CEM ÇELİK

The Effect of Unique Properties and Attributes of a County on Urban Carbon Footprint Calculations: A Comparative Study

Abstract

According to the Paris Agreement, local governments should initially be responsible forcombating global warming. Hence, carbon footprint (CF) calculations of countries, cities, and districts are becoming more important. CF studies demonstrated that the climate is a significant factor due to the varying temperatures and energy required for residential heating and cooling loads. Turkey has four heating zones, 1st zone being the warmest 4th being the coldest. This study involves CF calculations of two similar Turkish towns in different climate regions with similar population sizes, Seydikemer and Merzifon, being in the 1st heating zone and 3rd heating zone, respectively. The variation in the climate conditions has a major effect on stationary energy consumption and carbon emission levels. Using local heating degree days (HDD) and cooling degree days (CDD) values to compute heating and cooling loads is a practical method for calculating stationary energy usage. Seydikemer district, HDD, and CDD values are 767 and 773, respectively, whereas Merzifon district has HDD and CDD values of 2156 and 216, respectively. These HDD and CDD values suggest that the amount of energy consumption for heating purposes in Merzifon is significantly high, whereas energy consumption for cooling purposes in Seydikemer is considerably higher. This variation demonstrates the impact of HDD and CDD on carbon emissions very clearly. In this study, the CF of two towns has been evaluated and compared for each of five main sectors: stationary energy, transportation, wastes, industrial processes and product use, and agriculture, forestry, and other land use. In both counties, stationary energy has the largest share, approximately 65% in Seydikemer and 53% in Merzifon, excluding biogenic carbon emissions. Consequently, geographical location, economic activities, and the variation of weight in five sectors define the emission distribution, and each county’s unique properties must be evaluated to mitigate the emission levels.

Biography

He has been working as a Research Assistant / Lecturer at Marmara University Mechanical Engineering Department since 1999. He works on renewable energy, hydroelectric power plants, indoor air quality, carbon footprint calculations.