Innovating cities policy report for EU R&I sustainable urban development : Cities P4P-Project for Policy : policy review report from EU DG R&I funded urban projects under Framework Programme Seven (FP7).
Date: 2020-07-22
Institutions: Directorate-General for Research and Innovation
Subjects: Framework Programme for Research and Development, adaptation to climate change, circular economy, economic and social cohesion, energy efficiency, land use, quality of the environment, report, research, research project, smart city, social well-being, sustainable development, urban construction, urban infrastructure, urban sociology, urban transport, urbanisation

Innovating Cities Policy 
Report for EU R&I Sustainable 
Urban Development 

Cities P4P-Project for Policy: Policy Review Report from 
EU DG R&I funded urban projects under Framework 
Programme Seven (FP7)

Written by David Ludlow, Ana Bartolo, Maria Del Mar Delgado, Evgenia Koutsomarkou, Elena 
Marchigiani, Daniel Monterescu 
December – 2019 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Innovating Cities Policy Report for EU R&I Sustainable Urban Development 

European Commission 
Directorate-General for Research and Innovation 
Directorate D — Clean Planet  
Unit D.2 —Future Urban & Mobility Systems 
Contact   Maria Yeroyanni 
Email  

 marie.yeroyanni@ec.europa.eu 
RTD-PUBLICATIONS@ec.europa.eu 

European Commission 
B-1049 Brussels 

Manuscript completed in December 2019  

The European Commission is not liable for any consequence stemming from the reuse of this publication.  
The views expressed in this publication are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the 
European Commission. 

More information on the European Union is available on the internet (http://europa.eu). 

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International 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
EUROPEAN COMMISSION 

Innovating Cities Policy 
Report for EU R&I Sustainable 
Urban Development 

Cities P4P-Project for Policy: Policy Review 
Report from EU RTD funded urban projects under 
Framework Programme Seven (FP7) 

edited by Maria Yeroyanni 

2020 

Directorate-General for Research and Innovation 
Research Framework Programme Seven 

EN 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1.1  Aims and objectives of the report 
1.2  Structure of the Report 

Table of Contents 
1  Introduction and Overview ........................................................................................... 3 
3 
5 
2  Climate Adaptation and Resilience ................................................................................. 5 
5 
6 

2.1  Climate Adaptation Challenges 
2.2  Resilience Solutions 

7.2 Energy Solutions 

6.1 Mobility Challenges 

7.1     Energy Challenges 

5.1  Air Quality and Health Solutions 

7.3 Systemic Decision Support Tool : evidence base for decision making 

3.1   Sustainable Land Use Challenges 
3.2  Nature-Based Solutions 

4.1  Resource Efficiency Challenges 
4.2  Resource Efficiency Solutions 

3  Sustainable Land Use and Nature Based Solutions .......................................................... 10 
10 
11 
4  Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy ...................................................................... 14 
14 
15 
5  Air Quality and Health Challenges ................................................................................. 21 
21 
6  Mobility ..................................................................................................................... 27 
27 
7  Energy Transition including Energy Efficient Buildings ...................................................... 36 
36 
37 
38 
8  Social Cohesion, Well-being and Diversity ...................................................................... 46 
46 
47 
9  Social Innovation and Citizen Science ............................................................................ 53 
53 
53 
10 Summary of Project Highlights...................................................................................... 58 
58 
61 
62 
64 
65 
66 
68 
69 
11 Overall Lessons learnt ................................................................................................. 70 

10.6 Energy Transition Including Energy Efficient Buildings 

10.2 Sustainable Land use and Nature Based Solutions 

10.3 Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy 

10.7 Social Cohesion, Well-being and Diversity 

10.8 Social Innovation and Citizen Science 

10.1 Climate Adaptation and Resilience 

8.1 Social Cohesion Challenges 

8.2 Social Cohesion Solutions 

9.2 Citizen Science Solutions 

10.4 Air Quality and Health 

9.1 Societal Challenges 

10.5 Mobility 

2 

 
 
 
 
 
 
1 

Introduction and Overview 

Many  of  the  economic,  social  and  environmental  challenges  that  Europe  is  facing  have  a 
strong urban dimension. Rapid population growth, aging population, shrinking and growing 
cities, climate change, biodiversity loss, disaster risks, migration, unemployment, and social 
exclusion are some of the major problems affecting citizens living in the urban environment. 
Thus,  making  cities  inclusive,  safe,  resilient  and  sustainable  is  a  global  objective   
(Sustainable Development Goal, SDG no. 11) that requires innovative, holistic and citizen-
centred solutions, by promoting a multi-stakeholder engagement within a multi-level and 
participatory governance framework.   

Although  the  term  smart  cities  has  been  extensively  used  for  cities  implementing  new 
technologies  in  the  fields  of  energy,  mobility  and  Information  and  Communication 
Technologies (ICTs),  truly smart and sustainable cities  should be the reflections of the 
people  who  live,  work,  and  create  within  them.  Our  cities  and  public  spaces  are  indeed 
integral to the innovation, cultural heritage, arts, democracy and sustainability. Envisioning 
the  future  of  our  cities,  implies  synthesising    the  different  perspectives  and  practices 
coming from a variety of urban players such as local authorities, planners and designers, 
practitioners, creative industries and SMEs, fab and living labs.  

Cities  are  actors  of  open  innovation  and  shapers  of  a  sustainable  and  human-driven 
economic future.  They foster regional growth to the well-being of citizens and create new 
jobs and market opportunities. They represent incubators of the future on the front lines 
of change in our society and the place where we are making the necessary progress on 
climate neutrality  and where we  show that  social inclusion, social innovation,  diversity, 
equity, justice and fairness are necessary ingredients for success.  

Figure 1. © K.-U. Häßler 

1.1  Aims and objectives of the report 

The report capitalizes on 30 years of successful EU-funded research on sustainable urban 
development.  It relies on the analysis of a critical mass of inspiring knowledge, ideas and 
practices coming from 41 projects funded under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) 
across  the  different  thematic  priorities,  in  conjunction  with  the  evidence  provided  by 
initiatives  supporting  research  and  innovation  towards  transition  to  a  more  sustainable 
urbanisation (e.g. the Joint Programming and Partnering initiative JPI Urban Europe, the 
Energy Efficient Building Public-Private Partnership, the European Green Vehicles Initiative 
and the European Construction Technology Platform).  

The  report  presents  the  results  of  almost  41  projects,  and  highlights,  showcases  and 
provides an EU-wide evidence base of the outstanding contributions of EU funded research 
and innovation in meeting urban societal challenges, notably those supported by the FP7 
Research Framework Programme which deploy a systemic and integrated analysis of the 
urban  ecosystem,  and  the  interconnected  nature  of  the  urban  challenges  arising  in  our 
cities. The report highlights integrated policy research solutions to the societal challenges 

3 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
that generate policy benefits and co-benefits simultaneously delivering socio-economic and 
environmental political objectives for regional, local city authorities, civil society, political 
representatives, the private sector and industry. 

Figure 2. © pict rider 

The EU Funded FP7 reviewed projects acknowledged the need to consider urban challenges 
in  a  wider  perspective  which  promotes  systemic  solutions  (e.g.  nature-based, 
technological,  digital,  social,  cultural,  governance,  financial  and  regulatory  innovations) 
delivering new options and strategies for city managers and politicians for a sustainable 
Urban Design and planning towards a robust economy.  

Horizon  2020  went  beyond  framework  programme  Seven  (FP7)  in  scope  and  ambition, 
towards  actions  and  implementation.  However,  FP7  had  tackled  many  of  the  H2020 
challenges, as it can be seen for the thematic chapters of the present report.  

These  thematic  areas  have  been  a  significant  source  of  inspiration  for  research  and 
innovation under H2020, and have been integrated in the Horizon 2020 programmes on 
'Smart  and  Sustainable  Cities'  and  the  policy  agenda  on  Innovating  Cities.  This  report 
constitutes  a  valuable  evidence  base  of  knowledge  (research  policy  conclusions)  for  the 
Urban Agenda for the EU, its Urban Partnerships and the new Habitat III Global Agenda.  

Figure 3. © Backwoodsdesign 

It provides urban stakeholders with the inspiration of new ideas, factual information, as 
well a practical guide for dissemination and potential exploitation for innovating cities, and 
encouragement  to  deploy  at  large  scale,  upscaling  and  replicating  these  solutions,  thus 
creating  the  opportunity  for  Europe  to  lead  the  global  market  of  Innovating  Cities  with 
systemic solutions and contribute to sustainable, resilient, inclusive, healthy, creative and 
prosperous cities.  

4 

 
 
 
 
 
EU Research and Innovation on sustainable urban development is a strong component of 
Horizon  2020,  the  EU's  current  funding  Programme  for  Research  and  Innovation,  with 
emphasis  on  social  innovation,  and  citizens'  engagement  towards  open  innovation,  co-
creation, co-design and co-implementation of systemic solutions with different actors  in 
cities across the EU for Innovating Cities. 

The reviewed projects provide ways to implement the proposed solutions to be adopted by 
city municipalities and highlight how the above projects which entail actual implementation 
of  related  actions  to  the  proposed  solutions,  contributed  to  a  new  urban  planning  and 
design within city municipalities in Europe and in the World.  

1.2  Structure of the Report 

European research aims to devise and develop innovative solutions for city management, 
that can overcome the complexities of sustainable urban development and deliver on pan-
European  and  global  commitments  on  societal  challenges  and  sustainable  development 
goals.  In this respect this report showcases the results of some EU funded multi-partner 
pan-European, and frequently global, research and innovation projects combining an urban 
ecosystem  of  stakeholder  engagement,  linking  research  skills  to innovative  city  practice 
solutions.  

The report highlights and presents the outputs of 41 EU projects thematically structured 
according to eight sections as follows: 

  Climate Adaptation and Resilience  

  Sustainable Land Use and Nature Based Solutions 

  Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy 

  Air Quality and Health 

  Mobility 

  Energy Transition including Energy Efficient Buildings  

  Social Cohesion, Well-being and Diversity 

  Social Innovation and Citizen Science 

Each  thematic  section  presents  the  results  of  a  number  of  individual  EU  FP7  research 
projects.  The thematic sections consider, amongst other issues, the extent to which the 
projects fostered and developed the following: 

  Evidence-base for decision-making by cities. This could includes more information on 

the business cases for innovative solutions produced by the project.  

  Cities as actors in a framework of open innovation. This includes technical and digital 

innovations for sustainable urban development.   

  Stakeholder engagement in the design, development and deployment of solutions. This 

includes governance model innovations.  

  Support of new local urban planning Instruments and policy. 

2 

Climate Adaptation and Resilience 

2.1  Climate Adaptation Challenges 

5 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Extreme  weather  events  like  heavy  rainfall,  hail,  violent  storms  and  heat-waves  are 
increasing in frequency and sea levels continue to rise. The effects of global warming and 
climate  change  are  undeniable.  Urban  systems  are  highly  vulnerable  to  these  threats. 
However  successful  mitigation  efforts  prove  to  be,  the  impact  of  climate  change  will 
increase in the coming decades due to the delayed effects of past and current greenhouse 
gas emissions. Europe and other parts of the world therefore have no choice but to take 
adaptation  measures  to  deal  with  the  unavoidable  climate  impacts  and  their  economic, 
environmental and social costs. Climate impacts vary significantly from region to region, 
and  can  fluctuate  within  defined  geographical  areas.  Adaptation  and  resilience 
management is therefore required both on a regional and local scale to move towards more 
resilient  communities.  Building  resilience  is  about  helping  communities  withstand  and 
recover  from  disasters,  with  the  focus  on  tackling  the  root  causes  and  dealing  with  the 
consequences.  By  prioritising  coherent,  flexible  and  participatory  approaches,  it  will  be 
much cheaper to take early, planned adaptation action than to pay a higher price of not 
adapting to climate change. Good planning and preparation can limit the scale of impacts, 
and risk management policies save lives and enable growth and sustainable development. 

2.2  Resilience Solutions 

Figure 4. © antto 

The  EU  FP7  funded  projects  considered  here  include  CLUVA,  CORFU,  SECOA,  TRUST, 
PREPARED, BURBA  and RAMSES. CLUVA and  CORFU both  address global problems  on a 
trans-local  scale  –  climate  change  in  the  Global  South,  Asia  and  Europe.  In  terms  of 
integrated  and  systemic  approach  to  societal  challenges,  CLUVA  use  urban  morphology 
maps  with  other  data  to  help  predict  and  assess  the  risk  for  the  most  vulnerable 
communities in urban slums, whereas CORFU looked at cost effectiveness issues.   

CLUVA (Climate Change and Urban Vulnerability in Africa) focused on five of Africa’s most 
vulnerable  cities:  Saint-Louis  in  Senegal,  Ouagadougou  in  Burkina  Faso,  Douala  in 
Cameroun, Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. The project supplied 
planners, managers and researchers within African cities with reliable forecasts of the local 
impact  of  climate  change  to  strengthen  the  capacities  of  urban  communities.  Africa  is 
considered a continent particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change and its real 
impact, particularly on a local scale, is still poorly understood. Prediction of climate change 
impacts  in  Africa  in  the  21st  Century  are  based  on  Global  Circulation  models  with  low 
resolution and a very broad scale which fail to represent two potentially important drivers 
of  African  climate  variability,  namely  the  El  Niño/Southern  Oscillation  and  land  cover 
change.  The  task  of  developing  reliable  predictions  of  future  climate  change  in  Africa  is 
further complicated by  the lack of accurate baseline data on current  climate and by the 
intricacies of climate space and time variations.   

CLUVA  developed  methods  and  knowledge,  which  were  uptaken  and  implemented  to 
African cities to manage climate risks, to reduce vulnerabilities and to improve resilience 
towards climate change. The project improved the capacity of scientific institutions, local 
Councils and civil society to cope with climate change, and  assessed the environmental, 

6 

 
 
 
 
 
social and economic impacts and the risks of climate change induced hazards anticipated 
to  affect  urban  areas  (floods,  sea-level  rise,  storm  surges,  droughts,  heat  waves, 
desertification,  storms  and  fires)  over  various  time  frames.  The  project  also  developed 
innovative climate adaptation strategies based on strong interdisciplinary components, and 
was delivered by a balanced partnership of European and African partners.  

It  worths  mentioning  the  reliable  forecasts  of  the  local  impact  of  climate  change  which 
CLUVA provided to planners, managers and researchers within the selected African cities  
and  at  the  same  time  CLUVA  offered  concrete  solutions  by  developing:  Climate  Change 
risk  adaptation  strategies;  risk  reduction  strategies  for  the  38  per  cent  of  Africa’s 
population (280 millions); desertification maps to assess the sensitivity to desertification 
in  peri-urban  areas;  provided  an  estimate  of  the  impacts  of  Climate  Change  on  African 
urban  areas  in  the  next  40  years  and  developed  simple  methods  to  be  applied  by  the 
stakeholders of African cities; downscaled the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 
(IPCC) scenarios to local urban and urban-rural regions; provided regional projections up 
to  2050  of  climate  change  at  high  resolution  (8km);  conducted  the  first  comprehensive 
assessment of green structures based on Urban Morphology Type (UMT) characteristics in 
sub-Saharan  African  cities;  tailored  a  suite  of  methods  developed  in  Manchester  to  the 
African  urban  context,  including  city-wide  assessments  of  regulating  urban  ecosystem 
services; demonstrated that business-as-usual scenarios could result in the loss of around 
a third of Addis Ababa’s agricultural land and a fifth of its other vegetated areas between 
2011  and  2025;  provided  maps  for  Dar  es  Salaam,  Addis  Ababa  and  Ouagadougou  to 
consider which particular communities are likely to be most impacted by flooding. 

CORFU (Collaborative Research on Flood Resilience in Urban Areas)  an interdisciplinary 
international project developed and applied  novel strategies and measures for improved 
flood management in Barcelona (Spain), Beijing ( China), Dhaka (Bangladesh), Hamburg 
( Germany), Mumbai ( India), Nice (France) and Taipei ( Taiwan). Flood impacts in urban 
areas--potential  deaths,  damage  to  infrastructure  and  health  problems,  and  their 
consequent effects on individuals and communities were assessed by envisaging different 
scenarios  of  relevant  drivers:  urban  development,  socio-economic  trends  and  climate 
changes. The project relied on differences in the perception of urban flooding problems in 
Asia  and  in  Europe  and  created  synergies  offering  new  insights  for  flood  management 
strategies  globally.  The  latest  technologies  were  cross-fertilised  with  traditional  and 
emerging  approaches  to  living  with  floods,  enabling  European  and  Asian  institutions  to 
learn  from  each  other  through  joint  development,  implementation  and  dissemination  of 
strategies towards scientifically sound management of the consequences of urban flooding, 
through cost-effective resilience measures and adaptable flood management plans.  

In  particular  CORFU  produced  guidelines  for  the  design  and  implementation  of  SUDS 
(Sustainable Drainage Systems)  and flood management in Europe and China, which were 
adopted by local policy makers;developed and implemented real-time warning systems in 
Barcelona and Dhaka; applied the multi-cell model to Beijing City (area more than 1000 
km2),  and demonstrated it’s applicability as it reproduced the observed location for the 
21  July  2012  flood,  when  large  parts  of  Beijing  were  seriously  flooded  causing  57 
casualties. It also contributed to EU Floods Directive by developing urban flood scenarios, 
modelling and flood hazard mapping.  

7 

 
 
 
 
 
Figure 5. © lindacaldwell 

SECOA  tackled  the  issues  of  adaptation  to  climate  change  focusing  on  large  coastal 
metropolitan  areas  in  Europe  and  Asia,  in  order  to  provide  sustainable  urban  planning 
solutions  addressing  conflicting  uses  of  land  and  territorial  resources  (economic 
development vs environmental protection, preservation of natural sites and biodiversity; 
urban  growth  and  restructuring;  social  cohesion  and  human  mobility)  by  different 
stakeholders (i.e. residents, commuters, tourists, and enterprises).  

These  conflicts  are  multiplied  by  climate  change  affecting  environmental  conditions  in 
coastal  areas.  In  SECOA,  an  integrated  ecosystem  approach  (Integrated  Coastal  Zone 
Management-ICZM)  was  adopted  for  understanding  and  dealing  with  the  complex  and 
dynamic  problems  that  coastal  urban  environments  are  facing:  economic  factors,  social 
features,  natural  and  cultural  resources,  spatial  organisation,  resistance  to  sustainable 
development  also  linked  to  interests  and  pressure  groups.  SECOA  integrated  the  ICZM 
perspective  with  the  understanding  of  multi-dimensional  environmental  conflicts,  with 
strategic  outcomes in the application of a multi-criteria approach to analyse causes and 
effects  of  conflicts  in  a  multi-dimensional  perspective,  in  order  to  facilitate  a  shared, 
democratic and participatory approach to conflict resolution. 

In particular, SECOA produced specific evidence base for decision making, including maps 
of the flood hazard in 15 of its case study coastal areas: Oostende and Brugge, Belgium; 
Mumbai and Chennai, India; Haifa and Tel Aviv,  Israel; Rome and  Chieti-Pescara,  Italy; 
Lisbon and Algarve, Portugal; Gothenburg and Malmo, Sweden; Thames Gateway, United 
Kingdom; Hai Phong and Nha Trang in Vietnam. 

SECOA delivered maps of natural resources sustainable use (through DPSIR framework) 
in  all  17  case  study  areas,  with  a  focus  on  conflict  cases;  it  provided    alternative 
development scenarios permitting consideration of both urban and metropolitan/regional 
scales, as well as peri-urban areas and directly interacted with on-going decision making 
processes, having an impact on their specific development. 

The  project  delivered  also  a  spatial  decision  support  system  capable  of  building  and 
visualising plausible alternative futures, metadata, data, maps for Integrated Coastal Zone 
Management relying also on social resilience capacity to cope with catastrophic events. 

TRUST dealt with the transition of urban water services and of their management, helping 
sector  utilities  and  authorities  (public  and  public/private  enterprises)  to  formulate  and 
implement appropriate urban water policies and achieve a sustainable, low-carbon quality 
water future.  

Moreover,  the  project  developed  and  tested  a  wide  portfolio  of  tools  (including  nature-
based  solutions  -NBS  solutions  and  innovative  technologies  for  optimised  water 
treatment),  guidelines,  software  and 
feasibility  where 
demonstrated  with  city utilities  in  a  variety  of  urban  contexts  across  Europe  and  Africa. 
TRUST end products are online and available for free for the assessment of the impact of 

training  material; 

their 

8 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
interventions on the performance and sustainability gains of the overall urban water cycle; 
assessment water reclamation for non-potable-use, sustainable water demand and storm 
water  management,  energy-saving  options  and  water-energy  interventions.  TRUST 
delivered tools for infrastructure asset management, helping utilities to perform targeted 
rehabilitation  of  infrastructures  and  to  reduce  leakage  through  integrated  energy  and 
pressure management in water distribution systems; for diagnosis of current and future 
status, ranging from tools for a very quick scan of the overall sustainability of urban water 
services (City Blueprint), to more complex web-based self-assessment tools; 

RAMSES and PREPARED addressed the issue of climate change adaptation involving a 
variety  of  European  and  non-European  cities,  each  facing  different  climate  change 
problems, including heat stress and heat waves; pluvial and fluvial flooding, flash flooding; 
sea  level  rise,  drought  and  water  stress;  snow  diminishing;  air  and  water  quality;  and 
urban agriculture and biodiversity management. 

RAMSES provided standardised and transferable guidelines for cost-benefit assessment of 
different climate change impacts and of several adaptation measures, tools that are open 
access  and  available  for  hundreds  of  cities  in  the  world.  It  also  delivered  a  Transition 
Handbook  and  Training  Package  with  a  wide  range  of  adaptation  measures  for  cities  to 
define  transition  pathways  towards  urban  resilience  and  climate  adaptation.  It  is  worth 
noting  the    multi-stakeholder  participatory  approach,  which  RAMSES  promoted  and 
brought together urban planners, decision makers and practitioners, to share best practices 
and ensure their implementation in Europe and beyond.  

The  RAMSES  results  (e.g.  cost  assessments  of  different  impacts  (flooding,  heat  waves,  
simulation models, typology of heat waves on cities) have been implemented by the city 
of  Antwerp  where  the  municipality  urban  planners  and  urban  designers  used  tools  and 
knowledge delivered by the project  to better plan climate adaptation measures (including 
nature-based solutions) and design innovative strategies for their city. Other project results 
such as the typology and indicators of resilient buildings are of great interest to insurance 
companies to calculate their premiums. For instance, the German Association of Insurance 
Companies has used RAMSES results in the calculation of insurance fees.  

Figure 6. © Jbyard 

PREPARED delivered to city municipalities and the construction sector  solutions for the 
adaptation of European water supply and sanitation systems to climate change impacts, 
targeting  risk  assessment  frameworks  in  respect  to  water  scarcity,  water  quality, 
insufficient  sewage  system  with  combined  outflows  (sewage  plus  water  flooding)  and 
environmental  problems  created  by  wastewater  (pollution,  decrease  in  drinking  water 
quality), real time modelling and monitoring systems and planning for resilience.  

9 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Tools and decision support systems helped water utilities to cope with the anticipated and 
uncertain impacts of climate change, especially the extremes ones and to make strategic 
investment decisions for the design and maintenance of their city infrastructures.  

It was evidenced for the city of Berlin that integrated management reduces water overflows 
by  17%  and  discharged  pollutants  by  21-31%  following  extreme  events;  for  the  city  of 
Genova - optimised management permits of water storage increases hydro energy produce 
by 43%, and reduces groundwater extraction by 20%; for the city of Barcelona - sediment 
monitoring and real time actions have  considerably reduced the annual municipal sewer 
removal costs; for the city of Oslo- treating surplus wastewater during heavy rain events 
by  chemical  precipitation  increases  overall  removal  efficiency  (including  the  untreated 
overflows) from 19 % to 32 % (total nitrogen) and from 36 % to 85 % (total phosphorous). 

Research  focused  not  only  on  the  development  of  innovative  technology  but  also  on 
showing  stakeholders  how  existing  technology  could  offer  innovative  solutions  to  the 
anticipated  problems:  protect  drinking  water  from  the  effects  of  climate  change  and 
extreme  events;  use  alternative  water 
integration  of 
rainwater/stormwater into the water cycle as supplementary resource); make better use 
of  water  resources,  to  protect  the  population  against  flooding;  protect  buildings  and 
infrastructure from damage; protect receiving water courses from pollution through better 
management of the sewer and drainage systems. 

resources 

(e.g. 

the 

BURBA designed an IT method for waste management optimisation, as a new concept of 
waste service through the entire chain from production to disposal, based on handling of 
data  from  waste  management.  BURBA  uses  surveillance  and  feedback  to  create  an 
optimised collection service, and a social game aspect to reward positive behaviour. The 
3-year study is using cutting-edge low-cost RFID (radio frequency identification) and LBS 
(local  based  service)  technologies  for  the  separation  and  collection  of  waste  at  source. 
These  are  integrated  into  an  intelligent  waste  container  (IWAC)  of  600  to  1.200--litre 
capacity for use in densely populated areas and eventually for industrial areas.The system 
delivered  information  that  contributed  to  city  sustainability  improving  the  efficiency  of 
waste  management  and  recycling  activities.  The  system  also  delivered  information  on 
individual user habits used for taxing or rewarding citizens, but also for motivational and 
educational  purposes.  To  foster  the  systemic  approach,  the  project  worked  in  close 
collaboration  with  the  end-users  for  each  sector  to  define  their  requirements  for  the 
adequate design of the systems and to deliver outputs adapted to their needs.  

Research centres, technology-provider companies, water utilities, and waste management 
companies worked with urban planners to deliver an integrated analysis of the problems 
and risk management options, and to propose innovative solutions.  

Actors such as Acorde Technologies S.A.(Spain), Municipality of Camogli (Italy), Rzeszów 
Municipality  (Poland),  AOTO  Company  (Republic  of  China),  Tekever  SME  (Portugal), 
Ayuntamiento  de  Santander  (Spain),  D’Appolonia  S.p.a.  (Italy),  Politecnico  di  Milano 
(Italy). The project successfully addressed climate change problems, where cities need to 
reduce  their  emissions,  andalso  to  be  prepared  for  challenges,  such  as  water  shortage, 
heat stress, flooding, and waste recycling. 

3 

Sustainable Land Use and Nature Based Solutions 

3.1   Sustainable Land Use Challenges 

In the EU, 'land take' consumes more than 1,000 km² of land every year in development 
for housing, industry, roads or recreational purposes, every decade 'land take' consumes 
an  area  equivalent  to  Cyprus.  About  half  of  this  surface  is  actually  'sealed',  for  other 
unsustainable  land  use  patterns 
irreversibly  eroded,  or  degraded  through  soil 
contamination or by reduction of organic matter. This 'land take' threatens security of food 
supply, health and more generally loss of natural capital and ecosystem services including 

10 

 
 
 
clean air, water and soil, adaptation to climate change and mitigation of natural disaster 
risks. 

3.2  Nature-Based Solutions 

There  is  growing  recognition  that  nature  can  help  provide  viable  solutions  that  use  and 
deploy the properties of natural ecosystems and the services that they provide in a smart 
and sustainable way. These nature-based solutions provide, cost-effective, multi-purpose, 
multi-benefit and flexible alternatives for various objectives. Working with nature, rather 
than against it, can further pave the way towards a more resource efficient, competitive 
and greener economy. It can also help to create new jobs and economic growth, through 
the  manufacture  and  delivery  of  new  products  and  services,  which  enhance  the  natural 
capital  rather  than  deplete  it.  Nature-based  solutions  to  societal  challenges  are  inspired 
and supported by nature, which are cost-effective, simultaneously provide environmental, 
social and economic benefits and help build resilience. Urban areas have a key role to play 
in the deployment of nature based solutions, as well as in the adoption of more sustainable 
land-use patterns, including the re-use of brownfields.  

Figure 7. © Auguste Lange 

HOMBRE  and  TIMBRE  provided  an  in-depth  analysis  of  redevelopment  problems  and 
potentials  of  a  large  variety  of  brownfield  sites  (BFs),  for  BF  characterization  and 
remediation  towards  a  BF  re-use  and  zero  BF  perspective  both  in  urban  and  peri-urban 
contexts,  usually  of  large  dimensions  i.e.  former  industrial,  commercial,  infrastructural, 
mining,  military  and  housing  areas,  with  the  aim  to  show  how  to  limit  greenfield 
exploitation and urban sprawl, through an environmentally and economically sustainable 
re-use of land in already built-up areas.  

Both  projects  delivered  nature-based,  hard  and  soft,  technological  solutions  considering 
land resource as part of a continuous cycle of allocation of building land, development, use, 
abandonment and re-use to achieve a circular Land Management. Within this framework, 
the recognition of economic, social, environmental, policy-regulation enabling factors and 
constraints permits focus on review the re-use process, prioritizing BF regeneration sites 
and  preventing  redeveloped  sites  to  become  BF,  through  the  assessment  of  different 
redevelopment options and remediation technological solutions.  

TIMBRE focused on case studies from Central European Countries and delivered ready for 
commercial  exploitation  a  Web  based  support  toolkit  for  BF  regeneration  promoting  an 
Expert Information System for BF Regeneration helping stakeholders to access and select 
information for regions, districts, cities or BF portfolios to distribute available resources to 
those sites that are assessed to be the most critical, urgent or profitable to regenerate. 

In this way multiple societal challenges have been addressed such as :Sustainable use of 
Land  and  nature-based  solutions  -  with  a  focus  on  greening  strategies  in  cities;  Energy 
efficiency  -  production  of  renewable  energy;  Climate  change;  Waste  -  and  the  reuse  of 
waste  from  deconstruction  of  buildings  and  structures;  Social  inclusion,  health  and 

11 

 
 
 
 
wellbeing - with a focus on remediation of polluted sites and water pollution management; 
Development of jobs and skills in the local economy. 

The  projects’  end  products  were  uptaken  among  others  by  the  Centre  for  Applied 
Geosciences at the University of Tübingen which in collaboration with a spin-off company  
proposed  a  feasibility  study  for  SMEs  to  verify  the  technological  /practical  as  well  as 
economic viability of the tool. The remediation technology ‘phytoscreening with tree coring’ 
gained  recognition  by  engineering  companies  and  is  now  used  in  various  projects  in 
Denmark. 

For  example,  Orbicon  (Danish  engineering  company)  used  tree  coring  to  identify  the 
groundwater-surface water exchange at contaminated sites (Brede, Raadvad in Denmark) 
in the Region of Copenhagen. Today the technique is offered by engineering companies all 
across Europe and is taught to young environmental engineers at the Technical University 
of Denmark in the field course on contaminated sites. 

Moreover, municipalities took up the project overall approach and the use of the decision 
support  system.  In  particular,  the  Municipality  of  Solec  Kujawski  adopted  the  Zero 
Brownfield approach as an extension to policies the City had already started to implement, 
encouraged  by  project  experience  to  mobilise  financial  resources  to  assess  remediation 
options and redevelopment opportunities for the BF area.  

The  Municipality  of  Terni  added  HOMBRE  experiences  into  its  approach  to  regeneration; 
stakeholders  expressed  interest  in  the  Brownfield  Navigator  and  its  updating  and 
customisation,  as  a  means  of  communication  and  supporting  design  strategies  for 
regeneration, and as a way of keeping up to date with practice across Europe.  

HOMBRE  coordinator,  Deltares,  used  the  concept  of  the  land  use  cycle  in  the  research 
project Asset management of the subsurface, and tested it on cases in the Municipalities 
of  Utrecht  and  Rotterdam.  The  concept  was  also  used  for  projects  on  Resilient  Cities  in 
Rotterdam.   

In  Markham  Vale,  the  Derbyshare  Country  Council  endorsed  the  Brownfield  Opportunity 
Matrix as a useful tool for on-going consideration of soft end-use options and the Brownfield 
Remit/Response.  Moreover,  the  Brownfield  Opportunity  Matrix  and  the  Brownfield 
Remit/Response Tool, was used by Formas (Sweden) in the frame of ERANET SNOWMAN 
network, with a first case study application to Rotterdam (Nederlands). 

Figure 8. © aerial-drone 

URBES and GREEN SURGE analysed the links between nature and urbanisation in urban 
spaces  considering  cities  as  social-ecological-technological  systems  where  the  different 
dimensions  must  be  connected  and  careful  planning  of  all  is  essential  to  address 
sustainability.  The  projects  broadened  the  approach  of  urban  planning  by  including  the 
ecological dimension. Nature provides ecosystem services to sustain life, human welfare, 
health,  security,  and  social  relations,  but  also  assists  in  addressing  some  of  the  most 
pressing  societal  challenges,  such  as  climate  change,  air  quality,  water,  food  security, 
social inclusion and green economy. 

12 

 
 
 
 
These projects adapted the concept of biocultural diversity to urban areas, stressing the 
connections  between  nature  and  people  in  cities.  Biocultural  diversity  represents  a  new 
way  of  thinking  about  biodiversity  conservation  by  looking  at  culturally  significant  and 
valued  biodiversity  and  by  identifying  cultural  expressions  of  nature  with  local 
communities.  

The  projects  addressed  problems  identified  by  city  planners  and  citizens  and  facilitated 
engagement via the European Learning Alliance, an online community of practice in which 
planners, practitioners and other experts communicate through mailing lists and LinkedIn 
groups  share  knowledge,  expertise  and  opinion  on  green  infrastructure  planning  and 
implementation and learn from the knowledge and experience of others.  

They  were  developed  and  implemented  through  integrative  and  transdisciplinary 
processes,  building  bridges  between  disciplines  such  as  environmental  modelling,  urban 
planning  and  governance,  economic  valuation  and  socio-cultural  studies  at  a  European-
wide scale.  

They  also  identified  good  practice  examples  of  urban  green  infrastructure  planning  in 
several  cities  and  developed  and  implemented  innovative  urban  green  infrastructure 
planning,  governance  and  valuation  approaches  to  enhance  biodiversity,  ecosystem 
services and economic opportunities in Urban Learning Labs in several Euroepan cities (e.g. 
Milan, Bari, Ultrecht, Gliwice, Rotterdam, Malmö, Ljubljana,Barcelona, Berlin etc.) between 
different levels of governance and planning, focusing on the city regional and local levels, 
but delivering results useful at national and international levels. 

URBES delivered outcomes to position urban biodiversity and ecosystem services as key 
assets supporting European cities to adapt to climate change, to provide urban ecosystem 
services that enhance human welfare and to reduce cities’ ecological footprints.  

Solutions and tools delivered from URBES were incorporated in the biodiversity and green 
infrastructure planning of several major cities including Berlin, Barcelona, Rotterdam and 
New York. The projects analysed the systemic influences of green spaces as key and multi-
functional assets for cities to be incorporated in urban planning process as critical elements 
for  citizens  welfare,  health,  and  aesthetic),  and  also  to  addressed  challenges  of  climate 
change, energy efficiency, food security, etc. 

