Urban Energy Systems: Research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Abstract

In the coming decades, our planet will witness unprecedented urban population growth in both established and emerging communities. The development and maintenance of urban infrastructures are highly energy-intensive. Urban areas are dictated by complex intersections among physical, engineered, and human dimensions that have significant implications for traffic congestion, emissions, and energy usage. In this chapter, we highlight recent research and development efforts at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), the largest multipurpose science laboratory within the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) national laboratory system, that characterizes the interactions between the human dynamics and critical infrastructures in conjunction with the integration of four distinct components: data, critical infrastructure models, and scalable computation and visualization, all within the context of physical and social systems. Discussions focus on four key topical themes: population and land use, sustainable mobility, the energy-water nexus, and urban resiliency, that are mutually aligned with DOE’s mission and ORNL’s signature science and technology capabilities. Using scalable computing, data visualization, and unique datasets from a variety of sources, the institute fosters innovative interdisciplinary research that integrates ORNL expertise in critical infrastructures including energy, water, transportation, and cyber, and their interactions with the human population.

Ground-Based Mobile Measurements to Track Urban Methane Emissions from Natural Gas in 12 Cities across Eight Countries

“…The national emission estimate is downscaled to the respective cities based on national population density for the area covered using LandScan gridded population data for 2015. 27 The national inventories of different countries may use different methods to estimate methane emissions from gas distribution, as described in their NIR (https://unfccc.int/ghg-inventoriesannex-i-parties/2020). An alternative methodology is published by Marcogaz 14 and uses gas distribution network length, network (pipeline) material, pipeline material-specific emission factors, and the number of connection points and city gates to estimate methane emissions.…”

Climate, weather, and child health: quantifying health co-benefits

“…We use only the observed health outcome data: ). We start with extracting the climatic data at the native resolution, then used the LandScan population dataset (Bright et al 2011) available at a spatial resolution of 1×1 km to compute population-weighted climatic and weather variables aggregated at the sub-national level. We take account of two key aspects of climate change, increasing heat and heatwaves, and increasing incidence of drought, thus investigating impacts of both gradual and acute climatic stressors.…”

Artificial Intelligence for Earth System Predictability (AI4ESP) (2021 Workshop Report)

“…• GeoAI infers from remotely sensed imagery and Google Streetview images human activities such as mobility or land use (Bhaduri et al 2021).…”