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This paper addresses the assessment of woody biomass resources in Russia and the Baikal region. The analysis of the literature demonstrates that the Baikal region has considerable amounts of waste from the logging, timber processing, and pulp and paper industries (up to 220 PJ). A review of utilization technologies for woody biomass demonstrates that the existing technologies based on biomass gasification are promising for energy purposes. The gasification of biomass for small-capacity power plants has some advantages compared to its combustion. This paper considers an autonomous power system that consists of photovoltaic converters, wind turbines, storage batteries, a biomass gasification power plant, and a diesel power plant. A mathematical model used to optimize the system's structure finds the minimum of the total discounted costs for the creation and operation of the system with some constraints met. Based on mathematical modeling, the cost-effectiveness of such a power supply system is assessed for different climatic zones of the Baikal region and the coastal area of Lake Baikal. The findings indicate that the optimal solution is the integration of various renewable energy sources in hybrid power systems. The proportion of energy sources of different types in the installed capacities is found. The study demonstrates that the optimal structure of the power system can provide significant savings (the total discounted costs are reduced by almost 2.5 times compared to the option using a diesel power plant alone). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought monitoring and early detection have improved greatly in recent decades through the development and refinement of numerous indices and indicators. However, a lack of guidance, based on user experience, exists as to which drought-monitoring tools are most appropriate in a given location. This review paper summarizes the results of targeted user engagement and the published literature to improve the understanding of drought across North America and to enhance the utility of drought-monitoring tools. Workshops and surveys were used to assess and make general conclusions about the perceived performance of drought indicators, indices and impact information used for monitoring drought in the five main Köppen climate types (Tropical, Temperate, Continental, Polar Tundra, Dry) found across Canada, Mexico, and the United States. In Tropical, humid Temperate, and southerly Continental climates, droughts are perceived to be more short-term (less than 6 months) in duration rather than long-term (more than 6 months). In Polar Tundra climates, Dry climates, Temperate climates with dry warm seasons, and northerly Continental climates, droughts are perceived to be more long-term than short-term. In general, agricultural and hydrological droughts were considered to be the most important drought types. Drought impacts related to agriculture, water supply, ecosystem, and human health were rated to be of greatest importance. Users identified the most effective indices and indicators for monitoring drought across North America to be the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) and Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) (or another measure of precipitation anomaly), followed by the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) (or another satellite-observed vegetation index), temperature anomalies, crop status, soil moisture, streamflow, reservoir storage, water use (demand), and reported drought impacts. Users also noted the importance of indices that measure evapotranspiration, evaporative demand, and snow water content. Drought indices and indicators were generally thought to perform equally well across seasons in Tropical and colder Continental climates, but their performance was perceived to vary seasonally in Dry, Temperate, Polar Tundra, and warmer Continental climates, with improved performance during warm and wet times of the year. The drought indices and indicators, in general, were not perceived to perform equally well across geographies. This review paper provides guidance on when (time of year) and where (climate zone) the more popular drought indices and indicators should be used. The paper concludes by noting the importance of understanding how drought, its impacts, and its indicators are changing over time as the climate warms and by recommending ways to strengthen the use of indices and indicators in drought decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the pandemic, as it becomes more feasible to study and work from home, the quality of residential daylighting has attracted increasing attention. With the rapid growth of high-density residential areas, China is confronted with the incoordination between site planning and interior daylight availability across a wide region. Therefore, this paper investigates the applicability of planning regulations for daylight availability in dense residential areas under different climates across China, with the aim of providing data to optimize design strategies. ClimateStudio and ALFA were used to calculate the daylight factor (DF), daylight illuminance, spatial daylight autonomy (sDA), useful daylight illuminance (UDI), and melanopic equivalent daylight illuminance (m-EDI) of living rooms in four practical mixed housing estates in different Chinese daylight climate zones. The results showed that most of the studied units failed to meet current standards of DF and sDA300,50% for residence. However, more than half of these units still had high potential for UDI and met the recommendation of m-EDI by daylight only. The results verified the importance of integrative consideration of the local daylight climate and interior unit design for residential area layout planning. Finally, this paper suggests two topics for further exploration to bridge the gap between area planning and interior daylight availability in dense residential areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been fruitful publications on thermal comfort of urban residential buildings in China. However, there is a lack of reviews on this topic to perform a comprehensive analysis and find opportunities to meet occupants' thermal comfort needs while improving building energy efficiencies. This paper addresses this issue by presenting a systematic review on the advancements in research on thermal comfort in urban residential buildings in China. Firstly, two common thermal comfort research approaches, i.e., field studies and laboratory studies, are discussed. Secondly, eleven main thermal comfort evaluation indicators are summarized. Finally, this paper analyzes the thermal comfort survey data from different researchers, discusses the impacts of adaptive behaviors on human thermal comfort, and provides recommendations for future research on urban residential thermal comfort. It was found that people have higher and higher requirements for their indoor thermal environment as time goes by, especially in the winter; the thermoneutral temperature is higher in warmer climate regions in the summer but lower in the winter than in colder climate regions; the thermoneutral temperature tends to increase with the indoor air temperature due to an adaptation to the indoor thermal environment. The outcomes of this paper provide valuable information on thermal comfort behaviors of urban residents in different climate zones in China, which can serve as a resource for the academic community conducting future research on thermal comfort and assist policymakers in enhancing building energy efficiencies without compromising the occupants' comfort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the advent of flexible working arrangements, we are observing a dramatic shift in how buildings are occupied today, which presents an opportunity to optimize Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning system temperature setpoints based on variations in occupancy. Guidelines often suggest the adoption of the highest or lowest setpoint or setback to minimize energy consumption in hot or cold climates, respectively. However, at outdoor temperatures where variations in occupancy heat loads prompt buildings to fluctuate across cooling, free-running, and heating mode, optimal setpoints and setbacks are not always the lowest or highest. In addition, the perturbations caused by rapid switching between setpoint and setback could diminish energy savings due to system destabilization. This paper aims to systematically compare the potential energy savings from fixed and optimal setpoints and setbacks across wide-ranging occupancy scenarios (four occupancy rates and 14 patterns). Energy simulations were conducted using the Department of Energy reference models for small, medium, and large office buildings to enable an exhaustive search of optimal setpoint/setbacks in 17 climate zones. Explored setpoints were 19.5 °C to 25.5 °C with intervals of 1 °C, and setbacks were 17 °C/19 °C for heating and 26 °C/28 °C for cooling. The findings indicate that, on average, while lower occupancy heat loads results in 5.48% energy reduction, a conventional fixed setpoint and setback strategy provides an additional 11.80%, and optimal selection of setpoints and setbacks could provide an additional 34.36–38.08%, emphasizing the untapped potential energy saving. To facilitate practical applications, this paper presents an interactive graphical interface: Optimal Temperature Setpoint Tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document discusses the challenges faced by urban greenspaces, particularly trees, in urban environments. These challenges include high temperatures, limited water availability, and high levels of pollutants. Urban greening, including the planting of trees and forests, is seen as a nature-based solution to improve quality of life, conserve biodiversity, and enhance climate resilience. The document also provides an outline of a special issue on urban forests and the urban microclimate, which includes research papers on topics such as tree growth and vitality, the cooling effects of urban greenspaces, hydrology in urban areas, and mapping urban greenspaces. The papers cover a range of climatic zones and provide valuable information for sustainable green management. [Extracted from the article]

