Dear Colleagues,

Cities are already among the major energy consumers and, therefore, among the major contributors to climate change.

In the next decades, the expected increase in urban population will entail an increase in new urban land, which often entails an unintended surge in local urban temperature; namely, the urban heat island (UHI) effect. In turn, UHI affects both building energy demand for cooling—which feeds climate change—and socioeconomic factors, as it causes an excess in heat-related summer deaths as well as cardiorespiratory morbidity. Furthermore, urban spread will also make cities more energy-intensive places, unless more compulsory policies are applied.

To provide a better living urban environment, adjust to UHI, decrease urban energy demand, and mitigate climate change, it is of utmost importance to break this vicious circle, changing the urban and building paradigm. Buildings and urban infrastructures have to be seen not only as independent objects but also in the light of their interactions and of the mutual interactions with urban climate.

Previous research has shown that UHI mitigation measures, such as an increase in urban albedo, green walls, and green roofs, can concomitantly positively impact urban temperature and decrease building energy demand. Further, the installation of technologies to decrease building energy demand or the use of nonrenewable energy (e.g., solar panels and heat pumps) or to increase building energy efficiency can interact with the local climate. Such interactions between buildings and local climate should be captured in environmental assessments and be evaluated in a life cycle perspective.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a trustworthy tool which evaluates the impacts of goods, products, and services. LCA application avoids shifting impacts from one phase to another or from one scale to the other. Therefore, its use to evaluate the impact of the installation of UHI mitigation measures including also human health and to evaluate technologies to increase building energy efficiency is greatly encouraged to provide reliable results.

In this framework, authors looking at including in LCA methodology the interaction between UHI mitigation measures, buildings, and local climate and between building energy technologies and local climate and at assessing their impacts on the environment and on human health, including the application to case studies, are invited to submit articles for this issue.  

At present, in published literature, numerous articles can be found which offer an account of the impacts of the built environment neglecting building-local climate interactions. The aim of this issue is to bridge this gap, shedding new light on ways to improve LCA methodology applied to the urban environment, developing strategies to assess UHI mitigation plans as well as urbanization plans.

Furthermore, the Special Issue provides the opportunity for academics, practitioners, urban agencies, and planners to gain a more complete understanding of the mechanism related to the interactions between buildings and local climate, and about how to:

• Tackle and assess such interactions;
• Efficiently contribute to decrease the negative impacts of such interactions on both building energy use and on the environment;
• Shape efficient urbanization plans or UHI mitigation plans relying on the advancement in LCA methodology.

Altogether, the pieces of information provided in this Special Issue are intended to provide a holistic view of the built environment to ensure a more accurate evaluation of its impacts on the environment and human health by means of the LCA methodology.

Dr. Tiziana Susca
Guest Editor

References:

• M. Lotteau, P. Loubet, G. Sonnemann, An analysis to understand how the shape of a concrete residential building influences its embodied energy and embodied carbon, Energy and Buildings. 154 (2017) 1–11. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.08.048.
• T. Susca, F. Pomponi, Heat island effects in urban life cycle assessment: Novel insights to include the effects of the urban heat island and UHI-mitigation measures in LCAfor effective policy making, Journal of Industrial Ecology. (2019) 1–14. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1111/jiec.12980.
• D. Trigaux, K. Allacker, F. De Troyer, Life Cycle Assessment of Land Use in Neighborhoods, Procedia Environmental Sciences. 38 (2017) 595–602. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1016/j.proenv.2017.03.133.
• N. Mirabella, K. Allacker, The Environmental Footprint of Cities: Insights in the Steps forward to a New Methodological Approach, Procedia Environmental Sciences. 38 (2017) 635–642. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1016/j.proenv.2017.03.143.
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• E. Cubi, N.F. Zibin, S.J. Thompson, J. Bergerson, Sustainability of Rooftop Technologies in Cold Climates: Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of White Roofs, Green Roofs, and Photovoltaic Panels, Journal of Industrial Ecology. 20 (2016) 249–262. https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.1111/jiec.12269.

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• Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
• Urban heat island (UHI)
• Building green infrastructures
• UHI mitigation