Between the Poles

Comprehensive open city model for Bahrain includes underground infrastructure

Locating underground infrastructure in Bahrain

Bahrain is one of the few places in the world which attempts to maintain the location of all underground infrastructure in a single database.  As I blogged in 2009, the location of all underground infrastructure in Bahrain is stored in a single Oracle Spatial RDBMS.  This database Intelligent Decision Support System (iDSS), which is supported by  the Ministry of Works, includes all utility networks

• electricity including transmission, distribution, and street lighting
• water including transmission and distribution
• wastewater including storm, road, sanitary, and combined
• telecommunications

The source databases are maintained by the respective owners, water and electricity by the Water and Electricity Authority, telecommunications by Batelco, and wastewater by the Ministry of Works.  iDSS has several layers of security that determine who can see what, and who can update what.

Anyone proposing to add to or make a change to underground infrastructure is required to complete a Proposal Request, essentially a building permit.  The request is forwarded electronically to all of the participating utilities, who are required to review and respond to the request within three days.

Developing a national 3D data model

At the GEO Business 2014 conference in London, Debbie Wilson, Senior Information Architect at the Ordnance Survey in the UK, presented an overview of the development of a comprehensive national 3D city model for Bahrain that she designed in less than six months under the sponsorship of the Survey and Land Registration Bureau of the Kingdom of Bahrain (SLRB). The goal is to develop a national 3D data model that supports a broad range of objectives including topographic mapping, land administration, hydrographic survey, utilities, infrastructure, local governance and spatial planning, agriculture, aquaculture, and environment.  Currently it does not include the inside of buildings or other structures. 

Specifically the national 3D data model is intended to support SLRB strategic initiatives

• 3D data capture
• As-built survey
• Underground utilities
• Sand search

It is intended to promote better government data sharing as a key underpinning for economic development.  This is a public-private partner (PPP) initiative involving municipalities, the Ministry of Works, and utilities.

Debbie's approach was to use existing standards (ISO, OGC, INSPIRE, industry-specific) as much as possible and to extend them only as required to meet the objectives of the SLRB. The basic model is CityGML with the CityGML utility extension ( Application Domain Extensions or ADE) for underground utilities.  In addition Debbie designed a specific ADE for Bahrain's national model called the Bahrain CityGML ADE which added floors and sub-units for high-rise buildings and some other elements for land administration. The 3D model she developed ultimately included 236 feature classes and supports Level of Detail (LoD) 3. 

Currently it does not support building information models (BIM), but the SLRB is interested in extending the model to support BIM in the future.

Implementation

A prototype implementation of the Bahrain National Data Model was developed on Oracle Spatial.  Data was imported from a variety of sources including the Ministry of Public Works, municipalities and utilities.  The data model and interface to the database are intended to be vendor neutral.  Demonstration applications using the data base were developed using ESRI ArcScene and CityEngine, Bentley Map and Google Maps.

Debbie credits open standards as a key factor in enabling this comprehensive national data model to be developed so rapidly, in under six months.  Furthermore the implementation only required two months.  The advantages that Debbie found from using open standards include

• Consistent framework enabling different domains to come together to develop a harmonized data model
• Provides a long-term foundation for data maintenance and exchange
• Platform independent allowing implementation using wide range of technologies
• Comprehensive 3D National Data Model developed in 6 months
• Prototyping team implemented model for all 236 features in Oracle database and migrated data within 2 months
• SLRB team developed series of demonstrations using key stakeholder applications withi 3 days
• SLRB and stakeholders can now start harnessing the power of their data to deliver new innovative services

Open national data model including utilities

This is an important step in developing a comprehensive data model and especially an open data model for underground utilities that I hope the smart cities community adopts and builds on.  I would recommend that any organization, municipal, regional, or national that is developing or intends to develop a national data model for modeling national infrastructure take a serious look at this open model and to consider using it as a reference for their own model.

France's national project to map underground utilities

Recently I posted an article about mapping underground utility infrastructure in cities and regions  around the world.  The most recent notable efforts in the regard are Las Vegas, which is creating a 3D model of underground and above ground infrastructure and implementing new regulations to ensure that accurate location information about underground facilities is captured, and the Region of Lombardy in Northern Italy, which has mandated that ground penetrating radar (GPR) be used by all municipalities in the region to capture location for all underground infrastructure.  But to date these efforts have been limited to municipalities or regions. 

At Geospatial World Forum 2014 in Geneva I was made aware of a project to map underground infrastructure on a national scale.  Pascal Berteaud, Director General, French National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information (IGN), referred to a large ten year, multi-billion euro project involving IGN and France's utilities to map all of France's underground utility infrastructure in 3D to an accuracy of 40 cm (about 16 inches). 

Berteaud discussed IGN's extensive use of geoinformation and innovative technologies like 3D building information modeling (BIM) for development activities in France. Geospatial information is the basis for optimization of mobility and transport, real-time information about assets, and intelligent road reference systems. In this context Berteaud emphasized that accurate 3D location is essential for effectively managing underground infrastructure and mentioned that France is developing a 3D model for its underground infrastructure and is employing advanced technologies in the project.

Accuracy of location of underground structures

The motivation for this project is a new regulation that was promulgated on 15 February 2012 titled  Decree relating to excavations near underground, overhead or underwater transmission or distribution networks.

Project managers of proposed construction projects are required to send a statement of the proposed work including a polygon delineating the area affected to the operators of utility networks operating in the area.

