Assessing the relationship between urban planning options and carbon emissions at the use stage of new urbanized areas: A case study in a warm climate location

doi:10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.11.055

Energy and Buildings

Volume 136, 1 February 2017, Pages 73-85

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2016.11.055 Get rights and content

Highlights

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This research assess the relationship between urban morphology and carbon emissions.
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Results highlight the contribution of urban facilities to the environmental impact of cities.
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Authorities may include environmental impact of public facilities on planning decisions.
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Results provide a path for future urbanization strategies for developing countries.

Abstract

The trend in urban population growth marks the sustainable development of cities as a critical challenge on the path towards the efficient use of resources and the mitigation of the environmental impact of human activity. Scientific studies have generally focused on the quantification of the environmental impact derived from the usage/operational stage of buildings. This study also includes the impact associated with the use of public facilities and services in cities.

The aim of this paper is to study the CO₂ emissions from the use stage of buildings and public facilities through different urban planning solutions. Six development scenarios have been evaluated, considering the most common residential building typologies with a common construction surface, which includes: single- family units (detached and semi-detached) and apartment blocks of different building heights. The main finding is the relevant contribution of the use of urban facilities and public services to the overall environmental impact of an urbanized area during its lifespan. The impact of urban planning on the total carbon emissions in cities is shown in the results.

The outcome of this research will guide relevant stakeholders in urban development to promote sustainability criteria in urban design guidelines and their inclusion in the policy arena. The results will also help city managers to better understand the role of public services in the overall environmental impact of urbanized areas.

Introduction

Climate change is a common concern for the entire international community. At the recent Paris Climate Change Conference, the first equitable global agreement to deal with global warming was adopted and the target of limiting the increase in temperatures to 2 °C by the year 2100 was agreed to. According to the speech by Laurent Fabius in the aforementioned conference, “a global climate agreement is a universal necessity that should be answered by all countries, promoting climate solidarity and supporting the mobilization of financing and technologies” [1].

Human activity in urban areas is the primary source of anthropogenic CO₂ emissions, the major contribution to climate change [2]. Urbanized areas consume more than 60% of the world’s energy [3] and cities produce more than 70% of global carbon emissions [4].

The world’s population is migrating from rural to urban areas. The phenomenon is noticeably more intense in developing countries, posing a social, economic and technical challenge to the leaders of cities [5]. If this migration trend continues and considering the predicted growth of the world’s population, by 2015 the urban population will have increased by 2.5 billion people [5].

In this context, two main issues arise: i) lack of information on and uncertainty about growth trends of future urban zones; ii) the opportunity for the development of new urban areas based on sustainable design. The fast growing urban agglomeration in cities has a ripple environmental effect: i) more Green House Gas (GHG) emissions [6]; ii) increase of the heat island effect [7]; iii) more consumption of land and natural resources. Moreover, increasingly demanding comfort standards are predicted, which will significantly contribute to household energy demand and the rise of carbon emission contributions in cities [8]. Urbanization, energy consumption and carbon emissions are co-integrated and their relationship varies depending on the income level of the country and the degree of development [9]. As well as the previously mentioned environmental impacts, population concentration in new residential zones leads to other additional effects, such as changes in local governance and policy [10].

On the other hand, cities are the main contributors to economic development in developing countries. City administrators and governments are in the difficult situation of promoting economic development while facing the need to ensure living conditions and the supply of resources for the new urbanized areas [6], all in strict accordance with the existing sustainable development targets [11].

Worldwide initiatives under the umbrella of the sustainable development of growing cities are increasingly influencing the policy arena. Among those initiatives, urban planning and spatial optimization are playing an important role in the mitigation of CO₂ emissions at an urban level [12]. The study of measures to mitigate the environmental impact of cities entails a multi-disciplinary and multi-sector effort. An integrated approach is necessary to evaluate emission patterns associated with the use stage of cities.

This paper aims to examine the relationship between urban planning options and CO₂ emissions at the usage/operational stage of buildings and urban facilities. Earlier stages of this research examined the effect of urban planning on carbon emissions and waste estimation at the construction stage [13], [14]. A quantification of carbon emissions during the usage/operational stage of urbanized areas is given, considering the energy consumed by: a) use of buildings; b) use of urban infrastructures and municipal facilities. Diverse urban planning scenarios are established to compare results depending on the building type. The contribution of each energy use is estimated.

