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Cities represent the places with the highest environmental and energy impact in the world. Transforming them in a sustainable way has the potential to reduce the pressures of these areas. The building stock could be the driving force behind the energy transition of cities. With this in mind, understanding the priorities of undertaking a massive green regeneration operation becomes crucial to optimizing the use of public funds such as those of the National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs) that EU Member States have at their disposal. For this purpose, a multi-criteria ELECTRE TRI-B (ELimination Et Choix Traduisant La REalité TRI-B) model was used to provide useful information in prioritizing intervention on the existing building stock to achieve the sustainability targets set at European and international levels. The model was tested on a real case study located in Turin (Italy) to improve the management process by classifying intervention on a building stock characterized by different typologies and construction periods. Looking at the results, the retrofit operations with the highest priority relate to the apartment building sector from 1946 to 1970 and the multifamily building sector from 1919 to 1960. Despite the high initial investment requirements, an ecological transformation of this stock would result in significant reductions in health impacts, more green jobs, and lower resources consumption. The model is useful for managing public policies in this area by providing guidance to the project manager on how to proceed in the provision of ad hoc funds and could optimize the process of local community energy generation.

The paper develops a model through a contingent valuation approach to support public authorities in the exploration and assessment of ecosystem services (ESs) generated by forest and woodlands (FOWLs). This approach is employed to the cork oak forests of the Sardinia region (Italy) due to their ability in the provision and regulation of cultural and recreational values to society. The paper describes the economic valuation of cultural ESs through the contingent valuation method (CVM) with the purpose to explore residents and tourists’ willingness to pay (WTP) preferences towards conservation, valorisation, and the management of Goceano’s cork oak forests in Sardinia. The approach may help retain suitable support for DMs, planners, technicians, and operators for a better understanding of the ESs’ role in policy decisions, leading FOWLs towards a learning process between the environment, human beings, and landscape to promote and develop a proactive landscape and forest planning and management within the region.

The version of record of this article, first published in [Journal name], is available online at Publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-022-10035-y The challenges currently facing the EU in the energy sector include increasing import dependence, limited diversification, high and volatile energy prices, decarbonization, and slow progress in energy efficiency. EU energy policy has provided a wide range of measures to achieve an integrated energy market and sustainability of the building sector. Various incentives and financial instruments have been promoted and financed by governments to help consumers in energy retrofit processes. These include direct investments and fiscal, financial, and market instruments. Public measures have been widely studied but private initiatives have not. In this study, the energy-efficiency mortgage (EEM) is investigated as a credit scheme to attract young people to a real estate market for sustainable buildings, characterized by high sale prices. A choice experiment (CE) was modelled to investigate the preferences of potential young buyers of a new home. The results of this exploratory survey showed an appreciation of the purchase of new A-rated properties according to the Energy Performance Certificate, compared to those that need to be retrofitted or not retrofitted. Consumers like the option of a home energy efficiency renovation being fully managed by a third party (i.e., following the one-stop shop model). The key appeal of energy efficiency for consumers ranges from its ability to support better energy management, to better property value management. The EEM seems to be a promising tool to stimulate investments in energy efficiency and to promote the accessibility and affordability of housing in the sustainable housing market. The results of this study can help private financial institutions to propose appropriate credit plans, which limit the risk of default by the borrower. They can also help public incentive policymakers to propose complementary instruments to EEM.

Urban planning can support the optimal exploitation of the resources available in an urban system with specific reference to the accessibility of goods and services by an increase of the quality of the public space. In this perspective, knowing the economic effects generated by urban planning choices can be fundamental to guide decision-making processes. For this purpose, a research work which proposes a method for defining a synthetic index through the Multi-Attribute Value Theory to describe urban quality is presented. The synthetic index proposed in this study reflects the public open spaces, accessibility and provision of services qualities of the urban context. Besides, this study estimates these advantages through the hedonic prices method, analyzing the residential market. The combined methodology has been applied in detail to three districts located in the Municipality of Milan (Italy). The simultaneous reading of the indices used to spatialise the urban quality levels allows identifying the extrinsic characteristics of the three neighbourhoods analyzed. Considering the changes induced on house prices, the results of the hedonic models show that the economic impacts generated by low levels of urban quality are significant. Accordingly, the policies that aim to transform the existing urban fabric become fundamental for the creation of economic and social value.

