• Energy Research

Abstract Given the ever-increasing number of aged residential buildings in Hong Kong, green retrofit provides a sustainable solution for improving existing aged residential buildings' performance instead of constructing new buildings. Studies on green retrofit technologies (GRTs) and green retrofit policies (GRPs) have received great attention globally. However, few studies have been done to understand the applicability and importance of GRTs and GRPs, and the impacts of GRPs on the application of GRTs in a particular region, such as Hong Kong. Therefore, based on a questionnaire survey conducted in Hong Kong, this study aims to further examine the GRTs and GRPs that have been identified in a previous study. The applicability of the GRTs and the importance of the GRPs for green retrofit of aged residential buildings in Hong Kong were studies, the correlations between the GRTs and GRPs were analyzed, and a priority guide was developed for promoting green retrofit of aged residential buildings in Hong Kong. The findings can help various stakeholders to have a better understanding of the GRTs and provide valuable references for the local government to develop future GRPs. Furthermore, this study also provides a fundamental guide for future green retrofit research and development in the local and global contexts.

AbstractThe Hong Kong construction industry since 1997 has experienced a difficult time in regard to construction output until recently. The future of the local construction industry remains uncertain. Forecasting of future development would be attractive to parties in the industry. Based on past data of the local construction industry, a grey forecasting model is developed to predict the annual growth of construction demand for Hong Kong over the next ten years. With the implementation of ten large infrastructure projects and further collaboration with the Pearl River Delta region, there will be many potential opportunities for the local industry, especially in the transportation sector. The data and the forecast are useful reference for clients, contractors and other industry participants to formulate their short-term and long-term strategic planning.

Complex urban systems, such as multi-floor rail transit stations and integrated railway transport hubs, are termed “complex urban public spaces” (CUPSs). These CUPSs facilitate people’s lives, but, at the same time, are threatened by various risks due to their multi-floor structure, dense crowds, high correlation in multi-function, complex facilities, and space openness. The risk events of CUPSs could have a negative influence on public safety and further influence sustainable development. Increasing the resilience of CUPSs is an effective way to respond to risks and guarantee public safety. Therefore, it is necessary to first assess the resilience of CUPSs. In this paper, a six-level comprehensive resilience indicator system was established based on aspects of the essence of resilience. Used in combination with the methods of resilience impact score and fuzzy analytical hierarchy process, the resilience value could be calculated. The Shenzhen North Railway Station (SZ) and the Guangzhou South Railway Station (GZ) were used to validate the proposed methodology. The established resilience indicator system was shown to be comprehensive and innovative, and, regarding practicality, the proposed assessment methodology is convenient to use. This research can help policymakers to assess the resilience of CUPSs and develop relevant policies to improve the resilience of buildings, which can further enhance urban sustainability.

Energy retrofitting of existing residential buildings has a great potential to achieve a sustainable future. One important way to reach this potential is to understand homeowners’ retrofit behaviors due to their crucial roles in retrofit adoption and retrofit effects. Despite many attempts, researchers and governments still know less about the holistic profile of homeowners’ retrofit behaviors, which brought little success in trigging renovation activities and achieving expected retrofit effects. This study tries to fill this research gap by a comprehensive review of the body of existing research. A keyword-based scientometric analysis was performed based on a set of 152 journal articles. By further refining keywords, main research domains pertaining to investment-decision-energy behaviors, policy instruments, retrofit types, construction & services, and methods & methodologies were mapped to show relevant research knowledge and research topics. Based on these research results, a further integrated framework was developed, which explains homeowners’ retrofit behaviors in a systematic way of cross-disciplinary knowledge interactions. Furthermore, implications for retrofit policies in existing buildings were provided. This study is useful for facilitating future research to deepen homeowners’ retrofit behaviors, and also provides valuable references for policy makers to successfully promote home energy retrofit.

