Architecture, Building and Planning - Research Publications

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    Land surface and air temperature dynamics: The role of urban form and seasonality
    Naserikia, M ; Hart, MA ; Nazarian, N ; Bechtel, B ; Lipson, M ; Nice, KA (ELSEVIER, 2023-12-20)
    Due to the scarcity of air temperature (Ta) observations, urban heat studies often rely on satellite-derived Land Surface Temperature (LST) to characterise the near-surface thermal environment. However, there remains a lack of a quantitative understanding on how LST differs from Ta within urban areas and what are the controlling factors of their interaction. We use crowdsourced air temperature measurements in Sydney, Australia, combined with urban landscape data, Local Climate Zones (LCZ), high-resolution satellite imagery, and machine learning to explore the influence of urban form and fabric on the interaction between Ta and LST. Results show that LST and Ta have distinct spatiotemporal characteristics, and their relationship differs by season, ecological infrastructure, and building morphology. We found greater seasonal variability in LST compared to Ta, along with more pronounced intra-urban spatial variability in LST, particularly in warmer seasons. We also observed a greater temperature difference between LST and Ta in the built environment compared to the natural LCZs, especially during warm days. Natural LCZs (areas with mostly dense and scattered trees) showed stronger LST-Ta relationships compared to built areas. In particular, we observe that built areas with higher building density (where the heat vulnerability is likely more pronounced) show insignificant or negative relationships between LST- Ta in summer. Our results also indicate that surface cover, distance from the ocean, and seasonality significantly influence the distribution of hot and cold spots for LST and Ta. The spatial distribution for Ta hot spots does not always overlap with LST. We find that relying solely on LST as a direct proxy for the urban thermal environment is inappropriate, particularly in densely built-up areas and during warm seasons. These findings provide new perspectives on the relationship between surface and canopy temperatures and how these relate to urban form and fabric.
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    Climate change transformation in built environments - A policy instrument framework
    Hurlimann, A ; March, A ; Bush, J ; Moosavi, S ; Browne, GR ; Warren-Myers, G (ELSEVIER, 2024-01)
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    Having a tree in front of one's home is associated with GREATER subjective wellbeing in adult residents in Melbourne, Australia, and Toronto, Canada.
    Ordóñez, C ; Kendal, D ; Davern, M ; Conway, T (Elsevier BV, 2024-02-13)
    While urban trees can be important determinants of human health and wellbeing in world cities, the specific influence of nearby urban trees upon human wellbeing has not been adequately explored. While many studies have associated urban greenery abundance with wellbeing scores, many measures of urban greenery do not specify the type of vegetation or the impact of co-location. Here we fill this gap by associating self-reported measures of the presence of nearby trees (tree in front of one's home) with validated subjective wellbeing (SWB) scores. We also tested for the mediating role of what people thought about trees and nature, with a focus on the values people associate with urban trees and nature relatedness (NR). We used electronic panel survey data based on a demographic and geographical representative sample of more than 3400 residents living in Toronto, Canada, and Melbourne, Australia. We analysed these data using regression-based mediation and path analyses. We found that having a tree in front of one's home was strongly and positively associated with SWB scores in both cities with similar results (Melbourne, β = 0.17, p < 0.05; Toronto, β = 0.18, p < 0.05), while accounting for NR, values associated with urban trees, and demographics (e.g., age, education, home ownership). The mediating role of NR and values was small. The specific pathways of association between tree in front of one's home, SWB, NR, and values, varied by city, when accounting for demographics. We discuss how increasing the abundance of nearby urban trees in cities may also increase human wellbeing.
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    Australians' perceptions of the potential effects of increased access to alcohol via autonomous delivery services: A multi-method study
    Pettigrew, S ; Booth, L ; Farrar, V ; Brown, J ; Godic, B ; Vidanaarachchi, R ; Karl, C ; Thompson, J (PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2024-01)
    INTRODUCTION: Rapid technological change will affect how people access harmful products. For example, automated delivery services are forecast to provide fast and affordable product access options for those purchasing alcohol. Information about the potential impacts of such innovations on alcohol purchase and consumption behaviors is lacking. The aim of this study was to explore how consumers may respond to future scenarios where alcohol is available via a range of autonomous alcohol delivery options. METHODS: In a two-stage process, qualitative individual interviews (n = 100) and a quantitative online survey (n = 1078) were conducted with Australians aged 18+ years. Quotas were used to achieve national representation on key demographic variables. Participants were exposed to scenarios outlining how autonomous vehicles are likely to be used for alcohol deliveries in the future and asked to discuss their intentions to use such services and their perceptions of any impacts on alcohol consumption at a societal level. RESULTS: Automated alcohol deliveries were generally considered to be highly convenient and therefore likely to be popular. Around one-third (37%) of survey respondents reported an intention to use such automated alcohol delivery services once they are available and almost half (47%) expected overall levels of alcohol consumption to increase across the population. CONCLUSION: Given potential levels of uptake, careful consideration needs to be given to the development and implementation of appropriate policy and regulatory frameworks to minimize the increased risk of alcohol-related harm associated with enhanced alcohol availability resulting from the emerging availability of autonomous delivery services.
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    Scalable Label-efficient Footpath Network Generation Using Remote Sensing Data and Self-supervised Learning
    Wanyan, X ; Seneviratne, S ; Nice, K ; Thompson, J ; White, M ; Langenheim, N ; Stevenson, M (IEEE, 2023-01-01)
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    Researching place history, memory and contested identities in urban design
    King, R ; Kamalipour, H ; Nastaran, PA (Taylor & Francis, 2023-08-24)
    Places engender (carry, protect) memory; memory, in turn, determines identity, variously of the individual, the community and the nation. In the broadest sense, the task of urban design research is to identify and understand the carriers of memory in places. However, as memory is socially produced, urban design is routinely mobilised to manipulate memory, most notably in the (re)construction of community or national identity, especially in the interests of the politically hegemonic. In that sense, the task of urban design research is to ask the question: How is this place being manipulated to serve the production of certain memories (and, presumably, the suppression of others), and what competing interests and underlying values are involved? The task might be seen, methodologically, as located in the interstices of ethnography and architectural critique; in terms of methods, however, it will most readily be approached via a critical reading of political history.
