The positive effects of green infrastructure in the urban environment are nowadays widely known and proven by research. Yet, greening, which serves to improve the indoor climate and people’s well-being, is integrated very limited in public facilities such as schools. Reasons for this are seen in a lack of knowledge and financing opportunities. A focus, among others, of the MehrGrüneSchulen research project is the interdisciplinary development of cost-effective greening solutions for schools. The designs were developed in close collaboration with students of a technical college (HTL) and a horticultural school. This study describes the development process and presents the results of the first implementations of greening systems at the HTL-building complex and at nine other schools in Austria.
The productivity, health, and well-being of office workers are known to be influenced by the indoor thermal conditions, most significantly the temperature and air humidity. This article is based on measurements and calculated predictions, as well as surveys of the employees in a newly renovated office building in Vienna, Austria. The renovation measures include street-side facade greening. The aim of this study was to determine the possible effects these renovation measures have on thermal comfort inside the building. The evaluation is carried out in accordance with the standards based on the predicted mean vote (PMV), calculated with the collected measurement data. Based on the survey, the calculation results are compared with the subjective perception of the employees. Even though the measurements and the survey were carried out only one year after the renovation, about 70% of the employees’ statements speak about noticeable positive changes due to the renovation measures. Regarding daylight and artificial lighting conditions, a total of 80% of employees are neutral or satisfied. The majority also expresses neutrality or satisfaction regarding spatial conditions and air quality. The satisfaction of the employees is reflected in their work performance. The goal is therefore to achieve the highest possible satisfaction of the building’s users.
Global urbanization is advancing, and with it, the densification of cities. Due to increased sealing of open spaces and the re-densification of existing urban settings, green spaces in the city are becoming scarcer. At the same time, greening within the urban fabric is known for its positive effects on the environment and decisively counteracts the urban heat effect. This study deals with the benefits of green façades for the environment as a cooling measure. Two façade greening systems, one trough and one cassette system, consisting of curtain wall elements with a basic metal structure, installed at a south-facing outdoor wall of a school building in Vienna, Austria, were taken under metrological examination. In order to evaluate the cooling effect caused by evapotranspiration, the amount of water evaporated was calculated using the difference of inflow and outflow. Furthermore, the surface temperatures of the greened and non-greened walls were measured to display the influence of the interaction of shading and evapotranspiration on the surrounding microclimate. The investigated vertical greening system with an area of 58 m2 has an average evaporation capacity of 101.38 L per day in the summer. The maximum surface temperature difference was measured to be 11.6 °C.
Strategies to mitigate urban heat islands are a recent issue in the Austrian capital, Vienna. In this study, the uhiSolver-v2106-0.21 software was used to evaluate the summer cooling effects and humidity production of small-scale facade greening and a green pergola located in two schools within the city. Based on on-site measurement data, the study revealed that small-scale greening measures are not able to substantially reduce ambient air temperature. On a hot summer day, at 3 p.m. local time (CEST), the maximum decrease amounted to 0.3 °C at 0.1 m from the facade greening as well as inside the green pergola. As for the apparent (perceived) temperature, a reduction of up to 4 °C was observed under the green pergola compared to the unshaded roof terrace. Hence, the simulation results show that, within urban areas, a significant improvement of thermal comfort in summer can only be achieved through large-scale greenery that provides shade for pedestrians.
Electrochemical low-cost sensors, suitable for the monitoring of different air quality parameters such as carbon monoxide or nitrogen dioxide levels, are viable tools for creating affordable handheld devices for short-term or dense air quality monitoring networks for long-term measurements and IoT applications. However, most devices that utilize such sensors are based on proprietary hardware and software and, therefore, do not offer users the ability to replace sensors or interact with the hardware, software, and data in a meaningful way. Initiatives that focus on an open framework for air quality monitoring, such as the AirSensEUR project, offer competitive open source alternatives. In this study, we examined the feasibility of the application of such devices. Five AirSensEUR units equipped with chemical sensors were placed next to a reference air quality measuring station in Vienna, Austria. During co-location, concentrations of 0.20 ± 0.06 ppm, 7.14 ± 8.66 ppb, and 17.58 ± 9.90 ppb were measured for CO, NO, and NO2, respectively. The process of evaluating the performance of the low-cost sensors was carried out and compared to similar studies. Data analysis was carried out with the help of the basic functions in MS Excel. We investigated the linear correlation between the sensor and reference data and thus calculated the coefficient of determination, the average and maximum residuals, and the correlation coefficient. Furthermore, we discuss sensor properties in regard to selectivity and long-term stability.
