title: An Examination of the Effects of Videophones on Driving and Conversation Performance

authors: Mackenzie, Kathryn Julie

subjects: cell phones

abstract: Research has conclusively shown that cell phones have a detrimental effect on driving performance. In an attempt to understand why, a handful of researchers have investigated the differences between cell phone and passenger conversations, with several of these studies revealing that the distraction caused by concurrent cell phone conversations noticeably outweighs that imposed by passenger conversations. One study suggested that the availability of visual cues during a passenger conversation may be an important factor contributing to this reduced level of distraction. The focus of this research project was to test whether providing drivers and remote conversers with access to visual cues via a videophone would result in improved driving performance when compared to a concurrent cell phone conversation. An initial experiment, in which 24 drivers encountered five hazards on a simulated road while conversing with a passenger, cell phone caller, videophone caller, or driving without conversation, resulted in driving behaviour that did not appear to be an accurate representation of real-world driving behaviour, which resulted in the early termination of this experiment. A second revised experiment, in which novice and practiced drivers drove a shortened version of the simulated road once under each of the aforementioned conversation conditions, produced more normal behaviour but failed to reveal any significant differences in driving or conversation performance as a result of concurrent videophone conversation compared to cell phone conversation. However, the results did reveal a number of other findings that may aid in understanding the distracting effects of cell phones, one of which was that remote conversations may result in an overestimation or underestimation of the correct driving response depending on the nature of the driving situation.

text: An Examination of the Effects of Videophones on Driving and Conversation Performance Research has conclusively shown that cell phones have a detrimental effect on driving performance. In an attempt to understand why, a handful of researchers have investigated the differences between cell phone and passenger conversations, with several of these studies revealing that the distraction caused by concurrent cell phone conversations noticeably outweighs that imposed by passenger conversations. One study suggested that the availability of visual cues during a passenger conversation may be an important factor contributing to this reduced level of distraction. The focus of this research project was to test whether providing drivers and remote conversers with access to visual cues via a videophone would result in improved driving performance when compared to a concurrent cell phone conversation. An initial experiment, in which 24 drivers encountered five hazards on a simulated road while conversing with a passenger, cell phone caller, videophone caller, or driving without conversation, resulted in driving behaviour that did not appear to be an accurate representation of real-world driving behaviour, which resulted in the early termination of this experiment. A second revised experiment, in which novice and practiced drivers drove a shortened version of the simulated road once under each of the aforementioned conversation conditions, produced more normal behaviour but failed to reveal any significant differences in driving or conversation performance as a result of concurrent videophone conversation compared to cell phone conversation. However, the results did reveal a number of other findings that may aid in understanding the distracting effects of cell phones, one of which was that remote conversations may result in an overestimation or underestimation of the correct driving response depending on the nature of the driving situation.

year: 2011

title: Spatial variation of the non-linear interactions between estuarine flooding drivers in Aotearoa New Zealand

