SUSTAINABILITY ASSESSMENT
Renewable Energy for Moukhtara village, Lebanon
In the context of Sustainable MED Cities project, the City of Moukhtara has developed its own SBTool (Sustainable Building Tool) and an SNTool (Sustainable Neighbourhood Tool) for measuring the current sustainability level of the Moukhtara neighbourhood and of the municipality building belonging to that area. Through the application of the Sustainable MED Cities Decision-Making methodology, they have identified the optimal package of interventions to improve the sustainability of the area and the building assessed.
Tags: sustainability assessment, decision-making, methodology
Challenges addressed
- Develop a building assessment tool (SBTool) and a neighbourhood assessment tool (SNTool) fully contextualised to the specificities of Moukhtara, for measuring the sustainability at the building and urban scale. Tools support the decision-making processes from the initial design phase to retrofitting stages of the building and the processes for the development, implementation and monitoring of urban plans.
Main objectives
The retrofit concept identified by the City of Moukhtara, namely the “Renewable Energy for Moukhtara village”, is very practical and it foresees:
- Installation of solar system for 116 houses to cover 90% of the households.
- Installation of solar water heaters for 39 houses.
- Installation of 185 solar streetlamp.
- Installation of solar system for the municipality and club building.
- Installation of solar water heaters for the municipality and club building.
- Installation of high efficiency appliances.
Facts
Project type
Capitalization project implemented in the framework of ENI CBC Med Program
Partnership
Lead beneficiary: Secretary of Urban Agenda and Territory – Ministry of the Vice-presidency, Digital Policies and Territory, Spain, Cataluña.
Partner 1: iiSBE Italia R&D S.r.l. – I.S. Italy
Partner 2: Municipality of Sousse, Tunisia
Partner 3: Moukhtara Municipality, Lebanon.
Partner 4: Greater Irbid Municipality, Jordan,
Partner 5: Management Unit of Special Account for Research, NATIONAL OBSERVATORY OF ATHENS, Greece
ASSOCIATED PARTNERS
Associate 1: United Nations Environment Programme – Mediterranean Action Plan Coordinating Unit – Barcelona Convention Secretariat, Greece.
Associate 2: Asociación MedCities y/o MedCités, Spain.
Funding
Total budget: € 0.7 million.
EU contribution: € 0.6 million.
Project co-financing: 15%.
Implementing period
October 2021 – December 20
Project description
Sustainable MED Cities project has provided Mediterranean municipalities with a system of innovative tools and methodologies aimed to enhance their capacity in implementing and monitoring efficient measures, plans and strategies to improve the sustainability of cities, neighbourhoods and buildings in relation to the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development 2016-2025. The SMC tools and methodologies developed in the project have been tested in three pilot case studies by the three partner municipalities: Irbid, Sousse and Moukhtara.
To prepare the optimal retrofitting concept for an urban area and single buildings a detailed decision-making methodology has been applied by the three cities.
The decision-making methodology is based on the use of the assessment tools SNTool, (urban scale) and SBTool (building scale). The process adopts a participatory approach to maximise the involvement of stakeholders in the preparation of the retrofit concept. The participatory approach follows the PGS methodology (Participatory Guarantee System).
The decision-making methodology is articulated in 7 consecutive steps, as follow:
- Initiation
- Preparation
- Diagnosis
- Strategic definition
- Retrofit scenarios
- Decision making
- Retrofit concept.
Following the procedure, the Municipality of Moukhtara has prepared the optimal retrofitting concept for the city.
Impact and results
SCENARIO DEVELOPED
The Renewable Energy for Moukhtara village scenario consists of:
– Installation of solar system for 116 houses to cover 90% of the households
– Installation of solar water heaters for 39 houses
– Installation of 185 solar streetlamp
– Installation of solar system for the municipality and club building
– Installation of solar water heaters for the municipality and club building
– Installation of high efficiency appliances.
The Renewable Energy for Moukhtara village scenario was chosen since it:
– will directly affect the basic needs and human dignity of the citizens.
– Will help to overcome the power outage challenge and reduce the risks of total black out in the village.
– Will lower the economic burden and pollution rate of the back-up generators.
LESSON LEARNED AND FUTURE PERSPECTIVE
The lessons learnt from the SMC decision-making testing are summarized as follow:
– How to manage data from multiple sources and combine them in one platform
– How to ensure consistency in all the documentation and avoid discrepancy
– How to think differently by analyzing the inputs and outputs to achieve the required targets
– How to work on multiple sectors in parallel and how to ensure their interface is clear.
– How to disseminate technical indicators in a simplified methods to transform the approach into a communal friendly process.
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