Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
10
Future Pros
pects
10.1 Continuous Urbanisation and Climate Change
Climate change is the current focus of urban debates because it is becoming
a reality and not just anticipated at some future date. Urban areas are major
contributors to the phenomenon as well as victims of it. Major urbanisation
activities take place in cities of the developing world, where informalisation
is synonymous with urbanisation.
This current process of urbanisation is seen by many scientists as one
of the reasons for climate change; urban areas are where most of the CO
2
emissions from the built environment are produced and where the great-
est consumers live, resulting in very high ecological footprints. The recent
report,
Working Group I Contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report:
Climate Change 2013
, states that 'It is extremely likely that human influence
has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th
century' [1]. Of course, cities are suffering to different extents from the con-
sequences of climate change, whether from unprecedented heat waves, cold
weather, storms, tsunamis and so on. Thus, the issue of investigating the
mutual relationship between cities and climate change becomes more vital.
It is widely known that energy use is the major contributor to climate
change. Cities are the major consumers of energy, which makes the issue of
energy efficiency vital to limiting, if not reversing, the effects of climate
change.
10.2 Energy Efficiency and Urban Expansion
Currently, urban expansion takes one of three forms: new cities being built,
cites expanding through new suburbs or cities growing through informal
expansion. All these forms pose a great threat to the city in the urban cen-
tury. However, they require different approaches as to whether to confine
or to improve their use of different resources, with energy as the prime
resource. There is a need for a shift away from the car-based urban planning
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