Reflective Journal: Analysis of Asset Management Workshop Experiences

This reflective journal, prepared by a student, analyzes experiences from workshops related to strategic asset management (MNG92100). The journal reflects on discussions and observations, particularly focusing on the Gold Coast seawall and its implications for climate change, erosion, and coastal protection. It examines the construction and effectiveness of seawalls, referencing specific storm events and governmental responses. The journal also connects these observations to asset management literature, frameworks, and theories. Furthermore, it includes a reflection on the article "Uncertainty Analysis and Resource Allocation in Construction Project Management," discussing uncertainties in project management, resource allocation strategies, and the importance of addressing uncertainties to ensure project success. The journal emphasizes the importance of resource management in project execution and the need to categorize and respond to uncertainties effectively.

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REFLECTIVE JOURNAL
By Name
Course
Instructor
Institution
Location
Date

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Any meaningfully article will not be complete on the discussion of the climate
change should it fail to mention something to do with the Gold Coast Wall. This will be an
implication that this special feature is at the frontline of the sea rise level. During my visit to the
area, several observations were made although I have just summarized some of the key points.
The geographical pictures have failed to indicate the A-lie that is used as the datum for
measurements. Even if there are 600km of waterways in the Gold Coast, of which a large
number include revetment structure this particular paper only focuses on the examination of the
seawall on the front of the ocean foreshore(Kim, Gratchev and Balasubramaniam 2013).
The erosion of the beach is considered to be natural phenomenon on the part of the beach
though it becomes the problem that threatens the property in some aspect. This problem does not
cause erosion of the beach but develops within the natural beach movement. As in the case of
Gold Coast, such developments happened in various locations including the active zones thereby
creating along with the history of the coastal protection construction such as the seawalls. This
was evident from the study that I conducted on the site (Lawton and Weaver 2015).
The seawalls are basically rock wall that follows the Gold Coast shoreline of the
ocean constructed along the A-line. A-line is the seawall line of the foreshore or a parallel line
that run to the beach in areas of the dune that delineates a defined erosion extent when the storm
events are extreme. The A-line type seawall is designed to get buried under the sand dunes so as
to make them invisible for the public and can only be seen during a storm when the seawalls
have been exposed. As in the case of the Gold Coast, the construction of the seawalls is not for
maintaining stability or for the beach protection. Though it is among the complex series attempts

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to protect the beach by the State Government, the Gold Coast City Council has many measures
that were implemented to protect the beach such as nourishment of the beach and dune
revegetation(Hall et al.2015).
The Gold Coast is well documented during the storm which results into rampant
beaches erosion and accretion cycle. One of the extreme storm occurrence that is known as
cyclical happened in the period from 1860-1890s, the 1930s and 1950-1970s.This was
considered to be a particular storm of the periods marked.. Recently the worst storm was
recorded in 1967 but the problem of erosion was recorded in Gold Coast in the early twentieth
century at the Southport. Beachfront development was considered as a low key in the first half
of the century though increased from the 1950s but developed rapidly from 1970s onwards(Potts,
Dedekorkut and Bosman 2013).
The report from the serious storm erosion which occurred in 1920 showed that the log
of timber was constructed to halt the effective erosion. The typical response of this was by the
use of the obtained timber logs which were transported and installed. Therefore, the walls were
leaking until the use of suitable gravel was considered to filter and retain sand by giving way for
elevated water to escape. These materials are very reflective if they are not driven deep enough
and may fail by toe scour.
The features were ineffectual and were coated with bitumen during the construction with rock
toe and gravel behind. This was built after a few years in the Pacific Highway to link Brisbane
and Sydney but was threatened at the Narrowneck near Surfers Paradise. The wall was
successful with a boulder structure of long reinforcement in the front section for many decades
though it was extended. There was cyclone occurrence in 1931 which caused extensive erosion
accompanied with rainfall. It altered the entrances to creek as in example of Currumbin Creek-

