Sustainable Design and Energy Analysis: Urban Area Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of an urban area in Australia, focusing on sustainable urban design and environmental considerations. It assesses the impact of the built environment, including energy consumption and water management. The report includes an examination of the number of residential and commercial buildings, a standard residential house design satisfying BASIX, and an estimation of overall energy needs over a 50-year lifecycle. It utilizes MUSIC for total runoff calculation, identifies suitable WSUD technologies, and employs GaBi to determine embodied energy. The operational energy is evaluated for both residential and commercial properties, leading to a comprehensive energy balance. A water balance is developed for the urban area, and the report concludes with recommendations for sustainable practices. The study emphasizes the importance of water-sensitive urban design and the adoption of innovative technologies to minimize environmental impact and promote sustainable urban development. The report also discusses the effects of climate change, population growth, and the need for integrated urban planning to achieve environmental and energy efficiency goals.

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Table of Contents
Abstract.................................................................................................................................................1
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
The Effects of Built Environment...........................................................................................................3
The sub catchment contour lines are 40 on each side terrain view of the selected area.
Therefore , the selected area is very good for building...............................................................11
Number of residential and commercial buildings in urban centre......................................................11
Typical residential house design satisfying BASIX................................................................................12
Overall energy to sustain the urban centre over 50 years lifecycle.....................................................13
Total runoff using MUSIC.....................................................................................................................13
WSUD technologies to be adopted for urban area..............................................................................14
Embodied energy for a typical residential and commercial properties using GaBi..............................16
Operational energy in urban centre....................................................................................................37
Operational energy residential houses/ buildings...........................................................................37
Operational energy for commercial buildings.................................................................................37
Total energy in urban centre...........................................................................................................37
Total energy to sustain the urban centre over 50 years......................................................................38
Develop a water balance for the urban area.......................................................................................38
Report summary..................................................................................................................................38
Conclusions..........................................................................................................................................40
Appendix.............................................................................................................................................41
References...........................................................................................................................................46
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Abstract
The practice of extraction of the natural resources and the impact of industrialisation during
past years within the two centuries has resulted in the state of global warming, which also
reflects to the causes such as combustion of fossil fuels leading to the release of harmful
gases in atmosphere, thereby resulting in environment damage. Weather patterns are
changing due to the concern of Climate change, leading to the elevation of droughts and
floods in all across the globe. The recognition and acceptability of the disastrous situations
globally has only been evident in the past decade.
The key sources of energy usage for Australia are natural gas, various oil-based products and
coal. The dependency is economically beneficial due to the presence of natural gas, coal and
petroleum reserves in the country and along with the national consumption; Australia also
exports the resources to other countries. The main concern of Australia is that the practice
of burning coal for the purpose of generating electricity leads to the release of greenhouse
gases.
Moreover, the first world nations have recognized the future need of using the natural
resources as the main source of energy and have started investing in innovative
technologies. In Australia, Federal Government lacks the acknowledgment of the
significance of investing in the potential of sustainable energy sources such as high capacity
lines of electricity.
In 21st century the most challenging concerns in urban layout will be water sensitivity
management and the need of minimizing the overall emissions. During the past decades,
the most dreadful challenges recognized are waste wastewater treatment concerns,
awareness and acceptance towards the significance of conservation and preserving the
provision for fresh water. The environmental quality and water supply get affected by the
shifting of global temperature into precipitation and increasing rate of urban population.
The outcome of this state signifies the importance of effectively distributing, utilizing and
disposing water. It has become significant to execute new procedures for adapting with new
realities and changes. According to Brown (2005), Due to environmental and social
pressures stemming from the impacts of urbanisation, over consumption, industrialisation,
land clearing and other anthropogenic activities, is now widely accepted that a new
paradigm in urban water management must be found in order to convert to the more
sustainable use and management of urban water in general and urban stormwater in
particular”. In past two eras, the perspective of Australia has been shifted by recognizing the
value of water and by acknowledging the concerns related to quantity and quality of water.
For the purpose of maintaining water supply and quality of water, the water sensitive urban
design structures and systems needs advancement. This is only possible with the
collaborative perspective of the state and federal government recognizing the concerns and
taking initiative of saving the storm water for the source of water supply rather than
perceiving as an environmental burden.
