Abstract | In recent years, the frequency and impact of flash floods in Mediterranean coastal towns has substantially increased and will continue to rise due to a combination of Climate Change and anthropogenic factors. In 2007, one Spanish town was tragically affected by the Girona River floods, which in few hours severely damaged and destroyed entire buildings. However, despite the severe psychological, physical and economic loss that the population suffered, there is insufficient information and awareness on the risks of recurrence of this phenomenon and the threat that it represents. Previous research studies have proposed to free the riverbed by demolishing buildings and create more green areas. However, an architectural and environmental design approach to retrofit and adapt the damaged housing in order to improve their resilience to extreme climatic events, has never been proposed. The aim of this project is to identify sustainable adaptation strategies for the design and construction of housing buildings affected by the floods. The following studies demonstrated that a series of mitigative and adaptive strategies can be successfully applied not only to prevent flooding and water ingress into building, but also to improve interior environmental conditions in order to maximise comfort and minimise heating and cooling energy demand. |
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