Matching Items (24)
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- All Subjects: Sustainability
- All Subjects: Environmental Studies
- Creators: Chester, Mikhail
- Creators: Allenby, Braden
- Member of: ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Description
The United Nation's Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) recognizes development as a priority for carbon dioxide (CO2) allocation, under its principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities". This was codified in the Kyoto Protocol, which exempt developing nations from binding emission reduction targets. Additionally, they could be the recipients of financed sustainable development projects in exchange for emission reduction credits that the developed nations could use to comply with emission targets. Due to ineffective results, post-Kyoto policy discussions indicate a transition towards mitigation commitments from major developed and developing emitters, likely supplemented by market-based mechanisms to reduce mitigation costs. Although the likelihood of achieving substantial emission reductions is increased by the new plan, there is a paucity of consideration to how an ethic of development might be advanced. Therefore, this research empirically investigates the role that CO2 plays in advancing human development (in terms of the Human Development Index or HDI) over the 1990 to 2010 time period. Based on empirical evidence, a theoretical CO2-development framework is established, which provides a basis for designing a novel policy proposal that integrates mitigation efforts with human development objectives. Empirical evidence confirms that CO2 and HDI are highly correlated, but that there are diminishing returns to HDI as per capita CO2 emissions increase. An examination of development pathways reveals that as nations develop, their trajectories generally become less coupled with CO2. Moreover, the developing countries with the greatest gains in HDI are also nations that have, or are in the process of moving toward, outward-oriented trade policies that involve increased domestic capabilities for product manufacture and export. With these findings in mind, future emission targets should reduce current emissions in developed nations and allow room for HDI growth in developing countries as well as in the least developed nations of the world. Emission trading should also be limited to nations with similar HDI levels to protect less-developed nations from unfair competition for capacity building resources. Lastly, developed countries should be incentivized to invest in joint production ventures within the LDCs to build capacity for self-reliant and sustainable development over the long-term.
ContributorsClark, Susan Spierre (Author) / Seager, Thomas P. (Thesis advisor) / Allenby, Braden (Committee member) / Klinsky, Sonja (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
There is growing concern over the future availability of water for electricity generation. Because of a rapidly growing population coupled with an arid climate, the Western United States faces a particularly acute water/energy challenge, as installation of new electricity capacity is expected to be required in the areas with the most limited water availability. Electricity trading is anticipated to be an important strategy for avoiding further local water stress, especially during drought and in the areas with the most rapidly growing populations. Transfers of electricity imply transfers of "virtual water" - water required for the production of a product. Yet, as a result of sizable demand growth, there may not be excess capacity in the system to support trade as an adaptive response to long lasting drought. As the grid inevitably expands capacity due to higher demand, or adapts to anticipated climate change, capacity additions should be selected and sited to increase system resilience to drought. This paper explores the tradeoff between virtual water and local water/energy infrastructure development for the purpose of enhancing the Western US power grid's resilience to drought. A simple linear model is developed that estimates the economically optimal configuration of the Western US power grid given water constraints. The model indicates that natural gas combined cycle power plants combined with increased interstate trade in power and virtual water provide the greatest opportunity for cost effective and water efficient grid expansion. Such expansion, as well as drought conditions, may shift and increase virtual water trade patterns, as states with ample water resources and a competitive advantage in developing power sources become net exporters, and states with limited water or higher costs become importers.
ContributorsHerron, Seth (Author) / Ruddell, Benjamin L (Thesis advisor) / Ariaratnam, Samuel (Thesis advisor) / Allenby, Braden (Committee member) / Williams, Eric (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) quantifies environmental impacts of products in raw material extraction, processing, manufacturing, distribution, use and final disposal. The findings of an LCA can be used to improve industry practices, to aid in product development, and guide public policy. Unfortunately, existing approaches to LCA are unreliable in the cases of emerging technologies, where data is unavailable and rapid technological advances outstrip environmental knowledge. Previous studies have demonstrated several shortcomings to existing practices, including the masking of environmental impacts, the difficulty of selecting appropriate weight sets for multi-stakeholder problems, and difficulties in exploration of variability and uncertainty. In particular, there is an acute need for decision-driven interpretation methods that can guide decision makers towards making balanced, environmentally sound decisions in instances of high uncertainty. We propose the first major methodological innovation in LCA since early establishment of LCA as the analytical perspective of choice in problems of environmental management. We propose to couple stochastic multi-criteria decision analytic tools with existing approaches to inventory building and characterization to create a robust approach to comparative technology assessment in the context of high uncertainty, rapid technological change, and evolving stakeholder values. Namely, this study introduces a novel method known as Stochastic Multi-attribute Analysis for Life Cycle Impact Assessment (SMAA-LCIA) that uses internal normalization by means of outranking and exploration of feasible weight spaces.
