Social Indicators in the Sustainable Refurbishment: Calculating Quality of Life Indicator in a Residential Building in Málaga

How can we measure ‘quality of life’? The sustainable refurbishment goes beyond strictly energy aspects. Sustainability indicators are needed to facilitate data collection and to provide information which does not require too time-consuming calculations. Thus, you can offer an idea of the extent and quality of the rehabilitation before starting the project and, also, the obtained results can be evaluated in an agile way after the refurbishment. From a list of social indicators gathered from different methods, sustainability assessment tools and International and European standards, three social indicators are proposed: Users Satisfaction, Participation Agreement and Quality of Life. This paper shows the development of Quality of Life social indicator, the more closely related to the main objectives of Researchand Development Project “Sustainable Refurbishment”: improving energy efficiency and wellbeing of users in existing residential buildings. Finally, this social indicator is applied to a real case study in Málaga (Spain).

Sustainable Air Traffic Management System Development Methodology

As it is defined in ATM 2000+ Strategy (Eurocontrol 2001), the mission of the Air Traffic Management (ATM) System is: “For all the phases of a flight, the ATM system should facilitate a safe, efficient, and expedite traffic flow, through the provision of adaptable ATM services that can be dimensioned in relation to the requirements of all the users and areas of the European air space. The ATM services should comply with the demand, be compatible, operate under uniform principles, respect the environment and satisfy the national security requirements.” The objective of this paper is to present a methodology designed to evaluate the status of the ATM system in terms of the relationship between the offered capacity and traffic demand, identifying weakness areas and proposing solutions. The first part of the methodology relates to the characterization and evaluation of the current system, while a second part proposes an approach to analyze the possible development limit. As part of the work, general criteria are established to define the framework in which the analysis and diagnostic methodology presented is placed. They are: the use of Air Traffic Control (ATC) sectors as analysis unit, the presence of network effects, the tactical focus, the relative character of the analysis, objectivity and a high level assessment that allows assumptions on the human and Communications, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) elements, considered as the typical high density air traffic resources. The steps followed by the methodology start with the definition of indicators and metrics, like the nominal criticality or the nominal efficiency of a sector; scenario characterization where the necessary data is collected; network effects analysis to study the relations among the constitutive elements of the ATC system; diagnostic by means of the “System Status Diagram”; analytical study of the ATC system development limit; and finally, formulation of conclusions and proposal for improvement. This methodology was employed by Aena (Spanish Airports Manager and Air Navigation Service Provider) and INECO (Spanish Transport Engineering Company) in the analysis of the Spanish ATM System in the frame of the Spanish airspace capacity sustainability program, although it could be applied elsewhere.

A user-focused integrated system for sustainable refurbishment.

Nowadays, it is urgent to renovate a great number of residential buildings. The necessity of improving energy efficiency must also be considered as an opportunity to improve indoor comfort. To achieve this goal, it is essential to develop tools to be used in the decision-making process, aiming to refurbish buildings in an integrated, efficient and sustainable way. The integrated system developed is based on a set of indicators. Sustainability indicators are useful to synthesize and organize complex information. They can provide data to evaluate a process in different stages: evaluation, diagnosis, comparison and tracing. The set of proposed indicators aims to accomplish the holistic approach pursued by sustainable development. So, these indicators are divided into three groups: environmental, social and economic. However, the main innovation of the system of indicators is the social ones. The sustainable refurbishment system aims to be a user-focused one. Therefore, the starting point is the needs of the user and social indicators are developed around this. The system tackles the sustainable refurbishment of buildings beyond energy problems. It proposes incorporating users in the decision-making process involving them in the refurbishment and so, contributing to the success of the renovation. In order to achieve this target, three social indicators are used, divided into 10 sub-indicators, and a ?Questionnaire about Sustainable Refurbishment? is drawn up. This research has been carried out in the framework of ?Sustainable Refurbishment? Research and Development Project, an integrated project under the supervision of the Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico e Industrial (CDTI) from the Spanish Government, in which University and the Construction Industry collaborate. This research project aims to develop an integrated system for the retrofitting of existing buildings to improve their energy efficiency. Accordingly, an additional objective of the project is to improve quality of life of residents.

Urban sprawl and city compactness. A proposal for regional sustainability indicators. Case study of the towns of Alcorcon and Majadahonda (Comunidad de Madrid, Spain)

The main contribution of this research paper is to display a range of figures and values which could help urban planners to quantify the urban phenomenon of sprawl. In this way, after a rigorous analysis and comparison between a scattered urban fabric (Majadahonda) and a compact urban fabric (Alcorcón), several possible indexes are established and characterized in order to verify the main hypothesis: in what extent land consumption and exploitation of energy resources are higher in a scattered urban fabric than in a compact one.

Smart and sustainable public transport systems through improving level and quality of service

Buses are considered a slow, low comfort and low reliability transport system, thus its negative and por image. In the framework of the 3iBS project (2012), several examples of innovative and/or effective solutions regarding the Level of Service (LoS) were analysed aiming to provide operators, practitioners and policy makers with a set of Good Practice Guidelines to strengthen the competitiveness of the bus in the urban environment. The identification of the key indicators regarding vehicles, infrastructure and operation was possible through the analysis of a set of case studies -among which Barcelona (Spain), Cagliari (Italy), London (United Kingdom), Paris and Nantes (France). A cross comparison between the case studies was carried out for contrasting the level of achievement of the different criteria considered. The information provided on Regulatory, Financial and Technical issues allows the identification of a number of specific factors influencing the implementation of a high quality transport scheme, and set the basis for the elaboration of a set of Guidelines for the implementation of an intelligent, innovative and integrated bus system, including the main barriers to be tackled.