For example, Barcelona’s 161,423 trees not only reduce the local temperature and energy 
demand, they also offer habitats for urban wildlife, store CO2 and play an important role 
in filtering harmful substances from the air. In 2008, they offset around 19,000 net tonnes 
of  CO2  from  the  atmosphere,  and  eliminated  slightly  more  than  305  tonnes  of  air 
pollutants. 

The projects results emphasized the relevance of nature-based solutions (NBS) and urban 
green  infrastructures  to  address  climate  change  impacts  (local  climate  regulation  and 
cooling, flood prevention, cost-effectiveness),  as an emerging urban planning paradigm, 
as well as a relevant market opportunity.  

For instance, investments in nature-based solutions offer a valuable return for cities and 
urban  areas:  A  10%  increase  in  tree  canopy  cover  may  result  in  a  3-4°C  decrease  in 
ambient  temperature  and  save  large  amounts  of  energy  used  in  cooling  buildings.  In 
addition,  there  are  multiple  other  benefits  as  urban  green  spaces  contribute  to  filtering 
dust, storing CO2, serving as windbreaks, etc.  

Policy impact for both projects is evident as URBES and GREEN SURGE results were not 
only used in the biodiversity and infrastructures planning of cities like Barcelona, Berlin, 
New York, Rotterdam, Malmö, Ljubljana but at global level, their City Biodiversity Outlook 
contributed  to  the  UN  Habitat  III  New  Urban  Agenda  and  the  Sustainable  Development 
Goals Agenda, namely (SDG11). 

13 

 
 
Figure 9. © Brian Kinney 

URBES and GREEN SURGE positioned urban green spaces and infrastructures at different 
levels.  At  the  city  level,  urban  plans  are  backed  up  by  project  results,  including  :  2020 
Barcelona Green Infrastructure and Biodiversity Strategy; PlaNYC (New York City’s 20-year 
Economic and Environmental Sustainability Plan); Berlin and Rotterdam planning of green 
infrastructure  planning;  Malmö  integrated  green-grey  infrastructure  for  stormwater 
management and the retrofitting of the housing area of Augustenborg, as part of Malmö 
Water  Plan;  Lisbon  Action  Plan  for  Biodiversity  in  2015  including  a  landscape  mosaic 
fostering biodiversity. 

At  the  European  level,  the  results  fed  the  EU  Green  Infrastructure  Strategy,  the  Urban 
Agenda for the EU, the EU 2030 Energy and Climate Package, the EU 2020 EU Biodiversity 
Strategy  and  the  Thematic  Strategy  on  the  Urban  Environment.  At  international  level, 
these  research  results  where  essential  contributions  to  the  UN  Convention  on  Biological 
Diversity (CBD) and UN Habitat III New Urban Agenda.  

4 

Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy 

4.1  Resource Efficiency Challenges 

Today in the EU, each person consumes 16 tonnes of material annually, of which 6 tonnes 
are wasted, with half going to landfill, notwithstanding rises in raw material and mineral 
prices. Measures such as better eco-design and reuse can bring EU wide net savings of up 
to 604 billion euros or 8% of annual turnover to businesses. Resource efficiency is essential 
if  we  aim  to  deliver  greater  value  with  less  input,  use  resources  in  a  sustainable  way, 
delivering  greater  value  with  less  input,  using  resources  in  a  sustainable  way  and  if  we 
consider waste as a resource to be fed back into the economy as a raw material. 

Resource efficiency is one of the core elements necessary to create a green economy in 
Europe  and  further  afield,  alongside  waste  prevention  and,  and  more  sustainable 
production  and  consumption  patterns.  The  Circular  Economy  provides  a  range  of  new 
business  opportunities  based  on  services  instead  of  products,  such  as  leasing,  sharing, 
repairing, upgrading or recycling, reducing corporate costs and contributing to the security 
of supply. The EU has designated resource-efficiency as one of the flagships of its Europe 
2020 strategy and has developed a roadmap to pave the way  - Roadmap to a Resource 
Efficient Europe. On this basis a Circular economy package has proposed revision of the 
2008  Waste  Framework  Directive,  the  1999  Landfilling  Directive  as  well  as  the  1994  
Packaging  Waste  Directive,  as  well  as  an  EU  action  Plan  for  the  Circular  Economy 
(COM(2015) 614 final). 

Cities are essential actors of open innovation in providing the conditions to stimulate the 
circular  economy  and  increase  ressource-efficiency,  decoupling  growth  from  natural 
resources  consumption  and  degradation.  Cities  facilitate  links  between  research, 
innovation and policy to: 

  Encourage  the  most  resource-efficient  products  and  services,  including  sustainable 
local  food  chains  based  on  green  procurement  policies,  sustainable  consumption 
campaigns and fiscal incentives; 

14 

 
 
 
 
 
  Develop  innovative  financial  instruments  to  trigger  the  development  of  solutions  by 

socio-economic stakeholders; 

 

Integrate  resource  efficiency  and  circular  economy  into  planning  policies  and 
infratructures,  in  collaboration  with  other  level  of  governance  and  across  different 
services,  for  example,  presenting  alternatives  to  ordinary  waste  management  by 
providing collection facilities for used products. 

4.2  Resource Efficiency Solutions 

Figure 10. © SceneNature 

Resource efficiency and the circular economy was the broad focus of 6 FP7 funded projects 
including  Foodmetres  and  Supurbfood  (working  on  sustainable  local  food  chains), 
Pocacito (working on the transition of cities to post-carbon models), and Urban Nexus, 
Bridge  and  SUME  (on  informed  decision  and  policy  making  with  a  focus  on  resource-
efficiency). 

Foodmetres (Food planning and innovation for sustainable metropolitan regions) focussing 
on the spatial dimension of metropolitan regions, developed 3 footprint assessment tools: 

  The  Metropolitan  Economic  Balance  Assessment  (MEBA)  tool  applies  an  economic 
approach to assess the food demand-supply balance within a metropolitan region;  

  The Metropolitan Area Profile and Scenario (MAPS) tool adopts a straightforward data-
driven approach to applying different food production regimes (e.g.  organic farming, 
food  loss)  and  consumption  patterns  (e.g.  vegetarian,  healthy  diets)  or  population 
scenarios; and 

  The Metropolitan Foodscape Planner (MFP) allowing stakeholders to re-allocate up to 
10  commodities  on  the  basis  of  landscape-ecological  principles  while  measuring  the 
ecological footprint effects at the scale of 1 hectare-grids. 

The  tools  allow  stakeholders  from  agro-food  business,  governance  and  civil  society 
organisations to enter a knowledge-driven debate on sustainable and innovative food chain 
planning and how to optimise the regional food supply of metropolitan areas around cities. 

Furthermore,  building  upon  the  European  Union  approach  towards  sustainability  impact 
assessment (CEC 2009), the project developed impact indicators around: (i) environment, 
(ii) economy, and (iii) society.  

Examples  of  impact  indicators  in  these  different  areas  include  food-miles  (transport 
distance)  environmental  impact  indicator,  number  of  jobs  along  the  food  chain  as  an 
economic impact indicator, or the occurrence of pathogens along the food chain under the 
food safety domain. This list of food chain impact areas is one of the key outputs of the 
project as it fills an important gap in this emerging policy field.  

15 

 
 
 
The analysis undertaken in the case study city regions reveals the supplied and consumed 
amounts of primary agricultural products, reflecting on one hand the consumption pattern, 
and on the other hand the specialization of the productive system. The comparison between 
supply  and  food  in  a  metropolitan  region  can  contribute  to  rethinking  agro-urban 
production and consumption by filling in gaps in terms of supply, or by reducing production 
when demand does not follow.  

Foodmetres “innovation storylines”, focussed  on specific innovation domain(s) that are 
relevant to regional stakeholders (mainly entrepreneurs) for developing more sustainable 
food chains. Based on these storylines a ‘quick-scan’ procedure allows users to access a 
standard data set for communicating the key  characteristics in a systematic way. These 
standard  data  sets  allow  cross-comparisons  between  food  chains  and  positioning  these 
food  chains  when  undertaking  sustainability 
footprint 
assessments.  The  policy  analysis  tool  also  measured  the  impact  of  European  Rural 
Development Policies (RDP) on sustainability in the Metropolitan Agro-food System of the 
city regions and on the Short Food Chains Typologies (urban garden, direct sale, AgroPark, 
etc.).  

impact  and  metropolitan 

The tool can help local administrators to adapt the RDP in order to respond to the needs 
of local stakeholders and (public bodies, farmers, consumers, associations, etc.). The tool 
also  provides  relevant  information  for  European  politicians  about  the  impact  of  RDP  on 
Local Short Food Chains in urban and metropolitan contexts. 

Figure 11. © Ekaterina Belova 

Critically  the  project  contributed  to  the  creation  of  a  new  local  and  regional  planning 
instruments  and  governance  models.  In  terms  of  short  food  chains,  the  research 
demonstrated  that  the  new  Rural  Development  Programme  (RDP)  of  the  Common 
Agricultural Policy should include new areas like metropolitan regions and new groups, not 
only farmers. The RDP  should consider and support new  food  chain models, particularly 
short food chains, which benefit from a great interest in civil society.  

Supurbfood  (Towards  sustainable  modes  of  urban  and  peri-urban  food  provisioning), 
focusing on shortening nutrient, water and carbon cycles, organised city-region workshops 
to reflect on the role of institutional interaction and governance and foster the North-South 
Europe dialogue by sharing experiences and joint learning. Involved cities reviewed their 
own  policies  and  governance  and  called  EU,  national,  local  governments  to  support 
independent, local specialist food retailers, SMEs and Civil Society Organisations through 
public  procurement  clauses,  incubators,  educational  programmes,  training  and  legal 
assistance, grants, connection with peers, etc.  

In  the  case  of  short  food  chains,  progress  regarding  efficient  and  sustainable  biogenic 
waste management, as observed by the project, is hindered by regulatory constraints and 
difficulties in accessing finance. Laws and regulations still define some waste streams as 
waste in the sense of garbage to be disposed of. Ingredients that can be or have been up-
scaled  are  not  always  officially  recognised  in  their  new  role  as  valuable  resources  (i.e. 
kitchen wastes not recognised as animal feed).  

16 

 
 
 
This  means  substantial  adjustments  are  needed  in  the  respective  regulations  to  enable 
initiatives following a blue economy. A waste targeted hierarchy, as used by the European 
Union Waste Directive, can give some orientation. 

POCACITO (POst-CArbon CIties of TOmorrow – foresight for sustainable pathways towards 
liveable,  affordable  and  prospering  cities  in  a  world  context)  also  used  a  participatory 
approach  that  engaged  local  stakeholders  through  workshops  in  ten  European  cities 
(Barcelona, Copenhagen, Istanbul, Lisbon, Litoměřice, Milan, Turin, Rostock, Malmö and 
Zagreb) to create custom-made transition post-carbon strategies. These strategies were 
taken as the basis for an evidence-based EU 2050 Roadmap, a stakeholder-driven guide 
towards the model “Post-Carbon City of Tomorrow” that merges climate, energy and social 
urban transitions. 

Figure 12. © Jenny Sturm 

They  were  based  on  a  preliminary  assessment  of  each  case  study  city  using  key 
performance  indicators  coupled  with  a  quantitative  analysis  of  the  urban  system  and 
ongoing  trends  and  changes  (economic,  demographic  etc.).    The  key  performance 
indicators aimed to evaluate the performance of cities during the transition process towards 
a  post-carbon  city,  and  were  developed  in  an integrated  way  including  social,  economic 
and environmental dimensions. The environmental dimension covered the energy sector 
in  general  (energy  efficiency  but  also  resources  depletion  associated  with  energy 
consumption, including transportation/ mobility, buildings stock, biodiversity, air quality, 
waste and water).  

Economic indicators focused on sustainable economic growth based on the wealth of the 
cities  and  their  inhabitants.  In  this  sense,  factors  taken  into  account-included  labour 
market,  life  of  the  companies,  public  finances  as  well  as  the  research  and  development 
expenditure as no city can become a post-carbon city without innovation. Finally, the social 
dimension covered  standards  of living related to education and health (for  example, life 
expectancy  and  wellbeing),  unemployment  rates  and  poverty,  public  services  and 
infrastructures, governance and civic society, culture and community.  

Within  participatory  workshops  case  study  cities  followed  five  steps  for  developing  their 
Post Carbon 2050 strategies: initial assessment (extensive analysis of the current situation 
in order to identify key challenges and opportunities); post- carbon visioning until 2050 
based  on  facts;  qualitative  scenario  building  (how  the  transition  to  reach  the  respective 
post-carbon  visions  might  be  translated  into  single  steps  or  actions;  quantification  and 
modelling  process (holistic  overview  of  the  city,  impact  matrix,  analysis  of  variables); 
roadmap  building  (discussed  the  impacts  of  the  initial  set  of  measures  and  identified 
additional actions necessary to close the gap towards the local 2050 post-carbon vision).  

Following this process, two scenarios were developed: the Business As Usual (BAU) and 
the Post Carbon 2050 scenarios (PC2050). Where appropriate, the BAU considers progress 
made  in  relevant  ongoing  and  planned  projects.  The  PC2050  builds  on  the  qualitative 

17 

 
 
 
 
scenarios. It is thus an interpretation and expansion of the visions, actions and milestones. 
As a next step, the impacts of the PC2050 scenarios are compared to the Business As Usual 
(BAU)  outcomes  across  all  three  dimensions  of  Pocacito:  environment,  social  and 
economic. 

To  evaluate  the  impact  of  these  post-carbon  visions  Pocacito  proceeded  to  an  ex-ante 
assessment of the long-term impact of the post-carbon vision (PC 2050 scenario) and of 
the strategies being already implemented at local levels (Business as Usual scenario). 

A semi-quantitative/qualitative indicator approach showed that nearly all cities will improve 
under Business As Usual scenarios for most indicators, but the performance is significantly 
improved under Post Carbon Cities 2050 scenarios. The analysis of the production based 
Greenhouse  Gas  emissions  shows  that  most  cities  approach  carbon  neutrality  under 
PC2050 but will not fully achieve it, with only 3 cities being below 1 tCO2eq/capita/year.  

A benefit-cost analysis compared the reduced cost burden due to premature deaths from 
air pollution with investment costs for renewable energy and energy efficiency. It shows 
that under PC2050 the cost-benefits of reduced air pollution more than compensate for the 
investment  costs.  Investment  costs  are  typically  less  than  1%  of  cumulative  Gross 
Domestic Product from 2018 to 2050. According to Pocacito, public policies need to address 
not  only  immediate  and  concerted  action  on  energy  efficiency  and  localised  renewable 
energy but the value of green space and the disparity between rich and poor if future cities 
are to be liveable, healthy and carbon neutral places. Although no direct policy implication 
in the  cities  was  achieved,  the  project  contributed  to  raising  the  attention  and  provided 
with the local roadmaps an input for future policy debates. 

Pocacito  findings  outlined  not  only  visions  for  post-carbon  cities,  but  also  created  new 
insights  concerning  barriers,  challenges  and  delivered  key  recommendations  directed  at 
national  and  European  Union  (EU)  policymakers,  as  well  as  city-level  decision  makers. 
Pocacito promotes an approach for consulting stakeholders and advocates its widespread 
use, not only to develop strategies, but also to connect citizens with the future and place 
them  clearly  on  the  path  to  decarbonisation,  changing  them  from  takers  of  policy  into 
shapers of the urban decision-making process.  

Likewise,  Pocacito  findings  advanced  the  knowledge  base  of  policymakers,  stakeholders 
and academics by providing a concise summary of important concepts and methodologies 
relevant to post-carbon transition in EU cities and by setting useful indicators to monitor 
progress within cities.  

Similar participative or systemic approaches are also apparent in Urban Nexus, Bridge, 
and  SUME  supporting  policy-decision  making  through  assessment  of  scenarios  and 
guidelines on urban development. 

Urban  Nexus  (Furthering  Strategic  Urban  Research)  project’s  goal  was  to  create 
partnerships between diverse stakeholders, combining different urban stakeholders across 
Europe  with  different  geographical,  cultural  and  professional  backgrounds  working  on 
integrated urban development. The project brought together different types of actors, such 
as  municipalities,  business  representatives,  universities,  national  ministries,  knowledge 
and lobby institutes and civil society organisations. 

Over 3 years the project organised 5 international Dialogue Cafés (Bristol, Sofia, Goteborg, 
Barcelona  and  Glasgow  bringing  together  different  urban  thinkers  and  practitioners 
on Urban  Climate  Resilience;  Health  and  Quality  of  Life;  Competing  for  Urban  Land; 
Integrated  Data  and  Information;  and  Integrated  Urban  Management.  Conclusions  and 
recommendations from the Dialogue Cafés were presented in the project’s policy brief, and 
confirmed that it is absolutely necessary to have all stakeholders on board when it comes 
to decision making on sustainable urban development. 

The  project  delivered  key  messages  and  recommendations  related  to  urban  climate 
resilience,  health  and  quality  of  life,  competing  for  urban  land,  integrated  data  and 
monitoring, integrated urban governance.  It’s findings on integrated data and monitoring 

18 

 
 
is  closely  related  to  the  implementation  of  various  EU  activities  and  documents  with 
relevance to the sustainable urban management, such as: 

  The EU INSPIRE Directive on Infrustucture for Spatial Information in Europe; 

  Directive on the re-use of public sector information (PSI Directive); 

  A Digital Agenda for Europe; 

 

Joint Research Centre Report “Direct & Indirect Land use impacts of the EU Cohesion 
Policy” 

It  has  also  drawn  on  European  Environment  Agency’s  report  on  “Urban  adaptation  to 
climate change in Europe”1; the EC-funded DG CLIMA project on “Adaptation Strategies 
for  European  Cities”2;  and  on  the  European  Environment  Agency  initiative,  European 
Climate Adaptation Platform3 (CLIMATE-ADAPT). Furthermore, the partnership principles 
and  main  conclusions  of  the  Urban  Nexus  project  were  taken  up  by  JPI  Urban  Europe, 
successor  projects  and  programmes  that  strive  to  engage  society  in  urban  research 
benefitting from the project’s results.  

Bridge  (sustainaBle  uRban  Decision  support  accounting  for  urban  mEtabolism)  aimed  to 
help policy makers take informed decisions and actions about water consumption, energy 
efficiency, carbon emissions and pollutants. 

Bridge’s  contribution  to  these  challenges  was  through  the  development  of  the  Bridge 
Decision Support System (DSS) that combines Geographic Information System, local data 
and  environmental  and  socio-economic  indicators  with  the  objective  to  assess  different 
physical interventions proposed by cities and indicate the best in terms of multiple benefits 
in a specific area.  

A bottom-up approach was adopted for the development of the Decision Support System 
indicators.  The  project  set  up  a  Community  of  Practice  (CoP)  in  every  case  study  city 
bringing together different departments of the municipality (urban planning, environmental 
office,  and  economic  development  office),  scientists,  and  sometimes  NGOs  and  local 
consultants. CoP aimed at making clear what aspects were important for the future users 
of  the  Bridge  DSS  software.  CoP  also  collected  datasets  for  the  case  studies  (land  use, 
infrastructure, socio-economic data, etc) that were integrated in the software.  

The  project  helped  policy  makers  take  informed  decisions  and  actions  about  water 
consumption,  energy  efficiency,  carbon  emissions  and  pollutants  via  the  Bridge  DSS,  a 
prototype  Geographic  Information  System  gathering  local  data  and  environmental  and 
socio-economic  indicators  with  the  objective  to  assess  different  physical  interventions 
proposed by cities and indicate the best in terms of multiple benefits in a specific area.  

The tool was tested in Helsinki (FI), Municipality of Egaleo (EL), Firenze (IT), London (UK), 
and  Gliwice  (PL).  In  addition,  the  project  made  in-situ  measurements  related  to 
meteorology, fluxes of energy, CO2, aerosol particle number and concentrations of various 
trace gases and particles during the whole period of the project to feed in the DSS and 
provide more accurate assessment of the planning scenarios in each city.  

19 

 
 
Figure 13. © Renáta Sedmáková 

The prototype support system was tested by key architects and Engineers in Europe and 
demonstrated the feasibility of assessing different planning interventions in specific areas 
of the cities and most importantly it contributed to sorting out the best-scored scenarios, 
meaning planning proposals with spin over effects for the area. However, it is up to the 
cities and the urban planners to choose the most appropriate scenario generated by these 
tools  and  implement  it  as  such  to  contribute  at  local  level.  In  this  context,  the  support 
system prototype contributed to raising sustainability awareness in planning, by promoting 
an  assessment  culture  in  an  integrated  way  allowing  for  pragmatic  consideration  of 
environmental, social and economic aspects. 

SUME (Sustainable Urban Metabolism in Europe) focused on developing a spatially explicit 
approach to analyse the influence of urban form on urban resource use, to use it in scenario 
analyses, modelling, project and policy analyses, and to demonstrate how future changes 
in urban form could contribute to more resource-efficient European cities. 

The integrated approach of the SUME project lies in the use of geographical Information 
systems  integrating  socio-economic  and  spatial  data  with  the  objective  to  propose  an 
alternative  long-term  urban  development  perspective  until  2050  in  comparison  to 
traditional  urban  development  policies  based  on  spatial  expansion,  a  resource-minded 
development path versus a trend-type.  

This  integrated  approach  has  been  applied  in  a  consistent  way  for  seven  case  studies 
(Vienna,  Stockholm,  Oporto,  Newcastle,  Athens,  Marseille  and  Munich),  identifying  land 
consumption  and  the  spatial  distribution  of  population  and  workplaces  in  2050.  The 
spatially  explicit  urban  metabolism  model  allowed  for  systematic  simulations  of  the 
functional relations between socio-economic development and their consequences for the 
urban metabolism. SUME assessment of two different planning approaches, demonstrated 
that the spatial expansion of the agglomerations analysed can be avoided to a large degree, 
even in dynamic and growing cities. Accommodating additional population does not have 
to  result  in  huge  urban  sprawl:  future  land  consumption  in  and  around  European  cities 
could be reduced substantially. 

For  example,  the  spatial  expansion  of  fastest  growing  agglomerations  like  Munich, 
Stockholm and Vienna can be greatly reduced by 2050 to 13%, 20% and 14% respectively. 
Similarly, the energy demand can be reduced by 60% to 80%, varying between cities and 
scenarios.  In  general,  a  SUME-scenario-type  agglomeration  development  will  reduce 
energy  consumption  between  10%  and  40%  by  the  year  2050  compared  to  the  BASE 
scenario. A higher replacement or renovation rate of buildings and a better spatial focus of 
new  developments  with  respect  to  public  transport  accessibility  will  reduce  energy 
consumption  by  30  to  40%.  The  main  conclusion  of  the  SUME  was  that  the  greatest 
potentials for saving energy – and the most relevant for policymakers – can be identified 
as the replacement of old building stock and the avoidance of urban expansion. 

20 

 
 
 
 
Both  Bridge  and  SUME  empirically  confirm  the  importance  and  the  benefits  of  an 
integrated approach in decision-making and in the implementation of actions taking into 
account social, economic and environmental perspectives at the same time. The concept 
of the integrated approach is not an innovation itself since it is part of the EU2020 strategy 
and  of  most  EU  initiatives,  but  the  fact  that  the  projects  assess  the  impact  of  different 
planning proposals according to their integrated approach is the way forward.  This kind of 
ex-ante evaluation should be part of the urban planners and local authorities’ culture and 
way of working. Ex-ante evaluation using the BRIDGE DSS or similar tools could be part of 
future legislative proposals or urban programmes.   

In addition, the SUME project developed 4 principles for EU, national and municipal levels, 
to  integrate  into  urban  policies,  strategies,  and  plans  related  to  Spatially-focused 
densification;  High-density  development  only  with  high-quality  public  transport  access; 
Functional mix in urban quarters; Combining urban and building (object) reconstruction. 
Both Bridge and SUME projects assessed the environmental and socio-economic impact of 
different planning scenarios in their case study cities. In addition, Bridge carried out in-situ 
measurements related to meteorology, fluxes of energy, CO2, aerosol particle number and 
concentrations of various trace gases and particles during the whole period of the project 
to  feed  in  the  DSS  and  provide  more  accurate  assessment  of  the  planning  scenarios  in 
each  city.  The  main  conclusion  of  the  SUME  project  after  comparing  business  as  usual 
scenarios (BASE) with “SUME” low carbon scenarios was that that the greatest potentials 
for  saving  energy  –  and  the  most  relevant  for  policymakers  –  can  be  identified  as  the 
replacement of old building stock and the avoidance of urban expansion.  

5 

Air Quality and Health Challenges 

Globally, our climate is changing due to anthropogenic activity; this is already having, and 
will increasingly have, serious consequences for human and natural systems; urban areas 
are  at  a  particularly  high  risk.  However,  urban  areas  are  also  responsible  for  producing 
more than 70 % of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which are changing the climate. 
Furthermore, urban road traffic alone contributes about 10% of all European carbon dioxide 
emissions,  and  at  the  same  time  is  responsible  for  poor  air  equality  in  many  European 
cities.  

In  addition  to  these  local  effects,  this  pollution  is  transported  over  regional  scales, 
contributing  to  the  pollution  levels  in  other  regions,  as  well  as  to  the  hemispheric 
background  pollution.  As  a  consequence  when  developing  and  implementing  new 
sustainable  development  policies  for  our  cities,  it  is  vital  to  consider  the  effects  on 
emissions  of  both  greenhouse  gases  (GHG)  and  air  pollutants.  In  many  cases, 
implementing  one  policy  strategy  may  reduce  GHG  emissions  but  instead  increase 
emissions of air pollutants, bringing with them ill-effects on health and wellbeing. 

5.1  Air Quality and Health Solutions 

Figure 14. © Sergey Nivens 

21 

 
 
 
The projects featured here include MEGAPOLI which investigated the interactions among 
megacities  emissions,  air  quality  and  climate,  bridging  spatial  and  temporal  scales  that 
connect  local  emissions,  air  quality  and  weather  with  global  atmospheric  chemistry  and 
climate,  to  provide  information  on  the  effects  on  regional  and  global  climate,  and  the 
feedbacks and mitigation potentials. EURO-URHIS 2 addressing urban health analysis and 
specific  challenges  of  health  issues  in  urban  areas,  such  as  internationalisation  of 
metropolitan  regions,  ageing  populations,  migration  and  poor  environmental  factors. 
PURGE examined the health impacts of greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction policies in urban 
settings  in  Europe,  China  and  India,  using  case  studies  of  3-4  large  urban  centres  and 
three smaller urban centres. Finally, URGENCHE developed and applied a methodological 
framework for the assessment of the overall risks and benefits of alternative greenhouse 
gas (GHG) emission reduction policies for health and well-being.  

MEGAPOLI addressed the integrated approach dealing with air quality and its influence 
on climate change, pollution and health in cities (and specifically in megacities) by linking 
the  multiple  geographical  scales  to  which  the effects  of  air  pollution and  climate  can  be 
analysed. 

The four most important Euroepan Megacities or conurbations (London, Paris, the Rhine-
Ruhr region and the Po Valley) were researched in-depth, but also including Moscow and 
Istanbul as European megacities. Finally, extended simulations and satellite analysis for all 
the megacities in the world have been developed. The EU researchers worked with end-
users (air quality monitoring facilities) and research centres from all these cities.  

The research delivered integrated methodologies to assess the impacts of pollution within, 
and from megacities to global scales; assessed the feedbacks and interlinkages between 
air quality and climate change in megacities at urban, regional and global scales; delivered 
outputs  that  link  city  emissions  and  pollution  with  health,  e.g.  calculating  the  impact  of 
pollution on DALY (disability adjusted life years). 

The  project  also  produced  information  on  long-range  transport  and  regional  pollution, 
baseline scenarios and measures for improving air quality and climate change impacts in 
megacities;  developed  improved  current  and  future  emission  estimates  for  natural  and 
anthropogenic  sources  of  air  pollutants  and  analysed  policy  options  to  reduce  megacity 
emissions. 

Different  results  of  MEGAPOLI  have  been  incorporated  in  the  air  quality  monitoring  and 
emission reduction strategies of megacities in China, Mexico, several African cities (e.g., 
Accra, Cairo). At the European level, they influenced the EC Air Quality Policy (Air Quality 
Directive  (2008/50/EC)  and  the  National  Emission  Ceilings  (NEC).  The  results  have  also 
been used for urban planning by the World Meteorological Organization, the World Bank 
and the OECD. 

MEGAPOLI collaborated with the World Meteorological Organization and with end-users 
such as air quality monitoring facilities in various countries e.g. France, UK, Italy, Germany, 
Mexico, India, etc., environmental agencies and regional meteorological centres in China, 
Russia, USA, etc and attracted research centres and end-users from all over the world. In 
addition,  companies  and  facilities  specialised  in  aerospace  monitoring  and  satellite 
technologies contributed to develop outputs and solutions. 

The problems of all the megacities were analysed and the validity of the tools and methods 
validated at broader levels. The project also provided open datasets of health indicators 
that can be used by any interested stakeholder. The projects’ results are widely regarded 
as inspirational and are used by the World Meteorological Organization, and the methods 
and tools produced have been transferred to other countries and cities in Africa, Asia and 
Latin  America.  The  new  concept  of  Integrated  Urban  Hydrometeorology,  Climate  and 
Environment  Services,  as  an  urban  cross-cutting  issue  integrating  these  issues  in  city 
services has also been adopted by the World Meteorological Organization.  

The  European  and  Megacity  Emissions  Baseline  Scenarios  for  2020,  2030  and  2050  are 
being  used  by  National  and  local  governments,  air  quality  monitoring  facilities  and  the 

22 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
European Environmental Agency. The results have been considered by the EC Air Quality 
Policy (Air Quality Directive 2008/50/EC) and the National Emission Ceilings (NEC) defined 
in the NEC directive (2001/81/EC)) and the EC Air Policy Review. 

The  Global  Emission  Inventory  is  of  great  interest  for  the  World  Meteorological 
Organization, the World Bank, UNEP and the World Health Organization. Furthermore, the 
project researchers have actively participated in international initiatives such as UNFCCC 
and the Paris COP-21 Agreement on Climate Change, the Habitat III New Urban Agenda 
and the IPCC. 

Finally,  several  MEGAPOLI  tools  to  monitor  air  quality  are  being  used  by  many  Chinese 
megacities, supported by the EU-China project MARCO POLO. At regional/megacity levels, 
the  Exposure  Maps  for  Greater  London  and  Po  Valley,  and  the  impact  assessment  of 
mitigation  and  policy  options  are  used  for  decision  making  by  air  quality  monitoring 
facilities including Greater London Authority, AIRPARIFF and ARIANET. 

EURO-URHIS 2 addressing urban health analysis and specific challenges of health issues 
in urban areas, such as internationalisation of  metropolitan regions, ageing populations, 
migration  and  poor  environmental  factors.  These  factors  are  not  captured  by  national 
datasets and normally are poorly investigated. The research developed methodologies and 
validated tools to collect comparable and reliable data in different countries on a wide range 
of  determinants  of  health,  specific  to  urban  populations  and  provided  evidence  based 
information useful to policy makers at all levels to improve urban health conditions. 

It  harmonized  indicators  and  methods;  developed  different  cross-sectional  surveys 
focusing  on  cross-thematic  approaches  e.g.  environmental  conditions,  food  and 
bioinformatics and displayed differentiated results for young and adults; built capacities in 
the health systems of Eastern countries; established benchmarking standards and analysed 
future  trend  in  the  status  of  urban  health  and  in  the  costs  associated  to  urban  health 
services.  

EURO-URHIS  2  worked  in  close  collaboration  with  end-users  (local  and  regional  public 
health providers and urban planners) to foster the systemic approach. They worked in close 
collaboration with urban health systems to deliver outputs adapted to their needs, to do 
an  integrated  analysis  of  the  problems  and  risk  management  options,  and  to  propose 
adapted solutions. The results raised awareness about the higher health burden the cities 
will face in the future due to longer life expectancy, but with less healthy life years. 

The project also worked with the World Health Organization, the city health planners and 
policymakers,  and  the  national  health  services,  as  well  as  involved  citizens  e.g  making 
surveys on the health status of schools, and supporting the school boards in developing 
strategies to address the problems identified. 

Additionally,  urban  and  national  health  services  were  mobilised  from  many  different 
countries, to build capacities and raise awareness on the relevance of data collection with 
validated and comparable methods and the importance of benchmarking and learning from 
others. 

23 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure 15. © dudlajzov 

EURO  URHIS  2  had  important  effects  at  policy  level.  The  partner  cities  used  the  health 
indicators and the Health City profiles to adjust their health decisions. A network of urban 
health professionals was created to help with policy development and capacity building and 
benchmarking are now important issues in the urban policy agendas. At the European level, 
the European Public Health Association adopted the Urban Health Assessment method, and 
created  an  Urban  Health  Section,  currently  around  1500  members,  that  actively 
participates in research activity. At international level, the project contributed to the World 
Health Organisation (WHO) Healthy Cities programme.  

The  project  delivered  a  harmonisation  of  urban  health  data  methods  and  now  over  15 
countries have developed a common system for data collection and validation.  

Furthermore, the instruments are available in all the local languages, and the system has 
been  adapted  to  non-EU  countries  such  as  Vietnam,  China,  Kuwait  and  now  is  being 
validated for Nepal. Methods and instruments have been designed to be replicable and can 
be applied to any city in Europe and beyond.  

Accordingly, Health Profiles have been developed for 26 European and non-European cities, 
providing  policymakers  with  intersectoral  analysis  and  comparable  information  on  the 
health status of each city and delivering information on future trends that affect the future 
health burden.  

A key success factor for EURO URHIS 2 was to include a strategic global partner, the World 
Health Organization, but the key point was to demonstrate to urban planners from very 
different European countries the importance of data collection at the urban level and the 
need to use validated, robust and comparable methodologies.  

The  main  problems  faced  included  the  problems  in  harmonising  data  from  different 
countries.  They  solved  through  thoroughly  discussions  to  identify  data  available  in  the 
different countries that was relevant to analyse the health indicators and by delivering of 
common methods, indicator list and data validation instruments to be used.  

Additionally, they found an important East/West divide in data availability and validity that 
they  tried  to  solve  creating  capacities  in  Eastern  countries.  This  project  likewise  faced 
important  problems  linked  to  the  ethical  approval  requirements  on  sensitive  individual 
health data that prevent the diffusion of particular results. 

PURGE examined the health impacts of greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction policies in urban 
settings  in  Europe,  China  and  India,  using  case  studies  of  3-4  large  urban  centres  and 
three smaller urban centres.  

Sets  of  realistic  interventions  were  proposed,  tailored  to  local  needs,  to  meet  published 
abatement  goals  for  GHG  Emissions  for  2020,  2030  and  2050.  Mitigation  actions  were 
defined  in  four  main  sectors:  power  generation/industry,  household  energy,  transport, 

24 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
food, and agriculture. The chief pathways by which such measures influence health were 
described,  and  models  developed  to  quantify  changes  in  health-related  ‘exposures’  and 
health behaviours. Models included ones relating to outdoor air pollution, indoor air quality 
and  temperature,  physical  activity,  dietary  intake,  road  injury  risks  and  selected  other 
exposures.  

