Since the entry of the Paris Agreement on 4th November of 2016, the international community has been seeking to provide a global and efective response to the urgent need to stop the rise of the global average temperature and resolve with determination the challenges associated to climate change.
Nowadays cities currently contribute 60 to 80% of energy consumption and 75% of carbon emissions (UNEP, 2011), 50% of this cities are at risk to potentially catastrophes caused by climate change.
Global energy demand is also expected increase by 37% until 2035 and the displacements in urban areas triple on the most congested urban centers until 2050.
Portuguese Environment Ministry took on the challenge of reducing these indicators, introducing the program: "Living Lab for Decarbonization", an approach to encourage the creation of spaces to promote the development of innovative technologies with low environmental impact, solidification of eficient and productive principles, material and energy resources and the appropriation of economic and environmental gains by communities from new solutions.
It was this context that the concept of Living Lab for Decarbonization of the Historical Center of Évora (LVpDÉ) was born and which aims to be the first step towards turning Évora into a city of innovation and new integrated solutions for Smart and Sustainable Cities (Smart-City).
Led by the Municipality of Évora, a multidisciplinary group of people and partners decided to form a partnership and proposed to Environmental Fund an action plan for the implementation in the Historic Center of Évora (CHÉ) an ecosystem that allows transforming the urban space into a lab of innovative solutions and technology-based, open to innovation, to experimentation in a real environment where it will develop experimentation activities for the challenges of mobility and reduction of CO2 emissions. The partnership includes the following partners:
CHÉ continues to have dificulties and ineficiencies in terms of mobility and transports and it increases the responsibility for its preservation. As a walled city, as well-defined entrances and the conditioned circulation, allows the configuration of an ideal and sensing model for study of innovative and replicable models with the purpose of decarbonization of medium-sized historic cities in terms of the internal circulation of the historic center and in terms of the relationship of external urban units (neighborhoods) and citizens with the services available at the center.
The proposed activities focus in an integrated manner of the installation of solutions that continue to define and experiment with more eficient management models and that contribute to the reduction of CO2 needs in the CHÉ, and will be based on the following levels:
- Establish a set of communication platforms at CHÉ that allows connectivity between the various technologies to be implemented.
- Study and integrate soft mobility in the analysis models for the definition of active policies.
- Measure the use of a private car at CHÉ and promote more efective circulation and parking measures.
- Control and improve municipal urban operations with more eficient circuits and electric vehicles.
- Improve the management of commerce and logistics using more eficient monitoring, control and aggregating platforms by using an electric vehicle.
- Promote the intelligent use of public lighting in interaction with citizens.
- Monitor consumption in municipal buildings and promote sustainable behaviors.
- Increase the number of green spaces for greater CO2 absorption.