CIB Symposium Sydney 2010
Experts, researchers, practitioners, regulators and delegates representing the water industry from all over the world, gathered in Sydney in the Terrace Room at the Novotel Hotel in Darling Harbour to present research and solutions to the problems of water, drainage and health.
The theme for this symposium, sponsored by Studor was Water Supply and Drainage for Building and some interesting topics were raised including sub-metering, biofilm prevention, terminal velocity of stack flows and much more.
Speakers from the United Kingdom, China, Japan and South America raised the issues of environmental considerations through topics such as hydraulics of water systems in and around buildings, health aspects related to water systems and durability.
The Symposium has a long history of important discussion. CIB is the acronym of the abbreviated French (former) name: “Conseil International du Bâtiment” (in English this is: International Council for Building). In the course of 1998, the abbreviation has been kept but the full name changed into:
INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION
CIB was established in 1953 as an Association whose objectives were to stimulate and facilitate international cooperation and information exchange between governmental research institutes in the building and construction sector, with an emphasis on those institutes engaged in technical fields of research.
CIB has since developed into a worldwide network of over 5,000 experts from about 500 member organisations with a research, university, industry or government background, who collectively are active in all aspects of research and innovation for building and construction.
The objectives of these ongoing symposiums are to provide a forum where participants will exchange information on:
• recent research results
• industrial developments
• the characteristics and performances of existing systems
• data for design
• Codes and Standards
One of the most important objectives is to gather a group of likeminded people together to share knowledge and broaden their research and testing horizons. In Sydney, Dr John Swaffield, Dr Lynn Jack, Dr David Kelly and Dr Michael Gormley from Herriot Watt University joined Professor Lucia Helena de Oliveira from the Department of Construction Engineering of Escola Politecnica and Professor Racine Prado of the of the Department of Civil Construction of the University of Sao Paulo, Walter van der Schee, a representative of the Netherlands Technical Association for Building Installations (TVVL), Emeritus Professor Saburo Murakawa and Professor Daisaku Nishina of Hiroshima University, Paul Angus, a Senior Public Health engineer with WSAP Group, Franz-Peter Schmickler of the University of Muenster in Germany, Dr L T Wong of the Department of Building Services Engineering at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Taiwanese Ph.D student Wan-Ju Liao , Belgium’s Karel de Cuyper and Australia’s Dr Steven Cummings, research and development manager, Caroma Dorf among many others.
As you can see there was an excellent cross-section of speakers, from a range of industries and countries.
Professor Mete Demiriz of Fachhochshule University of Applied Sciences in the Department Building Services and Environmental Technologies is the head of research and development lab of plumbing technologies says there are several benefits to an event such as the CIB.
“I enjoy the friendships of my colleagues. We learn from each other and we can help each other by questioning the research. It’s a great way to brainstorm.”
Dr John Swaffield has been to each of the symposiums since 1975. He believes these industry events bridge the gap between the researchers, manufacturers and plumbers. However, while the symposium provides a link, the technical nature of the presentations makes it a knowledge sharing exercise between likeminded investigators.
“This is the only place where you can come along with any semblance of high level analysis about what a system is doing,” John says. “If you go to something like the ASPE conferences, they are generally not interested in high level technical presentations. That’s not to take anything away from the importance of the ASPE events, they just have a different agenda.
“Traditionally, at these CIB events the Japanese have always had high math content and I think that’s important for us because there isn’t another forum where you can discuss issues in this way.”
Dr Michael Gormley reiterates the point. “It’s important to be in contact with people who are working in areas that are quite close to what we do and these areas have a very technical element. What we have is a basic understanding of each other – whether the work is done in New Delhi or America, you gain a better understanding of the research being done, just by being at these events.”
“The international dimension is very important,” says Dr Lynn Jack. “We go back and look at what has been presented and see whether it applies to our own research.”
According to John, the research is self-selecting.
“We have four main themes we’ve looked at over 25 years. There’s obviously been the air theme, then there’s transportation of solids and dray drains, an interest in siphonic rainwater systems and water conservation.”
The focus can depend on where the money comes from and research into these areas can be expensive.
“Finding money is a huge problem. When you think how much money we needed to get ourselves established – a research assistant now costs £100,000 a year and we had 10 years of research assistants just in the field of air research – that’s a million pounds that bought us the capability we now have. Anyone starting today is going to need the equivalent of that just to begin. It’s like buying a football team. This research doesn’t just happen and it doesn’t happen as a sideshow of the mechanical engineering department.”
However, as Michael points out the connection with industry is important because it helps members of CIB and other researchers raise money. The only problem is that each needs to be aware of the other’s agenda.
John tells the story of being contracted to provide research into creating a 6L toilet for the UK market as early as 1982.
“We received £30,000 pounds to design a 6L WC after the big drought in 1975-’76. We had a three year contract to produced this system. Everything worked fine and this was 10 years before the US went to 6L. So if they had gone with it, the UK manufacturers would have cleaned up. I remember distinctly the meeting where we were told: ‘Terribly sorry, we have to tell you the truth now, we didn’t want you to succeed because we wanted to be able to go back to the government and say the 6L model didn’t work.’ They wanted us to fail, so that government wouldn’t enforce regulation and make them change their moulds. They embargoed everything we did. It shows that although we are very keen to save water, industry has its own agenda and its objectives may not be similar or even any good.”
Eighteen years later in 2000 when the regulations were finally changed, the issues remained as manufacturers believed that changing systems would be a barrier to trade.
“We had a meeting with the minister for environment and five Labor MPs. All the manufacturers filed into the minister’s office because they were afraid jobs would be lost. They believed in protectionism rather than innovation, but if they had innovated in the early ’80s, they wouldn’t have needed the protectionism.”
The point is that researchers and other industry groups should work together to create the best outcomes. Even if agendas are different, common ground should be sought that benefits all parties.
That’s why events such as the CIB symposiums are so important. Not only does it allow knowledge to be shared that can be used to bring industry groups together, according to Lynn, “it gives you a feel for what the processes are like in other countries and reminds you of what your own priorities are. It indicates what is going on and the differences in research and it allows collaboration.”
John refers to the event as a recharging of relationships. He also says it is important because it reflects changing social attitudes.
“If you look back over the years you can see where the emphasis on our work lies. We looked at air and now we are coming back to look at rainfall. So, it seems if you look at all the papers from Herriot Watt over 25 years you will see the shift in focus. Generally speaking this shift reflects what is of the most interest and importance at the time. In the near future climate change is going to be really important. I saw a statistic recently that 20% of the world’s population has 70% of the water – that’s going to be a huge issue for somebody to research one of these days.”
As such, at next year’s event in Portugal we may see some CIB members discussing the effects of climate change on the building landscape. No matter what they discuss, it is likely that each topic will be properly debated and that each representative will take some extra knowledge home with them.
To see all the presentations click on the following link. CIB