Dec 24, 2012

Post-calamity socio-physical reconstruction: Untapped potential of urban planning!


It’s high time they should care for heritage values of shattered settlements.

Contemporary planning response : A wake-up call!! 

Any Natural calamity, An Earthquake, A Tsunami, A Flood or A Hurricane strangles the life of community and leaves a physical and emotional mark behind! Damage which is irreversible, but still people gather their spirit and strength and try to reconstruct that which has been shattered, their home, their neighborhood, their community, their village, their city, sometimes on their own sometimes hand in hand with community, with the support of government and with the aid and good wishes from around the world. It’s a collective effort of those who care to rebuild, those who feel responsibility to reconstruct, everyone contributes their bit!

A relevant question to ask here is that what an urban planner, an architect, an urban designer, a conservationist or a policy maker can do to restore the faith, hope and dignity of that community, How they can better contribute in the socio-physical reconstruction after an unforeseen natural calamity which physically shatters the settlement, a settlement which might have evolved in course of centuries whether it’s a village or a small town or a metropolitan city. Of course such situations demand a quick immediate response, a fast solution, a resettlement plan, a re-construction effort, a physical master plan to absorb and protect the affected population as quickly as possible; an infrastructure fast and techno-economically optimized enough to be viable. But in this race of providing the immediate comfort and amenities to the affected population we usually tend to forget or sometimes purposefully ignore the very basic need of community, the settlement itself, the fabric of settlement with which community has intimately remained attached throughout its life, probably they have grown together help shaping each other and hence the highly emotional bonding of community and settlement cannot be ignored neither its legacy of heritage value and learning.

In a neighborhood or community affected or devastated by natural calamity, an individual is not just bothered about his or her own loss, their own damaged house, but they are subconsciously also moved by the loss of others in the community and their very own settlement and neighborhood which has been shattered heavily. Their memories of growing in that neighborhood, those winding streets, their facades and architecture, their community spaces, those lingering familiarities and so on. We can try to reconstruct the original face of settlement if the damage is low and concealable, but sometimes they feel it’s better to reconstruct the settlement in adjacent open lands if the physical damage is much, this phenomenon is more noticeable and even more a point of concern in the rural or small urban communities. Usually physical planning response form the government and planners after a natural calamity in most of the cases is generally a super-optimized techno-economic solution, an efficient physical infrastructure, fast paced architecture, but surprisingly lacking in emotional response and nativeness in terms of architecture, lacking in regional impression and heritage values of planning, alienated from urban/ rural design principles and practices of the region, a shear absence of conservationist inputs and above all lack of human touch. Outcome seems an efficient but emotionless physical planning response which can and are being radially justified in the name of constrained resources and urgency of demanded action. Image above speaks for itself!

Though a much needed temporary relief, imagine the emotional and functional pain this new mechanical re-settlement master plan causes to the inhabitants in longer course of time through its totally alienated new physical planning environment, fabric and architecture, by continually reminding them of the disaster which occurred in past, due to its ever-present imposed unfamiliar environment. Imaging the continual struggle to adapt to this new imposed “efficient but rigid” neighborhood plan which has no relation whatsoever to the original form and architecture of the village or town which was devastated in earthquake or else and the loaded feeling of never to return to a spatial experience in their lifetime which even vaguely resembles to their original neighborhood or to a locality with its regional character! Imaging the loss to the future generation who is going to grow up in these reconstructed integrated prefab concrete township or villages with identical kind of off the shelf household unit next to the fading ruins of their devastated ancestral village and who will never know how it is like to live in the vibrant settlements were their parents, their grandparents and their ancestors used to live!

It’s high time that the legacy of heritage planning values, unique and integral to specific regions need to be acknowledged and incorporated in the post disaster reconstruction efforts specially in physical planning of the settlement which will have a long term beneficial effect. Even the communities in crying need of immediate physical reconstruction support, in a post-natural-disaster environment, need a physical planning solution with a “human touch”


Dec 21, 2012

What are the urban planning challenges today?


Inferences from review of JNNURM CDP & Appraisal Reports!

