Mapping Urban Energy Landscapes (MUEL) in the Global South

This research project is concerned with humanity's potential to achieve low carbon, socially just cities. It focuses on rapidly urbanising areas in the global south, where climate change vulnerabilities and access to energy are pressing issues. The contention in this proposal is that achieving low carbon, socially just cities will require a spatial, socio-economic and political transformation. This transformation will depend on our ability to find low carbon development pathways for urban energy systems. Changes in energy systems and urbanisation processes are mutually dependent. Thus, devising sustainable development pathways towards low carbon and socially just cities will require new methods to analyse the shared history and geography of energy systems and cities.

Sociotechnical perspectives focus on the heterogeneous nature of energy systems, including both social components (such as energy use norms and behaviour, economic activities, and government regulations) and technical components (such as generation technologies, distribution networks and home appliances). These perspectives have already advanced our understanding of sustainable development pathways identifying structural factors which prevent the rapid transition towards sustainable energy systems and devising institutional processes to catalyse transitions. These theories, however, have not fully engaged with the spatial, historical and political aspects of those transitions. Moreover, few of these studies have linked the operation of energy systems with their impacts on the everyday life of people in cities in the global South. In this project, I join sociotechnical theories of energy and theories which look at the distribution and histories of energy and everyday life in cities in a new concept called Urban Energy Landscapes (UELs). UELs also draw attention to the equity issues raised by the production, transmission and consumption of energy in cities in the global South, in particular, to the unequal distribution of access to energy services and environmental burdens within those UELs. The contention of this project is that focusing on UELs will help to identify barriers and opportunities for sustainable development pathways towards low carbon, socially just cities.

The proposal has a strong methodological component because it is concerned with the lack of methodologies to understand UELs. Geographical Information Systems (GIS) handle large amounts of data in databases where location is explicitly included as part of the data. They enable the identification of urban land use features and spatial changes. However, they can also hide important information regarding the complex interactions of social and technical elements in UELs and the political aspects of urban and energy development. This project will develop a new methodology which will combine critical applications of GIS and qualitative research methods. The methodology will be tested in four cities: Maputo (Mozambique), Lima (Peru), Bangalore (India), and Nanchang (China). A comparative analysis of the cases will help identifying barriers and opportunities for achieving low carbon cities. The project will build on collaborations with and mentorship from world-leading experts in energy and cities. Yet, with this project, I will develop a new conceptual framework and methodology connecting previously separated strands of research.

The research will contribute evidence for policy-making on energy and development and practical tools for urban development planning that will be disseminated through partnerships with international organisations, charities and businesses working to increase energy access and improving the sustainability of energy in cities. Overall, the project will seek to make a difference in understanding how energy is produced, transmitted and consumed in cities in the global south, by identifying opportunities for a low carbon, socially-just future.

In addition to the academic beneficiaries MUEL will benefit a range of organizations and social groups with interests on energy, sustainable development, urban planning and climate change.
First, MUEL will benefit an heterogeneous range of organizations working in energy policy in international development, including international development organizations (e.g UN-Habitat, the World Bank and UNIDO); organizations for bilateral cooperation (e.g UK's DfID; Germany's GTZ); charitable organizations (e.g Oxfam, Practical Action); think-tanks supporting international development work on energy (e.g ODI; IEED; IIASA); and networks and partnerships which support the implementation of development interventions in energy (such as the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership or the Global Network on Energy for Sustainable Development, the Global Village Energy Partnership). MUEL will generate new evidence for policies and strategies to enable universal energy access in cities in the global south, attending at new constraints emerging in the context of climate change. MUEL will foster a better understanding of energy access and energy poverty in an urban context, to complement an existing body of work on energy access in rural areas. Moreover, MUEL will demonstrate the importance of whole systems approaches to urban energy to address urban sustainability and urban poverty, and this will challenge narrow approaches focusing exclusively in energy efficiency that currently dominate the development discourses of energy and cities.
Second, MUEL will benefit actors leading or influencing urban development planning interventions in cities in the global south including local governments and urban development agencies, a range of private actors assisting this process (planners, urban specialists and consultancies) and civil society and activists which contest or enable the planning process. MUEL will also benefit actors who operate trans-nationally, transferring knowledge across different contexts. These include, for example, international consultancies (e.g. Atkins, Buro Happold, ARUP), city networks (e.g. ICLEI, C40), and grassroot networks with strong interests on urban planning (e.g. Slum/Shack Dwellers International). MUEL will provide practical guidance and empirical evidence to improve existing planning tools and re-think the supply and consumption of energy in cities. Citizens and activists will also use this evidence to contest existing urban energy plans, particularly if they are shown to be unsustainable or unjust. In both cases, MUEL's evidence will contribute to improve the provision of energy services in cities in the global south.
Third, MUEL will benefit a growing community of activists, based online, who work to enable universal access to geographical information and seek to make a different to communities through the use of spatial analysis tools (e.g. Humanitarian Street Map). MUEL will develop new visualizations of energy in cities and develop additional applications of OpenStretMap in energy and cities.
Fourth, the research will benefit citizens and communities in each case study. Spatial analysis followed up by discussions with institutional representatives in each city will expose barriers and opportunities to improve the sustainability of current energy systems and increase energy access. Moreover, the analysis will reveal multiple perspectives on energy, fostering dialogues about the future of energy in each city. Citizens volunteering geographical information will be empowered to highlight and communicate their priorities for urban planning.
MUEL will benefit a larger group of citizens and communities with new evidence on the environmental sustainability of energy in cities. Overall, MUEL will develop new knowledge about energy and cities that, in the long term, will enable socially and environmentally just urban planning interventions in the global south.