The University of Otago Centre for Sustainability is comparing Dunedin to a human body in an attempt to find out how efficiently the city uses energy.
Doctoral candidate Cle-Anne Gabriel is conducting the energy metabolism study, which looks at cities and communities as living beings and will help the city plan for the future.
''How quickly can you produce energy from the resources you take in? So if we take Dunedin City; how quickly is it using its resources? We basically want to know how efficiently Dunedin uses energy,'' Ms Gabriel said.
She would attempt to establish the amount of direct energy inflows to Dunedin, including energy generated within the city's boundaries, as well as the main consumption flows using internationally accepted methods.
''It's a very difficult territory because you really have to understand how people are using energy and there are a lot of people in Dunedin using it in different ways,'' she said.
The Dunedin City Council is in the process of producing an energy plan for the city and it would be difficult to plan without knowing what was already happening, she said.
''This study is not yet a full urban metabolism study but it is just trying to lay the foundations. We're focusing on the inflows at this stage - electricity and fuels such as wood fuels, liquid fuels, LPG and coal.
''This study is helping the city make more realistic projections and set more realistic goals. Sometimes communities - especially from a climate change and sustainability perspective - set these lofty goals and proclamations when they haven't done the work to make it realistic.''
She had spent time in Germany and Japan studying and working on material flow analysis.
''I think most of what I know today I learnt while working in Germany.
''There's a lot of scope for application of material flow analysis in communities in Germany and there's funding for it, too. We're hoping the results of this study show how useful it can be and attract more funding in New Zealand.''
The Otago Chamber of Commerce had commissioned the study, with support from the DCC, and would help Ms Gabriel obtain contacts to businesses and institutions whose energy data might not otherwise be accessible.
''What is interesting is where the data is coming from. It's interesting that you can find information on how much energy is being used from things like taxes - you pay taxes on your fuel so you can track it.''
- by David Beck
