LibGuides: Green Week Library Resources: Sustainable Cities, Architecture & Engineering

Books and eBooks

Landscape architecture and environmental sustainability: creating positive change through design [eBook] / Joshua Zeunert

Grounding urban natures: histories and futures of urban ecologies [eBook] / edited by Henrik Ernstson and Sverker Sorlin

Resilient building retrofits: combating the climate crisis [eBooks] / edited by Sarah Sayce, Sara Wilkinson, Gillian Armstrong and Samantha Organ

Fundamentals of sustainability in civil engineering [eBook] / Andrew Braham and Sadie Casillas

Environmental engineering for the 21st century: addressing grand challenges [eBook] / National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (U.S.)

Understanding urban cycling : exploring the relationship between mobility, sustainability and capital / Justin Spinney

Cycling pathways : the politics and governance of Dutch cycling infrastructure, 1920-2020 / Henk-Jan Dekker

Environmental engineering: fundamentals, sustainability, design / James R. Mihelcic and Julie Beth Zimmerman

Sustainable engineering: principles and practice / Bhavik R. Bakshi

Sustainability in engineering design: an undergraduate text / Anthony Johnson and Andrew Gibson

The greening of architecture: a critical history and survey of contemporary sustainable architecture and urban design / Phillip James Tabb and A. Senem Deviren

Living in the environment / G. Tyler Miller, Jr. and Scott E. Spoolman

Grounding urban natures: histories and futures of urban ecologies / edited by Henrik Ernstson and Sverker Sorlin

Sustainable landscaping: principles and practices / Marietta Loehrlein

The humane gardener: nurturing a backyard habitat for wildlife / Nancy Lawson

Landscape and urban design for health and well-being : using healing, sensory and therapeutic gardens / Gayle Souter-Brown

Articles, Journals & Online Resources

2030 Palette [Database] Database of sustainable design principles, strategies, tools and resources compiled and hosted by Architecture 2030; an org which aims to rapidly transform the built environment from the major emitter of greenhouse gases to a central solution to the climate crisis. For nearly two decades, Architecture 2030 have provided leadership and designed actions in the area of achieving CO2 emissions reductions for a high probability of limiting planetary warming to 1.5°C.
Journal of Sustainable Architecture and Civil Engineering [eJournal) Journal of Sustainable Architecture and Civil Engineering covers experimental and theoretical research on the aspects of sustainability in the fields of civil engineering and architecture and will pay special attention to the joint research in these areas. This journal intends to encourage scientists to publish their experimental and theoretical research on the aspects of sustainability (including climate change and clean energy, sustainable consumption & production, sustainable transport, conservation and management of natural resources, public health, social inclusion, cultural diversity and identity etc.) in the fields of civil engineering (building structures, building materials, construction technology and management, buildings physics and building services, and geotechnical engineering) and architecture (architectural design and theory, architectural science and technology, planning, landscape architecture, building renovation, and architectural heritage preservation) and will pay special attention to the joint research in these areas.
Journal of Sustainable Design & Applied Research [eJournal] The SDAR journal was launched in 2011 and is a collaboration between the Technological University Dublin and the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) Ireland. The emphasis is on moving professionals in the built environment from ideologically based green initiatives towards evidence based sustainable engineering solutions. This journal is published by the Technological University Dublin and all material is immediately available as open access under Creative Commons Licences. All materials are covered by Creative Commons Licences and authors can select which licence suits their purpose. Licences available are CC Attribution 4.0, CC Attribution–Share Alike 4.0, CC Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0, CC Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0, CC Attribution 3.0, CC Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0, CC Attribution-Noncommerical 3.0, CC Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0, CC Attribution-Noncommercial-No derivative works 3.0.
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ARROW@TU Dublin and the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) Ireland.

