Belfast City Council

The aim of this chapter is to provide an initial assessment of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on civil society and volunteering in Northern Ireland using new evidence. It discusses these findings in the light of the policy context and what is known about the profile of civil society and the extent and profile of volunteering. Based on survey data and interviews, the chapter outlines the challenges the pandemic has thrown up in the particular circumstances of Northern Ireland and speculates on future directions.

Fires in open large-floor plan spaces do not always reach a post-flashover fire state and recently, the “travelling fire” terminology has been used to define fires burning locally and moving across entire floor plates over a period of time [1]. Several studies have been presented about the behavior of a structure when it is subjected to this fire scenario [2-5]. Due to their limited number, fire tests are not enough to cover all possible configurations encountered in practice, but this limitation can potentially be overcome with help of CFD. In the frame of the European RFCS TRAFIR project, a simplified representation of the fire load was developed to calibrate an FDS model representing large scale travelling fire tests. The numerical and experimental results have been compared in terms of gas and steel temperatures (the radiative intensities and gas temperatures calculated by FDS have been used by SAFIR® to calculate the temperatures in a steel column). The approach provides acceptable representations of fire spread and steel temperatures within reasonable computational demands.

PurposeThe paper aims to quantitatively investigate vacant industrial land valuation accuracy in China, given the importance of the industrial market as an underlying pillar to promote urban growth especially in emerging economies.Design/methodology/approachIn China, the government formulates a Land Benchmark Price (LBP) to serve as a price reference point to sell land rights. To gain an in-depth understanding of the valuation practice by LBP, this paper uses correlation analysis to investigate the varying dynamics between the transaction-based prices and LBP appraisal-based estimates. Furthermore, a margin of error examination investigates the distortion in LBP land appraisals, with an amended LBP presented to improve the accuracy of the current LBP method.FindingsDifferent influencing factors are identified to impact the actual market transaction prices and the LBP construction, leading to a large discrepancy in industrial land appraisals. A systematic problem is recognised that the construction of the LBP follows urban bid curve theory, whereas the land transaction prices do not, demonstrating that an urgent LBP update is needed to capture the market dynamics for industrial market.Practical implicationsThe paper sets out discrepancies in valuation accuracy surrounding the application of the LBP valuation approach in China. This has practical implications for valuers in terms of raising their awareness of the deficiencies in the approach and the pitfalls they need to guard against in their appraisals. It also has implications for developers and investors who rely on valuer appraisals to assess the viability of land purchases; hence, they need to express caution in the appraisal advice sought. Finally, the results demonstrate to the standard setters how they need to modify the LBP equations to better capture market dynamics.Originality/valueThe paper examines valuation accuracy in transitional economies, through valuation differentials between appraised price and the transacted price. The value of the work lies in the analysis of the fundamental differentials between market price and appraised value, which is of importance to investors/developers, practicing valuers, as well as government officials responsible for setting the valuation standards.

Steel and concrete composite structures are commonly applied in multi-story buildings as they maximise the material strength through composite action. Despite the popularity of employing a trapezoidal deck slab, limited experimental data are available under elevated temperatures. The behaviour of the headed shear stud embedded in a transverse trapezoidal deck and solid slab was investigated at both ambient and fire conditions. Twelve push-out tests were conducted according to the ISO 834 standard fire utilising a customised electric furnace. A stud shearing failure was observed in the solid slab specimen, whereas the failure mode was changed from a concrete-dominated failure to the stud shearing in the transverse deck specimen with an increase in temperature. Comparisons between the experimental observations and design requirements are presented. The Eurocode design guidance on the transverse deck slab gives a highly conservative estimate for shear resistance. A new design formula was proposed to determine the capacity of the shear connection regardless of the slab type when the stud shearing occurs at high temperatures.

