INOM
EXAMENSARBETE ENERGI OCH MILJÖ, AVANCERAD NIVÅ, 30 HP
STOCKHOLM SVERIGE 2020,
Identification of climate mitigation and adaptation measures to
improve the resilience and the energy efficiency of Athens
Case study of 5 selected public buildings MARC GONZALEZ I FORTI
KTH
SKOLAN FÖR ARKITEKTUR OCH SAMHÄLLSBYGGNAD
TRITA TRITA-ABE-MBT-20631
www.kth.se
In collaboration with:
Author: Marc Gonzalez Forti (17/06/2020) Supervisor (KTH): Sara Borgström Supervisor (DTU): Martin Drews Supervisor at EQO-NIXUS: Lluis Vilardell
Degree Project in AL250X (Environmental Engineering) KTH Royal Institute of Technology
School of Architecture and Built Environment
Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Science and Engineering SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
i Abstract
Climate change effects are getting more evident year by year. Athens is specially affected by climate change related shocks, especially by poor air quality, flooding and heat waves. Every year climate shocks threatens and worsens the situation in the city. The municipality of Athens, together with the European Investment Bank and EQO-NIXUS (consulting company) have undertaken a project in order to increase the resilience and the mitigation and adaptation measures of the city, taking as case study 5 public buildings located in different areas of the centre of the city. This project is in line with the Athens Resilience Strategy drawn by the Municipality of Athens in order to integrate new ways to prepare and protect the city from future shocks and stresses. This study aims to investigate and propose mitigation and adaptation measures that could be potentially applied into the 5 selected public buildings in order to improve the energy efficiency and the resilience towards heat waves, flooding and pollution of the air. A literature review study has been performed in order to look for good practices worldwide in terms of energy efficiency and climate mitigation and adaptation in order to find the best measures that could be applied in the 5 selected buildings. Finally, a multi-criteria decision analysis has been executed to prioritise which measures result to be more relevant for each specific building. The study shows that, in overall, energy efficiency and raise of public awareness are the most relevant measures that can be potentially applied in the buildings in order to tackle the climate shocks that threatens Athens. Finally, if the measures are applied into the buildings and the resilience and energy efficiency measures are improved, this study could be replicated to other buildings of Athens in order to achieve the 2030 strategy plan set by the municipality of Athens.
Keywords
Resilience, Climate Change, Adaptation, Mitigation, Energy Efficiency, Athens, Heat Island Effect, Flooding, Air Quality
ii Sammanfattning
Effekterna av klimatförändringen blir alltmer tydliga. Greklands huvudstad Aten påverkas exempelvis av försämrad luftkvalitet, översvämningar och värmeböljor och extrema klimatrelaterade händelser förvärrar situationen i staden. Atens kommun har tillsammans med Europeiska investeringsbanken och EQO-NIXUS (ett privat konsultföretag) genomfört ett projekt för att öka motståndskraften mot klimatförändringens effekter, genom anpassningsåtgärder, där fem offentliga byggnader i olika delar av Atens centrum studeras. Projektet är relaterat till Atens resiliensstrategi som handlar om hur staden ska integrera nya sätt förbereda och skydda staden och dess invånare från framtida extrema händelser och påfrestningar. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka och föreslå anpassningsåtgärder som potentiellt kan tillämpas i de fem olika offentliga byggnaderna för att förbättra energieffektiviteten och resiliensen mot värmeböljor, översvämningar och luftföroreningar. En litteraturstudie har genomförts för att identifiera globala, goda exempel när det gäller energieffektivitet och anpassning till ett förändrat klimat som potentiellt kan tillämpas i de fem byggnaderna. Slutligen har en multikriterieanalys med flera kriterier genomförts för att prioritera vilka åtgärder som är mest relevanta för varje specifik byggnad. Studien visar att energieffektivitet och ökning av allmänhetens medvetenhet totalt sett är de mest relevanta åtgärderna som potentiellt kan tillämpas i byggnaderna för att hantera klimatförändringar. Slutligen, om dessa åtgärder tillämpas och resiliensen och energieffektivitetsåtgärderna förbättras, skulle denna studie kunna vara relevant även för andra byggnader i Aten och därmed bidra till uppfyllelsen av stadens 2030-strategi.
iii Acknowledgements
This thesis is submitted as part of the final requirements of the Double Master’s Degree in Environmental Engineering at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). The project has been done in collaboration with EQO-NIXUS, which is the company where I have been doing my internship
The work has been supervised between the Danish University, the Swedish University and EQO- NIXUS. In that sense, I would like to thank Sara Borgström (from KTH), Martin Drews (from DTU) and Lluis Vilardell (from EQO-NIXUS) for their dedication, all the useful and interesting feedback that I have received and the technical inputs they have provided to me when needed.
I would also like to thank to the Greek experts involved in the project for their support, advices and their willingness to have meetings with me. I would also like to express my gratitude for their time during my field visit in Athens and their help when completing some values of the MCDA tables.
I would also like to thank the support I have received from my family and girlfriend during the hard times we have lived in Spain due to Covid19 outbreak.
Finally, I hereby declare that the work I have submitted is my own and the help from others has been acknowledged or referenced.
