The Impact of Land-Use Planning on Lifestyle Carbon Footprints

Abstract

Research on Consumption-Based Carbon Footprints has recognised that lifestyles change significantly along the urban–rural continuum, with urban typically manifesting as an increase in the footprint of consumption while rural areas have a higher footprint for vehicle usage. However, there is limited research on the extent to which land-use patterns defined by urban plans influence these outcomes. To fill this lack, we controlled for household income and housing type and measured Spearman and Pearson partial correlations between the coverage of different zoning land-use types in the neighbourhoods and the footprints of different subdomains: Goods and services, Leisure travel, Vehicle, and Total footprint. These domains are central to both modern lifestyles and urban planning with related objectives. We found out that high Goods and Services and Leisure travel footprints do align with the urban land-use types, while Vehicle footprints show inverted results. However, the mirrored impact for higher Vehicle and Total footprint is not recognised in exurban areas, while the impact on Goods and services and Leisure travel is inverted. These findings diverge from the common per capita analysis of supply-side emissions used to analyse zoning impacts and call for more detailed research on the net climate impacts of the built environment designated with land-use plans.