Gendered geography of energy consumption in the Netherlands

Household energy consumption (HEC) significantly impacts global greenhouse gas emissions and can trigger fuel and energy poverty among vulnerable households. Due to environmental policies and geopolitical turmoil limiting the energy supply, HEC needs to be curbed. This urges the identification of most energy-dependent consumers at different locations and the particular life circumstances that trigger such a high level of dependency. A gender perspective can provide insights into the life circumstances of households. Applying a geographically weighted regression model on HEC, including explanatory parameters on gender composition, age, ethnicity, income, home ownership, microclimate, urban morphology and land cover, the results show significant variations in HEC of gender groups in 87% of Dutch residential zones. Women with an immigration background (20%), children younger than 14 years old -presumably single mothers (14%), old buildings in hot climates (10%), or high income (9%) are the most energy-dependent gender groups in a significant portion of residential zones. So are the men in large-size households (18%) and older-than-65-years men in rural areas (8%). The study offers discussions on the results and a series of policy recommendations.</p

Land surface temperature and energy expenditures of households in the Netherlands : Winners and losers

This study aims to examine the associations between land surface temperature (LST) and annual household energy expenditure (HEE) in urbanized zones of the Netherlands. To do so, satellite images of 96 days at four different overpassing local times (10:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 10:30 p.m., 1:30 a.m.) are retrieved, and annual average maximum (LST-Max) and average minimum (LST-Min) LST at each zone are calculated. Employing geographically weighted regression, controlling for 11 control variables, the results indicate that the impact of LST on HEE could not be enhanced unless the interactions between LST and location-specific circumstances are taken into consideration. In this line, four types of socio-spatial characteristics are distinguished: (1) losers, where higher levels of both LST-max and LST-Min are associated with higher HEE, characterised by high population density; (2) peak losers and trough winners, where LST-Max is associated with higher HEE and LST-Min with lower HEE, characterised by large households and elderly citizens; (3) peak winners and trough losers, where LST-Max is associated with lower HEE and LST-Min with higher HEE, characterised by private-rental dwellings and large building surface to volume ratio; (4) winners, where both LST-Max and LST-Min are associated with lower HEE, characterised by old buildings.</p

Feminization of surface temperature : Environmental justice and gender inequality among socioeconomic groups

This study seeks answers to whether certain gender groups are overexposed to land surface temperature (LST) and whether or not the levels of such overexposure differ across socioeconomic groups and locations? The results of a geographically weighted regression model on 2400 Dutch residential zones show that LST is feminized. Gender composition alone explains about 10% of LST variations, regardless of other socioeconomic characteristics. For a 1% increase in women's population in a residential zone, LST increases by more than 0.1 °C. When socioeconomic characteristics are considered, the model explains more than 75% of variations. It shows that women living in low-value and relatively-old buildings are more exposed than men in 51% and 41% of the zones. Older-than-65-years and high-income women are more exposed than men in 24% and 22% of zones. Feminization of LST has a spatial pattern, too. It is more likely to occur in a moderate climate than in areas with extreme cold or warm climates. This study discusses the results and offers a series of possible explanations: Women's overrepresentation in urbanised areas, gender imbalance in economic sectors, suburbanisation of poverty, unequal access to green, different life expectancy among gender groups, and high variation of LST in moderate climates

Exploring energy geography:Data insights on household consumption

Household energy consumption (HEC) varies across neighbourhoods and gender groups. This database provides raw and analysed data on HEC determinants and their estimated influence on HEC in 2707 residential neighbourhoods (Wijk) in the Netherlands in 2018. The raw data consists of 17 indicators on energy demand, socioeconomic characteristics, microclimate and buildings. The indicators are retrieved from and calculated based on open national and international datasets. The analysed data presents the local coefficients of the HEC determinants, the outcome of the geographically weighted regression model (GWR) presented in the related article [1]

Urban coherence: a morphological definition

Despite being one of the most commonly used normative concepts in urban design, coherence still lacks a firm morphological definition. Without an explicit specification of its spatial attributes, coherence remains a vague and subjective notion of design implicitly referred to as one of the basic properties of good urban form. As a contribution to the link between urban design and morphology, this paper renders the normative concept objectively in terms of a set of quantifiable morphological indicators. Spatial proximity and consistency are suggested as the two key indicators for measuring the coherence of urban fabric. Based on the computational theory of coherence, originally put forward by Thagard, an analytical model is suggested to quantify) the morphological coherence of actual urban fabrics. In this framework, three planned neighbourhoods in Rotterdam, the Netherlands are analysed to illustrate the changing nature of morphological coherence through different fashions of urbanism initiated in different periods of time

Regional allocation of EV chargers’ grid load

This study develops a multiscale model for allocation of EV infrastructure to accommodate residents’ demand during nights and that of residents and visitors during days under two scenarios: maximum 40% or 80% increase in load on the electricity grid. Developing a mixed-integer linear optimization model including regional traffic flow, local electricity demand and parking availability in Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (AMA), the scenarios’ optimal solutions offer different spatial strategies. This study shows that multiscale allocation of EV chargers substantially improves the efficiency of use: in both scenarios, more than 53% of EVs can charge at their daily destination. However, in the 40% scenario, the extra electricity load is homogeneously allocated across the towns and villages around the AMA centre. In an 80% scenario, in contrast, the load is concentrated in a few areas (1) accessible for substantial numbers of EVs at the regional scale, (2) with relatively low annual consumption, (3) reasonably high number of registered EVs to use chargers in the nights. The manuscript ends with a discussion of the results and their policy implications and offers further studies

