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Climate change and the need to reduce energy consumption in buildings are key topics in the political, scientific, economic and cultural debate. Since the academic year, 2010-2011, we wanted to make a debate and also our contribution with the first edition of the Master in Materials and Innovative Techniques for Sustainable Construction (MeTIES) University of Palermo together with the University Consortium for the University of Western Sicily and the Mediterranean Basin (UNISOM). The main objective of this Master is to form a professional generation who knows how to master new technologies and to rethink the way to "build". All the students of the master, in different editions, have had the opportunity to improve skills acquired during the course in workplace. The aim was to contribute to the debate on possible ways to pursue sustainable development through the training of "operators" who have the ability to identify, develop and propose possible and concrete solutions for the energy efficiency of buildings. The book contains some solutions to the needs of a sector that will be increasingly at the center of the economic and political choices of the coming decades.

sustainable design, energy retrofit, innovative materials, integrated air conditioning systems, circular economy, natural strategies

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This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue titled “Assessing the Impact of Climate Change on Urban Cultural Heritage” hosted at the Atmosphere journal. This topic has been chosen in light of cities’ ever-growing role and immense potential in the climate adaptation and mitigation discourse and the particular challenges regarding urban heritage making and conservation. It is critical to recognise the complex set of factors governing the physical, social and political future of urban heritage in cityscapes in constant transformation and in an era of planetary urbanisation. The 10 papers (seven research papers, two reviews and one opinion piece) that comprise the issue give a broad cross-section of the issues pertinent to this important topic – accounts on practices and conceptual/methodological improvements in energy retrofit and reuse, risk mapping, urban planning, climate vulnerability assessment, and community engagement by 38 authors from seven countries are used to delineate the implications of current and likely future climates on heritage materials and systems, knowledge and practice gaps, as well as steps that need to be taken to ensure both their safeguarding and their valorisation to achieve climate resiliency.

historic buildings --- risk assessment --- WDR --- resilience --- sustainability --- extreme value analysis --- heritage values --- energy efficiency --- thermal comfort --- heritage conservation --- original features --- system dynamics --- social practices --- decision-making --- historic building --- durability --- performance --- life cycle analysis --- land-use --- tropics --- urban microclimate --- built heritage retrofit --- energy-efficient retrofit policy --- conservation policy --- UK --- Turkey --- earthquakes --- fire --- floods --- historic sites --- landslides --- museums --- insects --- sea level rise --- typhoons --- visitors --- extreme events --- climate projection --- Central Europe --- ProteCHt2save --- climate risk indices --- heritage climatology --- cultural heritage safeguarding --- preparedness --- energy-efficient retrofit --- historic residential buildings --- energy consumption prediction --- heritage buildings --- lithotype --- salt weathering --- kaolinisation --- microcracking --- weather events --- cultural heritage --- urban planning --- climate change --- n/a

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This book comprises six papers published in the Special Issue “Environmental and Economic Evaluations of Building Energy Retrofits”. The six papers each adopt different perspectives in investigating building energy retrofit practices in Hong Kong, Poland, the Netherlands, Finland, and Italy. The target of the studies includes campus buildings, renovation options for modernist housing estates, green building certification schemes, practitioners’ views and practices, and energy system performance.

building energy performance --- building energy retrofits --- green building certification --- transaction costs --- agency theory --- incentives --- facility management --- KPI --- refurbishment --- renovation --- retrofit --- survey --- building energy system optimization --- renewable energy retrofit --- life cycle emission --- building energy retrofitting --- building information modelling (BIM) --- energy performance evaluation --- BREEAM-NL --- energy transition --- RACI matrix --- LCOH --- life-cycle cost --- heating --- cooling --- heat pump --- fossil fuel --- biomass --- greenhouse gas --- architecture --- “Renovation Wave” --- energy-efficiency --- CO2 emissions --- well-being

