Paul Osmond

Towards a comprehensive green infrastructure typology: a systematic review of approaches, methods and typologies

There is no consensus on a comprehensive classification for green infrastructure (GI). This is a consequence of the diversity of disciplines, application contexts, methods, terminologies, purposes and valuation criteria for which a GI typology is required. The aim of this systematic literature review is to evaluate the existing evidence on how GI is being categorised and characterised worldwide. We reviewed a total of 85 studies from 15 countries that were analysed for contextual trends, methods, parameters and typologies. Results show that relevant literature lacks a common terminology and that a universal typology for all scenarios is impractical. Analysis reveals that GI can be organised into four main GI categories: (a) tree canopy, (b) green open spaces, (c) green roofs and (d) vertical greenery systems (facades/walls). Green open spaces and tree canopy attracted the attention of researchers due to their complexity, variability and important roles in GI planning. Evidence suggests that a ternary approach in terms of the functional (purpose, use, services), structural (morphology) and configurational (spatial arrangements) attributes of GI should be applied for a more comprehensive classification. Although this approximation is inherently generic, since it can be used across different research disciplines, it is also sufficiently specific to be implemented for individual scopes, scenarios and settings. Further research is needed to develop a typology capable of responding to particular research aims and performance analyses based upon the findings discussed in this paper.

Revisiting thermal comfort models in Iranian classrooms during the warm season

ABSTRACT The validity of existing thermal comfort models is examined for upper primary school children in classroom settings. This is of importance to enhance productivity in the learning environment and to improve the control of artificial heating and cooling, including the potential for energy savings. To examine the thermal perceptions of children aged 10–12 years in non-air-conditioned classrooms, three sets of field experiments were conducted in boys’ and girls’ primary schools in Shiraz, Iran. These were undertaken during regular class sessions covering cool and warm conditions of the school year, polling responses from 1605 students. This paper illustrates the overall methods and reports the results of the warm season field survey (N = 811). This investigation suggests that predicted mean vote-predicted percentage of dissatisfied (PMV/PPD) underestimates childrens actual thermal sensation and percentage dissatisfied in the investigated classrooms. The analysis shows that sampled children may be slightly less sensitive to indoor temperature change than adults. The upper acceptable temperature derived from childrens responses corresponding to mean thermal sensations of +0.85 is 26.5°C, which is about 1°C lower than the ASHRAE upper 80% acceptability limit. This implies that sampled children feel comfortable at lower temperatures than predicted by the ASHRAE Adaptive model during the warm season.

Analyzing green building rating tools for healthcare buildings from the building user’s perspective

The principles of sustainability in the healthcare building sector are perceived differently by different healthcare building user groups. Based on a cross-sectional survey of hospital patients, staff, visitors and members of the public, this study found that issues relating to transport and accessibility were perceived as “more significant” by respondents compared to how they are currently weighted in the Australian Green Star–Healthcare building rating tool. Environmental impacts relating to emissions to air and water were also identified as “more significant” by the healthcare building users than their Green Star weighting would suggest. Indoor environmental quality has been acknowledged as the highest priority in choosing a healthcare building by the survey respondents. It is also one of the two priority categories given in Green Star in terms of weighting, which suggests that the Green Star–Healthcare rating tool aligns well with healthcare building user perspectives on this particular measure, which is linked to faster recovery rates of hospital patients.

Application of adaptive thermal comfort methods for Iranian schoolchildren

ABSTRACT Recent studies in primary schools highlight a need to develop the adaptive comfort model for schoolchildren in classrooms. This study investigates the application of the principal methods underlying the adaptive comfort theory for children relating thermal comfort indoors to the prevailing mean outdoor temperature. Children’s sensitivity to indoor temperature change are examined using data from a field study conducted in Iranian schools. This sensitivity is used to estimate the comfort temperatures in classroom situations with a minimum level of adaptation. Different metrics for the outdoor climate are employed to understand an expression of the climate which best predicts children’s comfort temperature. A sensitivity analysis is performed to derive the relation between indoor comfort and the climate that gives rise to the strongest correlation coefficient. Although the basic adaptive comfort relationships are applicable for children, the exponential method to calculate the prevailing mean with lower decay values leads to higher correlation with children’s comfort temperature. The slope of children’s comfort equation in relation to outdoor temperature is shown to be shallower than those of adults. Results indicate that children are more sensitive to temperature change within a single school day than across the overall survey period of several days.

