scholarly journals A critical knowledge pathway to low‐carbon, sustainable futures: Integrated understanding of urbanization, urban areas, and carbon

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (10) ◽  
pp. 515-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia Romero‐Lankao ◽  
Kevin R. Gurney ◽  
Karen C. Seto ◽  
Mikhail Chester ◽  
Riley M. Duren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Critical Knowledge ◽  
Sustainable Futures

scholarly journals Challenges and Barriers for Net‐Zero/Positive Energy Buildings and Districts—Empirical Evidence from the Smart City Project SPARCS

Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Daria Uspenskaia ◽  
Karl Specht ◽  
Hendrik Kondziella ◽  
Thomas Bruckner
Keyword(s):  
Smart City ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Positive Energy ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Net Zero ◽  
Multidimensional Representation

Without decarbonizing cities energy and climate objectives cannot be achieved as cities account for approximately two thirds of energy consumption and emissions. This goal of decarbonizing cities has to be facilitated by promoting net-zero/positive energy buildings and districts and replicating them, driving cities towards sustainability goals. Many projects in smart cities demonstrate novel and groundbreaking low-carbon solutions in demonstration and lighthouse projects. However, as the historical, geographic, political, social and economic context of urban areas vary greatly, it is not always easy to repeat the solution in another city or even district. It is therefore important to look for the opportunities to scale up or repeat successful pilots. The purpose of this paper is to explore common trends in technologies and replication strategies for positive energy buildings or districts in smart city projects, based on the practical experience from a case study in Leipzig—one of the lighthouse cities in the project SPARCS. One of the key findings the paper has proven is the necessity of a profound replication modelling to deepen the understanding of upscaling processes. Three models analyzed in this article are able to provide a multidimensional representation of the solution to be replicated.

Selecting Sanitation Solutions for Peri-urban Areas: A Case Study of Can Tho, Vietnam

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Carrard ◽  
Juliet Willetts ◽  
Cynthia Mitchell ◽  
Mick Paddon ◽  
Monique Retamal
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Asset Replacement ◽  
Fit For Purpose ◽  
Infrastructure Investments ◽  
Sanitation Systems ◽  
Can Tho City ◽  
Sustainable Futures ◽  
Sanitation Infrastructure ◽  
Selection Of

In peri-urban areas where infrastructure investments have not yet been made, there is a need to determine the most context-appropriate, fit for purpose and sustainable sanitation solutions. Decision makers must identify the optimal system scale (on the spectrum from centralized to community to cluster scale) and assess the long-term costs and socio-economic/environmental impacts associated with different options. Addressing both cost-effectiveness and sustainability are essential to ensure that institutions and communities are able to continue to bear the costs and management burden of infrastructure operation, maintenance and asset replacement. This paper describes an approach to sanitation planning currently being undertaken as a research study in Can Tho City in southern Vietnam, by the Institute for Sustainable Futures and Can Tho University in collaboration with Can Tho Water Supply and Sewerage Company. The aim of the study is to facilitate selection of the most context-appropriate, fit for purpose, cost effective and sustainable sanitation infrastructure solution. As such, the study compares a range of sanitation alternatives including centralized, decentralized (at household or cluster scale) and resource recovery options. This paper provides an overview of the study and considers aspects of the Can Tho and Vietnamese regulatory, development and institutional context that present drivers and challenges for comparison of options and selection of fit for purpose sanitation systems.

scholarly journals Model Cities for Resilience: Climate-led Initiatives

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-58
Author(s):  
Didem Gunes Yilmaz ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation ◽  
Sustainable Cities ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Urban Water Management ◽  
Model Cities ◽  
Taking Action ◽  
Change Mitigation

