CAREER: CAS-Climate -- A modeling framework to understand the environmental and equity impacts of building decarbonization retrofits

职业：CAS-Climate——了解建筑脱碳改造对环境和公平影响的建模框架

• 批准号: 2339386
• 负责人: Amanda Webb
• 金额: $ 50.6万
• 依托单位: University of Cincinnati Main Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-01-01 至 2028-12-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2339386&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; CAS; Climate; modeling; framework

Retrofitting existing buildings to reduce carbon emissions is an urgent engineering challenge. Existing buildings are responsible for one-third of U.S. carbon emissions and reducing or eliminating these emissions is critical for meeting national climate goals. However, if not fully understood and carefully managed, the climate benefits of decarbonization could come at the expense of energy affordability, increasing the already high energy burden felt in many low-income communities. Predictive building energy modeling tools (i.e., models as scientific data) and game-based learning methods (i.e., models as play) offer opportunities for examining what-if scenarios at the intersection of building decarbonization and equity, but need to be transformed to this aim. To meet this need, the goal of this CAREER research is to investigate the environmental and equity impacts of building decarbonization retrofits using a novel predictive modeling framework. The education goal is to increase public energy literacy through game-based learning. The outcomes of this research will help accelerate building decarbonization while balancing its benefits and costs across the population. The education activities will improve energy and carbon literacy among a diverse population of youth and young adults.This research has three specific objectives: (R1) Quantify the benefits and burdens of building decarbonization retrofits by climate and grid region using a novel equity-focused energy modeling approach; (R2) Analyze the interactions between decarbonization retrofits and underlying patterns of energy inequity at the urban scale using urban building energy modeling; and (R3) Determine the benefits and burdens of building decarbonization retrofits under future climate and grid scenarios. This research will advance fundamental understanding of building decarbonization and its impacts on underlying patterns of inequity in the built environment, as well as our capacity to model these impacts. The education activities will design, pilot, and evaluate two games for youth and young adults: (E1) Urban building decarbonization game for middle and high school students and teachers; and (E2) Energy burden simulation for undergraduate students. The education activities will produce classroom materials for teaching students about building decarbonization and household energy burden through game-based learning.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

改造现有建筑以减少碳排放是一项紧迫的工程挑战。现有建筑承担着美国三分之一的碳排放，减少或消除这些排放对于实现国家气候目标至关重要。然而，如果不能充分了解和谨慎管理，脱碳的气候益处可能会以能源可负担性为代价，增加许多低收入社区本已很高的能源负担。预测性建筑能源建模工具(即作为科学数据的模型)和基于游戏的学习方法(即作为游戏的模型)提供了在建筑脱碳和公平的交叉点上审查假设情景的机会，但需要向这一目标转变。为了满足这一需求，本职业研究的目标是调查使用新的预测性建模框架建设脱碳改造对环境和公平的影响。教育目标是通过基于游戏的学习来提高公共能源素养。这项研究的结果将有助于加快建筑脱碳，同时平衡其在整个人口中的好处和成本。这项研究有三个具体目标：(R1)使用一种新的以公平为中心的能源建模方法，根据气候和电网区域量化建筑脱碳改造的好处和负担；(R2)使用城市建筑能源建模，分析城市规模的脱碳改造与潜在的能源不平等模式之间的相互作用；以及(R3)确定未来气候和电网情景下建筑脱碳改造的好处和负担。这项研究将促进对建筑脱碳及其对建筑环境中不平等的潜在模式的影响的基本理解，以及我们对这些影响进行建模的能力。教育活动将设计、试点和评估两个面向青少年和青壮年的游戏：(E1)面向初高中学生和教师的城市建筑脱碳游戏；(E2)面向本科生的能源负担模拟。教育活动将制作课堂材料，通过基于游戏的学习向学生传授建筑脱碳和家庭能源负担。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。