ENVR8165: Infrastructure for net-zero carbon cities

ENVR8165: Infrastructure for net-zero carboncities

Instructor:Kangkang (KK) Tong, PhD, Associate Professor

Time:16:00-17:40 Tue, Fall 2024

Description:

This course is a specialized course forgraduatestudents pursuingamaster’sdegreeinLow

Carbon Environment and Low Carbon Energy at China-UK LowCarbonCollege.Thiscoursecombines theories and analytical skills related to sustainable resource managementand

environmental impact assessment with the focus on urbaninfrastructuresystems, andit hasthenature of being interdisciplinary.

The main content includes

i) Concepts of urban systems, key infrastructure provisioning systems, carbon neutrality/net-zero carbon, and sustainability;

ii) urban carbon accounting/footprinting theories and approaches;

iii) key technology and policy levers promoting net-zero carbon urban transitions;

iv) methods to assess the carbon mitigation impact of urban actions/policies fromasystems perspective;

v) evaluation of transitions associated with multiple infrastructure sectors in cities to achieve the net-zero carbongoal; and

vi) relationships between low-carbon infrastructure transitions and sustainability.

This course aims to enhance students’ capability toconductsystemicanalysesatthecityleveland beyond. Students are expected to be trained to become interdisciplinary,innovative, andpractical talents, who can contribute to carbon-neutral development in China andthe world.No prerequisite is needed for this course.

Learning Objectives

This course has the core objective to deepen students’ understanding of socialandenvironmentalproblems related to resource management and improve their capability to integrate theories and analytical skills when evaluating low-carbon actions at the cityscaleand beyond. After taking

the class,students will:

1) understand the basic concepts of urban sustainability and carbon neutrality/net-zerocarbon;

2) master analytical skills in urban carbon accounting/footprinting and understandtheories;

3) implement systems thinking to evaluate carbon mitigation of low-carbon infrastructuretransitions; and

4) understand the relationship between low-carbon urban infrastructure transitions andsustainable development.

Weekly arrangement

Weeks	Date	Content
1	24-Sep	Introduction to sustainability and climatechange
2	8-Oct	Introduction to citiesand infrastructuresectors
3	15-Oct	Net-zero carbon cities and transitions
4	22-Oct	Urban carbon accounting theories and approaches-I
5	29-Oct	Urban carbon accounting theories and approaches-II
6	5-Nov	Urban carbon accounting theories and approaches-III
7	12-Nov	Land use and spatial planning forlow-carboncities
8	19-Nov	Sustainable and low-carbon buildings andenergysystem-I
9	26-Nov	Sustainable and low-carbon buildings andenergysystem-II
10	3-Dec	Sustainable and low-carbon urban transportation-I
11	10-Dec	Sustainable and low-carbon urban transportation-II
12	17-Dec	Sustainable and low-carbon municipal waste management
13	24-Dec	Sustainable and low-carbon water resource management
14	31-Dec	Nature-based solutions incities
15	7-Jan	Systemic carbon mitigation actionsacross multiplesectors
16	14-Jan	Recap & group project presentations

Textbooks & Readings

No textbooks.Readings will be fromjournal articles and book chapters.

Potential reading materials:

.David JC MacKay. Sustainable Energy without Hot Air. 2008 ed. (free)

https://www.withouthotair.com/

.H. Scott Matthews, Chris T. Hendrickson, and Deanna H. Matthews. Life Cycle Assessment: Quantitative Approaches for Decisions that Matters. 2018 ed. (free)

https://www.lcatextbook.com/

.Handbook of Material Flow Analysis For Environmental,Resource,and Waste Engineers,Second Edition.https://www.routledge.com/Handbook-of-Material-Flow-Analysis-For-

Environmental-Resource-and-Waste/Brunner-Rechberger/p/book/9780367574093

Grading

Attendance:15%

Group project (85%):

Final project presentation (20% from students’evaluation and 50%fromlecture’sevaluation.)

Choose a city and evaluate the GHGemissionpatternsandproposepotentialmitigation strategies.

Rubric will be shared inadvance.

Evaluation from group members based on contributions to the group project(15%)

Each student evaluates each other’scontribution.