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Tornado Resilience and Sustainability

Research Purpose:

Develop embodied carbon estimates of tornado damage to an interdisciplinary NSF research project.

Summary

Strong winds such as those produced by a tornado or a hurricane have resulted in billions of dollars in damage annually and continue to threaten the safety of building occupants.  Much of the U.S. that is susceptible to these hazards also have expansive soils; slab-on-grade construction in such areas is commonplace.  The building design will be optimized by considering how a building should be designed such that it contributes as much as possible to community resiliency while maintaining a prescribed level of sustainability; and while keeping costs associated with homeownership at a reasonable level.

The research hypothesis is that it is possible to develop risk-informed performance criteria for individual resilient and sustainable buildings exposed to a spectrum of natural hazards that can be matched to community goals; that building attributes can be identified and parameterized to support this general risk-informed decision framework; and that the risk-informed decision framework supporting these performance criteria for individual buildings will enable enhanced community resilience and sustainability by targeting public and private investments to manage life-cycle costs.

The UW research team is responsible for integrating architectural considerations in the development of building and community archetype models as well as developing life cycle cost and environmental impact assessment models for residential construction taking into account the impacts of tornadoes and expansive soils.  Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) students have been active contributors to the project’s success.

Journal publications

Research team

Principal investigators:

  • Van de Lindt (Colorado State University) (PI)
  • A. Cerato (University of Oklahoma) (co-PI)
  • B. Ellingwood (Colorado State University) (co-PI)
  • H. Mahmoud (Colorado State University) (co-PI)
  • L. Peek (Colorado State University) (co-PI)
  • K. Simonen (University of Washington) (co-PI)
  • N. Wang (Oklahoma State University) (co-PI)

UW contributors

  • A. Ianchenko (REU)
  • D. Alampay (REU)
  • C. Cyra (REU)
  • C. Ayers (REU)
  • A. Xie
  • M. Huang

Resource Library

Embodied Carbon Policy Reduction Calculator

The Policy Reduction Calculator is a web-based tool developed by the Carbon Leadership Forum to provide policymakers with data-driven insights on low embodied carbon policies in North America.

Reclaimed and Reused: Recommended LCA Modeling Guidance to Support EPDs for Reused Construction Materials

Material reuse is one strategy for reducing the embodied carbon of construction. While the preparation of previously used materials for reuse has an environmental impact, it avoids many of the resource extraction and manufacturing impacts of building with newly manufactured products. Given the amount of demolition and deconstruction across North America (and beyond), there is a vast potential for material reuse to expand in scale. However, barriers to material reuse scaling exist.

DEQ Low Embodied Carbon Housing Program: Roadmap to Success

Embodied Carbon Pathways to 2050 for the United States, a collaboration between the Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF), RMI, and the University of Washington (UW) Life Cycle Lab, provides an assessment of embodied carbon from US construction materials and explores pathways to align with a 1.5°C global warming limit.

International Embodied Carbon Data Availability: A Review of Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) Availability in Europe, China, and Australia

CLF completed a landscape analysis of product-level embodied carbon data availability in regions outside North America with the goals of: (i) understanding how LCA/EPD data availability varies globally; (ii) informing where targeted initiatives are needed to increase the availability of data; and (iii) determining whether adequate EPD data exists to develop CLF Material Baselines outside North America. This report summarizes our findings and provides initial insights into what data is available to inform low-carbon procurement efforts in Australia, China, and Europe.

The CLF Benchmark Explorer

Emissions from the operations of buildings and infrastructure are significant, well-understood contributors to national and global greenhouse gas emissions. However, the contribution of embodied carbon—emissions associated with the manufacturing, transportation, installation, maintenance, and disposal of construction materials across the life cycle of a building or asset—is neglected by comparison. Even at the global level, embodied carbon estimates are typically based on manufacturing emissions from the production of a handful of the highest-impact materials (e.g. concrete, steel, aluminum, and wood).

Embodied Carbon Pathways to 2050 for the United States

Embodied Carbon Pathways to 2050 for the United States, a collaboration between the Carbon Leadership Forum (CLF), RMI, and the University of Washington (UW) Life Cycle Lab, provides an assessment of embodied carbon from US construction materials and explores pathways to align with a 1.5°C global warming limit.

Washington State Carbon Emissions Estimation: 2025 – 2050

Emissions from the operations of buildings and infrastructure are significant, well-understood contributors to national and global greenhouse gas emissions. However, the contribution of embodied carbon—emissions associated with the manufacturing, transportation, installation, maintenance, and disposal of construction materials across the life cycle of a building or asset—is neglected by comparison. Even at the global level, embodied carbon estimates are typically based on manufacturing emissions from the production of a handful of the highest-impact materials (e.g. concrete, steel, aluminum, and wood).

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