In the face of future transport energy supply constraints it is imperative that planners understand transport energy adaptability within cities. This thesis presents for the first time an analysis methodology for mapping the spatial distribution of limits to energy adaptability. Termed the Minimum Energy Transport Adaptability (META) method, it characterises urban areas, synthesising a situation in which households have enacted all viable transport energy adaptations. The output is an estimation of the minimum possible transport energy required by households in meeting their day-to-day activity requirements. The META method combines elements of energy engineering, accessibility modelling and transport activity modelling. The analysis makes use of national household travel surveys to define the frequency of activity access and ability to use modes at the national level, and study area Geographical Information Systems (GIS) data for origins, facilities and transport networks. Two case studies have been investigated in New Zealand, the cities of Christchurch and Hamilton, and have shown that most residential areas in these cities do not limit the adaptive options available to residents. However, outlying areas, satellite towns and lifestyle properties consistently require large amounts of transport energy consumption and thus limit the ability of residents to adapt to future energy constraints. The META model enables, for the first time, the effects of future transport energy constraints to be mapped, visualised, quantified, and consequently considered in the planning process.

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Revised version, September 2012 / Comments and Discussions : Shinichi NAGAO

High urban transport energy consumption is directly influenced by the level of transport energy dependence of urban forms and transport systems. Despite the introduction of new land use policies and vehicle technologies, dramatic reductions in urban transport energy dependence are not yet being observed. It is proposed that stricter land use regulations coupled with new GIS tools are required that specifically tackle the energy dependence issue. The objective of this project is to design a GIS tool that could be used within an urban development framework to dramatically reduce urban transport energy dependence. A tool was developed and named the Transport Energy Specification (TES). The TES measures urban transport energy dependency from travel behaviour, mode use and spatial data inputs. The TES is designed to be used as an energy based land-use regulation inside an urban development framework by specifying a maximum allowable energy dependency limit for land use modifications in existing urban areas and new developments. Implementation of the energy dependency land use regulation will be achieved through zoning and providing financial or other incentives for the specific desired land use activities (residential, supermarkets, kindergartens etc.). Trials were performed in Germany, New Zealand and Brazil, allowing different urban neighbourhoods and transport systems to be measured with the TES energy dependency measurement tool. The measurements confirmed similar findings from previous researchers regarding the benefits of high density areas and mixed activities in urban areas. Further analysis, trials and workshops with local governments will set in motion the process of including the TES into future urban development policy. / O alto consumo de energia nos transportes urbanos é diretamente influenciado pelo grau de dependência energética das formas urbanas e dos sistemas de transportes. Como o desenvolvimento de novas tecnologias veiculares e políticas de uso do solo ainda não foi capaz de produzir reduções significativas no grau de dependência energética dos transportes urbanos, defende-se aqui que uma legislação mais restritiva de uso do solo, combinada com novas ferramentas de Sistemas de Informações Geográficas, constitui-se em uma condição necessária para enfrentar a questão da dependência energética. O objetivo deste projeto é desenvolver uma estrutura conceitual em plataforma SIG, que possa ser usada como ferramenta de planejamento para o desenvolvimento urbano, capaz de reduzir drasticamente a dependência energética do transporte urbano. A ferramenta desenvolvida recebeu a designação Especificação de Energia para Transporte (ou TES, da sigla em inglês Transport Energy Specification), e destina-se a medir o nível de dependência do transporte urbano em relação a aspectos como o comportamento de viagens, escolha modal e aspectos espaciais dos elementos urbanos. A TES foi concebida para ser usada como elemento regulatório do uso do solo, sob o ponto de vista da eficiência energética, a partir da especificação de um valor máximo para o limite de dependência energética decorrente de modificações em áreas urbanas existentes ou em novos loteamentos. A implantação de uma estratégia de regulação de uso do solo baseada no conceito de dependência energética pode ser alcançada através de uma legislação de zoneamento e de incentivos, inclusive financeiros, para determinadas tipos de uso (residências, supermercados, creches, etc.). Estudos de caso com a ferramenta proposta para avaliação do grau de dependência energética foram conduzidos em cidades selecionadas na Alemanha, Nova Zelândia e Brasil, de forma a contemplar diferentes tipos de arranjos de vizinhança e de sistemas de transportes. Os resultados encontrados confirmaram os benefícios, já apontados por outros pesquisadores, de áreas com elevadas densidades e uso misto em zonas urbanas. Novas análises, estudos de caso e discussões com governos locais são necessários para fazer do TES parte de políticas futuras de desenvolvimento urbano.

