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Project –“Morgenstadt: City Insights” - Analysis of Interactions Between Key Factors

Elvira Ockel Scientific Researcher Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics IBP, Germany Elvira.Ockel@ibp.fraunhofer.de

Katrin Lenz, Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics, Germany, Katrin.Lenz@ibp.fraunhofer.de Short Summary The project „Morgenstadt: City Insights“ is dealing with the complex interactions of city develop-ments. Its research activities on the most important sectors for the cities of the future – mobility, energy, communications, security, buildings, resources and governance – will lay the foundation for creating smart and sustainable system interconnection for urban structures. Different competences of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft will join forces and combine technology management for essential technology- and organization-based urban systems with practical knowhow of industrial, political and cities partners. A transdisciplinary approach will help identify systems and success factors of cities on their way to future sustainability. As a result of the long-term process best practices to-wards sustainable and smart urban ecosystems will be identified and complemented by a systemic analysis of innovative processes in cutting edge cities especially with regard to transferability. Keywords: Morgenstadt; CityInsights; sustainability; interactions; systemic interconnection; energy; buildings; government. 1. Introduction The future living space of our growing population will focus on large cities that offer rich social con-nection, interconnected work and home space as well as all necessary services concerning healthy, comfortable living. As expectations and standards rise, the challenges within city development gain complexity and new approaches to overcome them are required. [1] Even today climate change, infrastructure, economic development and life-quality induced by scarce resources and the mere number of people are ever-present questions for larger cities. Ecological sustainability as well as pursuit of economic prosperity are the two key issues for cities in the future. Both goals can be achieved by recognizing cities as future markets for sustainable concepts of mobility, building, communication, energy generation, production and consumption. But these concepts will inevitably link different technology sectors and products with each other in a much stronger way than today. Solutions will increasingly have to overleap sectorial boundaries and combine multiple technolo-gies, as well as interconnect different sectors. [2] As Europe’s largest application-oriented research organization the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft has long expertise in city development. 12 Fraunhofer Institutes have introduced various innovative approaches in their research field. Now their expertise will be combined and focused in the collab-orative, transdisciplinary research team “Morgenstadt: City Insights”. Partners from the industry,

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from interested cities and international value partners further enhance this team. The concept of this network creates a strong background in precise research, innovative applications and integrat-ed urban solutions. Together they will use their knowledge in key factors such as mobility, energy, communications, security, buildings, resources and governance, to create a foundation for smart and sustainable urban solutions of tomorrow. By creating such variable insights, problems like nat-ural catastrophes that concern almost all research fields can be addressed in one multidimensional approach. Hereby the goal of the project is to synchronize emerging urban demands and global best-practice approaches in a strategic research project and to thereby develop the basis for innovation of new strategies, products and urban solutions. 2. Research subject – Morgenstadt: City Insights The research focus of the “Morgenstadt: City Insights” is to create a knowledge foundation about the urban environment and the interconnection of its key factors. Cities nowadays face various challenges that cannot be solved from only one key factor or separately in each key factor. Therefore, interactions between the key elements have to be analysed. By integrating the identified solutions of key factors into one systemic and cross-sectoral approach, the cities of the future will be put in a position that allows them to combine unique solutions and to provide basis for entering new markets for sustainable urban systems. The key factors that are represented in the Morgenstadt: City Insight research mobility, energy, communications, security, buildings, resources and governance have been chosen because of their large impact on city developments and their high interaction forming the basis of current challenges. One of those challenges is for instance transportation of masses of people in very short time and during rush hours. What are the future ways of guaranteeing this kind of mobility or a better one? How can we avoid traffic jams and trains running late? Which vehicles and technologies will help lowering energy demand on transportation? Already at this stage we can see a connection between two key factors: talking about future transportation is impossible without regarding future energy sources, ways of energy transmission and technology for storing produced energy. One innovative solution to create energy for transportation is the concept of “plus-energy houses”, which may use surplus energy for supplying electric cars. That fact brings us to the third key factor: buildings. Growing cities need to provide standards for new buildings, concepts for retrofitting, strategies for the arrangement of and especially approaches for energy efficiency of future cities. Another important aspect in growing cities is density, asking for well-balanced concepts which take into account surface areas, height and distance of and between buildings as well as for transportation systems and their roots. In addition to the impact of buildings on energy challenges, recent years also introduced many challenges for the security of buildings, such as being resistant to floods, earthquakes or fire as well as to terror attacks. Through the example of Hurricane Sandy in New York City, which is one of the represented Cities in Morgenstadt: City Insights, it is demonstrated, that the before mentioned key factors interact with the key factor security for urban environments. Security, as in article 3 “Systemic view on cities – New York City after Hurricane Sandy” mentioned, is a cross-sectorial component influencing every other field, especially in those cities at risk (i.e. in New York City with natural disasters). Here, security in traffic and transportation, security of buildings, security of energy resources, such as nuclear power plants and very recently the security of personal data is an ever-growing issue. How can we create easy access and interaction with information all around the city without risking data leakage or attacks in the network? Communication is gaining more and more importance in our everyday life and now we have the chance to use it to create better systems for our city of the future. The last important key factor also connects to most of the above mentioned: resources. Every new building, car or security system will someday fail or need to be replaced. We have to start thinking about the whole cycle our resources complete before implementing them. Waste, recycling and reuse of material will gain more weight as resources get scarce and space for collecting waste

