SolutionBundles - City Panel versión BETA

NetZeroCities Solution Bundles

(Beta version)

Authors: Net Zero Cities Consortium, "Solution Bundles", 2023. Design: Andrea Gabaldón, Rosalía Simón, Ana Belén Gómez and Carolina Pastor This project has received funding from the innovation programe under grant agreement nº101036519

NetZeroCities Solution Bundles

To address complex urban problems, cities require a multi-lever approach that goes beyond any single solution. This means that several solutions across levers (bundling policies, social innovations, financing instruments, etc.) can more effectively tackle complex issues that require a range of (technical) interventions. Bundles of solutions can reinforce interconnections and underpin synergies, creating a more comprehensive and effective approach. Finally, bundles of solutions can lead to greater stakeholder engagement and participation in problem-solving, as by involving different actors in the process, more inclusive and effective solutions can be addressed.

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NetZeroCities Solution Bundles

Hereafter you can find the 4 main solution bundles. This is a beta version of the Solution Bundles tool, and currently, only two bundles have complete functions:

• E-mobility & Electrification
• Carbon capture, storage & removal

Press bottom to know more about each of them. When you are ready, select one (by clicking to the boxes) to visualize how the bundling of solutions could look like.

Low-carbon energy via sector coupling

E-mobility & Electrification

Reduction of energy & resources needs

Carbon capture, storage & removal

Help

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NetZeroCities Solution BundlesHow to USE

• This tool offers dynamic and interactive visualizations of city systems, providing stakeholders with a clear and engaging overview of complex concepts (such as, ways of achieving electrification or carbon capture).
• Harness the power of collaborative learning by using our tool and engage with stakeholders in Workshops.
• Through shared visualizations, we can collectively deepen our understanding of city challenges and brainstorm innovative solutions.

• Press bottom to know more about each of the solutions.
• Press check boxes to filter part of the solutions that are not interesting for you.

The check boxes are available on the top left corner of each bundle.

Share with your team!

Handbook

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NetZeroCities Solution BundlesHandbook Video

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Reduction of energy & resources needs

E-mobility & Electrification

Low-carbon energy via sector coupling

Carbon capture, storage & removal

Help

Efficient design

Behaviour change

Circular Economy

WORK IN PROGRESS

Low-carbon energy via sector coupling

E-mobility & Electrification

Reduction of energy & resources needs

Carbon capture, storage & removal

Help

Stationary energy

Green energy

Digital Solutions

WORK IN PROGRESS

Capabilities

Policy & governance

Finance and Business Models

Carbon capture, storage & removal

Tools

E-mobility & Electrification

Reduction of energy & resources needs

Low-carbon energy via sector coupling

Help

Nature-based Solutions

Carbon capture

Reduction of emissions

CO2 atmospheric emissions reduction

Heat Island reduction

Water optimisation

Passive house

Vertical Green Infrastructure

Building carbon emissions

Shading measures

Water course measures

Green urban areas

Waterfront

Wetlands

Sustainable agriculture

Industry carbon emissions

Urban water grid

Pollinators

Carbon Sequestration

Sustainable pavements

Soil Filter

Capabilities

Policy & governance

Finance and Business Models

Carbon capture, storage & removal

Tools

E-mobility & Electrification

Reduction of energy & resources needs

Low-carbon energy via sector coupling

Help

Nature based Solutions

Carbon capture

Reduction of emissions

CO2 atmospheric emissions reduction

Passive house

Vertical Green Infrastructure

Building carbon emissions

Shading measures

Green urban areas

Sustainable agriculture

Industry carbon emissions

Carbon Sequestration

Soil Filter

Capabilities

Policy & governance

Finance and Business Models

Carbon capture, storage & removal

Tools

E-mobility & Electrification

Reduction of energy & resources needs

Low-carbon energy via sector coupling

Help

Nature based Solutions

Carbon capture

Reduction of emissions

Heat Island reduction

Water optimisation

Passive house

Building carbon emissions

Water course measures

Waterfront

Wetlands

Industry carbon emissions

Urban water grid

Pollinators

Sustainable pavements

Capabilities

Policy & governance

Finance and Business Models

Carbon capture, storage & removal

Tools

E-mobility & Electrification

Reduction of energy & resources needs

Low-carbon energy via sector coupling

Help

Nature-based Solutions

Carbon capture

Reduction of emissions

CO2 atmospheric emissions reduction

Heat Island reduction

Water optimisation

Vertical Green Infrastructure

Shading measures

Water course measures

Green urban areas

Waterfront

Wetlands

Sustainable agriculture

Urban water grid

Pollinators

Carbon Sequestration

Sustainable pavements

Soil Filter

Capabilities

Policy & governance

Finance and Business Models

Carbon capture, storage & removal

Tools

E-mobility & Electrification

Reduction of energy & resources needs

Low-carbon energy via sector coupling

Help

Nature based Solutions

Carbon capture

Reduction of emissions

Heat Island reduction

Water optimisation

Water course measures

Waterfront

Wetlands

Urban water grid

Pollinators

Sustainable pavements

Capabilities

Policy & governance

Finance and Business Models

Carbon capture, storage & removal

Tools

E-mobility & Electrification

Reduction of energy & resources needs

Low-carbon energy via sector coupling

Help

Nature based Solutions

Carbon capture

Reduction of emissions

CO2 atmospheric emissions reduction

Vertical Green Infrastructure

Shading measures

Green urban areas

Sustainable agriculture

Carbon Sequestration

Soil Filter

Capabilities

Policy & governance

Finance and Business Models

Carbon capture, storage & removal

Tools

E-mobility & Electrification

Reduction of energy & resources needs

Low-carbon energy via sector coupling

Help

Nature based Solutions

Carbon capture

Reduction of emissions

Passive house

Building carbon emissions

Industry carbon emissions

Culture, social innovation & participation

Capabilities

Policy & governance

E-mobility & Electrification

Finance and Business Models

Reduction of energy & resources needs

Carbon capture, storage & removal

Low-carbon energy via sector coupling

Help

Mobility and transport

Energy

District Heating

Culture, social innovation & participation

Capabilities

Policy & governance

E-mobility & Electrification

Finance and Business Models

Reduction of energy & resources needs

Carbon capture, storage & removal

Low-carbon energy via sector coupling

Help

Mobility and transport

Energy

District Heating

Culture, social innovation & participation

Capabilities

Policy & governance

E-mobility & Electrification

Finance and Business Models

Reduction of energy & resources needs

Carbon capture, storage & removal

Low-carbon energy via sector coupling

Help

Mobility and transport

Energy

District Heating

Culture, social innovation & participation

Capabilities

Policy & governance

E-mobility & Electrification

Finance and Business Models

Reduction of energy & resources needs

Carbon capture, storage & removal

Low-carbon energy via sector coupling

Help

Mobility and transport

Energy

District Heating

Culture, social innovation & participation

Capabilities

Policy & governance

E-mobility & Electrification

Finance and Business Models

Reduction of energy & resources needs

Carbon capture, storage & removal

Low-carbon energy via sector coupling

Help

Mobility and transport

Energy

District Heating

Carbon capture - Soil Filter

Green Filter area. Source: https://netzerocities.app

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Green filter area

• Bioretention Areas

Energy - Smart street lighting

Schematic representation of a complex imHLA. Source: www.mysmartlife.eu

Smart street lighting is characterised by the fact that the individual light point not only fulfills the function of the lighting, but also offers additional services for citizens such as environmental monitoring (noise and air quality), or public Wi-Fi improvement among others. Furthermore, it can integrate photovoltaic panels, reducing electricity consumption.

Capabilities - Digital Solutions

Visualized KPIs. Source: https://netzerocities.app

Digital solutions enable real-time monitoring optimizing NbS effectiveness and precision in carbon capture measures.

Digital Public Goods

• Measuring & Monitoring (green & digital transition)

Five trading platform developed by startus. Source: https://www.startus-insights.com

Urban Digital Platforms

• CO2 Emission Trading Platforms

Carbon capture - Vertical Green Infrastructure

Zagreb, Croatia. ProGIreg. Source: https://progireg.eu

Building envelope solutions

Green walls and green façades

Green fences

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

Green living walls. Source: https://citygreen.com

Green noise barriers

Vertical mobile gardens

Nature based Solutions - Urban water grid

Water interventions

Storm water channels

Grassed swales and water retention pounds

Storm water retenetion. Source: https://www.terraforce.com

Retention pond. Source: http://winnipeg.ca

Carbon capture - Sustainable agriculture

Definition of data driven agroforestry. Source: Ramil, Elisa & Holland, John & Anagnostou, Dimitris & Brown, Keith & Desmulliez, M.P.Y.. (2022). A review of agroforestry, precision agriculture, and precision livestock farming—The case for a data-driven agroforestry strategy. Frontiers in Sensors. 3.

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Community composting

• Agroforestry

• Urban farming

Reduction of emissions - Passive house

Building envelope solutions

Joinery for low-energy houses or passive houses

Passive building solutions

Passive house solutions. Source: https://www.zestarchitecture.com

Passive building design strategies: building orientation, passive heating and cooling

Improvement of energy efficiency by active and passive solutions in buildings

Energy loop - Thermal energy storage (TES)

Thermal energy storage used in district heating and cooling effectively decouples demand from supply, allowing energy to be stored on a seasonal basis. District heating already incorporates sensible heat technologies such as tanks and underground storage (boreholes). The latter ones, are known as seasonal heat storage technologies and seasonal heat storage allow heat delivery to residential areas by thermal heat networks to make much better use of regional sustainable heat sources, thereby reducing the need for fossil fuels for peak demand. Thermal energy storage can store heat through a causing a chemical reaction, which usually takes place in a reversible process (thermochemical energy storage); or by changing the temperature of a material without undergoing a phase change (Sensible thermal energy storage). Even Sensible thermal energy storage is more commonly used, thermochemical energy storage can generally store more energy and for longer time periods.

Sensible thermal energy storage

Thermochemical thermal energy storage

Reduction of emissions - Industry carbon emissions

Planning instruments

Decarbonisation Plans for Industry

STEPWISE project

SEWGS image. Source: https://www.stepwise.eu

LEILAC 2 project

HeidelbergCement's Hanover cement plant. Source: https://www.heidelbergmaterials.com

C4U project

CASOH pilot at ArcelorMittal's plant. Source: https://c4u-project.eu

Online Tools

NBS selection tool

NBS Scenarios Generation Tool

ValuES

Nature4CITIES

GeoIKP

EPESUS city (Ekodenge)

Evaluating the impact of NbS

SESAME tool. CEREMA (in French)

iTree

Finance and Business Models

Business model ensure project´s economy viability, long term effectiveness, scalability and replicability by attracting investments, securing funding and generating revenues streams. Moreover, considering diverse stakeholders facilitates alignment with the local economy.

proGIreg

NZC

Connecting Nature

Reduction of emissions - Building carbon emissions

Low-carbon and sustainable building materials

Low-carbon sustainable concrete

Reducing embedded emissions of buildings

Technology Roadmap. Low-Carbon Transition in the Cement Industry (IEA). Source: https://iea.blob.core.windows.net

Sensorized-panel. Source: http://www.endurcrete.eu

Nature based Solutions - Pollinators

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

Pollinator and verges spaces

Pollinator. Source: https://www.life4pollinators.eu

Pollinators contribute to urban biodiversity, with bees, wasps, beetles, beeflies, hoverflies, butterflies, and moths being the most common. Enhancing their presence in urban areas can be achieved by planting species with the nestar and pollen needed to attract the desired insect pollinators in the city´s green spaces.

Policy & governance

Challenges for NbS and IG. Source: IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature)

Regulatory instruments

• NBS and Green Infrastructure plans and strategy design and governance

• NBS and Green Infrastructure regulation and ordinances

Relevant agencies

• European Environment Agency (EEA)

• International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

Energy - Waste heat

Sewage heat recovery via pump systems extract thermal energy from wastewater (12-15°C) using heat exchangers and pumps. These systems can pre-heat tap water for domestic hot water and space heating in individual buildings or supply low-heat to a district heating network (DHN) in larger sewer plants and channels. Heat pumps can be integrated to raise the temperature for consumption. This solution could be implementes in residential, commercial, and industrial buildings, offering a reduction in hot water demand up to 20% by raising its temperature by 10 degrees

Heat Recovery & Valorisation from process heating (of industries) or data centers can be recovered, upgraded (i.e. increase temperature to the desired one with a heat pump), and used to descarbonise district heating networks.

Industrial Heat Pump technologies or High Temperature Heat Pumps (HTHP) have been identified for applications in the supply temperature range of 100 - 150°C in the food, paper, and chemical/pharma industries, in particular in drying processes, as well as in pasteurizing, sterilizing, evaporation, and distillation. The application of heat pump technologies opens additional new options for sector coupling of electricity, heating, and cooling and provides flexibility, e.g. through heat storage in industrial plants.

