Technological and financial tools to decarbonise the building sector and mitigate overheating in our cities

In the framework of The Trento EEMI Bauhaus Week, the European Mortgage Federation - European Covered Bond Council (EMF-ECBC) released a video-”call to action” (for distribution to 2000 banks and 5000 major companies) about the decarbonisation of buildings and the heat mitigation in cities.

English

Ranking of Dwelling Types in Terms of Overheating Risk And Sensitivity to Climate Change

Overheating in buildings is expected to increase as global warming continues. This could lead to heatrelated problems ranging from thermal-discomfort and productivity-reduction to illness as well as death. From the indoor-overheating point of view, the sensitivity of 9,216 Dutch dwelling-case to the climate change is quantified and ranked using detailed simulation and post-processing calculations. The results show that the sensitivity depends significantly on the dwelling’s design/operation characteristics. Minimally-ventilated dwellings are the most sensitive ones.

The impact of climate change on the overheating risk in dwellings. A Dutch case study

Overheating in buildings has been identified as an essential cause of several problems ranging from thermal discomfort and productivity reduction to illness and death. Overheating in buildings is expected to increase as global warming continues. The risk of overheating in existing and new buildings can be reduced if policy makers take decisions about adaptation interventions quickly. This paper introduces a methodology for supporting such decisions on a national level.

Will naturally ventilated dwellings still be safe under heatwaves?

Heatwaves are often responsible for many deaths due to high temperature indoors. Energy savings is a key element in building design and refurbishment works to reduce the impact of climate change. Natural ventilation is often promoted as an indoor space cooling solution thanks to its energy saving potential.
The paper deals with prediction of heat-related health risks situations in naturally ventilated dwellings.

A Naturally Ventilated Efficient Residential Building under the Impact of Climate Change

According to researchers, climate change is inevitable in the 21st century. As far as Greece is concerned, this climate change will be related to an increase in ambient surface temperature and to a decrease in annual precipitation. On the other hand wind patterns will not change significantly. Also, no significant changes are expected for global solar radiation. Regional climate models related to Greece show low uncertainties. The climate of Greece is typical Mediterranean with wet, cool winters and hot, dry summers.

The Effect of Climate and Culture on Housing among Low Income Groups in Lagos, Nigeria

The Low Income Group (L.I.G) in Lagos, Nigeria represents about 70% of the 18million population of the state. They are an important part of the economic activities in the state, with the bulk of public transportation and informal trading being undertaken by these groups. Housing, as the second most important human need after food has a profound influence on the health, efficiency, social behaviour, satisfaction and general welfare of the community.

A coupled summer thermal comfort and indoor air quality model of urban high-rise housing

The synergistic effects between summertime ventilation behaviour, indoor temperature and air pollutant concentration in relation to energy retrofit and climate change have been under-investigated to date. This paper explores such interactions in a social housing setting. The case study flat is located on a mid-floor of a high-rise council tower block in central London. Dwellings of this type are likely to be occupied by vulnerable individuals (elderly people or people suffering from ill health or mobility impairment).

Preliminary application of a methodology for risk assessment of thermal failures in buildings subject to climate change

Climate change is now recognized as a prime challenge of the 21st century. It is increasingly clear that there is a need to take action in order to adapt specific buildings to changing circumstances, in a cost-effective way. This paper presents the results of the first step of an EPSRC-funded research project that aims to manage the thermal risks in buildings subject to climate change, employing building simulation (coupled with uncertainty analysis) to quantify these risks, their consequences, and risk abatement options. 

Estimating the impacts of climate change and urbanization on building performance

While the scientific literature is full of studies looking at the impact of climate change driven by human activity, there is very little research on the impact of climate change or urban heat island on building operation and performance across the world. For this study, typical and extreme meteorological weather data were created for 25 locations (20 climate regions) to represent a range of predicted climate change and heat island scenarios for building simulation. Then a set of prototypical buildings were created to represent typical, good, and low-energy practices around the world.

Creating weather files for climate change and urbanization impacts analysis

Over the past 15 years, much scientific work has been published on the potential human impacts on climates. For the Third Assessment Report published by the United Nations International Program on Climate Change in 2001, a series of economic development scenarios were created and four major general circulation models (GCM) were used to estimate the anthropogenesis-forced climate change. These GCMs produce worldwide grids of predicted monthly temperature, cloud, and precipitation deviations from the period of 1961-1990.

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