Energy Efficiency Assessment In Urban Scale; Case Study City Of Tehran (Tehran & Zahirabad Neighborhood)

Introduction: Based on current estimations of different organizations, half of the world’s population live in cities, and these cities are the main consumers of energy. Cities have grand contribution in energy production of the world (around %60 to %80) and they have such enormous contribution in the emission of CO2. Energy is at the heart of the most critical economic, environmental and developmental issues facing the world today. Energy is essential to the delivery of urban services, and its role can be consid-ered vital at many stagesin the urban design process. This research begins with the planning and layout of a new cityand goes through to the socioeconomic structure of the city and its activities and the choiceof energy carriers and technologies used to meet the city’s energy demands. In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in urban climate and energy issues. LiteratureReview:Based on theories and history of energy consumption levels in different countries and with the consideration of sustainable development in the world, protection of energy resources became important and along continuing years, different approaches like smart growth, compact development, etc. have been introduced which shows the importance of this issue. Urban planning and design determines a city’s spatial, physical and managerial structure and influences directly and indirectly the energy consumption. Energy modeling in city scale is an ideal tool for studying energy consumption and reducing production of greenhouse gases in urban planning level. Models of urban efficiency evaluation in city scale is based on building, transport, etc. criterions and their great potential for consuming energy and producing greenhouse gases, can be proper guidelines for reducing energy consumption and in-creasing energy efficiency (EE). With regards to population growth and rapid urbanization, It seems es-sential to evaluate energy consumption and for improving its efficiency with different strategies. With regards to these issues, EE, either for protection of energy resources and optimum utilization of them, or for opposition with climate change and their pollutions, are issues which have importance in both nation-al and international dimensions. So, many actions have been accomplished which concentrate on two main issues: sustainable development and opposition with climate change. There are few studies about these issues, for example World Bank has worked in a few case studies such as Gaziantep in Turkey.In Iran, also based on done census in recent years, we have evolved in ur-banization through the increase of city›s count and immigration of villagers. There is also limited case studies in Iran, about the energy efficiency assessment in small scales, such as the neighborhood and building. So, nowadays, necessity of energy efficiency evaluation is important because of irregular energy consumption through optimized actions of urban planning which can reduce a city’s dependence on fos-sil energies and reduce costs and release financial resources for improvement of city services and social-economic advantages. Methodology: The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between urban planning and energy efficiency, to present related approaches to this issue and to survey energy efficiency evaluation models with an emphasis to urban scale. Depending on the scale studied, models with different scales can be used to evaluate energy efficiency. Some models are used to study the energy efficiency in the scale of cities and others in lowers scales of a city’s divisions, such as districts and neighborhoods. Through studying EE models, we can identify their effective factors and existing barriers, as well as their performances. After considering the theoretical elements in evaluating the EE in city planning while fo-cusing on identifying different models and approaches to evaluate energy efficiency, two models in two levels have been chosen in this research: Firstly, TRACE model was chosen to evaluate the amount of energy consumption with different indices and criteria in the whole city of Tehran and the required sug-gestions were made for EE to be increased.TRACE is a decision-support system designed to help cities quickly identify and harness EE opportunities. It targets underperforming sectors, evaluates improvement and cost-saving potential,and helps prioritize actions for EE interventions. TRACE focuses on the munici-pal sectors with the highest energy use: passenger transport, municipal buildings, water and wastewater, public lighting and solid waste. Then, LEED model was chosen in the second level to evaluate energy efficiency more accurately in the districts of Tehran, and the sample neighborhood was Zahirabad in District 20 of Tehran which was studied with different indexes so that the EE in this area could be evaluated. The LEED is based on existing proven technology that drives market strength and credibility through the industry-wide development of LEED products. LEED is an initiative designed to actively promote the transformation of the mainstream towards more sustainable practices. Results:Results show that energy consumption evaluation can identify the High-power indicators and have an important role in reducing consuming energy of cities. In this study, in the initial level, Trace Model, based on comparison with other world cities, which has been included in presupposition of mod-el, and determination of their priority, building and transport indicators have been estimated as the most energy consumer parts of Tehran; And in the second level, in order to evaluate energy efficiency in neighborhood scale, has been done with LEED model which concentrates on most energy consuming indicators in first level -building and transport-. The score of neighborhood evaluation with LEED model is approximately acceptable based on this model and with regards to chosen criterions energy efficiency in neighborhood is in middle level and with changing certain situations we can increase EE in neighborhood. The survey of energy efficiency in one of the neighborhoods can provide a framework for evaluating other neighborhoods of Tehran in future studies and finally estimating EE in city level. Paying respect to time limitations, this neighborhood has been chosen just as a case, in order to use this model for other neighborhoods of Tehran and to recognize legal frameworks and development plans, policies and strate-gies for reducing energy consumption in different levels. Discussion and Conclusion: Research findings show that construction and transportation are the two most effective factors in the amount of energy consumption and efficiency. Resulting strategies from this study -based on tools and methods of energy efficiency evaluation- for reducing energy consumption and increasing energy efficiency include: promotion of mixed land-use, augmentation of density and compaction, development of public transportation, management and pricing parking, augmentation of pedestrian and bicycle accessibility and changing of energy consumption patterns at home, building and infrastructure parts, etc. Moreover, consideration of essentials in using reproducible energies in plan-ning can improve the utilization of these energies and increase energy efficiency. It ought to be said that in order to respond to the energy efficiency challenge in cities, it is important to choose a particular method with regards to native situations and city scale. With presenting proper strategies and changing in case studies, we can adjust energy consumption and go toward energy efficiency and a sustainable de-velopment. So, according to the results from analysis and proposed recommendations and strategies for improving energy efficiency in two scales, we can increase energy efficiency with setting policies and taking action.