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5 Ways to Save Energy with Smart Street Lighting Controls

By Emma Rusiti posted 2 days ago
This article explores how trimming of excess street lighting, the use of constant light output settings, optimised switching, off-peak dimming and adaptive lighting strategies can turn LED upgrades into an ongoing energy-saving asset. Australian councils have spent much of the past decade converting mercury vapour, high-pressure sodium and various types of fluorescent street lights to LED, and the results have been dramatic. Depending on the ...
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Project Spotlight: Local Area Traffic Management & Safety Improvement Project

By YIPWEA Blogs posted 8 days ago
Project Overview  Mullum-Mullum Road Ringwood | Ringwood, Victoria   From January 2026 to May 2026, Maroondah City Council undertook a road and pedestrian safety improvement project on Mullum Mullum Road, an area experiencing speeding concerns, pedestrian safety issues and congestion.   The project aimed to reduce vehicle speeds, improve pedestrian safety and accessibility, provide bus stop enhancements, clarify parking and traffic ...
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Technical Fleet Knowledge Is No Longer Enough

By Emma Rusiti posted 14 days ago
There was a time when being a good fleet practitioner was largely defined by technical knowledge. You needed to understand vehicles and plant, maintenance, replacement cycles, utilisation, procurement and operating costs. Those skills remain fundamental. But the environment in which fleets operate has changed considerably. Today, the fleet practitioner may be expected to advise the organisation on emissions reduction, electric vehicles, charging ...
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Fleet Practitioners Need to Influence Without Authority

By Emma Rusiti posted 14 days ago
One of the unusual characteristics of fleet management is the amount of responsibility fleet practitioners can carry without necessarily having direct authority over the people who determine fleet outcomes. A fleet practitioner may be responsible for vehicle safety but not manage the drivers. They may be responsible for fleet emissions but have limited control over operational vehicle requirements. They may manage heavy vehicle compliance ...
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Smart Cities, Big Returns: How Local Government Can Do More with Less

By YIPWEA Blogs posted 21 days ago
Local governments face a familiar challenge of needing to balance tight budgets and rate pressures, with rising community expectations for reliable infrastructure and rapid service delivery. In response, forward-thinking councils are turning to smart city technologies to optimise public assets, streamline maintenance, and improve resource allocation.   At its core, a "smart city" is not about futuristic gimmicks or technology for its own sake. ...
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Why an Asset Information Management Strategy Matters

By Emma Rusiti posted 21 days ago
For organisations responsible for large building portfolios, condition assessments are a familiar part of the asset management cycle. Every few years, surveyors inspect facilities, assign condition grades, estimate renewal costs and produce a capital works programme. The result may be comprehensive, but it is also a snapshot. As assets deteriorate, components are replaced and projects are completed, the information can begin to lose relevance within ...
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Solving One of Infrastructure’s Oldest Planning Challenges

By Emma Rusiti posted 21 days ago
Every infrastructure project begins with information. Yet one of the industry’s most critical datasets – utility information – has traditionally been fragmented across multiple asset owners, formats and systems.   For engineers, designers and project managers, this can mean time-consuming plan retrieval, design uncertainty and avoidable project risks before work has even begun. It’s a long-standing challenge that affects planning, design and ...
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Seoul Clarifies 3D Planning with New Rules

By Emma Rusiti posted 21 days ago
The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) has established and implemented a set of standards for the three-dimensional use of space in a move designed to enable more flexible urban planning.  The Standards for the Three-Dimensional Designation of Urban Planning Facilities aim to enable more efficient use of limited urban land and expand transportation infrastructure. Under the new standards, land that  has been  difficult to develop due to planned ...
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New York Looks at Harnessing Subway Heat

By Emma Rusiti posted 21 days ago
A feasibility study in New York will examine the viability of combating extreme heat on the city’s subway stations and recycling the excess heat to warm municipal buildings during the winter. US$800,000 has been allocated to the project, which is a partnership between New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, state governor Kathy Hochul and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). The study will examine how r adiant cooling technology ...
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Smart Cities, Big Returns: How Local Government Can Do More with Less

By Emma Rusiti posted 22 days ago
Local governments face a familiar challenge of needing to balance tight budgets and rate pressures, with rising community expectations for reliable infrastructure and rapid service delivery. In response, forward-thinking councils are turning to smart city technologies to optimise public assets, streamline maintenance, and improve resource allocation. At its core, a "smart city" is not about futuristic gimmicks or technology for its own sake. ...
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New Zealand's Water Infrastructure Reckoning Has Arrived