authors: Langer Costa, Wagner Luiz

abstract: Coastal flooding is one of the main concerns worldwide associated with climate change.
Historically, coastal cities have regularly experienced hazardous flooding across the globe,
contributing to coastal population vulnerability. In Aotearoa New Zealand, an island nation,
the outlook of rising sea levels is especially concerning due to the number of people that live
in the coastal zone. Predicting extreme water levels is challenging and depends on properly
identifying the main physical processes. Swells, wind waves, storm surges, and astronomical
tides are transformed when propagating inside shallow coastal lagoons, bays and estuaries,
mainly because of their mutual interaction (e.g., phase alteration) but also because of the effects
of constrictions and friction imposed by the estuarine morphology (e.g., amplification and
asymmetry). Furthermore, the compound action of different drivers and extreme events in close
succession can exacerbate flooding. The understanding of non-linear interactions between
flooding drivers can substantially improve the power of prediction of flooding in coastal areas
with complex morphology such as estuaries. For that, proper bathymetry and topography data
are fundamental for assessing flooding risk, which can be challenging because some of the
current acquision methods are economically expensive or not applicable to remote and shallow
areas exposed during low tide. Satellite-derived bathymetry and topography are a recent
approach which are increasingly used to tackle this issue.
Although flooding drivers have already been identified and studied around the coast of
Aotearoa New Zealand, few studies have focused on their interaction inside estuaries. Similarly,
very little has been undertaken on the applicability of satellite-derived elevation data for
hydrodynamic modelling. This thesis regionally assesses the non-linear interactions between
storm surges, waves, astronomical tides and estuarine morphology and the suitability of
satellite-derived data to represent these complex interactions in hydrodynamic models.
The main findings are that tide-surge interactions are a major contributor to the water level
inside estuaries and cannot be neglected when simulating flooding events. Tide-surge
interactions can represent variations in the water level ranging from -16 cm (below mean sea
level) to +27 cm (above mean sea level). In addition, non-linear interactions induced by the
estuarine morphology — especially the coverage of the intertidal zone related to the total
surface area of the estuary — modulate the co-occurrence rate between events outside and
inside an estuary. It was found that co-occurrence rates can vary largely according to the estuary
(20–86%). Furthermore, storm-surge and wave interactions have shown strong potential for
compound and clustering effects in estuaries on the North Island, linked to severe south and
southwesterly winds generated by local weather patterns. Wave height and storm surges
corresponding to extreme water levels are significantly correlated, especially inside estuaries
in locations close to the estuarine entrance. Wind waves are more strongly correlated to storm
surges on the west coast while swell waves show a stronger correlation on the east coast of the
North Island. However, when wind and swell waves are combined (i.e., integrated wave
hindcast data) the correlation between wave heights and storm surges is stronger than when
analysed separately. Furthermore, independent and clustered extreme events of waves and
storm surges follow similar seasonality, can co-occur and can be composed of up to 12 extreme
events occurring within 15 days. Finally, based on existing techniques, a framework was
applied to obtain satellite-derived topo-bathymetric data. Although the applied method is
sensitive to several factors (e.g., the complexity of the relief, number of processed images,
bottom reflection), the derived topographic data showed good approximation to LiDAR data
validation — showing similar accuracy of ~20 cm, in an elevation range of approximately 2m.
The elevation estimates were used in hydrodynamic modelling to assess extreme water levels
in a complex estuarine system, considering non-linear interactions. Simulation scenarios using
only satellite-derived elevations could represent extreme water levels inside an estuary with
complex morphology with comparable accuracy of the scenarios using topo-bathymetric data
acquired using in-situ methods (< 0.1 m difference). The results show that satellite-derived data
can be a good replacement when data originating from traditional methods are scarce or
unavailable.
In conclusion, the thesis shows the regional patterns of non-linear interactions between
different flooding drivers around Aotearoa New Zealand, showing where and when these
interactions are important. Furthermore, it shows how satellite-derived techniques can improve
the power of predicting flooding in remote areas with data scarcity. These findings are crucial
for enhancing the prediction of flooding in morphologically complex areas such as estuaries,
where a great part of the coastal community and civil infrastructure are based and have major
social-economic importance. A better understanding of estuarine flooding would make coastal
adaptation policies more effective by making the current models more accurate.

text: Spatial variation of the non-linear interactions between estuarine flooding drivers in Aotearoa New Zealand Coastal flooding is one of the main concerns worldwide associated with climate change.
Historically, coastal cities have regularly experienced hazardous flooding across the globe,
contributing to coastal population vulnerability. In Aotearoa New Zealand, an island nation,
the outlook of rising sea levels is especially concerning due to the number of people that live
in the coastal zone. Predicting extreme water levels is challenging and depends on properly
identifying the main physical processes. Swells, wind waves, storm surges, and astronomical
tides are transformed when propagating inside shallow coastal lagoons, bays and estuaries,
mainly because of their mutual interaction (e.g., phase alteration) but also because of the effects
of constrictions and friction imposed by the estuarine morphology (e.g., amplification and
asymmetry). Furthermore, the compound action of different drivers and extreme events in close
succession can exacerbate flooding. The understanding of non-linear interactions between
flooding drivers can substantially improve the power of prediction of flooding in coastal areas
with complex morphology such as estuaries. For that, proper bathymetry and topography data
are fundamental for assessing flooding risk, which can be challenging because some of the
current acquision methods are economically expensive or not applicable to remote and shallow
areas exposed during low tide. Satellite-derived bathymetry and topography are a recent
approach which are increasingly used to tackle this issue.
Although flooding drivers have already been identified and studied around the coast of
Aotearoa New Zealand, few studies have focused on their interaction inside estuaries. Similarly,
very little has been undertaken on the applicability of satellite-derived elevation data for
hydrodynamic modelling. This thesis regionally assesses the non-linear interactions between
storm surges, waves, astronomical tides and estuarine morphology and the suitability of
satellite-derived data to represent these complex interactions in hydrodynamic models.
The main findings are that tide-surge interactions are a major contributor to the water level
inside estuaries and cannot be neglected when simulating flooding events. Tide-surge
interactions can represent variations in the water level ranging from -16 cm (below mean sea
level) to +27 cm (above mean sea level). In addition, non-linear interactions induced by the
estuarine morphology — especially the coverage of the intertidal zone related to the total
surface area of the estuary — modulate the co-occurrence rate between events outside and
inside an estuary. It was found that co-occurrence rates can vary largely according to the estuary
(20–86%). Furthermore, storm-surge and wave interactions have shown strong potential for
compound and clustering effects in estuaries on the North Island, linked to severe south and
southwesterly winds generated by local weather patterns. Wave height and storm surges
corresponding to extreme water levels are significantly correlated, especially inside estuaries
in locations close to the estuarine entrance. Wind waves are more strongly correlated to storm
surges on the west coast while swell waves show a stronger correlation on the east coast of the
North Island. However, when wind and swell waves are combined (i.e., integrated wave
hindcast data) the correlation between wave heights and storm surges is stronger than when
analysed separately. Furthermore, independent and clustered extreme events of waves and
storm surges follow similar seasonality, can co-occur and can be composed of up to 12 extreme
events occurring within 15 days. Finally, based on existing techniques, a framework was
applied to obtain satellite-derived topo-bathymetric data. Although the applied method is
sensitive to several factors (e.g., the complexity of the relief, number of processed images,
bottom reflection), the derived topographic data showed good approximation to LiDAR data
validation — showing similar accuracy of ~20 cm, in an elevation range of approximately 2m.
The elevation estimates were used in hydrodynamic modelling to assess extreme water levels
in a complex estuarine system, considering non-linear interactions. Simulation scenarios using
only satellite-derived elevations could represent extreme water levels inside an estuary with
complex morphology with comparable accuracy of the scenarios using topo-bathymetric data
acquired using in-situ methods (< 0.1 m difference). The results show that satellite-derived data
can be a good replacement when data originating from traditional methods are scarce or
unavailable.
In conclusion, the thesis shows the regional patterns of non-linear interactions between
different flooding drivers around Aotearoa New Zealand, showing where and when these
interactions are important. Furthermore, it shows how satellite-derived techniques can improve
the power of predicting flooding in remote areas with data scarcity. These findings are crucial
for enhancing the prediction of flooding in morphologically complex areas such as estuaries,
where a great part of the coastal community and civil infrastructure are based and have major
social-economic importance. A better understanding of estuarine flooding would make coastal
adaptation policies more effective by making the current models more accurate.

