Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

With the climate change issues growing in importance on the social agenda, the field of urban masterplanning is of no exception when it comes to minimizing the carbon footprint in a variety of projects. The aim of this thesis has been to prepare the Carbon Critical Masterplanning tool, a software plugin for carbon dioxide emissions assessment developed by Atkins, to be used in Swedish conditions. The main targets were to improve the areas of the tool associated with energy conversion and renewable energy sources, and to test the tool in a real case.

A planned construction of a new campus in Albano, Stockholm was chosen for the pilot study. A 3D model was built in the tool and the carbon footprint was calculated for a variety
of combinations for energy supply to the future area. The results show that use of locally installed renewable energy sources can reduce the total climate impact when life cycle
perspective is applied. Largest reduction of emissions on an annual basis can be achieved by heat production from solar collectors and neighbourhood-scale biofuel plants.
Masterplanning tool can be considered as a useful assistant during a masterplanning process, from creation of early sketches to detailed development plans. Depending on the project specifications, a certain degree of adjustment will however be needed in order to receive meaningful results. Development of the two large areas of the tool – emissions related to traffic and waste management, which are not covered by this thesis, are to be completed in
order to obtain an overall view of the climate impact of masterplanning.