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(2006)ThesisThe Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (East Timor) attained independence on 20 May 2002, marking its separation from Indonesia. As a newly independent country, East Timor is faced with a number of significant international opportunities, together with some obligations that it must fulfil, including the delimitation of its international boundaries. Equally, for Indonesia, with 10 maritime neighbours, the delimitation of maritime boundaries is a significant challenge. This research aims to provide a preliminary study on the delimitation of the Indonesia - East Timor maritime boundary, with a focus on technical aspects. Geospatial data has been obtained from the Indonesian government and processed with the assistance of a specialised Geographic Information Systems (GIS) application: CARIS LOTS™. The main tasks of this research are to simulate the maritime claims of Indonesia and East Timor, to identify overlapping claims and to delimit the maritime boundaries between the two states. Technically, potential delimitation lines were calculated in a geodetically robust manner. A literature review has been conducted with regard to the principles of maritime boundary delimitation, research on similar cases of maritime boundaries and papers discussing the decision/judgement in some other proceedings regarding maritime boundary delimitation. Existing research and literature are used to support the arguments provided in this current research. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea 1982, LOSC, provides the main legal reference point, along with relevant state practices and jurisprudence. As to the results of this research, it has been identified that three major locations for maritime boundaries are to be delimited. These are in the Ombai Strait, the Wetar Strait and in the Timor Sea. A number of alternative potential boundary alignments have also been examined and analysed for the three locations, in the context of future maritime boundary negotiations between the two States. However, the results are not the final boundaries that Indonesia and East Timor have to accept. Ultimately it is for the governments of Indonesia and East Timor to decide on and negotiate towards an equitable solution that will satisfy both parties. However, it is hoped that this study will contribute to achieving that goal.
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(2006)ThesisKnowledge of the stress-strain relationship of the compacted soils in tension is of importance for understanding of cracking that occurs in earth structures, in particular embankment dams and landfill barriers. Understanding the correlation between tensile properties and traditional soil parameters and soil suction is essential in identifying problems associated with desiccation induced cracking. A series of extensive laboratory experiments were performed on three different soils from existing embankment dams. This thesis concentrated on the investigation of tensile strength in relation to the type of soil, compaction water content, compaction density ratio, rate of loading, soil suction, moisture retention characteristics and the effect of drying and wetting. Stress-strain behaviour and tensile properties indicated a dependence on soil type and compaction criteria. The plasticity index, clay content and type of mineral has shown a significant influence on tensile strength. Compaction dry of optimum resulted in an increase in strength. Compaction wet of optimum showed a decrease in strength and small increase in strain at failure. Higher compaction effort resulted in higher tensile strength, tensile stiffness and brittle stress-strain behaviour. Difference in loading rate revealed response time for initial tensile deformation as well as sustainable duration up to failure point. The effect of soil suction plays an important role in drying during which specimens exhibited a considerable strength increase. The magnitude of strength increase may have been contributed by a combination of suction, air entry value and compaction density. The effect of wetting could cause decreasing in suction and thus a reduction in strength. Based on the findings, it was concluded that the desiccation-induced may not necessarily occur due to an associated increase in tensile strength. However, an increase in tensile strength is likely to be accompanied by an increase in shrinkage. Therefore, desiccation-induced cracking is related to the interaction between moisture loss, change in soil suction, tensile stress and shrinkage.
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(2006)ThesisIn Australia, the measurement of safety performance in the construction industry has mostly been in response to statutory requirements. Consequently, the measures and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) used by the industry have invariably focused on outcomes rather than processes. Most of the outcome indicators have tended to give their feedback well after the event therefore failing to identify any weaknesses within the safety management processes. In order to overcome these limitations, two hospital construction projects in New South Wales were selected for an in-depth study and research analysis. The aim of the research was to understand the relationship between management process intervention and management process outcomes for safety in the construction industry. Initially a literature review identifying international practices in performance measurement for safety in construction was conducted so as to review existing safety management processes in partnership with the construction industry representatives. A framework for measuring the performance of safety management processes and related outcomes was developed to stimulate improvement on both projects through the comparison of the performance of the safety management systems and outcomes. This framework was then implemented and established to monitor the performance of the key safety management processes. The successful implementation of the performance measurement framework and the feedback to both stakeholders and subcontractors acted as a good communication tool in creating awareness among subcontractors. It also helped to reduce repetitive hazards, resulting in improved safety outcomes. A statistical analysis found that relatively few injuries were explained by the identified safety hazards. This highlighted the need to look for hazards that were specifically relate to injury occurrence. The research findings identified a method for improving the existing hazard identification process. It is anticipated that such improvements can help to better correlate hazard management processes with the project outcomes for safety in future projects.
