The Baltimore Social-Environmental Collaborative
Integrated Field Laboratory
Sponsored by U.S. Department of Energy (2022-2027)
Project Description
Led by Johns Hopkins University, the Baltimore Social-Environmental Collaborative (BSEC) seeks a new paradigm for urban climate research. Inspired by the Urban Integrated Field Laboratory call to provide knowledge that informs equitable solutions that can strengthen community-scale resilience, we propose a people-centered, transdisciplinary IFL. BSEC begins with community priorities (human health and safety, affordable energy, transportation equity, and others) and city government priorities (clean waterways, decarbonization, functioning infrastructure) and designs observation networks and models that will deliver the climate science capable of supporting those priorities. This means that BSEC takes the form of an iterative collaborative cycle, in which an initial observation and modeling strategy is continuously updated in conversation with community partners. The guiding objective of this cycle is to produce the urban climate science needed to inform community-guided “potential equitable pathways” for climate action. In doing so, we address a number of fundamental urban science questions from across natural science and social science disciplines.
The SBS Lab Director Dr. Zuo is co-leading the Buildings and Energy theme in the BSEC. We will develop new urban building energy modeling capacity to integrate with urban climate modeling and indoor air quality modeling, which will be developed by other team members.
Project Team
Wangda Zuo, Ph.D.
Department of Architectural Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, United States
Yizhi Yang
Department of Architectural Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, Unite States
Rosina Adhikari
Department of Architectural Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, Unite States
Jiyuan Sui
Department of Architectural Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, Unite States
Genevieve Gandara
Department of Mechanical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, United States
Main Project Website
Journal Papers
- Y. Yang, R. Adhikari, Y. Lou, J. O’Donnell, N. Hewitt, W. Zuo 2025. “Long-Term Impact of Electrification and Retrofits of the U.S Residential Building in Diverse Locations.” Building and Environment. 269. pp. 112472..
Conference Papers
- R. Adhikari, Y. Yang, W. Zuo “Developing a Representative Energy Model for Row Houses in Baltimore City” 1st International Conference of Net Zero Carbon Built Environment (ZCBE) 2024. July 3-5, University of Nottingham, UK.
- Y. Yang, J. Sui, Y. Ye, W. Zuo, Y. J. Jung, X. Lei 2024 “Long-Term Assessment of Commercial Building Energy and Carbon Emissions in the Northwestern Region Under Future Weather Trend.” SimBuild 2024. May 21-23, Denver, CO.
Project News
Prof. Zuo Gives Talk on Carbon Emissions as part of the EarthTalks Series
This past Monday, February 9, 2024, Prof. Wangda Zuo was joined by Professor Rahman Azari from the Architecture Department, and Dr. Jiazhen Ling from NREL titled “The Economic Impacts of Carbon Emission Trading Scheme on Building Retrofits”. The three...