Application of a geographical information system to plan energy policy at a neighborhood scale

This study proposes a preliminary assessment of a Geographical Information Systems (GIS)-based tool for the evaluation of the overall energy demand as well as for the estimation of the potential that renewable energy production strategies possess with respect to existing urban neighborhoods. In particular, the GIS tool implements a model previously developed that express in a simplified analytical form the overall energy demand of existing urban neighborhoods, which is evaluated by accounting the contribution of the energy demand for indoor space heating, domestic hot water demand, household electricity consumption, outdoor lighting and transport. The proposed approach, based on open source GIS procedure, is shown to allow the energy mapping of the chosen case study of a city neighborhood, either in its present condition or after the implementation of assumed refurbishment actions. Moreover, it also provides monthly averaged solar maps based on the rasterized 3D geometrical characteristics of the building stock insisting in the investigated urban area.