Fostering sustainable urban renewal at the neighborhood scale
Yverdon-les-Bains © EPFL / LAST
In an article published in the international journal "Sustainable Cities and Society", the Laboratory of Architecture and Sustainable Technologies (LAST) presents results of the research project URBIUS, a multi-criteria assessment methodology integrated into a Geographic Information System (GIS) promoting decision support for the sustainable urban renewal of existing neighborhoods.
Urban renewal at the neighborhood scale is identified as a relevant strategy to face the challenge of sustainable urban densification in post-industrial European cities. Following this idea, the article highlights that a tailored-made decision support tool, combining assessment to spatial representation, is necessary to integrate the holistic vision of sustainable development in these projects. The article shows, by the means of an analysis of existing assessment methodologies, that none of them are totally adapted to urban renewal at the neighborhood scale.
To fill this gap, the article introduces the Spatial Decision Support System entitled URBIUS and describes the main contributions of this type of tool. This new tool is based on the assessment of six sustainability objectives specifically adapted for urban renewal projects at the neighborhood scale. The article reveals this way how URBIUS’ assessment approach contributes to the improvement of these projects without ever giving ready-made solutions, promoting this way the diversity of existing neighborhoods.
More specifically, the article describes the multicriteria decision method embedded in URBIUS including its criteria, indicators, the adaptation of the thresholds to a specific neighborhood and the integration of the method into a GIS. Finally, the article demonstrates the relevance of URBIUS for the assessment of urban renewal projects at the neighborhood scale with a test application on a case study in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland. It shows how the synthetized results can contribute to decision-making and communication of sustainability objectives with a wide audience.
The URBIUS tool is the culmination of four years of research. The complete and detailed results of URBIUS, including test applications on three other case studies, can be consulted in the doctoral thesis of Dr. Maria Gracia Riera Pérez, conducted under the direction of Prof. Emmanuel Rey.
Maria Gracia Riera Pérez, Martine Laprise, Emmanuel Rey, "Fostering sustainable urban renewal at the neighborhood scale with a spatial decision support system". Sustainable Cities and Society, vol. 148, p. 379-390, 2018.