The diversification of energy resources throughout human history, as a result of the increasing energy demands of socioeconomic systems, has been a decisive factor in shaping our relationship with the environment, the structure of global economy and land use planning at all geographical scales. An important part of related studies has focused on the study of urban energy consumption and the factors that affect this. This paper presents a methodological framework based on the concept of energy metabolism for the analysis of urban-regional systems. The methodology is applied on an urban coastal Mediterranean system. The results reveal that energy flow analysis is a useful tool for the interpretation of the economic structure of a system and the assessment of its self-sufficiency in energy generation. What is more, it is apt for revealing possible consumption patterns associated to different types of economy and urbanisation.
Keywords:
Energy consumption, socioeconomic metabolism, urban density, Barcelona
Fragkou, M. C., Vicent, T., & Gabarrell, X. (2015). Energy flow analysis as a tool for territorial analysis; the case of the Barcelona Metropolitan Region. Revista De Urbanismo, (33), 3–25. https://doi.org/10.5354/0717-5051.2015.37162
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