scholarly journals The Nexus between Market Needs and Value Attributes of Smart City Solutions towards Energy Transition. An Empirical Evidence of Two European Union (EU) Smart Cities, Evora and Alkmaar

Smart Cities ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 604-641
Author(s):  
Paraskevi Giourka ◽  
Vasilis Apostolopoulos ◽  
Komninos Angelakoglou ◽  
Konstantinos Kourtzanidis ◽  
Nikos Nikolopoulos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Positive Energy ◽  
Novel Technologies ◽  
Sustainable Value ◽  
Urban Energy ◽  
Value Propositions

This study presents an experiential process and a market-oriented approach for realizing cities’ energy transition through smart solutions. The aim of this study is twofold: (a) present a process for defining a repository of innovative solutions that can be applied at building, district, or city level, for two European Union cities, Evora and Alkmaar, and support the deployment of positive energy districts enabling a sustainable energy transition, and (b) understand in a systematic way the attributes of value offered by energy-related smart city solutions, in order to facilitate the development of sustainable value propositions that can successfully address city needs. The repository is assessed against four elements of value, which include social impact, life-changing, emotional, and functional attributes, according to the value pyramid of Maslow. Results show that the value attributes of quality, motivation, integration, cost reduction, information, and organization are highly relevant to the proposed smart solutions. The results presented in this study are useful for city planners, decision-makers, public bodies, citizens, and businesses interested in designing their energy transition strategy and defining novel technologies that promote urban energy sustainability.

scholarly journals From a Comprehensive Pool to a Project-Specific List of Key Performance Indicators for Monitoring the Positive Energy Transition of Smart Cities—An Experience-Based Approach

Smart Cities ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 705-735
Author(s):  
Komninos Angelakoglou ◽  
Konstantinos Kourtzanidis ◽  
Paraskevi Giourka ◽  
Vasilis Apostolopoulos ◽  
Nikos Nikolopoulos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Performance Indicators ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Selection Procedure ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Key Performance Indicators ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Positive Energy ◽  
Performance Framework

As cities grow rapidly and energy needs increase, shaping an effective energy transition is a top priority towards urban sustainability and smart development. This study attempts to answer three key research questions that can help city authorities, planners and interested agents simplify and increase the transparency of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) selection for smart city and communities (SCC) projects focusing on energy transition and creation of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs): Question 1: “What resources are available for extracting such KPIs?”; Question 2: “Which of those KPIs are the most suitable for assessing the energy transition of smart city projects and PED-related developments?” and Question 3: “How can a project-specific shortlist of KPIs be developed?”. Answering these questions can also serve as a major first step towards a “universal” KPI selection procedure. In line with this purpose, an experiential approach is presented, capitalizing on knowledge and lessons learned from an ongoing smart city project in Europe (POCITYF) that focuses on PED deployment. Under this framework, a) a review of smart city KPI frameworks has been conducted, resulting in a pool of 258 indicators that can potentially be adopted by smart city projects; b) eight key dimensions of evaluations were extracted, setting a holistic performance framework relevant to SCCs; c) a detailed evaluation process including pre-determined criteria and city-needs feedback was applied to shortlist the KPI pool, leading to a ready-to-be-used, project-specific list of 63 KPIs and d) KPIs were sorted and analyzed in different granularity levels to further facilitate the monitoring procedure. The experiential procedure presented in this study can be easily adapted to the needs of every smart city project, serving as a recommendation guide.

scholarly journals Assessing Multiple Benefits of Housing Regeneration and Smart City Development: The European Project SINFONIA

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 8038
Author(s):  
Adriano Bisello
Keyword(s):  
Smart City ◽  
Multicriteria Analysis ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Positive Energy ◽  
Revealed Preferences ◽  
The European Union ◽  
City Development ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Urban Energy

The urban energy transition towards more sustainable energy production and consumption systems is at the top of the European Union political agenda. Several demonstration projects are dealing with the deep-energy retrofit of real-estate assets to show how technological and societal innovation can provide new investment opportunities while enhancing citizens’ quality of life by delivering multiple benefits. In this framework, the EU smart city project SINFONIA has developed and tested a new comprehensive framework to define, identify, and evaluate the main multiple benefits expected from similar initiatives. The present contribution reviews the three assessment exercises carried out in the lighthouse city of Bolzano during the project execution, consisting of an investigation of the users’ stated preferences, an evaluation of consumers‘ revealed preferences and a multicriteria analysis of homeowners’ priorities. It offers an overview of the main achievements and sheds light on further investigatory paths applicable to Positive Energy Districts assessment.

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 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 Prevailing Approaches and Practices of Citizen Participation in Smart City Projects: Lessons from Trondheim, Norway

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Savis Gohari ◽  
Daniela Baer ◽  
Brita Fladvad Nielsen ◽  
Elena Gilcher ◽  
Welfry Zwestin Situmorang
Keyword(s):  
Private Sector ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Positive Energy ◽  
Causal Relationships ◽  
Administrative Structure ◽  
Innovative Solutions ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
Participation Mechanisms

Citizen participation has become an important aspect in the design of smart cities. This paper investigates the frame and modality of citizen participation in a European Horizon2020 smart city project, +CityxChange, in Trondheim. +CityxChange aims at enabling citizen participation and co-creation in the transition to a positive energy city. The question is “what are the prevailing approaches and practices in relation to citizen participation amongst the key actors involved in +CityxChange? Which structures and processes have inhibited or fostered the participation mechanisms (e.g., for, by, and of people) and practices in Trondheim?” Through participatory observations and interviews with key local actors and citizens, we found that the focus of +CityxChange on efficiency and creating innovative solutions “for” people in partnership with the private sector has disturbed the “by” and “of” people mechanisms of participation. Citizens’ power and roles are not delegated to challenge or replace the project’s predetermined issue or plan. The anchorage of the project outside of the formal administrative structure has caused other functional barriers that inhibit citizen participation, rather than facilitate it. This paper discusses the causal relationships between these interconnected barriers and suggests how authorities can possibly overcome them.