The aim of this paper is to assess the correlation of groundwater level changes (or groundwater level anomalies (GWLA)) obtained from direct measurements in wells with groundwater storage anomalies (GWSA) calculated using Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) products and Global Land Data Assimilation Systems (GLDAS) models across different climate zones, from temperate Poland to Arctic Sweden. We recognize that such validation studies are needed to increase the understanding of the spatio-temporal limits of remote sensing model applicability, not least in data-scarce sub-Arctic and Arctic environments where processes are complex due to the impacts of snow and (perma) frost. Results for temperate climates in Poland and southern Sweden show that, whereas one of the models (JPL_NOAH_GWSA) failed due to water balance term overestimation, the other model (CSR_CLM_GWSA) produced excellent results of monthly groundwater dynamics when compared with the observations in 387 groundwater wells in the region during 2003–2022 (cross-correlation coefficient of 0.8). However, for the sub-Arctic and Arctic northern Sweden, the model suitable for other regions failed to reproduce typical northern groundwater regimes (of the region's 85 wells), where winter levels decrease due to the blocking effect of ground frost on groundwater recharge. This suggests, more generally, that conventional methods for deriving GWSA and its seasonality ceases to be reliable in the presence of considerably infiltration-blocking ground frost and permafrost (whereas snow storage modules perform well), which hence need further attention in future research. Regarding long-term groundwater level trends, remote sensing results for southern Sweden show increasing levels, in contrast with observed unchanged to decreasing (~10 mm/a) levels, which may not necessarily be due to errors in the remote sensing model but may rather emphasize impacts of anthropogenic pressures, which are higher near the observation wells that are often located in eskers used for water supply. For sub-Arctic and Arctic Sweden, the (relatively uncertain) trend of the remote sensing results nevertheless agrees reasonably well with the groundwater well observations that show increasing groundwater levels of up to ~14 mm/a, which, e.g., is consistent with reported trends of large Siberian river basins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of urbanization has caused obstructed urban natural ventilation and the contribution rate of urbanization is relatively high. Therefore, there is an urgent need for urban development planning that should respect natural ventilation and local climate to reduce negative impacts. By optimizing the urban construction layout to reduce obstruction and leave a passageway for wind to blow in, the natural ventilation environment could be improved. This paper presents a promising approach for natural ventilation planning at both the city and community scales. Based on the assessment of wind environment, heat island intensity, and ventilation potential, the results revealed that winds blowing from the western and northern mountainous area of Shijiazhuang play a natural ventilation inlet role which can provide clean air. The SSHI and SHI were mainly distributed within the Second Ring Road, which has a large proportion of the low ventilation potential level. Thus, six first-class ventilation corridors and thirteen secondary corridors were recommended, which were set to be adapted to the dominant wind direction. Subsequently, an urban climate analysis map (UCAnMap) was developed considering climate sensitivity, and planning recommendations were provided for different climate zones. The relationship between architectural spatial structure and ventilation efficiency was analyzed; the results revealed that increasing the height of the buildings will decrease the proportion of comfortable wind zones, and the overall ventilation efficiency will weaken, so the average building height of a typical block should be controlled within 45 m, which matches ventilation performance requirements. The ventilation efficiency of the block has a certain negative correlation with the building density, and as the building density decreased by more than 10%, the proportion of the comfortable wind zones could increase by 4–5%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arid zone ecosystems, integral to terrestrial systems, exhibit relatively low stability and are prone to influences from human activities and climate change. To elucidate the influence on the ecological environment of the arid zone by climate change and human activities, the paper takes normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) as an evaluation index of the ecosystem and uses trend analysis to evaluation of NDVI variation characteristics in the Shiyang River Basin (SRB) from 1990 to 2020. Simultaneously using methods such as partial correlation analysis and residual analysis to evaluate the impact of climate change and human activities on NDVI changes. This study yielded several key findings: (1) The NDVI in the SRB exhibits an increasing trend of 0.034/10a in the interannual variation. (2) The relation cooperatives between NDVI and the deviation of precipitation and temperature in the SRB range from −0.735 to 0.770 and −0.602 to 0.773, respectively. (3) The changes in land use and groundwater depth in the SRB have a certain impact on NDVI changes. (4) The proportion of areas with significant contributions (contribution rate greater than 60%) from climate change and human activities to NDVI change is 33.5% and 22.5%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the European Energy Efficiency Directive for Buildings, member states are required to develop long-term strategies to adopt more sustainable, secure, and decarbonized energy systems in buildings by 2050. In this line of approach, an optional common regime has been established to define and calculate the smart readiness of buildings and assess their ability to adapt their operation to the needs of the occupants and the network. Thus, the smart readiness indicator (SRI) emerged, which assesses technological readiness by examining the presence and evaluation of the functionality level of various smart services, aiming at energy savings, the ability of the building to respond to users' needs, and energy flexibility. This paper focuses on examining the SRI calculation methodology's application to an office building, which is currently being deeply renovated. Initially, there is an analysis of the SRI, its calculation methodology, and its goals. This is followed by the practical calculation part of the SRI for a typical office building located in Greece and belonging to the climate zone of southern Europe. The results indicate that the SRIs application is not a straightforward issue since parameters that need to be considered are not regulated to the same degree. On the other hand, SRI can provide a stimulus for exploiting the renovation potential of buildings, precisely by integrating the various aspects and linking those to the use of innovative technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the core area of human activities and economic development in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, the hilly oasis zone of Xinjiang directly affects the regional sustainable development and stability of the ecosystem. Understanding the effects of different geomorphic types on vegetation distribution is crucial for maintaining vegetation growth and development, especially the improvement in the terrestrial ecological environment in arid areas under the background of climate change. However, there are few studies on the effect of spatial differences in detailed geomorphic types on vegetation distribution patterns. Therefore, this paper divides the Xinjiang hilly oasis zone into six geomorphologic level zones and innovatively investigates the influence of detailed geomorphologic types on the spatial distribution of vegetation and vegetation cover. Further, the area proportion of detailed landform types corresponding to different vegetation coverage in each geomorphic area was quantitatively calculated. Finally, the Geodetector method was used to detect the drivers of interactions between vegetation and the environment. The findings are shown as follows: (1) In the same climate zone, the spatial differentiation of landforms has a great influence on the vegetation distribution, manifesting as the significantly different vegetation distribution in different landform types. Grassland is the main vegetation type in the erosion and denudation of Nakayama; cultivated vegetation and meadows have a larger coverage in the alluvial flood plain and alluvial plain; and the distribution of vegetation in the Tianshan economic zone is characterized by obvious vertical zoning with the geomorphology. (2) The landform type and morphological types are the strongest driving factors for vegetation coverage with q values of 0.433 and 0.295, respectively, which effectually fill the gap caused by only using two terrain indicators, slope and elevation, to study the relationship between landforms and vegetation. (3) In addition, the improved nonlinear interaction resulting from the double factor of landform type and slope is 0.486, which has a stronger control on vegetation coverage than the single factor of landform type. These findings are conducive to enhancing the supply services of vegetation to the ecosystem in arid areas as well as providing important scientific guidance for the construction of ecological civilization and sustainable development in Xinjiang. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Greenhouse gas emissions depend on natural and anthropic phenomena; however, to reduce emissions, we can only intervene in terms of anthropic causes. Human activity is very different in various countries and cities. This is mainly due to differences in the type of urban environment, climatic conditions, socioeconomic context, government stability, and other aspects. Urban building energy modeling (UBEM), with a GIS-based approach, allows the evaluation of all the specific characteristics of buildings, population, and urban context that can describe energy use and its spatial distribution within a city. In this paper, a UBEM is developed using the characteristics and consumption of eight typical buildings (archetypes) in the climate zone of Santiago de Chile. The archetype-based UBEM is then applied to the commune of Renca, a critical suburb of Santiago, with the use of QGIS to analyze the energy demand for space heating and the potential for energy saving after four retrofitting interventions. Knowing the costs of the retrofitting interventions and the energy price, the simple payback time was evaluated with the reduction in GHG emissions. Starting from the actual building stock, the results show that the most effective retrofitting intervention for the commune of Renca is the thermal insulation of walls and roofs; due to the type of dwellings, this particular intervention could be more convenient if associated with the installation of solar technologies. This methodology can be replicated with the data used by urban planners and public administrations available for many Chilean cities and in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is