The hidden potential: untapping the benefits of urban transformations

Track 2 – Regular session

Friday, 22nd July 2022 from 9:00 to 11:00 | Seminar room 3

Description:

Recent research by the JRC confirms that “the untapped / hidden benefits of environmental policies are huge” and continues to move in the direction already traced by IEA years ago, by showcasing and placing monetary values on “the added benefits to our health, society and the economy that environmental investments and policy linked to energy efficiency can bring”. The message is clear: urban transformation projects go way beyond energy efficiency. So why are we still focusing only on energy efficiency, while house owners, investors or local politicians are looking for other types of benefits? How to leverage public and private investments being trustworthy and convincing? Can we address multiple benefits to tell the story from different perspectives? How to frame the multiple benefits discourses into the UN’s SDGs framework and attract impact investments in cities, made with the intention to generate positive, measurable social economic and financial return alongside with environmental strategies?

We are particularly interested in contributions focused on:

• From outcomes to impacts: estimate and assessment methodologies for the SDG framework
• Smart and climate neutral districts: quantify and measure the monetary value of impacts, from a policy and investor standpoint
• Risk and uncertainty assessment in projects appraisal, form social complexity to unexpected global health crisis;
• The value of proximity, innovative public spaces and services in the 15 minute city
• Creative reuse of buildings and public spaces: a new frontier for investors and spatial policies moving from demonstration projects to large scale investments, how attracting investment funds and big fishes?
• Social value in smart cities
• Multiple impacts of positive energy districts
• Profitability of smart city projects, is it worth it?

Presentations:

• 523 Stratmann, Antonia – Tapping into hidden potentials in the neighborhood through flexibility: a flexibility assessment tool
• 528 Bieseman, Helena and Strosse, Veerle – Reducing soil sealing in Flanders through mapping and assessing opportunities
• 533 Pisman, Ann – The evolution of urban and rural areas in Flanders between 2013 and 2019. Is Flanders really more sprawled?
• 708 Melis, Barbara – Brownfield areas toward carbon negative

Download all abstracts of Track2