Chester assessment tool. Source: www.chester.datuma.aiguasol.coop

Energy - Wind power production

The main issue with wind turbines are the high noise levels (which leads to a low social acceptance) and the lack of space in cities. In Finland, small wind power plants are relatively frequent: Considering operational wind farms as of 2021, 17% of wind power capacity was in plants of size < 20MW (average size 2.12MW), and 8% in plants of size less than 10MW (average size 1.86MW). Smaller wind power plants with a small footprint are more easily integrated near cities or suburban areas

Semtive Energy turbine. Source: https://singularityhub.com

Typical diagram of wind-turbine system. Source: Syahputra, Ramadoni & Soesanti, Indah. (2019). Performance Improvement for Small-Scale Wind Turbine System Based on Maximum Power Point Tracking Control. Energies.

Energy - Photovoltaic panels (PV)

Photovoltaic panels on green roof were found to be, on average, 3.63% more efficient on any given day from the fact the green roof remained far cooler than the traditional concrete, meaning the panels did not overheat and therefore underperform.

Green roof improves solar panel efficiency by 3.6% on average The comparison of two solar cladded roofs in Sydney, Australia, one bare beneath its panels and the other adorned with native grasses and plants, has...

PV panels on the roof. Source: pv magazine International

Citizen Participation Platforms

For engaging stakeholders, the following actions can be considered:

Citizen Participation Platforms allow citizens to take on an active part in city governmental decisions. In this platforms citizens can access and provide useful data, and local governments receives feedback making cities more democratic and dynamic.

User engagement Changes at home, neighborhood, and environment are necessary in order to achieve goals related to energy conservation and the generation of sustainable energy. The extent to which residents are involved in the process of making sustainable decisions has an important impact on the speed and outcome of such projects. Informative sessions and social media campaigns, climate-related action offices for local support (such as the ones in Valencia), will be needed.

Energy communities can be understood as a way to organize collective energy actions around open, democratic participation and governance, and the provision of benefits for the members or the local community. Energy communities can support the adoption of electrification (through implementation of PVs, heat pumps, batteries, etc.)

Case study of Valencia

Method energy communities

Energy loop - From 3G to 5G District Heating and Cooling networks

Depending on the configurations and available resources, geothermal water can be used directly if at sufficiently high temperatures, using heat exchangers. Alternatively, water from rivers or sea can be pumped to the users (known as 5G District heating networks) and at the substations, a heat pump can be used to increase the temperature.

Energy - Large scale solar production

Large solar-photovoltaic systems (or solar parks) can provide carbon-free electricity to cities. The main issue encountered in cities is the lack of space and the "not in my backyard" phenomenon. There are many options to finance it, but great examples can be found such as the Westmill Solar Co-operative, which counts over 20,000 polycrystalline PV panels and generates around 5GWhr per year in Oxfordshire.

Integrating Evacuated Tube Collectors (ETC) into photovoltaic installations enhances efficiency by optimizing radiation absortion and minimizing heat transfer losses. This results in an improvement performance ratio, eneabling heat production even during winter with low-light conditions and cold temperatures.

Solar Farm. Source: 'https://www.rescoop.eu

June success story: Ten years harvesting the sun's energy in Oxfordshire - REScoop Stories Homepage news-and-events stories June success story: Ten years harvesting the sun's energy in Oxfordshire Community energy is key to action... Rescoop

Carbon capture - Shading measures

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Green shading structures

Shelters in Valladolid (Spain), Source: URBAN GreenUP project

• Green covering shelters

Policy & governance

Enabling instruments provide the legal framework and guidelines necessary for integrating NbS and carbon capture measures into urban and environmental planning.

• Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP)

• Parking policies, management and fees, smart parking

• Mobility as a Service (MaaS)

Best practice: Save – Upgrade Plan in Cyprus.. Source: https://www.fundingprogrammesportal.gov.cy/en/

• System level circular economy approaches

• Promote PV

Policy & governance

Challenges for NbS and IG. Source: IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature)

Regulatory instruments

• NBS and Green Infrastructure plans and strategy design and governance

• NBS and Green Infrastructure regulation and ordinances

Relevant agencies

• European Environment Agency (EEA)

• International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

Mobility and transport - Public charging system for EVs

Easy access to public charging for EVs (including taxis, city utility vehicles, private cars, etc.) is a necessity in transition toward zero-emission electric transport. The charging infrastructures can be provided in various locations & forms, i.e. on-street charging infrastructure for residents & (fast) charging hubs.

Major raw materials commonly used in battery electric vehicles. Source: Compiled from data in Hawkins et al., 2013; Mathieux et al., 2017; EC, 2018a; 2018b.

Online Tools

NBS selection tool

NBS Scenarios Generation Tool

ValuES

Nature4CITIES

GeoIKP

EPESUS city (Ekodenge)

Evaluating the impact of NbS

SESAME tool. CEREMA (in French)

iTree

Carbon capture - Green urban areas

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

Green resting areas, parks and urban forests, parklets

Green corridors for active and cooler mobility

Walking tour in Hiedanranta. Source: https://unalab.eu/

Regreen topics. Source: https://www.regreen-project.eu

Reduction of emissions - Passive house

Building envelope solutions

Joinery for low-energy houses or passive houses

Passive building solutions

Passive house solutions. Source: https://www.zestarchitecture.com

Passive building design strategies: building orientation, passive heating and cooling

Improvement of energy efficiency by active and passive solutions in buildings

Energy - Hydropower

Micro-hydropower plants can be installed for generating "green electricity" from pressure (water head) or kinetic energy (water flow) available in existing urban water networks.

As part of the Hydro4U project, a shaft power plant will be built as a demonstration plant at an already defined location in Kyrgyzstan. Source:https://hydro.zek.at

Holsvirkjun Installation. Source: https://www.global-hydro.eu

Online Tools

NBS selection tool

NBS Scenarios Generation Tool

ValuES

Nature4CITIES

GeoIKP

EPESUS city (Ekodenge)

Evaluating the impact of NbS

SESAME tool. CEREMA (in French)

iTree

Energy - Smart street lighting

Schematic representation of a complex imHLA. Source: www.mysmartlife.eu

Smart street lighting is characterised by the fact that the individual light point not only fulfills the function of the lighting, but also offers additional services for citizens such as environmental monitoring (noise and air quality), or public Wi-Fi improvement among others. Furthermore, it can integrate photovoltaic panels, reducing electricity consumption.

Reduction of emissions - Industry carbon emissions

Planning instruments

Decarbonisation Plans for Industry

STEPWISE project

SEWGS image. Source: https://www.stepwise.eu

LEILAC 2 project

HeidelbergCement's Hanover cement plant. Source: https://www.heidelbergmaterials.com

C4U project

CASOH pilot at ArcelorMittal's plant. Source: https://c4u-project.eu

Energy - Waste heat

Sewage heat recovery via pump systems extract thermal energy from wastewater (12-15°C) using heat exchangers and pumps. These systems can pre-heat tap water for domestic hot water and space heating in individual buildings or supply low-heat to a district heating network (DHN) in larger sewer plants and channels. Heat pumps can be integrated to raise the temperature for consumption. This solution could be implementes in residential, commercial, and industrial buildings, offering a reduction in hot water demand up to 20% by raising its temperature by 10 degrees

Heat Recovery & Valorisation from process heating (of industries) or data centers can be recovered, upgraded (i.e. increase temperature to the desired one with a heat pump), and used to descarbonise district heating networks.

Industrial Heat Pump technologies or High Temperature Heat Pumps (HTHP) have been identified for applications in the supply temperature range of 100 - 150°C in the food, paper, and chemical/pharma industries, in particular in drying processes, as well as in pasteurizing, sterilizing, evaporation, and distillation. The application of heat pump technologies opens additional new options for sector coupling of electricity, heating, and cooling and provides flexibility, e.g. through heat storage in industrial plants.

Chester assessment tool. Source: www.chester.datuma.aiguasol.coop

Capabilities - Digital Solutions

Visualized KPIs. Source: https://netzerocities.app

Digital solutions enable real-time monitoring optimizing NbS effectiveness and precision in carbon capture measures.

Digital Public Goods

• Measuring & Monitoring (green & digital transition)

Five trading platform developed by startus. Source: https://www.startus-insights.com

Urban Digital Platforms

• CO2 Emission Trading Platforms

Carbon capture - Shading measures

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Green shading structures

Shelters in Valladolid (Spain), Source: URBAN GreenUP project

• Green covering shelters

Mobility and transport - Shared micromobility

In recent years, electrification of vehicles has led to new shared micromobility services (e.g. shared e-bikes, e-scooters, e-skateboards, e-mopeds) enabling users to have short-term access to an active or low-speed motorized transportation mode on an as-needed basis.

Technical requirements for e-scooters. Source: https://micromobilityforeurope.eu/

Schematic representation of a complex imHLA. Source: https://www.ituran.com

Citizen Participation Platforms

For engaging stakeholders, the following actions can be considered:

• Citizen Participation Platforms allow citizens to take on an active part in city governmental decisions. In this platforms citizens can access and provide useful data, and local governments receives feedback making cities more democratic and dynamic.

• User engagement Changes at home, neighborhood, and environment are necessary in order to achieve goals related to energy conservation and the generation of sustainable energy. The extent to which residents are involved in the process of making sustainable decisions has an important impact on the speed and outcome of such projects. Informative sessions and social media campaigns, climate-related action offices for local support (such as the ones in Valencia), will be needed.

• Energy communities can be understood as a way to organize collective energy actions around open, democratic participation and governance, and the provision of benefits for the members or the local community. Energy communities can support the adoption of electrification (through implementation of PVs, heat pumps, batteries, etc.)

Case study of Valencia

Method energy communities

Energy loop - Thermal energy storage (TES)

Thermal energy storage used in district heating and cooling effectively decouples demand from supply, allowing energy to be stored on a seasonal basis. District heating already incorporates sensible heat technologies such as tanks and underground storage (boreholes). The latter ones, are known as seasonal heat storage technologies and seasonal heat storage allow heat delivery to residential areas by thermal heat networks to make much better use of regional sustainable heat sources, thereby reducing the need for fossil fuels for peak demand. Thermal energy storage can store heat through a causing a chemical reaction, which usually takes place in a reversible process (thermochemical energy storage); or by changing the temperature of a material without undergoing a phase change (Sensible thermal energy storage). Even Sensible thermal energy storage is more commonly used, thermochemical energy storage can generally store more energy and for longer time periods.

Sensible thermal energy storage

Thermochemical thermal energy storage

Mobility and transport - Car sharing

Car sharing models present a reliable, flexible, and cost-efficient alternative to car ownership (especially when using electric or sustainable vehicles) supplements the sustainable modes of walking, cycling and public transport.Car-sharing systems can be station-based, or free-floating.

Case estudies:

Bundesverband CarSharing e.V. (bcs), 2022. Source: https://carsharing.de2

Munich

Amsterdam

Valencia

Finance and Business Models

Business model ensure project´s economy viability, long term effectiveness, scalability and replicability by attracting investments, securing funding and generating revenues streams. Moreover, considering diverse stakeholders facilitates alignment with the local economy.

• Blended finance for Energy Efficiency (EE)

• Green Loan

Best practice: Loans for Energy Efficiency (EE).Source: https://energy-cities.eu

• Participatory budgeting

• Energy Performance Contract (EPC)

Energy Performance Contract (EPC) - Guaranteed savings

Energy Performance Contract (EPC) - Staggered savings

Energy Performance Contract (EPC) - Related payments

Energy Performance Contract (EPC) – Shared savings

Reduction of emissions - Industry carbon emissions

Planning instruments

Decarbonisation Plans for Industry

STEPWISE project

SEWGS image. Source: https://www.stepwise.eu

LEILAC 2 project

HeidelbergCement's Hanover cement plant. Source: https://www.heidelbergmaterials.com

C4U project

CASOH pilot at ArcelorMittal's plant. Source: https://c4u-project.eu

Energy - Automation and Control Systems (BACS)/Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS)

Energy Management System (EMS) comprises an optimal integration of Distributed Energy Resources (generation, storage an consumption with special relevance of renewable energy), active participation of new energy profiles (active consumers, prosumers, aggregators...), hybridation of energy vectors and artificial intelligence.

Building Automation and Control Systems (BACS)

Schematic representation of a complex imHLA. Source: https://www.bable-smartcities.el

Energy Management Systems

Energy - Automation and Control Systems (BACS)/Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS)

Energy Management System (EMS) comprises an optimal integration of Distributed Energy Resources (generation, storage an consumption with special relevance of renewable energy), active participation of new energy profiles (active consumers, prosumers, aggregators...), hybridation of energy vectors and artificial intelligence.