In return operators of utility networks must provide to the project managers plans of their underground networks in the area indicating the accuracy of the geographical location of different structures of their networks classified according to three accuracy classes.

For this purpose the Decree defines three levels of cartographic accuracy for underground structures;

Class A:  if the maximum uncertainty of location indicated by the utility operator is less than or equal to 40 cm

Class B: if the maximum uncertainty of location indicated by the utility operator is greater than that for Class A and less than or equal to 1.5 meters

Class C: if the maximum uncertainty of location indicated by the utility operator is greater than 1.5 meters , or if the operator is not able to provide the location.

The Decree states that uncertainty in the geographical location of a structure is considered likely to jeopardize the construction project or significantly impact the technical or financial conditions of its implementation when the geolocation of the structure is classified in accuracy classes B or C.  For structures falling in this category, the utility operator is required to initiate a process to reduce this uncertainty to achieve the goal of class A as quickly as possible.

Furthermore, if further investigation (typically potholing) of some structures by the contractor  is required, the cost of the investigations is assigned as follows

• The construction contractor assumes the entire cost  when the structures are assigned by the operator to accuracy class B and further investigation reveals that the actual classification is found to be Class B or Class A
• Half of the cost of the investigation is to be borne by the operator when the structures are assigned by the operator to  accuracy class C;
• All of the cost is to be borne by the operator when the structures have been assigned by the operator to accuracy class B and when the result of further investigation reveals that the actual classification is accuracy class C

Surveying underground infrastructure

Construction contractors are required to survey all new and changed underground structures.  These surveys must satisfy certain conditions.

Location coordinates of structures in an open trench must be reported by a ceritified provider (in North America I assume this would be a registered surveyor).  If remote detection technology such as GPR is employed, the firm performing this work is not required to be certified, but a certified provider must be involved in georeferencing the data.

Whatever the method of measurement used , direct or remote, the accuracy of the reported locations must be accuracy class A.

For each structure the data recorded must include

• Name of the project manager of the site
• Name of the company that provided the location information
• Name of the certified provider responsible for georeferencing
• The maximum measurement uncertainty (differentiating , where appropriate , x, y, and z )
• In the case of remote detection, the type of measurement technology used.

The data must be shared with the operator.

Coordinating public infrastructure construction projects in Bern saved SFR 7 million in first year

While in Switzerland for Geospatial World Forum 2014 I had the opportunity to spend some time with Dr. Martin Huber of Condesys Consulting who is responsible for the online web-based system Koordination im öffentlichen Raum (Spatial, temporal and financial co-ordination of city planning, traffic change, and construction projects on public land) of the City of Bern.  This is a primarily a system for coordinating street works that achieves some of the same goals as the 2004 Traffic Management Act in the U.K. It is location aware and enables planners to avoid serial excavations of the same stretch of street or road by coodinating all construction from multiple agencies including Federal, Kantonal and city street and highway agencies, water/wastewater, gas, and electricity utiltiies, and telecommunications companies so that a section of street or road is not dug up more than once every five years.

The City of Bern typically spends between SFR 80 and 200 million annually on construction for public infrastructure.  The initial phase of the coordination system cost about SFR 150,000.  In its first year of operation it was estimated that the coordination system saved SFR 7 million.  In other words the project paid for itself in about a week.

In 1999 regulations were passed by the city government requiring coordination among stakeholders involved with public infrastructure. Basically the bylaw specified that all excavation on public property   within city limits required a permit.  Stakeholders include the city electric and water utility (Energie Wasser Bern or EWB), Swisscom, UPC Cablecom, Colt Telecom, two railways (SBB and BLS), the Postauto bus system, billboard advertising companies, environmental agencies, archaeological agency, the agency responsible fro public monuments, the garbage collection department, fire, police and emergency agencies, Kantonal public works, and the Federal Highways Agency (Bundesamt für Strassen or ASTRA).  What this means in practice is that all projects involving a certain road or stretch of highway are coordinated so that they all happen at the same time.  After completion of construction there is a moratorium on any further excavations on the same stretch of street or road, except for emergencies, for five years.  It also means that everyone who is affected by street work from garbage collection to billboards to city planners is aware of when and where construction will occur.

The initial implementation of the system, developed by Condesys, was deployed in 2000.  In 2001 it received an award from Arthur Anderson for best egovernment application.

Geolocating underground infrastructure

In Bern the law requires that anyone planning a construction project involving excavation has to submit information about the proposed constrcution to the online coordinaton system.  Providing reliable information about the location of underground infrastructure is the responsibility of the organizations operating the infrastructure.

In Switzerland each utility and telecommunications company is responsible for maintaining records that show the location of their underground infrastructure.  In Bern they are required to provide the location of their underground facilities to the City Survey Office (Vermessungsamt der Stadt Bern ) who is responsible for aggregating the data from the multiple utiltiies and telecommunication companies into a single database (Leitungskadaster) and making it publicly available. 

As in many parts of the world the data quality of this underground geolocation information (Leitungskadaster) is an issue.  According to Martin utilities and telecoms are currently working to improve the quality of their geolocation infrmation about underground facilities.  Swisscom is spending about SFR 250 million to resurvey their infrastructure and other utilties have similar projects underway.  By the end of 2014 EWB and Swisscom are expected to have improved the reliability of their geolocation information about their underground infrastructure in Bern.

