Sustainable Environment and Infrastructure


Book Description

This volume contains selects papers presented during the 2nd International Conference on Environmental Geotechnology, Recycled Waste Materials and Sustainable Engineering, held in the University of Illinois at Chicago. It covers the recent innovations, trends, and concerns, practical challenges encountered, and the solutions adopted in waste management and engineering, geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering, infrastructure engineering, and sustainable engineering. This book will be useful for academics, educators, policy makers and professionals working in the field of civil engineering, chemical engineering, environmental sciences and public policy.




Sustainable Infrastructure


Book Description

As more factors, perspectives, and metrics are incorporated into the planning and building process, the roles of engineers and designers are increasingly being fused together. Sustainable Infrastructure explores this trend with in-depth look at sustainable engineering practices in an urban design as it involves watershed master-planning, green building, optimizing water reuse, reclaiming urban spaces, green streets initiatives, and sustainable master-planning. This complete guide provides guidance on the role creative thinking and collaborative team-building play in meeting solutions needed to affect a sustainable transformation of the built environment.




Sustainable Infrastructure for Cities and Societies


Book Description

The central role of infrastructure to cities, and in particular their sustainability, is essential for proper planning and design since most energy and materials are themselves consumed by or through infrastructures. Moreover, infrastructures of all types affect matters of economic and social equity, due to access that they provide or prevent. Sustainable Infrastructure for Cities and Societies shows how fundamental planning, design, finance, and governance principles can be adapted for sustainable infrastructure to provide solutions to make cities significantly more sustainable. By providing a contemporary overview on infrastructure, cities, planning, economies, and sustainability, the book addresses how to plan, design, finance, and manage infrastructure in ways that reduce consumption and harmful impacts while maintaining and improving life quality. It considers the interrelationships between the economic, political, societal, and institutional frameworks, providing an integrative approach including livability and sustainability, principles and practice, and planning and design. It further translates these approaches that professionals, policymakers, and leaders can use. This approach gives the book wide appeal for students, researchers, and practitioners hoping to build a more sustainable world.




Sustainable Buildings and Infrastructure


Book Description

Construction is one of the biggest industries in the world, providing necessary facilities for human prosperity ranging from the homes in which we live to the highways we drive, the power plants that provide energy for our daily activities, and the very infrastructure on which human society is built. The construction sector, including the building sector, has among the largest potential of any industry to contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. This ambitious and comprehensive textbook covers the concept of embedding sustainability across all construction activities. It is aimed at students taking courses in construction management and the built environment. Written in a lively and engaging style the book sets out the practical requirements of making the transition to a sustainable construction industry by 2020. Case studies are included throughout making the book both a core reference and a practical guide.




Engineering for Sustainable Communities


Book Description

Engineering for Sustainable Communities: Principles and Practices defines and outlines sustainable engineering methods for real-world engineering projects.




Routledge Handbook of Sustainable and Resilient Infrastructure


Book Description

To best serve current and future generations, infrastructure needs to be resilient to the changing world while using limited resources in a sustainable manner. Research on and funding towards sustainability and resilience are growing rapidly, and significant research is being carried out at a number of institutions and centers worldwide. This handbook brings together current research on sustainable and resilient infrastructure and, in particular, stresses the fundamental nexus between sustainability and resilience. It aims to coalesce work from a large and diverse group of contributors across a wide range of disciplines including engineering, technology and informatics, urban planning, public policy, economics, and finance. Not only does it present a theoretical formulation of sustainability and resilience but it also demonstrates how these ideals can be realized in practice. This work will provide a reference text to students and scholars of a number of disciplines.




Planning Sustainable Cities


Book Description

Planning Sustainable Cities: An infrastructure-based approach provides an analytical framework for urban sustainability, focusing on the services and performance of infrastructure systems. The book approaches infrastructure as a series of systems that function in synergy and are directly linked with urban planning. This method streamlines and guides the planning process, while still highlighting detail, each infrastructure system is decoded in four "system levels". The levels organize the processes, highlight connections between entities and decode the high-level planning and decision making process affecting infrastructure. For each system level strategic objectives of planning are determined. The objectives correspond to the five focus areas of the Zofnass program: Quality of life, Natural World, Climate and Risk, Resource Allocation, Leadership. Developed through the Zofnass Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, this approach integrates the key infrastructure systems of Energy, Landscape, Transportation, Waste, Water, Information and Food and explores their synergies through land use planning, engineering, economics and policy. The size and complexity of infrastructure systems means that multiple stakeholders facing their own challenges and agendas are involved in planning; this book creates a common, collaborative platform between public authorities, planners, and engineers. It is an essential resource for those seeking Envision Sustainability Professionals accreditation.




