Denia Kolokotsa

Technical University of Crete | TUC · Department of Environmental Engineering

Quality of life refers to a person's perception of their place in life about the culture and value systems, in which they live, as well as their goals, expectations, standards, and concerns. Because humans are conscious beings, they can measure their happiness or "subjective wellbeing" in terms of their enjoyment of life. In this study, a sample of...

This study constitutes a first step towards a better understanding of the associations between human Health and Well-Being (H&WB) and urban green space characteristics. Utilizing various Key Performance Indicators for two green spaces in the city of Chania, we report their capacities in terms of greenness availability, accessibility, usage, air tem...

This paper reports on our work for defining a methodology for applying energy and other polices into smart buildings that use Internet of Things enabled devices. The goal is to automate decisions on a variety of issues where there is a conflict of policies between the priorities of different users and roles. We use computational argumentation and a...

An increasingly important aspect of analyzing the challenges facing cities today is the integration of nature. Nature-based solutions have the potential to successfully cope with the adverse effects of extensive urbanization and climatic change. On the other hand, the incorporation of smartness in cities is a critical issue. This paper aims to anal...

The conceptualization and application of nature-based solutions (NBS) in the practice of planning and projects on urban and architectural scales have reached a level of maturity in the last 10 years, thanks to a strong push from European policies and funding for European projects and evidence from scientific literature. However, a systemic insight...

This open access book includes a selection of innovative contributions presented at the 4th international conference “Smart and Sustainable Planning for Cities and Regions 2022”, held in Bolzano, Italy in July 2022. Featuring 10 papers by academics and consultants, strongly rooted in practical experiences and international projects, it discusses cu...

Urban overheating and energy imbalances are severe environmental concerns. The role of urban sprawl patterns in the formation of Heat Island has recently absorbed the researchers’ interest. The research focuses on metropolitan areas with a range of urban typologies. However, there still is a knowledge gap in how UHI responds to different urban typo...

The high rate of penetration of renewable energy sources leads to challenges in planning and controlling the production, transmission and distribution of energy. A possible solution lies within the change from traditional supply side management to demand side management. Buildings are good candidates for implementing a demand response model since t...

The building sector is responsible for a significant share of the global energy consumption (almost 40%) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (one‐third of the total). Nearly zero‐energy building (NZEB) and positive‐energy building (PEB) are eco‐friendly concepts aimed at reducing energy consumption, GHGs, and energy‐related costs with due attention...

Urban and building typologies have a serious impact on the urban climate and determine at large the magnitude of the urban overheating and urban heat island intensity. The present study aims to analyze the impact of various city typologies and urban planning characteristics on the mitigation of the urban heat island. The effect of the building heig...

This chapter reveals the most appropriate energy management techniques for transforming an institutional building to a zero‐energy building in the tropics. Universities' campuses and campus buildings can be viewed as small districts and microgrids. Therefore, the school of design and environment at the national university of Singapore intends to in...

Smart grids are one of the major challenges of the energy sector for both the energy demand and energy supply of cities and communities. This chapter starts with an analysis of the various energy storage systems and their performance when coupled with smart grids. Electrical energy storage systems are very important for smart grids. In mechanical s...

This chapter aims to calculate the energy signature of the Novel Technology Lab in Athalassa campus of Nicosia, to obtain the overall estimation of the consumption by starting from common measurements that are easily collected in a smart building, such as external and internal temperature. Energy model‐based simulation is tool that allows us to mod...

This chapter addresses critical issues related to smart grid technologies and the integration of buildings in this new power grid framework. Since the vast majority of smart grids' potential customers are buildings and communities, it also addresses the challenges posed by smart grids on the building and community level. Buildings in the near futur...

The increase of the ambient air and land surface temperatures in cities has serious impacts to the microclimate of the cities as well as to their economic and social functions. The paper examines the presence and strength of the surface urban heat island for selected Mediterranean cities from a different perspective, namely through the use of lands...

Green building concept plays a fundamental role in reducing the use of resources and the impacts on human health and environment, during the whole building life cycle. Therefore, a method to measure the building sustainability rate is crucial for comparing various alternatives in terms of use of different materials, energy resources, production pro...

The need to create and maintain a sustainable indoor environment is now more than ever compelling. Both the legislation framework concerning the energy performance of buildings, as determined in its evolution through the EU Directives 2010/31/EU, 2012/27/EU and 2018/844/EU, and the European strategic plans towards green buildings, denote the need o...

