Urban density and energy consumption: A new look at old statistics

There is growing concern about the negative environmental and energy effects caused by transportation systems and related land-use patterns. Travel and land-use are a function of one another, therefore it is often hypothesized that changing urban structure can result in changes in energy consumption. A popular view suggests that there is a strong negative correlation between urban density and energy consumption. This implies that increasing density will result in a reduction in energy consumption [Cities and Automobile Dependence: An International Sourcebook, Avebury Technical, Great Britain, 1989]. Using Co-Plot, an innovative multivariate statistical technique, this research crystallizes some of the relationships between density and energy consumption in western cities. The method is applied on Newman and Kenworthy's data, leading to the conclusion that there is no direct impact of total urban density. Instead several other relationships between energy consumption and density attributes can be identified.