Cities are known for their dualities and contradictions, positivity and negativities, inclusion and exclusion, poverty and prosperity, luxury housing and slums, planned and unplanned development, innovations and depravity, good and bad, pleasant and ugliness. All these contradictions are the outcome of the way we are planning, designing and managing cities. If cities are bringing prosperity, they are also creating global crisis. Majority of global ills of global warming, rising temperature, natural crisis is the outcome of how we are treating the cities. Cities are being conceived as anti-thesis to nature and accordingly they are creating crisis including crisis of very human existence. Cities need to be treated in a better and rational manner by planning and designing them in logical manner. Cities need to be looked as integral part of nature and not looked as a commodity for sale and making profit. Cities not to be treated as a market place where one hopes to earn money and generate wealth. They have to be looked as places for human living – giving human beings an environment, where they can lead happy and healthy life. Cities need to be planned with nature using natural resources. They need to be made more effective and efficient. Cities need to be made producers rather than consumers of natural and non-renewable resources. They need to be made more livable and supportive to human living and nature. Cities need respect and care. We need to heal its wounds. If cites continue to be treated like they are being treated now, they are going to become major source of impending crisis , making human living most challenging on this planet. Accordingly, we need to relook, review, redefine and revise our options of planning, travel and creating built environment.
Aspects of Urban resilience.
Presented as part of the Nature Addicts workshop, in the context of Eleusis Cultural Capital of Europe 2021 in Eleusis May 23, 2017
Strategies for Promoting Urban SustainabilityJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Presentation looks at the options of making urban areas more liveable, productive and sustainable. It includes the reduction of energy consumption through green buildings and green transport
Aspects of Urban resilience.
Presented as part of the Nature Addicts workshop, in the context of Eleusis Cultural Capital of Europe 2021 in Eleusis May 23, 2017
Strategies for Promoting Urban SustainabilityJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Presentation looks at the options of making urban areas more liveable, productive and sustainable. It includes the reduction of energy consumption through green buildings and green transport
The OECD Regional Sustainable Development Division is working on a project on Resilient Cities. This is the overview by Setsuko Saya, Head of Regional Sustainable Development, OECD.
www.oecd.org/regional/regional-policy/
Here is a PPT on Eco Green Cities. The fonts will change if u have only fonts of your pc. You can download.. If you have any queries send it to guthijp.reddy@gmail.com
Strategy and Options for Planning Inclusive CitiesJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Presentation looks at the context of inclusive cities, its relevance in the Indian context, problems faced by Indian cities and what are the options to make cities inclusive, and sustainable
Presentation on Resilient Cities made at the ICLEI conference on Resilient Cities 2015 held in Bonn, Germany, by Tadashi Matsumoto, Regional Development Policy Division, OECD.
www.oecd.org/gov/regional-policy/
Ms. Victoria Burrows, Project Manager, Advancing Net Zero
World GBC, gave presentation on Zero Carbon Buildings at 15th Green Building Congress 2017 event at Jaipur
Promoting Urban Environment Through Eco- CitiesJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Paper tries to define the role and importance of environmentally sustainable cities to promote urban environment , minimises carbon footprints and reduce global warmng
The OECD Regional Sustainable Development Division is working on a project on Resilient Cities. This is the overview by Setsuko Saya, Head of Regional Sustainable Development, OECD.
www.oecd.org/regional/regional-policy/
Here is a PPT on Eco Green Cities. The fonts will change if u have only fonts of your pc. You can download.. If you have any queries send it to guthijp.reddy@gmail.com
Strategy and Options for Planning Inclusive CitiesJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Presentation looks at the context of inclusive cities, its relevance in the Indian context, problems faced by Indian cities and what are the options to make cities inclusive, and sustainable
Presentation on Resilient Cities made at the ICLEI conference on Resilient Cities 2015 held in Bonn, Germany, by Tadashi Matsumoto, Regional Development Policy Division, OECD.
www.oecd.org/gov/regional-policy/
Ms. Victoria Burrows, Project Manager, Advancing Net Zero
World GBC, gave presentation on Zero Carbon Buildings at 15th Green Building Congress 2017 event at Jaipur
Promoting Urban Environment Through Eco- CitiesJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Paper tries to define the role and importance of environmentally sustainable cities to promote urban environment , minimises carbon footprints and reduce global warmng
Strategies for Promoting Urban SustainabilityJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Paper is an attempt to define agenda for planning sustainable cities using different options of planning, transportation, green buildings, ruralisation etc
HOW TO MAKE THE UTOPIA OF BUILDING GREEN AND SMART CITIES A REALITY IN ALL CO...Faga1939
This article aims to present how to make the utopia of building green and smart cities in all countries come true to eliminate the dystopia represented by increasingly degraded cities in the vast majority of countries in the world. Building green cities means making cities sustainable. Every city reaches the condition of smart city when its managers consider it as a system and make use of information technology in its planning and control process. Sustainable cities are cities that have an economic and social development policy compatible with the natural and built environment. Making a sustainable city is not an easy task, but it is not an impossible task either. The big challenge is to think about all the parts related to the construction of a city in a systemic way, encompassing economic, social and environmental aspects. Every city reaches the condition of smart city when its managers consider it as a system and make use of information technology in its planning and control process, counting on the effective support of its population. Information technology allows city managers to interact directly with their executing agencies and with the population and monitor what is happening in the city and how the city is evolving in real time. It can be said that most global environmental problems originate in cities, which makes it difficult for them to be sustainable without at the same time being smart cities. It is imperative, therefore, that cities are sustainable and intelligent.
Occupying merely 3% of global land resource and housing more than half of global population, cities are known to generate global prosperity besides consuming 70% of energy and 75% of global carbon footprints. Cities are also known to be major consumers of both manmade and natural resources besides generating large waste. Majority of global problems of climate change, global warming, rising temperature , flooding, disasters etc. can be attributed to the way cities are being treated , valued, planned and managed. If cities are the centres of all problems on this planet earth, surely they also have the solutions to overcome these problems. In order to make this world more sustainable, it will be critical to understand, appreciate, study and analyse the sources of the existing urban problems and then find options to overcome those problems. Considering the problem of energy, cities need to produce their own energy from the natural sources, rather than consuming black energy generated by thermal plants. In addition, cities need to be evaluated in terms of the activities which consume large energy. Focus should be to make those activities resource efficient. Travel, traffic and built environment are the major consumers of energy, they need to be reinvented and redefined to make them least consumers of energy. Cities need to look for green options of travel and creating built environment. Cities need to evolve their agenda for minimizing climate change. Reducing urban waste calls for adopting circular economy approach. Technology would need to be leveraged to make cities more resource/energy efficient. Large options are available on this planet earth which needs to be leveraged in a rational and realistic manner to make cities zero-carbon, in order to overcome the global problems revolving around sustainability, livability, quality of life, poverty and non-availability of basic human needs.
