Relevance: GS-3: Conservation, Environmental Pollution and Degradation, Environmental Impact Assessment, Disaster and Disaster Management.

Key Phrases: smart urban planning, unplanned urbanisation, mega cities, compact and climate-resilient centres, strategic plans, local area plans, local challenges

CONTEXT:

• The IPCC’s latest report shows how smart urban planning can mitigate the effects of climate change.
• By the time India turns 100, nearly half the population will be living in urban areas, making it imperative to not only nurture India’s mega cities but also facilitate tier-2 and tier-3 cities to gear up for the future.
• India is witnessing one of the largest urban growth spurts in history. However, three-quarters of the infrastructure that will exist in cities by 2050 is yet to be built. This presents Indian cities with an unprecedented opportunity to look at urban planning and development through a long-term strategic lens to enable economic, environment and social impact.
• Unplanned development leads to negative externalities such as air and water pollution, climate change, flooding, and extreme heat events also impinge on the economic value of urban infrastructure.
• If cities are developed as compact and climate-resilient centres, then infrastructure investments can produce more economic gain over time with minimal climate impact whilst ensuring equitable growth.

ISSUES WITH URBAN PLANNING IN INDIA

• Colonial era acts: Town and country planning acts in India have largely remained unchanged over the past 50 years, relying on techniques set up by the British.
• Regulatory control: Cities still create land use and regulatory control-based master plans which, on their own, are ineffective in planning and managing cities.
• Homogenous division of cities: Such division into various homogeneous zones such as residential, commercial and industrial despite many changes brought about by modernisation. This is done to prevent mixing of incompatible uses and to avoid economic and social integration.
• Lack of targeted development: India’s hierarchical system of cities — from mega cities which are the drivers of innovation and economic growth to smaller towns which support local and regional economies and ensure linkages to the rural hinterlands — requires targeted economic development planning and positive climate action.
• Delays in master plans: Master plans face prolonged delays in preparation, sanctioning and implementation. They lack the mandate for integration with other sectoral infrastructure.
• Lack of Inter-agency negotiations: These remain out of the scope of the master planning process. They tend to take a static, broad-brush approach to cities that have dynamic fine-grained structures and local specificities. In most cases, they end up having a low implementation rate.

WAYS OF EFFECTIVE URBAN PLANNING

• Strategic plans: Globally, cities are moving to the practice of developing strategic plans and projects along with local area plans.
• Strategic projects: The ones that have the potential to trigger growth in the region, to achieve the vision, are identified through a negotiated process. The projects are designed and developed in the context of land that can be made available and capital resources that can be raised.
• Master plans: Such plans are imperative for developing a shared vision and stating desired long-term outcomes as a regulatory control tool. Strategic plans should be developed every five years to increase a city’s competitiveness and help it achieve its strategic goals with respect to sustainability and economic development by identifying key projects to be implemented.
• Local area plans: These should be developed to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of citizens through public participation, contextualising local challenges, needs and ambitions, while supporting the overall objectives of the master plan
• Spatialised data: Cities should also aim to mainstream the use of spatialised social, economic, and environmental data to create robust links across the urban- rural continuum.
• Urban design and planning-especially in developing regions, needs to focus on dynamic, integrated, responsive, and transparent characteristics for its cities. In other words, urban design and planning needs to focus on the following characteristics:
  1. Dynamic with the use of ICT tools in data collection, analysis, and simulation.
  2. Responsive to its citizens with participatory tools, a bottom-up planning approach and capacity building of civic authorities and users.
  3. Transparent with the use of real-time data in government institutions; as well as, transparent to its citizens with open data policies and strategies.
  4. Its systems integrated, using a common data architecture over a comprehensive planning platform.

PROBLEMS FACED BY INDIAN CITIES DUE TO UNPLANNED URBANISATION

1. Urban sprawl: or real expansion of the cities, both in population and geographical area, of rapidly growing cities. In most cities the economic base is incapable of dealing with the problems created by their excessive size due to massive immigration from rural areas as well as from small towns into big cities
2. Overcrowding: which is a logical consequence of over-population in urban areas creating burden on limited resources.
3. Housing: The growing cost of houses comparison to the income of the urban middle class has made it impossible for majority of lower income groups and is residing in congested accommodation and many of those are devoid of proper ventilation, lighting, water supply, sewage system, etc.
4. The United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (UNCHS) introduced the concept of “Housing Poverty” which includes “Individuals and households who lack safe, secure and healthy shelter, with basic infrastructure such as piped water and adequate provision for sanitation, drainage and the removal of household waste”.
5. Sanitation: The poor sanitation condition is another gloomy feature in urban areas and particularly in slums and unauthorized colonies of urban areas These unsanitary conditions lead too many sanitation related diseases such as diahorrea and malaria. Unsafe garbage disposal is one of the critical problems in urban areas and garbage management always remained a major challenge.
6. Squatter Settlements: No clear-cut distinction can be drawn between slums and squatter settlements in practice except that slum are relatively more stable and are in older, inner parts of cities compared to squatter settlements which are relatively temporary and are often scattered in all parts of the city, especially outer zones where urban areas merge with their rural hinterland.
7. Environmental concern: Vulnerability to risk posed by the increasing man-made and natural disasters. According to UNDP 70 % of Indian population is at risk to floods and 60% susceptible to earthquake.
8. Urban Crimes: the problem of crimes increases with the increase in urbanization. In fact, the increasing trend in urban crimes tends to disturb peace and tranquility of the cities and make them unsafe to live in particularly for the women.
9. Urban heat island effect: On account of concretisation of cities this effect is increasing the temperature of cities as compared to rural areas
10. Increase in the frequency of disasters on account of lack of proper planning like urban flooding.

Approaches for lessening and managing disaster risk in urban development include:

• Investment and public regulation, e.g., enforcing safety enhancing regulations including building codes and planning rules.
• Resilient infrastructure development, e.g., earthquake resistant infrastructure development.
• Adequate service provision, e.g., provision and maintenance of electricity, water supply, and drainage systems in urban environments can reduce flood risk, but also increases the vested interest in protecting assets.
• Risk transfer, e.g., a cross-subsidised insurance scheme which provides poor households with catastrophe insurance cover.
• Effective risk governance, e.g., integrating disaster risk reduction into city regulations, making it an integral part of local development.

CONCLUSION:

• Plans are about people and not just physical spaces. Building consensus around future growth and development, with a focus on climate action, economic and social integration, is crucial. Such a participatory process is what will help build a vibrant, inclusive and liveable urban India.

Source: Indian Express

Mains Question:

Q. Unplanned urbanisation in India is causing huge negative externalities to the climate, infrastructure as well as to the economy of developing countries. Smart urban planning can help mitigate the impacts of climate change taking place on account of unplanned urbanisation. Examine.