C O N T E X T 1 4 5 : J U LY 2 0 1 6 29 AITZIBER EGUSQUIZA, CARSTEN HERMANN and DENNIS RODWELL Decision support for energy improvements An EU research project has investigated measures and tools to make significant improvements to the energy efficiency of European historic urban districts. The article ‘Retrofit measures for historic buildings and cities’ (Context 142, November 2015), described several of the technologies for building fabric retrofit as well as energy management systems that have been investigated in the European research project EFFESUS (the acronym for ‘Energy Efficiency for EU Historic Districts’ Sustainability’).1 The research into innovative measures to improve energy performance forms an important part of the overall EFFESUS project, of which a further vital component has been the design, production and testing of a decision support system (DSS), to facilitate informed decisions that balance the protection of heritage significance with the aim for improved energy performance at the scale of historic urban districts. The DSS is an online expert software tool that helps users to identify and prioritise retrofit measures to improve the energy performance of a specific historic district.The selection process is based on two datasets: first, location-specific data about the district’s characteristics; second, generic information about available retrofit measures and indicators to assess these measures. The second is not specific to a particular location and is stored in a technical repository, created as part of the EFFESUS project. The location-specific district input and the information from the technical repository are used by the DSS to produce a priority list of packages of retrofit measures which should be suitable in the context The EFFESUS Decision Support System: a schematic overview of the transferable model and simulation approaches (Image: Historic Environment Scotland) The medieval old town of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, was one of the case-study sites (Photo: Dennis Rodwell) Santiago de Compostela, Spain: the multiscale 3D data model seen through the categorisation tool (Image:Tecnalia)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjgyMjA=