Smart and Sustainable Planning For Cities and Regions: Adriano Bisello Daniele Vettorato Marta Bottero Dionysia Kolokotsa
Smart and Sustainable Planning For Cities and Regions: Adriano Bisello Daniele Vettorato Marta Bottero Dionysia Kolokotsa
Adriano Bisello
Daniele Vettorato
Marta Bottero
Dionysia Kolokotsa Editors
Smart and
Sustainable
Planning
for Cities and
Regions
Results of SSPCR 2022
Green Energy and Technology
Climate change, environmental impact and the limited natural resources urge
scientific research and novel technical solutions. The monograph series Green Energy
and Technology serves as a publishing platform for scientific and technological
approaches to “green”—i.e. environmentally friendly and sustainable—technolo-
gies. While a focus lies on energy and power supply, it also covers “green” solu-
tions in industrial engineering and engineering design. Green Energy and Tech-
nology addresses researchers, advanced students, technical consultants as well as
decision makers in industries and politics. Hence, the level of presentation spans
from instructional to highly technical.
**Indexed in Scopus**.
**Indexed in Ei Compendex**.
Adriano Bisello · Daniele Vettorato ·
Marta Bottero · Dionysia Kolokotsa
Editors
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2024. This book is an open access publication.
Open Access This book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribu-
tion and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original
author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were
made.
The images or other third party material in this book are included in the book’s Creative Commons license,
unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the book’s Creative
Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted
use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or
the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
SSPCR 2022 Committees
v
vi SSPCR 2022 Committees
Organizing Committee
Contacts
www.sspcr.eurac.edu
Foreword
As someone who has spent nearly 15 years in the energy and sustainability field, I
can confidently say that it is not always easy to work in this sector. There are days
when the challenges seem impossible, when it feels like the world is moving in the
wrong direction and it seems like there are no good solutions in sight. However, at
times like these, it is important to remember that we are living in a pivotal moment
and that there is hope.
The Smart and Sustainable Planning for Cities and Regions conference organized
by Eurac Research has brought together some of the brightest minds to share their
experiences and insights. This resulting book is a testament to the power of collective
intelligence and provides a roadmap on how we can all work together to make the
world a better place.
In the face of eschatological worldviews and eco-anxiety, it can be easy to feel
overwhelmed and helpless. The chapters in this book, however, provide a different
perspective, one that is grounded in the idea that we can all take action to make a
difference. Whether you are a decision-maker, an entrepreneur, an activist, or simply
a concerned citizen, there are steps you can take to help build a more sustainable
future.
At the heart of this effort is trust. We must be able to trust our leaders, our
communities, our regulators, and our companies if we are to build a sustainable
future together. This means promoting transparency, reliability, and accountability,
and it means putting the needs of citizens at the centre of our policies and economic
models.
Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to these challenges. We all come
from different backgrounds and we all have our unique perspectives and circum-
stances. However, by working together and taking a holistic, intersectional approach,
we can build a future that works for everyone.
This book is an essential resource for anyone who cares about the future of
our planet. It brings together the voices of authors from different contexts and
perspectives, offering a rich and diverse set of solutions to the challenges we face as
humanity.
vii
viii Foreword
At the end of the day, we all have a role to play in building a more sustainable
future. It starts with listening to each other, educating ourselves and others, and
thinking outside the box. By doing our part and working together, we can build a just
transition that benefits everyone. I hope this book inspires you to join the effort and
share your solutions to make the world a better place.
Marine Cornelis
Next Energy Consumer
Turin, Italy
Urban Innovation: What are We Talking About?
Highlights on SSPCR 2022
Who would have thought that we would once again be able to have another SSPCR
conference in person? For some of us, the previous edition, held in Bolzano in
December 2019, was the last group event we were able to attend. Shortly after, the
COVID-19 health crisis hit and changed our world. No more trips to workshops and
conferences in faraway countries, no more passionate discussions started in the hall
and continued during the coffee break and no more handshakes and exchanges of
business cards. For a while, it seemed like the new world was all about webinars,
virtual events, conference calls, and file sharing via the cloud. Some months felt like
years, and some years felt like decades. When we started thinking about whether
it would be possible to do the fourth edition of Smart and Sustainable Planning for
Cities and Regions, it seemed really risky. It was fall 2022, the contagion curve
was starting to rise again after the summer break, and there was general scepticism.
However, we did not give up, because there were many colleagues, researchers,
practitioners, and stakeholders who were asking us for news and who were curious
about when it would be possible to return to Bolzano. We finally succeeded. For
some, SSPCR 2019 had been the last scientific conference they attended in person,
for others, SSPCR 2022 was the first event they were able to travel to after the
lockdown ended, and for a minority both even! More than 200 participants from
22 different nations gathered on 19–22 July to discuss urban strategies, ecological
and digital transition, positive energy districts and energy communities, the future
of mobility, city–territory relations, nature-based solutions, social innovation, multi-
level governance, spatial data analysis and innovative business models, and much
more.
Poster and oral presentations, as well as special events promoted by international
projects and institutions, focused on seven thematic tracks, namely:
1. Will the climate-neutral city please stand up?
2. The hidden potential: untapping the benefits of urban transformations
3. Tackling what remains to be done: environmental sustainability in cities and
regions
4. Strengthening democracy in the energy transition
ix
x Urban Innovation: What are We Talking About? Highlights on SSPCR 2022
What can planning do across Europe and beyond to lead the ecological and energy
transition and to make cities and regions more sustainable in a smart way? This book
offers a selection of research and case studies on smart and sustainable planning in
practice, featuring models and results from academics, policymakers, consultants,
and other professionals. The chapters are drawn from the top contributions presented
at the fourth international conference “Smart and Sustainable Planning for Cities and
Regions 2022”, held in July 2022 in Bolzano, Italy.
Despite ongoing urbanization and polarization processes, a new symbiosis
between urban and rural areas emerges, linking development opportunities to intrinsic
cultural, natural, and man-made landscape values. In this context, innovative plan-
ning and design projects play a fundamental role in addressing societal challenges.
Moreover, the increasing availability of a wealth of big, real-time urban data and
advanced ICT enables a much more frequent assessment, continuous monitoring of
performance, and fine-tuning, not only of individual projects but also of whole terri-
tories and cities. In this context, (big) urban data and ICT can be of enormous help
in facilitating engagement by raising awareness through sharing and visualization of
data, and by providing insight into the local consequences of specific plans. Indeed,
to achieve better integration of climate-energy planning, collaborative action with
key stakeholders through co-design and co-creation in open innovation processes
are fundamental, allowing the creation of new value propositions and encouraging a
high level of trust and transparency.
The aim of the book is thus to provide a grounded and multi-disciplinary outlook,
to orientate the reader in the giant galaxy of smart and sustainable planning, to support
the transposition of research into practice, to scale up visionary approaches, and to
design ground-breaking planning policies and tools.
xiii
xiv About This Book
Highlights
• The book offers empirical and theoretical insights into planning for smart and
sustainable cities and regions.
• It combines multidisciplinary approaches, giving new solutions and ideas to both
researchers and policymakers to support real-world decision-making processes.
• The contributions provide a grounded perspective on contemporary challenges
to smartness, the circular economy, climate neutrality, and overall sustainability
through a wealth of local and regional case studies from Europe and beyond.
• An excellent overview of up-to-date tools, models, and methods for implementing
and scaling up smart city solutions and improving decision-making is provided
in the research presented in the book.
Contents
xv
xvi Contents
Adriano Bisello is an urban planner and has a Ph.D. in real estate economics. At
Eurac Research, in Bolzano (Italy), he coordinates the research team on “Planning
methods and evaluation of multiple benefits of the energy transition” and works as a
project manager. Adriano’s activities range from local to European-funded projects
related to smart city governance, positive energy districts, innovative nature-based
and digital solutions, and sustainable energy communities. In 2022, he was appointed
Vice President of ASSURB (Italian Association of Spatial Planners) and a delegate
to the ECTP-CEU (European Council of Spatial Planners—Conseil Européen des
Urbanistes).
xvii
xviii About the Editors
energy management systems, (b) the advancement of zero energy buildings and
communities, (c) urban heat island deterioration and the integration of nature-based
solutions and cool materials. She has coordinated numerous international research
projects, and she is the Editor in Chief of Solar Energy Advances, Elsevier, and
Subject Editor of Scientific Reports, Nature and PLOS Climate.
Current Business Model Practices
in Energy Master Planning for Regions,
Cities and Districts
Abstract Roughly 97% of the European Union (EU) building stock is not consid-
ered energy efficient, and 75–85% of it will still be in use in 2050 (Artola et al.,
Boosting building renovation: What potential and value for Europe? 2016). Residen-
tial buildings account for around two thirds of final energy consumption in European
buildings. The rate at which new buildings either replace the old stock or expand
the total stock is about 1% per year. Similarly, the current renovation rate of existing
buildings in the EU is about 1–2% of the building stock renovated each year. Reno-
vation strategies on building levels need to be derived from a combination of energy
efficiency upgrades to buildings and the use of renewable energy to decarbonize the
energy supply, on a district or city scale. IEA EBC Annex 75 subtask D2 focuses
on promoting cost-effective building renovation at district level combining energy
efficiency and renewable energy systems, by focusing on the business models that
can make implementation possible. This paper intends to provide an overview of the
business model archetypes that can support the development of district demand and/
or supply of energy-efficient building renovations and/or renewable energy solutions
by targeting various types of stakeholders. It builds upon existing literature to gain
insights into the current distributed energy business model landscape. Further, imple-
mentation strategies are identified that focus on a holistic evaluation of the expected
energy and CO2 performance of the site and optimized infrastructure investment
pathways.
M. Haase (B)
Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), ZH 8820 Waedenswil, Switzerland
e-mail: [email protected]
T. Konstantinou
TU Delft, Faculty of Architecture and The Built Environment, 2628 BL Delft, The Netherlands
1 Introduction
Business model (BM) archetypes for building renovation are characterized by the way
the renovation is managed, the role of the beneficiary/building owner, the involvement
of intermediaries and project managers, and the return on renovation savings. This
study compiled a catalogue of business models for energy-efficiency renovation by
identifying four archetypes that summarize current approaches. The information
was gathered by reviewing current literature and is illustrated by examples found in
renovation practices and European research projects such as in (Brown 2018; Burger
and Luke 2017; Gouldson et al. 2015; Haavik et al. 2014; Karine Laffont-Eloire
et al. 2019; Mlecnik et al. 2019; Moschetti and Brattebø 2016; Teece 2010). Table 1
summarizes the characteristics of each archetype, highlighting the barriers they pose
to upscaling to district, as well as the opportunities to overcome those barriers.
As in any general classification, there are variants to all the business models so the
conceptual separation line from one to another might at times be difficult to define.
For example, One-Stop-Shops can also extend their services from construction to
post-construction monitoring if requested or can sub-contract the consultancy phase
to a trusted company. Moreover, the simplification required to define archetypes needs
to be taken into account. However, the archetypes distinctly highlight the difference
in the process organization and integration of the solutions and financing.
Energy Performance Contracts (EPC) offered through energy service companies
(ESCOs) provide an emerging financing mechanism, which empowers each citizen to
shape their own energy efficient home through long term loans tied to energy savings.
With the involvement of central or local governments, or even unusual sources like
pension funds or healthcare providers, these loans can be made more affordable and
attractive. This will help tilt the scales with undecided citizens to start a building
energy retrofit.
Despite the advantage of EPC business models for renovations, particularly with
regards to reduced or eliminated upfront costs to users, there are challenges that need
to be considered (Bertoldi et al. 2021), which are hindering application of the model
for housing renovation. The main challenges include performance risk, the high fees
charged by ESCOs, and long-contract and old ownership structures (over 20 years,
whereas many may be reluctant to sign a contract over 10 years).
For example:
• Long-contract and old ownership structures (over 20 years, whereas many may
be reluctant to sign a contract over 10 years).
• Trust, where prices and revenue flows are not transparent.
• Company large initial investment (financing costs).
• Collective contract management.
• Expensive civil work.
• Individualization of systems as a freedom for families.
4 M. Haase and T. Konstantinou
Energy supply for buildings relates to the supply of both electric and thermal energy.
This section investigates business model archetypes for both the district thermal
energy and electricity market. The aim is to identify current practices in business
models as well as synergies within business models of energy supply companies, as
they are seen in the literature.
There is a large variety of business models for energy supply. Those business
models are characterized by different parameters such as the degree of servitization,
meaning the range of energy services from basic to more advanced services such
as energy management, project design, implementation, maintenance, evaluation
and energy and equipment supply, savings guarantees, etc. Other parameters are the
financing and ownership structure, the customer role, the decentralization level and
the infrastructure it refers to. Four kinds of approaches of business models were
identified:
1. Demand response (DR) and energy management systems (EMS).
2. Electrical and thermal storage (ETS).
3. Solar PV businesses (PV).
4. Customer relations and services (CRS).
There were basically six different business model archetypes identified, which
can be split into several types and even sub-types. Sub-categories within the three
main approaches can be defined as BM archetypes. Table 2 summarizes the types of
business models and details their characteristics.
Six distinct themes that outline the value creation drivers for energy supply
business models (BMs) were identified as follows:
• District heating BMs are often supported by local authorities due to the large
infrastructure that needs to be installed. New generations of DH networks try to
lower operating temperatures to increase efficiency and collect waste heat (e.g.,
from other sources).
• Going Green BMs are the ones where new ways of performing economic trans-
actions have been adopted. Accounting for the content element, fossil fuel energy
is replaced in these BMs with renewable energy sources, thus they are mostly
technology driven BMs, nowadays with a strong predominance for solar PV
businesses, (resulting in a pattern category named “Going Green”).
• “Building energy communities” is another pattern category where new organiza-
tions based on co-participation form are addressed in the structure element, while
the governance element is based on shared resources and governance.
• Lock-in-centred business models refer to the ability of firms to attract, maintain
and improve customer and partner associations with the BM.
• Complementarities-centred BMs refer to BMs as having goods bundled together
instead of providing each of the goods separately.
• Efficiency-oriented energy BMs are the ones where measures are taken to achieve
increased transaction efficiencies.
6
supply to
energy-balanced
services (incl.
storage)
Efficiency-oriented CRS, ETS Economies of scale Cheaper production through Scaling up mechanisms Opportunities for
energy business models economies of scale, digital Infancy of digital technologies new market
services for distribution and Slow (and too big?) participants
sales established market players Active change
(with little incentives for management
change)
7
8 M. Haase and T. Konstantinou
District heating work is not generally part of the renovation business model. Some
measures on a building level that comply with district heating, such as low-
temperature radiators, are included in building energy efficiency renovation pack-
ages. Thus, this creates two almost parallel, business models, one at a household
and business level, and the other at a higher system level, where digital platforms
aggregate multiple vectors and services on a large grid scale. These two BMs need to
be connected in a way where real (also digital) innovation of these business models
is combined with renovation BMs. These two BMs ought to be brought together
through technical and market means—aggregation and market trading. For example,
innovation includes exploring the role of energy aggregators in managing the energy
consumption of specific groups of users; creating a system focused on local energy
and economic needs and investing in the built environment to create local value
through retrofits or solar PV. This will also help to create and capture social and
environmental values, especially for users, through digital innovations.
Local energy markets (as shown in the Community Energy BM) are seen as the
most suitable to also integrate renovation-based BMs. Thus, the local demand and
supply system can be optimized. Local authorities can help to set up these clusters
and build a framework for establishing innovation clusters where all stakeholders
are represented and where intermediaries (e.g., expert companies) collaborate with
beneficiaries on the common goal of decarbonizing the built environment. For a
successful implementation, it is essential to start with an energy master plan that
includes local constraint analysis, political goal setting and setting up alternative
solutions.
Typically, energy communities follow the Energy master plan approach by:
• allowing for total life-cycle costs to be minimized, supporting the decarbonization
of the energy supply process to end users and increasing the resilience of thermal
and power energy supply systems.
• implementing novel and more efficient end-use technologies, Building Energy
Management Systems and energy supply solutions, including thermal energy
storage, combined heat and power (CHP) plants and reversible heat pumps. Inte-
grating renewable energy sources into distribution grids can help to slow down or
even reverse the increase in energy demand, reduce the size of energy generation
equipment by shaving peak loads (in particular cooling peaks in warm climates),
and make energy systems more resilient to the growing number of different natural
and manmade threats and hazards.
• integrated energy systems which act as so-called “virtual batteries”. District
heating can be provided by a CHP plant, heat pumps, electric boilers, and thermal
energy storage (TES) units. These measures allow for scheduling of equipment
operations in response to daily and weekly fluctuations in prices on the electricity
market.
• the use of modern state-of-the-art district hot water systems which reduce oper-
ating costs; increase overall system efficiency; integrate the use of waste heat
Current Business Model Practices in Energy Master Planning … 9
from industry and renewable energy sources, both directly and via heat pumps;
and generally improve system resilience (Sharp et al. 2020).
• building configurations that include such improvements as well-insulated building
envelopes; efficient Heating, Ventilating, and Air-Conditioning (HVAC) systems
with large surface radiant heating and cooling technologies (e.g., floor or ceiling
mounted heating and cooling); the use of building core activation that can exploit
smaller temperature differences between supply and return water used for heating
and cooling, all support the use of district systems with low exergy sources, e.g.,
ground (geothermal), solar thermal and groundwater, river or lake water, heat from
sewer systems, etc. (see also Annex 73, Guidelines for Energy Master Planning).
• sharing in these “energy communities” often a single owner is regulated to form
a legal entity with one single point of contact (and decision maker) which allows
energy efficiency measures to be made for individual buildings (e.g., building
envelope renovation, replacing HVAC equipment and lighting systems with more
efficient ones) can be used to reduce community-wide peak demand. When such
projects are planned as a part of a holistic Energy Master Plan, they can improve
the cost-effectiveness of the plan by improving building environmental conditions,
use resources better and enhance system resilience. This approach requires collab-
oration between all stakeholders and strategic timing of different projects. Local
communities with numerous building owners face difficulties with optimally
timing building renovations for all community buildings.
• Energy communities have the potential to act as separate Microgrids. In that way
they can be used to avoid distribution tariffs since the costs of operating their own
low-voltage grid are lower than the distribution tariffs from the utility company.
In such cases, even large gas-driven CHP plants located within the community
are not connected to the community grid but are rather connected to the utility
grid and operated based on market energy prices.
5 Discussion
After looking separately at energy renovation and energy supply business model
archetypes, this discussion aims to evaluate the potential to combine building renova-
tion and energy supply business models. For that, we identified stakeholder mapping,
the identification of value creation, the combination of customer segments and the
main drivers as the key aspects that can contribute to the development of integral
business models.
value proposition for users is difficult as there are multiple and sometimes conflicting
end-user values, system needs and supplier/financier needs. Since these business
model innovations create new interfaces between users and the grid they also open
up opportunities to create new sources of value, such as reducing pressure on elec-
tricity networks, price arbitrage, time-shifting consumption etc., but these can be
small or intangible. There are often trade-offs between sources of value and how that
value is shared. For example, local balancing has the potential to reduce supplier
imbalance costs and reduce customer bills, provide an uplift to the generator and
increase supplier margins. The key challenges to developing successful business
model propositions are balancing innovation, attractiveness, risk, adhering to regu-
lations and meeting decarbonization goals. Many of these business models rely on
growing local demand for RES, flexibility and storage services and see the devel-
opment of value propositions as a step process, first focusing on value propositions
which would appeal to a greater group of users, to then develop more innovative
services that could be delivered at a later date. When trying to establish new BMs
for renovation and energy supply on a district scale, clusters of stakeholders are
needed and an innovation eco-system. The traditional view of such ecosystems is
that it is a collection of companies situated with some level of proximity, allowing for
more collaboration, interaction, development of stronger ties and a natural growth
of collaborative strengths within the cluster.
The market becomes more personalized. Consumer behaviour, attitudes, tastes and
needs are critical factors for BMs operating in decentralized systems where multiple
roles for consumers are possible:
• active producers and consumers who produce and self-consume green electricity
and/or heat;
• customers as financial investors in renewables;
• service users demanding light, heat, etc. instead of an energy commodity;
• local beneficiaries, project supporters/protestors/activists;
• technology hosts.
Decarbonization, digitalization and decentralization are interconnected processes
and can significantly enhance the diffusion of low-carbon technologies and the ability
of certain stakeholders (such as local authorities) to participate and develop inno-
vative business models on multiple scales (from household to system level). For
example, the distributed energy resource (DER) market has seen a significant increase
over the past decade with increasing focus on integrating DER by both connecting
and utilizing their flexibility, which has been made possible through increased digi-
talization in the energy system. Decentralization, digitalization and decarbonization
of energy services are leading to several value creations including opening up the
electricity grid, expanding (the type of) energy services; and role changes involving
Current Business Model Practices in Energy Master Planning … 11
redefining the role of consumers and the introduction of new roles (such as aggrega-
tors and prosumers). Opening up the electricity grid takes many forms, from opening
up the low voltage part of the grid to local community energy groups, to Distribution
Network Operators providing forecasts of their flexibility needs in different areas 5–
8 years ahead. Here, a reduction in energy demand through deep energy renovation
can provide new values that energy supply-focused service companies still have to
adapt to. Often, the main value propositions are improved comfort, energy use reduc-
tion and a reduction in environmental impact. Additional value propositions were
related to the improvement of overall living quality and the quality of the district
(Rose et al. 2021).
6 Conclusions
Within the framework of IEA EBC Annex 75, which investigates cost-effective strate-
gies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and energy use in buildings in cities at district
level, combining both energy efficiency measures and renewable energy measures,
this study presented business model archetypes for renovation and energy supply.
The objective was to provide guidance to policymakers and the industry to upscale
building renovations and implement renewable energy sources.
The analysis showed that there are different BMs currently in practice. They differ
with regard to the degree of “servicization (energy as a service)” process organization
and the role of the different stakeholders. There are no specific business models for
energy supply applied to the renovation of districts.
