Evaluating the Smart and Sustainable Built Environment in Urban Planning

2018 ◽  
pp. 890-905
Author(s):  
Patrizia Lombardi ◽  
Silvia Giordano

The measurement of urban performance is one of the important ways in which one can assess the complexity of urban change, and judge which projects and solutions are more appropriate in the context of smart and sustainable urban development. This chapter introduces a new system for measuring urban performances. This is the result of two years of joint cooperation between the authors and the Italian iiSBE members group. It is based on previous research findings in the field of evaluation systems for the sustainable built environment. This new approach is useful for evaluating smart and sustainable urban redevelopment planning solutions, as it is based on benchmarking approaches and multi-scalar quantitative performance indicators (KPIs), from individual building level to city level. A number of important implications of the main findings of this study are set out in the concluding section, together with suggestions for future research.

2019 ◽  
pp. 1217-1232
Author(s):  
Patrizia Lombardi ◽  
Silvia Giordano

The measurement of urban performance is one of the important ways in which one can assess the complexity of urban change, and judge which projects and solutions are more appropriate in the context of smart and sustainable urban development. This chapter introduces a new system for measuring urban performances. This is the result of two years of joint cooperation between the authors and the Italian iiSBE members group. It is based on previous research findings in the field of evaluation systems for the sustainable built environment. This new approach is useful for evaluating smart and sustainable urban redevelopment planning solutions, as it is based on benchmarking approaches and multi-scalar quantitative performance indicators (KPIs), from individual building level to city level. A number of important implications of the main findings of this study are set out in the concluding section, together with suggestions for future research.


Author(s):  
Patrizia Lombardi ◽  
Silvia Giordano

The measurement of urban performance is one of the important ways in which one can assess the complexity of urban change, and judge which projects and solutions are more appropriate in the context of smart and sustainable urban development. This chapter introduces a new system for measuring urban performances. This is the result of two years of joint cooperation between the authors and the Italian iiSBE members group. It is based on previous research findings in the field of evaluation systems for the sustainable built environment. This new approach is useful for evaluating smart and sustainable urban redevelopment planning solutions, as it is based on benchmarking approaches and multi-scalar quantitative performance indicators (KPIs), from individual building level to city level. A number of important implications of the main findings of this study are set out in the concluding section, together with suggestions for future research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 2462
Author(s):  
Ali Cheshmehzangi ◽  
Ayotunde Dawodu ◽  
Wangyang Song ◽  
Yuzhu Shi ◽  
Yuwei Wang

In comparison to city-level and building-level sustainability research, neighborhood-level sustainable urban development is less studied. One of the ways of achieving sustainability at this level is the use of the Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment Tool (NSAT), which focuses on the sustainable urban development of districts, communities, and neighborhoods. NSAT is comprised of urban sustainable indicators and associated points ascribed towards achieving specific urban agendas, called headline sustainability indicators (HSIs) and themes. In China, neighborhood-level sustainability agenda has just been recently established in 2017. Hence, there is an immediate need for NSAT development of multiple cities responding to specific regions of different climate zones in China. As an example, this study utilizes the case of Ningbo City, located in east China, for such NSAT development. This paper provides a comprehensive analytical and comparison study of eight Asian NSATs to highlight compatibilities and extract specific indicators for a new NSAT development for China. The results from this comparative and analytical study, developed through a multidimensional approach of sustainable pathway model (SPM) inform a new NSAT development in a new context. This novel contribution is significant in a context where neighborhood sustainability measures are recently developed. This study serves as the starting point for future research of NSATs in China and other countries.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1326-1349
Author(s):  
Siti Nurul Akmal Yusof ◽  
Nor Azwadi Che Sidik ◽  
Yutaka Asako ◽  
Wan Mohd. Arif Aziz Japar ◽  
Saiful Bahri Mohamed ◽  
...  

Abstract Nanofluid is a colloidal mixture consisting of nano-sized particles dispersed in a liquid medium. It improves heat transfer properties and promotes high energy efficiency in a wide spectrum of engineering applications. In recent years, particularly in the automotive industry, the addition of nanofluid in diesel/biodiesel as an additive for ICE has become an attractive approach to promote enhanced combustion efficiency and emission reduction due to their superior thermophysical properties. Many researchers have previously demonstrated that the addition of nanoparticles in diesel/biodiesel fuel improved the overall engine combustion characteristics. As a whole, this study aims to summarize the recent research findings related to the effect of nanoparticles on the fuel properties and engine combustion efficiency. Furthermore, different types of additive blended with varying fuel properties are also compared and discussed. Lastly, the advantages and prospects of using nanofluid as an additive fuel are summarized for future research opportunities.


Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Ning Gu ◽  
Peiman Amini Behbahani

Computational creativity in built environment (BE) design has been a subject of research interest in the discipline. This paper presents a critical review of various ways computational creativity has been and can be defined and approached in BE design. The paper examines a comprehensive body of contemporary literature on the topics of creativity, computational creativity, and their assessment to identify levels of computational creativity. The paper then proceeds to a further review of the implications of these levels specifically in BE design. The paper identifies four areas in BE design where computational creativity is relevant. In two areas—synthesis (generation) and analysis—there is considerable literature on lower levels of computational creativity. However, in two other areas—interfacing and communication—even the definition of computational creativity is not as defined and clear for the discipline, and most works only consider the role of computers as a supporting tool or medium. These open up future research opportunities for the discipline.