ARROW@TUDUBLIN From Grey to Green: reflections on establishing an urban garden at Trinity College Dublin by Mariana P. Silva, Anangi Sumalde, Eleanor Flora Mullen, Simon Benson, Rachel Joanne Goodband, Conor O'Reilly and Nour Boulahcen ABSTRACT Urban gardens can be a part of the combined efforts of many to combat climate change and the associated risks posed by rapid urbanisation. These gardens can take shape on private, communal, or institutional scales, including urban educational campuses, where the teaching of sustainable gardening along with general knowledge about nature and ecology can benefit students, staff, and the wider community. This reflective piece centres on the experience of developing the Trinity Urban Garden (TUG) at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. While hoping to overcome the worry that the tiny, seemingly inhospitable plot may not allow for a garden to thrive, the TUG project has undergone a series of rapid changes in the first year of its life: here, we contemplate what has gone right and wrong after this year of work and growth and consider the role that TUG plays in the larger sustainability framework to which community gardens impart their benefits.
Call Number: 2 Jan 2024
ARROW@TUDUBLIN Embedding sustainable development in built environment curricula: an investigation of Quantity Surveying (QS) education for sustainable development in Ireland by Dr Roisin Murphy ICSD 2023: 11th International Conference on Sustainable Development, 6-7 September, Rome, Italy CONFERENCE PAPER + SLIDES
Publication Date: Sep 2023
Flower power in the city: Replacing roadside shrubs by wildflower meadows increases insect numbers and reduces maintenance costs by Mody, Karsten; Lerch, Doris; Müller, Ann-Kathrin; Simons, Nadja K and Blüthgen, Nico ABSTRACT Massive declines in insect biodiversity and biomass are reported from many regions and habitats. In urban areas, creation of native wildflower meadows is one option to support insects and reduce maintenance costs of urban green spaces. However, benefits for insect conservation may depend on previous land use, and the size and location of new wildflower meadows. We show effects of conversion of roadside plantings–from exotic shrubs into wildflower meadows–on (1) the abundance of 13 arthropod taxa–Opiliones, Araneae, Isopoda, Collembola, Orthoptera, Aphidoidea, Auchenorrhyncha, Heteroptera, Coleoptera, Nematocera, Brachycera, Apocrita, Formicidae–and (2) changes in maintenance costs. We assessed the influence of vegetation type (meadow vs. woody), meadow age, size, location (distance to city boundary), and mowing regime. We found many, but not all, arthropod taxa profiting from meadows in terms of arthropod activity abundance in pitfall traps and arthropod density in standardized suction samples. Arthropod number in meadows was 212% higher in pitfall traps and 260% higher in suction samples compared to woody vegetation. The increased arthropod number in meadows was independent of the size and isolation of green spaces for most taxa. However, mowing regime strongly affected several arthropod taxa, with an increase of 63% of total arthropod density in unmown compared to mown meadow spots. Costs of green space maintenance were fivefold lower for meadows than for woody vegetation. Our study shows that (1) many different arthropod taxa occur in roadside vegetation in urban areas, (2) replacement of exotic woody vegetation by native wildflower meadows can significantly increase arthropod abundance, especially if meadow management permits temporarily unmown areas, and (3) maintenance costs can be considerably reduced by converting woody plantings into wildflower meadows. Considering many groups of arthropods, our study provides new insights into possible measures to support arthropods in urban environments.
Publication Date: June 2020
Urban wildflower meadow planting for biodiversity, climate and society: An evaluation at King's College, Cambridge by Cicely A. M. Marshall, Matthew T. Wilkinson, Peter M. Hadfield, Stephen M. Rogers, Jonathan D. Shanklin, Brian C. Eversham, Roberta Healey, Olaf P. Kranse, Chris D. Preston, Steven J. Coghill, Karris L. McGonigle, Geoffrey D. Moggridge, Peter G. Pilbeam, Ana C. Marza, Darinka Szigecsan, Jill Mitchell, Marcus A. Hicks, Sky M. Wallis, Zhifan Xu, Francesca Toccaceli, Calum M. McLennan and Sebastian Eves‐van den Akker ABSTRACT The biodiversity and climate crises are critical challenges of this century. Wildflower meadows in urban areas could provide important nature‐based solutions, addressing the biodiversity and climate crises jointly and benefitting society in the process. King's College Cambridge (England, UK) established a wildflower meadow over a portion of its iconic Back Lawn in 2019, replacing a fine lawn first laid in 1772. We used biodiversity surveys, Wilcoxon signed rank and ANOVA models to compare species richness, abundance and composition of plants, spiders, bugs, bats and nematodes supported by the meadow, and remaining lawn, over 3 years. We estimated the climate change impact of meadow vs lawn from maintenance emissions, soil