Multi-scale life cycle energy analysis of a low-density suburban neighbourhood in Melbourne, Australia

Abstract

There is an increasing pressure on cities worldwide to accommodate the increasing population.Most cities are likely to expand in the coming decades and this expansion will probably take place as low-density neighbourhoods. It is therefore crucial to assess the energy demand and related greenhouse gas emissions of such development from a comprehensive perspective. This paper uses a representative low density case study neighbourhood near Melbourne, Australia, to assess its energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions over 100 years. Different housing typologies, such as row houses and low-rise apartment buildings, are tested. Results show that the energy required to produce and replace building materials and infrastructures constitutes nearly 26.9% of the total energy consumption while operational and transport requirements represented 39.4% and 33.7% respectively. Variations to the housing types reveal that apartment buildings reduce the energy consumption per capita by 19.6% compared to the one-storey single family detached house typical pattern. Regardless of the uncertainty in the data, the main conclusion is that each of the embodied, operational and transport energy demand and associated greenhouse gas emissions should be lowered in order effectively reduce the environmental impacts of new urban neighbourhoods.

A Database Tool for Systematic Analysis of Embodied Emissions in Buildings and Neighborhoods

“…Although previous studies have adopted a similar logic of a breakdown of a building's environmental flows into sub-elements and life cycle stages [16,24,25], as far as the authors are aware, no such database model for a complete characterization of all building elements and life cycle stages has previously been presented. In particular, in contrast to previous studies, the database model presented here has a focus on standardization and integration of existing studies into a common format to increase consistency and comparability.…”

“…For example, by a separation of buildings into "envelope," "structure," "finishings," etc. [24], or by a hierarchical characterization that further splits "structure" into sub-elements such as "foundations," "columns," "beams," and "slabs" and splits "envelope" into "outer walls," "windows," and "roof" [25]. Early phase parametric LCA approaches such as the one presented in [16] are also dependent on a breakdown of buildings into sub-elements.…”

The challenging paradigm of interrelated energy systems towards a more sustainable future

“…The demands of a growing population and the increasing migration of population to urban areas, together with technology developments and lifestyle trends, have driven cities to rapid development and growth [240][241][242]. Today, more than half of the world's population lives in urban areas (73% of the population in Europe), and this share is expected to continue to increase [243].…”

Greenhouse Gas Implications of Urban Sprawl in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area

“…Furthermore, the expanding urban areas replace former green areas and also the CO 2 storage potential of these areas is lost or decreased. In addition, the carbon footprint comparisons in this study do not include the -carbon spike‖ related to construction of new infrastructure and buildings, be they located either in city centers or sprawling areas, even if this carbon spike is estimated to be quite substantial [42,43].…”