Building Automation and Control Systems (BACS)

Schematic representation of a complex imHLA. Source: https://www.bable-smartcities.el

Energy Management Systems

• Grassed swales and water retention pounds

Nature based Solutions - Waterfront

Water interventions Solutions for Coastal Climate adaptation

Mangrove forests

Mangrove forest. Photo by Akarawut Lohachavoenvanich/iStock. Source: https://thecityfix.com

River floodplains

Salt Marshes

Sandy shores

Carbon capture - Green urban areas

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

Green resting areas, parks and urban forests, parklets

Green corridors for active and cooler mobility

Walking tour in Hiedanranta. Source: https://unalab.eu/

Regreen topics. Source: https://www.regreen-project.eu

Energy - Efficient appliances

Buying more efficient appliances is a commitment not only to reduce consumption and make savings, it is also a commitment to the more sustainable use of energy, to achieving better results, reducing our workload and improving our daily lives.

Is it worthwhile buying more efficient domestic appliances? Even though they tend to be more expensive, in the long run it is worth buying more efficient domestic appliances. In addition to saving energy and...

Efficeint domestic appliances. Source: Endesa

Carbon capture - CO2 atmospheric emissions reduction

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

Global carbon stores and fluxes. Source: Maslin, Mark. (2019). Climate change: essential knowledge for developing holistic solutions to our climate crisis. Emerging Topics in Life Sciences. 3.

• Urban carbon sink

• Urban garden bio-filter

Reduction of emissions - Building carbon emissions

Low-carbon and sustainable building materials

Low-carbon sustainable concrete

Reducing embedded emissions of buildings

Technology Roadmap. Low-Carbon Transition in the Cement Industry (IEA). Source: https://iea.blob.core.windows.net

Sensorized-panel. Source: http://www.endurcrete.eu

Nature based Solutions - Water course measures

Steps of river restoration. Source: Binder, Walter & Göttle, Albert & Shuhuai, Duan. (2015). Ecological restoration of small water Courses, Experiences from Germany and from Projects in Beijing. International Soil and Water Conservation Research.

Water interventions

River and stream renaturalization

Restore water-courses

1. Initial state
2. The initial phase of the project should involve removing the bank fixation to restore the natural structure of the watercourse
3. Upon the restoration of the watercourse, natural water flow and sediment transport will facilitate the reintroduction of native flora and fauna
4. Restoring watercourses requires time and land to achieve an ecological balance.

Energy - Demand management “as Demand response”

Demand response is a method for matching the demand for energy to the available supply of energy (ISO/IEC 15067-3:2012), increasing the grid reliability, reducing the need to build new capacity and reducing the use of fossil-based peak electric generation.It could be implicit demand response with time-varying electricity prices; or explicit demand response, where (mainly large consumers) can sell their flexibility to the electricity markets or aggregators. Examples of demand response are Smart EV charging, Smart Heating and Cooling (building -level intelligence) sustainable manufacturing, and smart communities with microgrids.

Smart EV charging

Smart Heating and Cooling sustainable manufacturing

Smart communities with microgrids

Energy - geothermal/aerothermal heat pumps

At building level, geothermal/aerothermal heat pumps can be used to descarbonise the heating and cooling production. Generally speaking, geothermal will reach hi gher efficiency levels than aerothermal, and will be invisible to the user, but requires higher investment costs (due to the drilling), and environmental permits (country dependent). Heat pumps can be coupled with solar, in several ways, and batteries for optimising the energy management.

PVT coupled with HPs and other systems, and PVT coupled with a reversible heat pump and a tank to produce space heating and domestic hot water needs. Source: https://netzerocities.app/s

Geotermia

Sistemas híbridos (PVT, PV+HP, ...)

Heatpump

Batteries

Optimization energy

Energy - Demand management “as Demand response”

Demand response is a method for matching the demand for energy to the available supply of energy (ISO/IEC 15067-3:2012), increasing the grid reliability, reducing the need to build new capacity and reducing the use of fossil-based peak electric generation.It could be implicit demand response with time-varying electricity prices; or explicit demand response, where (mainly large consumers) can sell their flexibility to the electricity markets or aggregators. Examples of demand response are Smart EV charging, Smart Heating and Cooling (building -level intelligence) sustainable manufacturing, and smart communities with microgrids.

Smart EV charging

Smart Heating and Cooling sustainable manufacturing

Smart communities with microgrids

Reduction of emissions - Industry carbon emissions

Planning instruments

Decarbonisation Plans for Industry

STEPWISE project

SEWGS image. Source: https://www.stepwise.eu

LEILAC 2 project

HeidelbergCement's Hanover cement plant. Source: https://www.heidelbergmaterials.com

C4U project

CASOH pilot at ArcelorMittal's plant. Source: https://c4u-project.eu

Carbon capture - Vertical Green Infrastructure

Zagreb, Croatia. ProGIreg. Source: https://progireg.eu

Building envelope solutions

Green walls and green façades

Green fences

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

Green living walls. Source: https://citygreen.com

Green noise barriers

Vertical mobile gardens

Nature based Solutions - Wetlands

Water interventions

• Natural inland wetlands

Constructed wetland scheme. Source: https://www.archdaily.com

• Constructed wetland

Carbon capture - Carbon Sequestration

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Smart-soils and phytoremediation

• Soil carbon sequestration

Conceptualization of C sequestration potentials in arable land. Source: Amelung, W., Bossio, D., de Vries, W. et al. Towards a global-scale soil climate mitigation strategy. Nat Commun 11, 5427 (2020).

Mobility and transport - Car sharing

Car sharing models present a reliable, flexible, and cost-efficient alternative to car ownership (especially when using electric or sustainable vehicles) supplements the sustainable modes of walking, cycling and public transport.Car-sharing systems can be station-based, or free-floating.

Case estudies:

Bundesverband CarSharing e.V. (bcs), 2022. Source: https://carsharing.de2

Munich

Amsterdam

Valencia

Energy efficiency, wind, and solar provide around half of emissions savings to 2030 in the IEA scenarios. It is important that, before implementing greener solutions in the systems, the energy and resources needs are reduced at the lowest possible by:

• Increasing the number of zero or nearly zero energy buildings in the city, and/or reducing the need for heating and cooling by improving the building envelopes. Either by policy incentives, one-stop shops, or/and an increase in the capacitation of the technical staff (in the city level and of the stakeholders).
• Increasing the use of efficient appliances in the building sector. Furthermore, to some extent, increase the amount of open data available (e.g., through the connection of IoT to data platforms) for underpinning new services to citizens and stakeholders.

Furthermore, behavioral changes by citizens and businesses avoid 1.7 Gt CO2 emissions in 2030, curb energy demand growth, and facilitate clean energy transitions.Besides that, the three circular-economy strategies consort to cut emissions from materials and products:

• Material recirculation — reducing emission intensity per tonne of material.
• Product material efficiency — using fewer materials per product.
• New circular business models — fewer products to achieve the same useful service.

Mobility and transport - Car sharing

Car sharing models present a reliable, flexible, and cost-efficient alternative to car ownership (especially when using electric or sustainable vehicles) supplements the sustainable modes of walking, cycling and public transport.Car-sharing systems can be station-based, or free-floating.

Case estudies:

Bundesverband CarSharing e.V. (bcs), 2022. Source: https://carsharing.de2

Munich

Amsterdam

Valencia

Carbon capture - Sustainable agriculture

Definition of data driven agroforestry. Source: Ramil, Elisa & Holland, John & Anagnostou, Dimitris & Brown, Keith & Desmulliez, M.P.Y.. (2022). A review of agroforestry, precision agriculture, and precision livestock farming—The case for a data-driven agroforestry strategy. Frontiers in Sensors. 3.

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Community composting

• Agroforestry

• Urban farming

Nature based Solutions - Water optimization

Floodable park. Source: https://urbantoronto.ca

Water interventions

• Floodable park

• Rain garden

Rain garden. Source: https://www.courtenay.ca

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Floating gardens

Nature based Solutions - Heat Island reduction

Water interventions

Outdoor Misting Systems. Source: outdoor misting systems for cooling - Bing images

• Urban heat island effect mitigation (Evaporative cooling)

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Cooling trees

Capabilities - Digital Solutions

Visualized KPIs. Source: https://netzerocities.app

Digital solutions enable real-time monitoring optimizing NbS effectiveness and precision in carbon capture measures.

Digital Public Goods

• Measuring & Monitoring (green & digital transition)

Five trading platform developed by startus. Source: https://www.startus-insights.com

Urban Digital Platforms

• CO2 Emission Trading Platforms

Mobility and transport - Shared micromobility

In recent years, electrification of vehicles has led to new shared micromobility services (e.g. shared e-bikes, e-scooters, e-skateboards, e-mopeds) enabling users to have short-term access to an active or low-speed motorized transportation mode on an as-needed basis.

Technical requirements for e-scooters. Source: https://micromobilityforeurope.eu/

Schematic representation of a complex imHLA. Source: https://www.ituran.com

Policy & governance

Enabling instruments provide the legal framework and guidelines necessary for integrating NbS and carbon capture measures into urban and environmental planning.

• Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP)

• Parking policies, management and fees, smart parking

Mobility as a Service?. Source: https://maas-alliance.eu/homepage/what-is-maas/

• Mobility as a Service (MaaS)

Nature based Solutions - Water optimization

Floodable park. Source: https://urbantoronto.ca

Water interventions

• Floodable park

• Rain garden

Rain garden. Source: https://www.courtenay.ca

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Floating gardens

Energy - Hydropower

Micro-hydropower plants can be installed for generating "green electricity" from pressure (water head) or kinetic energy (water flow) available in existing urban water networks.

As part of the Hydro4U project, a shaft power plant will be built as a demonstration plant at an already defined location in Kyrgyzstan. Source:https://hydro.zek.at

Holsvirkjun Installation. Source: https://www.global-hydro.eu

Nature based Solutions - Urban water grid

Water interventions

Storm water channels

Grassed swales and water retention pounds

Storm water retenetion. Source: https://www.terraforce.com

Retention pond. Source: http://winnipeg.ca

Finance and Business Models

Business model ensure project´s economy viability, long term effectiveness, scalability and replicability by attracting investments, securing funding and generating revenues streams. Moreover, considering diverse stakeholders facilitates alignment with the local economy.

• Blended finance for Energy Efficiency (EE)

• Green Loan

Best practice: Loans for Energy Efficiency (EE).Source: https://energy-cities.eu

• Participatory budgeting

• Energy Performance Contract (EPC)

Energy Performance Contract (EPC) - Guaranteed savings

Energy Performance Contract (EPC) - Staggered savings

Energy Performance Contract (EPC) - Related payments

Energy Performance Contract (EPC) – Shared savings

Mobility and transport - Mobility hubs

Mobility hubs include the deployment of e-charging stations across different levels sharing public infrastructure, and utilizing parking lots, canopies, and benches also as multifunctional points of charge. They are a means to seamlessly link various modes of transport in order to enable inter-modal trip chains as an alternative to the private car and allow easy access to new forms of sustainable mobility or shared transport (from rail, to buses, shared cars, shared bikes) with mutli-modal supportive infrastructure and different sort of facilities such as delivery or pick-up points. Mobility hubs can be distributed throughout urban, suburban and rural areas to enable access to sustainable transport options and should be planned with public tr ansport as backbone.

Capabilities

Digital solutions enable real-time monitoring optimizing NbS effectiveness and precision in carbon capture measures.

Five trading platform developed by startus. Source: https://www.startus-insights.com

Urban Digital Platforms

• CO2 Emission Trading Platforms

Educational, Capacity Building instruments

• Educational activities suring & Monitoring (green & digital transition)

Digitaler Zwilling München. Source: Technical University of Munich

Analytics modelling solutions

• Digital Twin

Energy - Wind power production

The main issue with wind turbines are the high noise levels (which leads to a low social acceptance) and the lack of space in cities. In Finland, small wind power plants are relatively frequent: Considering operational wind farms as of 2021, 17% of wind power capacity was in plants of size < 20MW (average size 2.12MW), and 8% in plants of size less than 10MW (average size 1.86MW). Smaller wind power plants with a small footprint are more easily integrated near cities or suburban areas

Semtive Energy turbine. Source: https://singularityhub.com

Typical diagram of wind-turbine system. Source: Syahputra, Ramadoni & Soesanti, Indah. (2019). Performance Improvement for Small-Scale Wind Turbine System Based on Maximum Power Point Tracking Control. Energies.

Mobility and transport - E-mobility

An Electric Vehicle (EV) uses electric power instead of an internal combustion engine powered by other fuel types like diesel fuel or gasoline. It has been increasingly recognized that EV may provide an opportunity to reduce global GHG emissions (UN Habitat, 2014) and increase air quality, if powered by renewable energy sources. The use of second life batteries and improved battery performance may in the future further reduce the need of raw materials and the related environmental impact.

• Zero emission electric cars

Green Charge demo pilot Oslo. Source: https://www.greencharge2020.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Green-Charge-Demo-Card-OSL.D2-Charge-point-operation-demo.pdf

• Fleet decarbonisation

Mobility and transport - Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs) in urban transport

In the urban transport, fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are complementary to Full Electric Vehicles (BEV), allowing a transition to zero emission vehicles (when hydrogen production uses renewable energy sources) today for applications that remain hard to decarbonise due to their operational needs (e.g. garbage trucks and taxi fleets).

