Climate-resilient Positive Energy Districts

The transition toward Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) is one of the most effective strategies to achieve climate neutrality at the city scale. Such a transition faces many technical and social challenges. In particular, the potential for existing buildings and urban fabrics to be transformed into positive energy districts is still under investigation. Urban morphology plays a critical role in the energy transition, as it deeply affects urban climate, energy demand, and renewable energy generation at the district scale. On the other hand, urban heat islands and climate change scenarios are expected to significantly alter building energy demand in the future, reducing heating and increasing cooling loads. Therefore, these effects must be included in the design of PEDs and the definition of passive and active refurbishment strategies at the district scale.

While contributing to climate mitigation, the transition toward PEDs should also foster the implementation of nature-based solutions on both buildings and urban spaces to improve climate adaptation and resilience to the impacts of climate change.

This Research Topic aims to collect contributions on urban refurbishment and energy retrofitting strategies that can accelerate the transition toward climate-resilient PEDs. We are interested in research works analyzing district-scale energy consumption reduction through deep retrofitting, maximization of RES potential, mitigation of climate change effects on building energy loads, and adaptation measures to improve urban climate resilience.

To delve deeper into the multi-scale factors affecting PEDs' performance and climate resilience, this Research Topic is open to a broad range of article topics, including original research and comprehensive reviews. We are particularly interested in submissions that cover, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• Positive energy district design
• Urban refurbishment strategies
• Urban morphology and energy performance
• Urban solar potential
• Building climate resilience
• Urban climate resilience
• Urban building energy modeling
• Urban heat island mitigation: nature-based solutions
• Urban climate adaptation measures

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review

Keywords: Positive Energy districts, Urban energy transition, Urban morphology, Climate resilience, Climate mitigation, Climate adaptation, Nature-based solutions, Urban building energy modeling (UBEM) Urban heat island Renewable energies Green buildings

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.