Architecture, Building and Planning - Research Publications
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ItemLife Cycle Assessment of Lithium Carbonate Production: Comparing Sedimentary Deposits(Elsevier BV, 2024-06)Lithium sedimentary deposits which were once considered impractical to extract, have become increasingly attractive for exploiting and producing high-quality lithium compounds, due to the surge in demand for batteries and from other markets. However, potential environmental impacts are yet to be evaluated for this emerging lithium production route. Therefore, this paper presents a comparative Life Cycle Assessment study for three prominent and near-to-opening lithium clay projects globally: Sonora Mexico, Falchani Peru, and Thacker Pass USA. Specifically, this study used literature, statistical data, expert interviews, and technical reports to develop cradle-to-gate models covering the mining to refining processes. The results suggest that lithium carbonate production in the Thacker Pass project has higher impacts than the two other selected sedimentary projects. Additionally, the impact categories of the Sonora project are significantly influenced by the source of electricity. The sensitivity analysis highlights the pivotal role of a transition to clean energy sources for these emerging lithium production routes. Especially, the Thacker Pass project would benefit significantly from on-site sulfuric acid production and power generation to reduce the associated environmental impacts.
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ItemA View from the past into our collective future: the oncofertility consortium vision statement(SPRINGER/PLENUM PUBLISHERS, 2021-01)PURPOSE: Today, male and female adult and pediatric cancer patients, individuals transitioning between gender identities, and other individuals facing health extending but fertility limiting treatments can look forward to a fertile future. This is, in part, due to the work of members associated with the Oncofertility Consortium. METHODS: The Oncofertility Consortium is an international, interdisciplinary initiative originally designed to explore the urgent unmet need associated with the reproductive future of cancer survivors. As the strategies for fertility management were invented, developed or applied, the individuals for who the program offered hope, similarly expanded. As a community of practice, Consortium participants share information in an open and rapid manner to addresses the complex health care and quality-of-life issues of cancer, transgender and other patients. To ensure that the organization remains contemporary to the needs of the community, the field designed a fully inclusive mechanism for strategic planning and here present the findings of this process. RESULTS: This interprofessional network of medical specialists, scientists, and scholars in the law, medical ethics, religious studies and other disciplines associated with human interventions, explore the relationships between health, disease, survivorship, treatment, gender and reproductive longevity. CONCLUSION: The goals are to continually integrate the best science in the service of the needs of patients and build a community of care that is ready for the challenges of the field in the future.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableTransaction costs and innovation outcomes: lessons from early adopters of housebuilding innovations(Emerald, 2024)Purpose: This study aims to examine the transaction costs (TCs) involved in searching for a business case to adopt specific walling innovations by housing developers and the influence of these TCs on their adoption outcomes. This is against the backdrop that innovation adoption, like any new venture, is failure-prone but necessary for countries to reap the full benefits of technological innovation in residential developments, especially when these innovations are also green. Moreover, this issue is understudied. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses a qualitative design and focuses on the early adopting developers in Ghana. The original theoretical framework integrates theories on entrepreneurial opportunity discovery and TC economics. The authors interviewed 12 developers and 13 industry stakeholders purposively identified. The authors analysed and triangulated the resulting transcripts using thematic analysis techniques. Findings: The authors identified two types of early adopters who attempted eight types of walling innovations. Most efforts (71%) were partially successful or failed. The range of TCs identified differed by the adopter type, technology and knowledge coordination strategy. Although the common TCs that were consequential were associated with monitoring and supervision, construction, additional learning, acquiring specialised skills, design change and dispute resolutions, their influence on adoption outcomes is very nuanced. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is among the first to link TCs with innovation adoption outcomes by housing developers in discovering profitable opportunities to adopt specific walling innovations. The findings and theoretical framework lay a foundation for in-depth analyses of the entrepreneurship of innovation adoption in residential real estate. The exploratory work will generate further interest in this area.