Six development scenarios are evaluated, considering the most common residential building typologies in Spain. For each scenario, the energy consumption of buildings and public supply networks during the phase of occupation/use is evaluated. Then, the carbon emissions associated with each end use are estimated. The results obtained, together with the findings of the previously mentioned study on CO₂ emissions and waste generation at the construction stage [13], [14], offer a comprehensive analysis of the environmental impact of different urban planning options.

The paper is organized as follows. First, a short literature review on the study of urban form and GHG emissions is given. Section 3 briefly describes the urban solutions studied. Section 4 focuses on methods, presenting the calculation procedure to obtain the associated energy consumption of the urban solutions considered. Results are set out in Section 5 and the discussion is conducted in section 6. Finally, in section 7 the conclusions are summarized.

Section snippets

Urban form and greenhouse gas emissions

This section provides an overview of the latest studies on urban development and environmental impact. First, we focus on the literature that examines the relationship between urban morphology and GHG emissions. Then, we examine the role of public and urban facilities on the assessment of the environmental impact of cities and the existing literature.

Generally, the literature which aims to quantify the impact of urban morphology on CO₂ emissions uses a limited number of variables, which

Urban solutions and construction materials

This section describes the urban planning options studied, as well as the construction systems and civil engineering work involved. As mentioned in section 1, this study is the follow-up to earlier research, whose results have previously been published [13], [14].

Six urban solutions were considered for this study, whose building characteristics are described in Table 1 and Fig. 1. A hypothetical circular total surface allotment of 100,000 m² has been considered for the different urban solutions.

Materials and methods

This section describes the calculation methodology. Firstly, the outline of the model is given and then the calculation procedure is presented. This paper focuses on the usage/operational stage, as it represents the greatest environmental impact of buildings and urban facilities [42].

Carbon emissions associated with city use comes from buildings and urban facilities and public services. Fig. 2 shows the structure of the model developed in this study. Firstly, the energy consumption associated

Results

The results obtained are shown as follows: firstly, partial results during end use are presented, making the distinction between buildings and public services. Then, the total carbon emission rates of the usage/operational stage by inhabitants are shown. Finally, carbon emissions associated with construction and the use stage are presented together.

Discussion

The results of this study manifest the importance of considering public facilities when estimating carbon emissions associated with urban development, as remarked on by other authors [12]. In the building use stage, the most favourable option is URB-6, as observed in Table 2 and slight differences are reported for the rest of multi-family cases. The most unfavourable cases are urban designs based on single-family buildings, and an increase of 151% is reported in detached buildings (URB-1) as

Conclusions

This paper investigates the carbon emissions associated with the usage/operational stage of cities under different urban morphology designs, distinguishing between buildings and urban facilities and public services. The findings of this study represent a contribution to existing literature on the environmental impact associated with urban development and put forth a set of design implications that might be considered when estimating the carbon footprint of urbanized areas. The results of the

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Assessing the relationship between urban planning options and carbon emissions at the use stage of new urbanized areas: A case study in a warm climate location

Highlights

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Urban form and greenhouse gas emissions

Urban solutions and construction materials

Materials and methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusions

Appl. Energy

Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev.

Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev.

Cities

Ecol. Indic.

Constr. Build. Mater.

Energy Policy.

Appl. Energy

Energy Econ.

Cities

Energy Policy

Energy Build.

Sustain. Cities Soc.

Environ. Impact Assess. Rev.

Energy

Waste Manag.

Environ. Prot.

Procedia Eng.

Procedia – Soc. Behav. Sci.

Appl. Energy

Sustain. Cities Soc.

Energy Build.

Energy Build.

Energy Build.

Appl. Therm. Eng.

Waste Manag.

Sci. Total Environ.

Waste Manag.

Overview of Greenhouse Gases

Urban energy systems

Glob Energy Assess. – Towar. a Sustain. Futur.

UNEP-DTIE sustainable consumption and production branch

Cities and Buildings

World Urbanization Prospects the 2014 Revision

A system dynamics approach for local settlement morphology planning based on household consumption carbon footprint

Adv. Mater. Res.

Sustainable Development Goals

Optimization of CO2 emissions in the design phases of urban planning, based on geometric characteristics: a case study of a low-density urban area in Spain

Sustain. Sci.

An empirical analysis of the influence of urban form on household travel and energy consumption

Comput. Environ. Urban Syst.

Quantifying the relationship between urban forms and carbon emissions using panel data analysis

Landsc. Ecol.

Meta-principles for developing smart, sustainable, and healthy cities

Science

Energy for sustainable development comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) of streetlight technologies for minor roads in United Arab Emirates

Energy Sustain. Dev.