Application of a mapping tool to plan energy saving at a neighborhood scale

This study proposes the application of a model for the evaluation of the overall energy demand of existing urban neighborhoods,which can be useful when planning energy enhancement strategies at urban scale. The application of this model can beinterconnected with the use of a GIS software tool, thus providing the opportunity to perform the energy mapping of cityneighborhoods.In the proposed model, the overall energy demand of existing urban neighborhoods is evaluated by considering the three mostenergy intensive sectors: buildings, transport and urban lighting. However, in this paper the application of the model is onlyfocused on the assessment of the energy demand in the building sector.The proposed methodology is applied to a neighborhood of the municipality of Catania in Southern Italy. The preliminary resultsare reported in this study: first, the existing energy consumption for space heating and electric appliances is assessed, then theeffectiveness of a series of energy-saving strategies is considered, thus providing a tool to implement effective energy planningpolicies at urban scale.