Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
3
Energy-Efficient Urban Areas:
Theories an
d Green Rating Systems*
3.1 Introduction
Sustainability is the governing paradigm of the 21st century. It has been the
core of development debates for decades. However, expanding cities, espe-
cially in developing countries, are still lacking good guidance for coping
with this paradigm. In these countries, the brown agenda dominates urban
development; the green agenda is seen as a luxury and something to be
considered in future generations. However, the current debate of quality of
life (QOL) versus standard of living provides a strong base to support more
environmentally responsive urban development. There is a growing aware-
ness that providing a good QOL is a right of even the very vulnerable. This
shift in paradigm advocates a more holistic approach to urban development.
But question remains: What kind of urban planning theory or trend should
be advocated to ensure a more sustainable development?
Currently, sustainable development is measured using a number of indica-
tors and scales, of which ecological footprint and human development index
are of vital importance. Moreover, there is a growing body of indices to rate
urban agglomerations, whether on the macroscale of cities, such as the Green
City Index, Low Carbon City Index and Comprehensive Assessment System
for Building Environmental Efficiency (CASBEE) for cities, or the microscale
of neighbourhoods and urban areas, such as Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design (LEED) for neighbourhoods. These indices tend
to measure performance in a number of fields—namely energy and CO
2
,
land use, transport, waste, water, sanitation, air quality and environmental
governance.
Cities are planned, managed and then are rated. Most of the recommen-
dations and conclusion ratings fall within the field of urban management
and urban governance. If the city has good urban governance, it will most
likely be well managed. However, what about urban planning? Which trend
*
Most of this chapter is derived from Khalil [1].
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