The World Town Planning Day is celebrated on November 8 to draw attention to the aims, objectives, and progress of urban and regional planning around the globe. The day highlights the valuable contributions of sound planning that has made to the quality of global human settlements and their environment. The day also reminds us of the need for everyone to get involved in building communities and making policies that will improve those communities.
The most important environmental concern now is climate change. Climate change will affect the basic elements of life for people around the world, including access to water, food production, health and the environment. Hundreds of millions of people are likely to suffer hunger, water shortages and coastal flooding as global warming increases. The poorest countries and people are most vulnerable to this threat.
Over the last 20 years, urban centres have experienced impressive growth. Today half of the world’s total population lives in urban settlements. Rapid urban growth poses many challenges to city authorities and if not well managed, cities can also become generators of new vulnerabilities, which can add risk to disasters.
Urban settlements hold a promise for human development and for protection of the world’s natural resources through their ability to support a large numbers of people while limiting their impact on the natural environment. Yet many cities are witnessing harmful patterns of growth, production and consumption, land use, mobility and degradation of their physical structure. Some human settlements are also subject to limited water supply, sanitation and drainage and depend upon nonrenewable energy sources which resulted irreversible loss of biodiversity.
Urban poverty and growth of slums have refocused attention on planning. Close to one billion slum dwellers reside in urban areas worldwide. Urban planning can play a key role in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which seek to significantly improve the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020 through alternatives to new slum formation.
Bhubaneswar was planned in 1948. Initially, the process of spatial growth of the city was slow, but gradually the city has emerged as a fastest growing city in the country. The city is experiencing “haphazard growth” with a high intensity of urban sprawl, creating sprawl effect of human habitation in the adjacent agricultural and vacant land. The demand for land within the fringe areas and peri-urban areas of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) is growing. As more and more people choose to live in the areas adjacent to the main city core, land value is rising beyond affordable limits of local people. The growth on the existing pattern could lead to unsustainable development unless proper management systems are introduced on priority.
A current issue in Bhubaneswar is the horizontal expansion of low dense formal and informal settlements. The floor area ratio of informal settlements is very low and the percentage of land coverage by houses is very high. On the other hand, the floor area ratio (FAR) and percentage of land coverage by buildings in formal settlements are very high. A lot of land is being consumed by informal settlements. low density and low FAR are encouraging urban sprawl or larger municipal conglomerations. People in the informal settlements have occupied public and private lands creating unhygienic condition and traffic jam. The urban sprawl can be combated by increasing physical density and proper use of land. If a housing block like low-rise high density could be developed, the density would be increased. Such project would provide private, semi-private and communal spaces for household activities. This would also include the functionality of space and climate responsive building design. It could also help the planners provide affordable housing to all categories of people.
Development activity in the fringe areas is a natural process of urban growth, which cannot be prohibited completely. However in the Bhubaneswar context, it is time especially to review the spatial growth in a sustainable way. The development should take place considering conservation and management strategies for the areas in the urban fringe having ecological and environmental values.
The total population divided over various levels of geographical areas is very important for the socioeconomic development of the entire country and the study of various components. When data regarding population is taken into account, better planning is possible for different facilities such as housing, education and healthcare facility. Besides, a country’s population and how it is geographically distributed can influence access to basic services and infrastructure and employment opportunities, rural and urban environment and wealth of natural resources.
As countries urbanize, the issue of sustainable urbanization becomes crucial. Urban planning should strive to reduce poverty through pro-poor programmes that emphasize equity, participation and social justice. Planning can address the problem of slums and informal settlements through upgrading programmes, which entail the provision or improvement of infrastructure and basic services such as water, sanitation, garbage collection, storm drainage, street lighting, paved footpaths and streets.
With few exceptions, levels of intra-urban inequality across the world have been increasing. Urban planning can address the issue of inequality through redistributive policies that give priority to low-income groups and areas. The provision of schools, basic health services, water supply and sanitation in poor neighbourhoods will, in the long-run, contribute to reducing the level of inequality within cities.
For urban planning to effectively respond to the diversity of urban contexts, it is important that urbanization is viewed as a positive phenomenon. Urban planning has to address ways to create cities that work for all citizens. For sustainable urban development, a number of urban programmes have been initiated by Government of India. Recent urban initiatives of the Government of India include Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), e-Governance in municipalities, National Urban Sanitation Policy, and Citywide Slum Upgradation Programme, setting up of Centers of Excellence in Urban Development, Sustainable Habitat Mission - Green Building, public transportation and solid waste management.
Urban human settlements require a more inclusive approach to planning and land management to sustain all the people who live in the settlement. Besides, there is a significant need for updating and reform of course curriculum in many urban planning schools, particularly in many developing countries where urban planning education has not kept up with current challenges and emerging issues. Planning schools should embrace innovative planning ideas which can address urban challenges and the need to improve urban planning in cities.
(Dr Praharaj teaches in Department of Architecture, College of Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar)