Procedia environmental sciences最新文献

The installation of External Thermal Insulation Composite System (ETICS) enables to protect building envelope from natural weather effects and increase energy efficiency. As the system can be installed externally with simple work methods the usage is growing in European countries. The quality of the outcomeisinfluencedby design, material selection, and on-site construction process. The on-site fixing process of ETICS is guided by numerous regulations and guidelines which have aninsignificant impact on the actual construction technology. A list of Degradation Factors (DF) is created to classify the relevant on-site activities.

Categorised on-site Degradation Factors are basing onvarious studies, standards, and regulations set for products. The shortcomings are categorised in eight sets: substrate, mixtures, adhesive, insulation, anchors, reinforcement, finishing layer and auxiliary materials. Additionally, a field study has been conducted to test the occurrenceof on-site shortcomingsin Estonia. The collected measurements and observations did not reveal severe and systematic installation failures, but random deviations occurred in most layers which might lead to the degradation of ETICS.

The paper categoriseson-site shortcomings which can lead to theloss of technical performance during the service life of the façade.

Wood as hygroscopic material has the capacity to absorb moisture and thus to moderate the indoor relative humidity (RH) in a building, resulting in lower ventilation demand. In addition, when moisture migrates in hygroscopic structures energy is released through latent heat phenomena. The diurnal variation of moisture content in wood hold a potential for contributing in the buildings energy balance. This study presents the theoretical energy savings in low energy buildings with interior wooden surfaces under different moisture protocols indoors. The requirements of the Norwegian Building Regulations (TEK10) are followed regarding the U-values of the envelope components. A hygrothermal simulation tool is employed to estimate the potential diurnal variations of moisture content in the wood structure. The latent heat released and absorbed is mathematically calculated for a reference building. The results show the potential of hygroscopic structures to save thermal energy by means of heat of sorption and to reduce the conductive heat losses through opaque building elements. The limitations of the phenomena are also discussed.

Cairo shows high temperature in comparison to its adjacent suburban and rural areas and this phenomenon is known as urban heat island “UHI”. A review of literature has shown that vegetation has a significant effect on UHI mitigation.

The objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of vegetation on UHI mitigation in Cairo based on field measurements. Mobile temperature measurements had been carried out in adjacent greenery and non greenery spaces during summer time. The recommendations of this study will help urban planners to find the manual to know how to use vegetation to mitigate UHI.

In this paper the effect of using climatic data of different time resolution on parameters related to building components’ exposure to moisture at 39 locations in Greece is investigated. Moisture indices are calculated for each site using average daily, monthly and annual climatic data (both the drying and the wetting potential are considered), and are used for the ranking of the investigated sites regarding building components’ moisture loading. The results produced for the relative exposure to moisture, the drying and the wetting potential at the examined sites with the use of data of different time resolution are compared and discussed.

This research was designed to develop a complex program of scientifically grounded greening of Armenia's cities and her capital – Yerevan with a view of assuring ecological tolerance, longevity and a functional use of urban plants. It comprised a study of levels and character of pollution of different environmental compartments, examination of condition of plants and determination of species composition of urban trees and their ecological tolerance.

A complex urban greening program prepared by us in the result of this research allows to efficiently manage the quality of urban environment as proved on the example of Yerevan.

The structures in the built environment, particularly concerning morphology are reflected in different housing development projects, which rely heavily on a technical insight. In this context, this research aims to analyze the implantation and typologies of a low-income housing development located in the South of Brazil. Specifically, it was analyzed the layout andstyle of the studied housing development, relating these characteristics with water resource planning aiming in highlighting guidelines to assist in the system design and solutions for rainwater harvesting. It is believed that this research can provide discussions on the subject and present subsidies to architectural projects.

Nowadays, despite the plethora of existing standards and calculation methodologies, i.e. procedures assessing a building's energy efficiency, it is unfortunately common to monitor significant differences between designed and achieved energy savings in practice. This is a problem that in extremis may lead to contractual and even legal claims, but in any case sheds doubt on the whole energy efficiency approach and finally presents one of the barriers for investments in energy efficiency projects. It should therefore be addressed and in order to achieve this, one has to understand the problem: Numerous and often intertwined factors lead to the aforementioned discrepancy, based on the differences in methodological approaches and standards adopted as well as the boundary conditions they use, they will all be discussed in the paper.

