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Symbolfoto: Das AIT ist Österreichs größte außeruniversitäre Forschungseinrichtung

Smart and Carbon-Neutral Urban Development

The combination of high-level political agreements and civic actions have led to the adoption of more ambitious climate neutrality goals for the EU as well as for the member states. Multiple efforts are being taken to translate these high-level goals into concrete urban actions. One of the key efforts in this regard is the realisation of Positive Energy Districts (PED) and the set-up of Smart Districts. The research field supports that action with advanced instruments for decarbonisation ranging from urban energy models to advanced urban data analysis for an improved urban management.

Cities as well as their citizens create masses of data. Urban authorities, infrastructure providers and operators are collecting substantial data on consumption and infrastructure usage related to resources (energy, water, waste) and mobility behavior. This data can be used to support evidenced based decision making, to collectively plan for the future of our cities and to operate our cities in an efficient, human-centered and environmental-friendly way. Hence, innovative techniques for collecting, analysing and visualizing urban data are needed meeting the demand of public and private stakeholders equally.

Research focus

Urban data analytics and monitoring platform

The collection and use of urban data are a prerequisite for developing strategies to reduce energy consumption, increase the share of renewable energies, integrate CO2-free, more efficient and better transport systems into urban areas and create new services for citizens. In the research field “Urban data analytics and monitoring platform”, we combine data management platforms, which can handle large amounts of data, with the area of efficient data analysis. One focus topic is the generation of accurate information from the combination of different, inaccurate and sometimes contradicting data sources.

Spatio-temporal urban energy and greenhouse gas emission model

In this research field we deal with the modeling of urban energy and greenhouse gas emissions for the simulation and impact analysis of scenarios. One focus topic is the distribution effects of individual and community costs - benefits between different population groups, districts or residential areas. This also includes advanced, dynamic visualization and evaluation techniques of measures such as eco-renovations and the establishment of renewable energy sources as well as the integration of transport models - especially electromobility.

Monitoring and Upscaling of Smart City & Smart Mobility Solutions

A city cannot be transferred to a pure laboratory setting and tested and analyzed accordingly. In this research topic we are concerned with the optimization of concepts and analysis of large demonstration projects in real cities in order to derive a maximum of reusable knowledge. In addition to harmonized procedures for monitoring measures, collecting and evaluating data, this also includes systematizing relevant influencing factors. These include all pillars of smart city development such as climate, energy, mobility and digitization as well as all pillars of sustainability (economy, ecology and social issues).

Solutions