For some years, we have been listening to talking about smart cities, more sustainable environments… but, in some cases we do not know what kind of strategies could do our city to turn into one of them.
When we refer to Smart City, we talk about cities concerned with reducing energy consumption and emissions, cities that bring advances in information and communication technologies to their inhabitants and, ultimately, cities that seek improve the quality of life of its citizens taking advantage of many technological and non-technological solutions that are currently available in the market.
Although these solutions are available in the market, we have to wonder why these solutions are often not being applied. Sometimes, this is because of lack of funding; the least, of technical ignorance. But there is something in common when implementing this type of project; the difficulty of agreeing on all the agents involved in its execution. Citizens and experts, municipal agents and private companies, neighbourhood associations and users… all have to row in the same direction and work on the development of integral projects, instead of isolated solutions, in order to ensure cities of the future.
In CARTIF, we work to support European cities in this transition towards more intelligent and sustainable environments. Proof of this are the numerous projects that we are carrying out with this objective.
How can a city detect and analyse its needs and priorities? What technological solutions can be implemented to meet those needs? How a comprehensive project can be managed for the city? What business models or financial schemes can be applied? These are some of the issues which we address in this type of projects, and to answer them we work on methodologies that guide cities on the road towards their transformation into an Intelligent City.
One of the last lighthouse project in which CARTIF is working on is MAtchUP project (Maximizing the Upscaling and replication potential of high level urban transformation strategies), which has replicability as one of its main axes. When we look for solutions to satisfy the needs of our cities and their objectives, it is very important to have the experience of other European cities, where these solutions have already carried out. Knowing what has been the key to their success or how they have overcome certain barriers, is very useful information to achieve the replication of these solutions in other cities.
In MAtchUP, we not only work to ensure the success of the actions that are being carried out in its three demonstration cities: Valencia (Spain), Dresden (Germany) and Antalya (Turkey), but we work to ensure its future implementation in new scenarios: both within the same cities through the scaling of solutions in other areas of the city, and outside of them working on their replicability.
The actions can be framed in three fundamental pillars for urban regeneration: energy, mobility and information and communication technologies. These actions involve different agents, but above all, and fundamentally, involve citizens. They are the key factor of the new city model that promotes an integrating vision of all its agents. They create the city, live in it and enjoy it. And they are a primordial force that pushes the defined actions within the framework of the project.
MAtchUP continues the trajectory of demonstration projects at a city scale with which we have been working for years in CARTIF. But, unlike the previous ones, MAtchUP is not just a project for its lighthouse cities, but it delves much more into the work related to its follower cities; Herzliya (Israel), Ostend (Belgium), Skopje (Macedonia) and Kerava (Finland). In this way, the impact of the project will be much greater when working actively with seven cities, which will expand the useful and replicable results for all those cities that want to go further in their urban planning and in their transformation towards a more sustainable environment.
So, if we want to improve our cities, the best way is to take advantage of other experiences and replicating the successful solutions that have been carried out in other parts of the world. In CARTIF we want to collaborate with this dissemination of information and for this we have organized a conference in which smart cities will be the protagonists. BY & FOR CITIZENS will take place in Valladolid on September 20 and 21.
In this event, we will try to spread the experiences of a large panel of experts covering all aspects related to smart cities. We wait for you in Valladolid.
I try to go there every time I can, to the FASA-Delicias district, and it still amazes me that, at the end, we have been able to make a small part of Valladolid a better neighbourhoodfor the people living there.
Most times I don’t stop there, due to lack of time. But only going over there and seeing from the San Agustín School the tower with the photovoltaics or the new colours of the buildings –you may like them or not– makes me feel a feeling of gratification difficult to be described.
Same happens when I happen to see the buses of line 7, those electric, and I can’t help thinking that we have contributed, even a little, to make out of this city a more sustainable place.
This path started now more than 5 years ago, and there is still more than one year in front, but now we can already see in place all the interventions that we planned in some areas of this city. Something that seemed to be impossible now is a reality.
Sometimes I feel that most of the citizens are not familiarised with this. There are not that many that have heard about REMOURBAN, and some of those that have, sometimes confuse it. Honestly, it is not difficult to understand that it is not easy to see all there is behind from outside. It is yet sometimes difficult from inside.
