The building sector accounts for 40% of energy use and 25% of CO 2 emissions, mainly due to ineffi cient building practices and energy consumption during the operational phase of buildings. Social housing accounts for a signifi cant proportion of the European building stock and about 50% of the existing buildings are likely to require large-scale renovations in the coming years, meeting the current EPBD directive. This could represent an opportunity to renovate the aff ordable building stock, often characterized by premature disrepair, resulting in a bad perception from inhabitants and community. Signifi cant European experiences have already shown the importance of an integrated approach fi nalized to the construction or renovation of social housing, leveraging on environmental sustainability, creating urban identity, adopting measures to face social disadvantage, off ering at the same time quality housing standard. In this regard, it seems necessary to match technological advancements and knowledge in energy retrofi tting with social needs and habits. The implementation of energy-effi ciency improvements in social housing requests support and participation of the fi nal energy consumer. The paper investigates how to deal with knowledge gaps in the relationship between retrofi t technologies and users' behaviour and possible strategic measures to increase awareness between tenants through two case studies.
This paper is motivated by the concept that the successful, effective, and sustainable implementation of the Smart City paradigm requires a close cooperation among researchers with different, complementary interests and, in most cases, a multidisciplinary approach. It first briefly discusses how such a multidisciplinary methodology, transversal to various disciplines such as Architecture, Computer Science, Civil engineering, Electrical, Electronic and Telecommunication engineering, Social science and Behavioral science, etc., can be successfully employed for the development of suitable modeling tools and real solutions of such socio-technical systems. Then, the paper presents some pilot projects accomplished by the authors within the framework of some major EU and national research programs, also involving the Bologna municipality and some of the key players of the Smart City industry. Each project, characterized by different and complementary approaches/modeling tools, is illustrated along with the relevant contextualization and the advancements with respect of the state of the art.
The increasing complexity of urban growth strongly impacts both on the quality of urban environment and on the effectiveness of models for development, requiring innovative approaches to face the related challenges. The proposed position paper reports the methodological approach outlined within a trans-European research project. It aims at defining a systemic urban vision based on resource loops vision in a clustered perspective, overcoming the conventional separation between urban and periurban areas. The main scope is to drive a transition from a linear ("take-make-use-dispose") to a circular approach, considering the whole city realm and aiming to close resource loops (in line with EU COM 614/2015, Closing the loop, EU COM 33/2017, Implementation of the Circular Economy Action Plan and Urban Agenda Draft Action Plan on Circular Economy 09.02.2018) while generating new market opportunities and jobs, reducing resources import, decreasing impacts on environment and climate change. The methodology includes the following steps: increasing context understanding, identifying resource flows, using economic potential of existing resources, engaging communities in loops of proximity, facilitating entrepreneur and stakeholders in co-creation of circular economy processes. This paper explains the positioning of the research within the state of the art; it describes the applied methodology and related expected outcomes, defines the main related initiatives and implementation models. This study identifies regenerative corridors (RC) as potential effective drivers to overcome the conventional separation between urban, peri-urban and rural areas in the EU context, investigating their relations and identifying driving factors for a circular equalized development among these different urban zones. This paper also reports on the impact indicators and the replication potential of the proposed systemic approach.
Renewable energy has a crucial role in facing climate change. One promising strategy is the creation of energy communities that require active involvement from a bottom-up perspective. Their implementation is difficult, as they currently rely on local policies, community readiness, and technological availability. The objective of this paper is to provide a qualitative overview of energy community concepts and strategies at the European level. The aim is to identify common approaches that are framing the development of energy communities, and to understand the most successful steps leading to their creation and growth. To achieve this objective, a threefold methodology is provided: (1) an updated review on policies dealing with energy communities at the European and Italian level; (2) a qualitative overview of European-funded projects under the Horizon 2020 work program; and (3) a qualitative overview of some of the most successful existing energy communities in Europe. The results outline a series of considerations and lessons learned that are useful for implementing this transition pathway in a real case, which is also presented in the paper. The conclusions will identify some future directions of this research, particularly in relation to the results coming from the implementation of actions in the real case.
Climate change, natural and human-made disasters, overcrowding spaces, waste production, and energy access are just a few of issues that our cities have to deal with. At the same time, cities offer a promising intervention field to foster collaborations in planning and managing sustainable infrastructure for sustainable growth. Creating resilient cities has both social and physical dimensions. Reinforcing local identity and culture contributes to positive relationships among individuals, improving their collective ability to face change. The City of Bologna is engaged in the definition of pilot actions to promote the active participation of stakeholders for the acceleration of Local Urban Environment Adaptation Plan for a Resilient City, linked to Common Goods Regulation: act together (collective regeneration of urban spaces), live together (new welfare, health and well-being), grow together (collaborative spaces for innovative jobs and enterprises). In this context the Research Group of the University of Bologna is involved in the development of a flexible and replicable methodology to support the transition to more sustainable urban context. This paper illustrates this methodology and the experimental study carried on to establish active mechanisms of engagement of citizens, associations, creative communities, private bodies, aiming at increasing community resilience and sensitivity and fostering sustainable growth.
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