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(2006)ThesisThe maintenance of the world’s important cultural monuments is a complex task embracing many disciplines. One important aspect of individual management plans is the stability of the monument. Borobudur, in Central Java, uncovered in a state of dilapidation in the early nineteenth century and finally restored in the second half of the twentieth century was restored using internal beams and injection technology with the view of providing a stable foundation for the foreseeable future. In the past, classical surveying separated the vertical and horizontal components. This separation often resulted in different stations having different information. Moreover, one technique was not generally able to add constraints to the other. Today's surveyors and Cultural Heritage managers use the Global Positioning System which is able to provide precise and reliable information for both the horizontal and vertical components, thereby unifying the networks and maximizing individual strengths, especially the underground marks associated with precise leveling, which are significantly less prone to local erratic movement than surface marks. Of necessity, any measurement of change involves at least two observation epochs. In general the precision is tied to the number of epochs and the span between the epochs. Since this study has had only two observation epochs, the results can only be described as preliminary or indicative. Never the less, there are a number of clear trends that are apparent. The first important point is that GPS is able to deliver precisions that are near 1 mm in the horizontal and 2-3 mm in the vertical relative to a regional fiducial control network. This is comparable to terrestrial surveying techniques. Moreover, it is accomplished in 10 to 14 days compared to many weeks for leveling. The second is that the level of redundancy and spatial coherence is very high enabling errors and outliers to be readily detected. This was used extensively as part of the quality assurance program adopted in this study. The third point is that no alarming deformation of the temple has been detected. At this stage of the study, the 95% confidence levels are quite large due mainly to only 2 epochs being observed but also in part to the way the models, especially the GLOBK model, has been implemented due to the limited number of epochs and the limited time span. It is expected that the model of tectonic motion which connects one epoch to the next will improve dramatically with a third epoch, and this will significantly improve the precision of the observation stations on the temple at the stupa level and on the buttress level. However, there is already clear evidence that some of the buttress level stations are in an unstable environment compared with stupa level stations and this is primarily due to their location. Finally, GPS offers the prospect of fast and hence repeatable work. Kinematic GPS techniques can certainly be used to densify stations and to increase our knowledge of the structural effects of deformation. However, much needs to be done to ensure that satellite tracking is of high quality and able to successfully resolve the ambiguities on an epoch by epoch basis.
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(2006)ThesisLandslides are severe environmental hazards in mountainous areas. Nowadays, the threat of landslides to public safety has become more pronounced resulting from the burgeoning development and the increase of deforestation in hilly areas, and the increase of regional precipitation caused by global climate change. Traditional landslide risk assessment requires immense physical power to assemble different in-situ data, such as identification of landslide location and land-cover classification. This traditional data collection technique is very time consuming, and thus impossible to be applied for the large scale assessment. Remote sensing techniques, therefore, are the solutions for providing fast and up-to-date landslide assessments. This thesis focuses on the applications of multispectral Landsat data for landslide recognition. Wollongong of Australia was chosen as a test bed for this analysis. For landslide recognition analysis, three change detection techniques were employed, which were image differencing, bi-temporal linear data transformation and post-classification comparison. For the first two change detection methods, a new landslide identification procedure was developed by integrating surface change information of greenness, brightness and wetness. During the image differencing, the three surface change components were derived from Vegetation Indices (VIs), in which four different surface change composites were generated. Each composite contained three surface change bands which were greenness, brightness and wetness. For bi-temporal linear data transformation, multitemporal Kauth-Thomas (MKT) transformation was adopted for providing the three types of surface change information. In the landslide recognition analysis, the best mapping performance is yielded by the image differencing method using brightness and wetness components of Kauth-Thomas transformation and NDVI. Its omission error (i.e. percentage of actual landslide pixels which were not detected) and commission error (i.e. percentage of change pixels identified which were not landslide) are 14.4% and 3.3%, respectively, with a strong agreement (KHAT = 88.8%).
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(2006)ThesisThis thesis presents the nonlinear in-plane behaviour of circular fixed arches subjected to thermal loading only. Due to the nonlinear prebuckling behaviour of arches and its effects, classical buckling theory which is founded on geometric prebuckling linearity can not predict the in-plane buckling of arches accurately. Based on a nonlinear formulation of the strain and displacement relationship and considering constant thermal distributions only, virtual work formulations are used to establish the differential equations of in-plane equilibrium and the statical boundary conditions, from which the nonlinear equilibrium equations are derived in closed form and which are suitable to use in design. By considering the adjacent buckled configurations, the differential buckling equilibrium equations are formulated from the principle of virtual work as well, and the analytical solutions for the nonlinear buckling of fixed arches are obtained. It is shown that nonlinear elastic buckling of a fixed in the plane of it curvature can not occur when it is subjected to thermal loading only, except if the arch is as a straight column. By using the algebraic representation of nonlinear in-plane equilibrium derived in this thesis, the elastic response of fixed arches at elevated temperatures and the attainment of first yield are examined in detail. The arch deflects transversely without bound in the elastic range at elevated temperatures, whereas it will yield first at the top extreme fibre of the cross section at the supports when a critical temperature is reached. The influence of several parameters such as the included angle is also considered. Based on the models of stress distributions at cross sections, the spread of yield both through the cross section and along the length of the arch is studied. It is indicated that the progress of yielding causes the first two hinges to form at the supports of the fixed arches, and then moment redistribution leads to the generation of the third hinge at the crown with an increase of temperature. Thus nonlinear plastic hinge analysis can be applied to the arch analysis under thermal loading.