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EnvironmentalUrbanDesign
DanaRaydanandKoenSteemers

Scopeofthechapter
This chapter describes the wider context of urban
environmental design issues, and outlines the existing
relatedknowledge,researchandexperience.Theempha
sisison thelargerscaleurbancontext,withparticular
referencetovernacularortraditionalexamplesexperi
encesandissuesraisedbyrecenturbandesignpractice
andareviewofthecurrenttechnicalandsocialaspects
thatarerelatedtourbanenvironmentalissues.

Learningobjectives
Whenyoucompletethestudyofthechapter,youwill:

understandthehistorical,technicalandsocialcontext
ofenergyefficienturbanbuildingdesign
becomeaware ofthe wider sphere related to this
work.

Keywords
Keywordsinclude:

vernacularurbanplanning
urbanmicroclimate
urbanenergy
urbandesignpractice.

Introduction:Urbanenvironmental
factstoday
Manystudiesexaminetheenvironmentalproblemsthat
citiessufferfromandhowthesecontributetothedegra
dation of the global environment. The purpose of this

chapterisnottodiscusssuchstudies.Instead,itisto
establishageneralbackgroundandintroductionforthis
handbook,tosetitincontextandtoprovideareviewof
environmentalandenergyresearchwithrespecttourban
buildingprojects.
Thestructureofthischapterisbroadlythatitstarts,
after this introduction, with an overview of vernacular
urbanplanning,followedbyaseriesofsectionsthatfocus
oncurrentresearchintourbanclimatology,energyuse,
renewableenergyandenvironmentalpotentialrelatedto
buildingform.Thefinalsectionraisesissuesrelatedto
urbanplanning,suchasamenity,equityandaesthetics,in
thecontextofenergyefficienturbandesign.
By1980,ithadbeenestimatedthatthetotalareaof
theEarththathadbeenconvertedtourbanlandusewas
approximately1
106 squarekilometres(0.2percentof
theEarthstotalarea),withanestimatedrateofchange
of2 104 squarekilometresperyear(4
103 percent
peryear)(Oke,1988).Accordingto1991statistics,45
percentoftheworldspopulationislivingincities,a
proportionthatisrisingattherateof3percentperyear
(Sadik,1991).TheBrundtlandReportpredictedthatby
theyear2000,approximatelyhalfoftheworldspopula
tion would live in urban settlements (WCED, 1987),
compared with 10 per cent of the worlds population
livingincitiesandtownsatthestartofthe20thcentury
(UNCHS,1996).
Consequently,aconstantriseinurbanpopulationand
landconsumptionhasledtohighdemandsforenergyfor
lighting, heating, cooling and transport being concen
tratedincities.Recentstatisticsshowthat75percentof
pollutioniscausedbyurbanenvironmentsroughly45
percentfrombuildingsand30percentfromtransport
(Rogers,1995).Transportspecificallyisthecauseof20
per cent of carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions, the latter
constitutinghalfofthetotaleffectofglobalwarming(see
Figure1.1)(H.BartoninBreheny,1992).