Key index framework for quantitative sustainability assessment of energy infrastructures in a smart city: An example of Western Sydney

Abstract

Human society is experiencing a rapidly changing environment in which energy shortages and an ongoing climate crisis have been identified as two of the major challenges to the sustainable development of human civilization. In the face of these challenges, the concept of a smart city is proposed which aims at achieving sustainable development, increasing the quality of life, and improving the cost‐effectiveness of existing and new energy infrastructures. To this end, this study proposes a general framework with a three‐tier story chart for guiding the establishment of sustainability assessment models and the selection of their indicators. In addition, a quantitative analysis method is developed for assessing the sustainability of energy infrastructures in a smart city, which indicates how the long‐term sustainability of the energy infrastructure can be achieved. The proposed method incorporates extensive environmental, economic, and social indicators, which go beyond conventional facility‐level criteria and seamlessly relate to the broader community that benefits from the renewable energy transition (including energy construction, operations, and energy services). The proposed methodologies can be implemented through collecting the corresponding history data of the indicators and following the analysis procedures presented in this study. The proposed methodology can serve as a supporting tool for decision‐making on new infrastructure investment and policymaking toward sustainable development. Case studies in Western Sydney were carried out to demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed methodologies.

Optimal decision‐making method of transmission lines' maintenance sequence under extreme ice disasters

“…According to the entire system resilience description method, the resilience trapezoid establishes the system resilience assessment index [28,29]. The system load loss is used in combination with the grid operation state charac- teristics to quantify resilience [30][31][32][33][34]. The evaluation indexes are respectively established for the system's resilience, adaptive capability, and resilience.…”

A hybrid assessment framework for human‐centred sustainable smart campus: A case study on COVID‐19 impact

“…A generalised guidance framework was proposed in Ref. [ 35 ] for creating sustainability assessment models and deciding on effective assessment indicators.…”

“…As compared to the existing metric systems concerning a single dimension or domain, such as Refs. [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ], the proposed assessment framework serves as a platform to provide a broader vision of the different essential aspects and their co‐effects, which could generate information in a wider scope to facilitate smart campus planning and development.…”