Data-driven support for smart renewal of urban neighbourhoods

The paper provide an insight into the research conducted by the Faculty of Architecture (University of Ljubljana), and the Urban institute of Slovenia committed to the assessment of the efficiency related to the management of local resources at the level of neighbourhoods. The reduction of energy consumption and energy efficient built environments are key objectives of many sustainability agendas which is followed by fitting assessment methods in analytics. However, there are two important hesitations occurring: first, traditional assessment methods that focus solely on the energy reduction and energy efficiency are often too narrow in their analysis and limited in their scope of impact. According to the “Jevons Paradox” and “energy rebound effect” paradigm as many authors claim, energy efficiency alone will unlikely lead to an effective reduction in resources’ consumption or rise the living quality. These results point out the need for a radical shift toward the development of new approaches in the assessment and smart management of the built environment for a long-term sustainability. Second, to date, the majority of the evaluation methods - whether focusing to energy consumption or broader sustainability issues – are building- or household- oriented, thus systematically examining separate spatial and social entities, but neglecting the spaces between (connecting infrastructure and services, mobility, public and inter spaces, and urban design solutions etc.), the holistic aspect and the community aspect. The research develops structured evaluation model, this is, neighbourhood sustainability performance index which provides the foundation for targeted actions. To establish the described assessment model two main research pillars are addressed: 1) the development of the structured and modular system of indicators; and 2) the development of the methodology to interpret the resulting values (efficiency, ability and productivity on different levels of human activity). The paper presents first two stages of the research process and subjects the outcomes to the debate.