Quantifying changes in building footprint in the historic coastal town of Queenscliff

The sea change phenomenon has attracted new residents to Australian coastal towns and brought with it expectations of residential housing formed in metropolitan settings. Consequently, the traditional ‘identifying’ neighbourhood character of these towns is changing. Much larger houses are now being built and site coverage has increased. To date, changes in character have been measured using data based on the subjective judgement of residents through surveys and interviews. More objective information would be beneficial in understanding change. This paper describes a methodology that has been developed to quantify the change in the building footprint in the historic coastal town of Queenscliff in Victoria. Using selected aerial photographs, the building footprint of the town's residential buildings has been estimated at four intervals from 1957 until 2006. This footprint has been compared to the block size at each interval so that changes in house-to-block ratio may be compared. Over 20% of the residential homes were assessed. Building footprint has risen from 30% to over 38% in the documented 50 years. The method developed here is a low-cost method of tracking footprint change over an extended period and informing local planners and residents of when and where the changes have occurred.

Automatic evolution of conceptual building architectures

This thesis describes research in which genetic programming is used to automatically evolve shape grammars that construct three dimensional models of possible external building architectures. A completely automated fitness function is used, which evaluates the three dimensional building models according to different geometric properties such as surface normals, height, building footprint, and more. In order to evaluate the buildings on the different criteria, a multi-objective fitness function is used. The results obtained from the automated system were successful in satisfying the multiple objective criteria as well as creating interesting and unique designs that a human-aided system might not discover. In this study of evolutionary design, the architectures created are not meant to be fully functional and structurally sound blueprints for constructing a building, but are meant to be inspirational ideas for possible architectural designs. The evolved models are applicable for today's architectural industries as well as in the video game and movie industries. Many new avenues for future work have also been discovered and highlighted.

Boston, Massachusetts, 2-Dimensional Building Footprints with Height Data (from LIDAR data), 2002

This dataset consists of 2D footprints of the buildings in the metropolitan Boston area, based on tiles in the orthoimage index (orthophoto quad ID: 229890, 229894, 229898, 229902, 233886, 233890, 233894, 233898, 233902, 237890, 237894, 237898, 237902, 241890, 241894, 241898, 241902, 245898, 245902). This data set was collected using 3Di's Digital Airborne Topographic Imaging System II (DATIS II). Roof height and footprint elevation attributes (derived from 1-meter resolution LIDAR (LIght Detection And Ranging) data) are included as part of each building feature. This data can be combined with other datasets to create 3D representations of buildings and the surrounding environment.

The suburbanisation of the coastal communities of Sorrento and Queenscliff : measuring the effects of overdevelopment.

Architecture is often read as a marker of change. The Victorian towns of Sorrento and Queenscliff are undergoing immense change as a result of rapid modernisation and building due to the ‘sea-change’ phenomenon. It has been argued that this is adversely affecting place, diminishing ‘sense of place’, destroying neighbourhood character and leading to unsustainable development. Planning strategies such as Melbourne 2030 have exacerbated this trend by advocating increasing population densities without regard to specific local environmental or historical conditions. Richard Neville comments generally that ‘Architecture is a lightning rod for passions about community, development, taste and lifestyle. Few issues engage and enrage people more than development – whether a prominent public site … or a more local issue such as housing design or density.’ Anecdotally the increase in building footprint is one measure of cultural lifestyle change that has occurred in the last half century in the coastal areas of the Mornington and Bellarine Peninsulas. While the change from the 1950s ‘fibro shack’ to the 2000s supersize ‘McMansion’ in Sorrento and Queenscliff demonstrates increasing prosperity and sophistication, these developments show little awareness of the local coastal landscape or place identity. If the impacts of this ‘sea change’ phenomenon on place are to be considered as more than anecdotal, ways of evaluating these impacts are required. Monitoring and documenting the impact of changes to place will enable the researchers to quantify overdevelopment as site specific and recommend that modern planning schemes need to value and address place differently.

