scholarly journals Challenges and Barriers for Net‐Zero/Positive Energy Buildings and Districts—Empirical Evidence from the Smart City Project SPARCS

Buildings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Daria Uspenskaia ◽  
Karl Specht ◽  
Hendrik Kondziella ◽  
Thomas Bruckner
Keyword(s):  
Smart City ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Positive Energy ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Net Zero ◽  
Multidimensional Representation

Without decarbonizing cities energy and climate objectives cannot be achieved as cities account for approximately two thirds of energy consumption and emissions. This goal of decarbonizing cities has to be facilitated by promoting net-zero/positive energy buildings and districts and replicating them, driving cities towards sustainability goals. Many projects in smart cities demonstrate novel and groundbreaking low-carbon solutions in demonstration and lighthouse projects. However, as the historical, geographic, political, social and economic context of urban areas vary greatly, it is not always easy to repeat the solution in another city or even district. It is therefore important to look for the opportunities to scale up or repeat successful pilots. The purpose of this paper is to explore common trends in technologies and replication strategies for positive energy buildings or districts in smart city projects, based on the practical experience from a case study in Leipzig—one of the lighthouse cities in the project SPARCS. One of the key findings the paper has proven is the necessity of a profound replication modelling to deepen the understanding of upscaling processes. Three models analyzed in this article are able to provide a multidimensional representation of the solution to be replicated.

scholarly journals Smart Cities and Positive Energy Districts: Urban Perspectives in 2020

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 2351
Author(s):  
Paola Clerici Maestosi
Keyword(s):  
Urban Development ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Positive Energy ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Contemporary Research ◽  
Low Carbon Energy

This Special Issue of Energies “Smart Cities and Positive Energy Districts: Urban Perspectives in 2020” introduce contemporary research on Smart Cities and on Positive Energy Districts. The topic highlights the variety of research within this field: from the analysis of 61 Positive Energy Districts cases to papers illustrating the Positive Energy Districts dimension or Smart Energy Communities supporting low carbon energy transition as well as selected Smart Cities Experiences. The focus is thus given on how RD&I stakeholders and Municipalities are facing sustainable urban development challenges. An overview of Horizon Europe RD&I program on sustainable urban areas is provided.

scholarly journals The latest generation of EU Smart city projects: turning "clean energy for all" into "clean benefits for all

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriano Bisello ◽  
◽  
Daniele Vettorato ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Smart City ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Clean Energy ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Positive Energy ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Ongoing Research

The European Union is in the process of updating its energy policy and legislative framework under the motto “Clean Energy for All Europeans”. This will facilitate the low carbon energy transition, make it fit for the 21st century, and delivering the EU’s Paris Agreement commitments. Besides expected climate-energy benefits, the EU narrative is introducing new elements to persuade citizens and stakeholders to change their perspective, shifting the general perception from mitigation costs to development opportunities. For example, impact assessment of the new directives estimated that they would generate 900,000 jobs and an increase of up to 1% in EU GDP over the next decade. However, this is just one among several multiple benefits that could be gained thanks to the smart energy transition of cities and neighborhoods (e.g. increased value of refurbished properties, improved health and well-being, enhanced social cohesion, etc.) Starting from this premise, the ongoing research will analyses 12 ongoing EU smart cities and communities projects started between 2014 and 2017, in order to investigate their capability in using the multiple benefits as an effective communication tool, or even including them among the key performance indicators to be used in the assessment phase. In that respect, the Positive energy district concept that permeates the smart city approach of latest calls for funding provides, even more, an interesting nexus and testbed opportunity for EU ambitions. However, ongoing and future projects need to be understood not only as marketing devices for new energy efficient technologies but powerful tools requiring a radical change in management and planning of cities and urban life. In this way, positive energy districts including good habits and behaviors of urban citizens will provide equitable solutions and clear benefits for all.

scholarly journals Towards Evaluation the Cornerstone of Smart City Development: Case Study in Dalat City, Vietnam

Smart Cities ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khoa Hoang Viet Bach ◽  
Sung-Kyun Kim
Keyword(s):  
Smart City ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Adaptive Model ◽  
City Development ◽  
The Past ◽  
Process Of Urbanization

Over the past decade, the process of urbanization in Vietnam has taken place rapidly, leading to strong social disturbances and causing cities to face many problems. All these challenges have put pressure on urban planning and governance to make adjustments to allow cities to become livable. Moreover, the quality of urbanization is reflected not only in growth but also in harmonious development in all aspects. The urban development process must accordingly be handled by more smart solutions. Smart city development is becoming a trend not only in urban areas all over the world but also in Vietnam. The paper aims to assess the initial phases of the smart city development process in Dalat City. It first evaluated a four-dimensional smart city’s strategic elements of city vision and transformation known as Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats. Then, based on these analytical characteristics, an adaptive model for development is suggested. This paper extends the previous research on smart cities and draws attention to further study on smart city development in Vietnam.

