Ho, Chung; Lee, Hyun Woo; Gambatese, John A. (2020). Application of Prevention Through Design (PTD) to Improve the Safety of Solar Installations on Small Buildings. Safety Science, 125.
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Abstract
As a viable, clean and renewable energy resource, solar energy has gained a significant interest in the US residential sector. Most solar systems are installed on rooftops to take advantage of available space and reduce land use. However, this installation environment also exposes workers to unique safety hazards related to existing roof conditions such as slippery roofing materials, irregular roof layouts, and steep roof slopes. Although Prevention through Design (ND) has been widely considered as an effective way to address safety issues during the design phase, little to no studies have applied ND to improve safety in solar energy installations. To fill this knowledge gap, this research aimed to investigate how, during the design phase, to address the safety concerns of solar workers when installing solar energy systems on residential buildings. Through a series of interviews, four case studies, and a seminar, seven solar ND attributes were identified: roofing materials, roof slopes, roof accessories, panel layouts, fall protection systems, lifting methods and electrical systems. Based on the attributes, a ND protocol was developed that can serve as guidance for implementing ND in solar installations. This paper presents the research activities and findings, and feedback gained from solar contractors through a seminar on the study. The study is expected to contribute to reducing safety hazards by implementing ND, help improve safety performance in solar installations on small residential buildings and support the promotion of safety in sustainable construction.
Keywords
Roofing Materials; Renewable Energy Sources; Sustainable Construction; Solar Energy; Clean Energy; Construction Safety; Prevention Through Design; Small Buildings; Solar Installations; Buildings (structures); Construction Industry; Hazards; Occupational Safety; Roofs; Safety; Solar Power; Sustainable Development; Steep Roof Slopes; Design Phase; Solar Energy Installations; Solar Workers; Installing Solar Energy Systems; Residential Buildings; Seven Solar Ptd Attributes; Roof Accessories; Ptd Protocol; Solar Contractors; Safety Performance; Viable Energy Resource; Clean Energy Resource; Renewable Energy Resource; Us Residential Sector; Solar Systems; Installation Environment; Unique Safety Hazards; Roof Conditions; Slippery Roofing Materials; Irregular Roof Layouts; Issues; Accident Prevention; Protocol; Energy Sources; Residential Areas; Land Use; Prevention; Design; Falls; Occupational Hazards; Contractors; Residential Energy; Protection Systems; Renewable Energy; Buildings; Roofing; Layouts
Jung, Meen Chel; Kang, Mingyu; Kim, Sunghwan. (2022). Does Polycentric Development Produce Less Transportation Carbon Emissions? Evidence from Urban Form Identified by Night-Time Lights Across US Metropolitan Areas. Urban Climate, 44.
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Abstract
Identifying the comprehensive metropolitan urban form is important to propose effective policies to mitigate transportation carbon emissions. A publicly accessible night-time light dataset was used to identify urban centers and develop two polycentric indices to compute the composition and configuration of urban form, respectively. We used the most populous 103 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), with their corresponding transportation carbon emissions, polycentric indices, population sizes, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, and road network densities. We first explored the typology of urban form and classified MSAs into six types based on two polycentric indices. We then introduced correlation analysis and statistical models to test the relationships between polycentric urban form and transportation carbon emissions. We found: (1) more urban centers lead to more emissions (compositional dimension), (2) more spatially distributed urban centers result in less emissions (configurational dimension), and (3) population and GDP per capita are positively related to carbon emissions. These findings suggest the importance of measuring two polycentric dimensions separately but using them together. Urban planners should consider mixed strategies that combine the traditional intra-center-based smart growth principles and the metropolitan-level inter-centers spatial plan to effectively counteract climate change.
Keywords
Polycentric Urban Form; Urban Centers; Carbon Emissions; Night-time Lights; Smart Growth; Climate Change; Co2 Emissions; Spatial Structure; Satellite Imagery; Cities; Patterns; Trends; Growth; Determinants; China
The EarthLab Innovations Grant Program was launched in 2019 to fund actionable environmental research. The 2022-23 EarthLab Innovation Grants program received 33 high-quality proposals for research at the intersection of climate change and social justice. One awarded project titled, “Centering Place and Community to Address Climate Change and Social Justice” was led by P.I. Daniel Abramson, Associate Professor of Urban Design & Planning and Adjunct Associate Professor of Architecture & Landscape Architecture, and Community Lead, Jamie Judkins, of the Shoalwater…
ARPA-E announced $5 million in funding to two universities—the University of Washington and University of California, Davis—working to develop life cycle assessment tools and frameworks associated with transforming buildings into net carbon storage structures. The funding is part of the Harnessing Emissions into Structures Taking Inputs from the Atmosphere (HESTIA) Exploratory Topic. Parametric Open Data for Life Cycle Assessment (POD | LCA) – $3,744,303 The University of Washington’s Carbon Leadership Forum will develop a rigorous and flexible parametric Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)…
The University of Washington Population Health Initiative announced the award of 11 Tier 1 pilot grants to teams representing researchers from nine different UW schools and colleges as well as UW Tacoma and numerous community-based partners. The collective value of these 11 awards was nearly $480,000, which included approximately $270,000 in funding from the initiative plus additional school, college and departmental matching funds. Among the award recipients was a project titled “Amazonian Green Cities: A Gardens Program for Health Ecology and…
Research Interests: Urban resilience, disaster risk reduction, climate change, community engagement.
Research Interests: Urban Sustainability Indicators, Small Island Developing States, Climate Change, Natural Resource Management, Urban Design.
Julie Kriegh, researcher with the Carbon Leadership Forum and other CBE research centers, and owner of Kriegh Architecture Studios, collaborated with other CBE faculty and external partners to lead a UW CBE studio course in collaboration with Google that developed and delivered a design proposal for a sustainable data center. CBE collaborators included Hyun Woo “Chris” Lee, P.D. Koon Professorship in Construction Management; Jan Whittington, Associate Professor of the Department of Urban Design and Planning, and Director of the Urban…
Living Landscapes Incubator is a recently awarded project led by School of Environmental and Forest Sciences‘ Joshua Lawler along with Co-Principal Investigators Dan Brown (Director, School of Environmental and Forest Sciences), Jen Davison (Director, Urban@UW, Assistant Dean of Research, College of Built Environments), Ken Yocom (Chair, Landscape Architecture; Interim Faculty Director, Urban@UW), and Mike Yost (Chair, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences). In the last year, the global pandemic and the restrictions that have followed have shown how important…
This winter quarter the College of Built Environments launched its new CBE Inspire Fund. Designed to support CBE research activities for which a relatively small amount of support can be transformative, in mid-February the college awarded the first 6 grants. Projects supported by the CBE Inspire Fund hail from 4 departments within the college and tackling topics such as food systems, mapping cultural spaces, and energy justice. The CBE Inspire Fund is the first research funding opportunity offered by the…