BALANCING BUILT ENVIRONMENT: A HYBRID DESIGN APPROACH

4. CONCLUSION
Human activities like deforestation, over mining, industrialization, transportation, urbanization
etc. are highly responsible for carbon emission and aiding in the effects of climate change.
With rapid urbanization, the greenhouse gas emission is sky rocketing because of the outcome
of human activities involved in urbanization that provoke and promote global warming
significantly. Global warming results in climate change and its indicator like rise in temperature,
rise in sea level, excess flooding, drought, etc are nowhere behind the scene these days. The
effect of climate change has a negative impact on built environment resulting in demand of
high energy consumption in order to maintain thermal comfort of the occupants.
Simultaneously, the demand of thermal comfort brings along with it the exploitation of
resources which is followed by carbon emission contributing to global warming. To reduce this
effect of climate change on building and human comfort the need of hybrid design system is
the must. This system has potential to minimize energy consumption and reduce operating
cost without compromising indoor thermal comfort. Hybrid design system can be adopted from
designing phase to the retrofitting of the existing building either in materials or in technologies.
Passive design strategies require favorable conditions to perform better but the situation may
not be favorable all the times. So for the high efficiency performance it should be combined
with active design strategies.

In context of Nepal, the approaches has been started long ago as in Zero Energy House IOE,
but is has not been the issue of awareness among people. The reasons may be various as
knowledge and information gap, lack of awareness, lack of information of climate change
impacts and vulnerability at local level lack of affordable technology, financial constraints,
particularly those faced by the poor people. Still there are many potential strategies that can
be adopted in Nepal. So the more focus should be given in authority level for encouraging
people to adopt the strategies that would reduce in the impacts of climate change.

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