Georg Schiller
Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development
Georg Schiller is senior researcher and project leader the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER) and Visiting Research Fellow and Lecturer der UNITED NATIONS UNIVERITY – Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and Resources (UNU-FLORES). He studied industrial engineering and received doctoral degree on civil engineering and urban planning. He is working in interdisciplinary international and national projects with engineers, planners, social scientists and computer scientists dealing with different topics of resource efficient urban and regional planning such as urban transition, land use-management, urban mining and urban-rural linkages.
Most of the anthropogenic material stocks and flows are associated with the built environment. Recent IE research has shown a strong interest in indicators suitable for calculating material stocks and flows of buildings and infrastructures. This research for indicators has often been implemented through bottom up approaches, which enabled a high variety of applications in MFA studies on different scales and different contents. This versatility holds great potential to provide useful information to support discussion on resource efficiency policies.
Due to missing and/or unreliable statistical data, the definition of indicators has usually been based on case-studies representing typical material compositions of buildings and infrastructures with reference to a specific spatial context. This context is essentially determined by cultural, climatic and geomorphological conditions that varies from region to region, hampering cross border comparisons and the transferability of indicators to other contexts. Empirical databases used for material flow and stock analysis are also hampered by the limited resources and time constraints of the single researchers/institutions. Nevertheless, the plethora of case-studies recently appeared in IE literature is enabling unprecedented opportunities to expand these databases.
In this research, we are looking at the requirements, opportunities and limits for the comparison of material composition indicators (material intensities) across contexts, taking the German and Japanese domestic buildings as an example, starting with already published aterial composition indicators (Tanikawa & Hashimoto 2009, Ortlepp, Gruhler & Schiller 2016). To execute this project, we investigated: (1) the identification of material composition indicators that allow for a differentiation between context independent and context sensitive components; (2) the comparison of material composition indicators, (3) the develpoment of hypothesis in order to explain similarities and differences. This research will consider building specific parameters which can be classified by the following conditions (1) climatic conditions (both thermodynamic parameters such as number of degree-days, and actions on the structure, such as strong wind, snow load etc.), (2) geomorphological conditions (soil mechanics, groundwater level, earthquake risk), and (3) cultural conditions (e.g. different expected lifespan, presence of cellar/basement, design requirements or habits). The important contribution of this research is to provide structured knowledge to support the transferability-discussion of MFA bottom up approaches regarding the built environment. Both researchers and stakeholders dealing with strategic planning issues in respect of sustainable development of building stocks will benefit of this outcome. Thus, it is an additional base for validation and therefore a better and more reliable information base for researchers and policy makers.
Ortlepp, R., Gruhler, K., Schiller, G. (2016): Materials in Germany´s demestic building stock: calculation model and uncertainties. Building Research & Information, Online first, doi:10.1080/09613218.2016.1264121.
Tanikawa, H., Hashimoto, S. (2009): Urban stock over time: spatial material stock analysis using 4d-GIS. Building Research & Information, 37(5-6), 483-502. doi:10.1080/09613210903169394.
