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The effectiveness and adequacy of natural hazard warnings hinges on the availability of data and its transformation into actionable knowledge for the public. Real-time warning communication and emergency response therefore need to be evaluated from a data science perspective. However, there are currently gaps between established data science best practices and their application in supporting natural hazard warnings. This Perspective reviews existing data-driven approaches that underpin real-time warning communication and emergency response, highlighting limitations in hazard and impact forecasts. Four main themes for enhancing warnings are emphasised: (i) applying best-practice principles in visualising hazard forecasts, (ii) data opportunities for more effective impact forecasts, (iii) utilising data for more localised forecasts, and (iv) improving data-driven decision-making using uncertainty. Motivating examples are provided from the extensive flooding experienced in Australia in 2022. This Perspective shows the capacity for improving the efficacy of natural hazard warnings using data science, and the collaborative potential between the data science and natural hazards communities.

Improving the productive efficiency (also called technical efficiency) of real estate and construction firms (RECFs) is essential to tackle the sustained shortage of housing supply and the increasing unaffordability of housing in developing countries. However, there are few studies that focus on this issue in the context of developing countries; and available literature focuses mainly on firms listed on stock markets. Our study employs the meta-frontier framework to measure the efficiency of 832 small, medium, and large RECFs across Indonesia from 2012 to 2016, using a data envelopment analysis technique. The meta-frontier framework allows for different production technologies and different business environments operated by firms of different sizes. Under the specification of group-specific production frontiers, large firms obtain the highest average efficiency scores (0.694), followed by medium firms (0.529), and small firms (0.479). The technology gaps between the meta-frontier and the group-frontiers for small and medium firms are relatively large, suggesting that the overall industry would be able to achieve remarkable efficiency improvement if firms could access technologies used by more efficient firms. Our results also show that determinants of the efficiency vary across firm groups, suggesting that policy and managerial interventions tailored to each group would have more impact on the overall productive efficiency of the entire industry.

Purpose: Governments in developing countries manage their considerable state assets for public service delivery directly. In Indonesia, the Directorate of State Asset Management responsible for developing the national strategy for state asset optimization requires the determination of key elements and prioritization tools. The purpose of this paper is to show that a simple calculation using the combination of the balanced scorecard (BCS) and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) will help in the prioritization of strategy development. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire survey of 131 multistakeholder respondents to identify the most important key elements and the best alternative for asset optimization was done in this study. Findings: The respondents agree on the most important key elements, and that the best alternative for asset optimization is the efficient maintenance of assets. Competitive human resources comprise the recommended second key element, and that improvements in asset performance and value will improve public service as the second-highest alternative. This study also shows the importance of the integration of asset optimization in existing government strategic instruments supported by a comprehensive data set related to public assets and their performance. Originality/value: This paper provides a new contribution to integrating asset optimization strategies as the core of the organization’s performance and prioritization strategies. Additional BSC perspectives are suggested, with the inclusion of AHP for prioritization. In addition, this study includes the opinions of all the stakeholders, from external users to the central management. The flexibility of the tools to adapt to the existing strategic framework will allow their application by different agencies and in different countries.

As an alternative to ageing at home in the community, naturally occurring retirement communities (NORCs) have great potential to facilitate ageing in place; however, they have not attracted much research attention. This study conducts an overview of NORCs, aiming to examine the previous research in a comprehensive manner in order to explore how NORCs impact ageing in place, with the goal of guiding future research. The research presented here employs the content analysis method to review prior NORC-related studies and categorise research themes and findings following top-down coding principles. A total of 49 articles were selected from the Scopus and Web of Science databases, and the results show that the “social environment”, which was the most discussed topic (n = 24), provides the necessary mental support and physical motivation for older adults to live actively in NORCs, and that NORCs play a positive role in preserving public resources and promoting individual health. The limitations of this study include the fact that there is little public information on NORC programs and the subjective classification of themes, among others. This study acts as a foundation for future research on NORCs, which serve as a perfect model for healthy ageing in place.

The problems of rapid urbanization are particularly acute in megacities and have been exacerbated by climate change, resulting in economic, social, and environmental impacts. Informal settlements within floodplains in Ciliwung River banks in Jakarta, for instance, pose vulnerabilities associated with poverty which is complicated by flood risk. Jakarta’s government has pursued relocation of these populations out of the floodplain to enable normalization of the Ciliwung River, which aim to address flood hazard mitigation for the province. However, the disaster risk reduction strategies have been shifted to river normalization, which is perceived as a more environmentally friendly structural measure. This research investigates how governments, non-governmental organizations and at-risk communities perceive flood risk and collaborate in flood risk management decision-making processes. The paper focuses on at-risk communities living in informal settlements in areas of high flood risk in Jakarta. The research finds that divergent perceptions of flood risk between at-risk communities and the governments impede realization of flood risk reduction goals. In spite of the existence of collaboration during crisis, mismatch of the cross-institutional objectives and strategies within province also implies to the success of the flood risk management plan. This research has practical relevance to improve community resilience relevant to flood risk management not only in Jakarta, but also in other megacities with marginalized populations living in high-risk areas.

Healthcare industry is quite emission intensive due to its energy needs to ensure safe and reliable operation and care delivery. Healthcare buildings, such as hospitals and aged care communities, tend to be 24–7 in operation. This paper reveals the correlation between the occupancy and energy use for aged care communities in the state of Queensland Australia. Results show quite low correlations between occupancy and monthly energy use for those communities across different climate zones. However, temperature is found highly correlated with all communities' energy use. In hindsight, it makes more sense to design energy efficient buildings from an early stage and to consider the climate conditions of the site, since the variability of occupancy levels may not play a significant role after those healthcare buildings are commissioned.

