Download or read book Energy and Climate in the Urban Built Environment written by M. Santamouris and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-06-17 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Both the number and percentage of people living in urban areas is growing rapidly. Up to half of the world's population is expected to be living in a city by the end of the century and there are over 170 cities in the world with populations over a million. Cities have a huge impact on the local climate and require vast quantities of energy to keep them functioning. The urban environment in turn has a big impact on the performance and needs of buildings. The size, scale and mechanism of these interactions is poorly understood and strategies to mitigate them are rarely implemented. This is the first comprehensive book to address these questions. It arises out of a programme of work (POLISTUDIES) carried out for the Save programme of the European Commission. Chapters describe not only the main problems encountered such as the heat island and canyon effects, but also a range of design solutions that can be adopted both to improve the energy performance and indoor air quality of individual buildings and to look at aspects of urban design that can reduce these climatic effects. The book concludes with some examples of innovative urban bioclimatic buildings. The project was co-ordinated by Professor Mat Santamouris from the University of Athens who is also the editor of the book. Other contributions are from the University of Thessaloniki, Greece, ENTPE, Lyons, France and the University of Stuttgart, Germany.

Download or read book Energy Sustainability in Built and Urban Environments written by Emilia Motoasca and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-11-09 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book covers different aspects of energy sustainability in residential buildings and neighborhoods, starting from the construction and design aspects, and moving on to HVAC systems and lighting, and the applications, harvesting, use and storage of renewable energy. The volume focuses on smart and sustainable use of energy, discussing both the technological advancements and the economic, social and environmental impacts. Novel approaches to recycling of waste and materials in the context of residential buildings are also presented. This volume will be of interest to researchers and policy makers working in the fields of renewable energy, sustainable design and city planning.

Download or read book Two Degrees The Built Environment and Our Changing Climate written by Alisdair McGregor and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-05-02 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Earth’s temperature has been rising. To limit catastrophic outcomes, the international scientific community has set a challenging goal of no more than two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) average temperature rise. Economists agree we will save trillions of dollars by acting early. But how do we act successfully? And what’s the backup plan if we fall short? Setting politics aside, Two Degrees reviews the current science and explains how we can set practical steps to reduce the extent of warming and to adapt to the inevitable changes, all while improving the bottom line, beautifying our communities, and increasing human health. The book is a practical guide intended for a broad audience of those who occupy and shape our built environment. The authors provide a clear framework for communities, policy makers, planners, designers, developers, builders, and operators to help manage the impacts and capture the opportunities of our changing climate. Two Degrees is divided into three sections—Fundamentals, Mitigation, and Adaptation—covering a diverse array of topics ranging from climate-positive communities and low-carbon buildings to the psychology of choice and the cost of a low-carbon economy. After a foreword by Amory Lovins, more than 10 contributing authors share knowledge based on direct experience in all aspects of built environment practice. This book clarifies the misconceptions, provides new and unique insights, and shows how a better approach to the built environment can increase resilience and positively shape our future.

Download or read book Energy Performance of Buildings written by Sofia-Natalia Boemi and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-11-23 with total page 543 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book analyzes the trends and technologies of green and energy efficient building, identifying strategies for implementing energy savings and enabling the use of renewable resources in residential, commercial, healthcare and educational building sectors. The authors focus on best practices in temperate climates, providing in-depth coverage of urban heat island, climate change and fuel poverty mitigation through architectural optimization, leveraging renewable energy sources and utilization of cutting-edge cooling materials. Pragmatic emphasis is placed on improving the energy performance of existing building stock to meet short and long term objectives of climate and energy conservation strategies. Engineers, architects, designers, students, policy makers and efficiency professionals will all gain valuable insights and ideas from this practical handbook to greening the built environment.

Download or read book Solutions for Climate Change Challenges in the Built Environment written by Colin A. Booth and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-03-12 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The multi-disciplinary perspective provided here offers a strategic view on built environment issues and improve understanding of how built environment activities potentially induce global warming and climate change. It also highlights solutions to these challenges. Solutions to Climate change Challenges in the Built Environment helps develop an appreciation of the diverse themes of the climate change debate across the built environment continuum. A wide perspective is provided through contributions from physical, environmental, social, economic and political scientists. This strategic view on built environment issues will be useful to researchers as well as policy experts and construction practitioners wanting a holistic view. This book clarifies complex issues around climate change and follows five main themes: climate change experiences; urban landscape development; urban management issues; measurement of impact; and the future. Chapters are written by eminent specialists from both academic and professional backgrounds. The main context for chapters is the developed world but the discussion is widened to incorporate regional issues. The book will be valuable to researchers and students in all the built environment disciplines, as well as to practitioners involved with the design, construction and maintenance of buildings, and government organisations developing and implementing climate change policy.

