Situation of Opportunity in the Growth and Change of three Stockholm City Districts (completed)
Situation of Opportunity in the Growth and Change of three Stockholm City Districts – everyday life, built environment and transport explored as Energy Usage Systems (EUS) and Governance Networks
Funded by: FORMAS (The Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning), The Swedish Energy Agency
Period: 2007-07-01 – 2012-12-31
Project partners
KTH School of Architecture and the Built Environment
Department of Urban Planning and Environment
Environmental Strategies Research
Örjan Svane, Professor, Research Leader, Project Manager
Mattias Höjer, Associate Professor, Senior Researcher
Daniel K. Jonsson, Ph. D., Senior Researcher
Josefin Wangel, Ph. D. student
The School of Industrial Engineering and Management
Department of Energy Technology
Per Lundqvist, Professor, Senior Advisor
Jaime Arias, Ph. D., Senior Researcher
Aleh Kliatsko, Ph. D student
Background
Stockholm and other cities overburden their hinterlands and are almost totally fossil-fuel driven. Sustainable development policies such as the Swedish Environmental Quality Objectives indicate the way forward, but how to research the issue of urban sustainable development? This cross-disciplinary research project, SitCit for short aims to assess the “Situation of opportunity” in achieving 2KW society targets over a 50 year period through study of governance networks and quantitative modeling of potential. The CO2 emissions should also be reduced from today’s levels to 1ton per person and year. The methodology is based on the concepts of Human Activity Systems (HAS - What people do) and Energy Usage Systems (EUS - the system that supports these activities by aid of energy).
What can be changed in buildings, transport systems and users’ habits, how great are the potentials, who are the agents of change? When is change favourable? Research indicates that there are “Situations of Opportunity” in city development when the potential for change is large, resistance low. Climate change, municipal plans and technical innovation leaps are possible "seeds” to Situations. For each district we identify a small number of “seeds” and develop consistent pictures of the planning and realization of the Situation as enacted in the upcoming decades.
Case I: Low-energy alternatives to private transports in Bromma City District.
Case II: Substantially increased energy efficiency through planned refurbishment, changing lifestyle and behaviour and technology substitution of multifamily house in the Rinkeby city district.
Case III: Innovative ICT for decreased energy use in residential buildings and private transports in the Södermalm city district.
The project uses the STELLA software program to build the quantitative models.
Each Situation picture consists of three parallel representations:
· the Scenario is a narrative of the process of change, seen from the future looking back;
· the computerized Energy Usage Model quantifies the outcomes in terms of reduced energy use;
· the Stakeholder Network designates the agents of change and their forms of co-operation.
Keywords: Energy Usage System, Human Activity System, Governance Network, Scenario, Situations of Opportunity, Sustainable Urban Development