Browsing by Author "Molina-Costa, Patricia"
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Item Age-Friendly Route Planner: Calculating Comfortable Routes for Senior Citizens(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2024) Aranguren, Andoni; Osaba, Eneko; Urra-Uriarte, Silvia; Molina-Costa, Patricia; Rocha, Alvaro; Adeli, Hojjat; Dzemyda, Gintautas; Moreira, Fernando; Colla, Valentina; IA; Quantum; LABORATORIO DE TRANSFORMACIÓN URBANA; GENERALThe application of routing algorithms to real-world situations is a widely studied research topic. Despite this, routing algorithms and applications are usually developed for a general purpose, meaning that certain groups, such as ageing people, are often marginalized due to the broad approach of the designed algorithms. This situation may pose a problem in cities which are suffering a slow but progressive ageing of their populations. With this motivation in mind, this paper focuses on describing our implemented Age-Friendly Route Planner, whose goal is to improve the experience in the city for senior citizens. In order to measure the age-friendliness of a route, several variables have been deemed, such as the number of amenities along the route, the amount of comfortable elements found, or the avoidance of sloppy sections. In this paper, we describe one of the main features of the Age-Friendly Route Planner: the preference-based routes, and we also demonstrate how it can contribute to the creation of adapted friendly routes.Item Cities4ZERO: Overcoming carbon lock-in in municipalities through smart urban transformation processes(2020-05-01) Urrutia-Azcona, Koldo; Tatar, Merit; Molina-Costa, Patricia; Flores-Abascal, Iván; LABORATORIO DE TRANSFORMACIÓN URBANA; GENERALHow can local authorities effectively address the decarbonization of urban environments in the long run? How would their interests and expertise be aligned into an integrated approach towards decarbonization? This paper delves into how strategic processes can help to integrate diverse disciplines and stakeholders when facing urban decarbonization and presents Cities4ZERO, a step-by-step methodology for local authorities, able to guide them through the process of developing the most appropriate plans and projects for an effective urban transition; all from an integrated, participatory and cross-cutting planning approach. For the development of the Cities4ZERO methodology, plans, projects, and strategic processes from five European cities that are part of the Smart Cities and Communities European Commission program have been monitored for 4 years, in close collaboration with local authorities, analyzing ad-hoc local strategic approaches to determine key success factors and barriers to be considered from their transitioning experiences. The study indicates that an iterative strategic approach and a project-oriented vision, combined with a stable institutional commitment, are opening a window of opportunity for cities to achieve effective decarbonization.Item Demand Aggregation as a Strategy for Untapping Buildings’ Energy Renovation Potential: Diagnosis and Prioritization Methodology and Case Study from the Basque Country: Diagnosis and prioritization methodology and case study from the basque country(2021-12-15) Nicolas, Olatz; Molina-Costa, Patricia; Tecnalia Research & Innovation; LABORATORIO DE TRANSFORMACIÓN URBANA; GENERALEnergy renovation of post-World War II private multifamily residential buildings has been identified to have a great deal of energy-saving potential but faces a great challenge across Europe, and especially in South Europe, due to fragmented property structures and longer return periods in energy efficiency investments. However, there is great deal of potential in activating demand aggregation in areas with homogeneous typologies. Local authorities play a key role in leading district-scale renovation but lack adequate methods for analysing and prioritizing areas from an integrated perspective, including social aspects. The methodology presented in this paper aims to support local authorities by providing a tool for the diagnosis and prioritization of homogeneous groups of residential buildings to address their renovation based on an analysis of their needs and opportunity factors. First, the methodology sets the universe of analysis; second, based on indicators, it provides comparative information within the municipality, which leads to a prioritization of areas for building renovations according to the state of the building and to the socio-economic profile of the residents; lastly, a detailed diagnosis of selected groups is performed, providing information to design the Renovation Action Plans accordingly. The application of the methodology in Basauri is presented in this paper.Item ENER-BI: Integrating Energy and Spatial Data for Cities’ Decarbonisation Planning: Integrating energy and spatial data for cities’ decarbonisation planning(2021-01-04) Urrutia-Azcona, Koldo; Usobiaga-Ferrer, Elena; De Agustín-Camacho, Pablo; Molina-Costa, Patricia; Benedito-Bordonau, Mauricia; Flores-Abascal, Iván; LABORATORIO DE TRANSFORMACIÓN URBANA; GENERALGiven the current climate emergency, our planet is suffering. Mitigation measures must be urgently deployed in urban environments, which are responsible for more than 70% of global CO2 emissions. In this sense, a deeper integration between energy and urban planning disciplines is a key factor for effective decarbonisation in urban environments. This is addressed in the Cities4ZERO decarbonisation methodology. This method specifically points out the need for technology-based solutions able to support that integration among both disciplines at a local level, enriching decision-making in urban decarbonisation policy-making, diagnosis, planning, and follow-up tasks, incorporating the spatial dimension to the whole process (GIS-based), as well as the possibilities of the digital era. Accordingly, this paper explores the demands of both integrated urban energy planning and European/Basque energy directives, to set the main requisites and functionalities that Decision Support Systems (DSSs) must fulfil to effectively support city managers and the urban decarbonisation process.Item Improving the Urban Accessibility of Older Pedestrians using Multi-objective Optimization(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2022) Delgado-Enales, Inigo; Molina-Costa, Patricia; Osaba, Eneko; Urra-Uriarte, Silvia; Del Ser, Javier; GENERAL; LABORATORIO DE TRANSFORMACIÓN URBANA; IAMany countries around the world have witnessed the progressive ageing of their population, giving rise to a global concern to respond to the needs that this process will create. Besides the changes in the productive schemes and the evolution of the healthcare resources to new models, the accessibility of pedestrians belonging to this age range is grasping an increasing interest in urban planning processes. This work presents pre-liminary results of a framework that combines graph modeling and meta-heuristic optimization to inform decision makers in urban planning when deciding how to regenerate urban spaces taking into account pedestrian accessibility for the older people in urban areas with difficult orography. The goal of the framework is to decide where to deploy urban elements (mechanical ramps, escalators and lifts), so that an indirect measure of accessibility is improved while also accounting for the economical investment of the installation. We exploit the versatility of multi-objective evolutionary algorithms to tackle the underlying optimization problem. Experimental results of a case study located in the city of Santander (Spain) show that the proposed framework can support urban planners when making decisions regarding the accessibility of the public space.Item Is your city planned for all citizens as they age? Selecting the indicators to measure neighbourhoods’ age-friendliness in the urban planning field(2024) Urra-Uriarte, Silvia; Molina-Costa, Patricia; Martin, Unai; Tram, Uyen Nhu; Devis Clavijo, Juanita; LABORATORIO DE TRANSFORMACIÓN URBANA; GENERALIn many countries, urban population ageing trends are a recognized policy issue that requires a multidisciplinary approach. Although some fields, such as urban planning, encounter challenges in incorporating age-friendliness, they are crucial in enhancing the quality of life and well-being of all urban inhabitants. Additionally, they should provide solutions on how cities can cater to the needs of a population that is living longer than ever before. To accomplish this, older people’s needs can be translated into multidomain indicators to be adopted when planning the cities. Using the World Health Organization’s age-friendly cities indicators framework as a basis, the objective of this research is to establish a new indicators framework for urban planners and policymakers. With this aim, within the H2020 URBANAGE project, various cities have followed a process to adapt the WHO´s general framework to their specific needs and interests, through research, iteration with the cities and co-creation methodologies with older people and civil servants. This process has resulted in the definition of an indicators framework, which aims to evaluate the age-friendliness of various neighbourhoods within a city. It also intends to inform the development of decision-support technologies to achieve age-friendly cities in the different cities involved.Item Master plan for the center of San JosÉ, Costa Rica: Challenges of the integrated approach and plan implementation(2020) Molina-Costa, Patricia; Matesanz, Angela; Sopelana, Amaia; von Breyman, Helga; Chavarría, Dania; García-Perez, Igone; Sasa, Zuhra; Castillo, Liza; Jimenez, Alejandro; Solano, Erick C.; Tecnalia Research & InnovationLa regeneración de las ciudades existentes se enfrenta a importantes desafíos, dada la complejidad de actuar en entornos consolidados y habitados. La necesidad de aplicar un enfoque integrado y multidimensional, así como la dificultad de llevar a la práctica los planes que se diseñan, son algunos de los retos más importantes identificados en este ámbito. Este artículo analiza dichos retos a través del estudio del proceso de desarrollo del Plan Maestro de Regeneración Urbana y Reconversión Productiva de los Cuatro Distritos Centrales de San José, Costa Rica, con el objetivo de aportar claves para superar dichos retos. El centro urbano de San José, que en las últimas décadas ha sufrido un acusado proceso de despoblamiento y degradación, presenta importantes problemas, como la escasez de demanda residencial, un deficiente sistema de movilidad, deficientes infraestructuras de gestión del agua, alta vulnerabilidad frente al cambio climático, falta de integración del tejido urbano y un modelo productivo obsoleto. Desde la década de 1990, la Municipalidad de San José, en colaboración con otras instituciones, ha tratado de abordar dichos retos desarrollando planes y poniendo en marcha proyectos de actuación específicos. A pesar de los esfuerzos, los avances han sido escasos, principalmente por la ausencia de una visión común y una hoja de ruta para la regeneración urbana integral del centro. Como respuesta a esta problemática, y con apoyo del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, entre 2018 y 2019 se ha desarrollado el citado Plan Maestro. Este artículo expone los principales retos detectados durante el proceso de desarrollo de dicho Plan: el abordaje desde una perspectiva integrada de los desafíos de la regeneración urbana, y las barreras para una implementación efectiva de las propuestas. Para ello se identifican, en el primer caso, las problemáticas complejas existentes y las posibles sinergias en las actuaciones en las