Creating Electrified and Decarbonized Healthy Urban Microclimate around Building Clusters through Climate-Resilient Solutions
Project overview
Recognizing the urgent need to address climate-related risks, this project aims to bring together a team of international experts focusing on "urban microclimate," which refers to the immediate environment around building clusters. These areas pose various risks, such as icy sidewalks, power outages and overheating, but also present opportunities for harnessing wind and geothermal renewables.
The project plans to employ a combination of field measurements and advanced simulations to map the impacts of microclimate. This includes considering factors like the electrification of transportation to reduce emissions and improve air quality.
Moreover, the study’s approach involves generating extensive climate projections and applying advanced AI models to develop a comprehensive understanding of urban microclimate. The ultimate goal is to provide insights for developing measures, policies, and decisions to mitigate risks and ensure a climate-resilient future.
Key project details
| Principal investigator | Liangzhu (Leon) Wang, professor, Building, Civil, and Environmental Engineering, and director, Centre for Zero Energy Building Studies (CZEBS), Concordia University |
Co-principal investigators |
Ted Stathopoulos, professor, Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University; Hua Ge, professor, Building, Civil, and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University; Biao Li, associate professor, Building, Civil, and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University; Ghazanfarah Hafeez, assistant professor, Building, Civil, and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University; Jinqiu Yang, assistant professor, Computer Science and Software Engineering, Concordia University; Manar Amayri, assistant professor, Institute for Information Systems Engineering, Concordia University; Ben Amor, professor, Génie et bâtiment, Universite de Sherbrooke |
Research collaborators |
Shahin Masoumi Verki, Abhishek Gaur, Henry Lu, Abdelaziz Laouadi, Lili Ji, Lin Wang, Michael Lacasse, Heike Schreiber, Sylvie Leroyer, Stephane Belair, Craig Stroud, Ali Katal, Bin Xu, Wenxue Chen, Jasmin Raymond, Hubert Langevin, Nicolo Giordano, Tianzhen Hong |
| Non-academic partners | National Research Council, Environment and Climate Change Canada, SFTec Inc., Origin Geomechanics Inc., Géotherma Solutions Inc., US Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory |
| Research Keywords | Urban microclimate, building clusters, electrification, decarbonization, urban wind power, climate change, resilience, extreme weather |
| Budget | Cash: $320,000 In-Kind: $542,000 |
Research focus
Decarbonization and electrification
This project aims to initialize the long-term plan of “electrification and decarbonization” while achieving healthy and climate-resilient urban microclimates for Canadian building communities. As part of the measurable targets, the study will analyze climate, weather and urban characteristics from Canadian cities under various social-economic conditions.
Resilience to extreme weather
By incorporating climate-resilient solutions, the project reduces damage and disruption from extreme weather events such as heatwaves, storms and winds.
Energy efficiency
The project's comprehensive understanding of urban microclimates will help assess building energy consumption more accurately. With this knowledge, communities can optimize energy usage and reduce overall demand, leading to greater energy sustainability.
Non-academic partners
Thank you to our non-academic partners for your support and trust.
