Insights and Evidence on Energy Retrofitting Practices in Rural Areas. Systematic Literature Review (2012-2023)

Rural commons face extraordinary challenges like fragility and sensitivity due to climate change. Retrofitting rural built environments affords benefits that could overcome these challenges and support sustainable development. However, notwithstanding the vast energy retrofitting interventions available, the associated aspects require investigation, particularly in distinct rural contexts with all their valuable, cultural, and historical inheritance. Hence, this study aimed to examine energy retrofitting practices in rural settlements worldwide over a decade to diagnose the goals that are being undertaken, stakeholder engagement, and finally, the bi-correlation between rural contexts and interventions, and retrofitting contributions to valorizing the place's identity. This study is a systematic literature review (SLR) considering the items of the PRISMA checklist (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses). An SLR of published peer-reviewed studies between January 2012 and March 2023 in 16 electronic databases in all available languages, using a combination of seven keywords within three domains, was conducted. The initial search resulted in 397; after applying the inclusion/exclusion criteria, there were 60 eligible articles. The academic progress and tendencies in the energy retrofitting domain of rural built environments are discussed and summarized into four major thematic classifications (energy efficiency strategies, energy efficiency planning, policy evaluation, and occupant behavior). Briefly, rural buildings lack energy-saving designs. Simulation tools are essential; however, they should be calibrated with on-site conditions, showing the reasons for selecting the applied retrofitting measures and correlation with the surrounding context. Successful implementation requires cross-disciplinary collaboration, engaging decision makers, and providing energy education for the local community. Regulations should include micro-context-specific environmental performance indicators. These insights could help map out future academic pursuits and help the stakeholders better understand their nature. Simultaneously, this study assists early-stage researchers in conducting systematic literature reviews utilizing different tools. However, the SLR protocol may have limited findings due to the specific search terms used, so the authors believe the more the literature search scope is broadened, the more discoveries could be made.