Graduation Semester and Year
Fall 2025
Language
English
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Planning and Public Policy
Department
Urban and Public Affairs
First Advisor
Qisheng Pan
Second Advisor
Julene Paul
Third Advisor
Maria Martinez-Cosio
Abstract
This dissertation examines dual energy-mobility affordability from an equity perspective in high-density multifamily neighborhoods across nine U.S. cities. Traditional energy cost burden metrics focus only on residential energy and overlook transportation-related costs, obscuring how housing-related energy consumption and mobility costs jointly affect affordability for low-income and rent-stressed renters. This approach reflects the ongoing cost of maintaining everyday access rather than housing-related energy consumption costs alone. This study develops and applies a transferable, multicity block-group dual-energy mobility cost Burden (DECB) framework that integrates housing-related energy consumption costs with mobility costs into a composite indicator based on cost-to-income ratios and low-income/high-cost (LIHC) thresholds. The mobility component is measured as total transportation operating costs per household, including auto energy, auto non-energy, and transit fares.
Using city energy benchmarking data for multifamily buildings, census and consumer expenditure data, and mode-intensity-based downscaling methods, this study constructs block-group DECB measures. It compares them with the household energy cost burden (HECB). It uses descriptive analysis, logistic regression, and spatial statistics to identify who is most affected and where the DECB is concentrated.
The results show that both HECB and DECB are concentrated in extremely low- and very low-income, rent-stressed multifamily neighborhoods. However, DECB identifies a smaller, more selective subset of block groups where economic stress coincides with auto-dependence and very long commutes. It is a low-income, economically stressed, and often racially marginalized neighborhood phenomenon, primarily mediated through income and rent stress, while socio-demographic variables act as secondary markers, once structural conditions are controlled. Housing infrastructure deficits play a secondary role after accounting for income, rent burden, and mobility structure. These patterns demonstrate that energy-related affordability in multifamily neighborhoods is shaped by the combined pressures of housing-related energy consumption costs and mobility costs, not by housing-related energy consumption costs (dwelling energy costs) alone. Spatial Pattern demonstrates that dual energy-mobility inequity is not driven solely by where systems are most expensive, but by how those costs intersect with income and basic mobility needs.
The dissertation concludes that a holistic approach to integrating energy costs and mobility costs is needed. Effective energy-justice policy must pair dwelling efficiency and bill relief with land-use, housing, and transportation interventions in neighborhoods facing DECB. DECB can serve as a screening and targeting tool to help prioritize integrated responses at the local level and guide place-based, access-aware, equitable energy-mobility policy.
Keywords
Energy Affordability, Burden, Transportation Poverty, Dual Energy Burden, Energy Justice, Multifamily, LIHC, Cost-to-income, Social Vulnerabilities, Equity
Disciplines
Urban Studies and Planning
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Manandhar, Indira, "RETHINKING ENERGY AFFORDABILITY: ASSESSING DUAL ENERGY-MOBILITY COST BURDEN IN HIGH-DENSITY MULTIFAMILY NEIGHBORHOODS" (2025). Planning Dissertations. 69.
https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/planning_dissertations/69