a global threat that is better understood through global research spanning many regions, countries, and life-supporting ecosystems. This review focused on the bibliometric analysis of the distribution of a global research compendium on phytoplankton, an aquatic community that accounts for half of the carbon fixation in the global carbon cycle. A total of 716 primary research papers published in the immediate past decade (2012–2022) were reviewed. The articles were sampled from Web of Science and described field and laboratory experiments quantifying the impact of global climate change on phytoplankton from different climate zones (tropical, subtropical, temperate, subpolar, and polar) and ecosystems (freshwater, brackish, and marine). Analyses of these studies suggest that the bulk of the global research effort (80%) focused on high-latitude areas, and only a few (17%) were carried out in the tropics, largely led by four countries (Australia, Brazil, India, and Saudi Arabia), while Africa's contribution was minuscule (<1%). In terms of ecosystems, the majority (76%) of the research was in marine waters, irrespective of the climate zone. Analyses of these studies also highlighted widespread disparities in phytoplankton research in tropical aquatic ecosystems, particularly in Africa. Strategic investment in terms of targeted funding, institutional networks, and partnerships between the global north and global south are necessary to increase phytoplankton research across different ecosystems in the tropics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal environment deterioration has seriously threatened urban habitat quality and urban sustainable development. The evolution of the urban built environment (UBE) is an important cause for urban thermal environment variation. However, the dynamic effect of the UBE on the land surface temperature (LST) is rarely studied by combining the local climate zone (LCZ) theory and spatio-temporal heterogeneity. Based on a case study of Beilin District in Xi'an, China, this paper identified LCZ types of Beilin District in 2010, 2015, and 2020 using the GIS method. It also analyzed the spatial–temporal characteristics of the LST in summer based on the remote sensing retrieval method and explored the effects of the built environment on the LST by Geodetector and geographically weighted regression (GWR). The results showed the following: (1) The area share of dense building zones in Beilin District was greater than that of open building zones and natural surface zones, while the share of mid- and high-rise dense building zones continued to increase and the share of low-rise dense building zones continued to decrease during the study period. (2) The LST of different LCZ types in Beilin District was obviously different, and the LST of dense building zones was generally higher than that of open building zones and natural surface zones. Meanwhile, the LST of mid- and low-rise dense building zones increased gradually, and the LST of high-rise open building zones decreased gradually, but the overall warming area was obviously more than the cooling area. (3) The effects of the UBE factors on the LST varied greatly, with their interaction having an enhancement effect. The direct and interactive influence of the two-dimensional (2D) UBE indicators on the LST were greater than those of the three-dimensional (3D) indicators, but there was a gradual decrease in the force of the 2D indicators and a simultaneous diminution, enhancement, and invariance of the force of the 3D indicators. (4) Vegetation cover (VC) and floor area ratio (FAR) acted negatively, and the building height (BH) was changing from a positive to a negative role, with the average action intensity of VC changing from −0.27 to −0.15, FAR from −0.20 to −0.16, and BH from 0.05 to −0.04. The impervious surface area (ISA), building area (BA), and space congestion (SC) acted positively, with the average action intensity of the ISA changing from 0.12 to 0.20, BA from 0.12 to 0.19, and SC was stable at 0.04. The framework enables a deeper portrayal of LST changes in different LCZs, reflecting the direct and interactive effects of different UBE indicators on LST, as well as local variations in the impact effects and provides a basis for urban managers or planners to improve urban heat resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regions near the Tropic of Cancer are a latitudinal geographical zone with typical climatic, topographic, and human landscape features. It is necessary to explore the region's net primary productivity (NPP) dynamics as it combines complex topography, various vegetation types, and intense human activities. The study sets the transect near the Tropic of Cancer (TCT) and uses the Carnegie–Ames–Stanford (CASA) model to estimate the NPP from 2000 to 2020. After using the RESTREND method, the paper calculates and compares the relative contributions of climate variability and anthropogenic activities to NPP changes. Finally, the geographical detector (Geodetector) model is applied to evaluate how anthropogenic and natural factors affect spatial distribution patterns and NPP changes. The results indicated that the average annual NPP is 820.39 gC·m−2·yr−1 during the 21 years. In addition, when the NPP varies, it increases over the entire study area, with a slope of 4.81 gC·m−2·yr−1, particularly in the western region. Across the entire research area, 63.39% and 77.44% of the total pixels positively contribute to climate variability and human activities in NPP, with a contribution of 0.90 and 3.91 gC·m−2·yr−1, respectively. Within the western, central, and eastern regions, anthropogenic activities have a stronger impact on NPP than climate variability, particularly pronounced in the eastern region. Furthermore, vegetation cover is the dominant factor in the spatial patterns and NPP trends across the TCT and the three regions. In contrast, climate factors are shown to be less influential in NPP distribution than in the western region. The results also demonstrated that the effect of population density and the GDP on NPP gradually rises. Two-factor interaction is much larger than any individual factor, with the dominant interaction factor being vegetation cover with climatic factors. Lastly, the findings revealed that anthropogenic activities positively promote NPP accumulation across the TCT, thus highlighting the importance of human activity-led ecological restoration and ecological protection measures that contribute to regional carbon sequestration and carbon balance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The building and construction sector has a significant impact on the CO2 emissions and pollutants released into the atmosphere, which contribute to climate change. The EPDB Directive mandates the achievement of minimum energy class E for all residential buildings by 2030 and energy class D by 2033. Particularly, in Italy, about 86% of the existing building stock predates the enactment of any energy laws or regulations, making it imperative to apply the energy efficiency interventions. This paper provides a support decision tool for the identification of the standardized interventions in the building envelope, the air conditioning system, and domestic hot water production. This study is focused on a specific construction period class (1976–1990) in six different climatic zones. The methodological approach is based on a cataloguing phase and the definition of ante operam energy classes as well as on case study identification, energy requalification intervention identification, solution simulations, and cost estimation. By simulating the standardized interventions for each climatic zone, a range of possible combinations is identified. The most advantageous ones are determined based on a cost–benefit analysis considering the potential class jump achieved. The research result is a matrix of energy efficiency interventions that is applicable to each climatic zone and can be extended to the existing housing stock. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper, based on the amount of ultraviolet (UV) radiation in different areas of China, was to give the corresponding measures to prevent UV aging of asphalt. In this paper, based on the average annual amount of UV radiation in China in the past 30 years and the characteristics of UV aging of asphalt, the climatic zoning of UV radiation of asphalt in China was proposed. A variety of base asphalts and styrene–butadiene–styrene block copolymer (SBS) modified asphalts were selected to carry out a UV radiation test, and the relationship between UV radiation amount and viscosity, low-temperature performance, and the rheological properties of asphalt were studied. The equivalent aging indexes of asphalt during UV radiation were selected, the UV aging equation of asphalt was proposed, and the equivalent UV aging relationship among different UV climate zones was established. The prevention and control strategies of UV aging of asphalt among different zones were proposed, and the above theory was verified using a trial road. The main conclusions in the paper are presented: The climate zoning of asphalt UV radiation in China can be divided into three zones: zone I with an annual UV radiation less than or equal to 69.4 kW·h/m2 in the last 30 years; zone II with an annual UV radiation of 69.4~81.4 kW·h/m2 in the last 30 years; zone III with an annual UV radiation more than or equal to 81.4 kW·h/m2 in the last 30 years. The greater the amount of UV radiation, the greater the loss rate of penetration and ductility. For the same kind of asphalt, there is a relatively stable functional relationship between the loss rate and the amount of UV radiation. The results also show that UV radiation changes the proportion of viscous and elastic components in asphalt, showing that the proportion of viscous components decreases and the proportion of elastic components increases. The penetration loss rate and ductility loss rate of asphalt can be used as equivalent UV aging indexes of asphalt. Under the same outdoor UV irradiation time, for asphalt to achieve the same technical performance as zone I, the anti-UV ability of zone II needs to be improved by more than 5%, and that of zone III needs to be improved by more than 10%. Engineering practice has proved that the zoning established in this paper and the corresponding UV control measures are basically reasonable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This field study evaluated the building performance of a nearly zero-energy office building near Brussels, Belgium, located in the temperate climatic zone. The building's thermal comfort and energy parameters were monitored from May 2018 to April 2019. The time-integrated thermal discomfort, primary energy use, and greenhouse gas emissions from the building were then