PurposeThe cost-optimal analysis is not able to address the multi-dimensionality of the decision according to the new European objectives and International sustainable development goals in the field of the nearly-zero energy building (NZEB) design. The purpose of this paper is to study the role of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) for guiding energy investment decisions.Design/methodology/approachThe paper explores the Preference ranking organization method for enrichment of evaluations II (PROMETHEE II) application to support the project of transforming a rural building into a NZEB. The evaluation provides an estimate of the effects of alternative energy efficiency measures, involving energy consumption, life cycle costs, carbon emissions, property value and indoor comfort criteria. The study performs a multi-actors analysis in order to understand how different consumers' point of views can influence the final choice of the best investment. Furthermore, a multi-site analysis explores the spatial variation of NZEB building appreciation in the real estate market.FindingsThe PROMETHEE II-based model ranks 16 alternative solutions for the NZEB according to energy, economic and extra-economic criteria. The multi-actors analysis highlights the configuration of the NZEB building that best meets the needs of different end-users, respecting the European directives and national standards. The multi-site analysis concludes that location does not change users' appreciation and not influence the output for the best solution.Originality/valueThe MCDA occurs as a support tool that helps to optimize the preliminary design phase of NZEB through the exploration of the optimal solution considering crucial criteria in the energy and environmental and real estate market rules.

Cultural heritage can play a strategic role in developing a sustainable built environment, contributing to the improvement of the economic, social, and environmental productivity of a city. Human activities are constantly affecting the quality of the environment and altering the ecosystems, which produce negative consequences also on human wellbeing. Within this context, it has been much discussed how cities and the built environment can counteract this process by supporting more sustainable development. Adaptive reuse is defined as “a process that changes a disused or ineffective item into a new item that can be used for a different purpose”, which strongly triggers the sustainable development of cities. It can be recognized as a promoter of economic growth, social wellbeing, and environmental preservation, given its capability of both preserving past values and creating new ones. The adaptive reuse matches the main points of the circular economy, seen as the sustainable economy, which is aimed at the reduction of natural resource extraction and environmental impact by extending the useful life of materials and promoting recovery, reuse, and regeneration processes. Given these premises, the current contribution aimed to evaluate alternative scenarios for reuse in Castello Visconteo in Cusago, located in the Lombardy region (Italy), and understanding how adaptive reuse could contribute to generating new values within a circular economy perspective. In detail, four alternative scenarios were proposed to face the new needs born during the COVID-19 pandemic period. Since both intangible and tangible values must be considered, a multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) has been applied by combining economic and qualitative indicators to define the most suitable function for its adaptive reuse. In detail, the Novel Approach to Imprecise Assessment and Decision Environments (NAIADE) was used to identify the best alternative solution based on the opinions of conflicting stakeholders. The innovativeness of the contribution is given by the combination of different methodologies, the preservation of the memory and the generation of new values, and the consideration of adaptive reuse as a strategy for the achievement of sustainable development within a circular economy perspective.

The challenge of promoting sustainable cities and reaching the objectives developed by the European Green Deal includes the renovation of the building sector, as it is responsible for 40% of energy consumption in Europe. Regional or local public administrations have to allocate their financial resources for improving the energy performances of their building stock and to face a multidimensional problem, where different aspects – such as energy efficiency, financial-economic feasibility and environmental protection – have to be harmonized. The present study proposes a Multiple Criteria Decision Aiding model, which includes the ELECTRE TRI-nC method, for supporting the public decision process of sorting alternative energy retrofitting actions into various categories, each of them expresses different levels of overall performance. The model is applied to an Italian real case study. An experts’ panel has been involved for structuring the decision problem and discussing the results. The results show that opaque envelope insulation actions are often classified in best categories to be implemented and funded instead the upgrade of the lighting system falls in the worst category. These results are useful for local or regional public administrations to select those energy retrofitting actions that have to be financed as a priority.