scholarly journals Citizens’ Perception of Smart Cities: A Case Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 2517
Author(s):  
Athanasios Georgiadis ◽  
Panayiotis Christodoulou ◽  
Zinon Zinonos
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Level Of Knowledge ◽  
Global Population ◽  
Made In

The 21st century is considered to be “The Century of Cities”. By the end of this century, over 80% of the global population is expected to be living in urban areas. To become smart, a city should develop an approach of services that will focus mainly on citizens to be the primary beneficiaries of the services offered by a Smart City. In this work, we present through a survey of 545 participants, the citizens’ perception about the smart city concept and reveal the Greek and Cypriot citizens’ level of knowledge regards to a Smart City’s actions, applications, and elements. The final results of this study revealed several interesting outcomes. Firstly, this study showed that Cypriot citizens seem to know better what a “Smart City” is compared to Greek citizens, secondly, the study revealed that a large number of participants do not believe that any efforts have been made in their city in order to become “smart” and finally, regards to the most important challenges for the development of a smart city, the survey disclose that the cooperation of the private and public sector is the biggest challenge that needs to be tackled so as citizens can move towards a “smarter” future.

SenCity – Evaluating Users’ Experiences of Intelligent Lighting for Well-Being in Smart Cities

2018 ◽  
pp. 60-67
Author(s):  
Henrika Pihlajaniemi ◽  
Anna Luusua ◽  
Eveliina Juntunen
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Evaluation Methods ◽  
Data Analyses ◽  
Sense Of Security ◽  
System Data

This paper presents the evaluation of usersХ experiences in three intelligent lighting pilots in Finland. Two of the case studies are related to the use of intelligent lighting in different kinds of traffic areas, having emphasis on aspects of visibility, traffic and movement safety, and sense of security. The last case study presents a more complex view to the experience of intelligent lighting in smart city contexts. The evaluation methods, tailored to each pilot context, include questionnaires, an urban dashboard, in-situ interviews and observations, evaluation probes, and system data analyses. The applicability of the selected and tested methods is discussed reflecting the process and achieved results.

Practice Report “Smart Disaster Management” — Combining Smart City Data and Citizen Participation to Increase Disaster Resilience

i-com ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-193
Author(s):  
Daniel Wessel ◽  
Julien Holtz ◽  
Florian König
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Government Support ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Specific Information ◽  
Mutual Support ◽  
The Everyday

Abstract Smart cities have a huge potential to increase the everyday efficiency of cities, but also to increase preparation and resilience in case of natural disasters. Especially for disasters which are somewhat predicable like floods, sensor data can be used to provide citizens with up-to-date, personalized and location-specific information (street or even house level resolution). This information allows citizens to better prepare to avert water damage to their property, reduce the needed government support, and — by connecting citizens locally — improve mutual support among neighbors. But how can a smart city application be designed that is both usable and able to function during disaster conditions? Which smart city information can be used? How can the likelihood of mutual, local support be increased? In this practice report, we present the human-centered development process of an app to use Smart City data to better prepare citizens for floods and improve their mutual support during disasters as a case study to answer these questions.

scholarly journals Modeling and Visualizing Smart City Mobility Business Ecosystems: Insights from a Case Study

Information ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Faber ◽  
Sven-Volker Rehm ◽  
Adrian Hernandez-Mendez ◽  
Florian Matthes
Keyword(s):  
Smart City ◽  
Design Science ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Knowledge Flows ◽  
Sustainable Mobility ◽  
Ecosystem Models ◽  
Business Ecosystem ◽  
Proactive Management ◽  
Business Ecosystems

Smart mobility is a central issue in the recent discourse about urban development policy towards smart cities. The design of innovative and sustainable mobility infrastructures as well as public policies require cooperation and innovations between various stakeholders—businesses as well as policy makers—of the business ecosystems that emerge around smart city initiatives. This poses a challenge for deploying instruments and approaches for the proactive management of such business ecosystems. In this article, we report on findings from a smart city initiative we have used as a case study to inform the development, implementation, and prototypical deployment of a visual analytic system (VAS). As results of our design science research we present an agile framework to collaboratively collect, aggregate and map data about the ecosystem. The VAS and the agile framework are intended to inform and stimulate knowledge flows between ecosystem stakeholders in order to reflect on viable business and policy strategies. Agile processes and roles to collaboratively manage and adapt business ecosystem models and visualizations are defined. We further introduce basic categories for identifying, assessing and selecting Internet data sources that provide the data for ecosystem models and we detail the ecosystem data and view models developed in our case study. Our model represents a first explication of categories for visualizing business ecosystem models in a smart city mobility context.

