**4. Conclusions**

This work intended to inform building designers, engineers, and urban planners on the state of the art regarding tools and methods that may be used in practice in the framework of energy efficiency and climate mitigation and adaptation technical studies. Current energy policies, as regards transition to low-carbon economies in future sustainable Cities, necessitate putting advanced study techniques into practice. The comprehensive overview of tools and methods provided herein may guide the target audience through the ongoing design challenges as well as through practical solutions to respond in their studies. To summarize, the following major conclusions may be drawn:

	- -EnergyPlus/Envi-met
	- -TRNSYS/Fluent

crucial factor that can boost such simulation approaches and practices from research to practice.

• Higher education institutes play a key role in providing the necessary knowledge and expertise to their students in order to respond to evermore required informed decision making at the design stage. It is admitted that simulation tools and practices should be integrated into educational courses in order to ensure a good readiness level of the modern designer to be able to understand better the impacts of alternative design strategies and to work in teams with other experts, e.g., engineers, building physicists, IT experts, etc.

**Author Contributions:** Methodology, G.M.S. and M.D.; investigation, G.M.S. and D.A.K.; writing original draft preparation, G.M.S.; writing—review and editing, D.A.K. and M.D.; supervision, M.D.; project administration, G.M.S. and M.D. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** Part of this research was funded by the PROGRAMME MED EUROPEAN TERRITORIAL COOPERATION 2007–2013, project: REPUBLIC-MED, grant number: 1C-MED12-73.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Acknowledgments:** Part of the work was conducted in the framework of the lead author's former position as a scientific collaborator in the Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving (CRES) and in the framework of the REPUBLIC-MED (1C-MED12-73) project (project duration: March 2013–June 2015). CRES was the Lead Partner (LP) of the project.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
