Overview of BIM integration into the Construction Sector in European Member States and European Union Acquis

The amount of information involved in any construction project and the necessity of control of time, cost and waste, has established Building Information Modelling (BIM) as an integral part of construction sector towards achieving adequate communication of information among various parties involved in construction projects. Moreover, it can be considered as a valuable tool for the optimum selection of materials, systems and design decisions, regarding not only the improve of a structure’s performance, but also in terms of reducing its carbon footprint during its life cycle. The study attempts to present the integration of BIM into the national legislation of European Member States, with a special focus on the energy related aspects of BIM analysis. This study performs an overview of the introduction of BIM into different aspects and requirements of the EU Member States building practices, through a comprehensive literature and legislation review of relative legislative documents of the construction sector. According to the findings of this overview study, the concept of BIM has already been incorporated in many aspects of the Acquis of EU Member States, which is recognized as a valuable tool to be exploited by the construction sector, however there is still room for development in this area. The study has revealed that especially in the energy assessment of the built environment, BIM applications are still lacking from the European Legislation. Examples and good practices of employing BIM for the implementation of the European Energy targets in the building sector are also presented and discussed. The findings of this study aim to shed light on the needs and requirements in the field of BIM development for the construction sector, as well as to indicate gaps and weaknesses of the European Member States Acquis towards harmonizing with BIM practices

Assessing planning progress: the quality of urban adaptation plans in Europe

Since the Paris Agreement, there has been an increasing focus on assessing the progress of climate change adaptation across multiple sectors and regions. An important question set concerns the 'progress' means and how they could be assessed at international, national and local level. The important question whether local governments are learning and improving their abilities to plan for adaptation over time remains under-explored, especially due to the lack of policy data repositories and methods to compare the adaptation policy contents. This work aims to investigate the improvement of the quality of urban adaptation plans in Europe over time. To this end, a new index, named ADAQA (ADAptation plan Quality Assessment) was developed, with the aim to assess the quality of adaptation plans and to identify the strengths and weaknesses of urban adaptation planning processes in European cities. The ADAQA index was applied to 167 urban adaptation plans that were published between 2005 and 2020 in a sample of 327 European cities. The assessment was carried out in relation to six well-established principles: 1) fact base of potential impacts and risks in the local area; 2) adaptation goals; 3) adaptation measures; 4) details on the implementation of adaptation measures; 5) monitoring & evaluation of adaptation measures; and 6) societal participation in plan creation. In addition, the consistency of the plans was also investigated, evaluating the alignment and the coherence between identified climate risks and measures planned and monitored. The results revealed that the general quality of the plans improved significantly over time. Overall, European cities' adaptation plans scored well in the description of adaptation measures (51% of the maximum score), the definition of adaptation goals (50%) and the identification of implementation tools and processes (46%). Conversely, the investigated plans scored poorly in the level of public participation, the plan definition process (17%), and the definition of the monitoring and evaluation steps (20%). Regarding the consistency of the plans, a slight improvement over time for almost all principles was found, with the exception of the impacts and risks on vulnerable groups and the respective adaptation measures. The consistency between climate impacts and risks and adaptation measures for vulnerable groups was found to be lower than the alignment between vulnerable sectors and industries and adaptation measures. Moreover, vulnerable groups were found to be rarely involved in participatory processes and the vast majority of plans did not mention monitoring & evaluation to address their specific needs. In this study, it is argued that quality assessments of climate adaptation plans and policies should be included in the portfolio of adaptation evaluations regarding their success and effectiveness, such as the Global Stocktake of the Paris Agreement in 2023 and related adaptation monitoring and tracking procedures. In the absence of comparable, globally available indicators of adaptation and its outcomes, the ADAQA index (Reckien et al, 2023) , is a valid indicator for assessing the quality of plans and for setting out how they address specific climate threats

Cyprus building energy performance methodology: A comparison of the calculated and measured energy consumption results

In order to fulfil article 4 of the 2002/91/EC Directive (EPBD) a national methodology for the energy performance of buildings was drafted and approved by the Government of Cyprus in 2009. This methodology is in line with the European standards prepared to facilitate EPBD implementation and follows the asset rating approach that is, it represents the intrinsic annual energy use of a building under standardised conditions. CEN standards leave an option, quite suitable for existing and complex buildings, for operational rating, which is an energy rating based on measured amounts of delivered and exported energy. The calculated and measured rating exhibit advantages and disadvantages and as expected the results of the two approaches vary, since the measured rating approach takes into account the effect of user behaviour, the actual weather conditions and the realized (actual) thermal comfort conditions inside the building. This paper presents the Cyprus legal framework for adopting the EPBD and exhibits the Cyprus methodology for the energy performance of buildings. Moreover the advantages and disadvantages of the asset and operational rating approaches are discussed and a comparison of the results of these two approaches for a selected number of dwellings is presented. One of these cases is also examined with respect to the climatic conditions, by changing the climatic zone in which the building is erected. The latter reveals the effect of climate on the calculated energy requirements of the building for both heating and cooling

Comparative LCA technology improvement opportunities for a 1.5 MW wind turbine in the context of an offshore wind farm

