Martina Caruso | Understanding and Managing Extremes (UME) school, Institute for Advanced Study IUSS Pavia, Eucentre (original) (raw)
Papers by Martina Caruso
Sustainability, 2020
It is well-known that the existing building stock is responsible for non-renewable resource deple... more It is well-known that the existing building stock is responsible for non-renewable resource depletion, energy and material consumption, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Life cycle analysis (LCA) procedures have thus been developed, in recent years, to assess the environmental impact of construction and operational phases through the entire building life cycle. Furthermore, the economic, environmental, and social consequences of recent natural disasters have encouraged the additional integration of hazard-induced impacts into common LCA procedures for buildings. Buildings are however expected to provide the population with safe living and working conditions, even when hit by different types of hazards during their service life, such as earthquakes. Hence, next-generation LCA procedures should include not only hazard-induced impacts, but also the contribution of potential retrofitting strategies that may alter the structural and energy performances of buildings throughout their rem...
Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering, 2021
A life cycle framework for a new integrated classification system for buildings and the identific... more A life cycle framework for a new integrated classification system for buildings and the identification of renovation strategies that lead to an optimal balance between reduction of seismic vulnerability and increase of energy efficiency, considering both economic losses and environmental impacts, is discussed through a parametric application to an exemplificative case-study building. Such framework accounts for the economic and environmental contributions of initial construction, operational energy consumption, earthquake-induced damage repair activities, retrofitting interventions, and demolition. One-off and annual monetary expenses and environmental impacts through the building life cycle are suggested as meaningful performance metrics to develop an integrated classification system for buildings and to identify the optimal renovation strategy leading to a combined reduction of economic and environmental impacts, depending on the climatic conditions and the seismic hazard at the s...
Buildings
Given the current climate emergency and the ambitious targets of carbon emissions reduction, retr... more Given the current climate emergency and the ambitious targets of carbon emissions reduction, retrofitting strategies on existing buildings typically include reducing energy demand, decarbonising the power supply, and addressing embodied carbon stored in materials. This latter point redefines the role of engineers in the transitions towards a sustainable construction sector, being they responsible for designing low impact, sustainable and carbon neutral solutions. A Life Cycle Structural Engineering (LCSE) approach, inspired by the principles of Life Cycle Thinking (LCT), should thus be adopted for the sustainable renovation of existing buildings. Only recently have pioneering approaches been proposed, tackling multifaceted buildings’ needs, such as those related to energy consumption as well as seismic safety, but often disregarding LCT principles. This study presents a redefinition of the concept of LCSE for sustainable construction and a comprehensive review of available methods a...
Caruso, M., Bianchi, F., Cavalieri, F., Pinho, R. (2021). Critical overview and application of integrated approaches for seismic loss estimation and environmental impact assessment. RSCC2020 - 3rd RILEM Spring Convention 2020. University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal, March 10-14, 2020., Aug 2021
Buildings are among the major contributors to environmental impacts, in terms of non-renewable re... more Buildings are among the major contributors to environmental impacts, in terms of non-renewable resource depletion, energy and material consumption, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. For this reason, modern societies are pushing towards the refurbishment of existing buildings aiming at the reduction of their operational energy consumption and at a major use of renewable energy and low-carbon materials. At the same time, buildings are expected to provide population with safe living and working conditions, even when hit by different kinds of hazards during their service life, such as earthquakes. Until recently, life cycle assessment (LCA) procedures tended not to include the effects of natural hazards. However, if considered in a building LCA, earthquake-induced environmental impacts would constitute a very informative performance metric to decision-makers, in addition to the more customarily used monetary losses or downtime indicators. Within this context, therefore, a comprehensive review of the existing literature is presented, with comparisons between available methodologies being carried out in terms of their employed seismic loss estimation method, environmental impact assessment procedure, damage-to-impact conversion, impact-to-cost conversion, and selected decision variable. Further, an illustrative case-study application is also included.
Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering, 19, 3627–3670. DOI: 10.1007/s10518-021-01101-4, 2021
A life cycle framework for a new integrated classification system for buildings and the identific... more A life cycle framework for a new integrated classification system for buildings and the identification of renovation strategies that lead to an optimal balance between reduction of seismic vulnerability and increase of energy efficiency, considering both economic losses and environmental impacts, is discussed through a parametric application to an exemplifi-cative case-study building. Such framework accounts for the economic and environmental contributions of initial construction, operational energy consumption, earthquake-induced damage repair activities, retrofitting interventions, and demolition. One-off and annual monetary expenses and environmental impacts through the building life cycle are suggested as meaningful performance metrics to develop an integrated classification system for buildings and to identify the optimal renovation strategy leading to a combined reduction of economic and environmental impacts, depending on the climatic conditions and the seismic hazard at the site of interest. The illustrative application of the framework to an existing school building is then carried out, investigating alternative retrofitting solutions, including either sole structural retrofitting options or sole energy refurbishments, as well as integrated strategies that target both objectives, with a view to demonstrate its practicality and to explore its ensuing results. The influence of seismic hazard and climatic conditions is quantitatively investigated, by assuming the building to be located into different geographic locations.
Sustainability, 12(23), 10221, 2020
It is well-known that the existing building stock is responsible for non-renewable resource deple... more It is well-known that the existing building stock is responsible for non-renewable resource depletion, energy and material consumption, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Life cycle analysis (LCA) procedures have thus been developed, in recent years, to assess the environmental impact of construction and operational phases through the entire building life cycle. Furthermore, the economic, environmental, and social consequences of recent natural disasters have encouraged the additional integration of hazard-induced impacts into common LCA procedures for buildings. Buildings are however expected to provide the population with safe living and working conditions, even when hit by different types of hazards during their service life, such as earthquakes. Hence, next-generation LCA procedures should include not only hazard-induced impacts, but also the contribution of potential retrofitting strategies that may alter the structural and energy performances of buildings throughout their remaining service life. This study presents a life cycle framework that accounts for the contributions of initial construction, operational energy consumption, earthquake-induced damage repair activities, potential retrofitting interventions, and demolition (considering also its associated potential material recycling), in terms of both monetary costs and environmental impacts. The proposed methodology can be used to undertake cost-benefit analyses aimed at identifying building renovation strategies that lead to an optimal balance, considering both economic and environmental impacts, between reduction of seismic vulnerability and increase of energy efficiency of a building, depending on the climatic conditions and the seismic hazard at the site of interest.
Sustainability, 2020
It is well-known that the existing building stock is responsible for non-renewable resource deple... more It is well-known that the existing building stock is responsible for non-renewable resource depletion, energy and material consumption, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Life cycle analysis (LCA) procedures have thus been developed, in recent years, to assess the environmental impact of construction and operational phases through the entire building life cycle. Furthermore, the economic, environmental, and social consequences of recent natural disasters have encouraged the additional integration of hazard-induced impacts into common LCA procedures for buildings. Buildings are however expected to provide the population with safe living and working conditions, even when hit by different types of hazards during their service life, such as earthquakes. Hence, next-generation LCA procedures should include not only hazard-induced impacts, but also the contribution of potential retrofitting strategies that may alter the structural and energy performances of buildings throughout their rem...
Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering, 2021
A life cycle framework for a new integrated classification system for buildings and the identific... more A life cycle framework for a new integrated classification system for buildings and the identification of renovation strategies that lead to an optimal balance between reduction of seismic vulnerability and increase of energy efficiency, considering both economic losses and environmental impacts, is discussed through a parametric application to an exemplificative case-study building. Such framework accounts for the economic and environmental contributions of initial construction, operational energy consumption, earthquake-induced damage repair activities, retrofitting interventions, and demolition. One-off and annual monetary expenses and environmental impacts through the building life cycle are suggested as meaningful performance metrics to develop an integrated classification system for buildings and to identify the optimal renovation strategy leading to a combined reduction of economic and environmental impacts, depending on the climatic conditions and the seismic hazard at the s...
Buildings
Given the current climate emergency and the ambitious targets of carbon emissions reduction, retr... more Given the current climate emergency and the ambitious targets of carbon emissions reduction, retrofitting strategies on existing buildings typically include reducing energy demand, decarbonising the power supply, and addressing embodied carbon stored in materials. This latter point redefines the role of engineers in the transitions towards a sustainable construction sector, being they responsible for designing low impact, sustainable and carbon neutral solutions. A Life Cycle Structural Engineering (LCSE) approach, inspired by the principles of Life Cycle Thinking (LCT), should thus be adopted for the sustainable renovation of existing buildings. Only recently have pioneering approaches been proposed, tackling multifaceted buildings’ needs, such as those related to energy consumption as well as seismic safety, but often disregarding LCT principles. This study presents a redefinition of the concept of LCSE for sustainable construction and a comprehensive review of available methods a...