Long story short, you should blame REMOURBAN for the new 45 electric vehicles that we have today in Valladolid. For the new fleet that Correos, the post delivery service, has deployed with less contaminant vehicles. For the new fast charging point in CENTROLID, the logistics distribution centre, and the new 63 charging points installed by the Municipality and Iberdrola to be publicly used.
For the 950 tons of CO2 that the families living in FASA (around 400 families) have started to reduce (this is the equivalent of planting almost 2000 new trees). For having their homes at 19ºC when they wake up after having the heating system switched off the whole night, while they used to wake up at less than 15ºC in some dwellings. And moreover, for this improvements being paid with the savings in their energy bills, without investing a cent.
For the 2 new electric buses that the Municipality of Valladolid has deployed, plus other three that they have incorporated due to the leverage effect of the two firsts. Two buses that run the whole city centre without emitting contaminant gases. And also, for the other two (also electric) vehicles shared among the personnel of the city council.
For the new city information platform that contains a big amount of data and models the mobility and energy behaviour of some areas of the city. Data that will allow identifying new strategies and policies to continue improving the city.
All in all, for the improvement in the air quality of the city, for reducing the heat island effect or for the new information to make more informed decisions in the future of our city.
Also, you should blame REMOURBAN for positioning Valladolid in the map of pioneering cities through its strategy to develop a more efficient, intelligent and sustainable city.
You should blame REMOURBAN for all these issues, and also, in CARTIF, we feel a bit responsible of all them.
But REMOURBAN is not the unique project that is working to make out of Valladolid a referent in sustainability and smart city. R2CITIES, CITyFiED or UrbanGreenUp should also blamed for this, through their efforts to renovate Cuatro de Marzo or Torrelago districts, making them more efficient, or to implement nature-based solutions in the city.
Something that we have learnt along this entire path is that there is still a big barrier that prevents that all these actions can be successfully replicated to other areas of the city or other cities. And this is the lack of contrasted and credible information about the benefits and implications of these projects.
We are, thus, working hard to fight against this barrier trying to achieve that all cities in Europe can learn from our successes and failures. And in CARTIF this has been our objective in the recent years, where we have started to export this knowledge to other cities as Palencia, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Valencia, Helsinki, Hamburg or Nantes.
And giving a step forward in this path, we have embraced the challenge to organise a conference that pretends that Valladolid shines a bit more in this “Hall of Fame” of the Smart and Sustainable Cities. By & For Citizens is going to take place in Valladolid on September 20-21.
A conference where are aiming at bringing all these experiences to cities, architects, engineers, urbanists, investors, public administrations and, beyond that, to the citizens, who are the key player on the city transformation. You can’t miss this unique opportunity!
Oceans have become plastic soups and garbage patch, where 8 millions of tonnes of plastic are discharged every year and consequently remains floating in the seas, moreover tonnes of this material are accumulated in dumps. Plastic gets to forests, rivers and are found in the farthest nooks of the planet.
This residue in which we are drowning and for what we are the only responsible ends up in the environment through different ways but the origin is always the same, the unnecessary and excessive use that humanity has made of this material since it was popularized in the 50’s.
Our life has been overrun by plastic, we use it daily and in every activity (clothes, kitchen, cleanliness…). In many cases, plastic is necessary and difficult to replace, but other times it is unnecessary and a sustainable alternative which does not jeopardize the environment exists.
More and more people are aware of the problem that this waste represents, and claim for a radical change that involve management and government policies, but also a lifestyle change, from the production to the way we consume. Several initiatives are being launched by collectives and individuals to encourage responsible and sustainable consumption, respectful with the planet.
The same though has crossed everones minds’ when our trash bins fill to overflowing everyday and nobody wants to contribute to this squander and unnecessary use of plastics. One of the most ridiculous uses is the fresh food plastic packaging, being very striking in fruits and vegetables. Is it necessary to protect with trays and plastics oranges, bananas, onions, etc? NO, their skins and peels are the best protection they have against spoilage. Have we become so lazy not to peel garlic, cut a tomato in half or an apple in dices so that these products have to be over-wrapped this way? (Real examples view in supermarkets)
This same consideration was launched in the Spanish blog “La Hipótesis de Gaia” some months ago, by Isa its author, who proposed making photos of fruits and vegetables with ridiculous plastic packaging under the hashtag #desnudalafruta (“nake the fruit”) and spread them through social media. Other similar actions with the same aim are #BreakFreeFromPlastic or #RidiculousPlastic.