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle. Source: https://afdc.energy.gov

Carbon capture - Carbon Sequestration

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Smart-soils and phytoremediation

• Soil carbon sequestration

Conceptualization of C sequestration potentials in arable land. Source: Amelung, W., Bossio, D., de Vries, W. et al. Towards a global-scale soil climate mitigation strategy. Nat Commun 11, 5427 (2020).

Online Tools

NBS selection tool

NBS Scenarios Generation Tool

ValuES

Nature4CITIES

GeoIKP

EPESUS city (Ekodenge)

Evaluating the impact of NbS

SESAME tool. CEREMA (in French)

iTree

• Grassed swales and water retention pounds

Nature based Solutions - Waterfront

Water interventions Solutions for Coastal Climate adaptation

Mangrove forests

Mangrove forest. Photo by Akarawut Lohachavoenvanich/iStock. Source: https://thecityfix.com

River floodplains

Salt Marshes

Sandy shores

Energy - Photovoltaic panels (PV)

Photovoltaic panels on green roof were found to be, on average, 3.63% more efficient on any given day from the fact the green roof remained far cooler than the traditional concrete, meaning the panels did not overheat and therefore underperform.

Green roof improves solar panel efficiency by 3.6% on average The comparison of two solar cladded roofs in Sydney, Australia, one bare beneath its panels and the other adorned with native grasses and plants, has...

PV panels on the roof. Source: pv magazine International

Finance and Business Models

Business model ensure project´s economy viability, long term effectiveness, scalability and replicability by attracting investments, securing funding and generating revenues streams. Moreover, considering diverse stakeholders facilitates alignment with the local economy.

proGIreg

NZC

Connecting Nature

Carbon capture - Soil Filter

Green Filter area. Source: https://netzerocities.app

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Green filter area

• Bioretention Areas

Energy - Energy Management System (EMS)

Energy Management System (EMS) comprises an optimal integration of Distributed Energy Resources (generation, storage an consumption with special relevance of renewable energy), active participation of new energy profiles (active consumers, prosumers, aggregators...), hybridation of energy vectors and artificial intelligence. EMS typically has three parts:

• Measurement: Collection of information on energy consumption
• Monitor: Metering sensors that track energy consumption
• Control: Control system that provide instruction to the EMS interface and actual control debice

1. Complete & accurate data. Complete and accurate data comes from an energy audit, which provides a complete data set for taking decisions on energy issues.

2. Top management commitment. sets their commitment on sustainability and energy efficiency for all employees.

3. Communicate success to internal stakeholders and external stakeholders

4. Quantification of energy related problems

5. Training personnel and managerial staff

6. Wide participation in the project management team

7. Energy efficiency is a long-term procedure

Best practices for SMEs in implementing. DEESME’s Final Project. Source: https://deesme.eu/

Citizen Participation Platforms

For engaging stakeholders, the following actions can be considered:

Citizen Participation Platforms allow citizens to take on an active part in city governmental decisions. In this platforms citizens can access and provide useful data, and local governments receives feedback making cities more democratic and dynamic.

User engagement Changes at home, neighborhood, and environment are necessary in order to achieve goals related to energy conservation and the generation of sustainable energy. The extent to which residents are involved in the process of making sustainable decisions has an important impact on the speed and outcome of such projects. Informative sessions and social media campaigns, climate-related action offices for local support (such as the ones in Valencia), will be needed.

Energy communities can be understood as a way to organize collective energy actions around open, democratic participation and governance, and the provision of benefits for the members or the local community. Energy communities can support the adoption of electrification (through implementation of PVs, heat pumps, batteries, etc.)

Case study of Valencia

Method energy communities

Carbon capture - Shading measures

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Green shading structures

Shelters in Valladolid (Spain), Source: URBAN GreenUP project

• Green covering shelters

Mobility and transport - Public charging system for EVs

Easy access to public charging for EVs (including taxis, city utility vehicles, private cars, etc.) is a necessity in transition toward zero-emission electric transport. The charging infrastructures can be provided in various locations & forms, i.e. on-street charging infrastructure for residents & (fast) charging hubs.

Major raw materials commonly used in battery electric vehicles. Source: Compiled from data in Hawkins et al., 2013; Mathieux et al., 2017; EC, 2018a; 2018b.

Nature based Solutions - Sustainable pavements

Water interventions

Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS)

Hard drainage-flood prevention

Green pavements: hard drainage pavements; green parking pavements

Lamb Drove, Residential SuDS, Cambourne, Cambridge. Source:https://www.susdrain.org

Wallands Primary School Rainscape SUDs case study. Source:https://www.susdrain.org

Energy loop - Solar thermal technologies

Solar thermal technologies convert sunlight directly into heat. The generated heat is used for domestic hot water heating, space heating, or process heating, and the solar systems are designed to provide the right temperature needed for the application.

Solar Thermal panel. Source: https://www.isover-technical-insulation.com

According to the IEA, the direct use of low‐emissions electricity in place of fossil fuels is one of the most important drivers of emissions reductions in the Net‐Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario, accounting for around 20% of the total reduction achieved by 2050. It can tackle the following areas if the electricity generation sector becomes cleaner:

• Underpin the massive reduction in transport emissions through, e-vehicles, e-micro mobility, e-chargers, or fuel cells vehicles
• Electrification in the building sector will allow achieving emission reduction faster: electrifying cooking, and especially the production of heating and cooling, as 40% of residential buildings could be fitted with heat pumps. If electrification is applied, the demand for electricity will increase and therefore, the production of electricity must be from low-carbon sources (solar photovoltaics, wind, hydropower, etc., and when it is not possible, apply CCS)
• Electrify hydrogen production through electrolysers, and therefore, its use in industry for heat production and chemicals and its use in transport. Hydrogen would be green if, again, low-carbon sources are used (Certification schemes might be needed). Another way of producing hydrogen is found in RES Generation: Sector Coupling.
• Electrify heat process generation (in the heavy and light industries) through the use of high-temperature heat pumps. Other ways are found in RES Generation: Sector Coupling, like solar concentration.
• Electrify district heating and cooling networks by means of distributed generation (heat pumps at substation levels, such as booster heat pumps) or through large-scale heat pumps (in the main heating or cooling plants). Waste heat is integrated through the use of heat pumps too, and industrial-urban symbiosis (integration of waste heat from data centers, supermarkets, industry, etc.).

If electrification is performed, energy security in the electricity sector will be even more central than it is today. To ensure that, energy system flexibility (through batteries, demand response, flexible power plants, digital networks are necessary), data access (through all levels of the urban energy systems) data security (in grids to avoid cyberattacks, etc.), and digitalization (of buildings for behind-the-meter energy flexibility, of distribution and transmission networks, etc.) in general will become key issues.

Nature based Solutions - Wetlands

Water interventions

• Natural inland wetlands

Constructed wetland scheme. Source: https://www.archdaily.com

• Constructed wetland

Energy - geothermal/aerothermal heat pumps

At building level, geothermal/aerothermal heat pumps can be used to descarbonise the heating and cooling production. Generally speaking, geothermal will reach hi gher efficiency levels than aerothermal, and will be invisible to the user, but requires higher investment costs (due to the drilling), and environmental permits (country dependent). Heat pumps can be coupled with solar, in several ways, and batteries for optimising the energy management.

PVT coupled with HPs and other systems, and PVT coupled with a reversible heat pump and a tank to produce space heating and domestic hot water needs. Source: https://netzerocities.app/s

Geotermia

Sistemas híbridos (PVT, PV+HP, ...)

Heatpump

Batteries

Optimization energy

Energy loop - Renovación de DH&CN (1G y 2G)

The first step towards the renovation of the district heating system is to refurbish the buildings. Once all buildings are refurbished, the district heating can be adapted by reducing the supply temperature to 60°C, which allows the inclusion of renewable energy sources (solar thermal, waste heat) and heat pumps as energy sources in the grid. If not all buildings are refurbished, another possibility is to reduce the supply temperature of a part of the district heating system and use the return heat from the traditional part to supply the part of the grid with a lower temperature (cascade use of heat).

Example of a DH network with a primary, secondary and tertiary grid which is separated by substations (Sub.) and which supplies heat to different types of consumers (Source: D. Rutz)

Parts of the DH system in Ferrara. Source: Final Project Report (upgrade DH)

Online Tools

NBS selection tool

NBS Scenarios Generation Tool

ValuES

Nature4CITIES

GeoIKP

EPESUS city (Ekodenge)

Evaluating the impact of NbS

SESAME tool. CEREMA (in French)

iTree

Mobility and transport - Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs) in urban transport

In the urban transport, fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are complementary to Full Electric Vehicles (BEV), allowing a transition to zero emission vehicles (when hydrogen production uses renewable energy sources) today for applications that remain hard to decarbonise due to their operational needs (e.g. garbage trucks and taxi fleets).

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle. Source: https://afdc.energy.gov

Nature based Solutions - Sustainable pavements

Water interventions

Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS)

Hard drainage-flood prevention

Green pavements: hard drainage pavements; green parking pavements

Lamb Drove, Residential SuDS, Cambourne, Cambridge. Source:https://www.susdrain.org

Wallands Primary School Rainscape SUDs case study. Source:https://www.susdrain.org

Policy & governance

Challenges for NbS and IG. Source: IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature)

Regulatory instruments

• NBS and Green Infrastructure plans and strategy design and governance

• NBS and Green Infrastructure regulation and ordinances

Relevant agencies

• European Environment Agency (EEA)

• International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

Energy efficiency, wind, and solar provide around half of emissions savings to 2030 in the IEA scenarios. It is important that, before implementing greener solutions in the systems, the energy and resources needs are reduced at the lowest possible by:

• Increasing the number of zero or nearly zero energy buildings in the city, and/or reducing the need for heating and cooling by improving the building envelopes. Either by policy incentives, one-stop shops, or/and an increase in the capacitation of the technical staff (in the city level and of the stakeholders).
• Increasing the use of efficient appliances in the building sector. Furthermore, to some extent, increase the amount of open data available (e.g., through the connection of IoT to data platforms) for underpinning new services to citizens and stakeholders.

Furthermore, behavioral changes by citizens and businesses avoid 1.7 Gt CO2 emissions in 2030, curb energy demand growth, and facilitate clean energy transitions.Besides that, the three circular-economy strategies consort to cut emissions from materials and products:

• Material recirculation — reducing emission intensity per tonne of material.
• Product material efficiency — using fewer materials per product.
• New circular business models — fewer products to achieve the same useful service.

Energy - Photovoltaic panels (PV)

Photovoltaic panels on green roof were found to be, on average, 3.63% more efficient on any given day from the fact the green roof remained far cooler than the traditional concrete, meaning the panels did not overheat and therefore underperform.

Green roof improves solar panel efficiency by 3.6% on average The comparison of two solar cladded roofs in Sydney, Australia, one bare beneath its panels and the other adorned with native grasses and plants, has...

PV panels on the roof. Source: pv magazine International

According to the IEA, the direct use of low‐emissions electricity in place of fossil fuels is one of the most important drivers of emissions reductions in the Net‐Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario, accounting for around 20% of the total reduction achieved by 2050. It can tackle the following areas if the electricity generation sector becomes cleaner:

• Underpin the massive reduction in transport emissions through, e-vehicles, e-micro mobility, e-chargers, or fuel cells vehicles
• Electrification in the building sector will allow achieving emission reduction faster: electrifying cooking, and especially the production of heating and cooling, as 40% of residential buildings could be fitted with heat pumps. If electrification is applied, the demand for electricity will increase and therefore, the production of electricity must be from low-carbon sources (solar photovoltaics, wind, hydropower, etc., and when it is not possible, apply CCS)
• Electrify hydrogen production through electrolysers, and therefore, its use in industry for heat production and chemicals and its use in transport. Hydrogen would be green if, again, low-carbon sources are used (Certification schemes might be needed). Another way of producing hydrogen is found in RES Generation: Sector Coupling.
• Electrify heat process generation (in the heavy and light industries) through the use of high-temperature heat pumps. Other ways are found in RES Generation: Sector Coupling, like solar concentration.
• Electrify district heating and cooling networks by means of distributed generation (heat pumps at substation levels, such as booster heat pumps) or through large-scale heat pumps (in the main heating or cooling plants). Waste heat is integrated through the use of heat pumps too, and industrial-urban symbiosis (integration of waste heat from data centers, supermarkets, industry, etc.).

If electrification is performed, energy security in the electricity sector will be even more central than it is today. To ensure that, energy system flexibility (through batteries, demand response, flexible power plants, digital networks are necessary), data access (through all levels of the urban energy systems) data security (in grids to avoid cyberattacks, etc.), and digitalization (of buildings for behind-the-meter energy flexibility, of distribution and transmission networks, etc.) in general will become key issues.

Policy & governance

Enabling instruments provide the legal framework and guidelines necessary for integrating NbS and carbon capture measures into urban and environmental planning.

