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CLEEN Strategic Research Agenda for
the Theme Healthy Urban Living
Key definitions:
Smart city is a dynamic ecosystem of citizens, authorities, companies and research centers that cooperate to develop
products and services to foster innovation with the aim to develop an attractive, competitive and sustainable city (Ref..TNO).
A smart city enables energy efficient and carbon neutral living, working and travelling without compromising the wellbeing and good quality of life (Ref.VTT).
Resilience means the buffer capacity and the ability of the system to absorb perturbations, to tolerate disturbances, to
function under pressure, and to recover from possible shocks rapidly. Urban resilience means city’s ability to function
under pressure (of climate change, weather shocks, rapid urbanisation, demographic and economic changes and lack of
natural resources), adjust its dynamics and to respond to changes in the surrounding ecosystem. This response can be
measured through system performance, recovery duration, and recovery effort.
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Executive summary
Essential parts of the grand challenges for our globe are climate change, energy supply risks and
increasing urbanisation. These challenges constitute major risks for the quality of life, the economic
success and the environmental quality of life. A “Resilient City” (e.g. in Newman, Beatley and Boyer 2009)
aims at intelligent planning and visionary leadership to prevent major disruptions in urban life and
to ensure long-term survival and success of urban systems. This theme is a new research topic,
and highly important for society.
The aim of this research agenda for Healthy Urban Living is to increase urban resilience and wellbeing of citizens. The socio-technical innovation of “urban smartness”, can be understood as a key
enabler for urban resilience and well-being.
This Strategic Research Agenda focuses on following research topics:
1. understanding the interactions and interlinkages in urban systems. The specific focus is on energy
chain, human behaviour, environmental and meteorological data, air quality and its effect on human
health.
2. design and co-creation of a low emission district creating comfortable, secure and safety living
environments. In this context we are focusing on energy production, distribution and use; and their
effect on the well-being/health of citizens. In addition new models for ownership, business models
and new value chain creation are studied
3. control on urban systems by using the fundamental knowledge created in 1 st focus point and in
adding smart control systems and the Internet of Things (IoT) mashups.
Figure 2. Principal illustration of the main research focus points in Healthy Urban Living strategic research
agenda
This SRA is in line with the European Innovation Platform of Smart Cities and Communities and
also have many common topics with INKA cities. The uniqueness of this SRA is the collaborative
nature and cross disciplinary between CLEEN, RYM and DIGILE SHOKs.
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Background
Cities are engines of human and economic development. At the same time, most greenhouse gas
and air pollutant emissions and other pollutions are produced in cities where also the human
exposure to pollution is highest. Resilient cities can be seen as catalyzers of the foreseen energy,
environmental and social revolution and are expected to play a key role in order to achieve low
emission society.
Urban ecosystems can be seen as systems of people, flows of energy, materials, services and
financing. In addition, urban systems are interlinked to natural systems. All system components
and their interlinkages need to be explored in an integrated and holistic way to build cities of high
resiliency (e.g. against sudden natural shocks like storms or industry accident) and sustainability.
Recilience requires integration and interoperability of urban systems. Monitoring and prediction
methods play an important role in managing and controlling the entire system.
The main challenge is to reduce environmental impact and carbon footprint of urban areas in a
situation where urban environment is increasingly becoming the predominant way of living globally.
At the same time, societal development needs to be addressed and well-being of people must be
in focus. The increasing use of energy in the coming decades should be done without increasing
harmful effects both on human health and the environment. Pressure is growing to reduce the
overall environmental impact, and there is a parallel compelling need for business to stay globally
competitive. Investment and expenditure needs for improving energy efficiency, modernising
infrastructure and creating high quality living environments for all, including the most vulnerable
citizens, are enormous. At the same time, cities have limited access to financial resources.
Globalisation has opened new markets and is requiring much more competitiveness from
European industries. The advanced and modern systems deliver new services and opportunities to
grow well-being. But at the same time, societies have become more vulnerable to criminality and
natural catastrophes. Climate change induces new and unexpected phenomena requiring more
robust but flexible and self-recovering systems. As the most dramatic effects of climate change are
expected at high latitudes, tools for correctly examining and predicting the phenomena and the
atmosphere in urban areas in these regions are needed.
