To this end, Project SUNtool has developed an integrated resource flow model and web tool for planners (town planners, architects, developers etc.). This model offers the possibility, from relatively few non-specialist inputs described via a user-friendly interface:

• Predict total hourly thermal and electrical energy demand profiles, from the sum of the individual building profiles and for each end use therein.
• Be sufficiently informative to enable the planner to develop an optimal site layout / configuration.
• Predict hourly thermal / electrical energy supply from photovoltaic panels, solar water heating panels, wind turbines, fuel cells etc. and enable these to be integrated at both micro (individual building) and meso (community-wide) scales.
• Predict hourly refuse and human waste production.
• Predict hourly thermal and electrical energy supply due to district co-generation, with or without energy from waste, and the extent of its utilisation within the community.
• Predict individual and aggregated water demand profiles (potable and non-potable).
• Predict water supply due to recycling and rainwater harvesting technologies, at both micro and meso scales.
• Account for uncertainties in input data as well as occupant behaviour and consumption patterns.
• Produce simplified energy/emissions/economic performance indicators to test and compare the effectiveness of options to better optimise and harmonise the resource supply and demand profiles.
• Inform the user of technical and socio-economic issues relating to the integration of sustainability technologies into communities.