| 1. |
- Javanroodi, Kavan, 1988, et al.
(författare)
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Impacts of Microclimate Conditions on the Energy Performance of Buildings in Urban Areas
- 2019
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Ingår i: Buildings. - : MDPI AG. - 2075-5309. ; 9:8
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Urbanization trends have changed the morphology of cities in the past decades. Complex urban areas with wide variations in built density, layout typology, and architectural form have resulted in more complicated microclimate conditions. Microclimate conditions affect the energy performance of buildings and bioclimatic design strategies as well as a high number of engineering applications. However, commercial energy simulation engines that utilize widely-available mesoscale weather data tend to underestimate these impacts. These weather files, which represent typical weather conditions at a location, are mostly based on long-term metrological observations and fail to consider extreme conditions in their calculation. This paper aims to evaluate the impacts of hourly microclimate data in typical and extreme climate conditions on the energy performance of an office building in two different urban areas. Results showed that the urban morphology can reduce the wind speed by 27% and amplify air temperature by more than 14%. Using microclimate data, the calculated outside surface temperature, operating temperature and total energy demand of buildings were notably different to those obtained using typical regional climate model (RCM)-climate data or available weather files (Typical Meteorological Year or TMY), i.e., by 61%, 7%, and 21%, respectively. The difference in the hourly peak demand during extreme weather conditions was around 13%. The impact of urban density and the final height of buildings on the results are discussed at the end of the paper.
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| 2. |
- Moazami, Amin, et al.
(författare)
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Impacts of future weather data typology on building energy performance – Investigating long-term patterns of climate change and extreme weather conditions
- 2019
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Ingår i: Applied Energy. - : Elsevier BV. - 1872-9118 .- 0306-2619. ; 238, s. 696-720
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Patterns of future climate and expected extreme conditions are pushing design limits as recognition of climate change and its implication for the built environment increases. There are a number of ways of estimating future climate projections and creating weather files. Obtaining adequate representation of long-term patterns of climate change and extreme conditions is, however, challenging. This work aims at answering two research questions: does a method of generating future weather files for building performance simulation bring advantages that cannot be provided by other methods? And what type of future weather files enable building engineers and designers to more credibly test robustness of their designs against climate change? To answer these two questions, the work provides an overview of the major approaches to create future weather data sets based on the statistical and dynamical downscaling of climate models. A number of weather data sets for Geneva were synthesized and applied to the energy simulation of 16 ASHRAE standard reference buildings, single buildings and their combination to create a virtual neighborhood. Representative weather files are synthesized to account for extreme conditions together with typical climate conditions and investigate their importance in the energy performance of buildings. According to the results, all the methods provide enough information to study the long-term impacts of climate change on average. However, the results also revealed that assessing the energy robustness of buildings only under typical future conditions is not sufficient. Depending on the type of building, the relative change of peak load for cooling demand under near future extreme conditions can still be up to 28.5% higher compared to typical conditions. It is concluded that only those weather files generated based on dynamical downscaling and that take into consideration both typical and extreme conditions are the most reliable for providing representative boundary conditions to test the energy robustness of buildings under future climate uncertainties. The results for the neighborhood explaining the critical situation that an energy network may face due to increased peak load under extreme climatic conditions. Such critical situations remain unforeseeable by relying solely on typical and observed extreme conditions, putting the climate resilience of buildings and energy systems at risk.
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| 3. |
- Nik, Vahid M., et al.
(författare)
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Using Typical and Extreme Weather Files for Impact Assessment of Climate Change on Buildings
- 2017
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Ingår i: Energy Procedia. - : Elsevier BV. - 1876-6102. ; 132, s. 616-621
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Considering climate change and assessing its impacts is challenging due to dealing with large data sets and uncertainties. This paper discusses an approach for the impact assessment of climate change based on synthesizing weather data sets out of several climate scenarios, in a way to generalize the assessment despite of the existence of climate uncertainties. The is based on creating one-year weather data, representing typical, extreme-warm and -cold conditions for 30-year periods, which results in decreasing the length of simulations enormously. The usefulness and accuracy of the results are discussed for energy and moisture simulations in buildings.
