Slovenia's Pilot Activity: UP-SCALE-Urban Pioneers - Systemic Change Amid Liveable Environments
Description of Activities
Project UP-SCALE Urban Pioneers – Systemic Change Amid Liveable Environments is pioneering changes in governance structures and management at multiple levels in three cities, with the main goal of climate neutrality journey becoming more effective, transparent and responsive. The concept of a smart city will serve as an enabler for achieving the set goals.
Kranj
City of Kranj will upgrade the existing digital platform with public transport and traffic related data, by integrating data sources available from contracted operators and other existing sources, and by installing additional equipment, allowing for more accurate measurements. The pilot will develop a MaaS mobile application, which will, together with public campaigns allow to influence citizens’ behaviour through data-driven mobility and useful public transport information. A mobile application as a channel to reach the citizens, will be used to nudge users on a personal level in order to change their mobility behaviour and make more sustainable choices.
Ljubljana
City of Ljubljana will focus on the utilisation of industrial and non-industrial (excess) waste heat. District heat system (DHS) networks represents one of the main infrastructures allowing decarbonisation through smart sector integration, since it enables the efficient integration of a wide range of renewable energy sources.
Velenje
City of Velenje will focus on the consumption of thermal energy used in buildings. The goal is to reduce carbon emissions stemming from consumption of thermal energy in buildings and facilities. A data-driven solution will be used to comprehensively show the impacts the community and each individual has on co-creation of a more sustainable future.
Objectives
A data-driven solution will be used to comprehensively show the impacts of community and each individual has on co-creation of a more sustainable future. One-stop shops will be established in all three cities to support the transition and explore R&I potentials.
Kranj
- Lowering emissions through optimising sustainable transportation structures in the city and affecting behavioural change of the citizens.
- Making sustainable transportation more accessible/attractive for citizens by improving the accessibility and availability of data on arrival predictions, improving personal mobility patterns and making the city more attractive to electric vehicles by monitoring and modelling the traffic flows.
- The resulting models and data will be used to offer an effective decision support system.
Ljubljana
- Monitoring city’s decarbonisation performance, reporting, stakeholders’ involvement, etc. automated data collection for emission accounting will be established within city’s existing platform;
- Pilot activities will enable collaborations between sources of (excess) waste heat and district heating system operator to accelerate utilisation of (excess) waste heat;
- The city’s innovation potential will be increased through collaboration of different stakeholders in innovation hub Ljubljana. The hub will also increase public awareness on importance of energy retrofit of homes we live in to make it possible to introduce fourth generation DHS (lower temperature heat system);
- Innovation potential of decision makers will also be addressed with a campaign It’s time to innovate.
Velenje
- Collection of data that is not readily available to the public authorities – lack of available relevant data sources;
- Citizen engagement related to community-driven data acquisition gathered through the Energy-Climate Office;
- Stakeholder engagement – breaking down siloed data structures and establishing data governance models;
- Devising/unifying appropriate methodologies applicable to a wide spectrum of local communities – complexities of different methodologies that greatly vary between cities/countries (transferability component).
What are the challenges that cities would like to address with the pilot activities?
- Better data collection and modelling – breaking down siloed and connecting fragmented data structures;
- Establishing a working multi-stakeholder climate governance model – engaging key players on the path to climate neutrality;
- Community engagement and preparedness/resilience – addressing and accelerating behavioural change for Net-zero citizens of the future;
- Holistic retrofit and deep renovation planning.
Are cities building upon or part of a previous and/or existing activity?
Kranj
Pilot activities will support planned investments of sustainable urban development in the city financed through different EU funding mechanisms (ITI, CLLD) and strongly promote walking and cycling for shorter distances, use of public transport, car sharing, e-mobility, etc. Within the proposed pilot, a mobility module and MaaS app will be created and integrated into the city’s smart digital platform that is already up and running.
Ljubljana
Analytical platform Energy Climate Atlas enables municipality to identify, analyse, model and map resources and solutions to supply energy needs in a resource and cost-efficient way. The results of platform stimulated identification of other new important aspects (as waste heat potential) to support RES and CO2-Emission targets set within Local energy concept of city Ljubljana. The connection of sources/suppliers of (excess) waste heat into DHS is one of the measures within Local energy concept of Ljubljana.
