Case study on whole life cycle carbon emissions of a residential building in urbanization process of rural areas

The reconstruction of residential buildings during the urbanization process is crucial to national development and public well-being. A clean and low-carbon urbanization process plays a positive role in promoting the achievement of the “double carbon” goal in China. Therefore, in the context of urbanization transformation in a village and town in Shaanxi Province, this study selects a residential building as the research object and compares the whole life cycle carbon emission intensity before and after the building’s reconstruction. The results show that the high heat transfer coefficient of the building envelope before demolition is the main reason for the high carbon emission intensity during the heating and cooling stages of operation. The per capita carbon emission intensity of residential buildings in the village and town is reduced from 3.5 kg/(person·a) to 1.9 kg/(person·a), with a decrease of 45.7%. Compared with the self-built houses before demolition, the reconstructed houses provide larger per capita residential building areas, improve living conditions and experiences, and significantly reduce per capita carbon emissions. The research results are expected to provide case support and data references for the green and low-carbon development of residential buildings in the context of urbanization transformation.