VOLUME 01 | ISSUE 01 | JULY
ICEA
HISTORY OF GLOBAL PANDEMIC
JULY 2020
CONTENTS VOLUME 01 ISSUE 01 Inside this issue: FROM THE EDITOR
4
EDITORIAL BOARD
5
MESSAGES
6
Post COVID New World Workplace Health & the Complexities due to COVID-19
13
A Piece of Perspective During the COVID-19 24 Pandemic Can Energy Engineering be a Hope for the Post COVID-19?
25
COVID-19 Pandemic: A Blessing for
26
Environment Global Collaboration on COVID-19
28
Congratulation Graduate Engineer
30
Power Cable Monitoring & Maintenance: Minimizing Risk & Exposure to COVID-19
31
IOT for ALL
34
Application of LiDAR Technology
36
16 History of Global Pandemic and Post COVID-19 Situation Management Role of Engineers
Living Amongst the COVID-19 Pandemic
18 21
Health Concern for Post COVID Patients
for Forest Mapping and Management Bushfires in Australia
39
Fire Safety
40
Business Continuity Plan (BCP) for Bangladesh Power Sector Against the Adverse Impact of COVID-19
44
Through the Eyes of a Teenage Dreamer
46
Sweatshops Workers in Post COVID-19
48
Experience from Arresting Methane Emission from Natural Gas of Distribution System
50
27 40
News
52
Jamilur Reza Chowdhury-The Comet of Bangladesh Engineering
56
Lockdown Photo Gallery
58
www.iceaus.org
22
26
23
Nurturing Innovation in Engineering Project
28
34
Coronavirus Situation in Victoria
62 42
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EDITORIAL
FROM THE EDITOR Innovate ICEA INNOVATE ICEA is published by the INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL FOR ENGINEERS, AUSTRALIA INC. Melbourne, VIC 3030, Australia ABN 72 434 624 543 ISSN 2652-6956 (Online) www.iceaus.org info@iceaus.org @info.icea CHIEF EDITOR: NUSRAT ISLAM nusrat@iceaus.org ADVISORY EDITOR: Khondkar A Saleque OVERSEAS EDITOR: Mollah M Amzad Hossain CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: Narottam Das EXECUTIVE EDITOR Mehedi Hasan R & A EDITOR Suchana Barua & Avik Sarker ASSISTANT EDITOR Bindu Arshia & Ziaun Nahar DIGITAL EDITOR: Samsul Karim, Masudur Rahman & Parves Raksand Kamal Disclaimer: ICEA, Editors and ICEA Committee Members are not responsible for any of the Contributor's Opinions, Statements, Information, Photographs and Writings. ICEA did not verify for accuracy any of the writer’s submission in this publication. ICEA, Editors, ICEA Committee Members and the Writers, Photographers and all who are involved in this publication are not responsible in any way for the actions or results taken by any person, organisation or any party on basis of reading the information of this publication, as this magazine does not contain professional or legal advice or services. ICEA retains copyright for this publication. Written permission is required for the reproduction of any of its content.
Living Cleanly, Living Responsibly, Treating Nature Kindly Welcome to INNOVATE ICEA Magazine! INNOVATE ICEA is a publication of International Council For Engineers, Australia (ICEA). As I am writing this message on July 2020, coronavirus (COVID-19) has caused 646,641 deaths and 16,114,449 contaminations in many countries across the world. Australia has suffered 161 deaths and 14,935 contaminations. Australia is also experiencing the second wave of coronavirus from the end of June 2020. This edition is dedicated for COVID-19 which will give readers more inside into this pandemic. Living cleanly maintaining hygiene, living responsibly maintaining social/ physical distancing and treating mother nature kindly are the key lessons learned from coronavirus (COVID-19). Spreading faster than fairies and witches across all continents, health pandemic COVID-19 has avalanched the medical care systems beyond their capacities. The speed and ferocity of the COVID-19 contamination spread have caught the developed and developing economy alike. Poor and rich, old and young, male and female, none has been spared. Situation and circumstances differ from country to country, nation to nation in terms of climate, cultural heritage, demography, health care system and political stability. Many countries have to let lives and living proceeding simultaneously. Prolonged lockdowns would trigger economic meltdown for them. COVID-19 has already almost liquidated many top businesses. Many leading corporations are downsizing and restructuring. Many people are losing jobs. COVID-19 has already triggered poverty across many nations. No-one knows yet how long COVID-19 would continue its avalanche and when an approved and accepted vaccine will be available. Even no specific medicine has been approved yet. The keys are using a specific facemasks, PPEs, sanitizing hands too often, maintaining social distance and following the guidelines imposed by the Government. We hope good senses will prevail and world leaders will appreciate that nature is the only supreme sovereign authority to rule the universe. Nusrat Islam (Borsha) Nusrat Chief Editor and President, ICEA I acknowledge the Traditional Aboriginal Owners of Country throughout Victoria and pay my respect to Elders past, present and emerging and to the ongoing living culture of Aboriginal people.
Connect with ICEA Inc.
Cover page Photo from Pixabay
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EDITORIAL BOARD Engr. Nusrat Islam is a Civil Engineer with over 12 years of experience in the industry, holding the qualification Bachelor and Master’s in Civil Engineering and Graduate Certificate for Professional Engineer. Since 2008 she has been working in different Victorian State Government Departments including VicRoads and Department of Transport. She is the Regional Advisory Council Member - Victorian Multicultural Commission (VMC), working on to reach out to Victorians across the state to find out what issues VMC needs to focus on to shape policy, legislation and to improve government and community services. She carries strong experience in community leadership and organization effectiveness. She was the first female President of Victorian Bangladeshi Community Foundation (VBCF) in 12 years. Nusrat owns a business and a director of a company, both are based in Australia. She is one of the founders of ICEA and also founder of a women’s group “Warrior Women”. Engr. Khondkar Abdus Saleque, FIEB, Peng is a Bangladeshi Australian has over 43 years hands on experience in planning, managing implementation, operation of energy, power and mining infrastructure in South Asia, South East Asia, Central Asia and Australia. He was former Director (Operation) Gas Transmission Company Limited, Petrobangla, Bangladesh. He also served as Advisor for Ministry of Mines and Petroleum Afghanistan. He is Contributing Editor of Energy& Power Magazine (www.ep-bd.com) and Chief Advisor of International Council of Engineers Australia. He represented Bangladesh in many regional and International Energy Conferences. He also played soccer and cricket at the highest level. He also acts as sports writer and analyst. Dr Narottam Das received PhD in Electrical Engineering from Yamagata University, Japan; M.Sc. Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh; B.Sc. Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology, Chittagong, Bangladesh. Dr. Das has about 3-decades experience as an academic and Industrial Engineer in Australia and overseas. Currently, he is working as a Senior Lecturer in Electrical Engineering at CQ University, Australia, Melbourne Campus, Victoria. Dr. Das is the author/co-author of over 150 peer-reviewed journals and international conference proceedings, including 8 book chapters and 4 edited books; Nano-structured Solar Cells, Advances in Optical Communication, Optical Communication, and Optical Communication Systems. Currently, he is a Guest Editor of MDPI Journal “Energies” Special Issue on “Nano-structured Solar Cells”. Dr. Das is a senior member of the IEEE PES and PHS, USA; Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Australia; CPEng, NER, and Life Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh. Engr. Mehedi Hasan, MIEAust, is an Electrical and Electronics Engineer and renewable energy consultant, having over 14 years of hands on experience in planning, designing, and construction supervision of many local and international projects. He completed his B.Sc. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Khulna University of Engineering & Technology. He is an accredited grid-connected PV Designer of the Clean Energy Council. He is the owner of the “Generation Next Engineering”. He was former project coordinator and electrical engineer of SMEC Pty. Ltd and Project Manager of GRES Pty Ltd. He is one of the founders and the General Secretary of International Council For Engineers, Australia.
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MESSAGE
Kaushaliya Vaghela MP Kaushaliya Vaghela MP is the State Member of Parliament for the Western Metropolitan Region in Victoria. The Western Metropolitan Region comprises of the eleven Legislative Assembly districts of Altona, Essendon, Footscray, Kororoit, Niddrie, St Albans, Sunbury, Sydenham, Tarneit, Werribee and Williamstown. Kaushaliya has vast community experience, commitment and devotion for the Western Metropolitan Region and wishes to build a stronger community in the West for all.
Kaushaliya has had the privilege of working with many outstanding people and organisations throughout her career. Before being elected as a Member of Parliament, Kaushaliya was a Risk and Compliance Manager and prior to that as a scientist she has worked in a research and diagnostic laboratory. At every opportunity, Kaushaliya has advocated to bring better education, infrastructure and healthcare to the Western Metropolitan Region. In her inaugural speech in Parliament, Kaushaliya has stated that the Labor Party’s core values of compassion, justice, equality and progressive policies resonate with her and it is in accordance with these Labor values that she intends to represent not only the Western Metro Region, but of course, all of Victoria. Kaushaliya's office is open to anyone who needs her support. Message I congratulate International Council For Engineers, Australia for publishing their first edition, Engineering Magazine “Innovate” which is dedicated for COVID-19. The magazine will be a great resource for the community. I thank the International Council For Engineers, Australia for taking a proactive approach during this difficult pandemic period.
Kaushaliya Vaghela MP Member of Legislative Council for Western Metropolitan Region Suite 3, 1-13 Watton Street, Werribee, Victoria, 3030 - Australia Phone: (03) 8742 3226 Email: kaushaliya.vaghela@parliament.vic.gov.au Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KaushaliyaVaghelaMP/ Website: http://www.kaushaliyavaghela.com.au
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MESSAGE
Sarah Connolly MP Ms. Sarah Connolly MP is a member of the Victorian Parliament representing the District of Tarneit in Melbourne’s outer western suburbs. The District of Tarneit includes the suburbs of North Laverton, Tarneit, Truganina, Williams Landing, parts of Hoppers Crossing, and Mount Cottrell. Ms. Connolly started off her career in the criminal justice system as a Judge’s Associate before spending over a decade working across Australia in the area of policy and regulation in the energy sector. She knows from this experience the importance of long-term infrastructure planning, and the negative effect poor planning can have families and the wider community. Ms. Connolly is a proud member of the Transport Workers Union and a passionate advocate for workers' rights. She is currently a Board Member of VicHealth and holds positions on the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee and Economy and Infrastructure Committee. Message: I wish the International Council For Engineers the very best as their first magazine edition is published. I’m sure ‘Innovate’ will be a fantastic forum for the sharing of knowledge and ideas as visions for the future take shape.
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MESSAGE
JOSH GILLIGAN MAYOR WYNDHAM CITY COUNCIL Chaffey Ward Councillor, Josh Gilligan, was elected to Council in 2016. Cr Josh Gilligan was elected Mayor for the 2019/20 term. He is Council’s Learning City Portfolio Holder, which covers community education, training youth participation and educational advocacy’s Gilligan is a serving board member of the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) representing six councils in Melbourne’s West; Wyndham Community Grants Program Evaluation Panel; and the Wyndham Youth Council. Cr Gilligan is also Council's delegated representative on the following internal and external advisory committees: • •
Municipal Emergency Management Planning Committee Roadsafe Westgate Community Road Safety Committee
MESSAGE: Best wishes to the International Council For Engineers, Australia on their first edition of the ‘Innovate’ magazine – a publication dedicated to exploring the impacts of COVID-19. This first edition will be a great resource for debate and discussion within the Wyndham community.
Josh Gilligan | Mayor & Chaffey Ward Councillor | Mayor’s Office, 45 Princes Hwy, Werribee VIC 3030
t: 0429 078 039 | Josh.Gilligan@wyndham.vic.gov.au |
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@joshuagi
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MESSAGE
Muhammed Aziz Khan Chairman, Summit Group Mr. Muhammed Aziz Khan is the founder of Summit Group, the largest infrastructure conglomerate in Bangladesh with investments in the power and energy sector, ports, shipping, hospitality and IT. The publicly listed companies founded by Mr. Khan are Summit Power Limited (SPL), Summit Alliance Ports Limited (SAPL) and Khulna Power Company Limited (KPCL) with a combined market capitalization of about Tk. 100 billion. Mr. Khan and his family are among 50 most richest people in Singapore according to Forbes. In 2018, Mitsubishi Corporation invested in Summit LNG Terminal Co Limited by acquiring a 25% share. Recently, Summit signed a MoU with JERA Asia in presence of Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during the state visit for developing a large energy infrastructure in Matarbari. Mr. Khan is also the Honorary Consul General of Finland in Bangladesh, a member of the Singapore Institute of Directors, World Federation of Consuls (FICAC) and Bangladesh Institute of Capital Market. In addition, he is also the Chairman of Siraj Khaleda Trust, former President of the Bangladesh Association of Publicly Listed Companies (BAPLC) and founder President of Bangladesh Scouts Foundation.
Mr. Khan graduated with a Masters of Business Administration from the prestigious Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka, and a Bachelor of Arts from Jagannath College, Dhaka. He is married to Ms. Anjuman Aziz Khan and has three daughters, Ayesha, Adeeba and Azeeza and four grandchildren.
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“Congratulations, I sincerely applaud the printing and e format of this much needed publication “Innovate”. Thank you for this.
Innovation and engineering have become and in my view been the foundation of evolving civilizations. Innovation such as artificial intelligence, internet of things, bitcoin, Google, Facebook has created a new civilization. Your good magazine will certainly encourage all of us to be more innovative, more digital and our young and old alike to learn about and on computers. We are at the doorstep of a sea change with COVID resetting the world order, priorities and economy. I am sure your new magazine will guide us to be the change makers in this new world. Thank you and congratulations once again.
(Muhammed Aziz Khan)
Chairman, Summit Group
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MESSAGE
We have noted with deep appreciation that International Council of Engineers, Australia (ICEA) has organized many live teleconferences connecting with technical resources across all continents. We also congratulate you for your dedication to your first issue to COVID-19 and its Impact management. IEB would collaborate with ICEA in all aspects for further developing engineering knowledge and skills through sharing experiences.
I would like to extend my thanks and appreciation to the “International Council for Engineers, Australia (ICEA)” and its team for your effort to publish an international standard Magazine “Innovate”. I appreciate the concept of ICEA to share global innovative ideas to make it a reality. Engineers are without borders, their works are for the whole world. Engineers are good at planning. By sharing knowledge, around the globe, engineers can build a better world.
After COVID-19 pandemic, The Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB) arranged telemedicine services to the engineers by the Doctors. Most of the Doctors are family members of the engineers. Telemedicine service is still continuing. We are glad to inform you that in this COVID-19 situation IEB is also helping needy people with financial support.
We also thank you very much for your weekly live International teleconference where many reputed experts attend from different countries and share their knowledge to overcome the COVID 19 situation which attracts the global viewers. I am optimistic that “the innovate” magazine will attract global readers. Especially Engineers will be benefited from this first fascinating issue which I found very special.
"International Council for Engineers, Australia (ICEA)" a registered organization in Australia, is going to publish an International Standard Magazine "Innovate" which will focus on COVID management and so many innovative ideas. I wish the initiative of ICEA for publishing an International Standard Magazine a grand success.
After COVID-19 pandemic, The Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB) arranged telemedicine services to the engineers by the Doctors. Most of the Doctors are family members of the engineers. Telemedicine service is still continuing. We are glad to inform you that in this COVID-19 situation IEB is also helping needy people with financial support. IEB would collaborate with ICEA in all aspects of further developing engineering knowledge and skill through sharing experience. Wishing ICEA and its FIRST Magazine every success.
Engr. Md. Abdus Sabur President The Institution of Engineers, Bangladesh (IEB)
Engr. Khandker Manjur Morshed Honorary General Secretary
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International Council for Engineers, Australia (ICEA) Inc. is a not for profit organization for Engineers who are currently living and working in Australia. The aim of the organization is to share knowledge around the globe and to achieve sustainable engineering solutions. Our slogan is "A better world through an engineering approach" and the mission is to address complex societal and technical challenges by enabling, promoting and advancing engineering and technical approaches. The organization's goals are focused on the creation and dissemination of engineering information, promoting international collaboration and the profession of engineering.
One of the primary objectives of ICEA is to get connected with various practicing professionals so that we share and experience erudition, consciousness, enlightens as well as all sorts of educational measures in this pandemic era. The vision of ICEA is to assist the government policymakers of different countries in short, medium, and long-term planning for intercepting, confronting, absorbing, managing all-encompassing impacts of COVID-19 pandemic and other calamities. ICEA recognizes that world order would completely change in post COVID-19. World is going to depend more on technology in the coming days. Hence the introduction of state-of-the-art modern technologies like Robotics, Drone, Artificial Intelligence, Data Bank, Blockchain, Nano Technology, Cyber Security, Smart Grid, Smart Technology is going to be essential by the look of it.
The ICEA's vision is to acquire knowledge about all those automation and mechanization from relevant experts of various countries. The knowledge and experience will be disseminated through ICEA publication. ICEA will also organize periodic workshops, seminars, and training programs for intending professionals from power, gas, mining, IT, road, rail and infrastructure development companies/individuals.
