Coupling urban growth and energy demand through GIS-based cellular automata

Cellular automata urban growth models have been developed and extensively adopted to study growth and expansion of cities. In this work, such a model is coupled with bottom-up energy demand models to first, understand the energy use patterns at the city level and, second, to estimate the future energy demand of an urban area. This integrated approach allows the inclusion of the –often ignored- spatially explicit urban transformations and expands the possibilities for incorporating other dynamic urban processes relevant for the shaping of a sustainable future.     «

Cellular automata urban growth models have been developed and extensively adopted to study growth and expansion of cities. In this work, such a model is coupled with bottom-up energy demand models to first, understand the energy use patterns at the city level and, second, to estimate the future energy demand of an urban area. This integrated approach allows the inclusion of the –often ignored- spatially explicit urban transformations and expands the possibilities for incorporating other dynamic...     »