summertime LST data for Wellington City was used in a correlation analysis and regression analysis with an ordinary least square and geographically weighted regression model to identify the relationship of urban characteristics including climate/geographical factors, green spaces and trees features, and 2D/3D built-up characteristics, with LST. Initial findings highlighted significant LST differences between urban and rural areas, confirming the presence of a UHI effect in the Wellington Region. LST variability was also observed across different suburbs and various land cover classes, revealing that artificial surfaces have the highest LST, while forests and grasslands have the lowest. Correlation analyses showed that elevation, slope, wind speed, and precipitation were negatively correlated with LST, as were green space and tree canopy coverage, while building factors and road coverage showed a positive correlation. Green space configuration metrics and 3D factors like building height metrics and tree canopy height also showed a significant correlation with LST. The regression analysis results identified that elevation, green space coverage, green space edge density and building coverage are the most dominant factors influencing LST variation. Even though 3D factors like building height and tree canopy height offered a more comprehensive representation of the relationship between urban characteristics and LST, they were consistently outperformed by 2D factors like green space coverage and building coverage. This study found that fragmented, small, and irregularly shaped green spaces were associated with higher LST, suggesting that urban planning strategies could focus on developing connected and expansive green spaces to increase their cooling benefits. As impervious surfaces showed a heating effect on LST, balancing green space and built-up areas is important for mitigating the negative effects of built-up areas on LST.</p
How is the specialist-primary palliative care model functioning for cancer patients in the current New Zealand health system?
No full textAIM: Patient barriers to accessing hospice and palliative care (PC) have been well studied. Important, yet less investigated, is how cancer patients whose hospice referrals were not accepted are being cared for. This article aims to understand the referral process from PC providers' perspectives and the implications of the current palliative system for patients, families and health professionals. METHODS: We conducted interviews with 28 healthcare professionals via Zoom. Participants worked in specialist and primary PC settings, such as hospices and aged residential care, and were based in seven Aotearoa New Zealand regions. We thematically analysed the interview transcripts. RESULTS: We identified four themes: the state of the PC system; communication issues; unmet needs and inequities; and managing care within the current system. CONCLUSION: The limited funding for PC and other health services is resulting in a decrease in PC services. The specialist-primary model of end-of-life supportive care in New Zealand is undermined by under-funding. The implications for cancer patients, their families/whānau and their healthcare professionals are moves towards a more biomedical model of PC, a reduction in training and unsustainable workarounds to manage care within the under-resourced system. Considering the ageing population, urgent action is needed
Curating Cityscapes: Ways for Thinking and Performing Spaces of Becoming
No full textAs a Chinese artist and architect living between China and Aotearoa New Zealand, the researcher has encountered many native landscapes hidden within urban environments. In partnership with indigenous women from Aotearoa and China, this creative practice-based research project asks: What unfolds when dynamic realms of native landscapes, hidden within urban environments, are encountered, narrated, and performed? How can design and art contribute to thinking and performing spaces of becoming? By ‘becoming,’ we refer to the constantly changing and intra-acting dynamics of urban space and processes of knowing postcolonial urban spaces. These inquiries form the basis of this paper, which references a micro-curating and performance project titled ‘Native Land and Other Stories.’ The project is not just performance by the researcher but also a performative exploration of collective experiences reimagining everyday cityscapes with other female collaborators. These experiences are viewed as acts of ‘curating,’ rooted in its Latin concepts of ‘caring’ (curitas, cura), and intertwined with Ewengki/Evenki, Māori and Chinese traditions of ‘shamanic healing’. These acts are situated within the ‘native lands’—waterways, forests, settlements—hidden within modern landscapes in urban environments. The outcomes demonstrate how performative moments within native and urban landscapes, and spaces of becoming, can influence architecture and art practices, and design-thinking in relation to the collective ‘others’ of the urban: women, multi-species, native, material, and immaterial beings. This project is detailed and reflected upon through autoethnographic writing and recording, and provides other creative practitioners with alternative ways of knowing and creating in response to urban spaces in posthuman era
Using the Violin in Music Therapy Sessions when Working with Young People Age 6-21: Living with Visual Impairments
No full textThis reflexive qualitative case study was employed to answer the research question: How can I, a music therapist researcher student, use the violin in music therapy (MT) sessions when working with young people aged 6-21, living with visual impairments (low vision or blind)? The context of this research was in satellite schools of a nationwide network for young people living with visual impairments. I was part of this community as a music therapy student completing placement experience for three days per week for nine months during a year in which the floods on the North Island of Aotearoa significantly impacted local communities and individual and family wellbeing. I was interested in this topic because of my strong classical violin background and I wanted to understand how I could best utilise this instrument in music therapy sessions when working with this community. Through a reflexive and reflective process, I analysed two cases of my work with young people living with visual impairments and studied examples of my use of the violin with each. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to break down and understand experiences at a deeper level and to link the work as a whole. The themes generated across the cases were: therapist relationship with violin; forming connections; collaborative playing (in improvisation and therapeutic teaching); navigating challenges. The process generated hidden meanings about my practice as a music therapist in training where I explored different ways to use the violin with participants. I understood the importance of being aware of the violin, participant and therapist’s limitations and adaptations required when choosing to use the violin in music therapy sessions to support therapeutic goals. I found that the violin had a place within my music therapy sessions as it created meaningful relationships and promoted a range of therapeutic goals. It is hoped that other instrumentalists can resonate with these discoveries and build from this study.</p
