When it comes to mitigating climate change and its effects, cities play a crucial role as they are responsible for 78% of the world’s energy consumption and 60% of the greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, the following article “Holistic fuzzy logic methodology to assess positive energy district (PathPED)”, written by ATELIER partners from the University of Deusto, further examines a holistic approach to define urban transition scenarios and to provide an assessment of climate change commitments of urban districts. The article was published by Sustainable Cities and Society in 2023.
Climate change is a global emergency and cities need to be reinvented in view of minimising their footprint profiling. Under this scenario urban planners, engineers and all the professionals involved in the decision-making process need new tools able to provide holistic and flexible urban perspective. The PathPED methodology provides a holistic approach that, on the one hand, uses agent based fuzzy logic methodology to define urban transition scenarios, and on the other hand, provides an assessment of urban districts in terms of the commitments adopted under Paris agreement, that is: increase of renewable, energy efficiency and carbon neutrality. The transition scenarios are defined by five smart agents (buildings, vehicles, lighting, photovoltaics and geothermal) which develop Positive Energy District (PED) scenarios for 2020, 2030 and 2050. A transient simulation is used to assess the performance of the PED in terms of yearly and monthly energy balances, ESS performance and carbon footprint. Results show that a decisive inclusion of renewable energy sources (100%), complete transition to electromobility, and substantial improvements in the energy efficiency of buildings are required to comply with the highly ambitious European commitments under Paris agreement.