Download or read book Global Warming and the Built Environment written by D.K. Prasad and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-06-27 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The role of the built environment on global warming is seen to be of increasing relevance. In this book, contributors of international repute offer a wide perspectivet on the subject. This new paperback edition offers insights and techniques regarding design and management of buildings and urban settlement and discusses the issues of accountability and responsibility.

Download or read book Climate Conscious Low Energy Tropical Built Environment Penerbit USM written by Abdul Malek Abdul Rahman and published by Penerbit USM. This book was released on 2019-08-09 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate Conscious Low-Energy Tropical Built Environment is a welcome addition to the knowledge on green and sustainable architecture. Both the authors shared their vast knowledge and experience on low-energy and passive solar design. The approach is on the technology adapted and applied to ‘welcoming the sun’ as well as to ‘rejecting the sun’, with the emphasis on the passive elements design. As the world now is facing the rapid increase of population, the architects need to consider the future path of the built environment. A good knowledge in low-energy built environment in order to sustain the well-being of the earth is essential, before considering on the aspects of mechanical components. This book is written in a clear and engaging style to suit all readers, the architecture and built environment students and professions as well as readers in general. As there are many books on this topic, but none emphasize the context of tropical climate. This is the first book on the low-energy built environment within the context of tropical climate. Abdul Malek Abdul Rahman was interested in indoor thermal comfort while researching his PhD topic on “Design for Natural Ventilation in Low-Cost Housing in Tropical Climate”. With a firm belief that to be thermally comfortable without mechanical aids in tropical climates, one should be under shade and receiving ample air movement concurrently, which is not naturally possible. Therefore, he sets out for further researches, literatures and acute observations on this issue. With university research funds, he investigated in hypothesis and experimented on low-cost cooling technologies, attended and read books and references on related topics. Equipped with reliable cameras, he captured ideas and happenings spontaneously to confirm his conviction. He believes that in order to re-examine the philosophy of energy efficient architectural design, one has to detach oneself from architecture and to understand other related disciplines (mechanical engineering, to be exact) in order to value add and upgrade the architecture towards sustainability. He finds the future is very challenging on this issue as population increase is real and that when left uncheck would affect the comfort of human psyche. Technology now is the solution and research must include latest technology available during the particular time of change. Karam Mustafa Al-Obaidi has interest in architectural design systems specifically in the tropics. He focuses on dynamic environment in relation with surroundings. His research is towards energy and how it influences the architectural form. With university research funds, he implemented experimental investigation to obtain reliable examination of the built environment. The future of architecture in terms of technology is challenging in this tropical region. He finds that understanding energy in both consumption and efficiency is limited due to the climatic constraints. Therefore, he believes that creating a platform to integrate related disciplines could provide solutions regarding the issue of energy efficiency. In his opinion, nature is the main source of inspiration, thus designing models that respond to tropical environment could provide comfort and durability for users and buildings.

Download or read book Decarbonising the Built Environment written by Peter Newton and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-06-07 with total page 555 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on the challenge that Australia faces in transitioning to renewable energy and regenerating its cities via a transformation of its built environment. Both are necessary conditions for low carbon living in the 21st century. This is a global challenge represented by the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals and the IPCC’s Climate Change program and its focus on mitigation and adaptation. All nations must make significant contributions to this transformation. This book highlights the new knowledge and innovation that has emerged from research projects undertaken in the Co-operative Research Centre for Low Carbon Living between 2012 and 2019 – an initiative of the Australian Government’s Department of Industry, Science and Technology that is tasked with responding to the UN challenges. Four principal transition pathways were central to the CRC and provide the thematic structure to this volume. They focus on technology, buildings, precinct and city design, and human behaviour – and their interactions.