iv Table of Contents
Abstract
... i
Sammanfattning ... ii
Acknowledgements ... iii
1. Introduction
... 1
1.1 Introduction
... 1
1.1.1 Athens resilience strategy for 2030 ... 2
1.2 Scope ... 3
1.2.1 Aims ... 3
1.2.2 Research questions ... 3
1.2.3 Research objectives ... 3
1.2.4 Relevancy of the project ... 3
1.2.5 Thesis structure ... 3
2. Background
... 5
2.1 Current situation and local context. Athens Resilience Framework ... 5
2.2 State and description of the 5 selected public buildings... 7
2.2.1 A-B Cinema ... 7
2.2.2 Adrianou School ... 8
2.2.3 Kokkerel ... 9
2.2.4 9.84 Radio Station ... 10
2.2.5 Sina School ... 12
2.3 Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (definition of a supporting decision tool)
. 13
3. Methodology... 15
3.1 Overview of Good Examples ... 16
3.2 Multi Criteria Decision Analysis ... 18
3.3 Stakeholders
... 21
4. Results
... 22
4.1 Global Overview of Good Practices ... 22
4.2 Building sheets Originated from the Global Overview of Good Practices Study
... 27
4.2.1 Arkadien Winnenden building sheet ... 28
4.2.2 Phototropic Housing California building sheet ... 28
4.2.3 Photovoltaic Rooftop Garden building sheet ... 29
4.2.4 Heat-Health Action Plan building sheet ... 30
4.2.5 Maintenance of Public Buildings, Malaysian building sheet ... 31
4.3 Multicriteria Decision Analysis ... 31
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4.3.1 Result MCDA A-B Cinema ... 31
4.3.2 Result MCDA Adrianou ... 33
4.3.3 Result MCDA Kokkerel ... 34
4.3.4 Result MCDA 9.84 Radio Station ... 35
4.3.5 Result MCDA Sina... 36
5. Discussion
... 38
5.1 Limitations of the study
... 38
5.2 Lessons learnt ... 39
5.3 Replicability of the study ... 40
5.4 Further studies
... 40
6. Conclusion
... 41
7. References ... 42
vi
List of Figures
Figure 1: Panoramic view of the A-B open-air Cinema. Source: Due diligence report A-B
Cinema ... 8
Figure 2: Adrianou Public School entrance (Left) and main building (right). Source: Due Diligence Report Adrianou Public School ... 9
Figure 3: Kokkerel school. Source: Due Diligence Report Kokkerel ... 10
Figure 4: 9.84 Radio Station actual status of the building. Source: Due diligence report Radio Station 9.84. ... 11
Figure 5: Building’s morphology. Source: Due Diligence Report Sina ... 12
Figure 6: Steps followed in the methodology section. Source: Author ... 15
Figure 7: Concept map of all the stakeholders involved in the project. Source: Author ... 21
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List of Tables
Table 1: Groups and specific measures that will be analysed in the MCDA. Source: Author .... 20
Table 2: Challenges and benefits of the implementation of the green rooftop and PV panels measures. Source: Author ... 25
Table 3: Building sheet Arkadien, Winnenden. Source: Author ... 28
Table 4: Building sheet Phototrophic Housing California. Source: Author ... 28
Table 5: Building sheet Photovoltaic and green rooftop. Source: Author ... 29
Table 6: Building sheet Heat-Health Action Plan. Source: Author ... 30
Table 7: Building sheet Maintenance of Public Buildings. Source: Author ... 31
Table 8: Result of the MCDA table for the A-B Cinema. Source: Author ... 32
Table 9: Measures identified as relevant that could be potentially implemented in the A-B Cinema. Source: Author ... 33
Table 10: Result of the MCDA table for the Adrianou Public School. Source: Author ... 33
Table 11: Measures identified as relevant that could be potentially implemented in Adrianou Public School. Source: Author ... 34
Table 12: Result of the MCDA table for the Kokkerel. Source: Author ... 34
Table 13: Measures identified as relevant that could be potentially implemented in Kokkerel School. Source: Author ... 35
Table 14: Result of the MCDA table for the Radio Station. Source: Author ... 35
Table 15: Measures identified as relevant that could be potentially implemented in 9.84 Radio Station ... 36
Table 16: Result of the MCDA table for the Sina school ... 36
Table 17: Measures identified as relevant that could be potentially implemented in Sina school ... 37
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1. Introduction
1.1 Introduction
Climate change related shocks are increasing year by year and it is expected that the situation will be worsened, especially in the most vulnerable cities (da Silva, Kernaghan and Luque, 2012). In this regard, Athens has been facing several climate shocks since last decades which made evidences of the vulnerabilities of the city. It has been demonstrated that the actual situation of climate change increases the frequency and the risks of extreme events, such as floods, heat waves, draughts, pollution of the air, among many others (Luber and McGeehin, 2008; Milly et al, 2002;
Santamouris et al., 2007).
In order to cope with the aforementioned risks, the best way for a city to be prepared for climate change related shocks is to introduce resilient measures that help to alleviate the shocks (Kernaghan and da Silva, 2014). Resilience is the ability to adapt to changes and to withstand adversity (Windle, 2010; Aburn, Gott and Hoare, 2016; Grimm and Calabrese, 2011). The objective is to help cities to adapt and to transform in order to be prepared when some threats can affect the city (100 RC, 2018; Kernaghan and da Silva, 2014). In that sense, 100 Resilient Cities- Pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation (100RC) provides assistance to cities to increase their resilience towards social, economic and physical challenges that are threatening the cities in the 21st century (100 Resilient Cities, 2017).
But the question is: Why a city should become resilient? Climate change effects are starting to be visible and will become more frequent together with increased magnitude, especially provoking flooding, extreme droughts, sea level rise, extreme high temperatures, decrease of the quality of the air, among others (Meehl et al., 2007; IPCC, 2013). That means adaptation and mitigation measures need to be defined in order to increase the resilience of the cities.
On the one hand, climate change adaptation measures reduce the adverse effects of climate change shocks by adopting appropriate measures that minimize the damages. Adaptation measures also refers to take advantage of opportunities that can increase resilience to climate change (Aboulnaga, Elwan and Elsharouny, 2019). Some examples could be the introduction of more green areas to improve the quality of the air, the usage of permeable pavement to avoid floods, among many others. On the other hand, climate change mitigation measures aim to reduce climate change at its source by, for instance, reducing the emissions to the atmosphere of GHGs by the introduction of renewable energies, the abatement of the Green House Gases through Blue Carbon management (mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrasses) (Kelleway et al., 2020) or by removing GHGs from the atmosphere by using new technologies such as Carbon Capture Storage, which produces a decrease in the concentration of such gases, since the emissions from fossil fuel use are transported into a safe geological reservoir (Cuéllar-Franca and Azapagic, 2015; Gibbins and Chalmers, 2008; Michaelowa and Michaelowa, 2016; Pires, Martins, Alvim-Ferraz and Simões, 2011).
The main problem is that there is lack of climate protection within the buildings that constitute the city of Athens because the buildings were built long time ago, under other legislation that did not take into account the current challenges of the city. The fact of missing updated legislation in the vast majority of buildings of the city increases their vulnerability towards the three main climate related shocks that threatens the city: heat island effect, flooding and poor air quality (Townshend et al., 2013).
This thesis has been based on a real project undertaken in Athens (Greece) and funded by the European Investment Bank (EIB), which is the financing institution of the European Union.
Climate and Environment is one of the main priority topics for the EIB. Hence, the main objective
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for the bank is to try to finance some climate-related projects within the European Union in order to achieve the worldwide commitment of 2˚C. The EIB contemplate different financial instruments that aim to help to implement nature-based solutions, which yield to a positive impact on climate adaptation.