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the island which was completely washed away near the entrance gate. In 1936, a severe cyclone
occurred again causing wide damage so more timber walls were constructed and this was noted
again in 1974. Cyclone occurred seven times in 1967 thus causing huge damage to all of the
southern Queensland beaches leading to erosion of well-vegetated dune but the dune collapses
during every high tide battering
This affected the private beach houses and the lifesaving club while expanded public
road that was well designed from the back .The beach which was built earlier by state
government planner were seriously damaged. Therefore, services such as fire and water could
not be accessed to the property(Coghlan et al.2013). As a tactic of responding to the earlier
storm, the seawall of both varying alignment and distance from the calm the position of the
weather shoreline were erected. The material used in the construction also varied and did not
have all property that the wall required therefore numerous gaps along the wall line. The
Queensland State Government through the consultation of the Auditor General Department
negotiated key parts concerning beach protection legislation and the designing of the seawall.
The Gold Coast Shoreline Management Plan (GCSMP) identified seawall required
31.5 km along coastline urban centers consist of 22.6km of A- line in the public land and 8.9 of
A-line in order to protect private beachfront property. From the records is indicated that
currently 17.7 km out of 31.5km seawall has been constructed including 11.1 of 22.5 public
seawalls and 6.6 of 8.9 private seawalls. GCSMP recommended the addition of 13.8 seawalls to
be constructed along the coastline that includes 11.4 public seawall and 2,3 private seawalls.
From the 11.1 km, the only 1.9km is certification formally on the council's file. From 6.6 private
seawall, only 4.5 have been certified.

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In conclusion, the design of the Gold coast Seas wall is ensure provision of the
overtopping that is responsible for the damage of the surface which is found behind the wall
during the organized events(Chang et al.2015). This is attributed to the fact that the property
owners are never happy with the property that comes up above the natural. This kind of the
restriction summaries the activates within this recreational structure.
Reflection
With regard to the article Uncertainty Analysis and Resource Allocation in Construction
Project Management, it reveals that both societies and economies have become highly
complicated just like it is in the construction project management. The construction project has
gone through revolution from the traditional single project management to the management of
multiple project programs as well as portfolios. At the same time, conditions are no more
appropriately projectable to plan, regulate project time, avert risks, plan and predict costs before
commencement of the project life-cycle through high uncertainty. Research has shown that in the
current setting the flexible, as well as intelligent management of resources allocation for multiple
project lifecycles, has become vital in the highly uncertain environments (Cardenas and Halman,
2016, p.27). As a result, project execution has been found to be an effective procedure that is
appropriate for sufficient allocation of resources and resource consumption during the project
activities. In this sense to ensure cost-efficient and precise quantities of resources, it is essential
that resources are allocated at an appropriate period to reduce wastage of resources and delays to
work within the project budget and agreed on deadline.
However, during project implementation there particular uncertainty, which happens in the
course of the project. Consequently, these uncertainties interfere with the allocation of resources
timeline, which in turn interferes with the performance of the project. Subsequently, it means

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resource allocation has to be regulated to realize a rational way of dealing with uncertainty. For
that reason, urgent theoretical, as well as practical requirements, should be put in place to
advance the process of handling difficulties related to projects from a resources allocation point
of view.
In order to ensure that projects cases of uncertainty do not hamper with the allocation of
resources in the construction project, it is essential to categorize uncertainties. Through the
classification of uncertainties, it will become possible to handle these uncertainties. Indeed, a
majority of the studies related to uncertainty analysis have qualitatively concentrated on ways to
cope with issues like developing structure, rational organization, and corporate cultures. Besides
that, there is a need for studies not to isolate as well as ignore the significance of extensive
exploring of uncertainties by considering it in the complete implementation of the project and its
surrounding (Brady and Davies, 2014, p. 24). Most of the response have been lacking rigorous
relevance and verification as well as uncertainty on project management and unclear project
performance. Since project uncertainties impacts on project performance like quality, timeline
and cost; it is relevant to understand particular uncertainties types, which influence project
performance parameters to respond to these issues.
On the other hand, there are many uncertainties in construction project management
because the models that are used to address PCPSP problems do not concur with the actual
engineering problems in the present world, which makes it challenging to apply them practically.
Therefore, the analysis of resource constraints is supposed to concentrate on the uncertainty of
availability of resources that in most cases impact of the budget of the project and schedule.
Through the analysis of uncertainties related to a construction project in the viewpoint of
resource, allocation indicates that dissimilar resource uncertainty differently influences project

