Projects
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| Reference Number | UKRI2575 | |
| Title | Sustainable Cooling in Cities | |
| Status | Started | |
| Energy Categories | Energy Efficiency (Residential and commercial) 100%; | |
| Research Types | Basic and strategic applied research 100% | |
| Science and Technology Fields | SOCIAL SCIENCES (Town and Country Planning) 50%; ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Architecture and the Built Environment) 50%; |
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| UKERC Cross Cutting Characterisation | Not Cross-cutting 80%; Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy 20%; |
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| Principal Investigator |
Maria Kolokotroni Brunel University London |
|
| Award Type | Standard | |
| Funding Source | EPSRC | |
| Start Date | 01 September 2025 | |
| End Date | 01 September 2030 | |
| Duration | 60 months | |
| Total Grant Value | £38,353 | |
| Industrial Sectors | Unknown | |
| Region | London | |
| Programme | NC : Engineering | |
| Investigators | Principal Investigator | Maria Kolokotroni , Brunel University London |
| Web Site | ||
| Objectives | ||
| Abstract | Rising ambient temperature, changes in precipitation and extreme weather events are observed more frequently recently. Buildings should be designed and retrofitted to withstand these changes and extreme events during their lifetime. Resilience of buildings has attracted attention of research and design guidance in particular for heatwaves and flooding. In addition, cities create their own microclimate. There is considerable drive in many cities to improve quality of air and thermal environment outside. On the thermal environment, current research and initiatives focus on how to mitigate the Urban Heat Island effect (UHI) by increasing vegetation, reflectivity (albedo) of external surfaces, and incorporating water features. These interventions will help reducing external air and surface temperatures improving thermal comfort of pedestrians and reducing energy demand for cooling buildings. Urban settings and climate change both impact on energy use and thermal comfort inside buildings as well as Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) in naturally ventilated buildings. At design stage, external boundary conditions are an important input to predicting their performance and at operational stage knowledge of external conditions helps to adjust settings. Designing buildings especially in urban environments using typical (based on past data) weather conditions ignores the changed external environment leading to erroneous predictions and choice of façade design and Heating Ventilation and Air conditioning (HVAC) strategies and equipment that may not be suitable. Considering the drive to achieve net zero buildings in the next decade, ignoring the urban environment and climate change will compromise the results. The new International Energy Agency (IEA), Energy in Buildings and Communities (EBC) Annex 97 research project aims to generate and spread international knowledge about effective heat mitigation and sustainable cooling in cities considering their characteristics and impact of climate change. Emphasis will be placed on the interaction between heat mitigation in outdoor spaces and cooling of buildings. Therefore, the project aims to develop and support the application of measures that serve the health, safety and wellbeing of people and that push energy efficiency and open the way to carbon neutrality. The objectives are: establish a knowledge base on environmental quality criteria in indoor and outdoor spaces, as well as key performance indicators (KPIs) for urban cooling. develop simulation and experimental methods to assess heat mitigation and cooling technologies. identify and assess solutions to improve heat mitigation in urban outdoor areas and cooling in buildings, focusing on the interrelation of both measures. identify best practices for policy-making, and strengthen existing networks to amplify global adoption of sustainable cooling practices. Annex 97 participation includes research organisations from 20 countries, including many European countries, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan and the USA while India, Mexico and Vietnam will be observing countries. Brunel intends to participate to the work of all objectives. Participation will benefit the UK in identifying additional niche areas for research at national level and promoting current national research at international level. The results of Annex 97 will be of benefit to regional policy makers, urban planners, architects and building designers. The Annex will publish reports of the international research which are approved by the IEA EBC Executive Committee before publication and will be available in the IEA EBC website. In additional, interim results will be published in the form of journal and conference papers | |
| Data | No related datasets |
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| Projects | No related projects |
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| Publications | No related publications |
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| Added to Database | 07/01/26 | |
