On the Energy Sustainability of Active and Passive Building Integrated Technologies in the Context of a Changing Climate for Tropical Coastal Cities
type: CreativeWork
description: Caribbean Sea surface temperatures have been rising at an alarming rate of 0.020C/year. The effect of rising sea surface temperatures is reflected in increasing in 2m air temperature over the Caribbean. The rise in extreme temperatures increases human discomfort and energy demands for air conditioning (AC) putting both the population and energy infrastructure at higher risk of vulnerability. This vulnerability is amplified in compact cities where anthropogenic heat removal from the built environment further increases the temperature of the urban canyon with feedback on human comfort and energy demands. Although there has been prior work reported on mitigating energy demands due to rising temperatures, these studies are focused mostly on the building scale, where the two-way interaction between the urban climate and buildings is missing. Thus, the effect of energy mitigating technologies on the microclimate and energy demand on a scale of a city is still unknown, so is the assessment of their mitigating impacts under future climate conditions. Such an understanding is important in developing next-generation sustainable active and passive building integrated energy technologies that improve human comfort, mitigate peak demands, and produces energy on-site amid a changing climate. This dissertation describes the development of a new methodology for quantifying human discomfort index and peak air conditioning demands for different passive and active building-integrated technologies. The specific goal of the study is to identify different technological scenarios that promote environmental and energy sustainability of the urban environment of tropical coastal cities with San Juan metropolitan area (SJMA), Puerto Rico as a case study for a typical coastal urban city. Dynamic downscaling using Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model with multi-layer urban parameterization utilizing Building Energy Parameterization (BEP) and Building Energy Model (BEM) is used both for cur…
abstract: Caribbean Sea surface temperatures have been rising at an alarming rate of 0.020C/year. The effect of rising sea surface temperatures is reflected in increasing in 2m air temperature over the Caribbean. The rise in extreme temperatures increases human discomfort and energy demands for air conditioning (AC) putting both the population and energy infrastructure at higher risk of vulnerability. This vulnerability is amplified in compact cities where anthropogenic heat removal from the built environment further increases the temperature of the urban canyon with feedback on human comfort and energy demands. Although there has been prior work reported on mitigating energy demands due to rising temperatures, these studies are focused mostly on the building scale, where the two-way interaction between the urban climate and buildings is missing. Thus, the effect of energy mitigating technologies on the microclimate and energy demand on a scale of a city is still unknown, so is the assessment of their mitigating impacts under future climate conditions. Such an understanding is important in developing next-generation sustainable active and passive building integrated energy technologies that improve human comfort, mitigate peak demands, and produces energy on-site amid a changing climate. This dissertation describes the development of a new methodology for quantifying human discomfort index and peak air conditioning demands for different passive and active building-integrated technologies. The specific goal of the study is to identify different technological scenarios that promote environmental and energy sustainability of the urban environment of tropical coastal cities with San Juan metropolitan area (SJMA), Puerto Rico as a case study for a typical coastal urban city. Dynamic downscaling using Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model with multi-layer urban parameterization utilizing Building Energy Parameterization (BEP) and Building Energy Model (BEM) is used both for cur…
author: Pokhrel, Rabindra
keywords: Climate Change, Energy, Energy Systems
date published: 2020-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:57:28Z
provider: City University of New York - City College
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: City University of New York - City College