Part 2: Community-level strategies for microclimate mitigation and energy efficiency improvement

When shifting the scale of analysis from the single building to the community level, higher energy, environmental, and economic benefits can be fostered thanks to the implementation of microclimate mitigation strategies. The evidence of this improved performance is stressed not only at the community level but also for single buildings, since it is possible to consider the influence of strategies implemented in the outdoor areas of the settlement that would not have been considered when focusing on building boundary conditions. In this approach, the community analysis methods involve the assessment of the influence of outdoor microclimate mitigation strategies – for example, cool materials, greenery, etc. – at the settlement level and, therefore, at the building level, thanks to the development of tailored weather files for dynamic simulation that take into account their positive effect. We will present novel tools for community-level analysis, the microclimate mitigation and energy efficiency improvement achievable with the proposed strategies, and additional solutions that foster the exploitation of this approach.