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| 4. |
- Ylmen, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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The influence of secondary effects on global warming and cost optimization of insulation in the building envelope
- 2017
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Ingår i: Building and Environment. - : Elsevier BV. - 0360-1323 .- 1873-684X. ; 118, s. 174-183
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The relative environmental impact from the building construction phase is increasing compared to the operation phase for new buildings. Therefore, it is important to consider the complete environmental life cycle of energy improvement measures. Many advanced optimization methods have been developed in recent years to assess building life cycle impact. However, these previous studies have not fully addressed the secondary effects, in other words, indirect effects outside the actual design option. This may lead to conclusions of optimization studies based on misleading calculation results. The main purpose this study was to highlight the relevance of including secondary effects in optimization of building design with respect to global warming potential and cost. This was done by conducting a parameter study of the building envelope insulation thickness with regard to global warming potential and life cycle costs, while considering secondary effects induced by the different design options. Findings from this study show that secondary effects influence the system boundary, algorithm architecture, results and the final conclusions of optimal building design. Omitting secondary effects can thus lead to incorrect decision on optimal solutions with regard to global warming potential and life cycle cost. Therefore, it is therefore important to take them into consideration when performing optimization studies of building design options.
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| 5. |
- Javanroodi, Kavan, 1988, et al.
(författare)
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Optimization of building form and its fenestration in response to microclimate conditions of an urban area
- 2020
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Ingår i: E3S Web of Conferences. - : EDP Sciences. - 2555-0403 .- 2267-1242. ; 172
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Designing building form in urban areas is a complicated process that demands considering a high number of influencing parameters. On the other hand, there has been an increasing trend to design highly fenestrated building envelopes for office buildings to induce higher levels of natural lighting into the workspace. This paper presents a novel optimization framework to design high-performance building form and fenestration configuration considering the impacts of urban microclimate in typical and extreme weather conditions during a thirty-year period of climate data (2010-2039). In this regard, based on the introduced technique and algorithm, the annual energy demand and thermal comfort of over 8008 eligible form combinations with eight different fenestration configurations and seven different building orientation angels were analysed in a detailed urban area to find optimal design solutions in response to microclimate conditions. Results showed that adopting the framework, annual heating, and cooling demand can be reduced by 21% and 38% while maintaining thermal comfort by taking design-based decisions at the early stages of design.
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| 6. |
- Moazami, Amin, et al.
(författare)
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Towards climate robust buildings: An innovative method for designing buildings with robust energy performance under climate change
- 2019
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Ingår i: Energy and Buildings. - : Elsevier BV. - 0378-7788. ; 202
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Neglecting extremes and designing buildings for the past or most likely weather conditions is not the best approach for the future. Robust design techniques can, however, be a viable option for tackling future challenges. The concept of robust design was first introduced by Taguchi in the 1940s. The result of the design process is a product that is insensitive to the effect of given sources of variability, even though the sources themselves are not eliminated. A robust design optimization (RDO) method is for the first time proposed in this paper, for supporting architects and engineers in the design of buildings with robust energy performance under climate change and extreme conditions. The simplicity and the low computational demand of the process underlies the feasibility and applicability of this method, which can be used at any stage of the design process. The results show that the performance of the optimum solution not only has a 81.5% lower variation (less sensitivity to climate uncertainty) but at the same time has a 14.4% lower mean energy use value compared with a solution that is compliant with a recent construction standard (ASHRAE 90.1-2016). Less sensitivity to climate uncertainty means greater robustness to climate change whilst maintaining high performance.
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| 7. |
- Amon, Francine, et al.
(författare)
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Fire Impact Tool- Measuring the impact of fire suppression operations on the environment
- 2021
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Ingår i: Fire safety journal. - : Elsevier Ltd. - 0379-7112 .- 1873-7226. ; 120
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In Sweden the responsibility for environmental damage when emergency responders are called to an incident is increasingly focussing on the responders. The problem is that most incident response personnel do not have the training and expertise to assess the environmental consequences of their suppression operations. The Fire Impact Tool was developed for training responders about how fire effluents and suppression media affect air, surface/groundwater and soil. The tool has three interdependent parts: fire models (for vehicles and enclosures), an environmental risk assessment (ERA) model for local impacts, and a life cycle assessment (LCA) model for global impacts. Users can create two scenarios that are compared with a reference case in which responders arrive at the incident and prevent the fire from spreading beyond the vehicle or enclosure but do not suppress the fire. The Fire Impact Tool is not intended for use during an actual fire incident. This work does not answer every question for every possible fire scenario, but it does provide a framework for deeper, broader, more comprehensive training and pre-planning. This is a necessary step toward a future in which responders are prepared to make informed decisions about firefighting strategies and tactics that include environmental consequences.