The COVID-19 pandemic in Italy, as in many countries around the world, has imposed rigid restrictions on outdoor activities, resulting in forced confinement. The new condition requires an analysis and a rethinking of the way of life and of the new pre- and post-pandemic needs related to the use of domestic spaces, necessary to work, study or carry out other daily activities.

Malling in the United States was characterized by the construction of large shopping centers in the suburbs of the city, in close connection with urban sprawl. These retail spaces have undergone a severe crisis resulting in their closure since the 1990s. In response to this phenomenon, the so-called “demalling” practice has spread intending to redevelop them with new functions. Although more incipient, in Europe this process is only evolving in the last few. This study illustrates a Best-Worst Scaling (BWS) experiment to rank consumer preferences to identify new functions to be installed in the existing shopping centers. Different items were considered in this study, including both commercial characteristics, such as type and size, and architectural-design aspects, such as internal organization, external areas feature, and services. An online survey was conducted and a total of 600 respondents was collected and analyzed through the Analytical Best-Worst Score (ABWS) algorithm. Starting from a real case related to a shopping mall in Turin (Northern Italy), the experiment results were used for definition of specific guidelines for regeneration projects.

Land transformation, producing effects on the physical and functional system, can generate externalities, modifying the individuals’ perception of a given place. These effects, and in particular the changes in terms of urban quality, influence the success and effectiveness of an intervention in social, economic, environmental terms. To understand the perception of urban quality and define the elements that can contribute to its definition, urban infrastructures are increasingly subject to evaluation and quantitative measures and estimation. In the literature, it is possible to identify different types of approaches for assessing the quality of urban environments, both monetary and non-monetary. This study identified the impacts of urban infrastructure on residential property prices in Singapore. Through the application of the Hedonic Prices Method. Once the significance of the model variables was verified through an Ordinary Least Square (OLS) estimator, Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) and Multi-scale Weighted Regression (MGWR) models were applied to take under control the spatial heterogeneity of the real estate market. Results show how MGWR model explained better the relationship between the selling price and structural and accessibility variables. This application built a bridge between economic valuation and local planning, supporting policy makers to map and identify weak areas in Singapore.

To achieve the new European targets concerning CO2 emission reduction, the concept of a post-carbon city has been promoted, which is focused on low-energy and low-emission buildings provided with intelligent heating and cooling systems, electric and hybrid cars, and better public transport. This paradigm entails the inclusion of aspects not strictly related to energy exploitation but referring to environmental, social, and economic domains, such as improvement in local energy security, people’s opinion on different energy solutions, economic co-benefits for private users, environmental externalities, and so on. In this domain, it is of particular importance to provide the decision makers with evaluation tools able to consider the complexity of the impacts, thus leading to the choice of the most sustainable solutions. The paper aims to investigate the scientific literature in the context of evaluation frameworks for supporting decision problems related to the energy transition. The review is carried out through the scientific database SCOPUS. The analysis allows for systematizing the contributions according to the main families of evaluation methodologies, discussing to what extent they can be useful in real-world applications. The paper also proposes emerging trends and innovative research lines in the domain of energy planning and urban management. While the energy transition is an important trend, the analysis showed that few studies were conducted on the evaluation of projects, plans, and policies that aim to reach post-carbon targets. The scales of application refer mainly to global or national levels, while few studies have been developed at the district level. Life cycle thinking techniques, such as life cycle assessment and cost-benefit analysis, were widely used in this research field.