Based on these conclusions, we propose to set up (or use existing) innovation
clusters, based on these promising BMs to ensure that innovative business environ-
ments (innovation clusters) will grow that have the potential to upscale and replicate
District Decarbonization Solutions in Energy communities. However, uncertainties
on supportive measures for the application of DER make it difficult to develop new
business models for utilities. Moreover, innovative business models need to provide
additional value propositions beyond energy efficiency, e.g., related to improving the
overall living quality and quality of the district, and supporting users by providing a
single point of reference, like in the case of one-stop-shops.
Current Business Model Practices in Energy Master Planning … 13
As final remarks on business models and financing, we can highlight the role of
public bodies, such as regional bodies, municipalities and their affiliated housing
associations, in decision-making and financing larger (infrastructure) projects. The
role of public figures is also important to support and kick-start the process, even if
they do not own the business model. They should provide guarantees to build trust
and subsidies to alleviate investment costs.
Moreover, the need for comprehensive energy master planning approaches for
district-scale renovation became obvious, not only in implementing technical solu-
tions but also in terms of business and financing models, as well as with regard to
process management.
Acknowledgements The work presented in this paper was developed as a contribution to the IEA
EBC Annex 75 project. The authors would like to acknowledge all project participants and all
national funding organizations.
References
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate
credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and
indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter’s Creative
Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not
included in the chapter’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by
statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from
the copyright holder.
Multicriteria Spatial Economic Decision
Support Systems to Support Positive
Energy Districts: A Literature Review
Abstract To meet the ambitious targets set by the European Union to reduce CO2
emissions, action in cities is essential. In fact, cities are responsible for 67% of the
world’s primary energy consumption and about 70% of energy-related CO2 emis-
sions. To support the urban energy transition, widespread implementation of net-zero
districts, or even better, positive energy districts (PEDs), is expected. PEDs could
be defined as energy efficient and energy flexible urban areas that aim to provide a
surplus of clean energy to the city through renewable energy. However, the develop-
ment of the PED concept needs to take into account not only the technical issue of
energy systems, but also the environmental, social, and economic aspects. To be effec-
tive, it is important to provide decision makers with tools based on a Multi-Criteria
Decision Analysis (MCDA) approach that can effectively assess the complexity of
impacts from a multi-stakeholder perspective. The MCDA approach can be supported
by a Geographic Information System (GIS) that helps to analyze the data and make
it communicable to everyone. The purpose of this research, through a scientific liter-
ature review, is to investigate different MCDA supported by GIS in the framework of
economic evaluation methods, aiming to contribute to the definition of an effective
multi-criteria spatial economic decision making method to support and sustain the
design and development of PEDs.
1 Introduction
The European Union has placed great emphasis on reducing CO2 emissions in cities
and related systems. Cities account for more than 50% of the global population,
80% of the global GDP, two-thirds of global energy consumption and more than
70% of annual global carbon emissions (IEA 2020). These factors are expected to
increase significantly in the coming decades: it is anticipated that by 2050 more
than 70% of the world’s population will live in cities, resulting in massive growth
in demand for urban energy infrastructure (European Commission 2023). Climate
action in cities is essential to achieve the ambitious net-zero emissions goals. From
this perspective, it is known that urban development in the coming years will have to
shift from simple building solutions to positive-energy neighbourhoods and districts
(Becchio et al. 2020). All of this, along with other innovative concepts developed
in the past for cities of the future, will be key to achieving Europe’s energy and
climate change goals (Suppa et al. 2022). With the new Horizon Europe research
and innovation plan (which will cover the period 2021–2027), Europe is aiming to
vigorously address a number of global challenges that affect our cities and society:
health and safety, digitization, energy and climate change in the first place (Guarino
et al. 2022). With this in mind, PEDs fall under this heading. The area of Smart
Cities and Communities was already defined as a priority and strategic by both
the previous European Horizon 2020 program and the 17 Sustainable Development
Goals established by the UN and the 2030 Agenda (Kroll et al. 2019). Over time,
however, it became apparent that financing large smart city projects at the urban
level was a complex task, with a huge demand for resources and investment. For
this reason, the authors decided to focus efforts on smaller urban areas, such as city
blocks, pilot districts and neighbourhoods, towards a concept of a diffused smart land
focusing initially on energy efficiency in buildings and on-site local renewable energy
production. In recent years, to sustain the urban energy transition, the concept became
even more ambitious, from highly efficient buildings to net-zero ones. Later on, by
including energy sharing, waste heat recovery, e-mobility and energy storage, the
scope was broadened to include the implementation of net-zero districts or even better
PEDs (Guarino et al. 2022). PEDs represent a new approach towards a sustainable and
efficient city and urbanization model. An urban Positive Energy District combines
the built environment, mobility, sustainable production and consumption to increase
energy efficiency and decrease greenhouse gas emissions and to create added value
for citizens. Positive Energy Districts also require integration between buildings,
users and various energy networks, mobility services and IT systems.
Multicriteria Spatial Economic Decision Support Systems to Support … 17
Research all around the world is still struggling to find a unique definition for PEDs.
From an energy-focused perspective, a PED is seen as an energy self-sufficient and
carbon–neutral urban district. Indeed, positive energy means that energy districts
also play an important role in producing excess energy using renewable energy
sources and feeding it back into the grid (Bossi et al. 2020). However, widening the
perspective, it is expected that PEDs will increase the quality of life in European cities,
help achieve the COP21 goals and improve European capabilities and knowledge to
become a global model (Derkenbaeva et al. 2022).
Moreover, considering the keen interest of the European Commission to deliver at
least 100 PEDs by 2050 and the current situation of European cities (IEA 2020), it is
necessary to address this concept not only for new areas of urban development and the
construction of new buildings and neighbourhoods, but especially for redevelopment
of the existing building stock (Derkenbaeva et al. 2022).
The discussion on how and where to define the boundaries of these entities is still
open and conclusions may differ depending on whether one considers physical limits
and management aspects or those related to the overall energy balance and energy
carriers, ranging therefore from local to regional scale (Zhang et al. 2021; Bossi et al.
2020). The discussion also often starts from the local dimension of city blocks, up
to the urban dimension. To this regard, some interesting research on existing tools
to support decision-making toward climate neutrality in cities and districts has been
already carried out by Suppa et al. (2022).
In an attempt for extreme simplification, it can be said that PEDs have to strike
an optimal balance between energy efficiency, energy flexibility and local energy
production (European Commission 2023) in turn also achieving integrated sustain-
ability based on environmental, economic and social features (see Fig. 1) (Muñoz
et al. 2020).
Consequently, in the evaluation of a PED using the model proposed by Binda
et al. (2022), these four dimensions include intrinsic and extrinsic features of a PED
that are intertwined without precise separation but rather highlight areas of overlap
and coexistence in fuzzy logic. Economic evaluation approach tools used in the
evaluation process enable decision-makers to have the effects of their decisions on
the basis of selected KPIs under control. Even more, evaluation of urban projects is
inspired by a circularity approach, which corresponds to the relationship between the
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the same projects and the overall Whole-Life Cost
(WLC) (Grazieschi et al. 2020). LCA is a process to evaluate the effects a product has
on the environment over the entire period of its life thereby increasing resource-use
efficiency and decreasing liabilities (Grazieschi et al. 2020).
WLC is basically rooted in a monetary perspective and thus related to the economic
sustainability of investments by accounting for the total expense of owning an asset
over its entire life from purchase to disposal, as determined by financial analysis
18 A. Bisello et al.
Fig. 1 The four main areas for evaluating PEDs. Source Own elaboration
(Fregonara 2020). The Life Cycle Cost (LCC) related to urban projects includes
land acquisition and site preparation, design and building costs, operating costs,
maintenance, associated financing costs, depreciation and disposal/demolition costs
(Becchio et al. 2020).
As shown in Fig. 2, WLC also considers certain costs that are usually overlooked,
such as factors related to environmental and social impact. In addition, we have an
“extended” version of costs, which includes costs/benefits related to externalities
(Becchio et al. 2020), cost savings and other effects (Fregonara 2020). This extended
version includes the co-benefits commonly adopted to define the additional posi-
tive impact of smart energy renovation projects alongside the desired primary goal
(Bisello 2020).
Fig. 2 Whole-life cost with externalities. Source Own elaboration based on Becchio et al. (2020),
Bisello (2020), Fregonara (2020)
3 Research Methodology
Structure of the analysis (Fig. 4) is composed of three steps. In the first, we searched
the literature from a scientific bibliographic database, in the second, we have the
review based on the combination of three concepts shown in Fig. 3, and finally, the
analysis phase. Literature bibliography analysis was conducted using the SCOPUS
database with the following keywords in different combinations: Multicriteria, GIS,
Economic. For a more informative literature review, we believe it is best to push the
district boundary so as not to exclude valid methodologies for narrowings to which
we have no explanation. Analysis was conducted to see how many documents are
present for different combinations, specifically four combinations were found. Group
A-B-C is research that shows historical production, country productivity affiliation
and research topic, while Group D was conducted using more specific analysis as it
is the heart of the analysis. Below are the strings used for the different groups:
1. GROUP A: “Multicriteria | GIS”, limited research “title, abstract, the keyword”,
using the words: (“Multicriteria” OR “Multicriteria Analysis” OR “MCDA” OR
“MCA” OR “Multi-Criteria” OR “Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis”) AND
(“GIS” OR “geographic information system” OR “Spatial Decision Support
System”) = 4,440 documents
Multicriteria Spatial Economic Decision Support Systems to Support … 21
4 Results
From the perspective of historical production analysis, this theme first appeared in
1976. Between 1976 and 1999, this theme only appeared in 18 articles. While, since
1999 production has increased with an exponential growth every year reaching 605
papers in 2021. As shown in Fig. 5, in Country Productivity Affiliation, the country
that has produced the most regarding this topic is India with 455 papers, followed
by Iran with 391 papers and then the United States with 373 papers.
As shown in Fig. 6 in research topic analysis, the main areas of development of
this topic are Environmental Sciences, Earth, Planetary Sciences and Social Sciences
with respectively, 2,121, 1,226, 1,219 and 879 papers. The energy field has only 514
papers.
This topic started to appear in 1988, and the period with the most production was 2019
with 29 documents, followed by 2017 and 2013 with 23 documents. As shown in
24 A. Bisello et al.
Fig. 9, in Country Analysis, the analysis showed that the United States is the country,
which has produced the most documents, specifically 69 documents, followed by the
United Kingdom with 40 documents and Italy with 39 documents.
As shown in Fig. 10, in Research Topic Analysis, the areas regarding this topic
are Environmental Sciences with 163 documents followed by Agricultural and
Biological Sciences with 71 documents and Social Sciences with 69 documents.
Group D as the main topic of research-specific analysis was conducted regarding the
28 documents related to the Economic, GIS-Multicriteria and Territorial Scale (see
Table 1).
Starting with “Economic Analysis”, the main economic method used is the
“Techno-Economic Assessment”, with 11 documents, followed by Cost Benefit
Analysis (CBA) with 6 articles and Cost and Revenue Analysis with 5 documents.
There are different uses of Multicriteria Analysis and GIS. In particular, the
methods found in the analysis are those which are most used in the general Weighted
Combination (WC) followed by Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP).
MCDA-WC aims to include normalized criteria that are weighted to determine
the relative importance of each criterion, prioritizing some criteria over others. This
is necessary to achieve a flexible decision-making method that can balance choices
based on set objectives (Martín-Hernándaez et al. 2021).
MCDA AHP makes it possible to compare multiple alternatives with a plurality
of criteria, either quantitative or qualitative, and derive an overall evaluation for each.
This makes it possible to sort the alternatives in order of preference, select the best
alternative, and ultimately be able to assign the alternatives to predefined subsets
(Muñoz et al. 2020).
It became clear that all articles were divided into these three categories, namely,
regional scale, city and parts of buildings. Interestingly, most of these analyses focus
extensively on regional spatial contexts, which produced the majority of the docu-
ments with 21 papers, followed by “Parts of the building” with 4 documents and in
the end with the “city” (Fig. 11).
26 A. Bisello et al.
Table 1 Articles combining economic analysis, GIS and MCDA for PEDs evaluation
References Economic analysis GIS MCDA
LCOE CBA CRA PBP EI DCF LCC
Settou et al. (2022) x GIS MCDM + WC
Martín-Hernándaez x GIS MCDA + WC
et al. (2021)
Mokhtara et al. x GIS MCDM + WC
(2021a)
Almutairi et al. x GIS MCDM
(2021)
Mokhtara et al. x GIS AMC
(2021b)
Ali and Jang (2019) x GIS MCDM
Stefanakou et al. x GIS MCA + WC
(2019)
Cozzi et al. (2019) x GIS WLC
Mansouri x GIS MCA
Kouhestani et al.
(2019)
Madi and Srour x GIS WLC + Fuzzy
(2019)
Mohammadzadeh x GIS MCDM
Bina et al. (2018)
Kolendo and x x GIS AHP
Krawczyk (2018)
Escalante et al. x GIS Fuzzy + AHP
(2016)
Abdul-Mawjoud x GIS AHP
and Jamel (2016)
Kehbila et al. x GIS AMC
(2014)
Li et al. (2014) x GIS MCDA + WC
Restrepo-Estrada x GIS MCA
(2013)
De Sousa et al. GIS MCA
(n.d.)
Agostini et al. x GIS MCA
(2012)
van Haaren and x GIS MCA
Fthenakis (2011)
Wirtz and Liu x GIS MCA
(2006)
Jarrar et al. (n.d.) x GIS MCA
(continued)
Multicriteria Spatial Economic Decision Support Systems to Support … 27
Table 1 (continued)
References Economic analysis GIS MCDA
LCOE CBA CRA PBP EI DCF LCC
Agrell et al. (2004) x GIS MCA (LC)
Spiekermann and x GIS MCA (LC)
Wegener (2003)
Vagiona et al. GIS AHP + TOPSIS
(2022)
Gil-García et al. x GIS Fuzzy + AHP
(2022)
Supapo et al. (2021) x GIS TOPSIS
Muñoz et al. (2020) x GIS AHP
Legend (LCOE) Levelized Cost of Electricity, (CBA) Cost Benefit Analysis, (CRA) Cost Revenue
Analysis, (PBP) Pay Back Period, (EI) Environmental Impact, (DCF) Discounted Cash Flow,
(LCC) Life Cycle Cost, (GIS) Geographic Information Modelling, (MCDA) Multicriteria Deci-
sion Analysis, (FMCDA) Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis, (AHP) Analytic Hierarchy Process,
(ANP) Analytic Network Process, (MCDM) Multi-Criteria Decision Making, (SMCA) Spatial-
Multi-Criteria Analysis, (TOPSIS) Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solu-
tion. (MCDM + WC) Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Weighted Combination. (WLC) Whole-life
Cost
Fig. 11 Spatial reference scale of the publications considered, distinguishing between building
(part of building), city-district and regional scales
28 A. Bisello et al.
Consent to Publish The authors do not declare any conflicts of interest, and all approve final
consent to publish.
Credits Conceptualization: AB, MB. Methodology: AB, MB, TB. Formal analysis: TB, MV.
Writing: TB, MV, AB. Supervision: AB, MB. Funding acquisition: AB.
Acknowledgements This work was developed within the context of the International Energy
Agency (IEA) Energy in Buildings and Construction (EBC) Annex 83 working group on “Positive
Energy Districts”. The research leading to these results has been done in the framework of the
European project ProLight. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon
2020 program under grant agreement no. 101079902. The sole responsibility for the content of
this publication lies with the authors. It does not necessarily represent the opinion of the European
Union. Neither the EASME nor the European Commission are responsible for any use that may be
made of the information contained herein.
Multicriteria Spatial Economic Decision Support Systems to Support … 29
References
Abdul-Mawjoud AA, Jamel MG (2016) Using the analytic hierarchy process and GIS for decision
making in rural highway route location. 7:359–375
Agostini P, Pizzol L, Critto A, D’Alessandro M, Zabeo A, Marcomini A (2012) Regional risk
assessment for contaminated sites. Part 3: Spatial decision support system. Environ Int 48:121–
132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2012.07.005
Agrell PJ, Stam A, Fischer GW (2004) Interactive multiobjective agro-ecological land use planning:
the Bungoma region in Kenya. Eur J Oper Res 158(1):194–217. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0377-
2217(03)00355-2
Ali S, Jang CM (2019) Selection of best-suited wind turbines for new wind farm sites using techno-
economic and GIS analysis in South Korea. Energies 12(16). https://doi.org/10.3390/en1216
3140
Almutairi K, Hosseini Dehshiri SS, Hosseini Dehshiri SJ, Mostafaeipour A, Jahangiri M, Techato K
(2021) Technical, economic, carbon footprint assessment, and prioritizing stations for hydrogen
production using wind energy: a case study. Energ Strat Rev 36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esr.
2021.100684
Becchio C, Bottero M, Bravi M, Corgnati S, Dell’Anna F, Mondini G, Vergerio G (2020) Integrated
assessments and energy retrofit: the contribution of the Energy Center Lab of the Politecnico
di Torino. In: Mondini G, Oppio A, Stanghellini S, Bottero M, Abastante F (eds) Values and
functions for future cities. Springer International Publishing, pp 365–384. https://doi.org/10.
1007/978-3-030-23786-8_21
Binda T, Bottero M, Bisello A (2022) Evaluating positive energy districts: a literature review. In:
Calabrò F, Della Spina L, Piñeira Mantiñán MJ (eds) New metropolitan perspectives. Springer
International Publishing, pp 1762–1770
Bisello A (2020) Assessing multiple benefits of housing regeneration and smart city development:
the European Project SINFONIA. Sustainability 12(19). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12198038
Bossi S, Gollner C, Theierling S (2020) Towards 100 positive energy districts in Europe: preliminary
data analysis of 61 European cases. Energies 13(22). https://doi.org/10.3390/en13226083
Bottero M, Assumma V, Caprioli C, Dell’Ovo M (2021) Decision making in urban development: the
application of a hybrid evaluation method for a critical area in the city of Turin (Italy). Sustain
Cities Soc 72:103028. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2021.103028
Bottero M, Mondini G, Oppio A (2016) Decision support systems for evaluating urban regeneration.
Procedia Soc Behav Sci 223:923–928. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.05.319
Coutinho-Rodrigues J, Simão A, Antunes CH (2011) A GIS-based multicriteria spatial decision
support system for planning urban infrastructures. Decis Support Syst 51(3):720–726. https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2011.02.010
Cozzi M, Prete C, Viccaro M, Romano S (2019) Impacts of wildlife on agriculture: a spatial-based
analysis and economic assessment for reducing damage. Nat Resour Res 28:15–29. https://doi.
org/10.1007/s11053-019-09469-6
De Sousa L, Eykamp C, Leopold U, Baume O, Braun C (nd) iGUESS—a web based system
integrating urban energy planning and assessment modelling for multi-scale spatial decision
making. http://www.iemss.org/society/index.php/iemss-2012-proceedings
Derkenbaeva E, Halleck Vega S, Hofstede GJ, van Leeuwen E (2022) Positive energy districts:
mainstreaming energy transition in urban areas. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 153:111782. https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2021.111782
Escalante H, Castro L, Gauthier-Maradei P, Rodríguez De La Vega R (2016) Spatial decision
support system to evaluate crop residue energy potential by anaerobic digestion. Biores Technol
219:80–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2016.06.136
European Commission (2023), Consumption footprint and domestic footprint. Accessed 21 April
2023. https://doi.org/10.2760/218540
30 A. Bisello et al.
Fregonara E (2020) A life cycle perspective for infrastructure management. Aestimum 5+. https://
link.gale.com/apps/doc/A662609534/AONE?u=anon~7da61072&sid=googleScholar&xid=
8c0be571
Gil-García IC, Ramos-Escudero A, García-Cascales MS, Dagher H, Molina-García A (2022) Fuzzy
GIS-based MCDM solution for the optimal offshore wind site selection: the Gulf of Maine case.
Renew Energy 183:130–147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2021.10.058
Grazieschi G, Asdrubali F, Guattari C (2020) Neighbourhood sustainability: state of the art, critical
review and space-temporal analysis. Sustain Cities Soc 63:102477. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
scs.2020.102477
Guarino F, Bisello A, Frieden D, Bastos J, Brunetti A, Cellura M, Ferraro M, Fichera A, Giancola E,
Haase M, Kantorovitch J, Neumann C, Mankaa R, Segura IL, Traverso M, Tumminia G, Volpe
R, Zhang X (2022) State of the art on sustainability assessment of positive energy districts:
methodologies, indicators and future perspectives. In: Littlewood JR, Howlett RJ, Jain LC (eds)
Sustainability in energy and buildings 2021. Springer Nature Singapore, pp 479–492
Hunter RF, Dallat MA, Tully MA, Heron L, O’Neill C, Kee F (2022) Social return on investment
analysis of an urban greenway. Cities Health 6(4):693–710. https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.
2020.1766783
IEA (2020) CO2 emissions in MT by sector, world 1990–2018. https://Www.Iea.Org/Data-and-Sta
tistics
Jarrar A, Jayasuriya N, Othman M, Jayyousi A (nd) Integrated natural resources management
framewrok in semi-arid regions
Kehbila AG, Alemagi D, Minang PA (2014) Comparative multi-criteria assessment of climate
policies and sustainable development strategies in Cameroon: towards a GIS decision-support
tool for the design of an optimal REDD+ strategy. Sustainability (Switzerland) 6(9):6125–6140.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su6096125
Kolendo Ł, Krawczyk DA (2018) Spatial and economic conditions of the solar energy use in single-
family houses—a case study. In: MATEC web of conferences, vol 174.https://doi.org/10.1051/
matecconf/201817401038
Kroll C, Warchold A, Pradhan P (2019) Sustainable development goals (SDGs): are we successful
in turning trade-offs into synergies? Palgrave Commun 5(1):140. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41
599-019-0335-5
Li D, Zhang C, Pizzol L, Critto A, Zhang H, Lv S, Marcomini A (2014) Regional risk assessment
approaches to land planning for industrial polluted areas in China: the Hulunbeier region case
study. Environ Int 65:16–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2013.12.004
Madi N, Srour I (2019) Managing emergency construction and demolition waste in Syria using
GIS. Resour Conserv Recycl 141:163–175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.10.018
Mansouri Kouhestani F, Byrne J, Johnson D, Spencer L, Hazendonk P, Brown B (2019) Evalu-
ating solar energy technical and economic potential on rooftops in an urban setting: the city
of Lethbridge, Canada. Int J Energy Environ Eng 10(1):13–32. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40095-
018-0289-1
Martín-Hernándaez E, Martín M, Ruiz-Mercado GJ (2021) A geospatial environmental and techno-
economic framework for sustainable phosphorus management at livestock facilities. Resour
Conserv Recycl 175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105843
Mohammadzadeh Bina S, Jalilinasrabady S, Fujii H, Farabi-Asl H (2018) A comprehensive
approach for wind power plant potential assessment, application to northwestern Iran. Energy
164:344–358. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2018.08.211
Mokhtara C, Negrou B, Settou N, Bouferrouk A, Yao Y (2021a) Optimal design of grid-connected
rooftop PV systems: an overview and a new approach with application to educational buildings
in arid climates. Sustain Energy Technol Assess 47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2021.101468
Mokhtara C, Negrou B, Settou N, Settou B, Samy MM (2021b) Design optimization of off-
grid hybrid renewable energy systems considering the effects of building energy performance
and climate change: case study of Algeria. Energy 219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2020.