The  project  examined  suites  of  policies  options  for  achievement  of  the  necessary  GHG 
reduction strategies for urban populations as a whole. The assessments were focused on 
combinations  of  measures  that  together  can  achieve  the  required  abatement  trajectory 
overall. Accordingly, from an integration perspective assessment of the effects of different 
policy elements took account of the changes of other policy elements. This issue, and other 
joint effects of different sectoral policies where addressed through iterative cycles of model 
integration, which consider integration both with respect to exposures and also with respect 
to health impacts.  

These integrated policy solutions for health (sometimes referred to as health ‘co-benefits’ 
if  positive)  arise  from  reduction  of  exposures  to  environmental  pollutants  (such  as  air 
pollution) and from the promotion of health-related behaviours (healthy diets, walking and 
cycling). They are additional to any impacts on health arising from the mitigation of climate 
change. 

They are important because they can provide an additional rationale to pursue mitigation 
strategies,  and  demonstrate  opportunities  by  which  population  health  may  be  improved 
while pursuing environmental objectives.  

PURGE innovations in terms of tools concerned the development and implementation of 
integrated quantitative models of health impacts associated with various policy choices. In 
addition,  the  project  developed  and  applied  Multi-Criteria  Decision  Analysis  (MCDA) 
frameworks  to  compare  different  mitigation  options.  The  focus  being  the  process  to 
examine uncertainty in the evidence and potential bearing on policy recommendations. The 
project sought and found evidence that measures to support the transition to a low carbon 
economy  have  the  potential  for  securing  appreciable  benefits  for  population  health.    In 
particular,  the  primary  message  for  policy  is  that  there  are  important  opportunities  for 
health  in  almost  all  strategies  aimed  at  reducing  the  emissions  of  GHG  in  urban 
environments. This observation provides added impetus for the acceleration of policies to 
reduce GHG emissions, and the creation of health co-benefits. The project thereby makes 
substantial contribution to the development and implementation of local, regional and high-
level  policy  objectives  supporting  the  evolution  of  the  governance  model.  Moreover 
modelling  of  the  health  consequences  of  different  greenhouse  gas  reduction  strategies, 
and MCDA to assess the positive and negative impacts on health of policy actions, ensure 
policies  maximise  the  opportunities  for  promoting  health  whilst  minimising  the  adverse 
risks of unintended consequences.  

PURGE developed evidence on the health impacts of greenhouse gas reduction strategies 
in transport, electricity generation, housing and food and agriculture in urban environments 
of Europe and Asia. Its findings:  

  Extend  the  existing  evidence  on  the  health  impacts  associated  with  GHG  reduction 
strategies.  To  date,  health  impacts  have  received  comparatively  limited  attention  in 
debates about the cost- benefit of ‘decarbonization’ by comparison with, say, economic 
considerations.  For  many  mitigation  strategies,  the  net  consequences  for  health  are 
positive, and so add to the rationale for an accelerated transition to low carbon (low 
GHG) economies, perhaps by helping to offset some of the perceived economic costs.  

  Provide evidence on the types of GHG reduction strategy within each sector that are 

likely to have the greatest health dividend.  

  Yield more detailed evidence on both the positive and negative consequences for health 
of  such  strategies,  so  that  policies  and  regulation  may  be  better  tailored  to  ensure 
opportunities for promoting health are maximized and protective steps can be taken to 
avoid unintended adverse effects for health.  

25 

 
 
 
 
                            
The project sought and found evidence that measures to support the transition to a low 
carbon  economy  have  the  potential  for  appreciable  benefits  to  population  health 
particularly  in  urban  environments  –  an  observation  that  gives  added  impetus  to  the 
acceleration of policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The opportunities and optimal 
solutions for interventions in different sectors vary from setting to setting. In general, the 
potential co-benefits for health of GHG reduction policies are greater in India and China 
than for European populations largely because of the greater exposure to air pollutants.  

According  to  the  project  analysis,  European  populations  have  diets,  which  are  both  less 
healthy and carry relatively high CO2e emissions, and there appears to be greater scope 
for  environment  and  health  gains  from  relatively  modest  adjustment  to  current  dietary 
patterns.  European  populations  are  also  relatively  physically  inactive,  and  sustainable 
transport policies, which promote active travel, may entail correspondingly large benefits 
for  public  health.  Action  in  both  Europe  and  Asia  will  be  vital  to  meet  GHG  abatement 
targets to limit the risk of disruptive climate change. The use of tools to assess the positive 
and negative impacts on health of such actions could help ensure policies maximize the 
opportunities  for  promoting  health  while  minimizing  the  risk  of  adverse  unintended 
consequences.  

URGENCHE  scientists in the areas  of health risk assessment, urban energy demand and 
supply  scenarios,  urban  planning,  environmental  science  and  epidemiology  -  in  close 
collaboration with city partners in both Europe and China considered how GHG reduction 
policies may affect public health in various ways, such as the choices made regarding the 
selection of fuels and means for space heating and transport, building codes to improve 
thermal efficiency, or urban development and zoning. 

A  methodological  framework  was  developed  and  applied  that  considered  GHG  emission 
reductions of energy demand and supply and transport scenarios in urban areas, the effect 
of these policies, and subsequently the impacts on human health and well-being. 

Figure 16. © stbaus7 

The project delivered a validated, methodological framework to assess urban GHG policies 
with the greatest co-benefits for health and well-being in cities ranging in population from 
50,000  to  10  million,  across  various  climatological  conditions  and  differences  in  socio-
economic background.  

The  scope  of  the  project  was  the  public  health  and  well-being  impact  of  urban  scale 
implementation of GHG-mitigation policies. The spatial scale of the project an urban area 
- a conurbation. For electrical power demand exceeding the power generated and supplied 
from within the metropolitan area, the scale was national electric power generation. The 
temporal  scale  was  10  years  from  2010,  to  allow  comparison  to  the  EU  and  Kyoto-
Copenhagen targets while also enabling realistic assessment of longer-term policies. 

The methodological project objective was to develop a modelling platform and a related 
database for urban impact assessment. The platform had to be robust, easily transportable 
to new cities and usable for draft or detailed assessment depending on the availability of 

26 

 
 
 
data.  The  topics  covered  were  urban  energy  generation  and  use,  with  GHG  and  other 
pollution  release;  urban  spatial  data  including  the  urban  spatial  plan,  building  stock, 
transportation and population; socio-economic, demographic, exposure, health and well-
being of the population.                         

URGENCHE  outcomes  from  most  policy  scenarios  showed  marginal  additional  health 
benefits,  with  an  example  of  a  potential  1.5  million  euros  saved  from  total  costs  of  33 
million per year caused by PM2.5 exposure in one EU city contemplating moves to biomass 
in  combined  heat  and  power,  bio-fuels  in  transport  and  improvements  to  buildings 
insulation. Well-being effects  of the policy scenarios were  found to be  positive but were 
generally expressed less strongly than health benefits.  

In China, the impact of all scenarios on air quality was found to be negligible compared to 
that of ongoing economic development. However, as an example of other work carried out 
there, a Chinese survey on well-being indicated the importance given by local people to 
health, social life and safety, with implications noted for policy development for healthcare 
and communities.  

The mobility policy implications of the case studies in the European and Chinese cities on 
air quality and noise are as follows: More stringent CO2 emission standards (zero-emission) 
for road traffic is the most  effective measure to  reduce  CO2 emissions from urban  road 
traffic.  

This  requires  action  at  the  level  of  the  European  Union  and  the  central  Chinese 
Government,  and  is  beyond  the  control  of  local  authorities;  Support,  facilitation  and 
stimulation of physical (cycling, walking) and public transport provide the most effective 
local policies to reduce CO2 emissions and improve air quality, health and well-being. 

These measures and local transport policies are within the control of local authorities.  

URGENCHE impacts for exposure, health and well-being include:  

  Sharing  methodologies  and  international  expertise  to  local  policy  decision-making 

processes. 

  Building  a  broader  community  and  debate  for  impact  assessment  of  local  policy 
interventions and indicating new directions on the assessment of the studied policies 
and on work being done by others, for example on wellbeing.  

  Focusing on interventions that deliver the largest public health benefit and specifying 

interventions that could target large disparities among subpopulations. 

 

Identifying problems that are not acted upon and fostering knowledge transfer activities 
to engage the public and stakeholders and extending impact assessment methods from 
quantitative health assessments to qualitative well-being assessments.  

  Being  aware  of  the  difficulty  in  measuring  the  impact  of  the  work  through  its  direct 

social benefits. 

6  Mobility  

6.1 Mobility Challenges 

In  many  urban  areas,  increasing  demand  for  urban  mobility  has  created  unsustainable 
urban patterns such as severe congestion, poor use of urban space, poor air quality, noise 
emissions and high levels of CO2 emissions from transport which are not only ruining the 
climate but also the citizens’ quality of life. 

27 

 
 
 
Urban  congestion  also  jeopardises  EU  objectives  to  achieve  competitive  and  resource-
efficient  transport  systems.  European  urban  areas  today  face  the  dual  challenge  of 
providing  the  transport  infrastructrure  and  services  necessary  to  stimulate  the  growth 
needed  to  provide  jobs  and  well-being  for  its  inhabitants,  while  also  ensuring  that  the 
quality of this growth leads to a sustainable future with less pollution and congestion, social 
inclusion, health and well-being. 

 By  2030,  60%  of  world  population  will  live  in  cities;  existing  infrastructues  will  be 
inneficient and the congestion unbearable. People will die due to air pollution (WHO 2014: 
7  million).  Integrated  and  innovative  solutions  that  combine  technological,  digital, 
business, governance, social, cultural and nature-based innovations are needed to foster 
in  our  cities  (e.g.  multimodal  services  and  sharing 
sustainable  environments 
transportation).  Stakeholders’  awareness  should  be  promoted,  so  that  they  can  design, 
develop and implement the appropriate interventions 

The European Commission has actively promoted the concept of sustainable urban mobility 
planning  for  several  years,  notably  though  the  development  and  implementation  of 
Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP) by local authorities. SUMP at the functional urban 
area level are applied across different levels of government and administration including 
rural and peri-urban areas, and across different policy areas and sectors (transport, land-
use and spatial planning, environment, economic development, social policy, health, road 
safety,  etc.)  (Source:  "Together  towards  competitive  and  resource-efficient  urban 
mobility", COM(2013) 913 final). 

Figure 17. © scusi 

The  urban  mobility  projects  under  review  tried  to  tackle  the  societal  challenges  of  air 
pollution and quality of life by stimulating healthier lifestyles (promotion of cycling, jogging 
and  walking),  improving  the  environmental  conditions  (promotion  of  cleaner  and  more 
efficient alternatives of transportation), reducing congestion (reduction of the number of 
private vehicles), improving transportation security (improvement  of infrastructures and 
introduction  of  new  technologies),  and  increasing  social  inclusion  (extension  of  Public 
Transport services to remote areas and improving first-mile/last-mile connectivity). 

Cooperation  between  the  different  stakeholders  was  at  the  core  of  all  the  reviewed 
projects.  While  Universities  mainly  contributed  with  R&D,  and  SMEs  and  Industrial 
companies focused mostly on the development and implementation of the solutions, city 
Municipalities  took  the  critical  role  of  obtaining  authorisations  to  perform  real-life 
demonstrations and contributed to the dissemination of the results to citizens.  

In order to ensure the replicability of the projects’ outcomes, demonstration measures took 
place in cities with very different political, legal, social, cultural and climatic characteristics. 
Those differences helped to create a mobility innovation ecosystem, as each city looked to 
the same problem from a different point of view. 

The reviewed projects contributed to (i) reduce air pollution and improve quality of life by 
stimulating  new  behaviors  and  healthier  lifestyles  as  cycling,  jogging  and  walking;  (ii) 

28 

 
 
 
improve  the  environmental  conditions,  by  proposing  cleaner  and  more  efficient 
transportation; (iii) reduce traffic congestion, by lowering the number of private vehicles; 
(iv) improve transportation through better infrastructures and new technologies; (v) foster 
social  inclusion,  by  extending  the  public  transportation  to  remote  areas  and  improve 
connectivity.  

The projects also contributed towards the New Urban Agenda, which was part of the Habitat 
III  policy  process.  The  Action  Platform:  Urban  Electric  Mobility  Initiative  (UEMI)  was 
initiated by UN-Habitat and was launched at the UN Climate Summit in September 2014. 

Moreover, all the above EU funded urban mobility projects promoted the concept of Smart 
and Sustainable cities encouraging green urban mobility solutions, which were considered 
as  best  practices.  These  solutions  facilitated  the  dialogue  between  stakeholders  and 
provided tailored guidance to city officials. The involvement of citizens in the project was 
mainly during the dissemination phases of the projects (i.e. co-implementation) and mostly 
as end users for the up-take of proposed solutions and tools. 

The need to involve the users and concerned stakeholders since the start of the project to 
co-design, co-develop and co-deploy the proposed solutions was highlighted in all mobility 
projects.  New local urban planning instruments and policy tools were applied by developing 
a  methodology  for  the  certification  of  fully  automated  road  transport  systems,  which 
formed the basis of the legal framework proposal submitted to the European Commission. 

All the above projects were multidisciplinary and this resulted in a high degree of synergies:  

  Balance between the technical skills of partners to develop the project outcomes and 
the  ability  of  municipalities  and  local  policy  makers  to  ensure  places  for  the  real-life 
demonstrations. The cities invested significant time in identifying the areas where they 
expected to give and receive expertise producing interesting results that allowed the 
determination of possibilities of cooperation that went well beyond the simple share of 
information to the point that they led to the actual joint development of projects.  

  Combination  and  interaction  of  different  disciplines,  previous  experiences  in  related 
research  projects  and  complementary  skills  can  help  to  perform  the  technical  multi-
tasking needed to achieve the objectives. Besides, a balanced geographical distribution, 
guarantee that the outcomes could be replicated at European scale  

  External advisory members of the consortium helped to perform a proper development 
and a dissemination plan, as well as to guarantee that the projects results can be spread 
all over the EU. A holistic, integrated and systemic approach was employed. While the 
EU  funded  project  CityMobil2  tackled  the  thematic  area  of  Automated  Road 
Transportation Systems (ARTS), the EU funded project CiViTAS MIMOSA focused on 
thematic areas such as Alternative Fuels and Cleaning Vehicles, Collective passenger 
transport,  Mobility  management,  Regulatory  measures  for  road  space  optimization, 
Safety and security and Less Car Dependent Life Styles.  

The  EU  funded  project  SOLUTIONS  (Support  coordinated  Action)  designed  and 
implemented  a  methodology  which  provides  guidance  on  how  to  transfer  sustainable 
mobility  solutions  between  cities.  This  innovative  methodology  helped  to  foster  the 
adoption  of  innovative  transport  solutions  by  cities  in  Asia,  Latin  America  and 
Mediterranean.                          

The  project  provided  guidelines  for  policy  development  based  on  the  exchange  of 
knowledge and advice between city planners. Furthermore, the introduction of innovative 
technologies  in  these  cities  can  motivate  entrepreneurs  and  scientists  to  eplore  these 
innovations  and  further  adapt  them  to  particularities  in  their  countries.  The  transfer  of 
these new technologies can be important to promote the competitiveness of the companies 
in  the  cities  that  share  the  innovations  (i.e.,  leading  cities),  as  it  can  provide  critical 
financial resources for those companies. The implementation of these measures can bring 
awareness among policy makers towards the needs of being innovative regarding urban 
mobility, which can result in policies more friendly to this kind of novel solutions.  

29 

 
 
SOLUTIONS also contributed actively towards the New Urban Agenda, which was a part 
of  the  Habitat  III  policy  process.  The  Action  Platform:  Urban  Electric  Mobility  Initiative 
(UEMI)  was  initiated  by  UN-Habitat  and  was  launched  at  the  UN  Climate  Summit  in 
September 2014.  

The direct outcomes of the project (i.e. studies, guidelines and  recommendations) were 
up-taken by cities and the results of such up-take (e.g. establishment of twining cities and 
the new SUMP in Belo-Horizonte, Brazil) lasted beyond the life-time of the project. 

Overall, the implementation of these measures raised awareness among policy makers on 
the need for the development of innovative solutions on urban mobility. 

In particular, during the project, the participating cities organised themselves in pairs of 
twin cities (one lead city for each take-up city). The dynamic that resulted from the creation 
of the twining cities mechanism facilitated the dialogue and exchange of information and 
allowed  leading  cities  to  promote  successful  policies  and  provide  guidance  and  tailored 
advice  to  the  officials  of  the  take-up  cities.  A  set  of  recommendations  on  cooperation 
between the EU and China and between EU and other Mediterranean countries was also 
developed.  

As a direct result of the transferability methodology, the city of Belo Horizonte, in  Brazil, 
has  implemented  an  innovative  Sustainable  Urban  Mobility  Plan  (SUMP),  which  includes 
comprehensive  measures  such  as  a  NMT  infrastructure  –  Zone  30  (30km/h  zone)  in 
cooperation with the twin city of Bremen in Germany; a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system 
and a cycling lane. A last-mile connectivity development in the Vytilla Mobility Hub (Kochi, 
India) that connects the metro corridor with a water transport network was created based 
on exchange and cooperation with the twin city of Hangzhou, in China. 

Figure 18. © Laiotz 

The replicability of the projects’ outcomes was ensured through demonstration measures, 
which  took  place  in  cities  with  very  different  political,  legal,  social,  cultural  and  climatic 
characteristics.  These  differences  helped  to  create  a  mobility  innovation  ecosystem,  as 
each city looked to the same problem from a different point of view. 

Moreover, citizens played a  key role in the project and especially in the implementation 
phase, since it was acknowledged that their behaviour towards mobility in a large extent 
dictates the success or failure of the initiatives.  

CityMobil2  project  developed  and  successfully  inmeplemented  the  Automated  Road 
Transportation System (ARTS). In particular, the project provided the following successful 
solutions: 

a) CityMobil2 for Automated Road Transportation Systems (ARTS) provided the evidence 
base knowledge and tools to city municipalities and decision makers:  

30 

 
 
 
The ARTS demonstrations in Oristano (Italy), Vantaa (Finland), Sophia Antipolis (France), 
San Sebastian (Spain), Lausanne (Switzerland), La Rochelle (France) and Trikala (Greece), 
revealed the positive impacts of the implementation of ARTS: improved accessibility, social 
inclusion, traffic, comfort, safety, reduction of fares / parking fees and air quality (there 
will be less cars circulating and the ARTS is energetically more efficient than the current 
public  transportation  system.  A  safety  and  legal  certification  scheme  for  ARTS  was  also 
developed, as well as guidelines regarding how to integrate ARTS in cities (see question 
6).  

62199 rides were  registered during the. Around 80%  of the riders would have liked the 
temporary demonstrations to remain open and more than 70% wanted these systems to 
be extended all over the city. The demonstrations in La Rochelle, Vantaa and Trikala can 
be considered best practice examples of the deployment of ARTS due to the high number 
of passengers that tried the service. 

b) CityMobil2 supported cities involved to become actors of open innovation. 

The reviewed projected contributed to policy advancements by developing a methodology 
for the certification of fully automated road transport systems that forms the basis of the 
legal framework proposal submitted to the European Commission. Such proposal can be 
catalyst for innovation in the sector.  

Furthermore,  the  review  project  predicted  positive  environmental,  urban  and  socio-
economic impacts of ARTS and evaluated its implementation costs. Policy makers can be 
motivated by the information provided to work towards the dissemination of ARTS.  

The demonstration of ARTS in several cities also gave manufacturers the opportunity to 
thoroughly test their technologies and demonstrate the technical feasibility of automated 
last-mile  transportation.  It  also  increased  awareness  of  citizens  regarding  these  new 
transportation systems, which can promote the up-take of autonomous road vehicles by 
the market.  

Despite the interest of habitants and municipalities in ARTS (the project provided evidence 
regarding the positive impacts of ARTS in economy, transportation, environment and social 
inclusion), once the project ended the demonstrations of ARTS were stopped. 

c)  CityMobil2  faced  the  following  barriers  of  acceptance  of  innovative  solutions  and 
suggested the following mitigation measures:  

 

Initially  there  were  problems  in  the  acceptance  of  ARTS  system.  The  suggested 
measures are to involve more citizens in the co-desifn, co-creation and co-deployment 
of ARTS and encourage dissemination to end-users. 

  There was a lack of legal framework to conduct the demonstrations in proposed cities. 
For this reason, Municipalities had the responsibility of obtaining and finally obtained 
legal authorisations to perform the demonstrations.  

d) CityMobil2 created new local urban planning instruments: 

The  legal  framework  for  the  development  of  automated  mobility  in  Europe  is  currently 
extremely  fragmented  or  completely  absent  and  makes  it  impossible,  or  incredibly 
unprofitable, for any economic operator to develop, produce or market automated vehicles 
in the European Union.  

The  review  projects  proposed  two  separate  EC  Directives:  one  to  regulate  the  technical 
procedure for certification of Automated Road Transportation Systems (infrastructure, such 
as the different lanes, vehicles and all subsystems) and one to regulate the civil liability of 
Automated Road Transportation Systems’ manufacturers, operators, and manually driven 
vehicles using the Automated Road Transportation Systems dedicated lanes.  

Regarding the technical procedure, the legal framework proposed was to divide the road 
infrastructure  in  two  independent  (but  connected)  infrastructures.  Automated  Road 

31 

 
 
Transportation Systems can access dedicated/segregated lanes, which may intersect with 
lanes  for  manually  driven  vehicles  (always  with  traffic  lights  and  road-side  sensors  that 
control respect of lights), but it cannot access shared lanes (i.e. normal lanes).  

In order to certify Automated Road Transportation Systems for legal and safety in EU, 9 
technical  steps  were  proposed  to  ensure  that  the  vehicles  are  designed  according  to 
common specifications and tested for all safety situations:  

1. The involved authorities must agree that the proposed procedure is acceptable to issue 
a certification for the described project.  

2. Procedure foresees the compilation of a preliminary hazard list and makes proposals of 
mitigation  measures,  changing  the  project  description  until  it  is  agreed  that  risks  are 
mitigated and the final description approved.  

3.  Automated  Road  Transportation  Systems  need  to  be  designed  according  to  the 
specificities of the site and the agreed mitigation measures (e.g. changing the vehicle and 
sensor design could affect the mitigation measures).  

4. The system engineering needs to pass a FMECA (Failure Mode, Effects, and Criticality 
Analysis)  

5. The functional safety outcome of the FMECA must be ensured to work.  

6.  The  system  must  reach  the  same  safety  in  any  operational  conditions  (e.g.  weather 
conditions, as well as hours of operation and lighting conditions).  

7. Manuals for the operators, their training program, the maintenance schedule and all the 
other conditions which might affect in time the effectiveness of the system safety need to 
be considered as well as emergency procedures in case of failure.  

8. Define the operational safety cases on the basis of the approved procedures and devise 
tests.  

9.  Finally,  last  tests  (dry  runs)  must  be  performed  before  the  final  approval  to  public 
opening.  

Regarding the liability of the framework, Member States want to retain the framework for 
liability at national level. 

The  EU  funded  project  CiViTAS  MIMOSA  helped  shape  a  new  mentality,  promoting 
conscientious rewarding behaviors with citizen communication providing a key pillar of the 
strategy  and  contributing  to  improved  mobility  and  quality  of  life  in  cities  The  project 
outcomes clearly linked radical change in urban mobility to the ability to convey the right 
message. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that citizens’ behavioral change creates new 
markets for innovative urban mobility solutions, and fosters Research and Inovation (R&I)  
efforts  in  the  sector.  The  inclusion  of  transportation  industries  in  the  innovative  design, 
development  and  deployment  process  throughout  the  project  contributed  to  the 
development  of  new  ideas,  new  products  and  a  stronger  drive  to  replicate  the  most 
effective solutions in other markets. New ideas arose as key messages were disseminated 
and workshop/ training promoted.        

The engagement and commitment of the local administrators and municipalities from the 
beginning  of  the  project,  in  addition  to  the  recognition  and  comprehension  of  the  real 
benefits  of  the  initiatives,  were  key  to  changing  the  mentality  of  policy  makers  towards 
more innovation-friendly legislation and policies for urban mobility.   

The  EU  funded  project  CiViTAS  MIMOSA  developed  a  number  of  innovative  transport 
solutions and provided the evidence base knowledge and tools to city municipalities and 
decision makers 

a) CiViTAS MIMOSA: Alternative Fuels and Cleaning Vehicles  

32 

 
 
  A green tariff implemented in Funchal (Portugal) for owners of electric/hybrid vehicles 
i.e.  50%  discount  in  parking  meters)  was  used  over  800  times.  The  dissemination 
campaigns  of  electric/hybrid  vehicles  resulted  in  a  purchase  increase  of  650%.  The 
increase  of  Accessibility  of  remote  areas  with  mini-buses  in  Funchal  resulted  in  a 
reduction of 1,2% of average fuel consumption of the overall fleet, 14% of CO2, 12% 
of  PM10  and  22%  -  26,3%  of  NOx.  The  number  of  urban  buses  able  to  transport 
wheelchairs has risen by 20%.  

b) for Collective Passenger Transport: 

  An increase of 44% in the offer of Park & Ride (P&R) parking spaces in Bologna (Italy) 
resulted in more 30% of occupancy rate. P&R with PT School Service in Funchal resulted 
in almost 6.000 new PT passengers, while In Tallinn the promotion of P&R resulted in 
more 9.1% of occupancy rate.  

 

Integrated PT Fare System in Bologna, ticketing on board and a recharging system for 
season tickets on contactless smart cards encourages the use of public transport (from 
Aug 2011 to Sep 2012, more than 5600 season tickets were renewed through ATMs).  

  A new Online Ticketing System in Tallinn was well accepted by users, which is expected 
to increase the number of users of PT. The Green PT Line in Funchal, that provides high 
frequency Euro V buses in touristic areas, resulted in a reduction of pollutant levels of 
13% (CO2eq) to 43% (PM10). 

Figure 19. © kinwun 

  The Control System for Dial and Ride Service in Funchal (a mini bus service based on 
a PT on-demand service in which citizens book their trips in advance) was used by a 
total of 1384 passengers, with an average of 1.5 passengers/ trip, between Oct 2011 
and  May  2012.    Public  Urban  Transport  Planning  Centre  implemented  in  Funchal 
managed  information  that  was  immediately  available  when  planning  or  operational 
decisions  needed  to  be  made.  The  informatics  system  to  manage  complaints  has 
reduced the response time to less than 1 month.  

c) Regulatory Measures for road space optimization  

  New  regulation  in  Bologna  regarding  Limited  Traffic  Zones  and  access  to  semi-
pedestrian  areas,  as  well  as  the  improvement  of  parking  meters,  lead  to  a  20% 
reduction of daily access to the city centre and a 42% reduction of vehicles entering 
semi-pedestrian areas. Limited Traffic Zone in Funchal achieved a traffic reduction of 
56% of car entries in the city centre.  

d) Mobility Management  

  New parking rates and  ticket machines improved parking management in the city of 

Utrecht.  

  Policy  planning  and  co-operation  in  Bologna  lead  to  an  increase  in  interactions  with 

citizens (up to 3 000 participants in each European Mobility week).  

  The implementation of a Mobility Management Office to elaborate the municipal mobility 
plan and to support companies in their mobility management resulted in an increase of 

33 

 
 
 
50% of Mobility Management agreements (7.603 units were sold in 2007 vs. 11,413 in 
2011). As a result, emissions were reduced by 35% compared to 2008 (average value 
of all pollutant types), with 5 tons CO2 per year saved.  

  The improvement  of  eco-driving habits in Funchal  resulted in fuel savings (31.4% in 
2010 and 31% in 2011) and less CO2 emissions (46.8% in 2010- 43.1% in 2011).  

  Marketing activities in Gdansk between 2010 and 2012 resulted in an increase of 9% 
of bike regular use. Marketing activities in Tallinn resulted in a decrease of 1.5% in the 
share of personal car use.  

  As a result of the Walking Bus initiative in Gdansk (a group of children walk to school 
escorted  by  one  parent),  there  were  around  20%  less  school-home  trips  by  cars.  A 
similar  initiative  in  Bologna  called  Pedi-Bus  achieved  a  participation  of  +20%  of  the 
students enrolled in 8 elementary schools.  

 

In  Utrecht,  715  companies  participated  in  the  'Utrecht  Bereikbaar-pass  (a  free 
transportation pass for employees), with a total number of 19,120UB passes sold.  

  Due to the hinder planning and communication in Utrecht, the traffic in peak hours on 

main roads increased by less 4% than what it had been previously expected.  

  By distributing between rewards to car drivers that avoided the rush hour in Utrecht, 
the traffic level was reduced between 500 and 700 cars during the morning rush hours.  

e) Safety and Security  

  After participating in exercises on Road Control Due to their, more 19% students than 

before stated that they would not drive after drinking alcohol. 

  The Urban Traffic Safety Plan for Bologna resulted in a 46% reduction of accidents at 
traffic islands crossings without traffic lights and a 34% reduction with traffic lights. A 
bundled  indicator  (including  accidents,  people  injured  and  killed  all  over  Bologna 
territory), show a reduction of 21.1% accidents in 2010 against 2007 and 21.6% fewer 
people injured over the same period.  

  Measures to improve road Infrastructures, as well as a communication strategy to raise 
road  safety  awareness,  resulted  in  a  higher  level  of  road  safety  for  pedestrians  and 
cyclists in Gdansk, especially along the coastal strip. Furthermore, an increase of 7% 
of  cyclists  driving  along  the  strip  was  registered  between  2010  and  2011.  Another 
positive result was the raise of 8% of citizens practicing jogging several times a week 
along the strip between 2010 and 2012. 

  Bus  and  tram  drivers  in  Gdansk  were  taught  to  deal  with  vandalism  and  offenders, 
resulting in a 20% decrease of acts of vandalism and 25% increase in the perceived 
sense of security of PT users.  

f) Less Car Dependent Life Styles  

 

In Bologna, a by-law on car sharing parking areas facilities lead to an increase in car 
sharing that resulted in a reduction of traffic, fuel consumption and emissions.  

  The deployment in Bologna of four pilots of Mobimart, a reward mechanism tailored to 
the needs of the citizens of Bologna that converts desirable travel behavior into benefits 
such as free bus tickets or a free parking, were successful in terms of CO₂ savings and 
citizen participation. 

 

In  Funchal,  the  buses  equipped  with  Trafilog  software  to  track  down  individual 
performances  of  drivers  contributed  to  a  decrease  of  the  emission  levels  of  CO2 
equivalent by 2%. In Tallinn, because of the eco driving training, the fuel consumption 
was  reduced  by  3.9%.  The  driving  style  index  was  improved  by  7.3%  and  the  bus 
drivers’ awareness on the environment by 29%. 

34 

 
 
  Funchal focus in a less vehicles dependent lifestyle resulted in an increase of 0.7 % in 

bike usage.  

  The promotional measures “New Cycles” in Gdansk resulted in an increase of bike use 

for others than leisure.  

  The development and dissemination of a successful consumer platform for car sharing 

in Utrecht.  

  The improvement of parking facilities for bikes in Utrecht lead to an increase of 4% of 

residents cycling to city centre.  

g) Urban freight logistics  

  The Bologna´s City Freight Delivery Plan resulted in 123 journeys carried out through 
the Van Sharing system, covering 6 300 Km in a specific area of the ‘Limited Traffic 
Zone’ LTZ.  

  Marking routes for better freight logistics in Tallinn was considered useful by 33% of 

truck drivers.  

  Utrecht’s City Distribution by electric Boat (Beer Boat), which supplied more than 60 
catering  businesses,  resulted  in  a  decrease  of  13%  of  CO2,  6%  of  NOx  and  10%  of 
PM10.  

  A Flexible access for cleaner freight traffic (e.g. Cargohopper) in the centre of Ultrecht 
resulted in a decrease of 4080 trips, which corresponds to less 88332 kilometres driven 
by diesel van or light truck and a reduction of 73% o CO2 , 27% NOx and 56% o PM10 
emissions.  

h) Transport telematics  

 

In  Bologna,  the  introduction  of  SCOUT,  an  illegal  street  parking  measure  based  on 
cameras  that  support  municipal  police  officers,  lead  to  a  reduction  of  53%  of  fines 
issued from 2008 to 2011.  

  Cisium New Traffic Control Centre in Bologna resulted in a decrease of waiting times at 

traffic lights that improved the flow fluidity at intersections.  

  The implementation of Stars in Bologna, an automatic enforcement system, resulted in 

a reduction of 21% of the accidents and 28% injuries at all crossings.  

  The Urban Mobility Control and Monitoring Centre in Funchal was considered as a good 
contribution to the knowledge of the mobility dynamics and to support decision policy.  

  Traffic  Monitoring  in  Tallinn  resulted  in  a  decrease  of  9.5  times  of  Red  light 
infringements.  PT  lane  infringements  decreased  4.4  times  and  only  0.3%  of  drivers 
passing the two cross-sections were exceeding the speed limit.  

 

In Tallinn, the implementation of electronic real time PT information reached 37% of 
awareness and about 8% of improvement in comfort of PT usage.  

SOLUTIONS  Transferability  conclusions  for  cooperation  between  EU  and  Mediterranean 
countries: 

  Providing  training  to  transport  professionals  and  policy  makers  on  ITS  and  their 

applications. 

  Raising awareness regarding ITS applications and disseminating best practices in order 
to  increase  acceptance  of  these  technologies  among  policy  makers  and  the  general 
public. 

35 

 
 
  Use of social media to collect traffic data and disseminate traveller information. 

  Use of ITS to improve public transport services such as in vehicle monitoring systems, 
fleet  management,  traveller  information  services,  smart  ticketing  and  bus  signal 
priorities. 

  Support  from  EU  in  the  preparation  of  a  SUMP  through  the  creation  of  exchange 
networks and workshops in order to foster the sharing of guidelines, knowledge and 
best practices. 

Figure 20. © lcrribeiro33@gmail 

 

International knowledge exchange on innovative financing solution and cooperation of 
funding institutions and vehicle manufactures to provide attractive financing models. 

  Sharing  cost-effective  non-motorized-modes  infrastructure  solutions  and  promote 
dialogue  on  the  technical/economic  feasibility  of  those  infrastructure  solutions  to 
increase its introduction. 

  Sharing international experience with integrated ticketing and revenue sharing. 

Conclusions for Cooperation between EU and China: 

  Exploit  together  the  potential  of  current  technologies,  including  alternative  fuels 
(wheel-to-well emissions should be taken into account), expand vehicle electrification 
and develop common standards for batteries and charging infrastructure. 

  RUC/traffic  management  system  should  be  introduced  as  part  of  a  comprehensive 

system, including improving other modes’ attractiveness. 

  Examine both the success and the failure of BRTs to understand BRTs’ transferability. 
Exchange  knowledge  on  technology  and  policy  issues  and  operational  and  funding 
structures. 

  Share  of  EU  knowledge  of  interchange  design  and  dialogue  on  the  technical  and 
economic  feasibility  and  the  specifications  of  the  enabling  policy  and  funding 
environment to increase the introduction of non-motorised transport infrastructure and 
services.  