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Introduction
In the past course of three eras, Australia has experienced the constant increase of urban
population, the progressing decision of clearing land for the new construction plans and the
increased frequency of droughts, fires, storms and floods due to changing patterns of
weather in all across Australia. These evidences in Australia reflect the importance of
changing the approach of water sensitive urban design for managing the supply of water
supply for addressing the increasing demand. The country also reflects the need for
improving the quality management of urban water practices for protecting the health of
available water. Storm water should not only be considered as environmental risk rather
should also be valued as major source of water supply, which requires infrastructure and
mechanism system for treating the storm water as the source of water supply. According to
the Australian Prime Ministers Science, Engineering and Innovation Council (2007), the
country should have varied portfolio regarding water supply choices. Thus, the storm water
needs to be used as one of the primary source of water supply for beneficial use rather than
treating it as wastewater.
The Environmental Science and Policy of January 2017, Volume 25, page number 62-72
reflected a quote under the subtitle Configuring Transformative Governance to Enhance
Resilient Urban Water Systems that, “Governance reforms are required to establish
adaptive and resilient urban water resource management that takes into account
completely, uncertainly and immediate and long term change” (Rijke, J, Farrelly, M,
R.Brown & Zevenbergen, C). This quote depicts the actual state of water structure of
Australia that marks the importance of recognizing the present and structuring system for
future by the government. The Ecological Sustainable Development of Australia is about
preserving and safeguarding natural resources like coastal waters, water supply catchments
and waterways rather than shielding the environment from effects of pollution. In Australia,
the Water Sensitive Urban Design requires to offer sustainable urban water management
for sustaining in the water management of urban areas for the purpose of dealing with
increasing developments of urban buildings and considering the need for looking after the
urban water cycles and landscape.
In this paper, the case study on urban area of Australia will be studied for understanding
and establishing operational alignment required for maintaining the area of 50 years life
cycle by using GABI. Music is considered to be a form of computer programme that will be
utilized for depicting total runoff, which is generated through the area along with the
calculation of water balance.
For discovering innovative procedures and methods for the improvement of water sensitive
urban design structural systems and procedures, the outcome from these models will be
utilized. The estimation of the operational and embodied energies for the small urban areas
needs to be utilized for discovering different ways of implementing clean energy procedures
in the new future developments of construction and procedure of reducing the currently
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used energy, which is used for urban area. Designing on small scale has the potential of
resolving concerns of large scale.
The Outcomes of the Built Environment
 Natural environment has experienced pressure from built environment, which
influences lives of the residents; the pressure is created because of utilizing
energy resources and water and for land clearing activities.
 Increasing population growth is another pressure that have negative and impact
over the quality of natural environment and on liveability of the built
environment of Australia.
 One of the critical challenges for the built environment is climate change, as it
has caused floods, heatwaves, storms and fires in Australia in the recent years.
Due to climate change, standard maximum temperatures are presumed to rise
with the sea levels. These situations can be a great challenge for the population
in Australia who are residing close to coasts.
 The pressure impacting the efficiency and liveability of environment will differ
based on the population size and geographical location, as majority of the
population of Australia are living near the major cities. Due to this it is presumed
that the amenities like quality and availability of water will be affected by the
pressure. Population growth will exert pressure on the traffic congestion and
housing availability.
 The practices involved in built environment absorb the important range of
natural resources, thus increasing the emission of carbon.
 Due to the lack of integration and coordination between the levels of the
Australian Government, the urban planning decision is partially effective.
Innovative Techniques to Harvest and Preserve Energy
Sealing and the Air Tightness
The method of sealing and manner of Air Tightness helps in facilitating depressurizing and
pressurizing with the help of a fan on building interior for identifying rate of the air leakage
by constructing the envelope under negative and positive pressure. The method is popular
in Europe and is used in building codes for measuring and controlling additional burden of
energy on the buildings through cooling and heating load resulting from infiltration. This
method is utilized voluntarily in Australia. The country is recommended to adopted the
method compulsorily in building code because it will help in reducing the energy
consumption. According to Luther (2007), “Our buildings are considered leaky, two to four
times leakier than Europe and North America”. The state of water leakage in Australian
buildings is indicated though this statement.
Prospective advantages of Tighter Buildings
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 Capital Savings- It reduces the demand of energy for cooling and heating and
reduces the size of the required mechanical equipment.
 Operating savings- Energy can be saved by reducing the volume of exfiltrated air and
infiltrated air.
 Condensation- It is a method for minimizing the interstitial condensation and
moisture deposition in envelope.
 Control- It helps in discarding interference along with HVAC mechanical control
system.
 Air Quality- The process of restricting the external pollutants and ingress can help in
improving the air quality of indoors.
 Noise- Reducing the nuisance of external noise
 Quality of the construction system- By concentrating on the air-tightness details, the
constriction quality can be improved.
