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 (sabouelfadl@yahoo.com)

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: ahmed.abdelmonteleb@ejust.edu.eg, TEL.:

0201005490811

b

Chair of Environmental Engineering Department, Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology

(E-JUST), Alexandria, Egypt, E-mail: negm@ejust.edu.eg

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

Stay tuned with our website; we are working hard

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your hand, See you next issue of EEER IBPSA-Egypt.

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