One of the main goals of the project funded by the EIB is to provide the city with an urban upgrade and transformation and to increase its resilience. This will be done by introducing nature-based solutions for mitigation and adaptation to climate change and also energy efficiency measures in 5 selected buildings in the city of Athens. In that sense, between the year 1990 and 2008, the energy demand in buildings (worldwide) increased by 39%, according to Salleh, Kandar and Sakip (2016). Apart from that, it is also expected that, overall, the energy demand will rise up to 40%
between the period 2007 and 2030 (Gonzalez et al., 2011). The energy consumption in buildings is identified to contribute between 20-40% of the total energy expenditure in the world (WBCSD, 2009; Saidur, 2009).
In general, the energy efficiency in buildings can be achieved through 3 main methods: 1) building design, 2) service design, 3) inhabitant behaviour (Salleh, Kandar and Sakip, 2016). According to the US Department of Energy, 25% of energy consumption in schools can be reduced through building design and good behaviours. Other options considered are to transform a normal building into a green building after refurbishment. The term of green building is used to define the characteristics of a building that is sustainable, which means that emits low amounts of carbon and also demands low amounts of energy.
According to (Salleh, Kandar and Sakip, 2016), it is crucial to identify the main vulnerabilities of the buildings and, at the same time allowing to apply measures in order to palliate the effects. It is worth to mention that part of the energy expenditure can be cut down by improving the behaviour of the users of the buildings. According to Ismail et al., (2009), the energy savings that can be achieved by having a good behaviour amounts between 5 to 15%. The different measures that will be mentioned in order to be potentially implemented in a near future are framed between the buildings and the public spaces surrounding the buildings.
1.1.1 Athens resilience strategy for 2030
The municipality of Athens has drafted its Athens resilience strategy for 2030 by asking a wide range of people, going from the insights of the expertise of hundreds of stakeholders or the opinion from leaders within the academia to citizens, migrants and homeless people. By doing this, the city ensures to draft a completely transversal strategy (Municipality of Athens, 2017).
The final objective of the strategy is to protect the city from future shocks and stresses and reduce its vulnerability.
The resilience strategy of the city of Athens is based on 4 main pillars: Open city (fostering collaboration and engagement), Green city (integrating nature based solutions into the urban fabric), Proactive city (by empowering municipal representatives and by listening to local communities) and Vibrant city (by promoting well-being, entrepreneurship, innovation and a new, inclusive and exciting identity) (Municipality of Athens, 2017). The project that is ongoing in order to enhance the resilience of the city of Athens is supported by the 100 Resilient Cities Hence, this thesis aims to go beyond the initial scope of the big project, meaning that the work done in order to develop the thesis can be utilised by the Municipality of Athens in order to implement more actions that might not be taken into account when designing the scope of the big project. Therefore, this thesis needs to be seen as a complementary work compared to the work that the experts have undertaken in the project.
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1.2 Scope1.2.1 Aims
This study was performed in collaboration with EQO-NIXUS (Member of OCA Global), the Royal University of Technology of Sweden (KTH) and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). The aim of this study is to identify the best measures that could be potentially implemented in the 5 selected buildings in order to reduce the climate related shocks (poor quality air, heat island effect and flash floods) and to provide the municipality of Athens with a set of measures in terms of energy efficiency and climate change mitigation and adaptation measures that can be potentially applied in the 5 buildings. In order to do so, a global overview of good practices in the field of climate resilience will be performed in order to find the best practices in similar cities. Later, a multicriteria decision analysis will be performed to show which measures are more relevant for each specific building.
1.2.2 Research questions
This thesis is based on the following research questions, which have been treated and investigated throughout the study. The research questions are as follows:
1- How could the 5 selected public buildings improve the resilience to climate change shocks and its energy efficiency?
2- Which are the best measures that could be implemented in the buildings?
1.2.3 Research objectives
This thesis is built upon a set of specific objectives, which are presented as follows:
• To perform a global overview of good practices in order to try to find good examples that have been implemented or that are going to be implemented in similar public or private buildings in other cities of the world to improve the resilience towards climate change related shocks that threatens Athens.
• To determine a set of resilience and climate mitigation and adaptation measures that could be potentially implemented in the 5 selected buildings.
1.2.4 Relevancy of the project
This thesis is highly relevant because the project undertaken in Athens will be utilised as a case study that will be replicated in other cities that want to increase its resilience and face the present and future shocks that the cities are facing.
1.2.5 Thesis structure
The thesis follows the structure of Introduction, Background, Methodology, Results, Discussion and Analysis and Conclusions (IMRAD+C). The first chapter introduces the two main topics (resilience and energy efficiency) and their importance in Athens. It also contains the scope of the thesis. The chapter will also mention the importance of improving the energy efficiency and enhancing the resilience in buildings. Chapter 2 provides some background regarding the actual situation of Athens and how climate change is affecting the city with different climate shocks. The third chapter defines the methodology that has been used in order to compose the thesis. This chapter has focused on describing a methodology that later can be used by someone else in order to reach the same results. In other words, a methodology that can be replicated. Chapter 4 displays the results obtained through the research process, which are later discussed in chapter 5, where further research or investigations will be proposed in order to recommend future
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implementations in buildings from Athens or other cities with similar weather and climatic characteristics. Finally, the last chapter contains the conclusions of the project and summarise the main findings.
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2. Background
This section displays information regarding the three main climate change related shocks that threatens Athens and will also describe briefly the 5 buildings. Finally, some background regarding the decision supporting tool that will be used will be provided.
2.1 Current situation and local context. Athens Resilience Framework
Athens is part of the 100 resilient cities and C40 cities climate leadership group, which both have as main objective to help cities to become more resilient towards physical, economic and social challenges and help them to cope against climate change. In this regard, 100 RC also supports the adoption of resilient measures to not only cope with climate shocks (heat island effect, floods, poor air quality) but also all the stresses that weakens the city and makes it more vulnerable.
Hence, according to the aforementioned aim, 100 RC provides to the cities within their network with the necessary resources to develop a roadmap to achieve resilience towards their main shocks. By doing this, 100 RC not only helps cities to build their resilience but facilitates the construction of a global practice of resilience among governments.
In that sense, this thesis will focus on the main climate related shocks affecting Athens: heat island effect, flooding and poor air quality. According to several studies undertaken in Athens, the city has suffered acute shocks related to climate change due to a combination of different factors (mostly anthropogenic) including the gentrification of the centre of the city, which leads to an increase in the heat island effect, the increase of the emissions of GHGs, which enhances the global change effects, the loss of green and forestry areas due to recurrent fires and the loss of the quality of the air (Zerfos et al., 2011 ).
