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- All Subjects: Civil Engineering
Thermal extremes are responsible for more than 90% of all weather-related deaths in the United States, with heat alone accounting for an annual death toll of 618. With the combination of global warming and urban expansion, cities are becoming hotter and the threat to the well-being of citizens in urban areas is growing. Because people in modern societies (and in particular, vulnerable groups such as the elderly) spend most of their time inside their home, indoor exposure to heat is the underlying cause in a considerable fraction of heat-related morbidity and mortality. Notably, this can be observed in many US cities despite the high prevalence of mechanical air conditioning in the building stock. Therefore, part of the effort to reducing the overall vulnerability of urban populations to heat needs to be dedicated to understanding indoor exposure, its underlying behavioral and physical mechanisms, health outcomes, and possible mitigation strategies. This dissertation is an effort to advance the knowledge in these areas. The cities of Houston, TX, Phoenix, AZ, and Los Angeles, CA, are used as test beds to assess exposure and vulnerability to indoor heat among people 65 and older. Measurements and validated whole-building simulations were used in conjunction with heat-vulnerability surveys and epidemiological modelling (of collaborators) to (1) understand how building characteristics and practices govern indoor exposure to heat among the elderly; (2) evaluate mechanical air conditioning as a reliable protective factor against indoor exposure to heat; and (3) identify potential impacts from the evolving building stock and a warming urban climate. The results show strong associations between indoor heat exposure and certain health outcomes and highlight the vulnerability of elderly populations to heat despite the prevalence of air conditioning systems. Given the current construction practices and urban warming trends, this vulnerability will continue to grow. Therefore, policies promoting climate adaptive buildings features, as well as better access to reliable and affordable AC are needed. In addition, this research draws attention to the significant potential health consequences of large-scale power outages and proposes the implementation of passive survivability in regulations as one important preventative action.
Two main strategies have emerged for integrating sustainability grand challenges. In the stand-alone course method, engineering programs establish one or two distinct courses that address sustainability grand challenges in depth. In the module method, engineering programs integrate sustainability grand challenges throughout existing courses. Neither method has been assessed in the literature.
This thesis aimed to develop sustainability modules, to create methods for evaluating the modules’ effectiveness on student cognitive and affective outcomes, to create methods for evaluating students’ cumulative sustainability knowledge, and to evaluate the stand-alone course method to integrate sustainability grand challenges into engineering curricula via active and experiential learning.
The Sustainable Metrics Module for teaching sustainability concepts and engaging and motivating diverse sets of students revealed that the activity portion of the module had the greatest impact on learning outcome retention.
The Game Design Module addressed methods for assessing student mastery of course content with student-developed games indicated that using board game design improved student performance and increased student satisfaction.
Evaluation of senior design capstone projects via novel comprehensive rubric to assess sustainability learned over students’ curriculum revealed that students’ performance is primarily driven by their instructor’s expectations. The rubric provided a universal tool for assessing students’ sustainability knowledge and could also be applied to sustainability-focused projects.
With this in mind, engineering educators should pursue modules that connect sustainability grand challenges to engineering concepts, because student performance improves and students report higher satisfaction. Instructors should utilize pedagogies that engage diverse students and impact concept retention, such as active and experiential learning. When evaluating the impact of sustainability in the curriculum, innovative assessment methods should be employed to understand student mastery and application of course concepts and the impacts that topics and experiences have on student satisfaction.