A Smart Growth Bibliography:

Impacts on the Natural Environment - Energy and Sustainability

Blomquist, R. Gordon, Nancy J. Hanson, and Sam Sadler. PLACE3S: Using Energy as a Yardstick to Measure Sustainability. In Energy, a quarterly magazine, distributed by the Pennsylvania Energy Office Public Information Office, vol.8 no. 2, Fall 1994.
Summary: The article discusses how PLACE3S (PLAnning for Community Energy, Economic and Environmental Sustainability - discussed in the "Models, Handbooks, and Planning Guides" section) can enable communities to use energy as a yardstick to measure the sustainability of their urban design and growth management plans. Article (5 pages).

Breheny, M.J. The Contradictions of the Compact City: A Review, in Sustainable Development and Urban Form, M.J. Breheny (ed.), London: Pion, 1992.
Summary: Discussion piece that challenges the presumption that compact development lowers energy consumption and pollution emissions. Several macro-level studies are reviewed. Analysis - Literature Review (8 pages).

Criterion Inc. INDEX - INtegrated Design Efficiency eXamination. Geographic Accounting Software for Measuring Urban Livability, Criterion Inc., Portland, OR, December 1995.
Summary: A customizable GIS template designed to produce spatial accounting of integrated urban resource efficiencies. INDEX runs in ArcView 2. INDEX is based upon the PLACE3S methodology, with some improvements. Computer software.

Criterion Inc. Integration of Transportation and Land-Use Efficiency with Growth Management: Application of the PLACE3S Methodology in the Eugene-Springfield Metro Area, Criterion Inc., Portland, OR, January 1996.
Summary: The project developed a computer model for estimating the energy efficiency of the land-use and transportation plans of metropolitan Eugene-Springfield. The model is based on the PLACE3S planning methodology which compares the energy performance of alternative urban plans as a means of encouraging more sustainable community development. Report - Model (95 pages).

Criterion Inc. PLACE3S - PLAnning for Community Energy, Environmental, and Economic Sustainability, Criterion Inc., Portland, OR, 1995.
Summary: Planning methodology that compares the energy performance of alternative urban plans as a means of encouraging more sustainable community development.

Haines, Valerie A. Energy and Urban Form: A Human Ecological Critique. Urban Affairs Quarterly, Vol. 21 No. 3, March 1986, 337-353.
Summary: The article develops a human ecological critique of studies on the relationship between energy and urban form. Empirical tests of the importance of energy as a determinant of urban spatial structure. Study (21 pages).

Levinson, H. S. And H. E. Strate. Land Use and Energy Intensity. Transportation Research Record 812. Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC, (1981).
Summary: The article summarizes the energy implications of various land uses in the metropolitan Toronto area and seeks to address two primary issues: 1) What are the energy requirements of various types of urban land?, and 2) How does development density affect both transportation and non-transportation energy consumption? Article - Study (8 pages)

San Diego Association of Governments. San Diego Regional Energy Plan, December 1994.
Summary: Regional energy plan which seeks to use energy as a tool for improving the San Diego region's future. The report fulfills several purposes: 1) Projection of future energy demands; 2) Formulation of objectives and policies to guide the region toward an energy-efficient future; 3) Evaluation of options for meeting identified demands and evaluation of preferred options; and 4) Design of short terms actions to be taken. (220 pages)

Sustainable Seattle. Indicators of Sustainable Community, A Status Report on Long-Term Cultural, Economic, and Environmental Health, 1995.
Summary: This report is the first complete survey of key long-term trends affecting the Seattle area's sustainability - its capacity to thrive and prosper in the decades ahead. 40 indicators cover a full range of cultural, economic, environmental and social issues that will determine Seattle's future, as a city and region. The indicators are designed to measure the city's real progress, to identify key problems and priorities, and to help understand the changes needed to ensure the community's well-being over time. Status report (58 pages).

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