149 research outputs found
Application of LCA methodology to the CLT panels made according to a short chain production process and definition of the benchmarks for environmental impact indicators
No full textThis paper describes the research activities related to the study of LCA methodology applied to the sector of construction and related to possible improvements and developments in this context. The research has provided a first step of analysis of the state of the art and a second one of verification of the methodology through the application to a case of study represented by the CLT panels produced by a company of Friuli Venezia Giulia. Subsequently, a critical analysis of the work was conducted and were proposed qualitative guidelines for the definition of benchmarks for the interpretation of the LCA results
Concept of an hydrothermal energy heat pump system for energetic requalification of historical buildings
No full textHistoric buildings are still excluded from the scope of regulatory framework concerning energy efficiency and environmental sustainability since European Directive 2002/91/EC and its following recast. Anyway, it is possible to provide renewable energy source systems in valuable historic buildings according to existing plants characters and possibly controlling complex safety mandatory framework requirements. A case study is presented in order to underline a development of sea hydrothermal energy use in high-value historic building heritage
An Integrated Procedure for Ex-Ante Evaluations of Refurbishment Costs in Healthcare Facilities
No full textThis paper focuses on the valuation of refurbishment costs for healthcare facilities. The
determination of the more reliable approach for experimental verification is a research topic of great
interest, especially because previous literature on the matter is limited. This study examines ex-ante
cost valuations in the refurbishment of healthcare buildings while using similarity to estimate the
costs that are based on the amount of already accomplished renovations. The methodology involved
a desk analysis deter-mining the technical valuation of intervention needs, and similarity coefficient
applications providing a refurbishment cost valuation. The application was conducted in the
Friuli—Venezia Giulia Region in Italy, where hospitals show structural, layout, and plants deficits
with respect to current regulations, and a technical deepening to identify critical issues is required
to prepare a multi-year intervention plan. The case study results showed that this procedure
requires little initial information to run analyses and its application can support investment budget
planning purposes
Enhancing the environmental performance of industrial settlements: An economic evaluation of extensive green roof competitiveness
No full textThis paper evaluates the private and social costs and benefits of adopting an extensive green roof as opposed to a
cool roof in an existing industrial building in Trieste (North-Eastern Italy). The evaluations from social and
private viewpoints both consider costs and benefits of refurbishments, energy consumption, and maintenance.
From the social side, the externalities derived from green or cool roofing, such as aesthetic aspects, biodiversity
preservation and natural habitat provision, carbon reduction, air quality improvement, and hydrological aspects,
are monetized using cost-benefit transfer approaches. The first analysis result is the poor convenience of
adopting a green roof compared to a cool one from the private investor's viewpoint. The second finding is the
positive net present value of the social cost-benefit analysis for the green roof compared with the cool roof, due
to the positive externalities of the former. Monetization of externalities allows calculating the economic incentives
needed to promote the spread of green roofing in the Mediterranean area. Consequently, two different
types of incentives are proposed: direct contribution for refurbishment intervention and annual reduction of
local property tax. A final sensitivity analysis using the Monte Carlo method is performed on intrinsic and
random variables, defined by triangular or uniform distributions. The probability evaluation of economic affordability
is provided from the private investor's viewpoint, first considering private costs and benefits and,
second, introducing the financial incentives for balancing the public benefits provided by an extensive green
roof
Edifici di valore storico-architettonico. Strumenti operativi di supporto alla progettazione d'interventi di recupero.
No full textGli interventi di recupero, siano questi riferiti a edifici di valenza storico-architettonica sia a quelli di minor pregio, rappresentano di per sé una declinazione operativa propria del concetto di sostenibilità. L’attuale necessità di integrare i requisiti di efficienza energetica e salvaguardia ambientale con i principi operativi del recupero architettonico richiede una molteplicità di competenze e un’inevitabile interazione tra differenti ambiti disciplinari, che comportano conseguentemente diverse difficoltà operative. Ancor di più il problema operativo assume un livello di maggior complessità nel caso in cui ci si occupi di interventi di restauro su edifici di particolare valore storico-architettonico, laddove i limiti e la qualità degli interventi si misurano strettamente con i vincoli determinati dalla salvaguardia dei valori più sopra ricordati.
Per queste ragioni la possibilità di riferirsi a schemi consolidati che supportino ogni fase progettuale di un intervento di recupero / restauro è un aspetto importante sotto molti punti di vista. In tal senso sono stati sviluppati o sono in fase di laborazione diversi strumenti, tra i quali citiamo il Progetto A.T.T.E.S.S., il protocollo GBC Historic Building, il Progetto SECHURBA. Si propone infine una sintetica comparazione tra queste sperimentazioni, al fine di riconoscervi i diversi approcci al tema del recupero del patrimonio storico
La simulazione degli impatti economico-finanziari del piano di miglioramento urbano della piccola città in Rosignano Solvay.
No full textLa valutazione degli interventi di rigenerazione urbana è un tema molto attuale e frequentato dalla recente letteratura economico-estimativa. Essa, infatti, concorre a definire la qualità della vita nelle città, argomento di grande interesse e di pari complessità.