The concrete threats to the urban system include natural disasters and other sudden shocks
(storms, terrorism, collapse of vital technical infrastructure) as well as vast consequences of
climate change (decreasing biodiversity in the ecosystems, repeated flooding, long periods of hot
and arid summer seasons, extreme weather conditions, distorted population structure, escalating
migratory movements, poverty and inequality, and epidemic diseases). These challenges are
different from each other as some occur suddenly (epidemics) and have relatively limited duration
(collapsed infrastructure) while others affect the society slowly and may be very difficult to change
or to adapt to. In addition, the spatial impact is very different.
Resilient cities emphasize the relations between the urban flows of energy, material and people as
well as governance and human behaviour. Further, the relations need to be explored in a holistic
and integrated way to create cities of high resiliency and sustainability. This includes also new
ways to enhance citizens’ environmental awareness. Innovations in the form of 'sustainable city
solutions' can deliver technologies, products and services that meet the dual challenge of reducing
greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants and providing efficient public services. These
solutions should also be accessible, and improve the quality of life of the most vulnerable citizens
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in terms of poverty and unequal welfare distribution. This is important since the effects of climate
change and the diminishing of resources will hit these groups the worst.
The term ‘resilient city’ is widely used and includes different sub-systems of a city and often also
aspects of governance and/or citizens. In this context we are focusing on urban utility
infrastructures such as energy production, distribution and use, waste management and effluent
treatment as well as traffic, and their effects on the well-being/health of citizens. Transport related
challenges are not solved simply by adding clean vehicles; the transport system and required
transport services including mobility patterns as a whole have to be optimised. Information and
communication technologies (ICT) are seen as enabling technologies for smart system solutions.
The strategic uniqueness of this SRA is holistic view of resiliency and the integration of different
systems. In addition, this SRA focuses on integrated dynamic models which have not been
introduced before. The knowledge creation from measured and newly combined data enables new
possibilities to create personalised services and products.
Positioning of the Finnish know-how
Finnish key competences in urban research are in the complex interactions of urban eco-systems
and especially in the combination of energy chains and user behaviour (system dynamic models
and energy simulation models at urban level). Finland is one of the leading countries in the world
utilizing public sector register data (GIS) in land use planning at municipal and regional level,
combined from different authority sources. In addition, Finland is worldwide well-known for novel
urban energy simulation tools.
Understanding and measuring environmental conditions is essential for sustainable and resilient
urban environments. Finland has leading expertise in innovative air quality, weather monitoring and
remote sensing systems, as well as emission reduction techniques. Finnish expertise in aerosol
measurement and air pollution is very well-known in international research fields. Also in the field
of interlinkage of air pollutants to their health effects (toxicology) research of high excellence is
being done in which a multidisciplinary approach is used. This approach includes in-depth
toxicological and physico-chemical characterization of source related emissions, their
transformation in the atmosphere, combined with epidemiological studies.
Finnish energy system is known for the wide implementation of combined heat and power
production as well as tri-generation (combined heat, cool and power generation). In global
perspective, Finnish power plants have very high efficiency and annual availability. In addition,
smart energy metering and smart grids are in place in Finland and there are many good examples
of know-how on combination of central and de-central generation of energy.
Finland is generally recognized as one of the leading countries in both development as well as
adoption of mobile ICT technology, with special strengths in e.g. context awareness, visualization
and augmented reality solutions. These solutions can be exploited in increasing citizen’s
understanding of environmental impacts, both related to their own actions as well as the urban
infrastructure around them.
Identification of the research needs
Already about 68 % of the EU population live in urban areas and the urbanisation is further
expected to continue worldwide especially in developing countries. From the health point of view
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this is of special interest since, urban air pollution, particularly particulate matter (PM) emissions,
are considered as the most important environmental risk for human health worldwide. Deployment
of smart and resilient solutions will impact on reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, emissions
that cause direct impacts on human health and energy consumption (vehicles, buildings and urban
infrastructures in general), reduction of accidents and crime, as well as reduction of time spent in
transit and traffic congestion. The quality of urban life is highly dependent on urban structures,
concentration of activities and on services for citizens.