The present paper aims to study the impact of Nature Based Solutions (NBS) on the urban environment. The Surface Urban Energy and Water balance Scheme (SUEWS) is used to quantify the impact of NBS in the city of Heraklion, Crete, Greece, a densely built urban area. Local meteorological data and data from an Eddy Covariance flux tower installed in t...

The concept of zero energy has emerged as the flagship for the achievement of energy conservation and CO2 emissions reduction in the built environment. The implementation of the concept beyond single buildings offers the potential of expanding the scale of zero energy performance while overcoming the limitations of single buildings related to build...

Purpose The combination of desalination technology with renewable energy sources (RES) provides a sustainable approach for increasing potable water availability without imposing negative environmental effects. This paper aims to present the development of a platform, which is an internet-based tool integrating the design optimization of desalinatio...

In this chapter, a genetic algorithm (GA) optimization model is proposed, using artificial neural network (ANN) power predictions for day‐ahead energy management at building and district level. DR is a fundamental aspect of the smart grid concept as it refers to the necessary open and transparent market framework linking energy costs to actual grid...

The Leaf Community is a unique blend of inspired qualified personnel where the preservation of the natural environment, renewable energy sources and worldwide R&D meets education, local culture and society. The Leaf Lab is an industrial building of a rectangular shape and a floor area of approximately 6,000 m2 located in the Leaf Community, one of...

This chapter presents a comprehensive approach for evaluating the performance of one industrial and one residential smart/near‐zero energy building. The research activities performed and presented in this chapter target the estimation and evaluation of the performance gap between the design and operational phase of zero energy buildings. The steps...

Demand response (DR) makes it possible to alter the profile of power consumption in individual buildings and building districts, i.e. microgrids, for economic return. In this chapter, the potential for operational optimization of a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system in a smart near‐zero energy industrial building is investigate...

Smart meters, one of the crucial enablers of the smart-grid concept and cornerstones in smart planning for cities, offer the opportunity for consumers to address their energy consumption effectively through timely and accurate data on their energy usage. However, previous studies have shown that smart meters may not lead to the desired energy savin...

The absence of vegetation in urban areas contributes to the establishment of the urban heat island, markedly increasing thermal stress for residents, driving morbidity and mortality. Mitigation strategies are, therefore, needed to reduce urban heat, particularly against a background of urbanization, anthropogenic warming and increasing frequency an...

A building's energy consumption is a major source of greenhouse gas emission and one of the main causes of climatic change. Passive solar architecture relies on the use of techniques for solar and heat control, heat amortization, and heat dissipation. Solar and heat protection or exploitation techniques may involve thermal improvement by the use of...

In an increasingly urbanizing world, governments and international corporations strive to increase the productivity of cities, recognized as economy growth hubs, as well as ensuring a better quality of life and living conditions to citizens. The urban environment has been associated with citizens' human health and wellbeing, such as infant mortalit...

Measurement and verification (M&V) has become necessary for ensuring intended design performance. Currently, M&V procedures and calculation methods exist for the assessment of Energy Conservation Measures (ECM) for existing buildings, with a focus on reliable baseline model creation and savings estimation, as well as for reducing the computation ti...

The transition of the Net Zero Energy (NZE) concept from building to settlement scale has been theoretically approached in a number of studies. This paper examines the benefits and barriers associated with the implementation of the NZE concept at a settlement scale, by adopting a comprehensive approach for the design, construction, and monitoring o...

Nowadays, the design and use of multi-functional mortars has increased significantly, with interesting applications in the green building and cultural heritage conservation sectors. A key point for a correct adoption of these innovative materials is their behavior along time and their resistance to the weathering. The objective of this project was...

In being aware that some factors (i.e. increasing pollution levels, Urban Heat Island (UHI), extreme climate events) threaten the quality of life in cities, this paper intends to study the Atmospheric UHI phenomenon in Bari, a Mediterranean coastal city in Southern Italy. An experimental investigation at the micro-scale was conducted to study and q...

Extreme weather conditions affect human health. This study analyses the association of high and low temperature with cardiovascular and respiratory diseases on people over 65 years old for the years 2007 to 2015, in the region of Chania, Greece. The mortality is examined by time series analysis and further investigated by Poisson, and Negative Bino...

The operation of buildings is linked to approximately 36% of the global energy consumption, 40% of greenhouse gas emissions, and climate change. Assessing the energy consumption and efficiency of buildings is a complex task addressed by a variety of methods. Building energy modeling is among the dominant methodologies in evaluating the energy effic...