  Knowledge  exchange  on  Sustainable  Urban  Mobility  Plans,  including  local  capacity 

building. 

  Exchange between Europe and the target regions on Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems 

technology and policy issues, as well as on operational and funding structures. 

7 

Energy Transition including Energy Efficient Buildings 

7.1     Energy Challenges 

"Energy efficiency first" is a key element of the Energy transition of the "Energy Union", 
which aims to make energy more secure, affordable and sustainable for every European 
citizen. One of the best ways to improve energy efficiency is to tap the huge potential for 

36 

 
 
 
efficiency  gains  in  the  building  sector,  which  is  the  largest  single  energy  consumer  in 
Europe, consuming 40% of final energy.  

The European Union aims to promote energy efficiency in buildings and to support cost-
effective building renovation with a view to the long-term goal of decarbonising the highly 
inefficient  existing  European  building  stock.  This  will  also  be  a  major  contribution  to 
reaching  the  EU's  2020  and  2030  energy  efficiency  targets.  In  this  respect  the  ‘Energy 
Performance of Buildings Directive’ (EPBD) revised in 2010 required all EU member states 
to  enhance  their  building  regulations  (new  buildings  have  to  be  nearly  zero  energy  by 
2021),  and  inform  consumers  on  the  energy  performance  of  buildings  through  a 
certification system.   

The 2002 ‘Energy Performance of Buildings Directive’ (EPBD) required all EU countries to 
enhance  their  building  regulations  and  to  introduce  energy  certification  schemes  for 
buildings (nearly zero energy by 2021). This enhancement is critical because by 2050 half 
of the buildings operational in 2012 will be still under use. 

The EU funded projects under review mainly addressed the EU Urban Agenda Theme on 
Energy Transition and tried to tackle the selection of the best energy retrofitting strategies 
to  increase  the  sustainability  of  an  existing  district,  taking  into  account  energy 
consumption, cultural heritage values, indoor air quality and air pollution. 

Figure 21. © Studio Harmony 

The European Commission proposal for a new revision of the Directive underlines the need 
to better link energy efficiency with performing buildings, so as to avoid possible adverse 
effects  such  as    dampness  and  indoor  pollution,  affecting  human  well  being  and  health 
particularlry for vulnerable groups, such as children and the elderly citizens. 

Integrated innovative solutions are needed, to combine energy efficiency, while alleviating 
energy poverty and considering indoor air quality and renovation of buildings and districts 
of  historic  and  cultural  value.  Once  renovated,  upgraded  and  ensuring  consideration  of 
embodied energy, buildings can also help to generate extra renewable-sourced power or 
provide key energy storage capacity.  

Urban  areas  have  been  identified  in  the  Accelerating  Clean  Energy  Innovation 
Communication  (COM(2016)  763  final,  as  most  appropriate  for  the  testing  and 
implemention of integrated energy transition solutions. Europe's cities, towns and regions 
are instrumental in promoting ownership of the energy transition and in advancing climate 
and energy-related innovation from below. Accordingly the European Commision supports 
the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, which brings together thousands of local 
and  regional  authorities  voluntarily  committed  to  implementing  EU  climate  and  energy 
objectives. 

7.2 Energy Solutions 

The  projects  reviewed  under  this  chapter  include  EFFESUS  -  “Energy  Efficiency  for  EU 
Historic  Urban  Districts’  Sustainability”;  FASUDIR  -“Friendly  and  Affordable  Sustainable 
Urban District Retrofitting”; ECODISTR-ICT -“Energy Integrated Decision Support Tool for 

37 

 
 
 
Retrofit  and  Renewal  towards  Sustainable  Districts”;  CETIEB  -“Cost-Effective Tools  for 
Better Indoor Environment  in  Retrofitted  Energy  Efficient     Buildings”.  These  projects 
mainly address the EU Urban Agenda Theme on Energy Transition  and aim to tackle the 
selection of the best energy retrofitting strategies to increase the sustainability of existing 
districts,  taking  into  account  energy  consumption,  cultural  heritage  values,  indoor  air 
quality and air pollution.  

A district retrofitting approach to energy retrofitting is frequently the most sustainable and 
cost-effective strategy. However, the complexity of decision-making grows exponentially 
when the scale of the intervention increases. In order to reduce the complexity of district 
interventions, EFFESUS, ECODISTR-ICT and FASUDIR developed decision support tools to 
be  applied  at  district  level,  with  EFFESUS  particularly  focused  in  the  inefficient-use  of 
energy  in  historic  districts  (buildings  pre-1945).  CETIEB’s  challenge  was  to  assure  an 
adequate  indoor  environment  quality  in  retrofitted  energy  efficient  buildings  at  an 
affordable cost.   

Overall a systemic and integrated approach to deal with the cross-cutting urban challenges 
was identified, undertaken through the geographical distribution and characteristics of the 
cities selected to conduct the case studies, and the engagement and participation of multi-
stakeholders  in  the  co-deployment  of  the  innovative  solutions  (materials,  products  and 
Decision Support System tools).  

Local governments and municipalities were critical to obtain the legal authorisation to set 
up  the  demonstrations.  Even  though  citizens  were  not  asked  their  opinions  and  ideas 
regarding  the  solutions  implemented,  they  were  still  engaged  during  the  dissemination 
process. 

7.3 Systemic Decision Support Tool : evidence base for decision making 

Integrated  assessment  regarding  the  implementation  of  energy  retrofitting  policies  at  a 
district  scale  is  possible  through  the  development  of  decision  making  (DSS)  support 
software tools deployed and tested in the cities case studies by the projects. The projects 
considered simultaneously heritage values, technological aspects, technology integration, 
cost  effectiveness  and  environmental  and  social  impact  of  the  solutions.  In  particular, 
CETIEB explored the interconnection between energy efficiency retrofitting and indoor air 
quality issues, to avoid the “the sick building syndrome” i.e. the lack of ventilation due to 
the  high  levels  of  insulation  adopted  to  reduce  energy  consumption  leading  to  a 
degradation of the indoor air quality. 

EFFESUS, ECODISTR-ICT and FASUDIR developed different Decision Support System 
(DSS)  software  tools  to  assist  decision  making  on  the  difficult  energy  retrofitting  and 
renewal process for existing districts and their constituent buildings. The DSS developed 
by EFFESUS was implemented in Santiago de Compostela (Spain), Visby (Sweden) and 
Genoa (Italy), and provided evidence for decision making by the cities based on both its 
impacts  (economic,  cultural  heritage,  energy  consumptions  and 
direct  positive 
environmental) and the interests of the municipality and citizens.  

In particular, EFFESUS focused on historic districts and provided the following evidences: 

Efficient  window  improvement  solutions  of  indoor  temperature  preservation:  Prototypes 
with  “thermal  shade”  or  “adhesive  low  emissivity  films”  or  with  “air  sandwich”  keep  the 
temperature  on  0.77oC,  0.14oC  and  1.68oC  higher  than  reference  window  respectively. 
Spacefill Aerogel insulation for use in historic buildings with existing solid wall construction 
where lath and plaster finishes are present result in a reduction of Transfer of Heat between 
indoor  and  outdoor  (the  lower  Thermal  Conductivity  λ  =0.0255  W/mK  vs  λref  =0.0287 
W/mK  while  keeping  the  Moisture  Absorption  below  requirements  means  lower  heat 
losses). 

New radiation selective coating compatible with historic buildings result in a reduction of 
the transfer of heat in façades, with an indoor temperature reduction of 1.3oC to 2.7oC in 
comparison with a no-coating situation, the reversibility and transparency of the product 
were not achieved.New hydraulic lime-based mortar with optimal insulating properties for 

38 

 
 
use as plaster and render application resulted in reduction of 5oC of indoor temperature 
during summer. 

In  addition,  it  worths  mentioning  the  intelligent  indoor  climate  solutions:  Building 
Automation  Systems  and  Building  Energy  Management  Systems  using  already  available 
concepts for improving indoor climate and reducing energy efficiency combined with the 
innovative windows were developed within the EFFESUS project.  

The  DSS  developed  by  EFFESUS  was  implemented  in  Santiago  de  Compostela  (Spain), 
Visby (Sweden) and Genoa (Italy), and provided evidence for decision making by the cities 
based  on  both  its  direct  positive  impacts  (economic,  cultural  heritage,  energy 
consumptions  and  environmental)  and  the  interest  of  the  municipality  and  citizens. 
EFFESUS methofologies were tested and successfully applied in four buildings in Old Town 
Santiago de Compostela: Rua Nova 22, Rua Nova 46, Toural 3, and Caldeireira 34. 

EFFESUS DSS and proposed solutions achieved: 

 

 

 

- a reduction of energy demand of 45% up to 72% for heritage protection degree 3-4;  

- reduction of CO2 emission of 91% up to 95% for heritage protection degrees 3-4;  

- savings of 2.369.972,66€. 

Finally, the retrofit Investment Calculator that developed within a Sustainable Community 
Business  Model  for  the  citizens  of  Santiago  de  Compostela  demonstrated  that  there  are 
sufficient  resources  to  generate  renewable  energy  for  the  whole  city  and  provide  100% 
renewable energy to the historic centre to achieve a carbon neutral sustainable future. A 
retained  surplus  of  12.09  million€  in  10  years  is  enough  to  repay  loans  (13M  €)  and 
investors,  or  to  continue  investing  in  more  projects  to  achieve  100%  renewable  energy 
production for Santiago more quickly. 

CETIEB  focused  on  the  IAQ  of  retrofitted  building  and  developed  the  Infrared  Thermal 
Comfort Monitoring System (Comfort Eye): The monitor system achieved a 15 % energy 
savings in testing.  

Air  Biofilter  active  control  systems  prototype:  Nedlaw  Ltd.  in  Ontario  (Canada)  is  the 
developer  of the concept of this system and calculated energy savings of up to 60% on 
ventilation energy when their system is installed and operating at optimum efficiency. It 
can also educe VOC concentrations by up to 50%.  

Multi-Functional  Passive  Plaster  System:  Reduces  indoor  temperature  and  humidity  and 
through photo-catalytic activity removes indoor air pollutants. In a further development it 
was able to reach a thermal conductivity of 0.060 W/(mK), which is lower than the 0.066 
W/(mK) of conventional polystyrene containing plasters.  

Two  years  after  CETIEB,  the  team  at  Schwenk  developed  further  the  Multi-Functional 
Passive Plaster System. The company was acquired by QuickMix in 2015. 

ECODISTR-ICT followed a different approach to gather and process data and exploited 
state of the art developments in the fields of GIS (geographic information systems), BIM 
(building information  models)  and  UIM  (urban  information  models),  to  efficiently  gather 
huge  amounts  of  detailed  data  on  individual  buildings,  and  use  them  in  simulations  at 
district level. By linking existing tools and indicators at the level of the individual building 
to  frameworks  for  urban  simulation,  the  DSS  closed  the  gap  between  current  building 
performance simulation tools used for the design and renovation of single buildings, and 
the simulation tools which focus at a macro level of a district or city.  

The  DSS  developed  by  ECODISTR-ICT  was  tested  in  Stockholm  (Sweden),  Rotterdam 
(Netherlands), Valencia (Spain), Warsaw (Poland) and Antwerp (Netherlands). Rotterdam 
set up an approach to link energy efficiency with different local challenges, enabling the 
uptake of energy efficiency measures in districts where local residents are hardly or not 
able to invest.  

39 

 
 
The concept of BIM (Building Information modelling) has advanced the built environment 
industry paradigm (through the projects EFFESUS, FASUDIR, and ECO-DISTRICT). In fact, 
BIM  envisages  virtual  construction  of  structure/neighbourhoods,  prior  to  physical 
construction,  in  order  to  reduce  uncertainty,  improve  safety,  work  out  problems,  and 
simulate and analyze potential impacts, informing the model before construction.  

Energy  performance-based  project  delivery  methods 
focused  on  environmental 
methodologies  are  being  implemented  and  advanced;  instruments  are  being  used  to 
achieve more efficient and well performing buildings, city neighbourhoods and cities. Some 
of these combined technological and nature-based solutions to offer model visualization, 
and advanced functionalities by considering not just the optimisation of single buildings, 
but cooperation and collaboration in managing entire urban environments. 

The city of Rotterdam has set up an approach to link energy efficiency with different other 
local challenges, enabling the uptake of energy efficiency measures in districts where local 
residents are hardly or not able to invest. This approach is, among others, based on the 
workshop  and  testing  approach  of  ECODISTR-ICT.  The  method  has  been  called  ‘social 
approach’ to underline the role of social innovation and related interventions. 

In the Hovsjö district in Stockholm case study, the tool provided comprehensible reports 
and  visualizations  to  assist  in  understanding  the  effects  of  5  different  scenarios  for  the 
different buildings in the district and the following options to reduce energy consumption 
were identified. The projects created new local urban planning instruments in implementing 
energy retrofitting measures at district level including: 

1. Integrated planning for energy retrofitting process 

To guarantee the fulfilment of sustainability targets in a district renovation process, urban 
scale plans and tools were connected to those at the building scale adopting an integrated 
multi-scale  approach.  Achievement  of  this  integrated  multi-scale  approach  required 
involvement  of  different  stakeholders  and  policy  makers,  and  furthermore  public  and 
private  cooperation  was  part  of  the  planning  process  from  the  beginning.  The  e-
collaboration platform of FASUDIR allowed the active involvement of the stakeholders but 
also was supported by public users with different levels of access to information. The open 
source nature of ECODISTR-ICT modules also provide an excellent example of how citizens 
and companies can participate in retrofitting projects at district scale. 

In  order to achieve an  integrated  approach  on energy retrofitting it is also important to 
take  into  consideration  other  urban  sustainability  themes  (e.g.  Cultural  Heritage  or 
Mobility)  besides  energy  efficiency.  Accordingly,  EFFESUS  designed  the  following  five 
categories  of  indicators  for  a  proposed  EU-harmonized  holistic  certification  methodology 
that  integrates  heritage  values  in  the  assessment  of  the  districts:  a)  IEQ;  b)  Embodied 
energy; c) Operational energy; d) Economic return; e) Heritage urban level. 

2. Business plans and urban planning  

Financial issues are one of the key obstacles to retrofitting across Europe, particularly in 
the current economic climate. Policy makers need ways to identify retrofitting plans that 
not only have a low  cost for  owners, but that can also support local businesses, energy 
service companies and SMEs, to create self-sustaining virtuous cycles within local markets.  

3. Integration of assessment systems in urban plans  

Policies,  strategies  and  planning  activities  at  urban  scale  have  to  be  supported  by 
contextualized assessment tools and indicators to evaluate the sustainability of districts. 
The assessment tools have to define and communicate in an intelligent and objective way 
the  performance  targets.  The  use  of  measurable  objective  indicators,  and  of  a  tool  that 
allows  the  automatic  calculation  of  those  indicators  was  considered  as  fundamental  not 
only for the decision making process but also for monitoring and evaluating the expected 
benefits of the interventions applied in the districts. The assessment tools have to be used 
in  the  whole  life  cycle  of  an  urban  area  to  verify  the  level  of  performance  during 

40 

 
 
construction  and  operation.  In  the  planning  phase,  assessment  systems  support  the 
decision making process to identify the optimal design solution.  

4. Multilevel governance in urban district retrofitting  

Multi-level governance models based on assessment tools and KPIs are very important for 
an effective energy retrofitting process. This ranges from legally binding partnership and 
participatory planning activities, to the joint development of regional and local structures 
and tools.  

5. Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) Guidelines  

Indoor environmental quality is of concern for projects dealing with energy efficiency. 
In  particular  indoor  comfort  is  improved  with  systems  using  VOC  sensors,  and  low-cost 
infrared  vision  system  to  monitor  comfort  and  health  related  parameters  (i.e.  CETIEB).  
CETIEB  research  project  aimed  at  devising  innovative  ways  of  both  monitoring  and 
controlling the IEQ in a cost-effective way, so that Europe can achieve the ‘best of both 
worlds’  –  highly  energy  efficient  buildings  with  optimal  indoor  air  quality  and  indoor 
climates avoiding sick building syndrome.  

Energy  Efficiency  projects  (e.g.  EFFESUS,  ECODISTR-ICT  and  FASUDIR)    covered  a 
vast  range  of  relevant  and  related  subjects  essential  to  help  Europe  reduce  its  carbon 
emissions. The topics covered by the design projects refer to neighbourhoods and mainly 
addressed retrofit solutions and advanced decision support tools. 

These  projects  applied  innovative  technologies  to  achieve  a  more  sustainable  built 
environment.  The  importance  of  getting  the  design  right  is  emphasised  throughout  all 
projects. All projects are targeting reducing energy consumption and/or making buildings 
more sustainable. Projects have energy targets ranging from 20% energy savings to net 
zero-energy  buildings.  Other  projects  use  scenarios  (a  3D  graphic  user  interface  (i.e. 
FASUDIR  )  to  analyse  user  consumption  behaviour,  increase  acceptance  by  users  and 
achieve more holistic solutions.  

Renovation  solution  packages  &  deep  energy  renovation  strategies  have  been 
developed  to  grow  the  renovation  rate  of  EU  building  stock.  Historic  buildings  whose 
renovation  is  affected  by  architectural  value  were  maintained  as  functional  living  and 
working  spaces  (i.e.  3ENCULT).  Internal  insulation  issue  is  investigated  with  rsolutions 
offering hygrothermal performance and not harming existing constructions (i.e. RIBuild). 

All projects realised innovative and groundbreaking outcomes with major impact in respect 
of both product and policy including: 

EFFESUS focused on historic districts delivered: 

Efficient window improvement solutions of indoor temperature preservation: 

Prototypes with “thermal shade” or “adhesive low emissivity films” or with “air sandwich” 
maintaining temperatures 0.77oC, 0.14oC and 1.68oC higher than reference windows. 

Spacefill Aerogel insulation for use in historic buildings with existing solid wall construction 
with lath and plaster finishes, resulting in a reduction of Transfer of Heat between indoor 
and  outdoor  (the  lower  Thermal  Conductivity  λ  =0.0255  W/mK  vs  λref  =0.0287  W/mK 
while maintaining Moisture Absorption below requirements means lower heat losses). 

New radiation selective coatings compatible with historic buildings resulting in reduction of 
the transfer of heat in façades, with an indoor temperature reduction of 1.3oC to 2.7oC in 
comparison with a no-coating situation. 

New hydraulic lime-based mortar with optimal insulating properties for use as plaster and 
render applications resulting in reduction of 5oC of indoor temperature during summer. 

Intelligent indoor climate solutions: 

41 

 
 
Building  Automation  Systems  and  Building  Energy  Management  Systems  using  already 
available concepts for improving indoor climate and reducing energy efficiency combined 
with the innovative windows. 

Retrofit Investment Calculator: 

Developed  within  a  Sustainable  Community  Business  Model  for  Santiago  de  Compostela 
demonstrated that sufficient resources generate renewable energy for the whole city and 
provide  100%  renewable  energy  to  the  historic  centre  to  achieve  a  carbon  neutral 
sustainable  future.  A  retained  surplus  of  12.09  million€  in  10  years  is  enough  to  repay 
loans (13M €) and investors, or to continue investing in more projects to achieve 100% 
renewable energy production more quickly. 

FASUDIR  compiled  knowledge  and  technologies  developed  in  previous  projects,  in 
particular regarding sustainability indicators of EU related FP7 projects, in relation to:  

a) Energy Efficiency at Building and District Scale;  

b) Retrofitting Technologies and Tools;  

c) Energy Retrofitting Market Uptake;  

d) Cultural Heritage. 

FASUDIR  DSS  was  tested  in  Frankfurt  (Germany),  Santiago  de  Compostela  (Spain)  and 
Budapest (Hungary). The scores for the FASUDIR indicators identified domains where the 
district of Heinrich Lübke Siedlung in Frankfurt was poorly performing. These aspects were 
visualized using a scoring system for district indicators and meaningful color codes.  

ECODISTR-ICT - For the Hovsjö district of Stockholm, the tool provided comprehensive 
reports and visualizations to assist understanding the effects of 5 different scenarios for 
the  different  buildings  in  the  district,  identifying  the  following  options  to  reduce  energy 
consumption:  

  Changes to exhaust and supply air ventilation with heat exchangers, more insulation 
on the roofs, new windows and hot tap water saving devices resulting in an average 
reduction of energy consumption of 16%; 

  Energy efficiency package focuses  on energy use per heated area with 31% average 

reduction of energy consumption; 

  New buildings on top  of parking garages providing a saving of around  7% in energy 

consumption; 

  PV cells installed on roofs with reduction of energy consumption of 11%  and  electricity 

production of 13 kWh/m2; 

  Ground source heat pumps in row houses and an energy saving of 10%. 

In the Kiel-West district of Antwerp collaboration between the social housing corporation, 
the City of Antwerp and local actors, developed a district retrofit strategy delivering a cost-
effective  reduction  of  energy  demand  up  to  60%,  while  introducing  renewable  energy 
production and increasing liveability and comfort. 

As actors of open innovation the consortium partners published the foreground methods 
and  tools  of  the  DSS  as  open  source  software  in  the  public  domain.  As  a  result,  other 
players are able to both use the free software tool, and also further improve the DSS. 

CETIEB focused on the IAQ of retrofitted buildings, and delivered: 

Infrared Thermal Comfort Monitoring System (Comfort Eye): 

42 

 
 
The monitor system achieved 15 % energy savings. 

Air Biofilter active control systems prototype:  

Nedlaw Ltd, Ontario (Canada), developed the concept and calculated energy savings up to 
60% on ventilation energy when the system is operating at optimum efficiency.  

Multi-Functional Passive Plaster System:  

Reduces indoor temperature and humidity and through photo-catalytic activity removing 
indoor air pollutants. In a further development it was able to reach a thermal conductivity 
of  0.060  W/(mK),  which  is  lower  than  the  0.066  W/(mK)  of  conventional  polystyrene 
containing plasters.  

The  materials  and  products  developed  by  CETIEB  have  generated  substantial  market 
interest. UNIVPM is currently collaborating with a company that produces glazed facades 
to  develop  an  innovative  building  envelope  management  system  that  makes  use  of  the 
Comfort  Eye  to  derive  indoor  surfaces  temperatures  and  comfort  conditions  that  can 
optimize the control of glazed facades. 

Indoor Environmental Quality Guidelines for Retrofitting:  

Provide  a  step  by  step  process  for  retrofitting  any  building  for  energy  efficiency  and 
improved  indoor  environmental  qualities.  The  Guidelines  support  the  creation  of  new 
legislation that can boost innovation by imposing new requirements that must be met with 
innovative solutions that ensure either an adequate IEQ for energy retrofitted buildings or 
an adequate retrofitting process that does not harm the IEQ.  

Guidelines set out by CETIEB provide a step by step process for retrofitting any building 
for  energy  efficiency  and  improved  indoor  environmental  qualities.  The  Guidelines  are 
followed by a list of the multiple benefits of retrofitting which may apply to the stakeholder. 
Depending on the stakeholders’ interests they may be missing the significant added value 
of some of the other benefits. As a result of the ground-breaking work of CETIEB, Europe 
is taking a major step towards a new generation of innovative ‘intelligent’ buildings, able 
to  regulate  their  own  indoor  environment  in  a  cost-effective  way  and  helping  the  world 
move closer to its energy efficiency targets. 

Open stakeholder engagement was evident in the design, development and deployment of 
all project innovative processes and solutions, and in particular the role of Municipalities 
within  the  consortiums  created  several  synergies  between  cities  and  private  companies 
that were critical for projects to reach their goals. The following synergies contributed to 
deliver innovation: 

  Balance between the technical skills of partners to develop the project outcomes and 
the  ability  of  municipalities  and  local  policy  makers  to  ensure  places  for  the  real-life 
demonstrations. 

  Municipalities provided information to the technical partners of the consortium that was 

critical to the proper development of the project. 

  Previous  experience  in  related  research  projects  e.g.  Santiago  de  Compostela  and 
complementary  skills  that  helped  to  perform  the  technical  multi-tasking  needed  to 
achieve  the  objectives.  Besides,  a  balanced  geographical  distribution  of  cities  during 
the  demonstrations  guaranteed  that  the  outcomes  could  be  replicated  at  European 
scale and upscale worldwide. 

CETIEB  contributed  to  the  Advanced  Material  and  Nanotechnology  Cluster  (AMANAC) 
Coordination Support Action that brought together FP7 projects that use Nanotechnology 
to  develop  high-performance  insulation  materials/products  and  HVAC  systems  to 
significantly enhance the energy efficiency of buildings. CETIEB was included in the group 
“Technologies and materials for a healthier indoor environment”. 

43 

 
 
The Indoor Environment Quality sector is highly trans-disciplinary from advanced sensing, 
materials  and  systems  to  health  assessment  as  well  as  behavioural  and  socio-economic 
issues. The IEQ cluster initiated by University of Stuttgart – Materials Testing Institute in 
behalf of the CETIEB consortium contributed with research ideas to the European roadmap 
within EU Horizon 2020 for “Renaturing Cities” and “Materials & Technologies for improved 
Indoor Environment Quality”. 

CETIEB  also  contributed  with  the  results  for  comfort  and  health  related  parameters  to 
identify a research agenda for the cluster Smart Home and Living with respect to comfort 
issues of Smart Homes for elderly. Regarding the up-take and up-scaling of solutions, some 
policy makers and some members of the consortiums aim to commercialize and/or use the 
DSS in future projects: ECODISTR-ICT DSS tool by Flemish Regional Administration and 
FASUDIR DSS tool by Calcon Deutschland AG.  

The materials and products developed by CETIEB have created a lot of interest from the 
market. UNIVPM is currently collaborating with a company that produces glazed facades 
to  develop  an  innovative  building  envelope  management  system  that  makes  use  of  the 
Comfort  Eye  to  derive  indoor  surfaces  temperatures  and  comfort  condition  that  can 
optimize the control of glazed facades and other EU funded projects are also planning to 
use the Comfort Eye. In addition following the completion of CETIEB, Schwenk (Partner) 
further developed the Multi-Functional Passive Plaster System, including all certifications 
and  full  scale  application  tests.  QuickMix,  who  acquired  Schwenk  in  2015,  and  aim  to 
further develop the product. 

Figure 22. © rudi1976, #116337570, 2020, stock.adobe.com 

In the Hovsjö district in Stockholm case study, the tool provided comprehensible reports 
and  visualizations  to  assist  in  understanding  the  effects  of  5  different  scenarios  for  the 
different buildings in the district and the following options to reduce energy consumption 
were identified:  

Changes to exhaust and supply air ventilation with heat exchangers, more insulation on 
the roofs, new windows and hot tap water saving devices result in an average reduction of 
energy consumption of 16%. Energy efficiency package focuses on energy use per heated 
area resulted in a reduction of energy consumption of average 31 %. New buildings on top 
of parking garages lead to a saving of around 7 % in energy consumption. PV cells installed 
on roofs lead to a reduction of energy consumption of 11 % and electricity production of 
13 kWh/m2. Ground source heat pumps in row houses lead to an energy saving of 10 %  

The  DSS  developed  by  FASUDIR  was  tested  in  Frankfurt  (Germany),  Santiago  de 
Compostela (Spain) and Budapest (Hungary). The scores for the FASUDIR indicators in the 
current state allowed identifying domains where the district of Heinrich Lübke Siedlung in 
Frankfurt was poorly performing. These aspects were the same as the ones identified by 
the detailed study from AS&P and can be easily visualized on the FASUDIR tool thanks to 
the scoring system for district indicators and meaningful color code. Regarding the cross-
linkages with other relevant EU platforms/databases, it is worthy to note that most of the 
technologies,  systems  and  protocols  developed  in  the  projects  reviewed  are  based  in 
previous developments of EU related projects.  

Regarding  the  energy  efficiency  of  buildings,  the  preliminary  database,  information  and 
glossary from all over Europe was developed in the Project BRITA-in-PuBs and provided a 
good basis for adding additional information to the information obtained by EFFESUS.  

44 

 
 
 
FASUDIR  compiled  knowledge  and  technologies  developed  in  previous  projects,  in 
particular  regarding  sustainability  indicators  of  EU  related  FP7  projects,  in  the  following 
thematic areas:  

a) Energy Efficiency at Building and District Scale;  

b) Retrofitting Technologies and Tools;  

c) Energy Retrofitting Market Uptake;  

d) Cultural Heritage.  

Regarding  the  creation  of  communities  of  practice  of  innovating  cities,  the  following 
Europeans initiatives/networks were relevant to the reviewed projects where some of the 
consortium partners were involved: ECTP (European Construction Technology Platform); 
E2BA (Energy Efficient Buildings Association); EERA (European Energy Research Alliance); 
Smartcities;  KIC-InnoEnergy;  Sustainable  Building  Alliance;  BuildingSmart  and  KIC-
Climate. 

Moreover, the DSS developed within EFFESUS, FASUDIR, ECODISTRICT-ICT, is a valuable 
tool to inform Municipalities and construction companies about best retrofitting strategies 
to  improve  the  energetic  efficiency  of  urban  districts  and  the  real  urban  conditions  of 
historic districts. If municipalities decide to up-take the new innovations proposed by the 
DSS they will be fostering innovation by supporting the development of those markets and, 
as  a  result,  providing  private  companies  with  the  necessary  resources  to  continue  their 
R&D efforts.  

In the case of ECODISTR-ICT, the partners of the consortium took an extra step to become 
actors  of  open  innovation  by  publishing  the  developed  foreground  methods  and  tools  of 
the DSS as open source software in the public domain. As a result, not only other players 
will be able to use  a free software tool, as they will also be able to further improve the 
DSS.  

The Kiel-West district in the City of Antwerp (BE) is a multi-cultural district with around 6 
000 inhabitants or 2 500 housing units including about 80 % social housing.  

In collaboration with the social housing corporation, the City of Antwerp and local actors, 
a  district  retrofit  strategy  has  been  developed,  aiming  at  cost-effective  reduction  of  the 
energy demand up to 60 %, while introducing renewable energy production and increasing 
liveability and comfort. 

As a theoretical concept (only TLR2 level), the strategy developed by EFFESUS to match 
the  supply  and  demand  for  heat,  cooling  and  electricity  has  contributed  for  the  general 
advancement of knowledge in several different areas:  

  Concept for Energy analysis using geographic information systems (GIS), for historic 

districts;  

  Development of Indicators for district heating systems;  

  Heat flux measurement for wall constructions with increased moisture content;  

  Concept for Application of interior lime mortar;  

Since this strategy works at the district level and not at building level, its implementation 
by  municipalities  could  lead  to  the  development  and  introduction  of  other  innovative 
solutions.  

Due  to  the  fluctuation  of  the  renewable  energy  supply,  the  energy  systems  have  to  be 
transformed  from  demand-oriented  energy  generation  to  generation-oriented  energy 
consumption. This was achieved within EFFESUS focusing on Smart Grids.  

45 

 
 
This requires demand side management (DSM) and intelligent storage technologies. In this 
context, the building sector has huge potential. Therefore, EFFESUS evaluated the fraction 
of residential heat demand that can be expected to be covered by using electric heat pumps 
coupled with a heating system for variable loads, and to improve the utilisation of surplus 
electricity  from  renewable  energy  sources  in  space  heating  and  to  stabilise  the  indoor 
temperature within a given comfort interval.  

The deployment of a smart grid can foster the development of innovative solutions allowed 
by the existence of a smart grid (e.g. grid-connected renewable energy systems). 

The  Urban  Energy  Laboratory,  created  as  a  dissemination  strategy  of  EFFESUS  co-
organized  with  the  municipality  of  Santiago  de  Compostela,  contributed  to  improve  the 
knowledge on how buildings are used, managed and transformed to meet modern comfort 
requirements,  as  well  as  to  collect  information  on  energy  consumption  and  housing 
environmental management strategies.  

The  laboratory  will  also  explain  citizen  how  to  handle  the  permanent  transformation 
processes  in  historic  centres  without  endangering  the  urban  heritage  values  they 
represent.  

The EFFESUS proposed Business Model can provide new ways of thinking about business 
potentials of cities in general and historic urban districts in specific. This business model, 
which is strongly based on clean energy, can entail a higher involvement of municipalities 
in  the  selection  of  the  sources  of  sustainable  energy  to  be  used  at  the  city  level,  thus 
developing the sustainable energy market and promoting further innovations in the sector.  

EFFESUS  recommended  the  creation  of  REScoops  (Renewable  Energy  Source  co-ops), 
which  are  co-operatives  created  to  implement  Community  Energy  Projects.  Community 
energy  projects  use  grassroots  participation  and  local  funding  to  build  a  sense  of 
community and trust through engagement with people in their community.  

The  expertise  and  value  created  by  these  projects  remains  within  the  community,  and 
surplus  value is  used  to  fund  further  investment in  energy  efficiency,  renewable  energy 
and other community initiatives. 

By proposing a more comprehensive methodology for energy retrofit at the district level, 
EFFESUS  helped  municipalities  to  gain  more  often  the  acceptance  of  both  citizens  and 
national governments when proposing energy retrofit investments, which will develop the 
market and foster the creation of new innovative solutions. 

8 

Social Cohesion, Well-being and Diversity 

8.1 Social Cohesion Challenges 

At the European level, social and economic policies are currently ordered and  organised 
around  achieving  the  goals  of  the  Europe  2020  strategy  –  high  levels  of  employment, 
productivity and social cohesion. It is widely recognised, however, that social cohesion is 
declining  or  at  least  under  new  pressure  as  a  consequence  of  the  economic  and 
employment  crisis,  but  also  due  to  longer-term  trends  including  growing  inequality, 
immigration and increasing cultural diversity. Social disparities in the EU are increasing in 
relation  to  poverty,  labour  market  access,  health,  equitable  education  as  well  as 
intergenerational justice. At the same time, social cohesion is generally valued in and of 
itself, as it reflects solidarity and social harmony, while also being regarded as an important 
resource for economic success and quality of life. 

46 

 
 
 
 
Figure 23. © Igor 

DIVERCITIES focuses on the case-study of hyper-diversity and urban communities as a 
whole,  spreading  horizontally  to  14  cities  and  their  local  challenges  and  opportunities. 
While CITISPYCE is thematic and focuses on youth and inequality challenges, which yield 
socially innovative practices, even if less attention was given to the sociological portrait of 
each city.  

Finally, WILCO  investigated  how  social  needs  where  addressed  by  social innovations  in 
cities,  working  with  local  policymakers,  welfare  service  providers,  social  agents,  third 
sector organizations and vulnerable citizens, and focused on three policy fields (child care, 
employment and access to housing) and 3 target groups (single mothers, youngsters and 
first  generation  migrants)  in  several  European  countries  with  very  different  welfare 
systems and cultural values regarding social exclusion and integration.  

