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The majority of energy use and related carbon emissions arise from cities, which occupy less than 3% of the planet's land area.

Project Insights

  • €100,336

    Total Project Costs
  • 3 yr

    Project Duration
  • 2018

    Year Funded

Project Description

Globally, the majority of energy use and related carbon emissions arise from cities, which occupy less than 3% of the planet's land area. While each city has a distinct economy, energy demand is split between buildings, industry and transport. Most research has focussed on each of these sectors independently to make them more efficient in terms of energy use however their spatial juxtaposition means that synergies are often overlooked. This research creates an Urban Building Energy Model (UBEM) that examines the detailed building energy demand across the urban landscape. The UBEM will be used to explore the role of mitigation efforts that are focussed on behaviour changes, technical solutions or infrastructure change. This study constructs a detailed database on all the residential buildings in the Dublin city centre using a building typology allied with a Geographic Information System. Data on commercial buildings available from census data, tax records, rates data and information from Google Street View. The resulting database on the urban landscape will be used to simulate building energy use and carbon emissions that accounts for both spatial and temporal patterns. The UBEM will provide a spatial framework for planning interventions that may include renewable energy harvesting and/or fabric changes and/or district heating. It will also permit simulation of the outdoor effects of urbanisation including temperature (urban heat island) and wind effects that impact on building energy management. Although the focus of this work is Dublin city centre, the methodological approach can be directly applied to any city.

Project Details

Total Project Cost: €100,336

Funding Agency: SEAI

Year Funded: 2018

Lead Organisation: University College Dublin

Gerald Mills

Lead Researcher