Life cycle carbon emission assessment and carbon payback period analysis for the regeneration of old residential areas in cold regions: Case study in Qingdao, China
{"title":"Life cycle carbon emission assessment and carbon payback period analysis for the regeneration of old residential areas in cold regions: Case study in Qingdao, China","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.scs.2024.105860","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Communities urgently need to explore green and low-carbon transformation pathways due to high energy consumption and carbon emissions. However, existing studies lack a comprehensive assessment of carbon emissions and analysis regarding carbon reduction during renovation of old residential areas in cold regions. Therefore, this study employs a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the payback period method to evaluate carbon emissions throughout the life cycle comprehensively. It constructs a carbon-emission calculation model based on LCA, specifically tailored to the retrofitting of old residential areas in cold cities. Additionally, it investigates the effectiveness of three typical retrofit measures undertaken in Qingdao, a region located in the cold A zone, focusing on whole-life-cycle energy savings and carbon reduction. The findings reveal that the average annual carbon emission intensity per unit area for Cases 1, 2, and 3 is 12.59 kg-CO<sub>2</sub> e/(m<sup>2</sup>·a), 27.05 kg-CO<sub>2</sub> e/(m<sup>2</sup>·a), and 23.39 kg-CO<sub>2</sub> e/(m<sup>2</sup>·a), respectively. Their corresponding carbon payback periods were 6.06, 7.23, and 16.00 years, respectively, which could be further shortened through material recycling. The environmental impact assessment of typical retrofitting measures contributes to the promotion of sustainable development. Furthermore, this study offers guidance for establishing an effective assessment system that supports the design of energy-saving retrofits.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48659,"journal":{"name":"Sustainable Cities and Society","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":10.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Sustainable Cities and Society","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221067072400684X","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"CONSTRUCTION & BUILDING TECHNOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Communities urgently need to explore green and low-carbon transformation pathways due to high energy consumption and carbon emissions. However, existing studies lack a comprehensive assessment of carbon emissions and analysis regarding carbon reduction during renovation of old residential areas in cold regions. Therefore, this study employs a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and the payback period method to evaluate carbon emissions throughout the life cycle comprehensively. It constructs a carbon-emission calculation model based on LCA, specifically tailored to the retrofitting of old residential areas in cold cities. Additionally, it investigates the effectiveness of three typical retrofit measures undertaken in Qingdao, a region located in the cold A zone, focusing on whole-life-cycle energy savings and carbon reduction. The findings reveal that the average annual carbon emission intensity per unit area for Cases 1, 2, and 3 is 12.59 kg-CO2 e/(m2·a), 27.05 kg-CO2 e/(m2·a), and 23.39 kg-CO2 e/(m2·a), respectively. Their corresponding carbon payback periods were 6.06, 7.23, and 16.00 years, respectively, which could be further shortened through material recycling. The environmental impact assessment of typical retrofitting measures contributes to the promotion of sustainable development. Furthermore, this study offers guidance for establishing an effective assessment system that supports the design of energy-saving retrofits.
期刊介绍:
Sustainable Cities and Society (SCS) is an international journal that focuses on fundamental and applied research to promote environmentally sustainable and socially resilient cities. The journal welcomes cross-cutting, multi-disciplinary research in various areas, including:
1. Smart cities and resilient environments;
2. Alternative/clean energy sources, energy distribution, distributed energy generation, and energy demand reduction/management;
3. Monitoring and improving air quality in built environment and cities (e.g., healthy built environment and air quality management);
4. Energy efficient, low/zero carbon, and green buildings/communities;
5. Climate change mitigation and adaptation in urban environments;
6. Green infrastructure and BMPs;
7. Environmental Footprint accounting and management;
8. Urban agriculture and forestry;
9. ICT, smart grid and intelligent infrastructure;
10. Urban design/planning, regulations, legislation, certification, economics, and policy;
11. Social aspects, impacts and resiliency of cities;
12. Behavior monitoring, analysis and change within urban communities;
13. Health monitoring and improvement;
14. Nexus issues related to sustainable cities and societies;
15. Smart city governance;
16. Decision Support Systems for trade-off and uncertainty analysis for improved management of cities and society;
17. Big data, machine learning, and artificial intelligence applications and case studies;
18. Critical infrastructure protection, including security, privacy, forensics, and reliability issues of cyber-physical systems.
19. Water footprint reduction and urban water distribution, harvesting, treatment, reuse and management;
20. Waste reduction and recycling;
21. Wastewater collection, treatment and recycling;
22. Smart, clean and healthy transportation systems and infrastructure;