Skip to content
News

Department: College of Built Environments

Characterization of Vulnerable Communities in Terms of the Benefits and Burdens of the Energy Transition in Pacific Northwest Cities

Min, Yohan; Lee, Hyun Woo. (2023). Characterization of Vulnerable Communities in Terms of the Benefits and Burdens of the Energy Transition in Pacific Northwest Cities. Journal of Cleaner Production.

View Publication

Abstract

Energy transition to renewable sources has occurred along with the development of various clean energy policies aimed at decarbonization and electrification. However, the transition can inadvertently lead to social inequity resulting in increasing burdens on vulnerable communities. Although many studies have tried to define and identify vulnerable communities, there has been no study specifically aimed at characterizing vulnerable communities in terms of the benefits and burdens of such energy transition. In response, the objective of this study is to characterize vulnerable communities by examining rooftop solar adoption and energy expenditure using spatial and mixed-effect models. Rooftop solar adoption operationalizes energy resilience and benefits, and energy expenditure operationalizes energy dependence and burdens of the transition. The study also investigates the link between rooftop solar adoption and energy expenditure by considering city-level variability in three Pacific Northwest cities. The results show that Bellevue has 50.4% less rooftop solar adoption than Portland, while Portland has 16.1% or $223 more energy expenditure than Seattle. On average, an increase in annual energy expenditure of $431 is associated with 29% increase in rooftop solar adoption, specifically Bellevue, Seattle, and Portland by 21.4%, 39.1%, and 26.2%, respectively, but not vice versa. Furthermore, the group of communities more vulnerable in housing attributes has 15.2% less rooftop solar adoption than the group of more vulnerable communities in socioeconomic attributes. In addition, the city centers, commercial areas, or mid-rise and high-rise zones are found to have lower rooftop solar adoption and energy expenditure than other areas. The results suggest that policymakers should consider between-city variability when identifying vulnerable communities. Policies should also be tailored to local communities based on their attributes as communities with similar attributes tend to cluster together. Furthermore, policymakers should focus more on housing and built environment attributes to promote resilient communities.

Digital Governance in Rural Chengdu, China: Its Potential for Social-ecological Resilience

Wu, Shuang, Abramson, Daniel B., & Zhong, Bo. (2022). Digital Governance in Rural Chengdu, China: Its Potential for Social-ecological Resilience. Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, 4.

View Publication

Abstract

In this study, we echo the call from the UN to interpret Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their regional context—in this case, the linpan (wooded lot) landscape of the Chengdu Plain, in Sichuan, China, where the shocks and stresses of recent, rapid administrative-economic urbanization are testing the resilience of some of the world's most sustainably productive and long- and densely-settled agrarian environments. In recent years, fine-grained information and communications technology (ICT) governance tools in Chengdu, such as “grid management”, present opportunities to sustain and scale up the collection of data necessary to validate and refine indicators of landscape resilience, and use them to regulate development, in accordance with SDG goal 11 to enhance legislation, governance, and capacity via information gathering and sharing. ICT-based governance in combination with traditional place-based knowledge can play a critical role in ensuring the resilience of urban-rural co-development. To realize this potential, however, ICT-enabled governance needs to incorporate greater transparency and more local feedback loops and enable greater participation from older farmers and women, to inform household and community-level land-use choices and initiatives. It also needs to link regulatory functions with marketing and pricing functions so that farmers may benefit from the sustainable practices they are encouraged to adopt.

 

AIA publishes “Equity in Architectural Education” co-authored by Dean Renée Cheng and Laura Osburn

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) recently published a supplement to the AIA Guides for Equitable Practice titled “Equity in Architectural Education.” Renée Cheng, dean of the College of Built Environments, served as the project lead for the research and writing team, which included Laura Osburn, research scientist in construction management. The supplement argues that organizational culture is critical to achieving goals of equity, diversity, and inclusion, and is intended to inspire discussion within individual institutions, and among thought leaders…

Performative By-Products: The Emergence of Waste Reuse Strategies at the Blue Lagoon

De Almeida, Catherine. (2019). Performative By-Products: The Emergence of Waste Reuse Strategies at the Blue Lagoon. Journal of Landscape Architecture, 13(3), 64-77.