Image from Pixabay
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Josh Gilligan, Mayor, Wyndham City Council, Australia Engr. Shafiqur Rahman Bhuiyan, Honorary Consul of Bangladesh in Newzeland
Dr. Sezan Mahmud, Florida, USA Dr. Mohammad Ali MANIK, USA Engr. SK Amzad Hossain, New York, USA
Saber Hossain Chowdhury, MP, Former Minister, Bangladesh
Dr. Trishna Mahmud, Florida, USA and
Muhammad Aziz Khan, Chairman, Summit Group
Dr. Firoz Alam, Professor RMIT, Australia
Dr. Ahsan H. Mansur, Chairman, BRAC Bank, Bangladesh Dr. M. Tamim, Pro VC, BRAC University, Bangladesh Engr. Abdus Sabur, President, IEB Engr. Khandker Manjur Morshed, HGS, IEB Engr. Mohammed Hossain, Director General, Power cell, Bangladesh Engr. Mozammel Babu, Editor-in-chief, Ekattor TV Quazi Enayetullah, President, World Bangladesh Organisation Dr Kaium Uz-Zaman Mollah, CEO, GREENTECH Engineering Solution Dr Kabir Patoary, Technical Director-Structures & Bridge, GHD
Dr Sumaiya Islam Shoma, USA Dr. Nawshad Haque, Sr. Scientist, CSIRO, Australia Dr. Ahmed Sharif, Family Physician, Australia Sahinur Alom Jony, Director, Ericson, Ireland, Ireland
Najmoon Noor, Aviation Specialist, USA Ehtesham Kabir, Former Teacher at KUET, Asset EngineerCity of Kingston Engr. Zikrul Hassan, Superintendent Engineer, RHD, Bangladesh
Syed Haq, Family Physician, Canada Forhad Tito, Journalist, Canada Dr. Shuddha Rafique, Sr. Lecturer, Deaken University Hafizuddin Ahmed, Former Minister, Bangladesh Zahangir Alom, CEO, Bridging West, Australia Dr. Forhad Ali Khan, Vice President, WBO
Ghulam Mohammed Alomgir, Chairman, MAX Group
Rana Taslim Uddin, Vice President, WBO
Dr. Abdullah Al Mamoon, NER APEC Engineer, Ministry of Qatar
M. Wali Rahman, Founder Chairman, Human for Humanity Foundation
Dr. Maung Kyaw Sein, Professor, Information Technology, Norway Dr. Quamrul Alam, Prof CQU Melbourne, Australia Dr. Nafis Ahmed, Former Deputy Dean, New Castle University Engr. Abu Reza Khan, Managing Director, Summit Assets Limited Golam Kibria Talukdar, Software Engineer, Molrganstanley, Canada
Dr. Abul Hasnat Milton, Public Health Specialist, Australia
Asma Jahan Huque, Managing Director, PSL
Dr. Md. Niatuzzaman, Civil Surgeon, Comilla, Bangladesh Roquibul Islam, Former Captain, Bangladesh Cricket Aminul Islam Bulbul, Manager, Cricket Development (Asia) , ICC Mohammad Ashraful, Former Captain, Bangladesh Cricket Team (Resource persons are those people who attended in ICEA’s TECH TALK live sessions during April till June and also whom attended in the initial meeting organized by ICEA, to discuss about COVID-19 pandemic)
Dr. Ruhin Karim, SC. MD. MRCGP, LMSS, CCFP AAFP. UK 12 / innovate July 2020
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Post COVID-19 New World Khondkar A. Saleque (OPEC) and Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC) countries. Developing and underdeveloped countries may be the worst sufferers as the health system must have been almost completely crippled. The economic recession of GCC countries has already caused huge job cuts of expatriate countries mostly from developing communities. If pandemic continues for a while huge food shortage, even famine can not be ruled out. Consequently, all these may lead to a change of government, toppling down of empires. However, among all these, significantly reduced uses of fossil fuels for depleted demand has a visible positive impact on the t is now a revealing reality that have to live with COVID-19 environment. The air is cleaner, the the world will never be the same unfortunately. Economic recovery water is free of contamination, birds again after COVID-19 global and pandemic management will are making merry, flowers are pandemic is contained and proceed side by side. Human growing better, wild animals and overcome. International Monetary behaviour, day to day activities aquatics are enjoying. World leaders Fund (IMF) and International Energy would change in the new world. The would now better realise why all Agency (IEA) and other international overarching all-round impacts of must now work together to realise COVID-19 health pandemics on agencies in their forecasts have less than 2 degree C (if possible, less indicated major changes in the world the Economy, Energy, Trade and than 1.5 degree C) global warming Commerce, Civil Aviation & order in post COVID. by the end of the millennium to save Tourism, Education and Skill In the severity of avalanche, this mother earth for irreversible COVID-19 has already surpassed all Development, Science and damage. other health pandemics over the past Technology is indicating that The lessons learned from world order will completely change 100 years after the Spanish flu. Many COVID-19 must encourage world when the pandemic is over. have started considering its telling leaders in working together for a The nature and character of the decarbonized economy. impacts as similar to what happened as a consequence of the second world coronavirus are not yet accurately Investing more on research diagnosed, no vaccine has been war. COVID-19 has spread over 213 and development of renewable countries across all continents except approved, no direct medicine has energy, contributing more to the Antarctica with lightning speed and also been approved universally. Green Climate Fund (GCF) for Some countries applying a wellis still rocking. The balance of assisting developing countries in researched model and strict economic powers may shift, many reducing emissions. reigning world leaders may have to quarantining and lockdown have Qatar’s real GDP is projected successfully tide over, many quit, some major international to slip to -4.3 percent in 2020, companies may be liquidated, many countries including leading Oman’s is projected to fall to -2.8 economies of the world are still developing countries may become percent compared to 0.5 percent poor again. No one can predict when grappling with the avalanche of the last year. Kuwait is relatively better this pandemic will be contained and pandemic. Grounding of airlines, off in terms of growth outlook in severe restrictions on the road, overcome but surely the combined the GCC with a projected growth of railway, riverine transportation have -1.1 percent compared to 0.7 endeavours of different countries adversely impacted on economy would lead to the discovery of percent in 2019. threatening major global recession. vaccine and agreed decision of the The oil market crash is indicating the right medicine for combatting negative growth of the Organization COVID-19 would be achieved. Till such time world community will of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
I
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Photo by Kazi Golam Saarwar Shameem
IMF Forecast of Economic Recession International Monetary Fund (IFF) in its recent World Economic Outlook report has forecasted negative growth of the GCC countries in 2020.The forecast is for a -3.0% growth in 2020.This is much worse than what happened during the global financial crisis in 2009. Countries in the Middle East and Central Asia may experience -2.8% growth. The oil-exporting countries may experience -3.9 percent negative growth. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia may experience -2.3 percent, while the economy of non-oil exporting countries may shrink by 4 percent. UAE economy may experience slip by -3.5 percent. IMF Report Forecast Rebounding in 2021 The IMF has reasons for believing that with countries resuming their economic activities would create increased demand in energy. The economy of the oil exporting GCC countries is forecasted re-bouncing strongly in 2021. IEA forecast states of 4.6 per cent overall growth in GCC countries. Economy in UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are projected to grow at 3.3, 2.9 and 3.4 respectively. The economy of Qatar 14 / innovate July 2020
will grow at 5 percent and Oman at 3 percent. Impacts on Developed Economies Growth in the advanced economy like EU Countries and North America is adversely affected by major damage done to the health care systems. For deployment of containment measures like locking down of the business, the economic growth is projected at –6.1 percent in 2020. Most economies are forecasted to contract, including the US (–5.9 percent), Japan (–5.2 percent), the UK (–6.5 percent), Germany (–7.0 percent), France (–7.2 percent), Italy (–9.1 percent), and Spain (–8.0 percent). Many large multinational companies would require restructuring, downsizing the operation and curtailing new investments. Impacts on Emerging Economies Overall, the group of emerging market and developing economies is projected to contract by 1 percent in 2020, excluding China. The growth rate for the group is expected to be –2.2 percent. Most countries would suffer, as their export trade with Western European and North American countries would shrink. The negative growth in GCC countries and other middle east countries would cause huge loss of
jobs of unskilled and semiskilled labour community of developing economies. The remittance of these workers send to developing countries would be significantly reduced. COVID-19 Impacts on Energy COVID-19 dealt a severe blow to the global energy system. Grounding of airlines, huge restrictions of road, rail and waterway transportations and shutting down of mills, factories and businesses from lockdowns caused the oil market crash. Clearly, the pandemic and the ensuing economic lockdown have slashed demand for all fuels, in particular those oil derivatives used for transportation. Energy demand is also down across the board, as large industrial power users, non-essential businesses, schools, and government buildings remain closed. Per the IEA report, in the past 100 days, we have experienced a 6% decline in global energy demand, five times of what was experienced in 2008 crisis. The impact of the crisis on energy demand is heavily dependent on the duration of the lockdown and stringency of measures to curb the spread of the virus.
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Implications of Oil Market Crush Oil market crush from never experienced before, extremely low demand for energy, including oil, gas, coal and electricity, severely impacted oil majors and other companies involved in the energy industry and its value chains. “US Shale Boom� got the unbelievable rude shock from West Texas Intermediate (WTI) dropping a one-time horrifying price point - $36.The oil market crash has not only affected the USA, Saudi Arabia and Russia, but badly hurt war-ravaged Libya, sanctioned Iran, poorly managed Venezuela, the war devastated Iraq. Depleted natural gas price to all-time low throughout Asia and Western Europe has created an oversupply in the global market of LNG. This resulted in power prices falling across the developed economy. In some countries, the price reduced almost half of the pre COVID-19 period. Renewable energy capacity showed expansion. Solar PV and wind energy started getting competitive in many countries. The IEA report stated prices of electricity have dipped below zero in the United States and in several countries in Europe including Germany, Denmark and France. One must appreciate that electricity supply security during and after the COVID-19 pandemic is a dire necessity for the continued functioning of supply chains, teleworking, and powering the health care sector for fighting against COVID-19. Renewable energy supply however is unique in the sense that it does not require a supply chain for fuel inputs. But it adds stress to the system for its variable nature. The higher the penetration of renewable energy in modern electricity networks, the more flexibility, storage capacity, and smart grid capacity is required to manage sudden spikes in demand. Otherwise, there are possibilities of blackouts. Positive Impacts COVID-19 among many www.iceaus.org
adverse impacts has one very visible positive development. Carbon emissions have fallen at a very noticeable rate due to economic lockdown creating avenues for a green energy transition. But for taking a sustainable shape requires global commitment and definite plan. Many people still believe from the past experience that the decline of fossil fuel use and a parallel decrease of CO2 emission may be a temporary phenomenon. In 2010, the world recovered from the then the Great Recession witnessed the highest year to year CO2 emission. The same may be repeated in 202122. What World Community Must Do The world cannot confront, combat and tide over COVID-19 without keeping the lights on. All must realize now that bold, visionary leadership and technical expertise are essential for turning the crisis into opportunity. The future energy world has to be cleaner, greener, resilient and abundant. We must not lose sight. It is once in a millennium opportunity. The world will never be the same again. For the survival of humanity, alleviation of global poverty, secured health care system, the achievement of sustainable modern power supply to all at affordable costs for sustainable growth and development world community must act together. COVID-19 has delivered a great lesson that none can avoid the consequence of the global pandemic. We must put our acts together and fight together with whatever we have. Health habits must change, social distancing must become part of life, all have to be additional guarded against harming the environment. Tele education, distance learning, telemedicine, telemarketing, artificial,
intelligence, block chain, robotics, use of drones, GIS, smart grid, the smart metering, means the world must completely move to digitization. Money spent in research and development of weapons of mass destruction must be directed to medical research, innovation in energy generation, greening the mother earth and research in agriculture. All must realize nature will strike back with vengeance if we continue to harm it. The world with all sophistication is well and truly helpless when nature bounces back.
The author is the Advisory Editor of Innovate magazine. He was former Director (Operation) Gas Transmission Company Limited, Petrobangla Bangladesh. He also served as Advisor for Ministry of Mines and Petroleum Afghanistan. He is Contributing Editor of Energy& Power Magazine (www.ep-bd.com) and the Chief Advisor, International Council for Engineers Australia.
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Workplace Health & the Complexities due to Coronavirus Peter Carroll
Image from Pixabay
A
significant new dimension has been added to workplace Health & Safety (H&S), functions and analysis. The advent of the Coronavirus strain of COVID-19 has placed greater emphasis on the Health part of H&S in the workplace. All too often the emphasis has been on the safety aspect, as it is comparatively easier to recognise, analyse and mitigate. The virulent, infectious nature and characteristics of COVID-19 have created entirely new circumstances for employers and H&S professionals. This has required a considerable learning curve in understanding a virus in the context of occupational hygiene. COVID-19 is like the Predator in the movie of the same name; it is an invisible moving target requiring adaptive thinking to overcome. Responses have at times been confusing and ill-conceived; often the notion of a virus has been misconstrued as bacteria. The transmission of COVID-19 is spread across the spectrum of society. It is not purely an industrial health issue. It is highly infectious and contagious. The consequences of workplaces can be severe. Employees may bring it to work and the same day others will take it home. Diseases with serious health impacts such as; asbestosis, mesothelioma, silicosis and legionnaires are generally associated with employment contexts. Similar to the Hydra of Greek Mythology COVID-19 has an ability to adapt and change through mutation; thereby reducing the likelihood of the rapid development of a vaccine. One of the foundations of H&S is to identify the nature of the hazard. Virus and Bacteria are invisible to the naked eye and defy the ability of our other senses to detect their presence until the virulence is manifest. Moreover, a virus can be up to 1000 times smaller than bacteria. Bacteria are single-celled organisms that 16 / innovate July 2020 16/ innovate July 2020
produce their own energy and reproduce. In contrast, a virus contains genetic material and needs a host cell to reproduce. Therefore, upon entering the human body, they will attach themselves to cells that can act as hosts. COVID-19 has characteristics that inhibit destruction of the human immune system. It should be emphasised that a virus cannot be treated with an antibacterial and at present and it is not anticipated in the immediate future that we will have an antiviral. Unfortunately, there are still working and public places that are providing antibacterial sanitizer as a preventative measure. This may be in part from a lack of understanding or simply hoping that some action is better than none. This however, does fall within the usual expectation of a reasoned thoughtful H&S response. The hierarchy of control; elimination, substitution, isolation, engineering, administration and personal protective equipment (PPE), needs to adopt with considerable sagacity and a force to be effective in addressing COVID-19 in the workplace. Higher-order controls such as Elimination, Substitution and Engineering are unfortunately not feasible in addressing the potential for COVID-19 workplace presence. Isolation is valid only in so far as should an employee test positive or exhibit symptoms they should be required to physically isolate at home. As yet, it has not become common practice to temperature test employees when they arrive at work. What remains from an H&S perspective are administrative controls and the provision of PPE. Physical distancing, washing hands with soap and hot water (minimum 20 seconds), and regular application of an alcoholbased (60-70% by volume), sanitiser are becoming the new accepted practices. Changes in ventilation and air circulation
may have to be implemented to limit the spread in aerosol form. Nevertheless, creating and implementing protocols that require significant personal and collective discipline can be problematic. Often they rest on an appreciation of the consequences. Should visitors be allowed into a workplace, and should they also be temperature tested or provide proof of a recent negative COVID test? If an employee advises a positive result should the remaining employees go into isolation and what is the communication plan that the employer has in place? H&S should not be reduced by public relations truth management. These are the types of questions that should be considered in light of due diligence and a duty of care for people’s health in the workplace. With so many people working from home and employers still being obliged to provide a duty of care what is the response if an employee contracts COVID-19?
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for small to medium-sized businesses. At present, there seems to have been a degree of tolerance with what could be deemed as employer indiscretions. Nevertheless, as preventive measures escalate, mistakes or alleged negligence may attract enforcement action or litigation. There is no perfect solution to the current situation. COVID-19 and its transmission has to date defied the best efforts of the medical profession, scientists and authorities to curtail its spread. The timely creation of an anti-viral is still uncertain. Accordingly, considerable work will need to be done by H&S professionals on behalf of employers to ensure the health of employees in the workplace. This will require a deeper understanding of the nature of the hazard, subsequent risks and appreciation of the consequences. Employers cannot afford to be accused of failing to provide a safe workplace. Considerable work will have to be done by H&S professionals to optimise the hierarchy of control and possibly more lateral responses to ensure the welfare of employees. Boost your immune system.
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How do employers address the health requirements of potentially vulnerable employees, such as those with pre-existing conditions? With so many people now working from home it must be understood that the home is classified as a workplace in Australian jurisdictions. The psychological and physical context of employees working from home is equally as important as their usual workplace. Employees may experience fatigue, increased stress, long working hours and a lack of supportive communication and leadership from management leading to a perception of abandonment. With no definitive cure on the horizon, significant and responsive risk analysis will need to be conducted in the workplace. Emergency management also has a strategic role to play in ensuring the health of employees and providing rapid and decisive responses. Minimal compliance may not be suitable or acceptable. The dynamic nature of COVID-19 means that risks are changing and evolving. Assessments based on real-time information and data will have to provide for the health of all in the workplace. Risk assessments not only need to address the potential and likelihood of harm to affected employees but, provide a response for all employees. Omissions and Inaction can be disastrous given the impact of COVID-19. Risk controls are considered in light of what is; ‘reasonably practicable’ one of the considerations is the cost involved and already we have seen employers make a considerable investment in additional safety precautions. Given the unpredictable nature of COVID19, it will be difficult in many cases to determine what has been reasonably practicable. As this can be exacerbated by individual and group responses. The test for ‘reasonably practicable’, in so far as expenditure to control risk is concerned, may ultimately be determined by regulatory authorities and/or in the legal system. This can have serious implications
COVID-19 PROTECT YOURSELF Clean Your Hands Often. Maintain a Safe Distance. Wear a Mask. Stay Home. Stay Safe. The Author is an MEnvSc. Cert Auditor in HS&Env Mgt systems, ICAM Lead Investigator. He has more than 30 years experience in the construction industry.