Paris Agreement of December 2015 was the last official initiative led by the United Nations (UN) as the driver of climate change mitigation. Climate change was hence linked with an increase in the occurrence of natural hazards. A variety of initiatives were consequently adopted under different themes such as sustainable cities, climate-friendly development and low-carbon cities. However, most of the initiatives targeted by global cities with urban areas being the focus in terms of taking action against global warming issues. This is due to the structural and environmental features of cities characterized by being populated, as such, they not only generate a large number of carbon emissions but also happens to be the biggest consumer of natural resources. In turn, they create a microclimate, which contributes to climate change. Masdar City, for example, was designed as the first fully sustainable urban area, which replaced fuel-based energy with the electric-based energy. China, as another example, introduced the Sponge Cities action, a method of urban water management to mitigate against flooding. Consequently, architects and urban planners are urged to conform to the proposals that would mitigate global warming. This paper, as a result, examines some of the models that have been internationally adopted and thereafter provide the recommendations that can be implemented in large urban areas in Turkey, primarily in Istanbul.

Low-Carbon Space in Urban and Rural Areas: Ecological Greenway Planning of Shanhaiguan District, Qinhuangdao City, China

2012 ◽  
Vol 253-255 ◽  
pp. 821-824
Author(s):  
Fan Zhang ◽  
Ning Wang ◽  
Qian Li
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Cultural Continuity ◽  
Cultural Resources ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Urban Buildings ◽  
Ecological Protection ◽  
Urban And Rural Areas

With the rapid development of urbanization, more intensive urban buildings and crowded space resulted in the declining of the environmental quality in urban areas, and also eroding the natural and cultural resources both in urban and rural areas, which requested the desires for healthy living and natural environment. Greenway, with the low-carbon to meet people's desire, is a dedicated “way” linking the urban, natural and cultural landscape. With ecological protection, exercise, recreation and leisure, historical and cultural continuity, and other functions, it is one of the special low-carbon spaces. Greenway, sharing and integration of urban and rural resources, plays the role of effective protection of urban and rural local cultural and ecological environment. The design of the Shanhaiguan Greenway, for example, is not only to meet the basic requirements of the greenway, but also combined with the history and culture, to further Improve the urban quality of the historical and cultural city of Shanhaiguan and build an urban and rural low-carbon space.

scholarly journals Understanding the Competitive Advantages of Car Sharing from the Travel-Cost Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (13) ◽  
pp. 4666 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xianlei Dong ◽  
Yongfang Cai ◽  
Jiaming Cheng ◽  
Beibei Hu ◽  
Huijun Sun
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Market Competition ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Travel Cost ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Cost Advantage ◽  
Market Demand ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Trajectory Data ◽  
Car Sharing

The emergence and development of car sharing can not only satisfy people’s diverse travel demands, but also can bring a new solution to facilitate urban low-carbon and green development. With the increasing acceptance of car sharing, the market competition between car sharing and traditional taxis is becoming increasingly fierce. Therefore, we explore the advantages of car sharing to travelers compared with taxis. In this paper, we first use the GPS (Global Positioning System) trajectory data of car sharing orders to construct a comparative advantage model based on travel-cost. Then, we take Beijing as the research area to explore the travel-cost advantages of car sharing in terms of the time and space dimensions compared with taxis, through calculating the travel-cost of car sharing and using simulation to calculate that of taxis. The results of the comparison between car sharing and taxis from the perspective of travel-cost are as follows: (1) Compared with short trips, the travel-cost advantage of car sharing is relatively higher in medium and long trips; for travelers, the taxi has a higher travel-cost advantage when the travel time is either very long or very short. (2) On weekdays, it is more cost-effective to travel by shared cars for travelers before the rush hours in the evening, and the travel-cost advantage of using taxis is greater after the evening peak. (3) Compared with weekdays, it is more cost-effective to travel by shared cars on weekends wherever travelers are living in the main urban areas or in the remote suburbs. It is suggested that relevant departments should understand the travelers’ preference and analyze the influence mechanism of other various factors on the market demand for car sharing as per the focus on the market on the travel-cost advantages of car sharing, so as to promote the healthy and sustainable development of urban shared transportation.

