Multi-criteria Spatial Decision Support System for Urban Energy Planning: An Interdisciplinary Integrated Methodological Approach

The present chapter provides an interdisciplinary integrated methodological framework. This framework guides to develop a multi-criteria spatial decision support system (MC-SDSS) to support decision-making processes in urban energy planning (UEP) purposes. The MC-SDSS helps in evaluation and visualization of the results of different UEP scenarios involving the relative stakeholders and decision-makers (DMs) from the early stage of planning. This will help in defining and evaluating energy-saving scenarios taking into account the participation of stakeholders in an interactive way. The meaning of integrating different tools and methods in this framework is due to their complementarity in fulfilling various tasks in the UIEP process. This fact can help to assess, over a short-/long-term period, the mix of measures by analysing meaningful scenarios focused on energy consumptions, environmental impacts and economic and social aspects. The result is the development of a new MC-SDSS, which is an interactive energetic plug-in in GIS environment using CommunityViz. This tool has been applied to a demonstrator case study, related to a medium-sized city of the metropolitan area of Turin. However, the methodology used for delivering the tool can be applied to other contexts due to its flexibility

Toll-Like Receptor 4 in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome: Good Time to Target?

Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is considered a major cause of death in the world. ARDS is defined by life-threatening pulmonary edema and hypoxemia with a mortality rate of up to 40%. Recent advances in understating cellular aspects of the syndrome have shed light on possible new treatments and reduction of mortality. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) involved in adaptive and innate immunity. They are present in the alveoli and their activation can lead to inflammatory responses and finally acute lung injury. Among them, Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) is abundantly available on the epithelial cells of the alveoli and also on resident monocytes. TLR4 is one of the players that can promote alveolar damages during ARDS. Here, we focus on the TLR4 role in ARDS pathophysiology. We also present the potential therapies for the syndrome based on TLR4 inhibition

Multi-criteria decision support system for urban energy group planning and decision-making activities

The choice among Urban Energy Planning (UEP) scenarios is broadly based on multi aspects. Hence, the Multi Criteria Analysis (MCA) basing on stakeholders-oriented approach plays a fundamental role in implementing the effective strategies. In this regard, the use of proper supportive tools and methods to address the complex interactions of UEP purposes are needed. This study aims at presenting the final result activities of a national Smart City & Communities project, named “EEB-Zero Energy Buildings in Smart Urban Districts”, which is the development of a new Multi-Criteria Spatial Decision Support System (MC-SDSS) for UEP. This tool facilitates the group decisional processes for stakeholders by creating “what-if” questions and visualizing “ifthen” scenarios on-the-fly. Specifically, the study focuses on the definition of different energy retrofitting scenarios for the built environment, based on stakeholders’ preferences. Accordingly, different decision scenarios have been developed representing a set of retrofitting measures basing on the different hierarchy of preferences of the stakeholders as “stakeholders-oriented” scenario. The tool has been applied and tested to a demonstrator case-study, related to a medium-sized city of the metropolitan area of Turin

Indicators and Scenarios for Sustainable Development at the Local Level

Cities around the world have faced the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic with unprecedented speed, due to our hyper-connected society. As history teaches us, epidemics plague society because of the vulnerabilities generated by humans through their relationships with the environment, with other species and with each other. The recent pandemic is a stark reminder that urbanization has changed the way people and communities live, work, and interact, and it is even more necessary than in the past to adopt a multidisciplinary approach to the development of systemic operational skills that can address complex issues within cities. This work showed how many measures adopted during the emergency have now become part of daily life. The lesson of the pandemic is that people’s health is connected to and dependent on the health of the planet, and cities are at the center of this relationship. The objective of the research starts from the need to identify a selection of post-COVID indicators providing an analysis methodology suitable for the creation of its own final set with the identification of specific key performance indicators (KPIs) of the project, replicable in other urban contexts, on which to base the analysis of the level of local sustainability, especially at the neighborhood scale. The proposed methodological framework is developed in two phases: (1) indicator selection and baseline scenario, set out to investigate the existing correlations between the urban environment and the neighborhood level of cities. On the basis of the assessment of the KPIs, selected on the basis of numerous comparisons with the project’s internal and external stakeholders, thanks to the creation of an interactive dashboard with Tableau software, it was possible to analyze the basic scenario of proximity at the neighborhood scale for the City of Turin, highlighting weak points and priority areas on which to act, experimenting with the theme “Inhabiting proximity” as an urban response to the pandemic

GIS-Based Energy Consumption Model at the Urban Scale for the Building Stock

Energy efficient buildings’ issue integrated into the district and CO2 emission reduction strategies and policies are one of the main concerns in the European Union (EU). In order to achieve an effective impact, instead of just concentrating on the improvement in terms of energy efficiency to one particular building, this approach requires challenges to be solved in an entire municipality or an entire district. Accordingly, it is significant understanding the comprehensive residential building stock models in the urban environment able to promote a sustainable energy planning. In this paper we describe a new methodology based on two different modelling approaches top-down and bottom-up with the aim to evaluate the buildings energy consumption model of a municipality. This methodology is mainly based on information that is already available on building stock from the literature and data collection (i.e., technical department of the municipality, web, energy auditors and others) which is later transferred into the Geographic information system (GIS). Into this, in future studies GIS platform provides the information on energy performance in the whole city as well as creating the urban energy maps for assessing retrofitting scenarios and support decision making for policy implementation to achieve sustainable urban planning. This study is part of an ongoing Smart City research study, national cluster project named Zero Energy Buildings in Smart Urban Districts (EEB) and is tested in a medium sized town in the Piedmont region (Italy), and the results are discussed

