Publicly accessible data retrofit social housing

The paper examines the use of publicly accessible data and computer vision to address the challenge of incomplete building information for energy retrofits in the UK. The authors find that combining data from sources like Google Street View and Energy Performance Certificates with machine learning models can effectively categorize wall construction and architectural styles, providing a viable evidence-gathering resource for early-stage planning. However, a workshop with industry and government stakeholders revealed that inconsistent data formats and limited sharing continue to hinder systematic planning, suggesting that practical application requires better standardization and human oversight.

• Publicly accessible housing data and machine learning show promise for large-scale urban retrofit planning, specifically through computer vision models that can categorize wall construction and architectural style (a proxy for building age). These models performed well when tested on their training datasets.
• Systematic retrofit planning in the UK is currently obstructed by fragmented and incomplete data, as well as institutional barriers including inconsistent data formats, limited sharing between organizations, and a lack of hybrid data gathering methods.
• While publicly accessible data and street-level imagery are viable for generating evidence during early planning stages for large numbers of buildings, their practical application depends on improved datasets, greater standardization, and ongoing human oversight.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2026). Publicly accessible data retrofit social housing. https://www.sei.org/publications/publicly-accessible-data-retrofit-social-housing/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Publicly accessible data retrofit social housing. 2026. https://www.sei.org/publications/publicly-accessible-data-retrofit-social-housing/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Publicly accessible data retrofit social housing |date=30 June 2026 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/publicly-accessible-data-retrofit-social-housing/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2026publicly, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Publicly accessible data retrofit social housing}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2026}, month = jun, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/publicly-accessible-data-retrofit-social-housing/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }