Occupancy

About: Occupancy is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2757 publications have been published within this topic receiving 68288 citations.

Fire Structural Response of the Plasco Building: A Preliminary Investigation Report

Abstract: The fire-induced collapse of the 16-story Plasco building in Tehran city in January 2017 caused many deaths and serious injuries. This paper investigates the structural response of the building during that fire to understand how the building became unstable. As documented, the fire initiated on the tenth floor, and then involved stories 11–14 through a vertically traveling fire. As the occupancy type of the building had changed over time, the analysis was performed based on an estimated fire load density of 1900 MJ/m2 on the day of the catastrophe. The results showed that the structure was able to resist the applied loads when the fire remained within stories 10 and 11. When the fire involved stories 10–14, however, the structure began to fail, starting with the failure of the ceiling trusses. The results also indicated that as the columns were protected by a layer of masonry, they were able to tolerate their applied loads. The analysis was also re-performed based on a fire load density of 511 MJ/m2, which is the fire load recommended by most fire codes for a similar occupancy type. The results showed that no structural failure would have occurred under that fire load. This study indicates that changing the occupancy type of a building without adopting proper mitigation strategies can be catastrophic.

Domestic energy and occupancy: a novel post-occupancy evaluation study

Abstract: The main purpose of this paper is to present a robust methodology for quantifying the correlation between domestic energy consumption and occupant behaviour patterns, in response to various technological interventions, by using a test house whose performance and occupants are fully monitored and recorded. The E.ON Research House is one of the seven 'Creative Energy Homes' which are experimental eco houses, designed and constructed to various degrees of innovation and flexibility on the University of Nottingham campus. The E.ON House is a replica of a typical 1930s three-bed semi-detached property, which is representative of many of the existing houses in the UK. The objective of this study is to determine the most efficient way to refurbish it, within 3 years to reach a 'zero- carbon' standard. The house is occupied by a family (father, mother and a daughter) and is fully monitored in order to get real-time occupancy data for energy use, environmental conditions and occupant location. The post-occupancy evaluation study includes environmental monitoring (using a network of temperature, humidity and indoor air quality sensors), electricity (using whole house, circuit and appliance meters), energy associated with space and water heating. The occupancy patterns and space use are analysed using a real-time location system (supplied by UBISENSE) with ultra- wideband radio-frequency technology to track patterns of space usage in the house for time and location. The objective of post-occupancy study is to evaluate the relationships between occupancy and energy usage, as well to diagnose the performance and energy efficiency.

Changes in bird distribution in a Central European country between 1985–1989 and 2001–2003

Abstract: European birds have been significantly affected by dramatic environmental changes during the last decades. The effects of these changes on species richness and distribution in particular countries are still poorly understood because of a lack of high-quality, large-scale data standardized over time. This is especially true in Central and Eastern Europe. On a model group of birds in the Czech Republic (countrywide atlas mapping data), we examined whether long-term changes of species richness and distribution between 1985–1989 and 2001–2003 differed among groups of species defined by their habitat requirements, type of distribution in Europe, migratory strategy and the degree of national legal protection. Further, we investigated the effects of colonizers and local extinctions on these changes. Whereas the number of species in the whole country remained the same in both periods (208 species), species composition had changed. Increasing occupancy (i.e., number of occupied mapping squares) was observed in species of forest and wetland habitats, in short-distance migrants and in non-protected species. Southern species also positively changed their occupancy, but this pattern disappeared after the inclusion of six species dependent on extensively cultivated farmland that went extinct between mappings. The overall occupancy of all species together showed positive changes after excluding colonizers and extinct species. We suggest that the improvement of environmental conditions after 1990 caused the stability of or increased the distribution of common birds in the Czech Republic, and it was the disappearance of specific farmland practices that might have caused the loss of several species.

Modelling species distributional shifts across broad spatial extents by linking dynamic occupancy models with public-based surveys

Abstract: Aim: To understand climate and landscape drivers of species distributional shifts across broad spatial extents by integrating dynamic occupancy models with distribution data collected from the public. Location: New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Methods: We used data on koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) presence and absence collected across the state of NSW from public surveys between 1987 and 2011. A dynamic occupancy model was built to quantify the role of climate and land use change on koala extinction risk and occupancy. We contrasted the model results against the more usual static occupancy model approach. We then developed scenarios of future climate, land clearing and urbanization and predicted the distribution of the koalas over the next 20 years based on the dynamic occupancy model. Results: The static model indicates koala occupancy in 1987 and in 2011 depended most strongly on annual rainfall and distance to water features. Housing density and its interaction with Eucalyptus forest cover only minimally affected koala occupancy. However, for the dynamic occupancy model, extinction risk (the metric of dominant concern for species conservation) depended most strongly on Eucalyptus forest cover and its interaction with housing density, while annual rainfall only minimally affected extinction risk. We predicted extinction risk to be higher in western NSW than in the east and that extinction risk may increase under future scenarios of climate and land use change. Main conclusions: This study underlines the importance of incorporating extinction dynamics when modelling species distributional shifts under climate and land use change and we provide an approach for doing so using public-based surveys. As conservation objectives usually aim to maximize persistence, this is likely to lead to more reliable identification of conservation priorities than using static species distribution models. Combining public-based surveys and dynamic occupancy models provides a powerful approach for achieving this across broad spatial extents, thus providing an alternative approach when field-based data collection is impractical.