5/17/2019

Climate Change, Resiliency, and

Sustainability: Broader Challenges to
Urban Planning and Infrastructure

Krishna R. Reddy, PhD, PE, BCEE, DGE, FASCE, ENV SP

Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering
Director, Sustainable Engineering Research Lab
Geotechnical & Geoenvironmental Engineering Lab
University of Illinois, Chicago, USA

Seminar: Planning and Construction of Sustainable Cities

National University of Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina, May 2019

Chicago, USA

1
 5/17/2019

Chicago

Sustainable Engineering Research Laboratory (SERL)

Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering Laboratory (GAGEL)
Directed by Prof. Krishna R. Reddy, University of Illinois at Chicago, [email protected]
Environmental Remediation of Soils, Life Cycle Assessment and
Sediments, Groundwater and Stormwater Sustainable Engineering
• In‐situ remediation technologies • LCA, SLCA, Rating systems
• Mixed and emerging contaminants • Sustainable civil engineering materials
• Heterogeneous and low permeability subsurface – Scrap tires versus sand as drainage material in
environments landfill covers and liners
• New development or optimization of technologies: – Biochar versus compost as landfill cover
– Electrokinetic/electrochemical remediation material
– Air sparging/bio‐sparging • Sustainable civil infrastructure
– Chemical oxidation – Foundations (e.g., piles versus caissons)
– Chemical reduction by nanoparticles – Earth‐retaining systems (e.g., Reinforced cantilever
– Bioremediation/phytoremediation retaining wall versus mechanically stabilized wall)
– Stabilization – Ground improvement (e.g., lime treatment versus
– Active and passive containment organic amendment)
– Integrated technologies • Sustainable waste management
• Green, sustainable and resilient remediation – Landfilling versus incineration
• Sustainable environmental remediation
– Quantitative assessment of sustainability metrics
Waste Management and – Social sustainability evaluation matrix (SSEM)
Landfill Engineering
• Beneficial use of waste and recycled materials Geotechnical Engineering
• Anaerobic digestion/composting
• Mechanical stability and chemical containment of
• Site investigations
landfills (coupled processes/modeling)
• Structural foundations
• Sustainable landfill liner and cover systems
• Earth‐retaining structures
• Biocovers
• Dams and levees
• Bioreactor landfills
• Ground improvement techniques
• Geomechanics
http://gagel.lab.uic.edu/ • Geotechnical earthquake engineering

2
 5/17/2019

UIC Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering Laboratory

FACILITIES

Soil/Material Testing Geochemical Characterization

Geochemical Testing Bench Scale Testing

Research Students/Scholars

3
 5/17/2019

Presentation Outline

• Climate Change and Impacts

• Resiliency and Resilient Engineering

• Sustainability and Sustainable

Engineering

• Resilient and Sustainable Engineering

2019/5/17 7

2019/5/17 8

4
 5/17/2019

New calculations shows there

is just a 0.01% chance that
recent run of global heat
records could have happened
due to natural climate
variations

In 2013, the UN’s

Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change concluded
Tourists ski on a thin layer of snow towards the with 95% certainty that
resort of Leysin in the Swiss Alps in one of the humans are the main cause
warmest Decembers on record. Photograph: of global warming.
Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
2019/5/17 9

What is Climate Change?

• Global in scope
• Long-term persistent change
• Complex issue
• Rapidly evolving science
• Politicized

5
 5/17/2019

Global Warming

6
 5/17/2019

Sources of Information

Earth Science Models

• Scientific hypothesis

• Empirical testing

• Peer review

Emerging
Data

Accepted Improved
Knowledge Methods

Scientific
Consensus

7
 5/17/2019

Comparison of Observations and Models

IPCC Degree of Certainty in Key Findings

8
 5/17/2019

IPCC WG1: The Physical Science Basis

• 259 Contributing Authors

• 54,677 review comments
• 14 Chapters
1. Introduction
2. Observations: Atmosphere and Surface
3. Observations: Ocean
4. Observations: Cryosphere
5. Information from Paleoclimate Archives
6. Carbon and Other Biogeochemical Cycles
7. Clouds and Aerosols
8. Anthropogenic and Natural Radiative Forcing
9. Evaluation of Climate Models
10. Detection and Attribution of Climate Change: from Global to
Regional
11. Near-term Climate Change: Projections and Predictability
12. Long-term Climate Change: Projections, Commitments and
Irreversibility
13. Sea Level Change
14. Climate Phenomena and their Relevance for Future Regional
Climate Change