carbon sequestration and reflectance effect. We surveyed members of the university to quantify the societal benefits of, and attitudes towards, increased meadow planting on the collegiate university estate. In spite of its small size (0.36 ha), the meadow supported approximately three times more plant species, three times more spider and bug species and individuals, and bats were recorded three times more often over the meadow than the remaining lawn. Terrestrial invertebrate biomass was 25 times higher in the meadow compared with the lawn. Fourteen species with conservation designations were recorded on the meadow (six for lawn), alongside meadow specialist species. Reduced maintenance and fertilising associated with meadow reduced emissions by an estimated 1.36 Mg CO2‐e per hectare per year compared with lawn. Relative reflectance increased by 25%–34% for meadow relative to lawn. Soil carbon stocks did not differ between meadow and lawn. Respondents thought meadows provided greater aesthetic, educational and mental wellbeing services than lawns. In open responses, lawns were associated with undesirable elitism and social exclusion (most colleges in Cambridge restrict lawn access to senior members of college), and respondents proved overwhelmingly in favour of meadow planting in place of lawn on the collegiate university estate. This study demonstrates the substantial benefits of small urban meadows for local biodiversity, cultural ecosystem services and climate change mitigation, supplied at lower cost than maintaining conventional lawn.
Publication Date: April 2023
Establishing wildflower meadows in anthropogenic landscapes by Francesca Bretzel, Francesca Bretzel, Francesca Vannucchi, Francesca Vannucchi, Beatrice Pezzarossa, Angeliki Paraskevopoulou and Daniela Romano ABSTRACT In anthropized sites, the establishment and management of sustainable and nature-based wildflower meadow solutions exclude fertilization, weeding, and watering, and reduce the frequency of mowing. Once such inputs have been reduced, the ecosystem services generated by the vegetation result in an increase in biodiversity in terms of plant and animal species, an improvement in soil quality and biota, the mitigation of air pollutants and carbon sequestration, as well as a reduction in soil temperature. Environmental education and citizen science are also some of the benefits of this type of vegetation, especially in urban areas. Herbaceous meadow-like communities, which are composed of forbs only or a combination of graminoid and forb species, are usually established by sowing. The seeds are available for purchase from specialized seed producers as single species or in a mix, some companies offer mixes composed of garden species with botanical species. Donor meadows are the sources of the genetic material and the template to reproduce the meadow herbaceous community at different sites through seed harvest, hay harvest, and the displacement of soil with its seed bank. Management techniques, such as soil preparation, determining the appropriate sowing and mowing time, can help in establishing and maintaining the most desirable species. The suspension of urban turf mowing allows the growth of the natural seed bank, which in unproductive soils facilitates the appearance of many pollinator-friendly herbaceous species. With the appropriate pedological conditions and management, the natural urban herbaceous vegetation thus provides beautiful and rich plant communities, which are also easy to maintain. This review identifies the best practices through a qualitative selection of case studies related to the various methods to establish wildflower meadows in the urban infrastructure and the main constraints such as the lack of a suitable seed market.
Publication Date: 2023
Assessment of sustainable green campus in terms of students with disabilities and landscaping: Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale, Turkey by Yavuz Alkan ABSTRACT With 75 foundation and 129 state universities, by the academic year of 2018-2019, there were approximately 8 million (7,740,502) university students in Turkey in the associate’s, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral categories. Considering that 0.6% approximately of these students (47,751) are disabled students, it is important to plan university campuses in line with criteria for disabled students. This study analyzed the existing landscape facilities and equipment status of the campus of Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University by focusing on disabled student perceptions. For this purpose, firstly, the landscape principles, elements and components of the campus area were assessed based on examination and observation supported by photography imagery. Additionally, the study included a survey carried out face to face with 40 disabled students. The perceptions of the students regarding campus planning and design were taken as a basis in the survey. The data obtained from the survey were subjected to a regression analysis in the SPSS 15.0 statistical software. With the analysis, by defining the satisfaction rates of the disabled students as the “dependent variable” and the survey criteria representing landscape equipment and facilities as the “independent variable,” the statistical relationships between them were obtained. Field studies and statistical analysis results in the study confirm each other. According to the analysis, the satisfaction of students with disabilities according to campus parameters was found to be significant at P