From fibro shacks to McMansions: considering the impact of housing change on the sense of place in the historic Victorian coastal towns of Sorrento and Queenscliff

Eighty per cent of Australians now live within 50 kilometres of the coast.1 While most of the population remains concentrated in the large capital cities, some people have chosen small coastal towns as their permanent and or second-home destination. Greater mobility and income has increased the feasibility and attractiveness of living in these once overlooked and forgotten towns. The arrival of these new residents has changed the towns in both positive and negative ways. Declining traditional industries have been replaced by tourism and service sectors, providing a much-needed economic revival. The expectations of new residents, both permanent and non-permanent, however, have also brought challenges to the towns. Metropolitan value systems sometimes impact negatively on the unique sense of place and neighbourhood character of these towns. This paper presents both quantitative and qualitative evidence of the impact on character and sense of place in two historic coastal towns, Queenscliff and Sorrento, in southern Victoria. Census data shows how employment and the number of permanent residents have changed radically over the last 50-60 years, altering the social fabric of the towns. An analysis of the building footprint over a similar timeframe shows a growth in building size as larger houses become more common, and a growth in planning appeals for the towns is indicative of a clash of expectations between the council, long-time and new residents. While these indicators demonstrate the impact on the character of the towns as defined by their built environment, some oral accounts of local residents are used to show the emotional impact of these changes on the traditional sense of place associated with these towns. Some specific examples of changes to the built environment are provided to demonstrate that local planning schemes are not always successful in protecting neighbourhood character and that further measures are required in order to safeguard the uniqueness of coastal towns from the negative aspects of development.

Modelling sustainable and optimal solutions for building services integration in early architectural design : confronting the software and professional interoperability deficit

Decisions made in the earliest stage of architectural design have the greatest impact on the construction, lifecycle cost and environmental footprint of buildings. Yet the building services, one of the largest contributors to cost, complexity, and environmental impact, are rarely considered as an influence on the design at this crucial stage. In order for efficient and environmentally sensitive built environment outcomes to be achieved, a closer collaboration between architects and services engineers is required at the outset of projects. However, in practice, there are a variety of obstacles impeding this transition towards an integrated design approach. This paper firstly presents a critical review of the existing barriers to multidisciplinary design. It then examines current examples of best practice in the building industry to highlight the collaborative strategies being employed and their benefits to the design process. Finally, it discusses a case study project to identify directions for further research.

An ecological footprint for an early learning centre : identifying opportunities for early childhood sustainability education through interdisciplinary research

In this study, engineers and educators worked together to adapt and apply the ecological footprint (EF) methodology to an early learning centre in Brisbane, Australia. Results were analysed to determine how environmental impact can be reduced at the study site and more generally across early childhood settings. It was found that food, transport and energy consumption had the largest impact on the centre’s overall footprint. In transport and energy, early childhood centres can reduce their impact through infrastructure and cultural change, in association with changed curriculum strategies. Building design, the type of energy purchased and appliance usage can all be modified to reduce the energy footprint. The transport footprint can be reduced through more families using active and public transport, which can be encouraged by providing information, support and facilities and appropriate siting of new centres. Introducing the concept of ecological footprint in early childhood education may be an effective way to educate children, staff and parents on the links between the food they eat, land usage and environmental impact. This study responds directly to the call in this journal for research focused on early childhood education and for more to be made of interdisciplinary research opportunities.

Building energy simulation and parallel computing : opportunities and challenges

Increased focus on energy cost savings and carbon footprint reduction efforts improved the visibility of building energy simulation, which became a mandatory requirement of several building rating systems. Despite developments in building energy simulation algorithms and user interfaces, there are some major challenges associated with building energy simulation; an important one is the computational demands and processing time. In this paper, we analyze the opportunities and challenges associated with this topic while executing a set of 275 parametric energy models simultaneously in EnergyPlus using a High Performance Computing (HPC) cluster. Successful parallel computing implementation of building energy simulations will not only improve the time necessary to get the results and enable scenario development for different design considerations, but also might enable Dynamic-Building Information Modeling (BIM) integration and near real-time decision-making. This paper concludes with the discussions on future directions and opportunities associated with building energy modeling simulations.

