Eco-Friendly Smart Green Cities

In the world, 55% of the population lives in cities and is expected to increase to 68% by 2050. Cities are identified by their stunning skyscrapers which turn out to consume 75% of total power consumption. It is most important to emphasize energy efficiency and nonpolluting building materials used for construction. These days buildings have different types of designs to satisfy the specific requirements of its purpose and people who live and work in them. As time goes, with growing technology, the building constructions need to be designed and function with real-time natural environments with land, water and solar energy [1]. Thus sustainable practices and materials for building design and function are necessary for a sustainable future.

According to the world green building council, a building in its architecture, construction or function, eliminates negative impacts and generates positive impacts on our environment is referred as a green building. Green buildings are mostly designed to be carbon neutral with low energy consumptions and eco-friendly in nature. Any building can be a green building, whether it’s a home, an office, a school, a hospital, a community centre, or any other type of structure, provided it includes the features listed above. However, not all green buildings need to be the same type, it varies based on the surrounding environmental conditions. Different countries and regions have a variety of characteristics such as distinctive climatic conditions, unique cultures and traditions, diverse building types and ages, or wide-ranging environmental, economic and social priorities all of which shape their approach to green building [2].

Peoples have consider that, using solar energy and planting trees around their home as green building. Protecting the environment is far away from these activities, green buildings reduce the environmental impact of building material used for the construction and ensure the health and wellbeing of the occupants. It is necessary to plan throughout the life-cycle of a building or a community that, from master planning and siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition with a focus on the impact on both the environment and people. The use of renewable energy and eco-friendly materials to minimize carbon footprint and emission are important aspects of green buildings. This reduces the production of waste and preventing pollution of areas like water, air, noise and land. In the context as an example [3], Hong Kong is famous for the subtropical built environment of skyscrapers, high-density urban populous areas, contrasted with a large spread of hilly and mountainous terrain. For some years, Hong Kong is the world's most densely populated place, with the majority of its more than 7.4 million residents living and working in urban skyscrapers.

Figure 1. Green Building Practice at Auroville Earth Institute [Image: AEI].

Today, the major source of electricity consumption is the structures like housing estate buildings, offices and shopping malls. Compared to a global average of 40%, the buildings alone account for about 90% of Hong Kong’s total electricity consumption. In turn, this energy consumption by buildings accounts for 60% of the city’s CO₂ emissions. Hence, green buildings are mandatory in achieving energy savings in Hong Kong, as set by the Paris Agreement.

Many rating systems to evaluate the quality of the building based on its materials used, sustainable environment and the dependency of the building for water, air, and light. A green building rating system is a tool which evaluates the performance of a building and its impact on the environment. It comprises a predefined set of criteria relating to the design, construction, and operations of green buildings. In India, there are mainly three rating systems – Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), the rating systems from CII-Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) and the Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA) [4].

Besides, there is also the Energy Consumption Building Code (ECBC) and the National Building Code (NBC), which provide guidelines on energy consumption. All the buildings in India need to comply with these prescribed guidelines. Increasing smart cities' programs in developing countries focus more on sustainable resources for buildings and transportation structures. Many green building prototypes are built in India as an example of sustainability with renewable energy sources and wood, straw, bamboo and recyclable metals and stones or other substances that are harmful to health, quickly fall under “green” building materials. Indoors building materials like recycled paper, sheep’s wool, clay, sisal, cork or coconut fibers are used. Renewable energies such as solar energy, wind power, water energy or energy production from biomass play a major role in power generation. Solution concepts for waste reduction and disposal as well as the saving of drinking water are also in the foreground. For example, rainwater or wastewater from the household can be reused for the car wash or the water box of the toilet flush.

Figure 2. Green Building Smart Cities [Image: Planradar].

The smart city projects aim to develop an illustrious overview and an assessment of the current situation in the planning and implementation of sustainable buildings in different cities all over. The guiding principle in the understanding of Smart City makes use of networked information and communication technologies (ICT) to permit ecologically and economically more sustainable urban development in the areas of transport/mobility, infrastructures, housing and facility management, energy supply, public safety or other areas of urban life.

Our SNB team recommended this research article to help the reader to know about that the focus is on the implementation of smart city approaches in practice, be it through conceptual foundations, pilot implementation projects or a combination of both. All over the world, municipalities are facing the challenges of making urban life safer, healthier and more energy-efficient. Digital technologies offer great opportunities to develop intelligent solutions for the future, especially in the areas of mobility, energy and public administration. Auroville earth institute promotes the art of green buildings and sustainable surroundings using materials that are available locally and have low carbon emission [5]. The strength and lifetime of the building are not compromised by the use of renewable sources of building materials, starting from the use of low carbon steels to polished floors. It is even possible to build a multistorey building with sustainable materials and resources. Green buildings are economical and eco-friendly for a healthy human life.

