This document discusses ways to make cities more energy efficient through urban planning and design. It analyzes current patterns of high energy consumption in cities due to large size, long travel distances, and separation of land uses requiring motorized transportation. The document suggests shaping compact circular or linear city forms to reduce distances. It also recommends mixed land uses, decentralized planning, and prioritizing walking, cycling and public transit over private vehicles to limit energy use for transportation. Buildings should also be designed efficiently to conserve energy for functions like heating, cooling and lighting. Overall city planning must consider energy impacts and promote sustainable urban development.

1. PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE CITIES - SUGGESTIVE APPROACH FOR
EVOLVING ENERGY EFFICIENT DESIGN OF URBAN SETTLEMENTS
*Ar Jit Kumar Gupta
Abstract
Considering the limited availability of conventional sources of energy coupled with ever-
rising demand and spiraling market prices, issues related to energy consumption, energy
conservation and promoting non-conventional and alternate sources of energy have
assumed global concerns. However, these concerns have largely remained focused in the
area of buildings, industry, lighting and vehicles. Not much research has gone in the
context of Cities and Towns.
With rapid industrialization, Urbanization, Globalization and concentration of large
population in urban centers, cities and towns are fast emerging as centers of large
consumers of energy. Accordingly, paper objectively and critically looks at the existing
pattern of energy consumption in urban centres in day to day operations and for meeting
the basic human needs of living, working, care of body & spirit and circulation. It also
looks at the manner in which existing patterns of urban growth and development has
adversely impacted and distorted the energy consumption by the urban centers.
In search of various options and possible solutions to make cities and towns highly
energy efficient, paper looks at the need and importance of ; Redefining the role of
shapes and sizes of the cities; Rationalizing mechanism of the land use planning and inter
and intra-city transportation; Promoting pedestrianisation; Greening cities; Redefining the
local planning process and designing of buildings for making cities sustainable.
Using effectively Information Technology (IT) as a tool and as an integral part of city
planning, development and management process are specifically highlighted for making
cities more energy efficient. Taking examples from Indian Cities, paper also suggests
research issues requiring further studies for creating sustainable human habitat.
Keywords: Land use planning, Pedestrianisation, IT, Greening city.
Introduction
Human Settlements are fast emerging as major entities consuming large resources of non-
renewable and conventional energy. Rapid increase in urban population coupled with in-
migration from rural hinterland is making cities grow larger and larger. Accordingly,
metropolises, megalopolises and ecu-monopolises are fast emerging on the urban
settlement scenario. Cities like Mumbai (158lacs). Kolkata (125 lacs) and Delhi (108
lacs) are assuming monstrous proportions and in this process are encompassing larger and
larger hinter-land within city limits. Bigger the city grows, larger becomes the distance

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between place of work and place of living; place of
recreation and place of living; place of living and
educational, medical and other facilities essential for
day to day living of human beings. These elongated
distances increase travel needs of the city and
accordingly more and more people are required to be
transported to their work centers, place of living, place
of recreation and place of amenities and services. Thus
transportation network comes under lot of pressure to
keep the city moving. In the process more and more
buses are pressed into service and more and more
private vehicles come on the roads for ferrying people
to their destinations. The means of transportation
require vital fossil fuel as source of energy to run the
vehicles and accordingly city starts consuming larger
and larger quantum of petroleum products. The
quantum of energy required by city to keep it going
depends upon its size. Consumption level of any city
has been found to be in direct co-relation with the size
of the city and grows geometrically beyond certain
limits of the city size
Human Settlements in general and urban areas in particular require lot of energy not only
for transporting people but also for construction of houses and other buildings, for
making living more comfortable by providing energy for cooling and heating of living
spaces in different seasons besides running industry and services which form the very
basis of urban structure. Very little attention has been paid to understand and analyse the
energy implications of urban development on large scale. Unfortunately the issue of
energy required to keep a city moving has never been addressed and focused by
professionals including Town Planners, Architects, Engineers and Administrators
involved in planning, designing, development and managing the urban centers.
With globalization, liberalization and opening up of Indian economy, urban centers in
general and metropolitan centers in particular are fast emerging as centers of investment,
generating enormous employment opportunities in the process. Thus not only more and
more people are being attracted but more and more vehicles are being inducted in urban
centers. With phenomenal increase in the income of urban areas, energy consumption
patterns of the cities have been greatly distorted. With limited resources of non-
renewable fossil fuel available, the increased consumption has led to considerable energy
crisis, hitting the national economies to a great extent. Greater demand of fossil fuel by
fast developing economies including India and China has also led to considerable
increase in the price of the oil fuelling inflationary forces in the process. Thus the issue
needs to be viewed both in the context of national economy and energy implications.
Looking objectively and critically, there appears to be ample opportunities for achieving