ContributorsPrado, Valentina (Author) / Seager, Thomas P (Thesis advisor) / Landis, Amy E. (Committee member) / Chester, Mikhail (Committee member) / White, Philip (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
The consumption of feedstocks from agriculture and forestry by current biofuel production has raised concerns about food security and land availability. In the meantime, intensive human activities have created a large amount of marginal lands that require management. This study investigated the viability of aligning land management with biofuel production on marginal lands. Biofuel crop production on two types of marginal lands, namely urban vacant lots and abandoned mine lands (AMLs), were assessed. The investigation of biofuel production on urban marginal land was carried out in Pittsburgh between 2008 and 2011, using the sunflower gardens developed by a Pittsburgh non-profit as an example. Results showed that the crops from urban marginal lands were safe for biofuel. The crop yield was 20% of that on agricultural land while the low input agriculture was used in crop cultivation. The energy balance analysis demonstrated that the sunflower gardens could produce a net energy return even at the current low yield. Biofuel production on AML was assessed from experiments conducted in a greenhouse for sunflower, soybean, corn, canola and camelina. The research successfully created an industrial symbiosis by using bauxite as soil amendment to enable plant growth on very acidic mine refuse. Phytoremediation and soil amendments were found to be able to effectively reduce contamination in the AML and its runoff. Results from this research supported that biofuel production on marginal lands could be a unique and feasible option for cultivating biofuel feedstocks.
ContributorsZhao, Xi (Author) / Landis, Amy (Thesis advisor) / Fox, Peter (Committee member) / Chester, Mikhail (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Urban water systems face sustainability challenges ranging from water quality, leaks, over-use, energy consumption, and long-term supply concerns. Resiliency challenges include the capacity to respond to drought, managing pipe deterioration, responding to natural disasters, and preventing terrorism. One strategy to enhance sustainability and resiliency is the development and adoption of smart water grids. A smart water grid incorporates networked monitoring and control devices into its structure, which provides diverse, real-time information about the system, as well as enhanced control. Data provide input for modeling and analysis, which informs control decisions, allowing for improvement in sustainability and resiliency. While smart water grids hold much potential, there are also potential tradeoffs and adoption challenges. More publicly available cost-benefit analyses are needed, as well as system-level research and application, rather than the current focus on individual technologies. This thesis seeks to fill one of these gaps by analyzing the cost and environmental benefits of smart irrigation controllers. Smart irrigation controllers can save water by adapting watering schedules to climate and soil conditions. The potential benefit of smart irrigation controllers is particularly high in southwestern U.S. states, where the arid climate makes water scarcer and increases watering needs of landscapes. To inform the technology development process, a design for environment (DfE) method was developed, which overlays economic and environmental performance parameters under different operating conditions. This method is applied to characterize design goals for controller price and water savings that smart irrigation controllers must meet to yield life cycle carbon dioxide reductions and economic savings in southwestern U.S. states, accounting for regional variability in electricity and water prices and carbon overhead. Results from applying the model to smart irrigation controllers in the Southwest suggest that some areas are significantly easier to design for.
ContributorsMutchek, Michele (Author) / Allenby, Braden (Thesis advisor) / Williams, Eric (Committee member) / Westerhoff, Paul (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Ecolabels are the main driving force of consumer knowledge in the realm of sustainable product purchasing. While ecolabels strive to improve consumer's purchasing decisions, they have overwhelmed the market, leaving consumers confused and distrustful of what each label means. This study attempts to validate and understand environmental concerns commonly found in ecolabel criteria and the implications they have within the life cycle of a product. A life cycle assessment (LCA) case study of cosmetic products is used in comparison with current ecolabel program criteria to assess whether or not ecolabels are effectively driving environmental improvements in high impact areas throughout the life cycle of a product. Focus is placed on determining the general issues addressed by ecolabelling criteria and how these issues relate to hotspots derived through a practiced scientific methodology. Through this analysis, it was determined that a majority the top performing supply chain environmental impacts are covered, in some fashion, within ecolabelling criteria, but some, such as agricultural land occupation, are covered to a lesser extent or not at all. Additional criteria are suggested to fill the gaps found in ecolabelling programs and better address the environmental impacts most pertinent to the supply chain. Ecolabels have also been found to have a broader coverage then what can currently be addressed using LCA. The results of this analysis have led to a set of recommendations for furthering the integration between ecolabels and life cycle tools.
