Top 5 Urban Problems related to Energy

Written on June 27, 2008 by admin

Urban areas being the centers trade, industry, education, business, science and technology are drawing large populations from rural areas for earning there livelihood and better life. The world over, estimated 45% of the people lived in rural areas in 2001. the level of energy consumption is higher in urban areas than in the rural areas. The various factors responsible for higher energy consumption in urban areas are given below:

1. Temperature fluctuations are more in the houses made of concrete, steel and glass in these days as compared to the wood and brick houses of past that required very little temperature adjustments.
2. The problem of smoke in apartment blocks replaced charcoal by kerosene fuel. Further in 20th century this changed to electricity and ultimately to natural gas in most parts of urban India.
3. Cites in hot climates require energy for cooling. This changed the early system of fans into coolers and then air conditioning, consuming more energy. The glass buildings in our cities tapped more heat due to green house effect, further increasing the energy needs.
4. High rise buildings in urban centers also depend on energy to operate lefts and a large number of lights.
5. The transport system in urban centers needs more energy which mainly comes from fossil fuels. Most people use their own transport rather public transport. This further adds to the energy consumption.

All the factors mentioned above lead to enormous consumption of energy in urban areas. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop an efficient public awareness program which guide people to use public transport system and energy efficient materials like fly ash.

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