Multi-scale life cycle energy analysis of a low-density suburban neighborhood in Melbourne, Australia

Abstract

Many cities are likely to expand in the coming decades and this expansion will probably include low-density neighbourhoods. There is an increasing pressure on cities worldwide to accommodate an increasing population. It is therefore crucial to assess the energy demand and related greenhouse gas emissions implications of such development.This paper uses a representative low-density neighbourhood in Melbourne, Australia, assesses its energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions over 100 years and investigates various scenarios related to house size, transport technology, housing typology and the temporal evolution of parameters.Results show that the energy required to produce and replace bu..