ARTS, GLAMURS and TESS common assessment was that, for a sustainability transitions 
to occur, the local level needs to be transcended so that innovations are able to diffuse 
and become part of institutional policies and politics. The identified ingredients of processes 
of bottom-up creation of sustainability transition pathways through grassroots initiatives 
included: 

  Accelerating  (the  phase  when  visible  structural  changes  take  place  through  an 
accumulation of socio-cultural, economic, ecological and institutional changes that react 
to each other); 

  Upscaling (the growth of members, supporters or users of a single transition initiative 

in order to spread new ways of thinking, organizing and practising); 

  Replicating (the take up of new ways of doing, organizing and thinking of one transition 
initiative  by  another  transition  initiative  or  different  actors  in  order  to  spread  these 
alternative way); 

  Partnering  (the  pooling  and/or  complementing  of  resources,  competences,  and 
capacities  of  local  transition  initiatives  in  order  to  exploit  synergies  to  support  and 
ensure the continuity of the new ways of doing, organizing and thinking); 

 

instrumentalising  (the  tapping  into  and  capitalizing  on  opportunities  provided  by  the 
multi-level governance context of the city-region in order to obtain resources); 

  embedding (the alignment of new ways of doing, organizing and thinking in order to 

integrate them into city-regional governance patterns). 

8.2 Social Cohesion Solutions 

The projects considered here include ARTS, GLAMURS and TESS which provide in-depth 
description  of  a  large  variety  of  Transition  Initiatives  (TIs)  which  are  active  in  many 
transition  domains  including  biodiversity  and  ecosystem  services,  resource  efficiency, 
energy  use  and  supply,  with  a  focus  on  household  energy  (local  renewable  energy 
production and supply systems), and urban living and built environment, with a focus on 
housing (social innovations like intergenerational co-housing models). SEISMIC addresses 
the  broader  challenge  of  connectivity  and  network-building  for  mutual  learning.  It  thus 
operates vertically between different scales linking local actors to EU agenda and JPI Urban 
Europe.  

47 

 
 
 
Focusing  on  these  ingredients,  ARTS,  GLAMURS  and  TESS  explored  the  complex 
interactions among economic, social, cultural, political and technological factors influencing 
and  supporting  change  towards  sustainable  lifestyles  and  sustainable  systems  of 
consumption-production at the individual and societal level. Their common working method 
was based on the  creation of a multitude of dialogue spaces for knowledge sharing and 
knowledge  co-production  including  scientists,  communities  and  TIs,  local  governments. 
Through  continous  interaction,  these  projects  showed  how  to  connect  science,  social 
practice, policy and politics, and how to enable debates on good governance and new forms 
of participation in cities future visions and strategies.  

The overall assumption is that evidenced impact and the innovations that these TIs bring 
in  social,  ecological  and  economic  terms  makes  them  a  promising  starting  point  for 
triggering  and  catalysing  wider  transitions  towards  sustainable  low-carbon  European 
societies – both, as a valuable source of transferable ideas, and as frontrunners that unveil 
key  barriers  and  opportunities  for  innovation.  As  such,  these  initiatives  can  potentially 
contribute to achieving EU policy goals, but also they also show their potential wider and 
integrated effects. 

ARTS, TESS and GLAMURS produced a large variety of tools to assess TIs multi-domain 
performance  and  to  foster  and  build  participatory  processes,  aimed  to  co-produce 
acceleration pathways and networking: 

  Single Transition Initiative Model and Multi Transition Initiative Model Simulation Game 
focusing  on  qualitative  and  quantitative  assessment  of  acceleration  and  interaction 
format  (ARTS);  Backcasting 
dynamics,  Acceleration  Roadmapping  Workshops 
Methodology  for  Visions  and  Pathways  Workshops,  three  methodological  modelling 
approaches (Micro-economic Models, Macro-economic Models and Agent-based Models) 
and  one  Integrated  Model  for  Environmental  Impact  Assessment  and  Footprinting  of 
present  and  potential  future  lifestyle  and  economic  alternatives  (GLAMURS);  Carbon 
Reduction  Scoreboard  and  Track-it!  self-assessment  on  line  tool  to  benchmark  GHG 
emissions, Community Impact Scoreboard and Resilience Compass self-assessment on 
line tool dealing with multiple factors that determine community resilience, a synthetic 
and scientific Multi-Criteria Analysis for carbon efficient projects tool (TESS). 

 

Integrated theory on the complex relationships between institutional, social, economic, 
political, technological and environmental determinants of lifestyle change; 

  Quantified  relationships  and  developed  models  of  lifestyle  change  that  consider 
different and integrated pathways to achieving transition (initially developing in niches, 
then becoming regimes and landscapes, as defined by theories on transition); 

  Supporting Cities to become Actors of Open Innovation 

  ARTS, GLAMURS and TESS outcomes contributed to the generation of new approaches 

and ideas that considerably advance the transition theory debate and practices: 

  They produced significant impacts on the public debate and knowledge on transitions 

initiatives for sustainability, by collecting a wide range of empirical data; 

 

In particular ARTS and GLAMURS produced a remarkable impact on advancing the use 
of gaming simulation and backcasting scenarios to support collective learning; 

  An important impact on civil society was reached by means of a well-balanced set of 
numerous engagement actions (i.e. in the case of ARTS: workshops, transition talks, 
local cultural events and communication campaigns, online platforms and tools - social 
networks, citizens blogging, the Resilience Connections Network); 

  As for assessment and  self-assessment  of  environmental and resilience performance 
by  Tis,  TESS  in  particular  elaborated  innovative  frameworks  and  tools  to  compare 
carbon-reduction potentials, which can be further developed by the market; 

48 

 
 
  The impacts on local Tis and on establishing stronger and more durable relations among 
Tis, local public institutions and research centres public was remarkable. The cities and 
TIS  involved  in  the  projects  learnt  how  to  improve  their  management  and  decision 
making  capacities  thanks  to  the  participation  to  the  research  activities;  TIs  gained 
awareness about their role and interdependences with the context as well as a wider 
scientifically-grounded vision of their transformative role in society. 

  Many of ARTS outputs produced concrete networking and policy making results in case 

study cities and city-regions: 

 

 

 

In Brighton: the roadmap included a range of next steps to be taken by a number of 
local stakeholders which will contribute to the further acceleration of the transition in 
Brighton and Hove. One of the follow up action will be the settlement of a sustainable 
city  working  group  which  will  ensure  that  the  lessons  learned  from  the  project  will 
continue to have local impact. The stakeholder workshops also produced a variety of 
intermediate impacts directly. Participants reported how the opportunity to hear, first-
hand, about contemporary issues facing the City Council and their proposed response 
was particularly valuable to them.  

In Budapest: the creation of a mutual sense of understanding and of opportunity for 
group interaction between transition initiatives resulted in the creation of a structured 
on  line  platform  for  future  cooperation,  with  the  function  to  assist  in  spreading  the 
impact of each organization. Budapest research team is going to continue and extend 
the work of ARTS with transition initiatives in order to connect the ‘Dream Budapest’ 
dialogue (resulted from roadmapping process) to other ongoing debates on degrowth 
and sustainability in the city. 

In Dresden: with the support from ARTS team (PP IOER), in 2015 the City of Dresden 
won  the  “Future-City”  project  (national  competition  by  the  German  Federal 
government, 2015-2018) aiming to develop a public vision for an “Open City Dresden 
–  Sharing  Responsibilities  for  Sustainable  Development”.  In  co-operation  with  this 
project, ARTS team organized the stakeholder workshops on Acceleration Roadmaps. 
ARTS activities also contributed to the replication of the SUKUMA film competition in 
the city. 

  Also in the case of GLAMURS, concrete networking (and further development of some 

Tis), policy making and research follow-ups results can be highlighted: 

  Backcasting  workshop  results  from  the  Rome  case  study  were  presented  to  the 
Municipality of Rome North. Links were established between the University Roma Tre 
team and the Municipality, Roma Resiliente (part of the 100 Resilient Cities Programme 
of  the  Rockfeller  Foundation),  and  the  Urban  Centre  Committee,  involving  citizens, 
politicians  and 
in  decisions  regarding  urban  transformation  and 
regeneration; 

institutions 

 

In the Galician case study, the leader of Zocamiñoca food cooperative approached the 
PP Universidad da Coruña  research team to collaborate on launching a social platform 
pressing governments to start work on transitioning to more sustainable lifestyles;  

  Project impacts also derived from the interaction with the case study initiatives. Some 
were related to the case study exchange itself, such as the example of members of one 
of the Romanian ecovillages starting a Repair Café in Cluj-Napoca as a direct result of 
having  met  with  the  Dutch  Repair  Café  case  study  participants  at  the  case  study 
exchange meeting; 

  A pilot study on city residential waste rules and regulations which helped to focus on 
macro-economic models was developed in the city of Tilburg, by the local project patner 
University with the Municipality; 

  The fruitful collaboration between psychological and economic theory  was formalized 
as a new research stream at the Department of Economics of the University of Bath, 

49 

 
 
on  behavioural  sciences  and  economic.  This  new  research  avenue  was  called 
“psychonomics” in order to stress the integrative research approach. 

 

In  the  case  of  TESS,  the  delivered  Visual  Interactive  Platform  showed  concrete 
possibilities for further development and exploitation; 

  The  Platform  functionalities  were  discussed  with  other  ongoing  European  projects, 
which showed interest in using TESS platform (e.g., GLAMURS, PATHWAYS, ECOLISE, 
EU-INNOVATE  and  ARTS).  During  the  project  implementation  TESS  team  interacted 
with    the    German    bottom-up  initiative    TransforMap  to    map    the    alternative  
community.  This  initiative  is  documented  on  the  page  www.14mmm.org. TESS 
team  was  also  studying  the  possibility  to  integrate  the  platform  with  Project  Dirt 
(http://www.projectdirt.com/),  a  UK-based  company  offering  a  custom-made  social 
network  already  used  by  a  significant  number  of  initiatives  in  the  UK.  This  further 
development is in fact necessary to keep the platform lively and updated. 

  DIVERCITIES (ethnic hyper-diversity), CITISPYCE (integration of youth), and SEISMIC 
(mutual learning and dialogue all foster a systemic approach albeit of different kinds. 
On the broadest level, SEISMIC (Societal Engagement in Science, Mutual Learning in 
Cities) engages the very challenge of communication and collaboration in and between 
cities.  SEiSMiC  created  national  networks  (NatNets)  in  Austria,  Belgium,  the  Czech 
Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Turkey and the United 
Kingdom, bringing together a wide variety of social initiatives, grassroots movements, 
social  innovators,  social  entrepreneurs,  citizens,  NGOs,  interest  groups,  freelancers, 
educators,  scientists  and  policy  makers.  SEiSMiC  built  national  and  international 
bridges  for  mutual  learning  between  society,  the  scientific  community  and  policy 
makers.  

  The  aims  were  to  mobilise  a  wide  range  of  urban  actors  to  identify  research  and 
innovation  needs;  contribute  to  the  social  dimension  of  JPI  Urban  Europe’s  research 
and  innovation  agenda;  develop  policy  recommendations  that  address  real  social 
needs;  and  create  a  platform  for  dialogue  and  mutual  learning  among  citizens  and 
urban actors to strengthen social innovation in a local context. 

  SEiSMIC  - networking urban social innovation 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It initiated a multi-stakeholder, mutual learning dialogue that allowed the setup of ten 
national forums in urban social innovation 

It built on extensive previous EU funding under "Science in Society" in FP6 and FP7 of 
multi-actor  participation  and  mobilisation  and  mutual  learning  processes  and 
methodologies, which are key to social innovation, proving the added value of European 
intervention 

It  served  as  a  living,  lively  laboratory  for  urban,  social  and  open  innovation  that 
diminished existing discourse barriers 

It bridged different national cultures (EU15 and  EU13) 

It  demonstrated  that  involvement  of  grassroots  organisations  in  innovation  related 
debates can make a difference and generate innovative ideas, even in countries that 
lack a pro-innovation culture  

It provided the public authorities involved in the JPI Urban Europe with cross-border 
interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary insights into the urban innovation dynamics 

It embraced a plurality of social perspectives in a constructive experimentation   

It contributed significantly to the definition of JPI's Strategic Research and Innovation 
Agenda (SRIA) 

50 

 
 
Figure 24. © Frank Gärtner 

 

 

 

It  always  remained  close  to  EU  policy  developments  and  through  its  Policy  Watch 
deliverable it diffused these developments to its partnership and to the JPI Urban Europe 

Introduced  to  JPI  Urban  Europe  the  innovative,  idea  of  the  Living  Lab  Approach,  now 
followed by many 

It  is  a  sustainable  project,  with  forward  looking  legacy  and  outlived  by  its  10  national 
forums that have now constituted the AGORA of the JPI Urban Europe   

  Organized educational training of activists, educators and city planners across Europe.  

  The two other projects were action-research projects focusing on specific themes, rather 
than  coordinating  support  actions  as  with  SEISMIC.  DIVERCITIES  (Governing  Urban 
Diversity: Creating Social Cohesion, Social Mobility and Economic Performance in Today's 
Hyper-diversified Cities) focused on the question of how to create social cohesion, social 
mobility  and  economic  performance  in  today’s  hyper-diversified  cities.  The  project 
promotes urban diversity as an asset, to inspire creativity and innovation, and make cities 
more liveable and harmonious.  

 

In  this  way  socio-economic,  socio-demographic,  ethnic  and  cultural  diversity  positively 
affect social cohesion, economic performance and social mobility of individuals and groups. 
The project highlights how and under which circumstances European's urban diversity can 
be turned into social and economic advantages.  

DIVERCITIES – engaging Europe’s future and most urgent problem 

  Orchestrated the Diversity Festival 

  Conducted a comparative analysis of cities and how to deal with hyper-diversity 

 

Initiated a successful Educational Program for Diversity in 20 Schools 

  Provided a road map for European cohesion and diversity management in cities 

  Conducted collaborative research in 14 cities and published the Handbook for Governing 

Hyper-Diverse Cities 

  Policy  Platforms  have  been  formed  in  all  countries,  generally  comprising  about  6-10 

stakeholders 

CITISPYCE (Combating inequalities through innovative social practices of, and for, young 
people in cities across Europe) addresses the challenge of understanding and dealing with 
urban inequality among youth in European cities (aged 16-25). It builds on research that 

51 

 
 
 
 
shows the disproportionate impact of the economic crisis on young people across Europe, 
including excessively high rates of youth unemployment and threats to the social provision 
enjoyed by previous generations.  

This  is  compounded  by  the  'coming  of  age'  of  the  descendants  of  recent  migrant 
communities,  who  now  form  significant  proportions  of  the  young  population  in  major 
European cities. They are Europeans in language, social habit and cultural repertoire, yet 
continue to face longstanding barriers as a result of membership of communities already 
marginalised from mainstream labour markets and civic life.  

The outcomes reflect the projects’ integrated approach. For SEISMIC the major outcome 
was the NatNet (national network) itself. It initiated a multi-stakeholder, mutual learning 
dialogue  that  allowed  the  setup  of  ten  national  forums  in  urban  social  innovation.  For 
DIVERCITIES, in addition to the goal of raising awareness and revaluing diversity it focuses 
on an educational program in school and Policy Forums in 10 cities.  

It conducted a comparative research of urban diversity in 14 cities and published the path 
breaking  Handbook  for  Governing  Hyper-Diverse  Cities  Finally,  CITISPYCE  brought 
together  a  range  of  academic  disciplines  --  anthropology,  sociology,  economics, 
governance, public policy -- from seven universities, as well as social policy expertise and 
practice and two non-profit social NGO to study innovation, inequality and youth inclusion. 
It  highlighted  the  role  of  active  and  involved  youth  in  making  the  innovative  city  of 
tomorrow.  

CITISPYCE – valuing the role of youth and fighting inequalities 

  Research  has  shown  that  the  global  economic  crisis  of  2008  has  had  a 
disproportionately adverse impact upon young people in urban areas. Not only are they 
experiencing excessively high rates of unemployment but threats to the social provision 
enjoyed by previous generations. When linked to other indicators of deprivation, it is 
clear that young people in the 16 to 24 age group are amongst the hardest hit and face 
more social and economic inequalities than any other group in society 

  Mapped Socially Innovative Practices (SIPs) in 10 different cities against the backdrop 

of the rapid redrawing of social inequalities across Europe 

  Gave voice to young people suffering from marginality and inequality 

  Engaged with more 600 young people, and created a platform for young people across 

Europe get together online and put forward their views and ideas 

  Created  new  forms  of  networking  and  mobility  for  young  people  who  might  live  in 

deprived neighbourhoods. 

 

Involved Roma youth in artistic projects 

WILCO  investigated  how  social  needs  are  addressed  by  social  innovations  in  cities,  and 
worked  with  local  policymakers,  welfare  service  providers,  social  agents,  third  sector 
organizations  and  vulnerable  citizens.  It  focused  on  three  policy  fields  (child  care, 
employment and access to housing) and 3 target groups (single mothers, youngsters and 
first  generation  migrants)  and  elaborated  the  patterns  of  social  inequality  and  social 
cohesion  in  European  cities  across  ten  countries  that  provided  information  on  how  local 
politics enable or disable the emergence and development of social innovation.  

The project produced a Policy Review Social Innovation Research in the European Union: 
Approaches,  findings  and  future  directions  commissioned  by  the  European  Commission 
that  was  inspirational  in  incorporating  social  innovations  in  the  EU  research  and  policy 
agendas. 

Equally  it    elaborated  a  Chart  of  Patterns  of  Social  Inequality  and  Social  Cohesion  in 
European  cities  across  10  countries  that  provided  information  on  the  emergence  and 
development of social innovations; created innovative instruments and practices including 

52 

 
 
an interpretative framework for local welfare systems across different European contexts; 
raised  awareness  on  the  importance  of  citizen-led  initiatives  for  effective  local  welfare 
systems  combating  social  exclusion;  and  developed  policy  recommendations,  offering 
innovative interdisciplinary and comparative findings for evidence-based policy making in 
key areas of the European social model. 

WILCO’s overall success was linked to its effectiveness in repositioning the concept of social 
innovation  in  Europe,  from  a  buzzword  in  policy  circles  to  a  high  position  in  the  policy 
agenda, building on the solid evidence-based constructions of the project, and the mapping 
of the social innovations existing in European cities.  

The project also underscored and highlighted the critical links between social innovation, 
the dynamics of urban welfare governance models and the social exclusion problems and 
patterns in Europe. 

Key messages include:  

  Social innovations are not only innovations in social services, but also changes in rules 
and  regulations  (e.g.  concerning  the  access  to  financial  benefits)  and  in  governance 
(forms of democracy and decision making on priorities in welfare and cohesion politics);  

  Social innovation in  cities  is  not  a  disconnected  phenomenon,  but  an  element  in  the 
traditional  European  welfare  system  that  is  differently  expressed  according  to  the 
particular socio-economic models and the specific national and local cultures; 

  Most  social  innovations  do  not  fit  a  pattern  of  growth  and  upscaling  nor  are  easily 
translated  to  other  contexts.  They  emerge  in  specific  contexts,  to  address  existing 
needs and do not aim to wider diffusion or upscaling. 

9 

Social Innovation and Citizen Science 

9.1 Societal Challenges 

Citizen  science  is  both  an  enabler  of  open  innovation  and  can  involve  citizens  ‘doing 
science’, for example, through crowdsourcing, as well as involving the public engaging in 
policy-making  through,  for  example,  agenda-setting  for  research  systems.  These  are 
typified  by  ‘gathering  data’,  ‘analysing  data’  and  ‘co-production  of  knowledge’.  Citizen 
science also involves greater understanding of science by the public madeood to  possible 
through greater access to information about the research process such as the ability to use 
open research data or download open access journal articles. Citizen science may also refer 
to the ability of the public to understand science and engage with scientists, through more 
‘open’  communication  in  the  form  of  blogs  and  social  media.  Overall  this  framework 
highlights  the  importance  of  contributions  from  people  who  might  not  be  considered 
scientific  experts,  but  do  have  specialist  knowledge  of  particular  habitats  and  skills, 
particularly in relation to local environments, addressing societal challenges. 

9.2 Citizen Science Solutions 

The citizen science projects considered here include CITI-SENSE involving development of 
sensor-based  Citizens'  Observatory  Community  for  improving  quality  of  life  in  cities, 
focusing on air and noise pollution. The project enabled citizen participation in community 
decision-making  and  planning  relating  to  these  issues,  through  use  of  personal 
microsensors and mobile devices. CITYZEN (megaCITY - Zoom for the Environment) both 
addressing  the  impact  of  urban  pollution  on  climate  change,  air  quality  and  emission 
hotspots.  

CITI-SENSE: Empowering the citizen to participate in environmental governance. 

53 

 
 
Figure 25. © william87 

WeSenseIT (Citizen Water Observatory) which aimed to establish citizen observatories for 
water  monitoring  in  three  case  study  cities,  Doncaster  (United  Kingdom),  Delft  (The 
Netherlands)  and  Vicenza  (Italy),  focused  on  supporting  agencies,  such  as  emergency 
services and policy makers, to deal with natural phenomena such as floods and droughts. 

CITI-SENSE addressed the challenge of air quality in public and institutional urban spaces 
in  Barcelona,  Oslo,  Haifa,  Vienna,  Ostrava  and  Silesia  region,  Beograd,  Edinburgh,  and 
Ljubljana. It developed “citizens’ observatories” to empower citizens to contribute to and 
participate  in  environmental  governance,  to  enable  them  to  support  and  influence 
community and societal priorities and associated decision making. 

CITI-SENSE  develops, 
tests,  demonstrates  and  validates  a  community-based 
environmental  monitoring  and  information  systems  using  innovative  and  novel  earth 
observation applications. To achieve this, the project: (i) raises environmental awareness 
in citizens, (ii) raises user participation in societal environmental decisions and (iii) provides 
feedback on the impact that citizens had in decisions. It addresses EU’s need for effective 
participation  by  citizens  in  environmental  stewardship,  based  on  broad  stakeholder  and 
user involvement in support of both community and policy priorities. The project aims to 
learn  from  citizen  experience  and  perception  and  enable  citizenship  co-participation  in 
community decision making and co-operative planning.  

The  impact  of  CITI-SENSE  rests  on  three  pillars:  technological  platforms  for  distributed 
monitoring; information and communication technologies; and societal involvement. Three 
case  studies  focused  on  a  range  of  services  related  to  environmental  issues  of  societal 
concern: combined environmental exposure and health associated with air quality; noise 
and development of public spaces, and indoor air at schools. Attention was given to the 
representativeness of citizen participation. The case studies were designed in collaboration 
with citizens’ groups and decision makers. They were based on distributed data collection 
using innovative static, portable and personal devices (low-cost reliable microsensor packs) 
that  communicate  with  data  repositories  through  mobile  phones  or  other  devices. 
Development of participatory methods, data management strategies, and applications to 
facilitate exploitation of the data and information for policy, and society, was achieved in 
strong collaboration with private innovation firms.  

The  systemic  approach  manifests  itself  chiefly  by  the  explicit  multi-stakeholder,  multi-
sectoral  approach,  involving  industry,  academia,  individual  environmental  specialists, 
NGOs and public organizations. It also  engages citizens in research and data-collections 
across regions and cities.   

Integrated solutions: 

  High  technology  environmental  sensors,  innovative  data  fusion  methods  and 
communication paired with scientific analysis and efficient communications with users 
and the public; 

54 

 
 
 
  Deployment  of  static  (fixed)  and  mobile  (personal)  sensors  to  monitor  various 

environmental components; 

  Combination  of  new  sensing  technology,  ICT  Cloud  platform  with  IoT,  Big  Data  and 
App/Portal services and participatory methods, to create useful products and services. 

The concept of CITI-SENSE is based on realization of the chain “sensors-platform-products-
users”: technologies for distributed monitoring (sensors); information and communication 
technologies  (platform);  information  products  and  services  (products);  and  citizen 
involvement  in  both  monitoring  and  societal  decisions  through  participation  and 
empowerment (users). Products and services (exploitable by the market) include: 

  AQ  (Air  Quality)  maps  by  applying  new  methods  for  spatial  interpolation  and 

visualisation of environmental data; 

  AQ perception mobile applications and questionnaires ; 

  Novel static and mobile AQ sensor platforms; 

  Real-time  environmental  information  with  alert  services  for  delivery  of  timely 

knowledge of pollution hot- spots; 

  Local CO web portals to facilitate and promote public participation and engagement; 

  Common CO web portal to access, upload and exchange data and information. 

  Developed the new approach of “Citizens’ Observatories” (COs): a collaborative concept 
that focuses on the empowerment of citizens to influence their community policy and 
decision-making 

  Combined  new  sensing  technology,  ICT  Cloud  platform  with  IoT,  Big  Data  and 

App/Portal services and participatory methods in products and services 

 

Involved  multiple  stakeholders  including  innovation  firms  which  developed  business 
models  following  products  (the  Personal  Air  Monitoring  Toolkit,  tools  for  remote 
sensing, and mobile apps) 

  Studied the motivations and barriers to citizen involvement with environmental decision 

making 

  Deployed  low-cost  micro-sensor  devices  and  innovative  data  fusion  and  scientific 

analyses 

  Contributed to European air pollution (or, alternatively, air quality, AQ) legislation by 
supplying  local  authorities  with  comparability  of  measurements  across  Europe,  and 
standardized  methods  and  comprehensive  quality  control  and  quality  assurance 
systems 

  Developed  and  evaluated  the  mechanisms  needed  to  implement  the  two-way 
interaction  between  policy  makers  and  citizens  that  is  fundamental  to  empower  the 
citizen and allow him/her to influence environmental governance 

  With  the  inclusion  of  KICT  and  SALTLUX  in  the  consortium,  CITI-SENSE  realized  the 
intentions in the Agreement on Scientific and Technological Cooperation between the 
European Community and the Government of the Republic of Korea 

  By  help  of  a  business  plan,  the  project  identified  17  knowledge  items  that  were 
considered  “exploitable”,  i.e.,  presenting  a  clear  and  significant  potential  for 
exploitation (both in terms of commercial activities as well as further research ones) 

  CITYZEN determines the air pollution distribution and change in and around hotspots 
in megacities over the last decade from extensive satellite and in-situ observations. It 

55 

 
 
employs a series of different scale models in order to analyze the impacts of air pollution 
hot  spots  on  regional  and  global  air  quality  including  potential  future  changes  for 
various climate scenarios. Focus is on ozone and particulate matter with chemical and 
physical characterization, and their precursors. The eastern Mediterranean (Istanbul, 
Athens, Cairo), the Po Valley, the BeNeLux region, the Pearl River Delta in China (with 
megacities  Guangzhou  and  Hong  Kong)  and  the  hot  and  polluted  European  summer 
2003  were  chosen  for  intensive  case  studies.  The  consortium  included  groups  from 
China,  Turkey,  Greece  and  Italy,  in  addition  to  France,  Germany,  UK  and  Norway, 
including experts on observations, emission data and models.  

  The  project  addressed  the  challenge  of  the  increasing  number  of  megacities  (with 
populations over 10 million), where regional air pollution hot spots have developed as 
a  result  of  anthropogenic  emissions  and  changes  in  land  usage  that  have  large 
environmental  implications,  both  in  the  regional  hot  spots  themselves  and  on  larger 
scale.  A scientific challenge in this project is the multi-scale character of the issue. As 
megacities  have  the  potential  to  impact  both  their  local  environment  but  also  the 
regional to global scales, scale-bridging data sets and model systems have to be used. 
Bringing together academic and public agencies generates a systemic approach both in 
terms of geographic scale and institutional collaboration.  

CITYZEN considered 5 policy scenarios: 

  No policy change ('GEA Frozen':This scenario assumes that there is no change in future 
air  pollution  policies  after  2005  which  implies  that  the  combustion  technologies  and 
abatement measures penetration remains at the level of 2005 for the entire modelling 
period.  

  Current legislation AQ Policy: This scenario is identical to the case described above in 
terms of energy. However, it assumes full implementation of all current and planned 
air pollution legislation world-wide to 2030. 

  Current  legislation  AQ+Climate  Policy:  This  scenario  assumes  implementation  of  a 
stringent  climate  policy  corresponding  to  a  2  degree  global  temperature  target.  In 
addition, it  assumes  a  moderate  energy  access  policy  corresponding to  microfinance 
and 20% fuel subsidy well as full implementation of all current and planned air quality 
legislation until 2030. 

  Very ambitious AQ+Climate Policy: This scenario varies from the above one in that it 
assumes  global  implementation  of  extremely  stringent  pollution  policies  (SLE)  until 
2030. These stringent air quality control strategies assume fast implementation of low 
emission measures in all sectors.  

  The observational and modeling studies conducted within CITYZEN resulted in a better 
understanding and in better tools to assess air pollution and to design air quality control 
policies.  The  4  work  packages  provided  improvements  to  input  data,  modeling  tools 
and observational methods. The development,  validation and subsequent application 
of the new tools, useable under different circumstances and for different areas inside 
and  outside  the  EU  contributes  to  more  effective  measures  to  prevent  increased  air 
pollution and climate change. The co-ordination of the evaluation of the actual available 
knowledge  in  Europe  has  already  resulted  in  a  better  knowledge.  The  further 
improvement based on new observational methods and models to study air pollution 
and climate change, and interactions and the development of new diagnostic tools will 
support European decision makers.  

CITYZEN: Mega-cities and Emission Hotspots 

  The modelling of the impact megacities on air pollution has highlighted hotspots in the 
East Mediterranean around Istanbul, Athens and Cairo, as well as the Pearl River Delta 
in China 

  Provided extensive sets of global satellite observations of air pollutants and established 

a new measurement network in Turkey 

56 

 
 
  Downscaled the EMEP European emission inventory to 0.1°x0.1° lon/lat resolution for 

the period 1998-2006 

  Merged the European emission data into a global emission data set (the so-called 'RCP' 
scenario being used in the IPCC process) and developed mitigation scenarios based on 
the new RCP scenarios 

 

Improved the modelling capability with scale interactions and 10-year trends 

  Wrote an assessment of megacities in collaboration with other colleagues worldwide, 
published  by  IGAC  (International  Global  Atmospheric  Chemistry)  and  WMO  (World 
Meteorological Organization) 

  Supported  together  with  the  Chinese  Ministry  of  Science  and  Technology  and 
Guangdong province specification of science-based control policies for regional pollution 
in the Pearl River Delta. PKU conducted a research program on regional air pollution in 
the PRD for years, in terms of both fundamental research and policy 

  Organized (PKU) a science team to design the air quality assurance plan for the 16th 
Asian Games held in Guangzhou in November 2010. Regional multi-pollutants control 
strategy was used as guideline for control scenarios design. The assurance plan was 
adopted and implemented by GD-EPB and Guangzhou EPB.  

  Planned  (FRIUUK)  science-based  control  policies  for  regional  pollution  used  by  the 
North  Rhine  Westphalia  State  Agency  for  Nature,  Environment  and  Consumer 
Production  (LANUV-NRW)  in  planning  of  air  quality  improvement  in  North-Rhine-
Westphalia.  

WeSenseIT interdisciplinary concept was developed on the basis of 3  different aspects of 
community participation in water governance:  

  environmental non-structured data collection via optimized networks of sensors as well 
as  information  provided  directly  by  citizens  (measurements,  images,  messages)  and 
via mining of social media portals;  

  development  of  descriptive  and  predictive  models  (both  physical/natural  and  social) 
and decision-making tools that are able to optimally assimilate both social and physical 
data;  

 

two-way  feedback  and  exchange  of  environmental  knowledge/experience  between 
citizens and authorities for decision-making, planning and governance. 

The  project  applied  the  concept  of  citizen  observatories  for  water  management  and 
monitoring in three  case  study cities, Doncaster (UK), Delft (NL), and Vicenza (IT).  The 
project developed and tested technological solutions such as heat and moisture sensors, 
connected  acoustic  rain  gauges,  urban  umbrella  rain  gauge  (prototype),  smartcams  for 
long-term  water  monitoring,  wireless  soil  moisture  and  temperature  measurement, 
satellite derived soil moisture maps, platforms for smart irrigation planning, river discharge 
estimation with mobile phone, web portals connecting citizens and local authorities, citizen 
video communication, crowd activity monitoring, social media monitoring, and augmented 
reality tools. All solutions aimed to support monitoring and modelling with applications and 
sensors,  and  communication  components  that  form  the  observatory.  Two-way  feedback 
and  exchange  of  environmental  information  and  experience  between  citizens  and 
authorities  aimed  to  support  decision  making  and  governance  within  an  e-collaboration 
framework.  

The  project  demonstrated  the  importance  of  bringing  together  different  stakeholders  at 
the local level to co-design and co-produce integrated and resource-efficient strategies for 
the  future.  Working  closely  with  the  local  level  provided  on  the  ground  information, 
challenges and success factors, which add value to the research project. Local workshops 
also enabled local authorities to better understand and explain the challenges faced and 

57 

 
 
therefore provide a solid baseline for study and options for building more sustainable and 
resource-efficient futures.   

Real world scenarios specified as follows: 

  Doncaster  (UK)  WeSenseIt  installed  physical  sensors  on  the  river  Don,  providing  an 
efficient and effective alert system, complemented by citizen observations via citizen 
apps. In all, five gauge boards have been installed in Doncaster, four weather stations, 
five radar bridge sensors, and a community portal was created.   

  Delft  (NL)  WeSenseIt  project  became  part  of  the  Digital  Delfl  and  policy  providing 
citizen information to the digital hydrological cycle information system of Delft. In order 
to test the technologies of the soil moisture sensors and Lizard Boxes developed by the 
project,  thirty  sensors  and  fifteen  boxes  were  installed  spread  as  homogenously  as 
possible over the Delfland region.  

  Vicenza  (IT)  a  civil  protection  exercise  was  organised  by  the  Alto  Adriatico  Water 
Authority  and  the  Municipality,  involving  134  volunteers  and  fifty  technicians  and 
researchers. The exercise, had dual objectives to test the new mobile barriers for the 
hydraulic  safety  of  the  city,  and  test  the  applications  that  exchange  information 
between citizens and the Civil Protection Authorities.  

WeSenseIT legacy deployed: 

  GroundTruth2.0,  a  3-year  H2020  project  on  Environmental  knowledge  discovery  of 

human sensed data;  

  SETA,  another  H2020  project  on  Big  Data  for  Mobility  in  Smart  Cities  (2016-2019); 
Tracking Health in a Large Population project, funded by the UK government, to support 
the National Health Service (NHS) strategic vision to healthier lifestyle in the areas of 
smoking, drinking, eating, moving, sleeping and stress reduction;  

  Football  Whispers,  a  project  which  has  now  been  running  for  1  year  that  provides 

information to users and some of the main media outlets (e.g. SkySports);  

  beAWARE,  a  H2020  project  working  on  potential  of  current  and  new  measures  and 

technologies to respond to extreme weather and climate events and teaching;  

  KidronNar  a  3-year  UNESCO-IHE  project  on  the  topics  of  improved  catchment  area 
management and safe deltas, access to clean drinking water and basic sanitation, water 
governance and diplomacy; 

B-Putra,  a  1-year  project  funded  by  the  World  Bank  and  led  by  Antea  Group ;  and  the 
H2020 GROW Observatory project. 

