Valeria Todeschi

Green urban infrastructures have a significant impact on urban climate mitigation, on indoor and outdoor thermal comfort and on energy performance of buildings. In this paper, outdoor thermal comfort conditions and energy saving for space heating and cooling were investigated before and after the use of roof-integrated green technologies. Existing urban energy and climate models and tools were applied to an urban area located in a Turin (Italy).

Building energy-use models and tools can simulate and represent the distribution of energy consum...ption of buildings located in an urban area. The aim of these models is to simulate the energy performance of buildings at multiple temporal and spatial scales, taking into account both the building shape and the surrounding urban context.

Nowadays, greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase with the consequent climate changes. Energy consumption of buildings strongly affects atmospheric pollution, therefore for a sustainable development it is necessary to adopt energy efficiency policies combined with low-carbon technologies. In particular, the use of district heating (DH) has environmental and economic advantages in energy production and distribution for space heating consumption.

In urban areas, district heating (DH) represents a valuable technology for providing sanitary water and house heating to buildings, because of its technical and economic strengths and its potentials on reduction of pollutant emissions. In large towns, DH is often an evolving structure. Connection of additional buildings, without any modifications in the existing network, is a frequent option to be considered to avoid further investment costs.

Increasing energy efficiency in buildings is a crucial topic, especially in those EU countries where almost 50% of the final energy consumption is used for space heating and cooling, of which 80% is used for buildings. This study presents a model and a tool that can be used to evaluate energy consumption and to identify retrofitting strategies and renewable energy sources with the aim of reaching energy and climate targets in order to improve energy security, competitiveness and sustainability in a territory.

The phenomenon of overheating in urban areas is an increasingly important issue as far as the quality of life and public health are concerned. This paper proposes a simple model, integrated with a Geographic Information System (GIS) tool, that can be used to analyze the microclimate of outdoor spaces, considering the relationship between the air temperature and the characteristics of an urban environment.

The energy consumption of buildings is related to multiple factors, such as construction and geometric characteristics, occupancy, climate and microclimate conditions, solar exposure, and urban morphology. Therefore, the interaction between buildings and their surroundings should be taken into consideration.