Smart Urban Form to Reduce the Green House Gas Emission

The urban forms of a city, which is defined as “the patterns and spatial arrangements of land use, transportation systems and urban design elements, layout of streets and buildings, as well as the internal configuration of settlements”, significantly determine the amount of energy used by that city. Cities that rely mostly on automobile with sprawling settlement configuration requires more energy and emits more Green House Gases (GHGs). The key to better urban forms having strategies that optimise four issues namely, density, land use mix, connectivity and accessibility. 

Density of an area can be measured by the ration of people and the land area (population density), the total floor area of buildings divided by the land area of the plot on which the buildings are built (floor area ratio) or the number of dwelling units in any given area (residential density).  Land use mix is the diversity of uses at given scale, which can be measured with the ratio of jobs to residents, the variety of mixture of amenities & activities or the proportion of retail and housing. Higher density area with great land use mix promotes the reduction of GHG as it reduces the average travel distance and promote less energy intensive transport such as walking and public transport.

Connectivity is the design and density of the street such the proportion, block size, intersections per road kilometre, and minimum percentage of land for streets. Better connectivity often refers to good walkability of the area which has several benefits such as improve public health by inducing physical activities and more vibrant/liveable environment. 

Lastly, accessibility is the combination of proximity of travel time between different use or activities in the area. High accessibility of jobs, housing and recreation minimizes the need for vehicular transport, reduces travel times and encourages the use of alternative (and climate-friendly) modes such as walking and cycling.

Reference:

Urban Planning Law for Climate Smart Cities: The Urban Law Module of the Law and Climate Change Toolkit by UN Habitat

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