Exploring the continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic response on migrants’ transnational contact behavior and psychological health: A typological approach
No full textNo description supplie
Intangible Landscapes: Drawing atmosphere in landscape architectural practice
No full textThis thesis examines how the intangible aspects of landscape—such as sensory, temporal, and atmospheric qualities—impact human experiences related to sustainability, community, and a sense of place. Despite their significance, these qualities are frequently overlooked in the landscape design process. Adopting a research-through-design approach, this study investigates how drawn representations can highlight intangible experiences and inform design practices. The focus of the investigation is the Porirua Stream adjacent to Porirua Train Station, employing various drawing techniques and mediums to capture atmospheric qualities and guide design decisions. The research engages with the contributions of scholars like Eric Bellin, Elizabeth K. Meyer, Kenneth Olwig, and Tim Ingold to contextualise the understanding of atmosphere in landscape. Through experimentation with diverse visual strategies, this thesis aspires to develop techniques that integrate atmospheric qualities into site analysis and design representation. The findings aim to enrich the discourse on recognising and preserving the intangibility of landscapes within design processes, offering innovative methods for visualising and responding to landscape atmosphere.</p
Designing a rating scale for an integrated reading-writing test: A needs-oriented approach
No full textTo meet the current trends in higher education, there is accountability on EAP programmes to prepare and assess students’ access to higher education. Thus, multimodal tasks including integrated writing (IW) assessments have seen a resurgence because they arguably closely mirror academic writing. However, test practicality constraints and variability in the use and format of these assessments mean rating scales often fall short in substantiating the central claims of IW assessment. We developed an integrated reading-writing scale taking into account reading-writing requirements and empirical research on IW tests designed to assess readiness for first-year humanities and social science courses. We approached test development as part of the ongoing validation efforts, detailing the considerations involved in the scale development process. We argue that alignment with academic writing requirements should guide the development of IW tests, thereby acknowledging and comprehending nuances of academic writing. The paper demonstrates considerations and decisions in scale design as the validation process from the start, which is a reminder that assessment is not just a quantitative exercise but a multifaceted process
Conspicuous Consumption in the Prairie House: A Veblenian Reading of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Highbacked Dining Chair
No full textAbstract
Recent scholarship in the history of modern interior design has moved beyond the rhetoric of the avant-garde to recognize the enduring importance of style as an expression of social identity and taste as a mediator between design and broader cultural trends. This shift highlights the complex interplay between aesthetic choices and socio-cultural dynamics. As a case study of this interplay, this paper employs a Veblenian perspective—based on the work of economist Thorstein Veblen, notably his 1899 book The Theory of the Leisure Class—to reexamine one of the most iconic examples of modern furniture: Frank Lloyd Wright’s highbacked dining chair. Specifically, the paper explores the role of Wright’s chair in the context of the formal dining room of one of Wright’s largest Prairie-style houses, the Susan Lawrence Dana House in Springfield, Illinois, completed in 1903. Shifting focus from the production to the consumption of furniture, the paper investigates how Wright’s dining chairs defined the relationship between what Veblen called the “leisure” and “laboring” classes within this domestic realm. Viewed in situ, Wright’s iconic chair reveals a dichotomy deeply embedded within its design. While it was an advertisement for advanced industrial production, it also served as a luxury item created to fulfill the imperative of conspicuous consumption
Self-Consistent Calculations of Satellite Surface Potential and the Resulting Drag Coefficient With Varied Ionospheric Composition
No full textThe growing number of satellites operating in LEO highlights the necessity for a better understanding of ionospheric aerodynamics to mitigate collision risks, ensure in-orbit safety, and support satellites performing sensitive measurements or carrying precision instruments. Despite the importance of ionospheric aerodynamics, predicting the satellite’s surface potential and the drag coefficient are still challenging. In this study, we share preliminary results of computations where the satellite’s surface potential and the associated drag coefficients are calculated for various combinations of electron and ion densities and temperatures in LEO. The simulations are performed using SPIS and pdFOAM for a satellite with radius rB= 0.3 m. The results show that surface potential varies during the day and night with minimal variation in the absence of sunlight. The corresponding drag coefficient exhibits an increasing trend with rising surface potential but decreases as total ion density increases and it highly depends on the type of the ion. The calculated ionospheric drag coefficient varies in the range of 2.2 ≤ CTot ≤ 4.6. Although the surface potential is higher during the day than night, the greater abundance of H+ at night leads to a higher ionospheric drag coefficient. At 1000 km, the drag coefficient is 2 times larger than the drag coefficient at 300 km. A systematic study of different orientations of the cylinder with respect to the flow as well as various cylinder aspect ratios is currently underway
Access Repository Dashboard
Do you manage Victoria University of Wellington? Access insider analytics, issue reports and manage access to outputs from your repository in the CORE Repository Dashboard!