Real-Time Data Portal for U.N. Sustainable Development Goals ~ Key To Effective Implementation !

2020-07-23:  Time is fast running out.  You have to ask yourself: “Do I feel lucky ?  Am I a GreenWasher – do I enjoy playing with numbers, relaxing with estimates having tenuous links to reality, cheating the ‘system’ (just like Germany’s Dieselgate), or convincing myself (and everybody else) that progress is being made when the evidence clearly shows that things are getting worse … “or an Implementor ??” – establishing meaningful Benchmarks, setting (and iteratively re-setting) ambitious Performance Targets using reliable, up-to-date data and statistics, then closely monitoring Positive Progress, and reporting Real Verifiable Results …

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Are you a GreenWasher … or an Implementor ????

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In 2015 … 193 World Leaders, representing all of the United Nations’ Member States, adopted a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) … placing our world, i.e. its people, environment and limited resources, on a path towards a more sustainable future … more specifically, aiming to ‘free humanity from poverty, secure a healthy planet for future generations, and build peaceful, inclusive societies as a foundation for ensuring lives of dignity for all’.

To properly track the implementation of these consensus goals … reliable, quality, and timely data is vital.  Yet, five years later too much of the data is still out-of-date or unavailable, and too many people are being left behind in the numbers.  Half of the data used to measure the SDG Target Performance Indicators are missing.  Two-thirds of poverty data from Sub-Saharan Africa and global deforestation figures are five years out-of-date.  Only 100 countries in the world have nationally-representative data on violence against women, and more than 25 million refugees around the world go uncounted in national statistics.

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Colour image showing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (#SDG’s) unanimously adopted in U.N. Resolution A/RES/70/1: Transforming Our World – 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, by the United Nations General Assembly on 25 September 2015.  Click image to enlarge.

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With only 10 years left to achieve the SDG Targets, there is a critical need NOW for a Data Platform which makes quality and timely data for the SDG’s Accessible to All, improves knowledge of geospatial tools and Geographic Information Systems (#GIS), and builds capacity to use these tools to support global policy and decision making …

SDG’s Today: Global Portal for Real-Time Data

In partnership with the Environmental Systems Research Institute (#ESRI) and National Geographic … SDG’s Today: Global Portal for Real-Time Data … is a platform developed by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (#SDSN).  This one-of-a-kind open access data platform has the potential to revolutionize how we understand and communicate the urgency of the SDG’s and how solutions are developed, by providing a much-needed virtual space where key stakeholders from around the world can access and engage with timely data (updated annually or in more frequent intervals) on the SDG’s, and learn how to use the data effectively to push Agenda 2030 forward.  The platform also houses GIS training and education resources and supports countries and other institutions to produce, share, and engage with the data to help ensure that, together, we meet the global goals by 2030.

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Using Data To Effectively Implement The UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development …

2020 Research Paper: Towards Nexus-Based Governance – Defining Interactions Between Economic Activities and Sustainable Development Goals   (Download PDF File, 2.56 MB)

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Using Data To Check The Status of Claimed Progress Within The European Union …

European Court of Auditors – Special Report 11 – April 2020

EU Energy Efficiency in Buildings: Greater Focus on Cost-Effectiveness Still Needed   (Download PDF File, 4.52 MB)

The Court of Auditors assessed whether EU co-funded energy efficiency investments in buildings had cost-effectively helped the EU towards meeting its 2020 energy saving target.  The Auditors concluded that operational programmes and project selection were not driven by a cost-effectiveness rationale.  While Member States required buildings to be renovated to save a minimum of energy and improve their energy rating, this sometimes happened at a high cost.  Because of a lack of comparative assessment of project merits and of minimum/maximum thresholds for cost-effectiveness, projects delivering higher energy savings or other benefits at lower cost were not prioritised.  In overly-polite language, they recommend improving the planning, selection and monitoring of investments to improve the cost-effectiveness of spending.

With all of the Hot Air and Ridiculous Hoopla about improving Energy Conservation and Efficiency in New Buildings (Green, BREEAM, PassivHaus, LEED, nZEB, etc., etc.) … by far the biggest Energy Problem is with Europe’s Existing Building Stock.  This Auditor’s Report shows that Progress in Meeting Agreed EU Targets is dismal, and there is still a cynical approach in Member States to the use of EU Funding …

Coloured Image / Graph showing distance by the EU-27 to Agreed 2020 and 2030 Targets for primary energy consumption.  Click image to enlarge.