Boost Your Immune System. Seek Help. Follow the Govt Rules. Get The Right Info from Reliable Source.
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Narottam Das
Usually, pandemics or epidemics
“quarantine” originates from the word “quarantena” of early Venetian arrive to us once in every century and language. Merchants of Venice used teach us or demonstrate ways of the term during the Black Death living in harmony with nature in the plague in the 14th and 15th centuries to world and proceed to the next step. designate the 40-days period that all We can find record of pandemic or ships were required to isolate before epidemic situation from history and passengers and crew could go trace its appearance in the early days, ashore. which is about two and a half Despite the contrasting thousand years back (i.e., In 500 narratives regarding the origin of BC). quarantine, what is certain is that Ibn Later, in the 10th century, we Sina was ahead of his time and will can again find records from Ibn always be a father figure of early Sina (who was a great medical modern medicine. What separates doctor, scientist & microbiologist) Ibn Sina from many of his peer on quarantine, medicine and scholars of the Islamic Golden Age pandemics. is that his work is well respected This great doctor wrote on both in the Islamic world and in pandemic situation in his books and the Western world as well as all recommended for isolation as a over the world. measure of saving lives. The “The Canon of Medicine” was recommendation was isolation for translated into Latin in Spain in the a period of about 6 weeks (i.e., 12th century. Since then, the domain More than 40 days). If anyone in of publication has been dominated by an area is affected by the disease the creations of western medicine. (pandemic/epidemic situation), he The University of Bologna, one of suggested to lockdown the affected the oldest European universities, was area for this recommended period the first to adopt Ibn Sina’s “The to destroy or kill the germs and Canon of Medicine” as the basis of thereby minimize the loss of its medical education in the 13th human lives from the attack. century. People believe that the term 1
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Between the 13th and the 17th centuries, Ibn Sina’s medical encyclopedia was the foundation of medical education programs at some of the oldest European universities, including the University of Leuven in Belgium, the University of Montpellier in France, and the University of Krakow in Poland. Today in the 21 century, Ibn Sina’s legacy is shielding the world during its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, while his cross-boundary spirit is materializing in the growing trend of global solidarity. As per the known human history, the epidemic of plague appeared three times. Plague is an acute infectious disease caused by the bacillus Yersinia pestis and is still endemic in indigenous rodent populations of South and North America, Africa and Central Asia. In epidemics, plague is transmitted to humans by the bite of the Oriental or Indian rat flea and the human flea. The primary hosts of fleas are the black urban rats and the brown sewer rats. st
1,2
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Plague is also transmissible from person to person when in its pneumonic form. Yersinia pestis is a very pathogenic organism to both humans and animals and before antibiotics, had a very high mortality rate. The bubonic plague also has military significance and is listed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention as a Category A bioterrorism agent. The years in which these three great world pandemics of plague occurred were recorded to be 541, 1347, and 1894 causing devastating mortality of lives, i.e., People and animals each time across nations and continents. On more than one occasion, plague irrevocably changed the social and economic fabric of society and a new world was born in each time of the attack. These three great plague pandemics had different geographical origins and paths of spread. The Justinian Plague of 541 started in central Africa and spread to Egypt and the Mediterranean. The Justinian Plague lasted for a 3-years period (541 ~ 544). The Black Death of 1347 originated in Asia and spread to Crimea then Europe and Russia.
The ‘Black Death’ of Europe had a duration of 5 years from 1347 to 1352. The third pandemic, that of 1894, originated in Yunnan, China, and spread to Hong Kong and India, then to the rest of the world. 4 It lasted for a longer period. In 1894, it had reached Canton and then spread to Hong Kong. Later in 1896 it had spread to Bombay and by 1900 had reached ports on every continent, carried by infected rats traveling the international trade routes on the new steamships.5 In 1900, the plague came to Australia where the first major outbreak occurred in Sydney, its epicentre being the Darling Harbour wharves, spreading to the city, Surry Hills, Glebe, Leichhardt, Redfern, and The Rocks, and causing about 100 deaths. The chief medical officer John AshburtonThompson, recorded the epidemic and confirmed that rats were the source, and their fleas were the vectors in the epidemic. There were 12 major outbreaks of plague in Australia from 1900 to 1925 with 1371 cases and 535 deaths, most cases occurring in Sydney.6 www.iceaus.org
The third pandemic waxed and waned throughout the world for the next five decades and did not end until 1959. By that time plague had caused over 15 million deaths, the majority of which were in India. There had been outbreaks of plague since then, such as in China and Tanzania in 1983, Zaire in 1992, and in India, Mozambique and Zimbabwe in 1994.7,8 The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most severe pandemic in recent history. It was caused by an H1N1 virus with the genes of avian origin. Although there is no universal consensus regarding where the virus originated, it spread worldwide from 1918-1919. In the United States, it was first identified in military personnel in spring 1918. It is estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population became infected with this virus. The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States.9 Mortality was higher in people younger than 5 years old, 20-40 years old, and 65 years and older. The high mortality in healthy people, including those in the 20 to 40-year age group, was a unique feature of this pandemic. While the evaluation of 1918 H1N1 virus has been made and synthesis of this virus has been completed, the properties that made it so devastating are not well understood. With no vaccine to protect against influenza infection and no antibiotics to treat secondary bacterial infections that can be associated with influenza infections, control efforts worldwide were limited to interventions of nonpharmaceutical nature such as isolation, quarantine, good personal hygiene, use of disinfectants, and limitations of public gatherings, which were applied unevenly.9 The origin of the recent novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) is believed to be the Wuhan province in China from where it has spread all over the world within a very short period from October 2019 to now.
Mainly the COVID-19 pandemic virus is the combination of SARs and COV2 (i.e., COVID-19 = SARs + COV2) which is about 17times stronger than the conventional Flu that occurs as usual in each year. Currently, more than 16-million people are affected all over the world and more than 650thousands are dead globally. Therefore, it indicates that the average death rate is ~5%, but in some countries it may vary i.e., A bit higher or lower depending on the geographic location as well as the speed of the spreads in that region or country. The infection rates are very high in 1) USA, 2) Brazil, 3) India, 4) Russia, and so on; Bangladesh being in 17th position while the Asian counties are showing a high rate of infection. 10 In order to stop this rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus, there are many precautions that have been taken by the world health organization (WHO) including maintaining the social distancing (1.5 -m apart). For this reason, several small and medium industries are shut down and people lose their income as they are losing their jobs. It has significantly dropped the global economic growth and thus consequently affected directly or indirectly the developed countries, such as USA, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Korea, Japan, China as well as the developing countries such as India, Malaysia and Bangladesh. Therefore, the outbreak of this COVID-19 pandemic has overturned human life all over the world and has forced a severe impact on economy causing it to go down which in turn resulted in hardship in the lives of people. Several millions of people have lost their jobs all over the world. Millions of families are affected due to this pandemic issue; education sectors are imposing their forced redundancy on their stuff as the students are not interested to enrol in universities for study. they are now unable to think and go ahead.
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References: economic growth of that region and 1. Morocco World News: https:// the world too. To assist our health www.moroccoworldnews.com/2020/04/299142/ how-ibn-sinas-legacy-is-protecting-the-world-from systems, continuous power -covid-19/ generation is essential. Solar power 2. J. Frith, “The History of Plague – Part 1. The Three Great Pandemics,” Vol. 20, No. 2; Apr. 2012 generation can assist to reduce the 3. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Emergency Preparedness and Response: load on the national grid. The current Bioterrorism – Agents/Diseases. Available at: COVID-19 pandemic has struck the http://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/agentlistcategory.asp renewable energy manufacturing 4. M. Achtman, K. Zurth, G. Morelli, G. Torrea, A. facilities, supply chains, and Guiyoule, E. Carniel. Yersinia pestis, the cause of plague, is a recently emerged clone of Yersinia companies and thus, slowed down pseudotuberculosis. Proc Natl Acad Sci 1999; 96 the global economy and the positive (24): 14043-14048. Available at: http:// www.pnas.org/content/96/24/14043.full.pdf. trend of green and low-carbon 5. M. Echenberg, Plague Ports. New York; New York energy progress. The post COVIDUniv. Press, 2007. 6. PH. Curson. Times of Crisis: Epidemics in Sydney 19 time will be fully a different 1788-1900. Sydney: Sydney Univ. Press, 1985. 7. E. Tikhomirov. Epidemiology and Distribution of world, and every sector will be Plague. In: WHO. Plague Manual: Epidemiology, required to perform continuously to Distribution, Surveillance and Control. 2011. WHO/CDS/CSR/ EDC/99.2. Available at: http:// reform the economy and bring the www.who.int/csr/resources/pub-lications/plague/ lifestyle back to normal as before. whocdscsredc992a.pdf . 8. RD. Perry, JD Fetherston. Yersinia pestis – Therefore, energy engineering etiologic agent of plague. Clin Microbiol Rev 1997; including power generation, 10 (1): 35- 66. Available at: http:// www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov /pmc/articles/PMC172914/ savings, and distributions are pdf/100035.pdf needed for the well-being of 9. 1918 Pandemic (H1N1 virus) https://www.cdc.gov/ flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html Bangladesh. The energy and 10. Worldometer website: https:// climate policies are also required www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries 11. Various news in TV and Radio and Newspapers to be restructured based on the Report. new circumstances. 3.Other sectors: Finally, all scientists, doctors, engineers, and other professionals must conduct their roles in collaboration for a sustainable and healthy world. Engineers are the global architects as thinkers in planning, modelling, designing and executing the final product for a sustainable world. The word “IMPOSSIBLE” is (PhD (Electrical Engineering), “I’M POSSIBLE” for Engineers. SMIEEE, FIEAust, CPEng, NER, LFIEB),The author is an academic and researcher in Electrical Engineering, School of Engineering and Technology, CQUniversity Australia. He is also an Executive committee member of the Engineers Australia Victoria Branch and the IEEE PES Victorian Section. Email: n.das@cqu.edu.au Narottam.das67@gmail.com
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All the engineering sectors have become a bit sluggish in motion due to physical movement issue at the job site and they are unable to be systematic in their regular tasks which is required for doing them as efficiently as in normal situation. 11 Therefore, Engineers need to proceed for smooth future developments in all technical sides, keeping in mind all the safety measures. Some of the issues are: 1.Building construction, transport sectors (land, water and air routes): For sustainable prospects of living, proper asset management and maintenance aspects are of utmost importance. Our health system needs a special hospital for the current COVID-19 issue or any other pandemic issue so that these specific hospitals can treat the affected people in the future. Then people will not move from one hospital for another 7 to 10-times for admission for treatment. This proposed special measure will save the lives rather than affecting lives severely and causing loss of lives for lack of proper treatment. 2.Energy sectors: Efficient and smart uses of energy must be ensured through making reforms by using renewable (solar photovoltaics, wind, hydro, biometrics etc.) resources for a sustainable green future. These resources are completely environmentally friendly and are pollution-free. The battery storage can assist the remote area’s population. The installation for the generation of renewable energy will also create many jobs for different types of professionals and enhance the job market and thereby ensure
Face Masks are Mandatory in Melbourne rom 22 July 2020 20 / innovate July 2020
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Living Amongst the COVID-19 Pandemic Nishikanata Das
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OVID-19 took the world like a storm. Initially it began in a city, then expanded throughout the country and finally spread across the globe. In the early days of the pandemic, no one really bothered to care about the situation that the whole world will be thrown into. It is until the problem arrives at their doorsteps, then people started to panic. However, by then, it is already too late. The global concern of the virus gained recognition when the Diamond Princess incident occurred. However, Australia didn’t give much concern to it at the time. Approximately during February, it became clear that COVID-19 started its attack on Australia. Few cases popped here and there amongst different states. But, when the cruise ship docked in Sydney was given the greenlight disembark their passengers, that is when Australia had fallen a victim to COVID-19. As of 9 July 2020 there are 9059 cases nationally in Australia. The country was about to stagnate the cases around the 7000 mark only to possibly break into the five-digit territory soon. One state of Australia is less fortunate compared to the rest of the States and Territories. Victoria re-entered into a harsh lockdown situation once again due to the higher number of active cases in different suburbs. The other State of Australia continues with an easing of their
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restrictions, but Victorians are locked. The idea of lockdown never provided a positive outlook. This method is used to cut transmission as that is the only way humans can currently fight the virus, COVID-19, which we don’t have a vaccine to yet. The COVID-19’s health risks are indeed a severe concern as it was initially been misidentified as Pneumonia. Patients with preexisting conditions or the elderly were at the most risk. However, COVID-19 poses psychological stress to those who are not affected as well. Ultimately, everyone is a victim of COVID-19. There are those who are physically fighting COVID-19 due to contracting the virus and those are in mental warfare with Lockdown procedure to avoid COVID-19. Victoria entered lockdown roughly at the end of March only to attempt to ease restrictions near early June. Not everyone who had the virus was not accounted though. This was a grand oversight. Victoria subsequentially re-entered lockdown approximately early July. This is one of the worse outcomes Victoria feared to face. The psychological stress imposed on Victorians from late March to early June already took a heavy toll but to only re-enter lockdown procedures is not ideal. Situations such as loneliness and domestic altercations were on the rise during these periods and they’ll once again cloud Victorians. Stress due to losing one’s livelihood and their jobs taxed mental health. Lastly, this results in people couped inside homes, which ultimately removes motivations and ambitions desired to be undertaken this
year should COVID-19 have not occurred. Victorians hoped to enter normality like what the other states are currently experiencing. Pandemics are considered to be a once in a lifetime occurrence or can be considered diseases that occur every century i.e., hundred years as per the history. Last time a largescale pandemic that occurred was the Spanish Flu during 1918-1920 for a period of 3-years. The good fellow that documented the conditions the previous pandemic requested 40-days incubation period for their circumstances. The procedures to handle future pandemics were outlined but they were not acted upon. It took two months for lockdown procedures to be implemented here in Australia. It took the rest of the world to act wait too late as well. At present, the global case is counted more than 16 million with no end in sight. No vaccine is available till now, but it is very urgent to prevent transmissions and further deaths of community members from the COVID-19. Had social distancing procedures been implemented when the pandemic started, such extend of spread may not have occurred.
The author is a university postgraduate student at The University of Melbourne, studying Master of Civil Engineering. Email: nd2971997@gmail.com
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HEALTH CONCERN FOR POST COVID PATIENTS AHMED SHARIF
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OVID-19 pandemic is causing havoc all over the world and the health care system in many countries, including that of Bangladesh is on the verge of collapse due to the high infectivity of the novel Coronavirus and its virulence. Although almost 20% of the infected people will need different levels of hospital care, including ICU and ventilator support, almost 80% will be cured with little or no medical care. Many of them will be asymptomatic as well. In the midst of all doom and gloom, it is apparently good news that about 95% of the affected people will conquer COVID. Well, the good news is relatively true for many, rather than being an absolute truth as the novel Coronavirus will leave its footprint on many and will cause long-lasting health concerns to those individuals. It is important that we remain vigilant against those ongoing adverse health effects on such patients. For many, the conquest of Coronavirus is not the end of their COVID related health concern. While the medical scientists and doctors are still trying to understand the nature of this virus and to track its destructive path in the human body, it is now obvious that the virus’s one of the most harmful effects is to activate the blood clotting mechanism and this appears to be the main cause of
death in COVID-19 patients. What is more disturbing is that this effect appears to linger even after someone tests negative following the recovery from the infection. Besides, some other harmful effects of the virus also remain in the system having the potential of causing long term harm. In the USA and other countries, it is found that after recovering from the illness and after being discharged from hospital many patients, even the younger ones suffered stroke at home. This can be tracked to the activation and continuation of the blood clotting cascade. This clotting cascade causes the formation of thrombus and blocking of one or more blood vessels of the brain, ensuing stroke. That means that the patients’ stroke risk continues even after the recovery from acute illness. The effect of COVID-19 on the patients’ hearts can be longlasting as well. The scientists believe that one can be at risk of heart attack and other serious Cardiac conditions up to 2 years post-infection. One of the mechanisms of action is the same as its effect on the brain, i.e. the activation of the clotting cascade and blocking the arteries of the heart. The virus also can attack the heart muscle and weakens it. As a consequence, abnormal and uncontrolled heart rhythms can develop, which is called arrhythmia. It is an independent
risk factor for developing stoke as well. Unrecognized or uncontrolled arrhythmia is a known cause of death. One of the target organs of Coronavirus also include the patients’ lungs. It invades the lung tissue and destroys its defence mechanism. We all know that Pneumonia is a common and immediate consequence of COVID -19, especially during high viral load and can be the cause of many deaths. However, the medical scientists believe that the virus’s adverse impact on the lung tissue can be attributed to secondary bacterial infection of the lungs even two months after recovery. Many among them will sustain Pulmonary Fibrosis, in the long run, causing chronic breathing difficulties. It is also known that COVID19 can be a very serious condition for the people already suffering from diabetes. It is attributed to the fact that increased blood sugar level weakens the immune system and also promotes viral replication. However, it is also alarming that the novel Coronavirus can trigger diabetes in an otherwise healthy patient. The virus is thought to affect the pancreas and destroys Beta cells. These Beta cells of the pancreas produce and secrete Insulin hormone that controls the blood sugar. If the Beta cells are destroyed, the blood sugar can’t be maintained due to absolute or relative lack of insulin, thus causing diabetes or worsening the pre-existing ones. The novel Coronavirus can also target kidneys and trigger CKD (Chronic Kidneys Disease). Some of these CKD patients will ultimately need dialysis or even kidney transplant.