Heat Island Effect phenomena
The heat island effect is mainly characterised by higher temperatures in highly dense built areas compared to those of the surrounding rural country (Santamouris, Paraponiaris and Mihalakakou, 2007). The phenomenon can occur during daytime or night time and the spatial and temporal patterns only depends on the specific characteristics of each dense area (Lyall, 1977;
Escourrou, 1991 and Eliasson, 1996). According to Santamouris, Cartalis and Synnefa (2015), the case of Athens is complex since it has an ancient and protected historical centre. The lack of urban planning when building the historical centre combined with the increase of the temperatures worldwide have as a result the important increase of the temperature in the centre of the city and having as a result the heat island effect. This phenomenon compromises the health and well-being of the neighbours and the Athenian society. Hence, it is agreed that there is the need to integrate climate change in all the urban planning and designs of the city.
Although the reasons of the heat island effect are rather complex, the literature regarding this phenomenon explains that the main causes are the materials that are used in the constructions of the buildings, the meteorological conditions of the specific place, the pollution of the place (which helps to trap the heat), the lack of natural ventilation due to the presence of buildings, the anthropogenic heat emitted by the citizens of the city in order to cool down their houses and the specific geometry of the city (Oke et al. 1991). It is also relevant to mention that, the more heat there is in the centre of a city, the more energy is spent in order to cool down the houses and to improve the quality of life of the inhabitants. Also, a peak in the electricity demand occurs due to the appearance of the air conditioning systems (Papadopoulos 2001). Hence, more emissions are occurring which enhances the effect of the phenomenon and the ecological impact at the same time (Hassid et al., 2000).
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Flooding phenomenaFlooding is considered one of the most dangerous phenomena, especially in highly dense and urbanised areas (Bathrellos et al., 2016). Flooding becomes even more dangerous as more buildings and human life lives in a city that can be affected by floods. In the specific case of Athens, it is important to highlight that more than 40% of the national population lives in Athens (Bathrellos et al., 2016). The fact of lacking an urbanisation plan for Athens has resulted in dramatic floods that destroys buildings and causes the loss of human lives. According to Diakakis, Pallikarakis and Katsetsiadou (2014), the vulnerability towards flooding increases in a city as higher is the concentration of population. The basin of Athens, which includes the city of Athens and most of its suburbs have as main drainage channel the Kifisos River. The river is surrounded by 4 mountains (Parnitha, Penteli, Egaleo and Ymittos) with a height between 500 and 1400 meters above sea level. The river collects the water from the 4 aforementioned mountains but, due to a massive urbanization of the basin and also the construction of buildings and impermeable pavement along the river, when there are heavy rain episodes flooding occurs (Bathrellos et al., 2016). According to Maroukian et al. (2005), more than 25 severe flood occurred during the last 117 years. The most recent flood occurred in October 2014, with a very intense rain event over the entire basin. It is worth to mention that, due to the climate change, the rain patterns are being altered. It has been observed that, specially in the Mediterranean areas, there are less days of precipitation but the overall precipitation throughout the year remains the same. The result is more irregular precipitation and, therefore, the increase in more extreme events, since the same amount of precipitation occurs within less days (Miranda, Armas, Padilla and Pugnaire, 2011).
Poor Air Quality
The quality of the air is highly affected by the meteorological conditions at the given time and place (Ziomas et al., 1995). When there is lack of wind and the meteorological conditions are dominated by high pressures, the contaminants generated in big and highly dense cities can not be dispersed. This phenomenon is known as inversion, in which the pollutants are trapped in the lower parts of the atmosphere due to the presence of an anticyclone. The previously mentioned meteorological conditions are very common in Mediterranean areas during November, December and January (Katsoulis, 1988). It also needs to be noted that, during winter (November, December, January), the heating systems operate in the vast majority of buildings within the city of Athens, generating higher emission of contaminants. But, during summer, Mediterranean areas are likely to experience sea breeze during the warmest months. This is due to the contrast between the temperature of the land and the temperature of the surface of the sea. Hence, given the aforementioned conditions, the dispersion of the contaminants is likely to occur (Steyn, 1995).
In Athens, due to the geographical conditions of the area, the dispersion of contaminants is normally difficult. During summer, there is a persistent wind circulation called Etesian, which is a Northern wind that provides Athens with the maximum ventilation, although this circulation is sometimes interrupted by local circulation, which increases the pollution levels in Athens, especially the photochemical pollution (Mantis et al. 1992).
The strategy defined by the municipality of Athens that is to be achieved by 2030 has as main objective to contribute into an urban upgrade and transformation in terms of improving the quality of life of the inhabitants of Athens. In that respect, Athens has several strength points, such as high level of education, an innovative and creative industry, diversity of land uses, a non- gentrified population or bottom-up initiatives that tackle local issues. Athens is also a city full of opportunities such as the use of new technologies and innovative solutions, by using the new sectors that are emerging in the city, the development of “green” and “blue” projects, the possibility to use empty historical buildings in order to undertake studies, the possibility of upgrade public places within the city, among others (Davoudi et al., 2012).
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Climate change is causing noticeable effects on our global environment which affects the way we live and our environment in general (Ghofrani, Sposito and Faggian, 2017). According to Dovers (2009) there is no correct or wrong way in order to deal with climate change assessment but just many approaches that can be taken.
Despite the fact that there are many evidences from the scientific community regarding climate change, there are still several barriers for climate adaptation including the uncertainty of some local climate projections that leads to a delay from the municipality when implementing measures in order to adapt to climate change as well as inconsistency between organisational planning (around 15 years) compared with climate projections (between 30 and 90 years) (Becker, 2011).
There is also some disagreement among the literature in order to define and measure resilience in a city, but there are consensus in the way that cities in general must become more resilient in the upcoming years and that strong efforts must be done in order to encourage sustainable and urban development within a city (Leichenko, 2011). Thus, to achieve these 2 goals, two important climate adaptation measures that have been identified by (Scott et al., 2013; Atkins, 2018) are:
• Building capacity through increasing the awareness within the society, by implementing monitoring stations in key places, data collecting and more research.
• Implementation of adaptation measures by using new technologies, engineering skills, urban planning and design, sustainable architecture, innovative financial measures, developing nature-based solutions and re-naturing cities, among others.
The factors that contribute to the Urban Heat Island Effect in cities are due to the shape of the urban environment, the density of the buildings within an area, the impervious surfaces and the presence of vegetation (Atkins, 2018).