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economy in energy by evolving appropriate patterns of urban development as significant
as those achievable through the design of buildings.
Energy Consumption Patterns
Before looking at the options available for evolving energy efficient human settlements, I
think it will be essential to understand the consumption pattern of energy in the cities by
the end uses. Study in this regard has been made in U.S.A. and it has been observed that
25% of energy is used in transport (which is almost entirely accounted for by petroleum
products), 19% by the residences, commercial use consumes 15% (for servicing the
buildings) and rest 41% by the Industry. Of the energy used in buildings which is of the
order of 35%, energy used for heating space accounts for 18% followed by water heating
and air-conditioning. In U.K. the consumption patterns are similar with the difference
that energy consumed by transport is bit lower because of compact, small size of the U.K.
and lower car-man ratio. However, higher proportion of energy budget goes for space
heating. In U.K., Transport and buildings together consume around 60% of the energy
and offer opportunities where savings can be affected in the consumption patterns to
make cities more energy oriented.
In one of the Seminar on Global Climate Changes, the consumption pattern of energy in
1986-87 and 2004-05 in India were stated to be as under: -
Sr.No. Sector Energy Consumption in % age
(86-87) (2004-05)
1. Industry 57.7 51.1
2. Transport 19.4 22.7
3. Household 12.7 19.8
4. Agriculture 8.7 4.8
5. Services 1.5 1.6
From the above table it can be seen that transport and household together account for 1/3
of energy consumed in 1986-87 which has gone up to 42.5% indicating an increase of
30% during 1986-2004 period. Though the transport energy figures include not only
intra-city but also inter-city traffic but still it shows that transport sector is the second
major sector consumer of the fossil fuel. Industry consumes more than half of the
energy. Looking at the overall scenario there appears to be considerable scope of
affecting economy if our transportation requirements are rationalized, specially in the
context of the intra-city transport needs besides making industry more responsive to the
energy consumption pattern.
Shaping Cities

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As already stated that cities are essentially large consumers of energy, accordingly it
would be more important if energy as an issue is builtin as an integral part of the planning
process in order to ensure that all plans put in place for guiding the future growth and
development of the cities are based on considerations which minimize the energy
consumption. However, it has been observed that while evolving
perspective/development/master plans, planners normally do not study the energy
implication of the shape and size they adopt for the planning of cities. In fact if one looks
objectively at various geometric shapes, one can clearly foresee that certain shapes
involve longer road network, longer travel and consequently higher needs of mechanized
modes of travel leading to higher consumption of energy. Whereas on the contrary, there
are other shapes which make the city more compact and reduce distances between
various parts of the city, making them more energy efficient.
Grid iron pattern which is usually fancied by the planners have been found to be highly
energy inefficient due to invariably longer distances involved in reaching from one part
of the city to another part. Chandigarh is a classical example of city planning, which is
planned on a purely grid pattern involving sectors, where there is no possibility of
reducing distances between any given points. Further, grid iron pattern is not at all suited
for putting in place an efficient mass transportation system because of the existence of
numerous channels of communication running parallel to one another which encourages

