The contribution of bioclimatic architecture in the improvement of outdoor urban spaces - Solar Energy Sciences and Engineering Applications - page 623

The contribution of bioclimatic
architecture in the improvement
of outdoor urban spaces
Konstantina Vasilakopoulou 1 , 2 , Dionysia Kolokotsa 2 &
Mattheos Santamouris 1
1 Group Building Environmental Studies, Physics Department, University of Athens,
Athens, Greece
2 Environmental Engineering Department,Technical University of Crete, GR 73100,
Crete, Greece
19.1 INTRODUCTION
Cities are increasingly expanding their boundaries and populations and, as stated,
“from the climatological point of view, human history is defined as the history of urban-
ization'' (Nations HABITAT, 2011; The State of the World Cities , 2001). Increased
industrialization and urbanization in recent years have dramatically affected the num-
ber of urban buildings, with major effects on the environmental quality of the urban
environment.
Urbanization leads to a very high increase in energy use. A recent analysis showed
that a 1% increase in per capita gross national product (GNP) leads to an almost
equal (1.03%) increase in energy consumption. However, as reported, an increase in
the urban population of 1% increases energy consumption by 2.2%; i.e. the rate of
change in energy use is twice the rate of change in urbanization (Santamouris, 2012;
The State of the World Cities , 2001).
Overconsumption of resources, mainly energy (which is associated with increased
air pollution from motor vehicles, increases the ambient temperature because of
the positive heat balance in cities, heat island (see below), noise pollution and
solid waste management) is one of the more important environmental problems in
urban areas of developed countries. In parallel, poverty, increasing unemployment,
environmental degradation, lack of urban services, overburdening of existing infras-
tructure and lack of access to land, finance and adequate shelter are among the most
important environmental, social and economic problems in cities of less developed
countries.
Achieving sustainability in the urban environment is a compromise of different
parameters and involves appropriate actions for urban management, policy integration
towards a holistic planning approach, ecosystem thinking and strong cooperation and
partnership between the different actors.
An increase in energy efficiency and in the use of renewable resources to supply
cities, improvement of the urban thermal microclimate and adoption of sustainable
consumption policies seem to be the main tools to reduce energy consumption in cities
of the developed world.