Patrizia Lucia Lombardi

Politecnico di Torino | polito · DIST - Interuniversity Department of Regional and Urban Studies and Planning

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, understanding its impacts on cities has received much attention in science and policy circles. This paper systematically reviews the literature on the interface of the pandemic and urban sustainability. The objective is to portray the impacts brought by the COVID-19 outbreak in urban environments within...

The circular economy (CE) concept reported a growing interest as an operationalizing framework, able to support the implementation of sustainable production and consumption, resource use and waste prevention broader concepts. Even if CE is different from waste management, it has traditionally been associated with waste reduction, recycling improvem...

Cities around the world have faced the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic with unprecedented speed, due to our hyper-connected society. As history teaches us, epidemics plague society because of the vulnerabilities generated by humans through their relationships with the environment, with other species and with each other. The recent pandemic is a sta...

City leaders are advancing low-carbon transitions in urban areas that require robust operational frameworks and innovative processes. This paper presents a novel interdisciplinary framework to support urban decision-makers in the design and implementation of low-carbon strategies based on participatory approaches. Using inductive reasoning, the fra...

The use of indicators for sustainability assessment in the urban planning process is a widely used approach. With the definition of the Agenda 2030 and the role of cities in achieving sustainable development goals, much work has been devoted to the definition of evaluation frameworks and indicators to assess policies and plans and support decision-...

In Italy, there is a clear disparity between cities and villages located in marginal areas. The progressive depopulation of inland areas and the urban polarization represent consolidated dynamics difficult to adapt to the new paradigm of sustainable development. The post-Covid-19 pandemic scenario offers the opportunity to redefine new parameters o...

There is now a clear disparity between major cities and villages located in marginal areas of Italy. Progressive depopulation of inland areas and urban polarization such as consolidated territorial dynamics are difficult to dampen and adapt to the new paradigms of sustainable territorial development, although they have been abruptly redirected by t...

The evaluation of city sustainability considering economic, social, and environmental subsystems is a fundamental field in urban planning. It directly affects the quality of urban economies toward efficiency and innovation with minimal resource consumption. This requires the use of appropriate SDSS (Spatial Decision Support Systems) which take into...

The rapid process of urbanization in the world is generating several harmful impacts. This is especially true in a Latin American context, where cities have a high growth expansion rate in terms of population. Hence, it is necessary to take action to shift cities into resilient and sustainable environments. The present study aims to develop an exis...

Decades of techno-economic energy policymaking and research have meant evidence from the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH)—including critical reflections on what changing a society’s relation to energy (efficiency) even means—have been underutilised. In particular, (i) the SSH have too often been sidelined and/or narrowly pigeonholed by policyma...

Educational buildings should provide a secure, healthy, and comfortable indoor environment for students since they spend a noteworthy part of their time inside. The present study aims to identify and assess the key indicators related to the light and air quality of a campus classroom, which contributes to the health of students. The indicators are...

This paper explores the consumption-based ecological footprint method and its application aiming at a quantitative assessment of the sustainability of a university campus. The goal is to inform the planning decision-making process and evaluate the socio-technical solutions implemented in local urban settings for reducing energy consumption, decreas...

Purpose The study, within the Increasing Resilience of Cultural Heritage (ResCult) project, aims to support civil protection to prevent, lessen and mitigate disasters impacts on cultural heritage using a unique standardised-3D geographical information system (GIS), including both heritage and risk and hazard information. Design/methodology/approac...

Environmental assessment methods have increasingly been adopted to support local transitions toward sustainable urban development and Agenda 2030 implementation at the city level. However, available methods evaluating both direct and indirect (embodied) environmental impacts due to local consumption are still limited and lack a broad coverage of en...

Immaginare il futuro è una delle funzioni, forse la principale, della politica. La democratizzazione del futuro è una priorità per le nostre società. Come sarà la città di Torino nel 2030? Quali trend demografici, tecnologici, ambientali e occupazionali stanno disegnando il perimetro dei suoi assetti? Quali le sfide, gli scenari e le missioni colle...

This session builds on the insights from the session Accelerating Adaptation in the Global South, with a strong policy focus. The panel discussion will focus around the various initiatives being developed to mainstream and expand the amount of action-orientated research being undertaken to rise to the global climate emergency. In particular, the se...

Please join us for the opening session of the first Climate Exp0 with Emily Shuckburgh, conference co-chair and director of Cambridge Zero, and special guests.