analyzed using the monitored data. The case study evaluated the HVAC system performance with an air-cooled chiller with water cooling coils and a water boiler with water heating coils. The findings indicated an indoor overheating degree of 0.05 °C and an indoor overcooling degree of 0 °C for the observed period. The building's primary cooling energy use was found to be 37.54 kWhPE/m2.a and primary heating energy use was found to be 46.08 kWhPE/m2.a for the monitored period. The cooling and heating greenhouse gas emissions were 10.14 kg.CO2e/m2.a and 8.34 kg.CO2e/m2.a, respectively. The observed data also indicated that the HVAC system in the building was operational throughout the monitoring period from May 2018 to April 2019, including a 24/7 schedule. Finally, the paper provided implications for practice and future work based on the study findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecuador is a country with several climate zones. However, their behaviour is similar throughout the year, with no peaks of extreme temperatures in the various seasons. This paper is a first approach to study the adaptive comfort behaviour in several areas and populations of the country. Considering the ASHRAE 55-2020 model, energy simulation programmes are applied not just to the current climate scenario but also to the climate change scenarios of 2050 and 2100. The results of locations are analysed and compared to determine their performance. Thanks to their climate characteristics, adaptive comfort models could be applied as a passive strategy, using natural ventilation for building indoor comfort improvement, particularly social dwellings. According to previous studies, some prototypes have not considered the climate determinants in each region. Given the geographic situation of the study areas, the adaptive comfort model could be applied in all cases. Percentages of application of natural ventilation and heating and cooling degree hours have similar behaviours according to the climatic region, with a variation greater than 30% among them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a thermal performance assessment of traditional building constructions and configurations in various Moroccan climates is carried out. This research focuses on enhancing conventional energy efficiency of buildings by investigating the thermal behavior of single clay walls, double clay walls, simple brick walls, and double brick walls based on long-term meteorological data using TRNSYS software. The roof pitch, thermal comfort and discomfort index, and building energy consumption are considered while selecting buildings for each temperature zone. It is noticed that the double brick construction is more efficient in all climatic zones of Morocco. Thus, this material reduces the yearly energy requirement of building by 22% to 25% compared to the usual brick building. On the coldest winter days, a 30° south-facing roof raises the internal temperature by 2.5 °C compared to a horizontal roof. Temperature increases could reduce the air conditioning energy usage by 7% to 32% and overcooling hours by 12% to 21% in cities above 30° N. In addition, the findings are interesting enough to inspire individuals to implement the recommended construction design and study energy efficiency and thermal comfort in Moroccan buildings. Consequently, reducing energy consumption, mitigating climate change, and lowering greenhouse gas emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The separation models are tools used in solar engineering to estimate direct normal (DNI) and diffuse horizontal (DHI) solar irradiances from measurements of global solar irradiance (GHI). This paper proposes two empirical separation models that stand out owing to their simple mathematical formulation: a rational polynomial equation. Validation of the new models was carried out against data from 36 locations, covering the four major climatic zones. Five current top minute-scale separation models were considered references. The tests were performed on the final products of the estimation: DNI and DHI. The first model (M1) operates with eight predictors (evaluated from GHI post-processed measurements and clear-sky counterpart estimates) and constantly outperforms the already established models. The second model (M2) operates with three predictors based only on GHI measurements, which gives it a high degree of accessibility. Based on a statistical linear ranking method according to the models' performance at every station, M1 leads the hierarchy, ranking first in both DNI and DHI estimation. The high accessibility of the M2 does not compromise accuracy; it is proving to be a real competitor in the race with the best-performing current models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Space heating accounts for a large part of building energy consumption. Lowering the heating temperature set-point (Tsp) is expected to be a feasible approach for energy efficiency. In this paper, eight globally typical cities are selected, and the energy-saving mechanism and variation trends of lowering heating Tsp are investigated under different working conditions (climate conditions, construction completion year and inner heat sources). The results show that significant energy-saving effects even appear in the relatively warm-winter cities. The energy-saving mechanism is dominated by two different categories of heating hours including the temperature-difference saving (TDS) hours and the behavioral saving (BS) hours. The contribution of TDS and BS to the whole annual heating energy saving amount (HSA) depends on the reducing level of heating hours. The HSA of lowing Tsp is mainly affected by TDS influence. After coupling the consideration of different factors, with the decreasing annual HSA of buildings, the dominance of the TDS influence mechanism shrinks gradually while the annual heating energy saving ratio (HSR) increases. This work provides the analysis method for building heating energy saving potential evaluation and reference for the establishment of standards and residents' behavioral energy saving in different climatic zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exponential growth of urban populations and city infrastructure globally presents distinct patterns, impacting climate change forecasts and urban climates. This study conducts a systematic review of the literature focusing on human thermal comfort (HTC) in outdoor urban environments. The findings indicate a significant surge in studies exploring HTC in open urban spaces in recent decades. While historically centered on Northern Hemisphere cities, there is a recent shift, with discussions extending to various metropolitan contexts in the Southern Hemisphere. Commonly employed urban categorization systems include Sky View Factor (SVF), Height × Width (H/W) ratio, and the emerging Local Climate Zones (LCZs), facilitating the characterization of urban areas and their usage. Various thermal indices, like Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET), Predicted Mean Vote (PMV), Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI), and Standard Effective Temperature (SET), are frequently utilized in evaluating external HTC in metropolitan areas. These indices have undergone validation in the literature, establishing their reliability and applicability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lucerne is regarded as the best legume crop for forage to be cultivated in South Africa. It is commonly used to produce good quality hay. It also plays an important role in soil conservation, regeneration, and crop rotation systems as it supplies substantial amounts of nitrogen to succeeding crops through symbiotic N2 fixation, which makes it the preferable choice for intensive forage production systems. Fertilizer in liquid inoculant formulations has demonstrated to contribute growth and yield increase for leguminous crops. Therefore, the aim of this paper was to determine the effects of Sinorhizobium meliloti liquid formulation inoculation on the growth, yield, and nitrogen content in lucerne. The strain RF14 (Sinorhizobium meliloti) was collected from the Agricultural Research Council at Roodeplaat (Plant Health and Protection located (East), Pretoria (South Africa). The liquid inoculant contained 6.5 × 109 viable cells mL−1. According to the Kooen–Gieger climatic classification, the experiments were conducted on two different climatic zones. The first site was in Bronkhorspruit (Blesbokfontein farm) in the Gauteng province and the second was in Hartbeesfontein (Rietfontein Farm) in the Northwest province. The results showed that lucerne inoculation with liquid inoculant formulation of Sinorhizobium meliloti significantly increased nodule number, size, growth, and yield in both bioclimatic zones. The significantly increased were compared to the negative control. The Sinorhizobium meliloti inoculant increased nitrogen accumulation in all inoculated treatments compared to the control. The finding of this research provides important information on the impact of rhizobium microbial inoculant application in the improvement of soil fertility through nodule formation. In addition, seed vigor improvement was translated in overall growth and yield increase in lucerne plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buildings account for nearly one-third of overall energy consumption in today's world energy status, in which a considerable part is used for indoor conditioning. Energy efficiency enhancement of buildings components and technologies is a key priority, given the essential need for carbon neutrality and climate change mitigation around the world. Exterior wall insulation is considered as the most effective technology for protecting buildings against continual ambient fluctuations. Proper design and implementation of wall insulation would lead to performance enhancement, energy conservation as well as improved thermal comfort. They can also protect building structures against corrosion and heat fatigue, extending the life of buildings. There are many different types of thermal insulation materials currently on the market, each with its own set of thermal qualities and functionality. This paper aims to examine the qualities, benefits, and drawbacks of several exterior wall insulation technologies, and provide recommendations for how to use various forms of exterior wall insulation in different climates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydropower plays an essential role in Europe's energy transition and can serve as an important factor in the stability of the electricity system. This is even more crucial in areas that rely strongly on renewable energy production, for instance, solar and wind power, as for example the Peloponnese and the Ionian islands in Greece. To safeguard hydropower's contribution