The overall classification of residential buildings: Possible role of tourist EU Ecolabel award scheme

Abstract The debate on the environmental performance of buildings and their classification is continuously rising and deeply involves all actors of the sector, from researchers to technicians and from owners to real estate managers. In the field, the EU has created a panel that is currently working on defining the criteria for attributing an Ecolabel award to a building. However, despite the enormous efforts made by administrative and academic institutions, a suitable and widely available scheme for operators to assess the environmental performance of a building is far from being established. To help provide a solution to the problem, the possibility of adopting the EU Ecolabel scheme estab…

Thermal and structural properties of a hemp–lime biocomposite

Abstract The need to reduce greenhouse gases emission produced by the building sector leads to the research of renewable and less impacting materials that can replace traditional ones. This subject has encouraged new researches on biocomposite concretes with the aim to exploit renewable resources like vegetal fibres intended as materials whose production processes are generally characterized by low costs and energy demand. This biocomposite is obviously much lighter than concrete and, therefore, can be suitably used in such cases where a structure cannot be overloaded, for instance in the realization of a green covering on top of a preexistent building. In this work, a first analysis of the…

Automatic Computation of Local Comfort Conditions in Buildings

Publisher Summary A method for the automatic calculation of local comfort conditions in moderate indoor environment is been described in this chapter. It provides, among its output features, graphical maps of the PMV patterns. The program has been implemented on the commonly used operating system, and is characterized by a friendly usability, even by noncomputer expert users. The output of the code can be obtained not only in a graphical way but also in numerical formats. By using the program in conjunction with computer codes that provide the energy demand for climatization of buildings, it would be possible to evaluate the energy savings achieved in correspondence with the various adopted…

Smart vs conventional motorways: environmental impact assessment under realistic traffic conditions

Abstract This research aims at assessing the environmental impacts exerted by a smart motorway compared to those of a traditional motorway. The study has global policy implications: it takes into account the impacts due to the construction and maintenance of the infrastructure and the environmental effects produced by the traffic emissions, taking into account smart technologies and truck platooning regulation. Through a classical LCA approach, 1 km-long smart motorway with 2 m-high embankment was assumed as the functional unit for the analysis. A realistic traffic condition has been considered. A comparison between environmental effects produced by the use of virgin material and by Reclaim…

Metodologie di analisi energetica nei supermercati e negli ipermercati, con l’obiettivo della ottimizzazione della domanda elettrica ed energetica globale, casi studio per la Regione Siciliana.

Implementing the sustainable energy (and climate) action plans: quasi-steady state or dynamic building modeling approach?

Actions contemplated in Sustainable Energy (and Climate) Action Plans (SEAPs), which municipalities adhering to the EU initiative called “The Covenant of Mayors” are required to prepare, regard many sectors, among which are buildings. To implement such plans, it is necessary to make use of methods for predicting energy use in buildings. Technicians involved in this tend to adopt easy-touse simulation models because of the common mid-level expertise of the offices involved. However, such simplified methods could result in a less accurate evaluation of the energy demand of buildings. In this paper the suitability of the quasi-steady state and the dynamic approach, in the frame of these new ur…

Le “verdi” Olimpiadi di Sydney – L’applicazione del concetto di sostenibilità ambientale nella progettazione dei siti e nella gestione dei giochi olimpici.

Energy and environmental analysis of marble productive sites: «by phases» and «by single process» combined approach

Energy Procedia 00 (20 1 8 ) 000 – 000 73rd Conference of the Italian Thermal Machines Engineering Association, ATI 2018, Pisa, Italy, 12 Sep 2018 - 14 Sep 2018; Italy : Elsevier Ltd. (2018).

Mobilità sostenibile per il miglioramento della qualità ambientale urbana: obiettivi, metodi ed applicazioni

Valutazione degli impatti esercitati dalla filiera della pesca

Lo studio si colloca sulla scorta dei risultati elaborati nell’ambito del Rapporto Annuale del 2009, nel quale è stata presentata una rassegna generale dello stato del settore della pesca in Sicilia, con particolare riguardo ai consumi energetici, all’impatto ambientale ed all’innovazione tecnologica nella filiera della pesca e dell’acquacoltura in Sicilia. In questo studio si analizzeranno più in dettaglio alcune situazioni di aziende della filiera ritenute emblematiche delle condizioni del settore in Sicilia, allo scopo di delinearne le esigenze ed i limiti, anche in vista della proposta di introdurre innovazioni tecnologiche mirate e puntuali. Ancora una volta, il tema dell’efficienza en…

Il progetto integrato degli edifici: prestazioni indoor e criteri di ecocompatibilità dei materiali

Green Roofs’ End of Life: A Literature Review

Green roofs are increasingly being used in urban settings because of the many benefits they are capable of providing. Because of their widespread use, the issue of how to conduct proper disposal of green roofs once they have reached their end of life is beginning to be raised. The present study is a review of the scientific literature published between 2007 and 2022. Specifically, the contribution of this review study is to clarify whether a waste scenario exists and if so, identify the methodological frameworks and/or criteria used in green roof-related studies to establish the end-of-life scenario of a given green roof, which will then be used to analyze its environmental and economic per…

Marble quarrying: an energy and waste intensive activity in the production of building materials

Marble represents an important component of Italian buildings, where it is often utilized as a covering for bottom surfaces, despite its relatively high price. Moreover, it characterizes several public buildings, for which it is by far the most important decorative material, also because of its structural features and its long durability. Unfortunately, marble quarrying is an energy intensive activity that requires relevant amounts of electric and thermal energy sources; in addition, the extraction of the marble blocks from the mountain sides does involve a noticeable quantity of explosives, particularly in sites where traditional working methods are utilized. Another important feature of t…

Reducing electric and thermal energy needs in buildings by using innovative envelope materials - Laboratory results of bio-composites embodying tomato plant stems

The life style of building occupants is continuously arising towards conditions that are more comfortable involving, on turn, the growing of the electric energy consumptions for climatization purposes. This calls for the improvement of the efficiencies of equipment along with environmental performance of building materials. Laboratory analyses of samples of mixed materials, utilizing tomato stems harvested in Sicily and Cataluña, have been conducted Thermal conductance and mechanical properties have been detected for different rates of bio-component and inert materials. First results of the thermal properties seem to situate such bio-composites among the insulating building materials, for a…

A grid of material and immaterial laboratories for supporting the sustainability of transportation: the RESET project in Sicily

Transportation is a crucial sector, to be suitably approached in order of getting human activities in more environmentally sustainable paths. In fact, in developing, as well in less developing, countries people and freights mobility are responsible of important amount of pollutant emissions and are cause of significant levels of energy consumptions. In this paper, a Sicilian regional project is presented, aiming at establishing an interconnected grid of material and immaterial laboratories. These laboratories, that are devoted at inducing more virtuous behaviors in the transportation policies, are constituted by equipment and software tools, mainly located in the region’s universities, acti…

The interaction between intermittent renewable energy and the electricity, heating and transport sectors

In a global perspective, it is essential that the world transfers from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources in order to minimise climate change effects. As a part of such transition energy savings are also important, as they can decrease production costs effectively. The nature of such a change is that it has to be implemented on a local level. Energy saving technologies are placed with the demand decrease and renewable energy is typically distributed where the resources are. In some parts of the world, energy savings have resulted in a stabilisation of the energy demands, however in the world as such, demands are still increasing in buildings, transport and industry. Although the deman…

L’impronta diventa ecologica Editoriale La Nuova Ecologia, Milano

Reduced weather data for building climatization and application to 29 European locations

Abstract A method for setting up a reference year of reduced temperature data, proposed by Klein and Erbs, has been applied by us to 29 European locations for which an official test-reference year is available. This reference year of reduced temperatures may be utilized in computer programs for analysis of the thermal behaviour of buildings. The effectiveness of the method has been tested by calculating the annual energy demand in 29 European locations for three modules with different thermophysical characteristics.

Sull'analisi della mobilità sostenibile - nuovi metodi con i modelli di calcolo

Integrated approach to the assessment of waste management systems within the SEA framework

This paper addresses the problem of evaluating the environmental performances of Urban Waste Systems. Specifically, the paper refers to the crucial problem of environmentally analysing the Urban Waste System Management Process. The application of the Dashboard of Sustainability has been deliberately suggested. The method has been selected because of its intrinsic simplicity and because it can provide the simultaneous evaluation of indicators which refer to different fields, such as the Environment, Economics and Quality in Institutional Services. The method has been applied to the city of Palermo. The results obtained have been compared to a couple of ideal scenarios.

Embedding “substrate” in environmental assessment of green roofs life cycle: evidences from an application to the whole chain in a Mediterranean site

Abstract A classical LCA methodology is here applied to green roofs including in this analysis also the whole life cycle of the substrate, that represented a lack of previous LCA studies on green roofs. This inclusion will allow a complete and proper application of the LCA methodology to achieve an environmental accounting of the “green roof” performance. We have here chosen to approach the problem by analysing a specific substrate, that is used within an actual extensive green roof. Afterwards, we have applied the LCA methodology to the whole actual extensive green roof whose substrate under analysis is part of. In this manner, we achieved an environmental accounting of the “green roof” pe…

Impronta Ecologica: descrizione del metodo e applicazioni

Sistemi di trasporto ed inquinamento atmosferico: linee-guida per un modello di analisi delle emissioni

Embedding “roadside equipment” into environmental assessment of transportation system: the case of safety barriers

The work arises from the consideration that the environmental impact of a road cannot be limited to the analysis of its constituent materials, even if correctly analyzed in their life cycle. In fact, a given road not only consists of the pavement and subgrade, but also includes several different components and accessories (e.g. road marking, drainages, safety barriers, etc.) that contribute to set a road infrastructure in operative conditions. As a matter of fact, only limited attention has been paid in the scientific literature to roadside components, unlike pavement and traffic flow. In the present work, the environmental burden of one of these components, i.e. the safety barrier, has bee…

Toward a European Eco-label brand for residential buildings: Holistic or by-components approaches?

The Eco-label scheme is becoming ever more important in the environmental certification of products and services, especially in light of the recent ambitious aim of containing greenhouse emissions and improving the efficiency of utilizing energy sources. A recently-introduced hypothesis concerns the European Eco-label scheme relating to buildings, in the awareness that the construction industry is of primary importance to the whole economic and social life of states. This scheme should adopt an integrated approach to environmental problems and include construction, day-to-day management, and the possible disposal of building materials, throughout the life cycle of the building. In addition,…

La sostenibilità ambientale del settore alberghiero - Il ruolo dei piani energetici regionali

Are the Best Available Technologies the only viable for energy interventions in historical buildings?

Worth aged buildings represent among the existing buildings a special case when it comes to their energy refurbishment. Current available technologies for building components, characterized by high level of thermal performances, unfortunately, are also characterized, not rarely, by limited compatibility with the architectural integrity of the building. In other words, the so-called Best Available Technologies that are effectively adopted to optimize the energy performances of buildings, in the case of aged buildings to which a certain artistic, historic and/or architectural merit is recognized (heritage houses) could, actually, determine such kind of conflicts and therefore leading to the s…

A new environmental label for farm Holidays: a tool for improving the integrated relational tourism

Assessing Urban Environmental Sustainability by Means of Indicators: The Case of the Heritage Buildings

Man in developed countries is looking for new and more suitable paradigms of a correct evolution, founded on an improved level of quality of life, on a pollution-free environment and on the availability of rising amount of time to be spent in pleasure and cultural activities.