• System level circular economy approaches

• Promote PV

• Facillitating framework for energy communities with PV

Best practice: Save – Upgrade Plan in Cyprus.. Source: https://www.fundingprogrammesportal.gov.cy/en/

Comparative analysis of the regulatory framework in Sun4All pilot cities

Regulatoy framework for energy communities

Carbon capture - Vertical Green Infrastructure

Zagreb, Croatia. ProGIreg. Source: https://progireg.eu

Building envelope solutions

Green walls and green façades

Green fences

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

Green living walls. Source: https://citygreen.com

Green noise barriers

Vertical mobile gardens

Reduction of emissions - Passive house

Building envelope solutions

Joinery for low-energy houses or passive houses

Passive building solutions

Passive house solutions. Source: https://www.zestarchitecture.com

Passive building design strategies: building orientation, passive heating and cooling

Improvement of energy efficiency by active and passive solutions in buildings

Carbon capture - Carbon Sequestration

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Smart-soils and phytoremediation

• Soil carbon sequestration

Conceptualization of C sequestration potentials in arable land. Source: Amelung, W., Bossio, D., de Vries, W. et al. Towards a global-scale soil climate mitigation strategy. Nat Commun 11, 5427 (2020).

Mobility and transport - E-mobility

An Electric Vehicle (EV) uses electric power instead of an internal combustion engine powered by other fuel types like diesel fuel or gasoline. It has been increasingly recognized that EV may provide an opportunity to reduce global GHG emissions (UN Habitat, 2014) and increase air quality, if powered by renewable energy sources. The use of second life batteries and improved battery performance may in the future further reduce the need of raw materials and the related environmental impact.

• Zero emission electric cars

Green Charge demo pilot Oslo. Source: https://www.greencharge2020.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Green-Charge-Demo-Card-OSL.D2-Charge-point-operation-demo.pdf

• Fleet decarbonisation

Carbon capture - Sustainable agriculture

Definition of data driven agroforestry. Source: Ramil, Elisa & Holland, John & Anagnostou, Dimitris & Brown, Keith & Desmulliez, M.P.Y.. (2022). A review of agroforestry, precision agriculture, and precision livestock farming—The case for a data-driven agroforestry strategy. Frontiers in Sensors. 3.

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Community composting

• Agroforestry

• Urban farming

Energy - Large scale solar production

Large solar-photovoltaic systems (or solar parks) can provide carbon-free electricity to cities. The main issue encountered in cities is the lack of space and the "not in my backyard" phenomenon. There are many options to finance it, but great examples can be found such as the Westmill Solar Co-operative, which counts over 20,000 polycrystalline PV panels and generates around 5GWhr per year in Oxfordshire.

Integrating Evacuated Tube Collectors (ETC) into photovoltaic installations enhances efficiency by optimizing radiation absortion and minimizing heat transfer losses. This results in an improvement performance ratio, eneabling heat production even during winter with low-light conditions and cold temperatures.

Solar Farm. Source: 'https://www.rescoop.eu

June success story: Ten years harvesting the sun's energy in Oxfordshire - REScoop Stories Homepage news-and-events stories June success story: Ten years harvesting the sun's energy in Oxfordshire Community energy is key to action... Rescoop

Energy - Demand management “as Demand response”

Demand response is a method for matching the demand for energy to the available supply of energy (ISO/IEC 15067-3:2012), increasing the grid reliability, reducing the need to build new capacity and reducing the use of fossil-based peak electric generation.It could be implicit demand response with time-varying electricity prices; or explicit demand response, where (mainly large consumers) can sell their flexibility to the electricity markets or aggregators. Examples of demand response are Smart EV charging, Smart Heating and Cooling (building -level intelligence) sustainable manufacturing, and smart communities with microgrids.

Smart EV charging

Smart Heating and Cooling sustainable manufacturing

Smart communities with microgrids

Nature based Solutions - Water course measures

Steps of river restoration. Source: Binder, Walter & Göttle, Albert & Shuhuai, Duan. (2015). Ecological restoration of small water Courses, Experiences from Germany and from Projects in Beijing. International Soil and Water Conservation Research.

Water interventions

River and stream renaturalization

Restore water-courses

1. Initial state
2. The initial phase of the project should involve removing the bank fixation to restore the natural structure of the watercourse
3. Upon the restoration of the watercourse, natural water flow and sediment transport will facilitate the reintroduction of native flora and fauna
4. Restoring watercourses requires time and land to achieve an ecological balance.

Nature based Solutions - Water course measures

Steps of river restoration. Source: Binder, Walter & Göttle, Albert & Shuhuai, Duan. (2015). Ecological restoration of small water Courses, Experiences from Germany and from Projects in Beijing. International Soil and Water Conservation Research.

Water interventions

River and stream renaturalization

Restore water-courses

1. Initial state
2. The initial phase of the project should involve removing the bank fixation to restore the natural structure of the watercourse
3. Upon the restoration of the watercourse, natural water flow and sediment transport will facilitate the reintroduction of native flora and fauna
4. Restoring watercourses requires time and land to achieve an ecological balance.

Energy - Waste heat

Sewage heat recovery via pump systems extract thermal energy from wastewater (12-15°C) using heat exchangers and pumps. These systems can pre-heat tap water for domestic hot water and space heating in individual buildings or supply low-heat to a district heating network (DHN) in larger sewer plants and channels. Heat pumps can be integrated to raise the temperature for consumption. This solution could be implementes in residential, commercial, and industrial buildings, offering a reduction in hot water demand up to 20% by raising its temperature by 10 degrees

Heat Recovery & Valorisation from process heating (of industries) or data centers can be recovered, upgraded (i.e. increase temperature to the desired one with a heat pump), and used to descarbonise district heating networks.

Industrial Heat Pump technologies or High Temperature Heat Pumps (HTHP) have been identified for applications in the supply temperature range of 100 - 150°C in the food, paper, and chemical/pharma industries, in particular in drying processes, as well as in pasteurizing, sterilizing, evaporation, and distillation. The application of heat pump technologies opens additional new options for sector coupling of electricity, heating, and cooling and provides flexibility, e.g. through heat storage in industrial plants.

Chester assessment tool. Source: www.chester.datuma.aiguasol.coop

Carbon capture - Green urban areas

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

Green resting areas, parks and urban forests, parklets

Green corridors for active and cooler mobility

Walking tour in Hiedanranta. Source: https://unalab.eu/

Regreen topics. Source: https://www.regreen-project.eu

A carbon sink absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The ocean, soil, and forests are the world's largest carbon sinks. [1]Carbon capture can be sequestered through the biological process (i.e., indirect capture of CO2 through carbon sinks) or technology applications (direct CO2 capture). CO2 can be stored to be removed later through its use as a feedstock to produce fuels or products or stored permanently in geological formations.Carbon sinks will be mainly linked with other solutions via water (as natural sinks will consume it), energy (for those sinks that need some energy to maintain them or for CCS), and materials.

[1] https://netzerocities.app/resource-2644

Nature based Solutions - Heat Island reduction

Water interventions

Outdoor Misting Systems. Source: outdoor misting systems for cooling - Bing images

• Urban heat island effect mitigation (Evaporative cooling)

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Cooling trees

Nature based Solutions - Water optimization

Floodable park. Source: https://urbantoronto.ca

Water interventions

• Floodable park

• Rain garden

Rain garden. Source: https://www.courtenay.ca

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Floating gardens

Citizen Participation Platforms

For engaging stakeholders, the following actions can be considered:

• Citizen Participation Platforms allow citizens to take on an active part in city governmental decisions. In this platforms citizens can access and provide useful data, and local governments receives feedback making cities more democratic and dynamic.

• User engagement Changes at home, neighborhood, and environment are necessary in order to achieve goals related to energy conservation and the generation of sustainable energy. The extent to which residents are involved in the process of making sustainable decisions has an important impact on the speed and outcome of such projects. Informative sessions and social media campaigns, climate-related action offices for local support (such as the ones in Valencia), will be needed.

• Energy communities can be understood as a way to organize collective energy actions around open, democratic participation and governance, and the provision of benefits for the members or the local community. Energy communities can support the adoption of electrification (through implementation of PVs, heat pumps, batteries, etc.)

Case study of Valencia

Method energy communities

Capabilities

Digital solutions enable real-time monitoring optimizing NbS effectiveness and precision in carbon capture measures.

Five trading platform developed by startus. Source: https://www.startus-insights.com

Urban Digital Platforms

• CO2 Emission Trading Platforms

Educational, Capacity Building instruments

• Educational activities suring & Monitoring (green & digital transition)

Digitaler Zwilling München. Source: Technical University of Munich

Analytics modelling solutions

• Digital Twin

Nature based Solutions - Wetlands

Water interventions

• Natural inland wetlands

Constructed wetland scheme. Source: https://www.archdaily.com

• Constructed wetland

Capabilities

Digital solutions enable real-time monitoring optimizing NbS effectiveness and precision in carbon capture measures.

Five trading platform developed by startus. Source: https://www.startus-insights.com

Urban Digital Platforms

• CO2 Emission Trading Platforms

Educational, Capacity Building instruments

• Educational activities suring & Monitoring (green & digital transition)

Digitaler Zwilling München. Source: Technical University of Munich

Analytics modelling solutions

• Digital Twin

Mobility and transport - Shared micromobility

In recent years, electrification of vehicles has led to new shared micromobility services (e.g. shared e-bikes, e-scooters, e-skateboards, e-mopeds) enabling users to have short-term access to an active or low-speed motorized transportation mode on an as-needed basis.

Technical requirements for e-scooters. Source: https://micromobilityforeurope.eu/

Schematic representation of a complex imHLA. Source: https://www.ituran.com

Finance and Business Models

Business model ensure project´s economy viability, long term effectiveness, scalability and replicability by attracting investments, securing funding and generating revenues streams. Moreover, considering diverse stakeholders facilitates alignment with the local economy.

• Blended finance for Energy Efficiency (EE)

• Green Loan

Best practice: Loans for Energy Efficiency (EE).Source: https://energy-cities.eu

• Participatory budgeting

• Energy Performance Contract (EPC)

Energy Performance Contract (EPC) - Guaranteed savings

Energy Performance Contract (EPC) - Staggered savings

Energy Performance Contract (EPC) - Related payments

Energy Performance Contract (EPC) – Shared savings

Carbon capture - Sustainable agriculture

Definition of data driven agroforestry. Source: Ramil, Elisa & Holland, John & Anagnostou, Dimitris & Brown, Keith & Desmulliez, M.P.Y.. (2022). A review of agroforestry, precision agriculture, and precision livestock farming—The case for a data-driven agroforestry strategy. Frontiers in Sensors. 3.

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Community composting

• Agroforestry

• Urban farming

Carbon capture - Shading measures

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Green shading structures

Shelters in Valladolid (Spain), Source: URBAN GreenUP project

• Green covering shelters

Energy - Energy Management System (EMS)

Energy Management System (EMS) comprises an optimal integration of Distributed Energy Resources (generation, storage an consumption with special relevance of renewable energy), active participation of new energy profiles (active consumers, prosumers, aggregators...), hybridation of energy vectors and artificial intelligence. EMS typically has three parts:

• Measurement: Collection of information on energy consumption
• Monitor: Metering sensors that track energy consumption
• Control: Control system that provide instruction to the EMS interface and actual control debice

1. Complete & accurate data. Complete and accurate data comes from an energy audit, which provides a complete data set for taking decisions on energy issues.

2. Top management commitment. sets their commitment on sustainability and energy efficiency for all employees.

3. Communicate success to internal stakeholders and external stakeholders

4. Quantification of energy related problems

5. Training personnel and managerial staff

6. Wide participation in the project management team

7. Energy efficiency is a long-term procedure

Best practices for SMEs in implementing. DEESME’s Final Project. Source: https://deesme.eu/

Capabilities - Digital Solutions

Visualized KPIs. Source: https://netzerocities.app

Digital solutions enable real-time monitoring optimizing NbS effectiveness and precision in carbon capture measures.

Digital Public Goods

• Measuring & Monitoring (green & digital transition)

Five trading platform developed by startus. Source: https://www.startus-insights.com

Urban Digital Platforms

• CO2 Emission Trading Platforms

• Grassed swales and water retention pounds

Nature based Solutions - Waterfront

Water interventions Solutions for Coastal Climate adaptation

Mangrove forests

Mangrove forest. Photo by Akarawut Lohachavoenvanich/iStock. Source: https://thecityfix.com

River floodplains

Salt Marshes

Sandy shores

Energy - Efficient appliances

Buying more efficient appliances is a commitment not only to reduce consumption and make savings, it is also a commitment to the more sustainable use of energy, to achieving better results, reducing our workload and improving our daily lives.

Is it worthwhile buying more efficient domestic appliances? Even though they tend to be more expensive, in the long run it is worth buying more efficient domestic appliances. In addition to saving energy and...

Efficeint domestic appliances. Source: Endesa

Mobility and transport - Last mile delivery

Electrified urban freight delivery and other sustainable options for last mile delivery can be promising climate and energy solutions to reduce emissions coming from logistics, in the effort to contribute to low-emission zones as these are now envisaged in a number of cities.

