Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
world environmental health by CO, CO
2
, SO
2
, NO
x
effluent gas emissions,
and global warming. Achieving solutions to environmental problems that
we face today requires long-term potential actions for sustainable devel-
opment. Enhanced lifestyle and energy demand rise together where the
wealthy industrialised economies, which contain 25% of the world's popu-
lation, consume 75% of the world's energy supply [6]. The world's energy
consumption in 2011 was 14,092 Mtoe; about 30 Giga metric tons of CO
2
emissions were released into the atmosphere to meet this energy demand [5].
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy demand have risen high on
the global environmental agenda—particularly with the Kyoto Protocol
and other related global agreements. Consequently, an urgent need for the
incorporation of energy efficiency issues to be included in urban planning
and construction has risen [7]. Currently, it is the pursuit of more economic
growth that guides development, especially in cities. However, there is a
rising demand for an alternate view of development—one that provides a
better quality of life and, at the same time, one that works within the con-
straints of limited available resources, especially energy. This chapter will
review the current understanding of what comprises the notion of quality
of life and its relation to sustainable development. Furthermore, this chapter
investigates a number of the available indices used to measure quality of life
and sustainable development. It reviews the different indicators for energy
efficiency at the macrolevel and at the microlevel.
1.3 Quality of Life as an Indicator for Human Progress
Quality of life has been the domain of development discourse for the past
decade. It has been widely recognised that measuring progress in terms of
gross domestic product (GDP) is not sufficient [8-10]. This chapter attempts
to examine the concept of quality of life with respect to other related concepts
such as standard of living, cost of living and life satisfaction. In the quest to
rate cities and countries according to their quality of life, numerous attempts
by various organisations can be found. However, Cummins [11] states,
'The quality of life construct has a complex composition, so it is perhaps
not surprising that there is neither agreed definition nor a standard form of
measurement'.
Consequently, numerous debates exist regarding quantifying quality of
life, such as those concerning what aspects should be measured, the relative
weight of different aspects [12], the average versus real citizen's quality of life
and objective versus subjective indicators. Khalil reviewed the efforts of dif-
ferent organisations to address the issue. She analysed the different aspects
and relative weights used by these organisations, thus revealing multiple
facets of the concept of quality of life [13].
