Hybrid models for the evaluation of energy sustainability in urban areas

Urban population in the world accounts for 54%, with 69% in Italy, and it continues to grow (The United Nations Population Division's World Urbanization Prospects, 2015). In this work, energy sustainability has been analysed in urban contexts with high energy consumptions and low availability of renewable energy sources. The sustainable management of energy is a great opportunity in the complex environments of urban areas where the buildings are always an important contributor. Main results of recent research activities, carried out by the authors, are presented with energy-use models for buildings considering statistical bottom-up and top-down models. These models have been tested on about 50 municipalities in the Metropolitan City of Turin comparing the results of bottom-up models (at building scale) with the top-down model at municipal scale using a GIS tool. Finally, new hybrid models have been integrated to consider urban morphology, solar exposition and microclimatic variables of different urban environments. The use of a GIS tool consents to manage and represent buildings data at urban scale.