Sustainable Urban Environments

The urban environment - buildings, cities and infrastructure - represents one of the most important contributors to climate change, while at the same time holding the key to a more sustainable way of living. The transformation from traditional to sustainable systems requires interdisciplinary knowledge of the re-design, construction, operation and maintenance of the built environment.

Sustainable Urban Environments: An Ecosystem Approach presents fundamental knowledge of the built environment. Approaching the topic from an ecosystems perspective, it shows the reader how to combine diverse practical elements into sustainable solutions for future buildings and cities. You'll learn to connect problems and solutions at different spatial scales, from urban ecology to material, water and energy use, from urban transport to livability and health. The authors introduce and explore a variety of governance tools that support the transformation process, and show how they can help overcome institutional barriers. The book concludes with an account of promising perspectives for achieving a sustainable built environment in industrialized countries.

Offering a unique overview and understanding of the most pressing challenges in the built environment, Sustainable Urban Environments helps the reader grasp opportunities for integration of knowledge and technologies in the design, construction and management of the built environment. Students and practitioners who are eager to look beyond their own fields of interest will appreciate this book because of its depth and breadth of coverage.

Auteur

Ellen van Bueren received her Master's in Public Administration at Leiden University / Erasmus University of Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 1996. She worked for a couple of years as a consultant at the urban planning firm Zandvoort Ordening & Advies in Utrecht (now part of Royal Haskoning). By the end of 1997 she started her research and teaching at Delft University of Technology. Until 2002 she worked for the Delft Interfaculty Research Center DIOC-DGO The Ecological City. During these years she was also hired by TNO Building and Construction, a research institute, for one day a week. A synthesis of the research she carried out in this Center will result in a PhD thesis about the design of policy arrangement for a sustainable built environment, which is expected to be published in 2008. In 2002 she started her work for the section Policy, Organization Law and Gaming, where she continued her research and teaching about the organization and management of complex policy and decision making processes. In 2008 she expects to finish her thesis on Policy-Making for a Sustainable Built Environment, which is part of the Delft Cluster research program. She also participates in the research and management of the Multi-Actor Systems Program of the Delft Center for Sustainable Urban Areas and in the Center for Process Management and Simulation.