Nowadays, due to the constant increase of outdoor air pollution, the impact on people’s health is alarming. Moreover, in the current vulnerable and crucial historical period during which society is experiencing and dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic consequences, this issue is becoming even more important. In line with this, there is an urgent need to provide scientific input to decision-makers to include the assessment of the health-related benefits and costs into urban planning processes. Special attention is devoted to the building sector since the heating service is considered among the main sources of air pollution in the urban environment. In the light of this, the paper aims to estimate the social costs associated with the thermal uses of the residential buildings in Turin (Northern Italy), integrating the energy assessment of the residential building stock, taking advantage of the Reference Building approach for the stock characterization, and the economic quantification and monetization of the air pollution health impacts, using the Cost of Illness (COI) method. Starting from the current situation, different retrofit scenarios for the residential buildings of Turin are hypothesized, to evaluate their capability in reducing the environmental impact of the sector, as well as to increase the social benefits they can guarantee.

Cities represent the places with the greatest environmental and energy impacts in the world. Their transformation through a sustainable key would make possible reducing the pressures registered in these areas. According to the Sustainable Development Goals, attention has shifted more and more to the creation of sustainable and safe communities, characterized by low energy-consuming buildings due to smart heating and cooling systems, and sustainable transport solutions based on the use of private electric and hybrid vehicles. Besides the energy and environmental impacts, actions to tackle climate change provide the opportunity to create collateral benefits that can potentially generate economic and social improvement for the whole community. The co-benefits inclusion in the decision analysis is crucial to remove barriers and reveal the real potential of renovation projects at the urban/district scale. Following the guidelines of the European Commission, the tool used when evaluating public projects and policies is the Cost–Benefit Analysis (CBA). One of the main limitations of the CBA method is the estimation of all positive and negative externalities in monetary value that can lead to imprecise assessment. To overcome this obstacle, a growing scientific literature on the application of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) to assess the sustainability of investment at district scale is emerging. In this study, we propose a new assessment framework based on the COmpoSIte Modeling Assessment (COSIMA) to address the multidimensionality that characterizes the redevelopment process of eco-districts considering energy, environmental, economic and social evaluation criteria. The COSIMA method enables considering both the tangible and intangible aspects of the problem and the opinion of the various stakeholders involved in the decision-making process, which are crucial aspects in urban transformations.

Universities play a headship role among entities that invest in technological progress and intend to increase education in sustainable culture towards a post-carbon society. With this in mind, Politecnico di Torino is a leader on the national and international scene. It has prepared sustainability lines for the next few years to translate the Sustainable Development Goals into concrete actions. The goal of this work is the evaluation of eight alternative energy efficiency scenarios resulting from the combination of different strategies for the retrofit of the University Campus of Politecnico di Torino. In the first part of the study, the alternatives are assessed in terms of energy performance. Subsequently, an economic evaluation supported by the multi-criteria TOPSIS method makes it possible to order the alternatives according to the opinion of several experts. The integrated evaluation allows considering a set of co-benefits generated by the project going behind the energy aspects. The best strategy involves covering electricity needs with renewable energy sources, adopting students’ engagement policies and optimizing the set-point temperature. The results highlight how low-cost solutions such as awareness campaigns and variation of the set-point temperature can bring significant co-benefits from energy, economic, environmental and social perspectives.

The European Union issued several directives in the field of energy efficiency which impact on the building sector in order to avoid a further increase of energy consumption and to mitigate climate change. In particular, the recast of the European Energy Performance of Buildings supports the improvement of buildings energy performance and introduces a new target, the Nearly Zero-Energy Building (NZEB) concept. Nowadays, the European Commission is shifting attention towards the district level and post-carbon cities and Net Zero-Energy District (NZED) targets are emerging. In order to evaluate alternative strategies for the construction of NZED, according to a socio-economic point of view, different aspects and impacts have to be considered. This paper studies the NZED concept and proposes an evaluation method developed from the Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) in order to include extra-economic benefits generated by the project. The proposed approach is applied on a real case concerning the energy requalification of a NZED in Turin (Italy).

