Commute Survey: Twin Cities Household Ecosystem Project

We designed our methods to estimate carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus fluxes through individual households, and to address two primary questions:

1. How are these fluxes distributed across households?
2. What biophysical and socioeconomic factors contribute to differences in these fluxes across households?

Our hybrid approach combines:

1. A mailed survey
2. Energy provider records
3. On-the-ground landscape measurements
4. A computational tool (the Household Flux Calculator)
4. Parcel data (interpreted using GIS)

The resulting dataset includes information on biophysical and socioeconomic variables that potentially influence household-level fluxes of elements. Using this method to study element fluxes at the household level allows us to explicitly link consumption choices and element fluxes.