119605
Multicriteria Spatial Economic Decision Support Systems to Support … 31
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate
credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and
indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter’s Creative
Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not
included in the chapter’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by
statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from
the copyright holder.
A Holistic Sustainability Evaluation
of Positive Energy Districts—Planetary
Boundaries Framing the Transformation
of Districts
M. Haase (B)
Zurich University of Applied Sciences, 8820 Waedenswil, ZH, Switzerland
e-mail: [email protected]
D. Baer
SINTEF Community, Trondheim, Norway
1 Introduction
Several initiatives in Europe aim for the clean energy transition in the built environ-
ment. The concept of Positive Energy Districts (PEDs) is advocated by energy poli-
cies and international working groups to accelerate the decarbonization of urban areas
and promote the potential for scalability between cities. To be able to plan a district
with a positive perspective of its attributes, it is mandatory to establish a new frame-
work based on a list of key performance indicators (KPIs). Planetary boundaries (PB)
define the boundaries of the “planetary playing field” for humanity if major human-
induced environmental change on a global scale is to be avoided. Transgressing one
or more PB could be highly damaging or even catastrophic due to the risk of crossing
thresholds that trigger non-linear, abrupt environmental change within continental-
to planetary-scale systems. Identifying the PB can therefore be used as an approach
towards a new framework for PEDs based on a good understanding of the PB, i.e.,
towards an estimation of the safe space for human development. In this sense, it is
interesting to study these PB in relation to district developments, namely, the new
concept of PEDs.
In this paper, we address the need for a comprehensive understanding of the
different aspects impacting the sustainability assessment of PEDs. In this sense,
although highly advisable, an integrated and systemic approach to the sustainability
assessment of PEDs has still not been consolidated and the main environmental,
economic, and social pillars are usually treated as separate spheres with limited
interlinked issues. To be able to build representative methodology for sustainability
assessment of PEDs as well as define comparable, measurable, and reliable indicators
specifically targeted for the district scale we take a closer look at the concept of PB
to find out how this concept can help to establish a holistic sustainability evaluation
of PEDs. There are three important key questions:
• Can the concept of PB be used when planning PEDs?
• How does the PED concept relate to PB?
• Which other boundaries are important for PEDs?
2 Background
PEDs are the main focus of several activities on a European scale as well as the focus
of international research by the International Energy Agency Energy in Buildings
and Construction Annex 83 “Positive Energy Districts”. Although a common and
comprehensive definition is still being widely discussed, it is generally accepted
that Positive Energy Districts are specific areas with annual net zero energy import
and net zero CO2 emissions, working towards an annual local surplus production of
renewable energy. These districts are a key part of the transformative process from
A Holistic Sustainability Evaluation of Positive Energy … 35
2.2 PB Thresholds
Table 1 PBs and their relevance for PEDs (Rockström et al. 2009a)
Earth-system process Control variable Threshold
crossed
1. Climate change Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration (ppm) Yes
Alternatively: Increase in radiative forcing (W/m2 ) since Yes
the start of the industrial revolution (~1750)
2. Biodiversity loss Extinction rate (number of species per million per year) Yes
3. Biogeochemical (a) anthropogenic nitrogen removed from the atmosphere Yes
(millions of tons per year)
(b) anthropogenic phosphorus going into the oceans No
(millions of tons per year)
4. Ocean acidification Global mean saturation state of calcium carbonate in No
surface seawater (omega units)
5. Land use Land surface converted to cropland (percentage) No
6. Freshwater Global human consumption of water (km3 /yr) No
7. Ozone depletion Stratospheric ozone concentration (Dobson units) No
8. Atmospheric Overall particulate concentration in the atmosphere, on a Not yet
aerosols regional basis quantified
9. Chemical pollution Concentration of toxic substances, plastics, endocrine Not yet
disruptors, heavy metals, and radioactive contamination in quantified
the environment
change in the response variable (global warming) through feedback to the natural
earth system itself. The threshold points are difficult to locate because the earth system
is very complex. Instead of defining the threshold value, a range was established
where the threshold is supposed to lie inside it. The lower end of that range is defined
as the boundary. Therefore, it defines a “safe operating space”, in the sense that
as long as we (mankind) are below the boundary, we are below the threshold value
(Table 1). If the boundary is crossed, we enter a danger zone (Rockström et al. 2009a).
A PB may interact in a manner that changes the safe operating level of other bound-
aries. Rockström et al. (2009a) did not analyze such interactions but they suggested
that many of these interactions will reduce rather than expand the proposed boundary
levels (Rockström et al. 2009a). For example, the land use boundary could shift
downward if the freshwater boundary is breached, causing lands to become arid
and unavailable for agriculture. At a regional level, water resources may decline
in Asia if deforestation continues in the Amazon. Such considerations suggest the
need for “extreme caution in approaching or transgressing any individual planetary
boundaries” (Rockström et al. 2009b).
A Holistic Sustainability Evaluation of Positive Energy … 37
3 Methodology
We collected data from literature on the PB concept and compared it with data
collected from two PED concepts in Norway and Switzerland. Two PED concepts
were analyzed relating to the methodology development and KPIs used to evaluate
PEDs. These key aspects were used to analyze the PED framework (in the Norwegian
and Swiss PED) relation to PB. As a result, those measures were identified which
support the PB concept and those which should be analyzed further.
Two PED concepts are presented, the 2000-W Site (2000WS) from Switzerland and
the Zero Emission Neighborhood (ZEN) concept from Norway (Haase 2021; Wiik
et al. 2018).
4 2000-W-Site
Already in 2008, the Norwegian Parliament decided that Norway should become
“carbon neutral” by 2050 and recently Norway enhanced its nationally determined
contribution under the Paris Agreement to reduce emissions by at least 50% and as
much as 55% compared to 1990 levels by 2030 (Norwegian Ministry of Climate and
Environment 2019).
38 M. Haase and D. Baer
direct and indirect GHG emissions to zero over its lifespan. At the time of writing, a
neighborhood is defined within the ZEN center as a group of interconnected build-
ings with associated infrastructure, located within a confined geographical area (Wiik
et al. 2018) The ZEN definition is still under development but a framework of KPIs
in six respective categories, namely, GHG emissions, energy, power/load, mobility,
economy, and spatial qualities, is already in place (see Table 3).
Similar to the 2000WS concept, Norwegian districts will be assessed using these
KPIs with a multi-criterial analysis. The results document the status of development
towards zero emission neighborhoods and will help stakeholders involved to adapt
plans, designs, and operating assets towards more sustainable patterns.
From the key performance indicators in PEDs (Tables 2 and 3), it is clear that two
main indicators can be related to PB in PEDs. Firstly, to be able to mitigate further
degradation of the climate system, it is mandatory to radically reduce GHG emissions.
This not only includes reducing the energy consumption through conservation and
efficiency but it also means switching to clean energy sources as well as reducing
embodied carbon throughout supply chains and designing in general terms without
waste generation.
PEDs as well as larger built environments also contribute to GHG emissions by
embodied carbon in the built environment. Construction material use and its related
40 M. Haase and D. Baer
7 Discussion
As the focus of this work was to take a closer look at the concept of PB to find out
how this concept can help to establish a holistic sustainability evaluation of PEDs,
we found that the concept of PB can be used when planning PEDs. When analyzing
the key performance indicators of PED concepts (Table 4), it became clear that there
are two PBs that are directly related to the indicators used in the PEDs:
• Climate change
• Land use
A Holistic Sustainability Evaluation of Positive Energy … 41
Table 4 PB in PEDs
PB ZEN 2000 W areal
A. Climate change
CO2 concentration in the Total GHG emissions The basis forms the calculation that for
atmosphere <350 ppm in tCO2 eq/m2 BRA/a; every person on earth, 2000 Watts of
and/or a maximum change kgCO2 eq/m2 BAU/a; continuous power (primary energy) are
of +1 W/m2 in radiative tCO2 eq/capita, GHG available. The CO2 emissions caused by
forcing emission reduction % this level of energy consumption must not
reduction compared to exceed 1 ton per person per year
the base case
Zero emission in all Optimized construction, building
phases not only operation and mobility in terms of
operations, building on sustainable building principles
LCA and incorporating
embodied emissions;
Assessment of
materials with the help
of the Environmental
Product Declaration
(EPD)
Energy efficiency in Optimized construction, building
buildings (Energy operation, and mobility in terms of
efficiency in buildings, sustainable building principles
Net energy need in
kWh/m2 BRA/a; Gross
energy need in kWh/
m2 BRA)
Energy carrier (Energy
use in kWh/a; Energy
generation in kWh/a;
Delivered energy in
kWh/a; Exported
energy in kWh/a;
Self-consumption in %;
Self-generation in
%;color coded carpet
plot in kWh/a)
(continued)
42 M. Haase and D. Baer
Table 4 (continued)
PB ZEN 2000 W areal
Renewable energy Peak Renewable energy onsite, locally
load in kW; Peak export produced high ecologica Renewable
in kW; Utilization energy onsite, locally produced high
factor in %) ecological quality energy, local
renewable heat and electricity generation
and self-consumed electricity, end energy
with high ecological quality (100%
renewable of which 50% is eco-labeled
electricity (nature made star or equally),l
quality energy, local renewable heat and
electricity generation and self-consumed
electricity, end energy with high
ecological quality (100% renewable of
which 50% is eco-labeled electricity
(nature made star or equally)
Mode of transport (% Minimized parking areas with operating
share);Access to public concepts that cross-finance public
transport (Meters; transport (incl. differentiated user
Frequency) profiles), optimized bicycle parking areas
with good access and high quality, good
footpath and bicycle lane networks
onsite, good connections to other
footpath networks and bicycle lanes,
barrier-free, attractive offers for public
transport with well-designed stops and
connections, combined mobility concepts
for all users, car-sharing pools with
user-centric combination offers
B. Land use
<15% of the ice-free land Requirements to Integration in urban development,
surface under cropland establish spatial integrated districts, and outdoor concepts,
qualities that do affect urban climate strategy with focus on
the sustainable ventilative cooling and avoidance of heat
behavior of users of the islands, semi-public spaces on the ground
neighborhood; set of floor, common spaces inside, on roofs
KPIs on urban spatial and loggias, public access to green spaces
patterns with high “staying” quality, on-site or
nearby offers for goods and services
tailored to user needs
Assessment of Sustainable materials and circular
materials with the help principles, a phase-conform waste
of the Environmental management concept with
Product Declaration monitoring,feedback and an improvement
(EPD) to assess GHG loop
KPIs on density to Sustainable materials and circular
reduce land use principles, a phase-conform waste
management concept with monitoring,
feedback and an improvement loop
A Holistic Sustainability Evaluation of Positive Energy … 43
In the following, we discuss further how the PED concept relates to PB and which
other boundaries might be important when planning PEDs.
Climate change has significant consequences for all socio-ecological systems and as
we have seen has a cascading effect on other boundaries.
Reducing GHG emissions is key to returning to a safe operating space. PEDs and
cities when planned with PB in mind have the potential to reduce their GHG emissions
by drastically reducing operational and embodied GHG emissions. Integrating green
spaces into PEDs can help to capture and store CO2 to reduce the urban heat island
effect and thus energy demands related to cooling.
The other element is land use area, which is obviously a central element of PEDs.
Only the transformation of existing districts would not use land, all other develop-
ments use land and thus contradict the fifth PB. Eventually, the use of green roofs
(and facades) could be counted as cropland and have a positive influence.
Freshwater:
Embedding local water cycle considerations in PED planning and design processes
can support global freshwater quality. The impact of PEDs on freshwater use can
further be enhanced by improving water efficiency and conservation and selecting
building materials and products with low water inputs. The resilience of water sources
can also be improved by proactively managing or mimicking natural water processes
with nature-based solutions.
Biodiversity loss:
PEDs can improve biosphere quality and mitigate further loss by reducing embodied
ecological impacts in materials, food, and other products; maximizing the quantity
and quality of urban habitats; and planning linear infrastructure to protect, restore,
and connect habitats.
Aquatic biodiversity can be influenced by the water quality in PEDs. Reducing
contaminated runoff as well as preventing untreated sewage discharge and reducing
water use can improve biodiversity in these surroundings.
The urban infrastructure of PEDs has an influence on nutrient flows to balance
or close complete cycles. The nutrients in sewage slurry, food, and yard waste can
become an added value rather than a cost if appropriately managed. In PEDs, these
can be converted into biogas through anaerobic digestion. The produced digestate can
be used as a fertilizer and soil amendment to improve soil health, reducing the need
44 M. Haase and D. Baer
for chemical fertilizer. In PEDs, local facilities can be integrated that enable these
circular nutrient flows. PEDs can reduce indirect nutrient pollution from agricultural
imports through sustainable food sourcing and by scaling up local food production.
Aerosol pollution:
There is the possibility in PEDs to reduce aerosol pollution by mitigating major
sources of particulate emissions including the use of fossil fuel combustion for energy,
transport, and industry, and minimizing construction and demolition dust. Electrified
heating and cooling, transport, cooking, and industry can reduce local emissions in
PEDs.
8 Conclusions
The discussion highlights the need for a comprehensive understanding of the different
aspects impacting sustainability in terms of PB of PEDs.
The study of the two PED cases in Norway and Switzerland showed that both
concepts do not focus on the PB. In the case in Norway, a set of KPIs was devel-
oped that mainly tries to minimize impact compared to a “base case”. Then certain
measures can be used to offset the impact (e.g., the renewable electricity produced
onsite can be used to offset GHG emissions from the grid). This concept is therefore
heading for a better than usual approach and not congruent with the PB approach,
which is framing precise thresholds for development. In Switzerland, on the other
hand, the PED concept of 2000 WS does not try to stay within the PB. On the contrary,
a 2000 W power use is allowed for every citizen. Even though this implies a very
small footprint, it allows certain PB to reach and crossover.
There are two aspects that need to be integrated: First, starting with PEDs, there
should be a focus on a regenerative model for the built environment that allows us
to plan the built environment to stay within the PB. Incorporating PB into environ-
mental and sustainability assessments in PED projects is imperative. This requires
PB thresholds to be downscaled to a manageable PED scale.
Secondly, the overshoot of several PB indicates that we need to develop strategies
to regenerate the Earth system and how we impact it. This will require a fundamental
shift in the way we think about our relationship with the planet. We have to re-think
what a balanced human–planet relationship might look like and define PB that limit
our impact on the earth system.
In conclusion, the concept of PB can help to establish a holistic sustainability
evaluation of PEDs as a framework for the transformation of districts. However, it
seems a concerted effort is needed to integrate the nine PB into PED sustainability
evaluation schemes. The KPIs used in PEDs need to include the PB if we want to
use PED developments to stay within the PB.
Acknowledgements This paper was written within the DECARB project at Zurich University of
Applied Sciences (ZHAW). Research Centre on Zero Emission Neighbourhoods in Smart Cities
A Holistic Sustainability Evaluation of Positive Energy … 45
(FME ZEN). The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the DECARB and ZEN partners
and the Research Council of Switzerland and Norway.
References
Boers N (2021) Observation-based early-warning signals for a collapse of the Atlantic meridional
overturning circulation. Nat Clim Chang 11:680–688. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-021-010
97-4
Cost Action PED-EU-NET. https://pedeu.net/. Access date 26 January 2023
EU Implementation Working Group on positive energy districts and neighbourhoods for sustainable
urban development (PED). https://setis.ec.europa.eu/implementing-actions/positive-energy-dis
tricts_en#relevant-links
Guarino F, Bisello A, Frieden D, Bastos J, Brunetti A, Cellura M, Ferraro M, Fichera A, Giancola E,
Haase M, Kantorovitch J, Neumann C, Mankaa R, Segura IL, Traverso M, Tumminia G, Volpe
R, Zhang X (2021) State of the art on sustainability assessment of Positive Energy Districts:
methodologies, indicators and future perspectives. In: Proceedings of international conference
on sustainability in energy and buildings (SEB-20). http://seb-20.kesinternational.org/
Haase M (2021) Energy issues in building and district assessment schemes and benchmarking
systems. In: REAL-CORP conference, 7–10 Sep 2021, Vienna, Austria. https://archive.corp.at/
cdrom2021/papers2021/CORP2021_89.pdf
IEA EBC Annex83 Positive Energy Districts. https://annex83.iea-ebc.org/. Access 26 January 2023
Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment (2019) Norway’s National Plan related
to the Decision of the EEA Joint Committee No. 269/2019 of 25 October 2019.
Available at: https://www.regjeringen.no/contentassets/4e0b25a4c30140cfb14a40f54e7622c8/
national-plan-2030_version19_desember.pdf. Accessed 12 January 2022
Rockström J, Steffen W, Noone K et al (2009a) A safe operating space for humanity. Nature
461:472–475. https://doi.org/10.1038/461472a
Rockström J, Steffen W, Noone K, Persson Å, Chapin FS III, Lambin E, Lenton TM, Scheffer
M, Folke C, Schellnhuber H, Nykvist B, De Wit CA, Hughes T, van der Leeuw S, Rodhe H,
Sörlin S, Snyder PK, Costanza R, Svedin U, Falkenmark M, Karlberg L, Corell RW, Fabry
VJ, Hansen J, Walker B, Liverman D, Richardson K, Crutzen P, Foley J (2009b) Planetary
boundaries:exploring the safe operating space for humanity. Ecol Soc 14(2):32
SET-Plan ACTION n°3.2 Implementation Plan—Europe to become a global role model in
integrated, innovative solutions for the planning, deployment, and replication of Positive
Energy Districts. https://jpi-urbaneurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/setplan_smartcities_
implementationplan-2.pdf
Steffen W, Richardson K, Rockström J, Cornell SE, Fetzer I, Bennett EM, Biggs R, Carpenter SR,
De Vries W, De Wit CA, Folke C (2015) Planetary boundaries: guiding human development on
a changing planet. Science 347(6223):1259855
Wiik MRK, Mamo Fufa S, Baer D, Sartori I, Andresen I (2018) The ZEN definition—a guideline
for the ZEN pilot areas. Version 1.0. ZEN project report (11). SINTEF Academic Press, Oslo
46 M. Haase and D. Baer
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate
credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and
indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter’s Creative
Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not
included in the chapter’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by
statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from
the copyright holder.
Regional Metabolism: A Material
and Product Flow Accounting Model
for Trentino, Italy
J. Bastos (B)
Institute for Renewable Energy, Eurac Research, Viale Druso 1, 39100 Bolzano, Italy
e-mail: [email protected]
L. Rosado
Chalmers University of Technology, Chalmersplatsen 4, 41296 Gothenburg, Sweden
e-mail: [email protected]
1 Introduction
2 Background
Cities have more than half of the world’s population and contribute to about 80% of
global economic output, concentrating trade, business, innovation and skills [1]. They
are associated with 60–80% of global resource requirements, energy use and anthro-
pogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [2, 3]. Despite the global and local sustain-
ability challenges associated with increasing urbanization, the concentration of popu-
lation and economic activities in cities also offers unique opportunities, and cities
play a key role in climate change mitigation and sustainable development. The central
role of cities in sustainable development is demonstrated by EU policies and the UN
2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) [4]. Urban environmental sustainability is focused on Goal 11—Make
cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable—and it directly
contributes to a wide range of other SDGs [4].
Industrial ecology (IE) approaches and tools can help support the design, develop-
ment and implementation of sustainable urban development strategies. These include,
for example, urban metabolism (UM), material flow accounting (MFA) and life-cycle
assessment (LCA). UM is widely supported as an approach to inform and support
urban sustainability. In brief, the metabolism of cities entails visualizing a city as
an organism or ecological system, and it addresses all socio-economic and envi-
ronmental processes associated with urban activities. Such a system is composed of
many interlinked subsystems and components (e.g., people, built environment, water,
energy, waste, health, transportation) [1]. As such, UM can build on a system thinking
perspective to provide a broader understanding of urban functions, needs, linkages
across different domains, systems and processes, and identify hotspots and oppor-
tunities for improvement with an integrated perspective. System theory provides a
systematic approach to system integration and to understand and predict changes
Regional Metabolism: A Material and Product Flow Accounting Model … 49
within the system, and their implications [1, 2]. It can potentially address urban
complexity, providing insight on the diversity and intensity of urban activities on a
multiscale perspective (from urban blocks to neighbourhoods or cities). Within UM,
a commonly used method is Material Flow Accounting (MFA), which considers the
inputs and outputs of resources, emissions and waste [3].
UM and MFA can support a holistic, systematic and integrated analysis of complex
systems and help to inform on resource use and efficiency. However, important
limitations have prevented wider application to analyse urban areas, and to support
decision-making towards sustainable urban development. For example, MFA has
high data requirements, and it generally lacks insights on the environmental impli-
cations of material flows [8]—it does not account for upstream and downstream
processes that occur beyond the city or system boundaries (e.g., extraction, produc-
tion, transportation, end-of-life) [8]. Thus, increasing the level of detail of UM
and MFA models could increase and improve their application. Further details, for
example, on the specific use of materials are important to evaluate the potential
environmental impacts associated with resource flows.
