Comparative Analysis of Web of Science and Scopus on the Energy Efficiency and Climate Impact of Buildings

Although the body of scientific publications on energy efficiency and climate mitigation from buildings has been growing quickly in recent years, very few previous bibliometric analysis studies exist that analyze the literature in terms of specific content (trends or options for zero‐energy buildings) or coverage of different scientific databases. We evaluate the scientific literature published since January 2013 concerning alternative methods for improving the energy efficiency and mitigating climate impacts from buildings. We quantify and describe the literature through a bibliometric approach, comparing the databases Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus. A total of 19,416 (Scopus) and 17,468 (WoS) publications are analyzed, with only 11% common documents. The literature has grown steadily during this time period, with a peak in the year 2017. Most of the publications are in English, in the area of Engineering and Energy Fuels, and from institutions from China and the USA. Strong links are observed between the most published authors and institutions worldwide. An analysis of keywords reveals that most of research focuses on technologies for heating, ventilation, and air‐conditioning, phase change materials, as well as information and communication technologies. A significantly smaller segment of the literature takes a broader perspective (greenhouse gas emissions, life cycle, and sustainable development), investigating implementation issues (policies and costs) or renewable energy (solar). Knowledge gaps are detected in the areas of behavioral changes, the circular economy, and some renewable energy sources (geothermal, biomass, small wind). We conclude that i) the contents of WoS and Scopus are radically different in the studied fields; ii) research seems to focus on technological aspects; and iii) there are weak links between research on energy and on climate mitigation and sustainability, the latter themes being misrepresented in the literature. These conclusions should be validated with further analyses of the documents identified in this study. We recommend that future research focuses on filling the above identified gaps, assessing the contents of several scientific databases, and extending energy analyses to their effects in terms of mitigation potentials.This work was funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades de España (RTI2018‐ 093849‐B‐C31), by ICREA under the ICREA Academia programme, and by the foundation SIVL

Technological options and strategies towards zero energy buildings contributing to climate change mitigation: A systematic review

A systematic review of the technological options and strategies to achieve zero energy buildings was carried out to establish today state-of-the-art knowledge base and to present key design and performance factors that define those technologies with the final aim of contributing to climate change mitigation options of buildings. All relevant literature published from January 2013 to August 2019 was critically as- sessed. A total of 14,895 papers were identified and 220 reviews were evaluated as first literature source; this literature showed that the published information is diverse and not organized, therefore climates and building typologies is not possible solely through published information. Collected evidence shows that with appropriate design, buildings can contribute to climate change mitigation decreasing the embodied energy in the materials used in their construction and decreasing the energy demand and use during their operation phase.This work was partially funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades de España (RTI2018-093849-B-C31 - MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE). This work was partially funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades - Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) (RED2018-102431-T). The authors would like to thank the Catalan Government for the quality accreditation given to their research group (2017 SGR 1537). GREiA is certified agent TECNIO in the category of technology developers from the Government of Catalonia. This work is partially supported by ICREA under the ICREA Academia programme

Greenery System for Cooling Down Outdoor Spaces: Results of an Experimental Study

Urban green infrastructure (UGI) and nature-based solutions (NBS) are increasingly recognized as strategies to address urban sustainability challenges. These solutions are attracting key scientific and marketing attention thanks to their capability to improve indoor and outdoor thermal comfort and environmental quality of spaces. In urban areas, where most of the population worldwide lives, indoor-outdoor environmental quality is compromised by local and temporary overheating phenomena, air pollution concentration, and impervious surfaces minimizing urban space resilience to climate change related hazards. In this view, the proposed study concerns the analysis of a greenery system for enhancing outdoor thermal conditions and local warming mitigation for pedestrians for the continental Mediterranean climate. The system has the purpose of designing an outdoor 'alive' shading system to be applied in open public spaces, with producing physical and societal benefits. The experimental results showed that the implementation of the greenery, characterized by lower surface temperatures and evapotranspiration compared to a simple pergola system, allows the reduction of outdoor air temperature under the shading system and, thus, higher relative humidity in summer. Specifically, the hygrothermal cooling and the additional shading thanks to the presence of greenery provide local air temperature reduction up to 5 C at pedestrian level.Funding: This work was partially funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades de España (RTI2018-093849-B-C31 - MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE). This work was partially funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades - Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) (RED2018-102431-T). The authors from University of Perugia thank Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia for supporting the investigation about biomaterials within the project SOS CITTÁ 2018.0499.026. Acknowledgments: The authors would like to thank the Catalan Government for the quality accreditation given to their research group (2017 SGR 1537). GREiA is a certified agent TECNIO in the category of technology developers from the Government of Catalonia. This work is partially supported by ICREA under the ICREA Academia programme

Circular economy in the building and construction sector: A scientific evolution analysis

