Life cycle assessment of two sustainable and old neighbourhoods affected by climate change in one city in Belgium: A review

peer reviewedAware of the strong population growth expected in the coming years in cities, it is imperative to evaluate the impact of this new concentration on the environment, health and energy consumption. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the most appropriate method to quantify these different impacts. The aim of this study is to carry out the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of two sustainable and old neighbourhoods located in Belgium, while comparing different environmental impacts; but also, to determine the most important source of environmental change at the neighbourhood scale. This study begins with a strong review on LCA in residence buildings and neighbourhoods since 1996 up to 2018.Then followed by the assessment and comparison of the climate variation in six different periods (past, current, 2020,2050,2080 and 2100).In the same line, three scenarios (A2, B1 and A1B) were associated to several models of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). We used a combination of three simulation tools, ALCYONE, COMFIE-PLEIADES and nova-EQUER. The main results showed the twelve environmental impacts studied in this research do not always evolve in the same way. Indeed, it was noticed that CO2 emissions were up to 36.6% higher in an old neighbourhood than in a sustainable one; while the energy demand was estimated at 62.6% and 37.4% in an old and a sustainable one, respectively. Good planning of the public space will play an important role to reduce in average up to 15% the eutrophication in both neighbourhoods. Globally, the renovation of residential buildings is very important, indeed, it allows mitigate in average up to 30% of environment impacts in both neighbourhoods