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Transcript of EEER IBPSA-Egypt 2015
IBPSA-Egypt Newsletter Vol. 7 P. 1
“The best way to
predict the Future
is to design it...”
Buckminster Fuller
In This Issue
Overview …………….….... P. 2
Sustainability Issues….... P. 3
Green Column…………… P. 6
Energy Notes……………. P. 10
Eco-Research Forum….Back
Cover
Honourable Chairman for EEER-Society & IBPSA-Egypt
Prof. Dr. Arch. Morad Abdel-Kader
EEER Manager, newsletter editor, web developer & IBPSA - Egypt affiliate Dr. Arch. Mohammad Fahmy Adel-
Aleem
EEER Treasurer, membership officer & IBPSA - Egypt board member
Prof. Dr. Arch. Ayman Mahmoud
EEER-IBPSA Egypt Newsletter CO-Editor and board member
Dr. Arch. Mady Mohamed
EEER-IBPSA Egypt Newsletter CO-Editor and board member Arch. Heba Hassan Kamel
THE ONLINE NEWSLETTER OF THE EGYPTIAN SOCIETY FOR ENERGY IN BUILDINGS AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN RESEARCH, EEER THE OFFICIAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE INTERNATIONAL BUILDING PERFORMANCE ASSOCIATION IN EGYPT, IBPSA
http://eeer-ibpsaegypt.wix.com/home ISSUE No., 7 March 2015 ISSN: 20909659
A bout this Issue Q: Who are our readers? A: Architects,
Architectural students, HVAC Engineers, Environmentalists, Those who concern about the
quality of their life.
Read in this issue about: 1. Energy in buildings,
2. To what extent does the climate change has an impact on Egypt at the “Sustainability
issues” chapter,
3. Building an Egyptian database for the Life Cycle Assessment at the “Green Column” chapter, 4. The parametric aided architecture daylighting at the “Energy notes” chapter.
IBPSA-Egypt Newsletter Vol. 7 P. 2
Beyond the Color Gradient
T he infusion of user-friendly Graphical User Interfaces
(GUI) for simulation software into design tools has made
their employment by architects much less of a challenge
than just a few years ago. Understanding how buildings perform is key to any archi-
tectural experience, from thermal, visual and acoustical comfort as a spatial experi-
ence, and as a method of building substantially more energy efficient structures.
Burning fossil fuels for heating, cooling and lighting is unsustainable, and so the lux-
ury of following master builders who devoted their practice to environmentally con-
scious architecture has transformed into a necessity at the turn of the 21st century.
From that perspective, the dedication of building scientists, computer programmers
and simulation-savvy architects to provide interactive and accessible assessment
tools for designers is greatly needed. However, with the workflows becoming easier to
follow, an undesirable trend is on the rise: using simulation as a presentation tool,
rather than a design decision support tool. The rigor needed to understand building
physics, climatic phenomena or expected simulation results has been diluted through
readily available libraries and colors that look attractive.
This is not confined to the realm of practicing architects, but also academic research-
ers, who would use unreliable simulation engines, as long as there are results. Tools
we use in design and research have to undergo a rigorous validation process, and
those who use them have to delve deeper, beyond the GUI, and into how the simula-
tion engine really works. One might have a question to answer, such as the impact of
a certain design intervention on the energy consumption of buildings. If a model was
developed in an environment that is not built to answer such a specific inquiry, then
the user will indeed get an answer, but to a completely different question! It may be a
simple thermal heat transfer zoning model, or a complex raytracing and daylight coef-
ficients workflow, but in the end, we as professionals have to be able to interpret why
we get the results we get, and not just flash graphs, graphics and metrics as meaning-
ful presentations to clients and research advisors.
In this introductory article, as we are growing exponentially as a community of Egyp-
tian building simulation specialists, I urge you to develop a critical approach to your
practice and research. With such a desired growth in numbers, it is our responsibility
to develop a solid scientific background that goes beyond the exciting color gradient,
and into the true use of simulation tools: informing design decisions for sustainable,
energy efficient and healthy built environments.
B iography
Tarek Rakha is
an architect,
building scientist
and educator working in
the field of sustainability in
the built environment. He is
a Building Technology PhD
Candidate and instructor in
the Department of Architec-
ture at MIT, and Adjunct
P r o f e s s o r i n
the Department of Architec-
ture, Rhode Island School
of Design (RISD).
A s a m e m b e r o f
the Sustainable Design
Lab, he is part of the devel-
oping team for Umi, the ur-
ban modeling simulation
platform. His primary
scholarly directions are in
the fields of urban energy
flows, daylighting & energy
in buildings, and generative
design and optimization.
Tarek Rakha Illuminance rendering, calibrated for human perception (left) and false-color (right) (www.diva4rhino.com)
Overview
IBPSA-Egypt Newsletter Vol. 7 P. 3
S ustainable living in Egypt’s western desert
Somaya Abouelfadl Department of Architecture, College of Engineering/ Assuit University, Assuit 71518, Egypt,
+20882411451/ +201002977291 ([email protected])
E gypt lies between latitudes 22° and 32°N, and longitudes 24° and 36°E. The great ma-
jority of Egyptian people live near the Nile River Basin, in an area of about 40,000
square kilometers, where the only arable land is found, meaning that about 99% of the popu-
lation uses only about 4% of the total land area. The large areas of the Sahara Desert are
sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypt's residents live in urban areas, with most spread
across the densely populated centers of greater Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities in
the Nile Delta. Egypt has about 85 million inhabitants (2013). About 60 % of Egypt’s people
live in the Nile Delta region. Outside of major cities, population density in the delta averages
1,000 persons/km² or more. Prior to the construction of the Aswan Dam, the Nile flooded
annually replenishing Egypt's soil. This gave the country consistent harvest throughout the
years. Now, The Nile Delta is eroding at a rate of 50 km2 per year, and it has been predicted
that –through this erosion - this Delta will have vanished by the year 2550 CE [6], [11].