High urban transport energy consumption is directly influenced by the level of transport energy dependence of urban forms and transport systems. Despite the introduction of new land use policies and vehicle technologies, dramatic reductions in urban transport energy dependence are not yet being observed. It is proposed that stricter land use regulations coupled with new GIS tools are required that specifically tackle the energy dependence issue. The objective of this project is to design a GIS tool that could be used within an urban development framework to dramatically reduce urban transport energy dependence. A tool was developed and named the Transport Energy Specification (TES). The TES measures urban transport energy dependency from travel behaviour, mode use and spatial data inputs. The TES is designed to be used as an energy based land-use regulation inside an urban development framework by specifying a maximum allowable energy dependency limit for land use modifications in existing urban areas and new developments. Implementation of the energy dependency land use regulation will be achieved through zoning and providing financial or other incentives for the specific desired land use activities (residential, supermarkets, kindergartens etc.). Trials were performed in Germany, New Zealand and Brazil, allowing different urban neighbourhoods and transport systems to be measured with the TES energy dependency measurement tool. The measurements confirmed similar findings from previous researchers regarding the benefits of high density areas and mixed activities in urban areas. Further analysis, trials and workshops with local governments will set in motion the process of including the TES into future urban development policy. / O alto consumo de energia nos transportes urbanos é diretamente influenciado pelo grau de dependência energética das formas urbanas e dos sistemas de transportes. Como o desenvolvimento de novas tecnologias veiculares e políticas de uso do solo ainda não foi capaz de produzir reduções significativas no grau de dependência energética dos transportes urbanos, defende-se aqui que uma legislação mais restritiva de uso do solo, combinada com novas ferramentas de Sistemas de Informações Geográficas, constitui-se em uma condição necessária para enfrentar a questão da dependência energética. O objetivo deste projeto é desenvolver uma estrutura conceitual em plataforma SIG, que possa ser usada como ferramenta de planejamento para o desenvolvimento urbano, capaz de reduzir drasticamente a dependência energética do transporte urbano. A ferramenta desenvolvida recebeu a designação Especificação de Energia para Transporte (ou TES, da sigla em inglês Transport Energy Specification), e destina-se a medir o nível de dependência do transporte urbano em relação a aspectos como o comportamento de viagens, escolha modal e aspectos espaciais dos elementos urbanos. A TES foi concebida para ser usada como elemento regulatório do uso do solo, sob o ponto de vista da eficiência energética, a partir da especificação de um valor máximo para o limite de dependência energética decorrente de modificações em áreas urbanas existentes ou em novos loteamentos. A implantação de uma estratégia de regulação de uso do solo baseada no conceito de dependência energética pode ser alcançada através de uma legislação de zoneamento e de incentivos, inclusive financeiros, para determinadas tipos de uso (residências, supermercados, creches, etc.). Estudos de caso com a ferramenta proposta para avaliação do grau de dependência energética foram conduzidos em cidades selecionadas na Alemanha, Nova Zelândia e Brasil, de forma a contemplar diferentes tipos de arranjos de vizinhança e de sistemas de transportes. Os resultados encontrados confirmaram os benefícios, já apontados por outros pesquisadores, de áreas com elevadas densidades e uso misto em zonas urbanas. Novas análises, estudos de caso e discussões com governos locais são necessários para fazer do TES parte de políticas futuras de desenvolvimento urbano.

No description available.