Wind energy is playing an increasingly important role in the development of cleaner and more efficient energy technologies leading to projections in reliability and performance of future wind turbine designs. This paper presents life cycle assessment (LCA) results of design variations for a 1.5 MW wind turbine due to the potential for advances in technology to improve the performance of a 1.5 MW wind turbine. Five LCAs have been conducted for design variants of a 1.5 MW wind turbine. The objective is to evaluate potential environmental impacts per kilowatt hour of electricity generated for a 114 MW onshore wind farm. Results for the baseline turbine show that higher contributions to impacts were obtained in the categories Ozone Depletion Potential, Marine Aquatic Eco-toxicity Potential, Human Toxicity Potential and Terrestrial Eco-toxicity Potential compared to Technology Improvement Opportunities (TIOs) 1 to 4. Compared to the baseline turbine, TIO 1 showed increased impact contributions to Abiotic Depletion Potential, Acidification Potential, Eutrophication Potential, Global Warming Potential and Photochemical Ozone Creation Potential, and TIO 2 showed an increase in contributions to Abiotic Depletion Potential, Acidification Potential and Global Warming Potential. Additionally, lower contributions to all the environmental categories were observed for TIO 3 while increased contributions towards Abiotic Depletion Potential and Global Warming Potential were noted for TIO 4. A comparative LCA study of wind turbine design variations for a particular power rating has not been explored in the literature. This study presents new insight into the environmental implications related with projected wind turbine design advancements

Architecture definition for a multi-utility management platform

The management of public utilities represents a complex issue even in normal operational conditions. In case of emergency the degree of complexity increases exponentially and the variables to take into account, the data to process, the useful expected outcomes and the decision processes need to be supported by technology.For these reasons, the eUmaP project aims to design and develop an open platform through which local authorities will be able to plan and manage the demand and supply of building utilities in case of quarantine or lock down. It will be based on the rational of Earth observation, and the recording of the required network information in open BIM platforms of five European capital cities (Rome, Berlin, Athens, Vilnius, Nicosia).The paper is focused on the architecture definition discussing the pros and cons of three different architectural schemes

The energy behaviour of the residential building stock in cyprus in view of the energy performance of buildings directive implementation

The significance of the residential building sector in terms of energy consumption is well acknowledged. Several studies have shown that the potential of energy savings in this sector is quite significant. In this view the knowledge of the way the residential building stock of Cyprus behaves in terms of energy consumption is quite valuable. This knowledge will assist policy makers to formulate targeted measures aiming the improvement of energy efficiency and will provide valuable information for setting current legal standards and benchmarks in the energy performance certificate, a requirement of the 2002/91/EC Directive. Unfortunately, the existing knowledge on this subject is quite poor. As a remedy a research project supported by a national research grant is in operation since December 2008. This paper presents the outline, goals and methodology of this research project and the findings regarding the energy behaviour and other characteristics of the residential building stock of Cyprus. From the analysis of the results for about 500 residential buildings examined, it seems that the energy demand and primary energy required is lower than that of other European countries. Moreover, it seems that the age of residential buildings has low correlation with the energy demand. Finally, in contrast with other Northern and Central European countries, it is clear that the contribution of cooling energy requirements to the overall energy demand is quite significant

Stable. Structural stability risk assessment

European cultural heritage (CH) is at risk, threatened by environmental processes strengthened by climate change and anthropogenic pressure. In particular, the slow (landslides, subsidence) and seismic (earthquakes) movements of the soil have a strong impact on the structural stability of our cultural heritage (CH). The actions to be carried out to protect and safeguard CH are in continuous development and this is where the STABLE (STructural stABiLity risk assEssment) project fits. STABLE concerns the design and development of a thematic platform, which combines structural stability models, simulation and damage assessment tools, advanced remote sensing, in situ monitoring technologies, geotechnical and cadastral data sets with the WebGIS application for mapping and long-term monitoring of the CH. The thematic platform, which is the final objective of the project, will therefore support the authorities responsible for the conservation of cultural heritage in the design and implementation of policies for monitoring, preserving and safeguarding our heritage. This will allow effective monitoring and management of CH to prevent or at least reduce the possible irreparable damages. STABLE will coordinate existing skills and research in a synergistic plan of collaborations and staff exchanges to offer a complete transfer of knowledge and training to researchers in the specific area under study. The development of the platform will be the strategy that scientists will have to follow to share and improve CH safeguard methods. It will serve professionals to apply the most advanced technologies in their fields

Assessing the quality of urban climate adaptation plans over time

Defining and measuring progress in adaptation are important questions for climate adaptation science, policy, and practice. Here, we assess the progress of urban adaptation planning in 327 European cities between 2005 and 2020 using three adaptation plan quality indices (ADAQA 1, 2 and 3) that combine six plan quality principles. Half of the cities have an adaptation plan and its quality significantly increased over time. However, generally, plan quality is still low in many cities. Participation and monitoring and evaluation are particularly weak aspects in urban adaptation policy, together with plan ‘consistency’. Consistency connects impacts and vulnerabilities with adaptation goals, planned measures, actions, monitoring and evaluation, and participation processes. Consistency is a key factor in the overall quality of plans. To help evaluate the quality of plans and policies and promote learning, we suggest incorporating our ADAQA indices into the portfolio of adaptation progress assessments and tracking methodologies