Proposing a Smart City Energy Assessment Framework linking local vision with data sets

Abstract

Cities are characterized by a concentration of people, communities, activities, flows and impacts leading to severe sustainability challenges. Energy is an essential component of life in cities, as it supports the whole spectrum of their economic activities, and secures a certain level of quality of life to residents. Nowadays cities tend to become “Smarter”, usually disregarding the issues of energy efficiency and sustainability. The current work provides City Authorities with an effective framework to assess the behavior and performance of a City, reflecting the clearly quantifiable energy related indicators, but also the related policy context performance and the integration of Smart infrastructure. The framework can be designed generally for the whole activities spectrum of a city, but it can also be customized per sector, providing more focused information.