I miglioramenti urbani possono essere valutati con vari approcci, sommariamente classificati in analisi multicriterio, molto popolare fra gli urbanisti e analisi costi benefici, più diffusa fra i ricercatori di formazione economica. Fra i vari metodi proposti, un posto di rilievo meritano quelli che derivano il valore monetario delle utilità prodotte dagli investimenti utilizzando le variazioni indotte sul valore di mercato di beni privati, in primo luogo degli immobili residenziali. L’abitazione, infatti, è un bene complesso il cui valore di mercato dipende da numerosi fattori, fra i quali occupa un posto primario la qualità dell’ambiente e dei servizi presenti nelle vicinanze. L’immobilità rende il valore degli edifici molto sensibile alla qualità urbana circostante (Curto, 1993; Rosato e al., 2003) e l’analisi del valore immobiliare può essere utile per valutarne l’apprezzamento sociale (Garrod e Willis, 1992; Chattopadhyay, 1999). L’uso dell’approccio edonimetrico per la valutazione dei beni e servizi pubblici, solitamente si scontra con i caratteri del mercato immobiliare, piuttosto opaco e rarefatto, che spesso precludono la possibilità di impiegare le normali procedure econometriche, piuttosto esigenti in termini di dati. Per ovviare, per quanto possibile, a questo limite, è stato sviluppato un approccio volto ad integrare le opinioni degli esperti con le informazioni di mercato disponibili.
Il lavoro si articola in tre parti. Inizialmente viene sinteticamente descritta la procedura multiattributo adottata per la costruzione degli indicatori sintetici e l’approccio “edonimetrico spaziale” per tradurre gli indicatori in valori. Successivamente, è presentata un’indagine sulle caratteristiche del patrimonio immobiliare dell’area di studio e dei valori riscontrati sul mercato e sui principali siti di promozione immobiliare. Infine, viene illustrata la stima del valore attuale degli immobili, della sua distribuzione nello spazio urbano e dell’incremento realizzabile con gli interventi di miglioramento ipotizzati. In estrema sintesi il modello ha consentito:
a) la stima dei costi e dei benefici delle misure del piano;
b) la distribuzione spaziale del beneficio netto e la sua distribuzione nel tempo;
c) il potenziale miglioramento sulle entrate fiscali dell’amministrazione comunale a partire dall’incremento di rendite catastali generato dai miglioramenti;
d) l’analisi della convenienza delle misure del piano dal punto di vista privato, della pubblica amministrazione e della collettività nel suo complesso
Risk and returns in real estate development projects at the black swan test
No full textThe real estate market is affected by great uncertainty due to the nexus of various factors: a) the specificity of the assets traded, which are illiquid, unique and very hetherogeneous from each other; b) the ‘structural disequilibrium’ of the market caused by the differences emerging in elasticity of supply with respect to demand; c) the non-competitiveness of the market, which often turns into a bilateral monopoly; d) the great variability of market prices. Since the subprime mortgage crisis that broke out at the end of 2006 in the United States, it has clearly emerged that, in a sector that represents about a third of world wealth, it is necessary, on the one hand, to implement proper and increasingly sophisticated valuation tools, to support the design of effective risk management strategies and, on the other hand, to improve the reliability of real estate data, in order to allow for a more robust verification of the hypotheses on the trend of the cash flows generated by the investment and a more accurate valuation of the investment risk and, consequently, of the project expected rate of return. The main objective of this work is to investigate the accuracy and robustness of the estimates of real estate investors of the expected returns on an urban development project in a medium-sized city representative of the North East of Italy. Using a simulation-based approach, the gap between the observed internal rate of return, estimated ex post on the basis of the actual trend of the parameters that influence investment returns, and the expected internal rate of return, calculated ex ante on the basis of the information available at the time of the investment decision. Firstly, we constructed the time series from 1995 to 2015 of the expected and observed internal rates of return of investments in the residential sector. We obtained the time series of the cash flows generated by the investment under investigation by implementing a simulation-based approach. Starting from the comparison between observed internal rate of return and expected internal rates of return, we identified ex post the risk implicitly assumed by the investor at the time of the decision to undertake the investment. Secondly, the effectiveness of the Capital Asset Pricing Model as a method for estimating the return on a property investment was verified, by comparing the project’s observed (ex post) internal rate of return with its ex ante rate of return, estimated through the Capital Asset Pricing Model. To carry out the above analyses, we constructed the time series of observed and expected internal rate of returns from 1995 to 2015 of investments in the residential sector. The time series of the internal rate of returns of real estate investments were obtained by implementing a simulation-based approach to determine the cash flows of real estate investments representative of the context under investigation and by adopting as model inputs the parameters usually adopted in ex-ante and ex-post real estate valuations. Starting from the comparison between observed and expected internal rate of returns, we identified ex-post the risk implicitly assumed by the developer at the time of the decision to undertake the investment. Finally, by investigating the determinants of the divergence between the investment’s observed and expected internal rate of return and cyclical variables, we identified the factors (i.e., the macroeconomic fundaments) which, in the period under investigation, affected investment risk and, consequently, investment return. Finally, by investigating the relationships that account for the difference between the observed and expected internal rate of return and the economic factors that can determine the current stage in economic cycles, we identified the determinants of invetment risk and returns
Affordable Housing vs. Urban Land Rent in Widespread Settlement Areas