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So, is everything doom and gloom for the COVID survivors? Fortunately, this is not so. The human race is a resilient one and has a history of thriving through all adversities. However, one has to take all necessary steps to ensure s/he does not become complacent following recovery from the illness. Recovery from the acute illness can be regarded as a temporary reprieve, the ultimate victory will depend if the patient is able to prevent or at least delay the development of the above-mentioned complications. It is important for the patients who recovered from the illness not to take his or her health for granted and to attend to his family physician and multi-disciplinary specialist team in order to regularly monitor and take appropriate actions. As blood clotting is one of the fatal consequences of COVID-19, many otherwise healthy patients will need to continue taking blood thinners like low dose Aspirin or Clopidogrel (unless there is any contraindication) for medium to long term. Smokers need to stop smoking in order to minimise the risk of developing lung fibrosis. Smoking is also an independent risk factor of heart attack and stroke among many others. Diabetes patients need to have tight control of their blood sugar through appropriate medication and essential lifestyle modification. It may prevent further worsening of his/ her diabetes. Tight control of blood pressure and diabetes is also required to save the kidneys from failing. Some patients (especially those who have diabetes) with normal blood pressure may need some low dose anti-hypertensives (e.g. ACE inhibitor medications) to protect the kidneys. It is imperative to check blood sugar level, cholesterols, Kidney function and ECG regularly to monitor the impact on various vital organs. If one can do these things right, he or she may just escape the long-term consequences. However, it is very important not to take up the role of one’s own doctor. Every person is different and, therefore, his/ her risk factors and interaction of the new drugs with the existing ones also require careful consideration.
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COVID-19 is like cyclone and tsunami. Cyclones and Tsunamis have immediate (destruction of property and loss of life) and long term (economic impact due to loss of livelihood and infrastructural damage) effect. COVID-19 also has a similar modus operandi. It has an immediate effect (acute illness and death) and long term consequences (Brain, Heart, Lungs, Kidney and Mental Health complications). If one is lucky enough to escape the immediate effect, he or she should remain vigilant for long term consequences and take all necessary preventive measures. There is no alternative but to be under the regular guidance of the family physicians or the relevant specialists. The war is not over until it is over to the end.
So, it is very important to consult the relevant doctors before every health-related move. In the midst of all organ-related crisis, another health issue may remain neglected in post COVID patients that is their mental wellbeing. It can cause fear of serious complications and even death in such patients. Many of them will suffer from anxiety, depression and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) during the illness and after recovery. These issues are not well recognised in many of our communities and hence, need special attention. Sometimes, a few counselling sessions with a qualified clinical psychologist can do the trick. Some of these patients may need drug therapy as well. However, early recognition and prompt intervention are the key factors. Some patients need to come forward and disclose their feelings and emotions to their family and loved ones so that they can be guided to the relevant professionals. The family and friends of the COVID-19 patients also need to be vigilant so that they can identify the stress among such patients.
MBBS, M FAM MED, FRACGP, FACRRM
The author is a Family Physician practicing in Melbourne, an adjunct faculty of Bangladesh Institute of Family Medicine and Research, USTC and President Social Help Endeavour for Bangladesh. (SHEBA), Melbourne.
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A PIECE OF PERSPECTIVE DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC DR MARZIA RAHMAN (NISHU) I would like to write about a different perspective on this current pandemic we all are experiencing, the perspective of how we view life. This concept is perceived to be lying deep inside our subconscious mind and can resurface particularly during a major life-changing event such as poor health, the death of a loved one, relationship breakdown, or during a career change. The time we spend on this concept and focus our life goals in relation to our values and dreams are important. From childhood, we are taught to follow a regimental monotonous schedule which is programmed in our minds from the beginning and viewed as the norm. Our morning schedule may start by waking up, preparing our kids for school and then delving into our work. The time just goes by, and before we know it, the day finishes. We eagerly wait for the weekend, which gives us time to spend with family and friends or to ourselves, to do tasks that we are not able to complete during the week. We wait in anticipation for a holiday to give us gratification for the hard work we continuously do. We are always wishing for more time to fulfill our dreams and our expectations in life. So, when this wish of ours is granted in an unforeseen circumstance such as a pandemic, how do we utilise this additional time? Do we want to go back to our regimental schedule, what we view as the norm? Or do we use this as an opportunity to redefine our expectations and goals in life; an opportunity for us to see where we are at, what we have achieved so far and what else we dream of accomplishing with the time that is left?
What I enjoyed doing during my childhood I am now reliving that through painting, writing, playing the piano and being carefree with my thoughts. The time during this pandemic has enabled me to do this, I am being able to go back to the roots of who I am as a person, my values and my faith. These thoughts may come at a different point in life but we have this opportunity now for all of us to stop and think about what we have achieved and what we still need to accomplish to feel satisfied in our lives. 24 / innovate July 2020
Dr. Marzia Rahman MBBS BMSc (The University of Melbourne) Dr Marzia has been working over 10 years in various hospitals across Melbourne. www.iceaus.org
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As a child, we are molded and become a sponge, absorbing everything from our environment. As we grow up, we choose a particular path and become less susceptible to changes. How often do we sit and appreciate what is around us? As time passes, our familiarity slowly changes, starting from our environment to the people we know. We change physically, but psychologically we may remain the same and our understanding and maturity may evolve. Are our life decisions based on society’s expectations instead of our own desires?
Can Energy Engineering Be A Hope For The Post COVID-19 Bangladesh M. Nur-E-Alam
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farming and cultivation areas, use hermetic storage systems to effectively store food, grain and crops. Besides all other costs, such kinds of storage facilities have to compute a massive budget for energy consumption due to regulation as well as maintain adequate temperature, relative humidity, ventilation and air circulation. In recent years, energy: cost efficiency becomes a key factor for sustainable food and crop storage facility, that stimulates scientist’s enthusiasm to introduce more offgrid, self-sustainable energy harvesting and saving facilities. On the other hand, all kinds of industries including the garments factories are the big candidates where continuous electricity supply is needed to maintain a non-destructive production cycle for the well-being of the economy. Besides the national grid electricity supply, solar photovoltaics assisted power generation can help the industries and factories to maintain their continuous production cycle. Therefore, designing new and modification of existing infrastructures are required so that most of the factory-buildings can host their own solar power generation systems and solar hot water systems. Also, by this time, we come to know that the vulnerable COVID-19 patients required intensive health care which causes the disruption power supply to the health clinics and hospitals. Even many COVID-19 patients who already recovered or will recover from this virus affection, in the future may be required to be in special health care systems. To support our health systems, continuous power generation is needed, and solar power generation can assist to reduce the load on the national grid. Though it is said that the COVID-19 pandemic has struck
the renewable energy manufacturing facilities, supply chains, and companies and thus slowed down the global economy and the positive trend of green and low-carbon energy progress. However, post COVID-19 time will be different, and every sector will be needed to perform continuously to reform the economy and bring the lifestyle normal as before. Therefore, energy engineering, including power generation, savings, and distributions are needed for the well-being of Bangladesh, even if the energy and climate policies require to be restructured based on the new circumstances.
The author is a Research Fellow at Edith Cowan University, WA, Australia. E-mail: m.nur-e-alam@ecu.edu.au sarwar840@yahoo.com
Image from Pixabay
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he outbreak of the novel COVID-19 pandemic has overturned the human life and civilization all over the world. This coronavirus already caused a huge number of deaths and still continuing to affect more and more every day. Scientists and microbiologists are working very hard and souls to understand the nature of this coronavirus and also to find a proper vaccine. However, to get an active vaccine against this virus is required with many clinical trials that require a significant amount of research time. In order to stop the rapid spread of this virus, there are many precautions that have been advised by the world health organization (WHO) including social distancing. Due to maintaining the social distancing, many small and big industries and businesses were bound to take action like job cuts, even in some cases shut down that makes millions of workforces into jobless all over the world. It is directly working to bring down the global economy and thus consequently affecting directly and indirectly the developing countries severely and Bangladesh is not out of this boundary. In Bangladesh, a large number of its population lead their lives, depending on many industries and ready-made garment factories. These sectors are also severely in trouble during this COVID-19 crisis moment. Bangladesh also believes, like the rest of the world, that this situation will be overcome and the whole world will move again. However, the post COVID-19 world may not be the same as before and may need some reformation in many sectors. The economic wheel in Bangladesh mostly depends on agriculture and industry prospects. Many smallholder farmers in the rural
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COVID-19 Pandemic: A Blessing for Environment?
T
here is saying, “behind every dark cloud is a silver lining”. COVID-19 pandemic has definitely cast deep dark shadows all around. The economy has melted down, the global oil market has crashed, millions have lost jobs, millions have gone down below the poverty level. Yet COVID-19 has also triggered visible positive impacts on the environment. The air and water have become cleaner, birds are singing sweeter songs, animals are moving freely and fearlessly, trees have become greener. Men, animals, birds can breathe freely. CO2 and GHG emissions have dropped down appreciably. But the million-dollar question now, how long the positive changes of the climate would sustain? What lessons world community would learn from the forced change by direct impacts of COVID Pandemic? COVID-19 evidence that the health of people and the planet are one and the same. Ironically, by shutting down swaths of the global economy, COVID-19 has helped expose another respiratory health crisis. Where a series of environmental protocols such as
Md. Rifat Bin Ahmed Kyoto and Paris have miserably failed, a tiny little virus is composing the triumphant saga of nature. In COVID-19, the planet has delivered its strongest warning to date that humanity must change. According to the CREA, China emitted 200 million tons or 25 percent less carbon in the first four weeks of March than in the same period last year. The COVID19 crisis of 2020 is forecast to represent a record decrease of global CO₂ emissions at nearly 2.5 billion metric tons. The COVID-19 pandemic could result in a 5% fall in global carbon emissions (The Guardian, 2020). Air travel dropped by 96% due to COVID-19, lowest in 75 years (CNN, 2020). Fewer cars on the road will also dent demand for petrol and diesel by an average of 9.4% over the year, shrinking oil demand in 2020 by an average of 2.6m barrels of oil a day. Climate experts predict that greenhouse gas emissions could drop to proportions never before seen since World War II (Global Carbon Project, 2020). NASA and ESA released fresh evidence which suggests that environmental quality improved and the emission of NO2 reduced
up to 30%. They release satellite images of various countries before and after lockdown. During April 2020, NO2 emissions in Europe dropped by almost 40 percent when compared to the same period the previous year. Cities with historically higher levels of PM2.5 pollution witnessed the most substantial drops, including Delhi (-60%), Seoul (-54%) and Wuhan (-44%). (IQAir, 2020). The crucial ozone layer of the earth started at long last recuperating. The earth ozone layer has started healing itself because of countries' lockdown. The lakes in Venice, Italy have become depopulated due to the outbreak of coronavirus and the water has become spottytransparent. In dry season when the DO level in Karnafuli river, Bangladesh in between 4.8 to 5.5 mg/L. But due to excessive pollution, the DO in Karnafuli dropped below 3 mg. Due to the advent of the corona, the value of DO could be 6 to 8 mg/L. During the lockdown, the use of private, public transportation and commercial activities has decreased significantly. All these changes have caused the noise level to drop considerably in most cities in the world. A seismologist from Royal Observatory of Belgium reported a 33% lesser noise level on March 27,2020. (CBSN, 2020)
Source: www.statista.com 26 / innovate July 2020
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Figure: PM2.5 concentration changes in major cities Source: www.statista.com
As many municipalities have suspended their recycling activities over fears of virus propagation in recycling centers. Because this waste is left to decay, levels of methane (CH4) emissions, a greenhouse gas from decaying produce are expected to rise sharply in the crisis and immediate post-crisis months COVID-19 itself does not provide a ‘silver lining’ for the environment, but it provides the impetus to revisit our relationship with nature and build a better world. We are aware that the world community would someday get over
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COVID-19 or in someway learn to live alongside. One lesson world must learn. All have to be far more responsible in dealing with nature. We must cut down using the environment degrading untreated fossil fuels, must preserve and protect the natural forest, must not dispose of rubbish and wastes carelessly polluting air and water. We must not harm ecological balance. If this realization dawns upon all that will make a positive impact of COVID -19 on environment sustainable.
Author: Engr. Md. Rifat Bin Ahmed, S.M. ASCE Civil and Environmental Engineer Consultant, Builtech Consulting Engineers Email: rifat@mit.tc
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Global Collaboration on COVID-19 Tech Talks arranged by International Council for
Image from Pixabay
Engineers, Australia
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ustralia based International Council for Engineers, Australia (ICEA), a not for profit organization of Engineers living in Australia started with a vision for better utilization of engineering skills for planning and implementing engineering solutions to various natural disasters (tsunami, earthquake, bushfire, health pandemics, draughts, radiations, etc.). Launching operation of ICEA, unfortunately, coincided with the outbreak of Coronavirus. With lightning speed it avalanched world community, bringing everything to a virtual standstill. ICEA immediately responded to the situation through organizing teleconference on COVID-19 and its overarching impact management. Leading doctors, health service specialists, engineers, scientists, academics, environmentalists, economists, leading business leaders and government policymakers were connected. So far 14 interactive talks were conducted. Very interactive discussions assisted in gathering invaluable knowledge and experience from persons directly dealing with COVID-19 pandemic management or involved in planning strategies for recovery after COVID-19 is successfully confronted. This write 28 / innovate July 2020
up will focus on COVID-19 and the lessons learnt from discussions with leading health service providers from USA, UK, Canada, Sweden, Bangladesh and Australia. Lessons From Health Service Experts: The following doctors and health services specialists were connected from USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Sweden and Australia: Dr. Syed Haq (Canada); Dr. Forhad Ali Khan (Sweden); Dr. Ruhin Karim (UK); Dr Sezan Mahmud ( USA); Dr Trishna Mahmud (USA); Dr Sumaiya Islam Shoma (USA); Dr Ahmed Sharif (Australia); Dr Milton Hasnat (Australia). It appeared from intensive interactions that the health services of every country got severely stressed and proved under-resourced as the Chinese origin COVID-19 spread at lightning speed. The fact that the USA, Brazil, Russia, India ranks among the top five of the highest numbers of confirmed cases evidence that some leading countries were either too complacent or casual in responding. Leading universities like Oxford, UK, Harvard, USA and some individual researchers developed COVID-19 interception modules. Some countries followed the World Health Organization (WHO) advises “ Testing, testing, testing� as far as
practicable. The affected persons could be isolated and quarantined and staged lockdown could be enforced. As a consequence, few countries could bring the situation under control and they could resume reopening of economic activities still maintaining extreme care. Vietnam, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Korea are among the countries which could manage to minimize COVID19 spread to a manageable limit. It is not very sure that China let out accurate information. Neither it is at all easy knowing about the mechanism of information. But based on information shared China is at 19th position of the global list. However, the second wave of CORONA influx has been reported from Beijing. Consequently, air flights have been suspended.
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patients and isolate them in the home or institutional quarantine. But then many countries did not have required PCR / RT PCR testing facilities. By the time community spreading took the stage, most countries fell short of rapid testing facilities. However, the countries which could organize optimum testing facilities and isolate/ quarantine COVID-19 patients, could gradually improve the situation triggered by the first wave of COVID avalanche. The next set of lessons learnt was the use of appropriate masks and PPEs. The doctors demonstrated clearly the difference between clinical masks and general use masks. The requirements of other Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) were also highlighted. The doctors, nurses, technicians and persons directly involved with COVID-19 treatment in many countries suffered from inadequate supply of masks and PPEs. Sometimes improper Masks and PPEs were also supplied. The doctors agreed that if identified at the early stage of contamination 80% of the affected persons could be cured by isolation and symptomatic treatment at home, 15% require hospital treatment having connections with high flow oxygen supply. Only 5% developing extreme respiratory problems require ICU support with Ventilator. All doctors advised not to take any medicine without doctors
suggestion as no medicine has been proved the most accurate yet for COVID-19 treatment. Some medicine some doctors somewhere have tried like Dexamethasone, Hydroxychloroquine and Remdesivir. But none of them are proved clinically the most appropriate for COVID-19 treatment. All these have major side effects and hence must not be consumed without a doctors prescription. All agreed that staying at home, washing hands several times, maintaining social distance, taking healthy food and doing some physical exercise is the only way till individual countries bring contamination under control. Doctors also informed about continued research on inventing vaccine in different countries. But all indicated that it may take about at least one year to 18 months for any vaccine for universal acceptance. Till such time, world community may need to live alongside with COVID-19. In Genome Sequencing COVID-19 appeared to have mutated few times. Some form appears with no symptom at all. Hence WHO now advised all to use masks and gloves while going out to protect oneself and protect others. Author: Khondkar Abdus Saleque
PC: Nusrat Islam Borsha
The medical experts whom we discussed in teleconference underlined the importance of following guidelines of WHO. They all agreed that COVID-19 damage could be minimized avoiding completely physical contacts as the virus required human body to carry. It enters the body through mouth, nose and eyes. Hence the first action for negating the import of the pandemic to any country is the protection of international borders. The countries which could quickly seal the borders (air, land and waterway) could control the damage. The countries which remained complacent and delayed suffered. Unfortunately, the virus that spread in geometric progression avalanched even USA, UK, Spain, Brazil, Russia, Germany and France. The superior health care systems failed to respond as quickly as the pandemic spread. Huge numbers of confirmed cases and death almost silenced the world community. Subsequently, airway traffics were grounded, road, railway and riverine transportations ground to halt, industries were shut down, educational and other institutions were closed. As a consequence the global oil market crashed, the economic recession started biting. Doctors agreeing with WHO directives suggested for as quick testing as possible to identify accurately the COVID-19 infected
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CONGRATULATION GRADUATE ENGINEER James Conlan James likes working on his family farm in country Victoria James studied a Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Honours) at Federation University’s Mt Helen campus.
