Francesca Poggi

The decline of industrial activity across Europe has produced extensive brownfield landscapes that today constitute both a challenge and a strategic opportunity for urban regeneration and the promotion of new sustainable urbanisation models. In Portugal, the regeneration of urban brownfields could play an important role in addressing current housing pressures and socio-economic and territorial imbalances. In this context, the present study adopts a qualitative approach, supported by descriptive spatial analysis, drawing on a benchmark study of 27 urban brownfield regeneration projects in European cities, complemented by the results of two European research projects, to identify key principles and strategies guiding these interventions. A systematic synthesis of benchmark findings is used to derive a set of urban brownfield regeneration guidelines. These guidelines are subsequently applied to two selected brownfield sites in Abrantes, a Portuguese municipality characterised by an industrial past, following their identification and spatial analysis through GIS and in situ observation. The results demonstrate that urban brownfield regeneration can contribute to addressing housing needs, reducing pressure on undeveloped land, optimising existing infrastructure, strengthening local urban dynamics, and enhancing climate change adaptation. As industrial decline continues to reshape European territories, the study contributes to ongoing debates on decision-making and sustainable urban planning by providing a transferable set of regeneration guidelines and demonstrating their application in a specific territorial context.

Background The growing complexity of urban environments demands architectural practices that can address the environmental, economic, and social impacts of new construction projects. While the integration of digital tools and methods such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) enables the automation of environmental impact quantification, this approach remains limited to biophysical impacts and does not align with broader, multi-criteria sustainability frameworks. Currently, there is no standardised method for categorising which indicators can be automated using BIM and LCA tools. Addressing this gap requires integrated workflows, which are fundamentally outside typical BIM-LCA integration scope. Methods The present research investigates the role of BIM-LCA integration in supporting a norm-based, multi-criteria evaluation framework, using the New European Bauhaus (NEB) sustainability self-assessment tool as a case study. A systematic mapping and gap analysis has been performed to evaluate data dependencies and scope alignment among NEB sustainability indicators, LCA impact categories, and BIM data types. Results The analysis resulted in a triple taxonomy of indicators: 1) BIM-LCA Core (directly automatable), 2) BIM-LCA Informed (requiring integrated workflows), and 3) Beyond BIM-LCA which rely on parallel socio-economic or governance-based assessment methods. Conclusions The proposed taxonomy provides a strategic roadmap for integrating BIM–LCA workflows into multi-scale sustainability assessment, supporting practitioners in prioritising data requirements and informing tool developers about key interoperability challenges.

Cities are significant contributors to climate change, environmental degradation, and resource depletion. To address these challenges, sustainable strategies in building design, construction, and management are essential, and digitalisation through the integration of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) can enable it. However, the environmental benefits of BIM–LCA integration remain underexplored, limiting broader practical adoption. This study systematically reviews 80 case studies (2015–2025) to assess how recent applications address known barriers and to identify enablers of successful BIM–LCA workflows. The analysis highlights a growing alignment between technological, regulatory, and methodological advancements and practical implementation needs, especially as technical barriers are increasingly overcome. Nevertheless, systemic challenges related to institutional, behavioural, and socio-economic factors persist. From a stakeholder perspective, four thematic drivers were identified: material circularity and resource efficiency; integration with complementary assessment tools; energy-performance strategies for comfort and efficiency; and alignment with international certification systems. The study offers a stakeholder-oriented framework that demonstrates the multi-level value of BIM–LCA integration not only for environmental impact assessment but to support informed decision-making and reduce resource consumption. These insights aim to bridge the gap between academic research and practical implementation, contributing to the advancement of sustainable practices in the built environment.

Nature-based solutions have been promoted as an effective strategy to address climate impacts, including urban temperature reduction. In this paper, we analyze the impacts of the introduction of street trees on temperature (Universal Thermal Climate Index, UTCI) for three different dates, 2000, 2023, and 2050. A 3D model was developed in Rhinoceros software for a part of George Town, on Penang Island. Four different sections of streets were simulated after integration of the model with the Grasshopper plug-in, where a parametric system was built for temperature measurements based on simulations in the Ladybug and Honeybee plug-ins. The tree species used were selected from a pool of tree species commonly planted in urban settings in Malaysia that have low and medium sensitivity to climate impacts. The results show a maximum reduction of 7 °C between 2000 and 2050, achieved on a street with an NW–SE orientation that was planted with three rows of trees. The minimum UTCI reduction achieved was 3 °C, between 2023 and 2050, in a street with NW–SE orientation that was planted with one tree row. The two streets with a SW–NE orientation showed a 5 °C temperature reduction between 2023 and 2050. Both streets have only one row of trees but different species and sizes, with the bigger trees reducing the temperature in a slightly larger area. The results show the importance of introducing and safeguarding street trees to reduce urban temperatures in the country, potentially keeping temperatures below life-threatening levels, thereby safeguarding urban health, while also reducing costs of energy consumption. Solar orientation, the number of tree rows, and their distribution impact the outcomes. The findings provide useful guidance for climate-conscious urban planning practices in Malaysia.