References

E. Yadegaridehkordi et al., “Assessment of sustainability indicators for green building manufacturing using fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making approach,” J. Clean. Prod., 277, 122905 (2020).
Y. Cai, et al., “Performance evaluation of a thermoelectric ventilation system driven by the concentrated photovoltaic thermoelectric generators for green building operations,” Renew. Energy, 147, 1565 (2020).
https://www.gov.hk/en/residents/environment/sustainable/buildings.htm.
https://www.grihaindia.org/griha-rating.
http://www.earthauroville.com/sustainable_development_en.php.

Blog Written By

Dr. K. Vaithinathan

Department of Materials science and engineering

City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Author Profile

Editors

Dr. A. S. Ganeshraja

Dr. K. Rajkumar

Dr. S. Chandrasekar

Reviewers

Dr. Y. Sasikumar

Dr. S. Thirumurugan

Comments

Electro-Organic Synthesis: Next Emerging Technique

Industrial developments, excessive energy consumption, sustainable technologies, environmental cleaning processes are major topics of political and social discourse. Current innovations are rated not only focusing on their benefit and utility but also concerning their eco-friendly approaches. The development of green technological processes is becoming more important and requires harmless energy sources. Particularly over the past decade, the severe limitations of fossil resources intensify the movement towards sustainable synthesis techniques with a strict cutback in the ecological footprint [ 1 ]. Electro-organic synthesis belongs to the synthetic organic chemistry discipline that facilities the direct use of electricity to generate valuable compounds. Hence, it is possible to transfer green aspects of sustainable energy sources to the whole production process [ 2 ]. Since the Kolbe’s discoveries of using electricity as a reagent for organic transformations over 170 years ago, ...

Designing of Corrosion Resistant Alloys via Percolation Theory

Canada and USA Scientists have reported on designing of corrosion-resistant alloys via percolation theory and published in Nature Materials on 01 February 2021. Nickel–chromium, Iron–chromium binary alloys can serve as the prototypical corrosion-resistant metals owing to its presence of a nanometre-thick protective passive oxide film. The main key criterion for good passive behavior is the passive film should be compromised via a scratch or abrasive wear that can be reformed with a little metal dissolution. This could be a principal reason for the stainless steels and other chromium containing alloys that are used for critical applications which ranges from nuclear reactor components to biomedical implants. A long-standing unanswered question in corrosion science is the unravelling of the compositional dependence of the electrochemical behavior of the alloys [ 1, 2 ]. The discovery of the family of these alloys were increased its rate with the advent of artificial intelligence, da...

AN ACT OF FACE MASK MATERIAL USED TO PROTECT US FROM SARS-COV-2

“ In the absence of a vaccine, or effective antiviral, one of our only remaining strategies for controlling COVID-19 is to physically block the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the community ” On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic [1] . In the absence of a vaccine, or effective antiviral, one of our only remaining strategies for controlling COVID-19 is to physically block the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the community. Given that COVID-19 is a respiratory illness, the most effective physical defense likely involves widespread public use of face coverings, in conjunction with other control measures [ 2 ] . Face coverings (also variously referred to as face masks, nonmedical masks, community masks or barrier masks ) function primarily in source control; capturing droplets expelled by an infected individual [3] . Figure 1. DIY masks to protect against from viruses sounds like a crazy idea. source click here In the absence of an...

Electric Vehicle: Public Health and Climate Benefits

A research team led by Daniel Peters at Northwestern University has investigated that if we introducing electrifying vehicles in the streets of the United States could annually prevent hundreds-to-thousands of premature accidental deaths.This work highlights the potential of a synergistic solution to reduce CO 2 emissions by hundreds to millions of tons annually. The estimate of economic damages induced by introducing electrifying vehicles (EV) adoption is substantial. With current infrastructure, about 25% of electrifying vehicles adoption in the US can save approximately $16.8 billion annually, has been told in the study entitled"Public Health and Climate Benefits and Trade offs of U.S. Vehicle Electrification," in GeoHealth on 13 th August 2020 [1] . Vehicle electrification in the United States could prevent hundreds to thousands of premature deaths annually while reducing carbon emissions by hundreds of millions of tons. This highlights the potential of co-beneficial...

