  Ecosystems and other naturally resilient systems exhibit allometric scaling
in the distribution of sizes of their elements. In this paper we define an
allometry inspired scaling indicator for cities that is a first step towards
quantifying the resilience borne of a complex systems' hierarchical structural
composition. The scaling indicator is calculated using large census datasets
and is analogous to fractal dimension in spatial analysis. Lack of numerical
rigor and the resulting variation in scaling indicators -inherent in the use of
box counting mechanism for fractal dimension calculation for cities- has been
one of the hindrances in the adoption of fractal dimension as an urban
indicator of note. The intra-urban indicator of scaling in population density
distribution developed here is calculated for 58 US cities using a methodology
that produces replicable results, employing large census-block wise population
datasets from the 2010 US Census 2010 and the 2007 US Economic Census. We show
that rising disparity -as measured by the proposed indicator of population
density distribution in census blocks in metropolitan statistical areas (using
US Census 2010 data) adversely affects energy consumption efficiency and carbon
emissions in cities and leads to a higher urban carbon footprint. We then
define a planning plane as a visual and analytic tool for incorporation of
scaling indicator analysis into policy and decision-making.