Ambitious goals for the upgrade of construction aimed at energy conservation may quite often bounce due to different barriers, from design and detailing, through construction, to commissioning and behavioural ones. To overcome these, this paper focuses on the missing link of the construction process – the Informative Commissioning, the pre and post...

Buildings are the dominant end users of energy, as well as the largest contributors to CO2 emissions due to fossil fuels. As an investment, buildings possess the slowest turnover of capital stock, but also comprise the majority of any country’s capital assets. Energy efficiency is thus extremely important in buildings, since it can offer expanding...

Renewable energy production technologies are indispensable to the development of a clean and energy efficient built environment. Being dependent on climatic parameters, renewable energy production may vary causing a mismatch between energy demand and available production. Therefore, forecasting of renewable energy production allows the design and i...

Renewable energy production technologies are indispensable to the development of a clean and energy efficient built environment. Being dependent on climatic parameters, renewable energy production may vary causing a mismatch between energy demand and available production. Therefore, forecasting of renewable energy production allows the design and i...

Demand response offers the possibility of altering the profile of power consumption of individual buildings or building districts, i.e., microgrids, for economic return. There is significant potential of demand response in enabling flexibility via advanced grid management options, allowing higher renewable energy penetration and efficient exploitat...

Smart grids are one of the major challenges of the energy sector for both the energy demand and energy supply in smart communities and cities. Grid connected energy storage systems are regarded as promising solutions for providing ancillary services to electricity networks and to play an important role in the development of smart grids. The aim of...

As Greece's population ages, a number of challenges are presented in order to provide a healthy living environment for the elderly. Senior citizens have unique requirements for the indoor environment due to physiological changes occurring with age, which render them vulnerable to extremes of heat and cold. The aim of this work is to investigate the...

Urban greenery is a natural solution to cool cities and provide comfort, clean air and significant social, health and economic benefits. This paper aims to present the latest progress on the field of greenery urban mitigation techniques including aspects related to the theoretical and experimental assessment of the greenery cooling potential, the i...

Demand Response (DR) is a fundamental aspect of the smart grid concept, as it refers to the necessary open and transparent market framework linking energy costs to the actual grid operations. DR allows consumers to directly or indirectly participate in the markets where energy is being exchanged. One of the main challenges for engaging in DR is ass...

Urban heat island (UHI) can significantly affect building’s thermal-energy performance. Urban materials absorb solar and infrared radiation and the accumulated heat is dissipated in the atmosphere increasing further the air temperature. Roofs are envelope components which with advanced solutions such as cool roofs or green roofs can provide signifi...

School buildings constitute a rather special case of buildings when it comes to energy performance since the operational costs for heating, cooling and ventilation are usually far less important than the achieved thermal comfort, indoor air quality and lighting levels due to the very sensitive subject of students’ health, well-being and ability to...

University campuses which can be viewed as small cities due to their size, users, and mixed complex activities. The energy and environmental impact caused by institutional buildings via activities and operations in teaching and research, as well as provision of support services could be considerably reduced by an effective choice of energy technolo...

As we are nowadays experiencing a transition period for the energy demand, there is a clear movement of the European energy market towards a new field of efficiency including reliable and smart systems that will upgrade the improvement of Europe's economic and environmental health. To this end smart systems introduce innovative applications with mu...

The continuously increasing urban temperature results to the well-known urban heat island phenomenon. Cool roofs and cool pavements are very promising mitigation techniques as they can be easily applied to new and existing buildings as well as urban spaces. In the present paper, the application of cool materials in the urban region of Acharnes muni...

To support the next generation of multi-process big data and service-oriented computing, a Web-GIS platform is considered a viable solution for gathering and sharing of collected data from various case studies ΝΖΕ settlements, so that the information flows are easily managed and interpreted, by means of spatial thematic maps related to specific lev...

A novel idea, the Daily Discomfort Score (DDS) is developed to assess Demand Response (DR) and thermal comfort in a University building. HVAC set-point control is exercised as a way to reduce the cost of energy and improve thermal comfort. The Daily Discomfort Score employs operative temperature as the key input parameter to take into account radia...

Traditional electricity grids lack flexibility in power generation and load operation in contrast to smart-micro grids that form semi-autonomous entities with energy management capabilities. Load forecasting is invaluable to smart micro-grids towards assisting the implementation of energy management schedules for cost-efficient and secure operation...

In the present paper the impact of natural cross-ventilation on thermal comfort levels in sustainable residential buildings is evaluated. A sustainable dwelling is designed in Crete and various scenarios of different combinations of open windows and doors in the ground floor, the first floor and between the floors are tested to determine the final...