Download or read book Advancing the Science of Climate Change written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2010-12-10 with total page 527 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for-and in many cases is already affecting-a broad range of human and natural systems. The compelling case for these conclusions is provided in Advancing the Science of Climate Change, part of a congressionally requested suite of studies known as America's Climate Choices. While noting that there is always more to learn and that the scientific process is never closed, the book shows that hypotheses about climate change are supported by multiple lines of evidence and have stood firm in the face of serious debate and careful evaluation of alternative explanations. As decision makers respond to these risks, the nation's scientific enterprise can contribute through research that improves understanding of the causes and consequences of climate change and also is useful to decision makers at the local, regional, national, and international levels. The book identifies decisions being made in 12 sectors, ranging from agriculture to transportation, to identify decisions being made in response to climate change. Advancing the Science of Climate Change calls for a single federal entity or program to coordinate a national, multidisciplinary research effort aimed at improving both understanding and responses to climate change. Seven cross-cutting research themes are identified to support this scientific enterprise. In addition, leaders of federal climate research should redouble efforts to deploy a comprehensive climate observing system, improve climate models and other analytical tools, invest in human capital, and improve linkages between research and decisions by forming partnerships with action-oriented programs.

Download or read book Sustainable Building and Built Environments to Mitigate Climate Change in the Tropics written by Tri Harso Karyono and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-02-21 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers a selection of the best papers presented during the International conference on Mitigating and Adapting Built Environments for Climate Change in the Tropics, held at Tanri Abeng University (TAU), Jakarta, Indonesia, March 2015. The book is divided into four main parts. The first part deals with the general issue of climate change, the cause and the ways to mitigate and to adapt the built environment for climate change in a number of countries. Part 2 deals with the conceptual ways to mitigate building for climate change. The ways to reduce cooling energy in tropical buildings by means of passive design. Part 3 offers papers that examine the way to overcome disasters in the city caused by climate change. The final part deals with the role of plants in mitigating and adapting built environments to climate change - the use of plants, trees and bushes to directly and indirectly reduce carbon emissions are discussed.

Download or read book Energy and Urban Built Form written by Dean Hawkes and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2012-12-02 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Energy and Urban Built Form contains the papers that were presented at the International Seminar on Urban Built Form and Energy Analysis, held at Darwin College in Cambridge on June 26 and 27, 1986. The seminar focused on energy use in the built environment at an intermediate scale, between individual buildings and cities, where urban and architectural factors interact. It also covers the simulation and analysis of the performance of groups of buildings, from city blocks and industrial developments to mixed-use urban developments, housing estates, and stocks of buildings such as schools and houses. Organized into four parts encompassing 13 chapters, this volume describes techniques for calculating and minimizing energy consumption in groups of buildings, cities or entire regions. It first provides an overview of mathematical models, as well as approaches to the computation of the energy demand or energy-related properties of housing designs or groups of buildings. It then explores the politics of energy and the built environment, the mechanisms by which technical developments may be translated into effective action, and the energy efficiency of the urban built form. The reader is also introduced to passive solar scenarios for the UK domestic sector, intermediate-scale energy initiatives in the United Kingdom, thermal efficiency of building clusters, and glazed courtyards as an element of the low-energy city. This book is a valuable resource for city planners and engineers, scientists, and anyone interested in energy conservation.

Download or read book Urban Climates written by T. R. Oke and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-09-14 with total page 549 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Urban Climates is the first full synthesis of modern scientific and applied research on urban climates. The book begins with an outline of what constitutes an urban ecosystem. It develops a comprehensive terminology for the subject using scale and surface classification as key constructs. It explains the physical principles governing the creation of distinct urban climates, such as airflow around buildings, the heat island, precipitation modification and air pollution, and it then illustrates how this knowledge can be applied to moderate the undesirable consequences of urban development and help create more sustainable and resilient cities. With urban climate science now a fully-fledged field, this timely book fulfills the need to bring together the disparate parts of climate research on cities into a coherent framework. It is an ideal resource for students and researchers in fields such as climatology, urban hydrology, air quality, environmental engineering and urban design.

