Research Projects

Knowledge Mapping and Bringing about Change for the Sustainable Urban Environment

This is a collaborative proposal by a consortium of built environment research bodies, plus generators, suppliers and users of knowledge on techniques to make urban life more sustainable. The consortium recognizes that research on urban sustainability will only be worthwhile if knowledge is applied in practice. We aim to explore the scope to improve the mapping of sustainability knowledge so that stakeholders can make better use of it.

Overview - The aim is twofold:

(1) To undertake a feasibility study on improving the creation, transfer within and between organisations, and the application of knowledge on specific sustainable environment issues. The study will track and analyse how different users with differing perspectives and differing applications contexts access, map, and use knowledge on GLASS RECYCLING. The project will examine the feasibility of developing methods to systematically discriminate knowledge according to user needs profiles whilst preserving the resilience and comprehensiveness required for users to confidently map knowledge for complex real world sustainability issues. Access to the wastenet project and rich case studies will enable this.

(2) To undertake a parallel scoping study on how knowledge mapping can be systematically MANAGED. Access to case study the implementation of Corporate GreenCode, a key sustainability initiative within the new mandatory NHSScotland Project Management System (PMS) will enable this.

Introduction: The basis of this proposal is the intention to work with the generators and users of knowledge about the sustainable urban environment. The aim is to improve the creation, transfer and application of knowledge, particularly the mapping of knowledge between different users with differing perspectives, using the knowledge for differing purposes. The issue is the intelligent interpretation of information, and here the role of knowledge communities is key. This involves more than merely opening up access to information, it relates also to the social dimensions of knowledge (Chase 1997, Despres and Chauvel 1999, Quinn et al 1996). To-date, however, most research attention has been given to knowledge management in the single firm context, and knowledge mapping remains an emergent research issue (Skyrme and Amidon 1997, Storey and Barnett 2000, DTI 1998). The focus of this project is on how to improve the process of mapping, communicating and using sustainability knowledge, across the networks of organisations involved.

Knowledge Mapping: The principal purpose and clearest benefit of a knowledge map is to show people in an organisation or within a network/supply chain where to go when they need expertise. A knowledge map can also serve as an inventory. It is a picture of what exists in an organisation or a network of where it is located. It therefore can be used as a tool to evaluate the corporate knowledge stock, revealing strengths to be exploited and gaps that need to be filled (Davenport and Prusak, 1998).

The Choice of Glass Recycling - Glass has been chosen as the study topic because:

• It is a major element of the municipal waste stream, which generates high levels of waste glass cullet: WRAP (the Waste Resources Action Programme) estimates that up to 5.5 million tonnes of glass waste is generated per annum, of which the UK currently recycles less than 1 million tonnes (www.wrap.org.uk). Plus there are clear indications that the processing of recycled glass could be significantly expanded (REMADE Scotland).
• Recycled glass is a stable material with great potential for re-use/ recycling in construction activities. From a situation of no comprehensive studies ever having been undertaken before 1990 on the comparative performance of recycled glass with natural aggregates, there is now a lot of information available on the technology of glass recycling and its use as an engineering material. Remade Scotland recently noted the need for this information to be properly mapped.
• Glass reuse remains low, and the uses to-date have been largely as a cheap fill material or by recycling into bottles. This led the Clean Washington Center (CWC) best practices report and studies in construction applications on recycled glass to note its value as a construction aggregate derives from this market being a relief valve for excess recycled glass; emphasising the attitude across the market that the construction industry is simply a dumping ground for waste glass. Probably as a result of this, the market only operates through economic/ tax incentivisation (REMADE Scotland).
• There are disparities between the scope of detailed knowledge on recycling glass and its consultation when making decisions on its use. The difficulty lies in the difficulty of establishing compliance with technical specifications, and the fears of associated risk. Meanwhile research and investment focus on the supply side of the market rather than on addressing the destabilising ignorance and uncertain knowledge on the demand side. The result is a gap between the richness of knowledge and its use is one of the most stark for recycled materials. Yet the growth of the recycled glass market is dependent on demand side knowledgeability.
• A massive amount of further technological research on glass recycling is being embarked upon under WRAP, yet the low uptake that the detailed knowledge has managed to stimulate indicates that the technology of using recycled glass has outstripped the capability (and attitude) of the construction industry and its clients to cope with them.
• This difficulty in getting consistent knowledge and applying it challenges the wider activity of recycling; leading to massive differences in recycling practice, and wasted opportunities to recycle glass. For example, in parts of the USA the assumption is now against recycling glass for melting except within about 25 miles of a foundry. In contrast, elsewhere, for example Canada, broken/ waste glass is flown several thousand miles for recycling. Better access to knowledge and better mapping of knowledge within organisations is essential to improving this situation.
• As CWC notes, there are further problems in the research and supply side of recycled glass, too: 'there have been a plethora of pilot project...Unfortunately a great amount of energy has been wasted...by reinventing the wheel, and then not capturing lessons learned for the benefits of others'.
• Pressure to increase glass recycling levels further (including via national waste strategies) indicate that alternative thinking on recycling will have to explored. It is difficult to see how the uptake of new knowledge will be more successful than for existing knowledge whilst the mapping and communication of knowledge remains so haphazard.

Objectives of the Research:

• To provide an assessment of how knowledge on glass recycling is currently created and shared across an entire chain from generator to user, including analysis of identified breakdowns in knowledge mapping (social as well as technological and operational or contractual).
• Via conducting a roadmap resource for glass recycling knowledge, to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of knowledge mapping, and the application of existing knowledge, on glass recycling.
• To abstract the generalisable principles emerging from this. This is in preparation for our full core bid to develop taxonomic and managerial methods to support better mapping and accessibility of knowledge on sustainability issues, particularly to look at (1) the cross referencing and identification of trends in usage, and (2) the development of user-profiles for meta-knowledge mapping, including (3) the social aspects of successful mapping of knowledge.
• Building on this, analyse the feasibility of designing a knowledge mapping method that can handle:
  (1) the complexity and breadth and interwoven nature of knowledge on sustainability issues generally.
  (2) the diversity of background knowledge and applications that affect how individuals map knowledge.
  (3) the difficulty of discriminating between good and poor knowledge, similarly knowledge sources.
• Then evaluate the feasibility of incorporating these principles into the design of integrated knowledge portals and mapping taxonomies suitable to provide the consistency, immediacy, and refinement of knowledge that complex sustainability initiatives require, and people will use.
• Appraise the scope to develop a robust protocol for managing knowledge mapping within organisations and between organisations (using the scoping study access to the implementation of GreenCode across the 80+ Trusts in NHS Scotland). This will also scope the social dimensions of knowledge use.

The Consortium

The consortium is able to undertake this project because its members bring the right combination of the necessary combination of theoretical and practical expertise on technical, operational and social aspects of knowledge management and mapping; access to a recently-developed portal for waste related research; and knowledge of the end user construction market for recycled glass and its dynamics. The complexity of managing the project and the consortium will be handled by CABER, The Centre for Advanced Built Environment Research (www.caber.org.uk). CABER brings to the consortium its experience of facilitating and coordinating globally-dispersed construction research consortia. For further information please contact Mr Hugh McCoach

Last Updated: 17th October 2006
Edited by: the Web Team, Glasgow Caledonian University