Course - Built environment: Stock dynamics and climate change (MFA2) - TEP4290
TEP4290 - Built environment: Stock dynamics and climate change (MFA2)
About
Examination arrangement
Examination arrangement: Aggregate score
Grade: Letter grades
| Evaluation | Weighting | Duration | Grade deviation | Examination aids |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assignment | 40/100 | |||
| Oral exam | 60/100 | 45 minutes | D |
Course content
Built environment stocks - such as buildings, infrastructures, or vehicles - satisfy human needs and wants. At the same time, their build-up, use, and end-of-life management shape the main anthropogenic material and energy flows. Transforming the built environment stocks is therefore key for balancing human needs with environmental protection. The consequences of such transformations are often delayed due to the time it takes until new technologies have penetrated use (e.g., for reducing emissions) or reach end-of-life (e.g., for becoming available for recycling). To capture these delay effects for resource use and emissions, it is critical to analyze the dynamics of built environment stocks. This course introduces dynamic Material Flow Analysis (dMFA), a tool used to describe changing systems of resource use and emissions using mass and energy balance principles. The students learn how to develop and use dMFA models to generate forecasting and backcasting scenarios to determine how different emission targets can be reached under different conditions such as population growth, existing stock, climate, novel technologies, user behavior, regulations.
Lectures on the principles of dMFA and stock dynamics are complemented with introductory information on the use of Python and Jupyter Notebooks and practical exercises. In the exercises, the students work in groups of two to develop their own models and scenarios for vehicle and building stocks and interpret the results from a climate policy perspective. The students will present their intermediate and final work in a seminar. The course involves guest lectures from industry and government and an excursion.
Learning outcome
Knowledge: The students will be able to formulate the key problems related to selected built environment systems, to describe the state-of-the-art tools used to analyze these problems (including their strengths and limitations), and to describe the legal and socio-economic context.
Skills: The students will acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to select appropriate system boundaries to answer specific questions related to a problem, to develop models suitable to identify alternative transformation pathways, to use Python for programming dMFAs, and to discuss different interventions in terms of their effectiveness and potential co-benefits, trade-offs, risks, and barriers.
General competence: The students will be able to conduct literature research using online databases and library systems, to work effectively in a team, to organize a code base for scientific research, and to communicate their findings in an effective and transparent way in oral (presentation) and written form (scientific report).
Learning methods and activities
Lectures by teachers and external experts, guided self-study for selected case studies (individual and in groups). The students work on their own projects with guidance in exercise sessions and seminars where they present their work. Course language is English.
Further on evaluation
The course is building up to a student project on the building stock of a country. This project is developed over multiple weeks in groups of two and results in a written report.
The final grade is composed of the written report on the project submitted by the group (40%) and an oral exam at the end of the course (60%).
The re-sit examination will be conducted as an oral examination.
Recommended previous knowledge
TEP4285 Material Flow Analysis or equivalent competence. It is recommended that students have taken some courses in Industrial Ecology.
Some prior exposure to python and Jupyter Notebooks is of advantage, but we provide warm-ups that are tailored to this course.
Required previous knowledge
None.
Course materials
Various course materials will be used and distributed electronically on Blackboard during the semester.
Credit reductions
| Course code | Reduction | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|
| TVM4129 | 7.5 | AUTUMN 2013 |
Version: 1
Credits:
7.5 SP
Study level: Second degree level
Term no.: 1
Teaching semester: SPRING 2025
Language of instruction: English
Location: Trondheim
- Waste Management and Recycling Technologies
- Industrial Ecology
- Technological subjects
Department with academic responsibility
Department of Energy and Process Engineering
Examination
Examination arrangement: Aggregate score
- Term Status code Evaluation Weighting Examination aids Date Time Examination system Room *
- Spring ORD Assignment 40/100 INSPERA
-
Room Building Number of candidates - Spring ORD Oral exam 60/100 D
-
Room Building Number of candidates - Summer UTS Oral exam 60/100 D
-
Room Building Number of candidates
- * The location (room) for a written examination is published 3 days before examination date. If more than one room is listed, you will find your room at Studentweb.
For more information regarding registration for examination and examination procedures, see "Innsida - Exams"