Marita Wallhagen

University of Gävle

Dr. Marita Wallhagen is an Associate Professor of Sustainability Science at the University of Gävle, Sweden with a Ph.D. from KTH Royal Institute of Technology. She is a visionary architect and researcher with a socio-eco-technological perspective on architecture, urban design, and sustainability. Her research involves design for sustainable buildings and districts, environmental assessment methods, ecosystem services, life cycle assessment, and decision-making. She is the co-director of the research program Urban Transition and teaches about environmental assessment tools. Dr. Wallhagen is passionate about greening the urban environment and bringing together theory and practice concerning innovative sustainable designs, architecture, technology, ecology, and living environments. Besides academic work, she is active as an architect and enjoys developing designs and research for more sustainable architecture.

1books edited

1chapters authored

Latest work with IntechOpen by Marita Wallhagen

This book assembles the latest knowledge linked to urban environments and urban socio-eco-technological systems including urban, energy, transport, material, and ecosystems. Urban environments and systems affect every person’s life in many ways and can have negative impacts on the local and global environment. They create value but sometimes with a high environmental cost from a lifecycle perspective. Therefore, scientists and global leaders call for an urban transition to create more urban environments and systems that are climate-positive, sustainable, and healthy, which is necessary for society to function within the planetary boundaries. This is a great challenge. Huge transformations and new ways of thinking regarding the design and co-existence of technical, social, and ecological systems are necessary to turn the present challenge into opportunities. This book, Urban Transition - Perspectives on Urban Systems and Environments, explores this challenge and several different topics related to possible, probable, or necessary urban transitions in the urban environment. It assembles a variety of authors who present many aspects and the latest knowledge linked to urban transitions of the urban environment and urban socio-eco-technological systems - including urban-, energy-, transport-, building- material- and eco-systems. Furthermore, the importance of urban systems and urban environments is seldom clearly linked to their impact on the environment and humans. This book examines this gap, the crucial issues relating to how urban systems influence the urban structure, and how they can be formed and designed to become more sustainable. It explores the link between the complex systems in cities, the physicality of the built environment, and the living environments for the people. The book proposes a rich garden of ideas to provoke and develop current research, debate, and new forms of practice.

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Urban Transition

Edited by Marita Wallhagen

Chapters authored

Viewpoints on Environmental Assessment of Building Certification Method – Miljöbyggnad

By Marita Wallhagen, Jan Akander, Abolfazl Hayati, Mathias Cehlin and Björn Karlsson

Production, management, use, and end-of-life of buildings has a large impact on climate change. Therefore, environmental targets are set to lower the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the building sector. To reach these targets building regulation and voluntary environmental assessment methods (EAMs) that evaluate and certify the building’s environmental impact are put forward as tools to push the building sector towards lower GHG emissions. In Sweden, building design is governed by building regulations and the dominant EAM is ‘Miljöbyggnad’ (MB) (“Environmental building”). Today, more than 1900 buildings have been certified by MB and it has influenced the building and property sector. In this chapter the potential impact MB and the linked Swedish building regulations have on building performance, energy use and GHG emissions, will be reviewed and discussed. The analysis investigates several of the MB’s indicators, evaluate to what degree EAMs can influence the design of the building and the energy system to lower the energy use and GHG emissions based on material choices. The analysis presents important aspects that may influence the design of the building and its energy system and what challenges and possibilities the indicators, criteria and regulations can have on buildings and climate change. In addition, some modification and suggestion for improvements are presented.

Part of the book: Urban Transition

Marita Wallhagen

Latest work with IntechOpen by Marita Wallhagen

Urban Transition

Chapters authored

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