Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
3.4
3.1
Journals
Buildings
Special Issues
Towards the ‘Smartification’ of Buildings and Neighbourhoods for Sustainable and...
share announcement

Towards the ‘Smartification’ of Buildings and Neighbourhoods for Sustainable and Resilient Smart Cities

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Construction Management, and Computers & Digitization".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 April 2024) | Viewed by 14937

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Zulfikar Adamu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Built Environment and Architecture, Centre for the Integrated Delivery of the Built Environment (IDoBE), London South Bank University, London SE1 0AA, UK
Interests: computational modelling and simulation, virtual and augmented reality, smart cities; data analytics
Prof. Dr. Abbas Elmualim

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Architectural Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Interests: environmental architectural engineering; intelligent and sustainable facilities; digital technologies and virtualization; resilient communities
Dr. Sheikh Ahmad Zaki

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 54100, Malaysia
Interests: urban heat islands; building environmental engineering; wind engineering; CFD; thermal comfort
Dr. Brian Guo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil and Natural Resources Engineering, University of Canterbury, 69 Creyke Road, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand
Interests: construction safety; safety engineering; digital technologies for safety; smart cities

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The evolution of Industry 4.0-related technologies has led to the rapid adoption of ubquitous computing in data-driven built environments, driven by Internet-of-Things (IoT) connectivity. This connectivity could help to address problems at three different scales, starting with smart buildings, to smart communities and then smart cities, which should all work for the inhabitants across different demographic and socio-economic groups. Currently, research and enterprise-led initiatives in smart buildings and cities are pushing the boundaries of improving both quality of life (QoL) and quality of place (QoP) for people, but there are gaps. For example, research at the aforementioned three scales often focuses on new initiatives, whereas the largest impact and opportunities lie in integrating more smartness into existing buildings, communities and cities. Furthermore, some long standing and contemporary challenges of the built environment (e.g. re-purposing buildings for circularity, climate change, pandemic resilience, urban heat island effect, energy efficiency and ageing populations, etc.,) have not been holistically studied from the lens of smartness.

Therefore, this Special Issue is aimed at “The ‘Smartification’ of Buildings and Neighbourhoods for Sustainable and Resilient Smart Cities”. We use this opportunity of this Special Issue to invite manuscripts, including original research, case studies, theoretical and experimental work, critical and comprehensive reviews, that focus on the following themes:

  • Smart materials for smart cities;
  • Digitally twinned smart cities;
  • Retrofitting for smart Buildings;
  • Re-purposing disused buildings for circular and smart communities;
  • Smart and energy efficient buildings and communities;
  • Smart communities for vulnerable people;
  • VR and AR for smart communities and cities;
  • Tools for the design, development and operation of smart communities and cities;
  • Smart cities for pandemic resilience;
  • Building integrated agriculture for smart communities;
  • Cost-benefit analysis of smart communities;
  • City information modelling for smart city applications.

Dr. Zulfikar Adamu
Prof. Dr. Abbas Elmualim
Dr. Sheikh Ahmad Zaki
Dr. Brian Guo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • digitally twinned cities
  • retrofitting for smartness
  • smart cities for pandemic resilience
  • cost benefit analysis of smart cities
  • tools for smart design of cities
  • smart cities for the vulnerable
  • smart building integrated agriculture
  • city information modelling

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (4 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

22 pages, 5202 KiB  
Article
A GIS-Based Top-Down Approach to Support Energy Retrofitting for Smart Urban Neighborhoods
by Wahhaj Ahmed, Baqer Al-Ramadan, Muhammad Asif and Zulfikar Adamu
Buildings 2024, 14(3), 809; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14030809 - 16 Mar 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2160
Abstract
Energy and environmental challenges are a major concern across the world and the urban residential building sector, being one of the main stakeholders in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, needs to be more energy efficient and reduce carbon emissions. While it is [...] Read more.
Energy and environmental challenges are a major concern across the world and the urban residential building sector, being one of the main stakeholders in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, needs to be more energy efficient and reduce carbon emissions. While it is easier to design net zero energy homes, existing home stocks are a major challenge for energy retrofitting. Two key challenges are determining the extent of retrofitting required, and developing knowledge-based effective policies that can be applied en-masse to housing stocks and neighborhoods. To overcome these challenges, it is essential to gather critical data about qualities of existing buildings including their age, geo-location, construction type, as well as electro-mechanical and occupancy parameters of each dwelling. The objective of this study was to develop a GIS-based model embedded with critical data of residential buildings to facilitate evidence-based retrofit programs for urban neighborhoods. A model based on a bottom-up approach was proposed in which information gathered from all stakeholders was inputted into one database that can be used for decision-making. A geo-located case study to validate a proposed GIS-based residential retrofitting model sample size of 74 residential buildings in the city of Riyadh was statistically analyzed and used. The results indicate behavior-based patterns, with a strong positive correlation (r = 0.606) between the number of occupants and number of household appliances, while regression analysis showed high occupancy rates do not necessarily result in high utility costs at the end of the month, and there is no statistical difference in the average monthly cost of gas between partial and fully occupied houses. Furthermore, neither the type of building, height, age, nor occupancy status play a significant role in the average energy consumed. Additionally, the GIS-based model was validated and found to be effective for energy-use mapping and gathering critical data for analyzing energy consumption patterns at neighborhood scale, making it useful for municipalities to develop effective policies aimed at energy efficient and smart neighborhoods, based on a recommended list of most effective energy-saving retrofit measures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Towards the ‘Smartification’ of Buildings and Neighbourhoods for Sustainable and Resilient Smart Cities)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

