1990

Lahti, Pekka

The research project "Energy Conservation in Urban Planning" belongs to the scientific-technical cooperation programme between Finland and Soviet Union.The project is one of the many cooperation subjects within the building construction sector.The work is conducted by the scientific-technical cooperation committee, its building group and town planing section.The previous projects in this section were dealing with such town planning aspects as nature and town scape.Ongoing research topic was selected in the beginning of 1980's after the world wide crises in energy sector.The cooperation consists of independent research activities conducted by the cooperation units in both countries, exchange of information and research results.Two symposiums has been arranged, the first one in Helsinki 1987 and the second one in Moscow in 1989.This report includes all the papers presented in the Moscow symposium.Both symposiums proved that the relationships between energy questions and urban planning has been a subject of relatively constant interest in research field, in spite of the fact that the popularity of the energy questions in general has decreased since the "energy crises" of 1970's. Some differences in research preferences between the countries exist as well. In Finland the specific interest has lied in creating an overall picture of energy economics in urban planning and in revealing the possibilities of energy conservation in urban planning.In Soviet Union the main interest has lied in energy economics of transportation sector and in theoretical models of energy economics.During the project an experimental evaluation model has been under development in Technical Research Centre of Finland, Laboratory of Urban Planning and Building Design.The model is designed for urban planners to estimate the energy consumption caused by different planning, land use or design solutions.The prototype of this model is now being implemented in real urban planning projects in Helsinki city.