An Integrated Participative Spatial Decision Support System for Smart Energy Urban Scenarios: A Financial and Economic Approach

Abstract

Abstract:The decision-making process regarding heating supply system options in a district perspective is extremely challenging. This paper aims to present a new method to support urban energy decisions in real-time processes, which was developed in the context of a European project (DIMMER (District Information Modeling and Management for Energy Reduction, 2013Reduction, -2016). The method is composed of three parts: (i) a new web-based spatial decision support system (SDSS), called "Dashboard"; (ii) an ad hoc energy-attribute analysis (EAA) tool to be integrated into Dashboard; and (iii) a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA). In contrast to other SDSSs, one of the main strengths of Dashboard is the ability to acquire, store, and manage both geo-referenced and non-geo-referenced data, and perform real-time analyses of spatial problems taking into account a wide range of information. In this sense, Dashboard can formally visualize and assess a potentially infinite number of attributes and information, as it is able to read and process very large web databases. This characteristic makes Dashboard a very effective tool that can be used in real-time during focus groups or workshops to understand how the criterion trade-offs evolve when one, or several, decision parameters change. The paper describes the main procedure of the new method and testing of Dashboard test on a district in Turin (Italy).

Assessing Multiple Benefits of Housing Regeneration and Smart City Development: The European Project SINFONIA

“…The SINFONIA project has therefore suggested analyzing the local context, in view of future replication or scale-up of the interventions, by adopting a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) approach. MCDA deals with complex problems that may be solved by adopting multiple solutions (called alternatives) to be evaluated considering multidimensional elements (criteria) and is currently used to select alternatives in energy-related urban projects [121,122].…”

Towards Evaluation the Cornerstone of Smart City Development: Case Study in Dalat City, Vietnam

“…Donor coordination can extend from the public and public agencies to innovative and private financing options. It is important to consider a well-structured business case, which identifies costs and quantifies benefits over the life of the project in the city procurement plan [79]. The procurement strategy of the departments is also essential to be an integrated strategy to gain economic benefits, eliminate unnecessary costs, and allow interaction.…”

Public and Private Economic Feasibility of Green Areas as a Passive Energy Measure: A Case Study in the Mediterranean City of Trapani in Southern Italy

“…Economic and financial feasibility analysis of active energy-efficiency measures at building, district and city scales has been widely applied to the evaluation of energy retrofit projects for nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEBs) and to various types of existing buildings [35,36], even in the presence of public incentives [37,38], as well as for the definition of the best urban energy scenarios [39], also supporting public decisions with multicriteria models [40,41]. Other issues related to economic feasibility arise when public and private actors are involved in the decision to implement green areas.…”