The city has also put in place regulations to ensure that accurate data is captured for new construction projects involving underground infrastructure.  For example, there is a 24 hour rule that requires a contractor to notify the city survey department 24 hours before closing a trench.  For large projects city surveyors periodically survey underground works.

Water scarcity driving investment in renewables with low water consumption

Energy and water are valuable resources that strongly correlate with economic development.  Water and energy are also highly interdependent.  In the United States about half of water withdrawals are used for power generation.  Water is also used in the extraction, transport and processing of fossil fuels; and, increasingly, in irrigation to grow crops like corn used to produce biofuels.

Energy is required by the systems that collect, transport, distribute and treat water.  About 25 percent of United States' electricity goes to moving and treating water, according to a 2005 California Energy Commission report.

According to the IEA, globally agriculture is the principal user of water, accounting for 70% of water use, followed by industry (including mining and power generation) at 19% and municipal networks, which provide water for public and private users, at 11%.

Global water withdrawals for energy production in 2010 were estimated at 583 billion cubic metres (bcm), about 15% of the world’s total water withdrawals. Most of this is for cooling where the water is returned but typically at a higher temperature.  Water consumption where water is withdrawn but not returned accounted for 66 bcm.

Risks

The vulnerability of the energy sector to water constraints depends on geography and type of power  production.  Regions where water is scarce face serious risks, but with climate change regions currently with adequate water resources can face constraints related to droughts, heat waves, and regulations. Countries with a high proportion of their generating capacity in thermal plants with once-through cooling (using freshwater) and hydropower are especially susceptible to water shoratges.

Less water-intensive power generation technologies

Water is growing in importance as a criterion for assessing the physical, economic and environmental viability of energy projects.  Water withdrawals per unit of electricity generated are highest for fossil fuel thermal generating plants  - coal-,gas- and oil-fired plants operating on a steam-cycle and nuclear power plants with once-through cooling.  If cooling towers are used, water withdrawais are 20-8 times less, but water consumption is higher because of greater evaporation. Combined-cycle gas turbines (CCGTs) generate less waste heat per unit of electricity produced because they have higher thermal efficiency, and therefore require less cooling.  Both their water withdrawal and consumption are the lowest among fossil-fuel thermal power plants.

Water requirements for renewable electricity generating technologies range from negligible to comparable with thermal generation using wet tower cooling. Non-thermal renewables, such as wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) use very small amounts of water, which makes them well-suited for a future that will be both more carbon- and water-constrained. In addition to lower water use for direct  electricity generation, these renewable technologies have little or no water use associated with the production of fuel inputs in contrast to biofuels. They also have negligible impact on water quality compared to thermal plants (fossil-fuel or nuclear) that discharge large volumes of heated cooling water into the environment. Geothermal and concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies have water needs that range widely, depending on the particular generating technology and cooling system employed.

Base case

IEA New Policies Scenario: This scenario includes policy commitments and plans that have been announced by countries, including national pledges to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and plans to phase out fossil-energy subsidies, even if the measures to implement these commitments have yet to be identified or announced. This broadly serves as the IEA baseline scenario.

The IEA projects that under this scenario, by 2035 withdrawals are projected to increase by about 20%.  In this scenario consumption increases much more dramatically, by about 85% driven by a shift towards higher efficiency power plants with more advanced cooling systems and by expanding biofuels production.

Low-carbon scenario

450 Scenario: This scenario sets out an energy pathway consistent with the goal of limiting the global increase in temperature to 2°C by limiting the concentration of greenhouse gases to around 450 parts per million of CO2.

Energy efficiency, wind and solar PV contribute to a low-carbon energy future without intensifying water demands significantly. Compared with 2010, withdrawals in this Scenario rise by only 4% in 2035, though consumption doubles due to much higher biofuels production.  This scenario would tend to increase solar PV and wind power generation, compared to water intensive low-carbon technologies such as nuclear power, power plants fitted with carbon capture and storage equipment and concentrating solar power requiring water cooling.  Dry cooling is also starting to be used with concentrating solar power generation.  Construction of the first utility-scale concentrating solar power plants (CSP) in Africa has been announced.  The plants minimize water use by employing dry cooling technology.

G20 finance ministers looking at ways to attract $57 trillion in needed investment in infrastructure

Australia chaired a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Sydney over the weekend to talk  about the challenges facing the global economy.  One of the fundamental problems is finding the funding for needed infrastruture investment estimated by the McKinsey Global Institute at $3.2 trillion annually or about $57 trillion between 2013 and 2030.

Governments need the private sector to invest in infrastructure.  The problem is not a shortage of capital, but making the investment climate attractive to business.  Business will only get involved if the projects are economically viable and the risk is manageable so that a reasonable rate of return can be expected.  The goal of the Sydney meeting is to find similar ways to break down regulatory barriers and other disincentives for investors.

As a recent example of what governments can do, in the United States where building a new transmission line can take up to 20 years because of regulatory requirements, low cost private  funding is readily available for transmission line projects, but only after the necessary regulatory requirements have been met.  To simplify and streamline the regulatory process for transmission lines on Federal lands, in October, 2009 nine Federal agencies signed a memorandum of understanding to increase their coordination. The Obama administration has also announced pilot projects to streamline the permitting of transmission lines in order to speed up integration of renewables.

