50,872 research outputs found
Urban lighting project for a small town: comparing citizens and authority benefits
The smart and resilient city evolves by slow procedures of mutation without radical changes, increasing the livability of its territory. The value of the city center in a Smart City can increase through urban lighting systems: its elements on the territory can collect and convey data to increase services to city users; the electrical system becomes the so-called Smart Grid. This paper presents a study of smart lighting for a small town, a touristic location inside a nature reserve on the Italian coast. Three different approaches have been proposed, from minimal to more invasive interventions, and their effect on the territory has been investigated. Based on street typology and its surroundings, the work analyzes the opportunity to introduce smart and useful services for the citizens starting from a retrofitting intervention. Smart city capabilities are examined, showing how it is possible to provide new services to the cities through ICT (Information and Communication Technology) without deep changes and simplifying the control of basic city functions. The results evidence an important impact on annual energy costs, suggesting smart grid planning not only for metropolis applications, but also in smaller towns, such as the examined one
Smart & sustainable cities
The University of Strathclyde is creating a new Institute for Future Cities that aims to improve the quality of human life across the world through innovative research that enables cities to be understood in new ways, and innovative approaches to be developed for the way we live, work, learn and invest in cities. The new Institute will create a focus and strategy to coordinate academic research on urban themes, and partnerships with cities, businesses, research institutions and governments across the world. This paper outlines the wider context and issues for urban policy and research, and describes some of the key objectives and activities of the Institute for Future Cities - including the €3.7 million EU FP7 STEP UP project on sustainable city planning and implementation, a new ESRC research programme on crime prediction, and the City Observatory within the £24 million TSB Future City Demonstrator in Glasgow
Energy use in Urban Transport sector within the Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs) of three Italian Big Cities
Promising Renewable Energy solutions could be installed in cities, but they require specific morphological conditions as well as architectural integration. Transport sector is still neglected from a strong policy initiative. A first attempt along with a defined framework to attract economic resources as well as interested stakeholders is the Covenant of Mayors (CoM). Within this agreement, the Municipality has to design a plan, the so-called Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP). The plan must contain a clear outline of the strategy and relative actions to be taken by the local authority to reach its commitments in 2020, in terms of sustainability goals set by EU 20-20-20. The aim of this paper is to discuss and evaluate the differences of fuel usage and transport sector interaction in Italian urban scenarios, taking into account geographical and morphological constraints, and to compare the forecasts for 2020 and 2030scenarios, in accordance with European and National laws in force
Energy planning for metropolitan context: potential and perspectives of sustainable energy action plans (seaps) of three italian big cities
Energy retrofitting of existing building stock and new expansion of urban settlements entail a new relationship between consumption and production sites. Especially, new production facilities linked to the renewables boom are not taken into account by the urban governance. Energy planning instruments could be the viable tool to manage the new energy transition focusing on territorial resources. The Sustainable Energy Action Plan is the most common and widespread due to its voluntary nature. The study analysed the SEAPs of three big Italian Cities to assess an integrated framework for planning renewables at the metropolitan scale
Carbon Free Boston: Technical Summary
Part of a series of reports that includes:
Carbon Free Boston: Summary Report;
Carbon Free Boston: Social Equity Report;
Carbon Free Boston: Buildings Technical Report;
Carbon Free Boston: Transportation Technical Report;
Carbon Free Boston: Waste Technical Report;
Carbon Free Boston: Energy Technical Report;
Carbon Free Boston: Offsets Technical Report;
Available at http://sites.bu.edu/cfb/OVERVIEW:
This technical summary is intended to argument the rest of the Carbon Free Boston technical reports
that seek to achieve this goal of deep mitigation. This document provides below: a rationale for carbon
neutrality, a high level description of Carbon Free Boston’s analytical approach; a summary of crosssector strategies; a high level analysis of air quality impacts; and, a brief analysis of off-road and street
light emissions.Published versio
Governing carbon mitigation and climate change within local councils: a case study of Adelaide, South Australia
There is growing concern about climate change impacts on local government areas. In Australia, the federal carbon tax (from 1 July 2012) will also increase costs for local councils. This paper evaluates what carbon mitigation (i.e. energy, water, and waste management) actions have been
implemented by metropolitan Adelaide councils (n=14) and why (or why not). A survey of environmental officers profiled carbon mitigation actions, emissions auditing, and motives for emissions reduction by Adelaide councils. The main reasons for adopting carbon actions were a climate change plan, climate leadership, and cost savings. Internal council governance of climate change actions was also evaluated. A climate governance framework based on adaptive
management, communication, and reflective practice (Nursey-Bray 2010) was applied to assess climate mitigation by Adelaide councils
Understanding the Impact of Rural Electrification in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, India: Evidence from The Rockefeller Foundation's Smart Power for Rural Development Initiative
Launched in 2015, Smart Power for Rural Development (SPRD) is a $75 million Rockefeller Foundationinitiative aimed at accelerating development in India's least electrified states. Through the deploymentof decentralized, renewable energy mini-grids, SPRD has supported the Foundation's vision of speedingthe growth of rural economies, while at the same time improving the lives and livelihoods of poor andmarginalized families and communities.A monitoring and evaluation (M&E) grantee, Sambodhi, was funded to work alongside implementingpartners to measure and document the changes that the initiative is having in people's lives. Sambodhialso collected data to inform decision making and support course correction throughout the initiative'simplementation.This report summarizes M&E data collected in late 2016, covering the period March 2016–August 2016.The sample for this report is 39 sites across Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, consisting of 1,000 households and320 micro-enterprises. Together, these constitute nearly 10 percent of SPRD customers. Another 328non-customer households were consulted to provide a comparative perspective
ITERL: A Wireless Adaptive System for Efficient Road Lighting
This work presents the development and construction of an adaptive street lighting system
that improves safety at intersections, which is the result of applying low-power Internet of Things
(IoT) techniques to intelligent transportation systems. A set of wireless sensor nodes using the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.15.4 standard with additional internet
protocol (IP) connectivity measures both ambient conditions and vehicle transit. These measurements
are sent to a coordinator node that collects and passes them to a local controller, which then makes
decisions leading to the streetlight being turned on and its illumination level controlled. Streetlights
are autonomous, powered by photovoltaic energy, and wirelessly connected, achieving a high degree
of energy efficiency. Relevant data are also sent to the highway conservation center, allowing it to
maintain up-to-date information for the system, enabling preventive maintenance.ConsejerÃa de Fomento y Vivienda Junta de AndalucÃa G-GI3002 / IDIOFondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional G-GI3002 / IDI
- …