iGUESS - A web based system integrating Urban Energy Planning and Assessment Modelling for multi-scale spatial decision making

The integrated Geospatial Urban Energy Information & Support System (iGUESS) is currently being developed as part of an EU project to reduce CO2 emissions in five European cities. The project is intended to create a decision support platform providing access to distributed data sources and analysis and modelling tools through a single web-based interface. The final goal is to furnish the participating cities with current and projected space-time energy layers for their urban planning process. iGUESS provides access to tools that compute local renewable energy potentials and other spatially bound mitigation action potentials, like the construction of green roofs or installation of renewable energy technologies. These potential maps are fed into the non-spatial techno-economic assessment model ETEM to find the best combination of planning actions subject to a set of objectives (e.g. emission targets) and constraints (e.g. budget), helping urban planers deciding where, on what technologies and when to invest. The interoperability between models and data is guaranteed by the usage of the web service standards specified by the Open Geospatial Consortium. The main iGUESS interface for decision makers is a web-based GIS, which facilitates the spatial comparison of different model outputs. The system also provides a component for impact assessment by comparing the results of different scenarios and making use of spatial multi-criteria analysis algorithms. Another aspect of iGUESS is the incorporation of uncertainties associated with input data and modelling results into the decision support.