Indoor pollutant identification by means of spectroscopic techniques

Se l'olio d'oliva è sostenibile

Proposal validation of a phenomenoogical model for predicting the vehicular environmental impact

Pollutant concentrations in urban canyon mainly come from vehicular emissions. The search of a quantitative relationship, linking pollutant emissions from mobile sources to the resulting concentrations, at different receptor sites, has brought us to develop a phenomenological model able to calculate the number of running vehicles once the pollutant ground level concentration of CO is known. Unfortunately, we haven't the possibility to test this model by a direct inspection of the traffic flow. Despite this fact it is our aim to validate the proposed traffic model. Mathematical models are considered useful tools in supporting air quality evaluations. The structure of the models usually embod…

Role of Green Coverings in Mitigating Heat Island Effects: An Analysis of Physical Models

Worldwide, governments are introducing several rules and standards in the aim of limiting the quantity of primary energy for air conditioning of buildings and supporting the use of renewable source of energy for generating thermal and electric energy to be utilized in buildings such as the European Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings [1]. Along with these interventions, another important action takes currently place in the building sector, that is the introduction of passive structural components of the envelope, able to reduce the requirements of energy for air conditioning purposes. Among these building components, the so-called green roofs are becoming more and more interest…

The control of indoor thermal comfort conditions: introducing a fuzzy adaptive controller

The control and the monitoring of indoor thermal conditions represents a pre-eminent task with the aim of ensuring suitable working and living spaces to people. Especially in industrialised countries, in fact, several rules and standards have been recently released in order of providing technicians with suitable design tools and effective indexes and parameters for the checking of the indoor microclimate. Among them, predicted mean vote (PMV) index is often adopted for assessing the thermal comfort conditions of thermal moderate environments. Unfortunately, the PMV index is characterised by non-linear features, that could determine some difficulties when monitoring and controlling HVAC equi…

L'analisi del ciclo di vita del marmo: un questionario per un'indagine preliminare di settore

Suitability of Some Existing Damage Indexes for Regulating Contracts Between Curators of Museums and HVAC Maintenance and Management Companies

Heating, Ventilating and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) systems in museums are called to properly control important microclimate parameters, not only for visitors’ wellbeing, but mostly for works of art preservation. Accordingly, in case of interruptions occurring to HVAC systems, due to maintenance interventions or drawbacks, it is essential to guarantee the shortest possible period of disservice to which possible damages for the works of art are related. In this regard the aim of this work is to introduce a protocol to follow to support curators in regulate the stipulation of contracts with external companies for a more effective management and maintenance of the HVAC systems in order to preserv…

Design, technology and social innovation: the serious game of traffic O2

Social science and new communication technologies are deeply influencing the transportation domain and new models of urban sustainable development are constantly emerging as new possible solutions. One of the principal reasons is the capability to reach the motivations that foster us to choose one or another urban transportation systems. It is already feasible to develop solutions to implement and root more efficient and sustainable habits in urban transportation. The present exploratory chapter presents the activities conducted by innovation lab PUSH, with the Italian Ministry of Innovation and Research, for the development and the application of the social innovation project “TrafficO2” i…

Quanto “pesa” l’uomo sulla terra? Lo calcola l’impronta ecologica

Including sustainable criteria in territorial energy plans: an application to the building sector in Sicily

Analisi delle prestazioni energetiche degli edifici residenziali sulla base del confronto tra dati di consumo calcolati e misurati

Le Pubbliche Amministrazioni sono costantemente impegnate a valutare la realizzabilità di interventi di riqualificazione energetica del comparto edilizio esistente, al fine di raggiungere gli obiettivi di efficienza energetica fissati dalle direttive europee. Come noto, il comparto edilizio rappresenta un settore ad alto potenziale in tal senso. Tale potenziale, però, può essere verificato solo a partire da un conoscenza del reale consumo energetico degli edifici esistenti, compito non sempre facile in quanto la domanda di energia, e i relativi consumi energetici, dipendono da fattori di difficile standardizzazione. Allo scopo di evidenziare le possibili differenze tra una valutazione dei c…

Solar radiation for buildings and energy applications: the feasibility of the reduced data set for Mediterranean sites

In the last years several computer programs for thermal simulation of buildings have been quickly spread; they allow to describe the thermal behavior of buildings and to verify their energy efficiency, in order to suggest eventual improvements as from the design stage. Most of these simulation tools generally need a complete input data set and, in particular, information referring to the climatic conditions of the site where buildings will be built-up. As it is well known, among climatic issues, particularly important for the thermal energy balance is the solar radiation. In this paper authors present a short reference year of the solar radiation, more precisely the Monthly Average Day (MAD…

The Landfilling of Municipal Solid Waste and the Sustainability of the Related Transportation Activities

The management of municipal solid waste is a crucial issue to address as we move toward the decarbonization of urban contexts. Not by chance, this sector plays a relevant role in the Covenant of Mayors program, whereby municipalities are called to design their own Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SECAPs). However, despite new regulations strongly pushing the recycling and reuse of materials contained in municipal waste, many cities still use large landfills. As part of the overall environmental pressure exerted by these urban systems, the transport of waste from collection points to landfills or treatment facilities must be considered in order to correctly assess the full environmental burd…

Experimental investigation on a mobile house supplied via a hybrid pv and wind energy source

I rilasci di biogas della discarica di “Bellolampo” e gli effetti sulla qualità dell’aria urbana di Palermo

Solar radiation for buildings application: generating data set for mediterranean sites

University campuses as small-scale models of cities: Quantitative assessment of a low carbon transition path

Abstract The energy efficiency interventions and rehabilitation actions regarding university campuses are characterized by an emblematic impact, representing significant examples of good practices that a given community could adopt, even at the city level. Starting from the idea that campuses may be regarded as small scale models of cities, a quantitative method for estimating to which extent the adoption of a given set of interventions by a municipality could contribute to make such city close to a nearly zero energy profile is proposed. To accomplish this task, the study considers the low carbon transition path of the campus of the University of Palermo and applies a simple method that, i…

A Hybrid AHP Approach and GIS-Based Methods as Fundamental Tools in the SECAP’s Decision-Making Process

Adapting to climate change and mitigating its impacts are the main challenges for cities today. One objective that the European Commission has set in recent decades is reducing climate change inaction, and several political actions have been implemented. Among these actions, the Covenant of Mayors led to the development and adoption of Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs) by many cities worldwide. A challenge that local authorities must face during the development of a SECAP is the identification of the policies to be included in the plan. This paper presents a case study to show the validity of using a hybrid analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach and various geographic …

Mobility, Data, and Behavior: The TrafficO2 Case Study

This chapter presents the social innovation project “TrafficO2”, a support system for decision-making in the field of transportation that tries to push commuters towards more sustainable mobility by providing concrete incentives for each responsible choice. After focusing on Palermo, Italy, the context of this case study, this chapter provides a detailed description of the TrafficO2 model. Specifically, the chapter deals with the analysis of a selected sample of users among Palermo University students who commute daily to their respective University departments on campus. Starting from the modal split of the actual situation (Status Quo scenario), another behavior scenario (Do your right mi…

The impact of landfills on the air quality of towns: A simple heuristic model for the city of Palermo

In this study, the landfill of Palermo, is investigated as a potential source of the unusual methane concentrations found in the urban context. The source for these pollution episodes is identified by means of a simple heuristic method. A cross-correlation analysis between wind data and methane concentration levels is also used to confirm the hypotheses formulated. Doppler Sound Detection And Ranging (SODAR) measurements are used to investigate the air masses dynamics at the landfill, in order to better support the adopted assumptions. This interpretative method can be adopted in the first assessment stages of the environmental site performance in order to single out the candidate pollution…

Retrofitting existing buildings by means of innovative envelope components: low-impacting new assemblies

Current policies addressing the energy efficiency of buildings aimed at the control of their overall primary energy demand, require not only that the edifice envelope has to be properly designed to optimize its thermal performances, but also that the eco-friendly properties of the involved building materials have to be properly taken into account, in order of assessing all the associated environmental costs. In fact, the design of envelope structures that are able to realize proper levels of thermal insulation and, in the same time, to employ materials characterized by low environmental impacts, are believed as the most effective strategies to be adopted in the aim of addressing the above-m…

Old or new occupants of energy rehabilitated buildings. Two different approaches for hierarchizing group of buildings

Abstract Public Administrations are frequently entitled to intervene in building stocks with energy rehabilitation actions. Unfortunately, the monetary budget at their disposal is generally limited and, consequently, a prioritization criterion is needed to optimize its allocation. The classification of the building energy performance is increasingly used by Public Administrations for this purpose. Here we argue that a proper prioritization criterion should depend upon the potential subjects to which the rehabilitated buildings are given back. If the energy rehabilitation is conducted on buildings that will be assigned to new dwellers, it would be preferable to use the energy class – which i…

Parametri di traffico urbano nella raccolta differenziata dei rifiuti solidi urbani

A simplified method for the indirect evaluation of the “embodied pollution” of natural stones (marble) working chain to be applied for achieving the Ecolabel brand of the product

The constant push toward higher energy and environmental quality buildings makes the acquisition of excellence marks for products and materials, of which the building envelope is constituted, increasingly urgent. The recent European (EU) Commission Decision 2021/476 is applicable to marble used in construction. It sets out criteria that companies producing marble have to accomplish to obtain the EU Ecolabel brand. Unfortunately, some criteria such as, for example, those that refer to the application of the Environmental Management System, ISO 14001 and EMAS certifications, or those that concern the ISO 14067 as well as the Product Environment Footprint procedure, are difficult to apply for …

Integrated Methods for Establishing the Sustainability of Urban Policies: Applying Ecological Footprint to the Municipal Solid Waste Management

The Ecological Footprint (EF) method is applied here to assess alternative policies regarding the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management. This approach arises from two considerations. First, the MSW management certainly requires a great attention by politicians and technicians, due to its importance for effectively administrating and environmentally controlling urban contexts. On the other hand, the EF method, thanks to its holistic structure of analysis, supposedly provides a synthetic and effective measure of the sustainability of waste management systems, so allowing public administrations to prioritizing policies aimed at implementing environmental actions. Here the EF method is used fo…

Towards a More Sustainable City: The Role of the Daylight Factor in Evaluating the Energy Requirements of Buildings

The Daylight factor is the reference parameter used in Energy Standard EN15193:2008 to assess daylight contribution in the energy performance of buildings. But its efficacy in putting in relation buildings energy performance, daylight availability and visual tasks is now a subject of discussion in literature. In fact, the daylight factor is a static indicator independent from building geometry and environmental parameters. From the energy point of view, it has still to be assessed if it can ensure when the switch of artificial light is needed, representing therefore the most disadvantageous outdoor illuminance conditions. The goal of this study is demonstrating if the daylight factor calcul…

Realizzazione di una stazione di misura delle aree proiettate del corpo umano

A bottom-up method for evaluating the whole energy demand of large residential building stocks: an application to a regional scale

In this paper a method is described, originally conceived during the compilation of the Energy and Environmental Regional Plan of Sicily, aimed to: a) set up a lay-out model of an overall regional residential estate into a certain number of different building and heating system types; b) calculate the energy needs of every single type according to the procedures established by the national and European regulations; The method is particularly designed to evaluate the possible energy savings from the implementation of different interventions concerning the envelope and the HVAC systems to the various building types. The method, although based on several assumptions, shows to be reliable enoug…

Celle a combustibile per applicazioni stazionarie cogenerative

I materiali fibrosi naturali – Legno, paglia, cotone e altri materiali per un’edilizia sostenibile

