Energy feedback in buildings: improving the infrastructure for demand reduction

The concept of market transformation is being widened to include a range of processes, including information flows. The paper argues that feedback to energy users on their consumption (via improved metering, billing and displays) complements other tools such as energy labelling and minimum standards, increasing the likelihood that decisions on built fabric and equipment will be grounded in the realities of daily usage. Different types of feedback to energy users, mostly in the residential sector, are considered for their impact in the short- and long-term. Implications are examined for energy policy in relation to feedback, including the relative importance to different actors of load control and demand reduction, as well as the question about how priorities should be set in debates over the future of metering.

Le concept de la transformation du marché est élargi de façon à inclure une gamme de processus, notamment les flux d'informations. D'après l'auteur, le retour d'information vers les consommateurs d'énergie concernant leur consommation (grâce à l'amélioration des moyens de mesure, de la facturation et de l'affichage) complète d'autres outils comme l'étiquetage de l'énergie et les normes minimales, ce qui augmente les chances que les décisions relatives au tissu construit et aux équipements soient prises en fonction de la réalité de l'usage quotidien. L'auteur examine différents types de retours d'information destinés aux consommateurs d'énergie, la plupart dans le secteur résidentiel, en termes de leur impact dans une perspective plus ou moins lointaine. Les implications sont examinées dans le cas de la politique énergétique en relation avec le retour d'information, y compris de l'importance relative pour différents acteurs du contrôle des charges et de la réduction de la demande ainsi que la façon d'établir les priorités dans les débats concernant l'avenir des systèmes de mesure.

Mots clés: comportement, facturation, gestion de la demande, retour d'information, habitants, bâtiments intelligents, transformations du marché, mesure, systèmes socio-techniques     

Retrofitting urban drainage infrastructure: green or grey?

This paper explores the approaches that London, Glasgow, Washington DC and Philadelphia have taken in responding to urban stormwater and combined sewer overflows challenges. In brief, London has begun construction of a large interceptor tunnel with relatively little attention yet paid to green infrastructure, Philadelphia is pursuing green infrastructure based approaches, and Washington DC and Glasgow are implementing a combination of solutions. The cases illustrate that a diversity of responses are emerging to a common environmental problem in cities around the world.     

Feasibility tools for urban animal husbandry in cities: case of greater Cairo

Productive urban landscape is a design concept integrating food growing and animal raising into the design of cities through public and private open spaces in an attempt to support local economic development. This research focuses on farm animals’ husbandry in cities as a type of local food production. Debates about governance tools for sustaining such economic sector arise frequently especially in Egypt, as one of the developing countries, striving to maintain urban quality of life, satisfy the community needs, and compensate the food prices’ increment. Accordingly, field questionnaires for residents of two rapidly expanding informal areas in Cairo (Zabaleen area in Agouza city) and (Masaken Osman in 6th of October city), together with questionnaires for experts and officials who are working in Urban Upgrading Units and those with experiences in the field of upgrading informal settlements were performed. This research thus aims at studying the feasibility and integration of such economic activities informally developing in unplanned areas in Egypt, as ‘new ruralism’, within the strategic and action planning of low-income and informal areas in a legalized regulatory system to tackle their challenges and enhance their economic role. Further, this research ends up with deducing specific values for prioritizing the types of governmental support (financial, space facilitations, social, and medical), as proposed by officials and residents representing the main incorporated stakeholders. This article also highlighted the unwillingness and the on-purpose ignorance of officials to sustain animal husbandry in cities, constituting a challenge that needs to be tackled in all developing countries not only in Egypt.     

Everyday green space and experienced well-being: the significance of wildlife encounters

A broad and growing evidence base suggests the potential for time spent in natural environments to promote human health and well-being. Whilst evidence of such benefits is rapidly accumulating, we still know relatively little about the role of wildlife encounters in shaping the well-being potential of people’s routine green/blue space interactions, particularly amongst non-specialists. This article addresses this conceptual gap, drawing on the findings of a three-stage, qualitative, interpretive study which sought to understand and situate people’s natural environment well-being experiences within their everyday lives. Wildlife encounters were emphasised by study participants in the context of four types of well-being experience: social, immersive, symbolic and achievement oriented. These are explored within this paper, before discussing the influence of past experiences and current life circumstances on participants’ wildlife relationships. Consideration is also given to how environmental managers might focus activity and investment to balance opportunities for such wildlife experiences with the ongoing priorities of delivering socially inclusive, ecologically rich and climate change-resilient green spaces.     