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| 8. |
- Eriksson, H., et al.
(författare)
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What is the need for building parts? - A comparison of CityGML, INSPIRE building and a Swedish building standard
- 2018
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Ingår i: International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences - ISPRS Archives. - : International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. ; 42, s. 27-32
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- The need for digital building information is increasing, both in the form of 3D city models (as geodata) and of more detailed building information models (BIM). BIM models are mainly used in the architecture, engineering and construction industry, but have recently become interesting also for municipalities. The overall aim of this paper is to study one way of dividing a building, namely the division of a building into building parts in both 3D city models and in BIM models. The study starts by an inventory of how building parts are defined in 3D city model standards (CityGML, the INSPIRE building specification and a Swedish national specification for buildings) and in BIM models (Industry Foundation Classes, IFC). The definition of building parts in these specifications are compared and evaluated. The paper also describes potential applications for the use of building parts, on what grounds a building could be divided into building parts, advantages and disadvantages of having building parts and what consequences it can have on the usage of the building information. One finding is that building parts is defined similar, but not identical in the studied geodata specifications and there are no requirements, only recommendations on how buildings should be divided into building parts. This can complicate the modelling, exchange and reuse of building information, and in a longer perspective, it would be desirable to have recommendations of how to define and use building parts in for example a national context.
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| 9. |
- Nemakonde, Livhuwani D., et al.
(författare)
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Perceived Adverse Effects of Separating Government Institutions for Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation Within the Southern African Development Community Member States
- 2021
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Ingår i: International Journal of Disaster Risk Science. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2095-0055 .- 2192-6395. ; 12, s. 1-12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Integration of disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) is widely recognized as a solution for reducing the risk and impacts of disasters. However, successful integration seems elusive, and the two goals continue to function in isolation and in parallel. This article provides empirical insights into the perceived effects of separating government institutions for DRR and CCA within the Southern African Development Community member states. A mixed method research design was applied to the study. A total of 40 respondents from Botswana, Eswatini (until April 2018 Swaziland), Madagascar, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe participated in face-to-face interviews or an online survey. Five major effects of separating the organizations for DRR and CCA that impede efforts to reduce disaster risk coherently were identified: duplication of services, polarization of interventions, incoherent policies, competition for the same resources, and territorial contests. Given the continued fragmentation of institutions for DRR and CCA, highlighting these effects is important to emphasize the need for integrated approaches towards the reduction of disaster risk.
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| 10. |
- Toivonen, Saija, et al.
(författare)
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What the Future Holds – a Study on the Environmental Pressure Affecting the Real Estate Market
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Over the past few years, environmental sustainability as a whole has gained significantly more attention globally, and the connection between sustainability and the built environment has been made clear. The built environment is now more widely known to have major implications on both climate change, and resource use. This study draws on a previous study, which identified environmental pressure as one of the key future forces of change in the real estate market. The findings of the earlier study are re-visited to establish which of the expected outcomes have realized, which have proved to be irrelevant, and which might still occur in the future.Future studies employ a number of different tools and methods to forecast the future. This study first utilizes a method called environmental scanning to reveal the forces through which the environmental pressure shapes the current real estate market. Following the environmental scanning, the possible impacts of the forces are identified and their causal relationships are structured with the help of a method called the futures wheel. The futures wheel is a qualitative method based on expert opinions, and resembles structural brainstorming. The results of the future wheels are complemented utilising expert interviews. The results are analysed to verify the potential future impacts of those forces, and to finally arrive to a consensus about the most probable future impacts of the forces as currently foreseen.The study finds that while the future views have developed from the earlier study, few key issues remain. More specifically, the presumed primary sustainability influences are still related to the rise in demand of green buildings, and the existing density paradigm in urban planning. Another important finding is that, not all identified influences derive from environmental pressure, but stem from other major forces of change, such as urbanisation or digitalisation.The study offers insight into potential future pathways in the field of sustainable real estate. Most importantly, the study design enables attaining a holistic view of the possible impacts to the real estate market, as the combined methods reveal the complex relationships and even indirect impacts that could otherwise go unnoticed.
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