Impacts of Land Use Change on Energy Usage and Ghg Emissions

Urbanization has a profound impact on landscape modification and subsequent impacts on energy usage and associated Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. In this paper, a methodology to assess the impact of land use change on energy demand and Green House Gas emissions using remote sensing data is presented. The methodology development was carried out using region of Stuttgart, Germany as the case study for the time period of 1990 to 2006. The first step involved using Corine land cover corresponding to the years 1990, 2000 and 2006 in conjunction with the administrative boundary map of the region of Stuttgart to assess the land use change from 1990 to 2006. The second step of the methodology involved using ATKIS building data of 2004 in conjunction with the land use data of 1990, and 2000 to identify the buildings in 1990 and 2000 and assess the land use conversion to built areas due to urbanization. Also the building types were identified, and the energy usage for heating and cooling was modeled using local guidelines. As the final step, the GHG emissions associated with heating and energy demand was estimated for the years 1990, 2000 and 2004 using the empirical relation set by Öko-Institute (2011). The results of the study indicate that there has been a significant increase in urban residential built surfaces (17%) and decrease in urban greenery, forest and agricultural areas during the time period of 1990 to 2004. The increase in residential built surfaces has resulted in an increase of electricity and heating demand and a subsequent increase in GHG emissions(14%). The methodology presented in this paper brings forth the use of remote sensing to estimate and predict GHG emissions resulting from land use changes.