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material becomes rare. Insight into all those key factors and their interaction will be created by analysis of six global cities with good reputations about their development and their ideas for the city of the future. New York, Berlin, Freiburg, Singapore, Tokyo and Copenhagen are the chosen cities. All of them are already working at developing their cities and preparing them for future challenges. For each city a defined number of known best practices will be investigated. Used legislative standards and technical concepts, financial programs and roadmaps, political incentives and laws will be examined to get an objective overview of state of the art and ambitious solutions. For analysis of each city, the project is divided into three working steps. First, analyse urban best practice worldwide. This step covers the capture of today´s challenges and concepts on the partner level. The methodology will be based on expert interviews and meta-studies of existing knowledge and approaches. The second step explores leading cities in on-site field research. Researchers will spend several months for on-site and in-depth analysis in represented cities. For each study a de-tailed report will be compiled. The third research module deals with identifying of requirements for innovative concepts. The result will be a summary of the preceding research covering a wide range of global best practice. After concluding a catalogue if synchronized requirements and a broad in-sight into global best practice will be used as the sound foundation of the consecutive Morgenstadt research stage (2013-2015). 3. Systemic view on cities – New York City after hurricane Sandy To show the systemic interaction of different key factors, we will introduce the “New York Cities actions” [Q] after hurricane Sandy. In the following we will review the reaction of the New York government and the changes causes on one of our urban research objectives by a natural catastrophe. 3.1 New York City With 8.24 million inhabitants New York City (NYC) exceeds all other cities of the USA. By 2030 it will be furthermore home to over nine million people. Growing into one of the largest metropolitan areas worldwide, it has to face immense challenges to adapt to the current situation. Most of New Yorks infrastructure and buildings satisfy only last century’s standards and therefor have to undertake great changes in order to master climate change, changes in society and security of both natural and human attacks. Since 2007, Mayor Bloomberg is facing these changes with an unprecedented city wide effort. He created the PlaNYC 2030 [Q] in order to prepare his city for population growth, climate changes and economic risks as well as to offer a rich quality life for all future inhabitants. In order to pursue these goals, a network of 25 city agencies has been created and significant progress has been made on the defined milestones and long-term goals. In 2007, NYC set a goal to reduce GHG emissions by more than 30% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels. The PlaNYC describes a series of actions that have yielded significant progress toward this goal. Many initiatives have been already started to reach that goal. For example the “Greater greener buildings plan (GreenNYC)” that was introduced to create awareness of energy efficiency, especially in larger building complexes, and to enforce new building standards by 4 local laws and some further tax incentives. On the other hand, GreeNYC tries to accomplish an open mind-set in New Yorks inhabitants and offers counselling on any questions about energy saving, waste reduction, and rational usage of resources. The PlaNYC also approaches other sectors. Traffic should be improved, affordable housing should be created, waste management and recycling should be further advanced. 3.2 Consequences of hurricane Sandy 2012 at the end of October hurricane Sandy hit the coast of New York. Although this coast has always been vulnerable to flooding and storms, Sandy brought great damage to many people and