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    Informality as process and the social construction of slums: Southeast Asian cases
    King, R ; Mayne, A (Oxford University Press, 2023)
    Crucially in Southeast Asian cities, the production of alleged “slums” relates to rural-to-urban migration (rural decline, the allure of the cities), also to political and economic ight (Burmese and Khmer in Bangkok, for instance), less so to urban displacement (the de-industrialization prevalent in the West). However, in more recent times these processes intersect with counter-forces of middleclass gentrication, dreams of urban beautication, and fears of rural-to-urban invasion. There are simultaneously waves of the informal and the formal seen as process in urban space, accounting for entirely new imaginings of slums. The chapter uses a series of case studies to illustrate these processes: in Thailand, Sukhumvit and the Khlong Toei Slums of Bangkok, the cannal communities in Bangkok’s northern Bangkhen district, and conicts of the Chao Phraya riverbanks; in Indonesia, the kampung of Jakarta and the Kampung Improvement Programs of Surabaya; and in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur’s Kampung Baru.
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    BANGKOK: Creative disorder and the military imagination
    King, R (Routledge, 2023-01-01)
    This chapter addresses the disconnect between urban life and the real urban situation, and an ideologically informed imagining of what these things should be in Bangkok. To the conservative, elitist imagination, the city's urban life—its tourist appeal—presents as disorder, showing Thailand ‘in a bad light’, provoking the desire for a regime of discipline and ‘good order’, duly prosecuted by a military junta following a 2014 coup. Bangkok's streets have also long presented a different sort of chaos, in polluting gridlock where any resolution has been plagued by rivalries between competing politico-bureaucratic fractions, also duly confronted by the post-2014 junta. The streets and public places of Bangkok have long presented yet a further level of disorder that challenges the military mind, as these are the stage on which the theatre of national life plays out, in rallies, protests, uprisings, coups, and massacres. At a tactical level this has commonly manifested as royalist-elitist-military versus students. Thailand is almost completely dependent on imported fossil fuels, while its limited hydro is also mostly imported; hence addressing the city's inefficiencies through a metro and other electrification is fraught. Finally, the city is flood prone, facing existential catastrophe from global warming. So, is Bangkok sustainable?.
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    Investigating the Embodied Energy of Wall Assembly with Various Material Service Life Scenarios
    Rauf, A ; Attoye, DE ; Crawford, R ; Caetano, NS ; Felgueiras, MC (Springer Nature, 2023)
    Studies have advocated that there is much less research on the impact of embodied energy. Researchers have asserted that a building’s embodied energy can be as high as 60% of the life cycle energy. However, there is insufficient research and understanding of embodied energy impacts and its relationship with material specification and service life. This research aims to fill this gap by investigating the life cycle embodied energy of a villa in the United Arab Emirates with particular emphasis on the wall assembly. The findings show that the embodied energy impact of the wall structure and wall finishes was found to be 19.7% and 11.7% of the villa’s life cycle embodied energy (LCEE), respectively. Alternative material service life (MSL) scenarios for the wall assembly shows that using minimum material service life (MSL) values results in a 54% increase in LCEE of the wall, and 74% increase in the LCEE of the villa. For maximum MSL, the findings show a 27% and 31% decrease in LCEE of walls and villa, respectively. Alternative wall finishes show that wallpaper as a replacement of water-based paint will increase the LCEE of the villa by 28%.
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    Life cycle environmental benchmarks for Flemish dwellings
    Mouton, L ; Ramon, D ; Trigaux, D ; Allacker, K ; Crawford, RH (IOP Publishing, 2024-03-01)
    To reduce the environmental effects caused by building construction and operation, life cycle assessment (LCA) is increasingly applied. In recent years, national building regulations have implemented LCA requirements to support building life cycle impact reduction. A key element in these regulations are environmental benchmarks which allow designers to compare their building designs with reference values. This study aims to develop bottom-up life cycle environmental benchmarks that represent the range of environmental impact results achieved with conventional construction in Flanders, Belgium. For this purpose, the study investigates the potential of using a database of building energy performance calculations. Specifically, this study considers 39 residential buildings identified as representative of the Flemish energy performance of buildings database of 2015–2016, applying modifications to establish scenarios that are still relevant in 2025. The buildings are assessed with the Belgian LCA tool TOTEM to calculate an aggregated environmental score based on the European product environmental footprint (PEF) weighting approach and including 12 main impact categories. In addition to the aggregated score, the climate change (CC) indicator is analysed individually. In view of the benchmarks, variations were applied to the 39 original buildings in terms of heating system and materialisation. The variation in heating system included changing gas boilers to electric heat pumps to comply with upcoming (2025) Flemish building regulations. The variations in building materials included three sets of conventional Flemish building element compositions that were applied to generate a wider spread of impact results as a basis for benchmarks. Benchmark values were derived through a statistical analysis of the 117 modelled variants: a best-practice value (10th percentile), reference value (median) and limit value (90th percentile). For the environmental score, the benchmark values are 86, 107 and 141 millipoints per square meter of gross heated floor area (GHFA) (mPt m−2GHFA), respectively; and for CC, the benchmark values are 844, 1015 and 1284 kg CO2-eq m−2 GHFA. Finally, the study discusses the representativeness, implications and limitations of the final benchmarks and benchmark approach.