The nature of the increasingly ageing populations of developed countries places residential issues of these populations at the heart of urban policy. Retirement villages as housing options for older adults in Australia has been growing steadily in recent years; however, there have been a dearth of geographical studies looking into the distribution of existing retirement villages at the regional level. This study aims to reveal the geographical distributions and cluster patterns of retirement villages in the Greater Brisbane Region of Australia to better understand and serve the living requirements of current and potential retirement village residents. The geovisualization method was adopted to visually explore the distribution patterns of retirement villages. The Global Mo-ran’s I and Local Moran’s I measures were employed to analyze the spatial correlation and the clusters of retirement villages in the study region. The study revealed that distribution of retirement villages was not random (z-score = 7.11; p < 0.001), but clustered in nature and included hotspot patterns, especially along the coastline and Brisbane River areas. Moreover, for-profit and not-for-profit retirement villages have different distribution patterns and adopted significantly different tenure agreements. In the study region, the spatial distribution of retirement villages aligns with the aggregation trend of older residents. The findings of this study disclosed the spatial distribution patterns of retirement villages and will provide developers and policymakers with geographically referenced data for the choice of new development sites to meet the market demand of potential customers, forming aged-friendly development strategies, and eventually leading to improved quality of life for older Australians.

This Opportunity Assessment is a scoping study to determine what is currently understood about residential solar pre-cooling and pre-heating (SPC/H) and therefore guide where RACE for 2030 should focus its research efforts. The intended outcome of SPC/H is to cost effectively shift solar energy from when it is abundant to when energy is required for heating and cooling. The purpose is to achieve grid load smoothing which is expected to address and peak demand and minimum demand, leading to lower customer electricity bills, and improved solar hosting capacity. This Opportunity Assessment constituted literature reviews and modelling. A desktop review of market status and industry practice identified the state of the industry, particularly what is working and not working. A further literature review, supplemented by interviews with experts and stakeholders representing consumer bodies and industry associations, studied the feasibility of SPC/H for Australian houses from the consumers’ perspective, looking at their attitudes to remote control, comfort expectations, and incentives. The reviews inform the analysis of barriers and solutions. As an input to the scenario analysis, a ‘suitable’ home was characterised by analysing the expected building performances at different house thermal efficiency levels. The scenario analysis estimated at high-level the number of homes with both air conditioning (AC) and PV systems that could effectively be pre-cooled or pre-heated to identify the technical and economic potential of SPC/H and indicatively quantify potential benefits and costs and the range of potential impacts on cost, peak load, potential for PV uptake, and emissions reduction. Through a series of workshops, conversations and document reviews, the delivery team identified priority research questions and business opportunities, including specific identification of knowledge gaps, required enabling technologies, and desirable demonstrations

The retirement village industry in Australia has been accommodating an increasing number of residents in recent decades. However, a thorough understanding of the dynamic behaviour of the industry remains largely unknown, which prevents a better prediction of its future growth. This study incorporates system dynamics thinking into residents’ relocation decisions and aims to develop a causal loop diagram to have a full understanding of the complex interactions of variables affecting their relocation, which in turn determines the future growth pattern of the industry. Based on thematic analysis using literature review and interview data, five primary causal loops are identified, including the positive reinforcing loops of word-of-mouth effect and new-supply effect, and three negative balancing loops of the move-out effect, price effect and home-village distance effect. Of these five causal loops, the most dominant ones in determining the system behaviour are the word-of-mouth (reinforcing) and home-village distance (balancing) effects. The causal loop diagram provides a better understanding of the underlying structure of the retirement village industry and will help guide the industry and policy makers in formulating strategies to create a more ageing-friendly living environment for seniors in Australia

This Opportunity Assessment is a scoping study to determine what is currently understood about Transforming energy productivity through value chains and therefore guide where RACE for 2030 should focus its research efforts. The purpose of the project was to identify research priorities through investigating opportunities to reduce energy use in Australia industry, beginning with analysis of trends in productivity and energy. This Opportunity Assessment was also informed by considering the role of society, government, institutions and economic factors in the mainstream adoption of innovations. These factors are set out in theories of socio-technical transitions, which provide a framework for understanding how changes to socially dominant systems, processes and actions occur. In the context of the project, these theories indicate that more than technological developments are required for a shift to more energy-productive industry. Business models, policy, education systems, societal preferences and supporting infrastructure may all need to change to enable transitions to occur. After series of Industry Reference Group meetings, workshops, literature review, policy and desktop research of value chain reviews, market status, technologies, transformations and energy productivity opportunities. The project identified two priority areas for further research - food systems and shelter for the four opportunities - food transparency, reducing food waste, innovative building materials and design and building performance transparency.

Public construction in Indonesia still suffering failure in the last few decades. Evidence shows that one of the source factors to public construction failures was a lack of technical-area understanding in Commitment-Making Officers (Pejabat Pembuat Komitmen, PPK). Moreover, since PPK has various academic disciplines, evidence shows that many PPK from local government agencies are reluctant to be assigned as a PPK because they are concerned about their lack of understanding of basic construction knowledge and its consequences. This paper aims to identify the importance level of PPK’s technical competency in managing public construction projects. In this study, self-administered questionnaires were distributed to PPK from East Java, Southeast Sulawesi, and Gorontalo provinces, and interviews were conducted to confirm the results. The findings show that having technical competency is necessary for PPK regardless of their academic disciplines. However, they do not need to understand every single detail of the construction project, but they are expected to understand a big picture of construction methods that enable them to act as a knowledgeable contributor in the construction delivery. This study contributes to the existing knowledge of project manager competency by providing insight into project manager from the client-side in the public construction projects.