Towards the decarbonization of urban communities. Evaluation of smart and green strategies to reduce gas carbon emissions

One of the key aspects of a smart city is to reduce CO2 emissions by adopting different strategies that can also improve the quality of life of citizens. Current metropolises present additional issues compared to traditional cities, such as extremely heavy traffic and abandoned spaces. This paper, therefore, proposes two interventions aimed at improving the smartness of the municipality of Rome: the implementation of a photovoltaic field in an abandoned space used to charge electric buses and the implementation of smart traffic lights that optimise the traffic flow. To measure the impact and effectiveness of those interventions, key performance indicators (KPI) were defined to point out the benefits of the analysed strategies, and a quantitative matrix approach was applied. The aim was to establish a correlation between the different scenarios proposed, assigning numerical indices to each of them that can comprehensively express their impact on the identified smart axes. The results obtained showed the importance of selecting appropriate performance indicators to assess the impact of interventions. Furthermore, the findings revealed that the scenarios with the greatest number of indicators are not necessarily the most advantageous. Overall, the simulations indicated that the proposed interventions could produce a significant reduction in emissions due to the implementation of renewable energy production.