Geographic information systems based open data visualization for supporting energy efficiency strategies in the residential sector : an application in the metropolitan city of Milan, Italy

Recently, the European Union makes a series of policies to reduce energy consumption for mitigating the global warming. Energy consumption for residential building-related services represents little less than one third of the European Union’s total energy consumption, and thus attracts attentions from the academic community and policy-makers. The reduction of energy consumption in this sector is a priority within the 20-20-20 objectives by 2020. This thesis intends to provide scientific support to policy makers for understanding energy consumption tendency, identifying the potential energy savings and prioritizing renovation actions in the residential sector in the Metropolitan City of Milan, Italy. However, how to support the energy policy-making is so far limited in the literature. There exist the tremendous quantity of open data spreading over the world, which gives us, as urban planner, an unprecedented opportunity to analyze and quantify the energy efficiency in residential sector. This study investigates comprehensively the residential sector on regional and provincial level, urban level and individual building by using Geographic Information Systems to analyze the huge amounts of open energy-data in Milan. The findings demonstrate the constantly increasing energy consumption of residential sector in the Metropolitan City of Milan from 2005 to 2012, the different energy efficiency of residential sectors in 134 municipalities in the Metropolitan City of Milan, and reveal the factors influencing the differences in residential energy efficiency. Moreover, buildings constructed before 1946 are prioritized to renovate in terms of energy efficiency because of their historical, cultural and architectural values. Recommendations, according to the research results, for potential energy savings in the residential sector have be given in the end, which could be as a way to aid decision makers for adjusting further energy strategies, and promote public engagement in energy efficiency decision-making process.