He is currently on the Department of Transport graduate program. He was working Ballarat at the Regional Roads Victoria on projects focused on improving road safety. In his current role, he is working on asset management, the delivery of periodic maintenance contracts, particularly pavement resurfacing. “My favorite part about my job is the people I work with. Not only I get to learn road construction from them, but I get to see the human side of engineering. I am part of a great team. It's not just about construction, its all about people and the community.”
Any advice for engineering students? My advice is to aim to undertake as much industry placement as possible, across as many different sub-streams of the engineering disciple you’re studying. This way by the time graduate you’ll have a better understanding of the kind of work you enjoy.
30 / innovate July 2020
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POWER CABLE MONITORING & MAINTENANCE: MINIMIZING RISK & EXPOSURE TO COVID-19 IN THE FIELD USING FIBER OPTICS
LES RICHARDS • Live & remote monitoring • Highly advanced artificial
intelligence
• Maintenance teams only deployed
when problems are detected
• Field operatives risk minimized
by predictive failure analysis
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ovid-19 has a significant impact on our lives for now and for the foreseeable future. Minimising time in the field and minimising the time support and maintenance crews are forced to the field via shared vehicle, lunch facilities and day to day interaction are necessary aims for all areas of manufacturing and infrastructure development & monitoring. The following is to discuss on the Covid-19 friendly monitoring of Power Cables above and below ground installations The Problem Underground Infrastructure; once installed needs to stand the test of time. In some cases, data cables, wires and power transmission lines can be expected to have an operating life from a few decades up to almost a century without the possibility of a visual inspection. Monitoring for wear, damage or corrosion of the cable is extremely difficult and often power failure or data outage is the first sign of a problem. Often, these cables are installed in areas that have multiple uses by various stakeholders and in the event of a failure can be logistically difficult and expensive to access for repair. Due to their lack of accessibility, it should also be noted that third-party intrusion is a much greater threat to buried power transmission lines. The risk of Arc Flash from live conductors and the potential for electric shock is high. The performance of these cables is constantly degrading over time. This effect although slow www.iceaus.org
ultimately causes failure of the conductors. The location of these faults is a major challenge and a significant contributor to downtime. Ultimately to manage these risks, a method of around the clock monitoring is required that can be fitted during construction or retrofitted to existing infrastructure. Due to the long runs transmission cables need to cover, traditional instrumentation would need to be installed at regular intervals along the cable run and require supporting infrastructure (power and communications) to each device, which is an entirely impractical proposal. The Solution To solve this problem a solution would need to do the following: • Detect issues as a distributed sensor rather than a point sensor • Require no additional field infrastructure such as power or communications • Operate in real-time • Low cost per foot • Autonomous detection with low false alarm rate • To be preventative rather than reactive Until the advent of Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing systems, it was almost impossible to achieve any of these technical requirements this application required. The first notice an operator would get would be a disruption to their network. Fiber Sensing of Power Cables The monitoring of power cables using optical fiber Distributed Temperature Sensors (DTS) is a well-established and widely used technology. The optical fiber cable may either be installed near the power cable or embedded within the power cable itself. In recent years the technology to reliably carry out Distributed Acoustic Sensing has also been widely reported. Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) technology based
on coherent Rayleigh backscatter in optical fiber resembles a vast number of "microphones" using simple passive glass fiber as a sensor over long distance and has been a subject of significant interest. Whilst current commercial DAS systems reach up to 40 or 50 km sensor length, recent research has been presented which increases the reach past this point. Principle of Operation The fiber-based sensing system interrogator unit is connected to one end of a fiber optic cable which is attached to the cable being monitored. The interrogator produces rapidly pulsed laser light set at a precise frequency that excites the fiber and causes it to be responsive to physical changes around it. Some of this light is reflected back (backscattered) to the light source where the interrogator records and analyses, looking for changes to its color relating to physical effects in the application. Time of Flight Locations of events are able to be accurately determined by a method called time of flight. The amount of time from sending the laser pulse to receiving a return signal is recorded. Due to the internal properties of a fiber optic cable, the speed of light through a fiber is consistent. The signal return time can be used to calculate a distance on the fiber. Vibration Detection In the System, an optical effect called Rayleigh backscatter is used to observe vibrational effects on a fiber. In a fiber optic cable [removed period here] backscatter is the light that reflects off natural imperfections within the fiber and returns to the light source. The returned light gets diffracted into different frequencies and Rayleigh backscatter is one of these diffracted frequencies. innovate July 2020 / 31
The amount of compression that vibration from an event (such as intrusion, partial discharge or cable vibration) causes on the cable determines the strength of the Rayleigh component of the backscatter. The intensity and frequency of the vibration is measurable by recording the behaviours of the Rayleigh backscatter component. This change in intensity and frequency is used to determine the presence and position of a disturbance to within 3.2 ft. (one meter). To being classified as an alarm the amount of time, the dominant frequencies and the relative intensity all need to be present within pre-determined thresholds. This reduces the amount of false signals that classified as alarms. Functionality The Fiber Optic Sensing System (FOS) uses a combination of Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) and Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) to protect underground buried cables. By exciting a fiber optic cable, the Interrogator is able to utilize the fibers as distributed network equivalent to up to 1.6 Million individual vibration, temperature and strain sensors. The System utilizes a number of different sensing methods and it is possible to observe events in a number of physically independent ways. The System is resistant to taking a given reading and giving a false alarm, due to the requirement for multiple physical effects to simultaneously occur at the same location to signify an event and trigger an alarm. Through a combination of distributed vibration, temperature and strain monitoring it is possible to determine multitudes of different physical events along a cable, including but not limited to: • Detection of partial discharge • Detection of hot spots • Early alert of third party intrusion • Conductor break detection • Ground condition assessment • Prevention arc flash events from conductor contact • Detection of optical Loss • Detection of Fiber Break 32 / innovate July 2020
• Detection of pit or trench lid being opened • Determination of network operational status (thermal loading) The System also has Geo-tags alarms allowing security or maintenance teams to be able to respond immediately. Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS): Third Party Intrusion Detection Often the primary way of preventing damage to buried assets is to prevent them from being struck and damaged by third parties. As significant excavations are generally required to unearth buried cables, the process of excavation takes sufficient time so that a warning provided quickly enough can give an operator enough time to alert the third party to the dangers below them. Different digging events generate different signals which are picked up by the monitored fiber buried alongside an asset. Temperature Detection, Real Time Thermal Rating At the same time that the interrogator is monitoring for vibration, the System will continuously hunt for temperature spikes along its length. It does this by scanning a separate fiber within the cable and looking for changes to another component of backscattered light called Brillouin scattering. The system can be calibrated to run very fast (a few seconds), lower accuracy (±1°C) scans of the fiber for temperature changes or to take a slower (half a minute) more detailed scan for maximum accuracy (±0.25°C) of temperature to sense even the smallest changes. Due to the relatively consistent ground temperature, it is possible to use dynamic cable temperature to undertake a calculation known as RTTR (Real Time Temperature Rating). Using RTTR it is possible to observe the amount of current flowing through a conductor based on the supply power and the cables mechanical properties. This allows for fine control and monitoring of cable load during stable and emergency scenarios.
RTTR systems are able to indicate whether areas are overheated or have more capacity than originally anticipated. The use of RTTR systems can assist with network load spreading and allow for direct monitoring of cables when running in an overloaded condition. This allows the maximum operating temperatures to be observed and controlled before emergency conditions can occur on the network. The maximum temperature reading of each configured cable section and the electrical current reading are computed to build the dynamic cable rating of the installation, based on IEC 60287 and IEC 60853 standards. The Key Inputs to the RTTR Cable Rating Modelling are Required as Follows: • Cable size and type, installation configuration (cable laying formation) • Soil ambient temperature • Soil thermal resistivity and cable backfill material thermal resistivity if used The Outputs from a RTTR Used in a Buried Cable Environment include: • Real time conductor temperature along the power cable • Emergency ratings – this can be for a range of times from typically 30 minutes to 48 hours+ • Transient calculations for Time/ Current/Temperature Temperature Monitoring: Temperature Profiling The use of distributed temperature monitoring for ground temperature monitoring is a common use of fiber optic sensing DTS systems. These benefits include: • Monitoring of annual and seasonal changes in ground condition • Ground freezing and flood monitoring • Ground water table interaction • Ground temperature monitoring for material degradation monitoring.
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Conclusion • The System can function where the cable cannot be visually inspected (due to burial) • Fiber Optic Sensing detects not only the presence of the fault of failure but its specific location • The System is extremely sensitive, detecting sounds well below the range of frequency human hearing. • Due to the use of “long haul” single mode fiber the System is able to detect faults over long distances. • Existing Fiber optic data infrastructure may be utilized • System is passive, no electricity is required in the field • No maintenance or calibration required after commissioning • Self-diagnostics monitor the unit’s condition and maintain optimum performance • Not effected by electromagnetic fields (EMF), lightning or weather events • Easy, low cost installation with cable
• Low cost per foot. • Geo located event flagging • Various notification systems (SMS, email, communications)
The Author is the CEO /Founder Hawk Measurement Systems. He is the Chairman Chongqing J-V. He has been a leader in development and creation of predictive capabilities within various instruments and has further enhanced Artificial Intelligence ANN enabling transfer of huge data loads from an edge network to a core network resulting in enhanced performance with accurate prediction of possible future failure. www.hawkmeasure.com email: les.richards@hawk.com.au
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Image from Pixabay
Live Optical Condition Monitoring By analyzing the resultant return signal from the Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) light pulse, a number of optical fault conditions can be detected due to the presence of a loss of return light. The time of flight is used to determine the location of that loss where it occurs. Different optical loss conditions can be detected including (but not limited to): • Micro-bends • Macro-Bends • Connector losses • Fusion Splice losses • Impurities • Fiber Cut • Moisture and Hydrogen infusion loss. • Time based Degradation. Losses are able to be monitored over time and alert thresholds set to allow planned maintenance well ahead of total failure conditions.
I
nternet of things (IOT) has become an immensely popular buzzword of recent times. What is IOT? Devices that are connected to the internet and can be accessed from anywhere in the world can be categorized as IOT. This does not refer to a new technology rather a combination of existing and emerging technologies. Some examples of IOTs in everyday life include smart TV, smart home security systems, smartphonebased health and wellbeing monitoring devices, etc. If we look carefully, we can see there are three major components involved in these devices: sensors (the components that are responsible to collect data), computing (processing the data) and the internet (to send and receive data). Let us discuss each of these major components bit more. A simple example of everyday use of sensors is the courtesy lights in our backyards. These lights are fitted with motion sensors, when any movement is observed, the sensor sends signals to the appropriate unit and decides to turn on the lights. These devices also fitted with light-sensitive sensors, so the lights stay turned off during the day or when there is a lack of sunlight. Now, what if the same device is connected to your phone via Wi-Fi of your house and the internet? This will then become an IOT device! That means IOT is neither a new thing nor a particular technology rather a combination of old and new technologies. 34 / innovate July 2020
Image from Pixabay
IOT FOR ALL
M. Imroz Sohel
If it is not a new technology, why IOT becoming so popular. I think there are a few major contributing facts. The first one is the cost, due to the unprecedented reduction in cost of semiconductor materials, these devices are becoming much more accessible. To give you a perspective, an IOT based air quality monitoring device consisting of sensors and internet connectivity could cost you hundreds of dollars. The majority of the cost will come from the sensors. However, the cost of the chips responsible for computing and connecting to the internet will cost only a tiny part. The second contributing factor is the reduction of the actual size of the computing devices (processors/ ICECT). The third major contributing factor is the development of telecommunication network, you can get 4G network in major areas where most of our population live. The cost of data for IOT devices (which usually use only a tiny bit of data compared to our usual video streaming and live football matches) using the 4G network is quite low. New technologies such as LoRaWAN promising significant cost reduction as well as the possibility to connect to the most remote areas. Let us discuss LoRa and LoRaWan technology a bit. Lora and LoRaWan are proprietary of Semtech. LoRa (short for long range) is a spread spectrum modulation technique derived from chirp spread spectrum (CSS)
technology. Few examples of applications of this technology include smart cities, smart homes and buildings, smart agriculture, smart metering, smart supply chain and logistics, and more. This technology can be game-changer for Australia due to its vast land and remoteness. Some specific areas where LoRa can be attractive in Australia are agriculture, mining and environment. Information is the key to success in the future economy. Organizations using IOT technologies will have efficiency, reliability and remote access at a very reasonable cost. Policymakers can make informed decisions. Like any other technologies, IOT posses many issues that need to addressed including privacy. However, it is up to us to take control and use it for the wellbeing of humankind rather controlled by it.
The author is the founder and CEO of Hertz Technologies. He is also co-founder and director of Global Renewable Energy Solutions. Prior to this he has worked as an academic at the University of Wollongong and New Zealand Forest Research Institute (Scion). msohel@hertztechno.com
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How Advanced Technologies are Assisting in the Fight Against COVID-19 Modern technologies are assisting tin the war against COVID-19 in many different ways. The technologies which came to immediate applications are Artificial Intelligence, Drones and Robots, Remote Sensing, Smart Grid, Tele Education, Tele Marketing Telemedicine, Zoom etc. Here are some applications.
Artificial Intelligence : (AI) Though Artificial Intelligence (AI) is still in evolving stage, yet some distinct factors have enabled using AI during the COVID-19 pandemic. The uses in areas are: Open Access databases, capturing a wide range of structured bioinformatics allowed organizations building up knowledge to be harnessed immediately.
Rapid dissemination of fact finding has allowed different teams to come together and experiment with findings much quicker than traditional pear viewed results.
Image from Pixabay
Beyond the call of duty. Many companies have realized that their assets and capabilities can be used to combat COVID-19 Collaboration between private and public organizations have been made possible for sharing resources and in advancing technologies. AI has assisted the fight against COVID-19 in identifying the outbreak, tracking the speed, aiding diagnoses, caring for the patient, treating the virus and managing the pandemic.
Image by Pixabay
Robots and Drones: Since the outbreak of COVID-19 Pandemic Meditech companies in different countries have used drones and robots for providing services and care to those quarantined and maintaining social distancing. Telemedicine supported by robots, makes it possible for medical professionals to communicate with patients remotely, saving time and letting contagious patients staying at home. Robots can communicate with individuals quarantined and acquire important information of the patients for the doctors. Robots are immune to infection and hence are used to deliver medical supplies within healthcare environments. Robots are also delivering essential items for persons who shop online and quarantined at home.
Drones patrolled areas for observing crowds and traffics efficiently. It is also used in spraying disinThe process between idea and implementation must be short, fectants in public places. Through thermal sensing drones are also helping in crowd management and 3d printing during COVID-19 established this strategy. identifying persons with elevated body temperature Thousands 3d printing products have been manufactured to with the possibility of virus infection. address COVID-19 medical situation.
3d Printing:
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Application of LiDAR Technology for Forest Mapping and Management Sultana Nasrin Baby
L
iDAR is a very accurate and precise technology that uses laser pulse to strike the object.
Regular photogrammetry or other survey technology can miss the
surface elevation value that is hidden by vegetation or forest canopy. But LiDAR can penetrate through the object and detect the surface value. LiDAR technology is used to calculate the surface elevation values in forests. Other
traditional technologies such as photogrammetry is not very accurate as compared to LiDAR. LiDAR collects this data by using laser pulses to strike the object precisely and it is not obstructed by canopy or forest vegetation.
Forest planning and management LiDAR technology is relied upon in the planning and management of forests. For instance, LiDAR can be used to measure the vertical structures of the canopy in the forests and to understand the density of the canopy. Forest fire management Creating fuel models to simulate fire behavior can be critical when it comes to mitigating loss of life and property damaged by fire. In commercial forestry operations, wildfires can also devastate a plantation in a matter of hours. LiDAR is one of the latest technologies being used to help map, monitor and manage the spread and damage caused by wildfires. Fire departments across the world are using LiDAR technology to manage forest fires in a variety of ways. For instance, the technology provides data that can be used to monitor the fire patterns in the forests making the fire department aware of the next possible forest fire and even put measures to avoid it. Precision forestry Additionally, LiDAR is a tool that is starting to see widespread use for precision forestry and agricultural applications. Precision forestry is the planning of a specific forest site for the purpose of increasing the productivity of the site in terms of the quality of trees and the overall yield. LiDAR data provides precision data regarding a specific site and helps in targeting the area in order to achieve.