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Devastating seismic events occurring all over the world keep raising the awareness of the scientific, technical and political communities to the need of identifying assets at risk and developing more effective and cost-efficient seismic risk mitigation strategies. Significant advances in earthquake engineering research have been achieved with the rise of new technologies and techniques with potential use in risk assessment, management and mitigation. Nevertheless, there is still much to be done, particularly with regard to existing buildings, most of them built without anti-seismic provisions. The wide variety of construction and structural systems, associated with the complex behaviour of their materials, greatly limit the application of current codes and building standards to the existing building stock. To tackle this issue, there is a fundamental need for developing multidisciplinary research that can lead to the development of more sophisticated and reliable methods of analysis, as well as to improved seismic retrofitting techniques compliant with buildings conservation principles. This book intends to contribute to the aforementioned goal by stimulating the exchange of ideas and knowledge on the assessment and reduction of the seismic vulnerability of existing buildings. 10 high quality contributions authored by international experts from Italy, Portugal, Morocco, Nepal, Czech Republic and Spain are included herein. All contributions pursue the protection of existing buildings by considering the most updated methods and advanced solutions emerging from different fields of expertise.

brittle failure --- earthquakes scenarios --- n/a --- FRP --- joints --- neural networks --- pushover --- seismic performance --- infilled frames --- carpentry halved joint --- inter-storey drift --- safety assessment --- seismic risk --- high-rise RC --- discrete elements --- seismic vulnerability assessment --- limit analysis --- seismic capacity --- Geo-hazard site effects --- automatic protocols --- numerical modelling --- seismic retrofit --- retrofit --- numerical modeling --- Imzouren --- finite element modelling --- Expected damage scenario --- masonry structures --- large-scale vulnerability analysis --- seismic restoration --- vulnerability assessment --- earthquakes --- unreinforced masonry structure --- frame-infill interaction --- CARTIS form --- seismic analysis --- nonlinear static analysis --- Seismic attenuation law --- seismic behavior --- seismic retrofitting --- damage assessment --- capacity curves --- energy dissipation --- mobile-device applications --- in situ structural diagnosis --- vulnerability index --- Vulnerability assessment --- GIS mapping --- Gorkha earthquake

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Conventional thermal power generating plants reject a large amount of energy every year. If this rejected heat were to be used through district heating networks, given prior energy valorisation, there would be a noticeable decrease in the amount of fossil fuels imported for heating. As a consequence, benefits would be experienced in the form of an increase in energy efficiency, an improvement in energy security, and a minimisation of emitted greenhouse gases. Given that heat demand is not expected to decrease significantly in the medium term, district heating networks show the greatest potential for the development of cogeneration. Due to their cost competitiveness, flexibility in terms of the ability to use renewable energy resources (such as geothermal or solar thermal) and fossil fuels (more specifically the residual heat from combustion), and the fact that, in some cases, losses to a country/region’s energy balance can be easily integrated into district heating networks (which would not be the case in a “fully electric” future), district heating (and cooling) networks and cogeneration could become a key element for a future with greater energy security, while being more sustainable, if appropriate measures were implemented. This book therefore seeks to propose an energy strategy for a number of cities/regions/countries by proposing appropriate measures supported by detailed case studies.

district heating --- 4th generation district heating --- data mining algorithms --- energy system modeling --- neural networks --- baseline model --- hydronic pavement system --- biomass district heating for rural locations --- CO2 emissions abatement --- low temperature networks --- ultralow-temperature district heating --- domestic --- optimization --- energy efficiency --- sustainable energy --- big data frameworks --- verification --- energy prediction --- parameter analysis --- greenhouse gas emissions --- time delay --- heat pumps --- primary energy use --- retrofit --- energy consumption forecast --- district heating (DH) network --- low-temperature district heating --- thermal inertia --- variable-temperature district heating --- data streams analysis --- Computational Fluid Dynamics --- energy management in renovated building --- Scotland --- heat reuse --- thermally activated cooling --- district cooling --- space cooling --- Gulf Cooperation Council --- biomass --- TRNSYS --- hot climate --- optimal control --- air-conditioning --- machine learning --- low temperature district heating system --- data center --- twin-pipe --- residential --- prediction algorithm --- CFD model --- nZEB --- thermal-hydraulic performance