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the use of individual vehicles. That is why Chandigarh today has the highest car-man
ratio. Thus grid iron pattern needs to be avoided in evolving city plans considering its
energy implications. In case if such a pattern is to be adopted then grid iron pattern
should be superimposed with diagonal roads or any other mechanism in order to cut
travel distance from one end to other. In the grid iron pattern, option should be to
invariably have a mixed land use planning rather than pure land use zoning in order to
ensure that each unit is self-sufficient and self-contained in terms of day to day
requirements of working , living and leisure of the residents, minimizing travel needs in
the process.
Circular shapes with radial roads offer much better option for evolving energy efficient
design of settlements because of the inherent property of a circle having maximum area
with minimum of circumference resulting in smaller distance and having the option of
rapid inter-connectivity between various parts of the city. Circular shapes are also known
for evolving highly energy efficient mass transportation system. Linear cities can be
another option for evolving energy efficient human settlements with all activities spread
on both sides of the central spine with distances limited to a scale which permits use of
non-motorized vehicles.
Size of the city has also considerable impact on the energy consumption. It has been
observed that cities with 3-5 lakh population are most compact and ideal in terms of
travel and sustainability. Small towns do not offer the advantage of the urban centers for
their economic operations whereas larger urban centers bring considerable complexities
in city operations. Thus metropolitisation of urban centers needs to be avoided in order to
achieve the objectives of energy efficient human settlements. In this regard the role of
small and medium towns would be crucial which are more humane and have lower
energy requirements because of shorter travel distances. Accordingly, development of
small and medium towns would require focused attention and development input in our
strategy of urban development for reducing the energy consumption levels in the cities.
The objective of shaping cities should be to evolve a system of city planning which aims
at creating cities having high degree of sustainability in terms of energy. The theme of
development should be small is beautiful and large is wasteful.
Land Use Planning
If master plan provides the basic frame work of the city, its operational mechanism is
largely governed by land use planning and zoning regulations. Land use planning has
thus considerable energy implication for the city and its residents in its operational
mechanism and accordingly needs to be critically worked out within the energy oriented
developmental frame work of the city. Accordingly, there is an urgent need to rationalise
our approach to the pattern of land use planning which has made the cities highly energy
inefficient. In the city planning process generally all the human needs of living, working,
care of body and spirits are put into water-tight compartments. Different areas in the city
are accordingly zoned for Industries, Housing, Working, Education, Commerce and

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Institutions with the result large scale movement is necessitated for having access to
different areas. Even shopping at the local level within a sector is generally placed in
the center necessitating the use of vehicles for even making daily purchase. This system
of pure zoning for determining land uses needs to be reviewed and where ever feasible
concept of ‘mixed land uses’ needs to be preferred as an option of city development.
Cities need to be segmented into smaller units which must be made self-sufficient to
reduce travel needs and to cut down the energy consumption levels. Decentralisation and
Mixed land uses should be the watchwords in the planning of human settlements if level
of energy consumption is to be lowered and patterns of energy consumption are to be
rationalized.
Transportation & Pedestrianisation
The invention of the wheel and the automobile has changed the total complexion of
human settlements. Ever since the onset of the Industrial revolution in the 18th Century,
the human settlements have witnessed enormous growth because of the PULL factor of
the cities in the shape of better employment opportunities, better economic opportunities,
access to better services, amenities infrastructures and recreation coupled with PUSH
factor of rural areas in the shape of less employment opportunities lack of services,
amenities etc. All these migrants made their make-shift residences near the
Industries/work centers causing congestion and decay of the central areas resulting in the
movement of rich people to the suburbs. This resulted in the growth and expansion of the
cities. More and more migrants also added to the fringe area development once land
within the city got scarce and expensive. This resulted in increasing distances within the
city. The transportation requirements accordingly increased. In fact stage has now
reached where the total economy, efficiency and functioning of a city is largely governed
by the efficiency of its transportation system. If Mumbai is holding on, it is because its
mass transportation system in the city is very effective and efficient. However, Kolkata
and Delhi are not very fortunate. The major problem in transportation is the conflict
between public and private vehicles. The private transport i.e. Car/Scooter/Jeep etc. are
very inefficient though very convenient. They are highly inefficient so far as energy
consumption is concerned. They have a very poor load factor and highly inefficient
engine, which ultimately converts only 10 -15% of the total energy into the Kinetic
motion and rest 85-90%, goes waste. Thus private vehicles consume large amount of
energy and accordingly, focused efforts are required to rationalize the public transport
system and make it more effective & efficient if energy consumption pattern of the cities
are to be much changed. We have to ensure transfer of people from private to public
transport system so as to minimise use of private vehicles. Such a system would reduce
traffic on the roads, make movement easier, consumption of fossil fuel lower, making
cities cleaner in the process due to reduced pollution. Efforts needs to be made to use
solar battery/CNG operated buses on shorter and congested routes to further improve the
quality of life and to reduce the energy consumption.

