Abstract
Mathematically modelling a low-carbon city in the traditional sense is a complex task and have been studied from a variety of perspectives, potential challenges and ultimately towards providing accurate models for low-carbon emissions for cities. Unknown and statistically fragmented data, future uncertainty and limited or inaccurate historical datasets complicate this task. The effects of climate change, based on models or on perceived impacts, also vary among cities. For example, cities on coastal regions experience a rise in sea levels and an increase in the frequency and severity of cyclones; whereas inland, resulting temperature rises pose significant health impacts for humans and animals. There needs to exist a mutual understanding between climate change, urban development and eco-city planning as well as the causes and effects of carbon pollution. Low-carbon cities are long-term investments in city infrastructure to create sustainable and environmentally friendly cities. Low-carbon cities can be realized through an amalgamation of smart city technologies, efficient and sustainable buildings and sustainable transport. Urbanization occurs rapidly and it is common to find infrastructure to be relatively old-fashioned; relying on increased supply rather than decreasing demand. Refurbishment of infrastructure is typically the most economically feasible and environmentally friendly solution. Accurate mathematical modelling and research into cost-effective technologies for improvements are necessary to support the business case for infrastructure overhauls. The contributed chapter provides cost-effective and technologically sustainable means to achieve efficient and low-carbon cities. Emission modeling is a dynamic research discipline; this chapter aims to highlight the considerations and concerns of generating a complete eco-city and sustainable model by identifying and understanding the characteristics of individual sectors. The chapter supplements the related body of knowledge by thematically providing guidelines for low-carbon city modelling. The chapter investigates potential scholarly contributions by assisting researchers to theoretically identify and classify overlooked and underestimated sources of GHG emissions in urban settings. The notional overview on low-carbon cities through economic planning provides a means to identify known issues and sub-optimal eco-city infrastructure. The chapter aims to serve as a starting point for specialized research to improve upon such scenarios.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
A short ton is equal to 2000 lb or 907.18474 kg.
- 2.
Urban agriculture concerns the cultivation, processing and distribution of edible vegetation or livestock in an urbanized area.
References
Acma, B. (2013). Ecosystem and ecocity planning in the Southeastern Anatolia region in Turkey. 5th Symposium for Research in Protected Areas. 1–5, Mittersill, 10–12 June 2013.
Alexandratos, N., & Bruinsma, J. (2012). World agriculture towards 2030/2050. The 2012 revision. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ESA (Working Paper No. 12-03. June 2012).
Baker, P., Blundell, R., & Micklewright, J. (1989). Modelling household energy expenditures using micro-data. The Economic Journal, 99(397), 720–738.
Castiglione, J., Bradley, M., Gliebe, J. (2015). Activity-based travel demand models: A primer. The Second Strategic Highway Research Program. (SHRP 2 Report S2-C46-RR-1).
CEMAC. (2016). Modeling industrial materials flows to reduce energy demand and carbon emissions. Retrieved September 27, 2016 from http://www.manufacturingcleanenergy.org/
Das, D. C. (2008). System approach to watershed modelling for sustainable development, including forestry. International Forestry Review, 10(2), 281–291.
De Jong, M., Joss, S., Schraven, D., Zhan, C., & Weijnen, M. (2015). Sustainable-smart-resilient-low carbon-eco-knowledge cities; making sense of a multitude of concepts promoting sustainable urbanization. Journal of Cleaner Production, 12(109), 25–38.
Delcan. (2007). Guidelines for quantifying vehicle emissions within the ministry’s multiple account evaluation framework. A Report to British Columbia Ministry of Transportation. November 2007.
Department of Minerals and Energy. (1998). White Paper on the energy policy of the Republic of South Africa. ISBN 0-9584235-8-X, December 1998.
Dhar, S., Pathak, M., Shukla, P. R. (2013). Low carbon city: A guidebook for city planners and practitioners. Retrieved September 5, 2016 from http://www.unep.org
Di Castri, F. (2000). Ecology in a context of economic globalization. BioScience, 50(4), 321–332.
Ehsani, M., Ahmadi, A., & Fadai, D. (2016). Modeling of vehicle fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emission in road transport. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 1(53), 1638–1648.
