Matching Items (17)
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- All Subjects: Sustainability
- Genre: Academic theses
- Creators: Boone, Christopher
- Creators: Bryan, Harvey
Description
Through manipulation of adaptable opportunities available within a given environment, individuals become active participants in managing personal comfort requirements, by exercising control over their comfort without the assistance of mechanical heating and cooling systems. Similarly, continuous manipulation of a building skin's form, insulation, porosity, and transmissivity qualities exerts control over the energy exchanged between indoor and outdoor environments. This research uses four adaptive response variables in a modified software algorithm to explore an adaptive building skin's potential in reacting to environmental stimuli with the purpose of minimizing energy use without sacrificing occupant comfort. Results illustrate that significant energy savings can be realized with adaptive envelopes over static building envelopes even under extreme summer and winter climate conditions; that the magnitude of these savings are dependent on climate and orientation; and that occupant thermal comfort can be improved consistently over comfort levels achieved by optimized static building envelopes. The resulting adaptive envelope's unique climate-specific behavior could inform designers in creating an intelligent kinetic aesthetic that helps facilitate adaptability and resiliency in architecture.
ContributorsErickson, James (Author) / Bryan, Harvey (Thesis advisor) / Addison, Marlin (Committee member) / Kroelinger, Michael D. (Committee member) / Reddy, T. Agami (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Residential energy consumption accounts for 22% of the total energy use in the United States. The consumer's perception of energy usage and conservation are very inaccurate which is leading to growing number of individuals who try to seek out ways to use energy more wisely. Hence behavioral change in consumers with respect to energy use, by providing energy use feedback may be important in reducing home energy consumption. Real-time energy information feedback delivered via technology along with feedback interventions has been reported to produce up to 20 percent declines in residential energy consumption through past research and pilot studies. There are, however, large differences in the estimates of the effect of these different types of feedback on energy use. As part of the Energize Phoenix Program, (a U.S. Department of Energy funded program), a Dashboard Study was conducted by the Arizona State University to estimate the impact of real-time, home-energy displays in conjunction with other feedback interventions on the residential rate of energy consumption in Phoenix, while also creating awareness and encouragement to households to reduce energy consumption. The research evaluates the effectiveness of these feedback initiatives. In the following six months of field experiment, a selected number of low-income multi-family apartments in Phoenix, were divided in three groups of feedback interventions, where one group received residential energy use related education and information, the second group received the same education as well as was equipped with the in-home feedback device and the third was given the same education, the feedback device and added budgeting information. Results of the experiment at the end of the six months did not lend a consistent support to the results from literature and past pilot studies. The data revealed a statistically insignificant reduction in energy consumption for the experiment group overall and inconsistent results for individual households when compared to a randomly selected control sample. However, as per the participant survey results, the study proved effective to foster awareness among participating residents of their own patterns of residential electricity consumption and understanding of residential energy use related savings.
ContributorsRungta, Shaily (Author) / Bryan, Harvey (Thesis advisor) / Reddy, Agami (Committee member) / Webster, Aleksasha (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The lack of substantive, multi-dimensional perspectives on civic space planning and design has undermined the potential role of these valuable social and ecological amenities in advancing urban sustainability goals. Responding to these deficiencies, this dissertation utilized mixed quantitative and qualitative methods and synthesized multiple social and natural science perspectives to inform the development of progressive civic space planning and design, theory, and public policy aimed at improving the social, economic, and environmental health of cities. Using Phoenix, Arizona as a case study, the analysis was tailored to arid cities, yet the products and findings are flexible enough to be geographically customized to the social, environmental, built, and public policy goals of other urbanized regions. Organized into three articles, the first paper applies geospatial and statistical methods to analyze and classify urban parks in Phoenix based on multiple social, ecological, and built criteria, including landuse-land cover, `greenness,' and site amenities, as well as the socio- economic and built characteristics of park neighborhoods. The second article uses spatial empirical analysis to rezone the City of Phoenix following transect form-based code. The current park system was then assessed within this framework and recommendations are presented to inform the planning and design of civic spaces sensitive to their social and built context. The final paper culminates in the development of a planning tool and site design guidelines for civic space planning and design across the urban-to-natural gradient augmented with multiple ecosystem service considerations and tailored to desert cities.