Preparing and empowering cities in the face of epidmics 19-JitKumarGupta1
Cities rattled by COVID-19 crisis, need to be made safe, resilient, inclusive and sustainable. Despite enormous damage to the fabric , structure, economy, employment, loss of human life etc., cities are known for their capacity to reduce the impact of future pandemics and become more equitable, healthy and environment- friendly.Studies made globally reveal that, existing dichotomy, contradictions and inequality, lack of access to basic services, poverty and overcrowded living conditions, have been largely responsible and destabilizing factors in increasing the scale and impact of COVID-19.‘Cities can help overcome development deficits; spearhead reforms to tackle poverty, strengthen social protection, restore public trust and reach people facing deprivation. New normal for urban planners/managers would be to make cities prioritizing health, housing; commitment to human rights involving; focus on policies to protect land rights, improve access to water, sanitation, public transport, electricity, health , education facilities; and ensuring inclusive digital connectivity. For empowerment, cities need to prepare detailed disaster mitigation plans at local level involving local communities and creating disaster preparedness centers at different levels for their effective management. Improving cities and making them more sustainable must involve; creating career/business opportunities; safe and affordable housing, building resilient societies; making investment in public transport to provide greater and unhindered access to safe, affordable, accessible and sustainable transport systems for all, improving road safety providing universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public spaces, including for women and children, older persons and persons with disabilities; and making urban planning Inclusive and sustainable. Sustainable development cannot be achieved without significantly transforming the way we build and manage our urban spaces.Each city/urban settlement remain unique, needs to develop, adapt and implement its own operational plans to effectively counter the natural/ manmade disasters.
Preparing and Empowering Cities in the face of Pandemics- Covid 19.JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Paper makes an attempt to understand the context and impact of Covid 19 on the urban settlements, people and communities in terms of operation, economy, mobility, healthcare etc. and tries to define the issue which needs to be addressed and options which need to be exercised in order to enable and empower cities to counter to the negative effect of all natural and manmade disasters to make them better places to live and work.
Promoting Sustainable cities- Suggestive Approach for Evolving Energy Efficie...JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Paper attempts to look at energy implications of the cities and tries to suggest measures to make them low energy settlements and zero carbon footprints
Policies and Planning for Making Cities Net Zero Carbon - Copy.docxJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Operational and development complexities of cities call for new state of art agenda to be defined for planning, development and management of cities in this era of globalisation and liberlisation of economies. Looking at the enormous population growth and large count of people marching and opting for cities, growth and development of urban areas is emerging as the major issue. Cities known for positivity and negativity can be major source of disasters- both physical, social and environmental. Cities will and are likely to pose major threat to global sustainability. For making planet earth more sustainable and livable ,planning , development and governance of the cities have to be redefined both by professionals, communities, people and parastatal agencies. Planning for sustainable cities must include and involve poor and meeting the basic human needs of living of the poorest of the poor. City planning, development, governance and mobility needs new definition.
Decarbonising Cities Through Green and Energy Efficient BuildingsJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Paper explains the context , need, role and importance of green built environmnet to make the planet earth sustainable and livable. It explains how green buildings hold the key to minimise global warming, climate change and reduce carbon footprints. Buildings also known to be large consumers of energy, resources and generators of waste and accordingly hold the key to sustainability, Paper also briefs the mechanism of planning and designing the green buildings by looking at the site, materials, technologies, climate and working with nature and using natural resources for evolving design solutions.
If cities have to be made more livable, sustainable, inclusive, effective, efficient , productive, consumers of least resources, generators of zero waste and promoters of environment and ecologies; then architects , planners and policy makers have to redefine their strategies of planning cities and designing buildings, failing which cities will become more of a liability rather than a valuable asset.
Paper is an attempt to look at the Indian urban settlements in terms of their planning, designing, travel, buildings etc, identify problems they have and options which can be leveraged to make them more effective, efficient, livable, productive and sustainable
Q1For this question, we will focus on a comparison and contrast.docxleonorepour284
Q1:
For this question, we will focus on a comparison and contrast of early American civilization creation stories, specifically the Aztec creation stories, with the European creation story from Christianity. What we want to compare are the ideas about the relationship between God and humanity as depicted through art. It's not necessary to retell the stories in this discussion. We will all have read the material. Focus on similarities and differences in the meaning of the stories. How does each civilization view the creator and creation? the roles of women? the relationship between humanity and the divine?
King James Bible, Genesis 1, 2
Q2:
Who was Guaman Poma and what relationship did he have with the Spanish Conquistadors who came to colonize the New World and rule over its peoples? What contribution has he made to modern discussions of freedom, liberty, and modern political and social organization? Do you think Guaman Poma's work supports or contradicts the idea that Europeans brought civilization and political organization to the Incas? What did Europeans bring?
Q3:
Discuss the three major West African Kingdoms of the Early Modern Period. Focus on the major forms of artistic expression of these kingdoms. What is the Griot tradition? How are literature, creative expression and history linked in the storytelling tradition of the Griot?
2 full pages
J u n e 2 0 1 3 U n i t e d N a t i o n s D e p a r t m e n t o f E c o n o m i c a n d S o c i a l A f f a i r s 1
The multiple challenges that cities face also represent a strategic opportunity to build sustainable cities
and reap the benefits of rapid urbanization. Urban de
velopment should be understood as a balanced and inclusive
development of four pillars: economic de ve lopment, social
development, environmental management and urban
governance. The enabling mechanisms include an integrated
investment on green industrial transformation, improved
public infrastructure, access to and efficient use of social
services, effective urban governance, and the protection and
management of natural resources.
About 6.25 billion people would be living in urban cen
tres by 2050, eighty per cent of which would reside in develop
ing regions, concentrated in cities of Africa and Asia. For ex
ample, African cities would house over 1 billion people, which
would be three times the figure of urban North America, twice
the figure of Latin America and the Caribbean or Europe, and
comparable to China’s urban population at that time. In many
cities of developing countries the main challenge would then
be how to provide adequate public services and job opportuni
ties to residents, including marginalized populations in mega
cities. In addition, the adverse impact of social inequalities on
human health and the environment can multiply when we
factor the adverse effects of ‘natural’ disasters. The incidence of
natural hazards linked to climate change events has increased
i.
GLOBAL VIEW OF A VIBRANT WORLD 360° THE ISSUE Urbanisation FACE TO FACEAdhitya Arjanggi
AN URBAN PLANET:The sustainable city challenge
CITY LIVING: Creating vibrant sustainable cities SECURING CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE SOME FOR ALL FOREVER:Water resource management on an urban planet
TRANSFORMING TRANSPORT: The 21st century urban challenge
URBAN ENERGIES RESOURCES DEMAND AND COMMUNITY IMPACTS A 360° face to face interview BUILDING A LEGACY Creating an agile global culture of inventiveness, safety and sustainability
NEW SKILLS MAKE THE SUSTAINABLE DIFFERENCE INSPIRATIONAL ENGINEERING CAPTURING THE VISION
Bold Vision of Ritik Kumar Sinha in Creating a Sustainable Future of Cities.pptxRitik Kumar Sinha
A renowned environmentalist, Ritik Kumar Sinha, emphasizes the urge for sustainable development for a better future. He emphasizes the use of natural resources for quick urbanization.
Similar to Making Cities Zero Carbon -- issues and option (20)
Role and Relevance of Architects and architecture in SustainabilityJIT KUMAR GUPTA
This brief text on Role, Relevance and importance of Architects and profession of Architecture in making this world and human settlements more livable, climate responsive and sustainable has been prepared as commitment of the professionals and profession of Architects on this World Environment Day ; June 5th , 2024 , with the hope that profession would be understood, valued ,appreciated and empowered in the right context for enabling it play its designated role in making built environment qualitative, cost-effective, energy-efficient, eco-friendly, safe and sustainable.
Bridging gap between resources and responsibilities at Local level.JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Text refers to need, role, relevance and importance of empowering urban local bodies by bridging gap between resources available and responsibilities bestowed, for enabling ULBs to operate and function as institutions of local governance more effectively and efficiently.