 Comfort- Improving the thermal comfort by lower cold draughts
For the purpose of saving energy, the procedure mentioned above can be implemented for
buildings, which is affordable and simple.
Glowing in dark trees
The application of biomimicry technology stimulates self-sustaining and self-sufficient form
of streetlights instead of using electricity-based streetlights in the urban regions. This
technique can be executed by the method of employing luminescent bacteria from marine
species and implementing in urban flora. This process will be treated as green technique of
minimizing the requirement for electricity.
Foot traffic electricity
Foot traffic electricity can be used for replacing the traditional source of traffic light as it
accomplished by the installation of springy tiles, which are perceptive to flex and movement
underfoot. This technique employs kinetic energy for generating electricity. This method is
an innovative process of using renewable energy source.
Co-heating Co-cooling, CO2 Capture
The co-generating techniques help in boosting the efficiency of energy through applying
waste heat rom the source of electricity, stimulating and utilizing for heating or cooling the
buildings. The process generating from carbon dioxide can be applied for various
applications.
Mobility on Demand
This process is used for the traffic management by incorporating smartphones and
computer for communicating the reduction of fuel and time waste through self-driving
vehicles and sharing vehicles.
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Project brief
The project will require the assessment of 10 hectares. The selected region should
be fully urbanized land in Australia. The chosen land needs complete analysis,
where it should include:
 Total number of commercial and residential buildings
 Constructing a standard design for residential house that adheres to BASIX
(including BASIX certification amongst appendices of the report)
 GABI can be used for estimation of embodied energy in regards with
commercial and residential properties.
 Estimation of operational energy that is essential in both commercial and
residential properties.
 Calculation of total energy needed for sustaining urban centres for the time
period of approximately 50 years
 MUSIC can be used for the estimation of total runoff, which is stimulated from
the chosen region
 The data of rainfall deduced from MUSIC should be from the closest rainfall
station.
 The data of rainfall can be deduced through BoM website.
 Finding the WSUD technologies, which can be accepted in regards with the
chosen urban area.
 Water balance needs to be stimulated for chosen urban region, which
includes outflow and inflow of water in urban centre.
 Stimulating a concise summary regarding the collected data followed by
assessment
 Developing convincing conclusion section followed by recommendations.
Risk and sustainability management
The chosen urban are for the assessment is near the suburb of Western Sydney Bass Hill, NSW, 2197
The area of the chosen region is 102,070.73 m3 = 10.207 Ha.
Terrain view by google
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Chosen area in Australia includes a total of five street, Baird Street, a section of the Hector
Street, Broad Street and Buist Street.
Total number of buildings involving residential and commercial in the selected region near
Australia:
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The depiction of total houses in the area between the Buist Street to Merle Street is 35 and the
presence of 13 buildings.
There are a total of forty houses and nine buildings in the area between Broad Street and Merle
Street.
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The number of houses, buildings and commercial building situated on the Hector Street in
between the Spenser Street and Broad Street are 40 houses, 5 commercial buildings and 4
buildings.
5 commercial buildings are located side by side on the Hector St.
This picture depicts an amalgamated view of a Lebanese sweet shops, pharmacy, family medical
Centre butchery and a Lebanese Bakery.
Thus, the total number of houses is 141 deduced from 48 plus 49 plus 44 and a total of 5
commercial buildings.
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The total area is apportioned between three sub catchments with equivalent areas of around 3.4
hectares.
The contour lines on sub catchment are forty on either side of terrain view in the selected region.
Thus, the chosen area is appropriate for buildings.
Number of commercial and residential buildings near
urban centre
Residential houses
Total sum of houses = 35+40+44
Sum of houses = 119 houses
Residential buildings
Number of the residential buildings = 13+9+4
Number of the residential buildings =26 buildings
Commercial buildings
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Number of the commercial buildings = 5
Total residents
 Presuming 4 residents as per one house
 Presuming 8 residents as per one building
Total number of residents = 119×4 +26×8
Total number of residents=684 residents in the town.
Typical residential house design satisfying BASIX
BASIX is considered to be the building sustainability index constructed by the New South Wales
Government. BASIX is the planning tool, which contributes towards the creation of sustainable
building. The tool of BASIX is reflects of three critical feature of the building:
 Energy efficiency
 Water efficiency
 Thermal efficiency
BASIX is considered to be one of the decent tools, which can be analysed through anyone. This is
beneficial for engineers as it can confirm the standards of the building even before initiating the
construction. Therefore, it allows designers for measuring the degree of sustainability in the projects
(Rotoplas admin 2016).
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