Integrating natural processes to build areas through the creation of green infrastructure (GI) in Africa with its rapid urbanisation is a challenge because of the information base. The aim of this paper is planning a GI linking biophysical, social, and legal contents in a specific Africa country with an approach that combines different scales and different levels of data and information. The paper proposes a framework beginning at the macro scale to integrate and operationalise the definition of GI in an African context, namely for the Luanda metropolitan area. The approach to nature and ecological structure (GI) has four phases: analysis, integration, diagnosis and proposal. All steps are developed in a GIS environment and consider variations in the biophysical, social, cultural, and legal dimensions. The research discusses the problems in collecting existing information and leads with missing data within the context of urbanisation growth and climate change adaptation. The proposed green infrastructure includes protected areas (existing and proposed), natural values, risk areas, rivers, and agricultural areas, to increase resilience and flexibility in an adaptation context. The results allow to include in the GI the mangrove areas, native flora, vegetated slopes, and riverbanks, providing a buffering function for natural hazards, crucial for these regions, with the aim to achieve the needs of creating a strategic GI to be implemented into the Luanda General Master Plan.

Após o momento de choque que Portugal sofreu com o incêndio de Pedrogão Grande (2017), equacionar as dimensões e responsabilidade social da Geografia torna -se especialmente relevante na construção de respostas capazes de assegurar a defesa das pessoas, dos bens e dos recursos naturais. Neste artigo reflecte -se sobre uma relação causa -efeito -solução a estabelecer para a prevenção de incêndios florestais que articula a geografia da energia com o planeamento municipal. Trata -se de uma reflexão crítica sobre a dimensão estratégica do planeamento, materializada no Plano Director Municipal e os possíveis contributos do aproveitamento e valorização da biomassa florestal, com vista ao desenvolvimento de clusters municipais ligados à bioenergia. É aqui que os mecanismos de limpeza e recolha de resíduos florestais para a produção de energia renovável emergem como valência económica indispensável para um maior contributo na prevenção activa do risco de incêndio, preconizando um novo eixo estratégico para a redução da sua incidência e melhorando o ordenamento do território a nível municipal.

The lack of land ownership databases in developing countries has influenced inhabitants of these countries to occupy public lands. This situation has resulted in areas of informal housing, commerce, and agriculture, ultimately creating new informal settlements, which are becoming a serious problem in developing countries. These informal settlements contain inhabitants settled on public land without any infrastructure and against the landowner’s wishes. This process results in uncontrolled land occupation that promotes new informal areas without any proper urban utilities, positioned in risky areas, where the minimum requirements for healthy living are not being met. In some cases, this incentivizes an informal economy. Building a cadastral map in informal settlement areas is fundamental to supporting the future transformation of illegal areas, and in regulating the occupation of new subdivisions and new expansion areas. In this paper, we present a methodology developed to support the management of informal settlement areas. The method we used has the potential for replication so that it can be adapted to multiple types of informal settlements, as can the model used to register the land tenure. The model was developed using a series of qualitative and quantitative data that determine the identification and classification of buildings, along with a physical and functional description. A Geographic Information System, an initial survey of existing land titles of possession, and public proposals to develop new expansion areas were used to develop the model. A case study is presented where the land management model was implemented in Chã da Caldeiras in Ilha do Fogo, which is an informal settlement in Cape Verde. The proposal created using the results was accepted by the population and local authorities.

Cities, as main energy consumers, play a crucial role in achieving a more sustainable energy future. This means that there is an urgent need to transform the way of planning urban areas, focusing on more efficient and self-reliant energy production and consumption modes overall. In this framework, the aim of this study is to explore the Net-Zero energy balance between two spatial scales: the whole city with its diversified energy consumption patterns, and those urban blocks, neighborhoods, or industrial areas that can produce energy and supply it to other areas. This approach leads to the development of an energy zoning for the city, based on the geographical urban delimitation of solar energy exporters cells and the energy consuming ones. On the production side, cells are delimited according to their solar energy production potential. On the demand side, cells are delimited according to four specific criteria: construction timeline, population density, urban morphologies, and land-use patterns that permit the definition of a classification of urban areas, based on the different energy consumption levels. In this paper, the web platform “E-City”, a tool for planning energy balance at urban level is presented, by describing its practical application in the city of Oeiras, Portugal. The platform integrates itself with the existing municipal Geographic Information System, exploring both spatial and statistical dimensions associated with zoning and the overall energy network system. Results from the use of this tool are relevant for urban planning practices, formulation of policies, and management of public investment that can be guided to more energy efficient solutions and supporting the transition towards nearly zero-energy cities.