From the LOGIS news alert subscriptions (ending 10/06):

Business & management:
• The UN’s International Labour Organisation will be campaigning for a year on the various gender equality issues in the workplace, in particular accessing rights, employment and social protection.
• “Housing Markets and Migration: Evidence from New Zealand” is the Dept of Labour’s report on how immigration may impact on the cost of housing. The report indicates that house prices are more likely to be influenced by NZers returning home from overseas, than by foreign immigrants arriving in the country.
• An additional report produced by the Centre for Housing Research, “The Economic Impact of Immigration on Housing in New Zealand 1991-2016” gave special attention to Auckland, and shows that whether your rent or own your home, depends more on whether you are single or in a relationship, than on where you were born originally.

Environment & sustainability:
• The world’s largest solar photovoltaic farm is being built near Moura in Spain. The £250m farm covers an area nearly twice the size of London's Hyde Park, and is expected to supply 45MW of electricity per year, enough to power 30,000 homes.
• Manchester has the ambition to become Britain's "greenest city" which includes the aim to plant at least 5,000 trees across the city annually.
• Washington DC City Council (and the wider metro area) is going to be using green building practices and the greening of its building codes to reduce its carbon footprint.
• Heavy lobbying is underway in the California Assembly as it moves to introduce legislation requiring developers to pay to offset increased water use at new projects.
• The UK Marine Conservation Society wants a ban on mass balloon releases, as they can eventually kill wildlife.
• Scientists are suggesting that “friendly” bacteria, could be used to tackle the fungal disease that is killing off frogs and amphibians around the world.
• NASA scientists believe they may soon have a breakthrough in their ability to predict earthquakes.

Health & wellbeing:
• The Local Wellbeing Project in the UK is a 3 year project looking at how local government action, in collaboration with national agencies and local communities, can contribute to a growth in happiness and wellbeing, both by enhancing services and providing or planning new services. Their 1st report has just been released: “Neighbourliness + Empowerment = Wellbeing: Is there a formula for happy communities?”
• Lifestyle may have a greater impact than previously thought on age-related deafness, ain addition to the impact of noise exposure..

Law & Government:
• Over 150 local councils in the UK were asked under a freedom of information request if they were using surveillance legislation designed to track organised crime, to access private telephone and email records – 121 councils admitted that they were looking at private data.
• Accountability in local government in the UK, is raising discussion of how accountable mayors can be.
• Plans are to be announced by central government in the UK to ask local councils to volunteer to accept underground storage of nuclear waste, in return for government investment in their area.

People, culture & diversity:
• “Non-marital cohabitation” shows the largest rise between 1996 and 2006 in New Zealand, compared to another 11 nations surveyed in the National Marriage Project study, led by Rutgers University in the US.
• First generation Samoan youth report greater life satisfaction and better school adjustment than their Maori and Pakeha peers—despite experiencing more discrimination, according to new research from Victoria University.
• A new survey in Britain, shows that half a million men over 60 lead lonely lives with no friend and no contact from their families, in contrast to most women, and that one in five adults feel guilty about not seeing their older fathers more regularly.

Science, technology & transport:
• You know technology is changing quickly, when your cell phone or digital camera is stolen and it can now “phone home” with photos or video that will show you who its thieves are.
• Land Transport NZ launched a new set of cycle skills training guidelines in February. The guidelines were adapted to NZ conditions from the United Kingdom's Bikeability programme. They provide guidance for the set-up and delivery of cyclist training in NZ.
• GNS Science will be working on a 3-year research project, looking into greater use of low temperature geothermal energy in NZ, i.e. sources that are generally less than 150OC, with some below 80OC. The range of sources is diverse, such as water and steam discharges from thermal power plants or the heat contained in dry rock.
• Like London, Manchester has gained central government approval for a congestion charge on the inner city, and government funding of £2.8bn for public transport.