Roshmi Sen

Bio: Roshmi Sen is an academic researcher from National Institute of Technology, Rourkela. The author has contributed to research in topics: Global warming & Brick. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 2 publications receiving 2 citations. Previous affiliations of Roshmi Sen include Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.

Mapping Low-carbon Precincts in Residential Neighbourhoods:A comparative case study of the traditional and the modern types

Abstract: Urbanization in the last century has created many serious problems including increased carbon footprint in cities leading to global warming and climate change. India being one of the fastest growing developing countries with rapid economic development and industrialization, the carbon footprint of Indian cities is expected to increase with much higher consumption patterns in the following decades. Developing a low carbon precinct in India is however a comparatively new genre of sustainable development. As the debate is still on about the chances and consequences of low carbon precinct in the country, green buildings are widely accepted as the upcoming solution of low carbon footprint. This paper outlines the idea of low carbon precinct, its relevance, and reviews its components and various tools and techniques that can be adopted for mapping and assessing low carbon precincts. The given paper concludes by making a comparative analysis of two different neighborhood clustering patterns, one traditional and organic and the other planned layout, in the Indian metropolitan city of Kolkata representing warm humid climate by simulating their outdoor temperatures in the outdoor thermal simulation and energy mapping software ENVI-met. The comparative study concludes the traditional, organically grown neighborhoods to have higher outdoor temperatures and hence contributing more towards the urban heat island effect as compared to the planned neighborhood layout in the given city’s context.

An investigation into neighborhood residents’ cognition of and participation in low-carbon behavior: a case study in Chengyang district of Qingdao, China

Abstract: To discover potential approaches for meeting increasingly stringent emission controls, a questionnaire was launched in a newly built gated neighborhood in Chengyang district of Qingdao, China, to examine individual residents’ cognition of and participation in low-carbon behaviors, which play a pivotal role in the construction of low-carbon neighborhoods. Statistical analysis of the questionnaires indicated that resident individuals’ cognition regarding the paths to low-carbon neighborhood construction still centered on the traditional aspects of energy saving and emission reduction. The popularization of low-carbon lifestyles in all areas, such as “adoption of central cooling system” and “acceptance of laddering electricity price”, in which potential low-carbon behaviors lie, is still an important mission of low-carbon transition in the near future. Furthermore, due to the relatively high level of local economic development and good traffic conditions in the surveyed neighborhood, a high proportion of residents were engaged in low-carbon behaviors from the perspective of transportation, such as “public transportation”, “public bicycles or electromobiles” and “walking”. Thus, to date, local residents have achieved good results in low-carbon mobility. The use of energy-efficient cars is also a potential field for emission reduction. Finally, suggestions were proposed to encourage residents’ participation in low-carbon behaviors.

Energy Retrofit analysis for an educational building in Mumbai

Abstract: Buildings consume around 40% of total global primary energy and account for one-third of greenhouses gas emissions. In the context of rising average air temperature and growing reliance on air-conditioning for space cooling, energy efficiency in buildings is becoming increasingly important. This is of particular significance to the tropics where a high rate of construction and development is expected in the coming decades. The present study evaluates the impact of several envelope retrofit materials on indoor air temperatures and energy consumption for space cooling for an educational building at IIT Bombay in Mumbai, India. The parametric study is performed using Rhino/ Grasshopper plugins LadyBug and HonyeBee and validated using measured indoor air temperature data. The energy performance is evaluated by applying thermal insulation with and without reflective coating, green roof and bamboo-based shading systems in the simulation environment. From all the retrofit alternatives, it is found that increasing the envelope's insulation followed by the provision of natural shading system results in largest reductions in cooling loads. The combined system has shown to produce maximum energy savings of up to 25% and reduce number of hours with indoor air temperatures higher than 35°C by up to 60% for an annual time period. The results offer ways to mitigate energy consumption and carbon footprint of similar buildings in the tropics.

Passive building design for improving indoor thermal comfort in tropical climates: A bibliometric analysis using CiteSpace

Abstract: This paper reviews the literature on passive building design for improving indoor thermal comfort in tropical climates through a bibliometric analysis. The Web of Science database and CiteSpace were searched, and 722 articles were selected and analyzed to form the body of this article. An overview of the evolution of publications from 1984 to 2021 is first presented, followed by an examination of the co-citation networks of journals, countries, keywords, documents and authors. Co-occurrence analysis of 391 keywords, 861 highly cited publications and the top 15 most frequently mentioned publications and most salient were used to identify research methodologies and to analyze the correlation search of articles. Some notable work on thermal comfort models and passive design strategies suitable for a warm climate is also discussed. The results show that real-time field studies compared to dynamic simulations represent the most outstanding research on passive design and thermal comfort of buildings in tropical climates. In addition, standards such as ASHRAE Standard 55 and ISO Standard 7730 have played an essential role in the evolution of the subject. The results of this study may inspire other researchers and policy makers.