Construction Industry Through Artificial Intelligence -.docxJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Considering the role, relevance and importance of construction sector in promoting economy, generating employment and creating wealth besides providing infrastructures and amenities, there is need to make the sector more effective, efficient, productive and sustainable. Driven manually, construction sector remains in the slow lane of creating quality built environment which are cost-effective, energy efficient, least consumers of resources and generators of waste. Artificial intelligence can help and empower the construction to make it more valuable, productive and qualitative besides supportive of environment and ecology. However, construction sector must be ready to co-operate and collaborate with IT industry to look for options and opportunities to make construction sector more qualitative and productive. Majority of urban ills and climate related issues can be resolved if Artificial intelligence can be embedded as integral part of the construction industry right prom planning, designing, construction, operation and management of the built environment and infrastructures. Communities and nations will save lot of valuable non-renewable resources if the construction sector is transformed from human led to technology led by the induction of Artificial intelligence. However, Construction industry has to search the areas where Artificial intelligence can be used effectively and intelligently.
Making Urban India a Role Model of Planned Urban Growth a.docxJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Known for productivity, promoting economy, employment and innovations cities, when properly planned, rationally developed and professionally managed, have been labelled and recognized as engines of economic growth. Prosperity and urbanisation are known to have positive co-relation with rational urbanisation, leveraging growth and development of any community, city, state and region. In majority of developing countries, where urbanisation remains unregulated, forced largely by rural push and less by urban pull, cities invariably remain in crisis, crisis of population, crisis of poverty, crisis of development and management. Cities need to be cared ,incentivized, empowered and made more productive, effective, efficient and humane.
Redefining Globalization, urbanisation and LocalisationJIT KUMAR GUPTA
If cities are to made more livable, humane and productive, it is time that intent, contents and scope of globalization must be revisited and reviewed, both critically and objectively. Globalisation would need redefinition for promoting universality and inclusiveness among people and nations to have basic amenities and quality of life for all its residents , including poorest of the poor to lead a dignified life. Failure to redefine globalization, rationalise urbanisation, restore localization empowering poor and promoting universalisation and inclusivity; will invariably lead to making SDGs merely a paper exercise. In addition, making the world, cities and communities sustainable, livable, safe and inclusive, would remain merely a dream and a mirage, for future generations and communities, making planet earth as their preferred place of residence.
Knowing, Understanding and Planning Cities- Role and Relevance Physical Plan...JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Cities are known for its complexities and operational inefficiencies. cities remain dynamic ,ever evolving, ever devolving, never static and never finite.
All cities remain different, distinct, unique and universal. No two cities are similar. Each city has its own strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Accordingly, problem faced by any city cannot be viewed, dissected, analyzed and enumerated, while sitting within the four walls of the air-conditioned rooms and by the so called intellectual sitting in the so called offices determining the future of cities and towns. Neither the cities can be made more rational by limited knowledge agencies providing consultancy to cities , states and nations.
For realistically and rationally understanding, analyzing the cities and having simple, cost-effective and quality solutions to the problems and challenges faced , Cities have to be walked through and concerns of the various communities have to be properly understood and appreciated.
Prime reason for inability and lack of capacity on the part of majority of physical planners, engaged in the art and science of planning, designing and developing the cities, to address the issues and challenges faced by cities , realistically and rationally, has genesis in the lack of understanding of the origin, growth and development of cities.
Lack of capacity in majority of town planners, has roots in the quality of education imparted and seriousness and commitment on the part of both teachers and taught involved. As it stands today, majority of institutions involved in imparting education in planning are being run on an ad-hoc manner and by proxy. Only few institutions have regular teachers and regular students. Majority of planning institutions are being run on proxy with proxy students and proxy teachers. Education system including curricula used for teaching, needs, review, revision and redefinition to make it more relevant to rational for addressing the issues and challenges faced by the cities and towns.
Land as a Resource for urban finanace- 24-1-23.pptJIT KUMAR GUPTA
PPt tries to brief Land, as a gift of nature, is being grossly misused, abused , manipulated Land is globally used for providing platform for all human driven activities, based on living, working, culture of body/ mind and travel.
Limited availability, coupled with large number of human beings trying to source land, has invariably created large demand for land resource for human consumption. Land, in urban context, is required for meeting the specific needs of urban dwellers for residential, commercial, institutional, recreational, travel& traffic purposes besides providing space for infrastructures , amenities, services, trade and commerce etc. Land in urban context remains under large demand and command high price due to concentration of large population in small physical area, with stakeholders making competing claims.Rapid and uncontrolled growth in population experienced by urban areas has adversely impacted and generated considerable pressure on land resource in cities and towns , leading to large scale conversion, sub-division and illegal occupation of urban land. Unregulated and regulated pressure on land has largely been met by means of both formal/informal sub-division and development of land. Growth of the urban settlements and entire mechanism of urban planning and development remains land based/ land focused. In order to make optimum use of land resource on 24x7x365; making city planning, growth, development and management ,both rational. realistic, orderly and promoter of quality living, it will be critical and essential, that all ULBs are made to focus on eliminating culture and practices promoting un-authorized/ illegal sub-division of land for ushering an environment and era of planned urban development in the cities. Land needs to be effectively leveraged to generate resources for ULBs to make cities vibrant.
COST-EFFETIVE and Energy Efficient BUILDINGS ptxJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Built environment is known for its capacity, capability, role, relevance and importance to change the quality of life of the occupants and communities. Presentation focuses on options which need to be leveraged to make buildings sustainable, cost-effective, energy efficient, resource efficient, qualitative over its entire life-cycle through designing, construction, operation. It calls for making buildings green and sustainable.
Making Buildings cost-effective , Energy Efficient ptxJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Presentation focuses on options which need to be leveraged to make buildings sustainable, cost-effective, energy efficient, resource efficient, qualitative over its entire life-cycle
Ppt briefs about role, relevance, importance of the rating systems applicable in India, criteria used in assessing
greeness, weightage allocated, , brief of how these rating systems are applied, parameters involved; weightage granted, levels of rating granted , incentives given by states for green rated buildings and brief of suggestions, how to make rating system more effective, efficient, objective and transparent.
The phenomenon of global warming remains more pronounced in the urban areas, for the reason cities house large concentration of people and activities in a small/compact urban space.Densely-built downtown areas tend to be warmer than suburban residential areas or rural areas.. UHI not only raises urban temperatures but also increases ozone concentrations because ozone is a greenhouse gas whose formation will accelerate with the temperature. Tokyo, an example of an urban heat island. Normal temperatures of Tokyo go up higher than those of the surrounding area. However, it needs to be understood and appreciated that climate change is not the cause of urban heat islands but it is causing more frequent and more intense heat waves which in turn amplify the urban heat island effect in cities. Major reasons for ever growing global warming and climate change can be attributed to the; Nature and natural; Human-Driven; population; Rapid Urbanisation; Irrational Urban planning; High Density; Inefficient Transportation ;Large generation/consumption of fossil fuel based Energy; Unsustainable Buildings; Polluting Industry & Manufacturing; Unsustainable Agriculture; Irrational Development; Large scale Deforestation; Lack of open spaces and individual life-choices;
Making and Unmaking of Chandigarh - A City of Two Plans2-4-24.pptJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Presentation is a narrative of a
capital city- known for its innovative planning, designing, construction and management of a new capital . It briefs about the principles used in the planning and designing of city -by the first team of planners led by Albert Mayer and Mathew Nowicki-- followed by the second team led by Le- Corbusier, P Jenerette, Jane B Drew , Maxwell Fry. It also details about the various aspects of the city planning, planning of the sector as a neighbourhood, typologies of
various developmental controls used for regulating the construction of buildings. Innovations used for regulating the growth and development of periphery; redensification of city in case city exceeds its planned population of half a million, creating a narrative of city and periphery, innovative landscaping, defining an edict for the city to educate the future citizens of the capital city to safeguard the future growth and development besides lessons learnt from planning and designing the new cities.
