Floriana Zucaro

EU Smart City Governance

In recent years European Commission has developed a set of documents for Members States tracing, directly or indirectly, recommendations for the transformation of the European city. The paper wants to outline which future EU draws for the city, through an integrated and contextual reading of addresses and strategies contained in the last documents, a future often suggested as Smart City. Although the three main documents (Cohesion Policy 2014-2020 of European Community, Digital Agenda for Europe and European Urban Agenda) face the issue of the future development of European cities from different points of view, which are respectively cohesion social, ICT and urban dimension, each of them pays particular attention to urban and territorial dimension, identified by the name of Smart City. In other words, the paper aims at drawing the scenario of evolution of Smart Cities that can be delineated through the contextual reading of the three documents. To this end, the paper is divided into three parts: the first part briefly describes the general contents of the three European economic plan tools; the second part illustrates the scenarios for the future of the European city contained in each document; the third part seeks to trace the evolution of the Smart Cities issue developed by the set of the three instruments, in order to provide the framework of European Community for the near future of our cities.

Urban Systems and Energy Consumptions: A Critical Approach

City transformations are also due to the development of new energy sources, which have influenced economy and lifestyles, as well as the physical and functional organization of urban systems. Cities are the key place where it is need to act for the achievement of strategic environmental objectives, such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy saving. The hard resolution of these challenges depends on several factors: their multidimensional nature, the change of the economic and settlement development model, and also the complexity of the relationships between the elements that constitute the urban systems and that affect energy consumption. According to this awareness the Project Smart Energy Master for the energy management of territory financed by PON 04A2_00120 R & C Axis II, from 2012 to 2015 has been developed: it is aimed at supporting local authorities in the development of strategies for the reduction of energy consumption through actions designed to change behavior (in terms of use and energy consumption) and to improve the energy efficiency of equipment and infrastructure. With the goal of describing some of the results of the methodological phase of this project, this paper proposes a review of the major studies on the issue of energy consumption at the urban scale in the first section; in the second section the outcomes of the first phase of the development of the comprehension/interpretive model related to the identification of the set of physical/environmental variables at urban scale, that most affect the energy consumption, are described; the third makes a critical review of the reference scientific literature, characterised by a too sectoral approach, compared to the complexity of the topic.

Towards the Definition of the Urban Saving Energy Model (UrbanSEM)

European cities are essential actors for transition to a low carbon society on a 2050 horizon. Urban activities account for 80 % of energy consumption in Europe as well as most GHG emissions. The need for a new paradigm based on energy efficiency and saving thus represents both a challenge and an opportunity to local authorities who have to deal with the complexity of urban systems and energy issues. In light of this realization, the Smart Energy Master project conducted by the Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at the University of Naples Federico II aims to develop a model of governance for local energy saving and efficiency. One of the results of this research project is the Urban Saving Energy Model aimed at integrating the different subsystems in which a city can be structured with energy consumption at a neighborhood scale. This paper describes the model in question and some of the results achieved by applying the UrbanSEM to three Naples neighborhoods.

Climate Change and Energy Sustainability. Which Innovations in European Strategies and Plans

In recent years, the effects of climate change on urban areas have pushed more and more policy-makers and urban planners to deal with the management of territorial transformations in a systemic and multi-sector perspective, due to the complexity of the issue. In order to enhance the urban governance of climate change and cope with environmental sustainability, the concept of resilience can be used. In this perspective, the present work has a double purpose: on the one hand to reflect on he need to adopt a new comprehension/interpretive approach to the study of the city, which embraces the concept of resilience, and on the other hand to perform a reading of European strategies and plans oriented to mitigate the effects of climate change and to achieve the goals of energy and environmental sustainability. This paper describes some of the results of the knowledge framework of the Project Smart Energy Master for the energy management of territory financed by PON 04A2_00120 R & C Axis II, from 2012 to 2015 aimed at supporting local authorities in the development of strategies for the reduction of energy consumption through actions designed to change behavior (in terms of use and energy consumption) and to improve the energy efficiency of equipment and infrastructure. The paper is divided into three parts: the first is oriented to the definition of the new comprehension/interpretive approach; the second illustrates a series of recent innovations in planning tools of some European States due to the adoption of the concept of resilience; the third, finally, describes and compares the most innovative energy and environmental strategies aimed at contrasting and/or mitigate the effects of climate change, promoted in some European and Italian cities.

City and mobility: towards an integrated approach to resolve energy problems

The issue of integration between city, mobility and energy plays a central role in the current EU policies, aimed at achieving energy saving targets, independence from fossil fuels and enhance of the urban systems resilience, but the strategies of the single states are, however, still far from its implementation. This paper proposes a reading of the current policies and of the recent initiatives aimed at improving the energy efficiency of settlements, implemented at both Community and national level, aimed at laying the groundwork for the definition of an integrated approach between city and mobility to resolve energy problem. Therefore, the paper is divided into six parts. The first part describes the transition from the concept of sustainability to the concept of resilience and illustrates the central role played by this one in the current urban and territorial research; the second part briefly analyzes the main and more recent European directives related to city, mobility and energy, while the third part describes how the energy problem is afforded in the current programming and planning tools. The fourth and fifth parts, are intended to describe the innovative practices promoted in some European and Italian cities concerning energy efficiency aimed at the integration between urban and transport systems. The last part of the paper, finally, deals with the definition of a new systemic approach for achieving objectives of energy sustainability. This approach aims at integrating strategies and actions for strategies of mobility governance, based on the certain assumption that the core for the most part of energy problems is mainly represented in medium and large cities.

