Speaker: Dr Ruchi Choudhary (Department of Engineering)
Urban agriculture is being increasingly investigated as an alternative local source of food, notably using hydroponics. Integrating urban farms within dense environments has the potential to utilise waste infrastructure and resources within cities with environmental benefits. We present the environmental monitoring and modelling of the world’s first underground farm in London, located in tunnels designed as a WW2 air raid shelters in the 1940s. Our long-term monitoring program on the site highlights some of the challenges and opportunities of growing food in abandoned spaces within cities.
Dr Ruchi Choudhary is Reader of Architectural Engineering in the Engineering Department at University of Cambridge. She specializes in simulation methods for predicting energy demand of the built environment. She is leading the research group on Digital Twins of Built Environment funded by UKRI programme ‘AI for Science & Government’ (ASG) at the Alan Turing Institute (2018-2021). At Cambridge, she leads the multi-disciplinary Energy Efficient Cities Initiative, initially funded by a Science & Innovation award at Cambridge. Her research spans simulation-based methodologies for energy management of buildings; uncertainty quantification in building simulation models; and multi-disciplinary interactions influencing energy use in cities.
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Event details available here.