“Plastic attack” is a kind of organized event where angry customers, after taking and paying for groceries in shops, free them from plastic packaging, put every waste together in fully trolleys and give them back to supermarkets with the only aim of showing that food can be bought without creating waste.
But the first step for reducing plastic waste is the self thinking, being aware of the use and overuse that we make of plastic and avoiding buying unnecessary things or purchasing non contaminant alternatives. Groceries in bulk, cloth bags for shopping, not to use disposable plastics searching others options. We can start saying goodbye to disposable cutlery and straws, plastic containers, bottled water, etc. ..we already have more sustainable and less contaminant options available in the market. This initiative is a good example.
However, some plastics are difficult to replace, or it doesn’t exist an alternative nowadays. In this case, R&D is taking the initiative to the development of bioplastics, polymers that come from natural resources and which are biodegradable.
Bioplastics are produced from biomass, agricultural by-products or even from used plastic bottles and other containers. These materials are processed by microorganisms and through their fermentation they are converted in monomers that will be used to obtain new polymers like PLA and PHA (polilactic acid, and polihidroxialcanoate acid) from which all kind of products can be made: packages, bags, plastic films, etc.
This kind of material is a promising alternative to fossil-fuel plastics so they are biodegradable and they are derived from renewable raw materials. Current research and new technologies are allowing getting bioplastics with the same properties and applications that the plastic obtained from fossil-fuel sources.
In short, research in new plastics and in more environmentally friendly processes will be our allies to make a planet more sustainable, but only if they are accompanied by a change in our lifestyle, being more responsible in our consuming way and in our relationship with the environment.
Retrofitting actions at Torrelago (Spain) district are coming to an end and a new time for reflection, analysis and assessment is about to start. CITyFiED is at the heart of Laguna de Duero (Valladolid, Spain) and has established the foundations towards a more sustainable development of the city and healthier urban environments.
CITyFiED has embraced the Torrelago residents in a democratic process to take part and decide on the renovation actions. At the same time, the CITyFiED representatives have ensured that the retrofitting investments all made economic sense to the residents so they can benefit from them. In a truly cooperative approach, CITyFiED representatives and residents have carried out an extensive demonstration action at Torrelago district from June 2014. All of the main economic and technological aspects in terms of building retrofitting, district heating system upgrade, integration of renewable energy sources and monitoring have been addressed by means of a systemic approach in order to achieve not only significant energy savings and very low CO2 emissions but also remarkable improvements in the residents’ comfort conditions.
Torrelago district renovation means the retrofitting of 143,025 m2 of living space and achieving 1,488 dwelling retrofitting actions for meeting the CITyFiED targets, i.e. reducing the energy demand up to 40% and avoiding at least 3,500 tons of CO2 emissions per year. The 31 buildings have been retrofitted with an external thermal insulation composite system, and the application of the finishing coat with primer and paint coating is only pending in 5 buildings. Dismantling scaffolding will be finished by May 2018.
In parallel to the building renovation action, the old energy system composed of two independent gas-based district heating networks has been upgraded. One of the previous gas boiler rooms has been replaced by a new biomass boiler room of 3.5 MW and the two networks have been merged to build a new multi-source (biomass and gas) district heating system that covers the 80% of the thermal demand with renewable energy sources. In addition, new variable flow pumps, heat exchange substations, individual smart meters and thermostats have been installed, together with a micro-cogeneration system to generate 33 kW of power and 73.4 kW of useful thermal energy.
After the large renovation action, one full year monitoring campaign is approaching and the CITyFiED monitoring platform is ready to collect information from the new energy systems and deliver environmental, technical, economic and social key performance indicators by March 2019.