Remarkable research advances have been made by the Urban Metabolism Analyst
(UMAn) model, which provides a methodological framework to account for material
and product flows and stocks at regional and urban levels, building on the EW-MFA
methodology [9]. The framework contributed to advancing UM research, by:
• Providing a systematic and harmonized MFA-based methodology, particularly
suitable for EU regions and cities, as it builds on EW-MFA and on Eurostat
standard statistical data for products (complemented with other datasets and
sources);
• Assigning product composition to 28 harmonized material types, thus increasing
the disaggregation/categorization level of material types; and
• Disaggregating data by economic sector and characterizing the life cycle phases
of products, providing insight into the origin and destination of flows.
This paper presents a detailed MFA that applies the UMAn model to the
Autonomous Province of Trento and its capital city.
The Autonomous Province of Trento is located in Northern Italy in the Alps (Fig. 1).
In 2020, the population of the province was 542 166 [10], registering a 13% increase
over the previous 20 years [11]. About 35% of the population lives in the province
capital Trento. The province has a relatively high quality of life: GDP in 2020 was
37 120e/capita in the province, compared to a national GDP of 27 938e/capita [12].
The province is in the northern Italian Alps, in the Dolomites, characterized by a
mountainous territorial morphology and the provincial economy relies strongly on
the tourism and manufacturing sectors.
Regional Metabolism: A Material and Product Flow Accounting Model … 51
This section summarizes the materials and methods used in the MFA model, including
sources, input datasets, and data analysis and processing. It is structured in four
subsections, which draw on the four steps of EW-MFA: (3.1) System boundaries;
(3.2) Data compilation and treatment; (3.3) Data analysis and classification by
material type; and 3.4) Calculation of indicators.
National, regional and urban MFAs can be characterized by two types of bound-
aries, which need to be clearly defined to ensure consistent accounting of mate-
rial flows: one is the boundary between the economy and the natural environment
(cross-border flows that consist of environment-economy inputs and outputs, such
as domestic extraction); the other is the border with other economies (cross-border
flows that consist, for example, of imports and exports) [5, p.22]. Borders with
other economies usually correspond to geographical boundaries—often administra-
tive units. The selection of geographical boundaries is particularly important since
52 J. Bastos and L. Rosado
the model strongly depends on the type, quality and disaggregation of available data,
generally collected for different administrative units.
In our model, geographical borders are considered to be the administrative borders
of the Autonomous Province of Trento, which correspond to a NUTS3 territorial unit
(code ITH20), and of the municipality of Trento, which corresponds to a local terri-
torial unit (code 022205). Borders between the economy and the natural environment
are associated with domestic extraction flows, namely: animal breeding and slaugh-
tering, forestry activities (wood harvesting), fishing and aquaculture, the production
of milk, milk products and eggs, mining and quarrying.
Data used in the model to calculate and characterize material and product flows were
collected using 2019 as the reference year (the most recent year before the COVID-
19 crisis in Italy), and compiled into: main tables, correspondence tables and support
tables, as described below.
• Main tables
These tables have statistical data on material flows. Four main tables were compiled:
Domestic Extraction, International Trade, Transport of Goods and Industrial Produc-
tion.
Domestic Extraction—the domestic extraction table compiles data from seven
sectors or groups: (a) mining and quarrying, (b) agricultural production, (c) wood
harvesting (forestry), (d) fishing and aquaculture, (e) meat, (f) milk products, and
(g) eggs. This came from a range of national and regional datasets on extraction
and primary production. When data at regional/provincial level was not available
it was allocated based on the number of employees in the respective sector. Data
were collected from the national and regional statistics office databases, ISTAT and
ISPAT, respectively [12, 13], and compiled according to the Combined Nomencla-
ture (CN) classification system, which is the main classification for the European
international trade in goods statistics used by Eurostat. Data were collected for Italy,
the Autonomous Province of Trento and the city of Trento.
International Trade—international trade is reported at national level with CN
structure—an allocation had to be done on the volume of international imports that
go to the modelled region and that of international imports that go to rest of the
country (ROC), and the same applied to international exports (disaggregating them
into exports from the province and from the ROC). To do this, international trade
data were combined with data on economic sectors of the destination of imports and
the origin of exports, and with data on the significance of economic sectors in the
province and in the ROC (in terms of the number of employees per economic sector).
Inter-regional Trade—to apply MFA to regions and cities we need to account
for national imports and exports, i.e., flows from the ROC to the modelled region,
and from the modelled region to the ROC. The model used national annual road
Regional Metabolism: A Material and Product Flow Accounting Model … 53
freight transport by region of loading and unloading and by groups of goods from
Eurostat, structured with the Standard Goods Classification [14]. The Standard Goods
Classification for Transport Statistics (NST2007) provides statistical information
about flows of products between NUTS2 units, based on their economic activity of
origin. It is available for four modes of transport: road; rail; air; and water. Rail was
assumed to account for 26% of the overall inter-regional trade based on a report on
the transport of goods across the Brennero axis [15]. Water and air transport were
excluded, due to the specificities of the region (no seaports or major airports exist in
the province).
Industrial Production—data on manufactured goods by industry sector were
used to model product transformation, i.e., the processing of raw materials and inter-
mediate products into final products for consumption. Industrial production data are
available at a national level [13], in ProdCom NACE Rev 2 categories. Harmonization
was needed on several product units to convert non mass units into mass (in tonnes),
which was based on the Eurostat Conversion Factors Table (with information on the
average weight of several Combined Nomenclature Codes that are not accounted for
in mass weight). For products that were not in the Eurostat conversion factors table,
conversion factors were selected from literature (bibliographic and desk research).
Data were collected for Italy, the Autonomous Province of Trento and the city of
Trento.
• Correspondence tables
These tables have correspondences across classification systems and they build
mostly on the Reference and Management of Nomenclatures system of Eurostat,
RAMON.
CN to CPA and NACE—this table provides the correspondence between CN and
EU Classification of Products by Activity (CPA) codes and Statistical Classification
of Economic Activities (NACE), made available by Eurostat. The CPA follows the
production origin criterion, i.e., products are grouped according to the economic
activity of origin.
NST to CN—national and international transport data are available in different
disaggregation levels and nomenclatures. The most common is the Standard Goods
Classification for transport statistics (NST or NSTR, depending on the year), which
is linked in this table to the CN structure.
CN correspondences—the database developed to support the UMAn model
was built according to a CN2007 structure. Thus, a correspondence table between
CN2019 and CN2007 was built, based on the changes reported by Eurostat.
• Support tables
These tables draw on ISTAT data [13], and they were mostly used to support
extrapolations when provincial or municipality-specific data was not available.
Employees—the number of employees by NACE sector by municipality was
considered from ISTAT data on enterprises—the number of people employed in
local units of active enterprises (annual average values) in 2019. The number of
employees in domestic extraction sectors was added.
54 J. Bastos and L. Rosado
With the data collected and treated as described, we (i) calculated domestic material
inputs to the region (domestic extraction + imports) and estimated overall available
resources (preliminary balance); (ii) characterized available resources in terms of life-
cycle stage, i.e., splitting them into intermediate and final products; (iii) modelled
product transformation in the region (transformation of intermediate products into
final products, for consumption in economic sectors or final household consumption);
and (iv) calculated domestic material consumption. As mentioned, classification of
products by predominant material type (into 28 material types) used a UMAn model
plugin [5].
With domestic extraction (DE) and imports to the region, we calculated the direct
material input (DMI), as described in Eq. (1). Then, the transformation of inter-
mediate products into final products was modelled, based on industrial production
data. Domestic material consumption (DMC) was then calculated with final products
(DMIf ) (which excluded waste generated in product transformation) and exports, as
described in Eq. (2). Lastly, to downscale DMC to the provincial capital Trento, the
“Use table” of CPA products by NACE sector was considered (for service sectors
using predominantly final products): the relative share of employees by NACE sector
in the municipality of Trento and in the province; and the share of residents in the
case of using CPA products for final consumption (by households, social support
organizations and public administration).
D E + I mpor ts = D M I (1)
D M I f − E x por ts = D MC (2)
Regional Metabolism: A Material and Product Flow Accounting Model … 55
In this section, we summarize the key results of the MFA model applied to the
Autonomous Province of Trento, including domestic material inputs (DMI) and
domestic material consumption (DMC) in 2019.
Direct material inputs (DMI) to the province in 2019 were 28 500 thousand tonnes,
49% of which were final products. Figure 3 shows the product composition of inputs
for final and intermediate products by CN section. Three CN sections were particu-
larly relevant in both types of inputs—intermediate and final products: II on Vegetable
products (these accounted for 8% of intermediate products and 12% of final prod-
ucts); V on Mineral products (31–37%) and IX on Wood and articles of wood (14–
18%). Sections IV, VI, and XIII had significant inputs that entered the province
mostly as final products corresponding to Prepared food and vegetables, Chemical
products and Articles of stone, plaster and cement, respectively. These CN sections
accounted for 8, 14, and 9% of the final product inputs, respectively. Lastly, two
sections had significant inputs that consisted primarily of intermediate products, for
processing/transformation in the province: X on Pulp of wood and paper products,
and XV on Base metals, accounting for 13 and 10% of the intermediate product
inputs, respectively.
Figure 4 shows the material composition of direct material inputs (DMI), for 28
types of materials. Non-metallic minerals and biomass accounted for over 77% of
the DMI. This is closely linked with the results observed in the preliminary material
balance, where sections V, IX, and X on Mineral products, Wood products, and Wood
pulp and paper products were particularly significant. Within non-metallic mineral
products, inputs were mostly composed of stone and sand; while in biomass wood
and biofuels, agricultural biomass, and paper accounted for most inputs.
In the step of product transformation from intermediate to final products, about
364 thousand tonnes of waste were generated. It is important to highlight, however,
that any other waste generated in the region stayed in our modelled DMC (final
consumption), such as household waste and waste from construction activities, which
are expected to account for the large majority of generated waste.
Fig. 3 Composition of direct material inputs (DMI) by CN section: intermediate and final products
Regional Metabolism: A Material and Product Flow Accounting Model … 57
Table 1 presents domestic material consumption (DMC), and Fig. 5 shows DMC
distribution by CN section in the Autonomous Province of Trento and its capital city
Trento. The overall DMC was 12.8 and 13.5 t/capita in the province and in Trento,
respectively; the result is below the EU mean of 14.2, but significantly higher than
the reported DMC for Italy in the same year of 8.3 t/capita [14].
The overall DMC per capita results were relatively similar in the province and
in Trento. In 2019, Trento was home to 22% of the province’s population; the
DMC across CN sections varied between 20% in section XIII and 34% in section
XVIII, which correspond to Articles of stone, plaster and cement, and Instruments,
respectively.
5 Concluding Remarks
This paper presents an MFA model of the Autonomous Province of Trento and the
provincial capital Trento. Its main purpose was to establish a model to estimate direct
material inputs (DMI) and domestic material consumption (DMC) in thousand tonnes
58 J. Bastos and L. Rosado
Fig. 5 Domestic material consumption (DMC) in the autonomous province of Trento (outer circle)
and in the city of Trento (inner circle), for 2019
per year relying on publicly available online data on domestic resource extraction,
industrial production, trade, freight transportation, and waste generation. The DMI
in the Province was 28 500 thousand tonnes. The DMC was 12.8 and 13.5 t/capita
in the province and in Trento, respectively; both results are below the EU mean of
14.2, but significantly higher than the reported DMC for Italy in the same year of 8.3
t/capita.
Accounting and characterizing resource flows associated with urban areas and
regions is crucial to increase resource efficiency and to mitigate environmental
impacts on a local, regional, and global scale. Advanced detailed MFA models at city
and regional levels can inform and support environmentally sustainable planning and
policymaking.
Acknowledgements The research is framed within the ARTEMIS project, funded by the European
Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant
agreement number 101026073.
References
1. Kutty AA, Abdella GM, Kucukvar M, Onat NC, Bulu M (2020) A system thinking approach for
harmonizing smart and sustainable city initiatives with United Nations sustainable development
goals. Sustain Dev 28:1347–1365. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2088
2. Shmelev SE, Shmeleva IA (2018) Global urban sustainability assessment: A multidimensional
approach. Sustain Dev 26:904–920. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.1887
3. Albino V, Berardi U, Dangelico RM (2015) Smart cities: Definitions, dimensions, performance,
and initiatives. J Urban Technol 22:3–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/10630732.2014.942092
4. United Nations (2000) Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting: An Operational
Manual. New York
Regional Metabolism: A Material and Product Flow Accounting Model … 59
5. Rosado L (2012) A Standard Model For Urban Metabolism: Accounting material flows in
Metropolitan Areas. PhD thesis. Lisbon: Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, Instituto Superior
Técnico
6. Eurostat (2001) Economy-wide material flow accounts and derived indicators
7. United Nations (2014) System of Environmental—Economic accounting 2012—Central
Framework. New York
8. Shahrokni H, Lazarevic D, Brandt N (2015) Smart urban metabolism: Towards a Real-Time
understanding of the energy and material flows of a city and its citizens. J Urban Technol
22:65–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/10630732.2014.954899
9. Rosado L, Niza S, Ferrão P (2014) A Material Flow Accounting Case Study of the Lisbon
Metropolitan Area using the Urban Metabolism Analyst Model. J Ind Ecol 18:84–101. https://
doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12083
10. ISTAT (2022) Il Censimento permanente della popolazione in Trentino. Anno 2020. ISTAT.
12 May 2022. Available on: www.istat.it.
11. ISPAT (2001) La popolazione trentina nell’ anno 2000. Servizio Statistica della Provincia
Autonoma di Trento. December 2001. Available on: http://www.statistica.provincia.tn.it/.
12. ISPAT Servizio Statistica, https://statweb.provincia.tn.it/, last accessed 2023/02/02.
13. ISTAT. I.Stat, http://dati.istat.it/, last accessed 2023/01/31.
14. Eurostat. Eurostat database, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/main/data/database, last
accessed 2023/01/31.
15. Cavallaro F, Corradini P, Sommacal G (2019) Project Report SMARTLOGI D4.2.5: Studio di
fattibilità per migliorare il trasporto multimodale lungo l’asse del Brennero. Eurac Research.
SMARTLOGI Project, funded by the European Regional Development Fund. Eurac Research.
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate
credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and
indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter’s Creative
Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not
included in the chapter’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by
statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from
the copyright holder.
Energy Communities: The Opportunity
for an Energy Transition Characterized
by a Return to the Territory
Monica Bolognesi
1 Introduction
This paper considers the issue of the necessary transition to a development model
marked by sustainability from a territorial and heritage-led perspective, that is, by
focusing on the territory and on its complexity and multidimensionality, which also
includes its energy dimension. The scope is the local community, also identified by
European energy directives as a strategic field of action.
M. Bolognesi (B)
University of Florence, Florence, Italy
e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
Department of Civil Environmental Land Building Engineering and Chemistry (DICATECh),
Polytechnic University of Bari, Florence, Italy
2 Literature Review
The vision of the energy transition expressed in this paper is within the scientific
approach of the territorialist school, based on the consideration of territory as a
highly complex living organism and of territorial heritage as the set of environmental,
urban, rural, infrastructural and landscape elements, assets and systems, shaped by
the long-lasting coevolutionary process between human settlement and environment
(Magnaghi 2020). Territorial heritage elements have an intrinsic existence value,
related to long-lasting identity, and a use value, related to the activation of heritage
resources and their use and management (Poli 2015), including in the energy field.
Territorial heritage thus has a dual significance:
– some of its elements can take on energy values (e.g., agroforestry structures, water
mills, canals…);
– it provides the coherence framework within which to evaluate land transformation
(e.g., in the production of energy from RES, the protection of rural landscapes or
historical settlement types must be ensured).
The energy patrimonialization process (Magnaghi and Sala 2013; Bolognesi
2018), defined as the identification and use of whole territory resources for energy
Energy Communities: The Opportunity for an Energy Transition … 63
3 Methods
The mixed methodology by which the energy patrimonialization model has been
applied to the case study consists of several steps described below.
– Identification and cartographic representation of energy heritage (both natural
and territorial resources), based on data from land-use mapping, regional technical
maps, and national atlases on energy resources.
– Analysis of the energy heritage and definition of a specific RES mix. Different
resources required different methodologies. To estimate photovoltaic potential,
for example, the r.sun function of Grass-Qgis (combining clivometry and slope
exposure data) made it possible to obtain a grid of solar radiation per unit area
(measured in kWh/m2 ). It was thus possible to associate solar radiation values
with available roof areas (net of historical heritage buildings) and photovoltaic
panel performance to obtain the amount of energy that can be produced. For
forest biomass energy potential, Corine Land Cover has been used as starting
data. Growth rate (m3 /ha per year) and density value (kg/m3 ) were associated
with each polygon classified by forest type (parameters drawn from Bernetti et al.
64 M. Bolognesi
Tirano is located in the borderland on the northern edge of Lombardy in the middle
of Media Valtellina Valley, which constitutes the regional frame of reference for
reorganizing the energy production and consumption system.
The Renewable Communities Report 2022 (Legambiente 2022) cites Tirano
among the “100% Renewable Municipalities” for the important contribution of local
and distributed renewable sources in covering local energy needs and the Alpine
Energy Community of Tirano (SO) as an example of REC in the making.
The energy community arises in a context that benefits from a district heating
plant with a 33 km network and 789 users reached with the service (Bonifazi
et al. 2022), which can already rely on an energy self-generation system that meets
about 50% of local community needs (Coletta et al. 2020). The Tirano district
heating plant operated by the TCVVV Company (Teleriscaldamento Cogenerazione
Valtellina-Valchiavenna-Valcamonica) began operating in 2000; it was started by
public financing and a widespread partnership of small local shareholders on which
REC’s community-engagement path is built on. Thus, the development of an energy
community can therefore be the driving factor for increasing energy production from
RES.
Open access cartographic data for Media Valtellina Valley (land use, elevation
grid, technical cartography) were sourced from the Lombardy Region cartographic
portal. Data on average wind speed came from the RSE Wind Atlas. Data on RES
plants already in operation can be found on the GSE Atlaimpianti portal.
Energy Communities: The Opportunity for an Energy Transition … 65
4 Results
Media Valtellina has a rather articulated structure and a rich heritage value endow-
ment to be conserved and enhanced; protection of high environmental and landscape
value elements has been formalized by establishing Sites of Community Interest,
parks, and special conservation areas. Territorial heritage includes, for example, the
hydrographic network of the River Adda and its tributaries, elements related to the
agro-sylvo-pastoral economy (forests, pastures, maggenghi, cultivations, terraces),
historical settlement structures, and ancient systems of hydraulic energy exploitation.
Energy production aimed at enhancing local resources and involving the whole
territory in composing a locally defined RES mix must interact virtuously with envi-
ronmental and landscape heritage elements and must prevent criticalities in the tradi-
tional centralized energy production model. Cartographic selection and composition
in a map (with the Qgis software) of potentially energy-usable elements contained
in land use or maps of average wind speed is the first step to define the endogenous
energy potential of the territory.
The map in Fig. 1 depicts heritage resources theoretically available for energy
production in the whole of Media Valtellina and in detail in the Municipality of
Tirano, namely:
– urbanized areas and building roofs. The most significant contribution to energy
production is expected to come from the recent expansion of built-up areas and
productive/commercial areas of main centers;
– areas with an average wind speed greater than 4 m/s, mostly localized close to
mountain peaks;
– forests, important ecological-environmental and landscape resources but also
energy resources: residues from silvicultural activities and waste resulting from
wood processing can contribute to energy production from RES;
– tree crops, a typical feature of Valtellina both on the plain (apple orchards) and the
Rhaetian side of the valley in terraced vineyards: pruning clippings can contribute
to biomass energy production;
– the catchment area of the River Adda and its tributaries, with numerous hydro-
electric power plants for energy production and ancient watermills in some cases
is already undergoing redevelopment and refunctionalization.
The map, therefore, includes elements belonging to the territorial heritage that
can be enhanced for energy purposes such as old mills, forests with silvicultural
residues or vineyards and orchards with pruning clippings, as well as elements that
are part of the settlement system which are not part of the territorial heritage, e.g.,
recent building roofs.
66 M. Bolognesi
Fig. 1 Theoretical availability of renewable energy sources in Media Valtellina and the Munici-
pality of Tirano (boxed area). Processed using the Qgis software
The analysis of the availability of renewable sources yields a set of potential energy
resources in the study area. A plurality of renewable sources contributes to the compo-
sition of the Tirano energy mix (Table 1): biomass from pruning and forestry, solar
PV, and hydroelectric (for wind power, in suitable landscape areas the average wind
speed is not high enough, so this RES has not been included in the mix).
Energy Communities: The Opportunity for an Energy Transition … 67
Another part of this research focused on the interplay between heritage and the
local community to investigate the level of community involvement in local heritage
enhancement (Table 2) by conducting semi-structured interviews with local stake-
holders. Research showed a fair social mobilization of activities that need to be
connected through the socio-productive institutes of energy communities. The anal-
ysis of the relationship between heritage and local community revealed the local
figures that could be involved in the creation of a multi-sectoral and multi-person
energy community in Tirano: local institutions, third-sector cooperatives, associa-
tions, businesses, farmers, property or land owners, and citizens willing to participate
as protagonists in the energy transition.
The main critical issues that emerged from the interviews are summarized below:
Energy Communities: The Opportunity for an Energy Transition … 69
– difficulties for the forest/wood supply chain and the abandoned state of local
forests (due largely to fragmentation among private individuals of forest owner-
ship) which suggests that a large amount of biomass feeding the district heating
plant is not strictly locally sourced;
– recent recapitalization of the district heating plant management company with
the entry of Cogeninfra SpA Group, which acquired 71% of TCVVV shares and
significantly reduced the “weight” of small local partners who started the project
in the early 2000s;
– conflicting positions on Valtellina methanization process. Valtellina upstream of
Villa di Tirano is currently a non-methanized area, and there is a plan to extend
the methane gas network to the entire valley over time. Respondent positions are
mixed; methane would clearly compete with the district heating system already
in operation in Tirano, as well as potentially discouraging any investment in this
technology in other municipalities, yet for some people it may be used in small
villages not connected to the district heating and in industrial areas;
– concerns about the risks associated with the use of forest biomass for the impact
on and reduction of biodiversity.
