Details
Description
The InSMART project brought together cities and scientific and industrial organisations in order to implement a comprehensive model addressing a city’s current and future energy needs through an integrative and multidisciplinary planning approach. This approach identified the optimum mix of short, medium and long-term measures for a sustainable energy future, addressing the efficiency of energy flows across various city sectors with regards to economic, environmental and social criteria, and paving the way towards the actual implementation of priority actions.
This has been tested in the cities of Trikala (Greece), Cesena (Italy), Evora (Portugal) and Nottingham (United Kingdom) with the support of technical specialists from the four countries. The process involved gathering local data, then using it in state-of-the-art computer modelling tools (for buildings and transport) to develop plausible future energy scenarios. The scenarios are tested and refined through a series of carefully weighted criteria to ensure they are economically, environmentally and socially acceptable.
Results
InSMART approached the urban challenges of energy and climate by considering the city energy system as an integrated network of energy flows connecting energy providers with buildings, public spaces, transport and utilities, while taking into account spatial differentiation. Using a detailed characterisation of a local energy system, with simulation tools and the active participation of decision-makers and stakeholders, is the cornerstone of the InSMART Integrated City Energy Planning Framework.
InSMART has paved the way towards the implementation of an optimum mix of measures, using multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) involving different stakeholders from city planning bodies to private services in four European cities. The four cities involved, with specific and complex systems, received detailed insights about their own specific goals, through the application of the InSMART framework analysis.
The InSMART project tools, experiences and achievements may facilitate and support the deployment of local sustainable solutions and decision-making in cities across Europe, contributing to the realisation of the EU’s energy and climate goals.