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buildings. 43 people had to give their lives in consequence of the events. 200 homes were destroyed completely and another 500 homes have major structural damage. The reconstruction process will take a lot of time and require financial investments around 71.4 billion dollars. Many weeks passed with lack of resources like petrol, electricity or food. Now half a year after Sandy, you can still see the consequences for those regions. Some buildings are being repaired; some rebuild and others are totally lost. This example shows us to some extend how climate change can create new challenges for cities and it also shows us the importance of climate resilience to prevent damages in such dimensions. The natural catastrophe also shows how many different key factors need to be combined to create innovative solutions against this problem. To use only governmental means, would cause the endangered regions to be evacuated and resettled. On the other hand, security measures like protections walls and water drainage systems cannot be standalone solutions, if the buildings are made of light material or on a bad foundation. Even the buildings cannot themselves prevent any damage such an event would cause on a region because it cannot influence the impact on streets, wires or vehicles. To create an overall approach you have to consider the interconnections and synergies between all factors involved. Therefor we can evaluate the best-practice reaction of New York government to those events in order to give some insight into urban systems. 3.3 Governmental reaction The PlaNYC [3] is a constantly reviewed and changing plan. It adapts to unknown situations to redefined awareness and to current research progress. One key element of the PlaNYC has been to create a resistant building structure in coastal areas with high risks for flooding and storms. Therefor City’s Comprehensive Waterfront Plan tries to identify the outreach of natural catastrophes at the coast of NY. Now after Sandy a living example of the importance of this element, efforts were increased and solutions are sought. Even one week before Sandy hit, the Office of Long Term Planning, initiated an Army Corps study [4] about steps to reduce the impact of coastal storms. Usually those studies take years to be completed, but after Sandy the problem became much more immediate. So these are the steps that will be undertaken to create a more climate resilient New York City. 3.3.1 Future Flood Zone changing Since Sandy in many cases exceeded the given Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs), that were indicating risky zones based on previous flooding. Considering this the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will update those maps and include recently damaged zones. It should also remove additional impediments to flood-resistant construction, and modify regulations to mitigate potential negative effects of flood-resistant construction on the streetscape and public realm. Those maps will also be used for future building codes, since they should apply for all houses inside the endangered zone. Until the final adoption of those maps in 2015 the department will address those zones on basis of the non-binding maps. In 2015, the building codes will be advanced on the new map base and regulations will also address those regions.

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Fig. 1: Areas within which text Amendment would apply, [4] 3.3.2 Flood Resilience Zoning Text Amendment [4] To give the people rebuilding their houses best insight in their opportunities, the DCP has proposed a Flood Resilience Zoning Text Amendment. This includes several steps. First it should enable all people at risk of storm surges or coastal flooding to create a more climate resilient home for themselves. Therefor, the current data of Sandy was integrated into a map of New York City, by the Federal Emergency Management (FEMA). This map contains information about the zones in New York being at risk of natural catastrophes, and also creates the basic zoning step for some climate resilience guidelines. These guidelines mainly consist of new building codes required for all endangered zones. 3.3.3 Rezoning On January 31 2013 the Mayor´s Office created the Executive Order No. 230 to enable owners of buildings inside the new Federal Emergency Management (FEMA) flood risk zone to build climate resilient. Previously some height limitations of building codes were in conflict with latest flood-resilient standards. Therefor these limitations will be suspended to guaranty the additional flexibility required for further steps. Now people can rebuild to a higher elevation and thus follow the new building codes for flooding areas. To prevent misuse of these changes, the executive order will expire and be replaced by a full zoning text amendment. 3.3.4 Building Codes The proposed text amendment is created to enable those buildings destroyed or damaged by Sandy as well as those buildings being build new in such a region to be designed and constructed based on most current research results on flood standards. Building codes [5] apply to all buildings being new and all improvements that exceed 50% of the market value of those buildings. They are regulated by the Federal Emergency Management (FEMA) Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) that defines a 100-year flood zone as well as different flood proof heights (Base Flood Elevation (BFE)) for each part of that zone. The buildings are divided into 2 different zones and apply 3 different flood-proofing methods.

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Fig.:2 Wet and dry floodproofing, [5] In order to be protected buildings at risk have to be elevated above the BFE. The building part be-low the BFE can be either wet-flood proofed or dry-flood proofed. Wet floodproofing allows flood waters to enter the enclosed areas of a house. In contrast, dry floodproofing prevents the entry of flood waters. The wet flood proofing method can be applied to all building types, but it is not practical for areas that are to be used as living space. It requires 1 inch of net open area per 1 square feet of en-closed area. Thus a flood should be directed to bypass under the building and create less damage since its impact is redirected. The dry flood proofing can only be applied to buildings that are not exclusively residential buildings [5]. In order to prevent damage it applies flood shields at the ele-vated level and thus protects the house by sheltering from the impact. The A zone that was now extended to further coastal regions is required to elevate the lowest level of their buildings above the Base Flood Elevation (BFE). The building must be wet food proofed and the enclosed space under the BEF level can only be used for parking, storage or building access. Commercial or buildings with different usages can also be protected by dry flood proof spaces below the BFE that are not residential. The V zone is endangered by high-velocity wave action. Therefore the building needs to be elevated on piles or columns and can only use breakaway walls to enclose the level below BEF. By creating such a large space, it offers less resistance to waves and thus receives less damage. Those new buildings codes should not only prevent damage in times of crisis, but also protect against higher flood insurance premiums. In spite of the changes many conflicts between several building codes make it difficult for owners to rebuild or retrofit, and further regulations will be necessary to easy the application. 3.3.5 Further steps of Text Amendment: In addition to the above mentioned building codes the text amendment [Q] addresses the potential effects to flood resistant construction in the streetscape and also regards protection of non-building related infrastructure. To achieve this not only the buildings height will be measured in respect to the BFE, as shown before, but also mechanical systems, off-street parking and building access have to be provided above the grade. Additionally the streetscape has to be adapted to these flood proof requirements. 3.4 Systemic interconnections

