Environmental Assessment of Sustainable Neighborhood Projects through NEST, a Decision Support Tool for Early Stage Urban Planning

Lotteau, Marc; Yepez-Salmon, Grace; Salmon, Nicolas

doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2015.07.356

Cited by 23 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Olivier-Sol a et al [15] found that it is highly likely that the environmental and energy issues we are currently dealing with at the building level will soon be transferred to the urban scale. Lotteau et al [16] explained that the neighborhood life cycle analysis is complex, multifunctional, and changing and that its life is long. These previous studies raise many new issues regarding how to apply the LCA method at the neighborhood scale, especially regarding the definition of the functional unit or the consideration of temporal aspects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of energy mix on the life cycle of an eco-neighborhood, a case study of 150 countries

2020

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In recent years, the destruction of the ecosystem, due to the strong emission of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere by humans has led to significant damage to wildlife, human health, and flora. This has significantly changed the human life cycle. Nowadays, the environmental damage costs are applied for the countries strongly impacting pollutant emission. To this end, developing countries receive annual compensation from the countries considered to be the most polluting. So far, decision-makers seem to be unaware that, at the scale of an eco-neighborhood, some emerging countries produce also a significant amount of CO 2. The main purpose of this research is to quantify and to compare the effect of the energy mix of 150 countries on three environmental impacts generated by an eco-neighborhood: greenhouse effect, energy demand, and biodiversity damage. To perform this comparison, the same neighborhood design is applied to 150 countries, but four parameters are adapted to each country: energy mix, local climate, building materials, and occupants' mobility. In addition, this research evaluates the induced environmental costs of the neighborhood over a life cycle of 100 years and examines the impact of mobility and photovoltaic panel on these environmental costs. The different environmental impacts were evaluated by the Pleiades ACV simulation software under four phases (construction, use, renovation, and demolition), before being translated into environmental costs. Among the four local parameters (energy mix, local materials, climate, and transport), the energy mix has the most significant effect on the three studied environmental impacts. The results show that the countries having a higher concentration of renewable energy sources produce lower CO 2 than others. Domestic and material wastes are also one of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity damage in a sustainable neighborhood. The biodiversity damage is high in Sub-Sahara Africa, and MiddleEast, but low in the USA, Brazil, European Union, Russia, and Australia. The implementation of photovoltaic panels in a sustainable neighborhood mitigates, on average, 15.9% of carbon dioxide emissions and 21.2% of primary energy demand; but, unfortunately, this solution increases up to 25.0% the biodiversity damage.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of energy mix on the life cycle of an eco-neighborhood, a case study of 150 countries

2020

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“…"Photochemical ozone production" is reduced by more than 50% over the entire life cycle of the neighborhood. In fact, the combustion of fuels is the main source of nitrogen oxide production, which transforms into ozone under the effect of sunlight [64]. In our urban site scenario, 54% of photochemical ozone production in the use phase is avoided, by reducing the use of automobiles.…”

Section: Mobility Flow Impact Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Comparing the scores of the environmental indicators only for the heating items during the use phase, as also for both orientations, we notice an 11% increase in the greenhouse effect, as well as a cumulative energy demand and depletion of abiotic resources for the 90 • orientation. Thus, the orientation has an impact on heating consumption and on environmental indicators relating only to these [62][63][64][65]. However, at the neighborhood level, this orientation has little impact on the overall results of the LCA.…”

Section: Orientation Impact Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards Sustainable Neighborhoods in Europe: Mitigating 12 Environmental Impacts by Successively Applying 8 Scenarios

2020

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The purpose of this research is to determine the most impactful and important source of environmental change at the neighborhood level. The study of multiple scenarios allows us to determine the influence of several parameters on the results of the life cycle analysis of the neighborhood. We are looking at quantifying the impact of orientation, storm water management, density, mobility and the use of renewable energies on the environmental balance sheet of a neighborhood, based on eleven environmental indicators. An eco-neighborhood, located in Belgium, has been selected as the modeling site. The results show that the management of mobility is the parameter that can reduce the impact the most, in terms of greenhouse effect, odor, damage to biodiversity and health. With the adaptation of photovoltaic panels on the site, the production exceeds the consumption all through the year, except for the months of December and January, when the installation covers 45% and 75% of the consumption, respectively. Increasing the built density of the neighborhood by roof stacking allows the different environmental impacts, calculated per inhabitant, to be homogeneously minimized.

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“…In total, more than 250 construction LCA documents were referenced in 2015 [4]. Several review articles have been published in the field of LCA in buildings between 2009 and 2014, and at least 10 review articles in 2015-2016 [6,11,14,[27][28][29][30][31][32]. From top to bottom, there have been additional critical reviews articles on the construction of LCA [4,33,34].…”

Section: A Brief Litterature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Overcost of Single Family Houses in Insular Context: A Comparative LCA Study of Reunion Island and France

Ayagapin¹,

Praene²

2020

Sustainability

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The building and public works sector is, in France as in Europe, a major consumer of raw materials for both the manufacture of products and the construction of buildings and structures. This sector has a direct impact on the natural and built environment. This effect is even more pronounced in the case of isolated territories, such as islands. The latter have their own constraints (geographical location, production of the local grid mix) and particularities: very small territory, massive importation of goods in all fields, such as food, automobile, building, and others). In this study, we focus on the building branch of the construction industry, which covers housing (single-family houses and apartment blocks). The study is based on the analysis of about twenty single-family houses built in metropolitan France and Reunion Island. The construction standards for these two regions comply with European standards (CE) and French regulations. However, in the case of Reunion Island, a tropical island, it applies in particular to the Thermal, Acoustic, and Ventilation Regulations for New Buildings in Overseas Departments and Regions (RTAA DROM). The approach that is used for the environmental assessment of single-family homes is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), from cradle to grave. The results initially showed that there is an additional environmental cost in the construction sector between France and Reunion Island. This is initially due to the choice of origin of materials and products, which can greatly contribute to the impacts of construction. Secondly, to the use of the countries’ electricity mix, which also contributes, in part, to the impact of the construction of these single-family homes during the assembly and transformation of the products. Finally, this additional cost also differs according to the transport used (sea, air, rail, road). For the Global Warming Potential (GWP) indicator, in our study we note that the additional environmental cost is 37% higher in Reunion Island. This figure explains the additional impact of the 218 kg-CO2eq/m2 of built-up area built for Reunion Island. This study is one of the first analyses demonstrating the additional environmental cost that exists between mainland France and overseas France. Thus, the results demonstrate the importance of creating a specialized and regionalized database for the case of remote islands. Thus, this database would allow for professionals to have a precise environmental assessment, not on a national but on a regional scale. This document also provides a framework and guideline for policy decision-making in the overseas islands.

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Environmental Assessment of Sustainable Neighborhood Projects through NEST, a Decision Support Tool for Early Stage Urban Planning

Cited by 23 publications

References 4 publications

Influence of energy mix on the life cycle of an eco-neighborhood, a case study of 150 countries

Influence of energy mix on the life cycle of an eco-neighborhood, a case study of 150 countries

Towards Sustainable Neighborhoods in Europe: Mitigating 12 Environmental Impacts by Successively Applying 8 Scenarios

Environmental Overcost of Single Family Houses in Insular Context: A Comparative LCA Study of Reunion Island and France

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