District heating and urban greening in the C. Meunier street

Since September 2021, Constantin Meunier street has been a pilot location within the Horizon2020 project ‘JUSTNature’. In consultation with local residents, the street is being remodelled with ambitious plans for urban greening, water infiltration and energy.

The same street is also a part of the ‘Pilot Cities’ project in which the city of Leuven investigates what is needed to roll out district heating quickly across the city. The project aims to address practical questions concerning financing, supply and demand, ownership and supporting policy. Test cases and pilot projects, such as in C. Meunier street, will help answer these questions.

The planned repaving of Constantin Meunier street and Emile Mathieu street offers a great opportunity to make the neighbourhood climate-proof by combining various interventions:

• Heat grid: a fifth-generation heat network uses local, renewable energy sources such as geothermal energy, and can be rolled out in a modular fashion. This will allow nearly 300 households to be gradually connected tot he heat network.

• Urban greening and de-paving: during the remodelling of the street, space will be created for green infrastructure and increased permeability of the ground. The street will also be fitted with a new sewage system.

• Mobility: a test set-up assesses whether one-way traffic adds value for the neighbourhood. The effect of the test set-up is being closely monitored, and strategically placed planting beds improve safety for cyclists and pedestrians. More shared cars bicycles reduce the number of private cars parked in the area.

• Circularity: city of Leuven is investigating how to maximise using existing materials for the remodelling of the street. The test set-up is also constructed with recovered materials, such as broken up curb stones and wooden infrastructure, by Atelier Circuler.