Cases of ZEZ-Fs in Planning and Implementation: Rotterdam

Phases of city logistics: from outside the city to last-mile delivery. Source: https://www.mecalux.com

Finance and Business Models

Business model ensure project´s economy viability, long term effectiveness, scalability and replicability by attracting investments, securing funding and generating revenues streams. Moreover, considering diverse stakeholders facilitates alignment with the local economy.

• Blended finance for Energy Efficiency (EE)

• Green Loan

Best practice: Loans for Energy Efficiency (EE).Source: https://energy-cities.eu

• Participatory budgeting

• Energy Performance Contract (EPC)

Energy Performance Contract (EPC) - Guaranteed savings

Energy Performance Contract (EPC) - Staggered savings

Energy Performance Contract (EPC) - Related payments

Energy Performance Contract (EPC) – Shared savings

Energy - Wind power production

The main issue with wind turbines are the high noise levels (which leads to a low social acceptance) and the lack of space in cities. In Finland, small wind power plants are relatively frequent: Considering operational wind farms as of 2021, 17% of wind power capacity was in plants of size < 20MW (average size 2.12MW), and 8% in plants of size less than 10MW (average size 1.86MW). Smaller wind power plants with a small footprint are more easily integrated near cities or suburban areas

Semtive Energy turbine. Source: https://singularityhub.com

Typical diagram of wind-turbine system. Source: Syahputra, Ramadoni & Soesanti, Indah. (2019). Performance Improvement for Small-Scale Wind Turbine System Based on Maximum Power Point Tracking Control. Energies.

Reduction of emissions - Passive house

Building envelope solutions

Joinery for low-energy houses or passive houses

Passive building solutions

Passive house solutions. Source: https://www.zestarchitecture.com

Passive building design strategies: building orientation, passive heating and cooling

Improvement of energy efficiency by active and passive solutions in buildings

Nature based Solutions - Pollinators

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

Pollinator and verges spaces

Pollinator. Source: https://www.life4pollinators.eu

Pollinators contribute to urban biodiversity, with bees, wasps, beetles, beeflies, hoverflies, butterflies, and moths being the most common. Enhancing their presence in urban areas can be achieved by planting species with the nestar and pollen needed to attract the desired insect pollinators in the city´s green spaces.

Carbon capture - CO2 atmospheric emissions reduction

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

Global carbon stores and fluxes. Source: Maslin, Mark. (2019). Climate change: essential knowledge for developing holistic solutions to our climate crisis. Emerging Topics in Life Sciences. 3.

• Urban carbon sink

• Urban garden bio-filter

“'Urban symbiosis' aims to break linear relationships between consumption and waste by returning outputs as inputs, e.g. recycling wastewater or water from industrial processes [1]”. The current bundle aims to decarbonize via sector coupling: using heating and cooling, electricity or fuels (like hydrogen) or carbon dioxide to make the link between sectors, from the metropolitan to the district level.Sector coupling could be defined as the “interconnection of the energy-consuming sectors with power-producing sectors at large […]”[2} such as X-to-Power and Power-to-X elements, where “X” can be green hydrogen (or other fuels) or heat.It can tackle the following areas if the electricity generation sector becomes cleaner:

• Underpin the massive reduction in transport emissions through, not only electrification but also through fuel cells vehicles (especially in heavy transport like trucks; hydrogen trains, hydrogen boats, etc.) and green hydrogen generation.
• Hydrogen valleys will become important for that matter. Not only for the production of green hydrogen but also to create an industry hub that connects industry for hydrogen generation (electrolysers), infrastructure (h2 local networks), transport (trucks, etc.), and hydrogen use as raw material (for steel, for ammonia, chemical industry, etc.)
• Gas infrastructures to transport and store green gases could also provide flexibility to the power system through the use of fuel cells.
• But it is not the only way, also electricity storage via batteries (as explained in RES Generation: Low carbon electrification) could also be an option.
• Electrify heat process generation (in heavy and light industry) through the use of high temperature heat pumps, and the integration of waste heat from multiple sources and temperature levels (data centers, pulp/food/chemical industries, etc.), creating the necessary framework and contracts to make that happen.
• Also, waste can be shared: such as pulp waste that can be used for the production of biogas (which later on, can be an input for a co-generation plant connected to a DHN).

Flexible sources (heat pumps, batteries, supercapacitors, IoT, smart elements across the city, etc.) will be very valuable to ensure that, when RES generation increases, the power network does not face congestion challenges (due to the mismatch of generation and supply).Digital tools will enable the sharing of outputs (waste heat, waste, secondary materials, etc.) and data, to provide also to grids energy flexibility.

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/environment/ecoap/news/urban-symbiosis-recommendations-cities-re-use-resources_en

[2] https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/gie_-_position_paper_-_sector_coupling_p2g.pdf

Carbon capture - Soil Filter

Green Filter area. Source: https://netzerocities.app

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Green filter area

• Bioretention Areas

Energy - Hydropower

Micro-hydropower plants can be installed for generating "green electricity" from pressure (water head) or kinetic energy (water flow) available in existing urban water networks.

As part of the Hydro4U project, a shaft power plant will be built as a demonstration plant at an already defined location in Kyrgyzstan. Source:https://hydro.zek.at

Holsvirkjun Installation. Source: https://www.global-hydro.eu

Carbon capture - CO2 atmospheric emissions reduction

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

Global carbon stores and fluxes. Source: Maslin, Mark. (2019). Climate change: essential knowledge for developing holistic solutions to our climate crisis. Emerging Topics in Life Sciences. 3.

• Urban carbon sink

• Urban garden bio-filter

Capabilities

Digital solutions enable real-time monitoring optimizing NbS effectiveness and precision in carbon capture measures.

Five trading platform developed by startus. Source: https://www.startus-insights.com

Urban Digital Platforms

• CO2 Emission Trading Platforms

Educational, Capacity Building instruments

• Educational activities suring & Monitoring (green & digital transition)

Digitaler Zwilling München. Source: Technical University of Munich

Analytics modelling solutions

• Digital Twin

Finance and Business Models

Business model ensure project´s economy viability, long term effectiveness, scalability and replicability by attracting investments, securing funding and generating revenues streams. Moreover, considering diverse stakeholders facilitates alignment with the local economy.

• Blended finance for Energy Efficiency (EE)

• Green Loan

Best practice: Loans for Energy Efficiency (EE).Source: https://energy-cities.eu

• Participatory budgeting

• Energy Performance Contract (EPC)

Energy Performance Contract (EPC) - Guaranteed savings

Energy Performance Contract (EPC) - Staggered savings

Energy Performance Contract (EPC) - Related payments

Energy Performance Contract (EPC) – Shared savings

Nature based Solutions - Urban water grid

Water interventions

Storm water channels

Grassed swales and water retention pounds

Storm water retenetion. Source: https://www.terraforce.com

Retention pond. Source: http://winnipeg.ca

Nature based Solutions - Pollinators

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

Pollinator and verges spaces

Pollinator. Source: https://www.life4pollinators.eu

Pollinators contribute to urban biodiversity, with bees, wasps, beetles, beeflies, hoverflies, butterflies, and moths being the most common. Enhancing their presence in urban areas can be achieved by planting species with the nestar and pollen needed to attract the desired insect pollinators in the city´s green spaces.

Finance and Business Models

Business model ensure project´s economy viability, long term effectiveness, scalability and replicability by attracting investments, securing funding and generating revenues streams. Moreover, considering diverse stakeholders facilitates alignment with the local economy.

proGIreg

NZC

Connecting Nature

Policy & governance

Challenges for NbS and IG. Source: IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature)

Regulatory instruments

• NBS and Green Infrastructure plans and strategy design and governance

• NBS and Green Infrastructure regulation and ordinances

Relevant agencies

• European Environment Agency (EEA)

• International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

Policy & governance

Challenges for NbS and IG. Source: IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature)

Regulatory instruments

• NBS and Green Infrastructure plans and strategy design and governance

• NBS and Green Infrastructure regulation and ordinances

Relevant agencies

• European Environment Agency (EEA)

• International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

Energy - Wind power production

The main issue with wind turbines are the high noise levels (which leads to a low social acceptance) and the lack of space in cities. In Finland, small wind power plants are relatively frequent: Considering operational wind farms as of 2021, 17% of wind power capacity was in plants of size < 20MW (average size 2.12MW), and 8% in plants of size less than 10MW (average size 1.86MW). Smaller wind power plants with a small footprint are more easily integrated near cities or suburban areas

Semtive Energy turbine. Source: https://singularityhub.com

Typical diagram of wind-turbine system. Source: Syahputra, Ramadoni & Soesanti, Indah. (2019). Performance Improvement for Small-Scale Wind Turbine System Based on Maximum Power Point Tracking Control. Energies.

Energy - Automation and Control Systems (BACS)/Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS)

Energy Management System (EMS) comprises an optimal integration of Distributed Energy Resources (generation, storage an consumption with special relevance of renewable energy), active participation of new energy profiles (active consumers, prosumers, aggregators...), hybridation of energy vectors and artificial intelligence.

Building Automation and Control Systems (BACS)

Schematic representation of a complex imHLA. Source: https://www.bable-smartcities.el

Energy Management Systems

Capabilities - Digital Solutions

Visualized KPIs. Source: https://netzerocities.app

Digital solutions enable real-time monitoring optimizing NbS effectiveness and precision in carbon capture measures.

Digital Public Goods

• Measuring & Monitoring (green & digital transition)

Five trading platform developed by startus. Source: https://www.startus-insights.com

Urban Digital Platforms

• CO2 Emission Trading Platforms

Energy - Hydropower

Micro-hydropower plants can be installed for generating "green electricity" from pressure (water head) or kinetic energy (water flow) available in existing urban water networks.

As part of the Hydro4U project, a shaft power plant will be built as a demonstration plant at an already defined location in Kyrgyzstan. Source:https://hydro.zek.at

Holsvirkjun Installation. Source: https://www.global-hydro.eu

Nature based Solutions - Heat Island reduction

Water interventions

Outdoor Misting Systems. Source: outdoor misting systems for cooling - Bing images

• Urban heat island effect mitigation (Evaporative cooling)

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Cooling trees

Energy - Large scale solar production

Large solar-photovoltaic systems (or solar parks) can provide carbon-free electricity to cities. The main issue encountered in cities is the lack of space and the "not in my backyard" phenomenon. There are many options to finance it, but great examples can be found such as the Westmill Solar Co-operative, which counts over 20,000 polycrystalline PV panels and generates around 5GWhr per year in Oxfordshire.

Integrating Evacuated Tube Collectors (ETC) into photovoltaic installations enhances efficiency by optimizing radiation absortion and minimizing heat transfer losses. This results in an improvement performance ratio, eneabling heat production even during winter with low-light conditions and cold temperatures.

Solar Farm. Source: 'https://www.rescoop.eu

June success story: Ten years harvesting the sun's energy in Oxfordshire - REScoop Stories Homepage news-and-events stories June success story: Ten years harvesting the sun's energy in Oxfordshire Community energy is key to action... Rescoop

Finance and Business Models

Business model ensure project´s economy viability, long term effectiveness, scalability and replicability by attracting investments, securing funding and generating revenues streams. Moreover, considering diverse stakeholders facilitates alignment with the local economy.

proGIreg

NZC

Connecting Nature

Energy - Efficient appliances

Buying more efficient appliances is a commitment not only to reduce consumption and make savings, it is also a commitment to the more sustainable use of energy, to achieving better results, reducing our workload and improving our daily lives.

Is it worthwhile buying more efficient domestic appliances? Even though they tend to be more expensive, in the long run it is worth buying more efficient domestic appliances. In addition to saving energy and...

Efficeint domestic appliances. Source: Endesa

Mobility and transport - Bus fleet electrfication

Major raw materials commonly used in battery electric vehicles. Source: https://code.europa.eu

Bus fleet electrification combined with the use of renewable energy is an opportunity for cities to make public transport greener and healthier. It has the potential of a significantly higher impact than the electrification of cars since buses have more operating hours per day and a higher annual fuel consumption.

Amstelland Meerlanden‘s electric bus fleet. Source: https://www.sustainable-bus.com/

Nature based Solutions - Urban water grid

Water interventions

Storm water channels

Grassed swales and water retention pounds

Storm water retenetion. Source: https://www.terraforce.com

Retention pond. Source: http://winnipeg.ca

Citizen Participation Platforms

For engaging stakeholders, the following actions can be considered:

Citizen Participation Platforms allow citizens to take on an active part in city governmental decisions. In this platforms citizens can access and provide useful data, and local governments receives feedback making cities more democratic and dynamic.

User engagement Changes at home, neighborhood, and environment are necessary in order to achieve goals related to energy conservation and the generation of sustainable energy. The extent to which residents are involved in the process of making sustainable decisions has an important impact on the speed and outcome of such projects. Informative sessions and social media campaigns, climate-related action offices for local support (such as the ones in Valencia), will be needed.

