Research – Subprojects

COORDINATORS

Institute for Sustainable Urbanism

College of Architecture & Urban Planning

SP TOPOI identifies and typifies existing and planned settlement types and patterns (urban quarters,
districts, zones etc.) along an urban-rural gradient on the basis of urban design parameters (footprint,
density, functional and social mix, accessibility, permeability, blue and green networks, proximity etc). In an iterative process, these topoi will be enriched with findings of other SP through the urban data platform (SP DATA), ultimately modeling and simulating diverse interdependencies: In cooperation with SP MOBILITY, functional and mobility-related dependencies between and within the topoi will be identified across scales. In cooperation with SP RESOURCES, the energy and resource demand for the topoi will be assessed, and in cooperation with the SP Production, land use patterns in relation to the urban design parameters identified. SP TOPOI is the foundation for SP SCENARIO in which integrated scenarios for the programmatic qualification and optimization of existing, planned and future projects, urban districts and settlements will be developed with view to the sustainability objectives.

COORDINATORS

Institute for Engineering Design

Institute of Transport, Railway Construction and Operation

School of Automotive Studies

School of Transportation Engineering

New solutions for future mobility are paramount in the light of fast urbanization. SP MOBILITY focuses on the reduction of energy consumption, emissions and air pollution while increasing the efficiency and effectivity of locally available existing and future transportation infrastructures. For these purposes, a Systems Engineering Framework including data driven methods, tools and processes will be evolved for developing sustainable future mobility and vehicle concepts in urban regions. For instance, a new Traffic Flow Simulation System will be developed to build a digital twin of the whole traffic system, which will be used to simulate the traffic flow in Qingdao. The attributes and properties are values such as information on population density, underground and metro stations, living or working space, leisure and recreational value and traffic demand. The simulation model will help to optimize mobility and vehicle concepts. An Evaluation of the model-based requirements management system is done by means of testable examples. In order to integrate the requirements in the simulation model, an interface will be developed, so that an end-to-end digital thread in the framework is ensured. Increasing the number of input parameters, the digital twin is strengthened. The result of the simulation should be a suggestion for the mobility system. This will be a recommendation for a mobility network consisting of infrastructure for individual transport and demand-oriented mass transport. The mobility concept can be adapted and optimized for distinct use cases, based on which flexible and sustainable vehicle concepts will be developed to meet region-specific and stakeholder-individual requirements. An evaluation of the developed model investigates the properties of the digital twin; their functionality will be checked by specific modifications. As test scenarios, different development stages of Qingdao can be examined.

COORDINATORS

Institute of Machine Tools and Production Technology

Institute of Advanced Manufacturing Technology

SP PRODUCTION investigates the impact and potentials of urban factories and production sites. We aim at raising the potentials of urban production to create sustainable concepts for value creation. These concepts will not only provide the means for lowering or eliminating negative impacts but also enable positive impacts and services to cities from urban factories. The research focus lies on the assessment of impacts and potentials of urban factories determined by the individual connections of production sites and the urban system through the city-factory interface   and builds on established methods for evaluation, industrial organization, operation and management. Therefore, the urban factories’ influence on the constitution and growth of urban areas is identified and an evaluation framework of the flows (people, energy, resources, etc.) induced by production developed. The starting point is an initial assessment of existing factories, an analysis of the spatial localization , their production networks and related material and immaterial flows. Data acquisition will be conducted for the derivation of a structured evaluation framework. This framework serves as a base to develop new methods and tools. Concepts of circular economy and (urban) industrial symbiosis will be examined and new organizational and technological concepts for work configuration and their feasibility investigated.
COORDINATORS

Institute of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering

UNEP TONGJI Institute of Environment for Sustainable Development

The access to safe and clean drinking water and the provision of safe and resource efficient sanitation infrastructure is one of the most pressing current challenges in urban and regional development. To develop sustainable sanitation concepts for fast growing cities in China, SP WATER investigates integrated water and sanitation concepts for the treatment and management of (waste)water in urban areas, setting a high priority on water-, resourceand energy-efficiency while ensuring a high quality of treated wastewater (with respect to heavy metals, emerging pollutants and pathogens) in order to reuse the water at high efficiency and quality within an integrated urban water cycle. The SP combines technical solutions for transport (e.g. sewer systems) and treatment of relevant partial streams with reuse concepts focusing on new urban value-added chains based on water- borne resources. This includes the set-up of integrated mass- and energy balances as well as the technical, economic and social evaluation of proposed concepts, which will be developed as a modular toolset.

COORDINATORS

Institute for Building Services and Energy Design

UNEP TONGJI Institute of Environment for Sustainable Development

With the continuing urbanization of China, resource consumption grows disproportionately. So called “grey energy” is neither recorded nor balanced and therefore currently plays only a minor role in lifecycle and sustainability assessments. A high primary energy demand for the construction and high levels of waste during the demolition and replacement of constructions are a result of missing methods and requirements for a life cycle assessment. The SP aims at expanding formal planning processes for buildings and districts by methods integrating life cycle aspects. It will develop locally adjusted methods to cover the final energy demand for heat, cold and electricity by renewable energy sources, to limit the usage of fossil energy for the supply of districts and cities. The SP will develop methods to integrate energy and resource demand in construction, the use of structures, as well as flows of goods, people and materials. The establishment of processes for an appropriate and usage adapted application within the life cycle is paramount. The introduction of such a method creates the possibility to achieve balances across scales.

COORDINATORS

GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences

College of Architecture & Urban Planning

College of Computer Science and Engineering

SP DATA acts as cross-cutting work package providing the means to gather, extract, link, process and analyze required data in all SP. To this end, an urban data platform will be built offering access and combining the heterogeneous project-relevant data sources and SP findings into a platform with interfaces to specific applications, such as the 3D GIS-based simulation environment (SP SCENARIO). Based on the requirements and needs of stakeholders (incl. companies or other municipalities in the region), data in the context of urbanism will be gathered providing a sound understanding about the evolution of demographics, urban-, mobility- and transport infrastructure and their usage and environmental impact. Given the heterogeneity of data and resources, ranging from unstructured text and structured data to (satellite) images and other audio-visual material, suitable means for knowledge extraction and consolidation are required. Machine learning techniques are applied to enable the classification and clustering of obtained data sources and to uncover correlations between distinct observations.

COORDINATORS

Institute for Sustainable Urbanism

College of Architecture & Urban Planning

SP SCENARIO brings together the findings of all SPs to jointly formulate integrated scenarios for the future sustainable development of the Qingdao region. Based on the settlement types of SP TOPOI and the urban data platform (SP DATA), the SP simulates different sustainability scenarios for the Qingdao region by computational modeling and visualization within a 3D GIS-based Scenario Engine. In combining the results of all the SP shows the impact of different growth scenarios on energy-, resource-, and land consumption. As a result, the sustainability objectives will be developed into a set of quantitative and qualitative parameters and indicators building on and extending the framework of the China Sustainable Cities Index (UNDP 2015). Thereby the SP identifies strategies and tools applicable to other cities and regions by defining and systematizing types, relevant intervention areas and methods, scales, as well as boundary conditions. For local stakeholders, the different scenarios serve as science-based arguments for decision making concerning the future sustainable development of the region and its cities.