Examples of local stakeholder planning and activism in local development also
emerged from the interviews:
70 M. Bolognesi
– conversion to liquefied natural gas (LNG) of the vehicle fleet of a local logistics
company, with the supply of liquid bio-methane from a zootechnical cooperative,
a virtuous example of circular economy;
– terracing recovery projects implemented by public–private partnerships, lever-
aging European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI) and other resources
made available by a banking foundation (Cariplo), which also promoted a local
development strategy aimed at creating the cultural district of Valtellina;
– the presence of cultural heritage recovery and sustainability activities (Butega
Valtellinese, Confraternita del chisciöl…);
– activities of the social cooperative “Il Gabbiano” for the reintegration of people
in socially fragile conditions through agricultural work on otherwise abandoned
land; the cooperative also plans to undertake activities in the forestry sector to
collaborate with wood processors and energy producers.
5 Discussion
It is possible to implement Tirano’s energy mix and increase local production from
RES, particularly forest biomass and photovoltaics. Table 1 shows that the current
production of energy from biomass is higher than what could be produced using
only local forest residues according to sustainability criteria: this fact, combined
with the poor exploitation of the local forest-wood supply chain (which emerged
from the interviews) suggests that the material comes largely from outside Media
Valtellina. Assuming, however, that 30% of raw materials come from within the
territorial boundaries of the study area (thus well below the 70 km that define the
short supply chain) as already currently used in the plants in operation, the use of
the remainder can be assumed to increase local thermal energy production by about
50%.
Analysis revealed that there is great potential to increase electricity production
from RES using existing building roofs for photovoltaic panel installation without
any land consumption. In addition to the plants already present in the area, panels
can be installed on a large number of surfaces, for a more than fivefold increase in
electricity production from photovoltaics (estimated producible energy 30.6 GWh/
year).
The issue of local supply chain development for energy production, a topic covered
in all interviews with local stakeholders, brings out the contradiction with the meth-
anization process that is starting in Tirano (following a debate lasting for years). The
use of methane, a non-renewable energy source, is in obvious competition with the
biomass district heating system already operating in the area and in contrast to the
necessary decarbonization of the energy system. Perhaps an implementation of REC,
enhancing local endogenous energy potential, can help overcome this contradiction.
Energy Communities: The Opportunity for an Energy Transition … 71
6 Conclusion
National Strategy for Inner Areas). The use of still untapped local energy resources
can produce a great increase in overall national energy production, necessary to
achieve the goals set by international strategies for the energy transition and mitigate
global warming.
Acknowledgements This paper contains the main achievements of the author’s Ph.D. research
tutored by Daniela Poli and Alberto Magnaghi of Florence University. Interviews with local stake-
holders were conducted in collaboration with Dr. Franco Sala of RSE and Dr. Alessandro Boni-
fazi of the Polytechnic University of Bari. This work was financed by the Research Fund for the
Italian Electrical System under the Contract Agreement between RSE S.p.A. and the Ministry of
Economic Development—General Directorate for the Electricity Market, Renewable Energy and
Energy Efficiency, Nuclear Energy in compliance with the Decree of April 16, 2018.
References
Puttilli M (2014) Geografia delle fonti rinnovabili. Energia e territorio per una eco-ristrutturazione
della società, Franco Angeli, Milan
RSE, Wind Power Atlas. https://atlanteeolico.rse-web.it/
Scudo G, Clementi M, Bertazzoni L, Vasino P, Garrone G, Soro F (2011) La sovranità energetica
come coagente dello sviluppo locale: metodologia e caso studio. Il Progetto Sostenibile 29:36–43
Scudo G (2013) Tecnologie solari integrate nell’architettura. Processi strumenti sistemi componenti,
Wolters Kluwer Italia, Milan
Tricarico L (2015) Energia come community asset e orizzonte di sviluppo per le imprese di comunità.
Impresa sociale 5:53–64
De Vidovich L, Tricarico L, Zulianello M (2021) Community energy map. Una ricognizione delle
prime esperienze di comunità energetiche rinnovabili. Franco Angeli, Milan
Walker G, Devine-Wright P (2008) Community renewable energy: What should it mean? Energy
Policy 36:497–500
Woolsink M (2010) Contested environmental policy infrastructure: Socio-political acceptance of
renewable energy, water, and waste facilities. Environ Impact Assess Rev 30(5):302–311. https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2010.01.001
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate
credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and
indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter’s Creative
Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not
included in the chapter’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by
statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from
the copyright holder.
Investment in Greening Last-Mile
Logistics: A Case Study
1 Introduction
Today almost 56% of the world’s population live in cities with an urbanization trend
that is expected to continue and reach a point where nearly 7 of 10 people will
live in cities by 2050 (The World Bank Group 2022). With more than 80% of
F. Corti
ICEA, Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of Padua,
35131 Padua, Italy
e-mail: [email protected]
A. Nava (B)
CRIEP, Interuniversity Centre Of Public Economics, 35123 Padua, Italy
e-mail: [email protected]
DSEA, Department of Economics and Management, University of Padua, 35123 Padua, Italy
2 Related Literature
To have an outlook on this kind of service the starting point is to analyse the related
literature on bicycles, tricycles, and LEFVs. The first and one of the most important
problems of last-mile logistics is that it is the least efficient stage of the supply
chain (Wang et al. 2016). Up to 28% of total delivery costs are imputable to the last
mile and it is due to several aspects, starting from the high cost of organization to
the extensive amount of time spent accomplishing it, compared to the other steps
in the supply chain. Some studies pointed out that these aspects are attributable to
different determinants, i.e., a fragmented and uncoordinated service, traffic volume
and, finally, Urban Vehicle Access Regulations (UVARs) and Low Emission Zones
(LEZs) in city centres and particular areas in the industrial side of the city (Digiesi
et al. 2017).
Some authors demonstrated that congestion, lack of loading/unloading parking
due to high-density populations, inefficient planning and logistics sprawl lead to
longer distances to final receivers, and so increase the negative externalities that the
last-mile logistic service produces and the related costs (Coulombel et al. 2018).
Congestion is mainly due to the high volume of traffic and the lack of city design
(i.e., unloading parking, ancient narrow streets, etc.). At the same time, congestion
could be partially solved with the creation of Urban Consolidation Centres (UCC)
and mid-delivery points, as illustrated by Janjevic and Winkenbach (2020) and Trott
et al. (2021).
The conglomeration of different last-mile logistic services to reduce the total
cost of delivery is addressed by literature but it is very difficult to apply because of
competition between different operators and clients. However, a possible solution to
this issue is to set up a neutral service, which operates on a coopetition scheme to
complete the last step of delivery (Zou and Zhao 2010).
Focusing on clients, some researchers pointed out that small stores suffer from a
lack of storage space, so they need continuous inventory replenishment (De Magal-
hães 2010; Boulaksil et al. 2014). In this case, daily service is necessary, but at the
same time, it has a strong social and environmental impact (Digiesi et al. 2012).
In urban areas, road freight transportation is the prime culprit for negative exter-
nalities related to delivering goods: as previously mentioned, they range from envi-
ronmental impact to economic and safety issues. To decrease the impact of this
phenomenon, switching fleets to electric could be a possible solution. However,
commercial EV purchase costs are three times higher than conventional diesel vans,
but the operating costs of conventional ones are almost four times higher than EVs
(Digiesi et al. 2012). Delivery vans are more cost-effective for deliveries weighing
20 kg or more, and freight tricycles are more cost-effective with short time intervals
(Tipagornwong and Figliozzi 2014). Focusing on the supply of SMEs and small
shops in city centres, we want to investigate the use of medium-sized vans that are
also necessary to deliver heavy and large packages (i.e., the typical size considered
is a pallet).
78 F. Corti and A. Nava
Table 1 Interviews
Current role Education Experience
Logistics manager and deputy general manager M.Sc. >15 years
Operations manager High School >15 years
IT manager M.Sc. 10 years
3 Method
To answer our research question, we decided to conduct a case study. This method
is commonly used to consider context variables to explain a particular phenomenon,
without the use of data but by creating a theoretical sample of single sources to obtain
the information (Yin 2017).
In this specific case, we conducted an exploratory case study of a last-mile logistic
service (LMLS) in Italy provided by a third-party company to different logistic
operators who choose this neutral service for the last part of the delivery process.
The effects of investments in greening this service are multiple, at the same time, we
want to consider the effect on the city too and how the company wants to integrate
EVs into its fleet.
The information was obtained through semi-structured interviews performed both
in person and via video calls, confirmed with documents and direct observations.
The limited number of experts belongs to the individual successful company and is
identified through convenience sampling (Etikan 2016) and a summary of the LMLS
managers interviewed is summarized in Table 1.
In these interviews, the two main topics were understanding the integration and
measures LMLS has adopted in city centres and the barriers and benefits of switching
its fleet to electric.
4 Results
The results of the interviews highlight several suggestions, thanks both to the exten-
sive experience of the managers and the long company history, especially since this
LMLS already tried a pilot scheme with one EV more than 10 years ago and it was
unsuccesful.
Seven key aspects arose as reported in Table 2 and have been divided according to
three main categories of the barriers to implementing the service: operational, safety,
and economic (Paddeu et al. 2018).
The “payload and size of the van” is a real issue because of the market’s lack
of electric vans that do not exceed 7.5 tonnes equipped with a hydraulic tail. In
this way, it is very difficult for LMLS to deliver medium-heavy packages to SMEs
and city centre shops because smaller means of transport do not have the required
payload and characteristics. Also, different van producers are innovating their offer
Investment in Greening Last-Mile Logistics: A Case Study 79
but the required applications (hydraulic tail, high durability batteries, etc.) use a lot
of energy to operate and require more research and innovation to become affordable
and reliable. This issue was highlighted by the pilot scheme that LMLS had tested
previously because the van had a low battery after only a few deliveries.
A problem that cannot be ignored is the “lack of energy infrastructure” to charge
EVs. The LMLS has its own source of electric energy production, thanks to its internal
infrastructure developed in previous years using institutional financing sources in a
Public–Private Partnerships (PPP), so it is not relevant to this case. However, the
replicability of this service is at risk with the current energy infrastructure especially
if some regulations push for the conversion of public and private fleets in an entire
region or country. In this case, the capacity of the facilities would not be enough, and
energy sources would not be from Renewable Energy Sources (RES), hindering the
positive externality created by EVs. For this reason, the interviews also mentioned
80 F. Corti and A. Nava
5 Discussion
Deepening the analysis of investments, we addressed the topic from three different
perspectives, Economic, Governance, and Social (ESG), to gather the most important
effects on costs and benefits highlighted by LMLS managers: economic (Table 3),
environmental (Table 4), and social (Table 5) aspects.
As mentioned previously, fuel prices could be an issue: in this historical moment,
the price of electricity is more convenient than diesel. If energy sources are going to
be more expensive and the ownership of infrastructure is not going to be enough to
sustain EV charging, from an economic point of view it will be more efficient to utilise
vans powered by diesel or LPG. Focusing on “delivery times” of the service, with
electric vehicles, there is the possibility to create incentives for municipalities and
regulators to limit access to UVARs and LEZs in city centres to decrease congestion:
Investment in Greening Last-Mile Logistics: A Case Study 81
this way there will be considerable time savings for couriers who can be more efficient
in terms of time saved and so increase the number of deliveries. Decreasing the
amount of congestion is going to have a positive impact on GHG and noise emissions,
thanks to a decrease in both the number of vehicles in circulation and the lower
environmental impact that EVs have (see Table 4).
Focusing on the positive and negative environmental externalities of this case
study, using EVs has a major positive impact. Starting from GHG emissions and
noise, substituting LPG with an electric fleet could make considerable improvements
to reducing these kinds of negative externalities, starting from improving air quality,
reducing sound emissions of the vans, and improving living conditions, not just for
the population, but for the drivers too with better working conditions (see Table 5).
As mentioned above, the RES energy supply is a key factor to consider: if EVs
are not charged with this kind of power the whole effort is going to eliminate the
reduced negative externality.
82 F. Corti and A. Nava
6 Conclusion
From the interviews analysed with the ESG criteria, the high cost of EVs is the main
issue that discourages LMLS from switching their fleet from fuel to electric, similarly
to other studies. Despite this factor, there is still a great deal of interest in these kinds
of investments to anticipate the expected future needs for more environmentally
sustainable logistics. From the various solutions to be faced the purchase cost and
upgrade to necessary infrastructure, PPPs and institutional financing are two that
emerged as the most important. Collaboration between municipalities and public
institutions and possibly with trade associations must be encouraged to split the
costs of these investments. This partnership would facilitate the creation of UVARs
and LEZs and so congestion and the number of vans in circulation in city centres
could decrease. Institutional financing is one of the most attractive and challenging
paths to follow from the recent NRRP and other financing methods that Ministries
could propose.
The major limit of this analysis is that it is based on interviews with a single
operating subject, and does not include the companies that buy this service, the
municipalities involved, and SMEs that are the destinations of deliveries. It could be
of great interest to implement this study with interviews with these other subjects and
inspect the possibility to implement UCCs, mid-delivery points near to city centres
and especially, unloading parking, the possibility to activate new UVARs, possibly
new LEZs, and moreover to understand the intention to adopt more restrictive policies
towards electric transportation.
Finally, two aspects of the LMLS that were only indirectly mentioned in the
interviews but are crucial to decrease the impact of this kind of service are neutrality
and consolidation. Conglomeration of orders and consolidation of packages from
different last-mile logistic companies to a neutral third-party company is one of the
great challenges to improve efficiency of last-mile logistics. In this way, congestion
and environmental impact could be reduced, creating several positive externalities.
Acknowledgements Financial support for Franco Corti was provided by a grant from the
Ministry of Education, University and Research, PON Scholarships R&I for the 37° Cycle PhD
Investment in Greening Last-Mile Logistics: A Case Study 83
program. Financial support for Alessandro Nava was provided from the Uni-Impresa 2020 program
promoted by the University of Padua (project: MoveINN).
References
18. Wang Y, Zhang D, Liu Q, Shen F, Lee LH (2016) Towards enhancing the last-mile delivery: an
effective crowd-tasking model with scalable solutions. Transp Res Part E Logist Transp Rev
93:279–293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2016.06.002
19. Yin RK (2017) Case study research and applications: design and methods, 6th ed. SAGE
Publications Ltd.
20. Zou X, Zhao F (2010) Research on growth mechanism of industrial cluster of logistics in
coopetition. Proc Int Conf E-bus E-Government, ICEE 2010:2503–2506. https://doi.org/10.
1109/ICEE.2010.632
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate
credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and
indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter’s Creative
Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not
included in the chapter’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by
statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from
the copyright holder.
Linking Urban Railways, People
and Places: A Spatial Multicriteria
Decision Analysis in the City of Catania
Abstract The interconnection of urban contexts represents the baseline for the
quality of life within them. An efficient urban mobility system ensures environmental,
economic and social sustainability. It promotes inclusivity by fostering access to
urban facilities and services. Moreover, it enables improvement to the organisation of
urban space by allowing better allocation of city facilities. Urban railways connect the
areas they cross by triggering relationships between these places, fostering the emer-
gence of new centralities, urban regeneration practices and sustainable and inclusive
mobility behaviour. This research proposes a model to study urban centrality through
spatial data and multicriteria decision analysis. It shows a method to achieve a degree
of centrality of station service areas according to different types of urban populations.
1 Introduction
F. Accordino (B)
Institute for Research On Population and Social Policies, National Research Council, Rome, Italy
e-mail: [email protected]
F. Accordino · S. E. Pappalardo · D. Codato · F. Peroni · M. De Marchi
Master in GIScience and Unmanned Aerial Systems, ICEA Department, University of Padua,
Padua, Italy
This study frames a representative case study of centrality and facilities by analysing
the mobility dimension in the city of Catania, in Italy (Fig. 1). The city has a popula-
tion of 301,104 people (ISTAT, as of 1 January 2022). It is home to an ancient univer-
sity and has numerous services and activities. Moreover, it is a daily destination for
commuters, students, tourists and more.
Since the 1970s, the city has been affected by a significant dispersion of residential
settlements outside the historical city core, with the creation of neighbourhoods in
the northwest and in the south [8]. Intense urban sprawl has led to congestion and
pollution in the city centre [16].
Since 1986 [25], the city has been involved in the expansion of two urban rail-
ways: the subway and the rail loop. These projects could greatly contribute to solving
the serious quality-of-life problems caused by excessive use of private vehicles. For
example, in 2018, there were almost 72 vehicles per 100 inhabitants [15]. Since 2023,
only one line and 10 subway stations have been working. By completing the infras-
tructural lines and their integrating service, the two urban railways could provide
accessibility to important areas of the city through a single network. By exploring
and investigating such urban development dimensions, this study provides the first
insight into the contribution of railways to the potential of new urban centralities.
Possible projects, if properly planned, could mix areas of the city that are not entirely
coherent with one another and support urban regeneration processes. The relocation
The general aim of this study is to explore and reflect on the concept of urban centrality
applied to the areas served by stations (service areas) regarding urban populations.
The specific aims are as follows: (i) testing a replicable way to measure the degree
of centrality of each station’s service area; (ii) identifying which type of urban railway
user profile more frequently uses each station; and (iii) assessing future scenarios
of urban centrality after the completion of a railway network in the city and its
integration with a unified service.
This study combined urban facilities and the profile types of populations by using
spatially explicit data from OpenStreetMap (OSM) and other sources. Multicriteria
Decision Analysis (MCDA) [21] was adopted to assess and quantify the degree of
centrality of areas served by railway stations according to multiple urban facilities and
user type profiles. MCDA encompasses numerous techniques for evaluating complex
processes in which the heterogeneous elements involved affect them differently [12].
This approach is particularly useful to support decision-making in the public or
private sector by involving stakeholders or citizens in participatory processes [11].
Data management and analyses were performed in a complete open-source GIS
environment using QGIS software and different integrated plugins.
In the first phase of the spatial analyses, all the data were collected and geovi-
sualised; then the two rail lines, the location of stations and the road network were
extracted from OSM (as of 19 February 2021). The locations of railways and stations
in progress or under construction were also obtained from municipality infrastructure
plans [25, 26]. Spatial analyses were developed by performing two different terri-
torial scenarios: (i) the present infrastructure dimension and (ii) the possible future
layout, with infrastructure implementation and the integration of the two lines into a
unified network.
The spatial units of analysis, or isochrony areas [28], were based on the locations
of the stations (service area). Each of these corresponds to an area accessible through
one of the railway stations, which is more or less equipped with facilities and is thus
characterised by a different level of centrality. These areas represent the part of the
city served by each station and its accessibility in terms of a set threshold of a 10-min
walking time (5 km/h), considering the road network [3, 29].
Subsequently, 16 criteria were set to perform the MCDA analysis, corresponding
to different selected urban facilities (Table 1).
Linking Urban Railways, People and Places: A Spatial Multicriteria … 89
Table 1 Selected criteria for Multicriteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), cartographic resources and
supplementary information (OSM = OpenStreetMap)
MCDA criteria (facilities and Source Supplementary information
services)
Grocery shops OSM Shop: Bakery, butcher,
convenience, deli,
greengrocer, seafood, superm
Bars/Kiosks OSM Amenity: Bar + Shop:
Beverages
Cinemas OSM Amenity: Cinema
Libraries OSM Amenity: Library
Pharmacies OSM Amenity: Pharmacy
Places of worship OSM Amenity: Place_of_worship
Schools OSM Amenity: School
Services OSM Amenity: Arts_centre, Bank,
Clinic, Hospital, Police, Post_
office
Sport facilities OSM Sport: (all the values)
Shops OSM All values except those
considered in other categories
Theatres OSM Amenity: Theatre
Tourism sites OSM Tourism: All values
Universities OSM Amenity: University
Urban intermodality Metropolitan Transportation Bus line shapefile data are
Company (AMT) extracted; then the number of
lines passing through each
iso-area is calculated
Suburban intermodality OSM Railway stations, suburban
terminals and the airport are
considered (whose placement
was forced from original in
OSM data)
Public green spaces Territorial Information System Categories of public green
(Catania Municipality) spaces considered: children’s
playgrounds, historic gardens,
equipped green space
The majority of the spatially explicit data were derived from OSM, which allows
for the extraction of information based on a pair of key value attributes corre-
sponding to the data of interest. The data were obtained directly in QGIS through
the QuickOSM plugin; hence, data corresponding to many different services, ameni-
ties, stores and facilities were extracted. Public green space data were obtained from
the Territorial Information System of Catania Municipality (as of 15 March 2021),
whereas bus lines were extracted from open-access General Transit Feed Specifi-
cation (GTFS) data by the Catania Metropolitan Transportation Company (as of 17
90 F. Accordino et al.
March 2021). Hence, a count of each type of facility in each area was performed for
point data from OSM and bus routes. For public green space areas, the percentage
of occupied areas compared to the station service area was calculated. Moreover,
the collected data were merged into a single attribute table of the layer containing
polygons corresponding to the service areas.
The VectorMCDA plugin [22] was used for MCDA analysis, performed using the
Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method-
ology, that “rates the decision alternatives under consideration according to their
multidimensional distance to the ideal point using the distance metric” [21: 102].
Weights are set to evaluate decision alternatives that can have a positive or negative
contribution. The best alternative is placed at the shortest Euclidean distance from
the ideal situation and at the greatest distance from the worst one. In this study, urban
facilities are the decision alternatives, considered with a positive contribution. The
decision table, with the decision criteria (Table 2), was established by rating each
urban facility from 1 to 10 (from the least to the most important), according to each
user profile considered (student, city user, commuter, inhabitant, tourist, city leisure
user). The table was elaborated by the Members of the research group “Climate
Change, Territories, Diversity” of ICEA Department, University of Padua (Italy) by
prioritising and weighting the selected criteria. The weight assigned was identified
by dividing each rating by its sum, with the values derived having a sum equal to 1.