Abstract Green retrofit of aged residential buildings offers an alternative solution to reduce global energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The promotion of green retrofit and the performance of retrofitted buildings depend on applicable technologies and policies. A wide range of retrofit technologies and retrofit policies have been applied throughout the world. However, little attention has been paid to identify feasible retrofit technologies and retrofit policies for particular regions, for example Hong Kong. In this study, both of technologies and policies of refurbishment were reviewed and examined with aiming to develop a framework for implementing suitable green retrofit technologies and green retrofit policies in Hong Kong. The particular characteristics of Hong Kong residential buildings were extracted based on the investigation of 100 public buildings. Taking the typical situations (building feature, climate environment and policy circumstance) as the selection criteria, 28 green retrofit technologies and 18 green retrofit policies were recommended. By analysing their attributes, these technologies and policies were integrated into a framework based on the three development stages of green retrofit (namely, pilot stage, promotion stage and full implementation stage). The findings in this study are useful for local government setting up green retrofit strategies for Hong Kong and also provide good references for other countries and regions.

Abstract Due to global climate change, carbon reduction has become a critical issue for the construction industry. Low carbon building has been adopted as a strategic objective, and its implementation demonstrates the enormous potential of reducing carbon emissions. Despite much research, some important research areas or gaps have not been identified, while simultaneously, few studies describe the knowledge roadmap for low carbon building research necessary to guide scholars and practitioners. The purpose in this paper is to provide a comprehensive and objective analysis of research areas regarding low carbon building using the scientometrics method. A total of 378 low carbon building-related publications were reviewed. Based on the keyword co-word analysis, document co-citation analysis and clustering analysis, the results show that 100 research keywords, 3 research hotspots and 5 research domains are extremely important for the advancement of low carbon building. Based on the in-depth analysis of the findings, the knowledge structure with different prominences was developed, which grouped LCB research into five themes and various sub-topics. Significantly, this paper provides the knowledge roadmap needed to facilitate further research and applications for both academia and industry stakeholders to improve low carbon building.

Residents’ low behavioral willingness to dispose of waste in Centralized Collection Points (CCPs) seriously hinders the operational efficiency in waste collection of CCPs regarded as NIMBY (‘not in my backyard’) facilities. However, fewer researchers notice NIMBY facilities with low hazards. It has been ignored that the NIMBYism may influence behavioral willingness during the operation period persistently. Meanwhile, there is no consistent conclusions on internal factors of waste behavioral willingness, which deserves further study. Therefore, this study took CCPs as a research object and aimed to investigate how NIMBYism influences residents’ behavioral willingness to dispose of waste in CCPs. The extended theory of planned behavior and structural equation modeling approach involving 550 respondents were adopted to conduct the analysis. The results revealed that attitude (β = 0.295, p < 0.001), government trust (β = 0.479, p < 0.001), and perceived behavioral control (β = 0.222, p < 0.001) have statistical positive impacts on behavioral willingness to dispose of waste in CCPs. Perceived risk (β = ‒0.047, p = 0.022 < 0.05) can influence behavioral willingness negatively. Additionally, government trust (β = 0.726, p < 0.001) exerts a positive impact on attitude. Furthermore, relevant strategies were proposed to enhance residents’ behavioral willingness to dispose of waste in CCPs. This study is expected to inspire the government to formulate policies from the aspects of standards and regulations, resident participation, construction, and publicity. It will provide the government instructive suggestions for the smooth operation of CCPs, and ultimately building a healthy and environment friendly society.

Abstract Green retrofit in existing buildings is of great significance in achieving a sustainable environment. Various policies have been introduced around the world to promote building green retrofit, whereas the uptake is rare for policy ineffectiveness. To improve policy effectiveness, it has been emphasized that a systematic review of existing retrofit policies has a key priority. In this study, a comprehensive review on retrofit policies in China was conducted because there are great application potential for green retrofit in China's existing buildings. This study examined the state-of-the-art development of retrofit policies during 1996–2019 and explored policy characteristics based on content analysis. The ambitious retrofit objectives and multiple retrofit instruments were identified. The relevant policy instruments can be grouped into six categories, including command and control, economic incentives, technology, information, certification, organization & professional. The most cited policy was the command and control instrument, followed by the certification-based instrument. Moreover, policy instruments related to economic incentives, technology and information were also valued by the China government, while the government attempted to reduce the adoption of economic incentives and technology measures since 2010. In addition, organization & professional instruments are largely ignored in China. In the light of these findings, a roadmap was proposed to enhance the effectiveness of building retrofit policies. This study sheds lights on the effectiveness of China's building policies to accelerate the popularity of green retrofit, and provides valuable references for other countries and regions to shape their own policy pathways towards the large-scale promotion of building green retrofit.