Observed Changes: Greenhouse Gases

9
 5/17/2019

http://www.trillionthtonne.org/
2019/5/17 19
As of May 17, 2019

Observed Changes: Global Temperature

10
 5/17/2019

Observed Changes: Oceans

Ocean Heat Content 0 – 700 m

Observed Changes: Cryosphere

Artic Summer Sea Ice Extent

11
 5/17/2019

Observed Changes: Sea Level

Observed Changes: Sea Level

12
 5/17/2019

Observed Climate Impacts

Future Changes: Model Scenarios

RCP= Representative Concentration

Pathway

RCP2.6
This scenario is the best case
scenario. It requires a major
turnaround in climate policies ad
action iin that next few years, in all
countris, both developing and
developed
RCP8.5
Tjis is the nightmare scenario in
which emissions continue to
increase rapidly through the early
and mid parts of the century. By
2100 annual emissions have
stabilized at just under 30 gigatons
of carbon compared to around 8
gigatons in 2000

13
 5/17/2019

Future Changes: Model Scenarios

Future Changes: Model Scenarios

14
 5/17/2019

Future Changes: Model Scenarios

Future Changes: Model Scenarios

15
 5/17/2019

Future Changes: Model Scenarios

Future Impacts (IPCC AR5)

• Increased extinction risks (high confidence)

• Food security risks, especially for warming over
40C (high confidence)
• Human health impacts, especially in lower
income countries (high confidence)
• Economic losses (limited evidence, high
agreement)
• Displacement of people (medium evidence, high
agreement)
• Increased risk of violent conflicts caused by
greater poverty and economic shocks (medium
confidence)

16
 5/17/2019

Potential Climate Change Impacts

Projected Impacts of Climate Change

17
 5/17/2019

COP 21 in Paris

18
 5/17/2019

Addressing Climate Change

• Climate Change Mitigation: An anthropogenic

intervention to reduce the sources or enhance
the sinks of greenhouse gases

• Climate Change Adaptation: Adjustment in

natural or human systems in response to
actual or expected climatic stimuli or their
effect

Climate Change Mitigation

2019/5/17 38

19
 5/17/2019

Geological Sequestration of CO2

CO2 Sequestration in the Sea

Crude
oil drilling

CO2 capture
and
sequestration

North Sea off Norway: Heavy Carbon Emissions Tax

20
 5/17/2019

Marine Organism Sequestration

The Iron Fertilization Concept

The Ocean and the “Biological Pump”

Direct Engineered Capture

Use of sorbent materials (e.g. calcium hydroxide or

calcium oxide) or a filtering system

21
 5/17/2019

Sulfur Injection

Mirrors in Space
Position a mirror in space to reflect incoming
solar radiation

22
 5/17/2019

Addressing Climate Change

• Climate Change Mitigation: An anthropogenic

intervention to reduce the sources or
enhance the sinks of greenhouse gases
– Preferred, but
complicated/uncertain/controversial??

• Climate Change Adaptation: Adjustment in

natural or human systems in response to
actual or expected climatic stimuli or their
effect
– Currently focused on this approach

Engineering Challenge?

• Adapt to climate change: Capacity to

recover quickly from difficulties (climate
impacts, e.g. flooding)

• Resiliency
– Represents many other concepts such as:
• Toughness
• Durability
• Adaptation New Name, Old Concept?
• Responsiveness
• Short-term survivability
• Community building

23
 5/17/2019

Resiliency

2019/5/17 47

What is Resiliency?

• National Research Council (2011)

The ability to prepare and plan for absorb, recover
from, or more successfully adapt to actual or
potential adverse events

• US Presidential Policy Directive 21

The ability to prepare for and adapt to changing
conditions and to withstand and recover rapidly from
disruptions (deliberate attacks, accidents, or naturally
occurring threats or incidents)

24
 5/17/2019

Resilient Strategies

Hurricane Sandy: New York

25
 5/17/2019

Resilient Design

Resilient Design

26
 5/17/2019

Resilient Design

Resilient Design

27
 5/17/2019

Resilient Design

New Orleans Example

28
 5/17/2019

New Orleans Example

Broader Engineering Challenge?