I. Climate change impacts on Egypt
A. Recent climatic problems
Recently, some interior parts of Egypt saw torrential heavy rainfall and even snow for
the first time in nearly half a century. In January 2010, there were colder weather
conditions than usual during the day and very cold at night all over the country cou-
pled with low-and middle clouds and thunderstorm and wind mostly north-westerly
moderate to brisk exciting of sand and dust and consists of frost on the plants in the
Sinai and Upper Egypt. Some snowy storm blew upon some unusual spots even in
southern Egypt leaving tops above 1,500 meters whitened with snow [10]. Rain-
induced flooding swept away a great number of homes, knocked out power lines,
cut roads, endanger the lives of citizens and motorists at risk, claimed the lives peo-
ple, left many injured and missing persons and hundreds displaced in different parts
of Egypt, in the Sinai Peninsula, the Red Sea port of Hurghada, Luxor ,and Aswan
[3], [4], [5].
B. Future impacts
Some water supplies could become unusable due to the penetration of salt water into
rivers and coastal aquifers as sea level rises. In coastal areas, large areas of pro-
ductive land may be lost over an area extending 20 km inland through flooding,
saline intrusion and water logging. The combination of higher prices and crop loss-
es would lead to deterioration in levels of food security [7], [9], [12].
There are a lot of other problems that Egypt might face consequentially. For example, a
rise in sea level of 50 cm could lead to the loss of about 194,000 jobs and the dis-
placement of about 1.5 million people in Alexandria. With a sea level rise of 2 m it is
expected that 76% of Alexandria land will sink, the agriculture land will be com-
pletely under the sea water, 70% of archaeological sites will be covered by sea
water also and 97% of its population will be affected [13].
Climate change and pollution are bound to have some effect on the availability of fresh
water in the Nile basin, which could cause water shortages (in case of decreased
rainfall) or flooding (in case of periodic increased rainfall).
B y dramatically increas-
ing of sea level due to
the effect of global warm-
ing, several threats will af-
fect Egypt's densely popu-
lated coastal strip and Nile
Delta, which could have
serious consequences for
economy, agriculture and
industry.
Combined with growing
demographic pressures,
rise in sea level could turn
millions of Egyptians into
environmental refugees by
the end of this century, as
Nile Delta will turn to
wasteland, ending more
than 200,000 jobs, mainly
agricultural jobs.
Challenges raised now are
to prepare for expected
global warming crisis and
related impacts.
Sustainability Issues
Dr. Somaya Abu L. Fadl
IBPSA-Egypt Newsletter Vol. 7 P. 4
A 1 meter rise of the sea water level would put more than 12% of the country’s
best agricultural land at risk in the Nile Delta, and rises dramatically to 25%
(SLR of 3m) and even almost 35% (extreme SLR of 5m). A huge number of peo-
ple will be affected, for example, 8 million people will be affected by 1.5 m of
SLR [7]. In the extreme case of 5 m SLR, more than half (~58%) of the Nile Del-
ta will be facing destructive impacts, which would threaten at least 10 major cit-
ies (among them Alexandria, Damanhur, Kafr-El-Sheikh, Damietta, Mansura and
Port-Said), flooding productive agricultural lands, forcing about 14% of the coun-
try's population (~11.5 million people) into more concentrated areas to the south-
ern region of the Nile Delta, and thus would contribute to worsening their living
standards. people will find themselves wedged between flooding and rising sea
levels [14], [18]. Figure 1 shows the affected Delta area by sea level rises.
II. Action against climate changes impacts in Egypt
Solution, implementing mitigation and adaptation policies should be taken for the
people at risk in Nile Delta. A seawall could be built along the Delta’s entire coastline to
prevent saltwater seepage along the 240-kilometre coast to hold back the Mediterrane-
an [2] and keep people living in Nile Delta. Another alternative is preparing for moving
people to safe places near or far places to their homes. One option to this is to urban-
ize new discovered areas to be developed in the Egyptian western desert.
A. Urbanize newly discovered areas western desert
A combined Egyptian team work of geologists, stratigraphers, geophysicists and
hydrogeologists- who have been selected from both the Geology Department of
Assiut University in Assiut, and the Institute of Desert Researches in Cairo- has
been formed. In 28 June 2011, the team started an expedition in the previously
unexplored regions of the Great Egyptian Sand Sea in the Western part of the
Western Desert. The expedition found a big area of about 3.5 million Feddan,
which is able to be developed, Figure 2 and Figure 3 [1]. Water is available un-
der the Egyptian desert with great amounts, that the depth of water storage
reaches 3500 m underground, [15], [16], Figure 4 and Figure 5.
Considering the threat of the expected effects of global warming on Egypt espe-
cially on coastal and delta regions, in addition to national needs to create new
urban communities outside the scope of the Nile Valley, a primary master plan
and a general master plan of a city "Gardens' city" has been planned to be de-
veloped in new Farafah Oasis in the new discovered areas, Figure 3. The city
will depend on renewable energy (Solar, Wind and Biofuel). Gardens' city will be
the first product of big development opportunities in Egypt, see figure 6 [17].
The city is planned for 117 thousands inhabitants, with the target of settling of 1
Million inhabitants in the Oasis. Economic base for the city are 123200 palms
and 79200 Olive tree and 15000 Feddans of Wheat. 750,000 animals head will
be grown, and industries will be initiated on agricultural and animals' production.
