With growing urban populations and increasing concerns over the effects of climate change on water supplies, there has recently been a significant amount of interdisciplinary research focused on identifying the drivers of urban water use. Due to unavailability of individual or household level data, these studies are often limited to using spatially aggregated data. There is concern that this aggregation of data may be leading to misrepresentations of the drivers of urban water use, yet there have been few studies that have addressed this concern. As in all spatial quantitative analyses, studies in this area should consider how the spatial scales chosen for analysis are affecting the results. The purpose of this research is to use a case study of single-family residential (SFR) water use in Portland, Oregon to determine the extent to which scale variation significantly affects the patterns of SFR water use, and whether household scale water use is influenced by neighborhood and census tract characteristics. The results of this analysis provide evidence that aggregating household scale water use data can mask meaningful patterns in SFR water use and potentially provide misleading information on what is influencing water use habits. This research also shows that using the chosen exploratory variables, there is a statistically significant, but not substantial, cross-scale influence on household scale water use by neighborhood and census tract characteristics.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-99).

The purpose of this study was to describe how real estate agents take into account invested energy improvement measures in their valuation of single-family homes. A qualitative research method has been used to achieve the purpose of the study. The data collection was performed through semi-structured interviews with real estate agents in Sweden. In order to be able to structure and analyze the collected material, an analysis method has been used according to Gioia. What we found in the study is that energy-saving investments affect value to varying degrees. Single measures have an insignificant value impact, while several investments have a greater effect on the value of the property. Investment in a new heating system is one such measure that we have found leads to an increased value. We have also found that there is a lack of market information for real estate agents when valuing single-family house units regarding to the energy performance of the comparison object.

The United States' suburban landscape has historically been characterized by low-density residential development. This pattern was shaped by the abundance of developable land in nineteenth century America, and by the emergence of a suburban ideal which romanticized the concept of a spacious home set in a private, garden setting. For many homebuyers, the realization of the suburban ideal was made possible by continual improvements in intraurban transportation. The commuter rail, the electric streetcar, and ultimately the automobile increased the commuting range of inner-city workers, and contributed to the continual expansion of development on the periphery of cities. In recent years, economic and population pressures have contributed to accelerated housing costs in many metropolitan areas, necessitating a redefining of the traditional suburban ideal. Rising land costs have prompted developers to build single-family homes at increasingly higher densities. Developers now face the challenge of designing and implementing development strategies which maximize land use efficiency, and yet still retain some of the "garden setting" ambiance of the traditional suburban ideal. This study traces the historical evolution of residential densities in Washington County, through review of 2235 Washington County plat maps dating from 1870 to 1992. The data reveals a slow growth, low-density development prior to World War II, and a high-growth and increasingly higher-density pattern of development in the post-World War II period. Since 1980, high-density suburban developments have become an increasingly common feature of the Washington County landscape. Examination of the spatial distribution of these subdivisions suggests a strong correlation between high-density development and land scarcity. Comparison of the different types of high-density subdivisions found in Washington County reveals how common-space developments allow for more effective integration with the natural environment. The future of subdivision development in Washington County, hinges upon the results of Metro's Region 2040 study. The Region 2040 study will ultimately recommend the extent that the urban growth boundary should be expanded, and thus will directly affect the availability of developable land The amount, type, ownership, and zoning of these "urban reserves" will be important considerations for future subdivision development in Washington County.

Urban water use arises from a mix of scale-dependent biophysical and socioeconomic factors. In Portland, Oregon, single-family residential water use exhibits a tightly coupled relationship with summertime weather, although this relationship varies with land use patterns across households and neighborhoods. This thesis developed a multilevel regression model to evaluate the relative importance of weather variability, parcel land use characteristics, and neighborhood geographic context in explaining single-family residential water demand patterns in the Portland metropolitan area. The model drew on a high-resolution panel dataset of weekly mean summer water use over five years (2001-2005) for a sample of 460 single-family households spanning an urban-to-suburban gradient. Water use was found to be most elastic with respect to parcel-scale building size. Building age was negatively related to water use at both the parcel and neighborhood scale. Half the variation in water use can be attributed to between-household factors. Between-neighborhood variation exerted a modest but statistically significant effect. The analysis decomposed household temperature sensitivity into four components: a fixed effect common to all households, a household-specific deviation from the fixed effect, a separate extreme heat effect, and a land use effect, where lot size exaggerated the effect of temperature on water use. Results suggested that land use planning may be an effective non-price mechanism for long-range management of peak demand, as land use decisions have water use implications. The combined effects of population growth, urbanization, and climate change expose water providers to risk of water stress. Modeling fine-grain relationships among heat, land use, and water use across scales plays a role in long-range climate change planning and adaptation.