• Resiliency options are limited and

challenging if climate continues to change

• In the long-run, engineered systems

should be sustainable (to achieve both
climate mitigation and adaptation)

• Sustainability is much broader goal- holistic

consideration of broader environmental
impacts (including GHGs towards
mitigation) and economic and social
impacts during the project life cycle

29
 5/17/2019

Why should we be concerned about

Sustainability?
• Global climate change and its impacts
– Impacts to current and future generations

• Exploding population growth and consequent

impacts
– Depletion of natural resources
– Increased waste generation
– Increased pollution
– Damage to ecosystem
– Loss of biodiversity
– Economic disparities
– Social justice

30
 5/17/2019

Development vs. Impact

61

Carbon and Water Footprint

31
 5/17/2019

Triple Bottom Line of Sustainability

Sustainable Engineering
• Life-cycle triple bottom line sustainability
quantitative framework
– Life-cycle
– Environment + Economy + Social

32
 5/17/2019

Scale of Sustainability Projects

• Global Scale (e.g. Global CO2

budgeting)

• National Scale (e.g., Energy)

• Regional Scale (e.g., Watershed)

• Business or Institutional Scale (e.g.,

Eco-industral park)

• Sustainable Technologies Scale

(e.g., Sustainable materials,
products and systems)

Sustainable Design: Simple Example

Cross-section of Short Span Bridge – 20ft Span (Pedestrian

Bridge)
12ft
Cross-section of 7’’ 12 ft wide
Concrete Bridge 10’’ 20 ft long (span)
7’’

12ft

Cross-section of 4’’ 12 ft wide

RPL Bridge
12’’ 20 ft long (span)
8’’

12ft

Cross-section of 4’’ 12 ft wide

Wood Bridge
11’’ 20 ft long (span)
7’’

33
 5/17/2019

Technical Design

Cross-sections with Comparable Structural Performance

Reinforced Reinforced RPL Wood Beam

Concrete Beam Beam

Cross-section 150mm x 195mm x 170mm x

250mm 305mm 285mm
(b x h) (b x h) (b x h)
Reinforcement Top: 2 bars #10 Top: 2 bars – --
Bottom: 3 bars 35mm
#12 Bottom: 2 bars –
35mm

Environmental Sustainability

Reinforced Concrete Reinforced RPL Wood Bridge

Bridge Bridge

reinforced recycled plastic show the greatest environmental benefit for each of
the categories used. Inventory list show that Greenhouse gases such Carbon
Dioxide (CO2) and Methane (CH4) in RPL bridge are way lower than concrete
and wood bridges.

34
 5/17/2019

Economic Sustainability

Reinforced
Concrete Material Quantity Price Total Price

Concrete 4.9 m³ = 171 ft³ $75/ftᶾ $12,825

Rienforcing Steel 2412 lb $ 0.2/lb $ 483

0.15232m³ = 5.4
Form Work - wood ft³ $ 39/ ft³ $ 210

Total $13,518
Reinforced
RPL Material Quantity Distance Wight ton

RPL 4.17 m³ = 146 ft³ $0.72/lb $ 8064

GFRP 365 lb $ 1/ lb $ 365

Total $ 8,429

Wood Beams Material Quantity Distance Wight ton

Wood 4.9 m³ = 171 ft³ $ 39 /ft³ $ 6,669

Social Sustainability

Reddy (2014): Social Sustainability Evaluation Matrix (SSEM)

Social Sustainability Evaluation Matrix (SSEM), V1.0, July 2013

Social Sustainability Matrix
Concrete Bridge RPL Bridge Wood Bridge
Social 2 4 ‐4
Socio‐Institutional 2 9 ‐5
Socio‐Economic 1 5 ‐2
Socio‐Environmental ‐8 8 ‐7
Grand Score ‐3 26 ‐18

Social Sustainabiility
30

20

10 Concrete Bridge
RPL Bridge
0
Wood Bridge

-10

-20

-30

35
 5/17/2019

Sustainability Versus Resilience

Synergies and Trade-offs

36
 5/17/2019

Resilient and Sustainable Engineering

• Sustainability: well-informed choice

considering environmental, economic and
social dimensions based on the life cycle

• Resiliency: Survival and rapid recovery

• Resiliency can motivate reluctant adopters

of sustainable principles to change their
ways. Resiliency is complementary to
sustainability?

Engineering Challenges and

Opportunities
• Engineer systems that can be integrated
within the natural systems

• Engineer flexible systems to adapt at

different scales (local to global)

• Design based on:

– Systems approach
– Safe and resilient
– Green chemistry/processes/materials
– Life cycle impacts
• Energy, Materials, Emissions (GHGs), Waste
elimination,…through LCA
– Economics (costs and benefits)
– Socially responsive
2019/5/17 74

37
 5/17/2019

Contact/Additional Information
Contact:
Krishna Reddy, Professor & Director, e-mail: [email protected]

serl.lab.uic.edu

gagel.lab.uic.edu

QUESTIONS ???

38
 5/17/2019

Books Published by Our Labs

gagel.lab.uic.edu 77

39