to total energy production, an accurate prediction of the annual precipitation is required. Valuable tools to obtain accurate predictions of future observations are firstly a series of sophisticated data preprocessing techniques and secondly the use of advanced machine learning algorithms. In the present paper, a complete procedure is proposed to obtain accurate predictions of meteorological data, such as precipitation. This procedure is applied to the Greek automated weather stations network, operated by the National Observatory of Athens, in the Peloponnese and the Ionian islands in Greece. The proposed prediction algorithm successfully identified the climatic zones based on their different geographic and climatic characteristics for most meteorological stations, resulting in realistic precipitation predictions. For some stations, the algorithm underestimated the annual total precipitation, a weakness also reported by other research works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ongoing climate change processes and increasing environmental pressure suggest the need to adjust the wine production systems worldwide to the new conditions while reducing their environmental pressure. The grapes' cultivation phase may be influenced by expected changes. It follows that existing grape wine cultivation systems should be analyzed to identify major 'hotspots' and opportunities for change. Several studies have analyzed materials, energy inputs, and related emissions along the grape wine life cycle. However, most research focuses on traditional grape wine growing areas, and no study has yet focused on grape wine grown in unconventional desert areas. The research presented in this paper analyzed the carbon footprint (CF) of grapes grown in the Mediterranean, semi-arid, and arid climatic regions in the state of Israel. It revealed that, on average, a ton of grapes generates 342 kg CO2 eq from the cradle to the farm gate. The product was analyzed using a life-cycle approach, with the aim of studying the CF of each phase according. Most emissions were found to be related to the use of fertilizers (37%), fuel for transportation and mechanization (19%), and water supply (17%). The CF of grapes in the arid region was found to be the highest at 361 kg CO2 eq compared to 317 kg CO2 eq in the semi-arid region and 346 kg CO2 eq in the Mediterranean region. The analysis emphasizes the arid and semi-arid potential to reduce its CF by implementing farm management practices, including the choice of grape varieties, changing vineyard infrastructure, fertilizers, water management, and more. As presented here, understanding cropping systems in these regions can promote a better adaptation of the cropping systems to the changing conditions around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the oil and gas industry, there is unanimity that wax deposits-driven pipeline blockages are a critical environmental concern and an economic liability of up to billions of dollars. However, a quantitative assessment of such an impact and, especially, of the different individual impacts that add up is absent from the current scientific literature. Such a gap is a deterrent for better-focused research. Given the production transition to heavy and paraffinic oils, harsh climatic zones, and extremely deep offshore oilfields, an extensive investigation is increasingly needed. The current endeavour was inspired by such a challenge and a review of the most recent technical and scientific publications was devised. A PRISMA-inspired and adapted methodology for systematic reviews was adopted. Over two hundred research articles, conference papers, books, theses, reviews, public databases and industry and government agencies reports were considered. As a result, a significant research gap is filled, both with the compilation, critical revision, and systematisation of the dispersed published scientific and technical data on the matter and with the definition of a quantitative economic impact appraisal for the wax deposition issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: The Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata, is considered one of the world's most damaging pests, able to infest the fruits of over 300 plant species and adapt to a wide range of climatic zones. It can attack commercially important fruits and losses caused by this pest can be enormous without appropriate control measures. To contribute to the management of Mediterranean fruit fly infestations, in the present paper, we report the effectiveness of commercially available trapping devices (Decis Trap, Tephri Trap Ecological and Conetrap) baited with two types of female attractants (Econex Trypack and Biodelear). The performance of trapping devices was evaluated in semi-field cages in different thermal conditions. Our results showed that the Tephri Trap baited with Trypack or Biodelear and the Decis Trap reported the same performance in capturing females and could all be used for medfly mass trapping. The mass trapping technique can be considered an eco-friendly method to use in combination with other control systems. The Mediterranean fruit fly (medfly), Ceratitis capitata, is a key pest of fruit crops in a wide range of climatic zone. Its economic importance is increasing due to its invasion and establishment in new geographical areas caused by global warming. Generally, the management of medfly infestation has been carried out with the use of synthetic pyrethroids and phosphorganic insecticides. Other containment approaches include attract-and-kill, biological control, and the sterile insect technique. The mass trapping technique can be considered an eco-friendly method to use in combination with other control systems. The present study reported the trapping effectiveness of commercially available devices (Decis Trap, Tephri Trap Ecological, and Conetrap) baited with different types of female attractants (Econex Trypack and Biodelear) under different thermal conditions. The performance of trapping systems was evaluated in semi-field cages. Our results showed that the combination of Conetrap with Biodelear was not proven effective, while the Tephri Trap baited with Trypack or Biodelear and the Decis Trap reported the same performance in capturing females and could be used for medfly mass trapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In hospitals, operating rooms are energy-intensive spaces, due to the high flow of outside air required to achieve the necessary indoor air quality. Operating rooms demand ventilation continuously, despite periods of low daily surgical activity. However, by controlling ventilation during inactive periods in the operating room, significant energy savings can be achieved, avoiding penalties on IAQ levels. This paper evaluates the energy savings achieved by introducing ventilation flow control and regulation systems in operating rooms of hospitals located in different climatic zones within Spain. In addition, emissions and economic savings have also been evaluated. Two control and regulation strategies of the air flow to be supplied and extracted in the operating rooms, during periods of inactivity, are studied and include regulation by schedule and regulation by occupancy. Data from a 900-bed university hospital center are used as a reference to evaluate the average occupancy of the operating rooms, and the energy consumption, thus validating the model for calculating the demand of a typical operating room. The energy savings for the regulation by occupancy are 37.5%, and the regulation by schedule are 40% of the annual demand, with respect to an operating room working permanently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community assembly research has mostly focused on areas with single vegetation types; however, the abiotic and biotic factors affecting community assembly act across regions. Integrating biotic and abiotic factors into "compound" habitats has gained attention as an emerging strategy to analyze spatial and temporal patterns of biodiversity. We used a compound habitat approach to explore the relative roles of habitat filtering, biotic competition, and stochastic processes in the forest community assembly of four climatic zones (tropical, subtropical, temperate, and cold temperate forests). Specifically, we combined biotic and abiotic factors in four compound ecological gradients by principal component analysis (PCA), which we used to assess the geographic and phylogenetic distribution of multiple woody plant functional traits. We found that forest functional and phylogenetic diversity shifted from clustered to overdispersed along the first compound habitat gradient (PC1) across climate zones. This finding indicates that competitive exclusion strongly affected the community assembly in tropical and subtropical forests, while habitat filtering played a key role in cold temperate forests; these mechanisms may both exist and interact in temperate forests. We also found that both habitat filtering and biotic competition affected forest community assembly across climatic regions in China. Our results elucidate the underlying mechanisms driving geographical differentiation of forest vegetation across climatic zones, and bolster empirical evidence for the conservation of forest biodiversity in China. Further research is also needed to explore whether the patterns found in this paper are prevalent in different locations in different climatic zones in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy retrofits can enhance the liveability and efficiency of historic buildings while preserving their historic and aesthetic values. However, measures like improved insulation and airtightness may increase their vulnerability to overheating and climate change may further worsen their performance in the future. This paper investigates indoor overheating risks brought by climate change in retrofitted historic buildings and proposes effective adaptation strategies. Firstly, local weather conditions are analysed to identify homogenous climatic zones. For each climatic zone, "a business-as-usual" emissions scenario is adopted, and most representative regional climate models are selected to obtain hourly output of future climate projection. A comparative study is adopted where typical alpine residential buildings, "Portici house", are simulated with regard to future energy use and indoor thermal state using the dynamic model in EnergyPlus. Energy use and indoor thermal conditions are compared before and after energy retrofit, as well as under present and future climate conditions. The results demonstrate that retrofit interventions could significantly improve energy efficiency of historic buildings in both present and future scenarios. A change in climate together with retrofit interventions will, however, result in higher risk of indoor