Geospatial modeling of urban buildings and land use for climate change impacts and resource productivity

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20239196

Urbanization is expected to continue, with more than two-thirds of the world's population likely to live in urban areas by 2050, leading to a net urban influx of approximately 2.5 billion people. Existing infrastructure must be equipped to address this dramatic urban growth while also adapting to potential adverse impacts of climate change and other natural hazards. To be sustainable, cities must themselves, become efficient users of materials and energy as well as respond to future climatic conditions. Two main urban engineering strategies are to map how current stocks may respond to climate change and to identify resources that could be used to improve local productive capacity and reduce dependencies on distant resources. The dissertation herein addresses these two overarching strategies through a series of specific case studies for the Boston area using GIS based urban stock assessment as a framework.