EPA. (2015). Emission factors for greenhouse gas inventories. Retrieved September 19, 2016 from http://www.epa.gov
Erickson, P., & Tempest, K. (2014). Advancing climate ambition: How city-scale actions can contribute to global climate goals. (SEI Working Paper No. 2014-06). Stockholm Environment Institute, Seattle, WA, US. Retrieved September 5, 2016 from http://sei-international.org/publications?pid=2582
FAO. (2016). Global livestock environmental assessment model (GLEAM). Retrieved October 5, 2016 from http://www.fao.org
Florian, M., Gaudry, M., & Lardinois, C. (1988). A two-dimensional framework for the understanding of transportation planning models. Transportation Research B, 22B, 411–419.
Freeman, A. M. (2003). The measurement of environmental and resource values: Theory and methods. Resources for the future (2nd ed.). Washington DC: RFF Press. ISBN 1-89185-3627.
Freeman, A. M., Herriges, J. A., & Kling, C. L. (2014). The measurement of environmental resource values. Resources for the future (3rd ed.). Washington DC: RFF Press. ISBN 1-31770-3936.
GLA Economics. (2010). Scenarios, planning and economic outlooks. Retrieved October 11, 2016 from http://www.london.gov.uk
Gouldson, A., Colenbrander, S., Sudmant, A., Godfrey, N., Millward-Hopkins, J., Fang, W., et al. (2015). Accelerating low-carbon development in the world’s cities. Contributing paper for seizing the global opportunity: Partnerships for better growth and a better climate. New climate economy, London and Washington, DC. Retrieved September 5, 2016 from http://newclimateeconomy.report/misc/working-papers
Grimm, N. B., Grove, M., Pickett, S. T. A., & Redman, C. L. (2000). Integrated approaches to long-term studies of urban ecological systems. Bioscience, 50(7), 571–584.
Hansen, J., Fung, I., Lacis, A., Rind, D., Lebedeff, S., Ruedy, R., et al. (1988). Global climate changes as forecast by Goddard institute for space studies three-dimensional model. Journal of Geophysical Research, 93(D8), 9341–9364.
Hassan, A. M., & Lee, H. (2015). The paradox of the sustainable city: Definitions and examples. Environment Development and Sustainability, 17, 1267–1285.
Huai, T., Durbin, D., Miller, J. W., & Norbeck, J. M. (2004). Estimates of the emission rates of nitrous oxide from light-duty vehicles using difference chassis dynamometer test cycles. Atmospheric Environment, 38, 6621–6629.
IPCC. (2006). 2006 IPCC Guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories. In S. Eggleston, L. Buendia, K. Miwa, T. Ngara, & K. Tanabe (Eds.). Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), IPCC/OECD/IEA/IGES, Hayama, Japan, ISBN 4-88788-032-4.
Julong, D. (1989). Introduction to grey system theory. The Journal of Grey System, 1(1), 1–24.
Kim, K. (2009). Urban development model for the low-carbon green city: The case of Gangneung. Retrieved October 8, 2016 from http://www.weitz-center.org
Kumar, S., Nayek, M., Kumar, A., Tandon, A., Mondal, P., Vijay, P., et al. (2011). Aldehyde, ketone and methane emissions from motor vehicle exhaust. A critical review. American Chemical Science Journal, 1(1), 1–27.
Lehmann, S. (2010). Green urbanism: Formulating a series of holistic principles. S.A.P.I.EN.S. Retrieved September 6, 2016 from http://sapiens.revues.org/1057
Li, L., & Chen, K. (2016). Quantitative assessment of carbon dioxide emissions in construction projects: A case study in Shenzhen. Journal of Cleaner Production, 141, 394–408.
Linderman, M. A., An, L., Bearer, S., He, G., Ouyang, Z., & Liu, J. (2005). Modeling the spatio-temporal dynamics and interactions of household, landscapes and giant panda habitat. Ecological Modelling, 183, 47–65.
Manheim, M. L. (1979). Fundamentals of transportation systems analysis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Marino, C., Nucara, A., Pietrafesa, M., & Pudano, A. (2016). The assessment of road traffic air pollution by means of an average emission parameter. Environmental Modeling & Assessment, 21(1), 53–69.
