## 2 Methodology and Modeling
### Weather  
In each country, cities with the highest annual air temperatures were selected, since the primary concern with climate change is the cooling load, as highlighted in [PERSON] and [PERSON] [1].  
For Portugal, available house plans from [PERSON] et al. [28] for each region--Lisbon, Evora, Porto, and Braganca--were analyzed. Evora was chosen from these options due to its more severe summer, classified as V3. The climatic data used in the simulation were sourced from the International Weather for Energy Calculation (IWEC) database, obtained through the software library.  
For Brazil, climate data from INMET [34] were used to generate maps for the most recent period, 1991 to 2020, displaying annual maximum air temperatures and annual average compensated temperatures--values that have been adjusted to account for specific factors that influence the results. Analyzing the maps, Teresina, the capital of the state of Piaui, was selected for its high annual air temperatures.  
Since the software did not include climate data for this city, the EPW (EnergyPlus Weather Format) file, which can be imported into the software, was obtained from a global  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c} \hline Method & Load and Energy \\ Time Step & 60 min \\ Algorithm & Conduction Transfer Function \\ Ceiling Elevation & 3 m \\ Wall Thickness & 0.15 m \\ Theme & Residential \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 1: Initial simulation parameters in Trace 3D Plus.  
climate data repository, Climate.OneBuilding [35]. Among the options for Teresina, the file provided by the Brazilian National Institute of Meteorology (INMET) for the period from 2001 to 2010 was selected.  
To determine which location in Turkey was the warmest, [PERSON] et al. [36] was used to identify the country's climate zones. Additionally, the Climate Change Knowledge Portal [37] website, which provides maps for the period between 1991 and 2020 for average mean surface air temperature and average maximum surface air temperature, was consulted.  
Analyzing the maps for all locations, Sanluurfa was chosen as it has the highest air temperatures in Turkey and is characterized by a dry summer subtropical semihumid/semiarid continental Mediterranean climate [36]. Since this location was not available in the software, the EPW file for the period from 2008 to 2015 was obtained from Climate.OneBuilding [35].  
The selected locations in each country are summarized in Table 2, with their geographic coordinates--latitude (Lat.) and longitude (Long.)--and their respective average altitudes above sea level (Alt.), obtained from Weather Spark [38]. The climate zones were obtained from the EPW files.  
For Evora, air quality data from the 2022 State of the Environment Report (REA) [39], provided by the QualAr system and managed by the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA), indicate good air quality throughout the year, based on the most recent records.  
For Brazil, data were obtained from the Environmental Health Surveillance and Air Quality (Vigian) program [40], which publishes annual air quality reports. In 2023, Teresina displayed a moderate air quality index.  
In Turkey, according to [PERSON] et al. [41], provinces in the southeastern Anatolia region, including Sanluurfa, are affected by particulate matter transported from the Sahara, Syrian, and Arabian deserts. In Sanluurfa, PM10 and PM2.5 levels frequently exceed the World Health Organization (WHO) daily health limits.  
Therefore, while natural ventilation strategies were tested in this study to evaluate their efficacy, real-world implementation may face limitations in regions with compromised air quality.