Multicriteria Spatial Economic Decision Support Systems to Support Positive Energy Districts: A Literature Review

Abstract

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.