Insecure and informal access to energy impacts on all aspects of life for poor communities living in sub-standard housing in the global South. Access to affordable, reliable and safe forms of energy services has particularly profound effects on health and economic opportunities. However, the ways in which these communities’ access and use energy in their day-to-day lives are poorly understood.
As data-driven approaches to energy planning, such as Urban Building Energy Models (UBEMs), gain increasing importance as planning tools, this lack of understanding risks further marginalising the most vulnerable communities as their needs are either entirely overlooked or planned solutions fail to address their needs.
Aim
The project foresees and explains through the four largely sequential Work Packages (WPs)
Methodology
The project is fundamentally interdisciplinary and its participatory nature and the research process followed is itself an impact strategy that provides opportunities for non-academic research users – to state agencies and infrastructure utilities – to question assumptions on the access and consumption of energy and inform the design and application of grounded energy modelling.
Above figure illustrates the knowledge flows through which each of the participants in GEMDev contributes their specific expertise to build capacity and in turn benefits from the expertise of the partners as part of a process of mutual learning and support.
Expected Outcomes & Deliverables
Partners
Click to view Brochure – Grounded Energy Modelling for Equitable Urban Planning Development in the Global South