The project will build on recently published research on an urban greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions model and develop it within the UK context. Using UK data sources, we will investigate urban technology stocks within the building sector within the city of London, and develop a model to estimate the effect of the adoption of low-carbon technologies on city-wide GHG emissions.
Department: Administration (School of the Built Environment)
Supervised by: Dr. Eugene Mohareb
Cities have been identified as major contributors to global GHG emissions and as important actors towards deep mitigation for a low-carbon economy. In order to do this, developed-world cities are faced with the substantial challenge of decarbonizing the existing building stock. The building sector represents one of the largest direct sources of urban GHG emissions, contributing over 75% of emissions quantified in London's 2013 inventory (LEGGI, 2015). This research project will focus on redeveloping a bottom up model for quantifying these emissions, based on the work of Mohareb & Kennedy, 2012 (Journal of Industrial Ecology, 16(6), 875-888). Working collaboratively with the PI, the student researcher will redevelop the Pathways to Urban Reductions of Greenhouse gas Emissions (PURGE) model for application to settlements in the United Kingdom. The student and PI will modify the model structure to calculate residential and commercial building GHG emissions from UK cities, based on available data sources. This redeveloped model will be programmed in Python using object-oriented methods, with consideration of future additions to the building modules.
• Identify how to incorporate key data sources into energy demand model (directly supported by PI) - 10% • Develop a UK-specific technology stock model for buildings (directly guided by PI) - 65% • Create scenarios of future building technology stocks (directly supported by PI) - 10% • Create visualisations of technology stock change and resultant impacts on energy demand and GHG emissions (directly guided by PI) - 15%
• Significant experience in object-oriented coding in Python (required); • Background in geography/engineering (desired); • Background in energy issues and climate change (desired); • Understanding of building energy demand (desired)
• Urban GHG quantification and modelling; • Energy demand forecasting in the building sector; • Deeper understanding of low-carbon technology
School of Construction Management and Engineering, Engineering building
9:00 - 17:00
Monday 04 July 2016 - Friday 12 August 2016
Please send a CV and a personal statement (max. one page A4) to Dr Eugene Mohareb (e.mohareb@reading.ac.uk) expressing your interest in the proposed project. Please make your programming experience clear as well as links to samples of your code. Interviews will be held with Dr. Mohareb and an additional faculty member of the School of the Built Environment. Deadline for application: April 15, 2016.