(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2023-04-25)
El Masri, Yasser
With climate change becoming an existential threat for all living beings, and a matter of national security for states around the world, urgent action is needed to meet the challenges it poses. Buildings are responsible for approximately 40% of total direct and indirect CO2 emissions globally, therefore they present an important sector to target as part of a global strategy to address this problem. This work relates the field of building performance to modern-day challenges of climate change, international relations, and national and energy security policy. The goal of the dissertation is to develop a viable and applicable strategy that can ultimately address these issues through a novel approach. Initially, it will identify current issues with approaches to climate change strategies and national and energy security that are predominantly supply-focused, then help synthesize solutions to these problems through a shift to an energy demand-reduction focused approach for buildings. The research utilizes building energy modeling, non-destructive testing techniques, and computational tools to create workflows that can help policymakers assess the benefits, costs, and feasibility of applying such a strategy. The dissertation aims to bridge the gap between climate change, energy security policy, and building energy consumption on various scales and present it as a realistic solution that helps bypass many of the impediments to currently applied approaches.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-02)
El Masri, Yasser
This paper explores the relationship between conflict in the urban environment and natural systems of resiliency found in forests and jungles. Studying the different accounts of inhabitants of cities under siege during the Syrian Civil war, indicates that various sustainable practices were implemented within the built environment that helped inhabitants survive the devastating process. The innovative, circular economy allowed the inhabitants to survive their plight and lessened the intended effects of the destructive sieges. Drawing parallels with how forests and jungles utilize different natural systems, such as mycorrhizal networks, to increase resiliency, many lessons are inferred about sustainable resource management and efficient allocation in the face of different threats. The “Urban Jungle” is thus synthesized as a model that attempts to augment and maximize the practices inhabitants had devised through mimicking the model found in the natural jungle. Applying this model to conflict zones allows the evolution of survival tactics into a form of insurgent resilience, with wider socio-political ramifications on the survivability of the inhabitants, their political will, the effectiveness of the conflict, and sieges as a political tool.