In the northern areas, depopulation has been on critical levels for long time. GrAB aims to evaluate the urban environmental quality with regards to implementing this in a ‘green’ building setting. This includes both the study of features of formation and functioning of urban areas and investigation of environmental parameters in different countries, such as climatic conditions, production and energy sources and air pollution.
The project will also evaluate and analyse urban planning to study the peculiarities of formation and functioning of urban areas. This activity will include the comparison of planning and development principles in the partner countries, as well as comparison of approaches, identification of risks, and assessment of benefits.
In reference to the ecological impact of urban environment, project partners will utilize the results from the analysis of urban planning analyse the positive ecological effect on the urban environment changes in existing communities. Changes in the building stock will result in lower demand for energy, resource saving, improved logistics will reduce emissions from public and private transportation and improved heating systems will reduce emissions from heating systems, both local systems and district heating systems.
Energy system
This will be another mayor topic. Power system for ‘green’ building is important, and in fact, if a building is environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout its life cycle, its energy performance must meet the environmental requirements necessary to obtain it. The objective is to map systems that are adapted to cold regions based on access to technological expertise, economy and profitability. Such green energy systems could contain heat pumps, photostatic, solar collectors, bio-fuels etc.
The heating system contributes strongly to the indoor thermal environment and is thus an important part of a ‘green building’ concept. The objective of this task is to describe state of the art energy efficiency in heating systems both regard to energy carrier (fossil, bio, electric, sun, wind), energy systems (local or district) and efficiency in operation. In addition, GrAB will evaluate and investigate energy performance of typical multifamily residential buildings in Russian and Nordic northern regions. This will be achieved by through technical surveys, standards and regulations, and energy statistics. Furthermore, results will be implemented and tested in pilot projects.
Building technology
GrAB will describe building materials that are being considered ‘green’, both in regard to energy consumption in fabrication, energy saving during operation (after installation) and in demolition and deposition/recycling. The overall focus will be to point out materials specifically suited for arctic conditions.
The project partners will describe state-of-the-art renovation techniques for bringing existing constructions to a green level as well. This includes economic and time efficient renovation techniques (prefabricated solutions or onsite fabrication). GrAB will provide a collection of information about current projects and recommendations for the creation of a data bank of good practices on energy efficient technology of construction in the Arctic.
Indoor environmental quality
Partners will take this into account too because building health is not only about how the structural elements of a building withstands the test of time through its expected life cycle. It is also about how the building materials perform in sense of moisture exposure, growth of mold and emission of pollutants to the indoor. In that way, GrAB aims to declare status of typical methods and materials used for existing residential buildings, the extent of moisture problems and the impact in the indoor environment. This task will include a comparative study of the laws, regulations and recommendations in indoor climate conditions.
Air quality
Ventilation will be key to achieve a healthy indoor environment and GrAB will identify the needs of ventilation of green residential buildings, evaluate the current status and find the best solutions to provide energy efficient ventilation of apartments. They will also repair to the indoor thermal comfort and other technical installations.
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