Anthropization and Growth of the Electricity Grid as Variables for the Analysis of Urban Infrastructure

Manuel Ayala, Diego Huaraca, José Varela-Aldás, Andrea Ordóñez and Genís Riba
Additional contact information
Manuel Ayala: Centro de Investigación en Mecatrónica y Sistemas Interactivos, Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica, Ambato 180107, Ecuador
Diego Huaraca: Centro de Investigación en Mecatrónica y Sistemas Interactivos, Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica, Ambato 180107, Ecuador
José Varela-Aldás: Centro de Investigación en Mecatrónica y Sistemas Interactivos, Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica, Ambato 180107, Ecuador
Andrea Ordóñez: Departamento de Arquitectura y Urbanismo, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Loja CP 11-01-608, Ecuador
Genís Riba: Centro de Diseño de Equipos Industriales, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya-Barcelona Tech, 08034 Barcelona, Spain

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 4, 1-17

Abstract: City growth goes together with the development of infrastructure, and the power network is one of the most relevant towards economic development. The study of urban infrastructure through the analysis of anthropization coupled with power network growth can produce a tool that supports sustainable infrastructure planning, both economic and environmental. The case study focuses on Ambato, Ecuador, in the period from 1950 to 2019, and assesses quantitatively the changes in the city layout and the evolution of its power network. The data are adjusted to a sigmoid-type objective function through a non-linear least squares problem, that is solved using the Broyden–Fletcher–Goldfarb–Shanno (BFGS) method. Anthropization data show how the urban area grew during the study period: 37% (1950–1960), 53% (1960–1970), 80% (1970–1980), 35% (1980–1990), 39% (1990–2000), 38% (2000–2010), and 11% (2010–2019), mostly at the expense of agricultural land. The forecast for new power network users by 2050 yields a result of 203,630 total users with a population density of 4850 people/km 2 . The conclusion is that this type of analysis can help city planners and decision makers further understand city and infrastructure growth dynamics and produce policies that bolster sustainable city growth.

Keywords: anthropization; sustainability; energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/4/1486/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/4/1486/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:4:p:1486-:d:321602

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().