Norme per il controllo delle prestazioni energetiche degli edifici

La rintracciabilità come contributo alla sostenibilità delle filiere agroalimentari: il caso di un molino-pastificio

Performance evaluation of a bio-based composite building material made of natural resin mixed with hay

Recent years have seen an increasing public interest in issues related to energy saving and environmental pollution reduction in the building sector. As a result, many directives have been issued, the most important being the Directive 2010/31/EU (EPBD Recast) on the energy performance of buildings, which requires that “Member States shall ensure that by 31 December 2020 all new buildings are nearly zero-energy buildings”. This goal can be obtained not only by reducing energy demand for heating and cooling, but also, for example, by improving building envelope performances. In this work, a first analysis of the thermal and structural behaviour of a biocomposite material, constituted by a na…

Conflicting needs of the thermal indoor environment of museums: In search of a practical compromise

Thermal indoor microclimate conditions in museum buildings refer to two important requirements: the preservation of works of art and the comfort of visitors to these buildings and/or those working inside them. Unfortunately, different works of art have different internal parameters which render the management and control of the indoor thermal microclimate difficult. In this work the values proposed by various standards for the thermal environment of museum buildings have been revised. Moreover, the indoor microclimatic conditions relating to people's comfort have been described, with the aim of singling out possible common ranges for these parameters. With this aim, a useful simultaneousnes…

Metodi adattativi e modelli multi agente per la valutazione del comfort indoor

Environmentally Assessing Buildings Characterized by Complex Shape and Innovative Materials

This paper addresses the emerging problem consisting in a correct energy and environmental evaluation of buildings belonging to the new architectural tendency. In fact, innovative buildings are often characterized by new materials that, not rarely, are not contemplated in current environmental databases. Moreover, unconventional shapes of these buildings could require further manufacturing processes that involve additional energy consumption not included in the commercial environmental database. Through the work a spotlighting of the problem is presented with reference to a real innovative building.

Innovazione tecnologica nel Distretto Produttivo della Pesca di Mazara del Vallo

Il tecnico di fronte alla sostenibilità ambientale degli edifici

Enhancing values of roofs albedo for lowering cities’ air temperature and electric demand of buildings: a simple economic evaluation

Abstract In cities vegetated roofs are becoming more popular because they can mitigate Urban Heat Island phenomena by decreasing the outdoor air temperature in summer. This decrease reduces the electric energy demand for climatization of buildings, which, in front of a milder climate, will recur less to mechanical tools for guaranteeing thermal comfort conditions to occupants. Cities can registered another indirect positive effect: the reduced cooling energy demand, limits the heat released by the climatization systems’ external unities toward the urban open spaces, thus lowering the outdoor air temperature. Therefore, the outdoor surface temperature of green, as well as cool roofs, can be …

Evaluating human body area factors from digital images: A measurement tool for a better evaluation of the ergonomics of working places

The evaluation of comfort conditions of people in confined environments requires a knowledge of the human body's radiation data. This is essentially represented by the projected area of the body in a given direction. From this factor, other important parameters can be computed, such as projected area factors and angle factors. Presently, these parameters are evaluated using graphs deriving from a pioneering field study carried out by P.O. Fanger for which a piece of apparatus using mirrors and weight operations on film negatives is used. Obviously, these graphs, apart from referring to a limited number of subjects, also involve some reading errors. With the aim of enlarging the number of ex…

Impronta ecologica - Un indicatore per la valutazione della sostenibilità dei sistemi complessi -

An Anthropometric Analysis of Seated and Standing People

Thermal radiative exchanges of the human body with surrounding surfaces play an essential role in describing the thermal conditions of people in a given environment. Moreover, they could be induced by, among other causes, the presence of high intensity radiant sources, like lighting spots or infrared heating panels. This implies that a suitable set of radiation data related to human body anthropometry is required. This set of data mainly comprises the body surface area, the clothing area factor, the effective radiation area factor, and projected area factors. Several analytical or experimental methods may be utilized in order to compute these parameters. A detailed description of the most c…

An integrated environmental indicator for urban transportation systems: description and application

A simplified version of the ecological footprint method is proposed for assessing the environmental performances of urban transportation systems. The method, starting from the knowledge of the composition of the running vehicular fleet, is here applied to a southern Italian province. It represents a synthetic indicator of the environmental pressure exerted by the system also matching the pollutant emissions with the carrying capacity of the site. Particularly, the forested area needed to absorb the CO2 emissions of the system is compared with the total forested area of the province. The results of the case-study indicates the yearly maximum distance that each vehicle of the fleet can cover …

Fostering the energy efficiency through the energy savings: The case of the University of Palermo

This paper reports the strategy implemented by the Palermo University (Italy) aimed at fostering the energy performance of its campus, particularly towards financing energy saving measures. The basic idea is that the money saved through the energy efficiency actions, constitute the main flywheel to fund further savings and energy efficiency interventions. Results of this paper might bring a useful contribution to the energy planning of cities, since campuses may be regarded as emblematic case study of what can be done in cities because they reproduce, at a little scale, the functioning of wider urban contexts.

An integrated and shared approach to sea of the regional town master plan of Sicily

The work addresses one of the most important problems in contemporary environmental land planning. Already existing procedures, in fact, must now conform to the new requirements imposed by the recent national and international regulations and standards that call for a more conscious approach to the use of natural resources. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), for example, takes into account, the different effects of a plan in various fields such as the environment, the economy and the development. This obviously calls for global analysis tools that could help administrators, stakeholders and technicians in the decision-making process of such complex systems. SEA of the Town Master Pla…

Sistema per la produzione di energia elettrica

An ex post criticism, based on stakeholders’ preferences, of a residential sector’s energy master plan: the case study of the Sicilian region

Energy master plans are important tools for an effective and sustainable land governance. On the other hand, the stakeholder role in setting priorities for planning energy interventions is dramatically increasing, also in the light of recently issued European directives. The priorities of energy-saving measures of the Sicilian energy and environmental master plan were originally established with the application of typical economic indicators (the cost of saved energy and the cost of avoided pollutant emissions). During the prioritization process, there was a minor contribution from stakeholders who were not directly involved in the priority-setting process but were only asked to express the…

Greening a university campus: trends of energy consumption and possible sustainable paths

Recent years have seen an increasing public interest in issues related to energy saving and environmental pollution reduction of public buildings, such as those in university campuses, that should set an example of sustainable development. University campuses are usually characterized by the daily presence of a high number of people working and living in a relatively limited area. They are sites of a wide spread of functions, ranging from teaching to laboratory activities, from housing and food preparation to local transportation. All these activities require remarkable amount of energy that, actually, are not always utilized with the best possible efficiency. This calls for a deep reconsid…

Modelling Indoor Radiative Heath Exchanges for Effective People Thermal Comfort and HVAC Design.

Radiative heat exchanges inside buildings are responsible of a relevant part of the thermal balance of people occupying such confined spaces and, in turn, of their thermal comfort sensations. Mean radiant temperature of the internal surfaces is supposed to affect considerably this balance but, usually, it is computed by means of too simplified relationships that significantly affect the comfort evaluations. These simplified approaches can be also accountable of a less effective design of HVAC systems. Unfortunately, an accurate evaluation of the mean radiant temperature, especially when high intensity sources are present in a given internal space, depends on the angle factors between human …

The Role of Local Administrations in the Energy Retrofit of Public Buildings: a Case Study

Recent regulations, and related incentives, concerning urban sustainability issued at European and national level place particular attention on improving the energy and environmental performance of buildings. In this sense, a particular focus has been placed on public buildings (offices, schools, hospitals, etc..), being these centers of gravitation of social life. Among the EU strategies on this matter is an initiative called Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP), through which local administrators, based on the knowledge of their territory, are called to establish appropriate energy strategies and commit to achieving their targets within the timeframe set by the EU. The prese…

Efficienza energetica degli edifici - Istruzioni per l'uso. Prestazioni e certificazioni: arriva la Norma UNI EN 15217:2007. Che si aggiunge ai dlgs 192 e 311.

Assessing the Ecological Footprint of an Urban Transportation System

The ecological footprint methodology is here applied to the urban transport system of the Italian town of Palermo (Sicily). By only using the current running fleet, a synthetic indicator represented by the "equivalent bio-productive" land, corresponding to the actual transport configuration, will be built up. This indicator can be usefully adopted for ranking various options in the urban context referring, for example, to different arrangements of the transportation demand between private and public means. This could allow local administrations to environmentally hierarchizing alternative plans concerning the urban transportation

Forecasting pollutant emission of the urban vehicular running fleet by means of synthetic indicators

The simple method here presented, devoted to the evaluation of the environmental performances of transportation systems, is mainly referred to the pollutant emission factors released within the "COPERT III” approach. The method is here adopted for building up a synthetic indicator of the whole pollutant emissions from the transportation sector in a given urban area. The indicator can be utilised in the aim of comparing the environmental effects of different transportation policies: the introducing of modal changes in the transportation demand from private cars to public vehicles, for examples, could be suitably analysed. Apart the knowledge of the proper pollutant emission factors, the meth…

Il marchio Ecolabel applicato agli edifici

Issues to be considered for an environmental, economic and social assessment of green roofs by a life cycle approach point of view

Gli strumenti finanziari nazionali di supporto alla riduzione dei consumi energetici negli edifici delle pubbliche amministrazioni

Public Administrations are currently constrained, in their aims of carrying out actions and projects for the limitation of the energy consumption of buildings, by the scarcity of adequate budgets and by the need of observing the Growth and Stability Pact. On the contrary, the availability of (and the access to) suitable financial sources would represent significant opportunities for an economic development characterized by energy and environmental sustainability. This paper, after a short review of the domestic financial tools actually available for the reduction of their energy consumption of municipalities, analyses the technical and economic barriers that limit their effective utilizatio…

Impatto potenziale dei programmi sviluppabili dal Distretto in termini di innovazione, sviluppo e risparmio energetico sulle imprese della filiera

Se da un lato l’energia ed il suo costo rappresentano da tempo una delle più serie limitazioni alla sostenibilità del settore della pesca, dall’altro lato affrontare questo tema in un’ottica di innovazione può costituire un interessante fattore di sviluppo e di innovazione del settore stesso. Non è del resto un caso che ai temi della sostenibilità siano ispirate le linee guida del nuovo programma europeo Horizon 2020, Work Programme 2014-2010; come è noto, tra le sette sfide principali del programma europeo, una è espressamente riservata alla ricerca marina e marittima (“Food Security, Sustainable Agriculture, Marine and maritime research and the bio-economy”). Nell’ambito dei programmi svi…

Vegetation growth parameters and leaf temperature: Experimental results from a six plots green roofs' system

Abstract The paper provides a contribution for populating database of three physical parameters needed to model energy performance of buildings with green roofs: “coverage ratio” ( σ f ), leaf area index (LAI) and leaf temperature ( T f ). On purpose, six plant species were investigated experimentally: Phyla nordiflora, Aptenia lancifolia , Mesembryanthenum barbatus , Gazania nivea, Gazania uniflora , and Sedum . Proper ranges of the cited parameters have been found for each species. The here indicated ranges of σ f values refer to different growth levels of the species in the same lapse of time, that is four months. Single measured LAI values are also reported for the same plants. As for t…

A Method for Analysing Heating Demand and Energy Saving Actions for Regional Residential Building Stocks