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 Smart Cities, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Respect for the European Union Data Protection Rules

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Francisco Javier Durán Ruiz
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
European Union ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Data Protection ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Open Data ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The European Union

The importance of cities and their populations grow more and more, as well as the need to apply ICT in their management to reduce their environmental impact and improve the services they offer to their citizens. Hence the concept of smart city arises, a transformation of urban spaces that the European Union is strongly promoting which is largely based on the use of data and its treatment using Big data and Artificial Intelligence techniques based in algorithms. For the development of smart cities it is basic, from a legal point of view, EU rules about open data and the reuse of data and the reconciliation of the massive processing of citizens' data with the right to privacy, non-discrimination and protection of personal data. The use of Big data and AI needed for the development of smart city projects requires a particular respect to data protection regulations. In this sense, the research explores in depth the specific hazards of vulnerating this fundamental right in the framework of smart cities due to the use of Big Data and AI.

scholarly journals Co-owned resources: IP and data in smart cities

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Angeliki Maria Toli ◽  
Niamh Murtagh ◽  
Hedley Smyth
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual Property ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Open Data ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
New Business ◽  
Value Propositions ◽  
Operant Resources

PurposeSmart city projects typically operate in consortia of actors that lead to the co-creation of jointly owned intellectual property (IP) and data. While IP and data are significant for economic development, there are very limited studies on their co-ownership regimes especially on co-ownership of open data and open intellectual property. This study address this gap.Design/methodology/approachThis study is qualitative. In total, 62 in-depth semi-structured interviews were carried out, with predominantly senior members of organisations actively involved in smart city projects. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.FindingsThere are three models of co-ownership of IP and data: contractual joint ownership, undetermined or not-yet-determined ownership and open ownership. Each ownership model impacts differently the value-in-use. The relationships between actors in the consortia affect the way in which they co-create IP and data.Originality/valueThis study demonstrates how projects that operate in new models of innovation-led consortia produce new types of resources that are not simply co-created but co-owned. Co-owned resources have different value-in-use for each one of the different actors, independently of the fact that they jointly own them. This is influenced by the type of ownership model and predisposition of the actors to initially share resources and be flexible. Co-owned resources may generate future value propositions, act as interconnected operant resources and lead to the creation of new business models.

scholarly journals Towards Positive Energy Districts in Smart Cities: A Data-Driven Approach Using Aggregation and Disaggregation of Energy Balance Calculations

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Selma Čaušević ◽  
George B. Huitema ◽  
Arun Subramanian ◽  
Coen van Leeuwen ◽  
Mente Konsman
Keyword(s):  
Energy Balance ◽  
Urban Area ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Service Sector ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Energy Transition ◽  
Positive Energy ◽  
Modeling Approach ◽  
Energy Demands

Positive energy districts (PEDs) are seen as a promising pathway to facilitating energy transition. PEDs are urban areas composed of different buildings and public spaces with local energy production, where the total annual energy balance must be positive. Urban areas consist of a mix of different buildings, such as households and service sector consumers (offices, restaurants, shops, cafes, supermarkets), which have a different annual energy demand and production, as well as a different consumption profile. This paper presents a data modeling approach to estimating the annual energy balance of different types of consumer categories in urban areas and proposes a methodology to extrapolate energy demands from specific building types to the aggregated level of an urban area and vice versa. By dividing an urban area into clusters of different consumer categories, depending on parameters such as surface area, building type and energy interventions, energy demands are estimated. The presented modeling approach is used to model and calculate the energy balance and CO2 emissions in two PED areas of the City of Groningen (The Netherlands) proposed in the Smart City H2020 MAKING CITY project.

scholarly journals LAST MILE LOGISTICS IN THE FRAMEWORK OF SMART CITIES: A TYPOLOGY OF CITY LOGISTICS SCHEMES

2020 ◽  
Vol XLIV-4/W3-2020 ◽  
pp. 335-337
Author(s):  
T. M. Özbekler ◽  
A. Karaman Akgül
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Congestion ◽  
Smart City ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Smart Cities ◽  
Detailed Examination ◽  
City Logistics ◽  
Sustainable Solutions ◽  
Last Mile ◽  
The City

Abstract. As current cities are attributed to particular dynamism consists of population density and increased urbanization, urban areas are facing some challenges for city logistics, both in terms of economic, environmental, and social impact. Especially, the debates over last-mile logistics are arising with inefficiencies in delivery cost (half truckload on delivery) and delivery time per parcel (unnecessary waiting-load periods at multiple stops) while inner-urban areas are especially suffered from traffic congestion, emission, and noise pollution. In this regard, smart cities as a concept with the potential to produce sustainable solutions to urban problems bring along with the need for innovative urban logistics systems to make conventional distribution channels of the city up to date. The key objective tackled in this paper can be defined as the identification of the city logistics schemes with highlighting current approaches in smart cities. The study adopts a systemic approach based on the typology of consolidation-distribution schemes in city logistics to define the feasibility of micro logistics initiatives from the scope of the smart city consisting of mobility, sustainability, and liveability. Thanks to a detailed examination of city logistics dynamics, this study can contribute theoretically to smart city logistics literature as well as practically the logistics sector.

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