Planning and Designing Green buildings-.issues, options and strategiesJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Affordability and sustainable development are considered anti-thesis across the world. Generally there exists conflict between the approach to sustainable built environment and affordable buildings. Sustainable development is considered more expensive. According to Middleton, ‘Sustainability and affordability aren’t mutually exclusive goals. It’s not about adding extra, but thinking more carefully about the design of buildings and incorporating technologies that can offset the rising costs of energy, water and other services. Affordability and sustainability are known to fit together perfectly’.
Through excellent design, buildings can be made more sustainable and affordable. Smaller the footprint of buildings, lower will be the upfront costs and embodied energy and lower shall be the running costs of buildings. Looking at the entire context of health, rising cost of amenities/services; Sustainable/Green designs are now being increasingly adopted, to make built environment more cost-effective and affordable. Considering the enormous amount of built environment to be created, India will have no option but to tread the path of sustainability and sustainable development in the built environment. Sustainable built environment would also help in and go a long way in achieving the majority of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals for the reason, built environment is known to be the largest consumer of energy, avoid wasteful use of resources and minimise generation of waste. Global sustainability will be largely contingent upon how effectively and efficiently we can make our buildings sustainable and qualitative through innovative/green design solutions based on local climate and culture, valuing site planning, embedding orientation, cross ventilation, using renewable/waste materials and involving state of the art building technologies.
_Neighborhood Planning in Capital City of Chandigarh- An Appraisal (2) - Copy...JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Neighborhood as an idea, concept, option and strategy has been extensively used locally and globally by the Urban Planners to plan and decentralize cities, create cities within cities, promote self-contained communities and to make cities more humane, safe and socially vibrant. Neighborhood has also been used recently to define the city in terms of travel time - making 10/15 minutes city
Accordingly, large typologies of NH ,in terms of planning and designing , with varying shapes, sizes and contents have emerged in the urban context. Americans have used superblock and French using Sector for defining the neighborhood. Despite distinct advantages, holding high degree of relevance in urban and local area planning , NH planning has not been able to deliver the envisioned objectives of safety and social vibrancy. Cities in the process have been socially, economically and physically fragmented, leading to clear division of cities into different communities with little economical and social connectivity. Variance of planning and designing norms followed at NH and sub-neighborhood levels have promoted more dichotomy and contradictions with varying quality of life inducted at local level. Differential population and infrastructures have divided the city into the categories of high/low end NH units. Fabric and morphology of cities, in large cases, has been distorted with urban settlement emerging as a distinct social map of communities graded economically and socially,on the basis of area/location . In the process, the way NH planning concept has been used, neighborhood planning has emerged as an instrument of social and economic segregation/division. In fact in number of cases, concept has been used, misused, abused in intent and content to divide the cities into distinct social and economic layers. Instead of unifying , concept has led to division of cities.
Genesis of modern application of NH can be found in the planning and designing of Chandigarh where entire city fabric of capital city was woven around Sector as the basic unit of planning, concptulasied as self-contained and self-sustaining unit at the local level. However, the way sectors have been planned, it has led to dividing the cities into different and distinct communities. Individual status in Chandigarh can be judged from his/her residence. Concept of Sector has done more damage than good to the fabric of the city. Chandigarh is likely to face considerable problem in making city socially and economically cohesive/vibrant,. Sectors in Chandigarh remain anti-thesis to the basic concept of NH planning of safety, involving walkability, vehicular movement, putting commercial space in the centre. Considering role, relevance, importance and usability , NH needs to be planned, designed with care and caution, in order to make cities socially and economically vibrant, inclusive. NH planning deserves a new definition and approach to make it relevant and rational.
Reviewing, Revising and Redefining Master Plans and Development Plans to Ma...JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Looking at its efficacy and efficiency, it can be seen and observed that Master Plans/ Development Plans have done more damage than good for the planned growth and development of the cities to which they have been made applicable. These plans have been violated with impunity both by the people, communities, cities and parastatal agencies; for the betterment/welfare of which these plans were prepared. These plans have been visualized as controller of development rather than promoters of development. Instead of planned development , these plans have been usherers of the unplanned development. These plans are known to be responsible for promoting large number of slums besides making quality of life poor for majority of the urban inhabitants. Cities under Master Plans are also known to promote exclusion rather than inclusion. Master Plans/Development Plans are known to promote prosperity for few and marginalize the large proportions of the local community by making them poor. Instead of catering to urban dynamism, Master Plans/Development Plans try to freeze the city, for next two decades, to which it is made to serve. Accordingly, these plans need to be reviewed , rationalised, revised and redefined to make them better Master Plans/Development Plans
Rationalizing the Planned Growth of Urban India- paper.docxJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Rapid and uncontrolled growth in population experienced by urban areas has adversely impacted and generated considerable pressure on land resource in cities and towns , leading to large scale conversion, sub-division and illegal occupation of urban land. Unregulated and regulated pressure on land has largely been met by means of both formal/informal sub-division and development of land. Growth of the urban settlements and entire mechanism of urban planning and development remains land based/ land focused, based on a strategy of sub-division of the land, dictated by the economic forces prevailing in the market. Irrational and ineffective public policies of urban planning and land sub-division, devoid of prevailing ground realities, have turned out to be incompatible with the demands of urban expansion, leading to large scale un-authorized and illegal sub-division of land. In the process, valuable land resources, gift of nature, has been misused, abused and mutilated in this race of uncontrolled and irrational urbanisation. In order to make optimum use of land resource; making city planning, growth, development and management ,both rational. realistic, orderly and promoter of quality living, it will be critical and essential, that all urban centres are made to focus on eliminating the culture and practices promoting un-authorized/illegal sub-division of land for ushering an environment and era of planned urban development in the country.
Suggestion and Options for integrating villages. within the framework of the...JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Preparing Master Plans/Development Plans for any urban settlements, basically and essentially, involves declaring a planning area for which the said long term plans are prepared. Planning area invariably includes and involves, number of rural settlements, which comprise of the planning area besides the urban settlement. It has been observed that in majority of cases, while detailed studies and analysis are carried out of the urban settlements but villages in the study and analysis remain marginalized, diluted and muted. Despite the fact, villages have critical role in the rational development of the urban settlement, but in preparing Master Plans their role and relevance is not made part of the said plan. Accordingly, this text tries to bring out the typologies of villages falling in the planning area and the suggested framework to develop these villages in making Master Plans, better Master Plan. In order to improve Master Plan qualitatively, quantitively, both in intent, contents and scope, It will be appropriate that all the villages falling in the planning area must be studied , analyzed and made integral part of the final outcome of the proposals of Master Plan. In-fact one Chapter must be exclusively dedicated to detail out the issues faced by the Villages and options which can be leveraged to promote the rational growth of villages ,as an integral part of the long term development of the urban settlement , for which the Master Plan is being prepared. This will help not only in integrating the urban- rural settlements falling in the planning area, but would also go a long way in promoting and ensuring rational growth and development of the urban settlement, for which the Master Plan is being prepared.