The relation between urban form, its density (aerial and accessible) and the distribution of functions

Mixed use development, one of the “mantras in contemporary planning” is a multi-criterion and multi-scalar concept which has various definitions. For this research mixed-use is defined as functional mixed-use and our main interest is to understand the spatial conditions needed to increase the diversity of uses (mix) by combining compatible functions. To analyse the compatibility of land uses and the importance of specific spatial conditions, the three most relevant factors of urban form are chosen: density, accessibility and mixed-use composition. The chosen factors are measured by methods of spacematrix, place syntax and MXI, using the city of Rotterdam (southern part) as case study. The three levels of analysis that are used are: (1) between all the urban blocks, (2) between mixed-use and mono-functional blocks, (3) within different types of mixed-use blocks. The results demonstrate interrelationships between the intensity of land uses on different scale levels. For example, residential density in a biking neighbourhood (radius 1.000) correlates to the density of commercial services in the same or a lower radius, but with of density of cultural and recreational services in a higher radius. In other words, cultural and recreational services need a larger catchment. Furthermore it is demonstrated that mixed-use blocks are denser and have higher accessibility to residential/work and commercial functions. Concerning mixed-use blocks, the results demonstrate a complementary behaviour between the existing functions within a mixed-use block and its surrounding. For instance, blocks with a bi-functional mix of housing and amenities are located in the vicinity of blocks with more work opportunities and blocks consisted of housing and working have a higher access to amenities in their surrounding. Identifying such spatial interrelations between land uses can be of great importance for urban planning and design. It can assist in the process of decision making by providing answers to the questions such as: If we want to create a city centre here, where should we improve accessibility then? Or, where should we, based on the existing distribution of shops, increase the residential density to use the existing potential best

Mobility, electricity, and parking data for EV infrastructure in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area

The dataset combines and aggregate five data types of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area in a polygon GIS shapefile with 79 three-digit postcode areas, and a csv file, including the outcome of an origin-destination analysis. The dataset area includes 1661 residential zones (“wijken”, in the terminology used by the Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics) of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (AMA), and the data aggregated was originally generated between 2017 and 2019. The first dataset, in format of GIS shapefile, contains data on mobility, parking capacity, electricity demand, census data and cadaster data. The second dataset, csv format, includes the outcomes of an origin-destination analysis between the 79 three-digit postcodes areas in AMA. The two datasets provide the basis for analysis and adaptation of electric mobility in AMA

Drivers’ range anxiety and cost of new EV chargers in Amsterdam : a scenario-based optimization approach

Due to the sharp growth in the adaptation of electric vehicles (EV) in the Netherlands and the objectives of the Dutch Climate Accord is to encourage electric mobility, in the coming decades a substantial number of new EV charging facilities needs to be provided. Efficient planning of EV charging infrastructure is coupled with the notion of range anxiety, which is likely to be severely high in case of soon-to-be EV drivers. This study aims to estimate the cost of developing a new charging infrastructure under five scenarios of range anxiety in Amsterdam East. Employing a Linear Integer Programming optimization model, on the basis of geographic data on car registration, existing EV chargers, and electricity substations, it is obtained that if drivers use 90% of their battery before using a charging facility, the existing charging infrastructure needs to be expanded by only 31% to accommodate almost seven times larger number of EVs–the threshold set by the European Union (EU) legislation on the deployment of alternative fuel infrastructure. If drivers use only 30% of the batteries; however, an increase of 167% in infrastructure is inevitable (accounting for almost five million euro of cost). Second, at any point along the range anxiety spectrum, if the interval between charging session increases for 1 day, the overall cost decreases by more than 30%. These findings are discussed, and two policy approaches are proposed: (1) information technology approach; (2) demand-response approach, on the basis of EU legislation on energy efficiency and deployment of alternative fuel infrastructure.</p

Morphological indicators of the building fabric : Towards a Metric Typomorphology

Urban morphology has made remarkable progress within its quantitative track. This advancement signifies the potential contribution of the school of typomorphology to the growing literature on urban sustainability that tends to measure the relative performance of urban fabrics with metric variables. To that end, a joint framework combining the different metric definitions of the urban form provided by individual studies would ensure a terminological consensus, which is somewhat lacking in the current literature. Reviewing the indicators of the building fabric and the original definitions suggested in prominent studies in urban morphology, this paper proposed an expanded index for the so-called metric typomorphology. In this framework, following the conceptual and metric formulations of the form indicators, the building fabrics of the three neighbourhoods in Rotterdam in the Netherlands are mapped by typo-morphological analyses. This paper suggests an eventual computational basis for the typological characterization of tissues with a particular reference to the building fabric