Photo: Supplied
36 / innovate July 2020
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Photo: Supplied
Forest mapping LiDAR data is important in providing the exact data regarding the terrain of a particular place and its suitability to plant a forest in that area. The data gotten from this technology will give details about the terrain including the land height and quality of soil to determine its suitability to have a forest. Environmental assessment The data generated from LiDAR is used in environmental assessment. This assessment is usually done to ensure the plants and trees in a forest are protected or not. This can also be used to find an area in a forest that has been affected by human activities and put mitigating factors to reduce environmental degradation. Biodiversity of birds Forests are home to several bird species, insects and animals. Forests experts rely on LiDAR data to analyze the vertical cover of trees in the forests and then use this data to determine the suitability of bird species that can thrive in that environment. Ecological and land classification Ecological and Land Classification (ELC) is usually done to provide accurate information about a particular landscape. This information was traditionally extracted using surveying. But LiDAR technology gives much more accurate www.iceaus.org
information in determining what land will be put under forests, what area will be under habitat management and so on. Study forest ecology The data collected through LiDAR technology is precise enough to offer all the information regarding forest ecology and the habitats within the forest. This information then helps the researchers to understand what kind of animals live in the forest and what species will survive and which ones will not. Forest structure analysis LiDAR technology has already been used in determining the forest structure. The data collected can tell the vertical distribution of light transmittance and the foliage distribution. It can also determine the height and density of trees within the forest. Estimation of carbon absorption Increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases due to human activities have been linked to global climate change. LiDAR technology can be used to get accurate data regarding the forest including the level of carbon absorption in the forest. This data is then used to determine the amount of carbon within a specific location in the forest and help researchers make improvements. This will also find out how much have the carbon stocks changed over the past 10 years and how to
monitor the difference between a “business as usual” scenario and a “reduced emission scenario”. Pollution modeling LiDAR technology is able to map forest and determine the pollutants that are found in and around the forest and help researchers and forest experts to eliminate the pollutants and hence keep the forest healthy. Individual tree analysis LiDAR data is already being used to calculate individual tree characteristics including the tree height and the crown diameter. With this data, people can then determine the health of trees in that particular region and come up with ways of improving the overall tree health. Controlling deforestation LiDAR data can be used to calculate the expected tree output in the forest and the actual tree output and determine the exact difference. This data can also be used to explain the cause of the discrepancy and researchers can then use this information to institute control measures.
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Businesses in Wyndham, Open During COVID-19
LiDAR point classification LiDAR data sets may already be classified by the vendor with a point classification. The codes are generated by the reflected laser pulse in a semi-automatic way. A list of classification codes for LiDAR has been defined. For example, classes include ground, vegetation (low, medium and high), building, water, unassigned, etc. Point classification may fall into more than one category. If this is the case, these points are usually flagged and have secondary classes. The Author is the Senior GIS Officer at the City of Whittlesea for the past 6 years, continue this role as the GIS and Asset project management. Nasrin has 12 years of experience in research and development working in climate change and GIS/Asset industry in Victorian Local Government. Nasrin holds double degree master in the Geography and Environment sciences from Monash University, Dhaka University, and a PhD from RMIT University for the Spatial Decision Support System for Coastal Flood Management in Victoria, Australia. snb.sdml@gmail.com.
KID’S DESIGN COMPETITION
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QUATERLY CONTACT ICEA
Bushfires in Australia Mahfuz Sarwar
www.iceaus.org
measures such as monitoring for arson, moisturizing high-risk bushland area, and controlled vegetation are some of them which could reduce the risk of bushfires in many cases. On the other hand, known bushfire attack mechanisms are wind, smoke, ember, exposure of radiant heat and flames and the like. The provision of building setbacks (i.e. asset protection zones) from vegetated areas and the siting of buildings to minimize the impact of radiant heat and direct flame contact, adequate firefighting facility and water supplies for authorized emergency services, ensuring proper access requirements for emergency service vehicles, ensuring construction standards to be used for buildings to minimize the vulnerability of buildings to ignition from radiation and ember attack during bushfires, land and evacuation management in case of bushfire emergency are the few among many ways to address those bushfire attack mechanism. Regarding the bushfire survival plan, fire agencies always recommend that individuals who are living in bushfire-prone areas should develop a bushfire survival plan and discuss this with your family. Making decisions with your family and planning what you would do in a fire before the bushfire season begins will help make sure everyone knows what to do in the event of a bushfire. This will help you cope and survive anxiety and panic. An important point to note never to follow the
"wait and see" strategy during a bushfire. On days forecast as catastrophic or extreme fire danger, your safest option is to leave early, either very early in the morning or even the night before. If you live in or intend to travel to a high-risk bushfire area, it is important to know the location of the nearest bushfire safer place, meeting point or evacuation centre and how to get there. Always notify your family and friends of your plans and intentions to stay or go. It is also important to make sure your bushfire survival kit is ready, and you know of its exact location. From this brief discussion above, it is clear that we can’t deny the fact that bushfires have a great socio-economic impact on Australia and the author believe extended research is needed from every aspect to minimize the
Author Dr. Mahfuz Sarwar (PhD. in Fire Engg.) Fire Safety Consultant (Focused Fire Engineering) Affiliated Researcher in Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre
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Image from Pixabay
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ushfires are common occurrence in Australia and generally take place due to its hot and dry climate and abundance of fuel as dry vegetation during summer. Basically, they are defined as uncontrolled fire growth in landscapes or wildland areas. Bushfires threaten human life and property. From 1900 to 2015, around 5000 bushfires occurrence was recorded in Australia. Among them, on Saturday, 7th February 2009, the worst series of bushfires took place in Victoria and across other states of Australia. Australia experienced its highest ever loss of life from this worst incident. 173 people died, around 500 were injured and approximately 2200 houses destroyed from this series of bushfires. The day was named after this incident as Black Saturday. It is assumed that this uncontrolled series occurred due to extreme bushfire weather conditions. Furthermore, during the last 40 years in Australia, bushfires cost about $2.5 billion, took 250 people's lives and damaged approximately 4554 houses. The main cause of bushfire relies on a couple of factors such as environmental conditions, fire behavior, fire intensity, an abundance of fuel/ vegetation and arson. Among them, some of the causes are not reasonably practicable to prevent using the conventional protection methods. However, adopting some control
Fire Safety Parves Raksand Kamal
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ne of the popular idioms said that “There is no smoke without fire”. This idiom is not for the cause of the fire, we can tell this idiom is as an indication of the result of the fire. Nowadays many countries are going to be fire-prone on earth. Sometimes the people are facing bushfire, electrical fire, gas or other cause of the fire. Since, especially in every Metropolitan city, traffic congestion is worsening every day, it is difficult for Fire Brigade to reach out to the fire-affected building rapidly to save life. Different cities like Dhaka, Melbourne, New York, Tokyo, etc. are now introduced as a fast growing city in the world, it is necessary to work out proactively rather than a reactive way to handle this type of catastrophic issues like Fire. For this reason, the general people (owners and neighbours), government officials or building certifiers (those who usually review, approve and provide occupancy certificates for the building), building practitioners (like Architects, Engineers, Contractors, Consultants, etc) should aware of the consequence of casualty of Fire Massacre and responsible to solve this problem together. The main objective of Fire Safety consideration should be as follows in the light of Proactiveness and Reactiveness: •Life safety of all occupants (Proactiveness) •Provide facilities for Fire Brigade to control Fire (Reactiveness) •Protection of the property itself (Proactiveness) •Protection of Adjacent property from spreading fire (Proactiveness) We can see from the above 40 / innovate July 2020
that three points from “Proactiveness” compared to one point of “Reactiveness”. Now the question arises in every body’s mind, how does a fire consultant deal with fire safety design to meet all the above -mentioned objectives. Although the Fire Engineering design and implementation is highly technical however I want to share some strategy and provide perspective roles and responsibilities of regularity authorities for the understanding of all. This is because every stakeholder should know the basic principal of the Fire Safety System and the approval process during design, implement and after execution. On this occasion, we can follow the “International Fire Engineering Guidelines (IFEG)”. According to my working experience in the Australian construction industry, Australia is strictly maintaining the methodology and process at the very beginning of planning. Actually, all consultants (like Architects, Engineers, Building Certifiers, etc.) keep in their minds about fire issues when they prepare their design, drawing and specification respectively. Generally, the combination of building features creates an overall fire safety system, by considering its performance with respect to the followings according to IFEG Guidelines: Fire Engineering Brief: The fire engineer coordinates with stakeholders and other consultants based on hazards and risk of building to propose a guideline with technical justifications in “Fire Engineering Brief” regarding the ignition property of the material used in building, identify probable fire sources &
toxicity development, proposing alternative design & solutions, prepare performance requirement analysis to deemed to satisfy the relevant building code and also identify special commissioning system or performance solution if Fire Engineer is to be used alternate design method. The Fire Engineer is generally working closely with Architects, relevant engineers like Structural, Mechanical, Electrical to understand how the structures to be reacted in case of fire and how Fire Brigade or occupants of building to react during fire hazards Fire Engineering Report: The Fire Engineer prepares “Fire Engineering Report” based on agreed drawings and documents of the building which to be developed agreed “Fire Engineering Brief” and also prepare Fire Engineering Drawings for the building after computer modelling of fire for designing. It is a disciplined approach of Fire Engineering. Regulatory Approval: All design, computations, different fire test for materials used in construction is supplied to Government Regulatory Body to provide approval for design and documents to commence construction of the building. Construction Phase: During construction phase regulatory authority or building certifiers ensures fire safety of the building by continuously checking process, test reports, and fire safety system components are installed properly as mentioned in drawings, documents and specifications.
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Images from Pixabay
Commissioning: Proper commissioning of Fire Design is a crucial part of all processes. Fire Engineers tests the building fire system by creating artificial smoke or heat or following other relevant processes like creating false alarm to Fire Brigade to understand the time and complications of the intervention of Fire Brigade. Final Approval: The government regulatory body and fire engineers will certify the final approval after perceiving that the building is constructed as per guideline, FER, fire drawings, specifications, commissioned properly, do not compromise regarding any materials or fire www.iceaus.org
safety components, maintaining evacuations guideline, etc. Maintenance: The responsibility of Fire engineering is not finished at the time of Final Approval. Fire engineering needs to be involved in regular maintenance cycles to ensure the total building fire systems are working properly. The life and property of people and the country are always priceless. The better way to lead ourselves is to remember “Prevention is better than cure.�
The Author completed his B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from University: Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology. He is a Profession: Contract Administrator / Procurement Officer. He has 12 Years of Construction Experience in Bangladesh and 4 Years of Construction Practice in Australia. innovate July 2020 / 41
NURTURING INNOVATION IN ENGINEERING PROJECT Mehedi Hasan
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between Engineering, Management, Business Processes, and Systems as well as Social Context & Culture. Innovation and new technology are key to the success of engineering projects. According to the Australian Innovation System Report 2013, 91 percent of Australian businesses report a benefit from innovation and this can be as high as 97.6% for large Australian businesses. Effective management of technology development is very important for the development of engineering projects which ultimately enables new scientific discoveries. According to Gregory L. Davis1, the main components of this management activity are the knowledge of the technology life cycle, technology portfolios,
inspiring and managing innovation, and the best practices of technology task management. Twin-nine km Melbourne Metro tunnel is being constructed by using the modern Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM). There is a strong encouragement to innovation throughout the planning, design, delivery, and operation of the project. A range of innovative construction techniques is being used to build the metro tunnel, with an emphasis on reducing impacts to residents and businesses. The tunneling technology used is proven in many underground rail projects around the world and are tried and tested under a range of geological conditions and inner-city urban environments.
Image Source: Pixabay
new technology or innovation, a catalyst for an engineering project, is necessary for a better outcome. Without this, a project can be run at its normal pace, however, there are extraordinary ideas that can give it a boost. Advanced technology and novelty bring positive changes, add values and benefits for the economy and society. This creates a more efficient production of products and services. It is the best practice of doing some things another way to take the lead. It considers the future demand. Technology is advancing. Without using up-todate technology, a project would not be sustainable. Innovation and technology management sits
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Figure : Tunnel Boring Machine (Source- Metro Tunnel Web)
almost 10 years. In the future, the transport industries would be different. There is no scope of expanding road in CBD (Central Business District). So it is necessary for innovative technology so that it can be possible to make tunneling faster and safer. Every Engineering project should have practiced the best organizational culture suitable for innovation. It should be interested to create the culture - workplace environment - to enable innovation to occur and manage it to create a commercial benefit. There will be trust and win for all parties. Innovation and technology are vital for completing a project within time and budget. It must be well managed. There is no shortcut. If you follow the specific strategy, success will come. However, the risk behind new technology also needs to be
considered while applying innovation. If the new idea can be successfully applied to a portion of the project it can be used in the future as proven technology and will get the patent rights. Technology is advancing. I believe through innovation, a new era will usher in engineering.
The Author is an Electrical and Electronic Engineer and Renewable Energy Consultant. He is a Clean Energy Council Accredited Grid Connected PV Designer.
Image Source: Pixabay
Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM) are large machines that tunnel through the ground, progressively installing concrete linings to support the excavated tunnel. Excavated material is transported through the machine to the surface for removal by trucks. TBMs are typically used in the construction of long underground tunnels. Inside the TBM it looks like a factory. It has a very controlled environment. Once the machine excavated 1.4 to 1.8 meters, the TBM will stop excavation and the precast concrete ring will be installed to maintain ground support. The TBM Move away, got the concrete ring and make the tunnel. In a competitive environment using the same technology of tunneling, you will go backward. Where a 9 km road construction time 1 year, a twin nine km tunnel construction time
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INTERNATIONAL Business Continuity Plan (BCP) for Bangladesh Power Sector Against the Adverse Impact of COVID-19 Mohammad Hossain
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ways to address the situation, e.g. how to ensure uninterrupted services, how to guarantee the safety of the employees on duty, how to secure payments of the bills from the consumers, etc. The Hon’ble Adviser to the Prime Minister for Power, Energy & Mineral Resources Affairs, Dr. Tawfiq-E-Ilahi Chowdhury,BB has also provided essential counseling and guidance in this respect. Important decisions made in this regard are as follows: 1.All our measures will be taken in order to keep the workplaces disinfected. Adequate quantity of disinfectants and personal protective equipment (PPE), e.g., sanitizer, masks, hand gloves, etc. should be kept in the workplace. 2.In each important installation where 24-hour services are required, the employees will be grouped in teams and will perform their duties on a rotation basis so that in case any of them is infected, the whole team can be evacuated for quarantine purpose and be replaced by another team. 3.The consumers will not be
disconnected and will be exempted from any surcharge in case they can’t pay their bills in due time. 4.Similar arrangement will also be made for the prepaid metered consumers through opening their friendly hour. 5.Sufficient striking force will be ensured for each distribution utility so that they can instantly provide service to the consumers in case of any disruption. 6.There are focal points (principal and alternative) from each utility and also from the ministry. The list of these focal points will be widely circulated in different print, electronic and social media for the consumers to be reached. 7.The ministry and the utilities will open the WhatsApp group to communicate regularly within themselves so that they can substitute the normal office hours. 8.In addition to the above-mentioned measures taken for securing the smooth continuation of the business, both the Divisions of the ministry are to raise CSR funds for contributing to the affected
Image Source : Powercell Website
he world is facing an unprecedented challenge due to the aggressive attack of the new invisible enemy, Corona Virus (COVID-19). While the developed nations are struggling hard to overcome this challenge, the situation in Bangladesh is understandably very incommodious. Under the auspicious leadership of our Hon’ble Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, this has been considered as war and we all have been urged to fight against this. Bangladesh Power Sector, inspired by her visionary leadership and guidance, has responded to this completely unforeseen situation in order to build up resilience. An emergency meeting has been held under the chairmanship of Mr. Nasrul Hamid MP Hon’ble State Minister, Ministry of Power, Energy & Mineral Resources, to discuss the situation and sort out a BCP for Power and Energy sector. Based on the decision taken at the meeting, a set of guidelines has been issued regarding the best
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determination of ways of minimizing possible costs, etc. Power Cell of the Ministry of Power, Energy & Mineral Resources has been entrusted to do the impact study of COVID-19; to assess the financial losses due to COVID-19. It has already undergone this impact study with its in-house resources and has also recommended measures to overcome the losses and continue the operations and thereby ensure uninterrupted energy supply to the consumers. The findings and recommendations include several options for seeking support from the Banks, the most noteworthy feature of which is to receive a credit line under the umbrella of the government stimulus package. Based on these recommendations, the Power Division is in the process of opening up dialogues with the national and international financial institutions seeking their support. The power sector has always demonstrated resilience in the face of a crisis in the past. It has always played the leading role in
overcoming adversity. It will overcome the present crisis as well as it subdued the power crisis during 2009-2010. This time, we are also pledge-bound to do so.
Engr. Mohammad Hossain is the Director General of Power Cell, a technical arm of Power Division, Ministry of Power, Energy & Mineral Resources. He is a member of Joint Steering Committee for Bangladesh- India Cooperation in Power Sector. He the Chairman of UN-ESCAP Energy Committee _(20192020) and also a Member of the Governing Board in SAARC Energy Centre, the Taskforce for Policy & Legal Issue of South Asia Regional Initiative/ Energy Integration (SARI/EI). He is member of the D-8 Working Group on Renewable Energy
Image Source : Powercell Website
9.The utility heads are to send messages to their employees from time to time to boost up their morale. 10.The policymakers are to monitor the situation regularly and encourage the whole power team. Besides implementing these measures, the ministry has also planned to undergo an impact analysis under the prevailing situation that has emerged due to the pandemic and prepare a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) during the lockdown period. The salient features of this plan will be how to continue to serve the consumers with minimum disruptions, build greater resilience, prioritize ongoing and incoming contracts/works. Most importantly, it will include an assessment of the financial position e.g. financial losses due to COVID19, revenue and cost requirements for the next few months, identification of sources of revenue and possible impacts on revenue due to lockdown, recognition of planned, unplanned and critical cost heads,
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Through The Eyes Of A Teenage Dreamer
Photo Credit: Kazi Golam Saarwar Shameem
Meem Noshin Nawal Khan.
