Pub Date : 2022-02-18DOI: 10.3390/environsciproc2021012008
Mudan Wang, C. Wang, S. Sepasgozar, S. Zlatanova
Digital technologies are supposed to be used to obtain higher efficiency and quality in off-site construction. This research is an on-going thesis project and aims to identify the challenges and expectations of digital technologies’ implementation in off-site construction, and also aims to develop a practical application for promoting one of the promising digital technologies. Mixed research methods are conducted in Chinese off-site construction projects, including a set of semi-structured interviews, observation and site experimentation. The major challenges and expectations of digital technology implementation are presented. Specifically, laser scanning technology is expected to be used to check the installation quality of prefabricated wall panels, and it has been validated as practical and efficient in a case study. Further research will be more focused on validating the robustness of using the laser scanning approach.
{"title":"An Investigation of Digital Technology Implementation in Off-Site Construction with a Focus on Efficiency Improvement","authors":"Mudan Wang, C. Wang, S. Sepasgozar, S. Zlatanova","doi":"10.3390/environsciproc2021012008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2021012008","url":null,"abstract":"Digital technologies are supposed to be used to obtain higher efficiency and quality in off-site construction. This research is an on-going thesis project and aims to identify the challenges and expectations of digital technologies’ implementation in off-site construction, and also aims to develop a practical application for promoting one of the promising digital technologies. Mixed research methods are conducted in Chinese off-site construction projects, including a set of semi-structured interviews, observation and site experimentation. The major challenges and expectations of digital technology implementation are presented. Specifically, laser scanning technology is expected to be used to check the installation quality of prefabricated wall panels, and it has been validated as practical and efficient in a case study. Further research will be more focused on validating the robustness of using the laser scanning approach.","PeriodicalId":11904,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sciences Proceedings","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86366768","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-17DOI: 10.3390/environsciproc2021012011
G. Pignatta, Vincent Wong, P. Koshy, C. Sorrell
The materials used in the construction industry have a fundamental role in the development and achievement of low-carbon structures. This research aims to develop and characterize innovative and affordable renewable materials that can meet these low carbon requirements for building envelopes and internal element applications. These materials are geopolymers, which are being researched for fire-resistance, nuclear storage, and cement-based structural applications. Geopolymers are commonly fabricated from high-volume waste materials (e.g., fly ash and blast furnace slag) that are stored in landfill and tailings ponds and have the capacity to facilitate the transition toward a more sustainable and energy-efficient built environment while contributing to the circular economy in the building sector. Two geopolymers, a reference and a prototype, were fabricated and characterized in-lab for their thermal and optical properties to assess their performance for use as building envelope materials. Preliminary results suggest that the prototype has potential for use in green, lightweight building applications. Further optimization of the geopolymers’ thermal and optical performances will open new opportunities for the use of this material in buildings.
{"title":"Can Geopolymer Materials Be Optimized for Sustainable Building Envelope Applications? A Preliminary Development and Characterization Study","authors":"G. Pignatta, Vincent Wong, P. Koshy, C. Sorrell","doi":"10.3390/environsciproc2021012011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2021012011","url":null,"abstract":"The materials used in the construction industry have a fundamental role in the development and achievement of low-carbon structures. This research aims to develop and characterize innovative and affordable renewable materials that can meet these low carbon requirements for building envelopes and internal element applications. These materials are geopolymers, which are being researched for fire-resistance, nuclear storage, and cement-based structural applications. Geopolymers are commonly fabricated from high-volume waste materials (e.g., fly ash and blast furnace slag) that are stored in landfill and tailings ponds and have the capacity to facilitate the transition toward a more sustainable and energy-efficient built environment while contributing to the circular economy in the building sector. Two geopolymers, a reference and a prototype, were fabricated and characterized in-lab for their thermal and optical properties to assess their performance for use as building envelope materials. Preliminary results suggest that the prototype has potential for use in green, lightweight building applications. Further optimization of the geopolymers’ thermal and optical performances will open new opportunities for the use of this material in buildings.","PeriodicalId":11904,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sciences Proceedings","volume":"66 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79531244","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-02-17DOI: 10.3390/environsciproc2021012009
Ali Arababadi, S. Leyer, R. Arababadi, G. Pignatta
The energy transition is a certain phenomenon in the future which as of yet has no agreed definition. It involves a shift in the dominant ‘rules of the game’—a transformation of established technologies and societal practices and movement from one dynamic equilibrium to another, typically stretching over several generations. The study aims to explore some salient features of this transition that Luxembourg will face using a theoretical approach. The study was limited to the transportation sector, residential sector, and public dimension. it has been shown how the availability of different contextual factors in Luxembourg will raise the need for new pathways to move towards this transition. The alternative pathways have been argued, too.
