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Special Issue "Nature-Based Solutions for Carbon Neutral Climate Resilient Buildings and Communities"

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A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Energy, Physics, Environment, and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 October 2023) | Viewed by 16449

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Hua Ge

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Guest Editor

Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Member, Centre for Zero Energy Building Studies, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, Montreal, QC, Canada
Interests: climate-resilient buildings; building envelop; urban microclimate; building responses; indoor environment and human comfort; climate change

Prof. Dr. Liangzhu (Leon) Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Centre for Zero Energy Building Studies, Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, Montreal, QC, Canada
Interests: urban microclimate; urban green infrastructure; urban heat island; climate resilience; air quality; urban energy systems; weather forecasting; extreme weather; disaster proof

Dr. Michael A. Lacasse

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

National Research Council Canada, Construction Research Centre, 1200 Montreal Road, Building M24, Ottawa, ON K1A 0R6, Canada
Interests: environment; sustainability; climate change; climate loads; climate modelling; carbon budget; durability; long-term moisture performance; urban heat island; green technologies; materials technology; polymeric materials; building technology; civil engineering; simulation and numerical modelling; technological innovation; technology transfer
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The building sector is responsible for nearly 40% of global direct and indirect CO₂ emissions. Buildings account for 28% of global energy-related GHG emissions, and this share is even greater in large cities. Urban heat island (UHI) effects can increase building cooling loads by 19–25% depending on the climate, and where the mean UHI intensity exceeds 10°C, cooling loads may double. Increased temperatures not only increase the cooling energy use and peak electricity need but also affect the populace, from loss of urban environmental quality to increased vulnerability from heat-related mortality and morbidity. Leveraging synergies of nature and the built environment, nature-based urban green infrastructure (UGI) solutions in the form of green roofs, urban forests, and vegetated vertical surfaces implemented on and around buildings can sequester CO₂, reduce building energy use and carbon emissions, moderate the microclimate, and so lessen the impact of extreme heat events. While promising an array of cost-effective options for municipal climate action, nature-based solutions provide many public policy co-benefits, such as enhanced urban livability and enhanced environmental conditions.

This Special Issue aims to provide a platform to bring together multidisciplinary researchers focusing on nature-based solution for climate-resilient buildings and communities to share knowledge in advancing our understanding and quantification of UGIs’ contribution to carbon emission reduction, mitigation of UHI effects and summer time overheating, and the health and wellbeing of urban dwellers, therefore facilitating the adoption and effective implementation of nature-based solutions. Original research contributions are encouraged to address topics including but not limited to the following:

Quantifying the contribution of existing and future nature-based solutions and UGI to sequester carbon, reduce carbon emission from buildings, and moderate the urban microclimate to reduce urban heat island effects;
Approach in developing nature-based solutions and UGI solutions for carbon-neutral, climate-resilient buildings and communities;
Nature-based solutions and UGI best practices, guidelines, and policies;
Advanced modeling tools and web-based design tools to facilitate the design and adoption of nature-based solutions by practitioners and policy makers;
Urban carbon cycle modeling for carbon sequestration calculation;
Urban community level modeling of building energy use and carbon emission calculations under future climate scenarios;
Multiscale urban microclimate modeling under future climate scenarios;
Human–urban–environmental interactions.

Prof. Dr. Hua Ge
Prof. Dr. Liangzhu (Leon) Wang
Dr. Michael A. Lacasse
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Urban Green Infrastructure (UGI)
Nature-based solutions (NbS)
Climate-resilient buildings and communities
Carbon sequestration and reduction
Urban Heat Island (UHI) effects
Summer overheating
Climate Change
Carbon neutral buildings and communities
Urban carbon cycle modeling
Urban microclimate
Urban forestry

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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20 pages, 4510 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Integrating Urban Heat Island Impact into Building Energy Assessment in a Hot-Arid City

and

Buildings 2023, 13(7), 1818; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13071818 - 18 Jul 2023

Viewed by 886

Abstract

Dense cities usually experience the urban heat island (UHI) effect, resulting in higher ambient temperatures and increased cooling loads. However, the typical lack of combining climatic variables with building passive design parameters in significant evaluations hinders the consideration of the UHI effect during the building design stage. In that regard, a global sensitivity analysis was conducted to assess the significance of climatic variables and building design features in building energy simulations for an office building. Additionally, this study examines the UHI effect on building energy performance in Qatar, a hot-arid climate, using both measurement data and computational modeling. This study collects measurement data across Qatar and conducts computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations; the results from both methods serve as inputs in building energy simulation (BES). The results demonstrate that space cooling demand is more sensitive to ambient temperature than other climatic parameters, building thermal properties, etc. The UHI intensity is high during hot and transition seasons and reaches a maximum of 13 °C. BES results show a 10% increase in cooling energy demand for an office building due to the UHI effect on a hot day. The results of this study enable more informed decision-making during the building design process. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nature-Based Solutions for Carbon Neutral Climate Resilient Buildings and Communities)