Energy communities can be understood as a way to organize collective energy actions around open, democratic participation and governance, and the provision of benefits for the members or the local community. Energy communities can support the adoption of electrification (through implementation of PVs, heat pumps, batteries, etc.)

Case study of Valencia

Method energy communities

Energy loop - Solar thermal technologies

Solar thermal technologies convert sunlight directly into heat. The generated heat is used for domestic hot water heating, space heating, or process heating, and the solar systems are designed to provide the right temperature needed for the application.

Solar Thermal panel. Source: https://www.isover-technical-insulation.com

Policy & governance

Enabling instruments provide the legal framework and guidelines necessary for integrating NbS and carbon capture measures into urban and environmental planning.

• System level circular economy approaches

• Promote PV

• Facillitating framework for energy communities with PV

Best practice: Save – Upgrade Plan in Cyprus.. Source: https://www.fundingprogrammesportal.gov.cy/en/

Comparative analysis of the regulatory framework in Sun4All pilot cities

Regulatoy framework for energy communities

Energy loop - Renovación de DH&CN (1G y 2G)

The first step towards the renovation of the district heating system is to refurbish the buildings. Once all buildings are refurbished, the district heating can be adapted by reducing the supply temperature to 60°C, which allows the inclusion of renewable energy sources (solar thermal, waste heat) and heat pumps as energy sources in the grid. If not all buildings are refurbished, another possibility is to reduce the supply temperature of a part of the district heating system and use the return heat from the traditional part to supply the part of the grid with a lower temperature (cascade use of heat).

Example of a DH network with a primary, secondary and tertiary grid which is separated by substations (Sub.) and which supplies heat to different types of consumers (Source: D. Rutz)

Parts of the DH system in Ferrara. Source: Final Project Report (upgrade DH)

Energy - Efficient appliances

Buying more efficient appliances is a commitment not only to reduce consumption and make savings, it is also a commitment to the more sustainable use of energy, to achieving better results, reducing our workload and improving our daily lives.

Is it worthwhile buying more efficient domestic appliances? Even though they tend to be more expensive, in the long run it is worth buying more efficient domestic appliances. In addition to saving energy and...

Efficeint domestic appliances. Source: Endesa

Energy - Waste heat

Sewage heat recovery via pump systems extract thermal energy from wastewater (12-15°C) using heat exchangers and pumps. These systems can pre-heat tap water for domestic hot water and space heating in individual buildings or supply low-heat to a district heating network (DHN) in larger sewer plants and channels. Heat pumps can be integrated to raise the temperature for consumption. This solution could be implementes in residential, commercial, and industrial buildings, offering a reduction in hot water demand up to 20% by raising its temperature by 10 degrees

Heat Recovery & Valorisation from process heating (of industries) or data centers can be recovered, upgraded (i.e. increase temperature to the desired one with a heat pump), and used to descarbonise district heating networks.

Industrial Heat Pump technologies or High Temperature Heat Pumps (HTHP) have been identified for applications in the supply temperature range of 100 - 150°C in the food, paper, and chemical/pharma industries, in particular in drying processes, as well as in pasteurizing, sterilizing, evaporation, and distillation. The application of heat pump technologies opens additional new options for sector coupling of electricity, heating, and cooling and provides flexibility, e.g. through heat storage in industrial plants.

Chester assessment tool. Source: www.chester.datuma.aiguasol.coop

Nature based Solutions - Wetlands

Water interventions

• Natural inland wetlands

Constructed wetland scheme. Source: https://www.archdaily.com

• Constructed wetland

Policy & governance

Challenges for NbS and IG. Source: IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature)

Regulatory instruments

• NBS and Green Infrastructure plans and strategy design and governance

• NBS and Green Infrastructure regulation and ordinances

Relevant agencies

• European Environment Agency (EEA)

• International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

Energy loop - Solar thermal technologies

Solar thermal technologies convert sunlight directly into heat. The generated heat is used for domestic hot water heating, space heating, or process heating, and the solar systems are designed to provide the right temperature needed for the application.

Solar Thermal panel. Source: https://www.isover-technical-insulation.com

Nature based Solutions - Water optimization

Floodable park. Source: https://urbantoronto.ca

Water interventions

• Floodable park

• Rain garden

Rain garden. Source: https://www.courtenay.ca

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Floating gardens

Mobility and transport - Bus fleet electrfication

Major raw materials commonly used in battery electric vehicles. Source: https://code.europa.eu

Bus fleet electrification combined with the use of renewable energy is an opportunity for cities to make public transport greener and healthier. It has the potential of a significantly higher impact than the electrification of cars since buses have more operating hours per day and a higher annual fuel consumption.

Amstelland Meerlanden‘s electric bus fleet. Source: https://www.sustainable-bus.com/

Reduction of emissions - Building carbon emissions

Low-carbon and sustainable building materials

Low-carbon sustainable concrete

Reducing embedded emissions of buildings

Technology Roadmap. Low-Carbon Transition in the Cement Industry (IEA). Source: https://iea.blob.core.windows.net

Sensorized-panel. Source: http://www.endurcrete.eu

Carbon capture - Soil Filter

Green Filter area. Source: https://netzerocities.app

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Green filter area

• Bioretention Areas

Carbon capture - Vertical Green Infrastructure

Zagreb, Croatia. ProGIreg. Source: https://progireg.eu

Building envelope solutions

Green walls and green façades

Green fences

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

Green living walls. Source: https://citygreen.com

Green noise barriers

Vertical mobile gardens

Policy & governance

Challenges for NbS and IG. Source: IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature)

Regulatory instruments

• NBS and Green Infrastructure plans and strategy design and governance

• NBS and Green Infrastructure regulation and ordinances

Relevant agencies

• European Environment Agency (EEA)

• International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)

Reduction of emissions - Building carbon emissions

Low-carbon and sustainable building materials

Low-carbon sustainable concrete

Reducing embedded emissions of buildings

Technology Roadmap. Low-Carbon Transition in the Cement Industry (IEA). Source: https://iea.blob.core.windows.net

Sensorized-panel. Source: http://www.endurcrete.eu

Mobility and transport - Last mile delivery

Electrified urban freight delivery and other sustainable options for last mile delivery can be promising climate and energy solutions to reduce emissions coming from logistics, in the effort to contribute to low-emission zones as these are now envisaged in a number of cities.

Cases of ZEZ-Fs in Planning and Implementation: Rotterdam

Phases of city logistics: from outside the city to last-mile delivery. Source: https://www.mecalux.com

Mobility and transport - Last mile delivery

Electrified urban freight delivery and other sustainable options for last mile delivery can be promising climate and energy solutions to reduce emissions coming from logistics, in the effort to contribute to low-emission zones as these are now envisaged in a number of cities.

Cases of ZEZ-Fs in Planning and Implementation: Rotterdam

Phases of city logistics: from outside the city to last-mile delivery. Source: https://www.mecalux.com

Energy - Smart street lighting

Schematic representation of a complex imHLA. Source: www.mysmartlife.eu

Smart street lighting is characterised by the fact that the individual light point not only fulfills the function of the lighting, but also offers additional services for citizens such as environmental monitoring (noise and air quality), or public Wi-Fi improvement among others. Furthermore, it can integrate photovoltaic panels, reducing electricity consumption.

• Grassed swales and water retention pounds

Nature based Solutions - Waterfront

Water interventions Solutions for Coastal Climate adaptation

Mangrove forests

Mangrove forest. Photo by Akarawut Lohachavoenvanich/iStock. Source: https://thecityfix.com

River floodplains

Salt Marshes

Sandy shores

Mobility and transport - Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs) in urban transport

In the urban transport, fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are complementary to Full Electric Vehicles (BEV), allowing a transition to zero emission vehicles (when hydrogen production uses renewable energy sources) today for applications that remain hard to decarbonise due to their operational needs (e.g. garbage trucks and taxi fleets).

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle. Source: https://afdc.energy.gov

Mobility and transport - E-mobility

An Electric Vehicle (EV) uses electric power instead of an internal combustion engine powered by other fuel types like diesel fuel or gasoline. It has been increasingly recognized that EV may provide an opportunity to reduce global GHG emissions (UN Habitat, 2014) and increase air quality, if powered by renewable energy sources. The use of second life batteries and improved battery performance may in the future further reduce the need of raw materials and the related environmental impact.

• Zero emission electric cars

Green Charge demo pilot Oslo. Source: https://www.greencharge2020.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Green-Charge-Demo-Card-OSL.D2-Charge-point-operation-demo.pdf

• Fleet decarbonisation

Finance and Business Models

Business model ensure project´s economy viability, long term effectiveness, scalability and replicability by attracting investments, securing funding and generating revenues streams. Moreover, considering diverse stakeholders facilitates alignment with the local economy.

proGIreg

NZC

Connecting Nature

Energy - geothermal/aerothermal heat pumps

At building level, geothermal/aerothermal heat pumps can be used to descarbonise the heating and cooling production. Generally speaking, geothermal will reach hi gher efficiency levels than aerothermal, and will be invisible to the user, but requires higher investment costs (due to the drilling), and environmental permits (country dependent). Heat pumps can be coupled with solar, in several ways, and batteries for optimising the energy management.

PVT coupled with HPs and other systems, and PVT coupled with a reversible heat pump and a tank to produce space heating and domestic hot water needs. Source: https://netzerocities.app/s

Geotermia

Sistemas híbridos (PVT, PV+HP, ...)

Heatpump

Batteries

Optimization energy

Energy - Automation and Control Systems (BACS)/Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS)

Energy Management System (EMS) comprises an optimal integration of Distributed Energy Resources (generation, storage an consumption with special relevance of renewable energy), active participation of new energy profiles (active consumers, prosumers, aggregators...), hybridation of energy vectors and artificial intelligence.

Building Automation and Control Systems (BACS)

Schematic representation of a complex imHLA. Source: https://www.bable-smartcities.el

Energy Management Systems

Mobility and transport - Mobility hubs

Mobility hubs include the deployment of e-charging stations across different levels sharing public infrastructure, and utilizing parking lots, canopies, and benches also as multifunctional points of charge. They are a means to seamlessly link various modes of transport in order to enable inter-modal trip chains as an alternative to the private car and allow easy access to new forms of sustainable mobility or shared transport (from rail, to buses, shared cars, shared bikes) with mutli-modal supportive infrastructure and different sort of facilities such as delivery or pick-up points. Mobility hubs can be distributed throughout urban, suburban and rural areas to enable access to sustainable transport options and should be planned with public tr ansport as backbone.

Energy loop - Solar thermal technologies

Solar thermal technologies convert sunlight directly into heat. The generated heat is used for domestic hot water heating, space heating, or process heating, and the solar systems are designed to provide the right temperature needed for the application.

Solar Thermal panel. Source: https://www.isover-technical-insulation.com

Energy - Smart street lighting

Schematic representation of a complex imHLA. Source: www.mysmartlife.eu

Smart street lighting is characterised by the fact that the individual light point not only fulfills the function of the lighting, but also offers additional services for citizens such as environmental monitoring (noise and air quality), or public Wi-Fi improvement among others. Furthermore, it can integrate photovoltaic panels, reducing electricity consumption.

Energy - Large scale solar production

Large solar-photovoltaic systems (or solar parks) can provide carbon-free electricity to cities. The main issue encountered in cities is the lack of space and the "not in my backyard" phenomenon. There are many options to finance it, but great examples can be found such as the Westmill Solar Co-operative, which counts over 20,000 polycrystalline PV panels and generates around 5GWhr per year in Oxfordshire.

Integrating Evacuated Tube Collectors (ETC) into photovoltaic installations enhances efficiency by optimizing radiation absortion and minimizing heat transfer losses. This results in an improvement performance ratio, eneabling heat production even during winter with low-light conditions and cold temperatures.

Solar Farm. Source: 'https://www.rescoop.eu

June success story: Ten years harvesting the sun's energy in Oxfordshire - REScoop Stories Homepage news-and-events stories June success story: Ten years harvesting the sun's energy in Oxfordshire Community energy is key to action... Rescoop

Carbon capture - Green urban areas

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

Green resting areas, parks and urban forests, parklets

Green corridors for active and cooler mobility

Walking tour in Hiedanranta. Source: https://unalab.eu/

Regreen topics. Source: https://www.regreen-project.eu

Finance and Business Models

Business model ensure project´s economy viability, long term effectiveness, scalability and replicability by attracting investments, securing funding and generating revenues streams. Moreover, considering diverse stakeholders facilitates alignment with the local economy.

proGIreg

NZC

Connecting Nature

Nature based Solutions - Water course measures

Steps of river restoration. Source: Binder, Walter & Göttle, Albert & Shuhuai, Duan. (2015). Ecological restoration of small water Courses, Experiences from Germany and from Projects in Beijing. International Soil and Water Conservation Research.