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Mechanisms of Decentralisation and
Mixed land uses can be used
effectively to reduce the distances
between different human functions in
order to make cities easily traversable.
People should be encouraged to walk
down to the place of work, recreation
etc. by creating a well planned
network of walkways. Over a distance
of 3-5 Kms people should be
encouraged to use cycles by using
cycles tracks which are created as
integral part of city transportation
network. In the planning of
Chandigarh, a network of Cycle-tracks
was created for catering to the
majority of cyclists of the city and one
such Cycle-way was to run through the
Leisure Valley, but due to non-
realisation of the same the city has started reeling under the pressure of mobikes and two
wheelers mechanically powered vehicles creating lot of traffic as well as environmental
problems. Example of China can be followed in large cities by creating exclusive
Express Cycle ways for the cyclists where only cyclists are allowed to operate with
considerable speed even at peak hours of the day. These express ways have helped in
diverting large number of people from motorized to non-motorized means of transport
making the congested areas very clean and city highly energy efficient in the process.
Thus in the city planning, order of priority in preference for movement should be
Pedestrians, Cyclists and public transport. Individual mechanised vehicles should be
discouraged in the larger interest of community, city and nation. Transportation Plan
of Chandigarh-7Vs

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Plan of a Typical Residential Sector of Chandigarh
No energy efficient city should be without a bicycle plan. The bicycle is the most
economical and most energy efficient form of human transportation ever invented.
Cycling as a mode of transportation has played an important role even in societies with
high income levels. Cycling accounts for 20% of passenger trips in Basel, 25% in
Tokyo; 50% in Groingen, Netherland and upto 77% in such Chinese cities as Tianjik
and Shenyang.
In order to minimize the distances within the cities, concept of ‘Low Rise High Density’
settlements also need to be given a thought. Bigger plots, haphazard and ribbon
developments in and around the cities are making Indian cities highly energy in-efficient
because of greater length of roads, services and trip lengths. For limiting size of city and
making it more energy efficient, it would be important to have a re-look at the existing
density patterns, population distribution, size of plots, quantum of open spaces including
their placing, norms for covered area, FAR and zoning regulations in order to ensure that
available land within the city is put to optimum use and cities are compact enough to
have considerable lower energy implications. In fact energy as an issue has to be built in
all the mechanisms controlling, regulating and impacting city, its growth development,
management and its operation on day to day basis.
Buildings

