Kasun Hewage

Professor

Civil

Other Titles: FortisBC Smart Energy Chair; Program Chair, Civil Engineering; UBC Clean Energy Research Centre
Office: EME4225
Phone: 250.807.8176
Email: kasun.hewage@ubc.ca

Research Summary

Lifecycle assessment of construction products and processes; Waste management in construction; Energy based sustainability analysis in infrastructure projects; Construction productivity and safety; Human factors and information technology in construction; Construction process optimization

Courses & Teaching

ENGR 303 - Engineering Project Management;
ENGR 433/533 - Construction Engineering and Management;
ENGR 532 - Project Planning and Control;
ENGR 544 - Life Cycle Assessment and Management

Biography

Dr. Kasun Hewage is a Full Professor in the School of Engineering at UBC’s Okanagan with multidisciplinary project experiences in Canada and internationally, and also holds a PhD in project management from the University of Calgary. He has been leading several collaborative industrial projects in life cycle management of built assets, green construction, and smart energy options. At present, he is directing the UBC Okanagan’s Life Cycle Management Laboratory, which is the only such facility in Canada. His research team has been assisting many municipalities and neighborhood developers to improve energy efficiency in the existing and planned buildings and neighborhoods by identifying economically and environmentally feasible waste-to-energy options, smart technologies, and optimal energy sources. His team has also developed many decision support tools and best management practices by integrating life cycle based energy-carbon analysis and innovative asset management practices.  Professor Hewage has widely published his research innovations and findings in highly reputed technical journals and conference proceedings. Prior to joining UBC in 2008, Professor Hewage worked as a business management cost specialist in Alberta’s oil and gas industry, and he has also worked as a civil engineer on hydropower and infrastructure development projects.

Websites

Project Life Cycle Management Laboratory

Degrees

PhD: University of Calgary, Canada.
BScEng (Hons): University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

Research Interests & Projects

• FortisBC Smart Energy Chair

The goal of this project is to develop novel smart energy solutions for British Columbia. Four key themes have been identified as priority areas in developing life cycle thinking based smart energy solutions and long-term policies. The chair is funded through a MITACS Accelerate cluster scheme in collaboration with FortisBC Inc. The chair focuses on 4 theme areas.

Theme-1: Building energy performance enhancement: This theme mainly focuses on energy performance enhancement and associated emissions reduction in existing building sector while reducing the financial burden of energy use and maintenance of building owners and occupants.

Theme 2: Clean Technologies for Climate Change Mitigation: This theme is aimed at investigating the barriers for penetration renewable energy, waste heat recovery, and energy sharing strategies, and provide recommendations to improve energy and environmental performance at building level.

Theme 3: BC energy STEP code implementation: This theme of focuses on developing a formal guide for BC Energy STEP Code planning, design, and construction. STEP code is the British Columbia’s incremental steps to increase energy-efficiency requirements in the BC Building Code to make buildings net-zero energy ready by year 2032.

Theme 4: Electric vehicles for demand side management: Electric Vehicles (EVs) can be used as mobile energy hubs to manage the peak loads in grid electricity demand. This theme focuses on developing new business models for the utility providers in BC and across Canada.

• Micro Carbon Capturing and Utilization

This project is carried out in partnership with FortisBC, Pacific Northern Gas Ltd, and CleanO₂^, who are interested in investigating building level carbon capture and utilization, which is one of the most overlooked pathways for achieving net zero buildings. The main objective of this research is to develop much needed knowledge on micro carbon capture and utilization (MCCU) in Canada.

• Urban Development

Providing scientific evidence-based solutions to urban planning and regional development issues which affect local governments and community developers is one of the key research efforts by the Life Cycle Management Laboratory. During the past years, the work carried out in this area in the LCM Laboratory expanded to different directions such as urban density planning, transportation planning, development or sustainable residential neighbourhoods, regional growth planning, as well as infrastructure and systems management for municipalities. Our unique expertise in life cycle thinking-based decision making and risk assessment helps in developing strong and successful partnerships with various local governments, regulatory bodies, and other industrial entities in delivering robust and enduring solutions to the contemporary urban development problems. Our goal is to support Canadian communities in achieving sustainable and secure growth strategies, and to provide them the tools which enable self-sufficiency in terms of technical expertise in the long run.

• Energy Systems

LCML-energy research team lead efforts in developing energy related decision making solutions to address challenges in different sectors. We produce unique solutions to energy related decision-making problems by combining our expertise in asset management and energy performance evaluation with life cycle thinking. Current research in the lab covers a variety of problems including buildings energy efficiency improvements and retrofit planning, life cycle assessment of energy technologies and building materials, energy system feasibility assessment, and community energy planning. The reasons behind the practical utility and timelines of our research are the strong partnerships and collaborations with local municipalities and energy companies.

Further Details: Project Life Cycle Management Laboratory

 

Selected Publications & Presentations

• List of publications (Google Scholar Profile)

Media