Verbano

L’obiettivo del progetto è la soluzione del problema Verbano tramite la scelta di una nuova regolazione e di oppurtuni interventi strutturali. Tale soluzione deve tendere a minimizzare i danni causati da eventi alluvionali tanto a monte quanto a valle, i danni indotti dalla mancata fornitura idrica agli utenti irrigui ed idroelettrici di valle e quelli subiti dalla navigazione e dal turismo quando si deprimono eccessivamente i livelli lacuali, senza trascurare, nel contempo, il mantenimento di un deflusso minimo nel Ticino, a valle dello sbarramento del Panperduto. In tale ricerca si dovranno ovviamente tener conto dei vincoli posti dalla capacità di smaltimento delle portate all’incile del lago e dalla necessità di mantenere attiva la sua naturale funzione di laminazione in occasione di eventi alluvionali che interessino anche il Po

Looking beyond the hype : conditions affecting the promise of behaviour change apps as social innovations for low-carbon transitions

Digital tools, specifically smartphone apps, have emerged as enablers of social innovation for low- carbon transitions by using novel feedback to creatively engage people to act more sustainably, and thus capture the power of collective individual action. Such apps have increasingly been implemented in real-world experiments with positive results in the short-term. However critical reflection is required to look beyond this hype to understand the conditions for longer term impact, thus reaching a transformative social innovation potential. In this paper, we take two exemplary behaviour change apps and perform a cost-benefit analysis to assess the break-even point in number of users to achieve net-positive impact and discuss relevant technical, organisational, political and financial conditions that enable or impede this impact. We find that the required scale-up in users seems challenging, yet feasible. However, guaranteeing that the supportive conditions are available is necessary to warrant the focus on behaviour change apps by research and policy

IMPROVE ::enhancing demand-side energy reduction through informative billing strategies

In Switzerland, most of the information available on the energy bills corresponds to the minimum legal requirements imposed by national regulations. Such a scarcely understandable information does not motivate consumers to reflect on their level of energy consumption. A more user-friendly information presentation on the energy bill may induce increased awareness, laying the grounds for behaviour changes required to achieve the goals of the Energy Strategy 2050 of the Swiss Federal Council. The aim of the IMPROVE project was to explore how both consumers and energy utilities evaluate and perceive the importance of introducing enriched information on the energy bill to encourage households to reconsider their energy consumption levels

EnCOMPASS - An integrative approach to behavioural change for energy saving

This paper presents the research objectives of the enCOMPASS project, which aims at implementing and validating an integrated socio-technical approach to behavioural change for energy saving. To this end, innovative user-friendly digital tools will be developed to 1) make energy data consumption available and understandable for different types of users and stakeholders (household residents, office employees, school pupils, building managers, utilities, ICT providers) and to 2) empower them to collaborate in order to achieve energy savings and manage their energy needs in efficient, cost-effective and comfort-preserving ways. The project will demonstrate how this can be achieved with a novel approach that integrates user-centered visualisation of energy data from smart sensors and user-generated information with context-aware collaborative recommendations for energy saving, intelligent control and adaptive gamified incentives enabling effective and sustained behavioural change

A large scale, app-based behaviour change experiment persuading sustainable mobility patterns: methods, results and lessons learnt

The present urban transportation system, mostly tailored for cars, has long shown its limitations. In many urban areas, public transportation and soft mobility would be able to effectively satisfy many travel needs. However, they tend to be neglected, due to a deep-rooted car dependency. How can we encourage people to make sustainable mobility choices, reducing car use and the related CO 2 emissions and energy consumption? Taking advantage of the wide availability of smartphone devices, we designed GoEco!, a smartphone application exploiting automatic mobility tracking, eco-feedback, social comparison and gamification elements to persuade individual modal change. We tested the effectiveness of GoEco! in two regions of Switzerland (Cantons Ticino and Zurich), in a large-scale, one year long randomized controlled trial. Notwithstanding a large drop-out rate experienced throughout the experiment, GoEco! was observed to produce a statistically significant impact (a decrease in CO 2 emissions and energy consumption per kilometer) for systematic routes in highly car-dependent urban areas, such as the Canton Ticino. In Zurich, instead, where high quality public transport is already available, no statistically significant effects were found. In this paper we present the GoEco! experiment and discuss its results and the lessons learnt, highlighting practical difficulties in performing randomized controlled trials in the field of mobility and providing recommendations for future research

