Rethinking urban spaces towards climate neutrality

Date de clôture : 16 janv. 2025  
- 240 jours

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following outcomes:

• Development and implementation of solutions for a smart urban public space design and physical infrastructure planning and management across different areas related to the transport and integrated energy systems, which enable the integration of mobility services within the city and its street network and layout.
• Mobility and/or energy solutions that respond to people’s and cities’ needs co-designed with local authorities, citizens, and stakeholders, tested and implemented in cities to achieve climate neutrality by 2030.
• Raise awareness on the potential of this policy area to support urban public space revitalization and reallocation as well as more economically viable and resilient urban environments.
• Improvement of public health with better local air quality, reducing the urban overheating and pollutant emissions (air and noise), with better conditions and infrastructure for active modes and increased liveability.
• Improve overall urban public space connectivity and the accessibility of different urban districts/neighbourhoods/industrial districts by integrating/embedding multimodality and shared services within the street/urban public space layout and infrastructure.
• More efficient and fair use of urban space through the dynamic management of space in general and of the curb side in particular, according to varying needs and functions, and with the help of digital tools.
• Contribution to a better use of vehicles (in particular public transport and active modes for passengers and for urban logistics), better use of car parking spaces for other usages, prioritising modes and shared mobility services which have the smallest impact on the public domain and environment.
• Reducing the pressure on public space thanks to reduced parking needs and integration of off-street space use in the overall public space concept.
• Creation of smart energy and/or transport services management in cities thanks to digitalisation and consumer awareness related to smart charging and energy demand response.
• Improving the planning of green infrastructures/green city zones, enhancing their capability to increase human restoration and well-being.
• Better preparedness of citizens and urban planners to shift from fossil to renewable energy and energy system integration to allow electrifying mobility, in ways that optimise the use of public space and budgets.

With our cities being overly populated and dense, the scarcity of urban public space requires smart urban design, planning, management and prioritisation in urban space allocation to different uses, amenities, and services. From the reallocation of the urban public space to more sustainable forms of transport and energy generation and use, intermodal hubs, and interchanges to the dynamic management of the street profile and curb side, and the integration of suburban/peripheral areas in the general urban fabric and patterns, current and future research should aim to make urban public spaces more liveable while enabling better a connectivity, accessibility, social interaction, inclusion and transit in the context of a changing climate. Concepts like the “15-minute city” and “superblocks” are gaining momentum and have an enormous potential in shaping the urban planning and design practice and the mobility services based on the principle of proximity. This is supporting the efficient and green mobility goals, the transport and energy policies, the Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy and the new EU Urban Mobility Framework.

Considering the optimisation of urban public spaces, aspects related to air quality and urban climate must be considered by designing strategies based on new technologies and green infrastructures/green city zones.

The proposal should address the question on how to deal with limited urban public space and conflicting demands for it between transport and other users, considering social and climate goals and the need to shift towards more energy efficient and sustainable modes of transport, decarbonisation of the heating and cooling infrastructures.

Each proposal should envisage pilot demonstrations in at least three cities (lead cities) situated each in a different Member State or Associated Country including both urban and sub-urban areas. Proposals should provide the necessary evidence of the cities’ commitment to test and implement the co-designed solutions. To foster replicability and up-taking of the outcomes, each proposal should also engage at least three replication/follower cities with the development of local replication plans. The size and characteristics of the cities should be considered. Each proposal should include at least one city of the 112 selected ones for the EU Mission on Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities for the lead cities and one for the replication/follower cities.

The pilots should involve a co-design process with the stakeholders concerned by the re-design of the urban space. The pilots should involve public and private local energy, mobility and industrial stakeholders as well as civil society to identify integrated, locally supported and space-saving solutions and related pre-conditions (incentives, participatory methods, etc.) in a change management process to gain public acceptance by information, participation and consideration of groups that were so far disadvantaged by existing conditions.

Demonstrations should be ‘digital by default’ and use Local Digital Twins and, where possible, Mobility Data Spaces as tools for optimizing traffic, improving mobility services, monitoring environmental benefits in air and noise, and modelling a better use of urban space.

Activities and pilot demonstrations of technological nature of the proposed solutions in operational environment are expected to be at minimum TRL 7 by the end of the project.

Proposals should address the following two areas of intervention:

1. Reallocation of space and re-design of infrastructure

This is a major game changer in cities in favour of more sustainable and efficient use of resources through integrated approaches that promote decarbonisation of different sectors notably sustainable modes of transport, buildings and industry and related services. By (re)designing and reallocating the urban public space to reflect the level of use of different transport modes, unsustainable transport, heating and cooling modes can be discouraged while sustainable ones incentivised. Smart urban public space design and management is also a key enabler for scaling-up new mobility services. First, it can help to develop more sustainable and accessible mobility services, with stations and hubs for shared devices and charging infrastructures, dedicated lanes for light and active modes, pick-up and drop-off zones, etc. Also, it can help to increase the acceptance of sustainable mobility services, by mitigating negative externalities caused by the inadequate use of urban space, such as illegal parking, and cluttering the sidewalks by e-scooters, advertising banners, traffic signals and others. The reallocation of space is also important to transform roads from mere transit spaces into public spaces with a higher socioeconomic value to people – a feature which has become extremely important for local recreation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The same applies to the planning and management of urban space to accommodate local clean and smart energy infrastructures to power the different uses of energy including mobility, buildings, commercial and industrial activities. One goal of the energy system integration would be to optimise the use of urban space and existing infrastructures to avoid unnecessary investments in distribution grids while increasing energy autonomy of the municipalities and reducing losses in transmission and distribution of energy. Moreover, planning and implementing simultaneously infrastructure projects can significantly reduce investment costs and space needs such as e.g. building an underground car park together with space for a geothermal heat pump or thermal heat storage.

