A systems engineering methodology for designing and planning the built environment

Results from the urban research laboratory nuremberg and their integration in education

authored by

Philipp Florian Geyer, Jochen Stopper, Werner Lang, Maximilian Thumfart

Abstract

Sustainable urban development requires a long-term sector-integrative approach. This paper proposes a method of system analysis and partial simulation for urban structures for this purpose. It couples a discussion-based holistic approach for systems analysis and modelling of urban structures with quantitative modelling and simulation of partial scenarios that serve to examine specific questions regarding the long-term development of urban structures. In the first part, the application in the City Lab Nuremberg West, a multidisciplinary urban research laboratory, serves to develop the methodology and its illustration. The main objective is to examine the transition of the existing underperforming quarter to a sustainable and livable urban environment. Scenario-based experiments with respect to development paths determine robustness and risks of different configurations. The second part of the paper describes the transfer of the methodology to education. The approach serves to teach students in the Energy-Efficient and Sustainable Building master course program an integrative way of planning a sustainable built environment. The definition of educational objectives concerning the students’ understanding and management of systemic interdependencies of sustainability help assess the use of the method in the classroom. The aim is to provide them with the competence to develop strategies for complex situations while planning a sustainable built environment.

External Organisation(s)

Technical University of Munich (TUM)

Type

Article

Journal

Systems

Volume

2

Pages

137-158

No. of pages

22

Publication date

16.04.2014

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Software, Control and Systems Engineering, Modelling and Simulation, Computer Networks and Communications, Information Systems and Management

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.3390/systems2020137 (Access: Open)