Urban areas account for 70 per cent of global economic output and more than half of current greenhouse gas emissions and are set to absorb all future growth in world population. Alarmingly, energy consumption is projected to increase over the next 10 years due to an increase in global economic output. Transport is the world's biggest producer of gr...

The transition towards sustainable cities requires extensive improvement of environmental and energy consumption performances. However, the design of alternative sustainable scenarios is a complex issue which involves a large number of indicators and multiple stakeholders. In this regard, the use of appropriate assessment tools and decision-making...

Urban areas are gradually becoming more viable places in terms of life quality than most rural areas. This phenomenon generates human movements, both at a local and at an international scale, the latter usually being labeled as irregular migration. This study aims at analyzing urban scenario proposals that part from incremental urbanism principles...

Nowadays, the topics related both to the safeguard and the valorization of cultural heritage and cultural assets are getting more attention in the political agenda. Innovative approaches to implement both the risk analysis and the resilience assessment are ever more required. This paper illustrates an original approach, concerning the development o...

Innovations in technical, financial, and social areas are crucial prerequisites for an effective and sustainable energy transition. In this context, the construction of a new energy structure and the motivation of the consumer towards a change in their consumption behaviours to balance demand with a volatile energy supply are important issues. At t...

This paper gathers reflections on what can bring together academics and practitioners involved in energy-related European Union (EU) funded projects aiming at, or striving to reach, higher integration of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) with Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). To this end, four multidisciplinary workshops c...

With the increasing concern of the building environmental impacts, governmental regulation and people own consciousness have shown rising interest in buildings protocols and methods for sustainability certification. Life cycle assessment (LCA) represents a useful tool for designers, companies and building owners in every phase of the construction p...

The present study is a part of an on-going Horizon 2020 project, named “SCORE” (Supporting Consumer Co-Ownership in Renewable Energies), which focuses on sustainable cities and communities developments goal. Particularly, this project aims at (1) overcoming usage of energy from fossil sources in favour of renewable sources, (2) increasing the energ...

Built environment energy efficiency improvement at the urban scale plays a key role to reduce the detrimental environmental impacts. However, the design and implementation of sustainable development scenarios is a complex process involving a large number of decision criteria and actors. An on-going Interreg project, “CesbaMED”, emphasizes to employ...

A major concern for any city is urban energy planning, which is particularly multi-sectoral and multi-actor oriented. This concern is especially critical for the built-up urban zones, which are predominantly responsible for the bulk of energy consumption and carbon emissions. Hence, an interdisciplinary, integrated approach is needed to address thi...

A major concern for any city is urban energy planning, which is particularly multi-sectoral and multi-actor oriented. This concern is especially critical for the built-up urban zones, which are predominantly responsible for the bulk of energy consumption and carbon emissions. Hence, an interdisciplinary, integrated approach is needed to address thi...

Purpose This paper aims to report strategies towards a green campus project at Politecnico di Torino University, a 33,000-students Italian higher education institution (HEI), and estimate the avoided ecological footprint (EF) of different scenarios accounted for open spaces. Design/methodology/approach A consumption-based study has been develope...

The present chapter provides an interdisciplinary integrated methodological framework. This framework guides to develop a multi-criteria spatial decision support system (MC-SDSS) to support decision-making processes in urban energy planning (UEP) purposes. The MC-SDSS helps in evaluation and visualization of the results of different UEP scenarios i...

Spatial visualization is a very useful tool to help decision-makers in the urban planning process, i) to define future energy transition pathways, ii) to implement energy efficiency strategies and iii) to integrate renewable energy technologies in the context of sustainable cities. There is thus a need to develop new tools to understand the energy...

Whilst the academia has always contributed to the social and cultural development of the places in which they are located through a sense of civic responsibility, the emerging climate change challenge require a “glocal” engagement to foster the so called “third mission” also in the sustainability management of the campuses. The impacts of a sustain...

The urban decision processes should be optimized according to the current “green” context. Despite the literature advocating for an open availability of data to facilitate higher quality science and a more effective science-policy boundary, one of the main challenges when dealing with energy processes is the absence of accurate data. This chapter a...

The measurement of urban performance is one of the important ways in which one can assess the complexity of urban change, and judge which projects and solutions are more appropriate in the context of smart and sustainable urban development. This chapter introduces a new system for measuring urban performances. This is the result of two years of joi...

This contribution highlights the complexity of the problem of evaluation of urban regeneration projects, with reference to the time variable and to the impacts of ethical nature and social justice related to the concept of sustainable development.

