Future climate and change in liveability of a city's housing environment

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"Restructuring urban housing to deliver affordable sustainable homes while contributing to enhanced living environment and mitigating housing's ecological impact (decarbonising housing) is one of the most pressing contemporary societal challenges in the UK and internationally. This project aims to demonstrate how urban microclimate modelling of the spaces between buildings can generate effective descriptors and predictors of change in the liveability of urban housing developments and thus contribute to improved housing design outcomes (liveability and decarbonisation) and project appraisals. On-going research into housing stock energy modelling (HSEM) has informed policies on decarbonising the residential sector in the UK and Europe, including estimated trajectories of nation-wide adoption of new building specifications meeting higher environmental performance standards. While further development of HSEM will continue to drive down the carbon footprint of a nation's housing stock, much less research has been given to how change in liveability of housing environments may result from the complex interaction between energy-driven housing stock restructuring and climate change. Currently, even the physical dimension of liveability (e.g., outdoor and indoor air quality, thermal comfort, vegetation biodiversity, among others) is rarely taken into account in housing stock modelling research. This project seeks to develop a housing stock liveability modelling framework using the latest UK climate change projections (UKCP18) as an example. The model will address the components of outdoor and indoor environmental quality as potential indicators of liveability. Given that similar housing challenges are seen in many other nations the research will also be of international significance and relevance.The project will be a partnership with the Sheffield Housing Company (SHC), a public-private joint venture developer aiming to build approximately 2,300 new homes in Sheffield in the next 10-15 years. SHC is committed to the proposed studentship evidenced by the £20,050 cash and in-kind contribution. The project relates to three WRDTP thematic pathways but is most centrally located within the Cities, Environment and Liveability (CEL) pathway, given its focuses on healthy cities, sustainable urban development, connected communities and the growing importance of interactions between populations and climate change. The project is also situated well within the Data, Communication, and New Technologies (DCT) pathway through its emphasis on data landscape, 'datafication', visual analytics and data-driven decision-making. In addition, the project resonates with the Sustainable Growth, Management and Economic Productivity (SMP) pathway given its explicit reference to high-level quantitative methods and the role of state regulation and public services in facilitating change."