China's economic development and accelerated urbanisation exposes cities to severe challenges, particularly a scarcity of resources including water, gas, and electricity. The use of natural resources by a city also has an impact on global warming.

Buildings are the gas guzzlers of the property world. 40% of carbon emissions come from the way buildings are heated/cooled, lit and used. Most buildings are managed today based on fixed assumptions, rather than real time demand. This is an inefficient way to manage the built environment with severe implications for energy efficiency and the demand placed on natural resources.

This project brings together UK and China commercial and academic partners who will develop a tool that can be used to understand the demand placed on natural resource consumption by a city, and future interventions that could be applied in response. This will be based on a spatial mapping platform enhanced with real time occupancy data from innovative sensing technology in buildings.

With an emphasis on electricity, it is anticipated that a positive impact will be identified in the pilot location better aligning actual demand with resource availability and highlighting the consequential opportunities for improving cost efficiencies. Broader implications include reducing carbon emissions and positively impacting the UN sustainability goals including Goal 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and Goal 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities). These benefits should be applicable across other cities in China, with particular relevance to the 19 mega-city clusters planned to maintain their economic growth whilst mitigating any environmental impact. The technology could also apply to other cities in developing nations globally, in addition to those in developed nations such as the UK.