The building industry is responsible for considerable environmental impacts due to its consumption of resources and energy, and the production of wastes. Circular Economy (CE), a new paradigm can significantly improve the sustainability of this sector. This paper performs a quantitative scientific evolution analysis of the application of CE in the building sector to detect new trends and highlight the evolvement of this research topic. Around 7000 documents published 2005 to 2020 at Web of Science and Scopus were collected and analyzed. The bibliometric indicators, network citation, and multivariate statistical analysis were obtained using Bibliometrix R-package and VOSviewer. The co-occurrence analysis showed five keyword-clusters, in which the three main ones are: (i) energy and energy efficiency in buildings; (ii) recycling, waste management and alternative construction materials; (iii) sustainable development. The analysis showed that researchers pay close attention to 'sustainability', 'energy efficiency', 'life cycle assessment', 'renewable energy', and 'recycling' in the past five years. This paper highlights that (i) the development and use of alternative construction materials; (ii) the development of circular business models; (iii) smart cities, Industry 4.0 and their relations with CE, are the current research hotspots that may be considered as potential future research topics.The authors would like to acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness RTI2018-093849-B-C33 (MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE), RTI2018-093849-B-C31 (MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE) and CTQ2016-77968-C3-1-P (MINECO/FEDER) and thank the Catalan Government (2017-SGR-1409, 2017-SGR-1537, and 2019 FI-B-00762). This work was partially funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades - Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) (RED2018-102431-T). GREiA is a certified agent TECNIO in the category of technology developers from the Government of Catalonia. This work is partially supported by ICREA under the ICREA Academia programme

Inter-building assessment of urban heat island mitigation strategies: Field tests and numerical modelling in a simplified-geometry experimental set-up

Large scale mitigation strategies showed to represent promising solutions for enhancing liveability in dense urban contexts. Therefore, most of the researches are focused on assessing the effect of high albedo surfaces and greenery. The paper deals with a numerical and experimental analysis of these evapotranspiration and high-reflectance surfaces in a full scale experimental set-up where more than 20 cubicles are monitored in a Mediterranean continental climate. The experimental set-up itself covers an intermediate inter-building perspective between the lab scale and the real urban contexts, which compromises the possibility to generalize final results. This scale is able to better control geometry of area, but allows real microclimate monitoring and calibration of CFD models. Starting from a validated model, this study simulated alternative scenarios with gradually varying the presence of common mitigation strategies with the scope to evaluate their effect to this aim. Results showed that high albedo solutions best mitigate summer overheating reducing the air temperature, while greenery was more effective in the densest configurations with low albedo envelopes, showing how geometry related variables may play a key role in determining the optima configurations of microclimate mitigation strategies, also important for the best exploitation of renewables in the built environment.The work is partially funded by the Spanish government (ENE2015-64117-C5-1-R (MINECO/FEDER) and ULLE10-4E-1305) and SOS CITTA’ (Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Perugia, (2018.0499.026). The authors would like to thank the Catalan Government for the quality accreditation given to their research group (2017 SGR 1537) and the city hall of Puigverd de Lleida. GREiA is a certified agent TECNIO in the category of technology developers from the Government of Catalonia. Marta Chàfer would like to thank the program Spanish Universities for EU Projects from Campus Iberus for the mobility scholarship. Ilaria Pigliautile would like to acknowledge the PhD Course of Energy and Sustainable development at University of Perugia and H2CU centre for supporting her international activities and scientific collaborations during the course of her PhD. The authors from University of Perugia also thank UNESCO Chair on “Water Resources Management and Culture”, and the Honors Centre of Italian Universities (H2CU) for supporting their studies on wellbeing

Life cycle assessment (LCA) of a pneumatic municipal waste collection system compared to traditional truck collection. Sensitivity study of the influence of the energy source

The study of waste management strategies is increasing worldwide due to the necessity of a more sustainable environment. In this framework, guaranteeing cleaner energy is the key parameter for cleaner production, especially for reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants to the environment, which are directly related to the types of the energy sources used. Through the methodology of LCA it can help in the study of the environmental part. This study is based on the methodologies ISO 14040 and 14044 for obtaining quantitative results on the environmental impact, from cradle to grave, of different waste collection systems. A sensitive study of the influence of the energy source on the life cycle assessment (LCA) is analysed for six different waste collection systems (trucks - electric, gas, diesel, diesel-electric, gas-electric - and stationary pneumatic waste collection) and five energy sources (Spanish energy mix 2008, hydropower, photovoltaic, wind, and a renewable energy mix). The results show that the energy source has a big impact in the results of the LCA with variations up to 80%. The environmental impact of each collection system depends strongly on the source of the energy used and thus, decision-makers should consider the energy source and the expected evolution of energy mix when considering the best waste collection systems from an environmental point of view. In a framework with a majority of fossil-sourced energy, the truck collection shows lesser environmental impact, due to its lower electricity use, whereas in a renewable energy environment, the stationary pneumatic waste collection shows better performance.The authors would like to thank the following companies for providing the real data used in this study: Urban Refuse Development, Urbaser S. A, and Ros Roca S.A, and the company Ilnet UTE (Romero Polo, SA and Valoriza-Sacyr, SA) for showing their installations and for their explanations about the truck operation and maintenance. The authors would like to thank the Catalan Government for the quality accreditation given to their research group (2017 SGR 1537). GREiA is a certified agent TECNIO in the category of technology developers from the Government of Catalonia. Aran Solé would like to thank Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad de España for Grant Juan de la Cierva, FJCI-2015-25741