Cities and Infrastructure

More than half of the world’s population is now living in cities and the worldwide trend of urbanisation is still continuing, in particular in emerging economies. Cities open up chances for individuals from rural communities to realise a better standard of living. However, a higher standard of living generally goes alongside higher energy consumption. In addition, an agglomeration of many people such as a large megacity creates further energy demands like for example mechanical cooling to alleviate urban heat island effects. Research within the group focusses on the role of buildings within sustainable city concepts and at a larger scale, the energy performance of city-regions in the context of their demographic and social makeup.

For more information about data in cities, please visit: MyData Portal.


10th December, 2019

Dr Ben Anderson’s work analyzing the charging patterns of a sample of electric vehicles monitored by FlipTheFleet in New Zealand has contributed to a major new report to the New Zealand Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PCE). The report, which covers a wide range of analyses from a range of contributors incorporated Ben’s analysis, conducted […]


14th February, 2019

Dr Ben Anderson presented an update on his local area electricity demand modelling work carried out under the SPATIALEC MSCA Global Fellowship at the Regional Science Association Australasia Conference in Christchurch, NZ in February. He discussed results from a preliminary model using NZ Census 2013 and GREEN Grid project data to model small area lighting […]


20th June, 2018

SERG’s Dr Ben Anderson is continuing to make links with centres of expertise in New Zealand through his ongoing EU Global Fellowship. In this case he gave a summary of SAVE and SPATIALEC work at the University of Canterbury’s EPECentre, a world-class Power Industry research incubator that attracts academics and students from around the world […]


26th January, 2018

The 9 Case Studies showcase the breadth and applicability of the Liveable Cities research to practice and to everyday life. A copy of the case studies is available to download here: #1 Natural Capital in Birmingham. by Nick Grayson, Jonathan Sadler, James Hale, Martin Locret-Collet and Chris Bouch #2 Energy, Transport and Waste in Birmingham: […]


21st December, 2017

Following the roadshows and a successful closing event in the House of Lords, the Liveable Cities – Little Book series are now available online to download as PDF. The Little Books aim to be easy to read and accessible in order to inform the public about some of the key research outputs and the main […]


It isn’t hard to find similarities between the British Isles and New Zealand.  The traditions derived from the British immigration to the islands (and the South Island in particular) emerge as a common language; as familiar sports at which, for the most part, the Kiwis give us a good thumping; a liking for real ale, […]


1st December, 2017

SERG’s Dr Ben Anderson has just started the outgoing phase of his EU H2020 Marie SkĹ‚odowska-Curie scheme-funded SPATIALEC Global Fellowship. Based at the University of Otago’s Centre for Sustainability, Ben will initially be working on combining time use and electricity monitoring data from the New Zealand GREEN Grid  project with  New Zealand Census data to […]


SERG PhD student Mikey Harper is working on a number of methods to assess the potential for wind turbine development in the UK. As part of this he has produced a map of on-shore wind turbine planning applications to date and has also developed a model for predicting the likelihood of planning success for future sites. […]


City-wide analysis to propel cities towards resource efficiency and better wellbeing Many cities in the world are putting in place their own robust carbon reduction strategies in response to, or in advance of, leadership from central government. As the powerhouses of economic growth, cities use vast amounts of energy and consume resources from hinterlands that […]


This app shows the results of modelling roof panel PV generation for non-domestic Southampton City Council properties in Southampton, UK. Click on the ‘Large Map’ button to see the full interaction version hosted by ESRI/ArcGIS. The three buttons on the top right corner of the map can be used to “Search”, “Filter”, and “Change basemap”. Results […]