Towards smarter and more sustainable cities: The remourban model

Abstract

REMOURBAN is an European project whose main objective is the development and validation in three lighthouse cities (Valladolid-Spain, Nottingham-UK and Tepebasi/Eskisehir-Turkey) of a sustainable urban regeneration model that leverages the convergence area of the energy, mobility and ICT sectors in order to accelerate the deployment of innovative technologies, organizational and economic solutions to significantly increase resource and energy efficiency, improve the sustainability of urban transport and drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions in urban areas. For developing this model, REMOURBAN is implementing several strategies at city level based on: the creation of a holistic catalogue of innovative technologies and solutions on energy, mobility and ICTs favouring the replicability, the identification and overcome of nontechnical barriers, the development of new integrated business models oriented at the creation of a European market for innovation and the definition of a complete evaluation procedure using sustainability and smartness indicators. This urban renovation strategy is focused on the citizens, where they become the cornerstones to making a smart city a reality For this reason, citizens are being actively engaged in REMOURBAN and the population awareness about energy and environmental impact of their daily activities are increased. In order to ensure the usefulness and high replication of the REMOURBAN project at European level, the sustainable urban regeneration model is aimed at the decision makers, investors, public administrations and the industrial sector. Furthermore, in order to ensure this replicability, two follower cities, Seraing (Belgium) and Miskolc (Hungary) are involved in the project so they can apply the developed model once it is validated. The project will allow demonstrating that, by means of improving the current conditions of a city, it is possible to achieve low energy districts and more sustainable urban transport, as well as to perceive a greater quality of life. REMOURBAN, thus, will focus on improving the energy efficiency, reduction of GHG emissions, refurbishment of districts, transport sustainability, access to urban information and citizen engagement. A big impact across Europe is intended to be achieved by the REMOURBAN project results at European level, showing the model for sustainable urban regeneration can be easily applied and replicated. With the aim at maximizing the impact of the project results, REMOURBAN is deploying a powerful communication and dissemination plan that integrates a citizen engagement strategy and has started to disseminate the benefits of the project to a wide variety of audiences.