Sustainable and Resource Efficient Cities platform – SureCity holistic simulation and optimization for smart cities

During the last decade, professional analytical tools and platforms are increasingly more used to analyse and support decision-making regarding urban energy systems. Most of existing urban energy platforms are focused on short-term analysis (present or 2020) and cover specific sectors and/or aspects, without considering the holistic optimisation of the whole energy system. Moreover, usually these platforms can only be operated by users with high technical skills. This article presents the design and development of the innovative SureCity Platform which aims to overcome existing gaps to support cities to achieve their mid-to-long term sustainability targets. The main novelties the SureCity platform are: (i) it is a transparent and user-friendly software which can also be used by non-technical staff, such as politicians; (ii) it allows assessment of urban policies and measures through holistic optimisation of the whole energy system towards low carbon energy systems including air quality, land-use and water use at city level. Furthermore, since it is based on a generic comprehensive model, the SureCity platform can be adjusted and applied to a large number of cities. Because it is generalised, it has been developed using a participatory approach with different city stakeholders, and since it is designed to be used by users with different levels of expertise, it can also improve communication among city actors and benchmarking with other cities.