Maximizing reader insights into the strategic value of mass retrofits in the residential property sector through a detailed case study analysis of the ‘Hackbridge project’, this book uses this development to broaden understanding of how planners may perform urban regeneration in accordance with a centralized plan.This book demonstrates how urban morphology matters, not only with respect to either the geometry of design and construction systems, or occupational behaviours, but with ...

The recast of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union on 19 May 2010. For new buildings, the recast fixes 2020 as the deadline for all new buildings to be “nearly zero energy” (and even sooner for public buildings – by the end of 2018). This book gives practitioner an important tool to tackle the challenges of building refurbishment towards nearly zero energy.This book is welcome at this time ...

Cost optimal and nearly zero energy performance levels are principles initiated by the European Union’s (EU) Energy Performance of Buildings Directive which was recast in 2010. These will be major drivers in the construction sector in the next few years, because all new buildings in the EU from 2021 onwards are expected to be nearly zero energy buildings (nZEB).This book introduces the technical definitions, system boundaries, energy calculation methodology and input data needed to...

Since its modest beginning in the 1970s, the academic and research focus on energy has grown substantially and energy has established itself as an independent, interdisciplinary subject area. It attracts attention from people in a range of different fields including engineers, scientists, geologists, environmentalists, bankers, investors, policy makers and politicians. Energy Economics introduces the basic concepts of energy economics and explains how simple economic tools can be ...

Oil is the lifeblood of modern industrial economies. Petroleum powers virtually all motorized transport, which in turn enables most economic activities and provides mobility for citizens. But oil is a finite resource that is steadily depleting. In the past decade, the phenomenon of global peak oil – the fact that annual world oil production must at some point reach a maximum and then decline – has emerged as one of the twenty-first century’s greatest challenges. South Africa imports over t...

Optimization techniques offer immense potential for the improvement of performance-driven design, since they allow the adoption of an holistic approach. This can lead to great advantages: optimal design solutions can be properly identified only if all criteria are considered at the same time, rather than separately. There are two barriers which obstruct optimization from being applied to building design: a technological barrier (applying the algorithms is not easy and can be quite time-con...

This book presents a series of significant methods and examples for the design of sustainable intelligent facades in a variety of contexts. Emphasis is placed on how intelligence has been applied for successful energy-saving efforts in the planning of building envelopes.Readers will find essential information on the core principles involved in designing, calculating and organizing intelligent facades according to the need for a new or retrofitted building. Not only are different ma...

Greening Airports considers the “greening”, i.e., more sustainable development, of the entire air transport system – airports, air traffic control, and airlines – that could be achieved by the development and implementation of advanced operations and technologies.A broad overview of the general concept is given at the start of Greening Airports, which then goes on to provide a system for monitoring and assessing the level of greening of both the air transport syst...

The book explores advanced building-facade daylighting design practices based on diverse energy and human-factor performance metrics. It also defines effective daylighting by rethinking the simplified approach to glazing and facade systems to incorporate the local climate and the needs of building occupants as critical drivers of building performance, design solutions and technological innovation. It discusses state-of-the-art approaches in the context of simulation-based design workflows,...

Several Asian cities have already invested in initiatives to build and promote Green Cities. Owing to the limited capacity of local governments, the funding of urban infrastructure has become a critical issue. Against this background, this book explores a new funding mechanism which demands the engagement of many stakeholders, including public-private partnerships.This book offers guidance on how cities in selected countries can play a key role in the green growth agenda, by stimul...

The National Clean Energy Fund (NCEF), announced in the Government of India’s Budget 2010-11, is seen as a major step in India's quest for energy security and reducing the carbon intensity of energy. Funding research and innovative projects in clean energy technologies, and harnessing renewable energy sources to reduce dependence on fossil fuels constitute the objectives of the NCEF. The NCEF’s utilization of funds is considered to be rather low and disbursements poorly aligned with the fu...

In this well documented global wake-up call, nuclear physicist Jeff Eerkens explores remedies for the impending energy crisis, when oil and natural gas are depleted. Because burning coal worsens the problem of global warming, alternate energy sources must be instituted. The Nuclear Imperative demonstrates with scientific documentation that solar, wind, and biomass power alone, while helpful, are incapable of supplying and sustaining the enormous quantities of electricity and heat needed fo...