Following sectoral list of “Urban Planning Challenges” have been compiled based on data extracted and analyzed from JNNURM Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) for selected cities of India and its appraisal reports. Though these aspects are generalized and somewhat overlapping across most of the urban nodes of Indian sub-continent, lessons and inferences can be equally valuable and applicable for other cities across the world to considerable extent. It’s just an effort to have a consolidated perspective and understanding of future urban challenges, you can further suggest additional planning constraints and challenges to the list!


Comprehensive list of Urban Planning Challenges-

INSTITUTIONAL 
Functional overlap
Jurisdictional overlap
Issues of convergence and coordination

POLICY     
Lack of stakeholder consultations or under-participation
Disaster management issues
Governance issues
Delegation of functions to the new ULB
Prioritizationof action and projects alienated from problems and vision
Matters of resource sharing with neighboring states

ECONOMIC
Lack of value-add sectors
Expansion of informal sector
Continued influx of low skill manpower from neighboring states in some cases
Expanding un-organized sector
Lower work participation rates of women at some places

SOCIAL     
Issues of urban sociology in a multi-ethnic city
Social unrest,
Civil disobedience,
Public safety,
Unemployment,

MUNICIPAL FINANCE   
Unstructured financial profile of urban local bodies
Capital investment requirement
High level of dependency on state government grants
Un-assessed properties for property tax base
Tax rates not being revised regularly
Irregular flow of specific grants
Irregular servicing of debt

PROPERTY 
Low coverage of properties by taxation
Low collection efficiency,
Inefficient user charge

SLUMS & URBAN POOR       
Security of tenure
Quality of housing
Access to infrastructure
Rehabilitation and resettlement
Problem of sanitation
Community toilets
Inadequate night shelters and security
High density with poor infrastructure
Issue of ‘unapproved slums’

PLANNING 
Infrastructure deficits
Unplanned growth
Constraint on growth in city areas due to natural or environmental constraints
Increasing gap between demand and supply
Inadequacies in the basic services in unauthorized clusters
Encroachment,
Non-confirming land use
Missing link between physical and fiscal planning
Protecting, conserving and managing heritage resources
Skewed spatial density distribution

TRANSPORT
Limited road space
Shortage of public transport system
Regional traffic through the city
Inadequate management of streetlights
Problems of roads and transport during festival season
Congestion in the old city areas
Lack of facilities for NMV
Rapid increase in vehicles
Lack of land use transport integration
Inadequate facilities for physically challenged, pedestrians
Inadequate parking
Multiplicity of agencies

WATER     
Nonrevenue water
Leakages
Losses in distribution network and transmission main
Inequitable Distribution
Obsolete distribution system 
High energy cost in water production and Distribution
Ground water pollution
Water supply Vs storage capacity gap
Ground water depletion
Problems of water supply on specific festival days
Unequal intra-city distribution
Inefficient network hydraulics,
Old and dilapidated networks
High pollution in distribution network
River/ Sea odor
Lack or failure of river action plans

SEWAGE   
Limited sewerage treatment facility,
Release of untreated municipal waste into rivers
Release of untreated waste into natural drains and open grounds
Disposal of industrial effluent into the city rivers,
Soft soil condition
Storm water management

DRAINAGE 
Frequent floods
Lack of proper drainage system
Silting
Uncontrolled solid waste dumping causing blockage,
Stagnation of water & waste water runoff
Backflow of water from the river system
Flooding during monsoon season

SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT (SWM)
Absence of effective primary collection mechanism
Inadequacy of waste dumping sites
Lack of scientific waste disposal
Continued use of open dustbins
Un-segregated waste disposal
Land availability for sanitary dump sites
Issue of industrial slag

HEALTH CARE    
Inadequate bed strength
Ill-equipped and inadequate operation theatre in some government hospitals
Ill-equipped corporation dispensaries and health posts
Unsafe hospital waste disposal practice

ENVIRONMENTAL
Depletion and pollution of water resources,
Degradation of forest cover
Deteriorating air quality
High incidence of environmental health problems

NATURAL  
Earthquake
Fire
Possibility of epidemic events



JNNURM CDP & Appraisal Report Source: http://jnnurm.nic.in/citywise-cdp.html

Dec 8, 2012

How representative are “Top something or other City” tags?

Why average outcome doesn’t work for average urban population?



