Sustainable Land-Use Planning Optimization Integrating Residential Areas, Urban Mobility and Food Resources in a Closed Ecosystem

Over recent years, faster urbanization and natural resources depletion compels an increasing attention to the environmental conservation and the careful management of soil and land-use. Sustainable Land-Use Planning (LUP) is the process of allocating activities and its uses in specific units of area within a region, with the purpose of maximizing the soil yields, the derived profits together with minimizing the associated environmental impacts. Several environmental aspects can be considered in LUP, but one of the main drivers for environmental conservation is carbon emissions minimization. Transport sector is one of the biggest polluter and it is highly related with the land depletion. Indeed, both urban mobility and goods transport play an important role in land use change because they need to be readily accessible and travel distances directly affect the greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions. This paper investigates the relationship between LUP and transportation through an original planning model that integrates land characteristics such as soil properties and yield, with urban mobility, and food supply flows. A mix integer linear programming model is developed to study the optimal land-use allocation in an urban-rural environment with the goal of minimizing carbon emission. The model takes into account the allocation of land-intensive uses like agriculture, energy production, and residential areas, in order to satisfy an internal multi-resource and multi-level demand. This paper presents an application of the model with a numerical case study showing the potential of the model in supporting urban-rural planning process.