climate change

By 2050, the entire built environment must be climate neutral. Before that final date, we have to find an alternative to the use of fossil energy in the built environment. The switch to a climate neutral built environment requires an integrated approach, focusing on switching to alternative, non-fossil fuels and on reducing the energy demand by taking energy efficiency measures.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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).

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. 

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.