| Oct 04, 2013 |
Multidimensional maps to improve energy efficiency
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(Nanowerk News) Researchers are developing a multidimensional mapping tool to identify areas of similar climate, building practices, technologies and economics. This will aid efforts to improve the energy and resource efficiency of the built environment.
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Geo-clustering creates virtual, geo-referenced maps of similarity. This is a complex task and challenges include collating scattered knowledge and data, difficulties in running geo-clusters that are geographically separated, and identifying needs that are specific to certain areas.
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To address these challenges, the EU is funding a project called 'Geo-clustering to deploy the potential of energy efficient buildings across EU' (GE2O). The goal is to provide a tool to help make decisions about which product or system is relevant to a specific geo-cluster, and how it can be applied successfully.
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Project partners aim to gather enough data to create geo-cluster maps for the EU, and to validate the maps using pilot clusters. The GE2O team started by looking at previous work in the field and incorporating the relevant information, tools and experience into their current approach.
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Researchers gathered relevant data into various layers, including technological, environmental, socioeconomic, and political/strategic layers. These layers have been fully characterised.
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A methodology has also been designed to correlate the layers into a useful geo-cluster map, which can now be used to examine the pilot clusters. Through these efforts, the GE2O project hopes to demonstrate that geo-clustering is a powerful method for improving energy and resource efficiency in the EU.
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