Data-driven support of a sustainable and inclusive urban heat transition in the Netherlands

Abstract

The transition towards a sustainable energy system in the built environment is commonly referred to the incremental adoption of a variety of available technologies, practices and policies that may contribute to decrease the environmental impact, at reasonable costs and adequate quality standards. The complexity of the transition requires a sound information provision in order to make decisions which are future proof and optimal in the context of the system dependencies by both public and private parties. This information provision is lacking maturity, and in the era of Big and Open Data, it is believed that data has a significant role to play in the improvement of the information provision towards all stakeholders. This paper presents a study on the information provision in the Dutch energy transition with the focus on the thermal urban transition away from natural-gas. The study adopts the DE approach to answer the following research question: How and under which Data Ecosystem can Open and Big Data be utilized to improve the information provision and support decision-making in the transition towards a sustainable urban thermal energy system, in the Netherlands, given the perceptions and resources of stakeholders?