@article {Casas-Busquet046557, author = {Josep M Casas-Busquet and Agust{\'\i} Poch-Par{\'e}s}, title = {Looking for Energy in Population Data: How to Detect Self-Organization in Human Community Distribution}, elocation-id = {046557}, year = {2016}, doi = {10.1101/046557}, publisher = {Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory}, abstract = {In the present work we study the relationship between population allocation and the combined effects of urban size and energy consumption, for two given areas and through a major part of the twentieth century. Along these lines a general application model is laid down which relates city-growth rates to initial inhabitants and to exosomatic energy increment, the deviations from it showing order in space and time, as shown in a series of maps which hint at unaccounted socioeconomic factors. The study of the maps by means of spectral analysis allows finding patterns which reinforce over time, in such a manner that spatial frequencies can be determined whose weight increases up so granting surface evolution estimation.HighlightsThe regressions can be considered as a way to quantifying the population{\textquoteright}s distributionSlopes correlate well with commercial primary energy increments to a 0.9 coefficientThis result couples demography to energy and posits the emergence of self-orderOur model{\textquoteright}s unexplained deviations show continuity in spaceThe topography of the maps has been typified through the methodology exposed herein}, URL = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/03/31/046557}, eprint = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/03/31/046557.full.pdf}, journal = {bioRxiv} }