The aim of the article is to presents the results of calculations regarding the: economic – based on the life cycle costing (LCC) approach, environmental – based on the life cycle assessment (LCA) approach and social aspects of modeled refurbishment of residential and non-residential stock of buildings. Particular emphasis was placed on the impact of energy efficiency of the modeled buildings on environmental aspects and the selection of renewable and non-renewable energy sources. The article presents an analysis of an area of energy cluster in terms of environmental aspects and a detailed analysis of an offi ce building using advanced energy simulations. The calculations for energy cluster was made using Polish energy certifi cate methodology (monthly calculations) while analysis of an office building was performed using dynamic hourly simulations with use of Energy Plus software. Performed analysis results in reaching energy efficiency scenarios for both cases according to meeting sustain development idea.

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Our research introduces the river regulation effects on three sections of the upper and middle Odra River (south-western Poland), with differently channelized parts. In the upper and lower reaches, the river was straightened, narrowed, and trained with groins, whereas in the middle section, it was also impounded by numerous barrages. The discharge duration (DD) and water stage duration (WSD) curves for water-gauge stations from these river sections were analyzed to recognize changes in river flows and channel morphology since the mid-20th century. This analysis is supplemented by an examination of repeated surveys of the gauge cross sections of the river, annual precipitation totals in its catchment, and their relationship to the variation of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index. Our findings provide new hydrological insights for the region. The three river sections exhibited different patterns of the adjustment of the channel morphology to the river channelization: upper section was typified by channel incision, middle section by channel stability, and lower section by channel incision in its upper part and vertical stability of the channel bed in the lower part. Barrages in the middle section stabilized water stages in a wide range of hydrological conditions. Annual precipitation totals and river run-off did not change systematically over the study period. The variation in precipitation totals was inversely related to annual values of the NAO index. The study confirms the usefulness of DD/WSD curves to analyze changes in river run-off and the vertical position of the channel bed.

In the analyses of the uncertainty propagation of buildings’ energy-demand, the Monte Carlo method is commonly used. In this study we present two alternative approaches: the stochastic perturbation method and the transformed random variable method. The energy-demand analysis is performed for the representative single-family house in Poland. The investigation is focused on two independent variables, considered as uncertain, the expanded polystyrene thermal conductivity and external temperature; however the generalization on any countable number of parameters is possible. Afterwards, the propagation of the uncertainty in the calculations of the energy consumption has been investigated using two aforementioned approaches. The stochastic perturbation method is used to determine the expected value and central moments of the energy consumption, while the transformed random variable method allows to obtain the explicit form of energy consumption probability density function and further characteristic parameters like quantiles of energy consumption. The calculated data evinces a high accordance with the results obtained by means of the Monte Carlo method. The most important conclusions are related to the computational cost reduction, simplicity of the application and the appropriateness of the proposed approaches for the buildings’ energy-demand calculations.

Nowadays, natural environment protection and sustainable development became common and necessary issues for all the economic sectors. It is extremely important to focus on all the efforts resulting in the most efficient and sustainable power sources and electric power grid. Typically, the residential districts are connected by electric grids, which with an application of the appropriate technologies might be considered as so-called smart-grids. In the smart-grid neighbourhoods, houses are the consumers, energy supply is performed by the local or/and national power plants, while energy distribution is performed using some monitoring and management systems. Such a residential area can be considered as a Building Cluster, the novel paradigm in the energy and environmental analysis of the built environments. In this article, the exemplary single-family houses neighbourhood is examined, following the Building Cluster paradigm. The analysed area is located in Lodz (Poland), consisting of 202 buildings. The study is performed by means of the home-developed software named TEAC (Tool for Energy Efficiency Analyses of an Energy Cluster). The analysis is focused on the energy, economic and environmental issues of the considered Building Cluster.