“Is that a brain probe?” asked some curious teenagers.
“It looks like a Mars rover,” commented another.
“Could you tell me what the weather might be tomorrow?” asked others.
These were just some of the remarks made by fascinated Brisbane residents who recently met “RUMI-01,” an affectionately named microclimate data-collection device designed and built by UQ researcher Helen Caswell.
Ms Caswell, an HDR candidate in the UQ School of Architecture, Design and Planning, created RUMI-01 to assist with her higher-degree research into health and well-being outcomes of residents living in high-rise precincts. Her study looks at the impact of building density and separation in high-rise areas, asking what “breathing space” is needed to ensure residents’ homes and neighbourhoods are supportive of positive health.
Ms Caswell’s research is focusing on five case study precincts in Brisbane: Bowen Hills, Hamilton, Kangaroo Point, South Brisbane and Woolloongabba. The idea for the robot-like device came about after Ms Caswell’s supervisors, Dr Sara Alidoust and Professor Jonathan Corcoran, encouraged her to think about quantitative research methods.
While qualitative research through surveys and interviews gives a depth of understanding around how residents perceive and experience their living environment, Ms Caswell says a robust evidence base for the study is achieved by obtaining comparable temperature and humidity data. The data is collected with RUMI-01 across a range of outdoor locations that can compared with simultaneously collected indoor data from 18 apartments in the case study precincts.
“The challenge was to find equipment with tight HDR funding limits. This is where connections have been made with other schools and fields of research. It was a real interdisciplinary effort, with great interschool cooperation,” Ms Caswell says.
“My trolley is not the Mars Rover, but some people thought it looked a bit like space equipment. It is designed to do the same thing, stop and sample, but just with me pulling it!”
The name “RUMI-01” is an acronym for Roving Urban Microclimate Investigator. The device uniquely combines several sensors to enable the simultaneous collection of microclimate data relating to factors that influence thermal comfort, including air temperature, globe temperature, wet bulb temperature, wind speed and wind direction. Surface temperature is also collected using a handheld device.
To create RUMI-01, Ms Caswell borrowed equipment from the School of the Environment and School of Civil Engineering, and utilised research funding from the School of Architecture Design and Planning to get the equipment calibrated and ready for use. Technicians from the Advanced Engineering lab helped to provide a solid base, and Ms Caswell worked to build the frame and make RUMI-01 robust enough to travel over rough terrain if required. She designed the device so that it could be taken apart to fit in the back of a station wagon and remain light enough to lift and pull.
The two main pieces of equipment, a heat stress monitor and wind anemometer with its associated battery and data logger, are secured in a trolley, which allows it to be transported to outdoor settings.
Using a stop-start method, the trolley is positioned in six individual locations within each precinct over a one to 1.5-hour period. At each position, the equipment is then turned on and data is collected over a ten-minute period. Data is logged in the memory of each piece of equipment and is later downloaded back in the office.
Dr Alidoust, Lecturer in Planning at the School of Architecture, Design and Planning, says Helen's research is a compelling demonstration of interdisciplinary research, exploring the intersection of urban design, planning and human health.
“Her innovative mixed-method research design informs planning practices and enhances decision-making processes, resulting in solutions for high-density, high-rise urban areas that prioritise the health and wellbeing of their residents,” she says.
Ms Caswell says most field research she has seen in Australia uses 2D wind measurement – meaning it only measures in a flat plane and does not capture downdraft from above.
“The use of a 3D anemometer (which measures all directions) in an urban context is novel and as far as I know it is a first in Australia,” she says.
“Just as we manage land at the ground level to support and deliver amenity, we need to recognise that in the vertical city, air space provides important amenity benefits in terms of daylighting, ventilation and visual relief. Thinking in 3D is critical in high-rise precincts unless we wish to repeat the mistakes of the past or other places.”
Professor Corcoran, Deputy Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Science, says obtaining robust and complete empirical data spanning the experienced and actual physical environments of residential living in high-rise precincts is highly complex.
“Helen’s research embraces this complexity with an elegantly bespoke interdisciplinary approach that will capture the requisite information to directly inform practical planning solutions to an urgent global issue,” he says.
In 2021, Census data recorded more than 512,000 people as living in a flat or apartment in a nine or more-storey block in Australia. This was the first time the Census separately recorded people living in a high-rise building with more than nine storeys.
Ms Caswell is seeking to identify patterns and correlations in her data to better understand the impact of high-rise building density and separation on resident health and well-being. She is analysing both the physical environment and actual outcomes for residents in terms of thermal and visual comfort and is also looking at past and current high-rise urban forms and overseas approaches. She hopes her work will help to improve planning for high-density high-rise precincts.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has brought into sharp focus the importance of our immediate living environments and the potential negative health and wellbeing consequences of living in compact high-rise settings. But how compact is too compact in the vertical city?” she asks.
“Good planning and design matters. We need to plan and design new high-rise precincts to support the long-term health and wellbeing of residents.”
Additional data will be collected over winter, with data analysis and results to be finalised later in the year.
