Smart and Sustainable Planning for Cities and Regions

Roughly 97% of the European Union (EU) building stock is not considered energy efficient, and 75–85% of it will still be in use in 2050 (Artola et al., Boosting building renovation: What potential and value for Europe? 2016). Residential buildings account for around two thirds of final energy consumption in European buildings. The rate at which new buildings either replace the old stock or expand the total stock is about 1% per year. Similarly, the current renovation rate of existing buildings in the EU is about 1–2% of the building stock renovated each year. Renovation strategies on building levels need to be derived from a combination of energy efficiency upgrades to buildings and the use of renewable energy to decarbonize the energy supply, on a district or city scale. IEA EBC Annex 75 subtask D2 focuses on promoting cost-effective building renovation at district level combining energy efficiency and renewable energy systems, by focusing on the business models that can make implementation possible. This paper intends to provide an overview of the business model archetypes that can support the development of district demand and/or supply of energy-efficient building renovations and/or renewable energy solutions by targeting various types of stakeholders. It builds upon existing literature to gain insights into the current distributed energy business model landscape. Further, implementation strategies are identified that focus on a holistic evaluation of the expected energy and CO₂ performance of the site and optimized infrastructure investment pathways.

 To meet the ambitious targets set by the European Union to reduce CO₂ emissions, action in cities is essential. In fact, cities are responsible for 67% of the world's primary energy consumption and about 70% of energy-related CO₂ emissions. To support the urban energy transition, widespread implementation of net-zero districts, or even better, positive energy districts (PEDs), is expected. PEDs could be defined as energy efficient and energy flexible urban areas that aim to provide a surplus of clean energy to the city through renewable energy. However, the development of the PED concept needs to take into account not only the technical issue of energy systems, but also the environmental, social, and economic aspects. To be effective, it is important to provide decision makers with tools based on a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) approach that can effectively assess the complexity of impacts from a multi-stakeholder perspective. The MCDA approach can be supported by a Geographic Information System (GIS) that helps to analyze the data and make it communicable to everyone. The purpose of this research, through a scientific literature review, is to investigate different MCDA supported by GIS in the framework of economic evaluation methods, aiming to contribute to the definition of an effective multi-criteria spatial economic decision making method to support and sustain the design and development of PEDs.

The development of districts requires a distinct understanding of the current situation as well as a vision of future districts to be able to develop suitable pathways for a sustainable transition. The concept of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) is one of the main initiatives in Europe for the clean energy transition in the built environment. While PEDs are mainly heading for the energy transition, little is known how they relate to the holistic concept of planetary boundaries (PB). To be able to build representative methodology for sustainability assessment of PEDs as well as define comparable, measurable, and reliable indicators specifically targeted for the district scale, we take a closer look at the concept of PB in order to analyze how this concept can help to establish a holistic sustainability evaluation of PEDs. Below we present an analysis of two PED concepts to discuss their interrelation with the PB concept. Our research is based on literature and document analysis. We identify the need for a comprehensive understanding of the different aspects impacting the sustainability assessment of PEDs. In this sense, although highly advisable, an integrated and systemic approach to the sustainability assessment of PEDs has still not been consolidated and the main environmental, economic, and social pillars are usually treated as separate spheres with limited interlinked issues.

Material flow accounting (MFA) can be applied to systematically quantify material inputs, outputs and throughputs to and from a geographical area, providing particularly relevant insights into managing resource flows and stocks, and identifying opportunities to close material cycles, moving from a linear to a circular economy. Remarkable advances in recent years have been made on the application of MFA to regions and cities, in particular going beyond material to product flows and providing increased details on life-cycle stages of products across these flows, which are crucial to estimate, understand and manage their associated environmental impacts. This chapter presents an MFA model of the Autonomous Province of Trento (Trentino) in northern Italy, and of the province’s capital city Trento. The main purpose is to establish a model to estimate direct material inputs (DMI) and domestic material consumption (DMC) in thousand tonnes per year (reference year 2019), relying on publicly available online data on domestic resource extraction, industrial production, trade, freight transportation and waste generation. The DMC was 12.8 and 13.5 tonnes per capita in the province and in Trento, respectively; the result is below the EU mean of 14.2, but significantly higher than the reported DMC for Italy in the same year of 8.3 tonnes per capita. Accounting and characterizing resource flows associated with urban areas and regions is crucial to increase resource efficiency and mitigate environmental impacts at local, regional and global levels. Advanced detailed MFA models at city and regional levels can inform and support environmentally sustainable planning and policymaking.