The electric vehicle (EV) has been regarded as one of the most promising alternative fuel vehicle technologies that could reduce China’s energy reliance on imported oil and transport sector carbon emissions. The success of EVs in China will depend on a series of determinants including their energy consumption and emission reduction potentials, battery performance and costs, charging infrastructure provision, the driving behaviour and the commercialization strategies. Some issues have been intensively investigated by previous research whilst some others gradually receive academic and governmental attentions. Instead of covering all determinants, this thesis focuses on four key aspects of the electric car development in China: the energy consumption and carbon emissions of electric cars based on the country’s energy mix; the expected electric car driving behaviour and its impacts on the power grid; the deployment strategy of charging infrastructure and the business operation models that could reduce the purchase cost of electric cars and accelerate their market diffusion. The research finds that according to the current energy mix and driving behaviour in China, the introduction of electric cars would largely reduce the transport sectors’ oil consumption. However, the carbon emission saving of electric cars requires a synchronized progress in the energy industry and the power grid infrastructure. Without the growing adoption of renewable sources in the electricity generation mix and the high efficient power transmission infrastructure, electric cars could achieve little environmental benefits particularly for carbon emission reduction. This research also finds that the current external costs of carbon emissions from cars are not high enough to justify financial policies that would favour electric vehicles. Moving towards cleaner technologies at present may not be justified on economic terms but it is justified on political and environmental terms. In addition, the performance of current electric cars, the driving range per charge in particular, is still significantly inferior to conventional vehicles running on petroleum fuels, which poses a remarkable challenge for electric cars’ market acceptance and implies the importance of charging infrastructure provision. This research estimates the charging impact of electric cars on the power grid in two case study cities through comparing charging infrastructure deployment strategies integrating three charging methods in both cities. Some innovative business operating models that aim to reduce the high initial purchase costs of electric cars are simulated. It shows all these models require substantial political and financial interventions to stimulate both supply (charging service and infrastructure provision) and demand (consumers purchase) in the early stage of market penetration for electric cars. Finally, the thesis provides recommendations for the policy implementation timing and stresses the importance of the parallel development in the upstream low carbon energy supply and the downstream vehicle (battery) research and development (R&D) in the near term.

Following established traditions in anthropology and sociology, where cross-border research helps to identify important themes which benefit from comparative study, this dissertation introduces cross-sector policy research as a new methodology for generating useful insights about public policy. The cross-sector method is applied to the study of the UK energy and transport sectors. A range of generic policy developments in the energy sector are identified including: the development of efficiency indicators, scenario analysis, and the establishment of energy efficiency programmes. Such developments have not, as yet, occurred in the transport sector. A structural analogy between energy and transport is developed which is used to generate a range of innovations for transport policy including: gross mass movements and intensities as indicators of the efficiency with which the economy uses transport; the projection of a quantitative scenario of sustainable mobility; and the outline of a transport efficiency programme. The insights from the analogy are generalised to consider the benefits of a wider application of cross-sector policy research to other policy areas.

Couette, pipe, channel, and zero-pressure gradient (ZPG) turbulent boundary layer (TBL) flows have classically been considered as canonical wall-bounded turbulent flows since their near-wall behavior is generally considered to be universal, i.e. invariant of the flow case and the Reynolds number. Nevertheless, the idea that large-scale motions, being dominant in regions further away from the wall, might interact with and influence small-scale fluctuations close to the wall has not been disregarded. This view was mainly motivated due to the observed failure of collapse of the Reynolds normal stresses in viscous scaling. While this top-down influence has been studied extensively over the last decade, the idea of a bottom-up influence (backward energy transfer) is less examined. One exception was the recent experimental work on a Couette flow by Kawata, T. & Alfredsson, P. H. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 244501, 2018). In the present work, a spectral representation of the Reynolds Stress transport equation is used to perform a scale-by-scale analysis of the terms in the equation. Two flow cases were studied: first, a Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of a Couette flow at a similar Reynolds number as Kawata and Alfredsson. The Reynolds number was ReT = 120, viscosity v. Second, a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of a ZPG TBL at ReT = 730, 1270, and 2400. For both cases the classic interscale transport or turbulent kinetic energy was observed. However, also an inverse interscale transport of Reynolds shear stress was observed for both cases.

No description available.