ContributorsIbes, Dorothy (Author) / Talen, Emily (Thesis advisor) / Boone, Christopher (Committee member) / Crewe, Katherine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Despite the arid climate of Maricopa County, Arizona, vector-borne diseases have presented significant health challenges to the residents and public health professionals of Maricopa County in the past, and will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. Currently, West Nile virus is the only mosquitoes-transmitted disease actively, and natively, transmitted throughout the state of Arizona. In an effort to gain a more complete understanding of the transmission dynamics of West Nile virus this thesis examines human, vector, and environment interactions as they exist within Maricopa County. Through ethnographic and geographic information systems research methods this thesis identifies 1) the individual factors that influence residents' knowledge and behaviors regarding mosquitoes, 2) the individual and regional factors that influence residents' knowledge of mosquito ecology and the spatial distribution of local mosquito populations, and 3) the environmental, demographic, and socioeconomic factors that influence mosquito abundance within Maricopa County. By identifying the factors that influence human-vector and vector-environment interactions, the results of this thesis may influence current and future educational and mosquito control efforts throughout Maricopa County.
ContributorsKunzweiler, Colin (Author) / Boone, Christopher (Thesis advisor) / Wutich, Amber (Committee member) / Brewis-Slade, Alexandra (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Extreme hot-weather events have become life-threatening natural phenomena in many cities around the world, and the health impacts of excessive heat are expected to increase with climate change (Huang et al. 2011; Knowlton et al. 2007; Meehl and Tebaldi 2004; Patz 2005). Heat waves will likely have the worst health impacts in urban areas, where large numbers of vulnerable people reside and where local-scale urban heat island effects (UHI) retard and reduce nighttime cooling. This dissertation presents three empirical case studies that were conducted to advance our understanding of human vulnerability to heat in coupled human-natural systems. Using vulnerability theory as a framework, I analyzed how various social and environmental components of a system interact to exacerbate or mitigate heat impacts on human health, with the goal of contributing to the conceptualization of human vulnerability to heat. The studies: 1) compared the relationship between temperature and health outcomes in Chicago and Phoenix; 2) compared a map derived from a theoretical generic index of vulnerability to heat with a map derived from actual heat-related hospitalizations in Phoenix; and 3) used geospatial information on health data at two areal units to identify the hot spots for two heat health outcomes in Phoenix. The results show a 10-degree Celsius difference in the threshold temperatures at which heat-stress calls in Phoenix and Chicago are likely to increase drastically, and that Chicago is likely to be more sensitive to climate change than Phoenix. I also found that heat-vulnerability indices are sensitive to scale, measurement, and context, and that cities will need to incorporate place-based factors to increase the usefulness of vulnerability indices and mapping to decision making. Finally, I found that identification of geographical hot-spot of heat-related illness depends on the type of data used, scale of measurement, and normalization procedures. I recommend using multiple datasets and different approaches to spatial analysis to overcome this limitation and help decision makers develop effective intervention strategies.
ContributorsChuang, Wen-Ching (Author) / Gober, Patricia (Thesis advisor) / Boone, Christopher (Committee member) / Guhathakurta, Subhrajit (Committee member) / Ruddell, Darren (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The need for alternative energy efficient building heating and cooling technologies has given rise to the development and widespread use of Ground Coupled Heat Pump (GCHP) systems. This dissertation looks at the feasibility of using GCHP systems as a viable economic alternative to traditional air source cooling systems (ASHP) for conditioning buildings in the hot, semi-arid climate of Phoenix, Arizona. Despite high initial costs, GCHPs are gaining a foothold in northern climates where heating dominates, in large part due to government incentives. However, due to issues associated with low ground heat exchanger (GHE) efficiency and thermally-induced soil deformations, GCHPs are typically not considered a viable option in hot climates with deep groundwater and low permeability soil. To evaluate the energy performance and technical feasibility of GCHPs in Phoenix, the DOE 5,500 sq.ft small office, commercial building prototype was simulated in EnergyPlus to determine the cooling and heating loads. Next, a commercial software program, Ground Loop Design (GLD), was used to design and simulate the annual energy performance of both vertical (V-GCHPs) and horizontal GCHPs (H-GCHPs). Life cycle costs (LCC) were evaluated using realistic market costs both under dry, as well as fully saturated soil conditions (meant as an upper performance limit achievable by ground modification techniques). This analysis included performing several sensitivity analyses and also investigating the effect of financial rebates. The range of annual energy savings from the GCHP system for space cooling and heating was around 38-40% compared to ASHPs for dry soil. Saturated soil condition significantly affects the length of the GHE. For V-GCHPs, there was about 26% decrease in the length of GHE, thereby reducing the initial cost by 18-19% and decreasing the payback period by 24-25%. Likewise, for H-GCHPs, the length of GHE was reduced by 25% resulting in 22% and 39-42 % reduction in the initial cost and payback period respectively. With federal incentives, H-GCHPs under saturated soil conditions have the least LCC and a good payback periods of 2.3-4.7 years. V-GCHPs systems were been found to have payback periods of over 25 years, making them unfeasible for Phoenix, AZ, for the type of building investigated.