Four of the following research actions should be addressed to overcome these challenges either in the mobility (points 1 to 4) or energy area (points 5 to 8):

1. Develop integrated transport and urban planning tools and methods to coordinate sustainable mobility services and the design of future public realms, accounting also for their interrelations and impacts across different spatial and temporal scales. This should be linked to the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans (SUMP) of the cities.
2. For electromobility, foster research results from pilot projects on reallocation of use of transport infrastructure – or use of the single infrastructure for diverse types of vehicles, amenities (such as bi-directional charging points), and vehicles (e.g. after hours sharing of publicly accessible transport fleets) throughout the community of stakeholders at EU level.
3. Research solutions for the exploitation of legacy infrastructure and how it can contribute to the scaling of sustainable mobility services followed by projects and demonstrations that can help to better understand this space shift, and play a significant role in the design, piloting and roll-out and assessment of these new mobility services.; Past experiences with street space reallocation (e.g. temporary infrastructures under COVID-19) can serve as a basis.
4. Involvement of current service providers and infrastructure managers (e.g. parking service providers) in the urban space ecosystem to understand how current players can contribute to new mobility services, increased multimodality, electrification and integrated city logistics and citizens’ mobility.
5. With regards to energy, support pilot projects to increase understanding and exploitation of the potential of road space allocation and smart distributed energy generation and green city zones/infrastructures in a systemic manner and monitoring their positive effects on human well-being.
6. Research opportunities for exploiting current infrastructures (e.g. buildings, grids, underground spaces) complemented by additional elements (e.g. access to data in real time, demand response, storage, smart charging, heat and energy storage) to facilitate local energy communities, virtual power plants and energy sharing while minimising the need for new infrastructures requiring space and facilitating multipurpose construction projects. This should also include the integration of thermal and electricity grids and storage to better manage and balance renewable electricity generation and demand.
7. Establish an integrated approach for designing and decarbonising the heating and cooling networks (including distributed installations and small-scale networks and related storage) in cities and urban areas in synchronisation with planning of new housing, major renovations or industrial development related to major heat consuming or waste heat generating facilities.
8. Explore ways of using/optimising green and blue infrastructures to city and street scale for improving urban climate, reduce the energy demand and in view of emission free transport.

2. Dynamic curb-side management and use

Smart management of urban space and existing infrastructure includes their dynamic use, when considering curb space, changing its role and function in time, depending on parameters, functions and needs in relation to commuting peak hours, deliveries, public transport priority, market days, nightlife, etc. Dynamic space management is already being explored in some cities and represents an opportunity for further integration in mobility plans with the support of smart technologies, Intelligent Transport Systems, Local Digital Twins and Mobility Data Spaces, AI based autonomous optimal control and management systems.

As the rise of new shared mobility services such as ride hailing, micromobility and the growth in urban goods delivery (even more so with the recent exponential growth of e-commerce) are challenging traditional ways of managing curb space, novel approaches are needed. Research on a shift away from curb use focused on street parking to a more flexible and dynamic allocation that for example includes pick-up and drop-off zones for passengers and freight or dedicated public transport lanes during peak hours, has also shown the potential to enhance and prioritise sustainable mobility services, and thus decrease the pressure on traffic thanks to an increased percentage of shared rides.

To ensure the implementation of these innovative approaches, R&I could support by developing:

• Tools and guidelines to ensure the implementation of innovative approaches of dynamic space and curb use, resulting from tests and pilots of flexible allocation of curb side functions, including pick-up and drop-off zones for passengers and freight.
• New models of fee calculation (e.g. trip purpose, space demand (size) of each vehicle using the public domain, etc.) and financial model for the use of public space in cities in view of reaching public policy goals including climate neutrality.

To increase impact and coherence, project(s) should maximise coordination with leading European associations and initiatives in this domain, e.g. Living-In.EU, the New European Bauhaus, Covenant of Mayors, the EIT KIC Culture and Creativity, the EIT Urban Mobility, the CIVITAS initiative, the 2Zero partnership and EU co-funded projects in the domain of Technologies for Smart Communities. Collaboration with the Cities Mission Platform is essential, and projects must ensure that appropriate provisions for activities and resources aimed at enforcing this collaboration are included in the work plan of the proposal. The collaboration with the Mission Platform must be formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding to be concluded as soon as possible after the project starting date.