The city will have a yearly net profits 63-90 Million Egyptian pound (LE), while
the whole new Farafah Oasis will have 394- 535 Million LE of yearly net profits
only from palms, Olive and Wheat. Egypt needs to adopt such national projects.
Investment potentials are more than available in such projects in Egypt. The city
will produce renewable energy form sun, wind and biofuel not only for itself but
also for the newly discovered areas.
Figure 2: Newly discovered areas and to be initiated road to Nile valley (180 km) [17]
Sustainability Issues
Figure 3: Newly discovered areas in Egyptian western desert [16]
Figure 1: SLR scenarios of 1-5 meters in the Nile Delta region [7], [8], [14]
IBPSA-Egypt Newsletter Vol. 7 P. 5
Sustainability Issues
Figure 4: Water availability under the Egyptian western desert. Thickness of Nubian sandstone is 2500-3500 m in the great sand sea in Egypt [16].
Figure 5:Water storage Height in new Farafra Oases is 3500 m in Dala natural springhead area [16]
R eferences 1] Ahram Online (2011)"Wind, rains and sandstorm lash Egypt, close ports,"
2010 Ahram Online, Saturday, Cairo 35-22 , 25 June 2011. http://
english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/0/1723/Egypt/Wind, -rains-and-
sandstorm-lash-Egypt,-close-ports.aspx
2] Cam McGrath: Nile Delta disappearing beneath the sea. Jan 29 2014 (IPS). http://
www.ipsnews.net/2014/01/nile-delta-disappearing-beneath-sea/
3] cruisebruise.com (2010), Brilliance Of The Seas- Severe Listing In Rough Seas, De-
cember 12, 2010. http://www.cruisebruise.com/Collisions_Damage_At_Sea/
Brilliance_Of_The_Seas_Severe_Listing_December_12_2010.html
4] Deborah Phelan (2011) " Egypt's Next Crisis: Climate Change & Justice -- "We are
Egypt!", Climate Change: The Next Generation, January 30, 2011. http://
climatechangepsychology.blogspot.com/2011_01_01_archive.html
5] DREF, 2010 "The International Federation’s Disaster Relief Emergency Fund" (DREF),
DREF operation n° MDREG009 GLIDE n° FL-2010-000012-EGY, 21 January 2010
6] Egypt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt - 15 June 2011
7] IRIN (2011) " EGYPT Disaster looms for Delta region", the humanitarian news and
analysis service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, CAIRO, 7
October 2009 (IRIN), 18 June 2011. http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?
ReportId=86472
8] Issandr El Amrani (2010) "Is Egypt's Delta going to drown, or not?" http://
www.arabist.net/blog/tag/environment
9] Jacqueline Karas " climate change and the Mediterranean region". http://
www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/international/press/reports/climate-change-and-the-
mediter.pdf
10] Jim Andrews (2010) " Extreme, Unusual Rain Aimed for Egypt", AccuWeather.com,
Jan 16, 2010. http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/andrews/story/23777/
extreme_unusual_rain_aimed_for_egypt.asp
11] Kenneth D. Worth (2011) "Egyptian Turmoil Bullish for Oil Stocks, But Not for Reasons
Some Might Think" , Seeking Alpha (SA), February 2, 2011. http://seekingalpha.com/
article/250392-egyptian-turmoil-bullish-for-oil-stocks-but-not-for-reasons-some-might-
think
12] Michael Cote (2011), Egypt Is Extremely Vulnerable to Climate Changes: Could a New
Government Help the Country Adapt?, Environment, February 3, 2011. http://
www.good.is/post/egypt-is-extremely-vulnerable-to-climate-impacts-how-could-a-new-
government-help-the-country-adapt/
13] Mohamed El-Raey; Dia H.El-Quosy; Mahmoud El-Shaer; Osama A.El Kholy; Ayat Soli-
man (1995) " Egypt: Inventory and Mitigation Options,and Vulnerability and Adaptation
Assessment", CSP interim report on climate change country studies, March 1995
14] Mostafa K. Tolba; Najib W. Saab, (2009), Arab environment climate change- Impact of
climate change on Arab countries, 2009 report of the Arab forum for environment and
development
15] Ouda K. (presented conf.): Fostering sustainable water management and agriculture in
Egypt’s ‘New Valley’ WaDImena Egypt - June 2009
16] Ouda, K. et al.: New Findings in Geology, Geomorphology, and Groundwater Potentiali-
ty of the Great Sand Sea, Western Desert, Egypt: An advantage which would lead to
establishment of new societies in order to meet growing demands in Egypt. Geology of
the Nile Basin Countries Conference (GNBCC-2012): Geology and development chal-
lenges, March 20th and March 22nd 2012, Alexandria (Egypt)
17] Somaya T. Abouelfadl, Khaled A. Ouda, Assmaa A. Atia, Nada Al-Amir: A primary mas-
ter plan Of Gardens’ City- A new city in Egyptian Western Desert (EGCWD). Interna-
tional Conference on Future Environment and Energy– ICFEE 2013, Rome, Italy. 24-25
February 2013
18] Somaya Abouelfadl, Khaled El-Lithy: Impact Assessment of Global Warming on Egypt.
International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT) ISSN: 2249 –
8958, Volume-3, Issue-3, February 2014, pp 352-360.