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Salient Features of an Energy Efficient Building
The growth of building industry in India is placed at 9.2% as against global average of
5.2%. The annual investment in the building industry which is currently at the level of
Rs. 50 billion, is to grow to Rs. 160 billion by 2012. Despite huge investment, very little
focus is being given to the adverse impact on the environment caused by rapid and
uncontrolled growth of building industry. The impact is likely to much more pronounced
in the case of India because of high growth rate and lack of control over the use of
materials and technology. Looking at the high degree of energy consumption, which is
presently placed at 300 Kwh for ever square meter on annual basis, there appears to be
enough options to bring it to realistic level of 100 Kwh with known concepts of energy
efficient technologies, adopting integrated approach to creating built environment, retro-
fitting of existing buildings and designing green buildings.
Considering the fact that
Building globally use over
40% of world’s total
energy, consume 30% of
raw materials, 25% of
timber harvested, 16% of
fresh water withdrawal and
are responsible for 35% of
the world’s CO2 emission,
40% of municipal solid
waste, 50% of ozone
depleting CFC besides
making 30% of residents
having sick building
syndrome. criticality of
buildings and their role in
minimizing energy
consumption and promoting
sustainability of human habitat assumes importance, Looking at the high degree of
energy consumption, built environment offers enormous opportunities and options in
scaling down the energy consumption. Buildings as they are designed, constructed and
used have enormous energy implications. With number of people and institutions rushing
towards urban centers, energy requirements of cities due to buildings is going to rise
sharply in future. Thus built environment is another sector which would require close
scrutiny and monitoring for effecting overall economy in the levels of energy
consumption. Experience has shown that buildings can be designed to meet the
occupant’s needs for thermal comfort at reduced level of energy consumption by
adopting an integrated approach to building design. The integrated approach could
include shape and size of the building, built form, surface to volume ratio, building
efficiency, ratio between length and depth of the building, using simple techniques of
building structure, efficient structural design, principles of solar passive techniques in

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building design, using energy efficient equipment, control and operation strategies for
lighting, heating, ventilation etc. using solar energy for meeting the energy needs of
buildings, reduced use of transportation energy, replacing energy intensive materials with
low energy components etc.
Orientation is the single most important factor which needs to be effectively used in all
buildings designs in order to evolve energy efficient building design by making use of
solar radiation and the wind. However, requirements of building design would vary from
region to region, state to state and within regions and states. Accordingly, buildings with
regard to sun and wind will have to be oriented differently in different regions. In order to
ensure that buildings make best use of solar and wind energy, it would be essential that
majority of buildings would have the site advantage where such buildings are to be
constructed. Accordingly, in this context town planners have important role cast for
themselves for ensuring that while preparing the layout plan of the area, due
consideration to orientation is given so that maximum number of plots have the
advantage of having best orientation. Once this is ensured at the planning level, it would
be much easier for the Architects to evolve a design which would be energy efficient.
Further, the planners should ensure that ratio of plot width and depth is fixed in such a
manner that the entire depth of built up area allowed on a plot should have access to
natural light during the day, minimizing the requirement of artificial lighting. This would
be particularly important in case of row housing where plots have the option to draw light
from front and the rear only.
In the context of evolving energy efficient buildings, role of building industry would be
critical in ensuring that only materials which have low energy implications in their
production are made available. Government on its part should encourage the industry
which produces energy efficient materials and discourages industries which are in the
area of energy intensive materials. Industry on its part must also be educated in the
context of constant evaluation and monitoring every material in terms of energy. Industry
should be encouraged to promote R & D in the area of building materials coupled with
support from BMPTC in order to ensure that energy requirement of each material is
thoroughly studied before the material is allowed to be marketed. Specification of all
building materials should also include the energy component in order to make Architects/
builders understand the energy implication of material being used.
Institute of Architects can join hand with Schools of Planning and Architecture, Builders
Associations etc. to create awareness about the energy implication of materials in
construction and operation. These institutions can evolve well defined manuals for the
professionals which must be followed by them while evolving layout plans, design of
buildings and their construction. In fact it must be made mandatory that each Architect
should also clearly specify, like structural safety, that the building is energy efficient, I.T.
companies can effectively contribute by evolving appropriate software for assessing the
energy implications of each building at the time of evolving design which architects can
effectively use in modulating/ amending their design in order to bring it within the

