Future-proofing the built environment: towards a holistic approach

The future of the built environment is faced with a suite of grand challenges, including climate change, rapid urbanization, population growth, and escalation of extreme heat and pollution episodes. These phenomena interact through a complex network of feedback mechanisms that typically magnify the resulting socio-economic stress and may lead to aggravated disparities, dispossession of public spaces, locked-in emissions and vulnerabilities, as well as higher morbidity and mortality rates. Their counteraction requires an ever more holistic approach to properly prevent and mitigate the impacts, all the while minimizing trade-offs, risks, and spillover effects. The objective of the Special Issue “Future-proofing the built environment: towards a holistic approach” is to stimulate an integrated approach to urban challenges, bringing together different sciences and policy. In total, 12 scientific articles are included in this collection and are here analysed under 3 main thematic areas: i) beating the heat; ii) decarbonising the building stock, and iii) bringing innovation.

ULPIANI Giulia;  SAILOR David; 

2023-11-20

ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA

JRC134700

0378-7788 (online),   

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378778823007284,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC134700,   

10.1016/j.enbuild.2023.113498 (online),