Figure 6: A primary master plan for Gar-dens' city
IBPSA-Egypt Newsletter Vol. 7 P. 6
The Obstacles of Building the Egyptian National Life
Cycle Inventory Database
Ahmed AbdelMonteleb M. Alia, Abdelazim M. Negmb a
PhD Student at Environmental Engineering Department, Egypt-Japan University of Science and Tech-
nology (E-JUST), Alexandria, Egypt, E-mail: [email protected], TEL.:
0201005490811
b
Chair of Environmental Engineering Department, Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology
(E-JUST), Alexandria, Egypt, E-mail: [email protected]
S ince the start of the 21st. century, interest in life cycle assessment (LCA) has been
rapidly increased, as evidenced by numerous precedents. Life cycle thinking is also
growing in importance within European policy as, for example, demonstrated by the
Communication from the European Commission on Integrated Product Policy (IPP; Commis-
sion of the European Communities 2003). A direct result of the IPP is the development of the
International Reference Life Cycle Data System (ILCD) Handbook, a practical guide pub-
lished in 2010 for LCA according to the current best practices, complementary with the inter-
national standards organization (ISO) 14040 (European Commission - Joint Research Cen-
tre - Institute for Environment and Sustainability 2011).
The life cycle inventory (LCI) database include the energy and raw materials used; the
emissions to atmosphere, water, and soil; and different types of land use. These factors are
quantified for each process, combined
in a process flow chart, and related to
the functional basis (Cabezaa et al.
2014). In other words, an inventory of
all the inputs and outputs to and from
the production system is prepared in
this step. As an example, the inputs
may include water consumption and the
outputs may include sulfur oxides
(SOx). Thus, products and processes
can be compared and evaluated using
LCI results. If the results of the LCI are
consistent, a product performance with
respect to its environmental burden can
be determined, as illustrated in Fig. (1).
International LCI databases
Tharumarajah and Grant (2002) pointed out that LCI databases have been developed in
various regions of the world over the past decade . Some countries are more advanced in
their development than others. In recent times, Asian countries and Australia have also be-
gun developing databases. In other countries, development is focused mainly on separated
processes or products. Curran and Notten (2006) demonstrated that regional networks are
also being established to share experiences and data mostly among countries that have
mutual trade between them. Examples of these are the Asia Pacific Roundtable for Sustaina-
ble Consumption and Production and LCA researcher network, North American Database,
The African LCA Network (ALCAN), and The Latin American LCA Network (ALCALA - Aso-
ciación LCA de Latinamerica). A Global LCI project is also underway to address the critical
need to organize and centralize a worldwide knowledge-base of LCI data sources that will
ease identification and acquisition of available data (Yung et al. 2013). A summary of devel-
opments appear in Table (1).
Ahmed AbdelMonteleb M. Ali
Green Column
Fig. 1 The framework of the LCI database stage
The best environmental
choices can be
determined using the
Life Cycle Assessment
from the Environmental
Impact Assessment
view.
To build the Egyptian
Life Cycle Inventory
database, it is the
major challenge. It is
of utmost importance
to find the roadmap to
keep up with the
world.
IBPSA-Egypt Newsletter Vol. 7 P. 7
D eveloping an
Egyptian Na-
tional LCI (ENLCI)
database.
The ultimate requirement
of a national LCI data-
base is to serve the
needs of a wide spectrum
of potential users. Criteria
for the requisite data
m u s t i n c l u d e
(Tharumarajah and Grant
2002), but are not neces-
sarily limited to the follow-
ing:
Conformance to the
ISO;
Meeting the require-
ments of specific trans-
parency, screening,
quality, and peer re-
view;
Consistent treatment of
materials and products;
Regional differentiation
to the extent required
to properly reflect criti-
cal variations within the
industry sectors;
Full accessibility in
format/(s) and software
platforms designed to
maximize use; and
Adequate database
coverage of sectors to
reflect the priority
needs of the users.
F rom the LCA study around the
world given in Fig. (2), Sweden,
clearly, has undertaken the largest
number of studies, and Arab coun-
tries have clearly engaged in no
studies, except for the single study
in Bahrain; significant neglect is in-
dicated for the continent of Africa,
and, in particular, Egypt. Sweden is
considered to have engaged in nu-
merous studies because it has a
well-established database for con-
ducting LCA.
Cabezaa et al. (2014) summarized
the literature studies of LCA ap-
proaches up until 2014, and their
findings are shown in Fig. (3).
These findings indicate that LCA
studies in America have been pre-
dominantly focused on the building
industry or on buildings, whereas, in
Asia and Oceania, most studies
have focused on life cycle energy
assessment (LCEA). Europe pre-
sents a similar number of LCA and
LCEA studies. Finally, only a single
life cycle cost assessment (LCCA)
of a building could be found.
This analysis begs the question,
what about Africa and, especially,
Egypt? Because South Africa is a
major exporter of raw materials, the
external demand for life cycle inven-
tory data from South Africa is in-
creasing (Lippiatt 2007). As such,
there is an increasing potential for
greater coordination of LCA efforts
in South Africa. Although a few
South African universities and re-
search institutes have been active in
LCA for over ten years, South Afri-
can industry and government have
been slow to realize the benefits of
LCA.
Attia (2012) introduced a study that
aimed to describe the influence of
building construction on energy con-
sumption through a survey that was
conducted in Cairo and its surround-
ing residential neighborhoods, re-
ferred to as the Database of Egyp-
tian Building Envelopes (DEBE).
This study is a good start towards
creation of an Egyptian database;
however, the data concerning the
thermal properties of 13 Egyptian
building materials.
Green Column Table (1): Summary of LCI database activities worldwide.
Level of Database activity Countries
Significant database/s develop-
ment & efforts to coordinate/
Italy, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, Chinese
Taipei, Japan, Korea, Sweden, USA
Significant database development
but no coordinating/exchange
effort
Austria, France, Germany, UK
Western European countries not listed above
Data base development for sepa-
rated process chains only
China, India, Argentina
Very little database development
but use of LCA
Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Eastern Europe-
an Countries, Brazil, Philippines, Indonesia,
Fig. 2 A summary of the number of case studies of 27 countries from around the world (collected by the authors from 205 international case studies).