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specified norms of energy requirement of buildings. Specialized training programs needs
to be worked out by professional bodies in addition to running short term courses for
creating awareness and capacity building for ensuring that buildings have required input
of making them energy efficient.
High Rise Buildings
With rapid increase in increase in population,
massive urbanization coupled with limited
availability of land, Architects, Engineers &
Town Planners have to evolve strategies and
find optimum solutions for housing large
population/activities in minimum area with
appropriate quality of life. The ever expanding
cities have to be contained & travel within cities
needs to be reduced if cities have to be made
more humane, productive & efficient. Cities
have evolved and existed throughout the history
because they are the solution.
Despite distinct advantages, cities have
perpetuated worst kinds of living conditions.
Traffic and transportation have emerged as the
worst gifts provided by cities & towns. Majority
of population suffers from depravity and in basic and essential services. Shelter & travel
have emerged as the major threat to urban functioning. In the face of given scenario, how
we can make our cities/ towns more livable and efficient. Option perhaps lies in using the
potential of high rise buildings. Despite numerous limitations and disadvantages defined
above, high rise buildings offer numerous opportunities to address major urban maladies
by redefining cities and towns.
High rise buildings have enormous capacity to
create large volume of built space which can
house large number of people and activities
sparing large ground space for non -urban uses.
Cities can be made more compact reducing the
need of long travels. Housing large number of
people in few buildings can create well knit &
close communities. Providing work space &
amenities within/near the buildings would help in
reducing travel within the cities. Cities can be
pedestrianised, made more humane & eco-
friendly due to reduced travel. These high rise

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buildings can be connected by efficient means of mass transportation minimizing use of
personalized vehicles. Cities can look more green, open and eco-friendly. However, this
will require a new planning approach and paradigm shift on the part of Town Planners in
evolving strategies for planning and designing of cities, review existing planning tools
and principles, work with Architects & Engineers to create Cities which are more
sustainable.
Use of Information Technology
Information Technology has revolutionised the entire concept of human working, living
and even thinking. It has imparted high degree of operational efficiency to human beings.
Larger access to information and knowledge has opened new vistas in human growth and
development. Accordingly, rapid strides made in the field of I.T. are going to have far
reaching implications for future growth and development of the cities. City patterns
would reshape with relationship between place of work and place of living undergoing
qualitative changes. Many institutions would become obsolete with space requirements
undergoing substantial change. With I.T. taking the lead, most of the functions related to
working, shopping, health, recreation etc. could be performed at or near home with need
for travel drastically cut down. Most of the offices will become paperless and individual
would work at home. Children need not go to school with best of education being
accessed through computers. Extensive use of video-conferencing can cut down the need
to travel to larger cities for attending conferences, seminars, and workshops etc. New
housing complexes will have larger areas where housing, recreation, eating joints, health
clubs etc. provided within the complex. Houses will function as offices and schools. I.T.
would help in reducing traffic on the roads making cities cleaner, livable and energy
efficient in the process.
Information technology holds enormous promise but its use in urban planning,
development and management has to be geared up. It is important that I.T.
companies/experts should now start focusing on its use in urban planning by developing
appropriate softwares which would help in evolving energy efficient plans. Let urban
development be treated as a specialized and priority area by I.T. sector with immense
opportunities offered by the technology which then can be used for helping planners in
improving planning practices and planning techniques. Effectiveness and efficiency of
planning process and practice in promoting energy efficient settlements would be largely
contingent upon how planning profession meets the challenges of future urban
development by evolving new approaches and new strategies with the support of I.T. and
I.T. enabled services.
Greening City
Trees have enormous capacity in terms of modulating day time temperature, controlling
humidity and reducing heat emissions during night for balancing temperature. Trees have