{"title":"Theoretical Considerations about Energy Transition in Luxembourg","authors":"Ali Arababadi, S. Leyer, R. Arababadi, G. Pignatta","doi":"10.3390/environsciproc2021012009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2021012009","url":null,"abstract":"The energy transition is a certain phenomenon in the future which as of yet has no agreed definition. It involves a shift in the dominant ‘rules of the game’—a transformation of established technologies and societal practices and movement from one dynamic equilibrium to another, typically stretching over several generations. The study aims to explore some salient features of this transition that Luxembourg will face using a theoretical approach. The study was limited to the transportation sector, residential sector, and public dimension. it has been shown how the availability of different contextual factors in Luxembourg will raise the need for new pathways to move towards this transition. The alternative pathways have been argued, too.","PeriodicalId":11904,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sciences Proceedings","volume":"23 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89092824","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-24DOI: 10.3390/environsciproc2021011033
A. Garrido-Marijuan, O. Eguiarte, Roberto Garay-Martinez, Margus Raud, Indrek Hagu
District heating networks are considered to be a key element for the decarbonization of Europe. The RELaTED project seeks to contribute to the decarbonization of these infrastructures with the demonstration of low temperature district heating networks. One of the demonstration sites consists of more than 50 substations within a subsection of a larger network in the city of Tartu (Estonia), where the temperature was lowered by 10 °C. To ensure the benefits of this new generation district heating network and the fulfillment of comfort requirements, data have been monitored and analyzed at the substation level in an automatic way to facilitate the inspection of every user.
{"title":"Lessons Learnt from Substation Inspection on Low Temperature District Heating Networks","authors":"A. Garrido-Marijuan, O. Eguiarte, Roberto Garay-Martinez, Margus Raud, Indrek Hagu","doi":"10.3390/environsciproc2021011033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2021011033","url":null,"abstract":"District heating networks are considered to be a key element for the decarbonization of Europe. The RELaTED project seeks to contribute to the decarbonization of these infrastructures with the demonstration of low temperature district heating networks. One of the demonstration sites consists of more than 50 substations within a subsection of a larger network in the city of Tartu (Estonia), where the temperature was lowered by 10 °C. To ensure the benefits of this new generation district heating network and the fulfillment of comfort requirements, data have been monitored and analyzed at the substation level in an automatic way to facilitate the inspection of every user.","PeriodicalId":11904,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sciences Proceedings","volume":"79 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81631181","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-22DOI: 10.3390/environsciproc2021011031
A. Piccinini, F. Seri, Letizia D’Angelo, Shima Yousefigarjan, M. Keane
Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) can help the European Union (EU) in accelerating the cost-effective renovation of existing building stock. However, there are many risks and barriers that can inhibit the application of EPC. These barriers include uncertainty about building data, lack of quality assurance regarding the post-renovation energy performance, and process complexity. In order to cross these barriers, this paper presents ModSCO. ModSCO is a web application based on a Reduced Order grey-box Model (ROM) able to systematically quantify the energy savings achieved through Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) utilising the schema of the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP). The benefits of utilising ModSCO in terms of accuracy and time savings are demonstrated with a comparison with a whole building energy model developed with IES-VE.
{"title":"ModSCO a Web Application Based on a Grey-Box Model to Support the Estimation of the Energy Savings in Building Retrofits","authors":"A. Piccinini, F. Seri, Letizia D’Angelo, Shima Yousefigarjan, M. Keane","doi":"10.3390/environsciproc2021011031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2021011031","url":null,"abstract":"Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) can help the European Union (EU) in accelerating the cost-effective renovation of existing building stock. However, there are many risks and barriers that can inhibit the application of EPC. These barriers include uncertainty about building data, lack of quality assurance regarding the post-renovation energy performance, and process complexity. In order to cross these barriers, this paper presents ModSCO. ModSCO is a web application based on a Reduced Order grey-box Model (ROM) able to systematically quantify the energy savings achieved through Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) utilising the schema of the International Performance Measurement and Verification Protocol (IPMVP). The benefits of utilising ModSCO in terms of accuracy and time savings are demonstrated with a comparison with a whole building energy model developed with IES-VE.","PeriodicalId":11904,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sciences Proceedings","volume":"130 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78547119","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-22DOI: 10.3390/environsciproc2021011032
A. Andaloro, G. Salvalai, Gabriele Fregonese, Linda Tso, Giulia Paoletti
Energy efficiency in the building sector is a priority of the EU Commission to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Renovation of the existing buildings, which are currently responsible for approximately 40% of EU energy consumption and 36% of the greenhouse gas emissions can lead to significant energy savings. This paper presents the EEnvest calculation method for evaluating the financial impacts of technical risks related to energy-efficient renovation of commercial office buildings. The evaluation method aims to increase investors’ confidence and boost investments in the renovation of the existing building. Through a series of Key Performance Indicators (KPI), the technical and financial risks impact is evaluated. The results are strictly connected to building features, climatic conditions, solution sets and mitigation measures specific to the building energy efficiency project.