IBPSA-Egypt Newsletter Vol. 7 P. 8
Goals of the ENLCI
database
The ENLCI database will be a recog-
nized source of Egypt-based, quality,
and transparent life cycle inventory
data, and will become an integral part
of the rapidly expanding use of LCA as
an essential environmental analysis
and decision-making tool. As such, the
authors define the following points to be
the goals of the ENLCI:
Maintain data quality and transparen-
cy and the incorporate commonly
used materials, products, and pro-
cesses in Egypt with up-to-date, criti-
cally reviewed LCI data;
Creation of LCI databases involving
many individuals (teams of novices
and experts) aiming at i) practical
involvement, ii) job training (training
the decision makers), iii) capacity
building, iv) operational “field tests,”
and v) assistance in establishing
funding.
Support the expanded use of LCA as
an environmental decision-making
tool.
Maintain compatibility with interna-
tional LCI databases and Provide
exceptional data accessibility.
Be fully and sustainably supported
and Support the competitiveness of
Egyptian industry.
Moving toward an EN-LCI database (the
roadmap) While the above discussion regarding
technical and managerial aspects/
challenges encompasses the treat-
ment and focus on tasks for imple-
menting a national LCI database, it
does not offer a practical solution as
to who is equipped to do what. Estab-
lishing these details could be difficult,
given the numerous stakeholders and
LCA/LCI developers occupying differ-
ent sectors (see Fig. (4)) with different
levels of interests, participation, and
capacities for contributing to the de-
velopment of a national LCI database.
C onclusion
Interest in LCA is
growing international-
ly. Many countries under-
stand the importance of using
LCA to identify and evaluate
opportunities for minimization
of resource consumption and
air, water, and land pollution.
Otherwise, there is an ab-
sence of an explicit organiza-
tional or project entity that
has political recognition to
draw and engage a wider
group of stakeholders in their
multiple roles as development
partners, and as both users
and suppliers of data. In addi-
tion, the start-up phase of a
national LCI project is critical
for instilling confidence and
trust in the various stakehold-
ers.
Thus, developers of an EN-
LCI database must be cogni-
zant of this factor and take
appropriate measures to rec-
tify the situation.
Ultimately, the results from
this analysis can be used to
standardize the study of the
LCA concept in Egypt, and to
lay a foundation for an ENLCI
database.
The results presented also
highlight the importance of
the role of stakeholders, such
as environmental agencies,
the HBRC, and the Ministry of
Industry, in building and de-
veloping a national LCI data-
base specific to Egypt, and to
use the LCA approach as an
environmental impact tool.
Green Column
Fig. 3 A summary of studies organized by area of assessment and type of study carried out, where the area of the circles represents the number of studies conducted (Cabezaa et al. 2014).
Fig. 4 Proposed organizational and managerial framework for the development of a national LCI database
IBPSA-Egypt Newsletter Vol. 7 P. 9
B iography
Ahmed AbdelMonte-
leb M. Ali was born in
Assiut, Egypt on 19/08/1986.
He is an architectural engi-
neer and was awarded the
B.Sc. Degree in "Architectural
Design" with average grade
"Excellent with honors, with
88.5%".
Ahmed has been awarded a
master degree from Assiut
University on October 2011
and nowadays a PhD student
in E-JUST university, Alexan-
dria, Egypt, from September
2013 to September 2016.
His major field is environmen-
tal engineering and especially
the building life cycle assess-
ment. Currently, He is assis-
tant lecturer in architectural
engineering, Assiut University
in Egypt.
Nowadays he is a PhD stu-
dent at environmental engi-
neering at Egypt-Japan Uni-
versity of Science and Tech-
nology, Alexandria, Egypt.
Published in a PhD study 10
papers (2 international jour-
nals, 3 local conferences and
5 international conferences)
until now and 3 papers under
revision and preparation.
The research interests are
Life Cycle Assessment and
Environmental Impact As-
sessment on the Residential
Building in Egypt. Mr. Ali is a
membership of the Engineer-
ing Syndicate of Egypt, mem-
ber in Quality Assurance and
Accreditation Unit (QAAU) in
Faculty of Engineering, As-
siut University- Egypt and is a
member in the conference
organizations of architectural
department in Assiut universi-
ty.
R eferences
Cabezaa LF, Rincóna L, Vilariñob V, et al. (2014) Life cycle assessment (LCA) and life
cycle energy analysis (LCEA) of buildings and the building sector: A review .
Renew Sustain Energy Rev 29 : 394–416 . doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2013.08.037
Commission of the European Communities )2003 ( Integrated product policy: building on
environmental life-cycle thinking .J. Int. Wild- life Law Policy
European Commission - Joint Research Centre – Institute for Environment and
Sustainability )2011 ( ILCD handbook: general guide to life cycle assessment
detailed guidance .Publications Office of the European Union
Lippiatt B (2007) BEES 4.0 Technical Manual and User Guide . 327 .
M. A. Curran and P. Notten )2006 ( Summary of Global Life Cycle Inventory Data
Resources .Task Force 1: Database Registry SETAC/UNEP Life Cycle Initiative
Shady Attia OW (2012) The Database Of Egyptian Building Envelopes ) Debe): A
Database For Building Energy Simulations. Fifth Natl. Conf. IBPSA-USA Madi-
son, Wisconsin. pp 96–103
Tharumarajah A, Grant T (2002) Australian National Life Cycle Inventory Database:
Moving Forward .1–9.
