A city is an organized open structure made of assembled materials and buildings that constantly interface with changeable contextual agents such as clime, weather, solar irradiation and human beings. Urban systems feed on energy inflows in order to achieve an organization (e.g. society, economy, architecture) that is maintained in time. The interaction of different inputs from the environment generates the building as a built storage in which energy and materials have been stocked. Energy and materials inflows are required to maintain and to use the building in time (for instance, electricity, water and gas are needed for building use). These interaction processes between buildings and the external environment are the focus of this study.Is it possible to measure these processes to evaluate sustainability of urban systems? How can the impact due to resource exploitation of housing on local sustainability be measured? Can we evaluate the environmental effects of urban strategies and structural plans?An environmental accounting method, namely emergy analysis (spelled with an 'm'), was applied to an urban area considering the main activities of an entire human settlement and a detailed analysis was focussed on housing: the general environmental performances of buildings in terms of resource exploitation were evaluated considering their construction, maintenance and use.As a case study, an emergy analysis of the municipality of Ravenna (north-eastern Italy) is presented with a special focus on housing and on the trend of growth of the building industry.Keywords

Sustainability concern of housing: emergy storage and flow assessment / Pulselli, R. M; Pulselli, F. M.; Marchettini, N.; Bastianoni, S.. - (2006), pp. 749-758. [10.2495/RAV060731]

Sustainability concern of housing: emergy storage and flow assessment

PULSELLI, R. M
;
2006-01-01

Abstract

A city is an organized open structure made of assembled materials and buildings that constantly interface with changeable contextual agents such as clime, weather, solar irradiation and human beings. Urban systems feed on energy inflows in order to achieve an organization (e.g. society, economy, architecture) that is maintained in time. The interaction of different inputs from the environment generates the building as a built storage in which energy and materials have been stocked. Energy and materials inflows are required to maintain and to use the building in time (for instance, electricity, water and gas are needed for building use). These interaction processes between buildings and the external environment are the focus of this study.Is it possible to measure these processes to evaluate sustainability of urban systems? How can the impact due to resource exploitation of housing on local sustainability be measured? Can we evaluate the environmental effects of urban strategies and structural plans?An environmental accounting method, namely emergy analysis (spelled with an 'm'), was applied to an urban area considering the main activities of an entire human settlement and a detailed analysis was focussed on housing: the general environmental performances of buildings in terms of resource exploitation were evaluated considering their construction, maintenance and use.As a case study, an emergy analysis of the municipality of Ravenna (north-eastern Italy) is presented with a special focus on housing and on the trend of growth of the building industry.Keywords
2006
9781845640484
emergy analysis; housing; buildings; neighbourhoods; urban systems; dissipative structures
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
Pulselli_2006_Sustainability_editor.pdf

accesso aperto

Tipologia: Versione Editoriale (PDF)
Licenza: Creative commons
Dimensione 727.08 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
727.08 kB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12318/135305
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 2
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 0
social impact