GHG footprint of major cities in India

Concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere has been increasing rapidly during the last century due to ever increasing anthropogenic activities resulting in significant increases in the temperature of the Earth causing global warming. Major sources of GHG are forests (due to human induced land cover changes leading to deforestation), power generation (burning of fossil fuels), transportation (burning fossil fuel), agriculture (livestock, farming, rice cultivation and burning of crop residues), water bodies (wetlands), industry and urban activities (building, construction, transport, solid and liquid waste). Aggregation of GHG (CO2 and non-CO2 gases), in terms of Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO(2)e), indicate the GHG footprint. GHG footprint is thus a measure of the impact of human activities on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced. This study focuses on accounting of the amount of three important greenhouses gases namely carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) and thereby developing GHG footprint of the major cities in India. National GHG inventories have been used for quantification of sector-wise greenhouse gas emissions. Country specific emission factors are used where all the emission factors are available. Default emission factors from IPCC guidelines are used when there are no country specific emission factors. Emission of each greenhouse gas is estimated by multiplying fuel consumption by the corresponding emission factor. The current study estimates GHG footprint or GHG emissions (in terms of CO2 equivalent) for Indian major cities and explores the linkages with the population and GDP. GHG footprint (Aggregation of Carbon dioxide equivalent emissions of GHG's) of Delhi, Greater Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Greater Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad are found to be 38,633.2 Gg, 22,783.08 Gg, 14,812.10 Gg, 22,090.55 Gg, 19,796.5 Gg, 13,734.59 Gg and 91,24.45 Gg CO2 eq., respectively. The major contributors sectors are transportation sector (contributing 32%, 17.4%, 13.3%, 19.5%, 43.5%, 56.86% and 25%), domestic sector (contributing 30.26%, 37.2%, 42.78%, 39%, 21.6%, 17.05% and 27.9%) and industrial sector (contributing 7.9%, 7.9%, 17.66%, 20.25%, 1231%, 11.38% and 22.41%) of the total emissions in Delhi, Greater Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Greater Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, respectively. Chennai emits 4.79 t of CO2 equivalent emissions per capita, the highest among all the cities followed by Kolkata which emits 3.29 t of CO2 equivalent emissions per capita. Also Chennai emits the highest CO2 equivalent emissions per GDP (2.55 t CO2 eq./Lakh Rs.) followed by Greater Bangalore which emits 2.18 t CO2 eq./Lakh Rs. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The use of Ecological and Carbon Footprint Analysis in regional policy making: application and insights using the REAP model

This paper builds on and extends previous research to contribute to ongoing discussion on the use of resource and carbon accounting tools in regional policy making. The Northern Visions project has produced the first evidence-based footpath setting out the actions that need to be taken to achieve the step changes in the Ecological and Carbon Footprint of Northern Ireland. A range of policies and strategies were evaluated using the Resources and Energy Analysis Programme. The analysis provided the first regional evidence base that current sustainable development policy commitments would not lead to the necessary reductions in either the Ecological Footprint or carbon dioxide emissions. Building on previous applications of Ecological Footprint analysis in regional policy making, the research has demonstrated that there is a valuable role for Ecological and Carbon Footprint Analysis in policy appraisal. The use of Ecological and Carbon Footprint Analysis in regional policy making has been evaluated and recommendations made on ongoing methodological development. The authors hope that the research can provide insights for the ongoing use Ecological and Carbon Footprint Analysis in regional policy making and help set out the priorities for research to support this important policy area

Alkali Activated Fuel Ash and Slag Mixes:Optimization Study from Mortars to Concrete Building Blocks

Alkali activated binders, based on ash and slag, also known as geopolymers, can play a key role in reducing the carbon footprint of the construction sector by replacing ordinary Portland cement in some concretes. Since 1970s, research effort has been ongoing in many research institutions. In this study, pulverized fuel ash (PFA) from a UK power plant, ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBS) and combinations of the two have been investigated as geopolymer binders for concrete applications. Activators used were sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate solutions. Mortars with sand/binder ratio of 2.75 with several PFA and GGBS combinations have been mixed and tested. The optimization of alkali dosage (defined as the Na2O/binder mass ratio) and modulus (defined as the Na2O/SiO2 mass ratio) resulted in strengths in excess of 70 MPa for tested mortars. Setting time and workability have been considered for the identification of the best combination of PFA/GGBS and alkali activator dosage for different precast concrete products. Geopolymer concrete building blocks have been replicated in laboratory and a real scale factory trial has been successfully carried out. Ongoing microstructural characterization is aiming to identify reaction products arising from PFA/GGBS combinations.

Alkali activated fuel ash and slag mixes:optimization study from paste to concrete building blocks

Alkali activated binders, based on ash and slag, also known as geopolymers, can play a key role in reducing the carbon footprint of the construction sector by replacing ordinary Portland cement in some concretes. Since 1970s, research effort has been ongoing in many research institutions. In this study, pulverized fuel ash (pfa) from a UK power plant, ground granulated blast furnace slag (ggbs) and combinations of the two have been investigated as geopolymer binders for concrete applications. Activators used were sodium hydroxide and sodium silicate solutions. Mortars with sand/binder ratio of 2.75 with several pfa and ggbs combinations have been mixed and tested. The optimization of alkali dosage (defined as the Na2O/binder mass ratio) and modulus (defined as the Na2O/SiO2 mass ratio) resulted in strengths in excess of 70 MPa for tested mortars. Setting time and workability have been considered for the identification of the best combination of pfa/ggbs and alkali activator dosage for different precast concrete products. Geopolymer concrete building blocks have been replicated in laboratory and a real scale factory trial has been successfully carried out. Ongoing microstructural characterization is aiming to identify reaction products arising from pfa/ggbs combinations.