Energy efficiency is taking its place as a major energy resource in Laguna de Duero city to achieve sustainability and growth targets. Indeed CITyFiED investment in Laguna de Duero, more than 16.5 M€, has provided many different benefits to citizens and other local stakeholders. Whether by directly reducing energy consumption and associated costs, which can enable investment in other goods and services, or facilitating the achievement of other objectives, e.g. making indoor environments healthier or boosting industrial productivity
Citizens, as main users of the city environment, have clear benefits in their daily: raising the economic activity in the city, which has led to a reduction of unemployment with 50 new jobs created in the CITyFiED context, enhancement of their environment and quality of life, and also to be on board for the transition to the concept of smart city of the future, with more comfort at city level and more technology at the service of the citizen. Even utilities and other energy providers benefit in a variety of ways from CITyFiED energy efficiency measures. Direct benefits include lower costs for energy generation, transmission and distribution, improved system reliability, dampened price volatility in wholesale markets and the possibility of delaying or deferring costly system upgrades.
CITyFiED actions in Laguna de Duero has reached more than 4,000 inhabitants that directly benefit from the project actions and their different testimonies on the district retrofitting actions play a key role in the deliberations of CITyFiED representatives. Reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions is not only about adapting new technologies, but ensuring that these technologies are also being accepted by the public. Being able to talk about concrete examples that have proven to be efficient allow us push forward energy retrofitting projects and solutions beyond CITyFiED.
The importance of the train from an economic point of view is beyond dispute. It emerged as one of the most extraordinary innovations in the Industrial Revolution, because although it is true that the first steam locomotives had already been created before, it was during this period when the potential of this new means of transport could be seen.
Over the years, it has become one of the preferred means of transport for citizens, because of its safety and speed, only surpassed by the airplane. Furthermore, in contrast to the use of private vehicles, rail service contributes to fuel economy per passenger and is therefore more sustainable than other means of transport.
According to data from ADIF (Administrator of Railway Infrastructures), in Spain a train passenger consumes 5 times less litres of petrol equivalent per kilometre than traveling by car, and 20 times less than traveling by airplane. Or, for example, transporting one tonne of goods by rail consumes 4 times less litres of petrol equivalent than by road, and 1,380 times less than by air.
But, what about the construction of the railway infrastructure necessary for the movement of trains? Is it sustainable?
This was the premise of the LIFE HUELLAS project, led by CARTIF, together with the companies Vias y Construcciones and IK-Ingeniería and the University of Granada. Its objective was to improve the construction process of railway tracks in terms of their environmental impact, with special emphasis on those aspects that affect climate change.
It should be borne in mind that the railway infrastructure is made up of civil works such as bridges, viaducts, tunnels and service roads, and of the superstructure, made up of rails, sleepers, fastening material, and electrification, signalling and track safety installations. The production, construction and maintenance of all this infrastructure has a high environmental impact.
The LIFE HUELLAS consortium considered that life cycle assessment techniques, combined with intelligent data analysis, could help reduce the carbon and water footprint of railway infrastructure works by 10% and 5% respectively.
After four and a half years of intensive work, the project has managed to reduce an average of 12.9% of the carbon footprint and 14.1% of the water footprint per kilometre built in the works that have been used as pilots, i.e. better results than expected. Quite a success.
The project began with an exhaustive collection of basic information to analyse the environmental impact of the construction of railway networks, based on previously identified variables. Later, participating companies focused their efforts on studying the transformation of environmental impact into carbon and water footprints, through the development of a consolidated assessment methodology.
From this compilation, a smart tool will establish different planning alternatives applying computational intelligence techniques and showing specific values of footprint and previously selected environmental indicators. That is to say, the objective is to help in the decision-making process during the planning phase of the works.
Furthermore, the research team has developed a free online tool that provides a detailed environmental diagnosis of the processes involved in the construction of this type of infrastructure. This tool, available on the project website www.life-huellas.eu, allows the development of railway projects with not only economic, but also environmental and social criteria.
For the development of both tools, the consortium has exhaustively studied more than 460 project units and a collection of relevant sustainability variables and indicators, grouped in:
Environmental indicators: carbon and water footprint, acidification potential, photochemical oxidation and eutrophication.
Social indicators: improving working conditions, health and safety, human rights, governance, community infrastructure and job creation.
Economic indicators: project costs.