Making cities Climate Responsive and SustainableJIT KUMAR GUPTA
“Decarbonization” of cities ,as an issue ,as an option and as a strategy , has been gaining currency in the parlance of; making planet earth livable and sustainable. “Decarbonization has been globally valued for keeping the global temperature below 1.5C, and achieving the agenda and goals defined in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, defined by UN for achieving universal sustainability. Despite distinct role and relevance, criticality and importance of decarbonization of cities has neither been properly understood and appreciated nor made integral part of the architectural practice and art and science of designing and construction of buildings. Consuming one -third of global energy (33%) and generating 39% of greenhouse gas emissions buildings have been considered as the major player in the domain of climate change and global warming. Since Architects and Architecture are
actively involved in the making and unmaking of buildings, accordingly it becomes important that planners and architects must play a significant role in making
cities and buildings least consumers of energy and generators of the minimum greenhouse gas emissions. This objective can be achieved if decarbonizing cities/buildings is made a distinct reality . Issue of decarbonizing the cities/buildings assumes importance for the reason, that world’s building floorspace is likely to be become double by the year 2060, with the addition of large number of newcities/ buildings due to rapid urbanization, population growth and economic development ; required for catering to
to the needs of additional population opting for urban living.
Managing Planning and Development of Citie- 26-2-24.docxJIT KUMAR GUPTA
Cities in India are known to be in perpetual crisis; facing numerous crises in terms of; crisis of rational growth, crisis of orderly and planned development; crisis of effective and efficient urban management; crisis of making provision of basic infrastructure and services; crisis of climate change; crisis of global warming; crisis of poverty, pollution and population and crisis of making human living and prevailing environment qualitative. These urban crises have genesis in the fact that cities in India, lack ownership, command, authority and lack of willingness to run and manage cities professionally and objectively. In majority of cases, cities in India are run by proxy. In terms of physical growth and development; large cities are marked by multiplicity of agencies claiming right/ownership of development over the urban areas, whereas smaller cities face absence of such ownership and are made to run, operate and function like orphans
Agenda, Approach and Options for Rationalising and Redefining Future Indian ...JIT KUMAR GUPTA
Government of India/state policies, programs, mission and agenda must move providing basic essentials to all its citizens through an efficient, objective and transparent system of governance. For making cities livable and empowering people; right to basics/essential of human living including; Right to shelter, food, clothing universal access to healthcare, education, employment , infrastructures, amenities and mobility; should be made integral part of Indian Constitution by embedding it as Fundamental Rights/Directive Principles of state policy besides making them integral part of planning, development and management/governance process of all human settlements.
Expert Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) Drafting ServicesResDraft
Whether you’re looking to create a guest house, a rental unit, or a private retreat, our experienced team will design a space that complements your existing home and maximizes your investment. We provide personalized, comprehensive expert accessory dwelling unit (ADU)drafting solutions tailored to your needs, ensuring a seamless process from concept to completion.
Between Filth and Fortune- Urban Cattle Foraging Realities by Devi S Nair, An...Mansi Shah
This study examines cattle rearing in urban and rural settings, focusing on milk production and consumption. By exploring a case in Ahmedabad, it highlights the challenges and processes in dairy farming across different environments, emphasising the need for sustainable practices and the essential role of milk in daily consumption.
Dive into the innovative world of smart garages with our insightful presentation, "Exploring the Future of Smart Garages." This comprehensive guide covers the latest advancements in garage technology, including automated systems, smart security features, energy efficiency solutions, and seamless integration with smart home ecosystems. Learn how these technologies are transforming traditional garages into high-tech, efficient spaces that enhance convenience, safety, and sustainability.
Ideal for homeowners, tech enthusiasts, and industry professionals, this presentation provides valuable insights into the trends, benefits, and future developments in smart garage technology. Stay ahead of the curve with our expert analysis and practical tips on implementing smart garage solutions.
Top 5 Indian Style Modular Kitchen DesignsFinzo Kitchens
Get the perfect modular kitchen in Gurgaon at Finzo! We offer high-quality, custom-designed kitchens at the best prices. Wardrobes and home & office furniture are also available. Free consultation! Best Quality Luxury Modular kitchen in Gurgaon available at best price. All types of Modular Kitchens are available U Shaped Modular kitchens, L Shaped Modular Kitchen, G Shaped Modular Kitchens, Inline Modular Kitchens and Italian Modular Kitchen.
White wonder, Work developed by Eva TschoppMansi Shah
White Wonder by Eva Tschopp
A tale about our culture around the use of fertilizers and pesticides visiting small farms around Ahmedabad in Matar and Shilaj.
Can AI do good? at 'offtheCanvas' India HCI preludeAlan Dix
Invited talk at 'offtheCanvas' IndiaHCI prelude, 29th June 2024.
https://www.alandix.com/academic/talks/offtheCanvas-IndiaHCI2024/
The world is being changed fundamentally by AI and we are constantly faced with newspaper headlines about its harmful effects. However, there is also the potential to both ameliorate theses harms and use the new abilities of AI to transform society for the good. Can you make the difference?
Transforming Brand Perception and Boosting Profitabilityaaryangarg12
In today's digital era, the dynamics of brand perception, consumer behavior, and profitability have been profoundly reshaped by the synergy of branding, social media, and website design. This research paper investigates the transformative power of these elements in influencing how individuals perceive brands and products and how this transformation can be harnessed to drive sales and profitability for businesses.
Through an exploration of brand psychology and consumer behavior, this study sheds light on the intricate ways in which effective branding strategies, strategic social media engagement, and user-centric website design contribute to altering consumers' perceptions. We delve into the principles that underlie successful brand transformations, examining how visual identity, messaging, and storytelling can captivate and resonate with target audiences.
Methodologically, this research employs a comprehensive approach, combining qualitative and quantitative analyses. Real-world case studies illustrate the impact of branding, social media campaigns, and website redesigns on consumer perception, sales figures, and profitability. We assess the various metrics, including brand awareness, customer engagement, conversion rates, and revenue growth, to measure the effectiveness of these strategies.
The results underscore the pivotal role of cohesive branding, social media influence, and website usability in shaping positive brand perceptions, influencing consumer decisions, and ultimately bolstering sales and profitability. This paper provides actionable insights and strategic recommendations for businesses seeking to leverage branding, social media, and website design as potent tools to enhance their market position and financial success.
1. Making Cities Zero Carbon- Issues and Options
*Jit Kumar Gupta
Introduction
Cities remain most valuable among human settlements, for the contribution
they make; to the economic development, generation of employment,
promoting innovations and providing state of art infrastructure and facilities. As
place for concentration of activities and human beings, cities not only create
supportive environment for businesses to thrive but also enable residents to
have gainful employment. Cities drive economic wealth, promote
competitiveness, invest in local economies ensure health, safety, and welfare
of the people and maintain infrastructure, which are known to be the prime
mover and sustainer of social and economic development. Studies made by
UNO, indicate that cities globally housed 4.2 billion people, or 55 percent of the
world's population in 2018. By 2050, the urban population is expected to reach
6.5 billion. Accordingly, cities will script the future of communities and nations.
Considering the critical role and importance of cities; Goal 11, out of 17 goals
mandated by UNO to make this planet
livable, is exclusively dedicated to
improving cities and making them
sustainable, livable, resilient and safe.
This goal looks at the options and
opportunities to make cities, as entities
generating minimum carbon footprints,
promoting energy/water/resource
efficiency; creating optimum level of
living, promoting safe and affordable
housing; building resilient societies and
economies; making investment to create safe, cost-effective, eco-friendly,
affordable public transport; creating appropriate levels of green public spaces,
and improving urban planning.
Years 2020& 2021, will be known in the urban history, as the most challenging
and difficult years, which transformed cities dramatically in their structure,
operations and communication, impacting adversely human health, economy,
productivity, mobility, trade & commerce, quality of life etc. Holding enormous
capacity to face disasters, both manmade and natural, even in troubled times,
2. communities and cities of today are facing twin challenges of healthcare,
precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic and global warming perpetuated by
large consumption of energy and generation of the carbon footprints.