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lobal pandemic in 21st century caused by COVID-19, originated in China, is the most talked topic in the world right now. The scientists, doctors, researchers, economists, environmentalists are talking about COVID-19 and its impacts. They are using their knowledge, skills, experience and expertise for revealing deep insights and information everyday. As a teenage learner, we are learning useful lessons from everyone every day. As an undergraduate teenager from Bangladesh aspiring from studying abroad here, I share my own account how COVID-19 has put on temporary hold of my dreams taking wings. Deep in my heart, I cherished the dream studying abroad. In 2019, I had decided to skip the university admission tests in Bangladesh. With a heart full of dreams, a mind full of determination and hope, I worked hard to apply to the US colleges. I undertook the SAT, SAT Subject Tests and IELTS. After days and nights of hard works, I finally got admission offers into a number of US colleges. Two of them offered me full ride covering my tuition fees, health insurance, living and meals. I also applied to one university in Finland and earned a full scholarship. My joys knew no bounds. My longcherished dream finally seemed to come true. 46 / innovate July 2020
In late March 2020, COVID-19 was started rocking and rolling the world. We still hoped things would get better soon. However, things not necessarily always go as planned. After a month of the first COVID-19 case detection in Bangladesh, we started hearing our near and dear ones getting diagnosed with COVID19. The number of daily COVID-19 cases and deaths has been increasing since then and it is not getting better until now during my writing. In March 2020, the US Embassy in Bangladesh stopped processing all types of visas. They haven’t resumed visa processing till the date I am writing. We do not know when everything will get back to normal and when we will be able to schedule a visa appointment. I do not know if we will be able to start our classes this fall. Though some colleges are allowing international students to defer one semester or one year in case they can’t make it to USA this fall due to the pandemic, many colleges and universities are not allowing deferment. So dreams of many students may get nipped in the bud. Many students passing sleepless nights for getting enrolled into their dream colleges are now in uncertainty about their academic future. It is also uncertain whether after pandemic admission into aspired institution or a full scholarship would be available for
them.
Everyone from (15year to 90 years old) would agree that this is the worst time they have ever witnessed in their lifetime. Despite all the reverses triggered by COVID-19, I would like to focus on the bright side. I am trying to find the good things around me. Look at the environment around. Dolphins are playing in the blue sea at Cox’s Bazar beach, Mount Everest becomes visible from Kathmandu after decades due to reduction of air pollution, and wild animals roaming around boldly on the streets as cities went to lockdown. As an early riser, I wake up by 5 am in the morning. I love watching the darkness fading away as a sweet, soothing light takes over the earth. But the mornings were different over the last few months. There is a tree standing outside my balcony where birds chirp to announce the start of a new day every morning. Since last two months, I have observed a change in this chirping sound. It has become much louder and clearer. Everyday, I notice at least ten sparrows playing together in the branches of my plants in the balcony whereas this number was only two or three before the COVID-19 outbreak. I have seen more than ten species of birds in my balcony in last couple of months whereas it was only four or five before this pandemic. www.iceaus.org
the world to take some steps to prevent environmental pollution. In Bangladesh, it is very important to encourage the mass people to use public transports instead of the private ones. Right now, there are more private transports than the roads in Dhaka can accommodate. This not only causes traffic congestion but also increases carbon emission significantly. Considering the circumstances, steps can be taken to reduce the number of private vehicles in Bangladesh by promoting public transports. This is high time to plan about increasing the use of sustainable energy sources by a great extent. If we can use sustainable energy to meet more than 50% of our energy demand, it will be a great achievement towards gaining a cleaner environment. I know this is not an easy task to implement, but we should at least start the planning from now. Solar panels can be installed on the rooftops of our apartments, and we can follow the Solar Power Tree model developed by India which needs only 4 square foot of land instead of the typical 400 square feet area needed by solar panels to create energy sufficient to light up five homes. We can also use transparent solar panels on the glass windows of skyscrapers. Another big issue in Bangladesh is that we prioritize specific disciplines of education only.
We have limited facilities and budget for the research field. Environmental scientists and engineers mostly choose to go abroad due to the insufficient job and research opportunities in Bangladesh. It is high time to focus more in these disciplines of study and provided more funding for environmental researches. The government should form a committee consisting of environmental scientists, environmental engineers, chemical engineers, chemists and experts from other related disciplines to work on the goal of sustainable environment. We don’t know when the COVID-19 pandemic will end. But we surely know that when it will, the world will not be the same as before. We are on the way to enter a new, changed world. Let’s make the changes towards positive and make a new world a better place to live in. The Author is a multi talented Bangladeshi teenager. She is waiting to commence her undergraduate education in USA securing full scholarship . She is a poet , writer , composer, reciter and television anchor. She has received many awards which include six Meena Media Awards from UNICEF for her works on children’s rights in the media. She has already authored 17 books of poems and juvenile stories .
Image Source : PIXABAY
Image Source : Unsplash
Before COVID-19 outbreak, when life was normal, I had to spray water on the leaves of my plants everyday as they would get too dusty. I was unable to keep anything by the window as it would have been covered with dust! But now, the leaves of my plants are more greener, and I don’t have to spray water even in a week! Therefore, COVID-19 not only made our lives miserable, but at the same time gave us opportunity to enjoy life in another missed way. It has given the environment a chance to breathe finally, which we did not allow for many years. The air quality in Dhaka improved significantly during the lockdown, as seen from the Air Quality Index. This is not the case in my city only, cities having high air pollution in different countries showed noticeable improvement of air quality during the COVID-19 pandemic. In China, carbon emission reduced by 25% and nitrogen oxide emission reduced by 50% during the COVID-19 outbreak, which, according to a scientist, may have saved at least 77,000 lives over two months. And to support the fact of improvement of water quality, the blue water has been seen in Cox’s Bazar after a long time is the closest example I have. When the lockdown will be over, it might be a good idea for the governments of the countries around
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Sweatshops workers in Post COVID-19
Mrs. Imtiaj Ara Momtaja, and Dr M. Nur-E-Alam
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n relation to the export and income, garment sector plays an important role in Bangladesh to build an economical foundation. Bangladeshi garments products are exported all over the world and it becomes possible for those workers (most of them are female workers) who provide the appropriate and cheap labour. They are the real architect and continuously taking part to build up the national economy. Despite they have various issues in their everyday life, including especially the female workers' societal status, living standards, health, socio-economic condition, and workplace safety, they work hard not only to lead their lives but also to help garments industries running appropriately for owner’s income. Even the work safety becomes a big concern not only for Bangladesh but also for the first world countries fashion industries due to several big accidents that happened in previous years which caused a huge loss of lives, could not stop their fight to help to build the country’s economy. The outbreak of the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has overturned not only human life but also the global economy drastically. This COVID-19 outbreak affects all kinds of industries all over the world. Bangladesh's ready-made garments sector is also affected severely during this COVID-19 pandemic crisis due to not have enough orders from foreign buyers and suppliers. As the factory owners are not getting any demand from the buyers, they are struggling to run their business and,
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. in some cases, they had to close the factories which forced to make huge job cuts in the garments sector. A huge number of living from hand to mouth sweatshop workers are out of work and struggling to lead their family and social life during this COVID-19 pandemic situation. Though there are some readymade garments (RMG) factories are continued their production cycle but due to health safety and regulations, they had to reduce the number of workers by pushing a portion of hard workers to be jobless. Since the last couple of critical months that the world has passed, it is now very well-foreseen that the post COVID world will not be the same as before. There will be a number of challenges need to be overcome to reform a new world. It is considered that the global economy may take the next 3~4 years to overcome the COVID effects, even may need a decade. This long-time recovery transition period will also affect the Bangladeshi industries and factories to come up with their fullfront business trend. Already, it is reported that even the stores are reopened, orders from suppliers in Bangladesh may not increase, as many retailers and brands are planning to sell all-season basics and leftovers from previous collections. Time demands to look up these sweatshop workers for our strong economy. There is a demand already raised by the garment’s worker association in Bangladesh which will help those low-income and jobless sweatshop workers by creating a small fund, with contributions from factory owners, buyers, and the government, to assist garment workers who are struggling to survive amidst the ongoing crisis.
The factory owners, foreign partners, and the government should pay more attention to make their life easy and safe for a better future of this RMG sector. The owner needs to run their factories even longer times daily to gain COVID-19 period losses. So, there are several attempts that can also be implemented by the government and the factory owner to help those workers who are currently out from works. One idea is to make two or more workers groups and offer them by rotation work shifts. In this way, it is possible to run any industry or factory for 24 hours and seven days. Another idea is the work share, the factory management can arrange by the fair and justifiable agreement with those jobless workers to share one post by workload and time, which will help all jobless workers at least to be in the flow. The third idea is some garments work requires handwork which can be done even at home, so those small had works can be distributed to some jobless workers to bring them back into the line of economy rebuilders. All those big factories and also those who are not capable run in full fluency should consider all the suggestions and comments that are already raised by the researches, business entrepreneur, government, and other authorities who are directly involved with this sector.
“A sweatshop is a workplace with very poor, socially unacceptable or illegal working conditions” (source: Wikipedia)
The authors currently live in Perth, WA, Australia.
Ex-Sub Editor, Sabuj Sylhet, Bangladesh, and b Edith Cowan University, WA, Australia
E-mail:sarwar840@yahoo.com
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Experience from Arresting Methane Emission from Natural Gas Distribution System of TITAS GAS TRANSMISSION & DISTRIBUTION CO. LTD. Asma Huque Background:
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ethane (CH4), the main component of natural gas, is a potent Green House Gas (GHG), so care needs to be taken at each stage of natural gas production, compression, transmission and distribution so that leakage of methane is as low as possible. However, modern equipment and approaches to finding and repairing leaks are expensive and have not been practiced nor been available in Bangladesh. The Kyoto Protocol established the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which is designed to incentivize projects which reduce GHG emissions. The idea is that companies in developing countries volunteer to reduce emissions on a project basis. The emissions are then certified by the responsible UN body, which issues Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs), also known as carbon credits. Countries or companies in the developed
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world are entitled to buy CERs and use them for compliance towards their obligations under the Kyoto Protocol and EU law. The UNFCCC establishes the rules and manages the CDM, while the EU has established what is the world’s largest market for CERs, which are tradable instruments. The revenue generated by selling CERs in the EU market should provide enough incentive for the CDM project to be carried out. Project with Titas Gas: Recently, Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Ltd. (TGTDCL), Bangladesh and NE Climate, Denmark, embarked on a CDM project involving detecting, quantifying and arresting natural gas leakage in Titas Gas’s above ground infrastructures – primarily (one third of) residential and commercial risers. This project was registered with the UNFCCC in 2015 (UNFCCC#10077). Of course, at this point in time with acute gas shortage the resource optimization part of the project brings more immediate benefit to
the country. Prokaushali Sangsad Ltd., a Bangladeshi engineering company, is the local host company implementing the field work for the project on behalf of the investor NE Climate A/S. The project involves two stages: Baseline Study (BS) and Monitoring. During the Baseline Study, teams of surveyors and repairmen spread out through the Titas network to find, quantify and repair leaks. The BS is limited to a period of 1 year and it is during this time that the total possible amount of repaired leaks/saved emissions of GHG will be achieved. The Monitoring stage involves returning to each leak repaired during the BS, checking that the repair still holds, fixing those that have reappeared and then quantifying the total amount of emissions saved during the period since the leak was first repaired, which is the basis for generating CERs and hence revenues to repay the investment made.
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Fig: Surveying and detecting leaks in a big facility
Success to Date: Before starting the baseline study phase, about 30,000 facilities were surveyed stretching over the Titas franchise area to gather knowledge on leak rates and leak frequency in different regions. These in combination with gas pressure and riser population and density enabled us to plan where to focus during the baseline study phase of the project. In Baseline Study (BS) a more extensive surveying and repairing was carried out, ensuring that none of the risers are left out. In doing this we had identified total gas leakage in excess of 409,860 lpm (litres per minute) and arrested nearly 100% of that. This resulted in preventing leakage of 20.84 MMCFD (Million Standard Cubic Feet per day) of gas which is about 1.5% of the gas off take of TGTDCL for non-bulk consumers. Just to put that saving into context: it is a quantum sufficient to support cooking of 220,500 families for one day or generate 103.28 MW of power for free. We would be looking at a total saving to the tune of 73.62 MMCFD if we could scale up our operation to cover all the domestic consumers of TGTDCL. www.iceaus.org
In addition, the project generated approximately 3.8 million CERs per annum and the revenue from this will pay back NE Climate’s investment, along with a healthy profit, to be shared with Titas Gas. Repairs: Although the leak detection and quantification is a sophisticated matter, the actual repair is quite basic. The root cause of leakage has been found to be non-sealing threaded joints, cracked Insulating Joint (IJ), squashed O rings and/or raptured diaphragm of regulating valves. In this project advanced materials that are being used for repair should work over a period of 10 years annually preventing carbon dioxide emissions of 3.8 million tons in total which could have been done only if we planted 173 million trees. In big facilities, small steps like repairing cracked pressure gauge connections etc., can prevent emission of substantial amount of gas even from small leaks due to relatively higher gas pressure. Potential future projects: The 13,000 km of pipeline of TGTDCL over the past presumably have developed a significant number of leaks, especially in absence of adequate cathodic
protection (CP) which may be detected, quantified and prioritized for repair and/or decommissioning. A pilot project involving digging exploratory pits, measuring the pipe thickness with ultrasonic leak detectors, detecting & quantifying emission will yield a correct estimate of the fugitive emission of natural gas.
.
The Author is the Managing Director of
Prokaushali Sangsad Ltd. (PSL), a consulting engineering company in Bangladesh. She received her Bachelor’s degree from BUET and Masters from AIT in Bangkok. She is extensively involved in the development of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency sector of Bangladesh, working in project/ program design and implementation. email- psldhaka2@gmail.com www.psldhaka.net
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COVID -19 Second Wave Rocks Victoria, Australia
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fresh spike of COVID- 19 cases in Victoria over the early July 2020 has forced state government imposing regional lockdown for another six weeks with effect from Wednesday 9 July 2020. Premier Daniel Andrews expressed deep concern over fresh outbreak and exponential growth of the second wave of COVID- 19. Brett Sutton, Chief Medical Officer warned of a significant increase of hospitalisation and death over the next weeks for the recent increase of confirmed cases.
Victoria is experiencing a considerably higher number of new coronavirus cases from Friday 10 July. Till 31 July 2020 Victoria recorded 10,577 confirmed cases and 113 deaths. The total cases in Australia is 16,905 and casualties are 196. Victoria has already overtaken NSW as the state with the highest number of cases. Brett Sutton Chief Health Officer informed that there had been continuing hot spots in the north-west corridor in particular. In recent days there has been an uptick in the suburbs Roxburgh Park, Craigieburn and
Truganina “People in those areas, in particular, should bear in mind that any symptoms, really, should prompt you to be tested,” Prof Sutton said. “You should not be seeing other people, (you) should be at home, you should be isolating and getting tested. He said the effect of Melbourne’s six week lockdown would only be seen in the next week or two. NSW has closed down all borders between Victoria and NSW as a measure for community contaminations from Victoria to NSW.
Poverty and Pandemic: South Asia Perspective
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combination of poor governance and an inadequate health care infrastructure has led to COVID -19 pandemic taking alarming proposition in the densely populated South Asian Countries. According to health experts, the dominance of the younger generation in demography is a potential reason for comparatively lower death rates. However, a UNICEF report has revealed that COVID may push 120 million children in South Asia into poverty added to the 240 million other children in the region. More and more children are succumbing to pneumonia and measles at home. Pregnant women are subjected to unsafe deliveries at home. About 430 million children in South Asia can not go to school and most of have them have no connectivity to the educational facility. Abuse of women and children are on the rise. Remittance and tourism being dried up, household spending on nutrition is getting reduced. The above developments may cause lasting impacts on 600 million children of South Asia. Longer the pandemic continues deeper will be impacted. Jean Gough, UNICEF Regional Director South Asia urged for urgent actions otherwise the hopes and future of the entire generation would be destroyed.
The Rapid Rise Of CORONA Virus ( South Asia ) Confirmed Cases /Death
Country
June 4,
June 11
June 18
June 25
India
2.26m/
2.98 m/ 8501
3.81m/12604
4.75m/ 14,838
Pakistan
0.85m/
1.1m/
1.60m/3093
1.92m/3903
Bangladesh
1770 57,593/781
2356 78,052/1048
102,292
126,608/162 1
Afghanistan
18,054/
22,890/426
27,532/546
30,175/675
Nepal
300 2634/10
4614/
7848/22
11,162/26
Maldives
1872/7
1976/8
2137/8
2261/8
Sri Lanka
1797/7
1877/
1946/11
2010/11
Bhutan
47/0
62/0
67/0
70/0
Total
3.93m/
5.27m/
8.41m/
9242
12,366
6.83m/17,62 7
21,182
Courtesy: FP, South Asia
Khondkar A Saleque 52 / innovate July 2020
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Oil Price Falling Back In The Wake Of Second COVID-19 Wave
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ingapore, July 13, 2020
(PR) - Project financing of two subsidiaries of Summit Power International (“SPI”) have received ‘Oil and Gas Deal of the Year’ and ‘Power Deal of the Year’ awards in the Best Deals in South Asia category at the Asset Triple Asia Infrastructure Awards 2020. With best deals on projects financing Summit is able to generate power and supply LNG to Bangladesh at a globally competitive rate. Summit’s deal worth US$97 million debt financing of Summit LNG Terminal Co Ltd (“SLNG”) received the ‘Oil and Gas Deal of the Year’. Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (“SMBC”) was
the mandated lead arranger. It is the first LNG transaction in Bangladesh that was funded on a non-recourse basis solely by an international commercial bank. This was a big step towards the commercial bankability of private sector infrastructure projects in Bangladesh. In addition, Summit Meghnaghat II Power Ltd (583MW), currently in its construction phase, won the ‘Power Deal of the Year’ for securing a US$350 million dualtranche term loan facility. Summit Group and GE Capital were sponsors of the deal while Standard Chartered Bank (“SCB”) and the International Finance Corporation (“IFC”) were the co-lenders. Swiss SERV was the
Export Credit Agency (ECA) structuring and coordinator bank making this deal. It is the first and largest project financing deal backed by the Swiss ECA in Bangladesh in the Independent Power Producer (IPP) space. GE Gas Power is providing the turnkey solution for the power project, and is responsible for the design of the facility, supply and installation of the equipment and commissioning works. The combined-cycle power plant will be powered by GE’s record-setting and most efficient heavy-duty 9HA gas turbine, that will generate equivalent electricity needed to supply up to 700,000 homes in Bangladesh. Source: Energy & Power Magazine ( www.ep-bd.com)
Oil Price Falling Back In The Wake Of Second COVID-19 Wave
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he volatile global crude oil marketcrushing to the all-time lowest level from COVID-19 impacts was showing some recovery. But off late a second spike in COVID-19 in the US and some other major using countries has pushed the price below US$40 once again. The global oil market crash caused most of the oil major and oil-exporting countries to restructure the investment portfolio. Many companies are on the verge of liquidation, many are downsizing. Experts believe that it may take a few years for the Global oil market to get back to business as usual.