In this paper a method is described, originally conceived during the compilation of the Energy and Environmental Regional Plan of Sicily, aimed to: a) set up a lay-out model of an overall regional residential estate into a certain number of different building and heating system types; b) calculate the energy needs of every single type according to the procedures established by the national and European regulations; The method is particularly designed to evaluate the possible energy savings from the implementation of different interventions concerning the envelope and the HVAC systems to the various building types. The method, although based on several assumptions, shows to be reliable enoug…

Pursuing softer urban mobility behaviors through game-based apps

Cities are currently engaged through their urban policies in pushing people towards less environmentally impacting mobility modalities: therefore, cycling and walking are strongly promoted, especially by means of new and wider limited traffic and no-cars zones. In this paper, the effectiveness of the new smartphones and apps-based technologies in modifying the mobility behaviors of citizens towards more sustainable choices has been investigated. Specifically, the potential of a smartphone app, directly involving citizens by means of a game rewarding the most sustainable trips, has been tested on a university commuters' group. These latter, starting from their current mobility situation, wer…

Caso studio - Determinazione del quadro complessivo relativo alla utilizzazione del Gas Naturale nel territorio della Regione Siciliana

Organic Rankine Cycle fed by flat-plate solar collectors: a case study

L'attuale tendenza dell’utilizzo di sistemi di risorse energetiche distribuite (sistemi DER), insieme con il crescente sviluppo tecnologico, incoraggia l'uso di tecnologie capaci di recuperare efficacemente energia da fonti di calore a temperatura bassa o moderata, che rappresentano un'opzione essenziale per affrontare le problematiche energetiche ed ambientali. In questo contesto, i cicli Rankine a fluido organico (ORC) si stanno affermando come una tecnologia molto promettente tra quelle attualmente disponibili, in particolare per bassi valori di temperatura. I principi di funzionamento dei sistemi ORC sono essenzialmente gli stessi di quelli del ciclo Rankine. Nei sistemi ORC, l’acqua è …

Valutazione ambientale della gestione dei rifiuti urbani nel comune di Palermo tramite la procedura LCA: il ruolo del sistema di trasporto

Trasmissione dell'energia elettrica del Piano Territoriale Urbanistico Regionale Siciliano: la VAS come metodologia di integrazione

Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment al comparto edilizio – teoria e applicazioni pratiche.

The role of transportation and its involved sources of energy in the environmental assessment of marble producing sites

Marble is acquiring large popularity as building material. Since building materials are now required to be characterized by high energy and environmental performances, marble is entailed to fulfill top-level requirements. About its environmental performances an important European Decision establishes criteria for the award of the Community eco-label to this material. Unfortunately, this Decision is focused on mining and processing activities, seemingly neglecting marble transport. In contrast, this phase affects the whole working chain because it releases (pollutant) emissions and involves the use of primary and, in case, secondary energy sources. Here, the focus is on the role played by tr…

On the classification of large residential buildings stocks by sample typologies for energy planning purposes

Local and central administrations are often called to properly allocate economic resources intended for the territorial energy planning, on the basis of the performances achieved by implementing energy conservation measures. Particularly in the residential sector, that represents one of the most relevant sector for the energy demand, effective and reliable evaluation tools are required for this aim. Unfortunately, building stocks are characterized by a very large number of buildings that are referred to different construction periods and are equipped with a variety of appliances and tools, other than with different heating and cooling systems. This means that the whole energy consumption of…

Applicabilità del marchio ECOLABEL al marmo

La distribuzione spaziale delle situazioni stazionarie di benessere termico globale negli ambienti moderati.

An algorithm for the assessment of subjective adaptive thermal comfort conditions based on multi-agent systems

Thermal comfort conditions in the built environment are strictly related not only to the thermal and geometric building features and to air-conditioning systems, but also to the building destination, to its using profile and to the biological-metabolic-psychological characteristics of users. As a consequence, there is a strong claim for new models, both subjective and adaptive to the environment, in a particular holistic vision of the problem, with regards to the novel tern user-plant-building system. In such a frame, through the paper the characterization of an algorithm aimed at subjective adaptive thermal comfort evaluations, enriching the one proposed by Fanger with an adaptive approach…

Environmental performance of building materials: life cycle assessment of a typical Sicilian marble

Background, aim, and scope: The building sector is strategically important for achieving sustainability. Therefore, the improvement of energy and environmental performances are relevant targets because precious building materials such as marble have a significant impact on the environment. The aim of this paper is an analysis of a typical Sicilian marble (Perlato di Sicilia) to evaluate its energy and environmental performance. Marble plays an important role in the economy of Italy and has a global market share of 58% in terms of exports. For the main production areas of marble, relevant environmental performance data are missing except for one region (Tuscany-Massa e Carrara province). Per…

Ottimizzazione energetica e razionalizzazione della domanda elettrica dei supermercati e degli ipermercati.

Toward a holistic environmental impact assessment of marble quarrying and processing: proposal of a novel easy-to-use IPAT-based method.

Marble is a natural dimension stone that is widely used in building due to its resistance and esthetic qualities. Unfortunately, some concerns have arisen regarding its production process because quarrying and processing activities demand significant amounts of energy and greatly affect the environment. Further, performing an environmental analysis of a production process such as that of marble requires the consideration of many environmental aspects (e.g., noise, vibrations, dust and waste production, energy consumption). Unfortunately, the current impact accounting tools do not seem to be capable of considering all of the major aspects of the (marble) production process that may affect th…

Caso studio: unità abitativa unifamiliare

People comfort and artwork saving in museums: comparing indoor requisites

In museums, environmental indoor conditions should, contemporaneously, preserve the exhibited works of art and ensure the comfort conditions for people. Unfortunately, human and artworks requirements are characterised by different values of the physical indoor parameters that, occasionally, could become conflicting. In the paper, these problems are addressed by means of a literature analysis, with a specific attention to thermal comfort conditions of people. The possibility of finding common ranges of values for both requisites is finally discussed. Some recent technical recommendations on the matter have also been considered for indicating some HVAC equipment and appliances to be adopted i…

The applicability of the indicators proposed by the European and national regulatory framework for the verification of the advancement of the plans: the case of the Energy and Environmental Masterplan of the Sicilian Region.

Indicators are essential operational tools for the preparation of plans, to monitor their progress and for the ex-post verification of the results achieved. As it is known, there is a large corpus of indicators, both at Community and national Italian level, to which designers and planners can refer. However, it remains to verify the effectiveness of general validity parameters in describing the progress of the implementation of plans, which must be necessarily compared with more limited territorial situations. This paper addresses this problem, with reference to the Energy and Environmental Plan of the Sicilian Region (PEARS), comparing the themes proposed at European (Eurostat) and the Ita…

Visually low-impacting methods for the measurement of parameters related to IAQ risk indicators in exhibition halls

Microclimate for cultural heritage plays a fundamental role in the degradation process of artefacts exhibited in museums. Generally, the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) monitoring inside museums is based on conventional measurements of thermo-hygrometry parameters and longtime averaged measurements of atmospheric pollutants’ concentration. Unfortunately, all these approaches require electric supply and are usually characterized by a noticeable visual impact on the exhibition space, which clearly negatively affects the visitors’ experience. This paper intends to revisit and discuss a methodology (and its test application on field, to estimate the risk of damage of three artefacts displayed in an ol…

Il fabbisogno energetico per la climatizzazione estiva degli edifici

Assessing the environmental impact exerted by roads in “operative” conditions - a Highway case-study

Visually low-impacting methods for the measurement of parameters related to IAQ risk indicators in exhibition halls

Microclimate for cultural heritage plays a fundamental role in the degradation process of artefacts exhibited in museums. Generally, the Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) monitoring inside museums is based on conventional measurements of thermo-hygrometry parameters and longtime averaged measurements of atmospheric pollutants’ concentration. Unfortunately, all these approaches require electric supply and are usually characterized by a noticeable visual impact on the exhibition space, which clearly negatively affects the visitors’ experience. This paper intends to revisit and discuss a methodology (and its test application on field, to estimate the risk of damage of three artefacts displayed in an ol…

Involving people in the building up of smart and sustainable cities: How to influence commuters’ behaviors through a mobile app game

Abstract Usually, mobility policies assessed by local institutions tend to intervene on the side of the urban transport networks, by designing new and expensive infrastructures, whereas only a few attention is paid to the possible positive effects induced by proper mobility behaviors of people. On purpose, Smartphone technologies and platforms are rapidly becoming effective tools for involving citizens in environmental conscious mobility habits. By means of an empirical application to a group of university students, that daily commute for reaching their departments, the effectiveness of a mobile app game in pursuing commuters to modify their mobility behaviors is here checked. The game rewa…

I piani energetici ambientali regionali. Applicabilità degli indicatori proposti a scala nazionale (ISPRA) ed europea (EUROSTA).

As it is well known, indicators represent effective tools in the aim of designing, monitoring and verifying energy and environmental Masterplans. At this regard, a large number of indicators do exist both at European and country Italian levels which designers can usefully apply to. Anyway, being such indicators released at a general European level, their actual verifiability should be properly checked when them are applied to the local level of a given territory. In the present work this issue is approached by referring to the Sicilian Energy and Environmental Masterplan (PEARS): on purpose, the themes proposed at European (Eurostat) and country Italian (ISPRA) levels have been compared wit…

A model for evaluating the environmental and functional benefits of “innovative” roundabouts

This study looks at the singling out of a multi-parameter criterion for choosing conventional or innovative roundabout layouts, by taking functional, environmental and economic aspects into consideration. The performances of three conventional roundabouts (with different lane number at entries and through the ring), turbo-roundabouts and roundabouts with right-turn bypass lane on all the arms (flower roundabouts) have been compared in terms of vehicle delays and pollutant (carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particle pollution (PM10 and PM2.5)) emissions. By means of closed-form capacity models and with the help of COPERT IV© software, several traffic simulations have been carried out, referre…

Note sull'utilizzo delle tabelle proposte dalla normativa vigente per la valutazione del PMV

Un possibile approccio "Social LCA" per le coperture a verde

How to track behaviours’ changes toward more sustainable mobility habits: the serious game of TrafficO2

Social science and new communication technologies are influencing deeply the transportation domain and new models of urban sustainable development are constantly emerging as new possible solutions. One of the principal reasons is the capability to reach the motivations that foster us to choose one or other urban transportation systems. It’s already feasible to develop solutions to aim the implementation and the rooting of more efficient and sustainable habits in urban transportation. The present exploratory paper presents the activities conducted by innovation lab PUSH, with the Italian Ministry of Innovation and Research, for the development and the application of the social innovation pro…

Energia solare a scala urbana: metodi di stima della percentuale di utilizzo delle coperture degli edifici

Reducing Electric and Thermal Energy Needs in Buildings by Using Innovative Envelope Materials

The life style of building occupants is continuously arising towards conditions that are more comfortable involving, on turn, the growing of the electric energy consumptions for climatization purposes. This calls for the improvement of the efficiencies of equipment along with environmental performance of building materials. Laboratory analyses of samples of mixed materials, utilizing tomato stems harvested in Sicily and Cataluna, have been conducted Thermal conductance and mechanical properties have been detected for different rates of bio-component and inert materials. First results of the thermal properties seem to situate such bio-composites among the insulating building materials, for a…

Sulla possibilità di attribuire un nuovo marchio di eccellenza ambientale specifico per le aziende agrituristiche

Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment: an implementation to marble products

Controllo termoigrometrico indoor negli spazi museali: analisi di un edificio in evoluzione climatica libera

