The major goal of this project is to develop a shared urban data and modeling framework to help cities analyze and characterize FWE systems and nexus interrelationships. Shaped by urban stakeholder requirements, this framework will utilize a common urban 3D data model applicable to regions and cities in Europe and the United States.

The INSOURCE modeling framework seeks to: (a) simulate impacts of land use, climate change and decentralization of FWE supply infrastructure in cities with different densities and under multiple constraints in order to ensure adequate energy, water and food distribution and storage capacity; (b) configure alternative urban and regional scenarios toward integrated carbon neutral and sustainable infrastructure, based upon decentralized and increasingly autonomous FWE supply; and (c) analyze scalability and transferability of prototype solutions to other cities. 

The main objective of INSOURCE is to develop tools and apply them to case studies in order to quantitatively assess the predicted impact of changes in urban land use due to population, climate change, the energy transition and the challenges of providing a truly resilient infrastructure. The project combines urban big data with emerging urban modeling tools in order to assess urban transformation strategies. The main result will be a shared urban data and modeling framework, integrating 3D visualization tools for stakeholders.

This project is a collaborative effort by an international consortium among seven partners from Europe and the U.S. including University of Applied Sciences Stuttgart (HFT) Centre, for sustainable energy technology research (the leading institution), Landkreis Ludwigsburg, vw engineers, Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH Center for Energy, Alpen Adria Universität Klagenfurt Institute of Social Ecology (SEC), City University of New York – CUNY Institute of Urban Systems and CUNY Energy Institute and New York Institute of Technology (NYIT).

Within the overall framework of the project, NYIT is leading the stakeholder engagement and results dissemination working groups in the project team and participating in the modeling, case studies, system analysis and evaluation activities.