This research aims to evaluate the thermal performance of housing built with the technology of reinforced concrete walls executed on site, for use in Brazilian Bioclimatic Zone 2. The study was conducted through in situ measurements of air temperature inside the four main types of single family housing of social interest of Zilda Arns allotment, in the town of Santa Maria-RS. Measurements were made in winter and summer, with the housing closed and also with the housing closed with sealing in places susceptible to air infiltration. The evaluations were made from the relationship between changes in internal temperatures and outdoor temperatures, and considering the influences of solar orientation and air infiltration, and internal thermal comfort through a comparative analysis of temperatures with ASHRAE (2004) limits. It was observed that the solar orientation has influence during winter and summer, however the air infiltration has little influence on thermal performance of housings. It was also observed that the building system provides good thermal performance for the summer period, but is not suitable to Bioclimatic Zone 2 during winter. As for thermal comfort, the housings presented cold discomfort for the whole period of winter and presented comfort in most of the analyzed summer period. / O presente trabalho tem como objetivo avaliar o desempenho térmico e o conforto térmico de habitações construídas com a tecnologia de paredes de concreto armado executadas no local, para uso na Zona Bioclimática 2 brasileira. O estudo foi realizado através de medições in loco da temperatura do ar no interior de quatro unidades com orientações solares predominantes de habitações unifamiliares de interesse social do loteamento Zilda Arns, na cidade de Santa Maria-RS. Foram feitas medições no inverno e no verão, com a casa fechada e também com a casa fechada com vedação nos locais passíveis de infiltração de ar. As avaliações foram .efetuadas a partir da relação entre as variações das temperaturas internas e das temperaturas externas, considerando ainda as influências da orientação solar e da infiltração de ar, e as condições de conforto térmico internas através de uma análise comparativa de temperaturas com valores limites da ASHRAE (2004). Foi observado que a orientação solar exerce influência nos períodos de inverno e verão, porém verificou-se que a infiltração de ar pouco influencia sobre o desempenho térmico das unidades. Observou-se ainda que o sistema construtivo apresenta bom desempenho térmico para o período de verão, porém não é adequado à Zona Bioclimática 2 no período de inverno. Quanto ao conforto térmico, as habitações apresentaram desconforto por frio em todo o período analisado de inverno e conforto na maior parte do período de verão.

Portland General Electric has proposed coupling one or more water tanks with two heat pumps in order to perform load-shifting in residential customer heating and cooling applications. By using the water tanks as a thermal storage unit, this project attempts to partially decouple energy consumption from generation to provide peak demand reduction and to better facilitate the integration of variable renewable energy resources. A scoping study was performed to evaluate the potential impact of this project if implemented in single family homes in Portland, Oregon. This study revealed that the system could provide meaningful savings in the cost of electricity to both the customer and utility. Additionally, an optimization algorithm was developed to dictate system operation and to maximize gains to the utility. Evolutionary algorithms were explored in an attempt to increase the effectiveness of the algorithm's search in limited computation time. Ultimately, an evolution strategy was selected as the most suitable based on tests run in winter and spring months. A genetic algorithm was then developed to handle fixed-speed heat pump operation for compatibility with an alpha-system prototype that has been developed by the research team.

