Pathways towards carbon neutrality: A participatory analysis of the Gothenburg’s energy plan

Among International Energy Agency members, Sweden is one of the upfront countries in implementing energy policies to achieve zero net emissions. Despite having the lowest share of fossil sources in its primary energy supply, becoming carbon neutral by 2045 is a challenging target. To meet the national goal, cities’ roadmaps and strategic plans have a leading role in facilitating the implementation of energy efficiency measures and renewable production systems. However, succeeding in city energy transitions requires envisioning and understanding of risk and vulnerability levels of the new socio-technical energy system. This study presents a review of the City of Gothenburg’s Energy Plan 2022-2030 and discusses potential challengesfor its implementation. Based on a document study, stakeholder workshop, and interviews the research identifies four key aspects: i) the coordination between energy and urban planning, ii) the future stability of district heating and cooling, iii) the balance in electrification of the buildings and transport, iv) communication and tools in decision-making processes. Finally, the study suggests new measures that should be allocated in the plan to guarantee the development of instruments and analysis for addressing the identified challenges

Matching energy targets, stakeholders’ needs and modelling choices in developing urban energy scenarios

In order to meet greenhouse gas reduction goals, cities need to develop robust energy transition strategies relying both on the local capacity of combining social, economic and environmental perspectives in the decision-making process and on the collaboration between different actors to achieve knowledge and data integration. Scenarios are well-established methodological instruments to guide decisions in energy and spatial planning and have been employed to compare possible future pathways and envision the consequences of implementing decarbonization measures. However, qualitative and quantitative scenarios approaches are often disconnected. With the primary goal of supporting the implementation of the energy plan, this study develops for the City of Gothenburg a participatory method to support the alignment of qualitative and quantitative scenarios approaches.Decarbonization actions and drivers of change were discussed and prioritized in workshop sessions with representatives from the energy supplier(s), municipal administrations (city planners, environmental department), and researchers to develop relevant qualitative scenarios descriptions. Based on this, a list ofrequirements for quantitative scenarios analysis is developed to be, in a next step, translated and integrated into urban building energy models. Findings indicate the importance of early knowledge integration from different fields and highlight the lines of advancement in urban energy modelling to facilitate decision-making towards successful implementation of decarbonization targets

A Quantitative Morphological Method for Mapping Local Climate Types

Morphological characteristics of cities significantly influence urban heat island intensities and thermal responses to heat waves. Form attributes such as density, compactness, and vegetation cover are commonly used to analyse the impact of urban morphology on overheating processes. However, the use of abstract large-scale classifications hinders a full understanding of the thermal trade-off between single buildings and their immediate surrounding microclimate. Without analytical tools able to capture the complexity of cities with a high resolution, the microspatial dimension of urban climate phenomena cannot be properly addressed. Therefore, this study develops a new method for numerical identification of types, based on geometrical characteristics of buildings and climate-related form attributes of their surroundings in a 25m and 50m radius. The method, applied to the city of Rotterdam, combines quantitative descriptors of urban form, mapping GIS procedures, and clustering techniques. The resulting typo-morphological classification is assessed by modelling temperature, wind, and humidity during a hot summer period, in ENVI-met. Significant correlations are found between the morphotypes’ characteristics and local climate phenomena, highlighting the differences in performative potential between the classified urban patterns. The study suggests that the method can be used to provide insight into the systemic relations between buildings, their context, and the risk of overheating in different urban settings. Finally, the study highlights the relevance of advanced mapping and modelling tools to inform spatial planning and mitigation strategies to reduce the risk of urban overheating

SPACERGY:

SPACERGY builds upon the need for planning authorities to develop new models to implement energy transition strategies in the urban environment, departing from the exploitation or reciprocity between space and energy systems. Several policies have been made by each EU nation, but effective and practical tools to guide the urban transformations towards a carbon-neutral future present several challenges. The first challenge is to confront long term changes in envisioning how a specific socio-cultural context can respond to the application of solutions for energy efficiency. Secondly, the engagement of communities in bottom-up approaches mainly includes the sphere of urban planning that underestimates the importance of relating spatial transformations with the energy performances generated in the urban environment. The third challenge regards the tools used for the assessment of the energy performance and the necessity of enlarging the scale in which energy demand is analyzed, from the scale of the building to that of the district. In this context, the project explores the role of mobility, spatial morphologies, infrastructural elements and local community participation in regards to the smart use of local resources. The project addresses a knowledge gap in relation to interactions and synergies between spatial programming, energy and mobility systems planning and stakeholder involvement necessary to improve models of development and governance of urban transformations. Based on detailed spatial morphology and energy use modeling, SPACERGY develops new toolsets and guidelines necessary to advance the implementation of energy-efficient urban districts. New toolsets are tested in three urban areas under development in the cities of Zurich, Almere, and Bergen, acting as living laboratories for real-time research and action in collaboration with local stakeholders. The results of this research project support planners and decision-makers to facilitate the transition of their communities to more efficient, livable and thus prosperous urban environments

