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Cities seek nuanced understanding of intraurban inequality in energy use, addressing both income and race, to inform equitable investment in climate actions. However, nationwide energy consumption surveys are limited (<6,000 samples in the United States), and utility-provided data are highly aggregated. Limited prior analyses suggest disparity in energy use intensity (EUI) by income is ∼25%, while racial disparities are not quantified nor unpacked from income. This paper, using new empirical fine spatial scale data covering all 200,000 households in two US cities, along with separating temperature-sensitive EUI, reveals intraurban EUI disparities up to a factor of five greater than previously known. We find 1) annual EUI disparity ratios of 1.27 and 1.66, comparing lowest- versus highest-income block groups (i.e., 27 and 66% higher), while previous literature indicated only ∼25% difference; 2) a racial effect distinct from income, wherein non-White block groups (highest quintile non-White percentage) in the lowest-income stratum reported up to a further ∼40% higher annual EUI than less diverse block groups, providing an empirical estimate of racial disparities; 3) separating temperature-sensitive EUI unmasked larger disparities, with heating–cooling electricity EUI of lowest-income block groups up to 2.67 times (167% greater) that of highest income, and high racial disparity within lowest-income strata wherein high non-White (>75%) population block groups report EUI up to 2.56 times (156% larger) that of majority White block groups; and 4) spatial scales of data aggregation impact inequality measures. Quadrant analyses are developed to guide spatial prioritization of energy investment for carbon mitigation and equity. These methods are potentially translatable to other cities and utilities. 

Tree management is becoming a big issue in a variety of societal domains. In recent years, historic wildfires and blackouts caused by failures in tree management have increased in both quantity and severity, resulting in many deaths and financial loses in the tens of billions of dollars. Many communities are also suffering from massive tree loss (e.g., in the millions) that affects the health and well-being of citizens. These problems are likely to worsen due to climate change, aging infrastructure and population growth. Tree management needs a revolution to deal with these urgent problems. This opens up new challenges and opportunities for the spatial community. This paper presents some of the open research problems from the perspectives of individual tree mapping and characterization as well as decision making and in-field intervention. 

This paper is part of a larger project investigating the role of politics and policy design on suitability and energy transitions from the FSU participants in the Sustainable Healthy Cities Network. The City of Tallahassee FL is used as a test bed to examine how policy design is linked to individual behavior and outcomes. This specific piece examines voluntary compliance and explores actor motivations to comply with non-mandatory directives. We investigate the conditions and motivations shaping household-level decisions related to voluntary compliance within an energy audit (low-commitment) and a loan (high-commitment) program. We find evidence of different economic and social motivations at play, and discuss the research implications for policy design and implementation.