Jean-Luis Scartezzini

Several contrasting effects are reported in the existing literature concerning the impact assessment of the COVID-19 outbreak on the use of energy in buildings. Following an in-depth literature review, we here propose a GIS-based approach, based on pre-pandemic, partial, and full lockdown scenarios, using a bottom-up engineering model to quantify these impacts. The model has been verified against measured energy data from a total number of 451 buildings in three urban neighborhoods in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland.

Spatial visualization is a very useful tool to help decision-makers in the urban planning process, i) to define future energy transition pathways, ii) to implement energy efficiency strategies and iii) to integrate renewable energy technologies in the context of sustainable cities. There is thus a need to develop new tools to understand the energy consumption patterns across cities. Statistical methods are often used to understand the driving parameters of energy consumption but rarely used to evaluate future urban refurbishment scenarios.