Background Increasing urbanization as well as global warming requires an investigation of the influence of different construction methods and ground surfaces on the urban heat island effect (UHI effect). The extent of the influence of the urban structure, the building materials used and their surfaces on the UHI effect can be significantly reduced already in the planning phase using a designated OpenFOAM-based solver “uhiSolver”. Results In the first part of this research work, it is shown that inner building details and components can be neglected while still obtaining sufficiently accurate results. For this purpose, the building model was divided into two layers: a surface layer without mass, where the interaction with radiation takes place, and a component layer, which contains all relevant components and cavities of the building represented with mass-averaged material properties. It has become apparent that the three parameters—albedo, heat capacity and thermal resistance—which have a decisive influence on the interaction, have different effects on the component temperatures and the surface temperatures. In the second part of this research work, dynamic 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations are performed with uhiSolver for a residential block in Vienna. Comparing the simulation results with measurement data collected on site, it is shown that the simplified assumption of homogeneous material data for building bodies provides very good results for the validation case investigated. However, the influence of the greening measures in the courtyard of the residential block on the air temperature is found to be negligible. Furthermore, it was observed that due to locally higher radiation density, lower air velocities and higher air humidity, the apparent temperature in the courtyard is sometimes perceived to be higher than in the adjacent streets, despite the lower air temperature. Conclusions Simplifying the modeling process of the uhiSolver software by reducing the model complexity helps to reduce manual work for setting up appropriate boundary conditions of buildings. Compared to market competitors, good results are obtained for the validation case Kandlgasse presented in this research work, despite the simplifications proposed. Thus, uhiSolver can be used as a robust analytical tool for urban planning.
According to demographic data, the percentage of elderly people within the population is growing, representing a vulnerable group to the effects of increasing heat, but little attention has been paid to developed adaptation measures. In addition, many older people leave their familiar homes and live in nursing homes. The person-centred care pursues creating spaces of high living quality for these people in nursing homes, to which plants and greenery can contribute. Greening is also considered an effective climate change adaptation measure. To create healthy conditions for this vulnerable group of elderly, both technical and social factors must be considered, and accordingly, a successful solution can only be achieved in an interdisciplinary way. The research and development of the project “Green: Cool & Care” dealt with this outset from a building physics, social, and nursing science perspective, and concepts to integrate greening measures in nursing homes were developed jointly by researchers, planners, staff, volunteers, and residents. For this purpose, measurement campaigns of air quality parameters, individual interviews and focus groups, as well as co-creative workshops were conducted aiming to include the objective building conditions as well as the subjective needs in developing and, in a further step, implementing greening measures.
Humans spend more than 80% of their lives indoors resulting in an increased demand for high indoor air quality (IAQ). At the same time, indoor air tends to be at least twice as polluted as outdoor air, and health threats caused by long-term exposure to indoor air pollution are rising. Few experiments under real-life conditions have demonstrated positive effects of indoor plants on parameters related to IAQ, resulting in improved humidity and temperature, reduced particulate matter concentration and CO2 levels. Indoor living walls allow the presence of many plants—without taking up valuable floor area. This article presents the results of conducted measurements on four do-it-yourself green walls planted with different plant species that are typically used for vertical indoor greenery (golden pothos, Boston fern, spider plant and a combination of plants) in a school setting. Besides the parameters of air humidity and temperature, CO2, mold spore and particulate matter levels, influences on room acoustics were investigated. Based on a custom-developed evaluation matrix, the plants were compared with each other and a reference without plants. The results show that no species led to deterioration of IAQ. Golden pothos had the most substantial effect and delivered improvements in all examined parameters.
Façade greening at the intersection between buildings and urban space offers an optimal opportunity to integrate greenery into increasingly dense cities and influence the microclimate and contribute to high quality of life in urban areas. Despite proven numerous positive effects, there is still a lack of implementation and practical relevance is low until now. To integrate existing greening systems directly into future planning processes and thus keep up with the advancing digitalization in the building sector, an integration of these systems into Building Information Modeling (BIM) is urgently needed and in connection to this, the implementation of an automated planning process to support easier realization of greening projects contributing to a sustainable urban development. Therefore, BIM objects were created for five façade greening systems after analyzing the necessary basic data. Subsequently, an automated process was used to optimize the time-consuming conventional planning process of façade greening, with the aim of evaluating the simulated greening variants based on defined parameters. A case study presents the application of the prototypes and the possible calculations over the life cycle of the building. This development holds great potential by simplifying the process of decision-making and placing façade greenery on buildings.
