Building Sector & Climate Change: The Case of Hungary

Abstract

Building sector plays an important role in climate impacts mitigation, as it is responsible for 40% of global energy use and global GHG emissions. Climate change has a dual implication on the built environment: on one hand human settlements and buildings are vulnerable to the effects of changing climate and on the other hand the building sector has a significant climate change mitigation potential. Although nowadays the trends are positive, the share of newly built low-energy buildings is very low, the near-zero-energy building market is in its early phase. Simultaneously the optimizing technologies in the building design are strongly highlighted. The presence of the energy and environment efficient buildings and the stringent building energy regulations of the EU need more accurate building design. The constant design parameters will come to foreground and their role will be appreciated. The relevant sustainable development and building policies, as well as the building design, construction and maintenance should jointly respond both to adaptation to and mitigation of climate change. This paper focuses the relevance of the main constant design parameter: How to take into account the increasing outdoor temperature in the building energy design.

Climate Parameters in Built Environment From Energetic Point of View – Towards Climate Severity Index in Hungary

“…Hungary for the standard normal period . [3,5] The map of annual mean temperature of Hungary shows zonality modified by topography. The largest part of the country has an annual mean temperature between 10-10,5°C for the period 1995-2004, but higher than 11°C can be found on the south part of the country and on south, south-west slopes generally.…”

“…City developers often face the problem of having no reliable information about the actual energy performance of their building stock and the cost efficient way of improving the building's energy efficiency as well as the climate vulnerability of their settlements and the options to enhance the resilience of built environments. [3,4] …”

“…Heating is responsible on the first place for the natural gas import dependence of the country, Hungary. [3,4] There is also a broad scientific consensus that the energy efficiency improvement in building construction and maintenance has negative or zero costs. Nowadays, city planners and municipal decision makers have a significant role and responsibility in mitigation of and adaptation to climate change.…”

“…Only 1-2% part of the building stock is exchanged every year, so it is very important to increase the energy efficiency of the existing buildings, too. [1,2,3] Climate change has a dual implication on the built environment: on one hand human settlements are vulnerable to climate change and on the other hand the building sector has a significant climate change mitigation potential. The relevant sustainable development and building policies, as well as the building design, construction and maintenance should jointly respond both to adaptation to and mitigation of climate change.…”

“…The relevant sustainable development and building policies, as well as the building design, construction and maintenance should jointly respond both to adaptation to and mitigation of climate change. [3,4] The possible impact of the climate change on the buildings may be grouped as: the direct impacts on structure (snow load, wind pressure, landslides, flood etc. ), on building constructions (fastening systems, water supply system, shading etc.)…”