Weights were assigned according to the importance of the relative profile.
In VectorMCDA’s GeoTOPSIS procedure, all weights were added considering
gain. Consequently, each element increased the level of centrality obtained. In
MCDA, the data included in the table were all normalised. The assigned weights,
structured in a spreadsheet, were then reported in the plugin interface. Based on these
weighted criteria and the distance calculation, normalised values in a range from 0
to 1 were derived as the degree of urban centrality. This procedure was recursive for
each identified user profile. A differentiated station centrality value was therefore
obtained according to each urban population profile.
Using a kernel density map, initial spatial analysis highlights all urban facilities
(Fig. 2). The cartographic representation makes the intensity of resources near some
already operating stations visible (e.g., Stesicoro, Italia, Giuffrida and Borgo). Other
densely populated and suburban neighbourhoods near the Verrazzano and Librino
stations, which will be reached in the future by the subway, are poorly equipped.
Moreover, it is possible to discriminate differences in the representation of
centrality by the identified values based on MCDA analysis. For each profile chosen,
the centrality values are represented in a single map. According to the highest
centrality values achieved in different service areas, one or more characterising labels
can be assigned to the corresponding stations depending on the prevailing type of
potential users. Giovanni XXIII, Giuffrida and Borgo are commuter stations at which
Linking Urban Railways, People and Places: A Spatial Multicriteria … 91
Table 2 Ratings and weights for each user profile and urban facilities
University City user Commuters Inhabitants Tourists City
students leisure
user
Grocery 7 0.07 5 0.06 5 0.08 10 0.09 5 0.06 5 0.05
shops
Bar/kiosks 8 0.08 8 0.10 8 0.12 8 0.07 8 0.10 8 0.09
Cinemas 5 0.05 3 0.04 3 0.05 8 0.07 2 0.02 9 0.10
Libraries 6 0.06 5 0.06 3 0.05 6 0.05 2 0.02 4 0.04
Pharmacies 6 0.06 5 0.06 3 0.05 7 0.06 5 0.06 5 0.05
Places of 4 0.04 4 0.05 3 0.05 7 0.06 4 0.05 4 0.04
worship
Schools 1 0.01 1 0.01 1 0.02 5 0.04 1 0.01 1 0.01
Shops 5 0.05 7 0.09 3 0.05 7 0.06 5 0.06 8 0.09
Sport 5 0.05 4 0.05 3 0.05 8 0.07 2 0.02 5 0.05
facilities
Theatres 5 0.05 3 0.04 3 0.05 8 0.07 5 0.06 9 0.10
Tourism 4 0.04 5 0.06 2 0.03 4 0.03 10 0.12 7 0.07
Universities 10 0.10 1 0.01 1 0.02 5 0.04 2 0.02 1 0.01
Urban 10 0.10 10 0.12 10 0.15 8 0.07 10 0.12 7 0.07
intermodality
Public green 8 0.08 8 0.10 5 0.08 9 0.08 8 0.10 8 0.09
areas
Suburban 7 0.07 7 0.09 8 0.12 8 0.07 9 0.11 7 0.07
intermodality
Services 5 0.05 5 0.06 5 0.08 8 0.07 6 0.07 6 0.06
SUM 96 1 81 1 66 1 116 1 84 1 94 1
modal interchange occurs, while university student stations are those that provide
access to the most important sites of Catania University or where commuter students
perform modal interchange with other systems (i.e., Stesicoro, Giovanni XXIII, Italia,
Borgo and Nesima). Notably, due to its proximity to the university campus, the Milo
station is particularly frequented by student users. The most central stations for urban
dwellers are Italia, Giuffrida and Milo due to the presence of services and commer-
cial activities. The Stesicoro station, thanks to the mix of facilities that it provides,
has high values on all profiles, with a particular emphasis on tourists and city leisure
users. Some results are presented in Fig. 3a and b.
By adopting a recursive approach to this procedure to obtain the completed infras-
tructure scenario, it is possible to geovisualise and investigate it on the basis of the
current data on urban facilities. The evidence is of low centrality configuration related
to some stations that will be built in neighbourhoods currently considered peripheral
(e.g., Librino, Verrazzano and San Leone). In fact, there are few available urban facil-
ities in those areas, as shown in Fig. 4, despite being characterised by a high-density
92 F. Accordino et al.
population. In this case, the results might have been affected by the few attractive
resources and reduced mapped features in the OSM collaborative platform.
The creation of stations might be an essential reason for the placement of new
services and the emergence of new activities. During infrastructure implementa-
tion over time, changes in opportunity supply may affect the criteria and weights
considered to perform simulated scenarios by MCDA analysis.
In general, MCDA analysis highlighted how in future scenarios, new stations and
the extension of the railway could provide more centrality to areas that are presently
peripheral by creating an opportunity to (i) reconnect the involved urban areas, (ii)
change centre/periphery relationships through better urban planning, (iii) relocate
services and (iv) create new appeal.
Notably, the entire process is based on and related to data on existing resources.
Moreover, the extreme best and worst values employed in the MCDA, related to
Linking Urban Railways, People and Places: A Spatial Multicriteria … 93
Fig. 3 a Urban centrality varies based on two types of urban population: tourists and city leisure
users. b Urban centrality varies based on three types of urban population: university students, city
users, commuters
each decision alternative, correspond to the maximum and minimum levels of urban
facilities based on the data collected; therefore, they are related to this case study.
They do not represent a valid scale in an absolute sense and thus are not able to
confirm the sufficient availability of each resource type. Moreover, in MCDA, the
weights could be chosen in a different way by the direct involvement of policymakers
and citizens in weighing operations. Further development of this study may also
consider elements that can negatively affect centrality, such as degraded places,
crime, abandoned urban areas, traffic and pollution. In fact, elements that affect the
phenomenon negatively or positively (cost and gain) can be included in the TOPSIS
94 F. Accordino et al.
Fig. 3 (continued)
Linking Urban Railways, People and Places: A Spatial Multicriteria … 95
Fig. 4 Urban centrality varies in a completed infrastructure scenario, based on four types of urban
population: commuters, inhabitants, tourists and city leisure users
procedure. In this study, all features contributed to the degree of centrality, and
consequently, were all considered positives (gains).
4 Conclusion
This study shows how an apparently objective and unique concept such as centrality
should first be defined, starting from the spatial dimension of different urban popu-
lations and the most vulnerable social groups. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt
a perspective that considers centrality on the basis of different needs and desires
related to the spatial distribution of residents and territorial features and services.
96 F. Accordino et al.
The proposed model provides the possibility to achieve this goal, as it is replicable
and scalable to other urban contexts by analysing user profiles as long as data is avail-
able. The analysis of phenomena using spatially explicit data and GIS-based tools
constitutes an additional important cognitive contribution that cannot be excluded
from the urban planning decision-making process.
More detailed availability of data on urban facilities or comparison with actual data
on working station users would achieve further cognitive ends and refine the proposed
model. For this reason, it is important to highlight the importance of collaborative
mapping activities on open-access platforms, such as OSM, and to share open data
on mobility with transportation companies and territorial administrations.
Comparing actual situations with future scenarios highlights the risk that areas
of centrality will remain restricted to those of today. This projection suggests the
importance of secondary actions in the construction of metropolitan railways. There
is a need to encourage the reuse of abandoned spaces, the redevelopment of new
neighbourhoods with the implementation of services and activities and the restoration
of historic suburban neighbourhoods with regeneration measures.
Some of these changes may be generated spontaneously and are consequential to
infrastructure development. Coordinated intervention is also necessary to avoid the
production of further imbalances and the creation of dynamics that are far removed
from sustainability models and the real needs of urban populations.
Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank the Advanced Master on GIScience and
Unmanned System for the integrated management of the territory and the natural resources, Depart-
ment of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of Padova for technical,
scientific and organisational support.
References
1. Borlini B, Melzi C, Memo F (2011) Mobilità, accessibilità ed equità sociale. Sociologia Urbana
e Rurale 94:86–102
2. Borlini B, Memo F (2009) Ripensare l’accessibilità urbana. Cittalia Fondazione ANCI ricerche,
Rome
3. Bonotti R, Rossetti S, Tiboni M, Tira M (2015) Analysing space-time accessibility towards the
implementation of the light rail system: the case study of Brescia. Plan Pract Res 30(4):424–442
4. Cass N, Shove E, Urry J (2005) Social exclusion, mobility and access. Sociol Rev 53:539–555
5. Catania Metropolitan Transportation Company, General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS),
17 March 2021
6. Christaller W (1933) Central places in southern Germany. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
7. Colleoni M (2019) Mobilità e trasformazioni urbane. La morfologia della metropoli contem-
poranea. Franco Angeli, Milan
8. Catania Municipality (ed) (2012) Piano Generale del Traffico Urbano
9. Catania Municipality, Territorial Information System. https://sit.comune.catania.it/geonext-
ctw/guest.html. Accessed 15 Mar 2021
10. Daconto L, Colleoni M, Gwiazdzinski L (2017) L’accessibilità spaziale potenziale alle oppor-
tunità urbane. Un’analisi comparata tra la città metropolitana di Milano e la metropoli di Lione.
Archivio di Studi Urbani e Regionali XLVIII 119:73–91
Linking Urban Railways, People and Places: A Spatial Multicriteria … 97
11. Geneletti D (2019) Multicriteria analysis for environmental decision-making. Anthem Press,
London, New York
12. Greene R, Devillers R, Luther JE, Eddy BG (2011) GIS-based multiple-criteria decision
analysis. Geography Compass 5(6):412–432. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8198.2011.004
31.x
13. Harvey D (1973) Social justice and the city. Edward Arnold, London
14. ISTAT (2023) Municipal resident population by sex, year of birth and marital status. http://
dati.istat.it. Accessed 4 Mar 2023
15. ISTAT (2018) Vehicles—Public vehicle register—municipalities. http://dati.istat.it. Accessed
4 Mar 2023
16. La Greca P, Martinico F, Barbarossa L (2013). Progettare la città transit oriented: mobilità
sostenibile e pianificazione urbana per la città di Catania, Conference Paper. In: XVI Conferenza
Nazionale SIU - Società Italiana degli Urbanisti, Napoli
17. Lefebvre H (1968) Le droit à la ville. Anthropos, Paris
18. Lefebvre H (1974) La production de l’espace. Anthropos, Paris
19. Lucas K (2012) Transport and social exclusion: Where are we now? Transp Policy 20:105–113.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2012.01.013
20. Kaufmann V (2011) Rethinking the city—Urban dynamics and motility. Routledge, Oxford
21. Malczewski J, Rinner C (2015) Multicriteria decision analysis in geographic information
science. Springer, New York
22. Maplab (2015) Manual VectorMCDA. http://maplab.alwaysdata.net/doc/html_VectoMCDA/
manual.html. Accessed 4 Mar 2023
23. Martinotti G (1993) Metropoli. La nuova morfologia sociale della città. Il Mulino, Bologna
24. Mattioli G, Colleoni M (2016) Transport disadvantage, car dependence and Urban form. In:
Pucci P, Colleoni M (eds) Understanding mobilities for designing contemporary cities. Springer,
pp 171–190. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22578-4
25. Mobilita Catania (2022) Metropolitana di Catania: storia e sviluppi futuri. https://catania.mob
ilita.org/opere/metropolitana-di-catania-storia-e-sviluppi-futuri. Accessed 2 Mar 2023
26. Mobilita Catania (2018) Passante Ferroviario di Catania. https://catania.mobilita.org/opere/pas
sante-ferroviario-nodo-di-catania. Accessed 2 Mar 2023
27. Nuvolati G (2007) Mobilità quotidiana e complessità urbana. Firenze University Press, Florence
28. O’Sullivan D, Morrison A, Shearer J (2000) Using desktop GIS for the investigation of acces-
sibility by public transport: an isochrone approach. Int J Geogr Inf Sci 14(1):85–104. https://
doi.org/10.1080/136588100240976
29. Rossetti S, Tiboni M, Vetturi D, Zazzi M, Caselli B (2020) Measuring pedestrian accessibility
to public transport in Urban areas: a GIS-based discretisation approach. Eur Transp (76), Paper
no 2
30. United Nations (2021) Sustainable transport, sustainable development. Interagency report for
second Global Sustainable Transport Conference
31. Van Maarseveen M, Martinez J, Flacke J (2019) GIS in sustainable urban planning and
management. A global perspective. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL
98 F. Accordino et al.
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate
credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and
indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter’s Creative
Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not
included in the chapter’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by
statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from
the copyright holder.
Commoning Practices Along Streetscapes
Elisa Ravazzoli
Abstract In many cities around the world, similar stakeholders are collectively
implementing initiatives that aim to address common problems, satisfy similar
unmet needs, and contribute to the creation of more socially just and ecologically
sustainable communities. Among the different types of action, commoning prac-
tices propose alternative forms of caring, sharing, protesting, producing, consuming,
and occupying, where resources are collectively produced, owned, managed, or
distributed. This paper seeks to theoretically reflect on the transformative power
of commoning occurring on streets to tackle contemporary challenges and aims to
suggest a framework for the socio-spatial analysis of commoning practices on streets.
1 Introduction
Societies across the world are facing severe social, environmental, and technological
challenges that are significantly impacting the built environment and citizen’s daily
lives. To foster the transition towards more sustainable, beautiful, and inclusive cities
and communities, the EU has launched several initiatives among which the EU Pillar
for Social Rights, the New European Bauhaus, the Green Deal, the Digital Compact,
and many more. Among these, the New European Bauhaus asks all Europeans to
imagine and build a sustainable and inclusive future together that is beautiful for our
eyes, minds, and souls. More than ever before policymakers, civil society organi-
zations and citizens are being asked to work together to re-think and re-shape our
cities, communities, and public spaces as well as the way we live, move, work, and
consume to promote a transformation towards more resilient, economically sustain-
able, and socially inclusive places and cities. Together with institutionalized players,
many non-formal stakeholders have already started to develop bottom-up initiatives
E. Ravazzoli (B)
Eurac Research, Institute for Regional Development, Viale Druso 1, 30100 Bolzano, Italy
e-mail: [email protected]
aiming to find concrete solutions to pressing problems facing human society (e.g.,
climate change; social exclusion; socio-spatial inequality), or to respond to unmet
citizens’ needs that the market or the state is not able to fully satisfy (e.g., provision of
services; reclaiming the right to the city). Among existing collaborative and bottom-
up initiatives taking place in our cities, we could mention the following: activist
movements where people reclaim streets as places of shared interest, collective deci-
sions and collective work (Stavrides 2016); collaborative pacts where citizens and
public administrations sit at the same table to negotiate the shared use of unused or
confiscated mafia spaces to meet needs and turn them into common goods (Collab-
oration Pacts Archives—Labsus); urban commons, where resources are collectively
produced, owned, managed or distributed by a community for their mutual benefit
in a sustainable manner (Harvey 2012).
This work is part of the research field into urban commons and focuses precisely
on commoning practices happening in public spaces, mainly along streets. A
commoning practice is a process according to which a community collectively
creates, reproduces, and co-manages resources. Streets have often been considered
as commons in the past to host many forms of social practices (Harvey 2012). In
the course of history due to car-oriented planning, streets have lost their human
and social dimensions; due to the consumer society streets have also been gradually
privatized losing their public character (Mitchell 1995). Nevertheless, people are
still seeing streets as places of shared interest, collective decisions, and collective
work (Stavrides 2016). Many commoning practices occur along city streets (urban
gardening, protests, climate movements); and people gather in streets to find shared
ways to satisfy similar unmet needs through collective action; they use streets to
protest and for social activities.
The literature on urban commoning is extensive; however, there is still a gap in the
investigation of the relationships between “streets” and “commoning”, a topic not
widely addressed so far. Even though there is literature on how streets may be consid-
ered as commons, few studies have analysed bottom-up initiatives as commoning
practices occurring in streets. An example is provided by the work conducted by
Rosol (2018) who studied urban gardening as an urban commoning practice in the
context of neoliberal urbanism.
Indeed, many bottom-up initiatives may be reconsidered as commoning practices,
primarily due to their potential to produce new forms of common space (Stavrides
2015: 11). So conceived, commoning practices occurring in streets have a trans-
formative power on both spatial and social dimensions: on the one hand, they can
increase the aesthetic and physical quality of streets; restore existing local resources
that are important for the local population to satisfy their needs and livelihoods
(existing parks; vacant lots); on the other hand, they can empower citizens, no-profit
associations, local figures and people in general to protect, care for and take respon-
sibility for the use of existing resources in a collective way, following principles of
solidarity, sharing and caring.
Given this framework, this paper has a threefold objective: (1) map commoning
practices occurring in streets to discover the different types of challenges addressed;
(2) propose an analytical framework to investigate the social and spatial dimensions
Commoning Practices Along Streetscapes 101
The term “commoning” was originally coined by Peter Linebaugh (2008) in his
attempt to highlight aspects of the commons that are linked with activities and not
with material resources. In literature, there are many definitions of commoning. The
concept has been widely investigated in the field of urban planning (Stavrides 2014,
2016; Bingham-Hall 2016; Sohn 2019). Growing scholar attention on commoning
practices rather than commons (Euler 2018) is related to both the academic and prac-
tical needs of unfolding the collective processes of alternative forms of ownership,
production, and governance (Bresnihan and Byrne 2015) that happen daily in urban
spaces to meet collective needs and desires. Commoning suggests a new vocabulary
to explain “the social practices that enable people to discover, innovate and negotiate
new ways of doing things for themselves” (Bollier and Helfrich 2012). Commoning
has also been explained as a way of “creating a common culture” in partnership
with other stakeholders (Pór 2012). Commoning highlights the notion that commons
can only be managed through social relationships and shared knowledge (Bollier
2014). Overall, commoning refers to a network of relationships and social practices
that are based on a shared understanding that some things belong to all of us, and
that collective decisions and actions can shape the future without being locked into
profit-driven mechanics.
Among the most used conceptualizations of commoning, particularly relevant to
the scope of our work are those of: David Harvey, Stavros Stavrides, Massimo De
Angelis, Chatterton and Bollier & Helfrich. They link social practices, the community
of commoners and the social, political, and spatial environment in which they occur.
Harvey (2012: 73) defines commons not as resources or assets but as social rela-
tions and suggests understanding it as a verb—commoning—as a social practice.
According to Harvey’s definition, we can talk about social practices of commoning
when there is an unstable social, collective, and non-commodified relation between
102 E. Ravazzoli
a self-defined social group and those aspects of its actually existing or yet-to-be-
created social and/or physical environment deemed crucial to its life and livelihood
(Harvey 2012: 73).
Stavrides refers to commoning as an inventive process that produces new forms
of social life, shared experiences and knowledge that can challenge capitalism
(Stavrides 2016: 99, 107): new ways of appropriating and using the city (ibidem
99) are developed through collective decisions and actions (ibidem 107), according
to the collective needs and aspirations of a community of common space users.
Commoning practices also have a strong spatial dimension. There are a set of spatial
practices through which space is created. Space is not only a product and there-
fore a stake for commoning but a means of establishing and expanding commoning
practices (Stavrides 2016).
In the De Angelis’ commons system, commoning, or doing in common, is a
specific multi-faceted social activity, characterised by modes of production, distri-
bution and governance of the commons that are participatory and non-hierarchical
(De Angelis 2017: 121), whose effects on the commons environment may be that of
spreading culture or values. Euler (2018) defines commoning as a process that creates,
reproduces, and co-manages the community goods of a community; in explaining
the “community” that manages communal goods, De Angelis (2017) indicates that it
is a collection of people who share resources according to rules they themselves
set out and are united around a common agenda, which they share and pursue
together. As stated in Centemeri’s work (2018), based on the De Angelis’ defi-
nition of commoning, these alternative practices must be directed towards global
goals of emancipation, social justice, and ecological sustainability (293), to be truly
subversive.
According to Bollier and Helfrich (2019), commoning practices are embryonic
forms of alternative modes of production and livelihood characterized by social inter-
action and a bottom-up mode of participative decision-making (Bollier and Helfrich
2019). They are an exploratory process through which people identify their needs
and develop specific systems for provisioning and management. They are character-
ized by three elements referring to the social, economic, and institutional spheres:
(a) social practices and the relationship between human and non-human (social life);
(b) the act and modality of producing together (provisioning), (c) governance across
the members (Peer governance).
Finally, Chatterton (2010) defines urban commoning as processes of collective
(not necessarily open access), cooperative, non-commodified creation, maintenance,
protection, and transformation of urban spaces.
These excursus of definitions and stream of thinking helped to identify the key
elements of commoning practices that will be used to propose a framework of analysis
(Sect. 3).
Commoning Practices Along Streetscapes 103
3 Framework of Analysis
Table 1 (continued)
Dimension Description
Peer governance: the continuous process of dialogue,
coordination, and self-organization between people who are
active participants in the collective process of creation
Eight design principles of Clearly defined boundaries
commons systems by (Ostrom Congruence between rules and local conditions
1990) Collective choice arrangements
Monitoring: effective controls
Graduated sanctions
Conflict resolution mechanisms
Recognition of rights to organize
Nested enterprises
To map out different types of commoning practices taking place along streets and their
specific socio-spatial features (e.g., type of people, spatial contexts, types of changes
enhanced, modifications of implied power, inclusiveness), we created a database
of examples by means of desk research. The database was developed in Excel and
compiled using a range of sources including academic literature, project reports and
input from expert colleagues. The database is a useful tool to distinguish socio-spatial
differences across practices as it lists the key dimensions in the columns (e.g., scale,
topic and sector, agency, for scaling see the paragraph before for the full list) while
106 E. Ravazzoli
This paper discusses the relationship between streets and commoning practices; it
proposes an approach to analyse how commoning practices are produced socially as
well as how they modify the physicality of space, leaving concrete signs in the urban
context; also, it maps some existing commoning practices on streets. This section
discusses some considerations on the transformative power of commoning practices
on streets, i.e., how commoning practices manage the resources available and change
social relations among individuals.
