Water-energy-food nexus in resilient cooling strategies for sustainable building design and retrofitting

Abstract

Strategies that enhance buildings’ cooling resilience within a climate change context might have significant implications in the water, energy and food domains, as they aim to ensure healthy indoor conditions. However, a comprehensive approach to resource management is still lacking when the resilience of buildings is increased. This paper develops a method to evaluate the integration of the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus into buildings when resilient cooling strategies are developed for sustainable building design and retrofitting. The methodology first adapts the building overheating metrics set by the International Energy Agency. A literature review on WEF applications is then conducted, from which the most appropriate metrics for building contexts are selected and adapted to estimate resource self-sufficiency and WEF integration. Finally, the method is applied to a case study, to demonstrate its applicability in real-world scenarios. The results show that the highest WEF nexus index (77.54 %) is achieved through a combination of urban agriculture, photovoltaic panels and rainwater harvesting. While the proposed method does not exclude solutions that only address one or two WEF pillars, it encourages the adoption of strategies that integrate all three resources. This approach provides decision-makers with a framework to evaluate a wide range of solutions, prioritizing those that best address both the challenge of building overheating and the integration of the WEF nexus. In this way, buildings can be adapted to mitigate climate change impacts, use resources more efficiently, and prevent scenarios such as drought or food shortages.