Yung P, Lam KC, Yu C (2013) An audit of life cycle energy analyses of buildings. Habi-
tat Int 39:43–54. doi: 10.1016/j.habitatint.2012.10.003
Green Column
IBPSA-Egypt Newsletter Vol. 7 P. 10
Parametric Aid Architectural Daylighting
P arametric tools are relatively new to architecture design process. It is based
on the idea of exploring design variations, by using this method; the computer
generates several design variations between the predefined ranges that satisfy par-
ticular conditions. These rules are usually considered as the constraints involving
numerical data and mathematical operations in order to control the properties of a
generative model. This model could be based manually or automatically on the
optimization procedure to accomplish a precise performance objective.
The primary advantage of using this type of software is the high capability of mak-
ing modifications on any parameter such as geometry, shape, and size without the
need of recreating the entire model each time.
Architects and Designers prefer to explore complex ideas at the early stage of de-
sign solution with relatively easy way of modeling it. They can use these tools to
integrate other simulation engines such as Radiance and EnergyPlus in order to
evaluate their designs on a performance basis.
For example, Daylight can reduce the need for artificial lighting only if the architec-
ture design guarantees adequate delighting. However, the problem is that archi-
tects tend to use the simulation software at the end of the design process. In order
to get the real benefits of the simulation process, the simulation results should be
used as the primary driven tool for the design process.
This process could not be done just using one type of software, it is a complex
workflow which starts from creating a 3D dynamic model that can be modified with-
out regenerating the 3D model each time, followed by connecting it with validated
daylight simulation tool to ensure the correct analysis results.
These findings are evaluated to give a numerical and visual feedback after being
processed by optimizing an algorithm which automatically adjusts different varia-
bles in order to get better simulation results which eventually will prove that we are
going towards more optimized solution.
To what extent can par-
ametric approach aid
architectural daylight-
ing!!
Is it possible to find the
optimum shading con-
figurations that can in-
crease the daylighting
availability while under-
standing the effect of
each shading parameter
and the impact of the
interaction of all param-
eters on the daylighting
performance!!
Ayman Wagdy
Energy Notes
Fig1 Shows the flexibility of making modifications.
IBPSA-Egypt Newsletter Vol. 7 P. 11
C onclusion
It became evi-
dent that emerg-
ing parametric ap-
proaches would
pave the way for ar-
chitects to generate
more sustainable de-
signs based on a re-
liable feedback from
simulations.
This information is
based on recent re-
searches conducted
with many research
associates.
All information are
presented here are
copyrighted to the
reference publica-
tions.
T he research presents a new
algorithm shown in (Fig2) that
will help architects not only find the
best daylighting solution for any
buildings but also assist them in
understating the effect of each pa-
rameter. Because this algorithm
finds the optimal dimensions for
each opening in automatic way to
ensure the daylight quality of the
space, as well as it becomes much
more efficient than if they would try
other different random solutions
manually. This parametric workflow
runs in automatic mode without the
need to export or import the 3D
modeling information among multi-
ple software to have totally auto-
matic optimization Process.
Here some examples of utilizing
these algorithms in different appli-
cations, one aims to identify most
reasonable window ratios in rela-
tively narrow street widths (4, 6 and
8 meters) based on the amount of
light reaches the ground floor lev-
els. This study was for the new in-
formal urban extensions in Cairo,
The daylighting was assessed
based on the approved method IES
Spat ia l Dayl igh t Autonom y
(sDA300/50%) and Annual Sunlight
Exposure (ASE1000/250hr) (IES,
2012).
The results are generated paramet-
rically based on Brute Force tech-
nique in order to create 450 differ-
ent cases. This research explores
the influence of urban configura-
tions on the daylighting perfor-
mance in the interior zones of the
opposite buildings.
Both buildings and land since most
of the new informal urban extensions
occurred in high land value with
large scale, which make the land
clearance policy not applicable most
of the time. Therefore, a way to find
retrofitting measures turn to be more
appropriate and affordable at the
moment. Thus, solutions including
either changing window sizes or de-
molishing couple of floors at the top
of the building can be suitable.
Another example that utilizes optimi-
zation logic in order to get the opti-
mum solutions are clearly presented
in a facade based on origami: kalei-
docycle rings that can be morphed
enhancing daylight performance in
residential spaces, which complies
with both LEED V4 and Daylight
availability. Daylighting analysis was
integrated using Grasshopper, Diva
and Genetic optimization for a south-
oriented living room facade in Cairo,
Egypt, through two phases. First
stage dealt with base cases of par-
ticular typology. Second stage was
conducted using parametric optimi-
zation process.
The optimization objective was set
to maximize the daylit area and to
minimize the over-lit and ASE areas.
The last generation of the optimiza-
tion process reached the optimum
solution that eventually gives a better
performance than the one required
by LEED v4. The optimum solution in
shows the Kaleidocycle size became
small to have more openings with
large angle that allows for a better
daylighting distribution.
Energy Notes
Fig2 Shows the algorithm for producing and evaluation daylighting performance.
IBPSA-Egypt Newsletter Vol. 7 P. 12
B iography
After his undergrad-
uate and graduate
studies, he had gained sev-
eral years of required pro-
fessional practice as an ar-
chitect in Egypt (2007-09),
Saudi Arabia (2009-10) and
Italy (2011-13), working at
different stages of design
development (from concept
design to building site).
Since 2013, he has held
the position of Research
Associate at the Sustainable
Research Group, American
University in Cairo (AUC),
where he lead research ac-
tivities in parametric model-
ling, daylighting simulation
and visual comfort.
At AUC, he also contrib-
uted in teaching architectur-
al design, 3D and paramet-
ric modelling, and building
performance simulation.
