Climate Change and the Built Environment
- 1. Climate Change and the Built Environment Nigel Richardson Natural, Geographical and Applied Sciences Edge Hill University
- 3. Figure SPM.3
- 6. Hot 2003 European summer: human activities have doubled the risk
- 10. Figure TS.22
- 17. European 2003 summer temperatures could be normal by 2040s, cool by 2060s
- 18. Climate Change Impacts in the Built Environment The built environment is distinctive High building mass increases thermal capacity Artificial space heating Air conditioning Lower wind speeds Less convective and E/T heat loss URBAN HEAT ISLAND EFFECT Climate change is likely to strengthen the urban heat island
- 19. Urban Heat Island (UHI)
- 21. Climate Change Impacts in the Built Environment Climate change resulting in: Higher air temperatures in the built environment Air stagnation Lower rainfall Increased frequency of heatwaves Reduced ventilation Deterioration of air quality (Ozone and fine particulates) Increase in respiratory-related disease
- 23. Climate Change Impacts in the Built Environment cont’d Impervious surfaces increase surface run-off Increased frequency and intensity of rainfall predicted for this century (IPCC, 2007) Complex interplay between amount of precipitation change and excess capacity of sewer and drainage systems Climate change may: Increase urban flood risk Problems of foul water flooding Risks to health Disruption of transport networks
- 25. Future London? Future Liverpool?
- 26. Responses to global climate change 1. Mitigation of climate change slow down global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions 2. Adaptation to climate change respond to the predicted impacts of unavoidable climate change Because of the inertia in the climate system, impacts through to the latter 2040s will be determined by emissions already made in the latter part of the 20 th Century. Therefore, impacts through to the 2040s are unavoidable and need to be addressed (now)
- 27. Energy conservation and efficiency Energy use in buildings: 35-40% in USA 40-50% in Europe Need to reverse trend -> improve energy efficiency Retrofitting existing buildings with adequate insulation Minimum energy input, high insulation standards and max. use of passive solar design in all new builds
- 28. Energy conservation and efficiency cont’d Improved efficiency of appliances e.g. control technologies; lighting Integrated building design Increased use of carbon-free sources of energy supply to the buildings sector e.g. biofuels, wind, solar heating and photovoltaics
- 29. Green space/Green roofs Green space in urban landscape is crucial for: Counters the urban heat island effect Reduces surface run-off/flood risk Improves air quality Habitat availability/connectivity Promotes groundwater recharge Provides receptive environments for the urban population
Editor's Notes
- #4: Figure SPM.3. Observed changes in (a) global average surface temperature, (b) global average sea level from tide gauge (blue) and satellite (red) data and (c) Northern Hemisphere snow cover for March-April. All changes are relative to corresponding averages for the period 1961–1990. Smoothed curves represent decadal average values while circles show yearly values. The shaded areas are the uncertainty intervals estimated from a comprehensive analysis of known uncertainties (a and b) and from the time series (c). {FAQ 3.1, Figure 1, Figure 4.2, Figure 5.13}
- #8: Figure TS.2. The concentrations and radiative forcing by (a) carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), (b) methane (CH 4 ), (c) nitrous oxide (N 2 O) and (d) the rate of change in their combined radiative forcing over the last 20,000 years reconstructed from antarctic and Greenland ice and firn data (symbols) and direct atmospheric measurements (panels a,b,c, red lines). The grey bars show the reconstructed ranges of natural variability for the past 650,000 years. The rate of change in radiative forcing (panel d, black line) has been computed from spline fits to the concentration data. The width of the age spread in the ice data varies from about 20 years for sites with a high accumulation of snow such as Law Dome, Antarctica, to about 200 years for low-accumulation sites such as Dome C, Antarctica. The arrow shows the peak in the rate of change in radiative forcing that would result if the anthropogenic signals of CO 2 , CH 4 , and N 2 O had been smoothed corresponding to conditions at the low-accumulation Dome C site. The negative rate of change in forcing around 1600 shown in the higher-resolution inset in panel d results from a CO 2 decrease of about 10 ppm in the Law Dome record. {Figure 6.4}
- #11: Figure TS.22. Comparison of observed continental- and global-scale changes in surface temperature with results simulated by climate models using natural and anthropogenic forcings. Decadal averages of observations are shown for the period 1906 to 2005 (black line) plotted against the centre of the decade and relative to the corresponding average for 1901 to 1950. Lines are dashed where spatial coverage is less than 50%. Blue shaded bands show the 5% to 95% range for 19 simulations from 5 climate models using only the natural forcings due to solar activity and volcanoes. Red shaded bands show the 5% to 95% range for 58 simulations from 14 climate models using both natural and anthropogenic forcings. Data sources and models used are described in Section 9.4, FAQ 9.2, Table 8.1 and the supplementary information for Chapter 9. {FAQ 9.2, Figure 1}