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ItemInclusive mainstream services for people with intellectual disabilities: A relational approach(ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2024-01-01)
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ItemMeasuring housing well-being of disaster affected persons in Chennai (India)(ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2023-01-01)
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ItemComparing the life cycle costs of a traditional and a smart HVAC control system for Australian office buildings(Elsevier BV, 2024-08)Many smart technologies have been introduced in buildings with the aim to reduce the energy and GHG emissions associated with their operation, particularly through improved control systems for regulating heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment. Despite their energy saving potential, only a few studies have comprehensively assessed the costs associated with their practical implementation from a life cycle perspective. Accordingly, this study quantifies and compares the life cycle costs of a smart HVAC control system with that of a traditional control system, in the context of an Australian office building. For both systems, the required hardware are specified based on the characteristics of these systems and the layout of the serviced spaces in the reference building. The costs incurred over the period of assessment are quantified using the net present cost (NPC) approach. To evaluate the effects of these control systems on the operational energy costs of the building HVAC system, the control logics of both these systems are modelled through building energy simulations. The results show that, over the period of assessment, the smart control system incurred a higher total cost compared to the traditional control system. However, the findings from the simulations show that the HVAC energy cost savings achieved through the specification of the smart control system offset the additional cost incurred to deploy this system over the traditional control system. The smart control system resulted in HVAC operational cost savings between 9 % and 10 % compared to the traditional control system. Sensitivity analyses indicated that the total life cycle costs varied between −27 % and +50 %, with the discount rate and energy price increase rate being the most influential parameters.
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ItemAssessing the social life cycle impacts of circular economy(ELSEVIER SCI LTD, 2023-02-01)A transition to a circular economy (CE) affects different stakeholders – positively and negatively. Social aspects still receive little consideration in the context of CE, which is why the assessment and monitoring of the social impacts of CE still require further development and consideration in research. In this context, social circularity indicators and social life cycle assessment (S-LCA) are important tools that were examined in more detail in this study. This paper aimed to assess the current state of social circularity indicators in the literature, the implementation of S-LCA to assess CE concepts, and which additional indicators might be included in future S-LCA studies. Focus will be on the methodological approach of how to assess the social impacts of CE. A systematic literature review was conducted using Scopus Database, Google Scholar, and Web of Science. The search terms were derived from the aim of the study to identify the social impacts of CE in existing literature, to compile relevant social indicators in the context of CE, and to analyze the current role of S-LCA in the assessment of CE concepts. 97 papers were found. After excluding contributions that did not match the search criteria and adding new relevant contributions found through the analysis of the identified studies with the snowball sampling approach, 40 papers were considered in the review. 40 social impacts of CE were found within the literature. About half of them were positive and the other half negative. The authors found that positive impacts for some stakeholders could imply negative consequences for others, e.g., job creation in one region might lead to a decline in job opportunities in other regions. To assess CE, 104 single social indicators and 9 composed indicators were identified. Most of them could be linked to stakeholder groups and subcategories proposed in the UNEP S-LCA guidelines (UNEP, 2020). Training and education, job creation, as well as health and safety were relevant identified indicators in the context of CE. S-LCA has rarely been used in the assessment of CE strategies so far and needs to be standardized for application in the industry. Not all social impacts of CE are addressed by existing indicators. This, and the fact that not all circularity indicators that address social consequences of CE (social circularity indicators) are covered with S-LCA, reveals the need to suggest and harmonize additional subcategories that are especially relevant for CE. The authors propose to apply and integrate the identified social circularity (inventory) indicators in future S-LCA studies to assess CE concepts.