Between 2013 and
2014, he has held a part-
time teaching position at the
Arab Academy for Science,
Technology and Maritime
Transport in Cairo, at the
Architectural Engineering
and Environmental Design
Department.
Since 2013, he has con-
ducted several international
workshops and given public
lectures on parametric de-
sign and daylight modelling.
Twelve workshops have
been held at the Milan Poly-
technic in collaboration with
other international academic
institutions (Stuttgart Univer-
sity and Polytechnic of Lau-
sanne).
Energy Notes
Figure 3. Shows the Hexagonal Kaleidocycle motion and its size configuration ranging from 20cm to 65cm as well as its rotation angels ranging from 0 to 90 degrees.
Figure 4. Shows the optimum Kaleidocycle configuration and its daylighting Performance for south-oriented living room facade in Cairo, Egypt.
References
Wagdy, A., Morsy, A. and Hegazy, A. (2015). Daylighting optimization for
informal settlements in Cairo, Egypt. In: BSA 2015. Bozen, Italy: IBPSA
-Italy.
ElGazi, Y., Wagdy, A., Mohamed, S. and Hassan, A. (2014). Daylighting
Driven Design: Optimizing Kaleidocycle Typology for Non-simplified
Double Façade in Hot Arid Climate of Cairo, Egypt. In: BauSIM 2014.
Aachen, Germany: IBPSA - International Building Performance Simula-
tion Association Germany.
Wagdy, A. (2013). New parametric workflow based on validated day-lighting
simulation. In: Conference of Building Simulation in Cairo 2013. Cairo,
Egypt: IBPSA - International Building Performance Simulation Associa-
tion Egypt., pp.412-420.
IBPSA-Egypt Newsletter Vol. 7 P. 13
R ecommended Journals.
IBPSA-Egypt News
IBPSA Journal.
Official journal of the International Build-
ing Performance Simulation Association
(IBPSA).
Access details here.
Energy and Buildings.
Energy and Buildings is an international
journal publishing articles with explicit
links to energy use in buildings.
The aim is to present new research re-
sults, and new proven practice to reduce
energy needs of a building and improving
indoor environment quality.
Access details here.
Building and Environment.
Building and Environment is an interna-
tional journal that publishes original pa-
pers and review articles on research,
technology, and tool development related
to building science and human interaction
with the built environment, as well as
their applications to building design and
operation.
Access details here.
International Journal of Sustainable
Energy. Topics of interest are: renewable energy
sources; energy efficiency and energy
conservation; feasibility and viability of
energy systems; security of energy sup-
ply; novel energy technologies; educa-
tional aspects relating to the aforemen-
tioned fields.
Access details here.
International Journal of Sustainable
Building Technology and Urban De-velopment. welcomes papers on the following top-
ics: Building and Living Environmental;
Bio and Healthy Buildings Research;
Energy Use and Climate; Environment
Performance Assessment Tools; Facility
Management of Sustainable Buildings; )
Life Cycle Cost (LCC); Sustainable Build-
ing Education; Sustainable Building Ma-
terials; Sustainable Culture, Tradition and
Heritage; Sustainable Construction Man-
agement; Sustainable Legal Aspect; Sus-
tainable Social Study and Economics;
Sustainable Structural System; Sustaina-
ble Urban Development, Regeneration
and Policies; Planning and Design of
Sustainable Building; Psychology.
Access details here.
Journal of Building Engineering.
The Journal of Building Engineering is
an interdisciplinary journal that covers
all aspects of science and technology
concerned with the whole life cycle of
the built environment; from the design
phase through to construction, opera-
tion, performance, maintenance and its
deterioration.
Access details here.
Solar Energy.
The Official Journal of the International
Solar Energy Society®
Solar Energy, the official journal of
the International Solar Energy Socie-
ty®, is devoted exclusively to the sci-
ence and technology of solar energy
applications.
Access details here.
Solar Energy Materials & Solar
Cells. An International Journal Devoted to
Photovoltaic, Photothermal, and Photo-
chemical Solar Energy Conversion.
Solar Energy Materials & Solar Cells is
intended as a vehicle for the dissemina-
tion of research results on materials
science and technology related
t o p h o t o vo l t a i c , P ho t o t h e r -
mal and photo-electrochemical.
Access details here.
Renewable Energy.
The Official Journal of WREN - The
World Renewable Energy Network
The journal, Renewable Energy, seeks
to promote and disseminate knowledge
on the various topics and technologies
of renewable energy systems and com-
ponents.
The journal aims to serve researchers,
engineers.
Access details here.
IBPSA-Egypt Newsletter Vol. 7 P. 14
R ecommended Conferences.
IBPSA-Egypt News
Renewable Energy World Conference
& Expo North America. December 8-10, 2015 / Las Vegas Con-
vention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada.
Access details here.
ICRERA 2015 : XIII International Con-
ference on Renewable Energy Re-searches and Applications. Paper submission: March 20, 2015
Notification of acceptance: March 31,
2015
Final paper submission and authors'
registration (Camera Ready): April 20,
2015
Conference Dates: July 20 - 21, 2015.
Access details here.
ICRERA 2016 : XIV International Con-
ference on Renewable Energy Re-searches and Applications. Paper submission: January 25, 2016
Notification of acceptance: February 25,
2016
Final paper submission and authors'
registration (Camera Ready): March 25,
2016
Conference Dates: July 25 - 26, 2016.
Access details here.
ICERE 2015, International Conference
on Environment and Renewable Ener-gy. 20-21 May 2015, Vienna, Austria
Abstract submission until 25 March.
Access details here.
(ICCMREA-2015) International Confer-
ence on Composite Materials and Renewable Energy Applications. 23-24 March 2015 Rome, Italy.
