Feb 6 2015
From 17 to 19 February, Valladolid-based Fundación CARTIF will be hosting the REMOURBAN project kick off meeting, a project selected under the EU’s Lighthouse project scheme whose guiding principles are impact and replicability. REMOURBAN is a 22-strong European partnership whose ultimate goal is drive forward urban regeneration in towns and cities to ensure social progress and environmental sustainability.
To achieve this, the project will have five years to draw on pioneering solutions from energy, ICT, and mobility sectors using three lighthouse cities as demonstrators, and two follower cities as replicators. Valladolid will be a lighthouse city along with Eskisehir (Turkey) and Nottingham (UK). The follower cities are Seraing (Belgium), and Miskolc (Hungary).
At the heart of the urban renovation strategy will be citizens, because they become the cornerstones to making a smart city a reality. They will not only stand to benefit the most from the strategy, but they will be the common thread throughout each participating city.
With a budget of €23.8 million, REMOURBAN’s emphasis will be on reaching a compelling holistic approach where energy production, distribution and use; mobility and transport; and ICT come to form a continuum. The challenge is to strike the right balance between these interwoven areas and be able to monitor and assess them expertly. In the energy sector, REMOURBAN will seek to drive down consumption through retrofitting solutions and enhanced electricity management. The mobility sector will deal with fuel types, multimodal strategies and promotion to cut CO2 emissions and reducing the average journey times. Urban infrastructures will be optimised through ICT solutions such as e-ticketing systems. ICT will also be an enabler for smart grid strategies and city information platforms.
The model will consist of an overall procedure for diagnosis and decision-making in the field of the urban renovation. It will include a decision support tool facilitating the selection of the better solutions for improving the key parameters that define the urban sustainability and smartness. These decisions will identify the appropriate technologies, the less risky and efficient business plans targeting to create local value, transforming cities on leads markets for the innovative energy, mobility and ICT solutions.
Reflecting the wide scope of the project and the hopes it raises for the future of our cities, three days of meeting are awaiting the delegates in February, starting with a cities presentation of the five cities involved. This will be followed by an institutional presentation and press conference. Also present will be the EC Project Officer who will deliver a talk to the delegates, before the various working sessions begin toward the end of the first day. Prior to the official kick-off on the morning of the 17 February will be a demonstration, staged by Valladolid municipality, to promote the city’s Mobility Plan with REMOURBAN which includes the use electric vehicles.
REMOURBAN will draw on an impressive array of skills and knowledge which will be mobilised by the consortium members. These include some of the big names in innovation, universities and research institutes, and smaller, expert businesses.
Source: http://www.youris.com/