The building sector has become a major source of worldwide carbon emissions and energy consumption because of rapid population growth and a continuous environmental strain caused by humanity. A lack of consistent data on life-cycle carbon emissions and energy demand at the neighbourhood level has made it difficult to understand the origins of climate change at this scale. A sensitivity analysis brought clarity concerning the extent of environmental impacts on future climate evolution. From this perspective, the authors aimed to evaluate, analyse, compare, and provides recommendations to reduce carbon emissions, as well as the energy required by three types of neighbourhoods (urban, rural, and sustainable) located in and adapted to all countries worldwide. The most important parameters affecting carbon emission and energy consumption were analysed, including the energy mix of countries, local building materials and climate, technological solutions utilised, daily mobility, and occupied spaces. The results indicated that the highest levels of carbon dioxide emissions were produced by countries with prosperous economies, such as China, the United States, India, Germany, and Poland, because of high concentrations of coal in their energy mixes. Modernising cities through the construction of new ecodistricts and increasing the use of new techniques for substantial renovations of outdated buildings worldwide could mitigate the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by neighbourhoods 53-97 % by 2050. Moreover, by combining substantial building renovations with the installation of photovoltaic panels on roofs, the objective of 'zero carbon' at the neighbourhood level could be achievable by 2050 in rural neighbourhoods. Radical changes in the judicious choice of construction materials and use of green energy production represent targeted opportunities to resolve the future climate dilemma.
Urban overheating, driven by global climate change and urban development, is a major contemporary challenge that substantially impacts urban livability and sustainability. Overheating represents a multifaceted threat to the well‐being, performance, and health of individuals as well as the energy efficiency and economy of cities, and it is influenced by complex interactions between building, city, and global scale climates. In recent decades, extensive discipline‐specific research has characterized urban heat and assessed its implications on human life, including ongoing efforts to bridge neighboring disciplines. The research horizon now encompasses complex problems involving a wide range of disciplines, and therefore comprehensive and integrated assessments are needed that address such interdisciplinarity. Here, our objective is to go beyond a review of existing literature and instead provide a broad overview and integrated assessments of urban overheating, defining holistic pathways for addressing the impacts on human life. We (a) detail the characterization of heat hazards and exposure across different scales and in various disciplines, (b) identify individual sensitivities to urban overheating that increase vulnerability and cause adverse impacts in different populations, (c) elaborate on adaptive capacities that individuals and cities can adopt, (d) document the impacts of urban overheating on health and energy, and (e) discuss frontiers of theoretical and applied urban climatology, built environment design, and governance toward reduction of heat exposure and vulnerability at various scales. The most critical challenges in future research and application are identified, targeting both the gaps and the need for greater integration in overheating assessments.
This study assessed the effect of wind on human thermal comfort by preforming outdoor urban climatic comfort simulations using state-of-the-art heat-balance models of human thermo-physiology (Universal Thermal Climate Index-UTCI). A series of simulations for computing "wind cooling potential" have been performed using the UTCI index temperatures. The comfort cooling effect of wind has been estimated by modelling with wind taken into account, and under calm wind (0.05 m/s) (ΔUTCI). A novel wind rose biometeorological data visualisation tool that integrates an additional thermal comfort dimension into the conventional climatology wind rose visualisation was developed in this study. The new wind rose graphic tool identifies "predominant" wind directions, and whether or not they are "desirable" from the human thermal comfort point of view. This tool's utility lies in its identification of the optimal building orientation in its surrounding urban morphology, based on the cooling potential of wind resources when enhanced ventilation is desirable for thermal comfort.
We aimed to determine the associations between ambient air pollution, specifically particulate matter less than or equal to 10 microns and 2.5 microns (PM10 and PM2.5 respectively) and ozone (O3), and stillbirths. We analysed all singleton births between 20–42 weeks gestation in metropolitan Sydney, Australia, from 1997 to 2012. We implemented logistic regression to assess the associations between air pollutants and stillbirth for each trimester and for the entire pregnancy. Over the study period, there were 967,694 live births and 4287 stillbirths. Mean levels of PM10, PM2.5 and O3 for the entire pregnancy were 17.9 µg/m3, 7.1 µg/m3 and 3.2 ppb, respectively. Adjusted odds ratios were generally greater than unity for associations between PM and stillbirths, but none were statistically significant. There were no significant associations between O3 and stillbirths. There was potential effect modification of the PM10 and O3 association by maternal age. We did not find consistent evidence of associations between PM and O3 and stillbirths in Sydney, Australia. More high quality birth cohort studies are required to clarify associations between air pollution and stillbirths.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.