Enhancing the neighbourhood layouts to achieve energy efficient built environment

Abstract

The global concerns of climate change and upsurging energy demand coupled with rapid urbanization drive the need for energy optimization and designing efficient building footprints which otherwise are silent power uzzlers. In the face of the energy crisis, issues at the city scale have been addressed by India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions and Sustainable Development Goal - 11 in the recent past. Thus, the study aims to reduce the consumption of non-renewable resources at the grassroots level and design energy-efficient neighbourhoods retaining sustainability as an imperative factor. This quantitative-qualitative study bridges concepts of consumer behaviour, lifestyle adoption, built environment, and energy demand. Three different planned neighbourhood layouts like the Traditional model, Enclave model and Cluster housing are investigated in this research through changing urban form factors: aspect ratio, building density, street density and land use etc. It is found that these parameters have an important influence on reducing a building’s energy consumption. The research attempts to complete a systematic literature review where multiple factors as aforementioned are identified through various journals, research papers and dissertations. The neighbourhood layout details collected from the primary survey are then compared for three neighbourhoods and statistical analyses of correlation and regression are run on these data to prove, a similar kind of relation as seen from the literature exists between form factors and energy consumption. The study attempts to assess the current energy profiles by shadow analysis and calculating the Sky View Factor (SVF) of the selected neighbourhoods. The regression results help to find out which urban form variable has the highest influence on the consumption pattern and energy analysis indicates the least energy-efficient neighbourhood i.e. cluster housing. As a result of the analyses, the form factor that most influences energy consumption (green coverage) is selected to suggest improvements by scenario building of the cluster housing. The study aims to take forward the notion that shared open spaces, especially in cluster housings, highly impact the activity within the neighbourhood and in turn, the time Enhancing The Neighbourhood Plan Layouts to Achieve Energy Efficient Built Environment spent within the buildings and hence the energy consumed within. Therefore, the size, location and activities assigned in these open spaces of cluster neighbourhoods should be by keeping in mind the willingness of people to travel, safety and within walkable proximity. This study also seeks to keep residents and stakeholders at the core of the planning process and use participatory planning as a technique. This research makes a significant contribution to the reduction of building energy consumption from an urban planning perspective. Such suggestions can help to propose a prototype model guiding future urban planning work by improving the spatial layout, social and functional integration, and augmenting planning norms and regulations to form design standards Key terms: Neighbourhood, Plan Layout, Built Environment, Energy Demand, Energy Consumption Pattern.