Among co-benefits that energy efficiency interventions in buildings entail, occupants’ improved comfort is one of the most acknowledged. In this study, a monetary valuation of improvements in comfort conditions in accommodation facilities was carried out. With an interdisciplinary approach to the problem, the evaluation was two-folded, aimed at monetizing co-benefits and extra costs of improved indoor environmental quality. Comfort co-benefits were estimated by employing the economic-based Contingent Valuation Method. In this framework, survey results allowed calculating respondents’ Willingness to Pay for excellent comfort conditions in hotel rooms, quantified in a 14% increase of the room rate. The energy approach, based on dynamic simulations, allowed to quantify extra costs of improved thermal condition in a reference existing hotel. These findings suggest that guests’ appreciation of comfort is higher than the investment costs required to provide them with comfortable conditions and highlight that energy efficiency measures are often necessary to reach the desired indoor comfort level.

Urban districts should evolve towards a more sustainable infrastructure and greener energy carriers. The utmost challenge is the smart integration and control, within the existing infrastructure, of new information and energy technologies (such as sensors, appliances, electric and thermal power and storage devices) that are able to provide multi-services based on multi-actors and multi and interchangeable energy carriers. In recent years, the Municipality of Torino represents an experimental scenario, in which practical experiences in the below-areas have taken place through a number of projects: 1. energy efficiency in building; 2. smart energy grids management and smart metering; 3. biowaste-to-energy: mixed urban/industrial waste management with enhanced energy recovery from biogas. This work provides an overview and update on the most interesting initiatives of smart energy management in the urban context of Torino, with an analysis and quantification of the advantages gained in terms of energy and environmental efficiency.

Energy performance certificates (EPCs) are important tools aimed at improving buildings&rsquo, energy performance. They play a central role in the context of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) which asks member states (MS) to take the necessary measures to establish a complete certification system. In this study, an application of the hedonic price method (HPM) assessing the effect of energy labels derived from the EPC on real estate market value is presented. The estimation methodology was applied to two European cities characterized by different climate conditions. The analysis was based on two datasets of listing prices referring to multi-family residential markets in Turin (Italy) and Barcelona (Spain). Four models for each dataset were applied to capture the marginal price of green attributes, but also to control for the spatial autocorrelation among values. The findings showed how the EPC has been applied in the two countries and how it has influenced the real estate market. Turin&rsquo, s buyers pay more attention to the EPC label, while in Barcelona, they value much more single characteristics, such as air conditioning and a swimming pool, considered popular attributes among contemporary buildings in this climate zone. From the results, it is possible to deduce that the implementation of the EPC schemes is still irregular in EU countries and must be strengthened through a standardized rating model.

Traditionally, local energy planning has been carried out following a sectorial approach, neglecting the long-term effects of energy policies, not considering social and environmental elements and omitting important actors involved. More innovative approaches lead to consider evaluation models able to take into account the full range of impacts generated at the level of utilities, end-users and society in general. This chapter aims to provide a reflection on the role of assessment tools in decision-making processes related to energy retrofit operations at architectural and urban level, presenting a series of recent and innovative experiments developed in the joined research group of the Energy Center Lab at Politecnico di Torino (Italy). Different techniques were applied to real case studies to provide an answer to concrete evaluation problems in the energy field. The results of the various applications show that the proposed valuation techniques offer useful tools to support local energy planning processes according to integrated energy-economic models.