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parameters. As a result, it is vital to respond to these uncertainties accordingly. To counter
difficulties which impact on project costs due to discrepancies in construction timelines, which
come about through mismatch of resources can be realized by making adjustments to resource
allocation strategies. For uncertainties that interfere with the project, duration should be
addressed by determining a feasibility of the Progress Based Construction Rate to enable the
project to be accomplished on time. On the same note, analysis has to be put in place to consider
probable resources reallocation. However, in case the analysis uncertainty is not feasible, the
application can be catastrophic. Hence, the only option possible in such cases that will ensure
that project deadline is met is the violation of vital laws of construction engineering, safety rules,
and quality criteria. The reason for violating the fundamental regulations of the construction
engineering when the feasibility analysis approach fails is because in such circumstances
problems cannot be resolved by making any further adjustments on resources (Cruz and
Marques, 2013, p. 474). Subsequently, in case such cases arise, it is essential for the general
contractor to negotiate with the client to investigate for possibilities to rectify the contract.

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Reference List
Brady, T. and Davies, A., 2014. Managing structural and dynamic complexity: A tale of two
projects. Project Management Journal, 45(4), pp.21-38.
Cardenas, I.C. and Halman, J.I., 2016. Coping with uncertainty in environmental impact
assessments: Open techniques. Environmental impact assessment review, 60, pp.24-39.
Chang, A.B., Bell, S.C., Torzillo, P.J., King, P.T., Maguire, G.P., Byrnes, C.A., Holland, A.E.,
O'Mara, P. and Grimwood, K., 2015. Chronic suppurative lung disease and
bronchiectasis in children and adults in Australia and New Zealand Thoracic Society of
Australia and New Zealand guidelines. Medical Journal of Australia, 202(1), pp.21-23.
Coghlan, I., Carley, J., Cox, R., Davey, E., Blacka, M.J. and Lofthouse, J., 2013, November.
Concept designs for a groyne field on the far north nsw coast. In 22nd NSW Coastal
Conference (pp. 13-15).
Cruz, C.O. and Marques, R.C., 2013. Flexible contracts to cope with uncertainty in public–
private partnerships. International journal of project management, 31(3), pp.473-483.
Hall, C.M., Amelung, B., Cohen, S., Eijgelaar, E., Gössling, S., Higham, J., Leemans, R.,
Peeters, P., Ram, Y., Scott, D. and Aall, C., 2015. Denying bogus skepticism in climate
change and tourism research. Tourism Management, 47, pp.352-356.
Kim, D.H., Gratchev, I. and Balasubramaniam, A., 2013. Determination of joint roughness
coefficient (JRC) for slope stability analysis: a case study from the Gold Coast area,
Australia. Landslides, 10(5), pp.657-664.

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Lawton, L.J. and Weaver, D.B., 2015. Using residents’ perceptions research to inform planning
and management for sustainable tourism: A study of the Gold Coast Schoolies Week, a
contentious tourism event. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 23(5), pp.660-682.
Potts, R., Dedekorkut-Howes, A. and Bosman, C., 2013. Gold Coast is not only all that glitters:
Understanding visitor and resident perceptions of the Gold Coast. Australian
Planner, 50(4), pp.316-327.
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