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At reviewing this event and its consequences for the whole city of New York, one may see how much of the key factors interact and how their connections have to be integrated into solutions in order to overcome the challenges of security in NYC in the future. We will present a partial systemic view on solutions and the events caused by Sandy. 3.4.1 Mobility The entire damaged infrastructure has to be rebuilt or repaired after hurricane Sandy. Although rebuilding infrastructure seems not to be an interconnected step, when you look at the connections to other fields you can see how important mobility becomes in this context. Regarding the interaction between mobility and security, you realize that an effective infrastructure is necessary to enable fast evacuation on short notice, especially in endangered areas.. Streets have to be built in a way that allows bypassing even while the flooding starts making mobility difficult. Also right after the catastrophe, mobility of rescue teams and first aid has to be possible. Sometime after the immediate danger the mobility will be necessary to transfer resources for reconstruction as well as to transfer waster from broken buildings. Later on mobility becomes necessary to transfer food and medicine to inhabitants. Particularly the elderly are suffering the effects of the climate disaster, because they are often isolated and have no contact with outside. Viewing these connections the infrastructure of risk areas becomes more focused. 3.4.2 Communication In the first waves of a natural catastrophe communication is the essential part to protect people from damage. How to communicate a disaster fast to a large area? Here the interconnections to governance on one side and buildings on the other side create a direct information pipeline. Important data about danger, evacuation plans and further proceedings has to be made available by the government. Thus there can be no restrictions on such datasets and no long hierarchical confirmation lines that would prevent information to be communicated. On the other hand people have to receive that kind of communication. At the same time many options are connected to buildings that are the primary living space of the population. Buildings could include danger alarms, automatic protection systems being controlled by central institutions, or even alarm buttons to warn nearby people of perceived dangers. For improving communication in between inhabitants, Saviour, fire service, automatic protection systems or central institutions you cannot ignore those connections and still have a successful concept. Only combined they build a reaction channel for better handling catastrophes. 3.4.3 Governance In a first approach you could say that the governance has no influence on natural disasters. They cannot prevent them from happening and they cannot influence the damage they leave. But again, if you look at the other influences the government has, you can see easily, as in the reactions on Sandy, how much they can achieve. In this example the governance interacts with the buildings by giving guidelines and instruction to provide resilient building structures. They also provide codes for the placement of wires and thus affect the energy delivery in the aftermath. Furthermore the government can develop a concept to purchase storm-damaged properties, as happened in New York. New York governor has announced a $400 million plan to purchase homes which were destroyed by Hurricane Sandy and preserve the land permanently as undeveloped coastline. [6] Thus they enable a quicker start for reconstruction and a much better base for the first aid and rescue troops. With their interaction to those two key factors, buildings and energy they have a large influence on danger prevention and on fast recovery after disasters. 3.4.4 Buildings Buildings have already been mentioned in most other comparisons. They do have a strong connection to the resources they are built of, to the energy they use, to the guidelines by governments they are built after, as well as to security and communicational availability inside them. Along with affecting the wellbeing of their occupants, buildings affect the nearby as well as the