Synergizing and working in collaboration, communities and cities need to,
evolve, devolve and create productive partnership at all levels to respond
effectively to emerging challenges and implement strategies to rebuild and
make cities happy, healthy, livable and carbon neutral places.
Issues and Options
Cities have been and are going to be the future of all nations, because of the
high proportion of national population
they will be holding; large
employment they will be generating;
major contribution they will be
making to the economy; quality
infrastructure they will be providing/
supporting and innovations/ state of
art technologies they will be
introducing. However, despite
distinct advantages cities hold, they
have also emerged as large
consumers of resources, energy and
generators of waste. Consuming large resources, polluting environment and
ecology, history has shown that cities remain an ideal breeding ground for
disasters to come and go, the way they evolve, devolve and operate.
Cities have emerged as the major cause of the large number of adversities
facing humanity and planet. Cities are known to be originator and promoters of
large greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change and global warming besides
damaging the environment and bio-diversity are the gifts of cities to the
mankind. Cities, as manmade entities, have emerged as anti-thesis to the
nature and natural resources. In order to empower and build capacity to face
these natural and manmade disasters and make this planet livable and
sustainable, cities need to work with nature. Cities need to be planned ,
designed, developed and managed rationally and innovatively to make them
spaces for , promoters of environment and ecology; consumers of minimum
resources and energy; generators of minimum pollution and waste; promoters
of carbon neutrality; minimizing travel ;and traffic; creating sustainable built
environment ; ensuring uninterrupted provision of basic and essential
infrastructure/ services/ amenities; create opportunities of gainful employment;
supporting urban poor etc.
If cities have emerged as the root cause of all prevailing environment and
climatic ills, they also offer the best of solutions to make this planet sustainable,
safe, happy and healthy place to live. Looking at the entire urban context,
3. attempt has been made to define options, which cities must focus on and
exercise, to make them low-carbon, safe, resilient and inclusive to counter the
prevailing challenges of climate change and global warming.
Urban Planning
As per UNDP, ‘The cost of poorly
planned urbanization can be seen
in some of the huge slums, tangled
traffic, greenhouse gas emissions
and sprawling suburbs all over the
world. By choosing to act
sustainably we choose to build
cities where all citizens live a decent
quality of life, and form a part of the
city’s productive dynamic, creating
shared prosperity and social
stability without harming the
environment’. Accordingly, urban planning holds enormous capacity and
provide numerous options for making cities emerge as sustainable and
dynamic spaces for living and working; empowering them to become
consumers of minimum energy and generators of minimum carbon neutral,
provided cities are planned, designed, constructed and managed with vision,
innovation and flexibility. Planning has enormous capacity to rationalize and
minimize travel and traffic behavior and make buildings sustainable, which are
the two prime causes and reasons of cities emerging as the major agents of
climate change, global warming and emitters of greenhouse gases. Bringing
flexibility in cities will be critical for creating spaces, opportunities and options
to house all basic and daily essentials for residents and communities. This
would require all basic services and amenities to be planned and designed
differently, in order to enable cities and communities reinvent and cater to all
exigencies created by large travel and consumption of conventional energy.
For enabling cites to effectively counter the problem of having large carbon
footprints, cities would need de-centralization and and division into self-
contained neighborhoods, duly planned and supported with basic facilities and
infrastructures related to basic daily needs involving healthcare, education etc.
These neighborhoods should be planned and developed on pedestrian/human
scale, based on walkability. Norms for these amenities/facilities will need
periodic review, revision and redefinition, keeping in view the fast changing
needs of the community.
Cities, as areas of large concentration of population/ activities, remain hotbeds
of global warming. In order to make existing cities safe against current and
4. Impending natural and manmade disasters, caused by global warming and
climate change, cities need to adequate address the issues facing the
core/congested areas, which are known to be major contributor to problems of
environment, pollution, congestion and traffic. Devoid of flora, fauna, open
spaces, parks, green areas and basic supportive infrastructure, core area has
historically remained areas promoting large congestion and pollution. They
remain major cause of generating large carbon footprints in urban context.
Efforts need to be made to decongest the core areas on priority to empower
cities to remain healthy. However, considering the concentration of population,
existence of non-compatible uses and major business activities located in these
areas; it becomes difficult to decongest them. Accordingly, for promoting
sustainability and carbon neutrality in the existing cities, it will be vital to explore
options like, minimizing the entry of mechanical and fossil fuel-based vehicles;
promoting pedestrianization; shifting the wholesale trade to the areas identified
in the master plan; using the area vacated by shifting trade for creating open
spaces, which remain always at premium in all the core areas. With large scale
landscaping of the areas, core areas will have reduced congestion, reduced
vehicles count, reduced noise/pollution and reduced fossil fuel consumption.
This will help cities becoming low carbon, least emitter of greenhouse gases
and promoters of environment and ecology due to changing options of travel
and creating space for bringing nature in the core areas.
Compact City
Studies made globally, have showcased that form, shape and size of cities
remain major drivers and determinant of
sustainability, greenhouse gas and
carbon emissions by the cities.
Occupying merely 3 per cent of the
planet earth, cities account for 60 per
cent of energy consumption and 75 per
cent of carbon emissions. As
consumers of large global energy and
generators of greenhouse gas
emissions, cities are becoming major
players in climate change, promoting
global unsustainability. Large con-
centration of people coupled with large
dependence on mechanical and fossil
fuel driven travel and constructing energy intensive buildings, are making cities
guzzlers of large energy and resources besides generating large carbon
footprints. Looking at the way cities are growing and operating, achieving
sustainable development and making cities carbon neutral appears to be a
mirage and remote possibility, without significantly
5. transforming and redefine the way cities and urban spaces are being planned,
designed, built and managed
The prevailing pattern of rapid urbanization, is bringing numerous dualities,
contradictions in cities involving irrational spatial distribution of people and
resources; irrational land use and consumption of land; less dense and more
inefficient land use patterns; car-centered urban models with pure land use
zoning dividing urban spaces into residential, commercial, and industrial areas.
All these have led to melting of city, resulting in promoting large conurbations,
urban sprawl and cities face large negative externalities, making these
horizontally spreading cities large consumers of energy and resources.
In order to achieve and promote sustainability, cities need to be made least
consumers of energy, low carbon enetities and generators of minimum
greenhouse gases. Making cities low-carbon, would require ushering an era of
compactness in form and area. All energy efficient and low-carbon cities have
to be planned, designed and developed as compact settlements, because
compact cities minimize distances between living and working; make people
live in small area; promote walking and cycling besides eliminating the need
for using mechanical and fossil fuel-based vehicles. Compact cities remain
effective and efficient because they are known to be cities of small distances.
Compact cities are also known to offer numerous advantages and options in
terms of; making people happy and healthy; consumers of minimum land;
reducing service networks; reduced distances, reduced travel, shorter
commuting time; less vehicles, reduced pollution and reduced use of fossil fuel
besides making cities safe and socially positive because compactness permit
high degree of mutual interaction at community level.
However, planning compact cities would require new normal and state of art
approach to urban planning. It would require change in travel behavior; intent,
content and scope of the way, cities and buildings are planned and designed;
putting in place new planning norms and standards for land use and supportive
amenities and basic services to be provided in urban setting. Planning compact
cities would ensure that basic principles of city planning are not sacrificed and
city would be planned and designed to promote highest order of quality of life,
provide high order of productivity and ensure availability of basic services/
amenities for all the residents to lead an optimum life. Planning compact city
would essentially involve; promoting high density development, supporting and
protecting the environment; rationalizing urban open spaces; suburban
densification, area redevelopment, planning new areas with higher densities,
promoting brownfield development; promoting building conversions and transit-
oriented development.
