The increasing availability of large-scale repositories of energy performance certificates offers the opportunity to interlink them with other data sources (cadastre, geographical data, weather data, building regulations, catalogues of refurbish?ment measures) and to derive innovative services that use the integrated data in conjunction with various tools (energy performance simulation, environmental impact). In the ENERSI project, two applications have been developed to make it easier for building owners and planners to take informed decisions to improve building energy performance in their properties and in their municipalities. These applications, named ENERHAT and ENERPAT, are based on the integration of building data from multiple sources and domains (energy performance certificates, cadastre, geographic information, and census), building refurbishment policies and assessment tools. Data integration has been performed using Semantic Web technologies. A user-friendly interface enables end-users of these on-line applications to obtain information about the current building status of properties, the measures which could be undertaken to improve them, the energy savings achieved and their respective costs.

Purpose: – The purpose of this paper is to identify the most appropriate multidisciplinary data sources related with energy optimization decision support as well as the related methodologies, tools and techniques for data capturing and processing for each of them.Design/methodology/approach: – A review is conducted on the state-of-play of decision support systems for energy optimization, focussing on the municipal sector, followed by an identification of the most appropriate multidisciplinary data sources related with energy optimization decision support. An innovative methodology is outlined to integrate semantically modeled data from multiple sources, to assist city authorities in energy management.Findings: – City authorities need to lead relevant actions toward energy-efficient neighborhoods. Although there are more and more energy and other related data available at the city level, there are no established methods and tools integrating and analyzing them in a smart way, with the purpose to support the decision-making process on energy use optimization.Originality/value: – A novel multidimensional approach is proposed, using semantic technologies to integrate data from multiple sources, to assist city authorities to produce short-term energy plans in an integrated, transparent and comprehensive way.

The Retabit platform is a data-driven tool designed to bridge the gap between building rehabilitation and urban regeneration by integrating energy, economic, and social dimensions into a single framework. Leveraging multiple public data sources, the platform provides actionable insights to local and national authorities, public housing agencies, urban planners, energy service providers, and research institutions, helping to align renovation initiatives with broader urban transformation goals and climate action objectives. The platform consists of two main components: Analyse, for examining building conditions through multidimensional indicators, and Plan, for designing and simulating renovation projects. Retabit contributes to more transparent and informed decision-making, encourages collaboration across sectors, and addresses long-term sustainability by incorporating participatory planning and impact evaluation. Its scalable structure makes it applicable across diverse geographic areas, policy contexts, and domains linked to sustainable urban development.

In the last three years, in the PROHABIT project (www.prohabit.org) we have carried out a study about the roles of communities in the urban transformations in three neighbourhoods of Barcelona: Plus Ultra, Trinitat Nova and Vallcarca. In all three districts, and after persisting in their claims during a long time, neighbours have gotten the city council to change their plans. Community resilience has overcome the contingencies associated to the economic and political changes over more than two decades. Neighbours’ associations, civic organizations and activist groups have defended what they considered to be the essential features of their neighbourhoods against the plans and regulations approved by the successive municipal governments. In this confrontation, neighbours had first to build an image of what they thought the neighbourhood really is and then defended against political and economic powers. This image is a social construction unique in each neighbourhood built with personal memories of their residents. In Plus Ultra and Trinitat Nova, the holders of these memories were the eldest residents who settled when the first houses were built. In Vallcarca, the leaders have been young activists who have made the memory of their neighbourhoods their own. The research we have conducted to examine the process of social construction of an identity has been based on interviews with key actors, non-participant observations of public spaces, literature analysis and participatory actions. The analysis of the collected information has been carried out using an open quality data analysis tool specifically created for this research project (www.prohabit.org/mapper). With this system, the analysis carried out by researchers is available to the citizens. Navigating through this information system becomes enables experts and laypeople to understand the links between social and physical structures in the three studied neighbourhoods in a comparative manner.

The aim of the A-Place project is to address the problem of placelessness in our multicultural, and interconnected societies from a multidisciplinary and participatory perspective. Artists and creators, educators and students of art and architecture, and cultural agents collaborate with communities in the design and implementation of placemaking activities with the purpose of reinforcing the bonds between people and the places they live in. Activities in locations in several European cities, as well as in digital spaces, have contributed to the creation of a network of places ‒both tangible and intangible ‒ that exploit the multiple dimensions of public space as a stage for leisure, entertainment and education. A sequence of planning, performing, reflecting and evaluating has been applied to the activities carried out in the first year of this four-year project. The outcomes of this first cycle will help to expand the network of places in the coming years of the project. A key issue for the further development of the project is the evaluation of the impact of placemaking activities on the communities.