Different evaluation protocols were proposed to calculate the degree of sustainability of buildings and large-scale projects. In parallel, many studies focused on estimating the economic benefits delivered by green buildings according to the consumer choices using specific econometric models. The study aims to investigate the awareness of the benefits deriving from Green Mark-labeled buildings in Singapore through the application of the hedonic pricing method. In particular, the impact of the Green Mark was assessed in the multi-family building sector, starting from a transaction dataset of approximately 300,000 units sold between 2005 and 2017. Given the spatial complexity of the multi-family buildings market, spatial autocorrelation models were recommended. In particular, the spatial lag model (SAR) and the spatial error model (SEM) were applied. The paper implements the property valuation literature in the field of spatial econometrics related to sustainable certification. Besides, the research provided an assessment of the sustainability scheme over time, highlighting consumer behavior in different phases of the real estate market in Singapore. The results highlighted how spatial models filter the autocorrelation effect. As for the impact of Green Mark on the sale price of the apartments, the results confirmed that a green premium exists.

The supply of electricity from renewable energy sources (RESs) represent one of the key measures to reduce environmental impacts on the basis of the new decarbonization target set by the European Union. However, the expected benefits do not refer only to the decrease in fossil fuel demand and the reduction of environmental impacts. Among the social impacts, employment increase represents one of the most important benefits, especially in a period of crisis economy. This paper aimed to investigate the potential of investments in the energy sector in Italy through the application of the Input-Output analysis. The assessment outcomes were tested investigating the PNIEC (Piano Nazionale Integrato per l’Energia e il Clima) provided by the Ministry of Economic Development in 2020. Specifically, the power systems that PNIEC planned to install until 2040 were analyzed, focusing on wind, photovoltaic, hydroelectric and geothermal infrastructures. The results showed that RESs investments can have a strong positive impact on the Italian economy both directly and indirectly. Sensitivity analyses highlighted that the import share of primary components of RESs strongly influences occupational performance, particularly for PV systems.

This study investigates the use of an evaluation model able to estimate the possibilities of reducing energy consumption and emissions of the building sector exploiting renewable energy sources. Specific attention is given to the use of ground source heat pumps in the urban context, proposing an ex-ante evaluation of different scenarios to identify the most balanced one in terms of energy, economic and environmental effects. The model is applied to a case study in Northern Italy to show how it can be used to support local administrations in energy urban planning, fitting economically and environmentally sustainable technologies. Moreover, it defines new boundaries in which the energy and environmental analyses should be carried out (spatial relocation), and the time span over which impacts have to be evaluated (temporal relocation).

The increase in energy exploitation and air pollution have forced the European Union to deal with energy saving and CO2 emissions reduction. With specific reference to buildings, important targets by 2050 have been established, implementing 2020 energy saving goals, and the concept of NZEB (nearly zero energy building) has emerged. In this context, clear understanding of buildings energy performances achieves primary importance and the inclusion of new variables in the analysis such as the user behavior can offer some insights into the solution of the discrepancy between predicted and real energy performances. In the research, an apartment block settled in Turin (Northern Italy) is selected as case study, energy retrofit measures formulated and evaluated including different users’ lifestyles by means of Cost-Benefit Analysis.

AIM • The aim of this guidebook is to develop a basic framework of a design guideline to deliver the most appropriate and costeffective solutions for NZEB in Mediterranean climates. • This guidebook (Part 1) represents specific conditions of Mediterranean climate, aspects related to theoretical background and building envelope design. • Additionally, case studies and a database are described. • Residential buildings are mainly considered in this guide book. CONTENTS 1. Introduction. 2. Challenges to face in a Mediterranean climate. 3. NZEB. 4. General Design Strategies: • Building Envelope Solutions and Technologies; • Opaque Building Envelope; • Transparent Building Envelope; • Shading; • The solutions for opaque components; • Ventilation. 5. Cost effectiveness – optimality. APPENDİX - A. APPENDİX - B. APPENDİX - C. References

