ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant changes to human life and habits. There is an increasing urgency to promote occupants' health and well-being in the built environment where they spend most of their lives, putting indoor air quality (IAQ) in the spotlight. This study fits into this context, aiming to provide useful information about the design, construction, and operation of an IAQ-resilient building in the post-pandemic era for it to ensure a good trade-off between energy- and health-related objectives. The PRISMA guidelines were adopted to conducting a systematic review obtaining 58 studies that offered relevant results on two main research areas: (i) the concept of resilience, focusing on its definition in relation to the built environment and to pandemic-related disruptions;and (ii) the building design strategies that are able to increase buildings' resilience, focusing on the preventive measures involving engineering control. In addition, the metrics and the decision-making tools able to make IAQ-resilient buildings attractive to the investors, focusing on the cost-benefit analysis (CBA) technique, were discussed. The research supported the transition of the building sector to a human-centered approach that is able to include IAQ resilience among the main priorities of future buildings to guarantee the occupants' health and well-being. © 2023 by the authors.
ABSTRACT
A resilient city includes multiple energy carriers, high-efficiency infrastructure, lower resource demand to decarbonize and sustain the urban system in accordance with the Paris Agreement, the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the various recovery plans following the COVID-19 pandemic period. To achieve these goals, a key role is played by all urban sectors, which can reduce environmental impacts and accelerate the green transition at larger scale. Intervening on a district scale obviously requires the evaluation of different aspects, taking into account both economic and non-economic criteria, as well as different points of view, involving all stakeholders. This paper proposes a multi-step evaluation procedure that extends the European manual-based Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) to include the extra-economic benefits and the stakeholders' opinion in the evaluation, according to the COmpoSIte Model for Assessment (COSIMA) method. This is the first application of COSIMA in the urban design sectors (i.e. buildings, water, public lighting, transportation and waste management) where different sustainable measures for a real case study located in Turin (Italy) were compared to define the most suitable transformation scenario according to multiple criteria. The results have shown how invasive scenarios allow achieving the greatest benefits, despite the huge initial costs of realization. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd
ABSTRACT
A resilient, diversified, and efficient energy system, comprising multiple energy carriers and high-efficiency infrastructure, is the way to decarbonise the European economy in line with the Paris Agreement, the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the various recovery plans after the COVID-19 pandemic period. To achieve these goals, a key role is played by the private construction sector, which can reduce economic and environmental impacts and accelerate the green transition. Nevertheless, while traditionally decision-making problems in large urban transformations were supported by economic assessment based on Life Cycle Thinking and Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) approaches, these are now obsolete. Indeed, the sustainable neighbourhood paradigm requires the assessment of different aspects, considering both economic and extra-economic criteria, as well as different points of view, involving all stakeholders. In this context, the paper proposes a multi-stage assessment procedure that first investigates the energy performance, through a dynamic simulation model, and then the socio-economic performance of regeneration operations at the neighbourhood scale, through a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). The model based on the proposed Preference Ranking Organisation Method for Enrichment Evaluations II (PROMETHEE II) aims to support local decision makers (DMs) in choosing which retrofit operations to implement and finance. The methodology was applied to a real-world case study in Turin (Italy), where various sustainable measures were ranked using multiple criteria to determine the best transformation scenario.
ABSTRACT
Nowadays, due to the constant increase of outdoor air pollution, the impact on people’s health is alarming. Moreover, in the current vulnerable and crucial historical period during which society is experiencing and dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic consequences, this issue is becoming even more important. In line with this, there is an urgent need to provide scientific input to decision-makers to include the assessment of the health-related benefits and costs into urban planning processes. Special attention is devoted to the building sector since the heating service is considered among the main sources of air pollution in the urban environment. In the light of this, the paper aims to estimate the social costs associated with the thermal uses of the residential buildings in Turin (Northern Italy), integrating the energy assessment of the residential building stock, taking advantage of the Reference Building approach for the stock characterization, and the economic quantification and monetization of the air pollution health impacts, using the Cost of Illness (COI) method. Starting from the current situation, different retrofit scenarios for the residential buildings of Turin are hypothesized, to evaluate their capability in reducing the environmental impact of the sector, as well as to increase the social benefits they can guarantee. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.