10 

 Summary of Project Highlights 

10.1 Climate Adaptation and Resilience  

CLUVA 

provided  urban  planners  and  researchers  within  five  of  Africa’s  most  vulnerable  cities 
(Saint-Louis  in  Senegal,  Ouagadougou  in  Burkina  Faso,  Douala  in  Cameroun,  Dar-es-
Salaam in Tanzania and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia) reliable forecasts of the local impact of 
climate  change,  in  the  next  40  years.  This  research  improved  the  understanding  of  the 
impact of climate change and the costs and benefits of adaptation and mitigation measures 
in  cities,  and  provided  comparable  data  and  specific  solutions  for  adaptation  to  climate 
change impacts,  such as flooding, droughts, changes in temperature and more  extreme 
events. The projects developed tools to quantify risks, vulnerabilities, damage from climate 
change  and  a  detailed  cost  assessment  of  the  effectiveness  of  adaptation  measures  to 

58 

 
 
 
different hazards (i.e.  flooding, heat waves, wind damage) that support policymakers in 
the  planning  of  the  above  African  cities.  The  project  also  tailored  a  suite  of  methods 
developed in Manchester to the African urban context. CLUVA provided concrete solutions 
by developing Climate Change risk adaptation strategies and risk reduction strategies for 
the  38  per  cent  of  Africa’s  population  (280  millions);  It  also  developed  a  desertification 
map  to  assess  the  sensitivity  to  desertification  and  land  degradation  in  local  peri-urban 
areas. It downscaled the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios to 
local urban and urban-rural regions; provided regional projections up to 2050 of climate 
change at high resolution (8km). 

CORFU 

created  successful  synergies  relying  on  differences  in  the  perception  of  urban  flooding 
problems in Europe and China, and delivered new insights for flood management strategies 
globally.  The  latest  technologies  were  cross-fertilised  with  traditional  and  emerging 
approaches  to  living  with  floods,  enabling  European  and  Asian institutions  to  learn  from 
each  other  through  joint  development,  implementation  and  dissemination  of  strategies 
towards  sound  management  of  the  consequences  of  urban  flooding,  and    cost-effective 
resilience  measures  and  flood  management  plans.  Barcelona  (Spain),  Beijing  (  China), 
Dhaka (Bangladesh), Hamburg ( Germany), Mumbai ( India), Nice (France) and Taipei ( 
Taiwan) applied in their flood management strategies the CORFU guidelines for the design 
of urban drainage systems. The project also developed flood hazard scenarios (potential 
deaths, damage to infrastructure and health problems, and their effects on communities), 
prevention policies, and methodologies and guidelines for the design and implementation 
of a new Sustainable Drainage Systems (SUDS) and flood management in Europe and in 
China,  which  were  adopted  by  local  policy  makers.  CORFU  evidenced  the  importance  of 
social resilience in improving flood hazard management and prevention. It also contributed 
to  the  development  and  implementation  of  real-time  warning  systems  in  Barcelona  and 
Dhaka and to the application of the multi-cell model to Beijing City (area more than 1000 
km2).  The  applicability  of  the  latter  was  demonstrated,  as  it  reproduced  the  observed 
location  for  the  21  July  2012  flood,  when  large  parts  of  Beijing  were  seriously  flooded 
causing  57  casualties.  CORFU  also  contributed  to  the  EU  Floods  Directive  by  developing 
urban flood scenarios, modelling and flood hazard mapping. 

SECOA 

tackled the issues of adaptation to climate change focusing on large coastal metropolitan 
areas in Europe and Asia and provided sustainable urban planning solutions. The project 
delivered an integrated ecosystem approach (Integrated Coastal Zone Management-ICZM) 
together with a Spatial decision support system for urban planners and policy makers for 
integrated coastal management based on real time input and considering existing conflicts 
(eg. economic development versus environmental protection, preservation of natural sites 
and biodiversity; urban growth and restructuring; social cohesion and human mobility) by 
different  stakeholders  (i.e.  residents,  commuters,  tourists,  and  enterprises).  These 
conflicts  are  multiplied  by  climate  change  affecting  environmental  conditions  in  coastal 
areas. In particular, SECOA produced specific evidence base for decision making, including 
maps of the flood hazard in 15 of its case study sites: Oostende and Brugge, (Belgium), 
Mumbai  and  Chennai  (India),  Haifa  and  Tel  Aviv  (Israel),  Rome  and  Chieti-Pescara 
(Italy),Lisbon and Algarve (Portugal), Gothenburg and Malmo (Sweden), Thames Gateway 
(United Kingdom), Hai Phong and Nha Trang (Vietnam) have been the case study coastal 
areas. These cities used the SECOA evidence, scenarios, and applied the  SECOA maps of 
flood hazard into local urban planning and flood management strategies. SECOA provided  
alternative  development  scenarios  permitting  consideration  of  both  urban  and 
metropolitan/regional scales, as well as peri-urban areas and directly interacted with on-
going decision making processes, having an impact on their specific urban development. 

TRUST  

dealt with the transition of urban water services and of their management, helping sector 
utilities and authorities (public and public/private enterprises) to formulate and implement 
appropriate  urban  water  policies  and  achieve  a  sustainable,  low-carbon  quality  water 

59 

 
 
future. The project developed and tested a wide portfolio of tools (including  Nature-based 
solutions  -NBS  solutions  and  innovative  technologies  for  optimised  water  treatment), 
guidelines, software and training material; their feasibility where demonstrated with city 
utilities in a variety of urban contexts across Europe and Africa. For instance, the Urban 
Water  Cycle  Systems  (UWCS),  a  key  approach  developed  within  TRUST,  supports  an 
integrated and sustainable planning and management of urban water services (e.g. water 
supply and distribution, water demand, wastewater and cyclic water recovery and resource 
recovery).  TRUST  delivered  for  free  tools  and  e-learning  materials  available  to  city 
Municipalities (Amsterdam, Hamburg, Istanbul, Melbourne, Quito) and any other city, for 
the  assessment  of  the  impact  of  interventions  on  the  performance  gains  of  the  overall 
urban water cycle; assessment tools of Nature-based solutions and innovative technologies 
for optimised water treatment, water reclamation for non-potable-use, sustainable water 
demand  and  storm  water  management,  energy-saving  options  and  water-energy 
interventions; mobile and software tools for infrastructure asset management, helping city 
utilities in the above mentioned cities to perform targeted rehabilitation of infrastructures 
and to reduce leakage in water distribution systems. The project findings contributed to 
the goals of the European Innovation Platform on Water (EIP Water Action Group) and to 
the Urban Water Atlas for Europe.  

RAMSES  

provided standardised and transferable guidelines for cost-benefit assessment of different 
climate change impacts and of several adaptation measures to the cities involved such as 
London,  Anwerp,  Bilbao,  Rio  De  Janeiro,  Bogota,  Skopje.  The  project  focused  on  how 
climate change might affect buildings, infrastructure, health and living conditions and the 
economy. Using several climate change scenarios, the project analysed the impacts on the 
cities due to several climatic and non-climatic drivers (e.g., heat to human health; heat to 
urban  comfort;  heat  to  work  productivity;  flood  to  traffic  disruption  or  flood  to  built 
environment) and assessed the cost and benefits of different adaptation strategies.  The 
RAMSES tools are open access and available for hundreds of cities throughout the world. 
The  research  delivered  a  Transition  Handbook  and  Training  Package  to  support  cities  to 
define  transition  pathways  towards  urban  resilience  and  the  necessary  adaptation 
measures. Other project results such as the typology and indicators of resilient buildings, 
are of great interest to insurance companies (e.g., the German Association of Insurance 
Companies)  to  calculate  their  premiums.  In  addition,  the  RAMSES  results  (e.g.  cost 
assessments of different impacts of flooding, heat waves,  simulation models, typology of 
heat waves on cities) have been implemented by the city of Antwerp (Belgium) where the 
municipality urban planners and urban designers used tools and knowledge delivered by 
the project to better plan climate adaptation measures (including nature-based solutions) 
and design innovative strategies for their city.  

PREPARED 

delivered  to  city  municipalities  and  the  construction  sector  solutions  (tools  and  decision 
support systems) for the adaptation of European water supply and sanitation systems to 
climate change impacts, targeting risk assessment frameworks in respect to water scarcity, 
water  quality,  insufficient  sewage  system  with  combined  outflows  (sewage  plus  water 
flooding)  and  environmental  problems  created  by  wastewater  (pollution,  decrease  in 
drinking  water  quality),  real  time  modelling  and  monitoring  systems  and  planning  for 
resilience.  For  instance,  PREPARED  findings  helped  water  utilities  to  cope  with  the 
anticipated and uncertain impacts of climate change, especially the extremes ones. It also 
helped the urban planners and decision makers to make strategic investment decisions for 
the design and maintenance of their city infrastructures. It was evidenced for the city of 
Berlin  (Germany)  that  integrated  management  reduces  water  overflows  by  17%  and 
discharged pollutants by 21-31% following extreme events; for the city of Genova (Italy) 
-  optimised  management  permits  of  water  storage  increases  hydro  energy  produce  by 
43%,  and  reduces  groundwater  extraction  by  20%;  for  the  city  of  Barcelona  (Spain)  - 
sediment monitoring and real time actions have considerably reduced the annual municipal 
sewer  removal  costs;  for  the  city  of  Oslo  (Norway)-  treating  surplus  wastewater  during 
heavy rain events by chemical precipitation increases overall removal efficiency (including 

60 

 
 
the untreated overflows) from 19 % to 32 % (total nitrogen) and from 36 % to 85 % (total 
phosphorous).  

BURBA 

Designed an IT method for waste management optimisation, as a new concept of waste 
service through the entire chain from production to disposal, based  on handling of data 
from  waste  management.  The  system  delivered  information  that  contributes  to  cities 
sustainability  by  improving  waste  management  and  the  recycling  activities.  The  system 
also delivered information on individual user habits used for taxing or rewarding citizens, 
but also for motivational and educational purposes. To foster the systemic approach, the 
project  worked  in  close  collaboration  with  the  end-users  for  each  sector  to  define  their 
requirements  for  the  adequate  design  of  the  systems  and  to  deliver  outputs  adapted  to 
their needs. Research centres, technology-provider companies, water utilities, and waste 
management companies worked with urban planners in the Municipality of Camogli (Italy), 
Rzeszów Municipality (Poland) and with Acorde Technologies S.A.(Spain), AOTO Company 
(Republic  of  China),  Tekever  SME  (Portugal),  Ayuntamiento  de  Santander  (Spain), 
D’Appolonia S.p.a. (Italy), Politecnico di Milano (Italy) to deliver an integrated analysis of 
the problems and risk management options. The project addressed problems faced by each 
of these sectors especially in scenarios of climate change, where cities need to reduce their 
emissions, and also to  be prepared for challenges, such as water shortage, heat stress, 
flooding, and waste recycling.  

10.2 Sustainable Land use and Nature Based Solutions 

HOMBRE  

focused on Soft Re-use technology solutions and showed how Brownfield remediation can 
offer the opportunity to develop green open space networks in densely built urban areas, 
and  to  generate  renewable  energy  through  non-food  biomass  production.  In  Genoa  and 
Terni  (Italy),  Markham  Vale  (United  Kingdom),  Halle/Salle  (Germany),  Solec  Kujawski 
(Poland),  the  HOMBRE  Brownfield  Navigator  created  a  focus  point  for  stakeholders’ 
consensus for BF (Brownfield) strategies and regeneration for both urban and peri-urban 
contexts (i.e. former industrial, commercial, infrastructural, mining, military and housing 
areas), with the aim to show how to limit greenfield exploitation and urban sprawl, through 
an environmentally and economically sustainable re-use of land in already built-up areas. 
Case study Municipalities took up the project overall approach and the use of the decision 
support  system.  For  example,  the  Municipality  of  Solec  Kujawski  adopted  the  Zero 
Brownfield approach as an extension to policies the City had already started to implement, 
encouraged  by  project  experience  to  mobilise  financial  resources  to  assess  remediation 
options and redevelopment opportunities for the BF (Brownfield) area. The Municipality of 
Terni  added  HOMBRE  experiences  into  its  approach  to  regeneration.  Municipalities  of 
Utrecht and Rotterdam (Netherland) implemented  the concept of the land use cycle in the 
research of the subsurface.  

TIMBRE  

Three  components  of  the  TIMBRE  Web  based  support  toolkit  for  brownfield  (BF) 
regeneration  include  an  expert  Information  System  for  BF  regeneration  which  helps 
stakeholders  to  share,  access  and  select  the  most  suitable  and  available  information  on 
national  and  international  projects,  programmes  and  initiatives,  and  on  technological 
solutions supporting economically and socially beneficial BF regeneration. The Prioritization 
Tool helps stakeholders to be responsible for wider territories (regions, districts, cities) or 
BF portfolios to distribute available resources to those sites that are assessed to be the 
most  critical,  urgent  or  profitable  to  regenerate,  on  the  base  of  the  evaluation  of  their 
redevelopment potential, marketability, environmental risk or other perspectives specified 
by end-users. The Site Assessment and Re-use Planning Tool is an open-source web based 
instrument aimed at supporting participatory planning and assessment of re-use options 
by offering to invited users the access to data and allowing them to  get involved in the 
planning process. The project focused on integrated solutions for BFs characterization and 
remediation,  towards  a  zero  BF  perspective  on  case  studies  from  Central  and  European 
Countries.  

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TIMBRE  outcomes  contributed  to  the  implementation  of  site-specific  BF  regeneration 
projects and processes in a variety of case study cities and regions, spread across European 
countries  such  as  Germany  (Dortmund,  Gelsenkirchen,  Halle/Saale,  Meerane,  Postdam, 
Berlin), Poland (Solec Kujawski, Katovice, Szprotawa, Zielona Gora), Romania (Hunedoara, 
Craiova,  Bucharest),  Nederland  (Rotterdam),  France  (Orléans),  Czech  Republic  (Brno, 
Ostrava,  Hrušov,  Ústí  nad  Labem).  Technologies  developed  for  integrated  site 
characterization and remediation and phytoscreening with tree coring gained recognition 
by  several  engineering  companies  and  are  used  in  various  projects  in  Denmark.  For 
example,  Orbicon  (Danish  engineering  company)  used  tree  coring  to  identify  the 
groundwater-surface  water  exchange  at  contaminated  sites  (i.e.  Brede,  Raadvad, 
Copenhagen  in  Denmark).  Today  the  technique  is  offered  by  engineering  companies  all 
across Europe and is taught to young environmental engineers at the Technical University 
of Denmark in the field course on contaminated sites. 

URBES  

Delivered outcomes to position urban biodiversity and ecosystem services as key assets 
supporting  European  cities  to  adapt  to  climate  change  and  to  reduce  cities’  ecological 
footprints. At the city level, several city plans were supported by project results, including 
the 2020 Barcelona Green Infrastructure and Biodiversity Strategy, the PlaNYC (New York 
City’s  20-year  Economic  and  Environmental  Sustainability  Plan),  as  well  as  Berlin  and 
Rotterdam  green  infrastructure  planning.  Other  examples  include  the  Malmö  integrated 
green-grey infrastructure for stormwater management in the design of the new residential 
neighbourhood Bo01, and the retrofitting of the housing area of Augustenborg, as part of 
the Malmö Water Plan. Lisbon (Portugal) in its Local Action Plan for Lisbon Biodiversity in 
2015 was also inspired to take a comprehensive approach which includes the creation of a 
municipal  allotment  garden  network  established  in  existing  or  new  green  spaces  and 
planned to create a landscape mosaic with strong potential to foster biodiversity. 

GREEN SURGE 

Adapted  the  concept  of  biocultural  diversity  to  urban  areas,  stressing  the  connections 
between nature and people in cities. Biocultural diversity refers to a new way of thinking 
about biodiversity conservation by looking at culturally significant and valued biodiversity 
and  by  identifying  cultural  expressions  of  nature  with  local  communities.  The  research 
identified  indicators  and  typologies  of  urban  green  infrastructures  that  provide  nature-
based  solutions  and  ecosystem  services  and  contribute  to  human  wellbeing  and  climate 
change resilience. Project results were used in the biodiversity and infrastructures planning 
of cities including Barcelona, Berlin, New York or Rotterdam. Further, at global level, their 
City  Biodiversity  Outlook  contributed  to  the  UN  Habitat  III  New  Urban  Agenda  and  to 
support  the  inclusion  of  a  goal  for  sustainable  cities  (SDG11)  in  the  Sustainable 
Development Goals Agenda.  

10.3 Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy 

Foodmetres 

Focused  on  sustainable  local  food  chains.  The  impact  of  European  Rural  Development 
Policies  (RDP)  on  sustainability  was  measured  through  policy  tools  in  the  Metropolitan 
Agro-food  System  of  the  city  regions  and  on  the  Short  Food  Chains  Typologies  (urban 
garden, direct sale, AgroPark, etc.).  

The tool also provides relevant information for local administartors and European politicians 
about the impact of RDP on Local Short Food Chains in urban and metropolitan contexts.  

In terms of short food chains, the research demonstrated that the new Rural Development 
Programme  (RDP)  of  the  Common  Agricultural  Policy  should  include  new  areas  like 
metropolitan  regions  and  new  groups,  not  only  farmers.  The  RDP  should  consider  and 
support new food chain models, particularly short food chains, which benefit from a great 
interest  in  civil  society.  FOODMETRES  developed  also  impact  indicators  around:  (i) 
environment,  (ii)  economy,  and  (iii)  society.  Examples  of  impact  indicators  in  these 
different areas included food-miles (transport distance) for the environmental impact area, 

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or number of jobs along the food chain as an economic impact indicator, and the occurrence 
of  pathogens  along  the  food  chain  under  the  food  safety  domain.  Assessment  reveal 
distinct  differences  between  the  experts’  and  the  practitioners’  perspective  as  well  as 
between the different case study sites, highlighting the importance of regional situation-
adjusted strategies and solutions to short food supply innovation. 

Supurbfood 

Focused on sustainable local food chains and sustainable modes of urban and peri-urban 
food provisioning and succesfully shortened nutrient, water and carbon cycles. Supurbfood 
promoted  a  stakeholder  participatory  approach  through  city-region  workshops  that 
highlighted the strategic role of institutional interaction and governance and fostered the 
North-South Europe dialogue by sharing valuable experiences and joint learning. Involved 
cities  reviewed  their  own  policies  and  governance  and  called  EU,  national,  local 
governments to support independent, local specialist food retailers, SMEs and Civil Society 
Organisations through public procurement clauses, incubators, educational programmes, 
training and legal assistance, grants, connection with peers, etc.  

The Supurbfood policy brief formed the driving force of setting the Milan Food Pact, and 
the  project’s  working  methodology  with  stakeholders  and  the  policy  recommendations 
produced, formed the basis for the Horizon 2020 project Robust (June 2016- 2020) which 
focuses on urban rural relations. 

POCACITO 

Advanced  the  evidence  knowledge  base  for  sustainable  pathways  towards  liveable, 
affordable  and  prospering  cities.  Pocacito  engaged  stakeholders,  policymakers,  and 
academics in Barcelona, Copenhagen, Istanbul, Lisbon, Litoměřice, Milan, Turin, Rostock, 
Malmö  and  Zagreb  who  together  with  the  citizens  defined  key  performance    indicators 
(focusing on energy consumption, urban mobility, air quality, resources depletion, waste, 
water,  building  stock,economic  growth,  health  and  well  being,  etc.)  to  monitor  and 
evaluate the performance of these cities during the transition process to the post carbon 
cities of tommorow. This participatory approach resulted in custom-made transition post-
carbon  strategies,  that  were  then  taken  as  the  basis  for  an  evidence-based  EU  2050 
Roadmap, a stakeholder-driven guide towards the model “Post-Carbon City of Tomorrow” 
that  merges  climate,  energy  and  social  urban  transitions.  POCACITO  successfully 
developed the ‘Post Carbon 2050 scenarios’that was comparted against the ‘Business As 
Usual  (BAU)’  and  proved  that  nearly  all  cities  will  improve  under  Business  As  Usual 
scenarios  for  most  indicators,  but  the  performance  is  significantly  improved  under  Post 
Carbon Cities 2050 scenarios where most cities approach carbon neutrality under PC2050. 
Moreover, under the PC2050 scenario,  the cost-benefits of reduced air pollution more than 
compensate  for  the  investment  costs.  Investment  costs  are  typically  less  than  1%  of 
cumulative Gross Domestic Product from 2018 to 2050.  

URBAN NEXUS 

Combined  different  urban  stakeholders  (municipalities,  businesses,  universities,  national 
ministries, civil society) across Europe (Bristol, Sofia, Goteborg, Barcelona and Glasgow) 
with  different  geographical,  cultural  and  professional  backgrounds  to  advance  strategic 
urban research on Urban Climate Resilience, Health and Quality of Life, Governace, Land 
Management and inform policy decision. The project’s policy brief confirmed the strategic 
importance  of  having  all  stakeholders  on  board  when  it  comes  to  decision  making  on 
sustainable urban development. 

It’s findings contributed to the implementation of various EU Directives, policy agenda and 
reports,  such  as  the  EU  INSPIRE  Directive  on  Infrustucture  for  Spatial  Information  in 
Europe; the Directive on the re-use of public sector information (PSI Directive); the Digital 
Agenda for Europe; the Joint Research Centre Report “Direct & Indirect Land use impacts 
of  the  EU  Cohesion  Policy”;  the  European  Environment  Agency’s  report  on  “Urban 
adaptation  to  climate  change  in  Europe”;  the  European  Environment  Agency  initiative, 
European Climate Adaptation Platform3 (CLIMATE-ADAPT). Furthermore, the partnership 
principles and main conclusions of the Urban Nexus project acted as an important catalyst 

63 

 
 
in the development  of the Strategic Agenda of  research priorities of the Joint Programic 
Innitiative  (  JPI  Urban  Europe)  and  also  provided  feedback  for  the  development  of  the 
Urban Agenda for the EU. 

BRIDGE 

Compared  and  assessed  the  urban  planning  scenarios  of  (Helsinki  (FI),  Athens  (EL), 
London (UK), Firenze (IT), Gliwice (PL). BRIDGE demonstrated to the European Community 
and Association of Engineers and Architects that these scenarios depend on environmental 
indicators  related  to  meteorology,  fluxes  of  energy,  CO2,  aerosol  particle  number  and 
concentrations  of  various  trace  gases  and  particles  in  the  cities  in  question.  BRIDGE 
accurate  planning  scenarios  were  fed  in  a  decision  support  system  which  helped  urban 
planners and policy makers to adopt a sustainable urban planning for the urban metabolism 
of  the  above  cities  for  water  consumption,  energy  efficiency,  carbon  emissions  and 
pollutants and be replicated in other European cities.  

BRIDGE delivered a prototype decision support system that was tested by key architects 
and Engineers in Europe and demonstrated the feasibility of assessing different planning 
interventions in specific areas of the cities and most importantly it contributed to sorting 
out the best scored scenarios, meaning planning proposals with spin over effects for the 
area.  This  research  resulted  also  in  the  ERA.Net  projects  GEOURBAN  and  SEN4RUS. 
Furthermore, based on the BRIDGE approach to energy fluxes in the urban environment, 
a  Horizon  2020  project  URBANFLUXES  was  developed  focusing  on  estimation  of  Urban 
Energy Budget and the anthropogenic heat flux using Copernicus Sentinels observations. 

SUME 

Confirmed the importance and the benefits of an integrated approach in decision-making 
and  in  the  implementation  of  actions  taking  into  account  social,  economic  and 
environmental perspectives at the same time. SUME analysed the influence of urban form 
on  urban  resource  use  and  demonstrated  how  future  changes  in  the  urban  form  could 
contribute to more resource-efficient European cities. This integrated approach was applied 
in  Vienna,  Stockholm,  Oporto,  Newcastle,  Athens,  Marseille  and  Munich  and  provided 
scenarios  on  the  land  consumption  and  the  spatial  distribution  of  population  and 
workplaces in 2050. The urban metabolism model demonstrated that the spatial expansion 
of  the  agglomerations  can  be  avoided  even  in  dynamic  and  growing  cities,  where 
accommodating additional population does not have to result in huge urban spraw: future 
land consumption in and around European cities could be reduced substantially.SUME also 
evidenced  that  the  spatial  expansion  of  fastest  growing  agglomerations  like  Munich, 
Stockholm and Vienna can be greatly reduced by 2050 to 13%, 20% and 14% respectively.  

Similarly the energy demand can be reduced by 60% to 80%, varying between cities and 
scenarios.  SUME-scenario-type  agglomeration  development  could  reduce  energy 
consumption between 10% and 40% by the year 2050 compared to the BASE scenario. A 
higher  replacement  or  renovation  rate  of  buildings  and  a  better  spatial  focus  of  new 
developments  with  respect  to  public  transport  accessibility  could  reduce  energy 
consumption by 30 to 40%. 

10.4 Air Quality and Health  

MEGAPOLI  

Investigated the interactions among megacities emissions, air quality and climate, bridging 
spatial and temporal scales that connect local emissions, air quality and weather with global 
atmospheric chemistry and climate, to provide information on the effects on regional and 
global  climate,  and  the  feedbacks  and  mitigation  potentials.  Delivered  integrated 
methodologies  to  assess  the  impacts  of  pollution  within,  and  from  megacities  to  global 
scales; assessed the feedbacks and interlinkages between air quality and climate change 
in megacities at urban, regional and global scales; delivered outputs that link city emissions 
and  pollution  with  health,  e.g.,  calculating  the  impact  of  pollution  on  DALY  (disability 

64 

 
 
 
adjusted life years); produced information on long-range transport and regional pollution, 
baseline scenarios and measures for improving air quality and climate change impacts in 
megacities;  developed  improved  current  and  future  emission  estimates  for  natural  and 
anthropogenic  sources  of  air  pollutants  and  analysed  policy  options  to  reduce  megacity 
emissions. 

EURO-URHIS 2  

issues 

the  specific  challenges  of  health 

Analysed 
in  urban  areas,  such  as 
internationalisation  of  metropolitan  regions,  ageing  populations,  migration  and  poor 
environmental factors. It harmonized indicators and methods; developed different cross-
sectional  surveys  focusing  on  cross-thematic  approaches  e.g.  environmental  conditions, 
food  and  bioinformatics  and  displayed  differentiated  results  for  young  and  adults;  built 
capacities in the health systems of Eastern countries; established benchmarking standards 
and analysed future trend in the status of urban health and in the costs associated to urban 
health services. The project delivered a harmonisation of urban health data methods for 
over 15 countries, offering a common system for data collection and validation. The system 
has  also  been  adapted  to  non-EU  countries  such  as  Vietnam,  China,  Kuwait  and  now  is 
being validated for Nepal. Methods and instruments have been designed to be replicable 
and can be applied to any city in Europe and beyond. 

PURGE  

Developed  evidence  on  the  health  impacts  of  greenhouse  gas  reduction  strategies  in 
transport, electricity generation, housing and food and agriculture in urban environments 
of  Europe  and  Asia.  Its  findings  extend  the  existing  evidence  on  the  health  impacts 
associated  with  GHG  reduction  strategies.  For  many  mitigation  strategies,  the  net 
consequences  for  health  are  positive,  and  so  add  to  the  rationale  for  an  accelerated 
transition to low carbon (low GHG) economies, by helping to off-set some of the perceived 
economic costs.  

The  project  also  provides  evidence  on  the  types  of  GHG  reduction  strategy  within  each 
sector  that  are  likely  to  have  the  greatest  health  dividend,  and  yields  more  detailed 
evidence on both the positive and negative consequences for health of such strategies, so 
that policies and regulation may be better tailored to ensure opportunities for promoting 
health  are  maximized  and  protective  steps  can  be  taken  to  avoid  unintended  adverse 
effects for health.  

URGENCHE 

Innovation  is  evident  in  respect  of  both  the  policy  contributions  to  the  regulatory  and 
legislative  frameworks  for  sustainable  development,  as  well  as  tool  development, 
adaptation  and  application  in  the  urban  planning  context.  The  project  developed  and 
applied a methodological framework for the assessment of the overall risks and benefits of 
alternative GHG emission rate reduction policies for health and well-being. The GIS based 
modelling  platform  and  related  database  for  urban  impact  assessment,  assessed  GHG 
policies with greatest cost benefit for health and well-being, with particular focus on energy 
demand  and  supply  as  well  as  transport.  URGENCHE  policy  themes  together  with  other 
urban planning inputs e.g. green space and water management, permit the generation of 
a cohesive set of strategies to maximise health and well being in a sustainable city. The 
project thereby makes substantial contribution to the development and implementation of 
local, regional and high-level policy objectives supporting the evolution of the governance 
model. 

10.5 Mobility 

CityMobil2  

The  demonstrations  in  La  Rochelle,  Vantaa  and  Trikala  can  be  considered  best  practice 
examples of the deployment of ARTS due to the high number of passengers that tried the 
service. A total of 62,199 rides were registered during the. Around 80% of the riders would 
have  liked  the  temporary  demonstrations  to  remain  open  and  more  than  70%  wanted 

65 

 
 
these  systems  to  be  extended  all  over  the  city.  The  project  contributed  to  policy 
advancements by developing a methodology for the certification of fully automated road 
transport systems that formed the basis of the legal framework proposal submitted to the 
European  Commission.  Such  proposal  can  be  catalyst  for  innovation  in  the  sector. 
Furthermore,  CityMobil2  predicted  positive  environmental,  urban  and  socio-economic 
impacts of ARTS and evaluated its implementation costs. Policy makers can be motivated 
by the information provided to work towards the dissemination of ARTS. The demonstration 
of ARTS in several cities also gave manufacturers the opportunity to thoroughly test their 
technologies  and  demonstrate 
last-mile 
technical 
transportation. It also increased awareness of citizens regarding these new transportation 
systems, which can promote the up-take of autonomous road vehicles by the market. 

feasibility  of  automated 

the 

CiViTAS MIMOSA  

Implemented a green tariff in Funchal (Portugal) for owners of electric/hybrid vehicles (i.e. 
50% discount in parking meters) was used over 800 times. The dissemination campaigns 
of  electric/hybrid  vehicles  resulted  in  a  purchase  increase  of  650%.  The  increase  of 
Accessibility of remote areas with mini-buses in Funchal  resulted  in a reduction of 1,2% 
of  average fuel consumption of the overall fleet, 14% of CO2, 12% of PM10 and 22%  - 
26,3% of NOx. The number of urban buses able to transport wheelchairs has risen by 20%. 
A new Online Ticketing System in Tallinn was well accepted by users, which is expected to 
increase the number of users of PT. Bus and tram drivers in Gdansk were taught to deal 
with vandalism and offenders, resulting in a 20% decrease of acts of vandalism and 25% 
increase in the perceived sense of security of PT users. The deployment in Bologna of four 
pilots of Mobimart, a reward mechanism tailored to the needs of the citizens of Bologna 
that  converts  desirable  travel  behavior  into  benefits  such  as  free  bus  tickets  or  a  free 
parking, were successful in terms of CO₂ savings and citizen participation. Utrecht’s City 
Distribution by electric Boat (Beer Boat), which supplied more than 60 catering businesses, 
resulted in a decrease of 13% of CO2, 6% of NOx and 10% of PM10.  

SOLUTIONS 

Developed a transferability methodology that fostered the adoption of innovative transport 
solutions by cities in Asia, Latin America and Mediterranean. The project outcomes provided 
guidelines that can be used for policy advancements regarding the exchange of knowledge 
and advices among city officials. Furthermore, the introduction of innovative technologies 
in these cities can motivate entrepreneurs and scientists to explore those innovations and 
further  adapt  them  to  the  particularities  of  their  countries.  As  a  direct  result  of  the 
transferability  methodology,  the  city  of  Belo  Horizonte,  in  Brazil,  has  implemented  an 
innovative SUMP, which includes comprehensive measures such as a NMT infrastructure – 
Zone 30 (30km/h zone) in cooperation with the twin city of Bremen in Germany; a Bus 
Rapid Transit (BRT) system and a cycling lane. A last-mile connectivity development in the 
Vytilla Mobility Hub (Kochi, India) that connects the metro corridor with a water transport 
network was created based on exchange and cooperation with the twin city of Hangzhou, 
in China. SOLUTIONS also contributed actively towards the New Urban Agenda, which was 
a part of the Habitat III policy process. The Action Platform: Urban Electric Mobility 
Initiative  (UEMI) was  initiated  by  UN-Habitat  and  was  launched  at  the  UN  Climate 
Summit in September 2014.   

10.6 Energy Transition Including Energy Efficient Buildings 

EFFESUS 

Focused on historic districts in Visby (Sweden) , Genoa (Italy) and Santiago de Compostela 
(Spain), developed the  following innovations. Efficient window improvement solutions of 
indoor  temperature  preservation:  Prototypes  with  “thermal  shade”  or  “adhesive  low 
emissivity  films”  or  with  “air  sandwich”  keep  the  temperature  on  0.77oC,  0.14oC  and 
1.68oC higher than reference window respectively. Spacefill Aerogel insulation for use in 
historic buildings with existing solid wall construction where lath and plaster finishes are 
present, result in a reduction of transfer of heat between indoor and outdoor (the lower 
Thermal Conductivity λ =0.0255 W/mK vs λref =0.0287 W/mK while keeping the Moisture 
Absorption below requirements means lower heat losses). New radiation selective coating 

66 

 
 
compatible with historic buildings result in a reduction of the transfer of heat in façades, 
with an indoor temperature reduction of 1.3oC to 2.7oC in comparison with a no-coating 
situation,  the  reversibility  and  transparency  of  the  product  were  not  achieved.  New 
hydraulic  lime-based  mortar  with  optimal  insulating  properties  for  use  as  plaster  and 
render application resulted in reduction of 5oC of indoor temperature during summer. The 
Decision Support System inputs developed by EFFESUS, were successfully applied in four 
buildings  in  Santiago  de  Compostela.  Performance  improvement  included  a  reduction  of 
energy demand of 45% up to 72% , in particular for historic buildings; reduction of CO2 
emission of 91% up to 95%  for Cultural Heritage protection, resulting in economic savings 
of 2.369.972,66€. 

