EQUITEE: an innovative software tool to test and monitor strategies for energy transition

Panel: 3. Local action

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Author:
Séverin Poutrel, BURGEAP, France

Abstract

EQUITEE is an innovative software tool developed to help local communities test and monitor strategies for energy transition and climate action plans. The software is used by actors involved in territorial planning: communities, urban planning agencies, developers, government departments, research departments. By statistically treating individual and household data (population, type of habitat, economic activity profile and natural urban development, etc.), EQUITEE automatically provides authorities with local diagnoses, allows interactive forecasting, and permits them to monitor chosen indicators throughout the lifetime of the action plan.

EQUITEE is being used to accompany the regional planning initiative in “Coeur d’Hérault”, a territory between the city of Montpellier and the Larzac Plateau in the Southeast of France. This territory of about 70 000 inhabitants faces a rapid growth in population, and strong urban sprawl. Real estate needs compete with those of the preservation of agricultural and natural soils. The challenge for “Coeur d’Hérault” is to articulate – in theory and practice – energy transition and achievement of Factor 4, while reducing inequalities and fuel poverty, through land planning, and policies dedicated to habitat, mobility, social and environmental issues.

With EQUITEE, the regional planners can cross all kinds of indicators to provide diagnoses from the regional to the neighborhood scales. The data is dynamically restored in interactive analytical maps. During meetings, land use scenarios are developed and tested; EQUITEE ensures the consistency of assumptions across sectors and scales of work. EQUITEE finally brings together all the tools required to manage land use programs and helps to plan and to monitor the spatiotemporal penetration of actions to measure their impacts and compare the expected goals.