Evaluating the Transition Towards Post-Carbon Cities: A Literature Review

To achieve the new European targets concerning CO2 emission reduction, the concept of a post-carbon city has been promoted, which is focused on low-energy and low-emission buildings provided with intelligent heating and cooling systems, electric and hybrid cars, and better public transport. This paradigm entails the inclusion of aspects not strictly related to energy exploitation but referring to environmental, social, and economic domains, such as improvement in local energy security, people’s opinion on different energy solutions, economic co-benefits for private users, environmental externalities, and so on. In this domain, it is of particular importance to provide the decision makers with evaluation tools able to consider the complexity of the impacts, thus leading to the choice of the most sustainable solutions. The paper aims to investigate the scientific literature in the context of evaluation frameworks for supporting decision problems related to the energy transition. The review is carried out through the scientific database SCOPUS. The analysis allows for systematizing the contributions according to the main families of evaluation methodologies, discussing to what extent they can be useful in real-world applications. The paper also proposes emerging trends and innovative research lines in the domain of energy planning and urban management. While the energy transition is an important trend, the analysis showed that few studies were conducted on the evaluation of projects, plans, and policies that aim to reach post-carbon targets. The scales of application refer mainly to global or national levels, while few studies have been developed at the district level. Life cycle thinking techniques, such as life cycle assessment and cost-benefit analysis, were widely used in this research field

Enhancing the Cultural Heritage through Adaptive Reuse. A Multicriteria Approach to Evaluate the Castello Visconteo in Cusago (Italy)

Cultural heritage can play a strategic role in developing a sustainable built environment, contributing to the improvement of the economic, social, and environmental productivity of a city. Human activities are constantly affecting the quality of the environment and altering the ecosystems, which produce negative consequences also on human wellbeing. Within this context, it has been much discussed how cities and the built environment can counteract this process by supporting more sustainable development. Adaptive reuse is defined as “a process that changes a disused or ineffective item into a new item that can be used for a different purpose”, which strongly triggers the sustainable development of cities. It can be recognized as a promoter of economic growth, social wellbeing, and environmental preservation, given its capability of both preserving past values and creating new ones. The adaptive reuse matches the main points of the circular economy, seen as the sustainable economy, which is aimed at the reduction of natural resource extraction and environmental impact by extending the useful life of materials and promoting recovery, reuse, and regeneration processes. Given these premises, the current contribution aimed to evaluate alternative scenarios for reuse in Castello Visconteo in Cusago, located in the Lombardy region (Italy), and understanding how adaptive reuse could contribute to generating new values within a circular economy perspective. In detail, four alternative scenarios were proposed to face the new needs born during the COVID-19 pandemic period. Since both intangible and tangible values must be considered, a multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) has been applied by combining economic and qualitative indicators to define the most suitable function for its adaptive reuse. In detail, the Novel Approach to Imprecise Assessment and Decision Environments (NAIADE) was used to identify the best alternative solution based on the opinions of conflicting stakeholders. The innovativeness of the contribution is given by the combination of different methodologies, the preservation of the memory and the generation of new values, and the consideration of adaptive reuse as a strategy for the achievement of sustainable development within a circular economy perspective

Designing a decision support system to evaluate the environmental and extra-economic performances of a Nearly Zero-Energy Building