Scenario Analysis for Incremental Community Planning in an African Context

Urban areas are gradually becoming more viable places in terms of life quality than most rural areas. This phenomenon generates human movements, both at a local and at an international scale, the latter usually being labeled as irregular migration. This study aims at analyzing urban scenario proposals that part from incremental urbanism principles to create opportunities for youth and women in the area of Pikine Est (Senegal), a neighborhood with a high vocation toward migration. An integrated planning approach is proposed, where an initial project identification stage reveals through documentary analysis and discussion the adequate project strategies to apply and shines a light on proper life quality indicators (LQIs). In the successive stage, project formulation, future-oriented scenarios are proposed. Finally, at the evaluation stage, each urban scenario is assessed to determine which one contains a more suitable set of strategies in function of the community’s needs, employing multi-criteria analysis (MCA) and preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluation (PROMETHEE) methods. As a result, this study proves through measurable data that assessing incremental urban interventions makes sense in developing communities, not only as a study of their response to scarce financial resources, bu

Sustainability Assessment in Social Housing Environments: An Inclusive Indicators Selection in Colombian Post-Pandemic Cities

The use of indicators for sustainability assessment in the urban planning process is a widely used approach. With the definition of the Agenda 2030 and the role of cities in achieving sustainable development goals, much work has been devoted to the definition of evaluation frameworks and indicators to assess policies and plans and support decision-making in the transition to sustainable urban environments. Therefore, there is currently a wide range of indicator frameworks for the sustainability assessment of human settlements. However, considering the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the urban sustainability paradigm, the need to reassess the relevance of existing assessment frameworks in the post-pandemic context has been highlighted. Thus, this article aims to illustrate a selection of indicators to evaluate urban sustainability in developing countries’ post-pandemic contexts, using Colombia as a case study. This work comprises the characterization of the post-pandemic relevance of a set of sustainability indicators through the participation of stakeholders associated with the development process of social housing in urban environments in Colombia. Within a Delphi process, the initial indicators were taken from local and international sustainability frameworks validated before the pandemic. Further, a final selection was made through the evaluation of a survey from a sample of 45 stakeholders, and different participatory mechanisms with experts. These results acknowledged the relevance of factors, such as atmospheric conditions, risk management, the performance of public transport systems, and the availability and accessibility to key services, in the achievement of urban sustainability. These results will support the sustainability assessment of the development of post-pandemic recovery policies in Colombia and serve as a reference for other contexts in developing countries

Key Performance Indicators for Sustainable Urban Development: Case Study Approach

Abstract Built environment energy efficiency improvement at the urban scale plays a key role to reduce the detrimental environmental impacts. However, the design and implementation of sustainable development scenarios is a complex process involving a large number of decision criteria and actors. An on-going Interreg project, "CesbaMED", emphasizes to employ a common sustainability assessment framework at the urban scale, which is a set of eight regional assessment tools, named CESBA MED SNTool. This tool is an innovative decision-making process, which supports the development of energy efficiency plans for building stock in the context of their surrounding neighbourhoods. Moreover, this tool produces the MED Passport, which compares the sustainability performances of buildings and neighbourhoods. This study aims at presenting the on-going research activities with a specific focus on the selection of the set of relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) among the indicators of CesbaMED project for the case study of the city of Turin (Italy), based on stakeholders' preferences. A workshop was organized to select the criteria and to assign the stakeholders' preferences using the "Delphi" survey method. This method is used in order to investigate the stakeholders' perspectives on the impact of each indicator on the different future sustainable scenarios. The results show that the stakeholders decided to remove and modify some KPIs for the specific case study of Turin with respect to its particularities

Amelioration of water deficiency stress in roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria

Belowground interactions between plant roots, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMFs), and plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) can improve growth and yield under abiotic stress conditions. A pot factorial experiment based on completely randomized design with three replications was conducted to investigate the effects of AMFs (without inoculation as control, inoculation with Funneliformis mosseae and Funneliformis intraradices) and PGPRs (without inoculation as control Pseudomonas fluorescens p-169 inoculation) on roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.) grown under water deficiency stress (WDS) [90% (I1), 75% (I2), 50% (I3), and 25% (I4) of field capacity as well-watered, mild, moderate, and severe stress, respectively]. The results showed that by applying WDS, the plant growth properties such as root and sepals’ dry weight, 1000-seed weight, seed yield, chlorophyll a, b, and total, carotenoids, and leaf water content was significantly reduced. The application of AMFs and PGPR under WDS conditions increased 1000-seed weight, seed yield. In response to WDS osmotic adjustment were provided in Roselle and under stress conditions. The highest seed yield was found under well-watered treatment by inoculation of F. mosseae without PGPR and the application of Pseudomonas fluorescens (6.37 and 6.51 g/plant, respectively). These results suggesting the antagonistic effects of AMFs and PGPR. AMFs inoculation under severe stress increased sepals dry weight compared to the non-inoculation. In conclusion, increased activity of enzymatic antioxidants and higher production of non-enzymatic antioxidant compounds, as well as photosynthetic pigments in symbiotic association with AMFs, can alleviate reactive oxygen species damage resulting in increased growth and yield parameters and improve water stress tolerance