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Coloured Image / Pie Chart showing final energy consumption by EU Sector for 2017.  Click image to enlarge.

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Coloured Image / Graph showing how EU Funds were used merely to substitute national funding in Ireland’s Better Energy Warmer Homes Scheme.  Consequently, there was no scale-up in Energy Efficiency Projects.  Click image to enlarge.

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Coloured Image / Graph showing 2018 Actual Achievements and 2023 Targets for the number of EU Households with an improved energy consumption classification.  Progress is worse than dismal !  Click image to enlarge.

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Coloured Image / Graph showing 2018 Actual Achievements and 2023 Targets for the number of EU Public Buildings with decreased primary energy consumption.  Progress is abysmal !  Click image to enlarge.

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#Twitter … @walshcj69 …

#Sustainability #SustainableDevelopmentGoals #SDG’s #SDGimplementation #SDGtargets #SDGperformanceIndicators #HumanRights #ResponsibleNeeds #RealTimeData #EffectiveImplementation #Governance #GreenWashing #Implementor #EU #EnergyEfficiency #EUcourtOfAuditors

SDI’s 2020 Unified Terminology – Concepts, Terms & Definitions

Update 2020-09-01:  Although the term ‘Vulnerable People’ remains unaltered, I considered it wise, and very necessary bearing in mind the obvious myopia in the mainstream health, safety and design worlds … clearly demonstrated by the 2017 Grenfell Tower Fire in England, and this current CoronaVirus / CoVID-19 Global Pandemic … to include references to specific social groups …

Vulnerable People:  Those people – in a community, society or culture – who are most at risk of being physically, psychologically or sociologically wounded, hurt, damaged, injured, or killed … and include, for example, people with disabilities, young children, people with health conditions, frail older people, women in late pregnancy, refugees, migrants, prisoners, the poor, and homeless.

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2020-07-20:  So many diverse design disciplines and interested groups are involved in the realization, operation and maintenance of a Safe, Inclusive, Resilient and Sustainable Human Environment (built, social, economic, virtual, and institutional) … that the use of simple, easily assimilated language and precise, harmonized technical terminology must be widely exercised.  For the effective application of Building Information Modelling (BIM), this is particularly important.

And concerning Fire Engineering, it is not clear when the practice began, but defining a concept simply in terms of performance in a ‘standard test fire’ is entirely inadequate, and fails to explain the actual meaning of the concept.

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SDI’s 2020 Unified Terminology – Concepts, Terms & Definitions   (Download PDF File, 156 Kb)

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This Terminology … a body of particular terms, each explaining and defining a single concept, covering inter-related building requirements, e.g. human health, accessibility and fire safety for all, firefighting, social rights, design, performance monitoring, and facility management … takes account of:

  1. Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA)
  2. WHO International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF)
  3. Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)
  4. U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD)
  5. Environmental Impact.

Fire Engineering Terms … take account of the ‘realistic’ end condition, i.e. a real fire in a real building which is occupied or used by real people with varying behaviour and abilities in relation to self-protection, independent evacuation to an external place of safety remote from a fire building, and active participation in a building’s Fire Emergency Management Plan.

General Terms … are also included in order to facilitate a better understanding of:

  • the complexity of human behaviour and perception (visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile and proprioceptive) ;
  • the wide range of health conditions ;   and, more specifically
  • mental, cognitive and psychological impairments.

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#Sustainability #Terminology #FireEngineering #FireSafety4ALL #PwAL #PeopleWithActivityLimitations #HumanRights #Concepts #UDHR #unCRPD #Terms #Design #Buildings #Construction #Accessibility4ALL #ParticipationBarrier #Definitions #Firefighters #2017GrenfellTowerFire #Resilience #LifeCycle #whoICF #SIA #2001WTCattacks #HumanPerception #Panic #FireCompartmentation #PlaceOfSafety #Environmental Impact

2015 Dublin Declaration on ‘Fire Safety for All’ in Buildings – A Call to Action and Successful Implementation !

2020-07-15 …

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2015 Dublin Declaration on ‘Fire Safety for All’ in BuildingsA Call to Action and Successful Implementation !   (Download PDF File, 106 Kb)

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Within the professional discipline of Fire Engineering … either a building is Fire Safe, or it is not ;  the design philosophy of the Fire Engineer is irrelevant.  Similarly, building designers must now begin to think and act in the simple terms of a building being either Accessible, or not.  Too many pointless discussions, and too much petty squabbling, about constrained and constraining accessibility philosophies have wasted valuable time, energy and resources.