ECODISTR-ICT  

Developed Decision Support Systems that were tested and applied in Stockholm (Sweden), 
Rotterdam (Netherlands), Valencia (Spain), Warsaw (Poland) and Antwerp (Netherlands). 
The city of Rotterdam set up an approach to link energy efficiency with different other local 
challenges,  enabling  the  uptake  of  energy  efficiency  measures  in  districts,  where  local 
residents are hardly able to invest. This approach is, among others, based on the workshop 
and testing approach of ECODISTR-ICT. The method has been called ‘social approach’ to 
underline the role of social innovation and related interventions. In the Hovsjö district in 
Stockholm,  the  tool  provided  comprehensible  reports  and  visualizations  to  assist  in 
understanding  the  effects  of  five  different  scenarios  for  the  different  buildings  in  the 
district, including changes to exhaust and supply air ventilation with heat exchangers. More 
insulation on the roofs, new windows and hot tap water saving devices result in an average 
reduction  of  energy  consumption  of  16%.  Energy  efficiency  package  focused  on  energy 
use per heated area resulting in a reduction of energy consumption of average 31 %. The 
ECODISTR-ICTconsortium published the developed foreground methods and tools of the 
DSS, as open source software in the public domain. As a result, not only other players will 
be able to use a free software tool, but they will also be able to further improve the DSS. 
The Kiel-West district in the City of Antwerp (BE) is a multi-cultural district with around 6 
000inhabitants or 2 500 housing units including about 80 % social housing. In collaboration 
with the social housing corporation, the City of Antwerp and local actors, a district retrofit 
strategy has been developed, aiming at cost-effective reduction of the energy demand up 
to  60  %,  while    introducing  renewable  energy  production  and  increasing  liveability  and 
comfort.  In  the  Hovsjö  district  in  Stockholm  case  study,  the  tool  provided  reports  and 
visualizations  to  assist  in  understanding  the  effects  of  five  different  scenarios  for  the 
different  buildings  in  the  district,  resulting  in  key  benefits  with  regard  to  energy 
consumption (i.e. New buildings on top of parking garages lead to a saving of around 7 % 
in  energy  consumption;  PV  cells  installed  on  roofs  lead  to  a  reduction  of  energy 
consumption of 11 % and electricity production of 13 kWh/m2; Ground source heat pumps 
in row houses lead to an energy saving of 10 %. 

FASUDIR  

Developed  Decision  Support  Systems  for  engineers,  architects  and  urban  planners.  The 
DSS  is  a  valuable  tool  to  inform  Municipalities  and  construction  companies  about  best 
retrofitting  strategies  to  improve  the  energetic  efficiency  of  urban  districts  and  the  real 
urban conditions of historic districts.  

These  systems  were  tested  and  demonstrated  in  Frankfurt  (Germany),  Santiago  de 
Compostela (Spain) and Budapest (Hungary). The scores for the FASUDIR indicators in the 
current state allowed identifying domains where the district of Heinrich Lübke Siedlung in 
Frankfurt was poorly performing. These aspects can be easily visualized on the FASUDIR 
tool thanks to the scoring system for district indicators and meaningful color code.  

FASUDIR demonstrated that to address successfully energy retroffiting complexity, many 
actors  and  resources  need  to  be  mobilized,  including  a  strong  coordination  between 
diffrenct stakeholers. In this context, FASUDIR’s platform was not configured as a “single 
user”,  but  as  an  interaction  mechanism  between  different  stakeholders  involved  in  a 
sustainable urban retrofitting project.  

CETIEB 

67 

 
 
Focused  on  the  IAQ  (Indoor  Assessment  Quality)  of  retrofitted  buildings  and  supported 
product developments such as the Infrared Thermal Comfort Monitoring System (Comfort 
Eye): The monitor system achieved a 15 % of energy savings. Moreover, the Air Biofilter 
active  control  systems  prototype  edivenced  energy  savings  of  up  to  60%  on  ventilation 
energy when the system is installed and operates at optimum efficiency. The Air Biofilter 
reduces  also  VOC  concentrations  by  up  to  50%.  The  Multi-Functional  Passive  Plaster 
System  Reduces  indoor  temperature  and  humidity  and  through  photo-catalytic  activity 
removes  indoor  air  pollutants.  In  a  further  development  it  was  able  to  reach  a  thermal 
conductivity  of  0.060  W/(mK),  which  is  lower  than  the  0.066  W/(mK)  of  conventional 
polystyrene containing plasters. Two years after CETIEB, the team at Schwenk developed 
further  the  Multi-Functional  Passive  Plaster  System.  The  involved  partner  company  was 
acquired by QuickMix in 2015.  

10.7 Social Cohesion, Well-being and Diversity  

ARTS 

Explored  the  complex  interactions  among  economic,  social,cultural,  political  and 
technological factors influencing and supporting change towards sustainable lifestyles and 
sustainable systems of consumption-production at the individual and societal level. ARTS 
managed to successfully  integrate natural and social sciences research, quantitative and 
qualitative  approaches,  bringing  together  interdisciplinary  teams  of  researchers  and 
developing methodologies and tools for 

monitoring and reporting the social, political, economic, technological and environmental 
impacts of urban transition pathways. ARTS used participatory methodologies/tools such 
as  the  Multi  Transition  Initiative  Model  Simulation  Game  that  was  designed  to  enable 
regional teams to create and simulate Tis networking configurations, varying in terms of 
initiative ecosystem (e.g. number and type of active initiatives), and contextual conditions 
(e.g.  limited  financial  support,  large  volunteer  base,  low  sustainability  awareness,  etc.). 
During  ARTS  implementation,  Acceleration  Roadmapping  Workshops  were  conceived  as 
the setting of a variety of participatory events, aimed to facilitate direct knowledge transfer 
between  research,  (local)  policy,  business  and  practice  in  the  five  transition  regions 
through a strategic engagement process and providing real life laboratories for developing 
science and policy-relevant knowledge. 

GLAMURS 

Produced  Carbon  Reduction  Scoreboard  and  Track-it  self-assessment  on  line  tools  to 
benchmark GHG emissions and Community Impact Scoreboard tools in two different fields: 
participatory  workshops,  scientific  and  desktop  assessment  models.  The  Backcasting 
Methodology for Visions and Pathways Workshops provided support for the organization of 
two series of workshops: the first one aimed to produce and discuss visions for transitions 
towards sustainable lifestyles and green economy; the second one aimed to outline specific 
transition pathways and agendas of actions. Agent-based Models of behavioural interaction 
analysed  the  combined  effects  of  workplace  flexitime  arrangements,  building  new 
infrastructures and urban concentration on both commuting time and GHG emissions. 

TESS 

Developped tools produced with a special focus on the carbon reduction potential, aiming 
to  integrate  evaluation  of  environmental,  political,  economical,  social  and  technological 
impacts, through a better understanding of both internal factors e.g. social dynamics, and 
external factors e.g. institutional settings and political support, which make initiatives work 
and  upscale.  The  Carbon  Reduction  Scoreboard  assesses  the  Greenhouse  Gas  (GHG) 
reduction potential achieved by Transition activities in different domains (Transport, Waste, 
Food,  Energy).TESS  produced  tools  successfully  integrated  theory  on  the  complex 
institutional,  social,  economic,  political,  technological  and 
relationships  between 
environmental  determinants  of  lifestyle  change;Quantified  relationships  and  developed 
models  of  lifestyle  change  that  consider  different  and  integrated  pathways  to  achieving 
urban 
then  becoming  regimes  and 
landscapes);tested  models  of  transition  to  sustainable  lifestyles  and  a  green  economy 

transition  (initially  developing 

in  niches, 

68 

 
 
through  a  combination  of  empirical  research  and  participatory  simulation  approaches, 
including micro- and macro-economic models and environmental assessment tools, as well 
as  interactions  between  them  and  case-study  research.  TESS  successfully  tested  and 
evaluated the feasibility and costs of different governance designs and policy mixes. 

DIVERCITIES 

Orchestrated the Diversity Festival conducted a comparative analysis of cities and how to 
deal  with  hyper-diversity.  The  project  initiated  a  successful  educational  program  for 
diversity  in  20  schools,  provided  a  road  map  for  European  cohesion  and  diversity 
management  in  cities,  conducted  collaborative  research  in  14  cities  and  published  the 
Handbook for Governing Hyper-Diverse Cities. The handbook proposed new and innovative 
policy instruments and governance arrangements that (a) recognise urban diversity as a 
positive  aspect;  (b)  increase  interaction  and  communication  between  the  diversity  of 
groups; and (c) increase participation meeting the needs of communities. 

CITISPYCE 

Mapped Socially Innovative Practices (SIPs) were identified across 10 cities and included 
in a menu of innovative practices as a basis for discussion by stakeholders engaging with 
more than 600 young people, and creating a platform for young people across Europe to 
get together online and put forward their views and ideas, so giving voice to young people 
suffering  from  marginality  and  inequality.  The  project  created  new  forms  of  networking 
and  mobility  for  young  people  living  in  deprived  neighbourhoods,  especially  the  Roma 
youth via an artistic project. CITISPYCE research showed that the global economic crisis of 
2008 has had a disproportionately adverse impact upon young people in urban areas. Not 
only did they experiencei excessively high rates of unemployment but threats to the social 
provision enjoyed by previous generations. When linked to other indicators of deprivation, 
it was clear that young people in the 16 to 24 age group are amongst the hardest hit and 
faced more social and economic inequalities than any other group in society. 

SEISMIC  

Initiated  a  multi-stakeholder,  mutual  learning  dialogue  that  promoted  the  setup  of  ten 
national forums in urban social innovation. The project served as a living, lively laboratory 
for  urban,  social  and  open  innovation  overcoming  existing  discourse  barriers,  bridging 
different national cultures, and demonstrating that involvement of grassroots organisations 
in innovation related debates can make a difference and generate innovative ideas, even 
in countries that lack a pro-innovation culture. It provided public authorities with cross-
border interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary insights into the urban innovation dynamics, 
and introduced the idea of Cities Living Labs approach. It also promoted urban diversity as 
an  inspiration  approach  towds  creative,  liveable  anf  harmonious  cities.  The  project 
highlights contributed significantly to the definition of JPI's (Joint Programming Initiative) 
Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA). 

10.8 Social Innovation and Citizen Science 

CITI-SENSE  

Developed  the  new  approach  of  “Citizens’  Observatories”  (COs),  a  collaborative  concept 
that  focused  on  the  empowerment  of  citizens  to  influence  their  community  policy  and 
decision-making, combined with new sensing technology, ICT Cloud platform with IoT, Big 
Data  and  App/Portal  services  and  participatory  methods  in  products  and  services. 
Developed and evaluated the mechanisms needed to implement the two-way interaction 
between policy makers and citizens that is fundamental to empower the citizen and allow 
him/her to influence environmental governance. The project involved multiple stakeholders 
including innovation firms which developed business models for a Personal Air Monitoring 
Toolkit,  and  tools  for  remote  sensing,  studied  the  motivations  and  barriers  to  citizen 
involvement  with  environmental  decision  making,  and  deployed  low-cost  micro-sensor 
devices and innovative data fusion and scientific analyses. In total the project identified 17 
exploitable knowledge items, presenting a clear and significant potential for  exploitation 
(both  in  terms  of  commercial  activities  as  well  as  further  research  ones).  It  thereby 

69 

 
 
contributed  to  European  air  pollution  and  air  quality  legislation  by  supplying  local 
authorities with comparability of measurements across Europe, and standardized methods 
and comprehensive quality control and quality assurance systems.  

CITYZEN  

Addressed the challenge of the increasing number of megacities with populations over 10 
million and determined the air pollution distribution in and around hotspots in megacities 
over  the  last  decade  from  extensive  satellite  and  in-situ  observations.  The  focus  of  the 
project was in the East Mediterranean around Istanbul, Athens and Cairo, as well as the 
Po Valley, the BeNeLux region, the Pearl River Delta in China (with megacities Guangzhou 
and Hong Kong). It established a new measurement network of air pollutants in Turkey. 
Furthermore, it downscaled the EMEP ( European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme 
under  the  Convention  on  Long-range  Transboundary  Air  Pollution  (CLRTAP)  to  solve 
transboundary air pollution problems) emission inventory to 0.1°x0.1° lon/lat resolution 
for the period 1998-2006, merged the European emission data into a global emission data 
set (the so-called 'RCP' scenario being used in the IPCC process) and developed mitigation 
scenarios based  on the new RCP scenarios, improved the modeling capability with scale 
interactions and 10-year trends, and wrote an assessment of megacities in collaboration 
with  other  colleagues  worldwide,  published  by  IGAC  (International  Global  Atmospheric 
Chemistry) and WMO (World Meteorological Organization). Parts of the work carried out in 
CityZen  have  been  used  by  the  North  Rhine  Westphalia  State  Agency  for  Nature, 
Environment  and  Consumer  Production  (LANUV-NRW)  for  the  planning  of  air  quality 
improvement  in  North-Rhine-Westphalia including  aspects  of  the  notification  process  for 
the  air  quality  directives  of  the  European  Commission  (2008/50/EC).  Results  from  the 
EURAD  model  have  been  delivered  to  LANUV  on  a  5  km  grid  basis  for  North  Rhine 
Westphalia and on a 25 km basis for Germany. These results have been distributed further 
by LANUV-NRW for decision making within urban administrations and on a national basis.  

WeSenseIt  

Applied the concept of citizen observatories and local governance for water management 
and monitoring in three case study cities, Doncaster (UK), Delft (NL), and Vicenza (IT). It 
developed  and  tested  also  technological  solutions  like  sensors  and  gauge  boards  with 
information notices on how to read and submit the sensor data with QR codes, low-cost 
sensible  heat  flux  sensors,  soil  moisture  measurement  systems,  and  river  discharge 
estimation with mobile phone, web portals connecting citizens and local authorities, citizen 
video  communication  and  crowd  activity  monitoring.  All  solutions  aimed  to  support 
monitoring and modelling with applications and sensors, and communication components 
that form the observatory.  These tools have been used in real world scenarios such as the 
support to the evacuation of 30,000 people from the city of Vicenza in Italy and the support 
to emergency control rooms during events involving over a million people. Doncaster (UK) 
WeSenseIt installed physical sensors on the river Don, providing an effective alert system, 
complemented by citizen observations via citizen apps. In all, five gauge boards have been 
installed in Doncaster, four weather stations, five radar bridge sensors, and a community 
portal was created.   

Delft (NL) WeSenseIt project became part of the Digital Delfl and policy providing citizen 
information to the digital hydrological cycle information system of  Delft. In order to test 
the technologies of the soil moisture sensors and Lizard Boxes developed by the project, 
thirty sensors and fifteen boxes were installed spread as homogenously as possible over 
the Delfland region. Moreover, the WeSenseIt activity and outputs produced around Citizen 
Observatories  have  been  accepted  by  the  Italian  Government  as  a  key  measure  for  the 
European  Flood  Directive  (2007/60)  and  Water  Framework  Directive  (2000/60)  in  the 
Italian Eastern Alps District. 

11  Overall Lessons learnt  

70 

 
 
 
Figure 26. © Thaut Images 

  Cities are on the front lines of change in our society and the place where the economic 
expansion, the new ideas, and the cultural advances happen, where we are making the 
necessary progress on climate change and where we show that inclusion and diversity 
are necessary ingredients for success, as cities are incubators of the future and actors 
of open innovation. 

  Truly smart cities are reflections of the people who live, work, and create within them. 
Our cities and public spaces are integral to the arts, innovation, culture, democracy and 
sustainability. 

  Cities are the places with the need and urgency to take actions as they are the places 
that are already home to 75% of the people on the planet, on track to reach 85 % by 
20501.  So  they  are  the  places  where  national  and  international  policies  on  climate 
change,  climate  adaptation,  air  quality,  disaster  risks,  health  and  well-being,  social 
inclusion, energy efficiency, urban mobility, urban poverty, migration, social cohesion, 
social innovation and other issues need to be implemented.  

 

Innovating  cities  should  happen  by  envisioning  the  future  of  our  cities  together  with 
citizens,  urbanists,  entrepreneurs,  designers,  architects,  engineers,  industries, 
storytellers, Local Authorities  who will bring more promise of building solutions that 
work for everyone and leave no one behind, create a dialogue about the opportunity 
and  potential  cities  hold  and  lead  to  Climate  Neutral  and  Smart  Cities  of  the  future, 
fostering  the  EU  Green  Deal  Initiative  of  the  European  Commission  President  Ursula 
Von der Leyen. 

  Cities are the major contributors to challenges related to climate change, air quality, 
waste, health, transport, the economy, social cohesion, immigration, natural disasters 
and natural resources consumption (energy, water, food security).  The complex nature 
of  urban  contexts  calls  for  innovative  and  sustainable  solutions  developed  through 
participatory,  people-centric  approaches  and  social  innovation  to  create  resilient, 
sustainable, safe , inclusive, healthy  and  prosperous cities.  

  Since the early 1990s, the multi-faceted nature of urban contexts has made visible the 
need  to  support  research  on  sustainable  urban  development.  Through  the  different 
themes  of  the  Seventh  Framework  Programme  for  Research  and  Technological 
Development (FP7), the EU contributed to this research with a total investment of about 
EUR 1.9 billion. The investment in FP6 and FP5 were EUR 0.4 billion and EUR 0.5 billion, 
respectively.  This  investment  has  continued  in  Horizon  2020,  the  EU’s  current  R&I 
programme  with  EUR  3.1  billion.  Europe  should  take  stock  on  over  30  years  of 
investment in transnational EU Research and  Innovation (R&I) on Sustainable Urban 
development.  

1 Source: United Nations (World Urbanisation Prospects) and Eurostat 

71 

 
 
 
                                                 
  The report illustrates the need for an integrated Research and Innovation Framework 
for  Sustainable  Urban  Development  to  better  co-ordinate,  streamline  and  focus  the 
existing  and  future  research  and  innovation  activities  and initiatives  on  urban  issues 
across the R&I arena on cities at EU and Global Level (e.g. across future Framework 
Programmes). 

  The report showcases EU-funded projects that are transforming our cities into European 
and  global  R&I  actors,  dealing  with  Climate  resilience  and  adaptation,  energy  
efficicency, urban mobility, health and well-being, circular economy and food,  social 
innovation  and inclusion.    It  takes  a  closer  look  at  facts  and  figures  in  the  reviewed 
projects  and  the  impact  created  to  participating  stakeholders,  cities  and  citizens,  as 
well as the contribution to city related policies and actions, to the implementation of 
the Urban Agenda for the EU and the Habitat III new Urban Agenda. 

 

 

It is in line with international targets and agreements such as Paris Agreement COP21, 
1.5 IPCC report, Sendai framework for the Reduction of Natural Disasters, SET Plan, 
Sustainable Development Agenda Goals 2030. 

It represents a pilot policy review exercise and assessment of facts, and impact of EU 
investments  related  to  Sustainable  Urban  Development  though  EU  FP7  funding  to 
urban/cities  related  projects.  In  this  respect,  the  need  for  multidisciplinarity  and 
creating bridges between different academic disciplines have been addressed by all the 
research projects reviewed. In some projects the links have been between the natural 
and the social sciences (e.g.URBES and GREEN SURGE), in others urban researchers 
worked  with  climate  modellers,  practitioners  and  health  specialists  (e.g.  RAMSES, 
PREPARED, EUROURHIS2, MEGAPOLI) and engineers worked with IT specialists (e.g. 
BURBA).  In  other  projects  (e.g.  WILCO)  focus  on  social  innovation  and  humanities’ 
scientists interacted. All of them connected scientific excellence and social impacts, and 
worked  with  urban  planners,  designers  and  citizens  (to  a  lesser  extent).  This 
demonstrated the need to reinforce the participation of key urban stakeholders, urban 
planners,  city  municipalities  and  citizens  in  the  projects  through  a  co-design,  co-
creation  and  co-implemetation  approach,  using  cities  as  test  beds  and  living  labs  of 
proposed tools and solutions. 

  The report  envisages adaptation as primarily people-centred, meaning that the well-
being of the urban population and the rights of vulnerable people have to be respected 
as critical elements of sustainable cities. Several projects have worked from detailed 
models  useful  for  city  planning,  to  large-scale  assessments,  since  problems  and 
decision making often takes place on large scales, for instance when dealing with risk 
assessment and the definition of general guidelines. 

  The report highlights that to achieve a sustainable Urban Development in the years to 
come, we need to unlock the capacity and potential in cities, by enabling action having 
citizens as key actors. New instruments of urban governance based on strong public-
private-people partnerships need to be explored and implemented, in order to facilitate 
the  interplay  between  science-policy-making,  market-driven  actions,  grassroots 
initiatives and upscale the deployment of systemic solutions combining nature-based-
innovations  with  technological,  digital,  cultural,  social,governance  and    financial 
innovations. 

  To make this possible we have to be creative and capitalise on the existing stock of EU 
funded R&I projects,  existing business cases, governance models that cities use and 
when developing new ones to aim to multi-stakeholder solutions that provide benefits 
and co-benefits.  

  There is also the need to recognize urban knowledge and social diversity as a capital. 
Acceleration  towards  Sustainable  Urban  Development  requires  engaging  with  all 
stakeholders and citizens and capitalising on existing and diverse knowledge in the city-
region.  

  Cities are to be considered as systems of systems and functional units and not only as 
administrative boundaries. For instance RAMSES project  analysed the impacts on the 

72 

 
 
cities due to several climatic and non-climatic drivers (e.g., heat to human health; heat 
to urban comfort; heat to work productivity; flood to traffic disruption or flood to built 
environment) and assessed the cost and benefits of different adaptation strategies. 

  Other projects dealing with air quality and health issues fostered the systemic approach 
by analysing how the impacts of air pollution created at local scale (1-100 km2) affect 
to  the  regional  scale  (1.000  km2)  and  to  the  global  (10.000km2)  scale.  Important 
conclusions were that  ecosystems strengthen the ability of cities to adapt to  climate 
change  and  accelerate  transition  to  healthier,  happier,  more  sustainable  and  low-
carbon societies.  

 

Indeed,  different  policy  makers  at  the  international,  national,  regional  and  city  level 
provide several examples of how ecosystems offer solutions to many challenges cities 
face by offering numerous services such as clean air, water filtration, flood prevention, 
noise  reduction,  recreation,  as  well  as  climate  change  mitigation  and  adaptation.For 
instance the network of cities from very different countries with different health status 
and different approaches to health provision systems created an important added value 
through sharing knowledge, establishing benchmarking, delivering innovative training 
and creating capacities in the less developed health systems of Eastern countries. 

  Most  of  the  analysed  projects  have  gone  from  research,  to  implementation  and  to 
policy.  They  have  delivered  indicators,  typologies,  frameworks,  handbooks  and 
guidelines that have been integrated in cities  planning and management, supporting 
the  operational  working  and  the  policymaking  in  green  infrastructures  planning,  air 
quality,  emission  reduction,  water  supply  and  sanitation  management,  waste 
management, health indicators, social innovations and climate change adaptation and 
resilience strategies. 

  Several  issues  addressed  by  these  projects  have  been  the  precursors  which  have 
promote  changes  in  the  policy  vision  (From  FP7  Research  Programme  to  H2020 
Research and Innovation Actions). Their outputs have been several years later included 
in  the  EU  research  and  innovation  policy  agenda  for  city/urban  related  issues.  For 
instance,  some  projects  (e.g.URBES  and  GREEN  SURGE)  positioned  the  concept  of 
Nature-based  solutions  and  its  role  in  addressing  climate  change  and  other 
environmental  challenges  faced  by  cities.  Other  projects  (e.g.WILCO)  delivered  solid 
evidences  about  social  innovations  by  identifying  novel  views  of  what  was  going  on 
cities and the steaming bottom-up initiatives emerging. MEGAPOLI also created a new 
concept: Integrated Urban Hydrometeorology, Climate and Environment Services that 
is now considered as an urban cross-cutting issue that integrates joint measuring of 
meteorology, climate and environmental services in cities and has been taking by the 
World Meteorological Organization to be applied en several cities in the world. EURO 
URHIS  2  backed  up  the  inclusion  of  the  health  issues  in  the  urban  agenda  to 
sustainability, shifting from an urban health agenda to all urban agendas considering 
health. 

  As it was acknowledged in the majority of reviewed projects, city planning is a complex 
issue involving management of the interconnected socio-economic and environmental 
characteristics of the city region in a spatial framework. This demands the creation and 
deployment of multi-stakeholder, cross-sectorial and multi-benefit solutions in a multi-
layered  framework  of  governance  for  securing  optimal  solutions.  Complex  and 
interconnected  facets  of  the  urban  ecosystem  demand  systemic  and  integrated 
assessment of spatial impacts in terms of socio-economic and environmental indicators 
in  order  to  secure  the  essential  “win-win”  policy  co-benefit  that  are  central  to  the 
delivery  of  the  transformation  agenda  adopted  by  city  politicians  globally.  Policies 
targeting 
the  socio-economic  and  environmental  dimensions  of  sustainable 
development  address  the  global  societal  challenges  driving  and  defining  the  urban 
transition. Integrated assessment is central and essential combined with behavioural 
change  and  social  innovation  to  accelerate  transition  to  a  sustainable  urban 
development and cities of the future. 

73 

 
 
  To this aim the required city planning and governance model is based on an integrated 
assessment  of  complex  urban  challenges  and  the  definition  of  integrated  “win-win” 
solutions  allied  with  a  participatory  engagement  with  all  stakeholders  in  the  co-
production  of  a  spatial  plan  that  defines  and  delivers  the  political  will  necessary  to 
implement the plan transition.  

  Clearly  the  challenge  of  securing  the  transformation  of  an  innovative  governance 
process  according  to  an  architecture  of  integrated  and  participatory  governance  is 
substantial.  Meeting  this,  requires  harnessing  the  collective  skills  of  city  planners 
promoting dialogue amongst all stakeholders, including citizens on the most effective 
solutions for Innovating Cities promoting an enhanced urban governance and planning.  

  As also evidenced in the reviewed projects under the social innovation chapter the effort 
is essential if we are to deliver the climate neutrality policy agenda, as well as all other 
political goals set by cities in meeting the challenges of urbanisation today. Solving the 
problems of urban living enabled by a new democratic, transparent and effective urban 
governance model, also creates a set of solutions that can be applied to the definition, 
development and delivery of sustainable and connected cities globally.  

  As it was acknowledged in the projects reviewed under the 'Climate Adaptation Chapter' 
and advocated by international city agreements, common global and regional drivers 
of  change  (climate  change,  economic  crisis  and  urbanisation)  are  defining  and 
generating a shared set of problems in cities throughout the world for which common 
solutions are evident, taking into account the necessary adaptation to local contexts.  

  As highlighted by the majority of reviewed projects the socio-economic architecture of 
the city-region defined in a territorial context determines the extent to which the cities 
of  Europe  positively  contribute  to  Europe's  global  commitments  to  mitigate  climate 
change  and  achieve  climate  neutrality  by  reducing  greenhouse  gas  emissions,  and 
deliver on a range of associated policy research and innovation objectives. The overall 
shape  and  structure  of  the  city-region,  the  extent  of  urban  sprawl,  the  density  of 
population  and  the  dominant  mode  of  transport  between  homes  and  work,  and 
recreational and cultural facilities substantially determine the level of greenhouse gas 
emissions, air quality, energy efficiency, and the health and well-being of both society 
and the economy. Furthermore, the form of the city-region and its physical connectivity 
and interaction with its hinterland substantially determines the wider impact of the city 
on the natural environment, and the conservation or loss of biodiversity. This spatial 
and multi-layered governance structure of the city-region generates a complexity which 
can  be  dealt  with  only  through  an  integrated  and  multi-dimensional  framework  for 
policy development and implementation.  

  According to the projects assessment, urban governance is further complicated by the 
number and the variety of actors, private and  public operating at different territorial 
levels  e.g.  Municipalities,  Urban-Rural  Region,  Metropolitan  area,  City-Region,  with 
various competences e.g. agencies, services providers and objectives. Besides public 
and semi-public sectors, the policy-making process involves heterogeneous actors from 
private  sector,  third  sector  and  citizens.  These  private  sector  including  firms  and 
companies operate at national e.g. infrastructure providers, regional, city and individual 
e.g. property development companies, levels of activity. Third sector agencies including 
NGOs,  civil  society  organisations,  non-profit-making  organisations  e.g.  interests 
groups,  ecological associations, neighbourhood committees, are also  engaged with a 
mix of both intensity and territorial focus. 

  As a consequence of the various challenges identified above governance, driving the 
socio-economic and environmental transformations necessary to deliver the sustainable 
development  objectives  adopted  by  the  cities  of  Europe,  is  confronted  with  the 
limitations of the policy instruments that are inadequate to deal with urban complexity. 
Furthermore,  current  governance  models  are  insufficiently  agile  to  cope  with  the 
entrepreneurial  environment  encountered,  and  to  respond  to  the  pace  of  change  in 
demography, societal expectations, and new technological paradigms.  

74 

 
 
  Transformational  and 

innovative  governance  seeked  solutions 

integrated, 
participatory  and  multi-level  urban  governance,  an  arrangement  for  making  binding 
decisions  that  engage  a  multiplicity  of  politically  independent  and  interdependent 
actors,  private  and  public,  at  different  levels  of  territorial  aggregation.  Coordination, 
cooperation, participation and integration are the key principles of the multi-level urban 
governance approach. Urban governance is particularly characterized by the need for 
cooperation between a large variety of actors of many domains e.g. utilities, housing, 
urban  planning,  health,  and  the  necessity  to  engage  stakeholders  e.g.  citizens, 
business, NGO’s in the decision-making process.  

in 

 

In addition to the integration model of governance outlined above, the involvement of 
civil  society  and  citizens  in  the  decision-making  process  proved  to  be  essential.  For 
policy-makers  and  decisions-makers,  dialogue  with  citizens  is  not  only  a  way  to 
understand society’s expectations, and to elicit a qualified demand for innovation, but 
also to identify barriers and opportunities for transformation, supporting the effective 
implementation of research and innovation policies related to cities and regions.  

  As evidenced by the reviewed projects, to achieve transition towards sustainable cities 
it  is  necessary  to  critically  examine  institutions  e.g.  global  markets,  the  scale  e.g. 
district, municipality, city, city-region, region, the values and norms, and daily practices 
e.g. commuting by car, as well as the characteristics of the place e.g. territorial capital. 
Change  needs  to  occur  at  many  levels,  at  small  and  large  scales,  and  among  many 
stakeholder groups.  

 

In the area of Climate Adaptation and Resilience, it was evidenced that the business-
as-usual scenarios to mitidate the risk of catastrophic effects, could result in substantial 
economic damages and loss of human lifes. For instance, a businee-as-usual scenario 
could  provoque  a  considerable  loss  of  agricultural  land  (e.g.  around  a  third  of  Addis 
Ababa’s  agricultural  land  and  a  fifth  of  its  other  vegetated  areas  between  2011  and 
2025) took adaptation measures to deal with the unavoidable climate impacts and their 
economic,  environmental  and  social  costs.  Climate  impacts  vary  significantly  from 
region to region, and can fluctuate within defined geographical areas. Adaptation and 
resilience management is therefore required both on a regional and local scale to move 
towards more resilient communities. Building resilience is about helping communities 
withstand and recover from disasters, with the focus on tackling the root causes rather 
than dealing with the consequences. Good planning and preparation can limit the scale 
of impacts, and risk management policies save lives and enable growth and sustainable 
development. 

  Reliable  weather  forecasts  of  the  impact  of  climate  change  and  the  risk  for  the 
vulnerable  urban  communitites  can  be  assessed,only  through  an  integrated  and 
systemic  approach  to  societal  challenges.  In  fact,  the  EU  funded  project  CLUVA 
suggested cost- effective adaptation measures (e.g. EU project CLUVA for African most 
vulnerablecities  (Saint-Louis  in  Senegal,  Ouagadougou  in  Burkina  Faso,  Douala  in 
Cameroun, Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia). CLUVA provided 
to  planners,  managers  and  researchers  concrete  solutions  by  developing  Climate 
Change  risk  adaptation  strategies;  risk  reduction  strategies  for  the  38  per  cent  of 
Africa’s  population  (280  millions);  desertification  maps  to  assess  the  sensitivity  to 
desertification  in  peri-urban  areas;  provided  an  estimate  of  the  impacts  of  Climate 
Change on African urban areas in the next 40 years and developed simple methods to 
be  applied  by  the  stakeholders  of  African  cities;  downscaled  the  Intergovernmental 
Panel  on  Climate  Change  (IPCC)  scenarios  to  local  urban  and  urban-rural  regions; 
provided regional projections up to 2050 of climate change at high resolution (8km); 
conducted  the  first  comprehensive  assessment  of  green  structures  based  on  Urban 
Morphology Type (UMT) characteristics in sub-Saharan African cities; tailored a suite 
of methods developed in Manchester to the African urban context. For instance, the EU 
funded  project  RAMSES  delivered  a  Transition  Handbook  and  Training  Package  to 
support cities to define transition pathways towards urban resilience and the necessary 
adaptation measures. 

75 

 
 
 

It was evidenced that to investigate the vulnerability of cities to Climate Change, an 
integrated,    holistic  and  multi-stakeholder  approach  to  main  impacts  should  be 
considered including heat stress and heat waves, pluvial and fluvial flooding, including 
flash flooding, sea level rise, drought and water stress, snow diminishing, air and water 
quality, and urban agriculture and biodiversity management. London, Anwerp, Bilbao, 
Rio De Janeiro, Bogota, Skopje  used the set of standardised and transferable guidelines 
from EU funded project RAMSES for cost-benefit assessment of different climate change 
impacts and  several adaptation measures, tools that are open access and available. 

  Under  the  Disaster  risk  management  chapter,  it  is  highlighted  that  Flood  impacts  in 
urban areas (potential deaths, damage to infrastructure and health problems and their 
consequent  effects  on  individuals  and  communities)  can  be  concretely  assessed  by 
envisaging different scenarios of relevant drivers: urban development, socio-economic 
trends  and  climate  changes.  New  insights  for  flood  management  strategies  globally 
were obtained by using differences in urban flooding problems in Asia and in Europe 
and  creating  synergies  between  potentially  affected  stakeholder  communities. 
European  and  International  institutions  need  to  learn  from  each  other  through  joint 
investigation,  development,  implementation  and  dissemination  of  strategies  that  will 
permit more scientifically sound management of the consequences of urban flooding in 
the future.  

  To this aim, the latest technologies obtained from the EU projects investigated under 
this review were cross-fertilised with traditional and emerging approaches to living with 
floods    and  novel  strategies  and  measures  were  applied  for  improved  flood 
management  in  cities  (Barcelona  in  Spain,  Beijing  in  China,  Dhaka  in  Bangladesh, 
Hamburg in Germany, Mumbai in India, Nice in France, and Taipei in Taiwan). The cost-
effectiveness  of  resilience  measures  and  flood  risk  management  strategies  was 
quantified and guidelines  for design of urban drainage systems and flood management 
in Europe and China adopted by local policy makers;developed flood hazard scenarios 
and  prevention  policies 
implementation  of  SUDS  (Sustainable  Drainage 
Systems);provided  evidenced  how  social  resilience  can  improve  flood  hazard 
management; brought together Asian and European stakeholders  (involving industry) 
and contributed to EU Floods Directive by developing urban flood modelling and flood 
hazard mapping; developed and implemented real-time warning systems in Barcelona 
and Dhaka; applied the multi-cell model to Beijing City (area more than 1000 km2),  
and  demonstrated  it’s  applicability  as  it  reproduced  the  observed  location  for  the  21 
July  2012  flood,  when  large  parts  of  Beijing  were  seriously  flooded  causing  57 
casualties. 

for 

  Under the Urban metabolism chapter and in particular for urban water management, it 
was highlighted that  in order to achieve a sustainable, low-carbon water future, without 
compromising  service  quality  and  sustainable  planning  and  management  of  urban 
water services, the water supply and distribution, water demand, wastewater and cyclic 
water  recovery  and  resource  recovery  have  to  be  addressed  all  together  and  in  an 
integrated way and this requires several levels of detail, from long-term to short-term, 
and from national/regional to local level, in an aligned way. It should take into account 
not only the economic, social and environmental aspects of sustainability, but also the 
governance of services, the quality of civil society’s information and knowledge, as well 
as the infrastructure assets. Understanding the metabolism of the urban water systems 
helps choosing the best options to pave the way towards more sustainable services for 
city water utilities, decentralised storm water/waste water management and recovery 
and use of treated wastewater.  