ContributorsBernardo, Melissa (Author) / Dooley, Kevin (Thesis advisor) / Chester, Mikhail (Thesis advisor) / Fox, Peter (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is one of the important mitigation options for climate change. Numerous technologies to capture carbon dioxide (CO2) are in development but currently, capture using amines is the predominant technology. When the flue gas reacts with amines (Monoethanaloamine) the CO2 is absorbed into the solution and forms an intermediate product which then releases CO2 at higher temperature. The high temperature necessary to strip CO2 is provided by steam extracted from the powerplant thus reducing the net output of the powerplant by 25% to 35%. The reduction in electricity output for the same input of coal increases the emissions factor of Nitrogen Oxides, Mercury, Particulate matter, Ammonia, Volatile organic compounds for the same unit of electricity produced. The thesis questions if this tradeoff between CO2 and other emissions is beneficial or not. Three different methodologies, Life Cycle Assessment, Valuation models and cost benefit analysis are used to identify if there is a net benefit to the society on implementation of CCS to a Pulverized coal powerplant. These methodologies include the benefits due to reduction of CO2 and the disbenefits due to the increase of other emissions. The life cycle assessment using ecoindicator'99 methodology shows the CCS is not beneficial under Hierarchical and Egalitarian perspective. The valuation model shows that the inclusion of the other emissions reduces the benefit associated with CCS. For a lower CO2 price the valuation model shows that CCS is detrimental to the environment. The cost benefit analysis shows that a CO2 price of at least $80/tCO2 is required for the cost benefit ratio to be 1. The methodology integrates Montecarlo simulation to characterize the uncertainties associated with the valuation models.
ContributorsSekar, Ashok (Author) / Williams, Eric (Thesis advisor) / Chester, Mikhail (Thesis advisor) / Allenby, Braden (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Cities are facing complex problems in urban water management due to unprecedented changes in climate, natural and built environment. The shift in urban hydrology from pre-development to post-development continues to accelerate the challenges of managing excess stormwater runoff, mitigating urban flood hazards and flood damages. Physically based hydrologic-hydraulic stormwater models are a useful tool for broad subset of urban flood management including risk and hazard assessment, flood forecasting, and infrastructure adaptation decision making and planning. The existing limitations in data availability, gaps in data, and uncertainty in data preclude reliable model construction, testing, deployment, knowledge generation, effective communication of flood risks, and adaptation decision making. These challenges that affect both the science and practice motivate three chapters of this dissertation. The first study conducts diagnostic analysis of the effects of stormwater infrastructure data completeness on model’s ability to simulate flood duration, flooding flow rate; and assesses the combined effects of data gaps and model resolution to simulate flood depth, extent and volume (chapter 2). The analysis showed the significance of complete stormwater infrastructure data and high model resolution to reduce error, bias and uncertainty; this study also presented an approach for filling infrastructure data gaps using available data and design standards. The second study addresses the lack of long-term hydrological observation in urban catchment by investigating the process and benefits of leveraging novel data sources in urban flood model construction and testing (chapter 3). A proof-of-concept demonstrated the application and benefits of leveraging novel data sources for urban flood monitoring and modeling. Furthermore, it highlights the need for developing and streamlining novel data collection infrastructure. The third study applies the hydrologic-hydraulic model as an adaptation planning tool and assess the effects of uncertainty in design precipitation estimates and land use change on the optimal configuration of green infrastructure (chapter 4). Several uncertainties affect infrastructure decision making as showed by variation in optimal green infrastructure configuration under precipitation estimates and land use change. Thus, the study further highlights the need of flexible planning process in infrastructure decision making.