A generic model of Exergy Assessment of the Environmental Impact for the Building Lifecycle

A generic model of Exergy Assessment is proposed for the Environmental Impact of the Building Lifecycle, with a special focus on the natural environment. Three environmental impacts: energy consumption, resource consumption and pollutant discharge have been analyzed with reference to energy-embodied exergy, resource chemical exergy and abatement exergy, respectively. The generic model of Exergy Assessment of the Environmental Impact of the Building Lifecycle thus formulated contains two sub-models, one from the aspect of building energy utilization and the other from building materials use. Combined with theories by ecologists such as Odum, the paper evaluates a building's environmental sustainability through its exergy footprint and environmental impacts. A case study from Chongqing, China illustrates the application of this method. From the case study, it was found that energy consumption constitutes 70–80% of the total environmental impact during a 50-year building lifecycle, in which the operation phase accounts for 80% of the total environmental impact, the building material production phase 15% and 5% for the other phases.

Sustainable inorganic Binders and Their Applications in Building Engineering: A Green Alternative to Ordinary Portland Cement

In the last decades, the building materials and construction industry has been contributing to a great extent to generate a high impact on our environment. As it has been considered one of the key areas in which to operate to significantly reduce our footprint on environment, there has been widespread belief that particular attention now has to be paid and specific measures have to be taken to limit the use of non-renewable resources.The aim of this thesis is therefore to study and evaluate sustainable alternatives to commonly used building materials, mainly based on ordinary Portland Cement, and find a supportable path to reduce CO2 emissions and promote the re-use of waste materials. More specifically, this research explores different solutions for replacing cementitious binders in distinct application fields, particularly where special and more restricting requirements are needed, such as restoration and conservation of architectural heritage. Emphasis was thus placed on aspects and implications more closely related to the concept of non-invasivity and environmental sustainability. A first part of the research was addressed to the study and development of sustainable inorganic matrices, based on lime putty, for the pre-impregnation and on-site binding of continuous carbon fiber fabrics for structural rehabilitation and heritage restoration. Moreover, with the aim to further limit the exploitation of non-renewable resources, the synthesis of chemically activated silico-aluminate materials, as metakaolin, ladle slag or fly ash, was thus successfully achieved. New sustainable binders were hence proposed as novel building materials, suitable to be used as primary component for construction and repair mortars, as bulk materials in high-temperature applications or as matrices for high-toughness fiber reinforced composites.

Water and nitrogen footprint in an irrigated crop under mineral and organic fertilization

In order to establish rational nitrogen (N) application and reduce groundwater contamination, a clearer understanding of the N distribution through the growing season and its balance is crucial. Excessive doses of N and/or water applied to fertigated crops involve a substantial risk of aquifer contamination by nitrate; but knowledge of N cycling and availability within the soil could assist in avoiding this excess. In central Spain, the main horticultural fertigated crop is the melon type ?piel de sapo¿ and it is cultivated in vulnerable zones to nitrate pollution (Directive 91/676/CEE). However, until few years ago there were not antecedents related to the optimization of nitrogen fertilization together with irrigation. Water and N footprint are indicators that allow assessing the impact generated by different agricultural practices, so they can be used to improve the management strategies in fertigated crop systems. The water footprint distinguishes between blue water (sources of water applied to the crop, like irrigation and precipitation), green water (water used by the crop and stored in the soil), and it is furthermore possible to quantify the impact of pollution by calculating the grey water, which is defined as the volume of polluted water created from the growing and production of crops. On the other hand, the N footprint considers green N (nitrogen consumed by the crops and stored in the soil), blue N (N available for crop, like N applied with mineral and/or organic fertilizers, N applied with irrigation water and N mineralized during the crop period), whereas grey N is the amount of N-NO3- washed from the soil to the aquifer. All these components are expressed as the ratio between the components of water or N footprint and the yield (m3 t-1 or kg N t-1 respectively). The objetives of this work were to evaluate the impact derivated from the use of different fertilizer practices in a melon crop using water and N footprint.