• Energy Research
• 11. Sustainability close
• 12. Responsible consumption close
• Middlesex University close

As the urban populations increase we have to think more deeply about how to make cities less stressful and more creative for people to live in. Liveability and quality of life are key factors while designing and managing energy, water, pollution, and waste systems which are sustainable for the long term. The rapidly developing digital technologies can help to enable these aims to be achieved. New approaches are proposed with recommendations for achieving these goals. As cities grow and change, digital technologies will be at the heart of improvement. This paper considers how observed trends will have implications on the digital cities of the future and how digital technologies will empower citizens and enable their cities to become intelligent, livable, and sustainable.

We study the net impacts of international trade on carbon dioxide(CO2) emissions in African countries at different income groupings and otherdriving forces of environmental impacts (CO2 emissions) using an augmentedSTIRPATN model. The continent experienced a large growth in carbon dioxideemissions of about 701.88% between 1960 and 2010, and this provoked ourinterest in the study. We identify the key driving forces to be net trade, populationdensity, final consumption expenditure (annual growth), manufacturing sectorand services sector. We also found that the services sector consistently show lowcarbonemission impacts particularly in low middle income countries in Africa(LIMCA) and upper income countries in Africa (UICA). Indicating that a shiftfrom highly depended manufacturing economies that suggest increasing-carboneconomies in both LIMC and UICA to services economies is vital in order to strivefor a low-carbon economies in the continent. The coefficient for net trade standsout explicitly significant and positive for all the income groupings. The findingsshow that the average effect of net trade over CO2, when the net trade changesacross time and between countries increases by 1%, CO2 emissions increases byabout 1.68%, 2.45% and 1.01% for LICA, LMICA and UICA respectively, whenall other predictors are constant.

The relationship between energy use and height is examined for a sample of 611 office buildings in England and Wales using actual annual metered consumption of electricity and fossil fuels. The buildings are of different ages; they have different construction characteristics and methods of heating and ventilation; and they include both public and commercial offices. When rising from five storeys and below to 21 storeys and above, the mean intensity of electricity and fossil fuel use increases by 137% and 42% respectively, and mean carbon emissions are more than doubled. A multivariate regression model is used to interpret the contributions of building characteristics and other factors to this result. Air-conditioning is important, but a trend of increased energy use with height is also found in naturally ventilated buildings. Newer buildings are not in general more efficient: the intensity of electricity use is greater in offices built in recent decades, without a compensating decrease in fossil fuel use. The evidence suggests it is likely – although not proven – that much of the increase in energy use with height is due to the greater exposure of taller buildings to lower temperatures, stronger winds and more solar gains.

Solar assisted air source heat pump shows great potential as a promising energy-saving heating technology, which integrates solar collector and air source heat pump. It is widely considered for supplying hot water, space heating and/or space cooling in the domestic sector. The performance of solar assisted air source heat pumps can be evaluated in system level by parameters such as coefficient of performance, seasonal performance factor, energy consumption, solar fraction as well as initial and operating costs, and in component level by parameters such as efficiencies of solar collection and thermal energy storage. Their performances are affected by many factors such as system configuration, components size, working fluid, working conditions and weather conditions. This paper presents a comprehensive review on the recent advances in solar assisted air source heat pump for the domestic sector in terms of system configuration, solar collectors, thermal energy storage, defrosting method and the perspective areas of further investigations. The results of this review confirm that research is still required to improve the performance of such a combined system and reduce initial cost compared with existing heating systems based on hydrocarbon combustion. The information presented in this paper is beneficial to the researchers, small and medium-sized enterprises supplying renewable energy system technologies, heating engineers and service workers, energy policy and decision makers, environmental activists and communities.

