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Low Energy Buildings and Climate-Neutral City Systems

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "G1: Smart Cities and Urban Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 May 2024 | Viewed by 291

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Architecture, University of Bologna, 40136 Bologna, Italy
Interests: urban regeneration; building retrofitting; climate change response and adaptation strategies; energy transition and sustainability of the built environment; digital twins; cultural heritage enhancement and accessibility

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Guest Editor
Department of Architecture, University of Bologna, 40136 Bologna, Italy
Interests: energy efficiency technologies; technological innovation; mitigation initiatives for climate change adaptation; co-design and co-construction processes for green transition of cities; accessibility and enhancement of cultural heritage; technology integration for smart cities

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change and the recent energy crisis represent huge threats worldwide.  To implement the strategic vision of the European Green Deal, which aims to foster the transition to more sustainable and citizen-centred energy systems, the EU Parliament has made the targets of 55% emissions reduction by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050 a legally obligation through the adoption of the EU Climate Law in 2021.

A further accelerated transition is pursued by the EU target of “100 climate-neutral by 2030 – by and for the citizens” and the related Climate City Contracts. To achieve these ambitious targets, sustainable and near-zero energy buildings (NZEB) need to be complemented by a scale step, in which not only are buildings energy performances considered but also the communities and the environment they live in.

Cities have emerged as major hubs for various forms of technical and social innovations, such as Energy Communities, also prompted by the rapidly growing use of ICT and digital technologies, both at the building and urban scale. The unprecedented availability of data not only allows the improvement of advanced knowledge and deeper understanding of building behaviours and urban dynamics but also data-evidence-based transformative processes and actions in the direction of more smart, sustainable, resilient, socially equitable cities. The twin green and digital transitions do not just involve technological and scientific challenges, they also require a better understanding of cross-cutting issues related to economic, socio-cultural, and political aspects and ask for engaging society in the co-design, co-development, and co-implementation of innovations also through social innovation.

This Special Issue aims to cover the above-mentioned topics, that represent a deliberately broad spectrum of research, including, but not limited to, the following:

  • Energy efficiency in buildings;
  • Near-zero energy buildings (NZEB);
  • Digital building/urban twins;
  • Positive energy districts (PEDs);
  • Climate-neutral and smart cities;
  • Net-zero cities;
  • Energy citizenship and energy communities;
  • Climate city contracts;
  • Innovative solutions for energy systems.

Dr. Rossella Roversi
Prof. Dr. Danila Longo
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. Energies 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

  • energy efficiency
  • near-zero energy buildings
  • digital building/city twins
  • positive energy districts
  • energy communites
  • smart cities
  • smart grids
  • climate-neutral cities
  • green energy transition
  • sustainable city systems
  • energy/green/ecological transition
  • policies and innovative governance

Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission.
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