scholarly journals Sustainable Development of Urban Spaces towards Climate Protection and Adaptation to its Changes

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 122-133
Author(s):  
Bogusław Wojtyszyn
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Urban Structure ◽  
Climate Protection ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
The World ◽  
Cities For Climate Protection

Abstract The article concerns urban spaces highly responsible for climate change in the country, Europe, and the world. This topic is now of major importance because it reflects on every citizen of Europe and the world in that we all confront the necessity of climate protection and adaptation also in law, to climate change in urban areas. It is associated with a radical change of lifestyle in the world’s cities, mainly in terms of energy consumption and its methods of production. The research results presented in the article indicate the need to adapt current methods for slowing down adverse climate change into functional and spatial systems of urban development and their economic, legal, and social conditions affecting the pace of implementation of new technologies for climate-friendly sources such as low-carbon, energy-saving, and renewable energy. Attention was also paid to the possibility of ecological revitalization of the existing urban structure of buildings, among other things, in order to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions adversely affecting the climate. On the other hand, modern ideas for an Eco-City and solutions for a Green-City and Solar-City, presented in the article, implemented through sustainable development in the field of planning activities and energy management methods, can be additional indicators of the direction of sustainable development for Polish cities for climate protection and adaptation to its changes.

scholarly journals Low Carbon Concept of Sruni Village through The System of Renewable Energy

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 11
Author(s):  
Erni Setyowati ◽  
Nashrullah Dahlan Lubis ◽  
Subrata Aditama Kittie A.U ◽  
Agitta Raras Putri
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Demographic Data ◽  
Sewage Treatment ◽  
Sewage Treatment Plant ◽  
Treatment Plant ◽  
Rain Water ◽  
Water Harvesting ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Rain Water Harvesting

Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in the world. The highest population density exists in urban areas and gradually becomes lower in periphery or rural. Therefore the city in Indonesia often looks slum because of over density. The village is the smallest part of a city. In crowded cities there are often slum villages. This paper highlights a model of slum villages in Wonosobo, Sruni village, and solutions to transform socio-cultural communities through renewable energy design based on low carbon concept. The method used is quantitative method based on demographic data of Sruni village, Wonosobo. Based on data and analysis, it is found that renewable energy that can be applied in Sruni village are sanitation, drainage and water waste management, solid waste, rain water harvesting, water wheel and solar panel energy. At the end of the discussion, it is concluded that there are needs to be re-densification or verticalization of the house, in order to obtain more public green open spaces. Meanwhile, based on quantitative analysis, Sruni village needs rain water harvesting system, additional 1 unit of communal Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) serving 80-100 households gray and black water, and 1 units of water wheels to accomodate electricity need of four inhabitant RTs in Sruni village .

scholarly journals CO2 Emissions and The Transport Sector in Malaysia

2022 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saeed Solaymani
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Transport Sector ◽  
Carbon Intensity ◽  
Kuznets Curve ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Distributed Lag ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Transport Worker ◽  
Low Carbon Technologies

Transport is an essential infrastructure for development. With its high share of gross domestic product (GDP), it makes a significant contribution to total CO2 emissions in Malaysia. It is therefore important to pay greater attention to reducing CO2 emissions and sustainable development in this sector. Therefore, this study aims at estimating the relationship between transport CO2 emissions and its key drivers using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique. The time period covered by the study extends from 1978 to 2018. It further investigates the response of CO2 emissions to shocks in the value of other variables by employing the generalized impulse response approach. The results suggest that urbanization is the major contributor to the increase in CO2 emissions followed by the carbon intensity of energy in the long-run. Carbon intensity of energy, GDP per transport worker and urbanization contribute significantly to increases in transport CO2 emissions in the short- and long-run. Testing the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis recommends that Malaysia continue to be on track to reach the highest level of income and welfare to give pay more attention to the environment. Therefore, the country maintains its CO2 emissions level in the future because of economic development. Therefore, these findings show that energy and environmental policymakers need to pay more attention to improving energy efficiency and the use of low-carbon technologies and electrification in the transport sector and the use of high-quality public transport, particularly in urban areas, for sustainable urban development.