Tests were carried out during the demonstration phase of the project in two real works; on the one hand, the Ponte Ambía (Orense)-Taboadela (Orense) section of the Madrid-Galicia high speed line for the track infrastructure, that is for the earthworks (embankments, trenches, tunnels, etc.) and for the factory works (bridges, drainage, viaducts and level crossings); and on the other hand, the Antequera (Málaga)-Loja (Granada) section, for the track superstructure over which the trains run, whose main elements are ballast, sleepers, rail, electrification and signalling.
With the aim of contributing to these processes in terms of sustainability, the consortium has compiled in a guide of Good Practices the main conclusions of the experience acquired during the development of the project, as well as the different sustainable alternatives proposed.
Although LIFE HUELLAS project has already been completed, railway works on which it has been validated have effectively reduced the carbon and water footprint of their construction phase, contributing to the environmental improvement.
In addition, free access to the calculator will remain available at www.life-huellas.eu for anyone to use. You can also find us at networking and dissemination events, transferring gained knowledge, since the objective now is to promote replicability by communicating obtained results to other companies and sectors. For example, many of the railway infrastructure construction operations are common to those that build other infrastructures, such as roads, so they can also benefit from the results of the project.
Anti-pollution measures, speed limits, parking restrictions, even the grey sky colour, and very, very alarming data. These are the consequences of the circulation of our cars in big cities. According to the European Environment Agency (EEA), more than 13% of the polluting particles in the 28 countries of European Union are produced by transport, which supposes almost 4.000 deaths per year. Only in cities, data ensure that traffic produces the 60% of emissions to the atmosphere. How long can we continue allowing this situation?
However, not all cars are so guilty of these emissions. Only 10% of the vehicles that circulate in our streets contribute 50% of the emissions, according to experts. They are what we call “high emitters” (HE). But, which are these cars? Diesel engines? The oldest ones? The worst maintained by theirs owners? Not necessarily. A high percentage of owners of highly polluting vehicles are not aware of it. Many of them have successfully passed the vehicle inspection and even 50% of these high emitters have less than two years.
How can we find out if our car is a “high emitter”?
LIFE GySTRA project, coordinated by CARTIF, purposes identifying this kind of highly polluting vehicles and monitor continuously the evolution of empiric emissions levels to quantify the savings of emission volumes. This process will be possible thanks to a new technological development, the RSD +. For the moment, the intention is to carry out tests and collect data in order to launch a new sustainable mobility policy.
The demonstration study will be carried out in Madrid (Spain) and Sofia (Bulgaria), where the intention is to control the vehicles that circulate in both cities thanks to three RSD + devices, adapted to the requirements of the EU in terms of NO2 emission control.
The public model in Madrid (Spain) is going to monitor 700,000 vehicles per year, with two RSD+ devices. The owners of the vehicles identified as HE will be notified to proceed with car reparation. With the repair of this kind of cars, it is expected to achieve emission savings of 14.8% (CO) and 22.7% (NOx, NO and NO2) of the total volume of emissions. If only the half of the total HE is repaired it would be possible to reduce CO2 emissions up to 16Mt per year.
On the other hand, the fleet model of Sofia(Bulgaria) is going to control a fleet integrated by 150 buses continuously measured. A recent study on buses concluded that identifying 6.6% of HE and repairing them their emissions were reduced by up to 84%. This monitoring program will allow higher emission savings, and fuel savings are expected to be 3-5% for the HE.
The repair of these vehicles does not only mean environmental advantages, but it will mean economic savings and the improvement of vehicle conditions.
If the project team achieves these objectives, it will greatly reduce pollution in our cities, even reaching to avoid episodes of high pollution and the restrictions, which mean headache for citizens and administrations.
The project is designing too an emission reduction policy that includes information campaigns aimed at population, some more general and others specific to the owners of the most polluting vehicles.
The project consortium is integrated by five partners, three of them technological and two from the administration. Firstly, CARTIF coordinates the proposal; OPUS RSE is the company that will develop RSD+ technology for remote contamination monitoring; and CIEMAT, the research centre that will calibrate the equipment and perform the characterization and evaluation of emissions. On the other hand, the Spanish Traffic General Direction and the City Council of Sofia (Bulgaria) will lend their support for the demonstration study in the cities of Madrid and Sofia, respectively.
