Sustainable Urban Development

Question: Write about theSustainable Urban Development. Answer: Introduction It is worth noting that retrofitting is crucial in the reduction of overall energy consumption. For a long time, people have not realized the benefit of retrofitting, therefore, continuing incurring losses due to the increased cost. In Sydney, there has been a growing concern to exercise the retrofitting ion an attempt to achieve visions aimed at bettering the lives of people and the environment as a whole. Specifically, the major area of concern, in this case, is the University of Technology, Sydney(UTS).There are several methods of retrofitting that are capable of ensuring there is energy consumption reduction. Retrofitting green roofs is crucial, and it takes care of many considerations that if ignored add to the overall expenses of the institution. Secondly, retrofitting of energy efficient lights is also critical in dealing with the increased lighting cost in the campus which in the long run has led to increased school fees to cater for these expenses. In real sense all these li ghting expenses can be reduced if there is efficient mode of lighting. Recycling of building garbage by the institution is critical to ensure cost saving is strengthened. Finally, waste water recycling can also serve a greater role in foreseeing greater achievements more so when provision of water by the state is at risk during the summer. However, undertaking in-depth analysis of retrofitting of green roof and energy efficient lights is bound to yield more details concerning sustainable urban development. Green Roofing Ideally, it is critical to understand that green roofing is vital to the betterment of the environment and the dwellers. Green roofing is enabled by installing growing plants such as grass on the top of the roof (William et al., 2016, 4). In some other cases, painting of the roofs using the green paints has been considered as a green roof. This has faced a lot of objections from experts and researchers thereby giving growing plants as the only type of green roof. This roof reduces heating by absorbing the solar energy and the hot environmental atmosphere therefore acting as the cushion upon which heat is absorbed. In the University of technology, Sydney, there is need to consider green roofing due to the challenges that have risen. To start with, the institution is said to have limited number of doors that make the room not favorable for student and other staff to withstand (Mitchell and Ross, 2016, 49). This means that the problem cannot sincerely be solved by installing doors that are expensive to purchase but by just making use of the simple plantations growing freely from the environment. In short all the costs that could have been incurred to install the doors are saved. The campus has been planning on how to increase the cooling machines for the building six level one up to six (Wilkinson and Castiglia 2016,16). For sure cooling system is very expensive to buy and manage due the sophistication of the required equipments. This comes as a result of the research carried out lately that reveal that every room has some installed cooling machines. Similarly, with the green roof in place it is possible to overcome the heavy expenses that are put aside to cater for cooling machineries. The green roofing continues to gain much attention due to the fact that it reduces cooling. In most case, heating is required to warm the rooms especially during the winter. This is the period whereby most of the students, their lecturers and the other staff make use of their heavy clothing. Alternatively, this calls for employment of the extra heating machines that are capable of supplying enough warmth to the people to effectively execute their daily duties. The process of involving the heating equipments is sophisticated in a way and sees the campus incur heavy and unnecessary losses (Hawken, 2015, 54). This is because, to have the process complete, a lot of power I required for propelling the machines. The green roofing takes care of heavy metal emanating from the rainwater. It is scientifically provide that air pollution is a very serious issue that enhances the metal particulates formation in the atmosphere that when clouds form, acid rain is experienced (Wilkinsonet al., 2015, 42). This leads to corrosion of roofs and walls. In this case, roofing is affected by the acid rain and this leads to rust which support the cooling of rooms. The green roof behaves as a heat absorber thereby aiding in the provision of heat at all time. Energy Efficient Lighting The retrofitting of energy efficient lights is another major concern that requires to be checked. The UTS is known for its potential to enabling lighting system that determines how the learning, research and other activities are to be carried out. Retrofitting of the efficient lights entails all the lighting materials that are crucial to supply enough light to the rooms. For a long time the University of Technology, Sydney has been employing bulbs for lighting purposes (Wilkinson and Feitosa, 2015, 1082). Infact there has been increased lighting in the rooms therefore impacting heavily to the expenses of the institution. It is evident that lighting can be improved by applying those strategies that are cost friendly and at the same time supply enough light to the building. The UTS level four is the major room with an efficient lighting system which is enabled by putting the atrium (Wilkinson, Ghosh and Lindsay, 2014, 15). There are other rooms where darkness prevails due to low instal lation of lighting tools. By applying energy saving bulbs, it is true that costs will be reduced. In addition it is significant to add more atriums in all the room to ensure that electricity is not used in classes during the day. Energy Efficiency can be enhanced by installing light sensors in the rooms whereby it is possible to detect the time of the day when lighting is mostly required. This will ensure that little lighting is undertaken when there is enough supply of lights in the building. Installation of light emissive windows is bound to contribute heavily to the saving of the electrical energy. Lights controls should be adopted in that all the vacant rooms should not be lit therefore maximizing energy only on those areas that are being used (Wilkinson, 2014, 68). There is another important option for selecting to install the translucent lights emissive doors that facilitate from cooking enough lighting in the rooms. This is because by solely depending on the electricity high bills will be experienced due to the fact that almost all the processes ranging cooking and heating of water are dependent on electrical