Assessing Multiple Benefits of Housing Regeneration and Smart City Development: The European Project SINFONIA

Abstract

The urban energy transition towards more sustainable energy production and consumption systems is at the top of the European Union political agenda. Several demonstration projects are dealing with the deep-energy retrofit of real-estate assets to show how technological and societal innovation can provide new investment opportunities while enhancing citizens’ quality of life by delivering multiple benefits. In this framework, the EU smart city project SINFONIA has developed and tested a new comprehensive framework to define, identify, and evaluate the main multiple benefits expected from similar initiatives. The present contribution reviews the three assessment exercises carried out in the lighthouse city of Bolzano during the project execution, consisting of an investigation of the users’ stated preferences, an evaluation of consumers‘ revealed preferences and a multicriteria analysis of homeowners’ priorities. It offers an overview of the main achievements and sheds light on further investigatory paths applicable to Positive Energy Districts assessment.