The research reported is a theoretical investigation of the interaction of land-use and transport in relation to the use of energy. Of particular interest is the relationship between the spatial arrangement of settlements and the use of energy within them for both transport and building services. The literature of scenarios of energy futures is reviewed, and three scenarios of future constraints on regional planning are adopted. The adopted scenarios emphasise constraints imposed by energy policy and the availability of fuels; they form the background to the comparison of a number of theoretical regional settlement patterns, in terms of their implications for land-use and their potential for fuel-conservation. A study of an existing regional settlement pattern is used in combination with published land-use data as the basis of a configurational model. This model is intended to characterise the real pattern spatially, quantitatively and in a manner suitable for experimental manipulation. The model encompasses the pattern of developed land (disaggregated by uses), the shape of the transport network, and the intensity of development (in terms of population and floorspace). A review is then made of published proposals for energy-efficient settlements, which are found to include concentrated, dispersed, nucleated and linear patterns. Five modified versions of the regional configurational model are then constructed in order to characterise the range of realistic possibilities for future regional form which might result from the fuel-conservation policies inherent in the proposals reviewed. The five regional configurations and the original pattern are then compared by means of a specially-developed land-use transport and energy-evaluation model. The comparison is made in terms of the accessibility of the population in each pattern to employment and services (measured 'biy the model as "benefits"), and. in terms of the use of fuel in both transport and domestic space heating. Fuel use in transport is related to modal split and vehicle speed; fuel use in homes is related to dwelling size and location. Parametric calibration of the land-use and transport models allows the comparison of the patterns to be repeated in the context of each of the three adopted energy scenarios, taking into account changes in travelling behaviour, vehicle efficiencies, and building services technologies. The results of the comparison are discussed and assessed in terms of their implications for long-term strategic planning policy.

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNets), consisting of a lot of Wireless Sensor Nodes (WSNs), play an important role in structural health and machine condition monitoring. But the WSNs provided by the current market cannot meet the diversity of application requirements because they have limited functions, unreliable node performance, high node cost, high system redundancy, and short node lifespan. The aim of the research is to design the architecture of a WSN with low power consumption and node cost, which can be dynamically configured according to application requirements for structural health and machine condition monitoring. This research investigates the improvement of node performance and reliability through the new design methodologies and the extension of node lifespan by interfacing energy harvesters and implementing node power management. The main contributions of the research are presented from the following aspects:1. Model development of node architecture for application diversityThe merits of model include: (1) The proposed node architecture can be dynamically configured in terms of application requirements for reducing system redundancy, power consumption and cost; (2) It supports multichannel signal measurement with the synchronous and asynchronous signal sampling modules and three interface circuits; (3)The model parameters can be calculated; (4) As the model is based on discrete electronic components, it can be implemented by using Components-Off-The-Shelf (COTS).2. A novel pipeline design of the built-in ADC inside a microprocessorThe merit of proposed pipeline solution lies in that the sampling time of the built-in ADCs is reduced to one third of the original value, when the ADC operates in sequence sampling mode based on multichannel signal measurement.3. Self-adjusting measurement of sampled signal amplitude This work provides a novel method to avoid the distortion of sampled signals even though the environmental signal changes randomly and over the sampling range of the node ADC. The proposed method can be implemented with four different solutions.4. Interface design to support energy harvesting The proposed interface will allow to: (1) collect the paroxysmal ambient energy as more as possible; (2) store energy to a distribution super-capacitor array; (3) harvest electrical energy at high voltage using piezoelectric materials without any transformer; (4) support the diversity of energy transducers; and (5) perform with high conversion efficiency.5. A new network task scheduling model for node wireless transceiver The model allows to: (1) calculate node power consumption according to network task scheduling; (2) obtain the optimal policy for scheduling network task.6. A new work-flow model for a WSN The model provides an easy way to (1) calculate node power consumption according to the work flow inside a WSN; (2) take fully advantage of the power modes of node electronic components rather than outside factors; (3) improve effectively node design.