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global environment. As the main living and working space in cities buildings interconnect all key factors into applicable measures and methods. 3.4.5 Resources: energy and water Resources as well as buildings play a large role in between many other key factors. Resources are scarce and have to be used wisely. They are the key to new and innovative technologies, unknown improvements and financial incentives. There is a number of households, that is still without power or water after Superstorm Sandy. Energy as well as water has direct connection to the consequences of or reactions to Sandy. And if you look closely, Sandy exceeded all previous catastrophes in this area. This is in part due to climate change and therefor strongly dependent on the interconnections between resources (energy and water) and governance as well as resources (energy and water) and buildings. Large parts of energy usage and carbon footprint are located in buildings. In this context resilience become very important for urban cities of the future. We need robust and climate adapted buildings as well as infrastructure and innovative decentralised systems in order to accept the challenge of further effects of climate change. In order to build energy efficient buildings we need strong governmental guidance and incentives, as well as functional resources that do not damage the environment and still offer the same comfortable living space. 3.4.6 Security Especially in the example of Sandy security shows its cross-sectorial character. The uppermost objective of the governance is the security of their people from any damage on their lives, their finances of their comfort. Therefor buildings, infrastructure, energy and water supply, communication privacy and limited resources are all used in respect to the wellbeing and safety of the people using them. 4. Conclusion and Outlook The Climate change, resource depletion, population growth, increasing consumption, individual mobility and climate resilience are dangers and questions that are all directing our attention to the development of our cities. They will be the anchor of our future living quality, economical markets and network structures. Considering such a large impact, the conception redefinition of urban environments has to be a key research field. The enormous challenges that our future cities have to face can only be solved by creating an intuitive but deep insight into the systemic interaction of key factors inside a city. As shown in the example of New York City no solution can focus on only one key element if it is to be successful. New York City´s “superstorm” Sandy and its consequences show how climate change face cities with new challenges. The natural catastrophe also shows how many different key factors need to be combined to create innovative solutions against this problem. To use only governmental opportunity, would cause the endangered regions to be evacuated and resettled. On the other hand, you cannot handle without government, often as a key driver. Security measures like protections walls and water drainage systems cannot be standalone solutions, if the buildings are made of light material, false construction or on a bad foundation. To create an overall approach you have to consider the interconnections and synergies between all factors involved. Now NYC is developing a long-term plan to cope with extreme weather events that will get the lights back on quickly, keep the gas stations open, ensure the hospitals maintain power, and guarantee a working transportation system. Furthermore the first Executive Order allowed home and property owners who are rebuilding after Hurricane Sandy to meet new flood standards without violating zoning codes. It will become apparent in the future, if those measures had a holistic approach. To consider such dynamic and interconnected research fields, a new way of multidisciplinary and interactive research groups have to be formed as well as new structures for perceiving, processing and evaluating urban research data. Also solutions have to increasingly overleap sectorial boundaries and combine multiple innovative technologies from different expertise fields into one

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greater step of development. Many urban environments have already developed various solutions to increase energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, create strong governmental participation and at the same time provide rich and healthy living for their population. Those concepts are important, but require the next step into necessary changes of urban systems. New relations between information, people, products and resources form the centre of an innovative loop over the next few decades and into sustainable urban cities. This will only happen if representatives from different business sectors, research institutes and governance officials join together for recreating urban systems. The “Morgenstadt: City Insights” takes this first step into exploration and refinement of our future. 5. References [1] LENNARTZ, M. W. “Ist bei Bevölkerungsrückgang der Wachstumsfokus noch zeitgemäß.”

Green building nachhaltig planen, bauen und betreiben, URL: http://greenbuilding-planning.schiele-schoen.de/123/17807/gb21211_12-14/Ist_bei_Bevoelkerungsrueckgang_der_Wachstumsfokus_noch_zeitgemaess_Leben_und_arbeiten_im_Spannungsfeld_urbaner_Siedlungs_und_Entwicklungspolitik.html, Volume 11/2012, pp. 12-14.

[2] VON RADECKI, A. “Morgenstadt: CityInsights”, URL:http://www.morgenstadt.de/content/dam/morgenstadt/de/documents/Projektbeschreibung_Morgenstadt-CityInsights_FhG_eng.pdf; 2012, pp. 3-6.

[3] BLOOMBERG, M. R. “PlaNYC”, URL:http://nytelecom.vo.llnwd.net/o15/agencies/planyc2030/pdf/planyc_2011_planyc_full_report.pdf, 2011 .

[4] Department of City Planning, “Climate Resilience”, URL: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/climate_resilience/index.shtml.

[5] SLATKIN, H. “Climate Resilience” URL: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/climate_resilience/presentation_sandy.pdf, 2012.

[6] FAZIO, C. A., STRELL, E. “Government Property Acquisition in Floodplains After Hurricane Sandy”. New York Low Journal, URL:http://www.newyorklawjournal.com/PubArticleNY.jsp?id=1202590055801&Government_Property_Acquisition_in_Floodplains_After_Hurricane_Sandy&slreturn=20130414041522; 2013.