Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone Project / There is a worldwide movement towards sustainability. A stepping-stone towards a sustainability conscience population starts in the education of the younger generation. Focusing on improving education specifically in middle schools in arid regions regarding sustainability will shift and shape youths’ interests and lifestyles into an educated community. This sustainability conscience community will continue to make moral sustainable decisions in their future endeavors. The curriculum implemented will reduce the dropout rate because it is a hand-on curriculum that is interesting and enjoyable for kids. The focus of the curriculum is to rely on outdoor activities to create an outdoor learning environment. The curriculum is based on three different sections: 1) campus-wide adaptable strategies implemented by the students, 2) long term investments implemented by professionals, 3) and hands-on activities that will encourage students to go outdoors and experience real-life problems. To create this education system, the author will propose design guidelines and applications that will be used to improve middle schools particularly in arid regions to become “Green Schools”. This program will validate the sustainable strategies, projects, and efforts done at schools and will also market their school as a model to follow. This will explain what it takes to become a Green School in arid regions and how to achieve these standards.

Sustainable Built Environments Senior Capstone Project- Report and Final Document / The purpose of this study is to create a spatial decision support system for sustainable landscape design in an urban setting. As more and more of the worlds population concentrates in cites, the design of these spaces becomes critical to global sustainability. The built environment exhibits different environmental conditions than its rural or natural counterparts— the following study focuses on building a GIS model of unique sun exposure conditions at a site, and using this model in a spatial decision support system. The system will compare the exposure needs of just over 150 native or near native plants with the exposure availability of Tucson’s Historic Y Building, and provide tailored list for each area. This will allow for design flexibility within sustainable parameters.