Nei musei, le condizioni ambientali interne dovrebbero, nello stesso tempo, assolvere due compiti fondamentali: preservare le opere d’arte ivi esposte e garantire buone condizioni di comfort per i visitatori e per le persone che vi lavorano. Purtroppo, i requisiti ottimali per le persone e per le opere d’arte sono caratterizzati da differenti valori dei parametri fisici all’interno degli ambienti museali che, occasionalmente, possono entrare in conflitto. Nel presente articolo questi problemi vengono analizzati a partire da un’indagine di campo effettuata presso un importante museo italiano, con specifica attenzione alle condizioni microclimatiche all’interno di alcune sale espositive. Inol…

A model for managing and evaluating solar radiation for indoor thermal comfort

Thermal comfort of people occupying indoor spaces depends, to a large extent, on the direct component of solar radiation incident on the human body. In turn, even the diffuse component of the solar radiation could affect the thermal sensations of people. Despite this evidence, at the present there is a lack in the availability of simple and reliable methods capable of taking into account the influence of the solar radiation on thermal balance in the human body. In this work a comprehensive method is presented for the computation of the mean radiant temperature of people in thermal moderate indoor environments in the presence of solar radiation. The effects produced on the amount of solar ra…

Certificazione energetica per l’edilizia sostenibile

Towards resilient cities: Advancements allowed by a multi-criteria optimization tool to face the new challenges of European Union’s climate and energy goals

Abstract The United Nations as well as the European Union are strongly committed in promoting a transition towards more sustainable and resilient cities. Indeed, they are increasingly affected by different types of threats, among which the natural ones such as earthquakes, fires, and floods (shocks) and climate variability (stresses). Cities are quite often unable to cope with the adverse effects of such natural hazards. This circumstance leads to the need of introducing resilience-related criteria (besides commonly used sustainability indicators) in decision-making processes. This paper investigates at which extent the inclusion of such new indicators, within multi-criteria assessment tool…

An empirical approach for ranking environmental and energy saving measures in the hotel sector

The energy demand of the hotel sector of an Italian region is here utilized for hierarchizing, by means of an empirical method, efficient measures devoted to energy saving and reduction of CO2 emissions. Due to the large number of consumers present in the selected territorial area and the lack in detailed data, the energy demand assessment is here carried out by the analysis of a sample of representative consumers. A short set of indexes, referring to energy and environmental performances, are defined and calculated for different clusters of hotels, grouped on the basis of site characteristics, opening periods, number of beds, and building age. Such indexes are utilized to establish lists o…

Prestazioni ambientali degli edifici

Improving the sustainability of transportation: environmental and functional benefits of right-turn by pass lanes at roundabouts

The functional performances of conventional roundabouts (single-lane and multi-lane) and innovative roundabouts (spiral, flower, C and turbo) can be improved through right-turn bypass lanes controlled by stop, yield or free-flow signs. The article presents evaluations of the emissions of air pollutants (carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particle pollution (PM10 and PM2.5)), fuel consumption and construction, management, energetic and environmental costs in roundabouts without or with bypass lanes (controlled by stop, yield or free-flow). The suggested methodology has a general character and can be applied as a multi-parametric criterion for choosing road intersections, although, in the prese…

Energia solare in area urbana. Tecniche GIS per la stima del potenziale.

Dalla certificazione energetica alla sostenibilità ambientale degli edifici

Vegetation and soil – related parameters for computing solar radiation exchanges within green roofs: Are the available values adequate for an easy modeling of their thermal behavior?

Several studies analyze the thermal performance of vegetated roofs, presenting either mathematical models or experimental quantifications of heat transfer process through them, also showing the effect of vegetation and soil parameters on the thermal and energy performance of this type of roofing system. However, presently the level of availability of these parameters, has not been enough considered. This work intends to investigate this underestimated issue of the green roofs’ thermal modeling, through the consideration of the availability of parameters pertinent to the shortwave radiation exchange, which are adopted by models based on leaf area index (LAI) and on the fractional vegetation …

Changing commuters’ mobility behaviors of university campuses: environmental and energy comparisons

Governments are required to take proper measures to promote the use of electric and hybrid vehicles and, more generally, to push people towards sweeter modalities including walking and biking. To reach such tight and challenging goals, local institutions should be deeply involved, and universities among them. The promotion of sustainable mobility practices among commuter students must be considered indeed an effective contribution to facilitating the transition towards greener cities. On purpose, students of the University of Palermo that daily commute from their residences to the campus are considered here. These commuters, in fact, mainly adopt traditional polluting transportation means. …

Control of indoor environments in heritage buildings: experimental measurements in an old Italian museum and proposal of a methodology

Abstract This paper describes some results from an experiment carried out regarding a procedure to be adopted for temperature and R.H. monitoring of indoor spaces designed for exhibiting events, such as museums and similar institutions. The monitored data employed in this study has been collected by the Department di Ricerche Energetiche ed Ambientali of the Universita degli Studi di Palermo in co-operation with the Regional Gallery ''Palazzo Abatellis'' of Palermo. The study analyses a simple method for characterising the environmental quality of museums so as to ensure the optimal conservation of works of art. This methodology is based on the procedure (where thermal and hygrometry parame…

Extending the current database for the LCA of Building materials: an EU-USA comparison.

Relationships between pollutant emissions from vehicles and levels of concentrations: a phenomenological approach

The level of air quality in urban centres is affected by emission of several pollutants, mainly coming from the vehicles flowing in their road networks. This is a well known phenomenon that influences the quality of life of people. Despite the deep concern of researchers and technicians, we are far from a total understanding of this phenomenon. On the contrary, the availability of reliable forecasting models would constitute an important tool for administrators in order of assessing suitable actions concerning the transportation policies, public as well private. As matter of fact, the definition of a physical model requires the knowledge of many parameters, involving the running fleet, the …

Renewable energy sources: a Mediterranean perspective

Southern Mediterranean countries are growing very fast. Globally, the evolution of economic and social indicators in the area is positive, since significant progresses have been registered in the field of economic as well as human development.

Towards the definition of a sustainable Smart Model for the suburbs redevelopment

Starting from the analysis of the problems that characterize the Italian suburbs, the application of a Smart Methodology to a real peripheral area is presented. In literature, several studies underline the urgent request of the city's periphery, enhancing local and national projects to increase the quality of life in the suburbs. In this framework, authors propose a multifunctional centre development, characterized by modern technologies (both structural and plant) to implement energy efficiency and social aggregation, in line with the citizen's needs. Once the simulation model of alternative solutions, such as construction type, energy system and social services, was elaborated in Matlab/S…

A model for predicting the potential diffusion of solar energy systems in complex urban environments

Abstract The necessity to reduce greenhouse gases emission produced by energy building consumptions and to cut the energy bill (mainly due to the use of fossil sources) leads to the employment of renewable energy sources in new planned scenarios. In particular, more and more often municipal energy and environmental plans pay great attention to the possibilities of employment of the solar technologies at urban scale. Solar thermal and photovoltaic (PV) systems are, by far, the most suitable tools to be utilized in urban areas. Obviously, the proper adoption of such systems in buildings does call for the availability of calculation methods suitable to provide the actual level of exploitation …

Approaching the whole quality of buildings: methods for the evaluation of economic, energetic and environmental issues

In this work the energy, economy and environment ("three E") requirements for buildings are approached in a joint view, by means of an application to an example building typical of the Italian building stock. With this aim, the rate of involvement of renewable sources is here considered for linking energy and environmental characteristics. Economic and environmental features are joint by means of the evaluation of the cost of the saved CO2. Economic and energy characteristics are linked by means of the cost of the saved energy. In turn, the environmental ambit is addressed by means of the ecoprofile methodology and of the environmental labelling of buildings. This should lead toward a first…

Sustainable Strategies and Industrial Ecology: a new Approach for the Environmental Management

Thermal Comfort

A new subjective adaptive comfort model based on intelligent agents

Comparing different control strategies for indoor thermal comfort aimed at the evaluation of the energy cost of quality of building

Abstract The rapid improvement in the standard of living requires more detailed and sophisticated methods of evaluating comfort conditions. But, maintaining thermal comfort conditions in confined environments may require complex regulation procedures and the proper management of heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. In turn, the requirements for indoor thermal comfort do not necessarily coincide with those of energy saving purposes, which in the last years are becoming a crucial issue owing to the enactment of the European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). The aim of this work is to compare different indoor control thermal comfort strategies in view of th…

Elementi per la valutazione ambientale strategica dei piani energetici regionali: il caso della regione siciliana

Using AHP methodology for prioritizing the actions in the transport sector in the frame of SECAPs

The drafting of the Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan, required for the local authorities joining the Covenant of Mayors initiative, is an opportunity to plan actions reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector. Choosing the measures to implement requires the application of a methodology that compares them, considering costs and impacts in terms of energy consumption, emissions reduction, and social benefits. The paper aims to develop a method based on the typical approach of the Analytical Hierarchy Process, supporting decisions in the transport sector in the frame of the drafting of SECAP. The method allows determining the priority actions and the optimal allocation…

Fabbisogno di energia per la climatizzazione di edifici commerciali: Calcolo orario per situazioni specifiche in regime di funzionamento intermittente, applicazione ad una struttura commerciale in Sicilia

Applying a new synthetic environmental indicator to urban transportation scenario

Through this work will be presented a suitably modified version of a simple model devoted to the evaluation of pollutant matters released in urban contexts by the transportation sector. The method, essentially referring to the pollutant emission factors provided within the European "COPERT III" approach, only requires the knowledge of data concerning the running car fleet on the analysed site. The methodology is here utilised for comparing environmental and energy effects of different transportation policies to be adopted in a given urban area. By imposing modal changes to the transportation demand and, consequently, by re-allocating people from cars to public means, the effects on the rele…

Valutazione sperimentale della velocità e della direzione dell'aria a livello locale negli edifici.

