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Standards for the design of bridges, buildings and other infrastructure specify design loads for climatic hazards such as temperature, snow, wind, and floods based on return periods presented in maps or tables that account for regional differences. These design loads were developed from statistical analyses of historical hazard data under the assumption that the past is representative of the future. Climate change may affect the frequencies and intensities of environmental hazards which, depending on regional variations, raises questions as to whether structures designed to current specifications will meet minimum safety standards over their future service lives. This paper critically appraises issues related to using historical hazard data for future designs. It reviews basic principles of uniform reliability, that modern design codes use as the basis for ensuring minimum levels of safety, describing the relationship between hazard return periods, structural reliability, risk and the maximum loads expected within a structure's service life. Simple examples involving wind effects on structures demonstrate how to calibrate structural design hazard maps for climate-related extreme events to meet the minimum standards of safety implied in current specifications. The paper also introduces a possible practical approach to account for climate change when designing new structures and assessing the safety of existing facilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incontestable evidence of climate change and extreme weather events has brought the entire world to the brink of a red code alert, which determined the need to establish targets for limiting greenhouse gas emissions and the other actions that can be taken to solve them. The paper presents aspects of limiting the contribution of buildings to climate change through energy efficiency measures with an emphasis on the importance of the nZEB concept. The need to reduce the consumption of energy from fossil sources and increase the contribution of energy renewable sources is discussed, in a realistic context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Current adaptation theory tends to consider individual buildings or the city level, which cannot address decisions related to masterplan developments on large brownfield sites. This paper investigates the drivers for building demolition or retention and adaptation decisions at the masterplan scale. Expert interviews and three case studies are used to explore how and why decisions to demolish, or to retain and adapt, are made at this scale. The research compared three different geopolitical contexts: Cambridge in the UK; Eindhoven in the Netherlands; and Sydney in Australia. Additional factors and complexities that should be considered at the masterplan scale are identified. The theoretical underpinnings of urban development processes are used to explain these complexities in relation to four existing models and demonstrate that no one model is adequate to describe the interactions. With increasing awareness of climate change impacts, it is critical that demolition decisions on masterplan developments are reviewed in the light of retaining carbon as well as heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared to other goods, buildings have a long lifespan. It is therefore the norm and not the exception that adaptation will be needed at some point in their life cycle to changing environmental conditions, technical progress and new/additional user requirements. The adaptation of existing buildings to future challenges in the form of refurbishment contributes to sustainable development. The proportion of refurbishments is increasing in both absolute and relative terms in the building sector in Europe. It is therefore surprising that the modelling particularities of refurbishment in the context of a life cycle-based environmental performance assessment are still neglected in the ENstandards. The paper deals with these particularities. Specifically, it presents a typology of approaches starting with a distinction between planned refurbishment as B5 and unforeseen refurbishment as an independent design and construction task / next life cycle, as well as the status of the discussion in selected countries. Recommendations for action for the life cycle assessment are given for specific decision-making situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Buildings potential for climate change mitigation is high. • Mitigation actions in the buildings sector can have significant social and economic values. • These enable the achievement of 4 SDGs, reinforce 7 other. • And are linked to the achievement of 5 SDGs (SDG3, SDG7, SDG8, SDG11, and SDG13). • Trade-offs were identified for 9 SDGs. Buildings are responsible for a big part of total GHG emissions; therefore, their climate change mitigation potential is high. But research shows that mitigation actions in the sector can have significant social and economic values beyond reduction of energy consumption and the associated GHG emissions. This paper summarizes these multiple impacts of mitigation actions in buildings, which are related to microeconomic and macroeconomic effects, health impacts, environmental benefits, better management of natural resources, impacts on social well-being, and energy security implications, and assesses their interactions (synergies and trade-offs) with the UN SDGs. The findings of our analysis show that climate change mitigation actions in buildings enable the achievement of 4 SDGs, reinforce 7 others, and are inextricably linked to the achievement of 5 SDGs, namely SDG3: good health and well-being, SDG7: affordable and clean energy, SDG8: decent work and economic growth, SDG11: sustainable cities and communities, and SDG13: climate action. On the other hand, trade-offs were identified for 9 SDGs, with rather minor implications, which can be further eliminated with the implementation of appropriate policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the multidimensional problem of energy poverty, focusing on its connections to climate change and its manifestation at rural and urban scales across selected European countries and Israel. The study examined 31 locations in eight countries with diverse geographical and economic backgrounds: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, North Macedonia, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, and Israel. The article aims to understand how winter energy vulnerability in rural and urban locations in these countries could be identified using selected energy poverty indicators and how it evolves under the influence of climate change. A set of sociodemographic, infrastructural, and economic variables, combined with climate analysis, were selected and assessed for their impact on energy poverty. We found that energy poverty in most countries