Prioritising EU regions for building renovation: seismic risk, energy efficiency, socioeconomic vulnerability

The work presented in this report aims to provide scientific support to EU building renovation policies by promoting a holistic approach. Priority regions for buildings’ renovation across the EU-27 are identified considering seismic risk, energy performance of buildings, and socioeconomic aspects. An integrated analysis framework is first presented along with primary metrics adopted for regional assessment. Metrics address loss of life, economic loss, space heating energy consumption and socioeconomic aspects. The framework uses a recent seismic exposure model, extended here to address both structural and energy building attributes. A wealth of open-access state-of-the-art data and models are employed in support of probabilistic risk assessment, machine learning, and composite indicators. The evaluated metrics are used to form indicators and prioritise regions based on seismic risk, energy performance and socioeconomic vulnerability, independently, resulting in different patterns of prioritisation. Single and multi-sectoral indicators are then introduced to capture the different patterns in an integrated way. The results indicate that prioritisation of buildings’ renovation is a multidimensional problem. Depending on priorities, different integrated indicators should be used to inform policies that accomplish the highest relative or most spread impact across different sectors. The output of this work is used in a follow-up report to define and assess regional renovation scenarios.