Abstract
The UN estimate 2.5 billion new urban residents by 2050, thus further increasing global greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions and energy demand, and the environmental impacts caused by the built environment. Achieving optimal use of space and maximal efficiency in buildings is therefore fundamental for sustainable urbanisation. There is a growing belief that building taller and denser is better. However, urban environmental design often neglects life cycle GHG emissions. Here we offer a method that decouples density and tallness in urban environments and allows each to be analysed individually. We test this method on case studies of real neighbourhoods and show that taller urban environments significantly increase life cycle GHG emissions (+154%) and low-density urban environments significantly increase land use (+142%). However, increasing urban density without increasing urban height reduces life cycle GHG emissions while maximising the population capacity. These results contend the claim that building taller is the most efficient way to meet growing demand for urban space and instead show that denser urban environments do not significantly increase life cycle GHG emissions and require less land.
Highlights
Population and urbanisation are increasing with an estimated additional 2.5 billion people living in urban areas by 20501
These can be categorised as non-domestic low-rise (NDLR); non-domestic high-rise (NDHR); domestic low-rise (DLR); domestic high-rise (DHR); and terraced or semi-detached houses (House)[16,17]
We compare the LCGE of each urban environment to evaluate if taller and denser environments yield greater efficiency in terms of accommodated population, land use, energy demand and greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. This multi-criteria approach provides a more holistic picture of the LCGE of urban environments and can inform better policies and practice related to urban design and planning
Summary
Population and urbanisation are increasing with an estimated additional 2.5 billion people living in urban areas by 20501. Apart from a few studies focusing on urban morphology and energy demand[7,8] in the built environment, there has been a growing belief that building taller and denser is better, under the idea that tall buildings make optimal use of space[9], reduce operational energy use and energy for transportation[10,11], and enable more people to be accommodated per square metre of land[12].
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