ContributorsShrestha, Ashish (Author) / Garcia, Margaret (Thesis advisor) / Mascaro, Giuseppe (Committee member) / Chester, Mikhail (Committee member) / Fletcher, Sarah (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
The Water-Energy Nexus (WEN) is a concept that recognizes the interdependence of water and energy systems. The Phoenix metropolitan region (PMA) in Arizona has significant and potentially vulnerable WEN interactions. Future projections indicate that the population will increase and, with it, energy needs, while changes in future water demand are more uncertain. Climate change will also likely cause a reduction in surface water supply sources. Under these constraints, the expansion of renewable energy technology has the potential to benefit both water and energy systems and increase environmental sustainability by meeting future energy demands while lowering water use and CO2 emissions. However, the WEN synergies generated by renewables have not yet been thoroughly quantified, nor have the related costs been studied and compared to alternative options.Quantifying WEN intercations using numerical models is key to assessing renewable energy synergy. Despite recent advances, WEN models are still in their infancy, and research is needed to improve their accuracy and identify their limitations. Here, I highlight three research needs. First, most modeling efforts have been conducted for large-scale domains (e.g., states), while smaller scales, like metropolitan regions, have received less attention. Second, impacts of adopting different temporal (e.g., monthly, annual) and spatial (network granularity) resolutions on simulation accuracy have not been quantified. Third, the importance of simulating feedbacks between water and energy components has not been analyzed.
This dissertation fills these major research gaps by focusing on long-term water allocations and energy dispatch in the metropolitan region of Phoenix. An energy model is developed using the Low Emissions Analysis Platform (LEAP) platform and is subsequently coupled with a water management model based on the Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) platform. Analyses are conducted to quantify (1) the value of adopting coupled models instead of single models that are externally coupled, and (2) the accuracy of simulations based on different temporal resolutions of supply and demand and spatial granularity of the water and energy networks. The WEAP-LEAP integrated model is then employed under future climate scenarios to quantify the potential of renewable energy technologies to develop synergies between the PMA's water and energy systems.
ContributorsMounir, Adil (Author) / Mascaro, Giuseppe (Thesis advisor) / White, Dave (Committee member) / Garcia, Margaret (Committee member) / Xu, Tianfang (Committee member) / Chester, Mikhail (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
Description
Infrastructure managers are continually challenged to reorient their organizations to mitigate disturbances. Disturbances to infrastructure constantly intensify, and the world and its intricate systems are becoming more connected and complex. This complexity often leads to disturbances and cascading failures. Some of these events unfold in extreme ways previously unimagined (i.e., Black Swan events). Infrastructure managers currently seek pathways through this complexity. To this end, reimagined – multifaceted – definitions of resilience must inform future decisions. Moreover, the hazardous environment of the Anthropocene demands flexibility and dynamic reprioritization of infrastructure and resources during disturbances. In this dissertation, the introduction will briefly explain foundational concepts, frameworks, and models that will inform the rest of this work. Chapter 2 investigates the concept of dynamic criticality: the skill to reprioritize amidst disturbances, repeating this process with each new disturbance. There is a dearth of insight requisite skillsets for infrastructure organizations to attain dynamic criticality. Therefore, this dissertation searches other industries and finds goals, structures, sensemaking, and strategic best practices to propose a contextualized framework for infrastructure. Chapters 3 and 4 seek insight into modeling infrastructure interdependencies and cascading failure to elucidate extreme outcomes such as Black Swans. Chapter 3 explores this concept through a theoretical analysis considering the use of realistic but fictional (i.e., synthetic) models to simulate interdependent behavior and cascading failures. This chapter also discusses potential uses of synthetic networks for infrastructure resilience research and barriers to future success. Chapter 4 tests the preceding theoretical analysis with an empirical study. Chapter 4 builds realistic networks with dependency between power and water models and simulates cascading failure. The discussion considers the future application of similar modeling efforts and how these techniques can help infrastructure managers scan the horizon for Black Swans. Finally, Chapter 5 concludes the dissertation with a synthesis of the findings from the previous chapters, discusses the boundaries and limitations, and proposes inspirations for future work.
ContributorsHoff, Ryan Michael (Author) / Chester, Mikhail V (Thesis advisor) / Allenby, Braden (Committee member) / Johnson, Nathan (Committee member) / McPhearson, Timon (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023