Commoning practices, consisting in action taken by individuals, groups and
networks of people, with various motivations, should be seen in different ways: (a)
as an opportunity to innovate the provision of urban services; (b) as a possibility to
develop alternative economies, sometimes both out of the market exchange and state
provision and towards a collaborative economy that drives local development and
to promote transformation towards a more socially just and ecologically sustainable
societies; (c) as a way to reclaim the “right to the city” and use existing available
spaces; (d) and finally as a way to promote an inclusive regeneration of spaces using
place-making, i.e., the intentional effort to create good public spaces to promote
Commoning Practices Along Streetscapes 107
Fig. 1 Display of an example of Guerrilla gardening commoning practice (key dimensions). Credit
@ https://www.guerrillagardening.it/pagina2.html
sharing power, collective action and shared responsibility between the government
and citizens. They can support community development and empowerment. The fact
that more and more people initiate commoning practices in their efforts to tackle
common problems in our societies is both a challenge and an opportunity for plan-
ners, designers, and city makers that are asked to both consider the emerging and
increasing motivations raised by “commoning practices” and to develop processes
that are more open, democratic, and based on the active involvement of local people.
Finally, commoning practices can also enrich the aesthetic value of the streets.
During and after commoning practices, some physical elements of the streets may
be modified directly or indirectly by participants’ actions (modification in road uses,
facade modifications such as murals) thus affecting the urban environment nearby the
street or social practices in the whole city. The way in which commoning practices
occur in streets and the way in which public spaces are used can create a special image
of the neighbourhood and a particular urban atmosphere (Löfgren 2015), which can
benefit the entire city.
Overall, commoning practices have a transformative power (Ryan 2013) as they
propose alternative sets of social relations and practices—mutual support, care, nego-
tiation, and experimentation—that have the capacity to change dynamics towards a
shared management of resources.
References
Löfgren O (2015) Sharing an atmosphere: spaces in urban commons. In: Borch C, Kornberger M
(eds) Urban commons. Rethinking the city. Routledge, Oxon
Mitchell D (1995) The end of public space? people’s park, definitions of the public, and democracy.
Ann Assoc Am Geogr 85(1):108–133
Oliveira V (2016) Urban morphology: an introduction to the study of the physical form of cities.
Springer, Switzerland
Ostrom E (1990) Governing the commons: the evolution of institutions for collective action.
Cambridge University Press, New York
Pór G (2012) School of commoning. In: Bollier D, Helfrich S (ed) The wealth of the commons: a
world beyond market and state. Levellers Press, Amherst
Rosol M (2018) Politics of Urban gardening. In: Ward K, et al (2018) The Routledge handbook on
space of Urban politics. Routledge, London
Ryan AB (2013) The transformative capacity of the commons and commoning. Ir J Sociol 21(2):90–
102. https://doi.org/10.7227/IJS.21.2.7
Secco L, Pisani E, Da Re R, Rogelja T, Burlando C, Vicentini K, Pettenella D, Masiero M, Miller
D, Nijnjk M (2019) Towards a method of evaluating social innovation in forest-dependent rural
communities: first suggestions from a science-stakeholder collaboration. Forest Policy Econ
104:9–22
Sofia M (2017) Public space, collective governance and the Urban Commons. The Urban
Medi Lab. https://labgov.city/theurbanmedialab/public-space-collective-governance-and-the-
urban-commons/
Sohn H, Kousoulas S, Bruyns G (2015) Introduction: commoning as differentiated public-
ness. FOOPRINT, pp 1–8
Stavrides S (2016) Common space: the city as commons. Zed Books, London
Stavrides S (2014) On Urban commoning: the city shapes institutions of sharing. In: Ferguson F
(ed.) Make_Shift city: renegotiating the Urban commons. Jovis, Berlin
Stavrides S (2015) Common space as threshold space: Urban commoning in struggles to
re-appropriate public space. FOOTPRINT
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate
credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and
indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter’s Creative
Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not
included in the chapter’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by
statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from
the copyright holder.
New Technologies and Public Spaces:
Supporting Sustainable Urban Policies
Marichela Sepe
Abstract New technologies add value to public spaces if these are used to support
the knowledge of a place and its use. The presence of wireless, multimedia support,
apps and different ICT tools constitute elements, which can support the knowledge
aspects of the place with its different characteristics and can be designed in a logic of
integration with other infrastructure and networks in the city. Furthermore, the pres-
ence on social media, even if not exhaustive—as the presence of that public space as a
background to a photo does not guarantee that it is a pleasant and successful space—
offers, however, within a more comprehensive framework of information, data on
the type and quantity of users and their perception of it. Indeed, new technologies
in their different forms become more and more important tools to provide deeper
knowledge of the place, participation, and to address sustainable urban policies.
Starting from these premises, the aim of this work, carried out in the framework of
the research project “PRIN2020 #20209F3A37”, within the ISMed-CNR Unit with
the author’s responsibility and the related Sapienza Università di Roma-ISMed-CNR
agreement, is to illustrate the positive influence of ICT tools on the use of both indoor
and outdoor public spaces by: revitalizing them; increasing the possibilities of use
as well as contributing to greater social cohesion; and supporting sustainable urban
policies. By way of examples, two emblematic case studies of public spaces will be
illustrated using an original and an ad hoc database.
M. Sepe (B)
DICEA, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome, Italy
e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
ISMed, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Naples, Italy
1 Introduction
New technologies can add value to public spaces if these are used to support the
knowledge of a place and its use. The presence of wireless, multimedia support, apps
and different ICT tools constitute elements, which can improve the knowledge aspect
of the place in its different characteristics and can be designed in a logic of integration
with other infrastructure and networks in the city. Indeed, these can become reasons
for major use, socialization, sustainable economic growth and success [1, 2, 4, 5, 15].
Furthermore, the presence of public spaces on social media, even if not exhaus-
tive—as the presence of that space as a background to a photo does not guarantee that
it is a pleasant and successful site—offers, however, within a more comprehensive
framework of information, data on the type and quantity of users and their perception
of it (through, for example, the hashtags used, or comments left).
New technologies in their different forms, hence, become more and more impor-
tant tools to provide deeper knowledge of the place, participation, and address
sustainable urban policies in an inclusive perspective as well.
Accordingly, the NUA—New Urban Agenda adopted in Quito in 2016 during the
Third Habitat Conference and which “represents a shared vision for a better and more
sustainable future”—focuses attention on the aforementioned topics, as evidenced
in the following related principles.
We commit ourselves to promoting safe, inclusive, accessible, green and quality public
spaces as drivers of social and economic development, in order to sustainably leverage their
potential to generate increased social and economic value, including property value, and to
facilitate business and public and private investments and livelihood opportunities for all.
In this principle, the quality and flexibility of the public spaces are related to the presence
of multifunctional, healthy and green areas, inclusivity, accessibility, social interaction and
inclusion, dialogue between all people, and participation.
We will promote capacity-development initiatives to empower and strengthen the skills
and abilities of women and girls, children and youth, older persons and persons with disabil-
ities, indigenous peoples and local communities, as well as persons in vulnerable situations,
for shaping governance processes, engaging in dialogue, and promoting and protecting
human rights and antidiscrimination, to ensure their effective participation in urban and
territorial development decision making.
In the above principle, the attention to the needs of women, girls, children, youth, older
persons and persons with disabilities or in vulnerable situations is particularly outlined, in
order to support specific attentions and policies to them.
We will promote the development of national information and communications tech-
nology policies and e-government strategies, as well as citizen-centric digital governance
tools, tapping into technological innovations, including capacity-development programmes,
in order to make information and communications technologies accessible to the public,
including women and girls, children and youth, persons with disabilities, older persons and
persons in vulnerable situations, to enable them to develop and exercise civic responsibility,
broadening participation and fostering responsible governance, as well as increasing effi-
ciency. The use of digital platforms and tools, including geospatial information systems, will
be encouraged to improve long-term integrated urban and territorial planning and design,
land administration and management, and access to urban and metropolitan services [36].
New Technologies and Public Spaces: Supporting Sustainable Urban … 113
chunks of time, it will alter the ways in which they approach and use the physical
spaces of cities and the nature of social interactions”(Graham and Marvin, 2002).
Technologies are in fact restoring dignity to the “place” as a result of the interaction
between space and sociality. For this purpose, elements of tangible and intangible
heritage are put in place that can contribute to increasing the attractiveness of the city,
creating an experiential vision of paths and parts of it. This vision is favoured by the
presence of a quality urban environment and a creative class [12]. Smart experiential
paths are an example of the use of ICT as tools capable of supporting knowledge of
the place through multimedia and interactive devices.
Such virtual communities have the common goal of supporting specialized social
groups often separated by geographical distance [16]. In fact, new information tech-
nologies allow the generation of networks in a very short time through which urban
sociality can exchange information, participate in choices and express consent.
Managing the enormous amount of data coming from the network requires in this
regard a revision of planning models and the tools these are implemented with, as
well as the definition of new boundaries in order to create adequate practices and
protocols to apply them. In this sense, new possibilities arise for territorial projects
capable of being in line with the contemporary scenarios of flows and networks in
places [7, 19, 23, 24].
The encounter between the different spaces of flows will result in a variety of envi-
ronments, generating integrated platforms that will redesign connections, hierarchies
and development opportunities [33, 34].
Indeed, a spatial configuration capable of favoring complex interconnection
should perform multiple functions, namely: facilitate the exchange between the
different modes of mobility, even soft; place new functions in infrastructural nodes;
ensure the high quality of pedestrian, cycle, river and green paths, to facilitate the
presence of more typically urban functions. Furthermore, the more strictly functional
aspect should be adequately connected to the high symbolic and cultural quality of
the spaces attached to infrastructure nodes, in order to create a sense of belonging
and safeguard the identity of the places [27–29, 31, 32].
Blue, green, cycle, pedestrian, experiential, cultural, virtual and multimedia paths
can overlap, intertwine and recombine and have the potential to create new mixed
urbanities that are more liveable and sustainable.
In this perspective, the project of a place that wants to act as a generator of its
cultural armour must be able to propose territorial devices that act on its metabolism
by stimulating its social, economic, educational, health and landscape connective
functions. In this new dimension, one of the most exciting challenges is design and
planning based on the creative multi-dimension of development able to seize the
opportunities of the alliance between heritage and creativity, heritage and innovation
[6] and heritage and health.
116 M. Sepe
3 Data Collection
To analyze the 30 case studies, and those which will be illustrated in this paper, the
QPS-D@taC—Quality Public Space D@ta Collection was created. This is an original
database [30, 31] constructed by collecting information, images and planimetries
concerning the phases of design, realization, and management of public spaces.
Information regarding the success of the spaces in question and their presence—
where they are—on social media is also included. Data is collected by different
sources, including information from the professionals or technicians who created
the spaces, internet websites, bibliographical references, and on-site visits.
The first element to collect is the year of realization; although a project such as a
public space is realized in the medium-long term, the year of realization indicates the
moment in which it is inaugurated. If, as happened in some cases, the spaces were
inaugurated in different phases (e.g., 2010–2013), these were indicated, giving the
idea of the different steps in the realization of the sites. The second element is the
planimetry of the project and relative images that detail the shape and/or the position
of the public space within the surrounding territory.
The third element is the city where the space is located and its address. The fourth
element is the measure of the surface area; these data together with its localization
have the function to explain, the extent of the project work, and the consequent “urban
weight” of the public space in the territory.
The fifth element to collect consists of identifying the institutions involved; these
data are useful to comprehend if and what public entities are involved in the process
of creating the space and if the private sector is involved. The presence of public
entities clarifies the will of local administrations to realize a space that is public and
for public use; the contribution of the private sector usually identifies the need for
funds in the executive and/or management phases.
Funds are also useful data—the sixth element—which is connected to the previous
one because it needs to indicate the whole amount—both public and private—
used to realize the public space. Furthermore, in the database, it is indicated if the
management cost was forecasted and the amount.
The presence of an urban planning project—the seventh element—, which is the
general framework for the realization of a public space, is indicated, explaining if the
public space is part of a greater regeneration project, or if the project only concerns the
public space area in question. Accordingly, information concerning possible public
concessions is reported to understand all the urban planning tools used to realize the
public space. The names of the architects or urban designers are also reported if the
project is realized by a private firm.
The eighth element consists of identifying the policies, which are carried out for
the public space in question, and, as for the previous data, these may concern only
the specific site or a wider area if the space has been realized in the framework of
a broader regeneration project. The database can comprehend ad hoc policies—for
long or short periods—adapted for specific needs, such as for the pandemic.
New Technologies and Public Spaces: Supporting Sustainable Urban … 117
The ninth element concerns both the kind of uses and fruition of the space (Mori-
arty and Honnery 2008; Porteous 1977) [27]. This is important information that
serves to identify the potential activities that are designed for the public space in
question and what are those that are really carried out, and the kind and typology of
access points.
These previous data give information regarding the success of the project (the
tenth element). Here data concerning the presence of people, the organization of
cultural events and the presence of public space on the social media are collected.
In particular, data concerning the presence on social media, although not exhaustive,
offer an indication—through the kind of hashtags, number of followers and likes,
and numbers and kinds of comments—on the typology and quantity of users and on
their perception of the site [18].
Finally, the database contains the main bibliographical and website references
(elements 11–12) which constitute—together with the information provided by the
technicians and professionals involved in different ways in the realization of the case
in question—the sources of information on the different public space [30, 31].
The best practices of public spaces that were chosen to verify the validity of the
Charter of Public Space 10 years after its creation are based on seven categories,
namely: waterfronts (in Pescara, Genova, San Benedetto del Tronto and Palermo),
squares (in Catanzaro, Trieste, Catania, Palermo, Siena, Aosta, Perugia, and Termoli),
gardens (in Rome and San Donà di Piave), parks (in Milan, Turin, Lecce and Cagliari),
open-air transportation hubs (in Scandicci, Naples and Padua), nature paths (in
Trento, the River Nera and Val di Sella) and projects on spaces in which the use of
ICT tools support and improve different uses (in Bolzano and Bologna). The general
framework that emerges from the 30 collected case studies shows different design,
planning, cultural, geographical, social and financial factors that can determine the
quality of a public space [30, 31].
As mentioned previously, the two case studies concern the Open Laboratory
Project in Bologna and the NOI Techpark in Bolzano.
The first case study is the Open Laboratory Project realized between 2016 and
2018 in a 2000 m2 surface in Bologna within an area located between Palazzo Re
Enzo, Sala Borsa (Fig. 1), Palazzo D’Accursio and the former Galleria d’Accursio.
The Institution involved was the Municipality of Bologna and the funds were 3
million euro from the POR FESR [11]–2020—AXIS 6—devoted to Attractive and
participated cities involving the main cities of Emilia Romagna.
This space was part of the framework of the redevelopment program approved by
a municipal council resolution. Different kinds of policies were activated, namely:
physical restoration and functional and technological ones. In the first case, the spaces
were all connected to each other through a covered path obtained by rearranging the
old underpasses and using the square in Sala Borsa and the courtyards of Palazzo
118 M. Sepe
Fig. 1 Bologna, Sala della Borsa entrance (Source Marichela Sepe’ archive)
centre, capable of connecting small and large companies with start-ups and research
institutes, offering space for the most advanced research and the most innovative
companies connected to particularly attractive public spaces which play the role of
collectors among the scientific laboratories.
There are different types of uses including researchers, students and companies
who work closely together to create innovative solutions. To this end, the NOI Tech-
park provides them with laboratories and workshops equipped according to the most
advanced standards. By taking advantage of the infrastructure offered the numerous
innovative services and the public spaces companies join the NOI network and benefit
from the exchange of knowledge and technologies between the research sector and
the economic sector within an attractive and innovative environment created for all
the people who work or live there. Companies also have the opportunity to rent labo-
ratories and spaces for production use or to settle permanently within the technology
park to create a place to work and socialize.
There are many elements that testify to the success of the case study. The hub
is home to 25 Italian startups, 5 research centres, 30 companies and 20 labora-
tories. These companies include Huawei, Maccaferri, Grandi Salumifici Italiani,
Leitner, while several laboratories have been installed at the disposal of companies
and research institutes. The space works mainly on four thematic areas: Green, Food,
ICT and Automation and Alpine Technologies. The area, not far from the city centre,
has been transformed into an innovation district with research laboratories, a nursery,
an outdoor arena for cultural events, a park, this is a space that has been returned to
the city and its users which is still growing and will welcome new laboratories in
the next 2 years—six other modules—and public spaces. Furthermore, the Techpark
is fully usable and accessible to all people [38, 39]. The presence on social media
New Technologies and Public Spaces: Supporting Sustainable Urban … 121
is extensive and includes: Instagram #noitechpark (hashtag and place) with 4631
followers, Facebook US techpark (place and page) with 2802 followers and 2713
likes, and the #noitechpark hashtag on Twitter.
As testified by the use of this place by people and social media content, NOI
has become a centre of both cultural and technological interest, which has improved
socialization between people, researchers and companies thanks to the appeal of its
environment made up of laboratories and public spaces and is well integrated in its
social and urban tissue.
The database used to collect the data related to the case studies was very useful in
this sense because it identified the presence of public institutions at different levels,
the policies and uses and the success of the new public spaces in which the use of
ICT is an important factor.
Although in the COVID-19 period of major social restrictions, those spaces were
used less they are reference spaces in their cities for socialization and activities, and
the use of ICT has facilitated the exchange of information of many different kinds
among all people. Indeed, these places are easily accessible by people at different
hours improving the sense of belonging to them.
The lesson to be learned from these two cases is that socialization, knowledge as
well as the economy can mutually be reinforced if suitable public spaces and uses
of new technologies are integrated.
Future steps in this study concern an update to the Charter of Public Space which
will include new principles related to the use of ICT to improve the quality of public
spaces specifically devoted to knowledge and research, and the suitable use of social
media to share the degree of satisfaction of a place, or to communicate possible
unexpected risks and the relative measures to follow.
Acknowledgements Financial support from the Italian Ministry of University and Research
(MUR) in the framework of the Project PRIN2020 #20209F3A37 is gratefully acknowledged.
References
1. Amin A, Graham S (1998) Cities of connection and disconnection. In: Allen J, Massey D,
Pryke M (eds) Understanding cities: movement and settlement. Open University Press, USA
2. Anderson Benedict R (1991) Imagined communities: reflections on the origin and spread of
nationalism. Verso, London
3. Brown J, Barber A (2012) Social infrastructure and sustainable urban communities. Proc Inst
Civil Eng-Eng Sustain 165(1):99–109
4. Campbell T (2012) Beyond smart cities. How cities network, learn, and innovate. Earthscan
Publications, London
5. Carmona M, Heath T, Oc T, Tiesdell S (2010) Public places-Urban spaces. Architectural Press,
Oxford
6. Carta M (2014) Reimagining urbanism. List Lab, Trento
7. Castells M (1989) The informational city. Blackwell, Oxford
8. Clementi A (1997) L’ambiguo impero delle reti. In: Desideri P, Ilardi M (eds) Attraversamenti.
I nuovi territori dello spazio pubblico. Costan & Nolan, Genova-Milano
9. Desideri P (ed) (2001) Excity. Spazi esterni e reti della nuova metropoli. Meltemi, Roma
10. Duany A, Speck J, Lydon M (2010) The smart growth manual. McGraw-Hill, New York
11. de Waal M (2014) The city as interface. How digital media are changing the city. NAI010
Publishers, Rotterdam
12. Florida R (2002) The rise of the creative class: and how it’s transforming work, leisure,
community and everyday life. Perseus Book Group, New York
13. Frederick HH (1993) Global communication and international relations. Wadsworth, Belmont,
CA
14. Garau P, Lancerin L, Sepe M (2015) The charter of public space. LiST, Trento
15. Gehl J (2010) Cities for people. Island Press, Washington
New Technologies and Public Spaces: Supporting Sustainable Urban … 123
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate
credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and
indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter’s Creative
Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not
included in the chapter’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by
statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from
the copyright holder.
Augmented Nature-Based Solutions:
A Possible Taxonomy of Technologies
“in” and “for” Urban Greening
Strategies
1 Introduction
This paper originates from an investigation into several applications of NBS in real
settings, where we looked explicitly for scientific methods and innovative products
and services to enhance the potential of NBS in urban contexts while using tech-
nology. An initial literature review on the analysis of “Technology” and “Nature-
based Solutions” was carried out in Scopus,1 whereas 259 articles and scientific
products have resulted more prominent since 2016, with a noticeable peak in the
years 2021 and 2022.
In addition, our sampling was increased by the session at the Smart and Sustainable
Planning for Cities and Regions Conference2 (SSPCR 2022) held in July 2022, where
the contributions and discussions offered “food for thought” for the content of this
paper. The research questions are related to the main session topic on Augmented
Nature-based solutions in urban planning and embedded technologies to improve
NBS performance and foster social inclusion in urban greening strategies. In contrast,
scientific contributions came from different countries, mainly: Italy, Spain, Austria,
and Germany. Lastly, we relied on the ongoing application of two European Projects
funded by the Horizon 2020 Programme to consolidate the proposed taxonomy,
namely CLEVER Cities and VARCITIES, in which the authors are currently involved
in.
The CLEVER Cities3 project (June 2018–September 2023) aims to co-create,
co-design, co-implement, and co-manage locally tailored NBS to deliver tangible
social, environmental, and economic improvements for urban regeneration. It gathers
36 international partners and involves three front-runner cities (Hamburg, Germany,
London, United Kingdom, and Milan, Italy) and six fellow cities (Madrid, Larissa,
Belgrade, Malmo, Quito, Sfantu Gheorghe). CLEVER Cities applies a place-based
approach, starting with key urban regeneration challenges and employs strong local
partner clusters to foster sustainable and socially inclusive urban regeneration locally,
in Europe, and globally. The CLEVER Cities project co-creates, co-designs, co-
implements, and co-manages locally tailored NBS to deliver tangible social, envi-
ronmental, and economic improvements for large-scale urban regeneration processes.
Particular attention in the implementation of NBS within CLEVER Cities is given
to shared governance mechanisms and collaborative pathways of co-creation aimed
at advancing the cities’ adaptation to a more bottom-up approach to urban planning
(Borsboom-Van Beurden et al. 2023; Bradley et al. 2022; Mahmoud and Morello
2021).
