Climate Change Mitigation through Energy Benchmarking in the GCC Green Buildings Codes

Buildings

Yousef Alhorr²  Esam Elsarrag¹ 

[1] Gulf Organisation for Research and Development (GORD), Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP), P.O. Box 210162, Doha, Qatar; E-Mail

关键词: climate change;    carbon emissions;    GSAS;    green buildings;    energy benchmarking;   

DOI  :  10.3390/buildings5020700

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

It is well known that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) of countries resides at or close to the top of the global table of CO₂ emissions per capita and its economy relies heavily on its fossil fuels. This provides a context for green building programs that initially aim to create an understanding of emission pathways within the GCC and hence develop approaches to their reduction in the built environment. A set of criteria will allow specific analysis to be undertaken linked to the spatial dimensions of the sector under study. In this paper, approaches to modelling energy consumption and CO₂ emissions are presented. As investment in the built environment continues, natural resources dwindle and the cost of energy increases, delivering low-energy buildings will become mandatory. In this study, a hybrid modelling approach (bottom-top & top-bottom) is presented. Energy benchmarks are developed for different buildings’ uses and compared with international standards. The main goals are to establish design benchmarks and develop a modelling tool that contains specific information for all buildings types (existing and new), as well as planned and projected growths within the various city districts, then integrate this database within a geospatial information system that will allow us to answer a range of “what-if”-type questions about various intervention strategies, emissions savings, and acceptability of pre-defined course of actions in the city sector under consideration. The spatial carbon intensity may be adjusted over a certain period, (e.g., through local generation (microgeneration)) or due to an increasing proportion of lower carbon-energy in the generation mix and this can be related to the sector and city overall consumption.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.