Title: Influence of urban information availability on household energy consumption

Authors: Nasrin Khansari; Zvi H. Aronson; Ali Mostashari; Mo Mansouri

Addresses: School of Systems and Enterprises, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, USA ' School of Business, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, USA ' School of Systems and Enterprises, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, USA ' School of Systems and Enterprises, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, USA

Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of information in change individuals' behaviours and in particular their energy behaviour. The growth of population and moving towards overconsumption and over pollution are significant threats to the environment and therefore necessitate moving towards sustainability approaches. This paper discusses the influence of behaviour change in achieving sustainable development. Relying on social learning and social cognitive theories, it presents a comparative approach to motivate individuals to change their energy behaviour. A mathematical model is presented to quantify the impact of providing individuals with comparative information in their path through energy conservation. This paper offers an integrated conceptual mathematical framework to increase the effective capacity of energy systems under complex and unclear conditions, facilitate energy consumption problem solving, and improve individual psychological capabilities such as self-efficacy, and the ability to imagine and aspire to a better energy consumptions in the future.

Keywords: smart cities; energy behaviour; behaviour change; mathematical modelling; systems thinking; urban information availability; household energy consumption; behavioural change; sustainability; sustainable development; social learning theory; social cognitive theory; problem solving; psychological capabilities; self-efficacy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSSE.2015.075477

International Journal of System of Systems Engineering, 2015 Vol.6 No.4, pp.253 - 272

Received: 18 Nov 2014
Accepted: 10 Jun 2015
Published online: 24 Mar 2016 *

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