Purpose – The cost-optimal analysis is not able to address the multi-dimensionality of the decision according to the new European objectives and International sustainable development goals in the field of the nearly-zero energy building (NZEB) design. The purpose of this paper is to study the role of multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) for guiding energy investment decisions. Design/methodology/approach – The paper explores the Preference ranking organization method for enrichment of evaluations II (PROMETHEE II) application to support the project of transforming a rural building into a NZEB. The evaluation provides an estimate of the effects of alternative energy efficiency measures, involving energy consumption, life cycle costs, carbon emissions, property value and indoor comfort criteria. The study performs a multi-actors analysis in order to understand how different consumers’ point of views can influence the final choice of the best investment. Furthermore, a multi-site analysis explores the spatial variation of NZEB building appreciation in the real estate market. Findings – The PROMETHEE II-based model ranks 16 alternative solutions for the NZEB according to energy, economic and extra-economic criteria. The multi-actors analysis highlights the configuration of the NZEB building that best meets the needs of different end-users, respecting the European directives and national standards. The multi-site analysis concludes that location does not change users’ appreciation and not influence the output for the best solution. Originality/value – The MCDA occurs as a support tool that helps to optimize the preliminary design phase of NZEB through the exploration the optimal solution considering crucial criteria in the energy and environmental and real estate market rules

A Contingent Valuation-Based Method to Valuate Ecosystem Services for a Proactive Planning and Management of Cork Oak Forests in Sardinia (Italy)

The paper develops a model through a contingent valuation approach to support public authorities in the exploration and assessment of ecosystem services (ESs) generated by forest and woodlands (FOWLs). This approach is employed to the cork oak forests of the Sardinia region (Italy) due to their ability in the provision and regulation of cultural and recreational values to society. The paper describes the economic valuation of cultural ESs through the contingent valuation method (CVM) with the purpose to explore residents and tourists’ willingness to pay (WTP) preferences towards conservation, valorisation, and the management of Goceano’s cork oak forests in Sardinia. The approach may help retain suitable support for DMs, planners, technicians, and operators for a better understanding of the ESs’ role in policy decisions, leading FOWLs towards a learning process between the environment, human beings, and landscape to promote and develop a proactive landscape and forest planning and management within the region

The Value of Urban Quality: a proposal for a hybrid approach

The quality of the built environment is a multidimensional notion, as it deals with the land use patterns and mixes, the spatial and temporal distribution of activities, the accessibility to services, the open spaces and green areas, the air quality, the arrangement and appearance of the physical elements of urban design. Although several studies have listed the environmental, social and economic benefits of good urban design for many stakeholders, there is a small body of literature on their monetary value. Most of the scholars focus on the impact of open spaces, urban parks, and amenities on residential property values, without providing a real monetary estimation of the quality of public goods and services. The present paper focuses on the contribution of urban quality on real estate value. Given the spatial nature of the problem and the multifaceted aspects to be considered, a hybrid evaluation approach has been defined by combining Spatial Multicriteria Analysis with Hedonic Price Method. In order to explore the impact of urban quality improvements on real estate value, the proposed evaluation approach has been applied to three urban districts in the city of Milan (Italy), with different location features

The effects of indoor and outdoor air pollutants on workers’ productivity in office building

In the idal filter and the other by a traditional one. Two methods were applied to evaluate and compare those scenarios; the Cost Benefit Analysis and the Monte Carlo Simulation. From a financial point of view, the investment and management costs of the filters were considered. Instead, the annual benefits included increasing productivity and reducing days of absence from work due to illness. The results confirmed the energy and socioeconomic efficiency of the antibacterial filter; it can be considered a solution to achieve the best income. 1 present-day society, people spend about 80% of their time inside buildings, and specifically 30-40% in workplaces. From this evidence, the indoor environmental quality needs to be investigated, and in particular, the possible sources of indoor-outdoor pollutants and their impact on the human health, comfort and productivity. First, through an examination of the indoor sources of pollution, the research analysed the main substances that affect indoor air quality in an office. Second, the pollution of external origin and its effects on the performance of employees were taken into consideration. Two scenarios were designed for a Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning (HVAC) system in an office building; one by the installation of a bio

