Simplified Guidelines for Retrofitting Scenarios in the European Countries

A large part of the European building stock was built before implementing the recent energy and structural codes, resulting in buildings characterized by deficiencies in terms of comfort, energy savings and structural safety. The retrofitting and rehabilitation of the existing building stock need to be adequately performed, aiming to improve the seismic and energy performance simultaneously. The work summarized here is dedicated to defining priority scenarios for buildings' retrofitting to improve the seismic safety and energy efficiency of the European Union (EU) building stock. First, the state of the EU building stock is analysed in terms of buildings' age, types of structures, energy efficiency, energy consumption and energy poverty. Then, the EU climate demands are presented, namely the regions with higher temperature variations, i.e., heating or cooling degree days. The EU seismic risk is also presented and discussed in terms of average annual losses, average annual economic losses and average annual life losses. Based on these input parameters, nine seismic-climate regions in the EU are proposed using a simplified approach. Finally, retrofitting scenarios are proposed for two types of buildings (i.e., masonry and reinforced concrete) based on their seismic-climate region.

Automated summary

A large part of the European building stock needs retrofitting in order to improve comfort, energy efficiency, and structural safety. This study focuses on defining priority scenarios for retrofitting buildings in the European Union (EU) to enhance seismic safety and energy performance. The analysis includes assessing the age, structure types, energy efficiency, and climate demands of the EU building stock. The study also discusses seismic risk and proposes retrofitting scenarios based on seismic-climate regions.