overheating in South Tyrol. Potential negative side effects of energy retrofit could be controlled by adopting adequate shading and ventilation approaches that minimise, or eliminate, the risk of overheating during high temperature periods while optimising historic buildings' energy performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Tree rings are widely used in global change research based on the accurate dating capabilities, climate sensitivity and wide distribution of samples. In the context of global warming, the response of tree growths in north–south transition zones to climate change is one of the hot issues in Dendroecology. The research results found that trees' growth had different responses to May–June temperature and precipitation on the north and south of the mountain. Therefore, we analyzed the relationship between tree ring and a regional hydrothermal composite factor and reconstructed its variation. The variations agree with other drought series and represent the drought variation in central and eastern monsoon regions, and may provide better understanding of drought variation and service for agricultural production. Tree ring data from the southern boundary of Chinese Pine (Pinus tabulaeformis Carr.) distribution where is the southern warm temperate margin, the paper analyzes the response of climate factors along north–south direction to tree growth. The results show that temperature and precipitation in May–June and relative moisture from March to June are main limiting factors on trees growth; however, the temperature in the south of the mountains and the moisture in the north of the mountains have relatively greater influence on trees' growth. Additionally, we also found that the regional scPDSIMJ (that is scPDSI in May–June) was the most significant and stable factor limiting tree growth to be used for reconstruction. The reconstructed scPDSIMJ revealed that there were 29 extremely dry years and 30 extremely wet years during 1801–2016, and it could represent the drought variation in central and eastern monsoon region. The variation exists in good agreement with the reconstructed PDSI for Mt. Shennong and the drought/wetness series in Zhengzhou. Further research found that the droughts of May–June in central China were mainly impacted by local temperature and moisture (including precipitation, soil moisture, potential evaporation and water pressure), and then by the northern Pacific Ocean and the northern Atlantic Ocean. These results may provide better understanding of May–June drought variation and service for agricultural production in central China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Microwave remote sensing is one of the main approaches to glacier monitoring. This paper provides a comparative analysis of how different types of radar information differ in identifying debris-covered alpine glaciers using machine learning algorithms. Based on Sentinel-1A data, three data suites were designed: A backscattering coefficient (BC)-based data suite, a polarization decomposition parameter (PDP)-based data suite, and an interference coherence coefficient (ICC)-based data suite. Four glaciers with very different orientations in different climatic zones of the Tibetan Plateau were selected and classified using an integrated machine learning classification approach. The results showed that: (1) The boosted trees and subspace k-nearest neighbor algorithms were optimal and robust; and (2) the PDP suite (63.41–99.57%) and BC suite (55.85–99.94%) both had good recognition accuracy for all glaciers; notably, the PDP suite exhibited better rock and debris recognition accuracy. We also analyzed the influence of the distribution of glacier surface aspect on the classification accuracy and found that the more asymmetric it was about the sensor orbital plane, the more difficult it was for the BC and PDP suites to recognize the glacier, and a large slope could further reduce the accuracy. Our results suggested that during the inventory or classification of large-scale debris-covered alpine glaciers, priority should be given to polarization decomposition features and elevation information, and it is best to divide the glaciers into multiple subregions based on the spatial relationship between glacier surface aspect and radar beams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The building sector continues to play an essential role in reducing worldwide energy consumption. The reduced consumption is accompanied by stricter regulation for the thermotechnical design of the building envelope. The redefined nearly Zero Energy Building levels that will come into force for each member state will pressure designers to rethink the constructive details so that mandatory levels can be reached, without increasing the construction costs over an optimum level but at the same time reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The paper aims to illustrate the main conclusions obtained in assessing the thermo-energy performance of a steel-framed building representing a holistically designed modular laboratory located in a moderate continental temperate climate, characteristic of the south-eastern part of the Pannonian Depression with some sub-Mediterranean influences. An extensive numerical simulation of the main junctions was performed. The thermal performance was established in terms of the main parameters, the adjusted thermal resistances and global thermal insulation coefficient. Further on, the energy consumption for heating was established, and the associated energy rating was in compliance with the Romanian regulations. A parametric study was done to illustrate the energy performance of the investigated case in the five representative climatic zones from Romania. An important conclusion of the research indicates that an emphasis must be placed on the thermotechnical design of Light Steel Framed solutions against increased thermal bridge areas caused by the steel's high thermal conductivity for all building components to reach nZEB levels. Nevertheless, the results indicate an exemplary behaviour compared to classical solutions, but at the same time, the need for an iterative redesign so that all thermo-energy performance indicators are achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: In cold climatic zones of China, an attached sunspace passive solar heating system was installed on a farmhouse to improve the indoor thermal environment in winter. The application of attached sunspace passive solar heating systems (ASPSHS) for farmhouses can improve building performance, reduce heating energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. In order to take better use of the attached sunspace to prevent heat transfer or promote natural ventilation, this paper presented a zero-state response control strategy for the opening and closing time of active interior window in the ASPSHS. In order to verify the application of this strategy, an attached sunspace was built in an actual farmhouse. A natural ventilation heat exchange model was built based on the farmhouse with attached sunspace. The proposed zero-state response control strategy was implemented in TRNSYS software. Field measurement in living lab was carried out to inspect the distribution of the thermal environment in the farmhouse with attached sunspace under a zero-state response control strategy in the cold region of northern China. The experimental results show that, even under −5.0–2.5 °C ambient temperature, the application of zero-state response control strategy effectively increases the internal temperature to an average of 25.45 °C higher than the outside, with 23% indoor discernible temperature differential in the sample daytime. The whole-season heating performance was evaluated by simulating the model for the heating season in 2020–2021. The simulation demonstrates that the ASPSHS under zero-state response control strategy can maintain a basic indoor temperature of 14 °C for 1094 h during the heating season, with a daytime heating guarantee rate of 73.33%, thus ensuring higher indoor heating comfort during the day. When compared to a farmhouse with an attached sunspace under the zero-state response control strategy, the energy savings rate can be enhanced by 20.88%, and carbon emissions can be reduced by 51.73%. Overall, the attached sunspace with the zero-state response control strategy can effectively increase the indoor temperature when the solar radiation is intensive and create a suitable thermal environment for the farmhouse in the cold region of northern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many regions have turned to low impact development technologies (LIDs), which are implemented to restore the changes in stormwater runoff that have resulted from urbanization. Green roofs are one typical type of LID. Until now, many studies have validated their roles in managing urban stormwater runoff. However, they have also revealed that the performance of green roofs largely varies with their design configuration, as well as their hydro-climatic exposure. The objectives of this review paper are to statistically synthesize the effects of the influential factors, including design and hydrologic variables, on green roof performance and to explore their effects in different climatic zones. The review’s results confirm the differences in the influential variables and, thus, the performance of green roofs in different climatic zones. These are the barriers to knowledge translation among engineering designers, stormwater managers, and policymakers in different climatic zones when implementing green roofs. Consequently, region- or site-specific studies are necessary to implement green roofs with confidence [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: The developed En-ActivETICS responds to the growing interest in Building Integrated Photovoltaics. Even for certain limitations, results may have practical applications and effects on the safety and durability of the installation. The proposal to improve the solution through the PCM application is one of the ways to solve the overheating problem in extreme temperatures. The main goal of the paper was to numerically analyse the risk of overheating of the Energy Activated External Thermal Insulation Composite System (En-ActivETICS) as an example of Building Integrated Photovoltaics (BIPV). The analyses were conducted with the coupled power flow method (thermal and electrical) for 20 European cities. All locations were analysed considering the local climate in the context of building performance simulation as well as electricity production. The obtained results allowed for the determination of the risk of overheating, which can influence system durability, accelerated thermal ageing, and overall performance. It was revealed that the risk of overheating above 80 °C is possible in almost all locations; however, the intensity considerably differs between southern and northern Europe. The effect of latent heat storage for better thermal stabilization and overall performance was determined numerically for all locations. Finally, the improved solution with a phase change material (PCM) layer beside the PV panel was proposed individually for specific climatic zones, considering the required heat capacity. The maximum panel temperature for improved En-ActivETICS does not exceed 85 °C for any location. