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Prof. Stephanie Ohshita Considers Urban Energy and Water Infrastructure For Resilient Low-Carbon Cities with LBNL China Energy Group

December 2, 2016

Even as cities pursue energy-efficient and low-carbon transformation,they are facing the impacts of climate change, including severe storms that threaten lives and infrastructure, droughts and floods, intensified heat waves, worsening smog, and other ecological and human health impacts. How can cities be both resilient and low-carbon, such that communities “survive and thrive” in a changing climate? What are the energy implications of these efforts?

Prof. Stephanie Ohshita of the University of San Francisco, and Visiting Faculty with the China Energy Group, conducted a seminar on this topic in November at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The seminar provided an overview of qualitative and quantitative frameworks for resilient cities, including multi-impact vulnerability assessment of urban water systems (ICLEI, UNESCO, IWA), and a multi-criteria resilience framework encompassing diverse livelihoods and stakeholder engagement, as well as reliability of critical infrastructure. Prof. Ohshita noted that energy analysis is generally lacking in these frameworks, other than consideration of supply-side disruption. The seminar also presented brief case studies of city experience, including Detroit (USA), Curitiba (Brazil), and Chongqing (China), which is a participant in China’s “sponge city” pilot program to manage storms and flooding. The case studies focused on energy and water infrastructure, highlighting how equity and ecological approaches (i.e., blue-green infrastructure) can empower communities and save money while making infrastructure more resilient.

The seminar concluded by identifying and discussing energy analysis needed for resilient low-carbon cities. One area of analysis is greater consideration of climate stressors and shocks on energy end-use, as well as energy supply systems; for example, designing and installing efficient boilers that won’t be damaged by flooded basements. Another area is analysis of the operational energy and carbon of resilience projects; for example, utilizing solar plus storage, rather than diesel or natural gas for back-up generation. Finally, the third research area discussed was analysis of embodied energy and carbon in urban infrastructure, to highlight the benefits of early action to avoid infrastructure damage, as well as to consider embodied energy in options for more resilient infrastructure, e.g., utilizing bio-swale boulevards and parks as flood basins (blue-green infrastructure) rather than energy-intensive concrete flood barriers.