depends significantly on location and regional development. Due to a combination of factors influencing energy poverty, rural households tend to be more vulnerable. Furthermore, climate change consequences will likely leave rural areas more likely to experience energy poverty in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Residential buildings have a substantial impact on global environmental impacts. In this paper we present a model that assesses impacts from materials (embodied impacts) as well as from heating (operational impacts) for all residential buildings in Switzerland. Our model builds on an existing high-resolution spatio-temporal building stock model, which estimates the space heating demand of buildings, based on building property and site data. In this work we additionally include the impacts of materials extraction, production, transportation, and disposal of building components (floors, roofs, walls, ceilings and windows). Our model comes with a site- and building-specific default parametrization for all buildings, but it is developed as a tool that allows architects and planners to adapt building and site data with specific information to increase the accuracy of the environmental assessment of the current buildings and future building-management scenarios. We applied the model to ten Swiss buildings and assessed a selection of building-management scenarios to illustrate the application of the tool. The results show that our model estimates fairly accurate values of thermal and ventilation heat transmittance, operational space heating demand, and operational and embodied climate-change impacts for the considered buildings. The detailed modeling results for the ten case study buildings outperformed the simplified version of the model with generic default values for material building composition (using age-grouped building archetypes), emphasizing the importance of adding detailed material information in building life cycle assessments. Therefore, a focus should be placed on obtaining accurate material inventories of buildings in future research. The here-developed model allows for integration of such detailed material inventories, overwriting the provided default values. • Tool provides assessment of embodied and operational impacts of the entire Swiss residential building stock. • Tool estimates close to accurate space heating demands of buildings. • Tool is equipped with generic default building and site data. • Tool allows overwriting generic values with data inputs from building stakeholders, which is demonstrated in the case study of 10 buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As organisations, museums are responsible for conserving, protecting, and displaying artwork and artefacts. Museum buildings must deliver an environment that will continue to provide this facility for both current and future generations. This research focused on presenting a museum with quantifiable and measurable data to help with climate adaptation planning. A methodology was developed using monitored data. Subhourly data for both indoor and outdoor temperature and humidity spanning the years 2012–2021 was used to produce a daily maximum, daily minimum, and daily average dataset. A sensitivity analysis determined which years to use to derive the indoor-outdoor relationships used in climate modelling. Future impacts were calculated using UK Climate Projections 2018 (UKCP18) data (12 models on a 2.2 km scale), as published by the Met Office Hadley Centre. The data contained within the 12 models was overlayed with the relationships derived to calculate the projected indoor temperature and humidity conditions within the museum. The results presented indicate that temperature and humidity conditions are projected to exceed design conditions more frequently in the coming decades. Consequently, adaptation plans must consider the potential impacts that include indoor environmental deterioration, leading to discomfort and health implications, increased energy costs, and system upgrade costs, as well as the potential for accelerated degradation of artwork and artefacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Buildings are significant contributors to climate change through their energy consumption, particularly in countries with hot and dry climates where cooling services require substantial amounts of energy. Climate change is expected to increase cooling demand, further exacerbating the problem. This study investigates the impact of climate change on cooling demands in different building types in Qatar and evaluates related environmental impacts. Using a high-resolution regional climate model, future climate data were obtained for 2071 and 2100 under the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5. The energy consumption of eight prototype buildings was simulated under baseline and future climates, and the environmental impacts were assessed using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for natural gas and solar power as energy sources. The study found that the cooling demand could increase by 13–53% and 19–67% in 2071 and 2100, respectively, with buildings having higher thermal insulation and lower window-to-wall ratio being less affected by climate change. The LCA results showed that replacing natural gas with solar power can reduce cooling energy-associated CO2 emissions by 92%. However, challenges such as human toxicity and metal depletion need to be addressed. The study highlights the importance of considering potential climate change scenarios to develop more resilient buildings and encourages implementing efficient recycling and waste management strategies before implementing PV panels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sunlight exposure represents one of key parameters of indoor climate comfort. The evaluation of sunlight access into buildings is based on a methodology of European standard EN 17037. The methodology is focused on specification of an insolation time which would comply with requirements for the sunlight expo sure of permanently occupied spaces like houses and residential buildings as well as schools or hospitals. The sunlight exposure evaluation is recommended to be between 1st February and 21st March. The specific date from the interval can be selected for individual evaluations. This is a relatively long period of days in which the insolation could vary meaningfully. The aim of this study is to evaluate how the sunlight exposure might be changed in the recommended standard period in dependence on the geographic locality and climatic conditions in the Central Europe region. It depends on the sunlight time and specific design situations as well as shading obstructions. The review of the sunlight exposure is determined. The review results can perform information about design possibilities for the sunlight exposure in real buildings in the given climatic