2.2 State and description of the 5 selected public buildings
The Municipality of Athens and the European Investment Bank have selected 11 public buildings that have the potential to be refurbished and, therefore, increase its energy efficiency and their resilience towards climate change shocks. After a visual inspection on site and the verification of all legal permits and ownership of the building and other administrative matters that can delay the works on the buildings, the experts that take part in the project have selected 5 buildings among the previously mentioned 11 buildings, which are scattered around Athens. All the buildings are public and have different uses (3 public schools, 1 radio station and 1 open air cinema).
All the information that will be added in this chapter is taken from the documents made by the experts working on this project and from the field trip that the author of the study did from the 10th to the 12th of February.
The main issue of Adrianou Public School, 9.84 Radio Station and Sina public School is that they are listed building, meaning that some actuations are not allowed to be undertaken by the Greek law. Hence, in some cases, there are limitations when trying to apply measures in the buildings.
2.2.1 A-B Cinema
The A-B Cinema is an open-air space which was built on the 1970 and has been abandoned since 1990. The building is located in 34 Theotokopoulou Street, Patisia District, Athens and the expected usage of such building after the expected renovations is an open cinema. The owner of the area is the municipality of Athens. Thus, no obstacles for this building have been detected.
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The area contains a building located at the entrance of the cinema and an extensive outdoor seating place with a concrete screen located at the end. The building has a bottom and a higher floor, in which the projector is placed. The access to the open area is through the ground floor.
The building is deteriorated because it has not been operational for almost 20 years and the structure is damaged since the earthquake that threatened Athens on 1999.
The open-air cinema total surface is 13.5 hectare and it is completely surrounded by buildings, including private residential blocks and a residence which is used as a cultural building. The rest of the space is filled by trees.
Figure 1 shows a panoramic view of the selected building and its surroundings.
Figure 1: Panoramic view of the A-B open-air Cinema. Source: Due diligence report A-B Cinema
The material of the envelope of the building is mainly concrete. The internal walls are plastered with mortar and there is no floor finish with the exception of the marble internal stairs. The outdoor area’s ground is a mixture between concrete blocks and green, but the appearance looks like abandoned.
In conclusion, this building gives us the opportunity to upgrade all the energy saving measures, but also it allows us to go further and also to act in the landscape of the building. In the next chapter, some measures that have been identified as relevant to be applied in this building will be displayed and explained. Also, some electromechanical installations have been considered to be implemented in such building to mitigate the impact of climate change shocks and to contribute towards the resilience strategy of the municipality of Athens.
2.2.2 Adrianou School
Adrianou school is the oldest school in Athens, designed in 1874 by a Greek architect. The building has a neoclassical style. It is located in 106 Adrianou street, in Plaka district. In 1977, the complex was declared as preserved monument and today’s functionality is a primary school and a kindergarten. The school consists in two buildings which are site to site. The first building was built in 1875 and the second in 1910. The total surface of the complex is approximately 1070 m2, which almost 700 m2 are composed by the 2 buildings. Most of the area of the first building is composed by classrooms and multi-purpose rooms. The second building has classrooms, faculty
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offices and the canteen, where children eat. In the yard there is a very small building where the toilets are located. The building is in usage and in fairly good condition, but it is poorly maintained, as it can be seen on Figure 2.
Figure 2: Adrianou Public School entrance (Left) and main building (right). Source: Due Diligence Report Adrianou Public School
Regarding the surrounding area, Adrianou public School is surrounded by ancient and old buildings, since it is located in Plaka district, as aforementioned. The school is built at the foothill of the Acropolis. Most of the surrounding buildings have neoclassical style and narrow streets used mainly by pedestrians.
The load-bearing structure of the school is made of masonry. The external walls are made of stones and support the structure, which rest over basic foundations. There are timber slabs in order to separate the 2 floors of the building. The doors separating each room are made of wood and the windows are single glazed with wooden frames.
Referring to the electromechanical installations of the building, the heating uses natural gas through a central boiler of 232 kW thermal power. There is also air conditioning system installed only in the event hall of the school. The internal illumination of the building is not sufficient according to the users of the installations. Furthermore, there are no lighting automation systems to enhance the entrance of natural lighting. The water supply system and the drainage system are fully functional but obsolete. Hot water is only available in the kitchen. The operating hours of the primary school are between 8 and 16 hours, being optional for the students to stay on the school after 13:15h, meaning that the number of students after that time gets reduced drastically.
2.2.3 Kokkerel
Kokkerel is an elementary and primary school designed in 1970. The building has 5 different levels. On the first one, the elementary school is located. The second level comprises auxiliary spaces and multiuse rooms. The primary school is located on the last three levels. In every level there are external stairs that connect all the levels and there are also external areas and schoolyards in all levels. In overall, the buildings is in fairly good condition, but poorly maintained. The school is surrounded by blocks and flats in a highly dense area. Figure 3 shows the status of the school.
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Figure 3: Kokkerel school. Source: Due Diligence Report Kokkerel
The building envelope consists of a concrete frame with brick walls. The openings have an old aluminum frame with single glazed windows. The floor finish is mosaic and the walls are plastered with mortar.
Regarding the electromechanical installations, the heating system works in a satisfactory way, even though it was manufactured on 1979. The sewage system and the water supply networks are old but fully functional. There are 2 heat pumps, which both have cooling and heating options.
Two ceiling ventilators are also installed in the elementary school. Heat pumps are also installed in the primary school premises. There is also a power panel which is almost obsolete because it was installed over 40 years ago. Hence, changing this power panel can be a potentially measure in terms of energy savings. The lighting system consists in fluorescent lamps which work with switches. Furthermore, there is no lighting automation system for the exploitation of the natural light.
The school is operational in accordance to the schedule of all the other schools, which means 8 to 16h, being optional from 13:15 until 16h. This is highly relevant since it has a decisive influence on the actual energy consumption of the building.
A final interesting aspect of Kokkerel school is that it is involved in a project called “Climate School Berlin-Athens”, which is funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety of Germany and the European Climate Initiative. It is a 28- month project which aims to raise awareness of climate change and energy savings in 80 primary schools of the Municipality of Athens. Thus, the main objectives of the project are as follow: 1) To train teachers, to implement educational activities and field research, 2) To increase Climate protection awareness and to create a network with the participation of the pilot schools and the new Environmental Center in Athens and finally 3) to develop a plan for the Municipality of Athens aiming to increase the ecological/climate protection awareness within school communities.
2.2.4 9.84 Radio Station
The original building was built in 1860. The 9.84 Radio Station is actually the renovated original building. The original was the first building of the Athens gas factory. The building is listed as a historical monument and it is unique because of its masonry base and its external steel frame that covers all the external part. The area where the 9.84 Radio Station is located is known as
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Technopolis. As it can be seen in Figure 4, the building is circular and based on a round stone masonry wall. It is surrounded by twelve steel pillars.