Marszal-Pomianowska, A., Heiselberg, P., & Larsen, O. K. (2016). Household electricity demand profiles—A high resolution load model to facilitate modelling of energy flexible buildings. Energy, 5(103), 478–501.
McNally, M. G. (2007). The four step model. Institute of Transportation Studies. UCI-ITS-WP-07-2.
Moir, E., Moonen, T., & Clark, G. (2014, June). What are future cities? Origins, meaning and uses. Compiled by the business of cities for the foresight future of cities project and the future cities catapult.
Motawa, I., & Oladokun, M. G. (2015). A model for the complexity of household energy consumption. Energy and Buildings, 1(87), 313–323.
Oladokun, M. G., & Odesola, I. A. (2015). Household energy consumption and carbon emissions for sustainable cities—A critical review of modelling approaches. International Journal of Sustainable Built Environment, 4(2), 231–247.
Ramaswamy, V., Boucher, O., Haigh, J., Hauglustaine, D., Haywood, J., Myhre, G., et al. (2000). Radiative forcing of climate change. Evolution. Chapter 6.
Rootzén, J., & Johnsson, F. (2016). Paying the full price of steel—Perspectives on the cost of reducing carbon dioxide emissions from the steel industry. Energy Policy, 11(98), 459–469.
Rosen, S. (1974). Hedonic prices and implicit markets: Product differentiation in pure competition. Journal of Political Economy, 82(1), 34–55.
Sanderson, D., Busquets, D., & Pitt, J. (2012). A micro-meso-macro approach to intelligent transportation systems. IEEE 6th International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems Workshops (SASOW). Lyon, France, 77–82, 10–14 September 2012.
Shukla, P. R. (2013). Review of linked modelling of low-carbon development, mitigation and its full costs and benefits. Indian Institute of Management, Mitigation Action Plans & Scenarios (MAPS) Research Paper.
Teodorovic, D. (2015). Routledge handbook of transportation. Taylor and Francis. ISBN 9-7813-176309-13.
Tubiello, F. N., Cóndor-Golec, R. D., Salvatore, M., Piersante, A., Federici, S., Ferrara, A., et al. (2015). Estimating greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture. A manual to address data requirements for developing countries. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Rome. ISBN 978-92-5-108674-2.
Van Ruijven, B. J., Van Vuuren, D. P., Boskaljon, W., Neelis, M. L., Saygin, D., & Patel, M. K. (2016). Long-term model-based projections of energy use and CO2 emissions from the global steel and cement industries. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 5(112), 15–36.
Wang, R., & Ye, Y. (2004). Eco-city development in China. Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 33(6), 341–342.
Wang, Z., & Ye, D. (2016). Forecasting Chinese carbon emissions from fossil fuel energy consumption using non-linear Grey multivariable models. Journal of Cleaner Production. Article in Press, 1–13, August 2016.
Waygood, E. O. D., & Avineri, E. (2016). Communicating transportation carbon dioxide emissions information: Does gender impact behavioral response? Transportation Research Part D, 9(48), 187–202.
Winkler, H., Spalding-Fecher, R., Mwakasonda, S., & Davidson, O. (2002). Sustainable development policies and measures. Options for protecting the climate, Washington, DC: World Resource Institute.
Wong, T., & Yuen, B. (2011). Eco-city planning: Policies, practice and design. Earth Sciences: Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 940-070383-X.
WRI/WBCSD GHG Protocol. (2014). Global protocol for community-scale greenhouse gas emission inventories. An accounting and reporting standard for cities. Retrieved September 14, 2016 from http://www.ghgprotocol.org/
Zabel, J. E., & Kiel, K. A. (2000). Estimating the demand for air quality in four US cities. Land Economics, 76(2), 174–194.
Zhang, S., Wu, Y., Un, L., & Hao, J. (2016). Modeling real-world fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions with high resolution for light-duty passenger vehicles in a traffic populated city. Energy, 7(113), 461–471.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lambrechts, W., Sinha, S. (2017). Modeling a Low-Carbon City: Eco-city and Eco-planning. In: Álvarez Fernández, R., Zubelzu, S., Martínez, R. (eds) Carbon Footprint and the Industrial Life Cycle. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54984-2_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54984-2_19
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-54983-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-54984-2
eBook Packages: EnergyEnergy (R0)