Metrics - Documentation?

[ScottEdmondson]

I'm in the middle of initially deploying ArcGIS Urban and have been reviewing the Dashboard metrics graph and the space types metrics tab. 

Although I basically understand the logic, it would be easier to fully understand if there was some documentation that simply described the overall logic and that for each metric too. 

In addition, it would be VERY helpful to have a master list of the out-of-the-box factors used (CO2, water, etc.) from the primary source (net gsf, pop, jobs, etc.) AND the source of those factors.  I need to validate the source of those factors and the source helps understand appropriateness for our city. See screenshots for examples.

If there is some documentation on the metrics logic and sources, that would be helpful. 🙂

Thank you,

Some 080423 Follow Up Questions and Comments and Resources from Response to an earlier Question:  

089423 Follow-Up: Question on logic of Daily Trip Metric:  In the "Metrics" tab of any of the Space Use Types, the calculation of Daily Trips (see screenshot) looks like it double counts, as it adds trips from net area to those of pop, households, and jobs. since pop, HH, and jobs are estimated from net area, this looks like double counting. Since pop and HH are generated from net area and represent the same source --residential development -- it looks like this formula partial double double counts. 

I'm thinking I'm simply not understanding the logic, but the info in the metric tab shows Daily Trips = that from net area + pop + hh + jobs.  Please explain, briefly, how this metric does not double count.

080423: I was directed to this recording of a webinar on metrics made earlier this year (available here), which does a great job of explaining the metrics logic and states that the metrics are NATIONAL averages from the American Planning Association, although no citation is provided. I goggled and BingChatted for it, but found nothing. Any chance the Esri Team could add the citation to the AGU documentation?

ALSO (080423 followup):  Copying Response to an earlier Question on Metrics & Existing Conditions Data that addressed the topic of documentation, and may be useful to others:  

This documentation topic covers configuring metrics including importing existing metric values on the Urban Model level. Existing metric values can be imported for any metric.

Whenever you create a plan, the metrics and existing metric values available on the Urban Model at creation time, are copied to that plan. For projects, only the metrics are copied. 

The metrics (plans & projects) and the existing metric values (plans) can also be configured and edited on each plan and project individually. Any edits on metrics and existing metric values on the plan and project level don't impact the metrics and existing metric values configuration on the Urban Model level. There are also dedicated documentation pages for working with metrics on the plan and project level:

• For plans: https://doc.arcgis.com/en/urban/help/help-analyze-plan.htm
• For projects: https://doc.arcgis.com/en/urban/help/help-metrics-project.htm

[ScottEdmondson]

Not sure how to mark this complete or solved, but i think we're done with this topic for now.  Unless someone can provide a citation to the American Planning Association source of the national average factors used in the out-of-the-box metrics.

[JasonKarian2]

Hi Scott,

As of right now, we don't have any public documentation on how the metrics are created, however I can paste some of the info here!

Energy use
Electrical consumption was derived from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA)
reports on residential and commercial consumption. Residential consumption was derived
per person based on the average household size across the United States and the total
energy consumption (including space heating, water heating, air conditioning, refrigeration,
and other uses) for each household. Commercial consumption was calculated per building
space use. It was assumed that the dominant use in building, as reported in the
Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS) can be used to represent a
space use. Total energy consumed by all surveyed buildings of that type were divided by
their total area to get a consumption value per unit of area. That amount was multiplied by
the ratio of area to jobs to get a count of total energy per job created. Where necessary,
energy units were converted from British Thermal Unit (Btu) to Kilowatt Hours (kWh).
See the following sources:
U.S. EIA, xref: Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS)
U.S. EIA, xref: Commercial Building Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS)

CO2 emissions
Many studies provide an estimation of total CO2 production per household, but few break
consumption down by space use type, building type, job type, or differentiate between CO2
produced in the home and the place of work. However, much work has been done to
quantify how much CO2 different types of economic activities generate. Total CO2
production per sector (commercial, industrial, residential) was extracted from the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Greenhouse Gas Inventory Data Explorer. These
values were divided by the total number of jobs in the related sector taken from the U.S.
Bureau of Labor Statistics, to create an average CO2 production per job by sector. These
sectors were then associated with specific space use types. Total CO2 production per
resident was calculated by dividing the household value by average household size. Then
the average CO2 production per work, for all jobs, was subtracted from this number to
create a representative CO2 production per resident excluding work activity.
See the following sources:
U.S. EPA, xref: Greenhouse Gas Inventory Data Explorer
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, xref: Employment by major industry sector

Water use and waste water
Water consumption was derived from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) estimated
average total consumption per household from their report on residential end use of water.
The report did not provide a national average of the split between interior and exterior use.
Typically, average winter consumption (AWC) is subtracted from average summer
consumption (ASC) to estimate exterior use. However, it varies highly from region to
region. The U.S. EPA WaterSense report was also used to drive the assumptions on the
split between internal and external uses. Waste water was estimated by taking the total
interior use and subtracting the average loss to leaks, assuming water that goes into the
sink or shower must go somewhere.
See the following source:
USGS, xref: Estimated Use of Water in the United States

Solid waste
Production of municipal solid waste (MSW) was based on U.S. EPA estimates. These
estimates relate to the amount of waste produced per person in the United States. There
was no break down of how much is produced at home versus how much is produced in the
workplace. A coarse estimate was used to split the total waste production between the two.
See the following source:
U.S. EPA, xref: Non-Hazardous Waste—Municipal Solid Waste

As for your follow up questions...

089423 Follow-Up: Question on logic of Daily Trip Metric

Let me check on my end if it does double count your daily trips, and I'll respond as soon as I can with an answer / fix.

080423

I feel like what provided above should help answer this!

080423 followup

For the projects and plans, plans are going to have the existing metric option because the data you can upload are "parcel based", which is where you put your space use types / building types. That's how urban can understand that existing metric for the parcel area, and any changes due to development will cause that metric to change. With projects, there's no way to set space uses, which in turn you can't set the metrics for your development (i.e. in the RES Multi Family Space Use, it's 750 sqft for 1 unit). That's why you're not able to do it in projects!

[OghenemaroAustin-Igbuku]

Hi, just to follow up on the topic of double counting metrics, was there a conclusion on whether metrics like daily trips or CO2 emissions double count the inputs from the net space area because the inputs from the other metrics also come from the net space area?