Holistic and integrated solutions are needed. To create resilient urban environments, focus
should be placed on studying the whole urban system and on the synergy of various sub-systems
to avoid sub-optimised sectorial aspects. The fact that advanced information technology is
available at low cost, enables developers to create embedded solutions for various everyday
needs. New opportunities arise for:
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Smart and resilient energy and utility systems
Environmental and meteorological monitoring
Services enabled by digital systems that are safe, secure and of high quality
Resilience of the living environment
User-oriented products, services and processes
Means to measure and visualize citizens’ consumption patterns and environmental impacts
In general, there is a need for modernisation and improving energy and resource efficiency of the
existing building stock, transport and energy infrastructure by means of holistic planning,
optimisation, smart and resilient control and management in a cost-efficient way. Functional,
comfortable and resource-efficient solutions are needed for housing, work, leisure and
transportation. Associated physical and virtual services should be functional and user-friendly and
they should be seamlessly integrated into our everyday life and reachable/accessible for all
households/citizens. Better performing services, serving the needs of citizens, should be provided
with lower environmental impact and in a financially sustainable way.
Urban transformation towards sustainable cities
Sustainable development of urban areas is of key importance and requires implementation and
deployment of effective and user-friendly technologies and services. As mentioned, resilient cities
can be seen as systems with flows of energy, materials, services, people and financing. Moreover,
urban planning is closely related to the economic and social metabolism of communities; i.e.
technology is seen as an enabler of good life. The importance of identification, integration and
optimisation of different energy, transport and data flows in city development, planning and city
management is crucial for creating sustainable, clean and resilient environments.
The renewal of urban environment is slow. Therefore, implementing any new technologies must fit
to existing structures, environments and cultural/social context. In addition, existing infrastructures
must be upgraded to deliver multiple uses whenever possible.
The challenge is threefold;
1st Understanding the urban systems and phenomena (energy, waste, water, traffic, air quality,
human health, weather) and their variability in a global context
2ndTechnological development and validation and
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3rd Creation and validation of new business and financing models, standardisation and user
acceptance and engagement, upscaling and multiplying standardised solutions in several
regions
In addition to the above mentioned challenges, governance, decision making and awareness
building are critical factors in the transformation process towards sustainable cities.
The main research questions are:
1. Understanding the urban phenomena
a. interactions and interlinkages of energy chains, waste management, effluent
treatment and traffic on air quality and other emissions, and their effects on human
health (toxicological effects)
b. human behaviour, socioeconomics and energy use
c. human motivation and encouragement for active participation
2. How should we design future low emission districts by using cross-disciplinary methods in
respect of
a. energy systems (energy design in respect of carbon emissions and air quality, traffic
in respect of air quality) for both existing and new districts and cities
i. development of new technologies
ii. application of existing technologies in totally new combinations/context
b. user acceptance and awareness
c. accessibility and availability of urban infrastructure services
d. citizen health and well-being
3. How to optimize the district management in a cross-disciplinary way by understanding,
monitoring and modeling the complex interactions in urban systems
a. integration and interoperability of different technical systems (energy, air quality,
weather data, toxicological data)
b. better understanding of citizen behaviour
4. What new innovations are needed in
a. technical systems, in both building and district / city level?
b. understanding behavior of citizens, new business models and creation of new value
chains?
The Strategic Research Agenda
Design of healthy, low emission and resilient districts
Holistically operating energy efficient districts have better ability to react to changes. Holistically
functioning cities use sustainable land-use planning and localized energy planning. Holistic
planning enables cost savings (multifunctioning systems) and increases safety (health) and
reliability through better utilization of intelligent, integrated and optimized networks.
Renewing the building stock and infrastructure is costly and generally takes very long. The
implementation of any new technologies must therefore fit within existing structures and
environments. In addition, existing infrastructures must be upgraded to deliver multiple tasks
whenever possible. The key challenge is the transformation of our districts towards resilient, low
emission and zero energy/climate neutral districts by implementing and optimising local renewable
energies, including waste-to-energy solutions, with existing energy production (smart energy
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networks, virtual power plants), smart retrofitting of existing building stock and smart integration of
new zero energy buildings into a sustainable district. For the greatest impact, the implementation of
renewable energies must be synchronised with smart energy networks, control and storage
systems. Integrated multi-optimised solutions (materials and systems) should lead to comfortable,
safe, secure and cost-efficient buildings and districts.
Key enablers to cost efficiency are scalable and replicable solutions and concepts. This includes
that solutions and concepts must be adaptable to different socioeconomic and governance
contexts and overcome obstacles like split-incentives or uneven distribution of gains and costs.