View Publication

Abstract

Materials and landscapes associated with waste are perceived as objectionable. By reactivating and embracing waste conditions as desirable opportunities for diverse programmes rooted in economy, ecology, and culture, designers can form hybrid assemblages on waste sites through the exchange of waste materials—a landscape lifecycles approach. This frame-work is applicable to not only design research, but also as a critical lens for evaluating the landscape performance of existing projects that engage with waste reuse. The Blue Lagoon in southwest Iceland materialized as a spa industry out of geothermal waste effluent from the adjacent Svartsengi Geothermal Power Station, reusing undesirable materials and transforming a waste landscape through diversified material recovery strategies. Featuring an industrial by-product turned economic generator, this case study reveals the opportunities for reusing geothermal ‘waste’ in these emergent landscape conditions, which hybridize economies with recreation, research, and ecology, and shift the conventional relationship with waste from passive to performative.

Keywords

Waste reuse; Blue Lagoon; material lifecycles; Iceland; landscape reclamation

Experimental Investigations and Empirical Modeling of Rubber Wear on Concrete Pavement

Emami, Anahita; Sah, Hos Narayan; Aguayo, Federico; Khaleghian, Seyedmeysam. (2022). Experimental Investigations and Empirical Modeling of Rubber Wear on Concrete Pavement. Journal of Engineering Tribology.

View Publication

Abstract

Material loss due to wear plays a key role in the service life of rubber components in various tribological applications, such as tires, shoe soles, wiper blades, to name a few. It also adversely affects energy consumption, economy, and CO2 emissions around the globe. Therefore, understanding and modeling the wear behavior of rubbers are important in the design of economic and environment-friendly rubber compounds. In this study, we investigated the effect of normal load and sliding velocity on the wear rate of rubber compounds widely used in the tire treads and evaluated the wear models previously proposed for rubbers to determine the best model to predict the rubber wear rate. The sliding wear rates of different types of Styrene-Butadiene Rubber (SBR) and Isoprene Rubber (IR) compounds on a broom finish concrete slab were measured for different sliding velocities and normal loads. The experimental results were used to evaluate and discuss different wear models proposed in the literature. A new empirical model was proposed to predict the wear rate by considering mechanical properties associated with rubber wear. The experimental results revealed that the wear rate of rubber compounds non-linearly depends on the normal load or friction force, while the effect of sliding velocity on the wear rate is not significant in the 20–100 mm/s range. Moreover, traces of both mechanical (abrasion) and chemical (smearing) wear were observed on all rubber compounds.

Keywords

Tire tread compounds, rubber wear, rubber-concrete interaction, smearing wear and abrasion, wear model

Coefficient of Thermal Expansion of Concrete Produced with Recycled Concrete Aggregates

Okechi, Ikechukwu K.; Aguayo, Federico; Torres, Anthony. (2022). Coefficient of Thermal Expansion of Concrete Produced with Recycled Concrete Aggregates. Journal of Civil Engineering and Construction, 11(2), 65-74.

View Publication

Abstract

This study presents a comparison between the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of concrete produced with natural aggregate and that of concrete produced with recycled concrete aggregate. In order to achieve this, natural aggregate concrete (NAC) specimens were produced, tested, then crushed and sieved in the laboratory to obtain recycled concrete aggregates, which was then used in the production of recycled aggregate concrete (RAC) specimens. The RAC samples were then tested and compared to the NAC samples. The CTE testing was carried out using a AFTC2 CTE measurement system produced by Pine Instrument Company. In addition to CTE testing, the water absorption, specific gravity, and unit weight of the aggregates was determined. A vacuum impregnation procedure was used for the water absorption test. The recycled aggregate properties showed a significantly higher absorption capacity than that of the natural aggregates, while the unit weight and specific gravity of the recycled aggregate were lower than that of the natural aggregates. The average CTE results showed that both the NAC and the RAC samples expanded similarly. The results show that the CTE of RAC depends on the natural aggregate used in the NAC, which was recycled to produce the RAC. Also, there was no significant difference between the average CTE values of the RAC and that of NAC that could discredit the use of recycled aggregate in concrete.

Keywords

Coefficient of thermal expansion; Recycled concrete aggregate; Natural concrete aggregate.