Planning of compact cities must invariably incorporate densification strategies.
allowing mixed land use and taller buildings and providing adequate public
6. spaces such as parks, green areas, and streets. Well-designed public spaces
not only reduce the carbon footprints and greenhouse gas emissions but also
contribute positively to achieve carbon neutrality and improve the overall visual
character, invigorating not only economic activities but also enhancing the
functionality and health of the city.
Densely populated neighborhood’s duly supported by adequate public spaces,
infrastructure and public transport facilities encourage walking, cycling, and
other forms of eco-friendly non-motorized mobility, reducing reliance on fossil
fuels, minimizing carbon emissions and global warming besides promoting
social connectivity and diversity, thus making them more sustainable, cohesive
and lively, For promoting urban sustainability city planning must be geared and
made to gravitate around minimizing dependence on fossil fuels, incorporating
low emission strategies so as to make city development resilience to climate
change.
Cities of Singapore and New York have clearly demonstrated the distinct
advantages of compact development in promoting quality of life and promoting
higher order of operational
efficiency. In search for optimum
solutions to make the city
development compact, Singapore
adopted the mechanism of using
digital survey to identify low-rise
buildings, evolved a policy and
provided incentives to owners to put
high rise buildings in order to
overcome the problem of high cost
of living besides providing more
space for housing. City of New York
permitted the sub-division of land and construction of studio apartments on the
large terraces of the existing buildings, to create more housing space in the
city.
Though re-densification and making existing cities compact may be slow and
cumbersome but new and green field cities offer enormous opportunities to be
planned and developed as compact cities. Planning compact and vertical cities
would be most desirable and essential in the Indian context, for the reason ,
having only 2.4% of global land and holding/supporting 17.6% of global
population, India would require land resource to be preserved, conserved,
protected and used in the most optimum manner for ensuring sustainability and
survival of the country. Compact cities would help India in minimising global
warming, greenhouse gas emissions and generating an era of carbon neutrality
in the country.
7. Circular Economy Cities
In addition to changing the typology of the city to make them compact, cities
also need to be planned, designed and constructed based on the principle of
circular economy, to make them not only energy and resource efficient but also
generators of least waste and carbon footprints. Operating and functioning on
linear principle of take-make-waste economy, existing breed of cities have
emerged as large consumers of natural resources, store house and breeding
grounds of the waste, making them highly unsustainable and inefficient.
Adopting circular approach for all urban operations, offers distinct advantage
and potential to eliminate all waste and bring enormous economic, social, and
environmental benefits besides decarbonising cities and making them vibrant,
and sustainable. Converting waste into wealth will require the support of
innovative technologies and accordingly, circular economy can lead to creating
large variant of jobs and a different typology of urban economy. Cities planning
and development based on the circular economy will usher a new regime of
change; in which construction of buildings will be based on materials made
entirely from waste; cities producing their own energy from non-conventional
resources; minimising consumption of water, based on using principles of
multiple use, reduce, recycling and reuse. Concept of multiple use of goods
and services will become the underlying principle of human living duly
supported by the principle of minimalism and co-operative living. Leveraging
technologies for converting waste into wealth will make cities more liveable,
productive, sustainable affordable, economical with improved air and
environmental quality. Cities will ultimately head towards becoming zero-
energy, zero-water, zero-waste, zero- car and zero- carbon cities, on the
analogy and pattern followed in the planning and development of Musdar city
in Abu Dhabi.
PLANNING SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY
Transportation scenario in India is highly complex and is marked by large
number of dualities and
contradictions. Despite low holding
capacity of road network, numbers of
both mechanized and non-
mechanized vehicles are increasing
rapidly. Despite lack of parking areas,
more and more vehicles are being
added into the cities occupying every
available road space including all
possible open spaces. In the process,
cities are marked with high degree of
vehicular congestion leading to long
delays and raising the cost of business;
8. extremely low vehicular speed; high degree of air pollution threatening the life
/health of the people; large number of road accidents leading to loss of precious
life and property and emission of large volume of greenhouse gasses and
global warming. Instead of providing high degree of mobility and operational
efficiency, urban transportation has emerged as the major roadblock and threat
to the economy, environment and sustainability of majority of cities. With
millions of precious man-hours lost in everyday travel, transportation is
adversely impacting the productivity of human beings. In the process, travel
and traffic blues are fast emerging as major threat to the effective and efficient
functioning of the urban centers
Making cities zero- carbon appears to be a fallacy and a mirage without putting
in place on priority different options of sustainable-transport because cities are,
primarily and essentially, known to contribute 75% of global greenhouse gas
emissions, with majority of contribution coming from transport sector and
buildings. With traditional fuels, transportation sector alone contributes 45% of
total carbon emissions. Challenges posed by transportation sector accordingly
remain both daunting and formidable in creating sustainable and low-carbon
cities. To overcome these challenges one of the best options would be to
promote sustainable and green urban transport in order to make cities cleaner,
greener and smarter. Promoting sustainable urban transport would accordingly
form integral and essential part of any strategy to promote carbon- neutral
cities. Zero-carbon cities would focus on minimizing travel and have different
order of priority for transportation led by pedestrianization, cycling and public
transport with least priority going to personal transport. Low-Carbon cities will
be planned with basic philosophy of achieving twin objectives of planning and
prioritizing people and not vehicles and promotingaccessibilityand not mobility.
Accordingly, urban planning taken on this philosophy would essentially call for;
minimizing use of personalized vehicles; promoting non- mechanized/ non-fuel-
based options for travel; using public transport with large capacity, run
essentials on non-polluting fuels /electricity; using state of art technologies,
making vehicles zero-emission; limiting the need of mechanized travel; using
land use planning to rationalize the travel pattern etc. It would also involve use
of information technology to reduce travel by using homes as offices, schools,
libraries etc.
Increased use of environment-friendly public transport systems and halting of
urban sprawl in cities can substantially reduce emissions at city level and make
cities cleaner, greener, smarter and sustainable. Study made by Central Road
Research Institute (CRRI), has revealed that Delhi Metro, having daily ridership
of 27 lakhs, has helped in replacing 3.9 lakh vehicles off the Delhi roads in
2014 besides saving Rs 10,364 crores in terms of fuel, pollution and
9. passenger’s time. In absolute terms, the annual reduction in fuel consumption
has been recorded at 2.76 lakh tones, as against the corresponding figures of
the year 2011, besides bringing down the travel time of commuters by 32
minutes. Besides promoting operational efficiency and making Delhi cleaner
and green, study furthers states that metro has made the city safer by reducing
the number of fatal accidents.
No energy efficient and low-carbon city should be without a bicycle plan. The
bicycle is the most economical and most energy efficient form of human
transportation ever invented. Cycling as a mode of transportation has played
an important role even in societies with high income. Cycling accounts for 20%
of passenger trips in Basel, 25% in Tokyo; 50% in Groningen, Netherlands and
up to 77% in Chinese cities of Tianjik and Shenyang. India on its part has also
taken a pro-active initiative to make urban areas low carbon by promoting use
of bicycle as a preferred mode of urban transport by creating dedicated cycle-
tracks and cycle-sharing under AMRUT.
