Development and Validation of ICT for Energy Management: Building Capacities towards Smart Cities through Sustainable Resource Use

Abstract

A smart city uses information and communication technologies (ICT)to enhance the quality and performance of urban services and to reduce costsand resource consumption. Education with ICT strategies towards efficient useof resources, such as energy, will guide us on our journey towards the goal ofclimate change abatement and making cities smarter, since smart people makesmart cities. Youth of today are the driving force of tomorrow. Through them, wecan tap future generations, policies and development. This study involvesdesigning a capacity building program and administering it to the sample withthe goal of measuring the enhancement of knowledge and changing perceptionsregarding energy management and energy auditing skills, pre- and postintervention.Energy management was studied in terms of energy-relatedcarbon emissions, renewable energy, energy conservation practices, energyefficient appliances, and energy audit. The sample constitutes 470 students fromschools and colleges of selected universities in Delhi, India.The paper will discuss curriculum analysis, which was done to appraise theinclusion of information on energy management in school and college curricula,followed by pre-intervention outcomes with respect to the sample’s knowledge,perception and skills. The paper also discusses strategies used in designing andadministering the capacity building program. The program includes capacitybuildingaids blended with educational technology in an information-sharingmode of instruction. Interactive media such as technology based learning(mobile application, game), simulation exercises, multimedia, lectures and groupdiscussion is used.