Resilience Insights

Land Consumption

The Land Consumption Module measures land consumed by changes in land use, in total and by type. Land Consumption can include up to five land use categories: greenfield, urban vacant, redevelopment, agriculture, and woodlands. Conserve your community’s natural resources with comprehensive analytics and informed scenario planning.

Energy Use

The Energy Use Module estimates electricity and natural gas use for residential and commercial buildings based on building type and climate zone. Energy use is reported as totals, as well as averages per capita, per household, and per employee. The module is loaded with baseline usage rates derived from U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) survey data on energy consumption. Plan for smarter energy use with easy access to current estimates and advanced scenario modeling and analysis.

Water Use

The Water Use Module estimates indoor and outdoor water consumption for both residential and commercial building types. Indoor water use is modeled on a per-capita or per-employee basis by building type or employment category. Outdoor water use is based on irrigated area at the parcel scale using location-specific evapotranspiration values. Reduce wasteful water consumption for existing buildings and new growth with advanced use analysis.

Walk Accessibility

The Walk Accessibility module calculates the amount of time it takes to reach the nearest destination, including schools, parks, hospitals, or custom points of interest. These metrics are generated with OpenStreetMap’s walk, bike, and drive path data, and then combined with relevant datasets. Take a Walk in the Park on our blog.

Transit Accessibility

The Transit Accessibility module calculates the amount of time it takes to reach the nearest destination, including schools, parks, hospitals, or custom points of interest, by transit. Commute time along transit networks, if available in the specific location, is gathered from morning peak hours on a standard weekday. The module incorporates regional General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS) data from all operators in the region that provide data in this format. Pinpoint Transit-Poor Zones on our blog.

Transportation

The Transportation Module incorporates a comprehensive sketch model that interacts with regional travel network data to produce estimates of vehicle miles traveled (VMT) for land use and transportation scenarios. In turn, VMT estimates are used to calculate transportation- related costs, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and pollutant emissions. UrbanFootprint’s core travel engine is adapted from the Mixed-Use Trip Generation (MXD) model developed by Fehr & Peers for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Reduce emissions by building with a data-driven approach to lowering vehicle miles traveled.

Emissions

The Emissions module estimates annual emissions associated with energy use (including electricity and natural gas), water use, and transportation. The module is loaded with baseline emission rates for a list of modeled sources, including greenhouse gases and the following pollutant emissions: NO_x, PM10, PM2.5, SO_x, CO, and VOCs. The Emissions Module is designed to help planners and stakeholders easily compare how various scenarios will impact emissions in their communities. Watch a webinar about Building Resilient & Equitable Communities.

Household Costs

The Household Cost Module estimates annual expenses associated with residential energy, water, and transportation use. This calculation is based on the outputs of the Energy Use, Water Use, and Transportation modules. The Household Cost Module is preloaded with baseline costs for utilities and transportation use.

Risk and Resilience

The Risk and Resilience module helps planners and communities better prepare for the projected impacts of sea level rise, flood inundation, fire hazard, and more. Data visualization and built-in analyses helps planners and communities quantify and illustrate the impacts of climate change on populations, job centers, infrastructure, and beyond to create smart climate adaptation, resilience, and recovery plans. Map Fire, Flood, or Sea Level Rise on our blog.

Conservation (California only)

The Conservation module measures and projects the impact of proposed policy and development across for four key elements: Water quality, habitat preservation, agricultural factors, and carbon sequestration and storage. By standardizing land cover types, reference data, and calculated model inputs, the module allows planners to analyze future growth scenarios and their resulting impact on the environment. This module is only available to selected customers for projects in California. Learn Climate Action Planning on our blog.