Web-based tool for prioritization of areas for energy efficiency interventions in historic districts

Decision making processes are about managing and exploiting the right information in the proper way. The decision making regarding improvements of the energy performance of historic urban districts (HUD) has to take into account information that is spatial, multiscalar and crossthematic. 3D Urban models can be used to support the decision making if the complex urban reality is abstracted into a manageable, accurate, coherent, comprehensible, predictive, and low cost model. However, the generation and management of this kind of urban models are time demanding and resource intensive. Moreover, if the proposed modelling strategy has to integrate energy planning and cultural conservation approaches, it is necessary to use a progressive and flexible information management strategy regarding the modelling that allows starting with a very low level of detail. One of these strategies is to identify the most vulnerable areas, and based on that, the priority areas within the district; allowing to focus the decision making in these areas. The REACT Project (“Resilience, Accessibility and Sustainability for Historic Cities”, partially funded within the INNPACTO programme) has developed a web based application backed by a multiscale model to support the identification of priority areas in a HUD for energy efficiency interventions. The application is based on a methodology that provides a vulnerability map using basic data, which has been obtained in an automatic or semi-automatic way. Those data regarding the vulnerability are weighted with the information regarding the density of those buildings obtaining an opportunity map or a priority map. This map highlights the priority areas, that is, the most vulnerable building blocks with the highest impact due to their density. In this way, and based on a low level of information, blocks or groups of buildings can be prioritized for energy interventions according to their conservation state, their energy performance and the concerns of the citizens.