Traditional electricity grids lack flexibility in power generation and load operation in contrast to smart-micro grids that form semi-autonomous entities with energy management capabilities. Load forecasting is invaluable to smart micro-grids towards assisting the implementation of energy management schedules for cost-efficient and secure operation...

A novel idea, the Daily Discomfort Score (DDS) is developed to assess Demand Response (DR) and thermal comfort in a University building. HVAC set-point control is exercised as a way to reduce the cost of energy and improve thermal comfort. The Daily Discomfort Score employs operative temperature as the key input parameter to take into account radia...

Light pipes can provide daylight and improve lighting conditions in buildings. Knowledge of their optical performance is a prerequisite for their successful integration into buildings. This article presents and analyses the experimental performance and the specific efficiency characteristics of a light pipe as integrated into an experimental test-c...

Retrofitting is widely explored as one of the energy conserving opportunities for existing buildings, in which both passive and active solutions are carefully evaluated. However, when different retrofitting solutions are combined and applied to a building, the total energy savings potential, which is less than the sum of the savings from applying t...

Energy efficiency, advanced controls and renewable energy systems for operating industrial, residential and tertiary sector buildings designed to be Near-Zero Energy are investigated to explore the performance gap. The analysis involves a comparison of energy dynamic and quasi-dynamic models with data from smart monitoring systems, indoor and outdo...

The indoor energy simulation software of buildings, by default do not include the actual meteorological conditions (outside humidity, temperature, etc.) but uses average external weather data obtained by statistical analysis, which do not take into account local outdoor microclimate variations due to the urban landscape. This may lead to miscalcula...

Urban heat island and global warming increase the urban ambient temperature. Increased temperatures have a tremendous effect on the energy demand for cooling, with a great impact on peak and total electricity demand. Renewable technologies in the urban environment have been widely regarded as an increasingly important solution to deal with the clim...

Because light directly influences human health, requirements on lighting levels must be constantly fulfilled. The lighting control market represents, therefore, an innovative sector that empowers a start-up's potential and where customers are highly looking for solutions that have low costs and high life expectancy, and that are least intrusive. Co...

Zero and Positive Energy Buildings are buildings that use their own locally-installed (renewable) energy-generating sources to produce, over a certain period of time (e.g., on an annual basis), more power than they consume. The aim of this chapter is to present the trends and perspectives for office buildings to become zero energy in the coming yea...

Although the urban heat island (UHI) phenomena phenomenon has was been documented over a century ago, the effect of the urban heat island on urban climate and environment during the summer have only been the focus of research over the last three decades. One main characteristics of the recent research has been to evaluate the summertime effects of...

Demand response (DR) offers the path for consumers to change their normal energy consumption patterns in response to significant variations in energy pricing over time. An effective and wide scale implementation of DR may lead to lower energy demand during peak hours and minimize energy associated costs and outages. DR can be more cost-effective th...

The phenomenon of heat island increases the urban temperature and the energy demand for cooling, as well as worsens the comfort and environmental conditions in the urban environment. In order for the consequences of the phenomenon to be counterbalanced, important mitigation techniques have been proposed. The pavements cover a very high percentage o...

University campuses can be considered as small towns due to their size, number of users and mixed and complex activities, including numerous actions usually met in urban environments. The energy and environmental impact of universities could be considerably reduced by applying organizational, technological and energy optimization measures. The aim...

The maximisation of energy efficiency in buildings can be performed by successful demonstration of the passive technologies. Passive cooling is passing to a phase of maturity, while significant research has been performed worldwide. The aim of this chapter is to underline and review the recent state-of-the-art technologies for passive cooling conve...

As the EU energy industry is clearly moving towards a new era of reliability, availability, and efficiency that will contribute to the improvement of Europe's economic and environmental sustainability, smart technologies provide the opportunity for new applications with far-reaching interdisciplinary impacts: providing the capacity to safely integr...

Increase of the ambient air temperature in cities caused by the urban heat island phenomenon has a seri- ous impact on the economic and social system of cities. to counterbalance the consequences of the increased urban temperatures important research has been carried out resulting in the development of efficient mitigation technologies. the present...

The smart grids are modern electric power grid infrastructure for enhanced efficiency and reliability through automated control, high-power converters, modern communications infrastructure, sensing and metering technologies, and modern energy management techniques based on the optimization of demand, energy and network availability. The role of bui...