Synthetic environmental appraisal of waste management system: an application to the Sicilian region

This paper addresses the problem of synthetically evaluating the environmental performances of urban solid waste systems. This, in fact, represents a crucial point in the management process of complex systems that local administrations are called to cope with, in order to provide decisions about policy options that involve different issues characterising the quality of life of people. Suitable methods of evaluation are clearly required for this aim. This work introduces the dashboard of sustainability and the ecological footprint approaches as aggregate indicators of the performances of solid waste management systems. The methods have been selected due to their intrinsic simplicities, provi…

Caso Studio relativo ad un ipermercato ubicato in Sicilia, opportunità di risparmio energetico, studi di fattibilità

Embedding energy consumption for lighting in the evaluation methods of the energy performance of buildings

Note sull'applicazione del marchio Ecolabel agli edifici

A Possible Approach to Take into Account the Presence of Green Roofs in the Energy Certification of Buildings

A short analysis the role of vegetation in reducing the summer energy demand of buildings

An MAS-based subjective model for indoor adaptive thermal comfort

The achievement of high level personalized sets of comfort parameters is contemplated within the more general context of the so-called smart buildings, where people, by means of the new communication technologies, become active actors to the process of the singling out and control of the best indoor conditions. This Dynamic Intelligence approach would usefully contribute to a better energy efficient and environmental friendly management of buildings. Multi-Agent schemes are suitable tools in this aim, since they are able to manage the user-building-plant system where the adaptivity of people to the indoor conditions is suitably achieved. In this paper a contribution to a development of the …

Considerations about an indicator aimed at describing the energy efficiency of buildings with innovative envelope components at different climatic conditions

Green roofs are building components that have become increasingly common in urban contexts because other than the general improvement of the aesthetics of the buildings equipped with them, they have demonstrated to positively improve the building energy performance. Consequently, it would be useful for technicians to have easy and reliable indicators to achieve a synthetic quantitative judgement about the effectiveness of green roofs by an energy perspective compared to others building envelope technologies, for different climates. In sight of the definition of such an indicator, or at least of its properties, some considerations aimed at this purpose, especially concerning the use of new c…

Il ruolo del trasporto dei rifiuti nelle prestazioni ambientali dei sistemi integrati di gestione: verifica con il metodo dell’impronta ecologica

Trasmissione dell’elettrica e Piano Territoriale Urbanistico Regionale Siciliano: la VAS come metodologia di integrazione

How effective are the vegetated surfaces for the CO2 sequestration? Analyzing parameters and methods

Human activities are severe sources of greenhouse gases and, particularly, of CO 2 . This trend, according with the highly demanding criteria released by the international institutions, must be suitably cut, in order of turning the pollutant emissions within limits that will guarantee a sustainable and environmentally safe development of the human species. Apart the measures that are since long time usually implemented in the technological systems, other interventions should be properly adopted in supporting the sustainability of the anthropic activities. These actions mainly apply to the so-called bioclimatic and passive measures and, particularly, could usefully refer to the plantation of…

Assunzione congiunta di diverse opzioni di calcolo nell'analisi termica degli edifici

Comparing indoor performances of a building equipped with four different roof configurations in 65 Italian sites

Abstract—Despite the increasing concern of institutions and technical organizations toward the improvement of the building energy (and, therefore, environmental) efficiency, the main goal of technicians should be also devoted toward the levels of internal thermal comfort that buildings are able to realize. As that, the relationships between energy performances and comfort conditions provided by the enclosures are of paramount importance in guiding designers in their work. In this paper, the influence of diverse roof construction typologies on energy and indoor performance of buildings has been investigated, in different Italian sites during heating and cooling seasons. In addition, it must …

A simple methodology for comparing cost-benefit of traditional, green and cool roofs

Energy policy makers, architects and researchers, when designing new buildings or rehabilitating the existing ones, are engaged in the attempt of limiting the energy needs for climatization (NZEB buildings) and the environmental pressure exerted by buildings (EU Climate Action). The pursuit of this demanding assignment calls for innovative solutions in conceiving the building envelope and its energy systems. Recently, among the most effective tools for improving the energy and environmental performances of buildings, the technical interventions regarding the roofs are gaining a rising attention. Indeed, covers of buildings are responsible of a relevant part of their energy losses and, on th…

Leading agritourism facilities along Nearly Zero Energy paths: proposal of an easy-to-use evaluation method

The tourist sector, despite the present severe constraints imposed by the sanitary emergence, can be considered as an important component of almost all countries’ economies. In Italy agriturism, in particular, has been experiences a continuously rising trend in recent years. Clearly, such great interest towards these businesses also calls for a deep attention by an energy point of view, in sight of an energy efficiency improvement, hence a lowering of the pressure that such facilities exert to the natural environment. On the other hand, the European Union has been engaged, for a long time, in awarding the tourist accommodations environmental excellence brands, like the EU Ecolabel. Unfortun…

La progettazione termica degli edifici con il personal computer

Qualità ambientale degli edifici: analisi della trasferibilità dell’ecolabel europeo per i servizi turistici

I metodi a punteggio di valutazione ambientale quale strumento volontario nell’ambito della certificazione energetica degli edifici

La qualità ambientale nella gestione dei siti di ricerca: considerazioni sulla registrazione EMAS di un dipartimento universitario

Urban transportation: Predicting acoustic and atmospheric pollution by means on neural networks.

The prediction of the atmospheric pollution produced by transportation in urban areas is one of the main issues in which researchers are engaged worldwide since a long time. A lot of models have been introduced, ranging from simplified ones (that utilize literature data and phenomenological approaches), to very sophisticated methods (referring to complex mathematical techniques for solving the fluid dynamics algorithms). As matter of facts, passengers and freight vehicles are also responsible of acoustic pollution, that is particularly impacting in urban contexts. What it is new in this work is the consideration that both pollution phenomena occur in the same time and exert a double pressur…

Green roofs for smart cities: experimental determination of the “fractional vegetation coverage” of six vegetated species

Towards a de-carbonization of European countries, green roofs are becoming popular, due not only to aesthetic reasons but also to energy and environmental issues. Indeed, especially in summer periods, the building cooling demand might be sensibly cut thanks to such passive components often chosen for planning smart cities. To properly model the energy performances of buildings equipped with these components, a particular attention must be paid to radiative exchanges occurring among soil surface, leaves and outdoor surroundings. These thermal exchanges depend on parameters, like the “fractional vegetation coverage” whose literature data do not seem particularly suitable for the simulation ne…

Algorithms for the calculation of the projected area factors of seated and standing persons

Moderate thermal environments, other than being affected by the mutual radiative heat exchange at low frequency among the internal surfaces, are often characterized by the presence of high intensity sources, that is, radiant sources showing a small area, a high emission temperature and a strongly directional beam. The sun's direct radiation can be considered to be among these radiant sources. In these cases, the computation of the mean radiant temperature and, consequently, the evaluation of the thermal comfort conditions, require knowledge of the “project area factor”, fp, of the subject. Moreover, the fp parameters are also applicable to derivation of the shape factors between subjects an…

Two operative risk indicators as tools for negotiating contracts between curators of Museums and HVAC technical services providers

Abstract The purpose of Heating, Ventilating and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) systems in museums is to properly control important microclimate parameters; such systems, in fact, apart from ensuring the visitors’ wellbeing, are requested to guarantee suitable indoor conditions for the proper conservation of the important cultural goods hosted by museums. Hence, in case of disservice, or interruption due to maintenance interventions, it is important to quantify the economic damage induced to exhibited and/or stored works of art (or even to the building museum itself). Accordingly, it is essential to guarantee the shortest possible period of disservice during which probable damages for the works of…

Utilizing the tourist Ecolabel-award scheme for singling out useful criteria for assessing a new environmental brand for residential buildings.

The Eco-label scheme is becoming ever more important in the environmental certification of products and services, especially in light of the recent ambitious aim of containing greenhouse emissions and improving the efficiency of utilizing energy sources and resources. A recently-introduced hypothesis concerns the European eco-label scheme relating to buildings, due in part to the awareness that the construction industry is of primary importance to the whole economic and social life of states. This scheme should adopt an integrated approach to environmental problems and include construction, day-to-day management and the possible disposal of building materials, throughout the life cycle of t…

Assessment of ventilation equipment of groups of building by means of IAQ questionnaires

Algorithms for the calculation of the view factors between human body and rectangular surfaces in parallelepiped environments

Abstract The thermal comfort conditions for people in moderate thermal environments are subjected to spatial changes, depending on the radiative exchanges of the human body with the surrounding surfaces. Radiative thermal exchanges are notably accounted for by means of the “view factors” between a person in a given posture and the surface of the enclosure. These important parameters can be evaluated by means of a large set of graphs by Fanger, for rectangular surfaces. But the handling of graphs could lead to reading errors. In this paper a simple algorithm is presented, which is able to compute the required view factors. A validation, by means of a comparison against experimental data, is …

Celle a combustibile per applicazioni stazionarie cogenerative (5.2.5.11) - Celle a Combustibile (wp1)

Dall'edilizia a basso consumo all'edilizia a basso impatto: considerazioni ed ipotesi metodologiche

Transferability to LDC of Some European standards concerning the environmental certification of products and services

Goal and Scope. Western developed countries (DC) are currently involved in an important process of releasing new rules and standards devoted to the environmental certifications of urban systems, in order of accomplishing the requirements established by the international protocols (Kyoto, among them), aimed at the reduction of greenhouse gases emitted in the atmosphere and at the limitation of the environmental impact as well. Within this frame, the European Union is giving a rising importance to the so-called 'Integrated Product Policy' (IPP), that is an integrated approach of the environmental policy, aiming to an improvement of the environmental performance of products and services during…

Individuazione di strumenti sintetici di analisi per la Valutazione Ambientale Strategica. Applicazione ad un Piano Territoriale Urbanistico Regionale

The role of the transportation phase for a green management of municipal solid waste

Municipal solid waste management (MSWM) constitutes a high challenging issue to cope with to move towards sustainability of the urban policies. Despite new standards call for recycling and reusing materials contained in the city waste, several municipalities still use extensive landfills. Other than the environmental pressure exerted by these plants, the waste transportation from the recovery points of towns to landfills needs consideration to correctly assess the whole burden of the waste management. In this paper, the Ecological Footprint indicator is applied to the MSWM of the town of Palermo (Sicily). Results show that the effects produced by the involved transportation vehicles, both i…

L’impronta ecologica come misura della sostenibilità: applicazione alle province siciliane

Strategic Environmental Analysis (SEA) of the building Sector: an Annotated List of Indicators and a Simple Methodology

With respect to the SEA of the town planning scheme of the Sicilian region, we will analyse through the paper the most commonly adopted indicators of sustainability and we will select the most promising of them for the purpose. Moreover, a simplified approach will be introduced for the assessment of the SEA by utilising both simple and aggregate indicators: simple indicators (selected among those proposed in the literature) will lead to the “technical” assessment of the SEA, while aggregate indicators (built up by properly grouping the simple ones) will lead to the “political” assessment of the Sicilian urbanistic sector. Simple indicators will refer to official data, essentially concerning…

The cost of green roofs disposal in a life cycle perspective: covering the gap.

Abstract This study is aimed at providing a contribution in overcoming the current gap, especially in Life Cycle Costing (LCC) and Benefit – Cost (BCA) analyses, due to the lack concerning the green roof disposal costs. Therefore, we have applied to an actual extensive green roof the LCC methodology suggested by D. G. Woodward (that appears like one of the most formalized and generalizable), but we have extended the analysis to the disposal phase. This will allow a complete and proper application of the LCC methodology in order of achieving an economic accounting of this component through its life cycle. In this way, it is possible to achieve the complete evaluation of the “green roof” perf…

Le contraddizioni del solare fotovoltaico. Il caso emblematico della Sicilia

The spatial evaluation of the radiative human body heat exchanges: An effective contribution for limiting energy consumption and achieving better indoor conditions in buildings

Abstract Radiative heat exchanges inside buildings remarkably affect the thermal balance of the human body in confined spaces and the related thermal comfort sensations of people. The mean radiant temperature is an important component of this balance. Unfortunately, it is usually computed by means of too simplified relationships, which significantly influence the comfort evaluations. Such simplified approaches are also accountable for a less effective design of HVAC systems which, in turn, could result in high energy consumption in the climatization of buildings. However, an accurate evaluation of the mean radiant temperature, especially when high intensity sources are present in a given in…

The calculation of the mean radiant temperature of a subject exposed to the solar radiation – A generalised algorithm

Abstract The thermal sensation experienced by a subject in a confined environment is significantly affected by the radiative heat exchange between the human body and the surrounding surfaces: it contributes as far as 30% of the whole thermal exchanges of the subject. Besides, the presence of high-intensity radiation sources like, for example, the sun, may appreciably modify the radiant field to which people are exposed. As a consequence, this could alter notably the comfort conditions. In order of properly taking into account this issue, a simple analytical method is introduced in this work, that allows the easy evaluation of the thermal radiant field induced by the presence of the solar ra…

Simulazione del comportamento termoigrometrico di un grosso ipermercato ubicato in Sicilia

La valutazione ambientale dei materiali edili

Scenari sostenibili per il sistema energetico dell’Isola di Pantelleria

Strumenti per la valutazione delle prestazioni ambientali a scala provinciale: L'IMPRONTA ECOLOGICA. Le prestazioni ambientali delle province siciliane.