{"title":"Framework for Evaluating Financial Impacts of Technical Risks Related to Energy-Efficient Renovation of Commercial Office Buildings","authors":"A. Andaloro, G. Salvalai, Gabriele Fregonese, Linda Tso, Giulia Paoletti","doi":"10.3390/environsciproc2021011032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2021011032","url":null,"abstract":"Energy efficiency in the building sector is a priority of the EU Commission to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Renovation of the existing buildings, which are currently responsible for approximately 40% of EU energy consumption and 36% of the greenhouse gas emissions can lead to significant energy savings. This paper presents the EEnvest calculation method for evaluating the financial impacts of technical risks related to energy-efficient renovation of commercial office buildings. The evaluation method aims to increase investors’ confidence and boost investments in the renovation of the existing building. Through a series of Key Performance Indicators (KPI), the technical and financial risks impact is evaluated. The results are strictly connected to building features, climatic conditions, solution sets and mitigation measures specific to the building energy efficiency project.","PeriodicalId":11904,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sciences Proceedings","volume":"74 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85395367","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-21DOI: 10.3390/environsciproc2021011030
S. Treija, Uģis Bratuškins, Alisa Koroļova, Arnis Lektauers
Promoting public participation in urban processes has long been a key issue in discussions about urban governance. However, despite the advantages of more progressive and inclusive city governance, participatory budgeting (PB) often faces challenges to ensure collaboration between different city departments and involved residents. In some cases, residents are unsure about PB models’ transparency, other examples show the way NGOs use the model as a counterforce to central governance and thus local actors lack political and financial support. Moreover, uncertainty and restrictions imposed by the global pandemic in some way also impacted the realization of PB. This research aims to identify stakeholders in the participatory budgeting approach, describing opportunities and challenges of the organizational process and digital technologies as a means of enabling communication and collaboration between actors.
{"title":"Smart Governance: An Investigation into Participatory Budgeting Models","authors":"S. Treija, Uģis Bratuškins, Alisa Koroļova, Arnis Lektauers","doi":"10.3390/environsciproc2021011030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2021011030","url":null,"abstract":"Promoting public participation in urban processes has long been a key issue in discussions about urban governance. However, despite the advantages of more progressive and inclusive city governance, participatory budgeting (PB) often faces challenges to ensure collaboration between different city departments and involved residents. In some cases, residents are unsure about PB models’ transparency, other examples show the way NGOs use the model as a counterforce to central governance and thus local actors lack political and financial support. Moreover, uncertainty and restrictions imposed by the global pandemic in some way also impacted the realization of PB. This research aims to identify stakeholders in the participatory budgeting approach, describing opportunities and challenges of the organizational process and digital technologies as a means of enabling communication and collaboration between actors.","PeriodicalId":11904,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sciences Proceedings","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"90779756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-15DOI: 10.3390/environsciproc2021012005
A. Sohani, Shayan Naderi, G. Pignatta
In conventional building integrated photovoltaic thermal (BIPV/T) systems, heat is only recovered during cold seasons. However, no recovery takes place in hot seasons. Therefore, this study comes up with an answer to the question “how much improvement in the amount of annual recovered heat (ANRH), average exergy efficiency (AAEE), and CO2 saving (ACDS), as well as payback period (PBP), is achieved when heat recovery is done in hot seasons?”. These are representatives of energy, exergy, environmental and economic (4E) aspects, respectively. The results show a 135.6%, 1.8% and 123.0% enhancement in the ANRH, AAEE and ACDS, respectively, while PBP decreases from 6.10 to 3.94 years.