Novel Approach of Plastic Waste to Flash Graphene

Prof. Algozeeb and his research collaboration team have investigated an novel approach of upcycling plastic waste (PW) products to flash graphene (FG). This method relies on Flash Joule Heating (FJH) to convert PW into FG. A sequential direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) flash is used in order to make a high-quality graphene. In this FJH process, they established without catalyst and works for PW mixtures that can make the process suitable for handling landfill PW. In 21 st century, PW pollution is considerable one among the various environmental issues. A very large fraction of PW ends up in the ocean, which leads to the formation of micro- and nanoplastics that threaten marine life, micro-organisms, useful bacteria, and humans. From the intense carbon footprint process, most of these synthesized plastics are used only once before dumping into landfills or water ways that terminate in the oceans. Hence, upcycling PW to higher value materials and chemicals is econ...

PROSPECTS ON PHOTOBIOREFINERY

Very recently, Prof. Dr. K. Faungnawakij and his research group have summarized a mini review report on an emerging renewable technique of Photobiorefinery . This is one of the beyond technique of Artificial Photosynthesis (AP) [1] . Despite great promises, AP technologies for solar H2 production and CO2 reduction are far uncompetitive to other promising technologies at the current stage . However, despite an enormous effort, time, and budget paid on AP-related researches throughout several decades, AP technologies have struggled to strive beyond laboratory demonstration except a very few exceptions [2] . This bitter reality makes the translation of this excellent science to practical application questionable [3] . Technoeconomic analysis shows that without achieving the aggressive technology targets, this technology will not be commercially viable. This has directed the research community towards the development of highly efficient yet expensive devices. While tremendous p...

Electromagnetic Field: Non-Chemical Water Treatment Technology

An interesting review report on “A critical review of the application of electromagnetic fields for scaling control in water systems: mechanisms, characterization, and operation” was reported by Lu Lin, Wenbin Jiang, Xuesong Xu and Pei Xu published in Nature Partner Journals Clean Water published on June 2020 [1] . Water is the precious matter in the world. source U.S. General Services Administration has interested on non-chemical water treatment technologies. It has mentioned following important points: n on-chemical technology promises to increase the period between required blow-down cycles, thus reducing water consumption , minimizes associated issues of chemical storage, handling, and disposal, and may permit on-site re-use of cooling-tower “blow-down” water as “grey water” , it promises to be life cycle cost effective based solely on the reduction in chemical costs , this technology may reduce or eliminate chemical costs, it may not reduce other contractor costs ...

Single-Atom Catalysis in Chemistry World

The recent interest on the heterogeneous single-atom catalysts (SACs) were composed of atomically dispersed active metal cen ters in catalyst research field, because of the increased atom utilization and unique catalytic properties of such materials, which differ greatly from those of conventional nano or subnano counter parts. In this case, the fabrication of SACs are challenging, especially in the case of noble metal based catalysts and many researches are ongoing in this field for the development of improved catalysts. Many chall enges have faced for the hybridization of controlling of single atoms in suitable host materials, but it has also equally opened with unique opportunities for catalyst design. SACs with atomically dispersed active metal centers on supports represent an intermediary between heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis. Therefore, understanding the homogeneous catalysis prototype creates a great opportunity for designing SACs and developing related applications....

A Novel Green Synthesis of Au/TiO2 Nanocomposites

Prof. Lahiru A. Wijenayaka, Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (SLINTEC), Mahenwatte, Pitipana, Homagama, Sri Lanka and his collaboration team has reported on the interesting materials for effective environmental alternative remediation via nontoxic, low cost and eco-friendly methods dedicated to the scientific community. Here, a novel, facile, and green synthetic approach to synthesize gold nanoparticle decorated over TiO 2 (Au/TiO 2 ) nanocomposites for sustainable environmental development has been discussed [ 1 ] . Based on various metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) photocatalysts, titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) is the most widely used, owing to its effective and excellent results in optical transmittance, high refractive index, chemical stability, concurrently being stable, nontoxic, and inexpensive [ 2 ]. They are highlighted with the following points: (i) Synthesis of the Au/TiO 2 nanocomposite, (ii) Microscopic characterization, (iii) Dye adsorption on Au/TiO 2 and (iv) Photoca...

Postdocs Crisis: The "Last Generation" of Scientists

Postdoctoral Researchers play a vital role in the research productivity of several countries and serving as leaders, mentors, guides, teachers, and scientists. These researchers have developed their own skills and preparing themself for their scientific research careers with various research groups worldwide. Even performing in a short term, they need to spend additional years in some special cases for succession in their research careers. Senior research investigators or leaders who have promised to their younger colleagues or students for a long term contract in the academics should find a new pathway to make it possible to stay and plan for their long-term career. Also, these investigators should be more flexible, patience, and supportive for everyone in their research groups. But the main key point which they should focus on that was the researchers who want to pursue fulfilling careers in science elsewhere need to be supported in all means, whatever matters, whoever may be, the ta...

Search This Blog