Background: MGI on improving infrastructure productivity

I blogged about McKinsey Global Institute's (MGI) research into construction productivity back in 2012 after a presentation at an international infrastructure conference.  The results of this research are encapsulated in a recent report where MGI has estimated that $57 trillion in infrastructure (roads and highways, rail, ports and seaports, electric power, water and waste water and communications) investment will be required from 2013 through 2030 ($3.2 trillion per year) just to support the projected growth in the world economy, estimated at 3.5% growth in world GDP annually.  This is about 60% more than the $36 trillion that was spent over the past 18 years, but it still is not sufficient to address some of the major backlogs in infrastructure maintenance in developed economies, the infrastructure development goals of the emerging economies, or the cost of making the world's economies more resilient to climate change.  

If the world does not invest in infrastructure, this will create a drag on the world's economy that will slow GDP growth especially in emerging economies.  Slower growth in GDP means lower  employment.  MGI estimates that every 1% of of GDP that is invested in infrastructure translates into, for example, 3.4 million direct and indirect jobs in India, 1.3 million in Brazil, 700,000 in Indonesia or 1.5 million in the United States.   

MGI makes a case that it is possible to reduce the cost of infrastructure while at the same time improving its quality.  MGI estimates that if world's infrastructure owners were to adopt proven best practice to improve construction productivity which has been stagnant for the past 20 years in some of the world's most important economies (US, EU, Japan, Korea) it would be possible to save 40% of the total cost of infrastructure (not including telecom). This amounts to savings of about  $1 trillion per year or a 60% improvement in infrastructure productivity.  To arrive at this conclusion MGI has analyzed 400 case studies of best practices - projects that used what is currently recognized as best practices.  So this does not require new and untested technology and business practices, this means applying what we already know.

Itron study finds that the utility industry needs to reinvent itself through technology

Itron has published its first annual Itron Resourcefulness Index. It is a study based on a survey of utility executives from the gas, water and electricity industries as well as utility consumers. 800 informed consumers and 600 utility executives in 14 countries were asked to respond to questions about the state for the global utility industry.

Concern about the current state of the utility industry

Respondents indicated that there is a significant level of concern about the state of the utility industry.   60 percent of utility executives and 70 percent of customers believe that utility operations are not efficient. 70 % of utility customers and 40 % of utility executives agreed that operational inefficiency lowers customer satisfaction.  The discrepancy between the utility executives and consumers points to another problem identified in this study.

94 percent of utility executives surveyed agreed that transformation of operations was essential to improve efficiency. The concern was greatest in the developing countries, especially China and India. Developed countries, in particular Spain, Australia and  Canada, had the lowest overall concern among both consumers and executives.

Noteworthy is the gap between the level of concern expressed by utility executives and consumers.  In every country consumers expressed greater concern about the state of the utility industry than utility executives.

Eight out of 10 consumers said they do not receive enough information from their utilities today, and seven out of 10 said they want to know more.

The survey also asked executives in the event that they lost 10% of their current budget, what would they cut.  Nearly six out of 10 executives said they would cut consumer education if budgets were reduced.  This points to a serious lack of communication between utility executives and consumers.

If utility executives had to deduct 10 percent from their budget, what would they reduce

• 23% Energy Efficiency / Water Conservation
• 26% Staff / Employees
• 20% Infrastructure
• 21% Upgrading Our Technology
• 33% Consumer/educational programs

Barriers to change

94 percent of utility executives identify government policy and uncertainty about regulations in the future as the most important barrier to infrastructure investment.  Consumers also seem to agree that government or a lack of policy is hindering infrastructure investment.

Which if the following do you believe are barriers to infrastructure investment ?

• 54% Government regulation that delays investment
• 45% Lack of clarity of government regulation
• 40% Uncertainties about the future of the industry
• 34% Difficulties with prioritizing where to invest
• 32% Lack of public funding
• 25% Lack of private funding
• 19% Need more time

Role of technology

Utility executives were also asked in the event that their budget was increased by 10%, where would they spend the money,  More than half of utility executives said that the very first thing they would do with more budget is spend it on technology.  Of these 68 % said they would invest in IT services and 58 % would invest in the sensor web often termed the “Internet of Things."

If Utility executives had an extra 10 percent in their budget, what would they spend it on ?

• 51% Upgrading Our Technology
• 43% Infrastructure
• 41% Staff / Employees
• 39% Energy Efficiency / Water Conservation
• 25% Consumer / Educational Programs

Big data and analytics

A large proportion (74 %) of utility executives feel big data analytics is going to be central to infrastructure modernization efforts. Six out of 10 consumers also believe big data drives utility operational efficiency.

According to this survey 46 percent of utility executive respondents feel prepared for big data analytics today. ( This is surprising.  A similar recent Oracle survey found that utilities are more prepared to manage the huge volumes of data that smart grids are capable of generating in 2013 than they were one year ago, but the majority still say they are unprepared.  In 2013 17 % of respondents said they are completely prepared compared to 9 % in 2012.) Consumers are very concerned about big data readiness, with only two out of 10 responding that utilities are prepared to take advantage of big data analytics today.

Utility executives liekly to invest in technology would choose

• 68% IT services (programs, software, hardware, etc.)
• 58% Internet of things (i.e. embedding sensors in physical objects)
• 45% Sensors
• 38% Meters

In summary

The Itron study found that there was near unanimity among utility executive and consumer respondents that the industry needs to transform itself. It found that consumers want help from utilities to better manage their resources and that policy and regulation are perceived as critical, but they are seen by both utility executives and consumers as a barrier to progress.  Communications between utilities and consumers needs to improve. Most of respondents see technology as the key to the transformation the utility industry needs to go through.

