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| RICS report stresses on ensuring energy efficiency while upgrading informal settlements in India |
| Announcement / Economy Jan 22, 2010, 18:45 IST |
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Also, states that although energy consumption in India is below the world average, it still lacks implementation of effective energy efficiency measures in buildings here, resulting in significant energy wastage.
RICS releases the research report titled ‘The energy efficiency impacts of upgrading informal settlements in developing countries: An exploration of urban areas in India’.
The report assesses the inter-play between two factors that rank among the most profound challenges that affect countries across the globe in the 21st century – rapid urbanisation and climate change. With huge projections of population growth in the developing world, it is important that this growth is managed in such a way that addresses energy issues as well as providing a decent level of housing.
The research explores the actual and potential energy impacts of policy measures to formalise informal settlements in the developing world. The contention being that, while such policies could deliver substantial social benefits, it may well come at the expense of increased energy use – it may well be that the urban structure and fabric of informal settlements meant that they had relatively low energy requirements.
Shri Deepak Gupta, secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, in his foreword to the report agrees with the observations of the study while encouraging institutional cooperation to properly integrate land use and the energy policies.
This research is based on an in-depth study of Sonipat and involved a detailed energy audit of housing development in both informal and formal settlements. It examines the influence of urban form characteristics on energy use in buildings in both the planned and unplanned neighbourhoods. Based on a detailed survey of 240 buildings in each of the two study areas (representing about 24% of the total buildings), key characteristics such as orientation, street width, opening size, height and length to breadth ratio have been studied. With the Sonipat case-study as a background, the report tries to elucidate what can be done to make the transition and upgrade unplanned settlements to more formal and planned communities as energy-efficient as possible.
The report recommends various measures such as fiscal policies, new sustainable technologies, educational awareness and regulation are important ways of tackling the environmental impacts resulting from mobility and emissions from buildings.
Authors Dr. Anil Kashyap, Prof. Jim Berry, Prof. Stanley McGreal and Prof. Alistair Adair have collectively also cited the impact of planning policies in reducing energy use, through the course of this study, which clearly demonstrates the important role of planners and the planning process in achieving sustainable development. In addition, they have emphasized that there is pressure to reduce the amount of energy that is used in buildings, which can be achieved through better design, orientation and planning of built space.
Recommendations put forward by the Report for ensuring energy-efficient built environment:
- Far more encouragement of community participation required in order to identify the needs and accordingly address the shortfall in the quality of facilities and level of services
- When developing new settlements to re-house the existing inhabitants of unplanned settlements, specific planning policies need to be introduced to reduce the travel distances, by better allocation of land uses spatially which promote lower use of motorised transport and incorporating building design aspects that promote the use of renewable sources of energy
- Mobility between areas of economic activity in neighbourhoods, another key dimension in energy consumption, could be addressed through planning policy and the innovative design of new formal neighbourhoods
- Transport management measures that can be used to support and enhance the effect of land use planning policies include parking charges, vehicle and fuel switching and a fuel surcharge, road user and congestion charges, public transport priority measures and restrictions in car access
- Energy-efficient neighbourhood design principles should be introduced at an early stage in the development process, which requires all professionals involved to adopt a more proactive strategy in the planning and design of new neighbourhoods, rather than adopting a short-term ad hoc approach
What is revealed by the work is that although land use planning is just one of a number of measures that might influence energy use, its contribution to reducing the need to travel is important. The impact of planning policies on reduction in energy use, identified in this study clearly demonstrates the key role that planners and the planning process can play in achieving sustainable development. It is therefore important that energy efficient neighbourhood design principles are integrated from the start of the development process.
On the release of the report, Mr. Sachin Sandhir, Managing Director and Country Head, RICS India, said, “This report is part of RICS’ global efforts to explore the contribution that the built environment profession can make in moving towards a low carbon society and economy. Given the enormous housing shortfall and the magnitude of infrastructural developments that are taking place in India, the anticipated growth in energy demand is projected to be high in the building construction sector. With the economy shifting towards services located in urban areas, it has been cited that approximately 40% of the country’s population will inhabit cities by 2020 as compared to the present 28%. A lot of the unplanned communities need to be upgraded to planned cities and this research explores the likely impact of such initiatives on energy efficiency. Considering the complexity of the issue, there is need for concerted action using a combination of economic and regulatory measures, skills training and awareness campaigns among the public as well as policy makers.”
The full report “THE ENERGY EFFICIENCY IMPACTS OF UPGRADING INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: AN EXPLORATION OF URBAN AREAS IN INDIA is available at:
http://www.rics.org/site/scripts/download_info.aspx?fileID=5652&categoryID=523
About the Study
The study was carried out by Anil Kashyap, Jim Berry, Stanley McGreal, Alastair Adair of University of Ulster, UK and Stephen Brown of RICS. The work was supported with a grant from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
About RICS
RICS is the world's leading self regulatory professional body for qualifications and standards land, property, construction and associated environment issues. In a world where more and more people, governments, banks and commercial organisations demand greater certainty of professional standards and ethics, attaining RICS status is the recognised mark of property professionalism.
Over 150 000 property professionals working in the major established and emerging economies of the world have already recognised the importance of securing RICS status by becoming members.
RICS is an independent professional body originally established in the UK by Royal Charter. Since 1868, RICS has been committed to setting and upholding the highest standards of excellence and integrity – providing impartial, authoritative advice on key issues affecting businesses and society. RICS is a regulator of both its individual members and firms enabling it to maintain the highest standards and providing the basis for unparalleled client confidence in the sector.
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