diferentes dimensiones urbanas; y en el segundo, las barreras a la coordinación interinstitucional y la falta de instrumentos de gestión y financiación adecuados, aportándose claves para superar dichas barreras.Item Políticas e instrumentos de fomento de la rehabilitación energética en francia y alemania(2021) García-Madruga, Carolina; Molina-Costa, Patricia; LABORATORIO DE TRANSFORMACIÓN URBANA; GENERALEl objetivo del artículo es analizar las políticas de apoyo a la rehabilitación energética de viviendas en Francia y Alemania, dos de los países europeos con mayores tasas de renovación. Para ello se analizan los documentos oficiales de la administración central de ambos países, acudiendo a los boletines oficiales y a fuentes primarias de los distintos ministerios o de otros agentes involucra-dos en el desarrollo y ejecución de las diferentes estrategias sectoriales (energía, vivienda, cambio climático, bienestar social, etc.) que afectan a la política de rehabilitación. Para ambos casos de estu-dio se incluyen los siguientes ámbitos de análisis: visión global de las políticas de rehabilitación en cada país, instrumentos de financiación, mecanismos para la movilización de agentes y para la activa-ción de la demanda, e identificación de elementos replicables en el contexto españolItem Smart Zero Carbon City: factores clave hacia la descarbonización urbana inteligente(2019-11) Urrutia-Azcona, Koldo; Stendorf-Sørensen, Simon; Molina-Costa, Patricia; Flores-Abascal, Ivan; Tecnalia Research & Innovation; LABORATORIO DE TRANSFORMACIÓN URBANA; GENERALFossil fuels-based human activity over time has generated unacceptable local levels of air pollution and GHG emissions. One of main implications of this activity is Climate Change, which unforeseen consequences are already impacting at local and global scales. This research is focused on defining an effective framework to shift that trend in the local level through the implementation of the Smart Zero Carbon City concept, which brings together the emerging Smart City paradigm and the 2030/2050 EU goals with the urgent need of decarbonizing our local environments. In this case, the study applies the Smart Zero Carbon City concept and implementation method into 5 EU cities, focusing on the case of Sonderborg municipality (DK) to extract the Key Factors towards Smart Urban Decarbonisation, which are applicable to other cities facing this ambitious transition.Item Spatial Estimation of Ground-Level Temperature for Climate-Sensitive Urban Mobility using Image-to-Image Deep Neural Networks(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2023) Delgado-Enales, Inigo; Molina-Costa, Patricia; Del Ser, Javier; GENERAL; IAGlobal warming is reflected by the increase in air temperature at ground level, among other factors. This increase in temperatures is more pressing in urban environments, due to the phenomenon known as Urban Heat Island (UHI). This phenomenon consists of temperatures in urban environments being higher than those in rural areas, which can be due, among other factors, to urban morphology and activities (traffic, air conditioning). UHI poses a risk to people and affects habits of urban life, such as mobility. This is why estimating air tem-peratures at 2 meters above ground level with a street spatial resolution can help urban planners make better decisions to achieve less thermally stressed urban areas. This paper presents the results of a preliminary study aimed to explore the use of image-to-image deep neural networks to estimate the pedestrian level air temperature in urban areas. Specifically, we propose a U-Net architecture fed with meteorological variables to produce, at its output, a estimation of the spatial distribution of the target variable. Results over data belonging to 4 major European cities show that with a suitable methodology implementation and databases, Deep Learning can be very convenient and efficient when estimating the pedestrian level air temperature, highlighting its potential for climate change adaptation of urban mobility.Item Towards an Integrated Approach to Urban Decarbonisation in Practice: The Case of Vitoria-Gasteiz: the case of vitoria-gasteiz(2021-08-07) Urrutia-Azcona, Koldo; Molina-Costa, Patricia; Muñoz, Iñigo; Maya-Drysdale, David; Garcia-Madruga, Carolina; Flores-Abascal, Iván; Tecnalia Research & Innovation; LABORATORIO DE TRANSFORMACIÓN URBANA; GENERAL; PLANIFICACIÓN ENERGÉTICAHow can local authorities effectively approach the decarbonisation of urban environments? Recent efforts to redirect cities into a less energy-intensive model have been mostly approached from a sectoral perspective, with specific energy policies and plans being issued without deeply considering their ties with other urban aspects. In this sense, well-established urban planning procedures have not been part of those, with the consequence of barriers in the implementation phase of those energy plans. The Cities4ZERO methodology was developed to guide effective integration between urban planning and energy policies, plans, and practices. It provides a holistic approach to strategic municipal processes for urban decarbonisation in the mid-long term, which includes key local stakeholders’ engagement into integrated energy planning processes, as well as tools for effective energy decarbonisation modelling. This paper analyses the application of the Cities4ZERO decarbonisation methodology on its strategic stage in the development of Vitoria-Gasteiz’s Action Plan for an Integrated Energy Transition 2030 (APIET 2030). It suggests that in order to accelerate urban decarbonisation, it is critical to: (a) foster interdepartmental collaboration; (b) allow for flexibility on the land-use planning regulations; (c) back decisions with detailed urban-energy models; and (d) truly engage key local stakeholders in the planning and implementation processes.