Why city ranking may not necessarily be a reflection of the state and policies of a city and might not be of much direct or immediate relevance for average stable urban population other than attracting business and outside population and tourists? A city provides and should provide a very unique opportunity to each individual through its unique micro environmental influences which most often supersedes the average ambient environment of a city which is showcased by positioning of a city on varied ranking scale ranging from livability to competitiveness and so on. An average ambient environment of any city (economically or otherwise) might not be a reflection of actual environment for an individual or unique sets of individuals with similar needs, like - people falling under different hierarchical economic profiles from extremely poor to ultra-rich, working and voluntarily non-working population, skilled and unskilled section, jobless people, children, aging population, differently abled segment, entrepreneurs, educationalist, illiterate population, people with health and lifestyle issues,  government representatives, corporate lobbies and countless urban social hierarchies and so on and on, each segment with differing needs and aspiration seeking and demanding distinct opportunities and support structure! That “n”th global or national rank of a city which is representation of average situation of city life doesn’t make much immediate sense to each of the above segments since most of the population is either one side or other of average with their very distinct situations and needs from the projected average. It’s not much of relevance unless it gets translated into their customized needs, enhanced economic condition, lifestyle and peace of mind and doesn’t directly relate to their livelihood opportunities and their specific needs. 

Apparently, there is a fundamental issue with the methodology and process of determining rank of a city. An issue with “Samplifying” the population, though samples apparently being inclusive and heterogeneous! Simply being inclusive won’t work, choosing a heterogeneous sample groups also won’t, because both of these approach will only lead to an average outcome, a clumsy generalized outcome which is bound to be alienated from the highly specific needs of individual components and groups which makes the society, which makes that supposedly heterogeneous and inclusive sample as well. Needs of a highly diversified society or a city with further diversified economic profile, age group, ethnicity, regional needs, conditioning and so on can’t be met by a single average solution, no matter how inclusive that solution sounds, no matter how heterogeneous was the sample. For example, you can’t simply average out the needs of a beggar and a millionaire, both part and parcel of a city, and come up with an average solution which should work for both of them. They need totally different solutions to grow and sustain. Hence the ranking of city based on accumulative impression of its different components, both tangible and perceived, which is an “Average” might give a deceptive impression of opportunities which any city provides for its inhabitants, does that sweeping statement like the best city to live in or so means that this particular city provides equal or ample growth opportunities for millionaires as well as the poorest section of the city or to the diversified segments as discussed earlier, or does it anyway gives an account or impression of having diversified livelihood instruments and strategies in form of public policies for different strata of city society. Public strategies and instruments are very distinct and regional in nature which can’t be quantified in a manner to be compared globally or nationally on a same appraisal scape with other cities! We need a very tender approach to deal with specifics of urban livelihood opportunities and state of its people, ranking seems over simplification at times, we need to do a reality check!

All said and done we still agree that city ranking is must, whether on the scale of livability or competitiveness or so on! Because it gives a scale of competitiveness on which city heath is monitored and compared with the benchmarked cities. A scale, on which the growth performance of a city can be monitored! Hence it helps shape the aspirations of a city and helps pave the way for its sustainable future. City ranking has a larger purpose to serve than just to conclude the state of infrastructure and ambient environment, city ranking creates an image of a city which further draws attention of world and hence attracts investment and generate revenues which further gets channelized in the making of a city through increased economic activities, strengthened infrastructure, enhanced regional accessibility, increased livelihood opportunities and so on. But apparently still city ranking is more of the external representation through its image building aspect than the state of actual internal health and opportunities in a city! Also a catch here, while creating a positive image of a city through ranking tools, originally envisaged to attract business and high spending population i.e. tourists, corporate activities etc., this enhanced image also accelerates the process of in-migration from the neighboring regions in search of better projected livelihood opportunities which further calls for urgent expansion of already constrained city infrastructure, delay of which can cause the damage to the same city image which they are deliberately trying to create, hence an image deficit vicious cycle. Focus has to be on autonomous networked decentralization in the region through regional ranking instead of / in addition to city ranking which otherwise encourages choking concentration of city. City doesn’t function in isolation; it’s a resultant of overlapping regional activities hence the focus should be on regional ranking, a periodic regional assessment, assessment beyond SWOT, call it ranking or whatever, which is much inclusive and more realistic in nature.