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The new scientific decade (2023-2032) of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) aims at searching for sustainable solutions to undesired water conditions - may it be too little, too much or too polluted. Many of the current issues originate from global change, while solutions to problems must embrace local understanding and context. The decade will explore the current water crises by searching for actionable knowledge within three themes: global and local interactions, sustainable solutions and innovative cross-cutting methods. We capitalise on previous IAHS Scientific Decades shaping a trilogy; from Hydrological Predictions (PUB) to Change and Interdisciplinarity (Panta Rhei) to Solutions (HELPING). The vision is to solve fundamental water-related environmental and societal problems by engaging with other disciplines and local stakeholders. The decade endorses mutual learning and co-creation to progress towards UN sustainable development goals. Hence, HELPING is a vehicle for putting science in action, driven by scientists working on local hydrology in coordination with local, regional, and global processes.

Triggered by the rapid depletion of natural resources, sustainability has now becoming a popular topic that has been linked to various aspects of human’s life. Given the very scale of the global construction industry, sustainability has emerged as one of the main features in the construction industry including in choosing the construction method such as offsite manufacturing (OSM) in construction. In fact, one of the main advantages of OSM has been expected as its potential to minimise waste as well as higher level of productivity and hence supporting sustainability. However, it has also been reported that despite all its advantages, the uptake of OSM is still considered relatively low in the construction industry. In discussing about sustainability, various scholars have championed the importance of looking into this matter through a more holistic view of sustainability including economical, social and environmental. This is also known as the triple bottom-line of sustainability. This paper presents a review of the current development in analysing the achievement of the triple bottom-line of sustainability throughout the lifecycle of offsite construction projects. The outcomes of this review are expected to unveil various points within the lifecycle of projects delivered with the offsite construction techniques that can be improved to better facilitate the achievement of the triple-bottom-line of sustainability in these projects. The findings can be used by practitioners to improve and better justify the implementation of offsite construction techniques and subsequently, further promoting the use of such techniques in the construction industry.

Includes supplementary material, Disaster relief operations, such as the 2005 Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, and wartime operations, such as Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, have identified the need for a standardized command and control system interoperable among Joint, Coalition, and Interagency entities. The Systems Engineering Analysis Cohort 9 (SEA-9) Rapid Response Command and Control (R2C2) integrated project team completed a systems engineering (SE) process to address the military’s command and control capability gap. During the process, the R2C2 team conducted mission analysis, generated requirements, developed and modeled architectures, and analyzed and compared current operational systems versus the team’s R2C2 system. The R2C2 system provided a reachback capability to the Regional Combatant Commander’s (RCC) headquarters, a local communications network for situational assessments, and Internet access for civilian counterparts participating in Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief operations. Because the team designed the R2C2 system to be modular, analysis concluded that the R2C2 system was the preferred method to provide the RCC with the required flexibility and scalability to deliver a rapidly deployable command and control capability to perform the range of military operations.

In this thesis, we present the design of a software defined radio (SDR) transceiver using Open Source Software Communications Architecture (SCA) Implementation::Embedded (OSSIE) as the software platform. Designing a SDR requires both an appreciation of the IEEE 802.11a (wireless Local Area Network at 5 GHz band) protocol standard as well as the understanding of the C++ and CORBA software tools available to implement the physical transmitter and receiver layers. For this work, the Incremental Development Model was chosen, which is comprised of three stages: Design, Develop and Verify. The advantage of this model is its incremental nature, which allows the developer to learn from earlier versions of the system. Implementing the IEEE 802.11a physical layer using OSSIE requires a total of 23 components, 12 different functionalities and 31 sequential input-output (I/O) processes for the transmitter, while the receiver is implemented with 18 components, 12 different functionalities and 20 sequential I/O processes. The completed transmitter and receiver layers are validated successfully according to test cases stipulated in the IEEE standard., The original document contains color images.

Disaster relief operations, such as the 2005 Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, and wartime operations, such as Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, have identified the need for a standardized command and control system interoperable among Joint, Coalition, and Interagency entities. The Systems Engineering Analysis Cohort 9 (SEA-9) Rapid Response Command and Control (R2C2) integrated project team completed a systems engineering (SE) process to address the military’s command and control capability gap. During the process, the R2C2 team conducted mission analysis, generated requirements, developed and modeled architectures, and analyzed and compared current operational systems versus the team’s R2C2 system. The R2C2 system provided a reachback capability to the Regional Combatant Commander’s (RCC) headquarters, a local communications network for situational assessments, and Internet access for civilian counterparts participating in Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief operations. Because the team designed the R2C2 system to be modular, analysis concluded that the R2C2 system was the preferred method to provide the RCC with the required flexibility and scalability to deliver a rapidly deployable command and control capability to perform the range of military operations.