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ItemFifth-generation district heating and cooling systems: A review of recent advancements and implementation barriers(PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2023-01)As global urbanisation levels continue to rise, supplying urban areas with low emissions energy becomes imperative in the fight against climate change. In areas with high demand density, district heating and cooling systems are generally a more efficient alternative compared to individual solutions, but current systems are mainly powered by fossil fuels and suffer from significant thermal losses due to high operating temperatures. Fifth-generation district heating and cooling systems (5GDHC) is a promising technology, able to address these drawbacks. 5GDHC systems operate at near ambient temperature, ensuring efficient integration of renewable energy sources and waste heat recovery potential. Their ability to provide simultaneous heating and cooling through the same pipeline and bidirectional energy flows allow for load balancing through the harvesting of demand synergies between different users. 5GDHC systems can play an important role in the energy transition but not much is known about their environmental performance over their life cycle and the novelty of the concept means that planning and design guidelines are scarcely present in the literature, hindering their development and further adoption. This study critically reviews recent advancements in the relevant literature as the 5GDHC technology transitions from research and development to the demonstration phase. Moreover, the paper addresses the design parameters and methodologies encountered in the literature for the modelling and operation of 5GDHC systems. Finally, the economic and environmental performance are discussed while presenting an overview of future developments and challenges related to full-scale deployment.
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ItemIntegrating embodied greenhouse gas emissions assessment into the structural design of tall buildings: A framework and software tool for design decision-making(ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA, 2023-10-15)Urgent changes are needed in the construction industry to address the adverse effects of material production on the environment. The construction of tall buildings results in a high temporal and spatial concentration of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This is largely due to the compounding influence of wind and earthquake loads on structural material requirements. Thus, to meet short-term climate change mitigation goals, the structural design of tall buildings must consider and minimise the embodied GHG emissions of structural systems. This study aimed to develop a framework to inform the design of tall building structural systems in order to minimise their embodied GHG emissions. A software tool was developed to implement the framework and automate the design, analysis, and embodied GHG emissions assessment of structural systems for tall buildings. Approximately 1,000 building models were iteratively designed, analysed, and assessed using the software tool. Through regression analyses, the resulting dataset was used to construct predictive models for the embodied GHG emissions of 12 unique combinations of structural system typologies and materials. By applying the framework and software tool to a 52-storey case study building, it is estimated that optimising structural material choices and geometric design strategies could reduce the embodied GHG emissions of tall building structural systems by up to 20% compared to current practices. The developed framework and software tool allow designers to use environmental assessment as a design decision-making tool, rather than an appraisal method for evaluating completed buildings, helping to reduce the environmental effects associated with tall building construction.
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ItemIntegrating life cycle assessment into the building design process: a review(IOP Publishing, 2024-06-01)The environmental effects associated with buildings are significant and include considerable contributions towards global greenhouse gas emissions, energy use, and waste generation. Until recently, mitigation efforts have concentrated on improving the operational energy efficiency of buildings, largely ignoring embodied environmental effects. However, focusing solely on increasing energy efficiency can inadvertently cause an rise in embodied effects. It is therefore critical that embodied effects are considered alongside operational effects and are actively integrated into design decisions throughout the building design process. Life cycle assessment (LCA) can be used to achieve this, however, it is often perceived as difficult to incorporate into design workflows, or requiring specialist knowledge. Additionally, it is not always clear how well aligned LCA approaches are with the building design process. To address this gap, this study aims to provide a detailed analysis of LCA approaches, to assess how well they align with building design stages, and to identify key characteristics, including LCA tools and environmental data used to conduct assessments. A review of academic and grey literature is conducted. Three primary approaches are identified for integrating LCA into the building design process: simplified, detailed and incremental LCA. Simplified LCA uses streamlined data inputs and typically targets a specific design stage. Detailed LCA follows a traditional approach with comprehensive user inputs and results. Incremental LCA progressively evolves the assessment based on design requirements and available building data at each design stage. An analysis of each approach is performed, and key user requirements are mapped against the early design, and detailed design stages. Results reveal that no single approach fully satisfies all design requirements. Findings also highlight a lack of incremental LCA approaches and challenges operationalising these techniques. These approaches often rely on complicated methods or tools not suitable for common design workflows, or they are in early development and require additional verification before implementation.