Caruso, M., Bianchi, F., Cavalieri, F., Pinho, R. (2021). Critical overview and application of integrated approaches for seismic loss estimation and environmental impact assessment. RSCC2020 - 3rd RILEM Spring Convention 2020. University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal, March 10-14, 2020., Aug 2021
Buildings are among the major contributors to environmental impacts, in terms of non-renewable re... more Buildings are among the major contributors to environmental impacts, in terms of non-renewable resource depletion, energy and material consumption, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. For this reason, modern societies are pushing towards the refurbishment of existing buildings aiming at the reduction of their operational energy consumption and at a major use of renewable energy and low-carbon materials. At the same time, buildings are expected to provide population with safe living and working conditions, even when hit by different kinds of hazards during their service life, such as earthquakes. Until recently, life cycle assessment (LCA) procedures tended not to include the effects of natural hazards. However, if considered in a building LCA, earthquake-induced environmental impacts would constitute a very informative performance metric to decision-makers, in addition to the more customarily used monetary losses or downtime indicators. Within this context, therefore, a comprehensive review of the existing literature is presented, with comparisons between available methodologies being carried out in terms of their employed seismic loss estimation method, environmental impact assessment procedure, damage-to-impact conversion, impact-to-cost conversion, and selected decision variable. Further, an illustrative case-study application is also included.
Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering, 19, 3627–3670. DOI: 10.1007/s10518-021-01101-4, 2021
A life cycle framework for a new integrated classification system for buildings and the identific... more A life cycle framework for a new integrated classification system for buildings and the identification of renovation strategies that lead to an optimal balance between reduction of seismic vulnerability and increase of energy efficiency, considering both economic losses and environmental impacts, is discussed through a parametric application to an exemplifi-cative case-study building. Such framework accounts for the economic and environmental contributions of initial construction, operational energy consumption, earthquake-induced damage repair activities, retrofitting interventions, and demolition. One-off and annual monetary expenses and environmental impacts through the building life cycle are suggested as meaningful performance metrics to develop an integrated classification system for buildings and to identify the optimal renovation strategy leading to a combined reduction of economic and environmental impacts, depending on the climatic conditions and the seismic hazard at the site of interest. The illustrative application of the framework to an existing school building is then carried out, investigating alternative retrofitting solutions, including either sole structural retrofitting options or sole energy refurbishments, as well as integrated strategies that target both objectives, with a view to demonstrate its practicality and to explore its ensuing results. The influence of seismic hazard and climatic conditions is quantitatively investigated, by assuming the building to be located into different geographic locations.
Sustainability, 12(23), 10221, 2020
It is well-known that the existing building stock is responsible for non-renewable resource deple... more It is well-known that the existing building stock is responsible for non-renewable resource depletion, energy and material consumption, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Life cycle analysis (LCA) procedures have thus been developed, in recent years, to assess the environmental impact of construction and operational phases through the entire building life cycle. Furthermore, the economic, environmental, and social consequences of recent natural disasters have encouraged the additional integration of hazard-induced impacts into common LCA procedures for buildings. Buildings are however expected to provide the population with safe living and working conditions, even when hit by different types of hazards during their service life, such as earthquakes. Hence, next-generation LCA procedures should include not only hazard-induced impacts, but also the contribution of potential retrofitting strategies that may alter the structural and energy performances of buildings throughout their remaining service life. This study presents a life cycle framework that accounts for the contributions of initial construction, operational energy consumption, earthquake-induced damage repair activities, potential retrofitting interventions, and demolition (considering also its associated potential material recycling), in terms of both monetary costs and environmental impacts. The proposed methodology can be used to undertake cost-benefit analyses aimed at identifying building renovation strategies that lead to an optimal balance, considering both economic and environmental impacts, between reduction of seismic vulnerability and increase of energy efficiency of a building, depending on the climatic conditions and the seismic hazard at the site of interest.