A visualized overview of systematic reviews and meta-analyses on low-carbon built environments: an evidence review map

Abstract

Increasing urbanization, population growth and looming climate change impacts are real problems that we face now and will be burning issues in the foreseeable future too. These issues emerge as a result of complex interactions between various domains which require improved access and sharing of key evidence on strategies for reducing resources consumption and lowering carbon footprint. However, rapidly accumulating evidence from the built environment sector, a multi-disciplinary field of study, provides challenges when attempting to find scientifically robust research and distil knowledge to draw confident conclusions in a reasonable timeframe. Since there is a vast number of primary studies, to create an evidence overview, secondary studies were collected using a systematic review methodology. The methodology included a predefined protocol, searches in multiple databases and other sources, structured screening, data extraction and coding. Reviews which were claimed to be systematic reviews or meta-analyses of literature relevant to reducing carbon footprint of the built environment or its co-benefits were deemed eligible for inclusion. The quality of the included reviews was assessed using an established tool for apprising systematic reviews of literature in the medical sciences. Key bibliographic, methodological and content details of the reviews were also extracted and coded. The resulting database contains 131 reviews published between 2001 and early 2018. The database is available via a dedicated website which includes interactive visualizations and filtering tools. The included high-level evidence is framed within the context of low carbon living and its co-benefits (e.g., health and well-being), although it is not an exhaustive database of all systematic reviews and meta-analyses in the built environment and sustainability sectors. However, due to the dynamic nature of the database, it can be easily expanded to host a broader range of evidence. In its current form, the interactive map and database can help discovery of secondary evidence for decision-making and research use, supporting transition to low carbon future.

The Discrepancy between As-Built and As-Designed in Energy Efficient Buildings: A Rapid Review

“…The revision of reviews enables the inclusion of a wider number of articles captured through the original review papers, but without the need to analyse them individually. These shortcuts limit the conclusions of rapid reviews when compared to systematic literature reviews, but findings are still more robust than non-systematic reviews [20].…”

“…The rapid review methodology approach is encouraged by the World Health Organisation [17] and has been recently used to inform policy during crises such as COVID-19 in 2020 [18,19]. Although rapid reviews have been mostly carried out in the health sector, this methodology has also been adopted in building research to inform policy [20,21]. Research questions are based on relevance for industry and government, who can help to shape the research scope and are also adopters of the review recommendations.…”

“…The approach used to conduct this rapid review followed the protocol proposed in Lagisz et al [20], which include the following steps:…”

“…Literature deemed relevant by the authors is chosen based on their personal judgement and is potentially biased. However, articles within the same category can still range significantly in quality and risk of bias [20]. The AMSTAR2 risk assessment [25] carried out for the nine articles revealed that all articles are of medium quality.…”

“…Three academic databases were primarily selected for this research, consisting of Scopus, Web of Science and ProQuest. These are cross-disciplinary and deemed suitable for research in the built environment [20].…”