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also critical role in management of water resources because of absorption of enormous
free water during precipitation and through release of water through evaporation during
dry period. A single tree is said to transpire 450 liters of moistures on daily basis which is
equivalent to 5 room sized air conditioners working for 19 hours. A mature Beech tree
has 80,000 leaves with each leave acting as a small organic filter. Canopy of a tree makes
up a surface area of 10-12 times greater than area of the ground they shade. Trees have
enormous capacity to improve the quality of environment. A tree can filter 20 kg. of SO2
a year without causing harm to itself and produces Oxygen sufficient to cater to the
needs of 10 people. A tree lined street has the capacity to filter up to 80% of pollutants,
reduce noise level up to 12 db and lowering of temperature up to 3.5%
r

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Greening the cities through extensive landscaping and massive plantation can be used
effectively for lowering the overall temperature and to bring the climate within the
comfort zone leading to considerable reduction in energy expenditure. Shading of
building through vegetation, using trees and shrubs as barriers to direct solar radiation
can help in reduction in energy demand. Accordingly, mechanism of greening buildings/
cities should be extensively used to make cities highly energy efficient.
Involving communities and NGOs
Involving communities and NGOs in promoting sustainable cities would be critical.
People have to be educated and made aware about their role and responsibility in
reducing consumption of energy in their day to day life. They have to be educated in
order to change their entire pattern of life from being consumers to producers. They have
to be moved away from the materialistic pattern of life so that wasteful activities are
minimized. Their pattern of life will have to be molded and reshaped in a manner which
minimize unnecessary travel. Use of energy intensive gadgets would also require
minimization. Unless people understand and appreciate their role and involvement in the
process, it will be difficult to achieve the desired objective of promoting sustainability.
Conclusion
The way cities use land, consume energy, east up resources and impact the quality of life
and environment, they are fast emerging as ecological disasters. Uncontrolled and
haphazard growth devours land, water and energy from the surrounding landscape. The
emerging contemporary patterns of settlements, have created cities which have high level

15. 15
of consumptions of energy due to auto dependence; high energy demand for buildings;
water pollution from excessive toxic run off; air pollution and other environmental effects
which considerably increase health risks.
For the exorbitant, energy and ecological prices, these patterns do not even buy an
appropriate quality of life. Cities of 21st century are totally divorced from aesthetic and
ecological experience of nature. People are made to spend number of hours for
commuting on daily basis. In the emerging social fabric, neighbours are not friends,
communities are not tied to place and millions too poor to afford basic amenities of life
to lead a dignified life. Invasion of automobiles has made cities highly noisy, energy
inefficient, congested and largely frustrating.
In addition to global macro ecological problems
caused by high level of energy consumption by
cities, current settlement patterns have created
host of local ecological problems. World life
habitats have become extinct; native species are
replaced by consumptive exotics; streams are
canalized, piped and buried; wetlands are filled
and aquifers depleted. Urban heat islands created
drive up energy use for cooling besides trapping
pollutants in the city. Downstream areas are
flooded and polluted largely by the
Radiant City
quick run off from large paved areas. All these problems, collectively and individually,
have the ability to adversely impact the local ecology. Accordingly, local ecological
systems are rapidly losing their ability to produce clean water, air and food and to
maintain rich variety of habitat. In short, they are fast losing their ability to sustain life.
Each of these environmental problems has their genesis in the design of cities, settlement
patterns and urban spatial fabric. Human habitat needs restructuring on priority so that we
live within the limits imposed by our life sustaining eco-systems and follow the basic
principles which promote the quality of life. To minimize the energy consumption levels
and the ecological disasters caused by todays grey cities, we have to change our
perceptions.. We have to learn to think ecologically to create green cities which are both
humane and sustainable besides least consumers of energy.
Author:
*Ar. Jit Kumar Gupta
Director
College of Architecture, I.E.T, Bhaddal
#344, Sec. 40-A, Chandigarh- 160036
Email : jit_kumar2000@yahoo.com