Energy saving and efficiency in urban environments: integration strategies and best practices

Abstract

As engines of growth and socio-economic development, cities are responsible for 66% of global energy consumption and 70% of emissions. The current energy crisis makes it more imperative than ever to integrate energy saving and energy efficiency into the governance of urban and territorial transformations, from strategies to tools, at all scales of the city: from the building to the neighbourhood, from large urban areas to the territory as a whole. With a bottom-up approach, this contribution identifies, starting from a review of best practices, addresses and solutions for energy saving and efficiency for the different urban fabrics, as an integral part of the tools for the governance of urban and territorial transformations. The contribution concludes with an analysis of the energy consumption of a case study and the identification of possible interventions. The application highlights the strong interactions of the city's energy performance containment with other urban dynamics, including vulnerability to natural phenomena. The article is the first step of a wider research aimed at developing an expert system to support decision-making by identifying energy-consuming areas and proposing potential transformation scenarios due to urban characteristics.

Keywords

• urban energy saving
• best practices
• energy