The HQE²R approach and its toolkit
Today cities are being rebuilt, buildings are being rehabilitated, and neighbourhoods revitalised. To assure sustainability, this regeneration must go beyond technical solutions, taking social trends, changes in behaviour, environmental and economic development into account.
To define concrete action plans, sustainable development requires a roundabout way of achieving a decision, because of the necessity of taking the various principles of sustainable development into account all together at once. As the market law only takes into account economic factors, and principally only on the short-term, sustainable development requires sustainable development principles: the integration of the long-term, global impact of decisions on environmental and social factors, with less hierarchical forms of participation than usual market practices.
The HQE²R methodological framework
The HQE²R methodological framework for sustainable neighbourhood analysis and development is structured as all the regeneration neighbourhood projects into 4 phases: a decision phase, an analysis phase - identifying priorities, definition, discussion, an assessment of scenarios phase and finally the setting up of the action plan for the neighbourhood).
The methodological framework is furthermore based on 6 sustainable development principles at the city scale, and then a system of 21 sustainable development targets under 5 main objectives and backed up by a set of 51 key issues with their 61 indicators for the neighbourhood and its buildings (ISDIS system).
The HQE²R project results are specific tools for local communities and for their local partners (see also the diagram on the following page):
- The choice of 6 sustainable development principles at the city scale and a definition of sustainability for the neighbourhood scale.
- The definition of an overall methodological framework with 5 main globalsustainable development (SD) objectives, their 21 targets, 51 key issues or sub targets and then 61 indisputable indicators at the neighbourhood and building scales (the ISDIS system).
- A shared SD diagnosis method for SD (with an integrated analytical grid for the previous inventory) adapted to the neighbourhood scale.
- Evaluation tools for scenarios or neighbourhood projects as decision aid tools for assessing different scenarios before the final action plan for the neighbourhood is chosen (3 models and 3 analytical grids):
3 models:
- INDI (INDicators Impacts) a model of sustainable regeneration impact using indicators and allowing the elaboration of different environmental and sustainable development profiles
- ENVI (ENVironmental Impact)
- ASCOT (ASsessment of Sustainable Construction and Technologies cost), a model of global cost of efficient technologies in an environmental point of view at the building scale.
And the support of 3 assessment grids:
- An assessment grid of projects or scenarios (SAGA),
- An assessment grid for crossed impacts (CIGAR),
- A model treating the question of demolition/construction or rehabilitation (CGSP)
- Recommendations for improving participation in neighbourhood regeneration projects.
- Recommendations for integrating SD into urban planning documents (by country).
- Recommendations for specifying sustainable development in the building process
- Recommendations for specifying sustainable development for non built elements
- Indicators for the different phases of a project: state indicators, pressure indicators and then monitoring (and assessment) indicators.
At the end of the project as the last result of the project, a European association for a sustainable urban development was created for federating all the actors involved in urban management and capitalizing experience and tools or approaches as well as for training the tomorrow experts.
For more information, go to http://hqe2r.cstb.fr
The HQE²R approach (click to open)
HQE²R results : an approach with methods and tools for sustainable neighbourhood regeneration (click for open)