Figure 4: 9.84 Radio Station actual status of the building. Source: Due diligence report Radio Station 9.84.
The building is in fairly good condition from an architectural point of view since it was recently renovated. The surroundings of the building can be defined as one of the most renowned culture hubs in Athens. It is a unique complex that promotes art, education, industrial heritage and public awareness.
Regarding the building materials, the structural frame is reinforced concrete. The façade consists on an etalon cladding and aluminum frame double glazing openings. The internal walls are made from gypsum.
In the building there is an air-conditioning system (cooling/heating/ventilation) which is based on two natural gas-fueled boilers, which supply heat to the radio station 9.84 building and two other buildings of the Technopolis complex. There have been noted several malfunctions in the Air-conditioning system located in the second basement because the comfort has been compromised throughout the year regardless of the season, according to the employee’s opinion.
In the first basement and ground floor there is also malfunctioning in the Air conditioning system due to a break down. The automation Air-conditioning system is also malfunctioning in the whole building, meaning that all thermostats are out of order.
Regarding the lightning, there are fluorescent lights with switches and pushbuttons. According to the experts, the lightning levels are lower than the law states. The water supply and drainage networks are obsolete but fully functional.
There are photovoltaic panels located on the roof of the radio station because in the past, the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) tried to connect the building’s lightning system with the photovoltaic panels. But, currently, the system is out of order. The photovoltaic panels are installed over moving bases in order to maximize the use of solar radiation. The surface of the solar panels is 0,91m2 (0.65m x 1,40m).
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The building is operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The total daily amount of people in the building rounds about 95 people. This data has pretty importance in the energy consumption of such building.
2.2.5 Sina School
The school was designed by a Greek architect on 1930. The building is situated on a steep site.
The design response to the site is a stepped building that respects the challenging topography, as seen in Figure 5. It is Pi - shaped and consists of three wings, the central 3 storey high wing, the north one storey high wing and the south two storey high wing. The north and south wings comprise mostly of classrooms. The central wing accommodates some classrooms and teacher’s offices. Each wing has its own level external area – balcony.
Figure 5: Building’s morphology. Source: Due Diligence Report Sina
All the wings have windows in both sides and the larger openings are facing towards southwest courtyard.
The building has visible signs of deterioration. The main problems are cracked walls and corrosion of the steel frames. The school is surrounded by a dense neighbourhood and it is located on the base of Lycabettous Hill. The fact of being close to the hill gives to the school an incredible view to Athens and there are also a lot of pine trees.
The building’s envelope is made mainly of concrete and masonry. The windows are single glazed.
Regarding the heating system, the building uses natural gas. The internal efficiency of the boiler is satisfactory according to the Greek law. The radiators used in different classrooms are old and low efficient and all the heating system works manually, meaning that no automation system is installed. The sewage and water supply networks are obsolete but fully functional. There are no Air conditioning devices installed in the building. The lightning system is mainly fluorescents, which seem to not provide enough indoor light. Apart from that, the lightning system works manually. Finally, there is lack of automation systems to exploit natural light.
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The capacity of the school is about 250 children. The operating hours of the school is harmonised with the other schools, meaning that the building is operational from 8 until 16 hours, being optional from 13:15h until 16h. This is very important when considering consumption of energy in the school.
2.3 Multi Criteria Decision Analysis (definition of a supporting decision tool)
The MCDA is a holistic tool that helps decision-makers to choose between different options. The tool basically, by setting a criteria and parameters to look at, helps individuals in taking decisions among several options (Saarikoski et al., 2016; Belton and Stewart, 2002, p. 2). Thus, the actions that must be undertaken in a city in order to be more resilient to climate change shocks can be prioritised. The tool can be used as a methodology for climate mitigation and adaptation because it allows normative and subjective judgement and technical expertise in the assessment process (Haque, 2016). The tool will be used in order to provide an integrated assessment framework for the selected measures to reduce the vulnerability of the 5 selected buildings towards climate change shocks and, at the same time, to increase the resilience of the city of Athens towards the climate shocks that threatens most the city: air quality, flash floods and heat island effect.
According to Olmos (2001), adaptation process implies changes within the actual system that is being subject of actual affectations or possible future alterations. This process of adaptation requires the identification of options that contribute in the adaptation process to climate change.
Hence, the MCDA seems to be the most appropriate tool to provide the prioritisation of the measures that can be used to mitigate and adapt the buildings towards climate change short and long-term effects. Decision making process is highly influenced by multiple solutions given a certain problem. Also, the fact of having multiple criteria when assessing a problem makes very difficult to get the optimal/trade-off solution without the usage of the MCDA tool. Thus, the tool assesses value trade-off and identifies the best alternatives from a group (Yatsalo et al., 2015).
This tool is also appropriate for subjective judgements (Durbach and Stewart, 2012), which will be used in this specific case.
The aim of the MCDA is to enhance the decision maker learning process and the comprehension of a particular decision problem in the context of their own organizational preferences, values and objectives. Hence, the main goal is to evaluate different alternatives of measures that help in coping with climate mitigation and adaptation to climate change by using a multiple criteria assessment.
The main objectives that are aimed to be achieved by performing the MCDA are as follows:
1. To prioritize climate mitigation and adaptation measures, focusing on the 5 selected buildings.
2. To use the results in order to inform and guide decision makers, such as the municipality of Athens and other Greek stakeholders. The idea is that the municipality can replicate this work into other buildings of the city or other countries can learn from this study case and replicate the work in order to perform a similar analysis adapted to their own needs.
3. To integrate multiple objectives with different selected criteria
4. To enhance the engagement of all the stakeholders (society, municipality, investors, experts) in order to try to replicate this study into other buildings
5. To facilitate the knowledge acquired. Disseminations can be performed to achieve this objective.
6. To stimulate the generation of new knowledge towards this topic, which is highly needed in a fast and changing world.
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First of all, the problem will be defined and the goals to solve the problem will be set. That means, the main problem treated here is to choose which set of measures and recommendations within the field of climate resilience and energy efficiency are the most relevant (Winterfeldt and Edwards, 1986). The main goal is to come up with a prioritisation list in terms of measures that can be applied. Secondly, the problem is structured, meaning that the global good practices study will be used to define measures that will be evaluated in the MCDA. Thirdly the model will be set and developed. For this, the criteria needs to be well defined in order to properly understand what the different values of the criteria mean. After this step, the measures that will tackle the problem previously defined will be selected. Fourthly, the table will be set up and the different measures will be weight in order to prioritize actions, which will vary depending on the building that is being assessed. This will be done based on subjective judgement, literature review and expert stakeholder opinion. Later, the table will be displayed and a resume of the decision-making process result will be done. By following all the previously defined steps it is possible to ensure a transparent and globally reproducible MCDA process for the selection of the best measures.
