An extensible, modular architecture for simulating urban development, transportation, and environmental impacts

In this paper, we aim to shed light on the geographies that led both to the selection of Lodge Hill for the construction of a large-scale housing development and to the subsequent attempt to use biodiversity offsetting to compensate for its environmental impacts. We draw on extensive fieldwork from 2012 to 2016, and diverge from previous studies on offsetting by focusing less on issues related to metrics and governance and shifting our analytic attention to the economic and urban geographies surrounding the Lodge Hill case. We argue that this approach can offer not only an empirically grounded account of why offsetting is being selected to address the impacts of specific urban development projects, but also an in-depth understanding of the factors that determine offsetting’s actual implementation on the ground. Viewing the Lodge Hill case through the frame of urbanization allows us to better grasp the how, why and when particular alliances of actors contest and/or support the implementation of biodiversity offsetting. Our analytical lens also helps exposing the fragility of neoliberal natures and the roles inter-capitalist competition and species biology and ecology can play on the success or failure of neoliberal policies.

Download Full-text

Emergy-based dynamic mechanisms of urban development, resource consumption and environmental impacts

Ecological Modelling ◽

10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2013.08.014 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 271 ◽

pp. 90-102 ◽

Cited By ~ 52

Author(s):

Gengyuan Liu ◽

Zhifeng Yang ◽

Bin Chen ◽

Sergio Ulgiati

Keyword(s):

Urban Development ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Resource Consumption ◽

Dynamic Mechanisms ◽

Development Resource

Download Full-text

Environmental Impacts of Mobility and Urban Development

Managing for Healthy Ecosystems ◽

10.1201/9781420032130.ch73 ◽

2002 ◽

Author(s):

Walter Hecq ◽

Paul Safonov ◽

Vincent Favrel

Keyword(s):

Urban Development ◽

Environmental Impacts

Download Full-text

A Modular Design Approach to Improve the Life Cycle Performance Derived From Optimized Closed-Loop Supply Chain

Volume 5: 37th Design Automation Conference, Parts A and B ◽

10.1115/detc2011-48148 ◽

2011 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Wuhsun Chung ◽

Gu¨l E. Okudan ◽

Richard A. Wysk

Keyword(s):

Supply Chain ◽

Life Cycle ◽

Environmental Impacts ◽

Closed Loop ◽

Modular Design ◽

Cycle Performance ◽

Life Cycle Costs ◽

Modular Architecture ◽

Closed Loop Supply Chain ◽

Modular Product

Growing concerns for the environment should make every designer more carefully consider product design for the life cycle (DFLC). Although modularity is recognized for its potential to incorporate life cycle considerations into product architecture design, most modular design methods in the literature concentrate on generating highly-modular product architectures but lack the capability for assessing life cycle consequences of these modules in a supply chain. This paper proposes a methodology to find a robust modular architecture with minimal life cycle costs and environmental impacts at the design configuration stage. The objective of the proposed methodology is not to maximize modularity, but to adopt life cycle costing and life cycle assessment of a product in a closed-loop supply chain to identify the most beneficial modular structure. Further, capacity influence of the existing processing facilities in the supply chain on life cycle costs and environmental impacts is evaluated and discussed in this paper.

Download Full-text