Energy Choices 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.

本研究设计了相应方法，用于估算单个家庭的碳、氮、磷元素通量，并聚焦解决两个核心研究问题：
1. 上述元素通量在不同家庭间呈现怎样的分布特征？
2. 哪些生物物理与社会经济因素导致了家庭间通量的差异？

本研究采用的混合研究方法整合了以下内容：
1. 邮寄问卷调查
2. 能源供应商记录
3. 实地景观测量
4. 一款计算工具——家庭通量计算器（Household Flux Calculator）
5. 地块数据（通过地理信息系统（Geographic Information System）进行解译）

最终得到的数据集包含了可能影响家庭尺度元素通量的各类生物物理变量与社会经济变量信息。通过该方法开展家庭尺度的元素通量研究，能够实现消费选择与元素通量之间的明确关联分析。