Supervisor: Nahid Mohajeri
Master of Science in Energy Management and Sustainability
In collaboration with: Solar Decathlon Europe Competition EPFL Team
Project duration: September 2014 – September 2015
MSc semester project 2015: Energy and Urban Form – Metabolism of Fribourg: From energy flows to energy management, by Max Lucas Gantet and Morgane Minnig
Urban areas consume 60-80% of the global energy use and emit more than 70% of global greenhouse gases, making energy management at neighborhood and urban scale an important research focus. Analyzing urban metabolism through quantifying inputs (e.g. energy, material/goods, water) and outputs (solid waste and air pollutants) has been established as an appropriate approach for assessing resource management and, in general, evaluating the sustainability of cities. This project provides an analysis of the metabolism of Fribourg city (Figure below). The annual energy consumption for buildings and fuel consumptions for transport (GJ/capita), the annual consumption of material/good/ and water (kg/capita), as inflows, are going to be determined. Also, the amount of solid and liquid wastes and CO2 emissions, as outflows, will be explored. The finding of the study provides a comprehensive accounting of the stocks and flows through the city in quantitative way. We also relate the findings to the socio-economic systems in order to find the main drivers of these flows and provide scenarios for efficient use of resources.
Metabolism of Fribourg city using material flow analysis