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13 pages, 1350 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Life Cycle Assessment of the Environmental Benefits of Using Wood Products and Planting Trees at an All-Electric University Laboratory

Felipe Grossi

Hua Ge

and

Radu Zmeureanu

Buildings 2023, 13(7), 1584; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13071584 - 22 Jun 2023

Viewed by 960

Abstract

Many countries across the globe have set targets for different economic sectors, aiming to tackle global warming by reducing the overall carbon footprint of human-related activities. Among these sectors, the building industry stands out as a major consumer of materials and energy resources, making it a key player in achieving carbon neutrality. It is one of the main contributors responsible for energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including both operational emissions and embodied emissions in materials and equipment manufacturing. Nature-based design solutions, such as planting trees in urban spaces, or incorporating the use of wood products, have regained attention in recent years due to their potential to mitigate carbon emissions from buildings. Within this context, this paper presents a comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) of a recently built research facility, with a focus on demonstrating how the benefits of nature-based solutions, specifically carbon sequestration from trees and biogenic carbon content in wood products, can be quantified and reported using the latest LCA standards and tools. The analysis is provided under three end-of-life scenarios for wood products: wood incineration with energy recovery, wood landfilling, and wood recycling/repurposing. The results indicate that the set of strategies adopted in this building, i.e., tree planting, the use of wood products, and the end-of-life treatment of materials, can potentially offset carbon emission by 37.2% up to 83.9% when included in the LCA, depending on the scenario considered. By continuing to refine LCA standards and tools, and fostering collaboration between researchers, policymakers, and industry professionals, we can advance our understanding and ultimately achieve the widespread adoption of carbon-neutral buildings. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nature-Based Solutions for Carbon Neutral Climate Resilient Buildings and Communities)

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16 pages, 7942 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Implementation and Performance Evaluation of a Community-Scale Adobe Evaporative Cooling Chamber for Vegetable Preservation

Karine Machado Davalo

Andrea Naguissa Yuba

and

João Onofre Pereira Pinto

Buildings 2023, 13(6), 1401; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13061401 - 29 May 2023

Viewed by 787

Abstract

The construction of evaporative coolers in remote areas can increase the longevity of vegetables, improving food security and the local economy of small farmers in remote, impoverished communities without access to electricity. This work presents a 1:1 scale prototype of an 8 m³ (2.1 × 2.1 × 2.3 m) stabilized adobe evaporative cooler, with a design based on the appropriate technology framework, and it was built as a chamber using double adobe walls, filled with wet sand, to induce evaporative cooling. Furthermore, the paper presents the prototype’s performance evaluation. The tests were carried out in the dry and wet states, with different volumes of water. The results show good performance compared with other prototypes, although the optimum watering volume could not be determined because of the high climate variance (outside temperature and humidity) that prevented the repetition of the experiments in identical operating conditions. Stabilized adobe proved to be a good choice for use in the cooler, even when subject to moisture accumulation, indicating an estimated long lifetime for the cooler. The data obtained about the efficiency of evaporative cooling show that the cooler, as expected, has its best performance on the hottest and driest days, reducing the internal temperature (up to 13.24 °C) and managing to keep the internal humidity. The cost, efficiency, durability, and replicability make the proposed evaporative cooler a feasible solution for food preservation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nature-Based Solutions for Carbon Neutral Climate Resilient Buildings and Communities)

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30 pages, 5941 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Overheating Risk Analysis in Long-Term Care Homes—Development of Overheating Limit Criteria

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Buildings 2023, 13(2), 390; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13020390 - 01 Feb 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1573

Abstract

Climate heat waves occurring in urban centers are a serious threat to public health and wellbeing. Historically, most heat-related mortalities have arisen from excessive overheating of building interiors housing older occupants. This paper developed an approach that combines the results from building simulation and bioheat models to generate health-based limit criteria for overheating in long-term care homes (LTCHs) by which the body dehydration and core temperature of older residents are capped during overheating events. The models of the LTCHs were created for buildings representative of old and current construction practices for selected Canadian locations. The models were calibrated using measurements of indoor temperature and humidity acquired from monitoring the building interiors and the use of published building energy use intensity data. A general procedure to identify overheating events and quantify their attributes in terms of duration, intensity, and severity was developed and applied to LTCHs to generate the limit criteria. Comparing the limit criteria from the proposed and comfort-based methods showed evident differences. The proposed method predicted the overheating risk consistent with the overall thermal comfort during overheating events in contrast to the comfort-based methods. The new limit criteria are intended to be used in any study to evaluate overheating risk in similar buildings. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nature-Based Solutions for Carbon Neutral Climate Resilient Buildings and Communities)

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26 pages, 4454 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Feasibility of Planting Trees around Buildings as a Nature-Based Solution of Carbon Sequestration—An LCA Approach Using Two Case Studies

