Lu, Y; Girling, C; Martino, N; Kim, J; Kellett, R and Salter, J (2023) Climate action at the neighbourhood scale: Comparing municipal future scenarios. Buildings & Cities, 4(1), pp. 83-102. ISSN 2632-6655
Abstract
Municipalities face the direct impact of climate change events, but many are challenged to assess the potential outcomes of future climate action policies. It is essential for local municipalities to be able to evaluate cross-sector and cross-scale policy interventions, but many lack the expertise and resources for wholistic forecasting. This paper used a hybrid interscalar and interdisciplinary modeling approach to evaluate, compare, visualize, and reveal the performance of climate actions at building and neighbourhood scales of future 'what-if' scenarios for three neighbourhood urban form types (dispersed, corridor, nodal) in three cities in British Columbia, Canada (Vancouver, Victoria, Prince George). Results found that increases in population density combined with strict building standards and retrofitting older buildings decreased per person emissions per year by up to 84% by 2050. Within the neighbourhoodscale areas, building form and location had less impact. Population density and frequency of transit service were most important for mobility mode shifts. Concentrating density at transit nodes or along commercial corridors improved the percentages of residents within a fiveminute walk of those services, but proximity to greenspaces showed mixed results.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | active mobility; building energy; Canada; carbon neutral; cities; climate action; local government; neighbourhood; quality of life; urban planning |
| Index terms: | Canada, Victoria, quality of life, face, mobility, forecasting, local government, density, retrofitting, municipality, climate change, modelling, urban planning, urban form, population |
| Subjects: | renovation and retrofit, public and environmental health, urban form and morphology, Geography, demography, administrative law, infrastructure and transport systems, climate science, psychology, urban planning, analytical methods, regions and continents, prediction and forecasting |
| Topics: | Engineering Principles, Research Practice, Geographical Context, Health and Safety, Sustainability, Governance, Urban Studies, Legal Issues, Organizational Design |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTA |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here