Angle Factors and Projected Area Factors for Comfort Analysis of Subjects in Complex Confined Enclosures: Analytical Relations and Experimental Results

This paper addresses an important problem in the evaluation of the thermal comfort of people living or working in the sort of confined spaces typical of current architecture. In the details, a new algorithm is proposed for the evaluation of the angle factors of people within rooms characterized by complex shapes, where the envelope components are not always mutually orthogonal. The algorithm is based on field data obtained by means of an experimental photographic apparatus which allows measurements of projected area factors of seated or standing people in such complex confined environments.

A short analysis of the role of vegetation in reducing the summer energy demand of buildings

La qualità energetico-ambientale e l’applicabilità dello schema Ecolabel: le iniziative in corso

Indoor air quality in schools of a highly polluted south Mediterranean area

This study aimed at surveying lower secondary schools in southern Italy, in a highly polluted area. A community close to an industrial area and three villages in rural areas was investigated. Indoor temperature, relative humidity (RH), gaseous pollutants (CO 2 and NO 2 ), selected biological pollutants in indoor dust, and the indoor/outdoor mass concentration and elemental composition of PM 2.5 were ascertained. Temperature and RH were within, or close to, the comfort range, while CO 2 frequently exceeded the threshold of 1000 ppm, indicating inadequate air exchange rate. In all the classrooms, median NO 2 levels were above the WHO threshold value. Dermatophagoides p. allergen concentration…

Green Roofs as Effective Tools for Improving the Indoor Comfort Levels of Buildings—An Application to a Case Study in Sicily

In the line of pursuing better energy efficiency in human activities that would result in a more sustainable utilization of resources, the building sector plays a relevant role, being responsible for almost 40% of both energy consumption and the release of pollutant substances in the atmosphere. For this purpose, techniques aimed at improving the energy performances of buildings&rsquo

Relationship between domestic smoking and metals and rare earth elements concentration in indoor PM2.5

Cigarette smoke is the main source of indoor chemical and toxic elements. Cadmium (Cd), Thallium (Tl), Lead (Pb) and Antimony (Sb) are important contributors to smoke-related health risks. Data on the association between Rare Earth Elements (REE) Cerium (Ce) and Lanthanum (La) and domestic smoking are scanty. To evaluate the relationship between cigarette smoke, indoor levels of PM2.5 and heavy metals, 73 children were investigated by parental questionnaire and skin prick tests. The houses of residence of 41 "cases" and 32 "controls" (children with and without respiratory symptoms, respectively) were evaluated by 48-hours PM2.5 indoor/outdoor monitoring. PM2.5 mass concentration was determi…

A simple methodology for comparing cost-benefit of traditional, green and cool roofs

Energy policy makers, architects and researchers, when designing new buildings or rehabilitating the existing ones, are engaged in the attempt of limiting the energy needs for climatization (NZEB buildings) and the environmental pressure exerted by buildings (EU Climate Action). The pursuit of this demanding assignment calls for innovative solutions in conceiving the building envelope and its energy systems. Recently, among the most effective tools for improving the energy and environmental performances of buildings, the technical interventions regarding the roofs are gaining a rising attention. Indeed, covers of buildings are responsible of a relevant part of their energy losses and, on th…

Environmental Implications of Traffic Flow Delays: a Model for Urban Streets

In this paper the problem of road's capacity is dealt in presence of perturbations of the vehicular flow. In particular, among the different disturbing causes, it is here considered the presence of vehicles parked along the road in relation to their parking activity. Having already established the delay, caused by those vehicles leaving their stationary positions and entering the traffic flow or by those who slow down the flow to park, it is possible to evaluate the changes in time running values. Related to these times delay, the extra pollutant emissions by a given urban running fleet is also evaluated, by utilizing emission factors depending on age, type, volume capacity and engine of th…

Analisi delle prestazioni di sostenibilità del marmo in edilizia

I nuovi strumenti per promuovere l’efficienza nel settore dell’edilizia

Verso un linguaggio di sostenibilità condiviso: analisi critica dei protocolli di certificazione ambientale degli edifici

The importance of building performance in the worldwide energy scenario has increased in the last years. European countries have developed standards and energy certification schemes for optimizing energy consumption and reducing environmental impacts which have been applied at National and local levels. In addition, green protocols have been developed for assessing the sustainability levels of buildings. Differently from the energy performance schemes, they are not mandatory and big differences do exist among the Green Building Rating System developed in each country. In this analysis 11 certification procedures have been analysed in order to highlight qualitative and quantitative differenc…

COOLING OF COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS BY MEANS OF LARGE COLD RADIANT CEILINGS

ABSTRACT The possibility of using different cooling tools working with lower radiant temperatures and higher air velocity is explored. Lower energy consumptions may be achieved in specific climates with reasonable levels of thermal comfort.

Design, Building up and First Results of Three Monitored Green Coverings Over a University Department Building

Abstract A viable solution to reducing the buildings’ energy demand is the implementation of green coverings that have been demonstrated to improve the envelope performance, especially in summer season. Anyway, to apply computer models analyzing the energy performance of buildings equipped with such components, the knowledge of specific parameters is needed. Among these, the fractional vegetation coverage and leaf area index are of great importance. By means of an experimental facility, first results of the evaluation of these foliage-related parameters for five types of vegetation are presented.

Modelling within-canopy heat exchanges of green roofing

Le caratteristiche termo fisiche dei materiali bioedili – Alcuni dati preliminari di laboratorio

Suitability of some existing damage indexes for assessing agreements in maintenance and management of museum climatization systems

Heating, Ventilating and Air-Conditioning systems in museums are called to properly control important microclimate parameters, not only for visitors’ wellbeing, but mostly for the preservation of works of art. Accordingly, in case of interruptions to Heating, Ventilating and Air-Conditioning systems, due to maintenance interventions or drawbacks, it is essential to guarantee the acceptable break from service to which possible damages for the works of art are related. In this regard, the aim of this work is to introduce a simple indicator to support curators in regulating the stipulation of contracts with external companies, a more effective management and maintenance of the Heating, V…

Are the best available technologies the only viable for energy interventions in historical buildings?

Worth aged buildings represent among the existing buildings a special case when it comes to their energy refurbishment. Unfortunately, the available technologies for building components characterized by high level of thermal performances show, not rarely, a limited compatibility with the architectural integrity of the building. In other words, the so-called Best Available Technologies, which are effectively adopted to optimize the building energy performances, in case of buildings to which a certain artistic, historic and/or architectural merit is recognized, i.e. heritage houses, might determine such kind of conflicts. This situation may lead to the selection of “non-invasive” but less per…

A Win-Win Scheme for Improving the Environmental Sustainability of University Commuters’ Mobility and Getting Environmental Credits

European Union Member States are called upon to meet internationally proposed environmental goals. This study is based, in particular, on the recommendation of the European Union (EU), which encourages Member States to pursue effective policies to reduce greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions, including through appropriate changes in the behavioral habits of citizens. In this respect, among the main sectors involved, transport and mobility should certainly be mentioned. National institutions should be adequately involved in order to achieve the objectives set; in this regard, universities must certainly be considered for their educational value. These latter, for instance, could commit to improvin…

Rumore in ambiente urbano prodotto da installazioni aeroportuali: rilievi sperimentali relativi all' AEROPORTO DELLO STRETTO di Reggio Calabria.

Role of green coverings in mitigating heat island effects: an analysis of physical models

Worldwide, governments are introducing several rules and standards in the aim of limiting the quantity of primary energy for air conditioning of buildings and supporting the use of renewable source of energy for generating thermal and electric energy to be utilized in buildings such as the European Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings [1]. Along with these interventions, another important action takes currently place in the building sector, that is the introduction of passive structural components of the envelope, able to reduce the requirements of energy for air conditioning purposes. Among these building components, the so-called green roofs are becoming more and more interest…

Environmental Implications of Traffic Flow Delays: A Model for Urban Streets

In this paper the problem of road's capacity is dealt in presence of perturbations of the vehicular flow. In particular, among the different disturbing causes, it is here considered the presence of vehicles parked along the road in relation to their parking activity. Having already established the delay, caused by those vehicles leaving their stationary positions and entering the traffic flow or by those who slow down the flow to park, it is possible to evaluate the changes in time running values. Related to these times delay, the extra pollutant emissions by a given urban running fleet is also evaluated, by utilizing emission factors depending on age, type, volume capacity and engine of th…

Towards Nearly Zero Energy and Environmentally Sustainable Agritourisms: The Effectiveness of the Application of the European Ecolabel Brand

Tourism represents an important economic driver in Italy, being responsible for approximately 13.2% of the total GDP (a value higher than the reference European average) and for nearly 10% of the regional GDP. Among the touristic sectors, the agritourist ones show a persistent growth, experiencing in 2019 a 6.7 point percentage improvement compared to the 2017 figures. Given this situation, the transition towards a low-carbon path, affecting the building sector for some time, should also involve agritourist buildings, through the release of EU directives, member state laws, and technical rules. On the other hand, agritourism sites could be awarded the Community EU Ecolabel. Unfortunately, a…

Embodied energy of pasta: first results of a field assessment

Marchi di eccellenza ambientale: la trasferibilità agli edifici del marchio Eco-label per le strutture turistiche.

Energy load Behaviours of Sicilian Hotel: methods for reducing the annual consumptions of bungalow hotels in the Mediterranean area

Starting from the analysis of the energy consumption of some typical Sicilian hotels, it has been possible to assess their annual energy load behaviours, by source type. In addition, it has been also developed a simple model of the annual consumption, by kind of energy load. This approach allowed the comparison of true load-type energy consumption with typical load-type benchmark values (e.g. lighting consumption). In turn, this allows the singling out of feasible methods for the reductions of the energy consumption; the found solutions take into account three fundamental issues: energy, economy and environment. Analysed buildings are represented by typical hotels of the Mediterranean area;…

Is there a need for more effective quality awards for agritourisms?

Il ruolo della raccolta differenziata

The European Standards for Energy Efficiency in Buildings: an analysis of the Evolution with Reference to a Case Study

The improvement of the energy efficiency of building stocks represents an important contribution for the reduction of the energy consumption in the European Union (EU), along with the decrease of greenhouse gases emissions. In this aim both the public administrations and the technical experts need reliable calculation methodology to assess buildings’ energy performance. In this framework, despite the recent publication of the Standard EN ISO 52016, that deeply modifies the approach to the energy building simulation by introducing a new hourly dynamic calculation model, the current normative framework (EN ISO 13790) will maintain its validity until the incorporation of the new Standard in th…

Accordo di Programma MSE-CNR. Gruppo tematico: Celle a Combustibile (wp1). Responsabile scientifico del Progetto Vincenzo Antonucci. Accordo di Collaborazione tra CNR Dipartimento Energia e Trasporti (DET) e Dipartimento dell’Energia (DE) dell’Università di Palermo. Responsabile Scientifico: Celidonio Dispenza sino al 31.10.2010, Vincenzo La Rocca dall’1.11.2010. Attività di ricerca nell’ambito del Progetto: “Celle a combustibile per applicazioni stazionarie cogenerative: Analisi comparative delle tecnologie in studio con sistemi energetici concorrenti”. ATTIVITA’ ANNO 2010-2011. Palermo. Dipartimento dell’Energia

L’impatto ambientale dei profilati in alluminio per infissi: una metodologia di analisi in campo

Off-line methods for determining air quality in museums

This paper will examine three methodologies deployed in off-line research relating to air quality in museums. These methodologies made use of sensors based on the different chemical-physicalproperties of various materials (corrosiveness, hardness and absorption). Various field applications were applied to case studies, which were performed in two museums in Palermo, Italy: the Regional Gallery of Palazzo Abatellis and the Diocesan Museum. This review of methodologies and sensors examines which protocol should be put into practice in museums in monitoring the air quality of display spaces and the conservation of cultural artefacts.

