Trans Scan: a global scan of emerging trends in mobility and the built environment

Features

IF electric cars do become the norm it could be wind turbines like the one picture above that become the vehicle's main source of "green power". It is an artist's impression of the Aerogenerator X - the latest design in offshore wind turbines. A consortium of UK research organizations is developing it with backing by Rolls Royce, the Arup engineering group and major oil companies. The turbine's main proponent, Wind Power Ltd, is hoping to have a 10MW prototype in operation by 2013. An earlier version was shown in TransScan in April 2008 but as the new picture shows, the Aerogenerator has undergone a radical makeover - particularly in the shape of its much-simplified blades. The idea is not to present a sleeker looking turbine. The main purpose of the horizontal axis is overcome both high cost of more conventional "propeller" designs and reduce the equipment stresses the turbine suffers when operating in a rigorous deep-sea environment. For the latest trends in mobility download TransScan

Highlights from the journal

• No longer just 'dumb designs and smart gadgets'
   
• How Perth plans to set new green standards
   
• Power - with a mythical touch of Narnia
   
• Is Australia home to the world's greenest office building?
   
• Glasses that decide if you are fit to drive...
   
• Smart growth's billion dollar side benefits
   
• Can technology eliminate 'physical' road barriers?
   
• Finding better ways to manage disaster
   
• How radar imagery is offering new ways to track events
   
• Does a knowledge gap about the sea hinder planning?
   
• Getting a more accurate fix on sea levels
   
• Identifying the risks in the Perth region
   
• Will Australia's future coastline really change?
   

• Brushing up on uncertainty
   
• Are drug myths undermining road safety?
   
• Beating anxiety with tunnel vision
   
• Time to plan for more contingencies?
   
• What would persuade more people to live in the North West?
   
• How one new city is building for diversity
• Is there a new treatment for anxious motorists?
• Great roads - but thousands are ‘too scared’ to use them
• Could cars be co-opted for a public alarm system?

• Back to the future, via the Thirties

   
• Has Perth Forgotten it's Rivers?

• Does Perth need a new face?

   
• How an international airport found its sea legs