Effects on energy savings and occupant health of an antibacterial filter

The outdoor air pollution and the insufficient hygiene of HVAC systems often result in low indoor air quality. The World Health Organization estimated that 50% of indoor biological contamination comes from the air-handling system; the air filters are sources of pollution due to the accumulation and proliferation of bacteria on the surface. Furthermore, the presence of indoor contaminants can have a negative impact on the health and well-being of the occupants, who spend about 80% of their time indoors. To guarantee a better indoor air quality and a lower health risks, a new concept of biocidal filtration has been introduced. The present paper shows the results of a literature review aimed at exploring how to integrate the health effects on building occupants into the economic benefits of an antibacterial filter. The research focuses on costs and benefits produced by the application of an antibacterial filter, comparing it with a traditional one. Two methods were applied for the assessment; the Cost Benefit Analysis and the Monte Carlo Simulation. The results suggested the goodness of the economic investment on biocidal filter and showed how it allows to achieve benefits in term of energy savings and health for the different analysed case studie

An ELECTRE TRI B-Based Decision Framework to Support the Energy Project Manager in Dealing with Retrofit Processes at District Scale

Cities represent the places with the highest environmental and energy impact in the world. Transforming them in a sustainable way has the potential to reduce the pressures of these areas. The building stock could be the driving force behind the energy transition of cities. With this in mind, understanding the priorities of undertaking a massive green regeneration operation becomes crucial to optimizing the use of public funds such as those of the National Recovery and Resilience Plans (NRRPs) that EU Member States have at their disposal. For this purpose, a multi-criteria ELECTRE TRI-B (ELimination Et Choix Traduisant La REalité TRI-B) model was used to provide useful information in prioritizing intervention on the existing building stock to achieve the sustainability targets set at European and international levels. The model was tested on a real case study located in Turin (Italy) to improve the management process by classifying intervention on a building stock characterized by different typologies and construction periods. Looking at the results, the retrofit operations with the highest priority relate to the apartment building sector from 1946 to 1970 and the multifamily building sector from 1919 to 1960. Despite the high initial investment requirements, an ecological transformation of this stock would result in significant reductions in health impacts, more green jobs, and lower resources consumption. The model is useful for managing public policies in this area by providing guidance to the project manager on how to proceed in the provision of ad hoc funds and could optimize the process of local community energy generation

A stakeholder-based approach managing conflictual values in urban design processes. The case of an open prison in Barcelona

An urban intervention has to deal with a pre-existing context. It follows that the design phase must be preceded by a careful and in-depth preliminary analysis addressing historical, morphological, topographical, and geographical reasons. Besides, subjective requests prove to be decisive in the design process in the face of the heterogeneity and multiplicity of possible responses from the actors involved. The contribution aims to support Decision-Makers in the preliminary stages of the project, to provide a global vision of the multidimensionality of the urban context and the feedback of the different subjects that come into play. The main objective is to create an evaluation framework capable of supporting the decision-making process in urban transformation problems starting from the needs of the stakeholders. The approach integrates the analysis of the stakeholders with the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) to compose an impact matrix based on the Community Impact Evaluation (CIE). The methodology has been tested to develop an open prison in the city of Barcelona (Spain). The framework made it possible to obtain an overall vision of the area’s transformation process, consistent with the project’s objectives, intending to support strategies definition valid from multiple points of view

Boosting Investments in Buildings Energy Retrofit: The Role of Incentives

More than 40% of the EU building stock was built before 1960 and 90% before 1990. It is common wisdom that older buildings typically exhibit greater energy demand than new ones. The renovation of existing buildings is therefore a cornerstone in the reduction of energy consumption and relative CO2 emissions under the post-carbon city paradigm. In the present work, we analyze various energy retrofit strategies, evaluate their impact on buildings energy performance and determine their relative cost-benefit tradeoffs to address the multiple benefits of renovations and the financial barriers to their implementation and taking up. Aim of the paper is to identify cost-effective energy retrofit strategies which match technological advancements and knowledge in energy retrofitting with environmental needs and end-user’s behavior. To determine how far (and how much) it is optimal to push on retrofitting of existing buildings, we investigate the role of incentives and their impacts on private investment decisions