The microclimate performance of urban form : a quantitative morphological approach

Understanding how urban form influences the urban microclimate is crucial to inform urban planning and design in the challenge of adapting cities to climate change. The complex relation between the spatial and the thermal performance of the urban environment has been proven in previous climatological studies. However, the understanding of the interaction between morphological characteristics and the thermal behaviour of urban spaces has been limited by the systemic differences between the disciplines involved, such as the use of spatial units, scale systems and classification methods. Climatological studies mainly employ morphological approaches based on qualitative classification of 'generic' urban patterns or supervised classification of homogeneous zones with course resolution. Both approaches have limited applicability to analyse heterogeneous urban environments, which can be overcome by using multi-variable and interscalar characterization approaches from the field of urban morphology. This paper addresses this potential by developing a quantitative method to identify morphological types based on climate-related form attributes of buildings and their immediate context. Application of the method in the case of Rotterdam allows to identify 5 buildings and 5 context types. Finally, a microclimate performance assessment on the resulting 25 archetypes is carried out, by using the ENVI-met microclimate model

Regenerative design processes in urban morphology

A city is an organism made of "fabrics". Social, economic, cultural, smart and environmental fabrics, on whose interaction depends the form, the functioning and the very life of a city, its urban fabrics, its public spaces. Reading and designing the city of the 21st century is therefore a complex process that involves very different needs, interests and disciplines. The aim of this research is to develop an analysis and design methodology capable of acting as a catalyst for all the main players involved in the strategies of Sustainable Urban Design. At the basis of the methodological approach lies the concept of Public Space as the preferential place for reading, designing and living a city. Operationally, the proposed methodology rests on three main disciplinary areas (and three con-sequents working toolkits): Urban Surveying, Environmental Analysis, Urban Morphology. Through the first, conducted with graphic rendering softwares and laser scanner, it is possible to detect the physical forms of the city, to read its historical and material consistency. The second focuses its attention mainly on the microclimatic analysis of public spaces and outdoor comfort, using sophisticated environmental softwares such as Envi-met, LadyBug etc. Finally, the third area is particularly important. Urban Morphology, due to its multilayer character is the discipline capable of keeping all the others together, allowing them to interact. The tools adopted for this purpose are the Morphological Map, the Geographic Information System_QGIS, the Global Positioning System_GPS. The synergistic union of these three areas allows the development of a dynamic, multilayer and transdisciplinary methodology for urban analysis, very useful for guiding the regeneration and transformation processes of the contemporary city

SPACERGY: ENVI-met Microclimate Simulations of the Floriade District in Almere, the Netherlands

The dataset contains the results of ENVI-met simulations for the Floriade district, in Almere (NL). Two different scenarios (with and without trees) were simulated for a hot summer day. Data includes the mapping of hourly values for five relevant climate parameters: Air Temperature (AT), Relative Humidity (RH), Mean Radiant Temperature (MRT), Wind Speed (WS) and Wind Direction (WD)

Mot koldioxidneutralitet: G\uf6teborgs stads energiplan

F\uf6r att uppn\ue5 det nationella m\ue5let att bli koldioxidneutral till \ue5r 2045spelar st\ue4dernas f\ue4rdplaner f\uf6r energiomst\ue4llning en viktig roll inte minstgenom energiplaner. Hur kan dessa effektivt implementeras och vilka \ue4rde potentiella flaskhalsarna

SPACERGY: Physical characteristics of the Floriade District in Almere, the Netherlands

The dataset contains spatial data of the Floriade district in Almere (NL), such as building footprint, urban land use and tree position in ESRI Shapefile format. The data is derived from a masterplan provided by the Urban Design Department, City of Almere in October 2018

SPACERGY: 3D City Model of the Floriade District in Almere, the Netherlands

The dataset contains a digital 3D City model of the Floriade district in Almere, the Netherlands. The digital model is encoded in CityGML standard, and includes different CityGML thematic modules: Building, Vegetation, Land_Use and Relief (topography). The model is derived from a masterplan provided by the Urban Design Department, City of Almere in October 2018. The original data included AutoCad plans, a SketchUp model of the buildings, a tree database and a raster image of the topography. The harmonization of the original data was carried out in Safe Software's FME