The Urban Energy Footprint Model

There is a long tradition extending from Muth (Cities and housing: the spatial pattern of urban residential land use. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1975) of modeling land use in cities using numerical urban simulation models. The techniques for solving these models have advanced considerably, and today they are capable of generating counterfactual estimates of the long-run effects of changes in many policies involving transportation, zoning, public infrastructure changes, etc. Larson et al. (J Urban Econ 72(2–3):147–159, 2012) modified these models to simulate the effects of transportation policies on energy consumption in commuting and housing and the urban energy footprint (UEF) model was born. Since then, the model has been adapted to consider the energy implications of self-driving cars, telework, planning regulations, ride-hailing, and work from home among other applications discussed in detail in this chapter.