ENVR8165: Infrastructure for net-zero carbon cities

Instructor: Kangkang (KK) Tong, PhD, Associate Professor

Time: 16:00-17:40 Tue, Fall 2024

Description:

This course is a specialized course for graduate students pursuing a master’s degree in Low

Carbon Environment and Low Carbon Energy at China-UK Low Carbon College. This course combines theories and analytical skills related to sustainable resource management and

environmental impact assessment with the focus on urban infrastructure systems, and it has the nature of being interdisciplinary.

The main content includes

i)         Concepts of urban systems, key infrastructure provisioning systems, carbon neutrality/net-zero carbon, and sustainability;

ii)        urban carbon accounting/footprinting theories and approaches;

iii)       key technology and policy levers promoting net-zero carbon urban transitions;

iv)       methods to assess the carbon mitigation impact of urban actions/policies from a systems perspective;

v)        evaluation of transitions associated with multiple infrastructure sectors in cities to achieve the net-zero carbon goal; and

vi)       relationships between low-carbon infrastructure transitions and sustainability.

This course aims to enhance students’ capability to conduct systemic analyses at the city level and beyond. Students are expected to be trained to become interdisciplinary, innovative, and practical talents, who can contribute to carbon-neutral development in China and the world. No prerequisite is needed for this course.

Learning Objectives

This course has the core objective to deepen students’ understanding of social and environmental problems related to resource management and improve their capability to integrate theories and  analytical skills when evaluating low-carbon actions at the city scale and beyond. After taking

the class, students will:

1)  understand the basic concepts of urban sustainability and carbon neutrality/net-zero carbon;

2)  master analytical skills in urban carbon accounting/footprinting and understand theories;

3)  implement systems thinking to evaluate carbon mitigation of low-carbon infrastructure transitions; and

4)  understand the relationship between low-carbon urban infrastructure transitions and sustainable development.