Special Issue "Responding to Climate Emergency: Design, Planning and Assessment of the Built Environment"

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 December 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Deo Prasad
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Guest Editor
Faculty of Built Environment, University of New South Wales, NSW 2052, Australia
Interests: sustainable buildings and cities; energy efficiency; climate change adaptation and mitigation; smart cities; regenerative cities; sustainability policy
Dr. Lan Ding
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Built Environment, University of New Sourth Wales, NSW 2052, Australia
Interests: sustainable buildings and cities; energy efficiency; climate change adaptation and mitigation; smart cities; regenerative cities; decision-making model; building and urban information modelling
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Urgent actions are needed for climate adaptation and mitigation in the built environment to respond to the challenges and opportunities of our time. Efforts to combat global warming and greenhouse gas emission, and achieve liveable, resilient cities are more important now than ever. This Special Issue will showcase a range of innovations from climate-oriented design to planning and policy in the built environment. It will feature new roadmaps and evidence, innovative processes, methodologies and tools, and emerging materials and technologies that address these challenges and opportunities. Researchers are invited to contribute to this Special Issue and present original research related to one or more of the following themes:

 

  • Sustainable design and planning in adapting to climate change;
  • Biophilic design to support resilience in environmental and human health;
  • Water-sensitive urban and building design to support city and building cooling;
  • Regenerative design and development for the potential of the capacity to reverse climate change;
  • Climate change mitigation strategies and assessment;
  • Vulnerability assessment for extreme heat;
  • Climate mitigation and health co-benefits;
  • Tools for assessing climate change mitigation and adaptation in buildings, precincts and cities.

Prof. Dr. Deo Prasad
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lan Ding
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 papers will be 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. Sustainability 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 1900 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

  • sustainable design and planning
  • climate change adaptation and mitigation
  • water-sensitive urban and building design
  • biophilic design
  • regenerative design and development
  • vulnerability assessment
  • health co-benefits
  • resilience

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

Article
Development and Validation of a Roadmap to Assist the Performance-Based Early-Stage Design Process of Adaptive Opaque Facades
Sustainability 2020, 12(23), 10118; https://doi.org/10.3390/su122310118 - 03 Dec 2020
Viewed by 623
Abstract
Adaptive Opaque Facades (AOF) is an innovative concept with potential to achieve low carbon energy buildings. However, so far AOF are not integrated in the construction industry. One remarkable issue that designers have when dealing with alternative low-carbon technologies, such as AOF, is [...] Read more.
Adaptive Opaque Facades (AOF) is an innovative concept with potential to achieve low carbon energy buildings. However, so far AOF are not integrated in the construction industry. One remarkable issue that designers have when dealing with alternative low-carbon technologies, such as AOF, is the absence of previous built experiences and the lack of specialised technical knowledge. Design roadmaps can be convenient solutions to guide pioneer low carbon technology applications. This work presents a roadmap to assist the performance-based early-stage design process of Adaptive Opaque Facades. Previous research developed new approaches and tools to assist on the construction definition of AOF, so that their adaptive thermal performance was considered when specific design decisions needed to be made. The roadmap presented in this paper organises the implementation sequence of each methodological approach and tools in different design stages, which aims to provide a holistic design approach for AOF. The usability of the roadmap was validated in a workshop called “Performance-based Design and Assessment of Adaptive Facades” with master students representing the target group of this roadmap. Even though these students had never heard about AOF before, they could successfully design, define the early-stage characteristics of an AOF and quantify the thermal performance of their AOF designs. The roadmap was proven to be a useful support, which might make the implementation of AOF more approachable in the future. Full article
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Article
Navigating Climate Change: Rethinking the Role of Buildings
Sustainability 2020, 12(22), 9527; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229527 - 16 Nov 2020
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1071
Abstract
This paper focuses on the design of buildings as part of society’s response to the climate crisis in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. It draws on a broad literature to address two interrelated goals—first, to align regenerative development and design with the [...] Read more.
This paper focuses on the design of buildings as part of society’s response to the climate crisis in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. It draws on a broad literature to address two interrelated goals—first, to align regenerative development and design with the necessary bottom-up adaptation strategies and human agency, and second, to identify new, broader possible roles of buildings and responsibilities of design professionals. This required a comparison of current green building and emerging regenerative approaches and identifying the relevant characteristics of top-down and bottom-up mechanisms. The paper accepts that adaptation to climate change will, to a large extent, depend on people’s day-to-day actions in the places they live, and argues that the built environment will have to be infused with the capability to enable inhabitants’ greater agency. Viewing buildings as playing a connective role in the existing urban fabric seriously challenges the primacy of the individual building as the focus of environmental strategies. The roles of building design professionals will likely expand to include mediating between top-down imposed government controls and increasing bottom-up neighborhood-scale social activism. Full article
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Article
Spatial and Behavioral Thermal Adaptation in Net Zero Energy Buildings: An Exploratory Investigation
Sustainability 2020, 12(19), 7961; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12197961 - 25 Sep 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 788
Abstract
Climate responsive design can amplify the positive environmental effects necessary for human habitation and constructively engage and reduce the energy use of existing buildings. This paper aims to assess the role of the thermal adaptation design strategy on thermal comfort perception, occupant behavior, [...] Read more.
Climate responsive design can amplify the positive environmental effects necessary for human habitation and constructively engage and reduce the energy use of existing buildings. This paper aims to assess the role of the thermal adaptation design strategy on thermal comfort perception, occupant behavior, and building energy use in twelve high-performance Belgian households. Thermal adaptation involves thermal zoning and behavioral adaptation to achieve thermal comfort and reduce energy use in homes. Based on quantitative and qualitative fieldwork and in-depth interviews conducted in Brussels, the paper provides insights on the impact of using mechanical systems in twelve newly renovated nearly- and net-zero energy households. The article calls for embracing thermal adaptation as a crucial design principle in future energy efficiency standards and codes. Results confirm the rebound effect in nearly zero energy buildings and the limitation of the current building energy efficiency standards. The paper offers a fresh perspective to the field of building energy efficiency that will appeal to researchers and architects, as well as policymakers. Full article
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