Low indoor humidity has been shown to influence the transmission of respiratory diseases via air. A certain proportion of sick leave in offices is therefore attributable to dryness of air. An improvement in these conditions thus means a reduction in sick leave, which is accompanied by cost savings for companies. Vertical indoor greening has a verifiable positive effect on air humidity, especially in winter months. In this article, the correlation between improved air humidity in greened rooms and reduction of sick leave due to improved air humidity was described. The resulting indirect economic effect was determined by comparing the costs for construction, green care, and technical maintenance of indoor greenery with savings due to lower sick leave. Based on long-term measurement data on air humidity and temperature, and actual cost values for three buildings, located in Vienna, Austria, with 6 greened and 3 reference rooms without greenery, the correlation of the method was derived and finally formulated in a generalized way using dimensioning factors. Only considering the influence on air humidity, profitability of 6.6 m2 vertical greening installed in an example office with six workplaces equipped with technical ventilation and saving of two sick days already results after about 4.5 years.
The construction industry is responsible for a large amount of both embodied carbon and emissions. Especially with concrete, there is still a lot of potential for designing recipes in a more ecological way. Approaches to reduce the environmental impact of concrete include the use of industrial and agricultural by-products. This study combines the approaches of replacing cement with granulated blast furnace slag and the use of NaOH-treated rice straw fibers. The research objective comprises the design of an ecologically optimized concrete as well as the question of whether a pretreatment of rice straw fibers with NaOH improves the performance of the designed concrete. The method includes mechanical and physical testing of the of the designed concrete as well as an optical analysis with a scanning electron microscope. The results indicated that treating rice straw with 1% NaOH indicates a better bond between fibers and the surrounding matrix. The tests in which the rice straw was treated with NaOH achieved a higher density, splitting strength, tensile strength and compressive strength. The study contributes an ecologically optimized concrete with granulated blast furnace slag and NaOH-treated rice straw concrete, which shows a great potential as an environmentally friendly, low-cost construction material.
The need for heating and cooling in traditional housing is becoming increasingly disadvantageous regarding high energy costs. But what is more concerning is the impact on our environment. The main goal of this paper is studying the prospects of using renewable energy for heating and cooling houses through an integrated bio-solar system in order to solve the energy scarcity problem. For this purpose, a simulation model for a bio-solar house made from different materials (walls made of bricks with straw bales and a roof made of concrete with straw bales) was developed successively in accordance with the energy balance and renewable energies such as biogas and solar energy were applied. This approach enabled an enhancement of the main factors affecting the performance of a building in terms of saving energy. The model was able to predict the energy requirements for heating and cooling of houses, the energy gained by a solar collector and by a biogas digester as well as the energy requirement for heating the biogas digester. Also, the purpose of this paper is to validate this developed simulation model by measuring energy requirements for heating of houses and solar radiation for solar collectors. The model is a simulation model for the bio-solar house with its three main parts—a straw house, a solar collector and a biogas digester. This paper demonstrates the values of the performed measurements and compares them to the theoretical, predicted values. The comparison indicates that the predicted energy requirements for the heating of buildings were a close approximation to the measured values. Another relevant deduction of the validation was the fact that the solar collector delivered the highest heat gain on 21st of June.
The aim of this paper is to analyze the safety of forklift brakes. The research methodology used to analyze forklift brake safety is presented using the checklist descriptive method. The study was conducted on 127 forklifts with an average age of 15 years, where it was found that about 10% of the forklifts did not have a proper parking brake and that about 2% of the forklifts had defective service brakes. Finally, the results obtained from the research on brake safety have been discussed and further research has been proposed.
Construction materials have a direct impact on the environment, on people, and their health. In addition, building insulation plays a decisive role in terms of energy consumption of buildings and regarding CO2-emissions over their whole life cycle. In order to achieve a holistic concept for green building worldwide, it is necessary to develop ecological insulating materials and to scientifically examine them in terms of their technical properties, as done with particleboards from agricultural waste presented in this article. This study aims to characterize the properties’ tensile and compressive strength, modulus of rupture (MOR), and elasticity (MOE) and thermal conductivity of particleboards affected by parameters, such as waste type (rice straw or flax shives), particleboard density, resin type, and content, as well as the use of treated rice straw. Particleboards made from flax shives had superior properties compared to the rice straw particles. The mechanical properties of the boards increase with an increasing resin content, except for the MOR and MOE, which decrease with an increasing resin content, and reach their peak value at a resin content of 10%.
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