By Emma Rusiti posted 22 days ago
By Steve Mooney The latest Network Environmental Performance reporting from the Water Services Authority – Taumata Arowai should remove any lingering doubt about the scale of New Zealand's water infrastructure challenge. The emerging picture is one of aging assets, deferred maintenance, wastewater networks under pressure, and significant gaps in understanding the condition of critical infrastructure. For those working in infrastructure and ...
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Financing Financial Sustainability in Local Government

By Emma Rusiti posted 22 days ago
In the 2025 financial year South Australia’s Local Government Finance Authority (LGFA) announced an improved after-tax equivalent profit of $6.9 million, but according to Davin Lambert that only tells part of the story.   Lambert, who has been Chief Executive of the LGFA for the last six years, says that in addition to its status as a profit-making organisation, the LGFA’s was created for the benefit of councils and prescribed local government ...
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Are We Building Livable Cities?

By Emma Rusiti posted 22 days ago
For a hundred years, we have judged our cities by their toughness: counting kilometres of road, tonnes of concrete, bridge spans and tunnel bores. These figures dominate asset registers and budget papers, and they do have their place. Yet perhaps we have been tallying the wrong things, or at least missing what truly makes a city thrive.   The Danish-based urbanist David Sim, whom I had the pleasure of listening to in Finland at the International ...
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From Earthquake Inspiration to Community Impact with Shraddha Dhungel

By YIPWEA Blogs posted 13-08-2026
Finding Purpose Through Tragedy Shraddha's path to engineering began with one of Nepal's most devastating natural disasters. "We had a big earthquake back in 2015," she recalls. "We just saw buildings left, right and centre just destroyed. But then there was like a beautiful thing that came out of it - all the community got together, and you could see how it was basically the engineers, architects, and planners, working together to build the ...
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Where Does Fleet Fit Within a Council's Organisation Structure?

By Emma Rusiti posted 10-08-2026
Fleet practitioners often ask where fleet should sit within a council organisation structure. Should it report through Infrastructure, Assets, Operations, Finance, Procurement or Corporate Services?   The answer from the IPWEA Fleet community is not a single box on an organisation chart. Councils structure fleet in different ways, but the strongest common theme is that fleet should be managed as a strategic enabling asset that supports the ...
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Proving Service Delivery: From "We Think" to "We Know"

By Emma Rusiti posted 10-08-2026
Across local government, expectations have shifted. It is no longer enough to say a service has been completed. Councils are increasingly expected to demonstrate what was delivered, where it occurred, and to what standard. From community enquiries through to executive reporting and integrated planning and reporting, the question is becoming less about activity and more about evidence.   Geosecure works alongside fleet professionals nationally ...
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Project Spotlight: The Hurst Street Wombat Crossing

By YIPWEA Blogs posted 04-08-2026
Project Overview  Hurst Street Wombat Crossing | Hurst Street, Tasmania   This project involved the design and construction of a wombat crossing (a raised zebra crossing) on Hurst Street, connecting a childcare centre on the northern side of the road with a primary school and bus stop on the southern side.   The crossing was initiated following concerns raised by the childcare centre, whose staff regularly escort young children (including ...
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UK’s New NISTA Authority Wants More Intervention

By Bhavani Koganti posted 28-07-2026
The first major report from the UK’s new National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority, (NISTA), has rated the majority of projects at either ‘green’ or ‘amber,’ showing that delivery is either likely or feasible. NISTA, which marked its first year of operation in April, analysed the Government Major Project Projects Portfolio (GMPP) between April 2025 and the end of March 2026. The authority was created to eliminate delays ...
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Chicago Upgrades Cooling at City Parks

By Bhavani Koganti posted 28-07-2026
The City of Chicago is investing US$1 million to upgrade cooling infrastructure at 42 neighbourhood parks, targeting communities identified as the most vulnerable to extreme heat through a data-driven mapping tool. Announced by Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Chicago Park District, the first phase of the program will deliver air conditioning improvements and other cooling enhancements at park facilities across the city. “For too long, communities ...
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Investing in the People Behind Our Infrastructure

By Bhavani Koganti posted 28-07-2026
By Steve Mooney In my work with infrastructure asset management professionals across New Zealand, I see every day how much communities depend on the assets around them. Roads, water networks, public buildings, parks, and community facilities are easy to take for granted until something fails or service levels drop. That is why long term infrastructure planning matters. It is not just about new projects; it is about looking after what we already ...
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