Sustainable Critical Infrastructure Systems


Book Description

For the people of the United States, the 20th century was one of unprecedented population growth, economic development, and improved quality of life. The critical infrastructure systems-water, wastewater, power, transportation, and telecommunications-built in the 20th century have become so much a part of modern life that they are taken for granted. By 2030, 60 million more Americans will expect these systems to deliver essential services. Large segments and components of the nation's critical infrastructure systems are now 50 to 100 years old, and their performance and condition are deteriorating. Improvements are clearly necessary. However, approaching infrastructure renewal by continuing to use the same processes, practices, technologies, and materials that were developed in the 20th century will likely yield the same results: increasing instances of service disruptions, higher operating and repair costs, and the possibility of catastrophic, cascading failures. If the nation is to meet some of the important challenges of the 21st century, a new paradigm for the renewal of critical infrastructure systems is needed. This book discusses the essential components of this new paradigm, and outlines a framework to ensure that ongoing activities, knowledge, and technologies can be aligned and leveraged to help meet multiple national objectives.




Sustainable Buildings and Infrastructure


Book Description

The second edition of Sustainable Buildings and Infrastructure continues to provide students with an introduction to the principles and practices of sustainability as they apply to the construction sector, including both buildings and infrastructure systems. As a textbook, it is aimed at students taking courses in construction management and the built environment, but it is also designed to be a useful reference for practitioners involved in implementing sustainability in their projects or firms. Case studies, best practices and highlights of cutting edge research are included throughout, making the book both a core reference and a practical guide.




Sustainable Environmental Engineering


Book Description

The important resource that explores the twelve design principles of sustainable environmental engineering Sustainable Environmental Engineering (SEE) is to research, design, and build Environmental Engineering Infrastructure System (EEIS) in harmony with nature using life cycle cost analysis and benefit analysis and life cycle assessment and to protect human health and environments at minimal cost. The foundations of the SEE are the twelve design principles (TDPs) with three specific rules for each principle. The TDPs attempt to transform how environmental engineering could be taught by prioritizing six design hierarchies through six different dimensions. Six design hierarchies are prevention, recovery, separation, treatment, remediation, and optimization. Six dimensions are integrated system, material economy, reliability on spatial scale, resiliency on temporal scale, and cost effectiveness. In addition, the authors, two experts in the field, introduce major computer packages that are useful to solve real environmental engineering design problems. The text presents how specific environmental engineering issues could be identified and prioritized under climate change through quantification of air, water, and soil quality indexes. For water pollution control, eight innovative technologies which are critical in the paradigm shift from the conventional environmental engineering design to water resource recovery facility (WRRF) are examined in detail. These new processes include UV disinfection, membrane separation technologies, Anammox, membrane biological reactor, struvite precipitation, Fenton process, photocatalytic oxidation of organic pollutants, as well as green infrastructure. Computer tools are provided to facilitate life cycle cost and benefit analysis of WRRF. This important resource: • Includes statistical analysis of engineering design parameters using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) • Presents Monte Carlos simulation using Crystal ball to quantify uncertainty and sensitivity of design parameters • Contains design methods of new energy, materials, processes, products, and system to achieve energy positive WRRF that are illustrated with Matlab • Provides information on life cycle costs in terms of capital and operation for different processes using MatLab Written for senior or graduates in environmental or chemical engineering, Sustainable Environmental Engineering defines and illustrates the TDPs of SEE. Undergraduate, graduate, and engineers should find the computer codes are useful in their EEIS design. The exercise at the end of each chapter encourages students to identify EEI engineering problems in their own city and find creative solutions by applying the TDPs. For more information, please visit www.tang.fiu.edu.