Transparency between different metrics and indicators is important and could possibly ease the
comparability of different concepts.
The used design and planning methods and tools must be scalable and optimise the functional
region in order to avoid sub-optimisation.
Figure 3 Principal scheme of visualisation of some parts of different layers of urban planning.
Monitoring and management of sustainable districts
Smart district management is the key for maintaining people’s well-being under the pressure of
resource efficiency. Increasing share of wind and solar energy production will increase the
importance of interoperability and control of energy production as well as use of energy storage
and peak shifting and shaving options.
Comprehensive weather and outdoor air quality data is crucial not only for forecasting energy
demand peaks, but also for creating healthier environments and minimizing the anthropogenic
impacts on climate and our environment. Quality assured data is crucial for effective use of
emission and climate models as well as for city planning purposes.
In addition to the traditional atmospheric monitoring, new cost-efficient instrumentation as well as
intelligent data transfer solutions are needed. By merging real time and simulation data, more
accurate forecasts can be created for both sudden weather shocks and longer term impacts for
different uses.
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Sensors and sensor networks enable real time monitoring and optimisation of e.g. energy or
logistics and reaction to changes in air quality. By increasing the use of open data and by
combining the information from different sources (IoT mashups) new added value can be
generated (. Increased data collection and processing will also enable self-learning digital services.
There is little research evidence on the role of the building occupants in achieving the design and
construction intent of buildings. Studies are even fewer on the influence of user behaviour and
lifestyle on maintaining the effectiveness of high performing buildings, where energy consumption
and peak power demand is highly affected by user behaviour.
Figure 4. Illustration of real-time NOx pollution monitoring in urban environment. (TU Delft)
Suggested project & program portfolio for the Theme
The suggested themes for research are the following:
Understanding the functioning of urban systems
Urban systems are complex and constantly changing. They consist of several sub-systems, and
their interactions and interconnections still need fundamental research in order to improve our
understanding on the resilience of urban systems. This part focuses only on combining weather
and air quality monitoring data to design and operation of energy, waste and effluent management
and traffic systems’ behaviour. There are still many unclear phenomena in air quality formation and
how different emission components are behaving and reacting together. There is even less
fundamental knowledge about the toxicological reactions induced by the emissions and their
effects on human health. In addition, deep understanding of the functioning of energy, material
and traffic systems and their optimal response to human behaviour and needs is needed in order
to model urban systems and to design resilient cities.
Research questions:
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What spatial and temporal resolution should be used for air quality monitoring and what are
the crucial and reliable indicators for air quality in respect of human health (toxicology)?
How is changing climate affecting the air quality and chemical reactions in the air?
What environmental and meteorological observations are optimal and needed to
understand how the urban atmosphere behaves from a resilient urban area point of view,
and with what spatial and temporal resolution these observations should be made?
How is human behaviour affecting the energy demand and how is climate affecting the
energy supply and what are the interlinkages and interactions of these?
What could the optimal control strategies be for the fluctuating energy demand and supply,
and how could weather data and understanding of human behaviour be utilized in these
estimations? In addition, is the pattern of behaviour varying depending on age, gender,
living area or other socioeconomic factors?
How can data be analyzed and further developed as input to urban models?
What are the most effective technological solutions in order to make urban environment
more healthy and sustainable?
Design of resilient and healthy city solutions and services
Smart energy supply and demand systems and services for better-informed citizens are in the
centre of creating future low-emission cities. In addition, co-creation platforms including specified
sub-platforms, decision tools (simulation, visualization/virtualization, open data/information
platforms) and living labs are needed to increase the level of awareness of city solutions and
inhabitants’ increased involvement in planning and implementation the solutions, e.g. activeness of
social communities with respect to energy and production of energy within districts (by prosumers).
When new energy alternatives are considered, it is essential that also effects to human health are
considered via evaluation of both physicochemical and toxicological properties of the emission.
The optimal use of local and renewable energy sources together with other low emission energy
sources is important. The district level heating, cooling and power demand is reduced via energy
efficient smart buildings. At the same time, electricity use is increasing due to electric vehicles and
increased number of devices in buildings. The use of various energy sources with increased use of
renewable energies should help in finding ways to reduce emissions. The solutions should be
adjustable from Finnish market conditions to European markets, Russia and Asian emerging
economies, and they should take into account local cultural traditions and preferences.
