To enhance the quality of life in cities, it is necessary to improve the energy performance of buildings together with a sustainable urban planning especially in high-density contexts. Previous works investigated the building shape, the urban morphology, and the local climate conditions to optimize the energy performance for space heating of buildings.
Several contrasting effects are reported in the existing literature concerning the impact assessment of the COVID-19 outbreak on the use of energy in buildings. Following an in-depth literature review, we here propose a GIS-based approach, based on pre-pandemic, partial, and full lockdown scenarios, using a bottom-up engineering model to quantify these impacts. The model has been verified against measured energy data from a total number of 451 buildings in three urban neighborhoods in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland.
Improving outdoor thermal comfort of the urban spaces is one of the most important challenges that cities have to carry out in the next years. The aim of this work consists of assessing the impact of urban variables and to quantify the influence of greening on outdoor thermal comfort conditions. The work compares six neighborhoods in the city of Turin characterized by different urban forms, contexts, and green areas. External thermal comfort conditions were measured by evaluating a series of indicators with the support of the ENVI-met tool.
The EU building stock is 97% not energy efficient and the promotion of energy retrofitting strategies is a key way of reducing energy consumptions and greenhouse gas emission. In order to improve the energy performance of buildings, the European Union released the Energy Performance of Buildings and the Energy Efficiency Directives.
It is common practice, in the production of photovoltaic energy to only use the south-exposed roof surface of a building, in order to achieve the maximum production of solar energy while lowering the costs of the energy and the solar technologies. However, using the south-exposed surface of a roof only allows a small quota of the energy demand to be covered. Roof surfaces oriented in other directions could also be used to better cover the energy load profile.
Urban rooftops are a potential source of water, energy, and food that contribute to make cities more resilient and sustainable. The use of smart technologies such as solar panels or cool roofs helps to reach energy and climate targets. This work presents a flexible methodology based on the use of geographical information systems that allow evaluating the potential use of roofs in a densely built-up context, estimating the roof areas that can be renovated or used to produce renewable energy.
The development of urban-scale energy modeling is currently the goal of many research groups as a result of to the increased interest in evaluating the impacts of energy efficiency measures in cities. These energy models are useful to explore consumption and emission distribution at district scale and to quantitatively assess renovation strategies and energy supply options.
There is growing attention to the use of greenery in urban areas, in various forms and functions, as an instrument to reduce the impact of human activities on the urban environment. The aim of this study has been to investigate the use of green roofs as a strategy to reduce the urban heat island effect and to improve the thermal comfort of indoor and outdoor environments. The effects of the built-up environment, the presence of vegetation and green roofs, and the urban morphology of the city of Turin (Italy) have been assessed considering the land surface temperature distribution.
Energy resilience can be reached with a secure, sustainable, competitive, and affordable system. ...In order to achieve energy resilience in the urban environment, urban-scale energy models play a key role in supporting the promotion and identification of effective energy-efficient and low-carbon policies pertaining to buildings.