Il progetto di ricerca nasce dalla consapevolezza della stretta relazione tra ambiente interno e benessere psicofisico dell'occupante che, quotidianamente, trascorre negli spazi confinati il 90% del proprio tempo. Per garantire condizioni di benessere soddisfacenti nello spazio in cui l'uomo vive e lavora e necessario monitorare, verificare e ottimizzare la qualita ambientale interna. Il presente lavoro mostra criticamente i risultati di una ricerca letteraria volta ad analizzare e valutare come la qualita dell'ambiente interno agli edifici influenzi il benessere umano. La ricerca e finalizzata a raccogliere informazioni utili per entrambe le valutazioni energetico-ambientale ed economico-finanziarie del comfort interno. La prima parte dell'elaborato si focalizza sull'individuare i metodi per la valutazione energetica del comfort, andando ad indagare la qualita degli ambienti interni attraverso quattro principali categorie: il comfort termico, la qualita dell'aria interna, il comfort acustico e il comfort visivo. Vengono individuati e analizzati in dettaglio i parametri ambientali e gli indici di valutazione del benessere basandosi sulla normativa UNI EN 15251 come principale riferimento. La seconda sezione della tesi ha riguardato un'ampia literature review focalizzata sulla ricerca delle diverse metodologie di valutazione finanziaria delle condizioni di comfort interno. Sono state analizzate differenti destinazioni d'uso (hotel, residenza, scuola, ufficio) al fine di dare un maggior margine di confronto nelle considerazioni finali, volte a individuare il metodo piu adatto da utilizzare nel settore alberghiero. L'obiettivo della terza parte riguarda l'applicazione dei metodi, precedentemente individuati e analizzati, al caso studio l'Hotel Residence L'Orologio. Sono state identificate tre zone distinte dell'hotel, le stanze degli ospiti, l'ufficio e la reception. Successivamente sono stati applicati due metodi differenti; in primis, il Contingent Valuation Method ha permesso di valutare il benessere del cliente individuando la sua disponibilita a pagare per condizioni di comfort eccellenti nelle camere d'albergo; in secondo luogo, attraverso la stima dei co-benefici derivanti da un miglior comfort interno, e stato valutato il benessere del dipendente sulla base della sua produttivita e del suo salario. I risultati emersi da questa analisi sono stati applicati ai vari scenari caratterizzati da diversi setting per ciascuna area dell'hotel, cosi che la differenza tra ciascuno di questi risultati e lo stato di fatto rappresenta il beneficio economico degli scenari proposti. Infine, la combinazione delle tre aree considerate con i quattro possibili setting di temperatura, ha permesso di individuare 64 differenti scenari che sono stati esaminati attraverso un'analisi costi-benefici con l'obbiettivo di individuare la situazione ottimale.

Urban regeneration is a complex and multi-faceted process. It can be defined a comprehensive and integrated vision of actions which aims to tackle urban problems and to improve the economic, social and environmental conditions. These strategies also involve several stakeholders which have different powers, interests and objectives in the transformation processes. Integrated evaluation tools are able to consider the multidimensionality of the urban context and the feedback of the different actors involved. These tools are mainly of use for the decision makers. This paper explores the use of Community Impact Evaluation (CIE) which is a multi-actor methodology that aims at defining the convenience of complex projects according to the social preferences expressed by different members of the community. In this paper, the CIE methodology is applied in a peculiar way in order to assess the different impacts generated by the 22@ Barcelona project, considering the effects at the different scales and over time. A synthetic analysis is conducted in order to estimate the nature and the intensity of the impacts among the different stakeholders. The evaluation shows the role of economic interest in urban regeneration processes and how the change in the political local context allowed a review of project.

More than 40% of the EU building stock was built before 1960 and 90% before 1990. It is common wisdom that older buildings typically exhibit greater energy demand than new ones. The renovation of existing buildings is therefore a cornerstone in the reduction of energy consumption and relative CO2 emissions under the post-carbon city paradigm.

The paper seeks to investigate the role of multicriteria analysis approaches to support landscape and territorial planning. In particular, the project for the revitalization of the Ceva-Ormea railway line (northern Italy) is the starting point for the analysis. The goal of landscape enhancement is to turn the abandoned trackside into a greenway and to propose the recovery of the stations for tourist purposes. The use of PROMETHEE II will try to guide the decision maker’s choice, using a set of criteria for evaluation. A number of experts have been involved in the weighting of the criteria in order to evaluate the project from various points of view.