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An increased use of electricity in vehicles is considered an alternative to decrease the usage of fossil fuels. For private cars, plug-in electric vehicles using batteries are continuously being improved. However, the battery technology of today is not sufficient for trucks if they are to use only electricity. The battery technology is not sufficient to be able to supply the truck with enough propulsion energy to perform an entire drive. However, the hybrid drive technology enables a power recovery and charges the battery when the vehicle applies its brakes. The fuel usage can thereby be decreased through the energy recovery. This master thesis examines the potential of electric road systems, ERSs, which enables a continuous electricity supply to the vehicle when in motion. Similar technologies as an ERS has been used for a long time for trams, trolleybuses and trains, and historically there have also existed cases of electric truck systems. In this thesis the potential for ERSs is examined from the haulage contractor companies’ perspective, which would be users of this system. The potential is in regard to the energy usage per km, the CO2 emissions per km and the cost per km for an ERS vehicle (a hybrid vehicle using an ERS) compared to a hybrid vehicle and to a conventional vehicle. The cost per km includes energy cost, cost for using the ERS infrastructure and the additional vehicle cost. The method used in this study was first to create a broad picture of the concept of ERSs through reading articles, reports, web pages and through conducting interviews with stakeholders within the ERS market. The second part of the method was to create a technology model and an economic model. The models investigate the potential for ERSs through three different cases: a Distribution Case, a Long-Haulage Case and a Mining Case. For all three cases, the energy usage, the cost and the CO2 emissions per km for using a conventional vehicle, a hybrid vehicle and ERS vehicle were generated. Four alternative future scenarios were also tested, in which factors such as energy costs and infrastructure costs were varied. The results show the energy usage, the CO2 emissions and the profitability from the haulage contractor companies’ perspective. The results show that ERSs are not profitable for the Distribution Case in any of the tested scenarios. For the Long-Haulage Case, however, it is profitable in four out of the five tested scenarios. The Mining Case shows mixed profitability results, many times being just above or just below profitable. The energy usage decreased for all the cases and scenarios. Because of this, in combination with the relatively clean electricity production in Sweden, the decrease in CO2 emissions is very large. The 3 conclusions from this thesis are therefore that long-haulage routes show great potential for using ERSs, mining cases have some potential for using ERSs and if distribution routes are to use ERSs this would be only for lowered fossil fuel usage and environmental purposes. / För att minska användandet av fossila bränslen anses ökad användning av elektricitet i fordon vara ett potentiellt alternativ. För laddelbilar inom personbilssektorn förbättras batteritekniken ständigt. Dock ser inte batteriteknikens utveckling ut att vara tillräcklig för lastbilar om de ska kunna köra på enbart el. Även om batteritekniken inte är tillräcklig för att lastbilen ska kunna köra på enbart el så kan batterier användas i lastbilshybrider. Hybridsystemet möjliggör en energiåtervinning där batteriet kan laddas när fordonet bromsar. Bränsleanvändningen kan därmed minskas genom energiåtervinningen. Detta examensarbete utreder potentialen för elektriska vägsystem. Elektriska vägsystem möjliggör kontinuerlig överföring av elektricitet till lastbilar medan de kör. Liknande tekniker har länge använts för spårvagnar, trådbussar, tåg och även i viss utsträckning för trådlastbilar. I detta examensarbete utreds potentialen för elektriska vägsystem utifrån åkeriers perspektiv, eftersom dessa i så fall kommer att vara de som använder systemet. Potentialen bedöms genom att jämföra energianvändning per kilometer, CO2-utsläpp per kilometer och kilometerkostnad för en elvägslastbil jämfört med en konventionell lastbil och jämfört med en hybridlastbil. Kilometerkostnaden innefattar energikostnad, kostnad för att använda elvägsinfrastrukturen och den ytterligare fordonskostnaden. Metoden som användes i denna studie var först att skapa en bred bild av konceptet elektriska vägsystem genom att läsa artiklar, rapporter, hemsidor och att utföra intervjuer med aktörer inom elektriska vägsystem. Den andra delen av metoden var att skapa en ekonomisk och teknisk modell. Tre olika fall modellerades: ett distributionsfall, ett fjärrtrafikfall och ett gruvtransportfall. För dessa tre fall så genererades energianvändningen, CO2-utsläppen och kostnaden per km vid användning av en konventionell lastbil, en hybridlastbil och en hybrid som använder elektriska vägsystem. Fyra alternativa framtidsscenarion testades också, för vilka parametrar såsom energikostnader och infrastrukturkostnader varierades. Alla resultat visar energianvändningen, CO2-utsläppen och lönsamheten utifrån ett åkeriperspektiv. Resultaten visar att elektriska vägsystem inte är lönsamma för distributionsfallet i något av de testade scenarierna. För fjärrtrafik är det lönsamt i fyra av de fem testade scenarierna. Gruvtrafikfallet visar på blandade resultat, där det ofta är precis lönsamt eller nästan lönsamt med elektriska vägsystem. Energianvändningen minskar för alla fall och scenarier. Detta tillsammans med Sveriges relativt rena elektricitetsproduktion innebär att CO2-utsläppen minskar kraftigt. Slutsatserna från detta examensarbete är därför att fjärrtrafik påvisar stor potential för elektriska vägsystem, gruvtrafik har viss potential och distributionstrafik bör endast använda elektriska vägsystem av miljömässiga och fossilbränslereducerande skäl.

Planning for transportation within northern Canadian communities presents unique challenges, but new research tools offer opportunities for testing potentially innovative solutions that might help improve mobility within these communities. In particular, problem solving has been enriched in recent years by using the spatial modeling methods offered by Geographical Information Systems (GIS). This thesis first reviews various GIS methods before applying one method – the ‘Route Utility Theory’ – to a newly-developed set of metrics for determining the cost of alternate modes of intracommunity transportation. This set of metrics is applied to a data set that represents the trips or journeys made by non-car users in Iqaluit, the capital city of Nunavut Territory. GIS data on roads, walking trails, land contours, and public and residential neighbourhoods are analyzed. The results facilitate comparisons between road options and trail options for improving the movement of people within Iqaluit. Five bus routes were then custom designed and compared using the study’s metrics. The study found that increasing bus and trail options within Iqaluit would provide more efficient options for non-car users. It is argued that the study’s metrics can be adapted for application in other northern communities, and possibly in other isolated and rural communities in different world situations. / Graduate

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