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Revitalizing urban blocks across Europe.
Abstract
DECUB
The DECUB project tackles the intricate challenge of achieving sustainable urban development and regeneration with a special focus on circular economy principles applied at the urban block level. An “urban block” is understood as a group of buildings delineated by streets and/or public spaces. DECUB explores holistic strategies to decarbonize urban blocks across European cities, integrating digital tools, community engagement, and cultural heritage preservation. The project aims to test and compare interventions—ranging from soft renovation to deconstruction and reconstruction—based on environmental, technical, social, and economic criteria. By prioritizing the reuse and recycling of materials, DECUB addresses sustainability challenges while aligning with EU policies like the European Green Deal and the New European Bauhaus.
10
partners
4
countries
3
case study cities
3
year duration
We develop a holisitc approach
Steps for urban block decarbonization
1
At the urban agglomeration scale a Digital Twin that classifies urban blocks along archetypes, wich allows to scale up solutons adopted in specific urban blocks to other cases and transfer materials/components from one to another archetype.
2
At the urban block scale a detailed Digital Twin that calculates several environmental performance indicators, including Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), Material Flow Analysis (MFA), risk identification potential scenarios and evaluation of solutions.
3
Development and compilation of strategies and solutions for each urban block archetype. Community engagement and stakeholder collaboraion will be developed in the entire duration of the project through 3 Living Labs: Zaragoza, Verviers and Heerlen.
An international consortium
Project results shaping the future
DELIVERABLES
D1.1. Register of the consortium meeting notes
D1.2. Risk Management Plan
D1.3. DMP and log file of changes to the DMP
D2.1. Report with Urban Living Labs (ULL) roadmaps and key definitions and concepts
D2.2. Retrieved dataset from publicly available data and data facilitated by local authorities
D2.3. Integrated report about the conducted urban analyses for each ULL
D2.4. Report of the framework of indicators, methodologies and data required for impact assessment
D3.1. Characterization of urban block archetypes
D3.2. Material Flow Analysis of the representative urban blocks in the three case study cities
D3.3. Absolute LCA methodology at the urban block level and application on the living lab case studies
D3.4. Comparison of alternatives as regard with LCA and MFA in each case study cities.
D4.1. DECUB data model definition and implementation in a database
D4.2. Reusable software components required to support the implementation of simple, archetype-based block-level digital twins of cities
D4.3. Reusable software components that can support the refined digital twins required to carry out an LCA
D4.4. Block-level Digital Twins of the representative archetypes
D4.5. Advanced Digital Twin for one operational block in each Living Lab
D5.1. Implementation report on circularity measures to support Circular Urban Economies
D5.2. Report on the integrated evaluation framework of CUE at the urban block level
D5.3. Policy Brief on the integration of CUE for the transformation/adaptation of urban blocks
D6.1. Project website
D6.2. Kick-off workshop
D6.3. Mid-term workshop;
D6.4. Conclusion workshop.
PUBLICATIONS
2027
2026
2025