The European Union (EU) has committed to lower GHG emissions for a 20% with respect to 1990 by 2020, reaching an 80% reduction by 2050. Renewable energy and buildings retrofitting will be key measures in cutting environmental impacts according to the new climate targets. The development of these energy-efficiency measures requires significant financial resources. The promotion of renewable-energy sources needs public acceptance to facilitate financial support for government. There is a growing body of literature that recognizes how the benefits of applying energy-efficiency measures outweigh the realization costs. Within this context, an evaluation of the whole range of co-impacts is crucial to compare different alternatives with the same objective. To implement a tool to assess the feasibility of a retrofitting project, firstly it is indispensable to identify the various possible benefits in a standardized manner and monetary terms. Secondly, it is fundamental to specify a logical path for assessing the attainment of these benefits, based on the features of the project. Recently, researchers have shown an increased interest in the evaluation of benefits. Despite this interest, very few studies have investigated the impact of the energy improvements of buildings on indoor comfort and human- health conditions. This work contributes to close the data gap in this context, investigating the health benefits connected to retrofitting interventions in residential buildings. A hybrid approach based on Contingent Valuation Method and economic analysis was applied to assess the impacts delivered by the energy retrofitting to an urban district in the city of Turin (Italy). A questionnaire was employed to elicit an estimate of consumers’ Willingness-To-Pay for better indoor comfort conditions and fewer hazards to health, reducing poor building features in terms of energy efficiency and air quality. A bidding game model was created to converge to the expected annual economic value of acceptable comfort conditions in the residential houses.

In Europe the building sector is responsible for more than 40 % of the total energy consumption and for 36 % of the CO2 emissions. To avoid a further increase of these values, the European Union decided to issue several Directives in order to encourage the reduction of energy consumptions and to promote the use of renewable energy sources. In particular, the recast of the European Energy Performance of Buildings (Directive 2010/31/EU) promotes the improvement of buildings energy performance within the European Union, and introduces a new standard, the nearly-Zero Energy Building (nZEB). More recently, the European Commission is shifting the matter with steady increase from the single level of the building to the district one in order to hit the target of post-carbon cities and the concept of Net-Zero Energy District (NZED) is emerging. The evaluation of alternative strategies for the construction of NZED constitutes a multidimensional problem, where different aspects and impacts have to be considered, from the reduction of pollutant emissions to the investment cost, from the increase in indoor comfort to the creation of benefits in term of real estate assets value. The objective of the present study concerns an investigation of Multicriteria Decision Analysis for supporting decision problems in the context of NZED. In particular, starting from a real case study in the city of Turin (Italy), the multicriteria PROMETHEE method is employed for comparing four alternative strategies for the construction of a new NZED and to select the best solution from a socio-economic and environmental point of view.

The outdoor air pollution and the insufficient hygiene of HVAC systems often result in low indoor air quality. The World Health Organization estimated that 50% of indoor biological contamination comes from the air-handling system; the air filters are sources of pollution due to the accumulation and proliferation of bacteria on the surface. Furthermore, the presence of indoor contaminants can have a negative impact on the health and well-being of the occupants, who spend about 80% of their time indoors. To guarantee a better indoor air quality and a lower health risks, a new concept of biocidal filtration has been introduced. The present paper shows the results of a literature review aimed at exploring how to integrate the health effects on building occupants into the economic benefits of an antibacterial filter. The research focuses on costs and benefits produced by the application of an antibacterial filter, comparing it with a traditional one. Two methods were applied for the assessment; the Cost Benefit Analysis and the Monte Carlo Simulation. The results suggested the goodness of the economic investment on biocidal filter and showed how it allows to achieve benefits in term of energy savings and health for the different analysed case studies.