Abstract Sea level rise and an increased frequency and severity of storm surge events due to climate change are likely to increase the susceptibility of low lying coastal areas to seawater flooding. An integral part of any coastal management strategy throughout European countries is the “do nothing” scenario; this is the benchmark against which putative intervention strategies are evaluated. While the prime concern of a flood defense scheme appraisal often focuses on the sustained financial “benefits” of an intervention, intrinsic to a complete multicriteria analysis is a comprehensive evaluation of the ecological and social consequences of coastal flooding, reflecting the needs of end users and satisfying relevant national and international policies. An ecological perspective may be usefully employed to examine the impact of the do nothing option on coastal environments (e.g. estuaries, sand dunes and grasslands) and businesses. Although at first sight coastal environmental and business systems appear quite different, they have similarities in that both are vulnerable and susceptible to flood damage or loss and both may be analyzed by employing ecological, adaptive, resilience frameworks. From an ecological perspective many coastal environments are of international conservation importance and provide important ecosystem services including coastal protection, nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, food production and recreation. Nonetheless, despite their potential vulnerability to coastal flooding, our understanding of the effects of salinity on the biological response of many coastal plants and animals is extremely limited. We show here how plant physiology and patterns of plant and invertebrate distribution are impacted by sea water flooding. We also present responses of model plants to sea water inundation based on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2007) predictions of sea level rise and storm surge events. Results showed that coastal habitats surveyed are relatively resilient to flooding due to their species rich nature and their ability to adapt to flooding. However specific groups of plants such as grasses are more affected by flooding and less able to recover. The socio-economic dimensions of doing nothing are addressed in relation to the impacts of coastal flooding specifically on business activity, which has received little attention to date. Here the focus is on the presence or absence of business disruption and recovery plans as a means of increasing a business's adaptation and resilience to flooding. Results show that some businesses, particularly small ones, are more likely to fail to recover from flooding due to lack of forward planning. Therefore from an ecological perspective business recovery post flooding is likely to be dependent upon ability to adapt, which itself depends upon the construction of resilient business environments.

Managing flood risk, i.e. both the hazard and the potential consequences, is an important aspect of adapting to global change and has gained much traction in recent decades. As a result, a priori flood risk assessments have become an important part of flood management practices. Many methodologies have been set up, ranging from global risk assessments for the world as a whole, to local assessments for a particular stretch of a river/coast or small town. Most assessment frameworks generally follow a similar approach, but there are also notable differences between assessments at different spatial scales. This review article examines these differences, for instance those related to the methodology, use of assessments and uncertainties. From this review, future research needs are identified in order to improve flood risk assessments at different scales. At global/continental scale, there is a clear need for harmonised information on flood defences to improve assessments. Furthermore, inclusions of indirect economic effects at the macro-/meso-scale would give a better indication of the total effects of catastrophic flooding. At the meso-/micro-scale, there is an urgent need to improve our understanding of the effects of flooding on critical infrastructures, given their importance to society, the economy, emergency management and reconstruction. An overarching theme at all scales is the validation of flood risk assessments, which is often limited. More detailed post-disaster information would allow for improved calibration, validation and thus performance of flood risk models. Lastly, the link between spatial scales also deserves attention, for instance up- or downscaling methodologies.

Highlights\ud A method to analyze spatial-temporal characteristics of district loads was developed. PCA was used to identify the buildings greatly affecting district load management. The features of electric loads of heating on a university campus were analyzed. Building type and operation mode greatly affect the load level and volatility.\ud \ud Abstract\ud Accurate grasp of district power demand is of great significance to both sizing of district power supply and its operation optimization. In this study, an index system has been established and visualized through a Geographic Information System, for revealing both temporal and spatial characteristics of district power loads caused by heating/cooling systems, including load level and fluctuation characteristics, spatial distribution of electric loads, and load coupling relationships between individual buildings and the district. Principal component analysis was applied to identify the buildings with significant impact on district load management. Using this method, the spatial-temporal characteristics of electric loads caused by heating in one university campus in China were analyzed. The results showed that building type and the operation modes had great effects on the level and volatility of the district electric load caused by heating. Buildings with high load levels and strong coupling with the peak district electric load, such as academic buildings, often had a major impact on the power demand of the district. Therefore, they were considered as key targets for energy-saving renovation and operation optimization. Buildings with large load fluctuation, such as teaching buildings, could contribute to the peak load shaving by adjusting the heating systems’ operation.

To restrict the adverse impact of Green House Gas there is a need of rapid action for transformation of the current situation to achieve the targets mentioned by the United Nations Programme. The coronavirus crisis generated additional challenges but also generated a provision for companies to develop a sustainable model in the recovery period by incorporating the non-financial aspect of green environment in their business model. In this paper, we identify some of the main problems of the existing projects related to Green House Gas control and propose the Dragon Value System with a potentiality of overcoming the drawbacks of the existing models. We find a comprehensive environmental management model that will be opportunity driven, based on certain financial assets associated with wide spectrum of stakeholders and applicable by company of any size. The findings of the paper will contribute to the academic literature related to environmental management and SDG 7. The proposed model will assist the investors to identify a comprehensive model to invest and could generate new public-private partnership to apply highly beneficial and comprehensive environmental management model.