scholarly journals Exploring Low-Carbon Bus Options for Urban BRT Systems: The Case of Amman

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rana Imam ◽  
Seong-Cheol Kang ◽  
Diana Quezada
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Air Pollutant ◽  
Pollutant Emissions ◽  
Transport Systems ◽  
Transport Sector ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Capital Costs ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Electric Bus ◽  
Diesel Buses

Being able to provide high-quality, metro-like transit service at a fraction of the cost of other options, bus rapid transit (BRT) has been viewed as one of the most cost-effective public mass transport systems suitable for urban areas. Considering significant amounts of greenhouse gas (GHG) and air pollutant emissions are attributed to the transport sector, deploying low carbon buses for BRT systems should be of high priority. With a view to promoting low carbon buses instead of diesel buses for a BRT system currently being planned in Amman, Jordan, this paper evaluates several low carbon bus options – hybrid, plug-in hybrid, opportunity charging, trolleybus, and battery electric bus options – against the baseline case of diesel buses. While low carbon buses reduce GHG and air pollutant emissions often considerably, they usually require higher upfront capital costs and additional infrastructure investments. On the other hand, they tend to incur lower energy and maintenance costs and have a longer lifetime particularly for battery electric buses. All these advantages and disadvantages are included in the assessment of low carbon bus options relative to diesel buses. For the trunk routes of the Amman BRT, the analysis shows that the opportunity charging bus can be the most appealing option having a positive internal rate of return (IRR) for the incremental investment costs. For the feeder routes, both low carbon bus options considered, hybrid and battery electric, do not result in a positive IRR. Nevertheless, the battery electric bus is found to be a comparatively better option than the hybrid bus. In consideration of variability in several parameters used in the analysis such as capital expenditures, electricity price, and diesel price, a sensitivity analysis is conducted for both trunk and feeder routes. The results show that IRR could increase favorably under certain conditions.

scholarly journals Meaningful Transfer: Tech-Knowlogical Interdependencies in the Digital Built Environment

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Muldoon-Smith ◽  
Leo Moreton ◽  
Richard Kotter
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Network Theory ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Science And Technology Studies ◽  
Explicit Knowledge ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Digital Innovation ◽  
Sustainable Futures ◽  
Analysis Of Knowledge ◽  
Design Construction

This paper engages with ideas of tacit and explicit knowledge, how it is created, transferred, and ultimately translated in contemporary discourses of the digital built environment. The aim is to open a more critical and original dialogue in the digital built environment by (a) interrogating digital innovation as it strives to utilise relatively distilled information to enhance the sustainable design, construction and operation of the built environment and wider urban areas, (b) representing the rights of those whose knowledge is created and transferred in the digital built environment and (c) by further understanding the context of knowledge creation, and thus maximising its potential for scaling up sustainability objectives. The paper considers the conceptual and methodological tools that may help to focus more novel analysis of knowledge production and transfer in the digital built environment. The paper considers three conceptual positions that have hitherto been considered either in isolation or only tangentially connected to each other: (1) Science and Technology Studies (STS), in order to understand how society and technology is intertwined and importantly to form a meaningful backdrop for engagement with knowledge; (2) Organisational Theory (OT) and the concept of “pipelines,” in order to understand how organisations—and more broadly cities—can meaningfully capture and utilise knowledge when transitioning to digitally enabled sustainable futures; (3) Aspects of Actor Network Theory (ANT), in order to understand how knowledge travels and gets translated and institutionalised in new domains. Furthermore, we also use the same conceptual positions to argue how following knowledge can help individuals and society navigate the digital built environment. Our findings suggest that smart technology is a “social prosthesis,” and only works because humans make up for its deficiencies.

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