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates the energy efficiency of different container house configurations across thirty European locations. By employing Heating Degree Days (HDDs) and Cooling Degree Days (CDDs), the research delves into climatic zone exploration, providing a simplified climatic classification for residential purposes and comparing it with the Köppen–Geiger model. The authors use specific hourly climatic data for each location, obtained through dynamic simulations with TRNSYS v.18 software. Initially, the CDDs are calculated by using different base temperatures (comfort temperatures that minimize energy demand) tailored to the specific conditions of each case. Then, the thermal loads of container houses are evaluated in different climatic scenarios, establishing a direct correlation between climatic conditions and the energy needs of these innovative and modular housing solutions. By comparing stacked and adjacent modular configurations in container housing, particularly in post-disaster scenarios, the study underscores the importance of adaptive design to optimize energy efficiency. The analysis conducted by the authors has allowed them to propose a climate characterization model based on HDDs, CDDs, and solar irradiance, obtaining an effective novel correlation with the Köppen–Geiger classification, especially in extreme climates. The present model emerges as a powerful tool for climate characterization in residential applications, offering a new perspective for urban planning and housing design. Furthermore, the results reveal a significant correlation between climate classification and the specific energy needs of container houses, emphasizing the direct influence of regional climatic characteristics on energy efficiency, particularly in small-sized dwellings such as container houses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interaction between soil moisture (SM) and vegetation dynamics has been proven in previous studies. In situ measurements have provided reliable data to investigate and validate the time effect in different zones, which is important in the hydrology and agriculture fields. There were 845 SM in situ monitoring measurements utilized with the correlation between SM and vegetation across various soil depths and climate zones in China. The impact of climate and teleconnection factors on SM and the leaf area index (LAI) are also discussed. The results indicate that SM increases from northwest to southeast in China. The time lag responses of SM to temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, and sunshine duration are 0–3 days, 3–7 days, 1–3 days, and 3–15 days, respectively. The LAI is most strongly correlated with the climate of the current month. When the LAI leads SM, a negative correlation is observed, whereas a positive correlation is observed when SM leads the LAI. This proves that vegetation growth restricts the increase in SM, and soil drying further restricts the growth of vegetation. There was a response time of 2–4 months between the LAI and SM. The effect of vegetation and deeper SM was significant in the arid zone, while they were coupled with shallow SM in the humid zone. Additionally, the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) showed a significant positive correlation with SM in 2015–2016 with signals of 9–14 months. The results provide support for balancing the contradiction between future vegetation restoration and water resource scarcity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SNOSWAB (Snow, Soil Water and Water Balance) is a unique online deterministic model built using tipping-bucket approaches that allows for the daily estimation of (i) snowpack processes; (ii) soil water content; and (iii) soil water budget. SNOSWAB is most suitable for modeling field-scale processes for vertically and horizontally homogeneous soils, and its applicability is not limited to specific climate zones or geographical areas. The model is freely available, and its streamlined online interface integrates powerful calibration, visualization and data export routines. In this study, SNOSWAB development and a conceptual model, as well as an example of its application using data collected during a 12-year (2008–2019) field study conducted at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Harrington Experimental Farm (HEF) on Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada, are presented. Input data consisting of daily air temperature, total precipitation, rainfall and evapotranspiration were used in conjunction with soil properties and daily soil water content, snowpack thickness, surface runoff and groundwater recharge to calibrate (2010–2014) and validate (2015–2019) the model. For both the calibration and validation simulations, the statistical indicators used for evaluating model performance indicated, in most cases, high model fitness (i.e., R2 > 0.5, NRMSE < 50% and −25% < PBIAS < 25%) for the various time intervals and parameters analyzed. SNOSWAB fills an existing gap in the online environment and, due to its ease of use, robustness and flexibility, shows promise to be adopted as an alternative for more complex, standalone models that might require extensive resources and expertise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land-use change (LUC) is a significant contributor to the increase in atmospheric CO2 concentrations, with previous studies demonstrating its profound impact on soil organic carbon (SOC). The conversion of primary forests to farmland has been recognized as the most significant type of LUC inducing CO2 release from the soil. Therefore, it is critical to understand the impacts of forest LUC on SOC storage, with a particular focus on primary forest to farmland conversion. In this study, we conducted a meta-analysis of 411 observations from 41 published works and found that SOC storage decreased significantly following the conversion of primary forests to farmland. Factors such as soil depth and climate zone influenced the degree of SOC storage loss, with SOC loss being less severe in deeper soil following a conversion from primary forests to farmland. Moreover, the loss of SOC storage was more severe in temperate regions compared to tropical regions. The input and output of surface SOC, changes in soil structure, and increases in atmospheric CO2 concentrations were significant reasons for the loss of SOC following primary forest to farmland LUC. However, improving tillage methods and implementing sustainable agricultural management strategies can help reduce SOC loss. These findings highlight the importance of sustainable land-use practices in mitigating the negative impacts of forest LUC on SOC storage and the global carbon cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultures in Mediterranean climate zones (MCZs) around the world have long been reliant on groundwater and springs as freshwater sources. While their ecology and cultural sustainability are recognized as critically important, inter-relationships between springs and culture in MCZs have received less attention. Here we augmented a global literature review with case studies in MCZ cultural landscapes to examine the diversity and intensity of cultural and socio-economic relationships on spring ecohydrogeology. MCZs are often oriented on western and southern coasts in tectonically active landscapes which control aquifer structure, the prevalence of westerly winds, and aridity, and generally expose associated habitats and cultures to harsh afternoon sunlight. Cultural appreciation and appropriation of springs ranges widely, from their use as subsistence water supplies to their roles in profound traditions such as Greco-Roman nymphalea as well as Asian and Abrahamic spiritual cleansing and baptism. The abandonment of traditional ways of life, such as rural livestock production, for urban ones has shifted impacts on aquifers from local to regional groundwater exploitation. The commoditization of water resources for regional agricultural, industrial (e.g., mining, water bottling, geothermal resorts), and urban uses is placing ever-increasing unsustainable demands on aquifers and spring ecosystems. When the regional economic value of springs approaches or exceeds local cultural values, these irreplaceable aquatic ecosystems are often degraded, over-looked, and lost. Sustainable stewardship of springs and the aquifers that support them is a poorly recognized but central conservation challenge for modern Mediterranean societies as they face impending impacts of global climate change. Solutions to this crisis require education, societal dialogue, and improved policy and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to escalating energy demands and global warming concerns, the Passive House Standard has emerged as a solution in residential construction, aiming to drastically reduce energy consumption and operational costs primarily through high-performance building envelopes. While a considerable volume of the literature has focused on the Passivhaus Institute (PHI) standards, predominantly in European contexts, there is a gap in research on the Passive House Institute US (Phius) standards, particularly in North American climates. This study conducts a quantitative comparative analysis of two adjacent multifamily residential buildings in Central Pennsylvania, Climate Zone 5A—one built using conventional construction methods and the other following Passive House (PHIUS+ 2015) certification standards—to validate the energy efficiency improvements attributed to Passive House designs. A comparative analysis of the whole building energy use over two years reveals that the Passive House building consumes approximately 50% less energy than its conventional counterpart in terms of whole building energy use and the national median recommended benchmark metric defined by the Energy Star Portfolio Manager. These findings emphasize the potential for significant energy savings and greenhouse gas reductions in residential buildings, highlighting the necessity for policymakers and governments to incentivize the adoption of Passive House standards to achieve environmental sustainability and reduce energy costs for society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban residential areas significantly influence outdoor thermal