31 pages, 13134 KiB  
Article
Smart Fire Safety Management System (SFSMS) Connected with Energy Management for Sustainable Service in Smart Building Infrastructures
by Sangmin Park, Sanghoon Lee, Hyeonwoo Jang, Guwon Yoon, Myeong-in Choi, Byeongkwan Kang, Keonhee Cho, Tacklim Lee and Sehyun Park
Buildings 2023, 13(12), 3018; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13123018 - 3 Dec 2023
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 5670
Abstract
The scale of human accidents and the resultant damage has increased due to recent large-scale urban (building) fires, meaning there is a need to devise an effective strategy for urban disasters. In the event of a fire, it is difficult to evacuate in [...] Read more.
The scale of human accidents and the resultant damage has increased due to recent large-scale urban (building) fires, meaning there is a need to devise an effective strategy for urban disasters. In the event of a fire, it is difficult to evacuate in the early stages due to the loss of detection function, difficulty in securing visibility, and confusion over evacuation routes. Accordingly, for rapid evacuation and rescue, it is necessary to build a city-level fire safety service and digital system based on smart technology. In addition, both forest and building fires emit a large amount of carbon dioxide, which is the main cause of global warming. Therefore, we need to prepare both energy and fire management to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. In this study, we developed an AI-based smart fire safety system for efficient urban integrated management using a city-based fire safety architecture. In addition, we designed a fire management infrastructure and an energy management system for buildings. The proposal was demonstrated by building a test bed in the A building, and the AR-based mobile/web application was tested for optimized evacuation management. Furthermore, AI-based fire detection and the optimal evacuation of occupants were implemented through deep learning-based fire information data analysis. As a result, this paper presents four points for safety and energy management, and we demonstrate that the optimization of occupant evacuation ability and energy saving can be achieved. We also analyze the efficiency of the data transfer rate to prevent data communication delays by using Virtual Edge Gateway (VEG) management. In the future, we expect that the appearance of future fire and energy management buildings through this research will produce more accurate data prediction technology and the development of cutting-edge smart technology in smart city infrastructures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Towards the ‘Smartification’ of Buildings and Neighbourhoods for Sustainable and Resilient Smart Cities)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

26 pages, 5063 KiB  
Article
A Methodological Approach for the Smartification of a University Campus: The Smart ESI Use Case
by Soledad Escolar, Fernando Rincón, Jesús Barba, Julián Caba, José Antonio de la Torre, Juan Carlos López and Crescencio Bravo
Buildings 2023, 13(10), 2568; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13102568 - 11 Oct 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2061
Abstract
As the term smart begins to move away from inflationary usage, mostly related to communication capabilities, and towards a more effective dimension, there is room for research into the systematic process of transforming the things that were not originally designed to be smart [...] Read more.
As the term smart begins to move away from inflationary usage, mostly related to communication capabilities, and towards a more effective dimension, there is room for research into the systematic process of transforming the things that were not originally designed to be smart. Such a process is referred to as smartification, which evokes the digital refinement of an existing product by embedding digital technologies and smart services. The state of the art shows only a few articles that investigate such methodological approaches to provide smartness on several application domains (e.g., home appliances, buildings, cities), while the smart university domain has not been deeply faced up yet. Based on the hypothesis that a methodology synthesizes a set of suitable procedures oriented to simplify the process of measuring the degree of smartification, we propose in this work a methodology that uses technological and academic criteria for designing a tool to measure the smartification of universities. The main conclusions of this work are the following: (1) The review of the current state of the art related to smart universities and smartification reveals the need for a new vision for a more adequate and accurate assessment of the degree of smartness of universities; (2) A formal method based on Multiple-Attribute Decision Making and case study research aimed at assessing the degree of smartification within the scope of smart universities; (3) A demonstration of the feasibility and application of our method to quantify the smartification degree of the School of Computer Science (ESI) at the University of Castilla-La Mancha under the project Smart ESI; and (4) A valuable method that allows equal comparison between smart universities through a set of standardized indicators, which offers the opportunity to analyze in depth the strength and weakness, and potential achievements of any smart initiatives. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first approach aimed at assessing the extent of the smartification process in smart universities through a formal method. The outcome of this research can benefit different stakeholders: university community, researchers, and, ultimately, the digital transformation of society. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Towards the ‘Smartification’ of Buildings and Neighbourhoods for Sustainable and Resilient Smart Cities)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

37 pages, 3693 KiB  
Article
Sustainable Green Building Awareness: A Case Study of Kano Integrated with a Representative Comparison of Saudi Arabian Green Construction
by Badr Saad Alotaibi, Mukhtar Sabiu Yahuza, Ozge Ozden, Mohammed Awad Abuhussain, Yakubu Aminu Dodo, A. G. Usman, Jamilu Usman and S. I. Abba
Buildings 2023, 13(9), 2387; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13092387 - 20 Sep 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3392
Abstract
The aim of this research is to assess sustainable green building awareness in Kano State, in a case study of the Gwale local government area. This research makes use of both primary and secondary data to address these offered solutions. Descriptive and quantitative [...] Read more.
The aim of this research is to assess sustainable green building awareness in Kano State, in a case study of the Gwale local government area. This research makes use of both primary and secondary data to address these offered solutions. Descriptive and quantitative analysis using the BREAM and LEAD evaluation standards was used to analyze the case study and 251 questionnaires were distributed. To ensure a fair trial of each of the 251 building samples, they were chosen at random from various parts of the Gwale Yan-Alawa ward. A case study of a selected green building was chosen and analyzed. The logical comparison with Saudi Arabia was made. It is concluded that the Nigerian government at the national level should put more effort into encouraging green building construction through public awareness programs and incentives and subsidizing the green system. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Towards the ‘Smartification’ of Buildings and Neighbourhoods for Sustainable and Resilient Smart Cities)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-4
Back to TopTop