Oil and Natural Gas Prices. ( as of 12 PM, 06/26/20, )
Brand
Price US$
Change
% Change
Contract
WTI
38.40/bbl
-0.32
-0.83%
August 2020
Brent
40.87/bbl
-0.18
-0.44%
August
Natural gas (NYMEX )
1.475 MCF
-0.007
-0.47%
2020 July 2020
Reference: Oil and Energy Insider.
Image from Pixabay
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S M Samsul Karim
NBN Plans Satellite-Enabled Mobile Backhaul Services
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Co has told the bushfires royal commission that it plans to develop a new satellite backhaul product to support mobile operators in areas with no terrestrial backhaul or as a potential satellite backhaul redundant path should a primary terrestrial path fail. During the summer’s bushfires, NBN Co used its Sky Muster satellites to provide a free, temporary backhaul service for mobile operators. Comms Day understands NBN Co has begun an Expression of Interest process to test mobile backhaul over satellite. Launch timing depends on initial testing outcomes and procurement and product development processes. NBN Co also told the royal commission that it was working on new products “that support remote broadband access and IP voice applications, including Wi-Fi calling for remote communities and evacuation centers.” EFTPOS over satellite is also envisaged. Earlier this year in the aftermath of the fires, the company unveiled plans to test a Sky Muster-based service to deliver connections to disaster-struck areas. NBN Co has also previously foreshadowed the potential use of satellite to offer an additional option for the 90,000 premises that sit within the reach of Sky Muster but have no access to mobile services. The Federal Government is separately currently mulling ways to provide alternative voice services for those households currently served only by Telstra’s copper network or by Telco's high capacity radio concentrator infrastructure. NBN Co has made clear that because of the limitations of fixed wireless and satellite it sees no role for itself as a replacement for Telstra’s Universal Service Obligation which is transitioning to the Universal Service Guarantee. However, the company told the government in February that the two technologies could be part of a “mix” of services to deliver voice to remote areas alongside, mobile phones, low-frequency radio, satellite VoIP and mobile satellite handsets. Consideration could also be given to using satellite backhaul to extend mobile coverage to very small populations currently outside the terrestrial mobile networks where costs of connecting to transit networks is prohibitive,” said a submission from NBN Co to a Federal Government consultation on the design of trials for alternative voice services. NBN is currently exploring options for products which have an application for the provision of backhaul for mobile services. This would be most efficient for voice services which use very little data.” In May, the government sought input on grant guidelines for trials of alternative voice services. The government is yet to release the outcomes from that consultation. Both Telstra and Optus have already deployed satellite based backhaul services in a number of locations across Australia. [Rohan Pearce, 7 July 2020, what’s happening today in telecoms, ISSUE 5957]
Sydney Universities Are Best In Telecom Engineering Rankings
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ydney’s telecommunications engineering university faculties are the best in a global comparison of academic achievement. The 2020 Academic Ranking of World Universities measured 54 subjects worldwide across a range of parameters including academic paper publication, citations, international collaborations and awards. The University of Technology in Sydney was ranked first in Australia for telecommunications engineering and 19th in the world. The University of Sydney ranked second in Australia and 30th in the world. The University of NSW was next at 35th followed by the Australian National University at 44th. Top Australian universities for telecom engineering: 1: UTS, Sydney 2: University of Sydney 3: University of NSW 4: The Australian National University The other universities which are also ranked include Deakin University, Macquarie University, RMIT, University of Melbourne , University of Queensland, Monash University, University of Adelaide and University of Wollongong. Other Australian universities were too far down the pack to be assigned an individual ranking. Deakin University and Macquarie University were banded in the 76-100 range; RMIT, the University of Melbourne and the University of Queensland the 151-200 range and Monash University, the University of Adelaide and the University of Wollongong the 201-300 range. Tsinghua University in Beijing was the world’s no 1 university for telecoms engineering; indeed, all top 5 universities were located in China as were 11 of the top 20. There were no New Zealand universities represented in the list. Although China dominated the ranks of telecoms engineering, American universities topped by Harvard represented 16 of the top 20 overall. The University of Houston at 16 was the only American university ranked in the top 20 for telecoms engineering. [Grahame Lynch, 7 July 2020, what’s happening today in telecoms, ISSUE 5957]
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T
Defense Flags $12b Spend On Sovereign Satellites, Secure Wireless And Other ICT Investments To 2030
he Federal Government will earmark a $7 billion investment in defense satellite communication systems over a decade along with $5 billion on defense ICT systems, including next-gen wireless networks. Announced as part of a $270 billion investment program in defense to 2030, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds signaled a tilt to the space domain as a key focus for the future. Central to the plan is a new “network” of Australian military-owned satellites, with an emphasis on “independence.” Defense’s prime satellite assets are presently either foreign-owned or operated. Morrison said the satellite capability would be developed: “with industry and other government agencies, including the Australian Space Agency, headquartered in Adelaide. Working with key partners and allies, we will take advantage of Australia's unique geographical position to better contribute to collective space domain awareness.” He added that a key focus was to “counter emerging threats in the space domain, and ensure our continued access to space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.” The paper said that Defense is working to integrate more closely with the United States and other members of the Combined Space Operations Initiatives Partners, namely Canada, Germany, France, New Zealand and Great Britain. The desire to build satellites and ground stations under Australian sovereign control would create opportunities for local companies, it adds.
A
Fibre Cut Hits East-west Australia Traffic
fibre-optic cable break between Adelaide and Long Plains, 73km away, has affected connectivity between eastern, southern and western Australia. A Vocus field response team has been on site since late evening on 8 July to fix the break, caused by a third party. The repair is understood to be complex due to the location of the break but a spokesperson said the remediation work, including excavation and splicing, is expected to be complete and services restored today. The Vocus spokesperson said that customers that elected for redundancy immediately had their traffic rerouted to ensure continuity of service. Aussie Broadband chief technical officer, John Reisinger said: “Our network team has routed traffic around the break but there’s no doubt customers will see an impact on their speeds. We have more redundancy for this route about to come on board in the next week or so,” he told Comms Day. He added that Aussie Broadband had two x 100G (Per-Mel and Per-Syd) plus two x 10G (Adel-Syd) routes impacted. “Repair crews have been working through the night and early this morning trying to get services restored. Fibre technicians are continuing excavation works to expose the damaged cable and commence splicing. We’ll start to see some services restored as soon as the damage is repaired,” he said. “We’re sorry for any impact this has caused, especially while many people are now working from home.”
North Melbourne Smart Cities Network Close To Completion
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team of five Melbourne councils, two universities and Australian IoT manufacturer M-innovation are finalising the deployment of Victoria's largest open IoT network - and one of the largest in Australia. The Northern Melbourne Smart Cities Network project has entered its final stages, with the partners having deployed nearly 50 LoRaWAN gateways and nearly 300 IoT sensors across the five councils. The project was conducted by M-innovation in tandem with RMIT, La Trobe University, and the Whittlesea, Moreland, Banyule, Mitchell Shire and Nillumbik Shire Councils. It was jointly funded by the federal government as part of the Smart Cities and Suburbs program. The federal government contributed $525,250 of the $1.4m total budget. The project is scheduled to conclude at the end of the month. The network was designed based on RMIT's research in wireless communications. The partners elected to use LoRaWAN rather than existing cellular networks due to the ability to use the unlicensed ISM band, which is free to use, as well as the ability to deploy very low cost and low power sensors using a technology dedicated to devices with these attributes.
I
Telstra Supports Melbourne Customers
n response to renewed restrictions linked to Victoria’s COVID-19 outbreak, Telstra said it would offer additional support to customers in the Melbourne metro area and Mitchell shire. That includes unlimited data for home broadband customers until 31 August in areas affected by the Stage 3 lockdowns. The Telco is also offering unlimited local, national and 13/1300 calls and calls to Australian mobiles for eligible pensioners and additional data for eligible consumer and small business mobile customers. Post-paid customers can use the My Telstra app to apply for an extra 25GB of data, and prepaid customers who recharge with $40 or more can access an additional 10GB of data for use in Australia within 2830 days (depending on their plan).
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Jamilur Reza Chowdhury The Comet Of Bangladesh Engineering Abu Reza Khan, Managing Director, Summit Assets Limited
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Tunnel and Dhaka Metro Rail project. For his lifelong contributions, he was awarded Ekushey Padak in addition to various awards he received for his professional excellence. JRC sir was also highly meritorious and a renowned person in the international community. He left behind many of his loved colleagues, students all over the world. The sudden demise of this great personality at a critical time of COVID-19 impact is an irreversible loss for Bangladesh. JRC as he was called with profound respect and love among his friends, mates, students and fan followers made massive contribution in the planning and implementation monitoring of major infrastructures of Bangladesh. Here is a memoir from one of his students who used to
feature in the morning walk with him during his last days in Dhaka. Reflection of a Student of JRC Bangladesh ICON Dr. Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, JRC sir was our teacher, mentor and guide ever since we started our journey as the first entrant of BUET in January 1973. It was a blessing for us to be his direct student and also a great opportunity to get his advice and guidance ever since. Moreover, residing in the Dhanmondi residential area, Dhaka, we had a great opportunity to go out for morning walk with our mentor over the past few years. We used to walk every morning on the walkway along Dhanmondi Lake from Takwa Mosjhid to Rabindra Sharani.
Source Prothom Alo
rof. Dr. Jamilur Reza Chowdhury (JRC) is a doyen of global engineering professional, National Professor of Bangladesh expired on 28 April 2020 only two days after appearing on the teleconference on COVID-19 organized by International Council for Engineers, Australia (ICEA). Dr. Chowdhury was serving as Vice-Chancellor of Asia Pacific University when he expired. He was the first Vice-Chancellor of BRAC University. He also worked in BUET for many years. He led a group of Bangladesh experts during the implementation of Bangabondu Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge. Till his death, he was also leading a Bangladesh group of experts for the under-implantation Padma Multipurpose bridge, Karnafuli River
56 / innovate July 2020
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walking and now we can never do that. Immediately I rushed to his Dhanmondi residence and saw huge gathering in front of his house. But due to prevailing COVID-19 Pandemic, all his near and dear ones were standing apart silently. I was utterly confused as to what doing. But I remained in front of his home. My memory since 1973 started flashing back. He used to teach us higher Mathematics in our first year, while we were in 3rd year used to teach us Structural Design. I remember very clearly that during his lecture the entire class remained in pin-drop silence. We all used to be very much attentive, unlike any other classes. How can we forget such a person whose every word guided us like a guiding beacon! JRC sir used to remember the name of most of his students. I am also grateful while I had the opportunity of meeting him in 2017, to my utter surprise he could call me pronouncing my full name (Abu Reza Khan) and as well as my nick name (SHAMIM). Sir had an amazing memory which I have
experienced during walking every day. One day he asked my father’s name and I replied he was Justice Aminur Rahman Khan. At once, he could recollect his memory about meeting my father at a wedding ceremony in 1964, During walking, he always used to enlighten us about the old days' numerous remarkable issues, design issues of various ongoing mega projects and many more cureent matters. After the demise of JRC sir, we would miss the Legendary Personality, a Great Teacher, a Civil Engineer, a Structural Designer, a Megaproject Advisor, an Amiable Personality. This is an irrecoverable loss for universal engineering community who would have no replacement for centuries in the future. May Almighty ALLAH grant him eternal peace and place him in Jannatul Ferdous and let us live with the legacy of Dr JRC SIR.
Source Prothom Alo
JRC sir used to lead our walk while some of his students living in Dhanmondi and some students coming from abroad on short visits used to join. The towering personality of JRC sir always allured us. His pleasing personality, amiable behavior, soft soothing way of putting across his own opinion about complex and critical engineering issues were of magnetic attraction. Listening to his deliberations on multidimensional issues and acquiring knowledge was the opportunity of a lifetime. He had an exceptional memory and could exactly remember with ease about what happened 25-30 years back. In the early morning of 28 April 2020, while I was preparing for a morning walk; suddenly a message sounded on my cell phone. As soon as I opened the message, to my utter surprise and rude shock received the news of demise of our beloved & respected Sir. I was totally stunned and dumbfounded for a while. It was unexpected and could not think of. Only the other day we were
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GALLERY April-July 2020
City of Face Masks, Melbourne, End of July
Federation Square, Melbourne Swanston St in Peak Hour, Melbourne
No Crowd in Flinder St, Melbourne Empty Restaurant, Melbourne 58 / innovate July 2020
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Southern Cross Railway Station, Melbourne
Melbourne Tram in Peak hours
Inside Metro Train, 4pm, Melbourne
Melbourne CBD April 2020 PHOTO CREDIT : MAMUN AL BADRUDDOZZA POLASH
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PHOTO CREDIT : MAMUN AL BADRUDDOZZA POLASH innovate July 2020 innovate July 2020 / 59 / 59
Sarah Connolly, State MP for Tarneit is working remotely. Follow her Facebook & Website for regular updates about COVID-19
Heaths Road, Hoppers Crossing
PC : Rumman Raeed
Westgate Freeway during Melbourne Lockdown
14 Days Hotel Quarantine for Australian who arrived Melbourne from overseas and the Quarantine time food.
PC : Tamanna Toma
Inside special flight during COVID-19 PC : Tamanna Toma COVID-19 Testing Station at Sunshine, Victoria
PC : Tamanna Toma
Follow Mayor Josh Gilligan’s Facebook & Website for regular updates about Wyndham City Council and COVID-19
Coronavirus Cases in Victoria Ziaun Nahar Victorians woke up in the morning of 26th July 2020 to face the grimmest news till the date which made it the deadliest day since the pandemic began in the state. Overnight, 459 new cases were recorded with ten new deaths. During the last weeks of 2019, the outbreak of a new type of disease in the distant land of China was not that much of a worry to most of the Victorians, though it was only a matter of time before it came to Australia. We lived in one of the most livable cities in the world and we had all the plans ready to respond to and manage a possible pandemic anyway. We were very wrong in our assumption. The first coronavirus case in Victoria was identified on 25 th January 2020; a man had returned from corona-affected Wuhan and was tested positive. Soon it became a health emergency. The first Stage 3 restrictions was imposed in Victoria on 30th March 2020 when the total number of coronavirus cases rose to 821 in an attempt to flatten the curve. People were repeatedly urged to follow the social distancing, hygiene and handwashing rules. Breaking the lockdown rules were discouraged by the imposition of heavy fines. Victorian schools moved to remote learning from the beginning of Term 2 which was April 15, 2020. All these steps seemed to result in a better situation. From 17th May 2020 to 23rd May 2020, the total number of new cases remained under 10 with only one exception of 12 new cases on 22 nd May 2020. Hence came the declaration of easing the Stage 3 restrictions. From 11:59 PM on Monday 25th May, public playgrounds, outdoor gyms and skateparks were open subject to public gathering limit of 10 people. Further easing of the restrictions were set to start from 11:59 PM on Sunday 31 May 2020. Victorian students resumed face to face learning from 26th May 2020. But we failed to stop the spread. Soon, the number of new cases continued to grow day by day. Clusters were found in meat factories, schools, high density residential apartments indicating a high volume of community transmissions. In a bid to control the rapid spread, Metropolitan Melbourne went into lockdown for the second round, this time along with Mitchell Shire, from 8 th July 2020. Students returned to remote learning from 20th July 2020 again. We couldn’t but ask ourselves if we had done everything right. Despite all the plans and restrictions, why couldn’t we stop the spread? Govt. analysis showed that 9 out of 10 people were not self-isolating when they had COVID-19 symptoms before having the diagnosis results. People were also showing restriction fatigue. Another reason was that due to a high number of community transmission, contact tracing became a huge task. More cases with unknown origin also made it unmanageable. Hence, we had continued spike of new cases every day. Only obeying the lockdown restrictions could flatten the curve which we all were eagerly waiting for. In the words of Daniel Andrews, “I think each of us know that we’ve got no choice but to take these very, very difficult steps.” The Author: Formal English Teacher, Accounting Professional in Australia
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Coronavirus Statics in Australia Source: https://www.health.gov.au
Kaushaliya Vaghela MP
“Always She keeps the community informed and motivated�
Follow her Facebook & Website for regular updates about COVID-19
Useful Resources (in Victoria) to know about COVID-19 PANDEMIC https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019 https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/victorian-public-coronavirus-disease-covid-19 https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/covid-19-information-workplaces Www.iceaus.org
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