The creation of energy communities represents an opportunity to overcome the traditional social acceptance paradigm and sector approach in the energy field. The case study of an energy community in the making in the Alpine region enables experimentation with a territorial and heritage approach to the energy transition. This research project tries to connect together territorial heritage, renewable energy sources, and the local community dimension, identified as a strategic field of action also by European directives on energy. The method of analyzing local heritage energy resources and their contribution to energy mix composition, as well as conducting interviews to identify potential stakeholders to involve in setting up the energy community, reveals the presence of untapped potential, both from energy and social capital perspectives. The enhancement of local energy potential, respecting the concept of limitation in resource use and consistent with the protection of territorial, environmental, and landscape heritage, shows the return to the territory in energy production as a sustainable energy transition perspective.

Based on growing interest in sustainable solutions in last-mile logistics, one of the most promising investments is the electrification of commercial fleets to decrease the high level of pollution created by urban freight traffic. In this case study, vans that can be driven with a C1 European driving license are considered, mainly used in B2B deliveries to small shops and SMEs in city centres. The purpose of this research is to analyse the reasons behind the choice of switching the last-mile logistic service fleet to electric and its economic and environmental implications and to analyse the main barriers to its implementation. To do so, we use interviews from managers working in a successful Urban Consolidation Center (UCC) in Italy. The Italian energy infrastructure, the cost of electric vans, and the actual insufficient technological development of van batteries are the key issues highlighted in the interviews, but lower operating costs, lower fuel costs, a decrease in negative environmental externalities, possible institutional cooperation and better working conditions for couriers are the main features to consider in the switch to electric.

The interconnection of urban contexts represents the baseline for the quality of life within them. An efficient urban mobility system ensures environmental, economic and social sustainability. It promotes inclusivity by fostering access to urban facilities and services. Moreover, it enables improvement to the organisation of urban space by allowing better allocation of city facilities. Urban railways connect the areas they cross by triggering relationships between these places, fostering the emergence of new centralities, urban regeneration practices and sustainable and inclusive mobility behaviour. This research proposes a model to study urban centrality through spatial data and multicriteria decision analysis. It shows a method to achieve a degree of centrality of station service areas according to different types of urban populations.

In many cities around the world, similar stakeholders are collectively implementing initiatives that aim to address common problems, satisfy similar unmet needs, and contribute to the creation of more socially just and ecologically sustainable communities. Among the different types of action, commoning practices propose alternative forms of caring, sharing, protesting, producing, consuming, and occupying, where resources are collectively produced, owned, managed, or distributed. This paper seeks to theoretically reflect on the transformative power of commoning occurring on streets to tackle contemporary challenges and aims to suggest a framework for the socio-spatial analysis of commoning practices on streets.

New technologies add value to public spaces if these are used to support the knowledge of a place and its use. The presence of wireless, multimedia support, apps and different ICT tools constitute elements, which can support the knowledge aspects of the place with its different characteristics and can be designed in a logic of integration with other infrastructure and networks in the city. Furthermore, the presence on social media, even if not exhaustive—as the presence of that public space as a background to a photo does not guarantee that it is a pleasant and successful space—offers, however, within a more comprehensive framework of information, data on the type and quantity of users and their perception of it. Indeed, new technologies in their different forms become more and more important tools to provide deeper knowledge of the place, participation, and to address sustainable urban policies. Starting from these premises, the aim of this work, carried out in the framework of the research project “PRIN2020 #20209F3A37”, within the ISMed-CNR Unit with the author’s responsibility and the related Sapienza Università di Roma-ISMed-CNR agreement, is to illustrate the positive influence of ICT tools on the use of both indoor and outdoor public spaces by: revitalizing them; increasing the possibilities of use as well as contributing to greater social cohesion; and supporting sustainable urban policies. By way of examples, two emblematic case studies of public spaces will be illustrated using an original and an ad hoc database.

The conceptualization and application of nature-based solutions (NBS) in the practice of planning and projects on urban and architectural scales have reached a level of maturity in the last 10 years, thanks to a strong push from European policies and funding for European projects and evidence from scientific literature. However, a systemic insight into the role of technology in supporting the spread of NBS has not yet been developed. The role of technology is understood here as fundamental to the very core concept of NBS, i.e., engineering solutions that integrate technological aspects to effectively increase nature’s potential. The authors, therefore, propose an investigation into the various opportunities offered by technology integrated “into” greenery and used “for” promoting greenery, based on the experience of two European Horizon 2020 projects, CLEVER Cities and VARCITIES, and from the application cases presented during the dedicated track at the SSPCR 2022 conference.