Four energy-efficient community development projects that affordably reduce energy consumption

The Ottawa Chapter of the Canada Green Building Council last evening hosted a very informative presentation by Jamie Shipley and Thomas Green from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) on lessons learned from CMHC's EQuilibrium Communities Initiative and EQuilibrium Sustainable Housing Demonstration Initiative.

The EQuilibrium Communities Initiative are four sustainable community demonstration projects jointly funded by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and Natural Resources Canada (NRCan).  The initiative provided financial assistance to developers of the neighbourhood projects for research and technical activities to improve, monitor and showcase their performance in the six areas; energy, water and stormwater, protection of the natural environment, land use and housing, transportation and financial viability.

Jamie Shipley, a researcher with CMHC, gave an overview of the four EQuilibrium Communities projects: Station Pointe Greens in Edmonton, Alberta; Ampersand in Ottawa, Ontario; Ty-Histanis neighbourhood development 10 km from Tofino, British Columbia; and the Regent Park Revitalization in Toronto, Ontario, all of which are completed or near completion at this point.  The achievements that Jamie described for these projects are quite remarkable and perhaps most remarkably because they have not increased costs significantly over what they would have cost if just built to meet the local building code.

Station Pointe Greens

Station Pointe Greens is a transit-oriented development 300 m from a light-rail transit station in a former industrial area northeast of downtown Edmonton. The Communitas Group Ltd. is building 219 co-operative homes, with mixed uses, in the form of mid- and high-rise construction, with some townhouses, all targeting Passive House criteria.  (Passive House is a desing standard developed in Europe for reducing the energy consumption of houses.  In Canada energy consumption can be reduced through PH by 80% or more).  An ecological wastewater ("black" water)  treatment facility has been installed in-site as part of the project.

The project has reduced energy requirements for heating and cooling by 90% compared to what would be required if the buildings had been built according to the Alberta Building Code.  By installing green rooves, 50% of the site is classified as green.  This also reduces storm water runoff.  100% of waste water is treated on site and reused as gray water.  Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this project is financial. The total cost was 1% above what it would have cost if built to code.  This is quite a mremarkable achievment as buildung houses to the Passive House standard in Canada can require 10% more expenditure than building to code.

Ty-Histanis

Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations (TFN) is developing a new community on 84 hectares of land near Tofino. The neighbourhood will 162 residential lots, up to 215 housing units, an elders’ complex, and a variety of community facilities located in the Community Core. By the end of 2012 all infrastructure is in place and 43 housing units had been built.

A key objective of the project is a 50 per cent reduction in greenhouse gases (GHGs) through energy reductions by using a district energy system using renewable energy sources and ground source heat pumps as well as building envelope improvements.  At least 40 per cent of the development site has been maintained as undisturbed, natural habitat.  Through the use of porous pavements only 14% of the total site surface area is classified as impermeable.

Ampersand

Ampersand is a transit-oriented development being developed by Minto. Phase 1 incudes 300 units in the form of stacked townhouses and 4-storey condominium apartments.  One block of this development (14 units) is net-zero energy.

The project has a high level of pedestrian connectivity with access to high-quality community parks,  commercial outlets, the existing OCTRANSPO bus transitway and Ottawa’s proposed Light Rail Transit. Remarkably, tree canopy coverage is 30 % of the site.  A 30% reduction in energy usage compared to code has been achieved through a district heating system, solar PV on the rooves of the net zero energy buildings and improved building envelopes, appliances and mechanical systems.

Regent Park

Revitalization of Regent Park is transforming Canada’s oldest and largest social housing community into a mixed-income community for 5,100 households. The EQuilibrium Communities initiative supported Phase 1, which includes over 1,000 townhouses, mid-rise and high-rise units, either market condominiums or affordable rental units for low to moderate income residents. This part of the project is fully occupied.  Phase 1 also has 5,000 square meters of commercial, retail and community agency space.

One of the main objectives of the project is a high quality pedestrian environment with walking access to public transit, jobs, civic amenities and commercial outlets.  This is a relatively high desnity development, but has been able to a achieve 30%-40% tree caopy coverage.

Energy consumption is 40 to 50 % lower than building to the Model National Energy Code for Buildings (MNECB) throgh energy-efficient building envelopes, lighting, appliances and mechanical
systems and a district heating system that uses commercial waste heat for residential heating. 

The project uses 40-60% less potable water through low-flow fixtures, water-efficient
landscape design and tenant education.  It also reduces runoff volume by 50 per cent through the use of green roofs and porous pavements.

Affordability is a key goal of this community development: 35 per cent of homes are market rental and all units have rents lower than the area average or are rent-geared-to-income.

Cities and states mandate energy labeling and green construction codes world-wide

Energy labeling for buildings

In the U.K. since 2008 public buildings over 1,000 m² must display a Display Energy Certificate (DEC).  DECs document the actual energy usage of a building and look similar to the energy labels provided on new cars and electrical appliances.  In addition an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) is required whan any building is built, rented or sold.

In the U.S. six cities and two states have passed laws requiring energy benchmarking of existing buildings. It is estimated that these laws will affect 4 billion ft² of floor space in major real estate markets.