Submission: 5th of March, 2015
Notification: within 2 weeks after review
completion
Registration: 10 March, 2015
Camera Ready: 20 March, 2015.
Access details here.
ICEMIS 2015 (The International Con-
ference on Engineering & MIS 2015). Istanbul, Turkey, 24-26 September,
2015. - Deadline Extended to 1 April,
2015.
All accepted papers will be published in
special issues in international jour-
nals, Including:
1. International Journal of Cloud Applica-
tions and Computing
2. International Journal of Informatics
Technology
3. Journal of Polytechnic
4. International Journal of Energy Optimi-
zation and Engineering (IJEOE)
5. Handbook of Research on Online
Banking Security, the Advances in
Information Security, Privacy, and Eth-
ics (AISPE) book series; IGI-Global;
USA [Call for Chapters]
Access details here.
The International Congress on Earth
Architecture in North Africa, (Architerre 2015). Marrakesh - Morocco, In collaboration
with :Florence –Italy, Polytechnic of Turin
- Italy, University of Florence - Italy , Bis-
kra - Algeria , Lisbon - Portugal .
Key Dates:
Second call for papers: 15 February 2015
Deadline for pre-inscription and submis-
sion of abstracts: 15 March 2015
Notification of acceptance of abstracts:
30 April 2015
Deadline for articles submission: 30 June
2015
Notification of acceptance of articles: 31
July 2015
Deadline for revised articles submission:
31 August 2015.
Access details here.
The Middle East Green Building Sum-
mit 2015, from 21-22 April in Cairo. will bring together leading sustainability
professionals and stakeholders to de-
bate. Access details here.
Improving Sustainability Concept In
Developing Countries, (ISCDC). Abst ract Submiss ion Deadl ine
2 July 2015
Final acceptance Notification of Ab-
stracts: 2 August 2015
Full Paper Submission: 18 October 2015
Conference's Program will be available: 2
November 2015
Conference date: 2-4 December 2015.
Access details here.
Calendar of upcoming scientific con-
ferences. Conferences and Meetings on Ecosys-
tems, Environment and Sustainable De-
velopment, allover the world.
Access details here.
IBPSA-Egypt Newsletter Vol. 7 P. 15
R ecommended Workshops.
IBPSA-Egypt News
You can find most of the Egyptian events and workshops, at the Egyp-tians architectural communities web pages.
Egyptian Group for Energy in Build-
ings and Environmental Design Re-search. EEER-Group is the official representa-
tive of IBPSA-Egypt and it is a voluntary
effort of interested and experienced re-
searchers in the related fields of built
environment and sustainability.
Access details here, & FB. Page here.
Centre of Planning and Architectural
Studies (CPAS). The centre comprises the following units:
Urban Planning, Architectural, Structural
Engineering, Sanitary Engineering, Elec-
tromechanical Engineering. Execution
Supervision, Computer, Training and
Research Studies, Publication, Pre-
investment Studies Group, Environmen-
tal Studies Group, Assessment of com-
panies and projects assets group.
Access details here. & FB page here.
Megawra, Built Environment Collec-
tive. MEGAWRA is an architectural hub a
space for young students and architects
that is also coming to the public. It is a
platform for holistic debate on the field of
architecture and urbanism with a focus
on it as art, theory, praxis and cultural
heritage and its role in promoting sus-
tainability and social responsibility in the
built environment.
Access details here,& FB. Page here.
Madamik, The architectural cultural
centre. Their vision is to become the leading
centre in training and developing educa-
tional architectural capabilities contribu-
tively in founding the role of architecture
in uprising Arabian communities in the
Middle East.
Access details here.
BEE’iE, Building, Energy and Envi-
ronmental Innovations in Egypt. BEEiE, emerged as an initiative that
aims to build public awareness, founding
National Green Building Plan and Net-
work of building researchers, environ-
mental organizations and experts to ef-
fectively create, share and maintain
knowledge transfer on sustainable build-
ing issues, energy efficient solutions and
environmental innovations at Egypt.
Access FB. Page here.
IEREK.
IEREK – International Experts for Re-
search Enrichment and Knowledge Ex-
change – is an international institution
that is concerned with the exchange of
knowledge and enhancing research
through organizing and managing con-
ferences in all fields of knowledge.
Access details here. & FB. Page here.
IEREK conferences here. & Workshops
here.
Schaduf.
Schaduf’s team of innovators is chang-
ing the urban experience by adding
green elements to our lives. We support
low income communities to grow and sell
rooftop crops, and we set up home gar-
dens for those who are interested in har-
vesting healthy food. Schaduf is also the
first company in Egypt to bring life to
walls, ceilings, and bus tops - adding a
decorative touch and purifying our air.
Access FB. Page here.
Training Unit - Egyptian Earth Con-
struction Association. The unite aims at training and building
the capacity of community groups, archi-
tects, builders, craftsmen, contractors
and other to acquire knowledge & skills
in all the fields related to the act of build-
ing.
Access details here.
Eeca Courses FB page here.
Engineering Consulting Office (SAAB)
Engineering Service. Real Estate Ser-
vice. Construction Service & Supply.
Access details here, & Workshops here.
Parametric & advanced daylighting
and energy simulations [IPD & PPD]. The objective of the IPD workshop is to
introduce participants to the Fundamen-
tal Concepts and Essential.
In PPD workshop participants will focus
on how to integrate Daylighting & Ther-
mal Analysis into parametric design
workflow.
Access details here, & Workshops here
Cairo Urban Initiatives Platform.
Access details here.
.
IBPSA-Egypt Newsletter Vol. 7 P. 16
IBPSA-Egypt News
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