energy. Long-Term Goal The long term plan for installing the green roof focuses on the establishment of such roofing for the whole of the UTS building at all levels. Installing green roofing is procedural and it is the result of accomplishments of all the short term goals (Mitchell and Ross, 2016,47). This aims at lowering the costs while maximizing on the benefits. This is followed by the removal of all the cooling and heating machines from the building in an attempt to pave way for green roof domination. For continued realization of maximum profit all the heating and cooling machines should completely be sold (Wilkinson, Ghosh and Page, 2013, 110). This will ensure that power used by those machines is saved. In addition, by selling those machines, it will be another way of covering all the expenses incurred during the installation of the green roof. Retrofitting the UTS building with efficient lighting system features in the long-term plan at that time when the renovation is bound to take its full course . Firstly, all the roofing in the whole of UTS building should be replaced with the translucent ones (Sankaran, Abeysuriya, Gray and Kachenko, 2015, 333). In connection to that, dark sensing tools should be permanently installed in the building to ensure that no lighting is done during day time. Another long term plan is to convert the building into a translucent one by bringing the walls down and replacing them with light emissive glass walls. The whole building will be fixed with energy saving lighting materials to ensure that costs are minimized even during the night. Short Term Goal The short term plan that is to be employed to retrofit the green roofing strategy is the reduction of cooling machines in the UTS building six level one and implements the plan for that particular section. It is true that not all the roofs can support the green living plants (Wilkinson et al., 2014). This implies that there are specific roofs that have to be put to support the plan. Due to that fact, it is impossible to implement the plan to affect the whole UTS building. Furthermore, costs become major concern because it is unprofitable to venture in a plan that is not worthwhile. By investing in the green roofing plan in short term there will be test results that illustrates whether or not the plan can be extended to the next level (Panahian, Ghosh and Ding, 2017, 168). The idea of getting rid of cooling machines in the level one is to test whether the green roof can provide a sustainable cooling environment to the involved people. It is worth noticing that if the level consist of three cooling machines only one of them is removed and the cost benefit analysis calculated. As time elapses the rest of the coolants are removed and the cooling responsibility left to green roofs (Wlkinson,Stoller, Ralph and Hamdorf, 2016,78). If the plan proves worthy, its implementation proceeds to level two and the trend continues. Heating the room during winter by green roofing system can also be part of the short-term plan of this invention. By setting the level one as the test results, the same green roofing should be evaluated during winter. This is due to the fact that it acts as a heat absorber therefore heating machines should also be evacuated in the level one subsequently over time. The short term goal associated with the retrofitting the UTS building with energy efficient lighting system can be achieved by switching off lights on all vacant rooms. This is very crucial in determining the amount of saving that is done from the plan. It does not kick logic to light the empty rooms yet electricity bills continue piling up (Abeysuriya, Fam and Mitchell, 2013, 2188). Another way of enhancing short term plan is by installing light emissive door and windows in some levels. The plan cannot be assumed to have taken effect in short run and therefore although these materials are not much expensive, they have to be implemented in parts. Retrofitting is bound to take effect by installing translucent roofs. All the above mentioned materials ranging from light emissive doors, windows and roofs are fixed in a manner that lighting of the occupied rooms during the day is reduced so as to get estimations for savings and expenses. There is another way of utilizing the short term go al under this perspective. This is by the use of energy saving mode of lighting. This puts into consideration the particular bulbs being used and their energy saving capabilities. For example there are bulb that serve two purposes; lighting the room and at the same time releasing a lot of heat (McLellanet al., 2015, 140). Therefore is important to include this short-term plan and compare it with the functionality of the green roof and the heat providing machines. Whichever is highly cost effective should be prioritized in the plan. Expenses We assume that average usage of electricity Kwh by UTS from 2014-2016 is 50million kwh with the price projection of $15/kwh 50million kWh*15/kwh=$750,000,000/year Savings By retrofitting the building with energy saving tools it is assumed that the plan will cover 70% of the cost per year. $750000000*70/100=$525000000/year Payback $750000000*3/525000000=5years Conclusion Conclusively, details concerning probable plans for retrofitting the UTS building and its levels have effectively been highlighted. It is evident that unnecessary costs arising from energy consumption can trigger increment of schools fees. Furthermore, there is low productivity every time costs tend to outweigh the savings. Therefore, the UTS building is at a better position to ensuring that it employs all the proposed retrofitting methods so as to ensure continued savings that will stimulate other development strategies. Apart from savings, the tendency of implementing long term plans will improve the aesthetic nature of the building in terms of green roof and glassed walls. In short, by undertaking the retrofitting activity, UTS will boost the sustainable developments with respect to its goals and visions. References Abeysuriya, K., Fam, D. and Mitchell, C., 2013. Trialling urine diversion in Australia: technical and social learnings.Water Science and Technology,68(10), pp.2186-2194. Hawken, S., 2015. The new Chinatown: Sydney's Southern CBD.Landscape Architecture Australia, (146), p.54.54-55 McLellan, B., Florin, N., Giurco, D., Kishita, Y., Itaoka, K. and Tezuka, T., 2015. Decentralised energy futures: the changing emissions reduction landscape.Procedia CIRP,29, pp.138-143. Mitchell, C. and Ross, K., 2016. Findings and Recommendations. A synthesis for key stakeholders community scale sanitation in Indonesia.44-56 Mitchell, C. and Ross, K., 2016. 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