ContributorsTambe, Vaibhavi Parmanand (Author) / Reddy, T Agami (Thesis advisor) / Kavanzanjian, Edward (Thesis advisor) / Bryan, Harvey (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Diarrheal diseases caused by poor water, sanitation and hygiene continue to kill more children in Sub-Saharan Africa's burgeoning informal urban settlements than in any other part of the world. In recent years, Delegated Management Model (DMM), a partnership in which a utility delegates service management to slum residents have been promoted as new models to improve services.
This dissertation examines the benefits of DMM by comparing water services in three informal settlements in Kisumu city, Kenya: two slums where DMM has been implemented, and one, a control, where it has not. In addition, the research examined how school-based hygiene interventions could be designed to improve safe water and hygiene knowledge in urban informal settlements. This study compared outcomes of two approaches to hygiene education, one which combined messages with participatory water testing; the second used hygiene messages alone.
Results of the DMM study showed that DMM implementation had lowered water cost and improved provider accountability. However, unhygienic water collection and handling practices on the part of the service users could contaminate drinking water that was clean at the delivery point, thus preventing the intended health outcomes of DMM from being realized. Results of the hygiene education intervention showed that one week after the inventions, hygiene knowledge among students who received the intervention that combined hygiene messages with participatory water testing was significantly improved. Evaluation of the intervention 12 months after implementation showed that the hygiene knowledge gained was sustained.
The research findings suggest that: i) regular monitoring of water quality at the kiosks is essential to ensure that the DMM model achieves intended health outcomes, ii) sanitation conditions at kiosk sites need to be regulated to meet minimum hygiene standards, and iii) customers need to be educated on safe water collection and storage practices. Finally, school-based hygiene education could be made more effective by including hands-on water testing by students. Making sustainable impact on health and wellbeing of slum residents requires not only building effective partnerships for water delivery, but also paying close attention to the other points of intervention within the water system.
This dissertation examines the benefits of DMM by comparing water services in three informal settlements in Kisumu city, Kenya: two slums where DMM has been implemented, and one, a control, where it has not. In addition, the research examined how school-based hygiene interventions could be designed to improve safe water and hygiene knowledge in urban informal settlements. This study compared outcomes of two approaches to hygiene education, one which combined messages with participatory water testing; the second used hygiene messages alone.
Results of the DMM study showed that DMM implementation had lowered water cost and improved provider accountability. However, unhygienic water collection and handling practices on the part of the service users could contaminate drinking water that was clean at the delivery point, thus preventing the intended health outcomes of DMM from being realized. Results of the hygiene education intervention showed that one week after the inventions, hygiene knowledge among students who received the intervention that combined hygiene messages with participatory water testing was significantly improved. Evaluation of the intervention 12 months after implementation showed that the hygiene knowledge gained was sustained.
The research findings suggest that: i) regular monitoring of water quality at the kiosks is essential to ensure that the DMM model achieves intended health outcomes, ii) sanitation conditions at kiosk sites need to be regulated to meet minimum hygiene standards, and iii) customers need to be educated on safe water collection and storage practices. Finally, school-based hygiene education could be made more effective by including hands-on water testing by students. Making sustainable impact on health and wellbeing of slum residents requires not only building effective partnerships for water delivery, but also paying close attention to the other points of intervention within the water system.
