Sustainable Air Quality (TOTUS)

TOwards susTainable Urban formS (TOTUS)

Urban areas face increasing challenges to manage their growth. The complexities inherent to the interrelations between urban planning, people's behaviour and the natural environment highlight the need to tackle sustainability issues in an integrated framework.
Worldwide, urban planners and managers have identified major concerns with current growth trends in terms of energy use and environmental degradation. They are now attempting to change the design paradigm of urban areas from building scale to neighbourhood scale with the expectation that these initiatives will increase cities' vibrancy and decrease their energy demand, as well as reduce their environmental impacts. However, the complex interactions between the urban form and the environment have made the quantification of these expected benefits difficult and uncertain.
From an urban air quality point of view we want not only to identify but also quantify the impact that the city itself has on people's health through the changes in ambient air quality and exposure profiles.

Our main development focus for the last two years has been an analysis platform where energy use, transport patterns and exposure profiles fit consistently and inform each other. The exposure and the energy use modules take transport and building information to translate them into exposure profiles and energy use. The exposure profiles incorporate stationary (work and residential) and mobile (while travelling) exposure.

The modules within the TOTUS framework are continuously being developed by NIWA's energy and air quality teams and are based on state of the art research in the areas of energy efficiency, population exposure, microenvironment characterisation and ambient air quality.

For more information about TOTUS go to its website.