  EU  funded projects under  review (e.g.TRUST)  delivered for  free tools  and e-learning 
materials  -  online  available  to  city  Municipalities  (Amsterdam,  Hamburg,  Istanbul, 
Melbourne,  Quito  )  for  the  assessment  of  the  impact  of  interventions  on  the 
performance gains of the overall urban water cycle; assessment tools of Nature-based 
solutions and innovative technologies for optimised water treatment, water reclamation 
for non-potable-use, sustainable water demand and storm water management, energy-
saving  options  and  water-energy  interventions;  mobile  and  software  tools  for 

76 

 
 
infrastructure  asset  management,  helping  city  utilities  to  perform  targeted 
rehabilitation of infrastructures and to reduce leakage in water distribution systems. 

  EU Reseach contributed to the goals of the European Innovation Platform on Water (EIP 
Water Action Group) and to the Urban Water Atlas for Europe by sharing best practices,  
creating awareness among cities and networking synergies. EU Research on integrated 
waste management successfully delivered new concepts of waste service through the 
entire  chain  from  production  to  disposal,  based  on  handling  of  data  from  waste 
management.  For  instance,  the  EU  funded  project  BURBA  delivered  information  that 
contributed  to  city  sustainability  improving  the  efficiency  of  waste  management  and 
recycling activities, through a systemic and multi-stakeholder approach, with the direct 
involvemenbt of end-users for each sector to define their requirements for the adequate 
design of the  systems  and to deliver outputs  adapted to their needs. Actors  such as 
research  centres,  technology-provider  companies,  water  utilities,  and  waste 
management companies worked with urban planners to deliver an integrated analysis 
of the problems and risk management options, and to propose adapted solutions. The 
projects addressed problems faced by each of these sectors especially in scenarios of 
climate change where cities need to reduce their emissions, and also to be prepared 
for challenges, such as water shortage, heat stress, flooding, and waste recycling.The 
networks  of  end-users  and  cities  created  an  important  added  value  through  sharing 
knowledge, incorporating solutions already tested in other areas, and broadening the 
options of impact.  

 

In the area of Sustainable Land Use and Nature Based Solutions it was highlighted that 
in the EU, 'land take' consumes more than 1,000 km² of land every year in development 
for  housing,  industry,  roads  or  recreational  purposes.    About  half  of  this  surface  is 
'sealed',  for  other  unsustainable  land  use  patterns  irreversibly  eroded,  or  degraded 
through soil contamination or by reduction of organic matter. This 'land take' threatens 
security of food supply, health and more generally loss of natural capital and ecosystem 
services including clean air, water and soil, adaptation to climate change and mitigation 
of natural disaster risks. It has been recognised that nature-based solutions can help 
provide  viable  solutions  that  use  and  deploy  the  properties  of  natural  ecosystems. 
These  nature-based  solutions  provide  sustainable,  cost-effective,  multi-purpose  and 
flexible alternatives for various objectives.  

  Working with nature, rather than against it, can further pave the way towards a more 
resource  efficient,  competitive  and  greener  economy.  It  can  also  help  to  create  new 
jobs and economic growth, through the manufacture and delivery of new products and 
services,  which  enhance  the  natural  capital  rather  than  deplete  it.  The  reviewed 
projects analysed the systemic influences of green spaces as key and multifunctional 
assets for cities that need to be included in the urban planning due to the roles they 
play in citizens’ life (welfare, health, aesthetic), but also to face challenges like climate 
change, energy efficiency, food security, etc. For instance, Barcelona’s 161.423 trees 
not only reduce the local temperature and energy demand. They offer habitats for urban 
wildlife and store CO2 and play an important role in filtering harmful substances from 
the  air.  It  is  estimated  that,  they  offset  around  19,000  net  tonnes  of  CO2  from  the 
atmosphere,  and  eliminated  slightly  more  than  305  tonnes  of  air  pollutants.  Some 
projects  (e.g.GREEN  SURGE)  have  been  developed  and  implemented  through 
integrative,  iterative  and  transdisciplinary  processes,  building  bridges  between 
disciplines such as environmental modeling, urban planning and governance, economic 
valuation  and  sociocultural  studies  at  a  European-wide  scale.  Transdisciplinary 
outcomes have been fostered, providing sound relations between science, policy and 
practice.  

  Green and water areas evidenced a clear spatial pattern that overlapped with social but 
also  health-related  patterns  of  overweight  in  children.  Sub-districts  with  a  relatively 
large  proportion  of  natural  space  cover  also  show  low  percentages  of  children  being 
overweight  or  living  in  single  parent  households.  The  results  from  the  spatial 
distribution of sub-districts are, however, not conclusive as to whether natural space 
cover  or natural space  per capita is the most  appropriate variable to  use to indicate 
health and inequalities. 

77 

 
 
 

In  view  of  the  increasing  rate  of  land  take  for  new  buildings  and  infrastructures  all 
across  Europe,  soil  has  been  recognised  as  a  scarce  and  non-renewable  resource, 
stressing  the  need  for  more  efficient  land  use  and  innovation  in  land  management. 
Brownfield  regeneration  is  a  multi-dimensional  issue,  which  has  to  be  addressed 
referring to a variety of problems: scarce water resources, environmental and health 
risks, as well as economic and social costs for local communities. However, Brownfield 
regeneration  can  also  be  an  opportunity  to  make  a  step  beyond,  towards  urban 
resilience and energy transition.  

  Starting  from  these  considerations,  the  EU  funded  projects  HOMBRE  and  TIMBRE 
offered  a  broad  definition  of  nature-based  BF  regeneration  in  urban  planning, 
management and design processes; environmental, social and economic assessment; 
integrated  solutions  for  BFs  characterization  and  remediation,  towards  a  zero  BF 
perspective. For example, in the case  of  the EU funded project  HOMBRE, case study 
Municipalities took up the project overall approach and the use of the decision support 
system. In particular, the Municipality of Solec Kujawski adopted the Zero Brownfield 
approach  as  an  extension  to  policies  the  City  had  already  started  to  implement, 
encouraged by project experience to mobilise financial resources to assess remediation 
options  and  redevelopment  opportunities  for  the  BF  area.  The  Municipality  of  Terni 
added HOMBRE experiences into its approach to regeneration; stakeholders expressed 
interest in the Brownfield Navigator and its updating and customisation, as a means of 
communication  and  supporting  design  strategies  for  regeneration,  and  as  a  way  of 
keeping up to date with practice across Europe.  Municipalities of Utrecht and Rotterdam 
implemented  the concept of the land use cycle in the research of the subsurface. This 
integrated  scientific and technical perspective,  was achieved through a systemic and 
multi-stakeholder approach (where researchers, public authorities and SMEs providing 
industrial  products  and  technical  services  were  represented),  with  the  testing  and 
customisation  of  project  results  in  case  studies,  through  the  engagement  of  local 
stakeholder, in particular policy makers and developers. 

  On one hand, innovative technology combinations (Technology Trains) showed how to 
connect aquifer thermal energy storage with groundwater bioremediation, convert the 
contaminated soil and demolition waste into construction materials to be used on site, 
and reinforce unstable soils through the removal of contaminants from groundwater. 
On the other hand, a focus on Intermediate and Soft Re-use technology solutions shows 
how BF remediation can offer the opportunity to develop green open space networks in 
densely built urban areas, and to generate renewable energy through non-food biomass 
production.  

  According  to  HOMBRE  project  conclusions,  Europe’s  urban  BF  sites  are  valuable 
resources and Urban land use decision should be expected to deliver a clear “return of 
investment”.  Understanding  urban  systems  in  terms  of  their  environmental,  social, 
economic and governance performance is an essential part of sustainable urban land 
management. 

  The URBES, GREEN SURGE projects considered cities as social-ecological-technological 
systems  and  analysed  the  links  between  nature  and  urbanisation  in  urban  spaces  , 
where  the  different  dimensions  must  be  connected  and  careful  planning  of  all  is 
essential  to  address  sustainability.  The  projects  broadened  the  approach  of  urban 
planning by including the ecological dimension. Nature provides ecosystem services to 
sustain  life,  human  welfare,  health,  security,  and  social  relations,  but  also  assists  in 
addressing some of the most pressing societal challenges, such as climate change, air 
quality, water, food security, social inclusion and green economy.  

  All EU funded projects with same context as the above two projects positioned  urban 
biodiversity and ecosystem services as key assets supporting European cities to adapt 
to climate change, to provide urban ecosystem services that enhance human welfare 
and  to  reduce  cities’  ecological  footprints.  The  concept  of  biocultural  diversity  was 
adapted to urban areas, stressing the connections between nature and people in cities. 
Biocultural diversity represents a new way of thinking about biodiversity conservation 
by looking at culturally significant and valued biodiversity and by identifying cultural 

78 

 
 
expressions  of  nature  with  local  communities.  The  research  identified  indicators  and 
typologies  of  urban  green  infrastructures  that  provide  nature-based  solutions  and 
ecosystem services and contribute to human wellbeing and climate change resilience. 

  Solutions  were  incorporated  in  the  biodiversity  and  green  infrastructure  planning  of 
several major cities including Berlin, Barcelona, Rotterdam and New York. The projects 
analysed the systemic influences of green spaces as key and multi-functional assets for 
cities  to  be  incorporated  in  urban  planning  process  as  critical  elements  for  citizens 
welfare,  health,  and  aesthetic),  and  also  to  address  challenges  of  climate  change, 
energy efficiency, food security, etc.  

  The  projects’  results  emphasized  the  relevance  of  nature-based  solutions  (NBS)  and 
urban green infrastructures to address climate change impacts (local climate regulation 
and  cooling,  flood  prevention,  cost-effectiveness),  as  an  emerging  urban  planning 
paradigm,  as  well  as  a  relevant  market  opportunity.  For  instance,  investments  in 
nature-based  solutions  offer  a  valuable  return  for  cities  and  urban  areas:  A  10% 
increase in tree canopy cover may result in a 3-4°C decrease in ambient temperature 
and  save  large  amounts  of  energy  used  in  cooling  buildings.  In  addition,  there  are 
multiple other benefits as urban green spaces contribute to filtering dust, storing CO2, 
serving as windbreaks, etc.  

  Policy impact from these reviewed projects  is evident as results were not only used in 
the  biodiversity  and  infrastructures  planning  of  cities  like  Barcelona,  Berlin,  New 
York,Rotterdam,  Malmö,  Ljubljana,  but  at  the  global  level,  their  City  Biodiversity 
Outlook  contributed  to  the  UN  Habitat  III  New  Urban  Agenda  and  to  support  the 
inclusion of a goal for sustainable cities (SDG11) in the Sustainable Development Goals 
Agenda.  

  URBES  and  GREEN  SURGE  positioned  urban  green  spaces  and  infrastructures  at 
different  levels.  At  the  city  level,  urban  plans  are  backed  up  by  project  results, 
including:2020 Barcelona Green Infrastructure and Biodiversity Strategy;PlaNYC (New 
York  City’s  20-year  Economic  and  Environmental  Sustainability  Plan);Berlin  and 
Rotterdam  planning  of  green  infrastructure  planning;Malmö  integrated  green-grey 
infrastructure for stormwater management and the retrofitting of the housing area of 
Augustenborg, as part of Malmö Water Plan;Lisbon Action Plan for Biodiversity in 2015 
including a landscape mosaic fostering biodiversity. At the European level, the results 
fed the EU Green Infrastructure Strategy, the EU Urban Agenda, the EU 2030 Energy 
and Climate Package, the EU 2020 EU Biodiversity Strategy and the Thematic Strategy 
on the Urban Environment.  

 

In the Resource Efficiency and Circular Economy chapter it was highlighted that, today 
in the EU, each person consumes around 16 tonnes of materials annually, of which 6 
tonnes are wasted, with half going to landfill, and this even as raw material and mineral 
prices are rising. Measures such as better eco-design and reuse can bring EU wide net 
savings of up to 604 billion euros or 8% of their annual turnover to businesses.  

  Resource efficiency is essential if we aim to deliver greater value with less input, use 
resources in a sustainable way, and if we consider waste as a  resource to be fed back 
into the economy as a raw material. Resource  efficiency is one of the  core  elements 
necessary  to  create  a  green  economy  in  Europe  and  further  afield,  alongside  waste 
prevention and , and more sustainable production and consumption patterns. 

  Cities are essential actors of open innovation to provide the conditions to stimulate the 
circular  economy  and  increase  ressource-efficiency,  decoupling  growth  from  natural 
resources  consumption  and  degradation.    An  integrated  and  systemic  approach  to 
societal  challenges  is  needed  with  active  stakeholder  engagement  in  the  design, 
development and deployment of solutions to create evidence base for decision-making 
by cities towards  Innovative, resilient, safe, healthy and inclusive cities. 

  During  the  last  decades  scientific  evidence  has  shown  that,  in  the  affluent  world, 
patterns of consumption and production based on intensive resource use and increasing 
Greenhouse Gas Emissions are leading to rising resource scarcity, loss of biodiversity 

79 

 
 
and climate change, with numerous and disastrous effects. Materialistic lifestyles have 
failed to deliver wellbeing, as evidenced by indicators of physical and mental health, 
happiness and subjective perceptions of life satisfaction. 

  Furthermore, the recent economic crisis has led to a deep recession in many parts of 
Europe and highlighted the need for a profound transformation of our economic and 
governance institutions in a direction that is smart, sustainable and inclusive. Finding 
the  appropriate  pathways  to  sustainable  change  has  therefore  become  a  priority  for 
European citizens and policy-makers. 

  Resource efficiency and the circular economy was the broad focus of several FP7 funded 
projects  including  Foodmetres  and  Supurbfood  (working  on  sustainable  local  food 
chains), Pocacito (working on the transition of cities to post-carbon models), and Urban 
Nexus,  Bridge  and  SUME  (on  informed  decision  and  policy  making  with  a  focus  on 
resource-efficiency). 

  The  impact  of  European  Rural  Development  Policies  (RDP)  on  sustainability  was 
measured through policy tools in the Metropolitan Agro-food System of the city regions 
and on the Short Food Chains Typologies (urban garden, direct sale, AgroPark, etc.). 
The findings and tools help local administrators to adapt the RDP in order to respond 
to the needs of local stakeholders and (public bodies, farmers, consumers, associations, 
etc.).  The  tool  also  provides  relevant  information  for  European  politicians  about  the 
impact of RDP on Local Short Food Chains in urban and metropolitan contexts.  

 

 

In  terms  of  short  food  chains,  the  research  demonstrated  that  the  new  Rural 
Development Programme (RDP) of the Common Agricultural Policy should include new 
areas  like  metropolitan  regions  and  new  groups,  not  only  farmers.  The  RDP  should 
consider  and  support  new  food  chain  models,  particularly  short  food  chains,  which 
benefit from a great interest in civil society.  

It was also highlighted (e.g. EU project POCACITO) that sustainable transition towards 
liveable,  affordable  and  prospering  cities  was  achieved  through  participatory 
approaches that engaged local stakeholders through workshops in ten European cities 
(Barcelona,  Copenhagen,  Istanbul,  Lisbon,  Litoměřice,  Milan,  Turin,  Rostock,  Malmö 
and Zagreb) to create custom-made transition post-carbon strategies.These strategies 
were then taken as the basis for an evidence-based EU 2050 Roadmap, a stakeholder-
driven guide towards the model “Post-Carbon City of Tomorrow” that merges climate, 
energy and social urban transitions.  

  Economic indicators focused on sustainable economic growth based on the wealth of 
the cities and their inhabitants. In this sense, factors taken into account included labour 
market, life of the companies, public finances as well as the research and development 
expenditure as no city can become a post-carbon city without innovation. Finally, the 
social  dimension  covered  standards  of  living  related  to  education  and  health  (for 
example,  life  expectancy  and  wellbeing),  unemployment  rates  and  poverty,  public 
services and infrastructures, governance and civic society, culture and community.  

  EU Research findings outlined not only visions for post-carbon cities, but also created 
new  insights  concerning  barriers,  challenges  and  delivered  key  recommendations 
directed  at  national  and  European  Union  (EU)  policymakers,  as  well  as  city-level 
decision  makers.  A  multi-stakeholder  approach  is  promote  s  and  advocates  its 
widespread use, not only to develop strategies, but to connect citizens with the future 
and place them clearly on the path to decarbonisation, changing them from takers of 
policy into shapers of the urban decision-making process.  

  Post-carbon visions were evaluated by Pocacito and in particular the long-term impact 
of  the  post-carbon  vision  (PC  2050  scenario)  and  of  the  strategies  being  already 
semi-
implemented  at 
quantitative/qualitative  indicator  approach  showed  that  nearly  all  cities  will  improve 
under  Business  As  Usual  scenarios  for  most  indicators,  but  the  performance  is 
significantly  improved  under  Post  Carbon  Cities  2050  scenarios.  The  analysis  of  the 
production based Greenhouse Gas emissions shows that most cities approach carbon 

(Business  as  Usual 

scenario).  A 

levels 

local 

80 

 
 
neutrality under PC2050 but will not fully achieve it, with only 3 cities being below 1 
tCO2eq/capita/year.  

  A  benefit-cost  analysis  compared  the  reduced  cost  burden  due  to  premature  deaths 
from air pollution with investment costs for renewable energy and energy efficiency. It 
shows  that  under  PC2050  the  cost-benefits  of  reduced  air  pollution  more  than 
compensate for the investment costs. Investment costs are typically less than 1% of 
cumulative Gross Domestic Product from 2018 to 2050. According to Pocacito, public 
policies need to address not only immediate and concerted action on energy efficiency 
and localised renewable energy but the value of green space and the disparity between 
rich  and  poor  if  future  cities  are  to  be  liveable,  healthy  and  carbon  neutral  places. 
Although no direct policy implication in the cities was achieved, the project contributed 
to raising the attention and provided with the local roadmaps an input for future policy 
debates. 

  Other  useful  conclusions  with  regard  to  urban  planning  and  development,  based  on 
SUME project, highlighted that  the spatial expansion of fastest growing agglomerations 
like Munich, Stockholm and Vienna can be greatly reduced by 2050 to 13%, 20% and 
14%  respectively.  Similarly  the  energy  demand  can  be  reduced  by  60%  to  80%, 
varying between cities and scenarios. In general, a SUME-scenario-type agglomeration 
development will reduce energy consumption between 10% and 40% by the year 2050 
compared to the BASE scenario. A higher replacement or renovation rate of buildings 
and  a  better  spatial  focus  of  new  developments  with  respect  to  public  transport 
accessibility will reduce energy consumption by 30 to 40%. The main conclusion of the 
SUME was that the greatest potentials for saving energy – and the most relevant for 
policymakers  –  can  be  identified  as  the  replacement  of  old  building  stock  and  the 
avoidance of urban expansion. 

 

In  the  Air  Quality  and  Health  chapter,  it  was  evidenced  that  globally  our  climate  is 
changing  due  to  anthropogenic  activity;  urban  areas  are  at  a  particularly  high  risk. 
However  urban  areas  are  also  responsible  for  producing  more  than  70  %  of  the 
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions which are changing the climate. Furthermore, urban 
road traffic alone contributes about 10% of all European carbon dioxide emissions, and 
at  the  same  time  is  responsible  for  poor  air  equality  in  many  European  cities.  As  a 
consequence when developing and implementing new sustainable development policies 
for our cities, it is vital to consider the effects on emissions of both greenhouse gases 
(GHG) and air pollutants. In many cases, implementing one policy strategy may reduce 
GHG emissions but instead increase emissions of air pollutants, bringing with them ill-
effects on health and wellbeing. 

  Research delivered integrated methodologies to assess the impacts of pollution within, 
and  from  megacities  to  global  scales;  assessed  the  feedbacks  and  interlinkages 
between  air  quality  and  climate  change  in  megacities  at  urban,  regional  and  global 
scales;  delivered  outputs  that  link  city  emissions  and  pollution  with  health,  e.g. 
calculating  the impact  of  pollution  on  DALY  (disability  adjusted life  years);  produced 
information  on  long-range  transport  and  regional  pollution,  baseline  scenarios  and 
measures for improving air quality and climate change impacts in megacities. 

  The  reviewed  projects  (e.g.    MEGAPOLI)  investigated  the  interactions  among 
megacities emissions, air quality and climate, bridging spatial and temporal scales that 
connect local emissions, air quality and weather with global atmospheric chemistry and 
climate, to provide information on the effects on regional and global climate. Specific 
challenges of health issues in urban areas, such as internationalisation of metropolitan 
regions, ageing populations, migration and poor environmental factors were addressed 
(e.g.  EURO-URHIS  2  addressing  urban  health  analysis  and    PURGE  examining    the 
health impacts of greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction policies in urban settings in Europe, 
China and India).  

 

 EU megacities or conurbations (e.g. London, Paris, the Rhine-Ruhr region and the Po 
Valley) were researched in-depth, but also including Moscow and Istanbul as European 
megacities. Finally, extended simulations and satellite analysis for all the megacities in 

81 

 
 
the world have been developed. The EU researchers worked with end-users (air quality 
monitoring facilities) and research centres from all these cities.  

  Different results of MEGAPOLI have been incorporated in the air quality monitoring and 
emission  reduction  strategies  of  megacities  in  China,  Mexico,  several  African  cities 
(e.g., Accra, Cairo). At the European level, they influenced the EC Air Quality Policy (Air 
Quality Directive (2008/50/EC) and the National Emission Ceilings (NEC). The results 
have also been used for urban planning by the World Meteorological Organization, the 
World  Bank  and  the  OECD.MEGAPOLI  collaborated  with  the  World  Meteorological 
Organization  and  with  end-users  such  as  air  quality  monitoring  facilities  in  various 
countries e.g. France, UK, Italy, Germany, Mexico, India, etc., environmental agencies 
and regional meteorological centres in China, Russia, USA, etc and attracted research 
centres and end-users from all over the world.  

 

In  the  “Energy  Transition  Including  Energy  Efficient  Buildings”  chapter,  the  Building 
Automation Systems and Building Energy Management Systems, were discussed and 
highlighted  the  benefits  from  using  already  available  concepts  to  improve  indoor 
climate and energy efficiency combined with the innovative windows. 

  The concept of a retrofit Investment Calculator (developed under the EFFESUS project) 
within  a  Sustainable  Community  Business  Model  for  Santiago  de  Compostela 
demonstrated that sufficient resources generate renewable energy for the whole city 
and provide 100% renewable energy to the historic centre to achieve a carbon neutral 
sustainable future. A retained surplus of 12.09 million€ in 10 years is enough to repay 
loans (13M €) and investors, or to continue investing in more projects to achieve 100% 
renewable energy production more quickly. 

  A district retrofitting approach to energy retrofitting is frequently the most sustainable 
and  cost-effective  strategy.  However,  the  complexity  of  decision-making  grows 
exponentially  when  the  scale  of  the  intervention  increases.  In  order  to  reduce  the 
complexity of district interventions, EFFESUS, ECODISTR-ICT and FASUDIR developed 
decision support tools to be applied at district level, with EFFESUS particularly focused 
in  the  inefficient-use  of  energy  in  historic  districts  (buildings  pre-1945).  CETIEB’s 
challenge was to assure an adequate indoor environment quality in retrofitted energy 
efficient buildings at an affordable cost.   

  The positive impact in urban design and renovation of historic cities was demonstrated 
by  EFFESUS  athrough  the  development  of  a  Decision  Support  System  (DSS) 
implemented in Santiago de Compostela (Spain), Visby (Sweden) and Genoa (Italy). 
The DSS provided evidence for decision making by the cities based on both its direct 
cultural  heritage,  energy  consumptions  and 
positive 
environmental)  and  the  interest  of  the  municipality  and  citizens.  EFFESUS 
methofologies  were  tested  and  successfully  applied  in  four  buildings  in  Old  Town 
Santiago de Compostela: Rua Nova 22, Rua Nova 46, Toural 3, Caldeireira 34. 

(economic, 

impacts 

  EFFESUS DSS and proposed solutions achieved a reduction of energy demand of 45% 
up to 72% for heritage protection degree 3-4; reduction of CO2 emission of 91% up to 
95% for heritage protection degrees 3-4; savings of 2.369.972,66€. 

  Finally,  the  retrofit  Investment  Calculator  which    developed  within  a  Sustainable 
Community Business Model for the citizens of Santiago de Compostela demonstrated 
that there are sufficient resources to generate renewable energy for the whole city and 
provide  100%  renewable  energy  to  the  historic  centre  to  achieve  a  carbon  neutral 
sustainable future. A retained surplus of 12.09 million€ in 10 years is enough to repay 
loans (13M €) and investors, or to continue investing in more projects to achieve 100% 
renewable energy production for Santiago more quickly. 

 

In the Urban Mobility chapter, it was highlighted that: 

  Sustainable Urban mobility R&I can succesfully address the societal challenges of air 
pollution  and  quality  of  life  by  stimulating  healthier  lifestyles  (promotion  of  cycling, 
jogging  and  walking),  improving  the  environmental  conditions  (promotion  of  cleaner 

82 

 
 
and more efficient alternatives of transportation), reducing congestion (reduction of the 
number  of  private  vehicles),  improving  transportation  security  (improvement  of 
infrastructures  and  introduction  of  new  technologies),  and  increasing  social inclusion 
(extension of Public Transport services to remote areas and improving first-mile/last-
mile connectivity). In particular air Quality policy scenarios in relation to urban mobility 
(e.g.  coming  from  URGENCHE)  showed  marginal  additional  health  benefits,  with  an 
example of a potential 1.5 million euros saved from total costs of 33 million per year 
caused by PM2.5 exposure in one EU city contemplating moves to biomass in combined 
heat and power, bio-fuels in transport and improvements to buildings insulation. Well-
being  effects  of  the  policy  scenarios  were  found  to  be  positive  but  were  generally 
expressed less strongly than health benefits. In China, the impact of all scenarios on 
air  quality  was  found  to  be  negligible  compared  to  that  of  ongoing  economic 
development.  However,  as  an  example  of  other  work  carried  out  there,  a  Chinese 
survey on well-being indicated the importance given by local people to health, social 
life  and  safety,  with  implications  noted  for  policy  development  for  healthcare  and 
communities.  

  The mobility policy implications of the case studies in the European and Chinese cities 
on  air  quality  and  noise  showed  that  more  stringent  CO2  emission  standards  (zero-
emission) for road traffic is the most effective measure to reduce CO2 emissions from 
urban  road  traffic.  This  requires  action  at  the  level  of  the  European  Union  and  the 
central Chinese Government, and is beyond the control of local authorities. 

  Support, facilitation and stimulation of physical (cycling, walking) and public transport 
provide  the  most  effective  local  policies  to  reduce  CO2  emissions  and  improve  air 
quality, health and well-being. These measures and local transport policies are within 
the control of local authorities. 

 

In the Social Cohesion, Well-being and Diversity Chapter, it was highlighted that social 
innovations are not only innovations in social services, but also changes in rules and 
regulations (e.g. concerning the access to financial benefits) and in governance (forms 
of democracy and decision making on priorities in welfare and cohesion politics). 

  Social innovation in  cities  is  not  a  disconnected  phenomenon,  but  an  element  in  the 
traditional  European  welfare  system  that  is  differently  expressed  according  to  the 
particular  socio-economic  models  and  the  specific  national  and  local  cultures.  Most 
social innovations do not fit a pattern of growth and upscaling nor are easily translated 
to other contexts. They emerge in specific contexts, to address existing needs and do 
not aim to wider diffusion or upscaling. 

  Social Innovation and Citizen Science are both an enabler of open innovation and can 
involve  citizens  ‘doing  science’,  for  example,  through  crowdsourcing,  as  well  as 
involving the public engaging in policy-making through, for  example, agenda-setting 
for research systems. These are typified by ‘gathering data’, ‘analysing data’ and ‘co-
production  of  knowledge’.  Citizen  science  also  involves  greater  understanding  of 
science by the public madeood to  possible through greater access to information about 
the research process such as the ability to use open research data or download open 
access  journal  articles.  Citizen  science  may  also  refer  to  the  ability  of  the  public  to 
understand science and engage with scientists, through more ‘open’ communication in 
the form of blogs and social media. Overall this framework highlights the importance 
of  contributions  from  people  who  might  not  be  considered  scientific  experts,  but  do 
have  specialist  knowledge  of  particular  habitats  and  skills,  particularly  in  relation  to 
local environments, addressing societal challenges. 

 

In the Social Innovation and Citizens Science chapter, the development of sensor-based 
Citizens' Observatory Communities was acknowledged for improving quality of life in 
cities, notably focusing on air and noise pollution. It also supported the empowerment 
of citizens and multiple stakeholderes (e.g. from Academia, Public and Private Sector, 
NGOs, Civil Society) to influence their community policy and decision-making. Several 
business models and barriers to  citizens’ involvement were developed and analysed, 
such  as  the  Personal  Air  Monitoring  Toolkit,  tools  for  remote  sensing,  and  mobile 

83 

 
 
apps.Thanks to EU funded projects, Local Authorities were supplied with comparability 
of  measurements  across  Europe,  standardized  methods  and  comprehensive  quality 
control and assurance systems. 

84 

 
 
 
 
 
Images: Page 3: Figure 1. ©K.-U. Häßler #90974355, 2020. Source stock.adobe.com, Page 4: Figure 2. ©pict rider 
#176208784, 2020, Source stock.adobe.com, Page 4: Figure 3. ©Backwoodsdesign #310710685, 2020, Source 
stock.adobe.com, Page 6: Figure 4. ©antto #109098259, 2020, Source stock.adobe.com, Page 8: Figure 5. ©lindacaldwell 
#311733304, 2020, Source stock.adobe.com, Page 9: Figure 6. ©Jbyard #280958135, 2020, Source stock.adobe.com, Page 
11 Figure 7. ©Auguste Lange #100018107, 2020, Source stock.adobe.com, Page 13: Figure 8. ©aerial-drone #157499912, 
2020, Source stock.adobe.com, Page 14: Figure 9. ©Brian Kinney #191441020, 2020, Source stock.adobe.com, Page 15: 
Figure 10. ©SceneNature #168189464, 2020, Source stock.adobe.com, Page 17: Figure 11. ©Ekaterina Belova #134250626, 
2020, Source stock.adobe.com, Page 18: Figure 12. ©Jenny Sturm #284824687, 2020, Source stock.adobe.com, Page 20: 
Figure 13. ©Renáta Sedmáková #176267542, 2020, Source stock.adobe.com, Page 22: Figure 14. ©Sergey Nivens 
#141238003, 2020, Source stock.adobe.com, Page 24: Figure 15. ©dudlajzov #142534418, 2020, Source stock.adobe.com, 
Page 27 : Figure 16. ©stbaus7 #134778878, 2020, Source stock.adobe.com, Page 29 Figure 17. ©scusi #58527834, 2020, 
Source stock.adobe.com, Page 31: Figure 18. ©Laiotz #50823189, 2020 Source stock.adobe.com, Page 34: Figure 19. 
©kinwun #257463051, 2020, Source stock.adobe.com, Page 37 : Figure 20. ©lcrribeiro33@gmail #226062395, 2020, Source 
stock.adobe.com, Page 39: Figure 21. ©Studio Harmony #186783613, 2020, Source stock.adobe.com, Page 46 : Figure 22. 
©rudi1976 #116337570, 2020, Source stock.adobe.com, Page 49: Figure 23. ©Igor #285470338, 2020, Source 
stock.adobe.com, Page 53: Figure 24. ©Frank Gärtner #110801033, 2020, Source stock.adobe.com, Page 56: Figure 25. 
©william87 #103113374, 2020, Source stock.adobe.com, Page 74 Figure 26. ©Thaut Images #4002158, 2020, Source 
stock.adobe.com.  

85 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Getting in touch with the EU 

IN PERSON 
All over the European Union there are hundreds of Europe Direct information centres. 
You can find the address of the centre nearest you at: https://europa.eu/european-union/contact_en 

ON THE PHONE OR BY EMAIL 
Europe Direct is a service that answers your questions about the European Union. 
You can contact this service: 
– by freephone: 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 (certain operators may charge for these calls), 
– at the following standard number: +32 22999696, or 
– by email via: https://europa.eu/european-union/contact_en 

Finding information about the EU 

ONLINE 
Information about the European Union in all the official languages of the EU is available on the Europa 
website at: https://europa.eu/european-union/index_en 

EU PUBLICATIONS 
You can download or order free and priced EU publications from:  
https://op.europa.eu/en/publications. Multiple copies of free publications may be obtained by 
contacting Europe Direct or your local information centre (see https://europa.eu/european-
union/contact_en) 

EU LAW AND RELATED DOCUMENTS 
For access to legal information from the EU, including all EU law since 1952 in all the official language 
versions, go to EUR-Lex at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu 

OPEN DATA FROM THE EU 
The EU Open Data Portal (http://data.europa.eu/euodp/en) provides access to datasets from the EU. 
Data can be downloaded and reused for free, for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. 

86 

 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
Today, more than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas and 
this is expected to rise to just over 80 % by 2050 (Source: United Nations 
(World Urbanisation Prospects) and Eurostat). In addition to demographic 
growth, cities and metropolitan regions are centres of economic activities 
and increased resource consumption. Cities are the home of complex, 
inter-linked challenges related to climate change, pollution, energy 
efficiency, urban mobility, water, waste, food and resource efficiency, 
health and well-being and social innovation. Cities are key actors for 
meeting the targets set out by international frameworks. 

For 30 years, Europe has been investing in transnational EU research and 
innovation on urban-systems-related issues, with providing financing from 
the Framework Programmes FP5, FP6 and FP7 of €2.8 billion and even in 
Horizon 2020: €3.1 billion. Horizon Europe plans to continue similarly to 
invest in these issues. For this, we need to take stock of where we are and 
what are the options we have for the future.  

This report capitalizes on 30 years of successful EU-funded research on 
sustainable urban development.  It relies on the analysis of a critical mass 
of inspiring knowledge, ideas and best practices coming from 41 projects 
funded under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) across the 
different thematic priorities. It showcases and provides an EU-wide 
evidence base of the outstanding contributions of EU funded research and 
innovation in meeting urban societal challenges, notably those supported 
by the FP7 Research Framework Programme which deploy a citizen-
centric, systemic and integrated analysis of the urban ecosystem. The 
report highlights the need for integrated policy research solutions to the 
societal challenges that generate policy benefits and co-benefits 
simultaneously delivering socio-economic and environmental political 
objectives for regional, local city authorities, civil society, political 
representatives, the private sector and industry. 

The report spreads expertise across Europe and paves the way to future 
European cities being climate-proof, resource-efficient, smart as well as 
more resilient, healthy, inclusive, prosperous, safe and sustainable and 
contributes to the European Green Deal to make Europe the first climate-
neutral continent. 

Research and Innovation policy