Environmental impact of marble mining: the case study of a Sicilian marble quarry

In Itinere STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT of an integrated provincial waste system

In the paper, the practical problem of analysing in an integrated way the performance of provincial waste systems is approached, in the framework of the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). In particular, the in itinere phase of SEA is analysed herein. After separating out a proper group of ambits, to which the waste system is supposed to determine relevant impacts, pertinent sets of single indicators are proposed. Through the adoption of such indicators the time trend of the system is investigated, and the suitability of each indicator is critically revised. The structure of the evaluation scheme, which is essentially based on the use of ambit issues and analytical indicators, calls …

Elementi per una definizione complessiva della qualità degli ambienti interni

Un metodo di valutazione delle prestazioni ambientali dei sistemi integrati di gestione dei rifiuti: un’applicazione agli ATO della Regione Sicilia

Foster Carbon-Neutrality in the Built Environment: A Blockchain-Based Approach for the Energy Interaction Among Buildings

Decarbonizing urban environments and reducing their energy consumption is one of modern society biggest commitments. In this regard, both the scientific community and international governments have been giving special consideration on improving the energy-environmental performance of mostly single buildings; recently the focus has been shifting towards a broader Positive Energy District (PED)/ Energy Community (EC) vision, from small clustered group of buildings to neighborhoods up until urban settlements. In this respect, integrating the use of renewable energy resources (RES) and actively involving building users can have a significant environmental impact on local areas. Within this fram…

Accordo di Programma MSE-CNR - Gruppo tematico: Celle a Combustibile (wp1) Responsabile scientifico del Progetto Vincenzo Antonucci - Accordo di Collaborazione tra CNR Dipartimento Energia e Trasporti (DET) e Dipartimento Ricerche Energetiche e Ambientali (DREAM) dell’ Università di Palermo - Responsabile Scientifico DREAM: Celidonio Dispenza - Attività di ricerca nell’ambito del Progetto: “Celle a combustibile per applicazioni stazionarie cogenerative” - ATTIVITA’ ANNO 2009

Le prestazioni energetiche ed ambientali degli edifici: osservazioni e proposte metodologiche

Greening MSW management systems by saving footprint: The contribution of the waste transportation.

Abstract Municipal solid waste (MSW) management constitutes a highly challenging issue to cope with in order of moving towards more sustainable urban policies. Despite new Standards call for recycling and reusing materials contained in the urban waste, several municipalities still use landfilling as a waste disposal method. Other than the environmental pressure exerted by these plants, waste transportation from the collection points to the landfill needs a specific attention to correctly assess the whole burden of the waste management systems. In this paper, the Ecological Footprint (EF) indicator is applied to the actual MSW of the city of Palermo (Sicily). Results show that the effects pr…

Tunnel fire active protection: improving ventilation system

Abstract The main aim of this work is to evaluate how the use of an active protection method, consisting in an improved forced longitudinal ventilation system, can determine a positive impact on heat extraction and people evacuation time in a tunnel fire scenario, by considering a case study which simulations are based on a real gallery.

Componenti innovativi per l’edilizia sostenibile: evidenze sperimentali

Sulla spinta delle sempre più stringenti normative in tema di efficienza energetica degli edifici, l’Università degli Studi di Palermo ha posto in essere un laboratorio di materiali naturali e di componenti edilizi passivi, finalizzato all’analisi delle prestazioni energetiche di elementi d’involucro caratterizzati da elevate prestazioni energetiche ed ambientali. In particolare, sono oggetto di indagini sperimentali alcuni elementi d’involucro realizzati con mix di materiali naturali e minerali ed alcune configurazioni di coperture a verde. I primi risultati sperimentali sembrano confermare la praticabilità di siffatte soluzioni, almeno limitatamente ai climi mediterranei.

On the ranking criteria for energy retrofitting building stocks: Which building goes first? The role of the building size in the establishment of priority lists

Abstract The energy retrofit of the existing building stocks is considered a preeminent strategy to lowering the energy consumption of the building sector. Other than the definition of the most successful combination of energy saving measures, the definition of a suitable ranking of all the buildings of the stock, on which implementing established energy retrofit measures, is quite a relevant issue. The most eligible criterion for prioritizing the buildings seems their energy consumption because it combines the building energy performance and their size. To investigate the role played by the building dimension in determining the order of priority of all the buildings of a given stock, this …

Embedding “roadside equipment” in the environmental assessment of transportation system: the case of safety barriers

The work arises from the consideration that the environmental impact of a road cannot be limited to the analysis of its constituent materials, even if correctly analyzed in their life cycle. In fact, a given road not only consists of the pavement and subgrade, but also includes several different components and accessories (e.g., road marking, drainages, safety barriers, etc.) that contribute to set a road infrastructure in operative condition. As a matter of fact, only limited attention has been paid in the scientific literature to roadside components, unlike pavement and traffic flow. In the present work, the environmental burden of one of these components, i.e., the safety barrier has bee…

Measurements of projected areas of seated and standing people of southern Italy based on a statistical analysis

One of the most important components affecting the human thermal balance is represented by its radiative exchange with the surrounding surfaces. The projected area of the human body is an important parameter of these thermal exchanges. Unfortunately, although the anthropometric measures of people are characterized by significant differences among various populations, the experimental data currently available in the literature refers to a small group of people. Moreover, measurements are generally performed regardless of the statistical significance of the involved subjects with respect to the population to which they belong. In this study, a statistical study is introduced that is based on …

A generalized model of human body radiative heat exchanges for optimal design of indoor thermal comfort conditions

Abstract Human thermal sensation depends heavily on radiative exchanges between the human body and the surrounding environment. Because these exchanges play a crucial role in the thermal balance of the human body, about 35% of the process, human thermal sensation should draw the attention of planners when designing both indoor environments and equipment. The present study aims to contribute to this field by proposing a procedure for delineating the optimal comfort conditions for occupants in most of the articulate and realistic configurations of actual indoor environments. Specifically, this procedure enables accurate assessment of the radiant field surrounding a subject in a given indoor r…

New sustainable technologies for buildings: the use of green roofs

Is the Eco-label EU Decision for hard coverings really capable of capturing the environmental performances of the marble productive chain? A field verification by means of a life cycle approach

Purpose This work intends to show whether the Eco-label EU Decision for hard coverings, in which marble is contemplated among hard coverings as a natural product, is really capable of capturing the environmental performances of the marble productive chain, in other words whether it is actually viable for the natural products, like marble. Methods After a preliminary critical analysis of the suitability formarble of the current EU Decision (2009/607/EC), a classical life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology has been applied on the field to the marble “Perlato di Sicilia.” More specifically, the whole productive chain of a couple of firms treating the “Perlato di Sicilia” marble has been examin…

Linee di indirizzo per il miglioramento dell’efficienza energetica nel patrimonio edilizio

Questo scritto fa esplicito riferimento alle “Linee d’indirizzo per il miglioramento dell’efficienza energetica nel patrimonio culturale - Architettura, centri e nuclei storici ed urbani”, recentemente redatte da un gruppo di lavoro composto da dirigenti e funzionari del Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo (MiBACT) e da docenti universitari, per fornire indicazioni per la valutazione e per il miglioramento della prestazione energetica del patrimonio culturale tutelato, con riferimento alle norme italiane in materia di risparmio e di efficienza energetica degli edifici. Tali linee di indirizzo costituiscono uno strumento scientifico semplice, ma in grado di coniugare …

Computing methods for resilience: evaluating new building components in the frame of SECAPs

Resilience represents a new important feature that the anthropic systems, and cities among them, are called to cope with. In fact, the increasing negative stresses to which urban contexts are exposed, and mainly the climatic pressures, call for the capability of adapting to these modifications and, possibly, to restore the ex-ante situations. The role of the buildings and their envelope components is of crucial importance to this aim. This paper analyses the features of resilience of the roofs of buildings by means of proper quantitative indexes. On purpose, the performances of green and cool roofs are compared. The possibility of adopting nonstructural solutions, like the windows shading d…

Estimation of Air Pollutant Emissions in “Turbo” and in Conventional Roundabouts

The road pollutant emissions, above all in urban context, are correlated to many infrastructural parameters and to traffic intensity and typology. The research work on road junction geometry, carried out in European research centres, has recently allowed to design new road intersection types which are of undoubted interest, especially in terms of traffic functionality and safety, like the turbo roundabouts (in which right-turn manoeuvres do not conflict with the circulating flow). The main objective of this paper is to propose a model for the estimation the performances and the pollutant emissions into turbo roundabouts. A comparative analysis between conventional roundabout and turbo round…

I metodi a punteggio per la valutazione energetica ed ambientale degli edifici

Simplified thermal analysis of naturally ventilated dwellings

Abstract A simplified comprehensive methodology for thermal comfort prediction in a naturally crossventilated room is described. The methodology mainly consists of the following three steps: • - analysis of the dynamic thermal behaviour of the given room, by means of the admittance procedure; • - evaluation of the air flows rates and their velocities in the room, by means of a new simplified method; • - thermal comfort prediction by means of the Fanger's theory. The results obtained appear satisfactory and the simplified methodology makes itself a useful tool for the identification of appropriate choices at the early stages of the design process, regarding naturally ventilated buildings. Th…

Ecoprofili di componenti edilizi

Fonti energetiche a breve e medio termine in Sicilia: alcune riflessioni per uno scenario sostenibile

ANALISI DELLE RISORSE FINANZIARIE NAZIONALI PER LA RIDUZIONE DEI CONSUMI ENERGETICI NELLE PUBBLICHE AMMINISTRAZIONI

The compliance with the Italian Internal Stability Pact represents a relevant constraint for Public Administrations in their aims of improving the efficiency with which they use energy, despite several interesting financial tools have been released for helping these institutions in the imple mentation of effective actions. The available domestic financial tools are here shortly revised, particularly about their compatibility with the Stability Pact. The role of the socalled rotative founds is moreover described as a tool for supporting Public Administrations in improving their energy efficiency, even in the observance of the limits established by the Stability Pact.

La Valutazione Ambientale Strategica dei piani di gestione dei rifiuti: applicazione alle fasi di raccolta, trasporto e riutilizzo

Coperture a verde: aspetti energetici e di certificazione

Negli ultimi anni, la riscoperta dell’architettura bioclimatica, parzialmente legata alla consapevolezza dell’inadeguatezza della maggior parte degli edifici nel sud Europa nei mesi più caldi dell’anno, ha portato al reimpiego di vecchie tecnologie, abbandonate a seguito dell’introduzione dei sistemi di raffrescamento meccanici. In questo contesto, i tetti verdi stanno diventando una soluzione tecnologica interessante, in crescita degli ambienti urbani, dal momento che essi apportano alcuni benefici significativi, tra i quali la riduzione del consumo di energia per gli scopi di climatizzazione, la riduzione delle emissioni di gas serra, la riduzione dell’effetto “isola di calore”, un miglio…