Basu, S, Bale, CSE orcid.org/0000-0002-2413-0673, Wehnert, T et al. (1 more author) (2019) A complexity approach to defining urban energy systems. Cities, 95. 102358. ISSN 0264-2751
Abstract
Urban energy systems have been commonly considered to be socio-technical systems within the boundaries of an urban area. However, recent literature challenges this notion in that it urges researchers to look at the wider interactions and influences of urban energy systems wherein the socio-technical sphere is expanded to political, environmental and economic realms as well. In addition to the inter-sectoral linkages, the diverse agents and multilevel governance trends of energy sustainability in the dynamic environment of cities make the urban energy landscape a complex one. There is a strong case then for establishing a new conceptualisation of urban energy systems that builds upon these contemporary understandings of such systems. We argue that the complex systems approach can be suitable for this. In this paper, we propose a pilot framework for understanding urban energy systems using complex systems theory as an integrating plane. We review the multiple streams of urban energy literature to identify the contemporary discussions and construct this framework that can serve as a common ontological understanding for the different scholarships studying urban energy systems. We conclude the paper by highlighting the ways in which the framework can serve some of the relevant communities.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/BY/4.0/) |
Keywords: | Urban energy systems; Complex systems; Agents; Networks; Context |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Chemical & Process Engineering (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EPSRC EP/K022288/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 10 Jun 2019 10:04 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 21:51 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.cities.2019.05.027 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:147081 |