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Deakin University provides higher education for suitably qualified Australian and full fee-paying students through open campus flexible learning modes in which the place, time, mode and pace of study are flexible. The University operates across six campuses: Melbourne (Burwood), Geelong (Waurn Ponds), Waterfront (Geelong City), Rusden, Toorak and Warrnambool. Academic studies are coordinated through the faculties of: Arts; Business and Law; Education; Health and Behavioural Sciences; and Science and Technology. Education and training is available at undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate levels, covering the disciplines in these faculties and including professional courses, mid-career professional development courses and postgraduate studies by course work and research.
Research relating to Infrastructure and Construction is located within the Faculty of Science and Technology with recent projects being concentrated within the Schools of Architecture and Building and Ecology and Environment. Two important groups within the former are the Built Environment Group and the Building Resource Management Group.
The aim of the Built Environment Group is to unite environmental parameters and user requirements with description of the built form, reliable methods for predicting performance and energy use, and estimations of both procurement and life costs. The group's objectives are: to develop techniques for measuring and managing energy use and environmental performance of existing buildings; to establish reliable methods for predicting the performance and energy use of new buildings; to draw attention to industry to research findings that assist in the assessment of design and building options.
The aims of the Building Resource Management Group are to streamline and minimise waste in all facets of project procurement, enabling buildings to be produced ahead of schedule, at lower cost and with more efficient use of resources over their total life, thereby lowering the environmental impact of buildings. Sustainable building construction is seen as a long term goal that is more likely to be achieved by gradual process improvements leading to buildings that use minimum resources, all of which are sustainable.
The School of Ecology and Environment has considerable success in a diverse range of research endeavours within the broad field of Environmental Management. Research activities range from pure to applied research and projects are supported by grants from government, industry and local agencies. Projects relating to the modelling of solute transport in soils exemplify the type of issue addressed.
Coastal water and groundwater pollution is a serious global problem. These projects will develop new knowledge required to reduce the environmental impact of land disposal of industrial process water and leaching of mine tailings on the pollution of groundwater and coastal seas. The expected outcome of this research is a mathematical model that describes the impact of surface-applied industrial wastes and groundwater pumping on the local groundwater flows and mass transfer in the mixing zone of unconfined coastal aquifers. The model will be applied to experimental data collected from the Portland Smelter, Australia and the Neyveli Basin in India.
In addition to providing fundamental knowledge, this research, which will have important economic benefits for Australia, will provide: improved management guidelines for the sustainable management of Australian soils; improved design of land-disposal systems (eg. sewerage); improved farm agro-chemical and irrigation schedules; and improved procedures for bioremediation.
Deakin Research Services
Deakin University
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