Furthermore, a novel building evaluation methodology will be presented; its conceptual approach addresses the different influences addressed and taken into account, as they can significantly affect the level of achieved energy savings in buildings. In that sense, the main purpose of the proposed methodology is to evaluate in advance, the difference rate between designed and achieved energy savings. This approach can be a useful decision tool in the phase where energy efficiency projects are rated and evaluated for possible investments.

The overall potential for energy saving in existing school buildings in Greece is considered to be significant. The use of daylight in school buildings has been the subject of study in the past, since the proper use of daylight in schools is liable to improve student performance and to provide energy savings. It is also believed that natural lighting has affected the design of school buildings more than any other building type while the main problem is located on quality rather than on quantity issues. The paper investigates the extent to which the implementation of certain interventions to the building envelope of existing schools, can improve their energy performance and at the same time ensure thermal and visual comfort. A Primary school in the C climatic zone is used as a case study in order to examine energy performance and daylight issues for a relatively new school building with unfavorable orientation. The effect of alternative interventions such as the implementation of thermal insulation, the use of ceiling fans, the implementation of external shading, and the improvement of thermal characteristics of openings are being examined. The evaluation is performed using appropriate energy performance and daylight simulation tools.

Green Architecture appeared as a result of the negative impacts on the environment surrounding the buildings and in a wider scope as a result of the power consumption increases and the use of environment pollutants, besides other elements attributing to environment imbalance of the Earth. Thus, Green Architecture appeared as a sort of historical reconciliation with the environment. Meanwhile, the majority of the developing countries including Egypt showed an intensive increment in the building's volume that were blind copied from the current international architectural trends neglecting any environmental aspects. On the other hand, the Egyptian historical heritage, particularly old Cairo districts, used to give great respect to the climatic conditions of their environment while maintaining the unique value of their architectural style. Therefore, this research aims to focus on this Egyptian architectural of the historical Cairo are to study and analyse its environmental aspects and treatments in order to derive their architectural bases that are suitable for their local environment with Egyptian green methods. The research was carried out through two main phases; the first phase was based on a theoretical analytical study of a specific house form Historical Cairo, El El-Suhaimi house, while the second empirical phase was conducted for the same case study using simulation methods through Design Builder simulation software in order to assure that all findings conform to the recommended ones that could achieve the desired thermal comfort. The results of the case study showed great potentials in using the passive designs methods of this historical house to enhance thermal comfort in residential buildings which located in hot arid climates. Thus, this paper concludes that the traditional architecture, specifically the historical Cairo architecture, proved to be suitable to become a permanent reference to make use of its elements and particulars in the formation of modern green architecture of a local identity and style.

Museums are the cultural interface of every nation. Creating and maintaining museums has been a national obligation to preserve and protect their inherited culture. An open museum is a special type of museums, which is usually initiatedin locations with huge architectural and urban heritage that cannot be otherwise accommodated in a building. They introduce a mixed image of the past and present, and help develop cultural and heritage tourism in an area.

Thisresearch argues that museums, especially the open ones are good and effective tools to preserve urban heritage, maintain the history and culture, and encourage sustainable tourism.Makkah city is one of the oldest cities in the world. It has hundreds of memorable historic locations. As a city, Makkah has its unique diversity of culture and heritage. Being the birthplace of Islam, Makkah has a special image in the minds of billions of Muslims around the world.

In view of the big development plans that cover the entire city, and which are expected to affect every aspect of its rich cultural heritage,preserving the historic locations has become even more significant. Since the development projects are likely to endanger the existence of historic locations in Makkah city, the paper proposes to create areas within the city as preserved historic locations and to develop them as open museums. The paper argues that this proposal will help create a sustainable tourism industry in the city in addition to the existing Hajj and Umrah business activities.Finally the paper concludes with recommendations to preserve and protect the Makkah heritage in a sustainable manner.