Publication Date: 7 July 2022
To mow or to mow less: Lawn mowing frequency affects bee abundance and diversity in suburban yards by Susannah B. Lerman, Alexandra R. Contosta, Joan Milam and Christofer Bang ABSTRACT Green spaces embedded within the urban matrix, particularly residential yards, could mitigate negative aspects of urban development and provide pollinator habitat. Lawns represent a dominant green space, and their management consists of frequent mowing to inhibit the growth of ostensibly “weedy” species (e.g., dandelions and clover). Since widespread population declines of bees and other pollinators from habitat loss are a growing concern, these spontaneous flowers could provide pollen and nectar sources throughout the growing season. We experimentally tested whether different lawn mowing frequencies (1, 2 or 3 weeks) influenced bee abundance and diversity in 16 suburban western Massachusetts yards by increasing lawn floral resources. Lawns mowed every three weeks had as much as 2.5 times more lawn flowers than the other frequencies. Interestingly, lawns mowed every two weeks supported the highest bee abundance yet the lowest bee richness and evenness. We suggest these patterns were driven by a combination of more abundant floral resources (compared with 1-week yards), easier access to lawn flowers due to shorter grass and a more drastic impact on grass biomass and floral resources (compared with 3-week yards), and the dominance of a few generalist bees overwhelming our samples, thus driving richness and evenness. Our results highlight a “lazy lawnmower” approach to providing bee habitat. Mowing less frequently is practical, economical, and a timesaving alternative to lawn replacement or even planting pollinator gardens. Given the pervasiveness of lawns coupled with habitat loss, our findings provide immediate solutions for individual households to contribute to urban conservation.
Publication Date: May 2018
Sown mini-meadows increase pollinator diversity in gardens by Janine Griffiths-Lee, ABSTRACT Habitat loss and fragmentation are considered the foremost threats in pollinator decline, and in England and Wales, 97% of wildflower meadows were lost by 1984. The value of creating flower-rich margins in agricultural environments is established, yet there is growing potential to support pollinator populations in urban landscapes. We used citizen science to investigate the effectiveness of small 4m2 sown wildflower ‘mini-meadows’ in UK gardens and allotments in recruiting beneficial insects. Participants were allocated one of three treatment groups: Mix 1 (commercially available ‘meadow mix’); Mix 2 (formulated based on existing literature on pollinator foraging preferences); or Control (no additional wildflowers). All participants conducted insect sampling over two years using standardised pan and sticky trap methods May–August. Samples were returned for identification by trained specialists. Mini-meadows provided resource-rich habitats, increasing wild bee richness and supporting on average 111% more bumblebees, 87% more solitary bees and 85% more solitary wasps in the year following seed-sowing, compared to Control plots. The wildflower mixes were also taxon-specific in their attractiveness. Mix 1 attracted more solitary bees and bumblebees, whereas Mix 2 attracted more solitary wasps. There was no significant difference in the abundance of hoverflies between treatments. Higher abundance of solitary wasps and bees caught amongst the mini-meadow was perhaps due to shorter foraging ranges.
Publication Date: 10 March 2022
The sustainability of parking provision in Ireland by Margaret Rogers, Martin Rogers and Barry O'Riordan ABSTRACT Each Irish local authority sets out in its development plan the quantum of parking spaces required for new developments. The parking standards applicable to developments should encourage the idea of sustainable travel, with less parking required in areas where public transport is readily available and more parking required in areas where alternatives to the private car are less in evidence. Using data from their devlopment plans, the 30 local authorities are ranked on the basis of their level of car parking provision. These results are compared to a set of rankings for the local authorities based on their relative car dependency and usage of public transport. The analysis indicated that many urban-based local authorities do not have a coherent parking strategy, with very high levels of parking required in geographical areas where significant alternatives to the private car exist. Reasons as to why this may be the case are provided.
Publication Date: 25 May 2015