Managing multi-agent knowledge for urban microclimate planning: A case study in Bari (Italy)

Purpose – In environmental planning, urban spaces and ecological systems are increasingly modelled on sets of human/non-human agents, acting either together or individually toward the accomplishment of routinary, new and/or occasional tasks. In urban systems, the complexity of thermodynamic processes and the agents' behaviours generate remarkable impacts on the environment. The phenomenon of Urban Heat Islands (UHI) is pronounced in urbanized areas, where interactions between humans and local environments are not linear. A Multiple Agents System (MAS) approach attentive to agents’ behaviours represents an interesting research field. A wide range of ecological or environmental issues may take advantage from models built on the cognitive involvement of stakeholders. This paper aims to explore the system architectures building up to support knowledge-based decision-making processes in managing urban microclimate policies Design/methodology/approach – In order to deal with the multifarious and multiple source knowledge embedded in complex urban systems, we propose a MAS approach to handle climate features and behaviours of human, natural and artificial agents, within a knowledge-based sustainable perspective of urban microclimate comfort. The paper methodology starts from a knowledge base collected through focus-group experimental sessions. Then we applied the Fuzzy Cognitive Mapper (FCM) tool to stakeholders' belief system representation. A FCM methodology allows the use of stakeholders local knowledge or ecological modelling and management in a bottom-up decision-making process. This approach leads to evaluate the complexity of hierarchies and non-formal relations for the constitution of social and environmental management models Originality/value – The paper is the result of investigation on a knowledge interaction arena, focused on the perceptions and behaviours of agents concerning climatic and thermal comfort. The context of interest is the study of impacts among events or trends generated from the elements variation in the urban ecosystem through sensitivity analysis. The attempt carried out is to envision and evaluate possible changes of policies and decisions, so as to envisage possible impacting areas and modify or fine-tune planned policies to attain more effective results Practical implications – The paper works on analyses carried out in a public multifamily building in Bari, toward the attempt to formalizing the energy consumption perception and the users’ behaviours concerning UHI phenomena. The study is part of the Apulian research project Ecourb funded by EU (2010-2013) and aimed at building up hybrid scenarios for the management of urban microclimates in the region of Bari, Italy