Potential and limitation of AI system in building services and control management system

In the construction industry, traditional method for analysing human comfort is time consuming. Thus, artificial intelligence (AI) has been slowly being applied in the software stimulation and building management system to solve the typical comfort analysis method. The potential and limitation of the AI system in the building service are presented through PRISMA review. The AI system enables the building service system to analysis in real-time, optimising energy efficiency, enhance occupant’s satisfaction, risk mitigation, cost minimisation and work efficiency increased. However, the AI system application in the building service still faces some challenges such as lack of big data and the varying parameter of data input in the software system, expensive initial cost and required expertise.

Mitigating nitrogen pollution from global croplands with cost-effective measures

Cropland is one of the major sources of global nitrogen pollution1, 2. Mitigating nitrogen pollution from global croplands is a grand challenge because of the nature of non-point source pollution from millions of farms and the lack of financial resources and scientific knowledge of farmers3. Here we synthesize 683 studies worldwide and identify 11 key measures which can reduce 30-70% of nitrogen pollution while increasing crop yield and nitrogen use efficiency by 10-30% and 20-60%, respectively. Adoption of these measures would produce 14 million tonnes (Tg) more crop nitrogen with 28 Tg less nitrogen fertilizer and 27 Tg less nitrogen pollution to the environment in global croplands in 2015. However, to achieve these potentials, innovative policies such as a nitrogen credit system (NCS) should be implemented to incentivize and subsidize the adoption of these measures given the mismatch between benefits for the whole society while the abatement cost only for farmers. Full implementation of the best-fitted measures could achieve 306 billion USD benefits on ecosystem, human health and climate globally, with net mitigation costs of only 21 billion USD given 35 billion USD fertilizer saving cost has offset 2/3 of the total mitigation cost. The large benefit-to-cost ratio suggests the feasibility and urgency to implement the NCS and Tier approaches could help to implement the most cost-effective measures on regional and local scales.

Persistent inequality in economically optimal climate policies

Benefit-cost analyses of climate policies by integrated assessment models have generated conflicting assessments. Two critical issues affecting social welfare are regional heterogeneity and inequality. These have only partly been accounted for in existing frameworks. Here, we present a benefit-cost model with more than 50 regions, calibrated upon emissions and mitigation cost data from detailed-process IAMs, and featuring country-level economic damages. We compare countries’ self-interested and cooperative behaviour under a range of assumptions about socioeconomic development, climate impacts, and preferences over time and inequality. Results indicate that without international cooperation, global temperature rises, though less than in commonly-used reference scenarios. Cooperation stabilizes temperature within the Paris goals (1.80∘C [1.53∘C–2.31∘C] in 2100). Nevertheless, economic inequality persists: the ratio between top and bottom income deciles is 117% higher than without climate change impacts, even for economically optimal pathways.

The Brownfield Ground Risk Calculator: A new spatial decision support tool for estimating ground risk and remediation costs for site located in Greater Manchester, UK

<p>The Greater Manchester Brownfield Ground Risk Calculator (BGR_calc) is a Geographical Information System (GIS) spatial decision support tool designed to provide an early indication of potentially abnormal ground conditions and the indicative costs of mitigating them. This is important because abnormal ground conditions can affect the viability of the constructing of new homes on post-industrial brownfield sites. Multi-criteria decision analysis methods were used process and utilise over 30 input dataets. BGR_calc comprises four primary outputs, each represents a different set of ground risk or cost mitigation characteristics that occur within the Greater Manchester area, presented alongside their associated input data. Each output comprises risk scores (scored between 0 to 1) or risk mitigation cost estimates (£) presented as 50 m grid cells and site based summaries for over 2000 individual sites. BGR_calc makes the assumption that all brownfield land evaluated will be used to develop two storey residential housing at a density of 30 houses per hectare. Ground risk scores reflect the nominal risk that soil and groundwater contamination and soil and rock hazards might pose to human health, controlled waters and the structural integrity of new homes. The scores are derived from data on sources of contamination or ground conditions resulting from previous land-uses and/or natural processes, the presence of exposure pathways and sensitive receptors (residents, water resources and homes). For there to be a risk, the source, pathway and receptor components must be linked. Risk mitigation cost estimates represent the amount that might need to be paid to develop a brownfield site over and above ‘normal’ development costs.  No allowance is made in BGR_calc for the financial benefits of pre-existing infrastructure, proximity to services and employment that brownfield land usually have but these ought to be considered within the overall economic evaluation of individual sites.</p>

Optimal temperature overshoot profile found by limiting global sea level rise as a lower-cost climate target

The global temperature targets of limiting surface warming to below 2.0°C or even to 1.5°C have been widely accepted through the Paris Agreement. However, limiting surface warming has previously been proven insufficient to control sea level rise (SLR). Here, we explore a sea level target that is closer to coastal planning and associated adaptation measures than a temperature target. We find that a sea level target provides an optimal temperature overshoot profile through a physical constraint of SLR. The allowable temperature overshoot leads to lower mitigation costs and more effective long-term sea level stabilization compared to a temperature target leading to the same SLR by 2200. With the same mitigation cost as the temperature target, a SLR target could bring surface warming back to the targeted temperatures within this century, lead to a reduction of surface warming of the next century, and reduce and slow down SLR in the centuries thereafter.

Manufacturing and agricultural pollution, private mitigation and wage inequality in the presence of pollution externalities

The paper incorporates manufacturing and agricultural pollution into a three-sector general equilibrium model with pollution externalities both on agricultural production and labour health. Manufacturing generates pollution that affects agricultural production and health, while agriculture employs the pollutant as a factor for production that only affects health. Under the framework, this paper investigates the impacts of environmental protection policies and a rise in the self-mitigation cost of skilled and unskilled labour on wage inequality. A larger environmental tax expands wage gap if partial elasticity of substitution between labour and dirty input in the urban unskilled sector is small enough. More restrictive agricultural pollutants control narrows down the wage gap. The impact of an increase in the self-mitigation cost of skilled labour on wage inequality is ambiguous, depending on the factors substitution in agriculture and the elasticity of manufacturing pollution on agricultural production, while a larger self-mitigation cost of unskilled labour brings down the wage gap.

Techno-economic analysis and life-cycle greenhouse gas mitigation cost of five routes to bio-jet fuel blendstocks

Decarbonizing the air transportation sector remains one of the most challenging hurdles to mitigating climate change.