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Rapid urbanisation has led to increase in energy usage. Per capita energy consumption in urban areas is higher than in rural areas. Moreover, energy consumption levels are much higher in heavy industry, generally part of the formal fabric of cities; whereas micro-enterprises in informal elements have low to medium energy consumption levels.
Migration from villages to cities leads to the springing up of what can be termed as ‘informal settlements’—low cost, with little civic amenities, and often illegal. Such settlements create specific problems for the civic authorities. Higher than average incidence of wastes and odours in the settlements and surrounding areas, discontinuity of street structure resulting from many settlements situated in the way of planned roads; and overcrowding of urban services are a few of those. The Indian government has been quite concerned about the relocation of people from such settlements to formal, planned ones.
However, despite the many negatives of such settlements, their built form is such that they are actually highly energy efficient and provide easy access to local services. A report by Royal Instituition of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) titled ‘The Energy Efficiency Impacts of Upgrading Informal Settlements in Developing Countries’, shows how informal settlements are more energy efficient, and what kind of planning is required to retain energy efficiency when relocating people to formal ones.
Managing Director and Country Head, RICS India, Sachin Sandhir, points out the things to be kept in mind when planning for upgradation. “Informal settlement conversion is more than just eradicating shacks and illegal building construction,” he said, listing a few points to be considered in the construction of buildings.
“Buildings account for approximately 40 per cent of energy consumption globally so there is a greater need for them to become more environmentally focused and friendly. Buildings located on narrow streets which provide shading for other structures and thereby reducing the dependence on cooling and ventilation, are considered more viable. Larger detached buildings are more energy efficient when located on nine metre wide streets, while small to medium sized buildings are more efficient when located on streets 12 metres wide,” he said.
Opening areas in the facades of buildings consume significantly less energy, Sandhir explained. “However, like all other parameters this factor too will vary across building types. The energy saving potential of urban form design is an indication for land use planners to be more closely involved in the process of integrating present and future energy needs at the local and urban scale.”
When developing new settlements to re-house the residents of unplanned settlements, specific planning policies and innovative designs need to be introduced to reduce the travel distances, by better allocation of land uses spatially to promote lower use of motorised transport. Land use planning can make a significant contribution by cutting down the need to travel.
Transport management measures that can be used to enhance the effect of land use policies include vehicle and fuel switching, public transport priority measures and road user and congestion charges. A second level of policy intervention that is needed is the encouragement of community participation to identify the needs and address the shortfall in the quality of facilities and level of services.