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Buildings 2023, 13(1), 41; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13010041 - 24 Dec 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 4639

Abstract

In response to Canada’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to making pathways to achieve carbon neutral buildings, this paper presents two real case studies. The paper first outlines the potential of trees to absorb CO₂ emissions through photosynthesis, and the methods used for the estimation of their annual carbon sequestration rates. The net annual carbon sequestration rate of 0.575 kgCO₂eq/m² of tree cover area is considered in our study. Then, this paper presents the carbon life cycle assessment of an all-electric laboratory at Concordia University and of a single-detached house, both located in Montreal. The life cycle assessment (LCA) calculations were performed using two software tools, One Click LCA and Athena Impact Estimator for Buildings. The results in terms of Global Warming Potential (GWP) over 60 years for the laboratory were found to be 83,521 kgCO₂eq using One Click LCA, and 82,666 kgCO₂eq using Athena. For the single-detached house that uses natural gas for space heating and domestic hot water, the GWP was found to be 544,907 kgCO₂eq using One Click LCA, and 566,856 kgCO₂eq using Athena. For the all-electric laboratory, a garden fully covered with representative urban trees could offset around 17% of the total life cycle carbon emissions. For the natural gas-powered single-detached house, the sequestration by trees is around 3% of the total life cycle carbon emission. This paper presents limits for achieving carbon neutral buildings when only the emissions sequestration by trees is applied, and discusses the main findings regarding LCA calculations under different scenarios. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nature-Based Solutions for Carbon Neutral Climate Resilient Buildings and Communities)

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Review

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17 pages, 504 KiB

Open AccessReview

Nature-Based Solutions for Carbon Neutral Climate Resilient Buildings and Communities: A Review of Technical Evidence, Design Guidelines, and Policies

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Buildings 2023, 13(6), 1389; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13061389 - 26 May 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 973

Abstract

The building sector is responsible for nearly 40% of the total global direct and indirect CO₂ emissions. Urban green infrastructure, which includes features such as urban trees, vegetation, green roofs, and green facades, are examples of nature-based solutions often employed as municipal climate mitigation and adaptation strategies. This approach offers a range of cost-effective strategies for reducing municipal CO₂ emissions and presents compelling public policy co-benefits such as improved urban livability and enhanced environmental conditions. For municipalities to confidently deploy these solutions at a scale necessary to achieve climate benefits, acquiring knowledge of quantifiable and demonstrated outcomes is an essential requirement. The objectives of this paper are to (1) provide a comprehensive analysis of the advantages and limitations of nature-based solutions (NBS) to address the challenge of reducing CO₂ emissions; (2) evaluate existing design guidelines and policies as may be available across Canada, and that that support the of implementation of NBS in urban agglomerations; (3) identify knowledge gaps and research needs to address challenges to the implementation of NBS. In this review, suggestions and requirements as presented in these documents are examined while giving due consideration to the scientific evidence available in research papers. It was found that the adoption of NBS can contribute to carbon neutral communities through reduced building energy consumption and carbon sequestration. Supportive guidelines and policies have been developed, or are in development, to promote the implementation of NBS at the city scale, despite challenges in assessing, quantitatively, their impact due to uncertainties in data, methods, and scale. Nonetheless, existing research provides sufficient evidence to qualify the measures and suggestions outlined in the guidelines and policies described in this paper. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nature-Based Solutions for Carbon Neutral Climate Resilient Buildings and Communities)

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15 pages, 1171 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperReview

Nature-Based Solutions (NBSs) to Mitigate Urban Heat Island (UHI) Effects in Canadian Cities

Alexander Thomas Hayes

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Buildings 2022, 12(7), 925; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12070925 - 30 Jun 2022

Cited by 25 | Viewed by 5526

Abstract

Canada is warming at double the rate of the global average caused in part to a fast-growing population and large land transformations, where urban surfaces contribute significantly to the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon. The federal government released the strengthened climate plan in 2020, which emphasizes using nature-based solutions (NBSs) to combat the effects of UHI phenomenon. Here, the effects of two NBSs techniques are reviewed and analysed: increasing surface greenery/vegetation (ISG) and increasing surface reflectivity (ISR). Policymakers have the challenge of selecting appropriate NBSs to meet a wide range of objectives within the urban environment and Canadian-specific knowledge of how NBSs can perform at various scales is lacking. As such, this state-of-the-art review intends to provide a snapshot of the current understanding of the benefits and risks associated with the implantation of NBSs in urban spaces as well as a review of the current techniques used to model, and evaluate the potential effectiveness of UHI under evolving climate conditions. Thus, if NBSs are to be adopted to mitigate UHI effects and extreme summertime temperatures in Canadian municipalities, an integrated, comprehensive analysis of their contributions is needed. As such, developing methods to quantify and evaluate NBSs’ performance and tools for the effective implementation of NBSs are required. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nature-Based Solutions for Carbon Neutral Climate Resilient Buildings and Communities)

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