scholarly journals Assessing the Energy Resilience of Office Buildings: Development and Testing of a Simplified Metric for Real Estate Stakeholders

Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 96
Author(s):  
Paul Mathew ◽  
Lino Sanchez ◽  
Sang Hoon Lee ◽  
Travis Walter
Keyword(s):  
Regression Models ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Office Buildings ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Power Outage ◽  
Continuity Of Operations ◽  
Quasi Monte Carlo ◽  
Building Characteristics ◽  
The Impact

Increasing concern over higher frequency extreme weather events is driving a push towards a more resilient built environment. In recent years there has been growing interest in understanding how to evaluate, measure, and improve building energy resilience, i.e., the ability of a building to provide energy-related services in the event of a local or regional power outage. In addition to human health and safety, many stakeholders are keenly interested in the ability of a building to allow continuity of operations and minimize business disruption. Office buildings are subject to significant economic losses when building operations are disrupted due to a power outage. We propose “occupant hours lost” (OHL) as a means to measure the business productivity lost as the result of a power outage in office buildings. OHL is determined based on indoor conditions in each space for each hour during a power outage, and then aggregated spatially and temporally to determine the whole building OHL. We used quasi-Monte Carlo parametric energy simulations to demonstrate how the OHL metric varies due to different building characteristics across different climate zones and seasons. The simulation dataset was then used to develop simple regression models for assessing the impact of ten key building characteristics on OHL. The most impactful were window-to-wall ratio and window characteristics. The regression models show promise as a simple means to assess and screen for resilience using basic building characteristics, especially for non-critical facilities where it may not be viable to conduct detailed engineering analysis.

Enhancing the Disaster Recovery Plan through Virtualization

2013 ◽  
pp. 220-243
Author(s):  
Dennis Guster ◽  
Olivia F. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Cloud Computing ◽  
Data Management ◽  
Natural Disasters ◽  
Natural Disaster ◽  
Disaster Recovery ◽  
Fault Tolerant ◽  
Equipment Failure ◽  
Recovery Plan ◽  
Continuity Of Operations ◽  
Security Breaches

Currently, organizations are increasingly aware of the need to protect their computer infrastructure to maintain continuity of operations. This process involves a number of different concerns including: managing natural disasters, equipment failure, and security breaches, poor data management, inadequate design, and complex/impractical design. The purpose of this article is to delineate how virtualization of hosts and cloud computing can be used to address the concerns resulting in improved computer infrastructure that can easily be restored following a natural disaster and which features fault tolerant hosts/components, isolates applications security attacks, is simpler in design, and is easier to manage. Further, because this technology has been out for a number of years and its capabilities have matured an attempt has been made to describe those capabilities as well as document successful applications.

Safety and Security in SCADA Systems Must be Improved through Resilience Based Risk Management

2013 ◽  
pp. 1422-1436
Author(s):  
Stig O. Johnsen
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Process Control ◽  
Control Systems ◽  
Knowledge Generation ◽  
Continuity Of Operations ◽  
Process Control Systems ◽  
Industrial Setting ◽  
Scada Systems ◽  
Distributed Process

This chapter describes vulnerabilities related to safety and security in distributed process control systems integrated with information and communication technology (ICT). The author describe key vulnerabilities and how to mitigate these vulnerabilities by current best practices, which have worked in an industrial setting in Norway. Distributed process control systems are denoted as SCADA systems, i.e. supervisory control and data acquisition systems. Increased networking and increased use of ICT impacts the complexity and vulnerability of the SCADA systems. To improve safety and security, there must be a focus on systematic knowledge generation between ICT and process experts and a focus on exploring resilience as a strategy to manage risks and support continuity of operations (resilience seen as the ability to bounce back and sustain operations). Best practices in risk management in this area are to establish policies, improve risk awareness, perform risk assessment in collaboration between ICT and SCADA professionals, focus on segregation of networks, focus on active protection against malicious software, improve reporting and sharing of incidents, and establish and explore disaster/recovery plans. In addition, there should be focus on certification and testing of components in ICT and SCADA systems and improvement of resilience to mitigate uncertainty and complexity.

One Plan, Four Libraries

2016 ◽  
pp. 166-183
Author(s):  
Allison Galloup
Keyword(s):  
Academic Library ◽  
Risk Assessments ◽  
Emergency Plan ◽  
Creation Process ◽  
Recovery Plan ◽  
Continuity Of Operations ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The University ◽  
And Training

The University of North Georgia, a recently consolidated university, has four libraries of varying sizes with different types of collections – ranging from libraries with larger sized book collections to libraries that rely on electronic resources. In addition to the differences in size and collections, the libraries also face the challenge of distance. This chapter follows the creation of an emergency plan, a recovery plan, and a continuity of operations plan for an academic library with four unique campus locations. The creation process begins with risk assessments of all four libraries, creating a team to write the plan, writing the plan and implementation and training for faculty and staff. The policies were written by a committee of five and included at least one representative from each campus.

Emergency Planning (R)Evolution

2018 ◽  
pp. 1332-1358
Author(s):  
Mary Beth Lock ◽  
Craig Fansler ◽  
Meghan Webb
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Short Form ◽  
Emergency Planning ◽  
Emergency Plans ◽  
Continuity Of Operations ◽  
Review Cycle

This chapter discusses how a library can revise its existing emergency, disaster, and Continuity of Operations plans, through the utilization of new technologies and an ongoing review cycle. While reviews of existing emergency plans typically happen in response to actual emergencies, this chapter encourages flipping that scenario by conducting ongoing reviews with a small, dedicated committee. The chapter identifies important steps to follow in revising emergency plans and discusses incorporating e-book and short form formats to enhance training and documentation.

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