SEA4cities is an academic partnership project that brings together the Vienna University of Technology and the Ecole Polytechnique Thies in finding solutions to improve access and transition to energy sustainability in emerging cities.
The seminar at the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) aimed at supporting the SEA4cities Team on strengthening knowledge in urban transformation and energy transition. It was held from 25 to 28 November 2020. The module on Integrated Urban Energy System Modelling presented the first day sets the framework of a discussion on available tools for modelling energy transition in different regions of the world. The module Urban Planning: spatial planning and digitization presented recent developments on technology for planning the cities of the future, including their energy and transport sectors. Examples of urban sustainability projects were showcased, and SEA4cities participants engaged a discussion on possibilities to replicate these projects in the Senegal context. The module Smart Cities Principles and Urban Transformation focused on strategies and policies required to mainstream the principles of urban sustainability. A discussion on the legal framework of urban development in Senegal was presented by participants and confronted to frameworks in Austria and other regions taken as example, such as Ghana. The fourth day of the seminar, each member of the SEA4cities team presented a report summarizing what each has learned from the first three days presentations and proposals to trigger the transformation of cities in Senegal. The participants were, at the end of the four days, awarded a certificate of attendance, and words of thanks were delivered from both sides to commend the organisation and proceedings of the seminar.
Before the seminar with the Austrian Institute of Technology, the SEA4cities team was hosted by the Vienna University of Technology, where it engaged during three days with different departments of the university on technology demonstration activities. Notably, there has been a technical demonstration s in the high-voltage laboratory and the machines centre of the Institute of Electrical Systems and Energy devices (TU ESEA). A guided tour of the worldwide first high-rise energy efficient building located in the TU Campus of Getreidemarkt was done. The first week with TU Vienna were concluded by a coordination meeting of the project partners.