Methodology for estimating the decarbonization potential at the neighborhood level in an urban area: Application to La Carrasca in Valencia city - Spain

Abstract

Decarbonization potential estimation is critical to calculate and measure a specific area's actual greenhouse gas reduction capacity. However, it is often challenging to estimate decarbonization potential, especially when dealing with large and diverse urban areas. Therefore, it is necessary to study the carbon footprint in the study area before evaluating decarbonization potential. This study aimed to develop a methodology for estimating the decarbonization potential in a district and applying it to La Carrasca neighborhood in Valencia City, Spain. The concept behind selecting a smaller area encompassing multiple sectors, including residential and services, rather than an entire city was to concentrate on often overlooked details, streamline the information processing, and consider factors that are otherwise unfeasible when a larger area is chosen. The proposed method considers all potential emissions according to scopes 1, 2, and 3 (direct emissions, primary indirect emissions, and other indirect emissions, respectively) and all possible decarbonization measures, including renewables, nature-based solutions, electrification, and improved waste management. The study utilizes several tools to achieve these objectives, including HOMER, QGIS, DATADIS, Google Earth, and Excel. The results of this study showed that the decarbonization potential of La Carrasca neighborhood is 7488 tons of CO2, representing a bit more than 11% of its overall emissions, and the total cost per emission saving during the lifetime of all the analyzed technologies is 200 €/tCO2. However, achieving complete decarbonization of the area would require more aggressive mitigation measures, government incentives, policy changes, new measures, and changes in habits among the population. Overall, the numerical results demonstrate the importance of considering an area's carbon footprint and utilizing a comprehensive methodology to estimate the decarbonization potential for effective greenhouse gas reduction. The proposed methodology could be extrapolated to other areas to estimate decarbonization potential and emissions and to determine the feasibility of achieving negative carbon emissions.