The measurement of urban performance is one of the important ways in which one can assess the complexity of urban change, and judge which projects and solutions are more appropriate in the context of smart and sustainable urban development. This chapter introduces a new system for measuring urban performances. This is the result of two years of joi...

This paper focuses on transformational processes in a post Paris agreement context. It uses IMACLIM-R, an E3 (Environment-Energy-Economy) model allowing for the integration of urban forms, transport dynamics, environmental policies and behaviors. Building upon the study of a set of local low carbon experiments throughout the European Union (EU), th...

The spatial visualization is a very useful tool to help decision-makers in the urban planning process to create future energy transition strategies, implementing energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies in the context of sustainable cities. Statistical methods are often used to understand the driving parameters of energy consumption but...

Adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2015, the agenda of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represents a new coherent way of thinking about how issues as diverse as poverty, education and climate change fit together; it embeds economic, social and environmental targets in an holistic way. Implicit in such SDG logic is that each goal relie...

The decision-making process regarding heating supply system options in a district perspective is extremely challenging. This paper aims to present a new method to support urban energy decisions in real-time processes, which was developed in the context of a European project (DIMMER (District Information Modeling and Management for Energy Reduction,...

Energy consumption modelling at the urban scale is crucial for supporting a transition towards the low-carbon city. Unfortunately, there are not many robust examples or standardised approaches available in the literature for delivering effective low-carbon urban energy planning. In particular, there is a lack of appropriate frameworks or systems wh...

Nowadays, there is an increasing concern about sustainable urban energy development taking into account national priorities of each city. Many cities have started to define future strategies and plans to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Urban energy scenarios involve the consideration of a wide range of conflicting criteria,...

Urban and Regional Integrated Energy Planning is crucial to define transition strategies toward sustainable development and post-carbon cities; particularly, in the built environment sector which is one of the main responsible for energy consumption and carbon emissions. The paper aims at offering a systematic review of existing urban and regional...

The subject of energy efficient districts is one of the greatest and most challenging of research priorities in the European Union (EU). In order to achieve an effective impact, instead of just concentrating on the improvement in terms of energy efficiency to one particular building, this approach requires challenges to be solved at the neighborhoo...

The aim of this chapter is to highlight the need for a paradigm shift in order to progress toward sustainable development in cities. The discussion focuses on the relations between cities and climate change. The concept of post carbon city is introduced and explained. This chapter argues that resilient thinking approaches are more appropriate than...

The implementation of sustainability standards in university campuses is a global trend. Yet, very few institutions are leading the way after systemic perspectives for campus sustainability, being often stuck in technocratic targets set around the regnant energy efficiency paradigms. This paper builds on a broader definition of what being a “Sustai...

Cities play a leading role in economic development, security, sustainability, and climate change. The fact that the built environment energy consumption contributes to a huge amount of CO2 emissions has a significant impact on the public agenda. Consequently, the emergence of the low carbon city concept has enhanced the necessity for a both quantit...

Once upon a time, more specifically during medieval time, universities were meant to be the places for teaching and shaping the elite administrators’ class of the regnant in charge. With the industrial revolution, professors were asked to improve the efficiency of the machines and the new production systems. During the Second World War, academia wa...

This chapter discusses the main issues analysed in previous chapters of this book related to energy security in Europe. It reframes the public discourse surrounding Europe's energy security agenda, highlighting the role of human factor. Finally, it provides a number of recommendations and guidelines for supporting policy-makers.

This chapter discusses the prevailing energy security paradigm in Europe, recalling the whole process which has led to the Energy Charter Treaty of 1994 and ultimately to the International Energy Treaty in 2015. It poses a number of questions, such as: Can economic development be decoupled from energy consumption? Does geographic expansion of the e...

Despite continued interest in applying ‘futures’ thinking such as scenario methodologies to cities, elaboration of a more sophisticated treatment of time in sustainable urban development, particularly in relation to inter-generational equity, remains neglected. This paper proposes a more focused discussion of time in relation to a) evaluation metho...

Future Challenges in Sustainable Development within the Built Environment stimulates and reinterprets the demands of Responsible and Sustainable Development in the Built Environment for future action and development. It examines the methods of evaluation, the use of technology, the creation of new models and the role of human factors for examining...