Research topics:
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Design and ownership of future city systems, business models and value chains
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Gathering and analysing data on user preferences including user acceptance of
technologies and quality aspects (safety) of districts (including data from non-traditional
sources)
Development of a framework for metrics, baselines and indicators to compare low emission
districts
Development on multidisciplinary urban modelling tool including aspects related to energy
and air quality
Development of multi-stakeholder city/district-scale design, simulation and monitoring and
multi-criteria optimisation tools which enable analyses and co-creation of cities/districts as
holistic ecosystems (integration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES), performance
assessment including health effects, Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA)/ socio-economicenvironmental, visualisation of impacts). These kinds of tools enable scenario building and
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analyses for multi-dimensional decision-making, and the analysis and visualisation of the
impact of different choices in district/city planning.
Development of an affordable (including funding), scalable and replicable concept of the
transformation of districts towards smart low emission and climate neutral districts by
implementing and optimising local renewable energies with existing energy production
(smart energy networks, virtual power plants). The implementation of any new technologies
must fit within existing structures and environments since the renewal of building stock is
costly and generally takes very long.
Development of weather data services combined with energy demand and supply control
and management systems to optimise the low emission energy use.
Creation of ICT standards for city level information sharing enabling open access to various
databases for design, planning, operation and service provision.
Development of digital platforms for integrated multidisciplinary collaborative design &
planning (co-simulation and optimization of complex interactions in different domains,
virtual environments, mobile augmented reality and interactive public displays for viewing
and commenting designs, e-learning applications, user-oriented cognitive data
visualisations).
Stakeholder involvement and co-creation of new operational practices and services in a
cross-disciplinary way (promotion of paradigm shift in business environment).
Cross-regional collaboration to ensure building up critical skills and knowledge and critical
mass for large markets.
Improving legacy and incentive systems for integrated solutions.
Development and deployment of smart and resilient solutions for lighting, heating, cooling
and electricity systems as well as infrastructure for electric vehicles in public (streets, open
spaces, buildings) and private spaces.
District-scale demonstrations of solutions and best practices on living lab basis.
Smart energy and air quality management for resilient buildings and districts
Holistically operating energy efficient districts have better ability to react to changes. Holistically
functioning energy efficient cities use sustainable land-use planning and localized energy planning.
Holistic planning enables cost savings (multifunctioning systems), increased safety and reliability
through better utilization of intelligent, integrated and optimized networks.
Reseach topics:
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Development of research-based data of citizen behaviour including user acceptance of new
technologies. Data includes both technical data (e.g. energy consumption, air quality,
weather) and citizen behaviour data (acceptance, crowd based data)
Comprehensive cross-disciplinary monitoring network for atmospheric observations
Development of sensors and instruments capable of real-time monitoring and data
providing
Enhancing city level management of energy and air quality as well as related trading
systems (performance monitoring and commissioning tools, self-learning systems for
optimised management, optimisation tools for energy and air quality management based on
“dynamic profiles” of buildings and other network nodes, forecasting algorithms).
Development of new generation mobile and personalized ICT tools to enhance
environmental awareness, e.g. visualization of energy consumption, emission and air
pollution levels, carbon footprint related to products and consumption patterns etc.
Integration of building and vehicle charging network into the district energy management
system
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Development of monitoring and early warning systems/modelling tools of sudden weather
shocks, air pollutants or epidemic diseases, which are integrated to other monitoring and
control systems of the district and buildings.
Development of stakeholder involvement and co-creation of new operational practices and
services in a cross-disciplinary way (promotion of paradigm shift in business environment)
Development of new business models enabling affordable energy renovations at district
scale. New business models focus on risk sharing and on minimising split-incentives or
uneven distribution of gains and costs. In addition, the new business models can change
the traditional value chains and enable new innovations supporting 2020 targets and
beyond.
District-scale demonstrations of solutions and best practices on living lab basis
This research agenda can be executed in collaboration with RYM and DIGILE.
Participants of the SRA group
Pekka Utela, Vaisala
Marja Englund, Fortum
Anssi Savisalo, FCG
Leena Järvi, Helsingin yliopisto
Maija-Riitta Hirvonen, UEF
Miimu Airaksinen, VTT
Panu Kontio, SYKE
Topi Rönkkö, TTY
Mika Luoranen, LUT
Responsible author
Miimu Airaksinen, VTT
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