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Towards a Neighborhood-Scale Carbon Calculator

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2009, MCP, University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Community Planning.

The project is an attempt to develop a useful, reasonable, and accessible model for a greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory at the scale of a city neighborhood. It is useful because neighborhood groups, city administrations, and other interested parties can use it to compare and contrast the GHG emissions of different neighborhoods in a meaningful way, and so inform policy decisions. It is reasonable because, while it may not precisely quantify every GHG emitted in a neighborhood, it gives a fair representation of the differences between neighborhoods. It is accessible because the components that produce the final inventory are readily available and understandable to competent lay people (non-planners), or are provided and explained to make them so.

Review of the relevant literature on greenhouse gas inventories and thermal forcing revealed no previous GHG inventories at the neighborhood scale. Procedures at the scale of an entire city were used as guideposts, but the procedures were modified to make sense at the neighborhood scale. Literature review further suggested that the fact that a given area is organized as a neighborhood plays a role in a GHG emissions inventory, apart from the simple scalar issue arising from addressing an area smaller than a city. Specifically, organization as a neighborhood necessitates looking at varied residential types, commercial types, building scales and how they use energy. Conversely, an inventory of a randomly-defined area of a city could be meaningful by simply using a city-scale inventory, arithmetically scaled down to reflect the smaller scale and population. Finally, the fact that different inputs to the inventory are treated discretely gives the model the quality of robustness - a category of data that is unattainable can be substituted with more generalized data and still produce meaningful comparisons. This is especially true if there is an existing larger-scale GHG inventory as a standard.

The initial study area is the Clifton neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio, as determined by the neighborhood's community council. The procedures and data requirements were developed using Clifton as a touchstone in reality. The study then looks at the Cincinnati neighborhoods of Corryville, Mt. Adams, Mt. Washington, North Avondale, and Westwood, as well as the GHG inventory of the entire city to validate the model.

Carla Chifos, PhD (Committee Chair)
Edelman David, PhD (Committee Member)
Blume Elizabeth, MCP (Committee Member)
Grundy Terry, MA (Committee Member)
69 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • McKinley, S. A. (2009). Towards a Neighborhood-Scale Carbon Calculator [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1243197959

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • McKinley, Samuel. Towards a Neighborhood-Scale Carbon Calculator. 2009. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1243197959.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • McKinley, Samuel. "Towards a Neighborhood-Scale Carbon Calculator." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1243197959

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)