year: 2023

title: KAUMĀTUATANGA  Supporting School Leaders To Develop Cultural Values While Resisting The Dominance of Colonialism

authors: Nuri, Ngahuia

subjects: Kaumātua

abstract: In an education system that is asserting to the importance of Māori (indigenous people of Aotearoa) language, culture, identity and the history of Aotearoa  (New Zealand) into the curriculum, there is direction from the Ministry of Education (MOE) for schools to reach out to iwi. What this looks like and how this can be achieved is not an easy task. This thesis follows the journey of three kaumātua (respected, knowledgeable elders, both female and male) working alongside the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) of a decile 10 kura auraki (mainstream primary school) where ākonga Māori (Māori students) were in the minority. The research examines what role kaumātua might have in guiding other schools to help tamariki Māori (Māori children) enjoy and achieve education success as Māori. It highlights the coming together of leaders from two different worldviews with this vision as a common purpose. 

Kaumātua in te ao Māori (the Māori world) are respected elders. Kaumātua are leaders, respected for their wisdom, knowledge and models of behaviour among other attributes. The Māui narratives are one example of demonstrating the characteristics of kaumātua. It was through his respected elders that Maui achieved so much. It was his grandfather who rescued him and taught him all he knew. It was his grandmother Mahuika who gave him fire and it was his kuia (female elder) Murirangiwhenua from whom he received the magic jawbone. The wisdom of Māori kaumātua has been recognised for centuries by Māori and yet kaumātua are often an untapped resource in the mainstream sector of education. In this thesis the kaumātua and members of the SLT share their experiences of working together and the learning and unlearning that has taken place over a period of four years from 2016 through 2019. They share their vulnerability, humility and strength in the goals they have worked towards over this period of time.

text: KAUMĀTUATANGA  Supporting School Leaders To Develop Cultural Values While Resisting The Dominance of Colonialism In an education system that is asserting to the importance of Māori (indigenous people of Aotearoa) language, culture, identity and the history of Aotearoa  (New Zealand) into the curriculum, there is direction from the Ministry of Education (MOE) for schools to reach out to iwi. What this looks like and how this can be achieved is not an easy task. This thesis follows the journey of three kaumātua (respected, knowledgeable elders, both female and male) working alongside the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) of a decile 10 kura auraki (mainstream primary school) where ākonga Māori (Māori students) were in the minority. The research examines what role kaumātua might have in guiding other schools to help tamariki Māori (Māori children) enjoy and achieve education success as Māori. It highlights the coming together of leaders from two different worldviews with this vision as a common purpose. 

Kaumātua in te ao Māori (the Māori world) are respected elders. Kaumātua are leaders, respected for their wisdom, knowledge and models of behaviour among other attributes. The Māui narratives are one example of demonstrating the characteristics of kaumātua. It was through his respected elders that Maui achieved so much. It was his grandfather who rescued him and taught him all he knew. It was his grandmother Mahuika who gave him fire and it was his kuia (female elder) Murirangiwhenua from whom he received the magic jawbone. The wisdom of Māori kaumātua has been recognised for centuries by Māori and yet kaumātua are often an untapped resource in the mainstream sector of education. In this thesis the kaumātua and members of the SLT share their experiences of working together and the learning and unlearning that has taken place over a period of four years from 2016 through 2019. They share their vulnerability, humility and strength in the goals they have worked towards over this period of time.

year: 2024