Unveiling the intersections of domestic and transport energy poverty: An open data-based methodological framework for an integrated assessment

Abstract

As cities become increasingly complex and unequal, limited mobility and inadequate domestic energy conditions are emerging as critical barriers to social inclusion. This study proposes a novel analytical framework for assessing transport poverty and its spatial intersection with energy vulnerability, contributing to a more integrated understanding of urban deprivation. A novel multidimensional and GIS-based procedure is developed, which operationalises transport poverty across five key dimensions—availability, accessibility, affordability, temporal constraints, and external conditions—and integrates these with established measures of energy poverty. By combining heterogeneous open data sources within a unified spatial framework, the methodology enables the identification of areas where transport and energy vulnerabilities overlap, as well as mismatches between their spatial patterns. The approach is applied to evaluate the vulnerabilities in the city of Madrid as an empirical demonstration of its implementation, illustrating how the framework can be used to map and classify vulnerable urban areas. The results highlight the potential of the proposed methodology as a scalable and reproducible tool for urban analysis and planning, supporting more targeted and coordinated policy interventions aimed at reducing energy poverty, transport poverty, and broader forms of urban inequality.