Energy implications of urban transformation into intermediate cities: Case of Cuenca-Ecuador

The worldwide demographic increase has determinantly impacted the transformation of cities in the last century. Several countries have already experienced these changes decades ago, and therefore, they have developed different urban models focused on a balance of urban and energy dynamics. The countries of Latin America, such as Ecuador and their intermediate cities, have lived this growth exponentially two decades ago and now begin to feel the impacts that these changes have generated. Cuenca, the most populous Andean city in the country, has had a 50% growth from its territory since 2010, causing the significant loss of its green belt, increase in mobility, spatial segregation, and of course the creation of new urban and edilicios models created without much less sustainable comprehensive planning that they have had an increase in the energy consumption of buildings and therefore of the city.