Publication

Vegetation effects on climate and building energy demand in cities

Abstract

Excessive heat in cities exacerbated by urban heat islands can negatively impact human health, building energy consumption, and urban ecosystems. Increasing urban greenery has often been proposed as an attractive mitigation strategy as vegetation can reduce air and surface temperatures, solar radiation absorption by artificial surfaces, and modify local wind speed. However, vegetation can also lead to changes in humidity and turbulent dissipation of heat, effects that are generally not considered. These changes in local climate can influence the energy demand for cooling, dehumidification, and heating of building interiors. Yet, a systematic quantification of how vegetation in cities influences these different components and how this translates to building energy use in different climatic regions and for different building patterns is still lacking. Here, we combine ecohydrological and building energy modelling to simulate the direct and indirect effects of vegetation on urban microclimate and building energy demand. Specifically, we quantify the relative effects of urban vegetation on cooling, heating and dehumidification needs due to changes in outdoor air temperature and humidity, shade provision on building façades, and turbulent dissipation of heat in different climate zones. We further explore the effects of variation in vegetation type and urban neighborhood patterns. This knowledge is crucial to support planning of sustainable and climate resilient cities by maximizing the energy saving potential provided by urban vegetation.

About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Related concepts (42)
Zero-energy building
A Zero-Energy Building (ZEB), also known as a Net Zero-Energy (NZE) building, is a building with net zero energy consumption, meaning the total amount of energy used by the building on an annual basis is equal to the amount of renewable energy created on the site or in other definitions by renewable energy sources offsite, using technology such as heat pumps, high efficiency windows and insulation, and solar panels. The goal is that these buildings contribute less overall greenhouse gas to the atmosphere during operations than similar non-ZNE buildings.
Efficient energy use
Efficient energy use, sometimes simply called energy efficiency, is the process of reducing the amount of energy required to provide products and services. For example, insulating a building allows it to use less heating and cooling energy to achieve and maintain a thermal comfort. Installing light-emitting diode bulbs, fluorescent lighting, or natural skylight windows reduces the amount of energy required to attain the same level of illumination compared to using traditional incandescent light bulbs.
Green building
Green building (also known as green construction or sustainable building) refers to both a structure and the application of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from planning to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition. This requires close cooperation of the contractor, the architects, the engineers, and the client at all project stages. The Green Building practice expands and complements the classical building design concerns of economy, utility, durability, and comfort.
Show more
Related publications (102)

Climate risk assessment of buildings: An analysis of operating emissions of commercial offices in Australia

Arianna Brambilla

Building climate risk assessment involves benchmarking a building's energy use intensity against decarbonisation pathways to mitigate the impacts on climate change. Various climate risk assessment tools and frameworks are used for commercial buildings in d ...
Elsevier Science Sa2024

Calibrating and validating the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) urban cooling model: case studies in France and the United States

Martí Bosch Padrós

Understanding the cooling service provided by vegetation in cities is important to inform urban policy and planning. However, the performance of decision-support tools estimating heat mitigation for urban greening strategies has not been evaluated systemat ...
Copernicus Gesellschaft Mbh2024

Building ventilation and outdoor air pollution: Implications for health, comfort and energy

Evangelos Belias

As humans spend most of their time indoors, indoor air quality (IAQ) significantly impacts their health. In parallel, building ventilation consumes significant energy, contributing to climate change. However, the relationships between the building ventilat ...
EPFL2023
Show more
Related MOOCs (6)
SES Swiss-Energyscope
La transition énergique suisse / Energiewende in der Schweiz
SES Swiss-Energyscope
La transition énergique suisse / Energiewende in der Schweiz
Analyse du cycle de vie environmental
MOOC introduction à la pensée du cycle de vie et aux concepts théoriques pour réaliser et critiquer une analyse du cycle de vie.
Show more

Graph Chatbot

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.