Water interventions

River and stream renaturalization

Restore water-courses

1. Initial state
2. The initial phase of the project should involve removing the bank fixation to restore the natural structure of the watercourse
3. Upon the restoration of the watercourse, natural water flow and sediment transport will facilitate the reintroduction of native flora and fauna
4. Restoring watercourses requires time and land to achieve an ecological balance.

Energy - Photovoltaic panels (PV)

Photovoltaic panels on green roof were found to be, on average, 3.63% more efficient on any given day from the fact the green roof remained far cooler than the traditional concrete, meaning the panels did not overheat and therefore underperform.

Green roof improves solar panel efficiency by 3.6% on average The comparison of two solar cladded roofs in Sydney, Australia, one bare beneath its panels and the other adorned with native grasses and plants, has...

PV panels on the roof. Source: pv magazine International

Energy - geothermal/aerothermal heat pumps

At building level, geothermal/aerothermal heat pumps can be used to descarbonise the heating and cooling production. Generally speaking, geothermal will reach hi gher efficiency levels than aerothermal, and will be invisible to the user, but requires higher investment costs (due to the drilling), and environmental permits (country dependent). Heat pumps can be coupled with solar, in several ways, and batteries for optimising the energy management.

PVT coupled with HPs and other systems, and PVT coupled with a reversible heat pump and a tank to produce space heating and domestic hot water needs. Source: https://netzerocities.app/s

Geotermia

Sistemas híbridos (PVT, PV+HP, ...)

Heatpump

Batteries

Optimization energy

Carbon capture - CO2 atmospheric emissions reduction

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

Global carbon stores and fluxes. Source: Maslin, Mark. (2019). Climate change: essential knowledge for developing holistic solutions to our climate crisis. Emerging Topics in Life Sciences. 3.

• Urban carbon sink

• Urban garden bio-filter

Energy - Photovoltaic panels (PV)

Photovoltaic panels on green roof were found to be, on average, 3.63% more efficient on any given day from the fact the green roof remained far cooler than the traditional concrete, meaning the panels did not overheat and therefore underperform.

Green roof improves solar panel efficiency by 3.6% on average The comparison of two solar cladded roofs in Sydney, Australia, one bare beneath its panels and the other adorned with native grasses and plants, has...

PV panels on the roof. Source: pv magazine International

Capabilities

Digital solutions enable real-time monitoring optimizing NbS effectiveness and precision in carbon capture measures.

Five trading platform developed by startus. Source: https://www.startus-insights.com

Urban Digital Platforms

• CO2 Emission Trading Platforms

Educational, Capacity Building instruments

• Educational activities suring & Monitoring (green & digital transition)

Digitaler Zwilling München. Source: Technical University of Munich

Analytics modelling solutions

• Digital Twin

Online Tools

NBS selection tool

NBS Scenarios Generation Tool

Nature4CITIES

GeoIKP

EPESUS city (Ekodenge)

Evaluating the impact of NbS

SESAME tool. CEREMA (in French)

iTree

Energy - Energy Management System (EMS)

Energy Management System (EMS) comprises an optimal integration of Distributed Energy Resources (generation, storage an consumption with special relevance of renewable energy), active participation of new energy profiles (active consumers, prosumers, aggregators...), hybridation of energy vectors and artificial intelligence. EMS typically has three parts:

• Measurement: Collection of information on energy consumption
• Monitor: Metering sensors that track energy consumption
• Control: Control system that provide instruction to the EMS interface and actual control debice

1. Complete & accurate data. Complete and accurate data comes from an energy audit, which provides a complete data set for taking decisions on energy issues.

2. Top management commitment. sets their commitment on sustainability and energy efficiency for all employees.

3. Communicate success to internal stakeholders and external stakeholders

4. Quantification of energy related problems

5. Training personnel and managerial staff

6. Wide participation in the project management team

7. Energy efficiency is a long-term procedure

Best practices for SMEs in implementing. DEESME’s Final Project. Source: https://deesme.eu/

Nature based Solutions - Sustainable pavements

Water interventions

Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS)

Hard drainage-flood prevention

Green pavements: hard drainage pavements; green parking pavements

Lamb Drove, Residential SuDS, Cambourne, Cambridge. Source:https://www.susdrain.org

Wallands Primary School Rainscape SUDs case study. Source:https://www.susdrain.org

Mobility and transport - Bus fleet electrfication

Major raw materials commonly used in battery electric vehicles. Source: https://code.europa.eu

Bus fleet electrification combined with the use of renewable energy is an opportunity for cities to make public transport greener and healthier. It has the potential of a significantly higher impact than the electrification of cars since buses have more operating hours per day and a higher annual fuel consumption.

Amstelland Meerlanden‘s electric bus fleet. Source: https://www.sustainable-bus.com/

“'Urban symbiosis' aims to break linear relationships between consumption and waste by returning outputs as inputs, e.g. recycling wastewater or water from industrial processes [1]”. The current bundle aims to decarbonize via sector coupling: using heating and cooling, electricity or fuels (like hydrogen) or carbon dioxide to make the link between sectors, from the metropolitan to the district level.Sector coupling could be defined as the “interconnection of the energy-consuming sectors with power-producing sectors at large […]”[2} such as X-to-Power and Power-to-X elements, where “X” can be green hydrogen (or other fuels) or heat.It can tackle the following areas if the electricity generation sector becomes cleaner:

• Underpin the massive reduction in transport emissions through, not only electrification but also through fuel cells vehicles (especially in heavy transport like trucks; hydrogen trains, hydrogen boats, etc.) and green hydrogen generation.
• Hydrogen valleys will become important for that matter. Not only for the production of green hydrogen but also to create an industry hub that connects industry for hydrogen generation (electrolysers), infrastructure (h2 local networks), transport (trucks, etc.), and hydrogen use as raw material (for steel, for ammonia, chemical industry, etc.)
• Gas infrastructures to transport and store green gases could also provide flexibility to the power system through the use of fuel cells.
• But it is not the only way, also electricity storage via batteries (as explained in RES Generation: Low carbon electrification) could also be an option.
• Electrify heat process generation (in heavy and light industry) through the use of high temperature heat pumps, and the integration of waste heat from multiple sources and temperature levels (data centers, pulp/food/chemical industries, etc.), creating the necessary framework and contracts to make that happen.
• Also, waste can be shared: such as pulp waste that can be used for the production of biogas (which later on, can be an input for a co-generation plant connected to a DHN).

Flexible sources (heat pumps, batteries, supercapacitors, IoT, smart elements across the city, etc.) will be very valuable to ensure that, when RES generation increases, the power network does not face congestion challenges (due to the mismatch of generation and supply).Digital tools will enable the sharing of outputs (waste heat, waste, secondary materials, etc.) and data, to provide also to grids energy flexibility.

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/environment/ecoap/news/urban-symbiosis-recommendations-cities-re-use-resources_en

[2] https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/gie_-_position_paper_-_sector_coupling_p2g.pdf

Carbon capture - Carbon Sequestration

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Smart-soils and phytoremediation

• Soil carbon sequestration

Conceptualization of C sequestration potentials in arable land. Source: Amelung, W., Bossio, D., de Vries, W. et al. Towards a global-scale soil climate mitigation strategy. Nat Commun 11, 5427 (2020).

Policy & governance

Enabling instruments provide the legal framework and guidelines necessary for integrating NbS and carbon capture measures into urban and environmental planning.

• Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP)

• Parking policies, management and fees, smart parking

• Mobility as a Service (MaaS)

Best practice: Save – Upgrade Plan in Cyprus.. Source: https://www.fundingprogrammesportal.gov.cy/en/

• System level circular economy approaches

• Promote PV

Nature based Solutions - Pollinators

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

Pollinator and verges spaces

Pollinator. Source: https://www.life4pollinators.eu

Pollinators contribute to urban biodiversity, with bees, wasps, beetles, beeflies, hoverflies, butterflies, and moths being the most common. Enhancing their presence in urban areas can be achieved by planting species with the nestar and pollen needed to attract the desired insect pollinators in the city´s green spaces.

Nature based Solutions - Heat Island reduction

Water interventions

Outdoor Misting Systems. Source: outdoor misting systems for cooling - Bing images

• Urban heat island effect mitigation (Evaporative cooling)

Urban carbon storage and sequestration, and singular green infrastructure

• Cooling trees

Capabilities - Digital Solutions

Visualized KPIs. Source: https://netzerocities.app

Digital solutions enable real-time monitoring optimizing NbS effectiveness and precision in carbon capture measures.

Digital Public Goods

• Measuring & Monitoring (green & digital transition)

Five trading platform developed by startus. Source: https://www.startus-insights.com

Urban Digital Platforms

• CO2 Emission Trading Platforms

Capabilities - Digital Solutions

Visualized KPIs. Source: https://netzerocities.app

Digital solutions enable real-time monitoring optimizing NbS effectiveness and precision in carbon capture measures.

Digital Public Goods

• Measuring & Monitoring (green & digital transition)

Five trading platform developed by startus. Source: https://www.startus-insights.com

Urban Digital Platforms

• CO2 Emission Trading Platforms

Energy - Energy Management System (EMS)

Energy Management System (EMS) comprises an optimal integration of Distributed Energy Resources (generation, storage an consumption with special relevance of renewable energy), active participation of new energy profiles (active consumers, prosumers, aggregators...), hybridation of energy vectors and artificial intelligence. EMS typically has three parts:

• Measurement: Collection of information on energy consumption
• Monitor: Metering sensors that track energy consumption
• Control: Control system that provide instruction to the EMS interface and actual control debice

1. Complete & accurate data. Complete and accurate data comes from an energy audit, which provides a complete data set for taking decisions on energy issues.

2. Top management commitment. sets their commitment on sustainability and energy efficiency for all employees.

3. Communicate success to internal stakeholders and external stakeholders

4. Quantification of energy related problems

5. Training personnel and managerial staff

6. Wide participation in the project management team

7. Energy efficiency is a long-term procedure

Best practices for SMEs in implementing. DEESME’s Final Project. Source: https://deesme.eu/

Mobility and transport - Mobility hubs

Mobility hubs include the deployment of e-charging stations across different levels sharing public infrastructure, and utilizing parking lots, canopies, and benches also as multifunctional points of charge. They are a means to seamlessly link various modes of transport in order to enable inter-modal trip chains as an alternative to the private car and allow easy access to new forms of sustainable mobility or shared transport (from rail, to buses, shared cars, shared bikes) with mutli-modal supportive infrastructure and different sort of facilities such as delivery or pick-up points. Mobility hubs can be distributed throughout urban, suburban and rural areas to enable access to sustainable transport options and should be planned with public tr ansport as backbone.

Energy - Demand management “as Demand response”

Demand response is a method for matching the demand for energy to the available supply of energy (ISO/IEC 15067-3:2012), increasing the grid reliability, reducing the need to build new capacity and reducing the use of fossil-based peak electric generation.It could be implicit demand response with time-varying electricity prices; or explicit demand response, where (mainly large consumers) can sell their flexibility to the electricity markets or aggregators. Examples of demand response are Smart EV charging, Smart Heating and Cooling (building -level intelligence) sustainable manufacturing, and smart communities with microgrids.

Smart EV charging

Smart Heating and Cooling sustainable manufacturing

Smart communities with microgrids

Mobility and transport - Public charging system for EVs

Easy access to public charging for EVs (including taxis, city utility vehicles, private cars, etc.) is a necessity in transition toward zero-emission electric transport. The charging infrastructures can be provided in various locations & forms, i.e. on-street charging infrastructure for residents & (fast) charging hubs.

Major raw materials commonly used in battery electric vehicles. Source: Compiled from data in Hawkins et al., 2013; Mathieux et al., 2017; EC, 2018a; 2018b.

Finance and Business Models

Business model ensure project´s economy viability, long term effectiveness, scalability and replicability by attracting investments, securing funding and generating revenues streams. Moreover, considering diverse stakeholders facilitates alignment with the local economy.

proGIreg

NZC

Connecting Nature

A carbon sink absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The ocean, soil, and forests are the world's largest carbon sinks. [1]Carbon capture can be sequestered through the biological process (i.e., indirect capture of CO2 through carbon sinks) or technology applications (direct CO2 capture). CO2 can be stored to be removed later through its use as a feedstock to produce fuels or products or stored permanently in geological formations.Carbon sinks will be mainly linked with other solutions via water (as natural sinks will consume it), energy (for those sinks that need some energy to maintain them or for CCS), and materials.

[1] https://netzerocities.app/resource-2644

Nature based Solutions - Sustainable pavements

Water interventions

Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS)

Hard drainage-flood prevention

Green pavements: hard drainage pavements; green parking pavements

Lamb Drove, Residential SuDS, Cambourne, Cambridge. Source:https://www.susdrain.org

Wallands Primary School Rainscape SUDs case study. Source:https://www.susdrain.org

Online Tools

NBS selection tool

NBS Scenarios Generation Tool

ValuES

Nature4CITIES

GeoIKP

EPESUS city (Ekodenge)

Evaluating the impact of NbS

SESAME tool. CEREMA (in French)

iTree