• California
• Washington State

• Washington, DC
• New York City
• San Francisco
• Seattle
• Austin
• Philadelphia

In Australia commercial buildings 2000 m² and over are required by the Building Energy Efficiency Disclosure Act 2010 to have a Building Energy Efficiency Certificate (BEEC).  In the case of residential buildings the Council of Australian Governments committed to phase in the mandatory disclosure of residential building energy, greenhouse and water performance at the time the building is offered for sale or lease.

Green building codes

In 1990 rate payers in Burlington, Vermont approved a bond issue to fund energy efficiency programs.   As a result of the energy efficiency initiative Burlington has been able to meet the energy needs of a growing local economy over the last 19 years entirely through energy efficiency.  Burlington’s annual electricity consumption in 2009 only about 2 percent greater than in 1989.  Burlington has one of the highest proportions of LEED-certified buildings in the country.  It is interesting that the Burlington Electric Department not only participates in writing the energy performance guidelines of Burlington's building code, but also in the inspection and enforcement of those aspects of the building code.

The California Building Standards Commission approved the first-in-the-nation statewide mandatory Green Building Standards Code (CALGREEN) requiring all new buildings in the state to be more energy efficient and environmentally responsible. The new building code took effect in January 1, 2011.

In 2009 the State of New York New York mandated green building for government-owned facilities starting in August 2010. The State Green Building Construction Act requires that all new construction and major renovations must meet green building standards set by the New York Office of General Services.

In 2010 the International Code Council (ICC), together with the American Institute of Architects (AIA), ASTM International, ASHRAE, U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) and Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) developed the International Green Construction Code (IgCC), which is the first model code to include sustainability measures for the entire construction lifecycle from design through construction, certificate of occupancy and beyond with the objective of making buildings more efficient, reducing waste, and having a positive impact on health, safety and community welfare.

In Jakarta a new green building code became mandatory for existing and new buildings in early 2013.  The code covers all large buildings in Jakarta including office buildings, shopping malls and apartment buildings larger than 50,000 square meters; hotels and healthcare facilities larger than 20,000 square meters; and educational facilities larger than 10,000 square meters.

In October, 2009 Dallas, Texas was one of the first major cities in the U.S. to implement green building standards for both new residential and commercial construction.  The most recent City of Dallas Green Ordinance took effect October 1, 2013.  All new projects must meet the minimum requirements of the Dallas Green Construction Code (basically the International Green Construction Code with local amendments), be LEED certifiable, be Green Built Texas certifiable or be certifiable under an equivalent green building standard.  Expedited review is available for projects that are at a minimum Dallas Green Construction Code compliant, LEED Silver certifiable or ASHRAE 189.1-2011 certifiable.  A key provision is targeted at reducing water usage by 20%.

Going beyind the building code

In some jurisdictions utilities and other organizations encourage going beyond the building code ti improve energy performance and reduce water usage.

For example, in Ontario the Ontario Power Authority has implemented a High performance new construction (HPNC) program targeted on new construction and major renovations in the planning stage.   The HPNC program provides design assistance and financial incentives to encourage building owners and architects to exceed the electricity efficiency standards specified in the Ontario Building Code. The HPNC program will fund up to 100% of the cost of energy performance modelling for a new building, and will pay $400 for every kilowatt saved for lighting measures or up to $800 for every kilowatt saved for non-lighting measures over the Ontario Building Code.

Towards spatial standards for the Internet of Things (IoT)

Geospatial information is a cross-cutting requirement critical to many different domains.  Therefore the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) has entered into alliances with standards organizations in many different sectors from buildings to transportation to utilities and real estate. Many of these organizations collaborate with the OGC on standards development, particularly when an interoperability solution depends on consistency between standards from different standards development organizations. 

The OGC collaborates with over twenty different standards organizations including the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Open Mobile Alliance (OMA), International Augmented Reality Standards Coordination group, IEEE Technical Committee 9 (Sensor Web), Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), ISO Technical Committee 211 (ISO TC/211) - Geographic information/Geomatics, National Institute for Building Standards (NIBS), Organization for Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), buildingSMART alliance, and World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to name just a few.

Standards for the Internet of Things

As an example, the OGC and International Telecommunications Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) are jointly collaborating on the advancement of standards for the Internet of Things (IoT).  As part of this effort the OGC has submitted the OGC Open GeoSMS standard for adoption through the ITU.  In addition the ITU-T has just published a ITU-T Technology Watch Report: Location matters: Spatial standards for the Internet of Things, written by staff and members of the OGC in collaboration with the ITU Secretariat.  The objective of the ITU-T Technology Watch publications are to survey the ICT landscape to capture new topics for standardization activities.  The objective of this report is to help stakeholders understand spatial standards for Social-Local-Mobile markets and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Spatial standards for communications

Wireless mobile devices are not only consumers of data; but are also producers of data. Different kinds of data such as text, imagery, video, and spatial data require different sets of standards. The Pew Research Center’s “Internet & American Life Project” reported that by February 2012 74% of smartphone owners were using their devices to get directions and other location-related information.  And this seems to be increasing.  A previous survey in May 2011, found that 55% were using their phones for location-related infirmation.  Today all new smartphones are location-enabled with built-in GPS chips.

Location-enabled applications are being used in many sectors including transportation, emergency response, disaster management, environmental sampling, meteorological and oceanographic research, municipal and utility maintenance operations, and location marketing.

