Land use planning to optimize energy consumption for sustainable urban development (Case study: Region 2, District 8, Tehran)

Nowadays, energy consumption in metropolitan areas has created many environmental problems. Accordingly, urban planning to optimize energy consumption should be considered a necessity. This study aimed to evaluate the criteria and sub-criteria of land use planning in the Region 2 of District 8 of Tehran to sustainable urban development and optimization of energy consumption. In this research, analytical research methods, library, and field studies have been used to identify the criteria and sub-criteria and use GIS software to prioritize and evaluate their impact. Modeling the impact of end-use on energy consumption was performed using EnergyPLAN software. The study results showed that the sub-criteria of a diversity of uses, suitable coverage radius of public transportation stations, the optimal density of residential units, and building density of non-residential uses have relatively favorable conditions. Sub-criteria such as active neighborhood centers, pedestrian access to main service uses, a good share of green space, access to public spaces, and public parking in the proximity of transport stations that are currently in poor condition should be improved. Finally, two land-use plans were proposed to improve the current situation. After mixing the proposed land use and the current status, the sub-criteria that did not meet the appropriate conditions in the current status were upgraded. The energy modeling results in the transportation sector showed that energy consumption has decreased from 1.6 TWh to 1.44 TWh per year and carbon dioxide from 850 thousand tons to 760 thousand tons per year.