Application of "Streamlined" Material Input per Service Unit Concept to Small Residential Districts in China

This article reports a new application of material and energy accounting techniques to characterize and quantify the relationships between material input (and the related energy flows and emissions) and the services provided (i.e., material input per service unit [MIPS]) at the neighborhood level. The case study focuses on Chinas small residential district (SRD). It is concluded that linking a service (in this case, residential function) enabled by a given product (neighborhood development) to the amount of materials, energy, and emissions used or produced in creating that product offers a potential way to reduce the environmental impact of that service through more efficient use of materials, enlarged service scales, and improved buying decisions.

The city politics of an urban age: urban resilience conceptualisations and policies

Around the globe, cities seek to improve their resilience to face the stresses and shocks that are expected from global climate change and other threats. In implementing urban resilience policies, they are guided by different urban resilience conceptualisations. What is meant by the concept differs between scholars, governments, as well as international organisations that seek to study, advise on and implement urban resilience policies and governance interventions. This article presents a review of the urban resilience literature since the 1970s. It seeks to map and interrogate dominant urban resilience conceptualisations, and decipher whether and how different understandings of the concept can result in essentially different policies and governance interventions and outcomes. In contrasting the ‘what’ of urban resilience (various conceptualisations) with the ‘why’ of urban resilience policy (bouncing back, falling forwards, persistence) it investigates approaches to overcome some of the key critiques to urban resilience policy and research.

Urban Ecology as an Interdisciplinary Area

The emergence of urban ecology as a field of research and practice reflects the rise of the city as principal human habitat, and the concurrent domination and alteration of the earth’s ecosystems by human agency. It may be summarized as the study of the interactions between organisms, their physical environment as mediated by urban form, together with the tangible and intangible systems—social, economic, technological—which characterize our city habitats. Urban ecology both investigates the impacts of urbanization and informs strategies to mitigate and adapt to these impacts.

Time series analysis of ambient air-temperature during the period 1970–2016 over Sydney, Australia

Providing evidence of potential changes in the climate has become increasingly important as it is the first step towards adopting mitigation and adaptation measures and planning for urban resilience. In this study a statistical analysis of the ambient air temperature time series over Sydney, Australia during 1970-2016 has been carried out with the aim to investigate potential changes towards higher temperatures. The dataset has been statistically analyzed using different techniques, concluding that the investigation should be performed on a monthly basis. A persistence analysis was conducted using different statistical approaches to investigate the dependence between consecutive monthly and daily ambient air temperature values. A trend analysis of the ambient air temperature and degree days time series has been conducted using linear regression to estimate the linear trend (slope) and its statistical significance (using a Student-t-test) and the Kendall-Mann test to identify the time at which the tendency starts to occur as well as the time after which it becomes statistically significant.

Mapping Local Climate Zones for urban morphology classification based on airborne remote sensing data

there is ample evidence of the cooling effects of green infrastructure (GI) that has been extensively documented in the literature. However, the study of the thermal profiles of different GI typologies requires the classification of urban sites for a meaningful comparison of results, since specific spatial and physical characteristics produce distinct microclimates. In this paper, the Local Climate Zones (LCZ), a scheme of thermally relatively homogeneous urban structures proposed by Stewart and Oke, was used for mapping and classifying the urban morphology of a study area in Sydney, Australia. A GIS-based workflow for an automated classification based on airborne remote sensing data is presented. The datasets employed include high resolution hyperspectral imagery, LiDAR (light detection and ranging), and cadastral information. This paper also proposes a standardised and replicable workflow that can be applied by researchers and practitioners from novices to experts. The results presented here provide evidence that LCZ can be effectively derived from multiple airborne remote sensing datasets, which can then be used to identify morphological profiles to support varied climatological studies. Future stages of this research include coupling this method with a newly developed GI typology for a more comprehensive analysis of the cooling effects of GI by taking into account the morphological disparities of LCZ.

Using streamlined MIPS to evaluate environmental performance: a case study of the University of Nottingham Ningbo China campus

AbstractThis article reports on a Chinese application of the material input per service (MIPS) concept used to characterise and quantify the relationships between MIPS provided by a university campus. The case study area chosen is the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC) campus. Materials flow accounting is applied to quantify the stock and flow of key construction materials inputs within the campus from 2008 to 2015. The number of degrees conferred (unit of service provided by a university campus) in a year is then factored to the materials input of that particular year. It is concluded that MIPS – which links a service (in this case, university education) enabled by a given product (campus facilities) to the amount of materials, energy, and emissions used or produced in creating that product – offers an interesting way to evaluate the environmental performance of a product if the service unit is properly defined.