I takt med att hållbarhet blir allt viktigare i stadsplanering så blir småhusbebyggelse allt ovanligare i planeringen för nya bostäder i Stockholm. Trots det så visar undersökningar på boendepreferenser att de flesta föredrar att bo i småhus, vilket skapar en intressant klyfta som är värd att undersöka. Eftersom bostadsplaneringen i regel sker på kommunal nivå i Sverige är det viktigt att undersöka just kommunala uppfattningar om den nuvarande situationen. Detta examensarbete undersöker kommunala uppfattningar om småhus i planeringen av nya bostäder, både generellt och specifikt i relation till hållbarhet. Hållbarhet i bostäder definieras här genom en litteraturstudie, och består av fem aspekter: Bostadstäthet (1), Hållbara byggnader (2), Ekonomiskt överkomliga bostäder (3), Social sammanhållning (4), och Bostadskultur och preferenser (5). Genom en dokumentanalys och en enkät undersöks uppfattningar om småhus och hållbarhet i Stockholms kommuner.  Resultaten visar att bostadsplanerare i Stockholms kommuner överlag ser på småhus som en viktigt del av bostadsförsörjningen, men att det är svårt att planera för småhus. Svårigheter att hitta lämplig mark, behovet av att utnyttja marken effektivt för att nå bostadsmål och ekonomiska svårigheter begränsar planeringen för småhus. Småhus är vidare ofta mindre lämpade för kunna uppnå kommunala riktlinjer och mål. Många planerare ser också småhus som ett mindre hållbart alternativ, eftersom det ofta innebär lägre bostadstäthet vilket försvårar annan planering, det försvårar planeringen för kollektivtrafik, och eftersom det är ofta ett sämre val om kommunen vill säkerställa hållbara byggnader eller billiga bostäder. Slutligen så presenterar också examensarbetet ett par rekommendationer för att förbättra hållbarheten i planeringen för nya småhus. Ökad bostadstäthet för småhus, anpassningar i kollektivtrafiken och ändringar av upplåtelseformer för att passa in i kommunala bostadsbolag är viktiga förändringar för att säkerställa hållbarhet. Sammantaget så ger detta examensarbete nya insikter till ett ämne som har hittills har fått lite uppmärksamhet. / With a rapidly increasing awareness of the need for sustainability in urban planning, single-family housing (småhus) is holding a steadily decreasing share of new housing developments in Stockholm, Sweden. However, with residential housing preferences generally leaning towards single-family housing, it creates a notable gap that is worth investigating further. As housing planning is carried out on a municipal level in Sweden, investigating municipal perceptions is key to understanding the current situation. This thesis investigates perceptions of single-family housing both generally and specifically in relation to sustainability. Sustainability in housing has no universal definition, but housing sustainability is defined here through a literature review and consists here of five aspects: Housing density (1), Sustainable buildings (2), Affordability (3), Social cohesion (4), and Culture and preferences (5). Through document analysis and a survey, the perceptions of single-family housing and sustainability in the urban planning scene of Stockholm, Sweden is investigated.  The results show that housing planners in Stockholm generally perceive single-family housing as a necessary part of housing provisioning in large, and often that more single-family housing is desired, but that it is a troublesome housing form to plan for. Difficulties in finding appropriate land, the need for efficient housing to reach building quotas, and economic strains limit planners in this regard. Single-family housing is often a worse choice for municipalities in trying to align with their guidelines and goals. Most planners also view single-family housing as a less sustainable option, as it often means lower residential densities which complicates other planning, entails difficulties in ensuring public transportation usage and coverage, as well as single-family housing often being a suboptimal choice if municipalities want to ensure sustainable buildings or affordability. Finally, the thesis also provides a few key aspects that are crucial to showcase how sustainability in single-family housing can be improved. Finding a way to increase housing density while retaining the attractive attributes is key to making single-family housing more sustainable. Additionally, increases in transport efficiency and adaptation of public transportation, as well as changes to municipal public housing in relation to tenure forms are important to ensuring housing sustainability. Overall, this thesis provides important insights and findings to a topic that has received little attention as of yet.

<p>The aim of this study is to analyze different types of traditional and contemporary homes in three different geographical areas in Libya &ndash; the coastal region (Tripoli), the mountainous region (Gharyan), and the desert region (Ghadames) &ndash; in terms of the suitability of cultural, social and climatic conditions, as well as to investigate how to take advantage of the traditional elements of single family housing in contemporary design solutions. The study includes the analyses on the impact of construction, planning guidance for building, construction materials, structure, distribution of internal arrangements and their function, roof, and openings, followed by conducting a field survey of the houses from home and abroad, and finally, taking pictures of houses and interviewing the residents of those homes.</p> / <p>Циљ студије је да анализира различите типове традиционалних и савремених кућа у три различита географска подручја у Либији - оне на приморју (Триполи), у планинској области (Гхариан), и у пустињском терену (Гадамес) - у смислу прилагодљивости изграђених структура културним, друштвеним и климатским условвима, као и да се испита како се користе традиционални елементи породичног становања у дизајнерским решењима савремених објеката. Студијом су обухваћени и анализирани различити утицаји који делују на породичне куће почев од планирања, градње, структуре објеката, коиршћење грађевински материјала, унутрашње уређење, отворе, конструкцију и коришћење крова... Спроведено је истраживање на терену кућа из Либије и примера из иностранства, сликани су и исцртани објекти који су укључени у анализу, и разговарало се са корисницима кућа ради јаснијег сагледавања услова које пружају.</p> / <p>Cilj studije je da analizira različite tipove tradicionalnih i savremenih kuća u tri različita geografska područja u Libiji - one na primorju (Tripoli), u planinskoj oblasti (Gharian), i u pustinjskom terenu (Gadames) - u smislu prilagodljivosti izgrađenih struktura kulturnim, društvenim i klimatskim uslovvima, kao i da se ispita kako se koriste tradicionalni elementi porodičnog stanovanja u dizajnerskim rešenjima savremenih objekata. Studijom su obuhvaćeni i analizirani različiti uticaji koji deluju na porodične kuće počev od planiranja, gradnje, strukture objekata, koiršćenje građevinski materijala, unutrašnje uređenje, otvore, konstrukciju i korišćenje krova... Sprovedeno je istraživanje na terenu kuća iz Libije i primera iz inostranstva, slikani su i iscrtani objekti koji su uključeni u analizu, i razgovaralo se sa korisnicima kuća radi jasnijeg sagledavanja uslova koje pružaju.</p>