Factors that Influence the Outcomes of Single Homeless People's Rehousing

This paper examines the influences of biographical, behavioural, housing and neighbourhood attributes on housing satisfaction, settledness and tenancy sustainment for 400 single homeless people who were resettled into independent accommodation. It draws on evidence from FOR-HOME, a longitudinal study in London and three provincial English cities of resettlement outcomes over 18 months. There was a high rate of tenancy sustainment: after 15/18 months, 78 per cent of the participants were in their original tenancy, 7 per cent had moved to another tenancy and only 15 per cent no longer had a tenancy. Tenure greatly influenced tenancy sustainment, with moves into private-rented accommodation having the lowest rate of success. Several housing and neighbourhood characteristics had strong associations with the outcomes. The biographical and behavioural attributes that were influential in determining outcomes were being young, frequent family contacts, having been in care as a child and some features of the recent episode of homelessness.     

'Clusters' of innovations in recent long span and multi-segmental bridges

The system-level impacts of innovations often can be more significant than the direct, primary impacts in certain industries. In particular, these system interactions can be seen with large, complex multi-system constructed facilities. Approximately half of the 200 specific innovations identified in eleven recent long span and multi-segmental bridges are linked to other innovations. Three general types of ‘cluster’ interaction are system, actualizing, and complementary links. The system interactions are nurtured through coordinated innovation development programmes. The actualizing links connect one set of innovations to another set, to aid in their realization of the innovation and project objectives. The complementary links provide additional benefits through the joint use of multiple innovations. The results of these analyses provide significant new insight for innovation theory into the system-level interactions of innovations. Since the frequency of the linkages among the innovations appears to reflect the relative stability of the design and construction parameters, recent innovation trajectories may be more difficult to link effectively to other innovations. These innovation interactions can provide critical capabilities for achieving the project objectives, but must be identified and managed effectively to achieve desired performance levels.     

The driest continent and the greediest water company: newspaper reporting of drought in Sydney and London

Analysis of press reports of the onset of drought in Sydney in 2002 and London in 2006 shows different understandings of the relationship between infrastructure provision, individual behaviour and the environment. Drought is both a natural and cultural phenomenon requiring urban water managers to consider social as well as technical considerations in preparing for future droughts.     

Land use regulations and the returns to low-income homeownership

I investigate the relationship between land use regulations and the house prices of urban low-income homeowners in the United States between 1998 and 2010. Because low-income homeowners generally hold a larger fraction of their wealth as home equity and are less likely to sustain homeownership, the overall financial position of this population is especially dependent on house price movements during short holding periods and the timing of house purchase and sale. The data used for analysis include zip-code-level house price estimates provided by Fannie Mae and proprietary mortgage origination data for a representative sample of low-income US homeowners who received community reinvestment mortgages between 1998 and 2004. I estimate a series of linear mixed-effects models to predict house price appreciation and the risk premium associated with investment in housing as opposed to a risk-free asset. Controlling for a variety of related factors, including land scarcity and subprime lending activity, I find that land use regulations are associated with greater house price volatility and a greater risk premium for urban low-income households. Thus, the results suggest that the dependence of low-income homeowner wealth on the timing of house purchase and sale is weaker in less regulated markets.     

Parameter estimation for abrasive water jet machining process using neural networks

The abrasive water jet machining process, a material removal process, uses a high velocity jet of water and an abrasive particle mixture. The estimation of appropriate values of the process parameters is an essential step toward an effective process performance. This has led to the development of numerous mathematical and empirical models. However, the complexity of the process confines the use of these models for limited operating conditions; e.g., some of these models are valid for special material combinations while others are based on the selection of only the most critical variables such as pump pressure, traverse rate, abrasive mass flow rate and others that affect the process. Furthermore, these models may not be generalized to other operating conditions. In this respect, a neural network approach has been proposed in this paper. Two neural network approaches, backpropagation and radial basis function networks, are proposed. The results from these two neural network approaches are compared with that from the linear and non-linear regression models. The neural networks provide a better estimation of the parameters for the abrasive water jet machining process.     

Data co-synthesis in developing public product service systems

ABSTRACT

Design and research teams working on public product service systems (PPSS) are often confronted with large data sets, presented in a complex language. This paper presents a method for how designers may translate quantitative aggregated data with a toolkit that enables qualitative co-synthesis to generate novel PPSS proposals. The toolkit development and application is shown through a specific case study in Melbourne, Australia, that focused on reimagining a public transport bus service in light of emerging propulsion and information technologies. People affected by the service were able to assist in co-synthesising existing data from transport planning literature into emergent ideas for system upgrades or even complete overhauls. A variety of multi-faceted service interventions were developed through a series of workshops with different participant groups. Workshop outcome variations further support the notion of emergence in co-creation, and reinforce the importance of running multiple sessions due to their potential impact on project outcomes. This paper proposes that co-synthesising complex data with the help of a toolkit, which may be a powerful way to inform PPSS design. An application framework is presented to summarise this process and to generate discussion towards broader application and further refinement.