scholarly journals Building Smarter Cities through Social Entrepreneurship

2017 ◽  
pp. 327-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susana Bernardino ◽  
J. Freitas Santos
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Social Interventions ◽  
Social Ventures ◽  
Different Characteristics ◽  
The City ◽  
Disadvantaged People

The objective of the present study is to examine the extent to which social ventures are able to increase the “smartness” of cities. To achieve this goal, we adopt a qualitative approach using a case study method to obtain valuable insights about different characteristics and strategies of Cais (a non-profit association dedicated to helping disadvantaged people in urban areas). Through our analysis of Cais's activities, we assess whether its social interventions match the dimensions proposed by Giffinger et al. (2007) to rank smart cities' performance; specifically, it has smart: economy, people, governance, mobility, environment, and living. The research shows that the action pursued comprises elements from all the above-mentioned dimensions. Further, the analysis reveals that Cais reinforces the smartness of the city in which it acts (in terms of attributes such as living, economy, people, and environment).

scholarly journals Smart cities IOT & Digital network connectivity devices: Optimization on business in Africa

2021 ◽  
pp. 064-071
Author(s):  
Makeri Yakubu Ajiji ◽  
Xi’an Jiaotong Victor Chang ◽  
Targio Hashem Ibrahim Abaker ◽  
Uzorka Afam ◽  
T Cirella Giuseppe
Keyword(s):  
Internet Of Things ◽  
Urban Communities ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
The Internet ◽  
City Development ◽  
Short Article ◽  
The Internet Of Things

Today the world is becoming connected. The number of devices that are connected are increasing day by day. Many studies reveal that about 50 billion devices would be connected by 2020 indicating that Internet of things have a very big role to play in the future to come Considering the perplexing engineering of Smart City conditions, it ought not to be failed to remember that their establishment lies in correspondence advancements that permit availability and information move between the components in Smart City conditions. Remote interchanges with their capacities speak to Smart City empowering advancements that give the open door for their fast and effective execution and extension as well. The gigantic weight towards the proficient city the board has triggered various Smart City activities by both government and private area businesses to put resources into Information and Communication Technologies to discover feasible answers for the assorted chances and difficulties (e.g., waste the executives). A few specialists have endeavored to characterize a lot of shrewd urban areas and afterward recognize openings and difficulties in building brilliant urban communities. This short article likewise expresses the progressing movement of the Internet of Things and its relationship to keen urban communities. Advancement in ICT and data sharing innovation are the drivers of keen city degree and scale. This quick development is changing brilliant city development with the beginning of the Internet of Things (IoT). This transformation additionally speaks to difficulties in building (Kehua, Li, and Fu ,Su et al.1). By knowing the attributes of specific advances, the experts will have the occasion to create proficient, practical, and adaptable Smart City frameworks by actualizing the most reasonable one.

scholarly journals Actually existing smart citizens: expertise and (non)participation in the making of the smart city

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taylor Shelton ◽  
Thomas Lodato
Keyword(s):  
Smart City ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Urban Governance ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Top Down ◽  
The World ◽  
Number Of Individuals

In response to the mounting criticism of emerging ‘smart cities’ strategies around the world, a number of individuals and institutions have attempted to pivot from discussions of smart cities towards a focus on ‘smart citizens’. While the smart citizen is most often seen as a kind of foil for those more stereotypically top-down, neoliberal, and repressive visions of the smart city that have been widely critiqued within the literature, this paper argues for an attention to the ‘actually existing smart citizen’, which plays a much messier and more ambivalent role in practice. This paper proposes the dual figures of ‘the general citizen’ and ‘the absent citizen’ as a heuristic for thinking about how the lines of inclusion and exclusion are drawn for citizens, both discursively and materially, in the actual making of the smart city. These figures are meant to highlight how the universal and unspecified figure of ‘the citizen’ is discursively deployed to justify smart city policies, while at the same time, actual citizens remain largely excluded from such decision and policy-making processes. Using a case study of Atlanta, Georgia and its ongoing smart cities initiatives, we argue that while the participation of citizens is crucial to any truly democratic mode of urban governance, the emerging discourse around the promise of smart citizenship fails to capture the realities of how citizens are actually discussed and enrolled in the making of these policies.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document