The implementation of sustainability standards in university campuses is a global trend. Yet, very few institutions are leading the way after systemic perspectives for campus sustainability, being often stuck in technocratic targets set around the regnant energy efficiency paradigms. This paper builds on a broader definition of what being a “Sustai...

Nowadays about 50% of global population lives in cities, responsible for about 70% of GHG emissions and by 2030 the urbanization rate will increase to over 75%. The paper analyses the new emerging concept of “Post-Carbon City” (PCC) and its main influencing factors regarding the building sector. It provides inspiration to re-think urban re-developm...

Energy saving, carbon emissions reduction strategies, and policies are the main concerns for the 21st century sustainable development. Policymakers have emphasized how the energy security promotes a transition towards low-carbon energy sources without undermining well-being. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2014) estimates that almost...

Low-Carbon Energy Security from a European Perspective draws on the European Commission's funded project MILESECURE-2050. It considers low-carbon energy security and energy geopolitics in Europe, with a focus on four thematic clusters: challenging the energy security paradigm; climate change and energy security objectives (the components of a secur...

The current growth of urbanization rate indicates that this trend is not going to stop, and therefore, it stresses the necessity of actions for mitigating the local and global pollution. Moreover, most of the actual stock is characterized by low energy performances since it pre-dates the energy regulation. The paper aims at addressing this issue by...

Energy efficient buildings’ issue integrated into the district and CO2 emission reduction strategies and policies is one of the main concerns in the European Union (EU). In order to achieve an effective impact, instead of just concentrating on the improvement in terms of energy efficiency to one particular building, this approach requires challenge...

Energy efficient buildings’ issue integrated into the district and CO2 emission reduction strategies and policies is one of the main concerns in the European Union (EU). In order to achieve an effective impact, instead of just concentrating on the improvement in terms of energy efficiency to one particular building, this approach requires challenge...

Lowering energy intensity and environmental impacts of buildings is becoming a priority in environmental policies in Europe, considering that cities produce about 80% of all GHG (Greenhouse gas) emissions and consume 75% of energy globally. The big challenge is to find a way to improve the energy performances of existing housing stock representing...

Lowering energy intensity and environmental impacts of buildings is becoming a priority in environmental policies in Europe, considering that cities produce about 80% of all GHG (Greenhouse gas) emissions and consume 75% of energy globally. The big challenge is to find a way to improve the energy performances of existing housing stock representing...

The subject of energy efficient buildings incorporated into the district is one of the greatest and most challenging of research priorities in the European Union. In this context the potentiality and benefits of the integration of Geographic Information System (GIS) – Building Information Modelling (BIM) are explored as an integrated methodology fo...

The subject of energy efficient buildings incorporated into the district is one of the greatest and most challenging of research priorities in the European Union. In this context the potentiality and benefits of the integration of Geographic Information System (GIS) – Building Information Modelling (BIM) are explored as an integrated methodology fo...

Campus greening is often the first step universities take towards sustainability. However, the diffusion of sustainability reporting methodologies and rankings is still at an early stage, and is biased in mainly measuring energy efficiency indicators while omitting basic features enabling meaningful comparisons among centers or addressing social (u...

Nowadays about 50% of global population lives in cities, responsible for about 70% of GHG emissions and by 2030 the urbanization rate will increase to over 75%.

Purpose – Public housing in Hong Kong plays an essential role in accommodation supply to people of low income. Access to social resources and rent levels of nearby private residential housing are two critical issues impacting the well-being of residents living in public housing estates. However, previous research has rarely focused on the spatial d...

The measurement of urban performance is one of the important ways in which one can assess the complexity of urban change, and judge which projects and solutions are more appropriate in the context of smart and sustainable urban development. This chapter introduces a new system for measuring urban performances. This is the result of two years of joi...

The paper shows a multicriteria evaluation model in order to rank different development scenario if an historical district in Turin (Italy). The scenarios aim to a reduction in energy consumption and CO2 emissions allowing a more efficient use of the energy resources. The simulation assessment provided refers to an European project named DIMMER (Di...

This chapter aims at providing a critical reflection about therelation between smart city and neoliberal urban governance. In the current economic scenario of crisis and austerity, smart citypolicy is representing an attempt to attract and coopt private actors in the provisionof urban services, opening new critical issues on urban neoliberalism and...

Purpose – Policy makers are frequently challenged by the need to achieve sustainable development in cities and regions. Current decision-making processes are based on evaluation support systems which are unable to tackle the problem as they cannot take a holistic approach or a full account of actors. The purpose of this paper is to present a new ge...