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3. Methodology
The methodology that has been used in the thesis is based on the review of scientific articles, documentation provided by the company, face to face interviews with the Greek experts working on the field, which have been taken during the visit to the different buildings in Athens, virtual meetings with the experts, the global overview of examples to look for good practices all over the world and the realisation of a Multicriteria Decision Analysis in order to identify which of the measures and practices found in the global overview of good practices could be applicable to the buildings. Finally, all the best measures have been collected and a set of possible applicable measures have been provided in the conclusion part. Hence, mixed methods have been used for this thesis.
In order to bring more details regarding the methodology followed in the thesis,
Figure 6
¡Error!No se encuentra el origen de la referencia. shows the different steps undertaken to achieve the results displayed on section 4.
Figure 6: Steps followed in the methodology section. Source: Author
As it is possible to see in ¡Error! No se encuentra el origen de la referencia., the first step is the review of relevant literature that is reliable and can be used to support the examples found.
By doing this, it is possible to identify good practices that will contribute in identifying the best measures in terms of resilience and climate change mitigation and adaptation. The examples have been searched on the following search engines: Scopus and Google Scholar. To find general cases within the resilience topic search-words such as “resilience”, “public buildings” and “energy efficiency” were used. To find good examples that could be used as inspiration in order to propose specific measures that could be potentially implemented in the 5 public buildings search-words like “heat island effects”, “greening measures” and “best practices” were used. The different articles were selected based on the title, the abstract and currency. Apart from that, further literature was reviewed from the reference list of the studied articles and also recommendations given by the search engines. Finally, documentation provided by the company and public documentation from the resilience strategy plan for the city of Athens has also been reviewed. The selected literature was summarised and compared in order to better determine which examples were the most adequate for the sake of the thesis. The relevancy of each example was also determined by the measures used in order to cope with the three main shocks that are treated in this thesis (heat island effect, flooding and poor air quality), which were defined by the European Investment Bank (EIB) on the terms of reference of the project. Hence, for each example identified, a building sheet has been created summarising the most important information to better compare them. In order to do so, there has been a definition of categories included on the
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building sheet. (which will be described later). Once all the best measures have been identified, a screening step has been performed in order to group all the measures into 5 main categories.
Once the aforementioned steps have been performed, the MCDA can be done for each of the 5 selected buildings. Each MCDA table will include the 5 main categories, which comprises the most relevant measures identified in the good practices study and a set of criteria that will be used to be able to rank each group of measures. The MCDA tables have been filled with the help of the team leader and the electrical and mechanical engineer. Also, a study visit was done between the 10th and the 12th of February in order to inspect on site the conditions and the characteristics of the buildings. In that case, only AB Cinema and Adrianou Public School were possible to visit “in situ”. The information of the three remaining buildings were obtained from the due diligence reports written by the experts and from the conversations and meetings that have taken place during the timeframe of the thesis. The interviews were taken face to face with the two Greek experts during the study visit and also virtually (by using the platform Google meet) because of the Covid’19 outbreak. The interviews to the two Greek experts were semi-structured in order to receive homogeneous and comparable answers from the respondents (Bryman 2002). The two respondents were informed previously about the purpose of the interview and asked for consent in order to use their answers in the study. The aim was to get their opinion regarding some aspects such as the categories used (public acceptability) and the relevancy of each measure for each building, since the experts are aware of the main concerns of each building. Interviews with the municipality of Athens, the resilience department of the city council of Athens and the representants of the European Investment Bank were performed face to face during the 10th of February and the 11th of February. The interviews face to face with the two Greek experts and the interviews performed with the municipality, the resilience department and the European Investment Bank were not recorded. All the information was written down on a notebook. The fact of not recording the interviews means that the material can not be reviewed in a secondary analysis. Hence, it is not possible to examine that the researcher’s own values or bias are not included in the analysis. But the risk had been tried to be minimised by asking frequently questions like e.g. “Did I understand you correctly/Did you say”. The interviews performed by using the Google meet platform were recorded upon previous acceptance from the interviewees.
Finally, once the 5 MCDA tables have been done, a set of resilient measures that could be potentially applied on each of the 5 selected buildings will be proposed to the municipality of Athens.
3.1 Overview of Good Examples
The main goal of the global good practices identification is to seek for improvements in order to provide to the municipality of Athens with guidelines of measures that can be implemented in Athens to improve the resilience of the city to climate change shocks and to improve the energy efficiency in buildings. Therefore, 5 cases have been identified from the literature study (previously defined) as good examples for climate resilience in terms of mitigation and adaptation and energy efficiency. The examples found will be reviewed, described and analysed in order to generate background knowledge for the identification of the best measures that have been applied all over the world. The background knowledge will also be used to identify relevant measures that could be potentially applied into the 5 public buildings. Also, the creation of building sheets for each example will be done in order to facilitate the comparison between the examples found as relevant.
The overview of global good examples approach is very useful to obtain detailed information regarding a specific aspect that can be of high interest for the sake of the thesis. Hence, it is possible to dig further into a specific measure or problem in much more detail (Bell, 2005). In the process of identification of resilient measures, it is necessary to look for projects that are reflexive
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(meaning that utilize previous experiences in order to get knowledge that will help in taking future decisions), flexible (meaning that having the ability to adopt alternative strategies given the dynamism of the circumstances), inclusive (meaning that takes into account the opinion of several stakeholders when taking decisions) and integrity (it involves several system and institutions) (Haynes, 2012). Hence, the aforementioned characteristics have been taken into account when selecting the good examples.
Thus, the search engines Scopus and Google scholar have been used to review the papers, summarise the examples found and compare among all of them to determine which 5 examples were the most relevant. All the examples found have been properly referenced and included in section 7). It is also worth to mention that the author has not based the search of the good examples in finding locations with similar clime, but have focused on selecting the 5 examples that have applied the best measures (among the examples found) in terms of resilience that could be potentially implemented into the 5 selected public buildings of Athens.
Definition of categories selected
As aforementioned, all the examples selected will be accompanied with a building sheet that will summarise the categories that will help to assess its relevancy. The categories (which have been approved by the two Greek experts and the supervisor of the company) have been obtained from scientific literature, face to face and online interviews with the Greek experts and subjective judgement obtained from the field trip in Athens. The following categories have been used because they can be easily compared with the other examples. In order to properly understand what each category stands for, a description of each category has been provide. The categories used on the building sheets are the following: Location, type of building, usage of renewable energies, energy efficiency, public acceptability, improves public health.
