Optimizing energy performance of a neighborhood via IMM methodology: Case study of Barcelona.

Current policies to mitigate the climate change caused by human activities are oriented toward sustainable urban transformations to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. The reason is that cities are energy-using systems in their own right, and they can use energy in dramatically more or less efficient ways. The urban settlement forms could have a disproportionately large effect over the Energy consumption and consequently on any effective long-term strategy for reducing C02 emission in atmosphere. Hence, this paper demonstrates how to transform an existing neighbourhood region (1) into a lower energy consumption system, using the IMM® (Integrated Modification Methodology). In this approach, the city is considered as a Complex Adaptive System; the research discusses how the urban system performance could be optimized via IMM®, expanding the energy efficiency goals from buildings to the urban scale, (2) including a possible mitigating solution for the Urban Heat Island phenomenon. Actually, the replacement of the existing traditional energy consuming buildings by new energy efficient or net-zero energy buildings could be a very slow process due to the economic reasons and the fact that these existing buildings are part of cultural heritage of the cities. As an energy retrofit method, a cluster of buildings in the neighborhood area was grouped together to be the subject of potential solar power installations. City of Barcelona, as the case study, with available an average solar radiation of about 1500 kWh/m2/year has a potential to produce a significant amount of energy. Secondly, IMM® methodology has been associated together with the UHI (Urban Heat Island) mitigation method; city quarter was transformed with a symbiotic integration, of built-up mass layer; open spaces, streets, etc. layer; land use layer; Transportation and Mobility Layer, in order to improve the sustainability as well the living conditions, comfort and health for inhabitants in the urban and building environment.