{"title":"4E Advancement of Heat Recovery during Hot Seasons for a Building Integrated Photovoltaic Thermal (BIPV/T) System","authors":"A. Sohani, Shayan Naderi, G. Pignatta","doi":"10.3390/environsciproc2021012005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2021012005","url":null,"abstract":"In conventional building integrated photovoltaic thermal (BIPV/T) systems, heat is only recovered during cold seasons. However, no recovery takes place in hot seasons. Therefore, this study comes up with an answer to the question “how much improvement in the amount of annual recovered heat (ANRH), average exergy efficiency (AAEE), and CO2 saving (ACDS), as well as payback period (PBP), is achieved when heat recovery is done in hot seasons?”. These are representatives of energy, exergy, environmental and economic (4E) aspects, respectively. The results show a 135.6%, 1.8% and 123.0% enhancement in the ANRH, AAEE and ACDS, respectively, while PBP decreases from 6.10 to 3.94 years.","PeriodicalId":11904,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sciences Proceedings","volume":"29 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89401243","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-15DOI: 10.3390/environsciproc2021012004
G. Pignatta, H. Javed, Mehrangiz Mastoori, Seyede Najme Sharifi, N. V. S. K. Manapragada, C. Buratti
Developing countries such as Iran are rapidly expanding, putting pressure on non-renewable energy resources. The building sector takes a major share of the total energy consumption of the country and is projected to increase further, resulting in the call for strategies to reduce energy use by improving the thermal performance of buildings. This study addresses the compelling need to provide optimum design guidelines for future apartment buildings in the city of Shiraz by investigating two urban cluster typologies, stair and pyramid, arranged in five orientations. The results showcase the ideal combination of 155° for the Pyramid typology, which contributes the least to the annual energy loads of the buildings.
{"title":"Simulating the Impact of Solar Energy on Pyramid and Stair Urban Blocks","authors":"G. Pignatta, H. Javed, Mehrangiz Mastoori, Seyede Najme Sharifi, N. V. S. K. Manapragada, C. Buratti","doi":"10.3390/environsciproc2021012004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2021012004","url":null,"abstract":"Developing countries such as Iran are rapidly expanding, putting pressure on non-renewable energy resources. The building sector takes a major share of the total energy consumption of the country and is projected to increase further, resulting in the call for strategies to reduce energy use by improving the thermal performance of buildings. This study addresses the compelling need to provide optimum design guidelines for future apartment buildings in the city of Shiraz by investigating two urban cluster typologies, stair and pyramid, arranged in five orientations. The results showcase the ideal combination of 155° for the Pyramid typology, which contributes the least to the annual energy loads of the buildings.","PeriodicalId":11904,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sciences Proceedings","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87350146","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-13DOI: 10.3390/environsciproc2021011028
S. Rezvani, Maurijn Neumann, Jos Noordzij, Mija Sušnik, Mohamed Elagiry, J. Pridmore
This report summarizes the conceptual framework and the technical implementation of a BIM-based user-friendly application to gather inhabitant’s input in the context of renovation projects developed in the European funded project BIM-SPEED. It starts with the underlying objectives and the role of data acquisition in the project. Then, it explains and outlines the conceptual framework and the methodology used in relation to the identified use cases, where inhabitants’ input is required. Furthermore, it describes the implementation and the development of the proposed methods as a user-friendly app and, finally, it ends with ethical and privacy considerations, specifically the measures taken for safe handling of privacy-sensitive data.
{"title":"BIM-SPEED Inhabitant’s App: A BIM-Based Application for Crowdsourcing of Inhabitants’ Input in Renovation Projects","authors":"S. Rezvani, Maurijn Neumann, Jos Noordzij, Mija Sušnik, Mohamed Elagiry, J. Pridmore","doi":"10.3390/environsciproc2021011028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2021011028","url":null,"abstract":"This report summarizes the conceptual framework and the technical implementation of a BIM-based user-friendly application to gather inhabitant’s input in the context of renovation projects developed in the European funded project BIM-SPEED. It starts with the underlying objectives and the role of data acquisition in the project. Then, it explains and outlines the conceptual framework and the methodology used in relation to the identified use cases, where inhabitants’ input is required. Furthermore, it describes the implementation and the development of the proposed methods as a user-friendly app and, finally, it ends with ethical and privacy considerations, specifically the measures taken for safe handling of privacy-sensitive data.","PeriodicalId":11904,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Sciences Proceedings","volume":"17 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78612984","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}