comfort through architectural morphology. This study concentrates on the multi-objective optimization of the thermal comfort environment in residential areas, with a focus on Yulin—a city in the cold, inland region of Northwestern China. Yulin is characterized by its distinctly defined seasons, particularly harsh and windy conditions in the spring, which significantly impact thermal comfort. Utilizing field surveys, characteristics of scale and layout from high-rise residential areas in Yulin were extracted to formulate design strategies adapted to local climates. The Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) served as the optimization criterion, and genetic algorithms, integrated with parametric modeling software, generated multiple layout schemes. These were refined through the Pareto evolutionary algorithm II to optimize thermal comfort across seasons. Furthermore, the Sobol' sensitivity analysis method was employed to assess the impact of key parameters on outdoor thermal comfort, identifying crucial layout design elements. The optimization improved UTCI values for different seasons, ensuring year-round comfort. Specifically, summer UTCI improved to 25.51, while winter and spring values reached optimal values of −14.02 and −6.41, demonstrating enhanced thermal retention and reduced wind exposure. Sobol' sensitivity analysis identified building length, orientation, and density as key parameters, highlighting their critical impact on thermal comfort. This study offers practical guidelines for urban residential area design in similar climatic zones, aligning architectural planning with environmental sustainability and enhancing thermal comfort effectively. This study provides practical guidelines for the design of residential areas in cold inland—seasonal windy—regions and other similar climatic zones, aligning building morphology design with environmental sustainability and enhancing thermal comfort effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2023, residential and commercial sectors together consumed approximately 27.6% of total United States (U.S.) energy, equivalent to about 20.6 quadrillion Btu. Factoring in the electrical system energy losses, the residential sector represented approximately 19.7% of total U.S. energy consumption during that time. There were approximately 144 million housing units in the United States in 2023, which is increasing yearly. In this study, information on energy usage in the United States residential sector has been analyzed and then represented as energy intensities to establish benchmark data and to compare energy consumption of varying sizes and locations. First, public sources were identified and data from these previously published sources were aggregated to determine the energy use of the residential sector within the US. Next, as part of this study, the energy data for seven houses/apartments from five different United States climate zones were collected firsthand. That data were analyzed, and the energy intensity of each home was calculated and then compared with the energy intensities of the other homes in the same states using Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) data. The energy intensity for each facility was calculated based on the actual energy bills. Finally, the study evaluated the carbon footprint associated with residential energy consumption in all 50 states to reinforce the importance of sustainable development initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, accessing rainfall data from ground observation networks maintained by national meteorological services in West Africa has become increasingly challenging. This is primarily due to high acquisition costs and the often sparse distribution of rainfall gauges across the region, which limits their use in hydrological studies and related research. At the same time, the rising availability of precipitation products derived from satellite/earth observations, reanalysis datasets, and in situ measurements presents exciting prospects for hydrological applications. Nonetheless, these datasets constitute indirect measurements, necessitating rigorous validation against ground-based rainfall data. This study comprehensively assesses twenty-three gridded rainfall products, including sixteen from satellites, six from reanalysis data, and one from in situ measurements, across the Senegal, Gambia, and Casamance River basins. Performance evaluation is conducted across distinct climatic zones, both pre- and post-resampling against observed rainfall data gathered from forty-nine rainfall stations over a six-year period (2003–2008). Evaluation criteria include the Kling–Gupta Efficiency (KGE) and Percentage of Bias (PBIAS) metrics, assessed at daily, monthly, and seasonal time steps. The results reveal distinct performance levels among the evaluated rainfall products. RFE, ARC2, and CPC notably yield the highest KGE scores at the daily time step, while GPCP, CHIRP, CHIRPS, RFE, MSWEP, ARC2, CPC, TAMSAT, and CMORPHCRT demonstrate superior performance at the monthly time step. During the rainy season, these products generally exhibit robustness. However, rainfall estimates derived from reanalysis datasets (ERA5, EWEMBI, MERRA2, PGF, WFDEICRU, and WFDEIGPCC) perform poorly in the studied basins. Based on the PBIAS metric, most products tend to underestimate precipitation values, while only PERSIANN and PERSIANNCCS lead to significant overestimations. Spatially, optimal performance of the products is observed in the Casamance basin and the Sudanian and Sahelian climatic zones within the Gambia and Senegal basins. Conversely, in the Guinean zone of the Gambia and Senegal Rivers, the rainfall products displayed the poorest performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urbanization and changes in microclimate have negative impacts on outdoor thermal comfort, making urban design more important. This study aims to improve outdoor thermal comfort in a local climate zone (LCZ) in Dubai using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods. This study evaluates cooling interventions, such as vegetation, architectural, and pavement material, using Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations and the SIMPLE scheme. The results show that a combination of cooling interventions affects the average temperature between 4.44 °C and 6.14 °C. Light-colored ground material has a 5.4 °C cooling effect in the LCZ compared with dark-colored materials. The predicted mean vote (PMV) method is used to compare outdoor thermal comfort and the results show that thermal sensation in the LCZ improves from warm to slightly cool. Lastly, the most effective cooling interventions are, in order, shade structures, trees, chimneys, and bushes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Designing a Zero Energy Building (ZEB) requires an optimal choice of the materials of a building envelope. Different material properties and window areas could be selected to generate a set of possibilities of the design of a building, being the demand defined by its thermal characteristics. The energy demand of a building could be produced with renewable systems such as photovoltaic. Moreover, the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) systems could be selected considering the system cost. The present methodology focuses on finding a balance between investment and low energy consumption for a building, based on an integrated optimization method. Such methodology applies a Tabu search algorithm and a simplified model to select the passive design. Afterwards, active elements of the design, as photovoltaic systems, are selected. Therefore, the methodology faces the problem of estimating the annual energy demand and the life cycle cost. The goal is the design of a building with a large amount of energy generated by renewable energy, to have a ZEB, and in the worst case, a nearly Zero Energy Building (nZEB). This methodology reduces investment, reduces the energy demand and selects the best construction materials, renewable energy, and air conditioning system. The present paper analyzes a set of case studies considering different climatic zones in Spain. The results conclude that the methodology could help builders in the design stage, to find a new design that allows a ZEB with the optimal life cycle cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional field-based measurements of carbon dioxide (pCO2) for inland waters are a snapshot of the conditions on a particular site, which might not adequately represent the pCO2 variation of the entire lake. However, these field measurements can be used in the pCO2 remote sensing modeling and verification. By focusing on inland waters (including lakes, reservoirs, rivers, and streams), this paper reviews the temporal and spatial variability of pCO2 based on published data. The results indicate the significant daily and seasonal variations in pCO2 in lakes. Rivers and streams contain higher pCO2 than lakes and reservoirs in the same climatic zone, and tropical waters typically exhibit higher pCO2 than temperate, boreal, and arctic waters. Due to the temporal and spatial variations of pCO2, it can differ in different inland water types in the same space-time. The estimation of CO2 fluxes in global inland waters showed large uncertainties with a range of 1.40–3.28 Pg C y−1. This paper also reviews existing remote sensing models/algorithms used for estimating pCO2 in sea and coastal waters and presents some perspectives and challenges of pCO2 estimation in inland waters using remote sensing for future studies. To overcome the uncertainties of pCO2 and CO2 emissions from inland waters at the global scale, more reliable and universal pCO2 remote sensing models/algorithms will be needed for mapping the long-term and large-scale pCO2 variations for inland waters. The development of inverse models based on dissolved biogeochemical processes and the machine learning algorithm based on measurement data might be more applicable over longer periods and across larger spatial scales. In addition, it should be noted that the remote sensing-retrieved pCO2/the CO2 concentration values are the instantaneous values at the satellite transit time. A major technical challenge is in the methodology to transform the retrieved pCO2 values on time scales from instant to days/months, which will need further investigations. Understanding the interrelated control and influence processes closely related to pCO2 in the inland waters (including the biological activities, physical mixing, a thermodynamic process, and the air–water gas exchange) is the key to achieving remote sensing models/algorithms of pCO2 in inland waters. This review should be useful for a general understanding of the role of inland waters in the global carbon cycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]