Spatial standards enable interoperability through the exchange of spatial data between software systems. The spatial standards community is concerned with the consistent encoding of location data and the use of well-defined, consistent service interfaces for finding, accessing and invoking spatial and associated data.

Communicating simple latitude-longitude coordinates requires a standard. The point data type of the Geography Markup Language (GML) or the coordinate parameter of Open GeoSMS, is a standard that has been submitted to ITU for adoption as an ITU-T Recommendation.  There are many Earth coordinate reference systems or projections (CRS) in use today, so specification of the CRS is critical.  GML is a joint OGC/ISO standard that defines an XML grammar for encoding and transporting geospatial content including coordinate system. GML is vendor and technology neutral and is designed so that any kind of geospatial information can be encoded.  The standard enables cities and countries to provide vendor-neutral public access to data about elevation, water bodies, transportation infrastructure, population density, land cover, vegetation, geology and other data layers that comprise spatial data infrastructure. GML is embedded in international encoding standards for domains such as weather, aviation, hydrology, geology, augmented reality, and emergency response.

Geospatial standards must meet interoperability requirements beyond defining a standard way to express a lat-long coordinate. Standards define and provide consistent ways to exchange and process Earth referenced data that may be encoded using grid cells, vectors, polygons or other methods of representing Earth features. Interoperability is essential because in today's web environment these operations are more commonly performed on distributed systems than in a GIS running on a single computer.

Gaps

While GML and related standards give smartphone app developers access to geospatial resources that enable interoperability, critical gaps remain.

While outdoor location systems are well defined and widely used, the same is not true for indoor navigation.. Users expect a seamless transition when entering a building, but this is not currently possible. There is no single technology that provides for uniform coverage of positioning information indoors. 

Things in the Internet of Things all have location and many of these things are inside buildings. The location of a sensing device such as a digital thermometer in a building is highly relevant to applications that use data from that sensor.   Access to accurate information about buildings including the location of sensors is becoming increasingly important. Building Information (BIM)-based standards are needed to provide building information, such as the location of devices, throughout a building’s lifecycle.

BIM standards and other built environment standards also require open standards for communicating information about spatial data provenance and rights of ownership and access. Data provenance involves tracking not only rights and the lineage of data through many operations, but also information about uncertainty and quality.

Systems for design (BIM, CAD and Civil Engineering software) and systems for observation and management (sensors, imaging and geospatial processing) were created by different professional communities to solve different kinds of problems. Despite these differences, progress toward interoperation is accelerating as the concept of intelligent citiesi becomes more compelling for both government and business.

Spatial standards affect many sectors

Spatial standards enable people to communicate about features and phenomena that have a particular location on the Earth. Open spatial standards offer extraordinary socio-economic value, and evidence of this can be found in several application domains including emergency and disaster management and response, smart Infrastructure for transportation; public works; electricity, natural gas, water and sewage utilities where there is pressure to become more efficient and to address issues such as fossil fuel depletion, water shortages, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the sanitation needs of growing cities.

Surveying/civil/geospatial interoperability is part of a longstanding set of challenges that includes BIM interoperability and 3D modeling interoperability. The OGC CityGML Encoding Standard for 3D modeling provides a foundational part of the solution. The Netherlands has made CityGML-encoded 3D data a key part of their National Spatial Data Infrastructure. One major BIM standards effort is the conversion of  buildingSMART International's Industry Foundation Classes to service interfaces and encodings that are consistent with CityGML and with service-oriented computing in general. Standards organizations working on intelligent cities and smart infrastructure need to consider open spatial standards to enable interoperability between the many different domains comprising modern cities.

The OGC has been working with the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) since mid-2009 to improve water management by improving the discoverability, accessibility and usability of water information. Part of this effort is WaterML 2.0, a standard for encoding water observation time series enables linking local, regional, national and global water information sources into connected water information networks.

Spatial standards efforts underway

Open GeoSMS

The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) contributed its Open GeoSMS specification to the OGC in 2009. Open GeoSMS facilitates the communication of location content in Short Message Service (SMS) transmissions. SMS is a feature in every mobile phone; all mobile phones therefore have the potential to communicate location information in a standard way.

Augmented Reality (AR)

AR allows the user to see the real world with virtual objects superimposed upon or composited with the real world.  Kocation based services used with smartphones and other types of mobile technology are a major driving force behind AR’s entering the mainstream.  To further development of AR standards in 2010 the OGC became an active participant in an International Augmented Reality Standards Coordination group.

IndoorGML

Indoor location is getting a lot of attention primarily because of the commercial opportunities it enables. Beyond locating a mobile device in an indoor environment, the indoor environment presents a number of standardization challenges, such as how navigation directions are supplied (take the elevator to the 3rd floor and turn right); semantics (my first floor is not your first floor); special zones (heating, security, Wi-Fi, etc.); and the lack of a standard for modeling and encoding floor plans. In addition, indoor navigation must necessarily be 3D. The objective of the OGC's IndoorGML initiative is to enable the representation and exchange of the geo-information required to build and operate indoor navigation systems.

