The Relationship Between Urban Morphology and Street Lighting Operating Costs: Evidence from Medium-sized Spanish Cities

Abstract

The design and operation of urban public infrastructure has a large impact on the future economic and environmental sustainability of the urban system. However, those factors are not usually considered when the city is planned, and it is difficult to ensure that urban planning will create more sustainable cities. Therefore, knowledge of the relationship between planning variables and future operating cost of urban public services can help to improve the decision-making process in the early stages of urban planning. In a set of Spanish cities on two different territorial levels, the degree of correlation between three of the urban planning variables that define the urban morphology and the operating cost of street lighting infrastructure has been analysed. The study shows that at whole city level, the operating cost is closely related to housing density and relative length of roads, while for new residential developments, the most crucial urban variable is the relative area occupied by the streets. It has also become clear that per area and per capita operating cost of illuminating newly developed areas is significantly higher than the average cost for the whole city.