In 2016, when we were a proud holder of the title European Green Capital, every day we prepared a free program with themed activities and events that included the widest scope of stakeholders – citizens, public companies and institutions, kindergartens and primary schools, district authorities, private businesses, NGOs, societies – more than 300 in total. That year, two wooden pavilions called Točka.Zate. (Point.For.You.) where constructed. Every day, a diverse programme was held there: over 600 events were visited by approximately 34,000 people altogether. We want to adjust and replicate this good experience also within our pilot implementation – Innovation hub Ljubljana.
Velenje
Velenje will be building upon tentative plans of a transition to a low-temperature regime DHS as well as building upon the data-driven activities outlined in digital development plan – climate governance and overview platform. Additionally, it accelerates decarbonisation through energy renovation activities outlined in the Local Energy Concept and Sustainable Urban Development Strategy.
Which emissions domains will the pilot activity address?
Systemic transformation – levers of change the pilot activities will exploit
Stakeholder types that cities would like to engage in the pilot activities
Kranj
Ljubljana
Velenje
Transferable features of pilot activities to a twin city/ies
- To ensure consistency and replicability of achieved results, the activities will be monitored and evaluated with a cross-audit approach within the consortium. Results and learnings of completed activities will be summarised in one video and one brochure on Lessons learned and will include brief overview of the most beneficial findings;
- 3 transferability approaches will be applied: organisation of on-line advisory meetings, presentations in person and tutoring with knowledge sharing and project introduction per request;
- All Slovene municipalities and some European Cities will be invited to participate at the project final conference.
This answer is not exhaustive and simply an indicative one.
Kranj
- Development of smart city platform’s mobility module and Maas application;
- Approach to addressing the behavioural change of citizens;
- New governance models and citizens’ engagement.
This answer is not exhaustive and simply an indicative one.
Ljubljana
- Methodology for assessing (excess) waste heat potential;
- Establishment of innovation hub – diverse stakeholder’s community set up & governance.
This answer is not exhaustive and simply an indicative one.
Velenje
- Established governance model;
- Established Energy-climate office driven actions;
- Data provision and deep energy renovation modelling;
- Triggering economically feasible and data-driven strategic investments into deep renovation and retrofitting.
This answer is not exhaustive and simply an indicative one.
Components of the transferable features
- One-stop-shop for community, stakeholder and decision makers capacity building;
- Developed digital tools and guidelines;
- Researched/developed methodologies.
This answer is not exhaustive and simply an indicative one.
Kranj
- Methodology for development of smart city platform’s mobility module and Maas application;
- Capacity building in addressing the behavioural change;
- Models on governance and citizens’ engagement dos and dont’s.
This answer is not exhaustive and simply an indicative one.
Ljubljana
- Methodology for (excess) waste heat potential evaluation and partnership business model;
- Innovation hub Ljubljana – organisation, governance, do’s and don’t’s.
This answer is not exhaustive and simply an indicative one.
Velenje
- Data-driven modelling tool for energy retrofitting and deep renovation in public and private buildings.
This answer is not exhaustive and simply an indicative one.
What do cities want to learn from Twin City/ies?
- Novel approaches to addressing behavioural change
- New top-down and bottom-up (stakeholder, decision makers and citizen) engagement approaches
- Their approaches to data collection, validity and transparency
- Approaches to raising institutional capacity
This answer is not exhaustive and simply an indicative one.
Kranj
- Approaches to the citizens’ behaviour change;
- Financial models for supporting the investments to tackle climate change;
- Possibilities and way of using data and smart city solutions for decision making.
This answer is not exhaustive and simply an indicative one.
Ljubljana
- Stakeholder’s engagement – motivation and collaboration models;
- Innovations – identification/mapping, usage potential estimation, implementation and validation.
This answer is not exhaustive and simply an indicative one.
Velenje
- New top-down and bottom-up (stakeholder, decision-maker and citizen) engagement approaches;
- Ways of addressing and engaging the national authorities in a meaningful way;
- Data collection, validity and transparency;
- Approaches to raising institutional capacity in DHS decarbonisation;
- Cross-cutting Just transition considerations we haven’t explored yet.
This answer is not exhaustive and simply an indicative one.