1 https://www.scopus.com/results/results.uri?sort=plf-f&src=s&sid=197ad86419648a8651cca
486de4deeeb&sot=a&sdt=a&sl=56&s=TITLE-ABS-KEY%28%22technology%22+AND+%22n
ature-based+solutions%22%29&origin=searchadvanced&editSaveSearch=&txGid=c1ef373d5
5fd60c8742f163143abbd87.
2 https://www.sspcr.eurac.edu/session-augmented-nature-based-solutions-or-cities/.
3 https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/776604.
128 I. Mahmoud et al.
Initial understanding of the technology “in” green urban strategies topic includes
different types of sensors that could be used to measure the NBS health status or
remote sensing methods to enhance ecosystem services delivery in people’s everyday
lives (Li and Nassauer 2021). Gudowsky and Peissl (2016, pp. 5–6) highlight the
importance of technology in corresponding citizens’ visions and social needs by
using it as a support and catalyst for change in public engagement processes. In
the meantime, Maes and Jacobs (2017, p. 123) call for the need to use NBS with
low-technological impact to increase the social empowerment of local communities.
Meanwhile, understanding of the technology “for” green urban strategies topic
incorporates all the technological support to enhance NBS functionality, durability,
and diffusion (Dick et al. 2020). Among others, technologies for green include the
use of digital platforms and efficient software to visualize, analyze, and integrate
data for NBS deployment in urban planning, such as drones and GIS modeling
and mapping methods (Rakha et al. 2021). For instance, recent developments in
technology and integration into the human-built environment could help develop
the redesign of certain NBS and green infrastructures while increasing their co-
benefits and improving ecosystem services (O’Hogain and McCarton 2018). This
broad concept is related to the diversity in scales of implemented NBS. Nonetheless,
some scholars argue that even “low-tech” or “no-tech” green—also considered as
traditional urban greening measures—would still need data elaboration, especially if
it relates to vegetation performance against natural and water management capacities
to enhance the possibility for urban planners, architects, and landscape designers to
reclaim valuable urban spaces correctly (Snep et al. 2020).
4 https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/869505.
Augmented Nature-Based Solutions: A Possible Taxonomy … 129
Based on this ideation, the resulting taxonomy for Augmented NBS with tech-
nologies “in” and “for” green is divided into two main subcategories: sensing with
technologies and citizen engagement methods. Other technological aspects are also
related to NBS, like structural technologies that sustain and support nature. However,
in this taxonomy, we only focus on those technologies that help to give nature a voice
and enhance it through sensors or collaboration with people.
On one side, sensing “in” green refers to all the technologies directly embedded
in NBS to detect the health of natural elements or surrounding environmental aspects
(e.g., air, water, soil). On the contrary, sensing “for” refers to all the technologies
that are situated outside the NBS, hence remote sensing devices (mounted on drones,
satellites to collect LiDAR, thermal data, and similar technology) to monitor the
health of natural NBS performance.
On the other side, citizen engagement “in” green refers to technologies placed
inside or around NBS that directly involve human activities in detecting, mapping,
and assessing the direct social impact of people on nature or the environmental impact
of nature on people. Detaching ourselves from NBS, the engagement of people
“for” green, i.e., to promote urban nature, is undoubtedly very vast and can take
place in a variety of ways: from low-cost technologies, such as participation models
and protocols (from co-design and co-maintenance) of greenery, to more advanced
technologies to facilitate collaboration in the creation of NBS (digital fabrication,
applications and social media, wearable technologies, etc.).
A further category that structures the taxonomy refers to the phase in which the
technologies are employed, i.e., in the planning, design, construction or monitoring
and evaluation (M&E) of NBS. This categorization is important to understand the
planning phase of technologies themselves and the duration of their use in relation
to NBS. The last category refers to the low-tech or high-tech level of technology as
considered its readiness level.
Table 1 summarizes the above-mentioned categories, enriched with references
to tangible examples from research and practice to emphasize the importance of
technology in different phases of urban planning.
130 I. Mahmoud et al.
Table 1 Taxonomy of Augmented NBS illustrating technologies “in” and “for” green with prac-
tical examples and throughout urban planning and management phases coupled with technology
readiness level
Possible Taxonomy for NBS implementations Phases of urban planning and Technology
and examples management readiness level
Technology in Green Examples Analysis Co-design M&E High Low
tech tech
Structural 3D printed CO-MIDA: a 3D x x x
technology hardware vertical gardens
hosting plants
Sensing Sensors to VARCITIES: x x x x
monitor water humidity and air
content and quality, water, and
humidity snow level
Sensors for VARCITIES: x x x
weather monitored by
micro-climate static/bike
and noise mounted/rover
mounted sensors
Sensors for CO-MIDA: a x x x
measuring the Bio-Photovoltaic
production of System producing
biological energy from
photovoltaics bacteria
Wearable for (Li et al. 2021): x x x
plants monitoring of
plant stresses via
chemiresistive
profiling of leaf
volatiles
Technology for Green Examples Analysis Co-design M&E High Low
tech tech
Remote GIS and RENATURE, x x x
sensing LiDAR VARCITIES:
mapping
vegetation and
vegetation health
Drones for VARCITIES x x x
ecosystem Green modelling
services and mapping
Platforms for Nature Quant: b x x x
digitalization Nature Score
(continued)
Augmented Nature-Based Solutions: A Possible Taxonomy … 131
Table 1 (continued)
Possible Taxonomy for NBS implementations Phases of urban planning and Technology
and examples management readiness level
Technology in Green Examples Analysis Co-design M&E High Low
tech tech
VARCITIES: x x x
Health and
Well-being online
platform
Sensors Participate x x x
embedded in Melbourne: c
urban social spaces and
furniture and benches
digital VARCITIES:
displays interactive totem
with touch screen
and multiple
services
VARCITIES:
smart benches
Citizen Mobile VARCITIES: x x x
engagement applications Planet App
Augmented VARCITIES: x x x
Reality, Wearables
Virtual
Reality
Protocols of VARCITIES: x x x x
(digital) Gamification
citizen CLEVER Cities: x x x x
engagement DIPAS
CLEVER Cities: x x x
Co-mapping
urban NBS
contest
VARCITIES: x x x x
NBS impact
appreciation,
SROI calculation
Social media Nature Quant: d x x x
and smart Nature doses
devices I Naturalist e x x x
(continued)
132 I. Mahmoud et al.
Table 1 (continued)
Possible Taxonomy for NBS implementations Phases of urban planning and Technology
and examples management readiness level
Technology in Green Examples Analysis Co-design M&E High Low
tech tech
Biodiversity CLEVER Cities: x x x
mapping butterfly
co-mapping by
citizens
VARCITIES: Bird x x x
species mapping
NBS impact CLEVER Cities: x x x
Social monitoring
protocols
Source The authors
Legend: x is applicable
a https://iaac.net/project/co-mida-en/
b https://www.naturequant.com/naturescore/
c https://participate.melbourne.vic.gov.au/emerging-tech-testbed/social-spaces
d https://www.naturequant.com/naturedose/
e https://www.inaturalist.org/
Based on the above-mentioned taxonomy, we can report some examples that use
similar technologies to evaluate NBS performance while using technology “in” green
and “for” green.
For instance, within the VARCITIES project, almost all demos and several part-
ners are engaged in testing and developing technologies to achieve multiple
purposes related to NBS.
Concerning the technology “in” green, it is worth mentioning that some municipal-
ities have shown interest in exploring this concept further, moving towards a phygital
solution, where the digital advanced content is made available to citizens and visitors
through a physical installation. The city of Castelfranco Veneto is discussing with the
project partner Eurac for the possible implementation of a totem equipped with an
LCD touchscreen and audio system to be placed nearby the demo site of the historical
Augmented Nature-Based Solutions: A Possible Taxonomy … 133
garden of Villa Revedin Bolasco. The totem would make the activity of the VARCI-
TIES project recognizable to citizens. For example, the explanation of scientific
experiments conducted by the University of Padova on perceived restorativeness and
benefits associated with exposure to nature in a garden (Sella et al. 2023) or effects
of the landscape related to physiological and environmental parameters (Pirotti et al.
2022) would be accessible to non-experts and thus contribute to sharing the main
results with adults and children. It would also serve cyclists and provide a charging
point for smartphones and e-bikes, encouraging sustainable tourism and access to
digital services. Moreover, it would show data coming from the H&WB platform
(described in the next paragraph), adjusted for a better user experience considering
the different framework conditions (larger screen, open-air location, specificity of
the site), integrated with local info on touristic amenities and activities, and possible
additional services or gamification tools. Similar installations have been already
tested in smart city projects, e.g., the Sinfonia project in Bolzano—IT, see Grilli
et al. (2018), but so far have never been conceived to interact with NBS or activities.
All pilot cities in VARCITIES are going to equip the demo sites with a large
variety of IoT sensors, including wearable ones, according to the specific aim of
some scientific experiments or the intention to monitor and report local environmental
characteristics or users’ habits and performance. For example, in the historical garden
of Villa Revedin Bolasco the University of Padova (department of Agroforestry)
installed several sensors to monitor microclimate conditions in various places in
the garden and equipped a small, unmanned vehicle (a so-called rover) operated
either by remote control or by an integrated GNSS system to gather data on the
microclimate condition related to specific places in the garden. They also used a
multispectral camera or portable sensor for vegetation index estimation and terrestrial
laser scanning of “healthy areas” for 3D point cloud generation and AR/VR. Some
benches have been turned into “smart” ones able to record the number of users sitting
there and provide data on the effectiveness of their positioning along pedestrian paths.
Within the research and development activities granted by the project, the partner
Sensedge is providing some demos with an advanced version of its “Senstick”, a
LoRaWAN sensor designed to generate reliable and quality data in harsh indoor
and outdoor environments. The Senstick already includes sensors’ functionalities
such as environmental parameters (air temperature, relative humidity, and pres-
sure), solid parameters (temperature, moisture). In VARCITIES, further evolution
of the Senstick will support researchers and public administrations to understand
and monitor thermal comfort in cities better. Another industrial partner Cyclopolis
in Greece is developing and testing an innovative sensor to be mounted on any bicycle
and able to monitor the air quality during movement from one location to another and
relate it to the vehicle’s position. Measured parameters include Particulate Matter
(PM) sized 1, 2.5, and 10 µm, as well as temperature and humidity, while a GPS
tracks the location.
Finally, in the demo case of Gzira, Malta which consists of greening and the social
improvement of small public spaces along today’s busy streets, a citizen science
campaign is taking place that involves residents in measuring and reporting air quality
and wind using low-cost sensors.
134 I. Mahmoud et al.
Regarding the second macro category of this framework technology “for” green;
a so-called Health and Well-being (H&WB) platform is going to be designed and
implemented by IES. The H&WB platform will be a visualization and management
tool, a nature-focused digital twin to show KPIs and live and collected data in suitable
and engaging ways to different STKs through specific dashboards. It will be devel-
oped using previous experience and iPIM and iCIM cloud-based tools provided by
the project partner IES. 3D models of each pilot city will be accessible on the internet.
The aim is to provide the final information to be published on the platform that is
understandable and engaging for everyone by maximizing interaction and usability.
The project partner DEKKA is also developing an augmented reality platform
to further engage citizens by placing digital elements in physical demo spaces and
enhancing the visitor experience. Visitors can use it in combination with holovision
glasses and enter an innovative and rewarding user experience.
Again, in the Castelfranco Veneto pilot scheme, additional wearable sensors
have also been used by volunteers involved in physiological experiments designed
by the Neural science department at the University of Padova to monitor and
track the changes in the brain activity of visitors and relate them to various positions
in the garden, microclimate parameters and aesthetic characteristics (eye-tracker
glasses and portable electroencephalogram). Moreover, some smartphones with GPS
and accelerometers are available to vulnerable visitors that are also equipped with a
special app designed to provide real-time information on their position in the garden
and request assistance on request or automatically in the event of tripping.
Alongside the development of scientific studies, EURAC engaged citizens and
stakeholders in some remote and in-person evaluation activities related to the percep-
tion of societal value delivered by the foreseen execution of such innovative initia-
tives: social return on investment calculation in the Castelfranco Veneto choice
experiment and willingness to pay elicitation in Gzira.
CLEVER Cities, on the other hand, is an EU-funded project that did not rely so
much on the technological components in its initial phase of co-creation planning
and setting up of an urban innovation partnership (see Mahmoud and Morello 2021).
Nonetheless, the co-design and co-monitoring phases have made extensive use of
technological devices to enhance green spaces to focus on citizen engagement and co-
monitoring processes, in particular e-participation techniques boosted by the COVID-
19 pandemic.
Technology “in” green was mainly carried out during the environmental moni-
toring phases of the project lifetime started in 2021 in two living labs in
Milan (Mahmoud and Morello 2023). Technological aspects were employed in order
to help the co-monitoring of NBS environmental performance starting in 2022. In
one of the urban living labs in Milan—IT, the so-called CLEVER Action Lab 1 aimed
at diffusing green roofs and walls city wide, sensors in a two-story green wall of a
Augmented Nature-Based Solutions: A Possible Taxonomy … 135
public transport company ATM-owned depot building (via Giambellino 121) were
used to monitor pollutants detection on leaves (ongoing) as well as for irrigation
control of plants through the irrigation system. In another example in Milan, the
CLEVER Action Lab 3, a public space adjacent to the new Tibaldi-Bocconi train
station thermal camera drone flights helped to map the land surface temperature of
the site prior to and after greening interventions implementation.
Meanwhile, technology “for” green was extensively used throughout the co-
designing phase of the project. For instance, in the three living labs in Milan, the use
of e-participation in all co-creation phases was widely used through digital meet-
ings, interactive digital boards, and interface repositories. In addition, digital boards
and online surveys supported co-monitoring activities and guaranteed continuity and
willingness to participate in the co-creation process (Mahmoud and Morello 2018).
Specifically, technology was used for data collection as well as in a repository hub
to monitor and evaluate the social impact of NBS on local communities using online
questionnaires distributed via QR codes and newsletters (Mahmoud et al. 2021).
Another example is the DIPAS Digitales Partizipation system, an e-participation
and decision-making support system was implemented in the municipality of
Hamburg, Germany (Arlati et al. 2021). Moreover, in Milan, a digital archive was
collaboratively built thanks to a public call launched by the municipality in 2022 to
award the best green roof and green wall solutions. “Premia il tuo verde” (translated:
Reward your Green) became an online collaborative mapping experience that helped
the city to detect the best practices of green roofs and walls around the city.
In this paper, we propose a taxonomy to organize and frame how NBS improve their
environmental performance and social impact through technology. We, therefore,
introduced the concept of “Augmented NBS” to highlight technological support in
and around green measures. This technological support can take the form directly
on NBS or externally to it. Research projects’ experiments and products on the
market already show a rich variety of solutions, mostly adopting high-tech solutions
as reported in Table 1 as well. An overview of these augmented NBS opens up a
series of theoretical, ethical, and practical reflections on the use of technology in
nature, thus posing new challenges in the triangulation of the relationship between
human, nature, and technology.
“Tech-assisted NBS” or “smart green infrastructure” is becoming trend in a
growing market that focuses on combining green and high-tech solutions, and the
ambition towards the combined use of natural elements and innovative technolog-
ical solutions challenges cities to rethink their governance structures and practices,
calling for integrated approaches and the mobilization of competencies and skills
across institutional sectors (Bisello et al. 2022). Numerous examples are already on
the market for outdoor and indoor NBS and products. Embedding sensors in green
infrastructure, according to the concept of Internet of Nature (IoN) proposed by
136 I. Mahmoud et al.
Acknowledgements The authors of this article have received funding from their respective
projects. IM and EM from CLEVER Cities; AB and DK from VARCITIES. CLEVER Cities project
has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Innovation action programme under
grant agreement number 776604. VARCITIES has received funding from the European Union’s
Horizon 2020 Innovation action programme under grant agreement number 869505.
Consent to Publish The authors do not declare any conflicts of interest, and all approved the final
consent to publish.
Credits Conceptualization: EM, IM. Methodology: EM, IM. Formal analysis: IM, AB. Writing:
EM mainly contributed to the writing of Sects. 1, 3, and 5; IM contributed to Sects. 2, 3, 4; AB
contributed to Sects. 2 and 4. Supervision: EM, DK. Funding acquisition: AB, EM.
References
Grilli G, Tomasi S, Bisello A (2018) Assessing preferences for attributes of city information points:
results from a choice experiment. Green Energy Technol (9783319757735):197–209. https://
doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75774-2_14
Gudowsky N, Peissl W (2016) Human centred science and technology—transdisciplinary foresight
and co-creation as tools for active needs-based innovation governance. Eur J Futures Res 4(1).
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40309-016-0090-4
Li Z, Liu Y, Hossain O, Paul R, Yao S, Wu S, Ristaino JB, Zhu Y, Wei Q (2021) Real-time monitoring
of plant stresses via chemiresistive profiling of leaf volatiles by a wearable sensor. Matter 4(7):
2553–2570. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2021.06.009
Li J, Nassauer JI (2021) Technology in support of nature-based solutions requires understanding
everyday experiences. Ecol Soc 26(4). https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12838-260435
Maes J, Jacobs S (2017) Nature-based solutions for Europe’s sustainable development. Conserv
Lett 10(1):121–124. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12216
Mahmoud I, Morello E (2018) Co-creation pathway as a catalyst for implementing nature-based
solution in urban regeneration strategies learning from CLEVER cities framework and Milano
as test-bed. Urbanistica Informazioni 278(Special issue):204–210. https://re.public.polimi.it/ret
rieve/handle/11311/1079106/348151/2018_Mahmoud-Morello_XIINU_sessionen3.pdf
Mahmoud I, Morello E (2021) Co-creation pathway for urban nature-based solutions: testing a
shared-governance approach in three cities and nine action labs. In: Bisello A et al (ed) Smart
and sustainable planning for cities and regions. Springer International Publishing, pp 259–276.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57764-3
Mahmoud IH, Morello E (2023) Four years of Co-creation with stakeholders: what did
we learn about its added value in Urban Planning? Insights from CLEVER Cities
Milan three Urban Living Labs. In: Cerreta M, Russo M (a cura di) La valu-
tazione come parte del processo pianificatorio e progettuale, Atti della XXIV Conferenza
Nazionale SIU Dare valore ai valori in urbanistica, Brescia, 23–24 giugno 2022, vol
09. Planum Publisher e Società Italiana degli Urbanisti, Roma-Milano. ISBN 978-
88-99237-51-6. http://media.planum.bedita.net/00/7a/Atti%20XXIV%20Conferenza%20Nazi
onale%20SIU_Brescia_VOL.09_Planum%20Publisher_2023_.pdf
Mahmoud IH, Morello E, Rizzi D, Wilk B (2022) Localizing sustainable development goals (SDGs)
through co-creation of nature-based solutions (NBS). In: Bears R (ed) The Palgrave encyclopedia
of urban and regional futures. Springer International Publishing, pp 1–17. https://doi.org/10.
1007/978-3-030-51812-7_354-1
Mahmoud I, Morello E, Vona C, Benciolini M, Sejdullahu I, Trentin M, Pascual KH (2021) Setting
the social monitoring framework for nature-based solutions impact: methodological approach
and pre-greening measurements in the case study from CLEVER cities Milan. Sustainability.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su13179672
O’Hogain S, McCarton L (2018) A technology portfolio of nature based solutions: innovations in
water management. In: A technology portfolio of nature based solutions: innovations in water
management, pp 1–122. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73281-7
Pirotti F, Piragnolo M, D’Agostini M, Cavalli R (2022) Information technologies for real-
time mapping of human well-being indicators in an urban historical garden. Future Internet
14(10):280. https://doi.org/10.3390/fi14100280
Rakha T, El Masri Y, Chen K, De Wilde P (2021) 3D drone-based time-lapse thermography: a case
study of roof vulnerability characterization using photogrammetry and performance simulation
implications. https://doi.org/10.26868/25222708.2021.30828
Ramzan R, Omar M, Siddiqui OF, Ksiksi TS, Bastaki N (2021) Internet of trees (IoTr) implemented
by highly dispersive electromagnetic sensors. IEEE Sens J 21(1):642–650. https://doi.org/10.
1109/JSEN.2020.3014387
Scheuer S, Jache J, Kičić M, Wellmann T, Wolff M, Haase D (2022) A trait-based typification of
urban forests as nature-based solutions. Urban For Urban Green 78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
ufug.2022.127780
Augmented Nature-Based Solutions: A Possible Taxonomy … 139
Sella E, Meneghetti C, Muffato V, Borella E, Carbone E, Cavalli R, Pazzaglia F (2023) The influence
of individual characteristics on perceived restorativeness and benefits associated with exposure
to nature in a garden. Front Psychol (14). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1130915
Snep RPH, Voeten JGWF, Mol G, van Hattum T (2020) Nature based solutions for urban
resilience: a distinction between No-Tech, Low-Tech and High-Tech solutions. Front Environ
Sci 8(December). https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2020.599060
Tsekeri E, Lilli A, Katsiokalis M, Gobakis K, Mania A, Kolokotsa D (2022) On the integration
of nature-based solutions with digital innovation for health and wellbeing in cities. In: 7th
international conference on smart and sustainable technologies (SpliTech), pp 1–6. https://doi.
org/10.23919/SpliTech55088.2022.9854269
Wellmann T, Andersson E, Knapp S, Lausch A, Palliwoda J, Priess J, Scheuer S, Haase D (2022)
Reinforcing nature-based solutions through tools providing social-ecological-technological
integration. Ambio. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280
Zilio S, Borsari A, Bisello A, Segata A, D’Alonzo V, Croce S (2022) Visionary nature based actions
for health, well-being & resilience in cities D3.4: report on multiple benefits expected from
visionary solutions dissemination level public. https://varcities.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/
D3.4_Reports-on-multiple-benefits-expected-from-Visionary-Solutions.pdf
Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing,
adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate
credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and
indicate if changes were made.
The images or other third party material in this chapter are included in the chapter’s Creative
Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not
included in the chapter’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by
statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from
the copyright holder.