Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue (SI) aims to draw attention on the inter-relationships between built environment, urban microclimate, building energy demand, and people’s health and wellbeing in cities characterized by a Mediterranean climate.

Several studies have shown that urban warming causes an increase in building cooling demand, especially in warm regions such as in the Mediterranean climate. Urban areas also increase the intensity of extreme events such as prolongued heat waves, with concerning impact for the health of vulnerable groups such as the elderly and children.

However, a peculiarity of the Mediterranean climate is its seasonal variability, and for this reason, buildings and urban spaces must be able to cope with both hot summer and cold winter periods to ensure comfortable living conditions and reduced energy demand on an annual basis. Considering this, the urban heat island (UHI) effect has contrasting impacts on people’s health and perceived comfort as well as buildings energy demand over the year.

Furthermore, while many studies have investigated the impact of the atmospheric UHI intensity, much less literature is available on the net impact of multiple urban microclimate modifications. For instance, the decrease in solar irradiance on facades and streets in urban canyons, the modification of wind speed, and the reduced sky view factors can be even more relevant than urban air temperature increase in determining thermal comfort in this climate region, characterized by mild temperatures and high solar irradiation. Urban canyon geometry also deeply affects daylight availability in buildings, and it can be responsible for a higher concentration of pollutants in the atmosphere, with negative consequences on air quality at the street level and indoors. All these phenomena are strongly interconnected and contribute to the environmental quality of indoor and outdoor spaces in urban areas.

This SI is open to studies investigating outdoor and indoor environmental quality (i.e., thermal and visual comfort and air quality) and urban building energy performance (i.e., cooling, heating, and lighting) in relation to the characteristics of the urban fabric and corresponding urban microclimate. Case studies and theoretical investigations as well as experimental and numerical studies are welcome, provided they deal with Mediterranean or similar climates. This climate type is characteristic of the Mediterranean basin but also present in several other regions, mainly within 30˚ to 45˚ latitude in both the north and the south hemispheres. Some similar climates are also found in the inter-tropical region at high altitude (from 2500 m above sea level).

Possible topics for this Special Issue include (but are not limited to):

• Urban heat island studies (mesoscale and local scale);
• Urban microclimate;
• Urban heat stress;
• Building energy performance in uban context;
• Tools and approaches for urban energy modeling (UBEM);
• Environmental quality in urban areas (indoor and outdoor);
• Urban heat island mitigation strategies;
• Urban and building adaptation stategies to climate change;
• Urban building passive cooling design;
• Urban building sustainable design and early-design strategies.

Dr. Agnese Salvati
Dr. Gianpiero Evola
Dr. Massimo Palme
Dr. Giacomo Chiesa
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. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2400 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.

• urban heat island
• urban microclimate
• building energy performance
• thermal comfort