However, creating sustainable and low-carbon urban transport would require
a multi- pronged strategy based on leveraging the advantages of all modes of
travel, involving communities and stakeholders besides involving professionals
engaged in urban/transport planning, development and management. Our
priority and capacity to create sustainable urban transport, through state of art
cleaner and greener technologies; state of art vehicles run on hydrogen fuel
and electricity, with innovative city planning, development and management,
would hold the key to the productivity, economy, quality of life, sustainability
and operational efficiency of human settlement besides making them
supportive of the UNO mandated SDGs.
Green Built Environment
Making all cities zero-carbon, least contributor to global warming, and emitters
of minimum greenhouse gases, will be
fallacy in the absence of creating
buildings which are both energy &
resource efficient, sustainable and
generators of minimum waste because,
‘Buildings are known to consume over
45% global energy, 30% of total raw
materials extracted on this planet, 25%
timber harvested, 16% fresh water
withdrawal, 35% of world’s CO2 emission,
40% municipal solid waste and 50%
ozone depleting CFC besides promoting
‘sick building syndrome’ ( World Energy
Council Report, 2016)
10. Known to be both resource and energy intensive, buildings, when considered
in the lifecycle cost and energy, cost only !0% & consume 17% of total energy
of the life-cycle cost and energy, during their construction , whereas remaining
90% cost/ and 83% energy, is used by buildings in their operation and
maintenance, involving heating, cooling, lighting, ventilating, repairing and
making limited additions and alterations. Accordingly, it will be appropriate that
buildings are viewed in terms of its life-time implications to ensure that they
remain sustainable and minimum contributor to global warming and climate
change, over its entire life -span.
Buildings have been acknowledged for their role, importance and potential for
saving this planet by offering greatest opportunity to minimize energy
consumption and resources, simply by changing the manner in which buildings
are visualized, planned, constructed, managed and operated. Looking at the
entire gamut of built environment, Green Buildings emerge as the best option
to make buildings sustainable and least consumers of energy and resources.
Green Buildings have been recognized globally by nations for minimizing use
of water, optimizing energy efficiency, conserving natural resources,
generating minimum waste and providing healthier space/indoor quality for
occupants as compared to conventional buildings. Green Buildings save
energy up to 50%; lower water consumption by 40% and reduce carbon
emission by 35%. Green buildings are also known to scale down Co2
generation by 8000-12000 tons and 3 MW of connected electric load per million
Sqft of built space created besides reducing waste by 70%. Green buildings
not only reduce consumption of non-renewable resources, make buildings low
carbon and supportive of environment, ecology and bio-diversity but also fetch
better returns in economic terms. Such buildings provide financial,
environmental, physical and social benefits besides creating a win-win situation
for both owners, occupants and users through healthier indoor air quality,
lesser sickness and improved productivity.
Making built environment both energy and resource efficient becomes all the
more important, for the obvious and simple reason that major quantum of
buildings are yet to be constructed. As per estimates made globally for the year
2030, with regard to the requirement of built environment, only 40% of buildings
have been estimated to be constructed so far, whereas 60% of the buildings
are yet to be constructed by the year 2030. Further, studies carried out by
McKenzie Global Research Institute states that ,India needs to make addition
of 700- 900 million sqm of built space on annual basis in urban settlements, to
meet the additional demand of housing, working, trade and commerce,
Industries, leisure, healthcare, education etc., for the people migrating and
added due to natural growth of population in cities.
11. Creating green built environment will primarily require different options and
strategies revolving around and focusing on; designing with nature, making
best use of available natural resources and adopting integrated approach to
design. While Planning with nature would essentially involve, making optimum
use of Panchbhutas- Prithvi (site), Agni( energy), Jal (water), Vayu (air) and
Aakash (Space), for meeting the basic needs of energy and resources for
buildings, whereas Integrated approach to building design would essentially
involve, respecting site , rationalizing site planning, rationalizing built form,
lowering surface to volume ratio; promoting building efficiency, evolving
efficient structural design; adopting solar passive techniques, using energy
efficient equipment, controlling lighting, heating, ventilation; using solar
energy/air movement, reducing transportation, minimizing waste, using local
materials in natural form, optimizing landscaping etc.
Green built environment is valued for its contribution, to make cities not only
sustainable and carbon- neutral but also making its inhabitants both healthy
and happy. Cities must allocate adequate financial resources and provide
appropriate technical assistance to guide and assist the individuals in
constructing new buildings and retrofitting the existing buildings ,to make them
sustainable, resilient and resource/ energy efficient. Planning, designing,
constructing and maintaining green buildings should be made mandatory for all
category of new buildings. In its endeavor to make cities carbon neutral,
Singapore has already prepared a master plan for the island, for making all the
existing buildings as green within next 10-15 years,
Conclusions
Adopting and achieving the sustainable development goal 11, mandated by
UNO, should remain the guiding principle and
agenda for the growth, development and
management and policy framework dictating the
policies and program of cities and towns to
make them safe, resilient, inclusive and
sustainable besides better places to live and
work. UN-Habitat’s new report - Cities and
Pandemics: Towards a more just, green and
healthy future –showcases, how cities can
reduce the impact of future pandemics and
become more equitable, healthy and
environment- friendly.UNO has also stated
that, for making cities safe against disasters,
new normal for urban planners and managers would be to make cities places
where health, housing and security are prioritized and a new urban order
needs to be built to reduces disaster risk and address climate change by
developing nature-based solutions by investing in sustainable infrastructure
to create low carbon options.
12. In order to effectively deal with disasters and global warming at the local level,
cities need to prepare detailed zero carbon and carbon neutral plans involving
local communities and stakeholders, Appropriate climate responsive/mitigation
strategies need to be created and made operational in all human settlements.
Improving cities and making them more sustainable should involve; building
resilient societies; making investment in public transport ; improving road safety
providing universal access to safe, inclusive and accessible, green and public
spaces and making urban planning Inclusive and sustainable by significantly
transforming the way we plan, build and manage our urban spaces.
However, each city and urban settlement remain unique and distinct, socially,
structurally, physically and economically, and accordingly needs to develop,
adapt and implement its own operational plans to effectively counter the
environment and other natural disasters and making cities zero carbon and
zero waste.
References;
UNDP; Sustainable Cities: Why They Matter; Sustainable Development Goals
Anthony Clarence; State of the Cities, 2020; National League of Cities
Wikipedia; Sustainable Development Goal 11,
Gupta JK;Strategies for MakingBuildings Green and Energy Efficient; National
conference Indian Building Congress, August, 2021.
UN-Habitat’s new report - Cities and Pandemics: Towards a more just, green
and healthy future
McKinsey Global Institute: India’s Urban Awakening: Building Inclusive Cities,
Sustaining Economic Growth, Report April, 2010
World Energy Council Report, 2016,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_Development_Goal_11
World Health Organization; Strengthening Preparedness for COVID-19 in
Cities and Urban Settings- Interim Guidance for Local Authorities, 2019; WHO-
2019-nCov-Urban_preparedness-2020.1-eng.pdf
Dhot B PS, Gupta JK, K Jasleen; Planning and Designing Sustainable Cities;
International Conference on Resilient and Livable Cities (RLCP-2020)-
Transforming Urban Systems pp74-79; Feb10-13,2021. School of Planning
and Architecture, 2020. Vijayawada
Gupta JK; Promoting Sustainable Cities: Suggestive Approach for Evolving
Energy Efficient Design of Urban Settlements; International Conference on
Green Architecture (ICGrA 2017)
Gupta JK; Promoting Sustainable Cities: Strategies for Planning Smart and
Sustainable Cities; Published Paper
Authors:
* Ar. Jit Kumar Gupta
Founder Director; College of Architecture, I.E.T, Bhaddal
#344, Sector 40-A; Chandigarh- 160036 Email; jit.kumar944@gmail.com