ContributorsNzengya, Daniel (Author) / Aggarwal, Rimjhim (Thesis advisor) / Hartwell, Leland (Committee member) / Boone, Christopher (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Among the various end-use sectors, the commercial sector is expected to have the second-largest increase in total primary energy consump¬tion from 2009 to 2035 (5.8 quadrillion Btu) with a growth rate of 1.1% per year, it is the fastest growing end-use sectors. In order to make major gains in reducing U.S. building energy use commercial sector buildings must be improved. Energy benchmarking of buildings gives the facility manager or the building owner a quick evaluation of energy use and the potential for energy savings. It is the process of comparing the energy performance of a building to standards and codes, to a set target performance or to a range of energy performance values of similar buildings in order to help assess opportunities for improvement. Commissioning of buildings is the process of ensuring that systems are designed, installed, functionally tested and capable of being operated and maintained according to the owner's operational needs. It is the first stage in the building upgrade process after it has been assessed using benchmarking tools. The staged approach accounts for the interactions among all the energy flows in a building and produces a systematic method for planning upgrades that increase energy savings. This research compares and analyzes selected benchmarking and retrocommissioning tools to validate their accuracy such that they could be used in the initial audit process of a building. The benchmarking study analyzes the Energy Use Intensities (EUIs) and Ratings assigned by Portfolio Manager and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Spreadsheets. The 90.1 Prototype models and Commercial Reference Building model for Large Office building type were used for this comparative analysis. A case-study building from the DOE - funded Energize Phoenix program was also benchmarked for its EUI and rating. The retrocommissioning study was conducted by modeling these prototype models and the case-study building in the Facility Energy Decision System (FEDS) tool to simulate their energy consumption and analyze the retrofits suggested by the tool. The results of the benchmarking study proved that a benchmarking tool could be used as a first step in the audit process, encouraging the building owner to conduct an energy audit and realize the energy savings potential. The retrocommissioning study established the validity of FEDS as an accurate tool to simulate a building for its energy performance using basic inputs and to accurately predict the energy savings achieved by the retrofits recommended on the basis of maximum LCC savings.
ContributorsAgnihotri, Shreya Prabodhkumar (Author) / Reddy, T Agami (Thesis advisor) / Bryan, Harvey (Committee member) / Phelan, Patrick (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Education for sustainable development (ESD) is an academic goal for many courses in higher learning. ESD encompasses a specific range of learning outcomes, competencies, skills and literacies that include and exceed the acquisition of content knowledge. Methods and case studies for measuring learning outcomes in ESD is absent from the literature. This case study of an undergraduate course in urban sustainability examines the processes, curriculum, pedagogies, and methods to explore whether or not learning outcomes in education for sustainable development are being reached. Observations of the course, and the statistical analysis of student surveys from course evaluations, are explored to help identify the relationships between learning outcomes in ESD and the processes of learning and teaching in the case study. Recommendations are made for applying the lessons of the case study to other courses, and for continuing further research in this area.
ContributorsFrederick, Chad Paul (Author) / Pijawka, David (Thesis advisor) / Boone, Christopher (Committee member) / Crewe, Katherine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The Urban Heat Island (UHI) has been known to have been around from as long as people have been urbanizing. The growth and conglomeration of cities in the past century has caused an increase in the intensity and impact of Urban Heat Island, causing significant changes to the micro-climate and causing imbalances in the temperature patterns of cities. The urban heat island (UHI) is a well established phenomenon and it has been attributed to the reduced heating loads and increased cooling loads, impacting the total energy consumption of affected buildings in all climatic regions. This thesis endeavors to understand the impact of the urban heat island on the typical buildings in the Phoenix Metropolitan region through an annual energy simulation process spanning through the years 1950 to 2005. Phoenix, as a representative city for the hot-arid cooling-dominated region, would be an interesting example to see how the reduction in heating energy consumption offsets the increased demand for cooling energy in the building. The commercial reference building models from the Department of Energy have been used to simulate commercial building stock, while for the residential stock a representative residential model prescribing to IECC 2006 standards will be used. The multiyear simulation process will bring forth the energy consumptions of various building typologies, thus highlighting differing impacts on the various building typologies. A vigorous analysis is performed to see the impact on the cooling loads annually, specifically during summer and summer nights, when the impact of the 'atmospheric canopy layer' - urban heat island (UHI) causes an increase in the summer night time minimum and night time average temperatures. This study also shows the disparity in results of annual simulations run utilizing a typical meteorological year (TMY) weather file, to that of the current recorded weather data. The under prediction due to the use of TMY would translate to higher or lower predicted energy savings in the future years, for changes made to the efficiencies of the cooling or heating systems and thermal performance of the built-forms. The change in energy usage patterns caused by higher cooling energy and lesser heating energy consumptions could influence future policies and energy conservation standards. This study could also be utilized to understand the impacts of the equipment sizing protocols currently adopted, equipment use and longevity and fuel swapping as heating cooling ratios change.
ContributorsDoddaballapur, Sandeep (Author) / Bryan, Harvey (Thesis advisor) / Reddy, Agami T (Committee member) / Addison, Marlin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011