Urban Climate, Comfort and Building Energy Performance in the Mediterranean Climate

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue (SI) aims to draw attention on the inter-relationships between built environment, urban microclimate, building energy demand, and people’s health and wellbeing in cities characterized by a Mediterranean climate.

Several studies have shown that urban warming causes an increase in building cooling demand, especially in warm regions such as in the Mediterranean climate. Urban areas also increase the intensity of extreme events such as prolongued heat waves, with concerning impact for the health of vulnerable groups such as the elderly and children.

However, a peculiarity of the Mediterranean climate is its seasonal variability, and for this reason, buildings and urban spaces must be able to cope with both hot summer and cold winter periods to ensure comfortable living conditions and reduced energy demand on an annual basis. Considering this, the urban heat island (UHI) effect has contrasting impacts on people’s health and perceived comfort as well as buildings energy demand over the year.

Furthermore, while many studies have investigated the impact of the atmospheric UHI intensity, much less literature is available on the net impact of multiple urban microclimate modifications. For instance, the decrease in solar irradiance on facades and streets in urban canyons, the modification of wind speed, and the reduced sky view factors can be even more relevant than urban air temperature increase in determining thermal comfort in this climate region, characterized by mild temperatures and high solar irradiation. Urban canyon geometry also deeply affects daylight availability in buildings, and it can be responsible for a higher concentration of pollutants in the atmosphere, with negative consequences on air quality at the street level and indoors. All these phenomena are strongly interconnected and contribute to the environmental quality of indoor and outdoor spaces in urban areas.

This SI is open to studies investigating outdoor and indoor environmental quality (i.e., thermal and visual comfort and air quality) and urban building energy performance (i.e., cooling, heating, and lighting) in relation to the characteristics of the urban fabric and corresponding urban microclimate. Case studies and theoretical investigations as well as experimental and numerical studies are welcome, provided they deal with Mediterranean or similar climates. This climate type is characteristic of the Mediterranean basin but also present in several other regions, mainly within 30˚ to 45˚ latitude in both the north and the south hemispheres. Some similar climates are also found in the inter-tropical region at high altitude (from 2500 m above sea level).

Possible topics for this Special Issue include (but are not limited to):

• Urban heat island studies (mesoscale and local scale);
• Urban microclimate;
• Urban heat stress;
• Building energy performance in uban context;
• Tools and approaches for urban energy modeling (UBEM);
• Environmental quality in urban areas (indoor and outdoor);
• Urban heat island mitigation strategies;
• Urban and building adaptation stategies to climate change;
• Urban building passive cooling design;
• Urban building sustainable design and early-design strategies.

Dr. Agnese Salvati
Dr. Gianpiero Evola
Dr. Massimo Palme
Dr. Giacomo Chiesa
Guest Editors

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• urban heat island
• urban microclimate
• building energy performance
• thermal comfort