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Colour photograph showing a typical, everyday scene in countries all over the world … a young person in a manual wheelchair, independently attempting to mount an external flight of steps in front of a building entrance.
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Reality Check: A Universal, Dismally Inaccessible Built Environment !
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Click image to enlarge.

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Building Accessibility encompasses the complete cycle of Independent Use, in a dignified manner and on an equal basis with others … and includes the approach, entry and use of a building, its facilities and information systems … Egress during normal / ambient conditions and removal from the vicinity of the building … and most importantly, safe Evacuation during a fire emergency to a Place of Safety which is remote from the building and reached by way of an accessible route.

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Colour image illustrating the difference between Equality and Equity.  Everybody is equal, and must be treated equally … but the measures necessary to achieve this in real life must, in many cases, be equitable.
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Human Ability and Behaviour is a continuum … a gentle gradient on which every person functions and acts at different levels due to Environmental and Personal Factors.
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Click image to enlarge.

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To be Accessible, a building must meet a long and complex list of inter-related Accessibility & Usability Design Criteria sufficiently well, i.e. the building must work properly for building occupants and users.  The design target is Effective Accessibility … not half-baked accessibility, partial accessibility, the minimal accessibility required by building codes, or token accessibility.

On the other hand, and taking additional account of the current CoronaVirus / CoVID-19 Pandemic … the construction and operation target must be Successful Implementation, i.e. the finished building design, as constructed and operated, must provide a consistently high degree of safety, convenience and comfort for potential occupants and users during the lifetime of the building.

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Colour photograph showing the post-fire scene of a devastated Lift Lobby with an abandoned Manual Wheelchair.  25 people died and 123 were injured in a Jazan Hospital Fire, Saudi Arabia, which occurred on 24 December 2015.  The fire broke out in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit and Maternity Ward.  Click photograph to enlarge.

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People with Activity Limitations … those people, of all ages, who are unable to perform, independently and without assistance, basic human activities or tasks – because of a health condition or physical / mental / cognitive / psychological impairment of a permanent or temporary nature … are a significant vulnerable group in every community, in every society, and include people with disabilities, children under the age of 5 years, frail older people, women in the later stages of pregnancy, and people with health conditions, etc.

Fire Safety Codes and Standards for healthy, able-bodied, agile adults using buildings exist in almost every country ;  these people can take for granted that buildings are fire safe for them !

However, guidelines concerning Fire Safety for People with Activity Limitations / Fire Safety for ALL (if those guidelines exist at all) are usually technically inadequate, entirely tokenistic and/or blatantly discriminatory ;  these people must assume that there is a serious risk to their safety every time they enter a building.  For them, this is a very significant barrier to their personal development, participation and social inclusion ;  it is a clear and present violation of their human rights !

Forcefully mandated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted on 13 December 2006 … the UN CRPD’s Principal Aim is to ensure that the Human Environment (social, built, economic, virtual, and institutional) is sufficiently accessible to facilitate the safe exercise and enjoyment of those rights, protections and freedoms set down in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and subsequent International Rights Instruments, by a vulnerable and major section of the population in all of our communities.

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Colour photograph showing the scene of a raging fire in London, on 14 June 2017.  72 people died and many more were injured in this 24 Storey, 120 Apartment Residential Building.  Vulnerable People, including people with activity limitations, refugees, and immigrants with a poor grasp of the English language lived at various heights throughout the Tower.
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A serious design flaw in this building (among many, many others), i.e. a lack of Effective Accessibility … only one narrow, atrociously detailed staircase serving the entire building, lifts/elevators which were useless in a fire emergency, and no areas of rescue assistance adjoining the staircase … had a profoundly negative impact on Firefighter Operations and Safety on the night of 14 June and the following day.
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Click photograph to enlarge.

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It is time to Entirely Eradicate current obsolete, professionally negligent, incompetent and ridiculous approaches to Building Design which result in …

Fire Safety for SOME but not for ALL

Accessibility for SOME but not for ALL

Intricately inter-related … ‘Fire Safety for All’ is a vital component of ‘Accessibility for All’.

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Colour image / Presentation overhead showing how building designers face a critical choice in everyday practice … Legal or Ethical … Beyond Codes ?!?!?
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Legal Compliance is Never Enough.
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Click image to enlarge.

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Fire Safety for All – Nobody Left Behind !

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#Twitter … @firesafety4all …

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