Contenu

List of Abbreviations.- List of figures, tables and boxes.- 1. Introduction. 1.1 The built environment: problem and solution. 1.2 Analysing the urban environment: an ecosystem approach. 1.3 Analytical focus is on ecological processes. 1.4 Setting the boundaries in this book; Ellen van Bueren.- 2. (Eco)system thinking: ecological principles for buildings, roads, industrial and urban areas. 2.1 Introduction. 2.2 General characteristics of (eco)system thinking. 2.3 The development of system theory and ecosystem theory. 2.4 Important concepts and characteristics of ecosystems. 2.4.1 Ecosystem structure and processes. 2.4.2 Disturbances and resilience. 2.4.3 Important correlations. 2.4.4 Principles of ecosystems. 2.5 Classification of ecosystems on different levels of scale (from global to local level) 2.6 Examples of urban-ecosystem approaches. 2.7 Understanding urban areas as ecosystems. 2.7.1 Industrial ecology and industrial areas as ecosystems. 2.7.2 Ecologically responsible agriculture. 2.7.3 An ecosystem approach to transport. 2.8 Improving urban systems: ecological engineering. 2.8.1 Ecological alternatives of waste-water treatment. 2.8.2 Green roofs and green façades in an urban setting. 2.8.3 Accumulation of carbon in urban areas. 2.9 The earth as a living system. 2.10 Discussion; Hein van Bohemen.- 3. Urban ecology, scale and identity. 3.1 Introduction. 3.1.1 Dutch reference as a starting point. 3.2 Ecologies. 3.3 Urban ecology including the human species and its artefacts. 3.4 Scale and size: technically, scientifically, administratively. 3.5 Identity: difference from the rest, continuity in itself. 3.6 Conclusion; Taeke M. De Jong.- 4. Water flows and urban planning. 4.1 Introduction. 4.2 Flow issues: cycles and cascades. 4.2.1 The urban water cycle. . 4.2.2 Rain water: from down the drain to first retain. 4.2.3 Ground water: from pumping to careful use and recharge. 4.2.4 River waters: from taming the stream to space for the river. 4.2.5 Drinking water: from shortage and wastage to sufficient and efficient. 4.2.6 Waste water and pollution: from problems to prevention. 4.2.7 The ecodevice model. 4.3 Urban Spaces and the Water Cycle. 4.3.1 Flows and areas. 4.3.2 Guiding models. 4.3.3 Water in the urban landscape. 4.4 Water Planning and Innovation: the role of actors. 4.4.1 Change, strategic and operational plans. 4.4.2 Innovation and new technologies. 4.4.3 bottom-up or top-down. 4.5 Conclusions; Sybrand Tjallingii.- 5. Energy in the built environment. 5.1 Introduction. 5.1.1 Energy in ecosystem theory. 5.1.2 Energy use by humans. 5.1.3 Is energy consumption an environmental problem? 5.2 The energy chain: from demand to supply. 5.2.1 The energy chain in buildings and the built environment. 5.2.2 The energy chain and the three step strategy. 5.3 Demand side: Thermal energy demand. 5.3.1 Introduction. 5.3.2 The building and its environment: local climate. 5.3.3 Energy flow by transmission. 5.3.4 Energy flow through ventilation en infiltration. 5.3.5 Energy gains through solar radiation. 5.3.6 Energy flow due to internal heat gains. 5.3.7 Thermal energy balance for space heating and cooling. 5.3.8 Other thermal energy demand: warm tap water and cooking. 5.4 Demand side: Electrical energy demand of buildings. 5.5 Energy distribution: between supply and demand. 5.5.1 Thermal energy distribution. 5.5.2 Electrical energy distribution. 5.5.3 Match between demand and supply: exergy approach. 5.6 Supply side: Energy conversion systems and primary energy use. 5.6.1 Introduction. 5.6.2 Power plants. 5.6.3 Renewable sources for electricity production. 5.6.4 Combined Heat and Power (CHP). 5.6.6 Heating: electrical heating. 5.6.7 Heating: boilers and stoves. 5.6.8 Heating and cooling: cooling machines and heat pumps. 5.6.9 Heating and cooling: heat and cold storage in ground. 5.6.10 Cooling: evaporative cooling. 5.6.11 Minimizing the primary energy use. 5.6.12 Environmental impacts of energy use.- 5.7 Operational and financial considerations; Laure Itard.- 6. Material City: Towards sustainable use of resources. 6.1 Introduction. 6.2 Energy and materials. 6.3 Concepts. 6.4 Strategies. 6.5 Challenges. 6.6 The value of assessment tools. 6.6.1 Development of assessment tools in the Netherlands and other countries. 6.6.2 BREEAM: Dutch version of the British system. 6.6.3 GPR-Gebouw: communicating about sustainability. 6.6.4 GreenCalc: measuring sustainability. 6.6.5 DuboCalc: measurable environmental performance in the civil engineering sector. 6.6.6 Conclusion. 6.7 Selecting materials; Loriane Icibaci, Michiel Haas.- 7. Air quality and human health. 7.1 Introduction. 7.2 Air pollutants. 7.2.1 Sources of outdoor air pollutants. 7.2.2 Sources of indoor air pollutants. 7.2.3 Exposure. 7.3 Other indoor environmental aspects. 7.3.1 Thermal comfort. 7.3.2 Noise. 7.3.3 Lighting. 7.4 Health effects. 7.5 Practical guidelines. 7.5.1 Chemical and biological pollutants. 7.5.1.1 Design phase. 7.5.1.2 Construction phase. 7.5.…