Planning city refurbishment: An exploratory study at district scale how to move towards positive energy districts – approach of the SINFONIA project

This paper presents an exploratory study on planning city refurbishment for the energy transition of Smart Cities. This study was carried out at the district scale in a European pilot city. The applied district template approach is inherited from the EU funded project SINFONIA. We describe this approach which was first explored in the city of Bolzano, based on the analysis of spatialized datasets. The different districts types are first identified and their energy consumption is simulated with a specific tool developed within SINFONIA. In addition to providing key information on the different district types (e.g. energy consumption), the simulations allow to identify the districts with the highest potential for energy refurbishment. The corresponding potential gains, in terms of heat demand, are then simulated in order to confirm how the city refurbishment plans should prioritize the different districts. This is a first step to support, in a quantitative way, the complex exercise of planning urban refurbishment. Our explanatory study confirms the interest of the district template approach. Routes to improve the approach and replicate it to other European cities to demonstrate its relevance are finally presented.