locality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change affects building cooling demand; however, little has been done to explore this effect and show its variability in different climatic zones. This review organizes and summarizes studies which have simulated the impact of climate change on building cooling requirements, and critically analyzes the effectiveness of the mitigation strategies proposed by these studies to alleviate this impact. The review methodology selected studies that reported cooling demand and discussed mitigation strategies in future climates. The studies were then grouped based on their climate zone and impact period. Analysis showed that climate change will increase building cooling demand in all climatic zones, with the greatest increase occurring in temperate and cold climatic zones. By the middle of the 21st century (2040–2080), the average increase in building cooling demand is expected to reach 33%, 89%, 288% and 376%, in tropical, arid, cold, and temperate climates, respectively. These numbers are expected to increase during the end of the 21st century (2080–2100) to 55%, 302%, 734%, and 1020%, for tropical, arid, cold, and temperate climates, respectively. Some mitigation strategies (e.g., thermal insulation, solar shading) showed a potential to reduce the increase in building cooling demand; however, the reduction varied depending on the strategy and climatic zone. Further research is required to determine if existing cooling systems can handle the future increase in cooling requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is based on the project undertaken by NIKU for, and financed by, the Nordic Council of Ministers in 2021, with supplementary literature and the expertise of the authors added to the report findings. The main aim of the project was to find out how climate-related adaptation and mitigation measures impact the Nordic cultural heritage. In this article we present examples of the different adaptation and mitigation measures that impact the cultural heritage. This article has a Nordic focus, which is transferable to other countries. The methodology involves an analysis of qualitative data collected in 2021 through text review, interviews, and workshops. The results can be divided into three relevant themes where there are major challenges: interdisciplinary work, need for more knowledge and use of culture-nature based solutions, and new energy supply systems. We conclude with recommendations on what we believe should be prioritized in the continued work of reducing the risk of damage to cultural heritage in the future. The recommendations cover local and international conditions, they cross sectors and political guidelines, and they reflect the need for newly developed knowledge, interdisciplinarity, and the need for a change of attitude—a paradigm shift in planning procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the thermodynamic perspective, the term temperature is clearly defined for ideal physical systems: A unique temperature can be assigned to each black body via its radiation spectrum, and the temperature of an ideal gas is given by the velocity distribution of the molecules. While the indoor environment is not an ideal system, fundamental physical and chemical processes, such as diffusion, partitioning equilibria, and chemical reactions, are predictably temperature‐dependent. For example, the logarithm of reaction rate and equilibria constants are proportional to the reciprocal of the absolute temperature. It is therefore possible to have non‐linear, very steep changes in chemical phenomena over a relatively small temperature range. On the contrary, transport processes are more influenced by spatial temperature, momentum, and pressure gradients as well as by the density, porosity, and composition of indoor materials. Consequently, emergent phenomena, such as emission rates or dynamic air concentrations, can be the result of complex temperature‐dependent relationships that require a more empirical approach. Indoor environmental conditions are further influenced by the thermal comfort needs of occupants. Not only do occupants have to create thermal conditions that serve to maintain their core body temperature, which is usually accomplished by wearing appropriate clothing, but also the surroundings must be adapted so that they feel comfortable. This includes the interaction of the living space with the ambient environment, which can vary greatly by region and season. Design of houses, apartments, commercial buildings, and schools is generally utility and comfort driven, requiring an appropriate energy balance, sometimes considering ventilation but rarely including the impact of temperature on indoor contaminant levels. In our article, we start with a review of fundamental thermodynamic variables and discuss their influence on typical indoor processes. Then, we describe the heat balance of people in their thermal environment. An extensive literature study is devoted to the thermal conditions in buildings, the temperature‐dependent release of indoor pollutants from materials and their distribution in the various interior compartments as well as aspects of indoor chemistry. Finally, we assess the need to consider temperature holistically with regard to the changes to be expected as a result of global emergencies such as climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The severity and incidence of extreme weather events are increasing with climate change. In particular, wildfires are becoming more frequent, more intense, and longer lasting than before. Fuelled by long periods of dryness and high temperatures, the Australian wildfires of 2019/2020 were record breaking in terms of destruction and chaos. Rural communities were severely affected by power cuts disabling access to essential services. Following the wildfires, a concept for energy resilient public buildings ("Emergency Distributed Energy System") emerged as a grassroots community idea from the wildfire-affected area of Gippsland, southeast Australia. A combination of desktop and empirical research explored international examples of energy resilience and climate mitigation, the local services and technologies that are needed in Gippsland, and the legal and regulatory challenges and enablers in Australia. The findings were informed by case studies of responses to natural disasters that included California and Greece (wildfires), New Zealand (earthquake), and India (cyclone). The results determined that community resilience can be increased by offering a more reliable electricity supply that would support greater social, political, and economic structures. The deployment of resilient energy systems should be driven by political will, economic incentives and working with communities to support a concerted shift towards low-emissions and distributed energy technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]