TOwards susTainable Urban formS(TOTUS)

Gustavo Olivares

NIWA

Why TOTUS? (disclaimer)

“My goal is simple. It is complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists as all." —  Stephen Hawking.

Why TOTUS? (disclaimer)

“My goal is simple. It is complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists as all." —  Stephen Hawking.

TOTUS = All encompasing

However, after looking in the internet for TOTUS we realised that there was another site using TOTUS as Teleprompter Of The United States (as opposed to President Of The United States – POTUS).

TOTUS

TOwards susTainable Urban formS

MSI funded

Until October 2012

Key people:Gustavo Olivares (NIWA)

Ian Longley (NIWA)

Susan Krumdieck (University of Canterbury)

Web site: http://totus-external.wikidot.com

Why TOTUS?

In the beginning there were the urban planners...

“New urbanism is the key”; “We need to strengthen the MUL”

But there were also the developers

“We need cheap land”; “People want 1/4 acre sections”

And then came the environmental considerations

Mixed developments reduce vehicle trips

Compact cities are better for the environment

But the discussion too often ended with:

The economic evaluation is sound, so go ahead and build.

And who asked Joe Average?

But what is a good urban form?

Urban plannerPlaces where people live, work and shop… but without people

Transport engineerCentres of residence and distribution connected by big roads

Energy engineerLow houses facing north with large double glazed windows

AQ ScientistIndustrial and commercial areas separated from residential areas and

roads far from people

“Regular” peopleI just want to be happy and healthy

Key questions …

How close should a destination be for people to stop driving to it?Is it better to have people walking next to traffic or to allow them to drive to their destination?Is it more energy efficient to have lots of townhouses sharing walls or to have more houses facing north?Does the availability of a gas network changes the energy usage of people?What does a more connected neighbourhood mean in terms of traffic emissions?At a neighbourhood scale, what is the optimum insulation?Can the passive heating/ventilation be enhanced by the form of a neighbourhood?

What do we aimed to do?

Quantify the energy consumption and atmospheric emissions associated with specific types of urban development

Quantify the impact of those emissions on people's exposure to pollutants

Provide with a proof of concept of a system that would take urban parameters (building types, street layout, land use) and translate them into comparable metrics

So … What is it?

Tool development to quantify the environmental impacts of urban form

Integration of previously isolated researchEnergy consumption

Air emissions

Personal exposure

Extensive database

What is it not?

Silver bullet

Stand alone system

Ready now

End UsersPlanners, Developers, Regional and central government

Reshaping our cities to enhance sustainability (PROP-20159-ICE-UOO)

Databases

PopulationHousing stockResidential appliancesVehicle fleetRoad linksEmission factorsFuel consumption

Information Models

Small scale source - attractor travel modelTravel profile model

Assessment Models

Air pollution exposureResidential energy use

Data Gathering

Travel surveySatellite image analysis

GIS Interface

Urban Planning that Sustains Waterbodies(PROP-20016-ICE-NIW)

What did it look like?

And now?

End UsersPlanners,Developers,Regional and central governmentResearchers??

Databases

PopulationHousing stockResidential appliancesVehicle fleetRoad linksEmission factorsFuel consumption

Information Models

Small scale source - attractor travel modelTravel profile model

Assessment Models

Air pollution exposureResidential energy useTransport energy use

Data Gathering

Travel surveySatellite image analysis Database/GIS Interface

Urban Planning that Sustains Waterbodies(PROP-20016-ICE-NIW)

Postgresql+GIS

Database

Our “dataverse”

ART3traffic model

Open Street MapStreet layout and

POI

In-Vehicl

eExposure

Near-trafficExposure

In-homeExposure

Backgroun

dExposure

Transport

Energy

ResidentialEnerg

y

Commerci

alEnerg

y

Census dataIncome,

demographics,Work data, etc.

Terrain and land use

Routing

engine

Other?

(walkability

)

Other?

(physical

activity)

Study areas

New Brighton has been removed for practical reasons

Areas relevant to ARC and CCC

What we have

DatabaseCensus

Home-travel survey

BRANZ HEEP data

School travel surveys

Vehicle registration data (VKT)

Routing engine

~ travel profiles

GIS-que infrastructure

What we have

Air Pollution Exposure (APEx)

Traffic Air Pollution Exposure (TAPEx)

In-Vehicle Exposure (IVEx)

Urban Background Exposure (UBEx)

Energy Efficiency (E2)

Residential Energy Consumption (REC)

Commercial Energy Consumption (CEC)

Future developments

REC 1.1 and CEC 1.0Separated heating, cooking and electricity

TAPEX 2.0Include more species

IVEX 1.1Generalised in-vehicle model

UBEX 1.1Outdoor urban bg exposure

DOMEX 1.0Domestic indoors (linked to UBEX)

OK … but does it have a face?

OK … but does it have a face?

OK … but does it have a face?

What can it do now?

Mangere Bridge

New Lynn

CBD

Otahuhu East

What can it do now?

Teaser ...

Teaser ...

Teaser ...

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

0:00

1:00

2:00

3:00

4:00

5:00

6:00

7:00

8:00

9:00

10:0

0

11:0

0

12:0

0

13:0

0

14:0

0

15:0

0

16:0

0

17:0

0

18:0

0

19:0

0

20:0

0

21:0

0

22:0

0

23:0

0

0:00

Time of day

Air

qu

alit

y em

issi

on

(g

/l)

-5

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

En

erg

y co

nsu

mp

tio

n (

kWh

/h)

External concentration (g/l) Internal exposure (mg/h) Energy consumption (kWh/h)

Teaser ...

Researchers plans

Research platformPopulation health

Communication vehicle with social scientists

International applicationsVictoria (BC, Canada)

Brisbane (Qld, Australia)

Over to you

Wishes

Data

Re$ources