No full textSocial Housing constitutes a partial response to the demand for affordable housing. In Europe, there are different forms of Social Housing, which are distinguishable based on whether they employ a universal or residual approach. The latter is employed by Italian initiatives for Social Residential Construction, the financial instrument of which is the Investment Fund for Housing, a closed-end fund managed by CDP Investment, which provides public–private partnerships. The main obstacle to the supply of low-cost houses is the high cost of building areas or, in other words, the high urban land rent. The value of building areas is particularly high in urban areas and in widespread settlement areas, for instance, in Northeastern Italy. The main objective of this paper is to identify the trade-off between urban land rent and housing affordability in a Social Housing intervention in Pordenone (Northeastern Italy). Four different scenarios are developed, the variables of which are: cost of the area (urban rent), cost of construction works (quality of the buildings), and household income distribution. The results show that achieving the economic and social objectives of a Social Housing investment simultaneously is not possible in any of the scenarios evaluated. To allow the social groups most in need to access affordable housing would require a reduction of approximately 30% of the estimated cost of a building area
Green roofs technological analysis according to a performance-based approach
No full textThe research develops with the objective to investigate the technical aspects related to green roofs and evaluate their possible installation on existing buildings. In fact, using these technological solutions for the roof, can be easily implements in the new buildings but collides with multiple difficulties in the existing buildings. In this regard, it is consider interesting to investigate the technological aspects related to these solutions. In order to identify the main constraints that prevent the implementations of green roofs on existing buildings and to define the conditions under which this type of installation can find the effective implementation also on existing buildings, without relevant construction works.
The objective of this work is the assessment of the feasibility of the installation of green roofs on existing buildings. In particular, we set ourselves the goal is to be able to identify technological constraints, architectural and structural, that make impossible the installation of green roofs in existing buildings. Based on these assessments, will be to demonstrate that below definite conditions, the installation of green roofs is also possible on the existing buildings.
The green roofs are gradually more popular, especially on new buildings, due to the greater sensitivity of the actors in the construction market with respect to issues related to environmental protection and the design of solutions to reduce the energy consumption of buildings. In this context, in recent times, research has provided confirmations about the benefits related to the implementation of green covering on the buildings roofs. In particular, we highlighted the positive impact of the reduction of urban heat island effect, reducing energy consumption for air conditioning in summer and winter and reducing the outflow of rainwater.
However, it is not known yet what is the potential of the city to adopt in their already built environment green roofs. In this sense, the work of the proposed research has the target to give a very first contribution to provide the answer to this question.
We conduct the analysis by comparing performances of a designed green roof from different technological solutions of the current situation. We evaluated the implementation of intensive and extensive green roofs on existing building with a flat roof. We chose to proceed developing the extensive green roofs, as less onerous in terms of loads and so more suitable for installation on an existing building. We also considered a possible traditional and insulate solution (thermal insulation cover, without the realization of green roof) to replace the existing roof, with which was made comparisons for each category evaluated.
For each solution, both at green roof and traditional insulated, we are determined all the values relating to the energy performances of the building and the values of the static load introduced by installations. Last one, evaluated in conditions of saturation of the soil that is the situation more onerous as regards the green covering.
Obtained results show that the implementation of a green roof on an existing building, compared to a general improvement of the energy performance, implying a heavier load on the roof.
By a purely legal point of view, analysis indicate that the load introduced would not require a revision of the building structure. This is because there is not a change in the roof destination use and the weight of the introduced solution by extensive green roof does not exceed 10% of the load on the building foundation
Proposal for development of a system for the definition of benchmarks for LCA.
No full textThe possibility of defining benchmarks in order to give a sure interpretation of the results of LCA, consistent with international development, this is an issue that must be addressed in a broad and from a general point of view, at the same time, specific for the different identifiable sectors (agri-food, building, packaging, ...). Therefore, it is considered appropriate an international organized collaboration among research institutions, governments and industries that will bring together in a single “container” all the rules, the principles and the improvement prospects that will concur in determining the levels of environmental performances, that are going to represent a starting point to define benchmarks. In this way, we propose the idea of preparing an international LCA (web) portal, characterized by geographic area, that could filed under different parameters the results of the LCA applications, which come from different sources (industry, research projects, pilot projects). The classification is going to be done according to the following tree diagram: geographic area – sector – product – environmental indicator. By this scheme, it is possible to classify under quantitatively, from which it could be possible to define the average performances, above and below the average, that will respectively represent the value 0 (zero), the positive value (+) and negative (-) one. It could be also possible to define weights related to different indicators, depending on collected data. At this point, in according with an appropriate rating attribution system, we are going to combine weights and benchmark values in order to give a single indicator that could be interpreted in a “maximum-minimum” range of values. Therefore, it would be necessary to introduce a set of positive values (1, 2, 3, ...) to define increasing levels of environmental performances, considering type I ecological label (like Ecolabel) too. According with us, this can be a possible step to certificate products or services by Life Cycle Thinking criteria
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