Review Pages: Planning For Smart Cities. Dealing With New Urban Challenges

Starting from the relationship between urban planning and mobility management, TeMA has gradually expanded the view of the covered topics, always remaining in the groove of rigorous scientific in-depth analysis. During the last two years a particular attention has been paid on the Smart Cities theme and on the different meanings that come with it. The last section of the journal is formed by the Review Pages. They have different aims: to inform on the problems, trends and evolutionary processes; to investigate on the paths by highlighting the advanced relationships among apparently distant disciplinary fields; to explore the interaction’s areas, experiences and potential applications; to underline interactions, disciplinary developments but also, if present, defeats and setbacks. Inside the journal the Review Pages have the task of stimulating as much as possible the circulation of ideas and the discovery of new points of view. For this reason the section is founded on a series of basic’s references, required for the identification of new and more advanced interactions. These references are the research, the planning acts, the actions and the applications, analysed and investigated both for their ability to give a systematic response to questions concerning the urban and territorial planning, and for their attention to aspects such as the environmental sustainability and the innovation in the practices. For this purpose the Review Pages are formed by five sections (Web Resources; Books; Laws; Urban Practices; News and Events), each of which examines a specific aspect of the broader information storage of interest for TeMA.

Sustainable land use and climate adaptation: a review of European local plans

Adaptation plans are the result of a political decision based on the awareness that climate change has altered environmental conditions and action is therefore needed in order to return to, maintain or achieve the desired outcome. A crucial role in defining adaptation actions is played by the use of resources, in particular of non-renewable resources such as soil. This paper, rooted on the reading of a sample of recent Italian and European adaptation plans, seeks to investigate the existence of environmental actions aimed at guaranteeing a sustainable use of natural and non-natural soil, in order to reduce the consumption of non-anthropized soil and also contribute to containing the effects of climate change. The paper is divided into three sections: the first one describes the methodology employed; the second one focuses on the most up-to- date plans regarding the effects of climate change in some urban systems; the third one proposes hints for further reflections and useful recommendations to local decision-makers in the development of tailor-made adaptation actions aimed at guaranteeing an efficient use of both natural and anthropized soil. The reading of the plans has exposed that soil consumption is not among the factors that need direct action to reduce the vulnerability of urban systems to current climate change, but rather it is a phenomenon that can be contained by increasing green areas and/or infrastructures and encouraging agricultural and environmental regeneration. The attention seems to be drawn to not yet sealed soil, thus leaving out the already anthropized one that, as such, would require, instead, greater adaptation efforts.

Effect of Urban Greenspaces on Residential Buildings’ Energy Consumption: Case Study in a Mediterranean Climate

The paper is part of the scientific research sector concerning the government of urban transformations in order to promote efficiency and reduction of energy consumption in urban areas. In this study, urban greenspaces (green areas) are proposed as a strategy for cities to achieve both urban sustainability and resilience while addressing the issues of energy reduction and climate change adaptation. The study investigated the microclimate impact of greenspaces on the cooling energy needs of residential buildings in Naples, Italy, given different urban fabric characteristics by coupling the microclimate model ENVI-met with the building energy model EnergyPlus. The charts resulted from the study could represent an useful decision support tool for urban planners and policy-makers to locate and size greenspaces based on their effectiveness in terms of energy consumption reduction. The study found that—in general—a medium-size green area (4900 m2) would reduce the cooling energy consumption by 9.20% which is more than double the effect of a large green area (32,400 m2).

Energy and Climate Change Polices in Europe: Overview and Selected Examples from a Spatial Planning Perspective

The challenges imposed by the changing climate and the energy-driven developments are very complex and need to be addressed from the global to the local scale. In the last decades, this issue has attracted the attention of policy makers at all levels of government, attempting to adopt an integrated and adaptive energy and climate strategy. This paper reviews and analyzes the main efforts that have been made in Europe to secure a transition toward a low-carbon and energy—efficiency society from a spatial planning perspective. To this aim, the paper presents an in-depth analysis of selected climate and energy policy documents elaborated at three different levels of governance: the European Union, the national and the local level. At the European level, our analysis shows that very limited attention has given to spatial planning as a strategy to reduce or ameliorate the impacts of the changing climate. At the national level, while mitigation policies are more inclined towards techno-centric solutions, adaptation policies partly recognize the anticipatory role of spatial planning to play in promoting robust adaptation measures. At the local level, where most of the causes and the effects of the changing climate are manifested, technological options are often well integrated with spatial planning. However, even at the local scale, energy and climate policies focus mainly on individual sectors or urban functions rather than systemic changes.

Review Pages:Smart Cities Challenges: Smart Environment for Sustainable Resource Management

Starting from the relationship between urban planning and mobility management, TeMA has gradually expanded the view of the covered topics, always remaining in the groove of rigorous scientific in-depth analysis. During the last two years a particular attention has been paid on the Smart Cities theme and on the different meanings that come with it. The last section of the journal is formed by the Review Pages. They have different aims: to inform on the problems, trends and evolutionary processes; to investigate on the paths by highlighting the advanced relationships among apparently distant disciplinary fields; to explore the interaction’s areas, experiences and potential applications; to underline interactions, disciplinary developments but also, if present, defeats and setbacks. Inside the journal the Review Pages have the task of stimulating as much as possible the circulation of ideas and the discovery of new points of view. For this reason the section is founded on a series of basic’s references, required for the identification of new and more advanced interactions. These references are the research, the planning acts, the actions and the applications, analysed and investigated both for their ability to give a systematic response to questions concerning the urban and territorial planning, and for their attention to aspects such as the environmental sustainability and the innovation in the practices. For this purpose the Review Pages are formed by five sections (Web Resources; Books; Laws; Urban Practices; News and Events), each of which examines a specific aspect of the broader information storage of interest for TeMA.