Author(s):  
Shunhua Bai ◽  
Junfeng Jiao

Travel demand forecast plays an important role in transportation planning. Classic models often predict people’s travel behavior based on the physical built environment in a linear fashion. Many scholars have tried to understand built environments’ predictive power on people’s travel behavior using big-data methods. However, few empirical studies have discussed how the impact might vary across time and space. To fill this research gap, this study used 2019 anonymous smartphone GPS data and built a long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural network (RNN) to predict the daily travel demand to six destinations in Austin, Texas: downtown, the university, the airport, an inner-ring point-of-interest (POI) cluster, a suburban POI cluster, and an urban-fringe POI cluster. By comparing the prediction results, we found that: the model underestimated the traffic surge for the university in the fall semester and overestimated the demand for downtown on non-working days; the prediction accuracy for POI clusters was negatively related to their adjacency to downtown; and different POI clusters had cases of under- or overestimation on different occasions. This study reveals that the impact of destination attributes on people’s travel demand can vary across time and space because of their heterogeneous nature. Future research on travel behavior and built environment modeling should incorporate the temporal inconsistency to achieve better prediction accuracy.


2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 333-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Macdonald ◽  
Briony Birdi

Purpose Neutrality is a much debated value in library and information science (LIS). The “neutrality debate” is characterised by opinionated discussions in contrasting contexts. The purpose of this paper is to fill a gap in the literature by bringing these conceptions together holistically, with potential to deepen understanding of LIS neutrality. Design/methodology/approach First, a literature review identified conceptions of neutrality reported in the LIS literature. Second, seven phenomenographic interviews with LIS professionals were conducted across three professional sectors. To maximise variation, each sector comprised at least one interview with a professional of five or fewer years’ experience and one with ten or more years’ experience. Third, conceptions from the literature and interviews were compared for similarities and disparities. Findings In four conceptions, each were found in the literature and interviews. In the literature, these were labelled: “favourable”, “tacit value”, “social institutions” and “value-laden profession”, whilst in interviews they were labelled: “core value”, “subservient”, “ambivalent”, and “hidden values”. The study’s main finding notes the “ambivalent” conception in interviews is not captured by a largely polarised literature, which oversimplifies neutrality’s complexity. To accommodate this complexity, it is suggested that future research should look to reconcile perceptions from either side of the “neutral non-neutral divide” through an inclusive normative framework. Originality/value This study’s value lies in its descriptive methodology, which brings LIS neutrality together in a holistic framework. This framework brings a contextual awareness to LIS neutrality lacking in previous research. This awareness has the potential to change the tone of the LIS neutrality debate.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (13) ◽  
pp. 3512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonia Gravagnuolo ◽  
Mariarosaria Angrisano ◽  
Luigi Fusco Girard

The circular city is emerging as new concept and form of practice in sustainable urban development. This is a response to the complex and pressing challenges of urbanization, as highlighted in the New Urban Agenda (NUA). The concept of a “circular city” or “circular city-region” derives from the circular economy model applied in the spatial territorial dimension. It can be associated with the concept of a “self-sustainable” regenerative city, as stated in paragraph n.71 of the NUA. This paper aims to develop an extensive form of “screening” of circular economy actions in emerging circular cities, focusing on eight European historic port cities self-defined as “circular”. The analysis is carried out as a review of circular economy actions in the selected cities, and specifically aims to identify the key areas of implementation in which the investments in the circular economy are more oriented, as well as to analyze the spatial implications of the reuse of buildings and sites, proposing a set of criteria and indicators for ex-ante and ex-post evaluations and monitoring of circular cities. Results show that the built environment (including cultural heritage), energy and mobility, waste management, water management, industrial production (including plastics, textiles, and industry 4.0 and circular design), agri-food, and citizens and communities can be adopted as strategic areas of implementation of the circular city model in historic cities, highlighting a lack of indicators in some sectors and identifying a possible framework for “closed” urban metabolism evaluation from a life-cycle perspective, focusing on evaluation criteria and indicators in the (historic) built environment.


2014 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 368-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lidija Breznik ◽  
Robert D. Hisrich

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the relationship between dynamic capabilities and innovation capabilities. It links dynamic capability with innovation capability and indicates the ways they can be related. Design/methodology/approach – The relationships between dynamic and innovation capability were investigated through a systematic literature review. Findings – The review indicates that common characteristics exist between of the both fields, which demonstrate six relationships. Additionally, findings show some inconsistencies and even contradictions. Originality/value – In this paper, the authors have compared dynamic capabilities, a relatively new approach in the field of strategic management, with innovation capabilities, a widely recognised crucial domain for sustained competitiveness. Since both areas address issues that are essential to today's environment, future research should seek to clarify both concepts, by undertaking some new research and developing comprehensive and unambiguous framework.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shamkant B. Badgujar ◽  
Vainav V. Patel ◽  
Atmaram H. Bandivdekar

Foeniculum vulgareMill commonly called fennel has been used in traditional medicine for a wide range of ailments related to digestive, endocrine, reproductive, and respiratory systems. Additionally, it is also used as a galactagogue agent for lactating mothers. The review aims to gather the fragmented information available in the literature regarding morphology, ethnomedicinal applications, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and toxicology ofFoeniculum vulgare. It also compiles available scientific evidence for the ethnobotanical claims and to identify gaps required to be filled by future research. Findings based on their traditional uses and scientific evaluation indicates thatFoeniculum vulgareremains to be the most widely used herbal plant. It has been used for more than forty types of disorders. Phytochemical studies have shown the presence of numerous valuable compounds, such as volatile compounds, flavonoids, phenolic compounds, fatty acids, and amino acids. Compiled data indicate their efficacy in severalin vitroandin vivopharmacological properties such as antimicrobial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, antimutagenic, antinociceptive, antipyretic, antispasmodic, antithrombotic, apoptotic, cardiovascular, chemomodulatory, antitumor, hepatoprotective, hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic, and memory enhancing property.Foeniculum vulgarehas emerged as a good source of traditional medicine and it provides a noteworthy basis in pharmaceutical biology for the development/formulation of new drugs and future clinical uses.


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