Assessment of Fences as Noise Barriers: A Case Study in New Cairo, Egypt

Noise levels in Egypt exceed acceptable thresholds due to high population and lack of mandatory sound regulations. According to noise measurements done by “The National Network for Noise Level Measurement in Greater Cairo” most of the areas examined ( main squares, industrial areas, main roads, residential areas, commercial and administrative areas in Cairo governorate)  had shown that noise levels exceeded the standard permissible levels that are identified by the Environmental Law 4/1994 and its executive regulations. Noise levels reached up to 75-85 decibels (dB), which is considered unacceptable as noise levels should not exceed 65 dB during daytime and 55 dB during night due to law number 4/1994. On the other hand, fences are considered a common feature within the Egyptian urban context and are mainly constructed for safety and privacy reasons. This research assesses the effectiveness of existing fences as noise barriers and specifies factors that reduce noise levels. Site measurements and photographs were taken for the fence of a residential compound in new Cairo, where noises arising from surrounding places cause annoyance. MEP services were the main sources of disturbing continuous noise along with social activities and traffic noises. Measurements were performed using TM-102 digital sound level meter. Readings were recorded at various time intervals in front and behind of the fence and noise reduction levels were calculated. Measurements revealed that the fence acts as a good noise barrier and that combined configuration of the fence resulted in the attenuation of noise to acceptable levels

Twenty-year tracking of lighting savings and power density in the residential sector

Lighting energy consumption represents a significant percentage of total energy consumption in residential building sector. During the last 20 years, advanced energy-efficient lighting fixtures have been introduced worldwide to conserve the energy consumption in residences. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, very few studies have been conducted to evaluate the association between the introduced lighting fixtures and the resulted energy savings using valid measurements and verification techniques. This study evaluates the techno-economic impact of replacing new energy efficient lighting in residences in Egypt (a representative MENA region country). A quantitative analysis is applied by tracking the utility bills of 150 residential apartments in Cairo. The average measured power consumption before (1993-1998) and after (2009-2014) installation energy efficient lighting fixtures is analyzed. A building performance simulation model is developed to back the findings. The findings indicate a significant disparity between the estimated savings based on simulation and the real measured savings due to penetration, rebound effect and low quality lamps. Moreover, the findings present an example of quantified benefits of energy efficient lighting, which is very important to inform the decision making of public policy makers, investors and building occupants

Influence of urban canopy green coverage and future climate change scenarios on energy consumption of urban developments

The trend of urban and suburban developments is concluding that more than 70% of the world population will be living inurban areas by mid-21st century within dis-comfortable built environment. In Egypt, a concern about climate change resilientcommunities is having more listeners after Paris climate agreement in 2015. Therefore, assessing present and future outdoormicroclimatic effects on the indoor environmental quality and energy consumption in turn is crucial to build the capacitiesfor mitigation and adaptation strategies. In this research work, the coupled outdoor–indoor simulation methodology is appliedusing ENVI-met and DesignBuilder to let buildings respond to the street canyon conditions since indoor simulation packagesdoes not consider urban details. Such mutual relation is explored in a site case in Borg El-Arab, Alexandria, Egypt, in whichurban canopy green coverage (trees, green walls and roofs) have been applied. Comparing results of indoor thermal comfortfor the examined site buildings in present until end of century (2020, 2050 and 2080) with and without the urban canopy greencoverage; show that indicators and adaptation strategies can be developed for climate change scenarios

Reconfigurable micromachined antenna with polarization diversity for mm-wave applications

[abstract not available

Highly sensitive mushroom-shaped gold-silica nano antenna array for refractive index sensing

[abstract not available

Novel micromachined on-chip 10-elements wire-grid array operating at 60 GHz

[abstract not available

On-chip micromachined dipole antenna with parasitic radiator for mm-wave wireless systems

[abstract not available