Abstract. Cities are fundamental to climate
change mitigation, and although there is increasing understanding about the
relationship between emissions and urban form, this relationship has not been
used to provide planning advice for urban land use so far. Here we present
the Integrated Urban Complexity model (IUCm 1.0) that computes
“climate-smart urban forms”, which are able to cut emissions related to
energy consumption from urban mobility in half. Furthermore, we show the
complex features that go beyond the normal debates about urban sprawl vs.
compactness. Our results show how to reinforce fractal hierarchies and
population density clusters within climate risk constraints to significantly
decrease the energy consumption of urban mobility. The new model that we
present aims to produce new advice about how cities can combat climate
change.