Enabling Innovative Space-driven Services for Energy Efficient Buildings and Climate Resilient Cities

Project Information

BUILDSPACE

Grant agreement ID: 101082575

DOI

10.3030/101082575

Project closed

EC signature date 24 November 2022

Start date 1 February 2023

End date 31 January 2026

Funded under

• Digital, Industry and Space

Total cost

€ 2 968 525,00

EU contribution

€ 2 632 367,50

Coordinated by

SINGULARLOGIC PLIROFORIAKON SYSTIMATON KAI EFARMOGON PLIROFORIKIS
Greece

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BUILDSPACE (Enabling Innovative Space-driven Services for Energy Efficient Buildings and Climate Resilient Cities)

Reporting period: 2023-02-01 to 2024-07-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

BUILDSPACE endeavors to transform urban development and construction practices by leveraging space-driven technologies to offer advanced services. The project will offer a set of five services, with two of them focusing on the visualization of buildings’ digital twins and the rest at the simulation of climate scenarios as well as urban heat and flooding scenarios at city scale. At the building scale, the services will enable the generation of detailed multi-modal digital twins, facilitating precise simulations and analyses, and optimizing operational efficiency. The city-scale services will provide decision support for energy demand prediction, urban heat, and urban flood analysis and will be map-focused with a layer panel integrated to allow multiple views and interaction with the users. The project's services will undergo validation and assessment across four European cities with varying climate profiles, covering two primary scenarios, namely construction companies monitoring building construction processes using advanced digital twin and AR/VR technologies, and municipalities and urban planners analyzing climate change scenarios' impact on the built environment.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project has successfully completed all key milestones for the first reporting period and set the foundations for the pilot implementation and impact creation activities planned in the next period. The key achievements of the first reporting period are summarized below:
• Two (2) online co-creation events, engaging 104 external stakeholders during which they provided valuable input for the services features and design;
• Fifty (50) user requirements, Fifty (50) technical requirements have been elicited, as well as twelve (12) user stories and Eleven (11) technical use cases;
• Design of the services workflows and creation of wireframes and Development of the BUILDSPACE Conceptual Architecture;
• Successful Copernicus/EGNSS alignment and synchronisation with the BUILDSPACE Services through integration of the Core Platform with Copernicus Land, Atmosphere, and Climate Change services and EGNSS;
• Setup of Kubernetes Cluster as foundational infrastructure and enablement of user authentication and secure data storage;
• Development of Point Cloud models and enrichment with RGB information (Service 1) and thermal integration (Service 2);
• Development of web-tools showing the energy demand and PV potential map (Service 3), the urban heat vulnerability, exposure, hazard, risk and areas of interest identification (Service 4), the flood damage hotspots map (Service 5);
• Data collection from 5 buildings at the 4 pilot sites leading to the generation of 5 Digital Twins and 2 enriched Digital Twins;
• Ongoing integration of city scale services for Pireaus, Riga, Ljubljana;
• More than 20 dissemination events (in significant industry forums, such as the European Big Data Value Forum 2023, the Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC) 2023, and the General Assembly of the EGU 2023 and 2024 contributing to the project's visibility), 14 conferences
• 300 followers on LinkedIn and 127 followers on X;
• Cross-dissemination activity with 8 other projects. BUILDSPACE is also part of the Horizon Results Booster Programme (HRB).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The key results beyond state of the are are summarized below:
BUILDSPACE Core platform (KER2): The BUILDSPACE platform distinguishes itself with several unique value propositions tailored to enhance urban climate resilience and sustainability. The platform’s strength lies in its ability to provide unified access to heterogeneous data sources, including Copernicus and EGNSS, through a common API, streamlining the process for urban planners and decision-makers. With its cloud-native, open-source architecture, the platform is flexible and scalable, capable of supporting a wide range of added-value services.
Building Scale services (KER3, KER4): Building-scale services provide a unique value proposition by offering user-friendly applications and viewers with intuitive color schemes, making complex building assessments accessible to a wide range of users. These tools offer detailed information on critical areas of the building envelope, helping both personal and commercial users better understand potential issues. By delivering reliable thermal and RGB data on the condition of building envelopes, users gain actionable insights to enhance energy efficiency and maintenance planning.
Additionally, the services provide accurate geometric information, ensuring precise modelling of existing assets, which is crucial for rehabilitation and modernization projects. The automatic solution for point cloud processing further simplifies the workflow, making it easier for users to process large datasets without extensive manual effort. These features make the services not only practical but also empowering, allowing customers to make informed, data-driven decisions about their buildings with ease and confidence.
City scale services (KER5, KER6, KER7): The city-scale services offer a unique value proposition by providing highly accessible, user-friendly tools that simplify complex urban resilience planning for a wide range of users. These services are designed with intuitive interfaces, featuring colour-coded maps and easy-to-navigate buttons, making them approachable for both experts and non-experts alike. They also include additional explanations tailored for users who may not have technical expertise but are still interested in understanding and utilising the data. Moreover, the tools deliver reliable and actionable insights through trustable models based on robust data, ensuring that urban planners and decision-makers can confidently use the information to make informed decisions. The services offer diverse visualisations, including exportable reports and illustrative graphics, which can be easily integrated into strategic documents or presentations. Additionally, the ability to assess both current and future climate scenarios and identify hotspots for prioritising interventions makes these tools essential for creating comprehensive and forward-looking urban climate strategies. In essence, the city-scale services empower cities with the tools they need to navigate the challenges of climate change with clarity and confidence.

Infographic with key achievement of the BUILDSPACE project for RP1