• Location: This category will define in which geographical place is located the example. It will be useful to compare in a faster manner where are located the different examples in order to assess, for instance, similarities or differences in climate patterns.
• Type of building: Provides information regarding the use of the building. It can be public (schools, city council…), private, or other structures such as urban farming.
• Usage of renewable energies: Will describe which kind of renewable energy is used on each example, such as solar panels, wind turbines, bioenergy, among others possible sources of renewable energies.
• Energy Efficiency/savings: The category will provide information regarding energy efficiency or energy saving measures that are have been used.
• Public acceptability: It refers to those actions that have improved the social features of a specific place. It includes: increase of the surface of public spaces, affordable prices of housing, better community feeling, to reduce the densification of an area, among others.
It will also state if the example contains information from local citizens or neighbours that have been positively or negatively affected by the implementation of a measure.
Hence, in the case that a participatory process has been done, it will describe the degree of satisfaction among users/stakeholders. By participatory process includes the following: Interviews, questionnaires, polls or similar.
• Improvement of public health: Provides information about reduction of CO2 emissions, reduction of the heat island effect, inclusion of greening measures in the city or in the buildings such as parks, green rooftops, grasscrete (combination between grass and concrete), among others.
The data of the previously defined categories has been obtained from the same scientific articles and webpages from where the good examples were found (Scopus and Google Scholar). In other categories such as public acceptability, interviews with the two experts has been performed, since
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the experts have done several polls to the neighbours of each of the 5 buildings. Hence, the experts had the public opinion regarding each building. This was the best way to obtain the acceptability of the neighbours since it was not feasible by the author of the thesis to perform interviews to the neighbours. Other information that the building sheet will include is a brief description of the selected example (which will be further explained in this section), the most relevant measures applied on each example and finally the bibliography from where the information has been taken.
3.2 Multi Criteria Decision Analysis
The tool helps decision-makers to choose between different options. Regarding the MCDA, the tables that displays the results have been originated specifically for every building (taking into account the specific characteristics of each building) with the help of 2 of the Greek experts (team leader coordinator and the electrical and mechanical engineer) that have been working on the previously described 5 buildings since 2017, meaning that their opinion is highly relevant due to their deep knowledge and familiarity with the buildings. Both experts were engaged in the filling process of the table, especially in the weighting process, which is one of the most important factors of which the results depend.
The tables have been filled with numbers, comprised between 0 and 2, being 0 low (in terms of the relevancy of the group of measures for each criteria) and 2 being high (which means the group of measures is relevant for the criteria). Obviously, not each group of measures has the same importance for a given building. Therefore, the importance of each group of measures has been tailored for every specific building. In that sense, the total sum of each group of measures (before taking into account the weight of the measure) can be calculated according to the following equation:
𝑀𝑛= 𝐶1+ 𝐶2+ 𝐶3+ 𝐶4+ 𝐶5+ 𝐶6+ 𝐶7
where Mn is the measure “n” of a specific building and Cn are the different criteria that needs to be assessed for the specific measure.
Hence, the final number obtained in the last column of each group of measures is the result of the following formula:
𝐹𝑆𝑀𝑛=𝑀𝑛⋅ 𝑊𝑛 100
where FSMn is the final score obtained for the measure n, Mn is the different criteria considered for each Group of measures, Wn is the weight applied for a specific group of measures.
As aforementioned, the opinion of the Greek experts has been reflected when filling the different MCDA tables for each specific building. That is the way that has been believed to be the most reliable in order to provide valid results. The way it has been performed is through videocall, where the experts provided the value of each measure for each category for each table, always providing a reason why the value was suggested by them. Hence, a very long conversation was hold. The author also recorded the meeting in order to ensure the validity of the results.
Furthermore, some specific measures relevant for each specific building have been proposed, taking into account the results of the MCDA and the measures identified in the global overview of good practices chapter. In that sense, the most relevant measures obtained from the MCDA part have been displayed in the conclusion part.
Screening of measures
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Before proceeding into the definition of the selected criteria part, a previous screening step will be performed in order to choose the most relevant measures among all the options found in the global overview of good practices study (in chapter 4.1). The following measures have been obtained from the background knowledge generated while doing the literature review work. Also, some measures where identified from the study visit in Athens. Finally, during the interviews face to face with the Greek experts and with some members of the Municipality of Athens that took place informally while visiting AB Cinema and Adrianou Public School, some measures where proposed and discusses, which inspired the author. Thus, the total number of relevant measures that could be potentially added in the buildings are as follows:
1- Increase the percentage of permeable pavement
2- Selective rainwater collection from the roof and filtering system of grey waters 3- Increase greening surface with local/Mediterranean vegetation
4- Use of renewable energies (solar, heat, wind) for reducing energy consumption and mitigating overall GHG emissions
5- Introduction of shading elements and other systems such as vapour steam or heat and cooling pumps
6- White surfaces to increase albedo
7- Implementation of shading elements to protect from direct solar radiation, vapour steam water, among others
8- Energy labelling in buildings
9- Training programs funded by the municipality to increase awareness towards climate change related shocks
10- Creation of online tools to calculate E.E. savings
11- Improvement of ICT to increase energy savings in buildings (information and telecommunication technology)
12- Double window to avoid noise and cold/warm fluxes 13- Thermal insulation of the exterior building and walls
14- Indoor smart systems to save water/electricity. Usage of LED lightning and user presence devices inside the building
15- Increase the flux of wind during summer and decrease the flux during winter by the installation and removal of screens, vertical gardens, green walls
16- Disclosure ordinances related to energy savings to enhance the awareness within the society and to allow owners to incorporate such information in their investment decisions (Hsu, 2014)
After the identification of all the measures that can be potentially implemented in the 5 buildings, it is necessary to do a screening in order to make the multicriteria decision analysis table more practical.
The screening process has been performed by grouping every measure under a group. Hence, the first step was to look for the measures that were alike. In that case, all the measures will be grouped in 5 main categories, meaning that the total number of measures that will be used in the MCDA will decrease from a total of 16 to 5, which encompass all the measures identified previously. The 5 main categories are a result of the author of the thesis. Based on the 16 different measures identified and obtained from the study visit (as aforementioned) the following list have been created and represents the groups that will be used in the MCDA tables.
1- Cooling measures 2- Raise public awareness 3- Recycle, reuse
4- Flooding 5- Energy savings