Download or read book Urban Retrofitting for Sustainability written by Tim Dixon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-01-21 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a foreword from Paul King, Chief Executive, UK Green Building Council and Chairman, Zero Carbon Hub As concerns over climate change and resource constraints grow, many cities across the world are trying to achieve a low carbon transition. Although new zero carbon buildings are an important part of the story, in existing cities the transformation of the current building stock and urban infrastructure must inevitably form the main focus for transitioning to a low carbon and sustainable future by 2050. Urban Retrofitting for Sustainability brings together interdisciplinary research contributions from leading international experts to focus on key issues such as systems innovation, financing tools, governance, energy, and water management. The chapters consider not only the knowledge and technical tools available, but looks forward to how they can be implemented in real cities by 2050.

Download or read book Stay Cool written by Holger Koch-Nielsen and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-06-17 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In hot dry or warm humid climates, more than half of the urban peak load of energy consumption is used to satisfy air-conditioning demands alone. Since the urbanization rate in developing countries is extreme, the pressure placed on energy resources to satisfy the future requirements of the built environment will be great, unless new, more cost-effective measures can be introduced. Stay Cool is an essential guide for planning and design using active design principles and passive means to satisfy human comfort requirements specifically in these climate zones, based on examples of traditional and modern constructions. The book demonstrates how a design strategy for urban environments and individual buildings, incorporating naturally occurring resources and specific energy-efficient technologies, can create a location, form and structure that promote significant energy-savings. Such strategies can be applied to low cost housing, or indeed to any other buildings, in order to improve comfort with passive means and low energy budgets. Following an outline of climatic issues, characteristics and thermal comfort requirements, the book details the available techniques and technologies that can be used to shape both built and external environments, the building envelope, material selections and natural ventilation and cooling methods to satisfy both human requirements and the need for energy efficiency. It also includes an active design checklist and summary of available design checking tools, a rehabilitation guide for existing urban, building and external environments, and solar charts. Planners, architects, engineers, technicians and building designers will find Stay Cool an inspirational guide and an essential reference when working with planning and design of the built environment in hot dry and warm humid climate zones. It will also be of benefit to students, academics and researchers with an interest in sustainable and energy-efficient architecture techniques and practice.

Download or read book A Handbook of Sustainable Building Design and Engineering written by Dejan Mumovic and published by Earthscan. This book was released on 2013-06-17 with total page 475 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The combined challenges of health, comfort, climate change and energy security cross the boundaries of traditional building disciplines. This authoritative collection, focusing mostly on energy and ventilation, provides the current and next generation of building engineering professionals with what they need to work closely with many disciplines to meet these challenges.A Handbook of Sustainable Building Engineering covers: how to design, engineer and monitor a building in a manner that minimises the emissions of greenhouse gases; how to adapt the environment, fabric and services of existing and new buildings to climate change; how to improve the environment in and around buildings to provide better health, comfort, security and productivity; and provides crucial expertise on monitoring the performance of buildings once they are occupied. The authors explain the principles behind built environment engineering, and offer practical guidance through international case studies.

Download or read book Governance for Urban Sustainability and Resilience written by Jeroen van der Heijden and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2014-10-31 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cities, and the built environment more broadly, are key in the global response to climate change. This groundbreaking book seeks to understand what governance tools are best suited for achieving cities that are less harmful to the natural environment,

Download or read book The Built Environment in a Changing Climate written by Giulia Ulpiani and published by Mdpi AG. This book was released on 2021-12-03 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The papers included in this Special Issue tackle multiple aspects of how cities, districts, and buildings could evolve along with climate change and how this would impact our way of conceiving and applying design criteria, policies, and urban plans. Despite the multidisciplinary nature of the collection, some transversal take-home messages emerge: - Today's energy-efficient paradigms may lose their virtuosity in the future unless accurate estimates of future scenarios are used to design modelling platforms and to inform legislative frameworks; - Acting at the local scale is key. Future climate change adaptation will be implemented at the local level. Overlooking regional and local specificities will contribute to inaccurate and inefficient action plans. As such, the smaller scale will become vital in predicting future urban metabolic rates and corresponding comfort-driven strategies; - Energy poverty, heat vulnerability, and social injustice are emerging as critical factors for planning and acting for future-proof cities on par of micro- and meso-climatological factors; - Given that the impacts of climate change will persist for many years, adaptation to this phenomenon should be prioritized by removing any prominent barrier and by enabling combinations of different mitigation technologies. These topics will receive a global reach in few decades, since also developing and underdeveloped countries are starting their fight against local climate change, with cities at the forefront.