Mainstreaming sustainability transitions : from research towards impact

A sustainable energy transition can involve the end consumer as a relevant actor in supporting renewable energy integration through the reduction, and the shifting to new patterns, of consumption (Dubois et al. 2019). To support this shift, the rapid development of digital technologies for measuring and communicating home energy use has been a relevant step. A multitude of studies have investigated the effectiveness of smart phone apps and smart meters, in particular, and found some success in achieving behaviour change with this approach (Chatzigeorgiou and Andreou 2021). However, barriers remain in effectively addressing the everyday lives of consumers as digital tools must match an individuals’ ability to understand, use and capture the value from these tools, i.e. digital literacy (Eshet 2004). Furthermore, the emergence of new energy consumption practices at home may be more effective when integrated into the wider system of real-world practices households are already engaged in (Darby 2020). Within the scope of redesigning a smart phone app for household energy savings, a co-creation approach was used to better understand the energy and technology literacy, motivations, needs regarding the kind of information feedback, and concerns of consumers. Co-creation, as a reflexive design approach, highlights important design considerations from the perspective of the users, and thus improves the researchers’ and designers’ ability to address engagement challenges before the final implementation (Itten et al. 2021). This paper outlines the method for co-creating an energy saving app and behavioural intervention with household members and explores the process to answer the questions: - What does the co-creation process contribute to an energy savings app and accompanying behaviour intervention design? - Who takes part in voluntary co-creation process for an energy savings app? - Does the co-creation process have an impact on participant's energy awareness, self-efficacy and attitude

A Large Scale, App-Based Behaviour Change Experiment Persuading Sustainable Mobility Patterns: Methods, Results and Lessons Learnt

The present urban transportation system, mostly tailored for cars, has long shown its limitations. In many urban areas, public transportation and soft mobility would be able to effectively satisfy many travel needs. However, they tend to be neglected, due to a deep-rooted car dependency. How can we encourage people to make sustainable mobility choices, reducing car use and the related CO 2 emissions and energy consumption? Taking advantage of the wide availability of smartphone devices, we designed GoEco!, a smartphone application exploiting automatic mobility tracking, eco-feedback, social comparison and gamification elements to persuade individual modal change. We tested the effectiveness of GoEco! in two regions of Switzerland (Cantons Ticino and Zurich), in a large-scale, one year long randomized controlled trial. Notwithstanding a large drop-out rate experienced throughout the experiment, GoEco! was observed to produce a statistically significant impact (a decrease in CO 2 emissions and energy consumption per kilometer) for systematic routes in highly car-dependent urban areas, such as the Canton Ticino. In Zurich, instead, where high quality public transport is already available, no statistically significant effects were found. In this paper we present the GoEco! experiment and discuss its results and the lessons learnt, highlighting practical difficulties in performing randomized controlled trials in the field of mobility and providing recommendations for future research

Exploiting Fitness Apps for Sustainable Mobility - Challenges Deploying the GoEco! App

The large interest in analyzing one’s own fitness led to the development of more and more powerful smartphone applications. Most are capable of tracking a user’s position and mode of locomotion, data that do not only reflect personal health, but also mobility choices. A large field of research is concerned with mobility analysis and planning for a variety of reasons, including sustainable transport. Collecting data on mobility behavior using fitness tracker apps is a tempting choice, because they include many of the desired functions, most people own a smartphone and installing a fitness tracker is quick and convenient. However, as their original focus is on measuring fitness behavior, there are a number of difficulties in their usage for mobility tracking. In this paper we denote the various challenges we faced when deploying GoEco! Tracker (an app using the Moves fitness tracker to collect mobility measurements), and provide an analysis on how to best overcome them. Finally, we summarize findings after one month of large scale testing with a few hundred users within the GoEco! living lab performed in Switzerland

2004b). The PIP procedure in the planning of lake verbano

Abstract: Lake Verbano, located in Northern Italy on the Swiss-Italian border, is a natural lake used as multipurpose reservoir. Its management primarily aims at the satisfaction of downstream water demand for hydropower generation and irrigation, and at the control of floods, both on the lake shores and on the outflowing river. Due to the increased frequency of flooding in the last two decades, the conflict between these objectives has become a burning issue. In 1999 the Verbano Project was financed (within the interreg ii-eu framework) with the purpose of evaluating and comparing different options to address this conflict. The project gave the opportunity to follow the adage “practise what you preach”and apply the Participatory Integrated Planning procedure (pip) presented in Castelletti and Soncini-Sessa [2004] to support the decisional process accordingly with the requirements of the eu Water Framework Directive (wfd) and the Integrated Water Resources Management (iwrm) paradigm