Urban Heat Island Effect (Spring 2002) IPRO 328: Urban Heat Island Effect IPRO328 Spring2002 Final Presentation
Description
Ozinga is a Chicago corporation that is a prominent supplier of Ready Mix concrete products to the construction industry in Chicago and surrounding areas. As part of its interest in advancing its corporate social responsibility and expanding its market opportunities, Ozinga is interested in... Show moreOzinga is a Chicago corporation that is a prominent supplier of Ready Mix concrete products to the construction industry in Chicago and surrounding areas. As part of its interest in advancing its corporate social responsibility and expanding its market opportunities, Ozinga is interested in working with an IPRO team to investigate the long-term role of concrete products, technologies, systems, processes and applications inimproving our environment. This initial IPRO project for Ozinga can have many facets, and may lead to specialized follow-on projects. Three broad areas of investigation that could evolve are: (1) opportunities for extending the use of concrete to mitigate environmental impact associated with urban warming, (2) opportunities for evaluating the management of energy associated with concrete mix and the vehicle fleet that distributes the material, and (3) opportunities for concrete mix materials and process innovation. The project team will develop a foundation for thinking about these three areas of opportunity, although it is anticipated that the initial focus would be on the first area as outlined below. A broad view of sustainable development considers the effects of removinglarge expanses of vegetation from the urban ecosystem and creating structures and systems that exacerbate urban warming problems. Parking lots, office buildings, roadways and other built systems have the negative effect of absorbing large amounts of heat. This then requires investment in cooling systems for conditioning indoor environments that consume energy and other resources; affects the quality of peoples' lives; and has a long-term negative effect on our global environment. These broad issueshave been studied by various organizations in a range of professionalcontexts, including environmental engineering, architecture, urbanplanning, government policy, atmospheric studies, etc. The construction industry itself has supported such studies, including the National Ready Mix Association,. The City of Chicago has established "green goals" to guide its planning, investment and regulatory functions. The IPRO team will investigate the types of concrete application opportunities that have been developed in the U.S. and abroad and that havebeen successful or offer significant potential for application in the Cityof Chicago. This could include expanded use of concrete commercial buildingcladding, concrete residential structures, and concrete pavements. The team will also review building codes and labor rules that may be considered to inhibit innovative and broader application of concrete mixes. There arealso issues associated with the financial, environmental and energylife-cycle cost that merit evaluation to understand the decision makingprocess associated with material selection and specification. In addition, it is important in developing a case for concrete material applications to understand the relative size and impact of each viable application in terms of environmental mitigation potential. One approach to addressing this issue is to use Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to correlate areas with significant heat absorption to the types of systems (e.g., commercial buildings, residential buildings, parking lots, roadways, etc.). Both the public and private sectors have a vested interest in developing,applying and diffusing innovative products that can have a positiveinfluence on the environment. However, in order to lay the foundation forsignificant impact by a product like concrete ready mix, it is necessary tocarefully map the decision making process that involves a range of thesecomplex variables. This can help to establish the "business case" for notonly concentrated effort by firms like Ozinga, but also for governmentagencies. This can also help to guide the modification of codes andpolicies so that they do not inhibit, but rather encourage experimentationwith and diffusion of concrete materials that can mitigate environmental impact.
Sponsorship: Ozinga Redi-Mix Corporation
Project Plan for IPRO 328: Urban Heat Island Effect for the Spring 2002 semester Show less
In collections
