Integrated economic and environmental building classification and optimal seismic vulnerability/energy efficiency retrofitting

Abstract

A life cycle framework for a new integrated classification system for buildings and the identification of renovation strategies that lead to an optimal balance between reduction of seismic vulnerability and increase of energy efficiency, considering both economic losses and environmental impacts, is discussed through a parametric application to an exemplificative case-study building. Such framework accounts for the economic and environmental contributions of initial construction, operational energy consumption, earthquake-induced damage repair activities, retrofitting interventions, and demolition. One-off and annual monetary expenses and environmental impacts through the building life cycle are suggested as meaningful performance metrics to develop an integrated classification system for buildings and to identify the optimal renovation strategy leading to a combined reduction of economic and environmental impacts, depending on the climatic conditions and the seismic hazard at the site of interest. The illustrative application of the framework to an existing school building is then carried out, investigating alternative retrofitting solutions, including either sole structural retrofitting options or sole energy refurbishments, as well as integrated strategies that target both objectives, with a view to demonstrate its practicality and to explore its ensuing results. The influence of seismic hazard and climatic conditions is quantitatively investigated, by assuming the building to be located into different geographic locations.

Aligning sustainability and regional earthquake hazard mitigation planning: integrating greenhouse gas emissions and vertical equity

“…With this in mind, researchers have recently conducted process-based LCA studies to assess the GHG emissions related to seismic damages, using a comprehensive inventory of building materials for both structural and non-structural components. These studies focus on case studies of a single building (Menna et The lack of comprehensive inventories on the material quantities associated with repair strategies has led numerous researchers to rely on Economic Input-Output LCA (EIO-LCA) frameworks for the environmental assessment of building damages (Comber et al 2012, Comber and Poland 2013, Simonen et al 2015, 2018, FEMA 2018, Asadi et al 2019, Huang and Simonen 2020, Caruso et al 2021a, 2021b. EIO-LCA requires product or activity cost information to be used within available tools that translate industry sector-specific costs into the corresponding environmental impacts (Caruso et al 2020).…”

“…Furthermore, the potential energy savings might lead to cost savings for the impacted households. Although the benefits of integrated seismic and energy building retrofit interventions have been reported in the literature (Belleri and Marini 2016, Calvi et al 2016, Sassu et al 2017, Welsh-Huggins and Liel 2017, Lamperti Tornaghi et al 2018, Gkournelos et al 2019, Asadi et al 2020, Caruso et al 2020, 2021a, 2021b, Keskin et al 2021, Menna et al 2021, the energy savings due to energy efficiency improvements have not been considered in previous resource allocation frameworks for regional risk mitigation.…”

“…Discussions of the environmental impact of earthquakes on buildings have recently received increased attention. Researchers have conducted several LCA studies on the effects of structural hazard vulnerability on buildings' lifetime sustainability, focusing particularly on individual buildings (Comber et al 2012, Comber and Poland 2013, Menna et al 2013, 2021, Arroyo et al 2015, Feese et al 2015, Alirezaei et al 2016, Belleri and Marini 2016, Calvi et al 2016, Welsh-Huggins and Liel 2017, 2018, Lamperti Tornaghi et al 2018, Gkournelos et al 2019, Welsh-Huggins et al 2020, Caruso et al 2021a, 2021b, Lanza et al 2022 or a specific structural type (Chiu et al 2013, Wei et al 2015, 2016, Padgett and Li 2016, Sassu et al 2017, Simonen et al 2018, Caruso et al 2020. Nevertheless, this is the first study to identify optimal building retrofit policies from an environmental perspective at a regional scale by modeling prototype buildings that represent a large number of building types and sizes.…”

Strategies for Structural and Energy Improvement in Mid-Rise Unreinforced Masonry Apartment Buildings. A Case Study in Mestre (Northeast Italy)

“…Local bylaws, however, have entered into the larger Italian framework of tax breaks and incentives aimed at promoting the integrated energy and structural retrofit of the existing building stock [6,7].…”

Requalification of RC Frame Apartment Buildings: Comparison of Seismic Retrofit Solutions Based on a Multi-Criteria Approach

“…In recent decades, structural engineers have paid a great deal of attention to reducing the seismic vulnerability of buildings, developing a wide variety of seismic strengthening techniques and approaches to interventions [1]. Increasing environmental concerns have led to life-cycle cost assessment (LCCA) techniques that have helped in quantifying the effects of retrofitting interventions, in terms of not only initial costs but also greenhouse gas emissions during the service life of buildings [2]. This more comprehensive approach to assessing the sustainability of retrofitting interventions has led to ideas for upgrading strategies focused on reducing both earthquake losses and energy consumption [3].…”