Browsing by Subject "Urban infrastructure"
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Item Developing and Verifying a Bottom-up Methodology for Bulk Material Flow Analysis in China’s Urban Infrastructure Sectors(2015-12) Yang, ZiyiWith rapid urbanization rate in China, cities will use more cement, one of the most important construction materials, to build new infrastructure to satisfy the dramatically increasing urban population in the next few decades. In 2010, China’s cement industry contributed 11% of nation’s total fossil-fuel carbon dioxide emissions. However, little research has been done on studying cement use in cities, which is an essential part in order to learn the details of cities’ current cement use and to provide policy makers as well as governors with a powerful tool to organize a city’s future cement use. This thesis achieves two goals. The first one is to develop construction cement intensities for China’s cities’ infrastructure, which are classified into 9 sectors: road, public transit, building, gas supply, heat supply, solid waste disposal, wastewater treatment, storm water control, and water supply. The second goal is utilizing a bottom-up method to estimate annual cement use in three of China’s cities: Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, then compare the estimation result with at-scale apparent cement use data to verify the method. Our results find cement intensities in the various sectors, i.e., the cement intensity for highway, urban road, and residential building is 0.71 tons/m, 0.034 tons/m2, and 0.19 tons/m2 respectively. Our bottom-up citywide method estimates cement use in new construction to be around half (50%) of each city’s yearly total cement use (from 2004 to 2012), which is useful for evaluating the cement distribution and relevant environmental problems. The three main cement use sectors for new construction are residential building, other building, and road system (urban road, highway, subway & light rail, railway, and bridge) in these three cities. We believe that the unaccounted cement may be for maintenance of old stock, which was confirmed by conducting a first-order estimation that yield overall difference between bottom-up method of this paper and at-scale numbers from the city to be less than 15%. While cement use of residential buildings is decreasing during the past years in Beijing and Shanghai, Tianjin keeps a very stable status on cement use in this sector. Prior to this research, there is no study that shows cement use by infrastructure sectors, indicating the value of conducting bottom-up estimates.Item Funding China's Urban Infrastructure: Revenue Structure and Financing Approaches(Center for Transportation Studies, 2011-05) Zhirong, Zhao; Chengxin, CaoWith the rapid increase in the need for urban infrastructure, the issue of infrastructure funding has become more and more essential. This paper focuses on the following three issues: first, it clarifies the trend and regional pattern of infrastructure funding. Second, this paper further discusses funding mechanisms from the perspective of government and market. Third, this paper will evaluate current trend and pattern based on the five theoretical dimensions. Concerning the trends of infrastructure funding, the growth of market financing is faster than fiscal revenue; therefore, the importance of fiscal revenue has decreased. Regionally, the east has the highest reliance on fiscal revenue, which is largely due to its high land transfer fee. Municipality has the highest proportion of market financing. From the perspective of government and market, the importance of government-leading mode has decreased, while UDIC-leading and private sector involvement play a more and more essential role.Item Predictive equations for crown diameter and trunk flare diameter at ground line for four urban landscape tree species in Minnesota(2013-12) North, Eric AlanTrees are an integral part of the urban landscape, from our backyards to lining our streets. Media outlets cover disease and invasive pest issues in urban forests, but there is little mention regarding infrastructure and planting challenges facing urban foresters. Research has shown urban trees have numerous benefits for society, many of which are not realized until trees have grown to a significant size. However, many trees are removed every year due to their negative impacts on urban infrastructure before their benefits are fully realized. Trunk flares and roots can lift sidewalks, and tree canopies often interfere with buildings or overhead utilities. This study's intent was to create biological growth models for two tree genera that are commonly used as street trees in Minnesota landscapes with the goal of reducing infrastructure damage as a result of conflicts with urban trees. The models will provide urban foresters and urban planners with a practical method for predicting trunk diameter at ground line and crown width in order to improve urban infrastructure planning that involves hardscapes and trees.