The delivery of social value is now an established requirement embedded in many public-sector construction projects. Understanding factors for success will aid both contractors and commissioners in implementing social-value requirements. The literature on social value in construction suggests factors that may positively or negatively affect the successful delivery of social value. This study takes a sequential mixed-methods approach to identify critical success factors using face-to-face semi-structured interviews with contractors and public-sector commissioners in Northern Ireland, UK, followed by a questionnaire survey of key factors identified from the interviews. Findings reveal five critical factors identified using factor analysis: organisational leadership, process and preparation, social and local awareness, effective support networks and industry-focused strategy. Contractors and commissioners can differ significantly in their perception of the importance of certain factors. A maturity matrix is developed for commissioners and contractors to benchmark their level of maturity in terms of delivery of social value. Contractors and commissioners can use the identified factors to develop optimal conditions for successful social-value delivery in construction projects in Northern Ireland.

Use of highly insulating polyisocyanurate (PIR) based insulation materials enhanced with eco-friendly lamellar inorganic fillers contributes to meeting energy performance requirements, environmental challenges and cost reduction without undue compromise of the overall building fire safety. This work aims to assess the fire behaviour of PIR foams enhanced with lamellar inorganic smart fillers, namely Layered Double Hydroxides (LDHs), Expandable Graphite (EG) and Ammonium Polyphosphate (APP). The morphology of the foam structure was firstly studied using Optical Microscopy and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope and subsequently the fire reaction properties and thermal stability of foam samples enhanced with different types of lamellar inorganic smart fillers were evaluated using cone calorimeter (CC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). TGA results indicated that thermal decomposition of the neat PIR samples occurs in two distinct stages associated with the degradation of the urethane-urea linkages of the hard segment, releasing low calorific capacity products and the degradation of polyol derived products with higher calorific capacity than those derived from isocyanate. The initial degradation temperature of PIR-layered filler samples decreases compared with neat PIR foam, indicating that incorporation of flame retardants decelerates the degradation of PIR foam and as a result decreases the thermal stability of PIR foam. The cone calorimeter data showed that the effects of LDH alone has limited effect on reducing the heat release rate (HRR) or smoke production rate (SPR) as it is only act in the solid phase. With the addition of EG or EG+APP, HRR is further decreased owing to the increased char strength as well as the release of non-combustible gases, and simultaneously effectively suppress smoke and gases during the combustion process.

This paper presents the performance analysis and retrofit assessment of a domestic high temperature air source heat pump coupled with thermal energy storage in terms of different system configurations. TRNSYS simulations were used to model the dynamic system, which has been validated against field trial results. The validated models were then simulated with different system configurations under the same boundary conditions to assess its performances. Simulated results showed that continuous coupling between the heat pump and storage to heat the house had the worst performance, while the operation of only the heat pump heating the house obtained the highest efficiency. Although the heat pump cannot compete with the gas boilers in terms of running costs, between 6.6% and 33% of carbon cut can be achieved if the heat pump was retrofitted.

This chapter explains how the security forces intervened decisively in social housing redevelopment practice. It discusses the tactical use of 'everyday' residential architecture for the purposes of improving security and reducing terrorist threat in ways that contribute to the city's architectural heritage. The chapter illustrates the material visibilities of the decisions taken by the Standing Committee on the Security Implications of Housing under the auspices of reducing terrorist threat in a number of social housing developments. The architecture that was created through these processes demonstrates how the security-threat-community persists as a contemporary phenomenon that enables historic conflict-era forces to remain latently active within the present-day post-conflict city. The security-threat-community is designated as a complicated socio-material problem to be explained through socio-material solutions. The events at the Twinbrook and Suffolk estates on the south-eastern fringe of Belfast would give further succour to the governmental bent towards non-disclosure.

J. Portugali refers to the concept of the self-organizing city as urban development that arises out of the spontaneous local interactions between stakeholders based on the initial conditions chosen/caused by the stakeholders themselves, without active and goal-oriented government intervention. This chapter analyses the extent to which institutional change towards and institutionalization of organic urban development have taken place, and what the underlying determinants are. Dutch cities have for a long time relied on a comprehensive, integrated approach to planning and real estate development, based on a public land development model. A growing attention to self-organization, spontaneous order, and organic area development is not limited to the Netherlands, but can be found across many developed countries. The local authorities in The Hague play an important role in organic urban development, sometimes by participating financially in land acquisition or by initiating cooperation among private actors.