Reflow - Visualisation of the hidden urban resource flows

The strategy that presently dominates environmental work and has become a practice, is to monitor the impact on the ecosystem.

However, this strategy is a reactive approach according to the EU´s so-called DPSIR model, as it is fundamental to understand the links between human activities and the resulting ecological challenges.

The DPSIR model illustrates the connections between human activities, pressure on the environment, environmental conditions, environmental effects and measures taken. Historically, humans have reacted primarily to environmental effects and secondarily to environmental conditions.

To move towards a more proactive environmental work and to understand and assess what a sustainable urban environment is, we must focus more on upstream activities and how efficiently resources are used in our urban systems and the emissions (pressure on the environment).

We also need to gain a better understanding of the role of the various actors in the total use of resources (inflows into the system), the physical resource stocks and the outflows from society.The background to the innovation idea is based on a systems perspective and with resources and flows as a starting point, try to understand the connections between human activities and the ecological challenges that arise.

A significant problem with today´s approach and practice is that otherwise it takes a long time before the consequences become obvious.

Therefore, proactive environmental work should mainly be based on monitoring the emissions themselves (material flows and energy - physical resource flows) and base measures on the results of these measurements and estimates.

Against this background, the emphasis in the innovation idea is on information collection, digitization and visualization to track flows and layers of various physical resources.The City of Stockholm conducts ambitious sustainability work and strives to become a global role model in sustainable urban development.

This ambition has been expressed above all in new urban development projects, such as Hammarby Sjöstad and Norra Djurgårdsstaden.

In the latter case, an ambitious set of requirements, follow-up and data collection work has been going on for several years.

However, the availability of digital data on the actual use of resources is low and the desired overall picture of what is going on in terms of physical resource flows is still lacking.

In this project, Norra Djurgårdsstaden has been chosen as a case study as there is already a lot of knowledge and previous projects implemented, but the purpose is that the results can be used by municipalities in general.

The project will be aimed at small and medium-sized municipalities and, through interviews and / or smaller workshops, gather needs, expectations and requirements on how a digitalisation of sustainability data should be designed.The aim of the project is to continue to develop the innovation idea into a first approach for a coherent model for resource flows, data inventory and categorization.

This can then form the basis for how a visual and interactive ecocycle model for Norra Djurgårdsstaden (as a case study) and more generally for digitized visual decision support linked to sustainability work in Swedish municipalities can be designed.

Secondary, the aim is to prepare an application for a project to implement the innovation idea.The purpose of a continuation project is to practically develop a cycle model that is based on the current research situation, but which is strongly anchored and adapted to the conditions in the city of Stockholm and in Swedish municipalities in general.

The goal is to demonstrate decision support for resource optimization and climate change adapted for Swedish municipalities.The benefit of the project for sustainability work in Swedish municipalities is to apply and practically use of previous research results; development of more knowledge-based and effective methods for climate and sustainability work; as