Sensor Interface for Internet of Things

The OGC has recongnized the growing importance of the IoT for some time.  In 2001 the OGC took on the task of standardizing sensor communication because every sensor has a location, whether in situ (such as a rain gauge) or remote (such as an Earth imaging device), and the location of a sensor is highly significant for many applications. The resulting suite of SWE standards – now being implemented worldwide – enables developers to make networked sensors, transducers and sensor-data repositories discoverable, accessible and useable via the Web or other networks.  The OGC created a standards working group (SWG) for a “Sensor Interface for IoT/WoT”. The scope of work for this SWG is to develop a candidate standard for access to sensors in an IoT/WoT environment.

Energy sector vulnerabilities to climate change

Energy is essential for economic development.  The effects of climate change include Increasing temperatures, decreasing water availability, more intense storm events, and sea level rise.  These will affect the ability of the United States to exploit, produce,and distribute fossil fuels and generate and distribute electricity, as well as affecting the demand for energy.  The Department of Energy has released a study that assesses the impact of climate change on the energy sector.

Some of the events that have occurred in the last few years that motivated this effort include

• August 2012: Millstone Nuclear Power Station in Connecticut shut down one reactor because the temperature of the intake cooling water from the Long Island Sound was too high
• September 2011: High temperatures and high electricity demand tripped a transformer and transmission line near Yuma, Arizona, starting a chain of events that led to shutting down the San Onofre nuclear power plant with power lost to the entire San Diego County distribution system of 2.7 million power customers with outages as long as 12 hours
• July 2012: In one of the worst droughts in American history, companies that extract natural gas and oil via hydraulic fracturing faced higher water costs or were denied access to water for 6 weeks or more in several states, including Kansas, Texas, Pennsylvania, and North Dakota.
• Summer 2010: Below-normal precipitation and streamflows in the Columbia River basin resulted in insufficient hydropower generation to fulfill load obligations for the Bonneville Power Administration. BPA experienced a net loss of $164 million in fiscal year 2010, due to low water volumes.

Impacts of climate change

Thermoelectric power generation facilities are at risk from decreasing water availability and increasing air and water temperatures, which reduce the efficiency of cooling.

Increasing temperatures increase evaporative water losses and water use in upstream watersheds, decreasing water availability for hydropower. 

Cooling water availability could be limited by low flows, high water temperatures, or both.

The National Energy Technology Laboratory evaluated the potential water-related vulnerabilities of all coal-fired power plants in the United States and found that nearly 350 plant (60% of 580 plants) are located in areas subject to water stress (i.e., limited water supply and/or competing water demand from other sectors).

Increasing temperatures also reduce the efficiency of conventional thermal power plants.  For example,the power output of natural gas-fired combustion turbines is estimated to decrease by approximately 0.6 %–0.7% for a 1°C increase in air temperature. For combined cycle power plants, output can decrease by approximately 0.3%–0.5% for a 1°C increase in air temperature. For nuclear power plants, output losses are estimated to be approximately 0.5% for a 1°C increase in air temperature.

Energy infrastructure located along the coast is at risk from increasing intensity of storms and higher storm surge and flooding, which affects oil and gas production, refining, and distribution, as well as electricity generation and distribution.

Oil and gas production, such as shale gas and oil and oils sands, is vulnerable to decreasing water availability.

Renewable energy resources, particularly hydropower, bioenergy, and concentrating solar power can be affected by changing precipitation patterns, more frequent and more intense droughts, and increasing temperatures.

For example, PV panels become less effcient as temperature rises.  This is one of the reasons that Minnesota is a better location for solar PV power generation than locations in the South.

Electricity transmission and distribution systems operate less efficiently when air temperatures are higher, and they face risk of physical damage from more intense and frequent storm events and wildfires.

According to the IEA Approximately 7 % of power is lost in transmission and distribution.  Increasing temperature increaes these losses.  For example, a study of the California power grid projected that during the hot periods of August in 2100 a 5°C increase in air temperature could decrease transmission line capacity by 7%–8%.  The same study projects that a 5°C warming in 2100 could cause substation capacity to fall by 2%–4%.

Onshore oil and gas operations in Arctic Alaska are vulnerable to thawing permafrost, which may cause damage to existing infrastructure and restrict seasonal access.  On the other hand, offshore operations could benefit from a longer sea ice-free season.

Increasing temperatures will likely increase electricity demand for cooling and decrease fuel oil and natural gas demand for heating.

Interdependencies

There are interdependencies within the energy sector.  For example, oil and gas transmission systems depend on electric power for monitoring and management equipment as well as for pumping.  Ther are also interdependencies between the energy sector and other sectors. The energy, water, food/land nexus is the best known.  For example, in the U.S. half of water withdrawals go to conventional thermal power plants fo cooling.

Water needed for energy

• Energy resource extraction
• Fuel processing
• Thermal power plant cooling
• Carbon capture and storage

Water needed for land

• Agriculture
• Industrial municipal commercial and residential uses
• Natural ecosystems

Energy needed for land

• Resource extraction and conversion
• Agriculture
• Transportation
• Industrial municipal commercial and residential uses

Land needed for energy

• Energy resource extraction
• Energy infrastructure, including dams/reservoirs, mines/wells, power plants, solar and wind farms, power lines, pipelines, and refineries
• Bioenergy cropland
• CCS

Land needed for water

• Water capture and watershed
• Ground cover vegetation

There are also interdependencies between the energy sector and other sectors such as transportation and communications. The transportation sector requires energy for motive power, and the energy sector relies on transportation to provide the necessary coal, oil, and natural gas resources to operate. The communications sector requires electricity to operate, and the smarter grid is based on communication systems.