Changing Scale of Innovation – from Architecture to Urban Planning

By- Anoop Jha

Next generation of Urban Planning inspired by Architecture Evolution

Evolution of Construction Technology and new construction Materials inspired the Architects in past to experiment with the form, scale and aesthetics of buildings, technology fueled the growth of architectural innovation and the broadened vista of modern architecture. Complex and sophisticated simulation tools and software, advanced construction equipments, advanced structural engineering and emergence of new stronger and flexible construction materials combined with creativity of Architects made this architectural revolution possible. Urban planning was of relatively much larger and complex nature, incorporating architecture as one of the element. For the long period of time technology was of little importance in urban planning except the transportation revolution of Mass Rapid transit systems and emergence of steel as high-rise construction material which shaped the development of urban planning to some extent.

Technology in recent past has made tremendous development like satellite images and advanced mapping technology, Geographical Information System (GIS), sophisticated analytical tools and software, new resource management techniques, modeling prediction tools, automation, integrated infrastructure systems etc. and it is growing exponentially, which is giving tremendous possibilities for urban planners to experiment in the field of urban habitation, buildings of near impossible height and scale, urban transit systems, environment, and core urban infrastructure, utilizing resources, use of previously untapped potential of region and inaccessible terrains, and planning in extreme climate. We can see the impact of state of art technology manifesting itself in the new planned cities, future urban development proposals, emerging revolutionary thoughts on next generation of cities. The kind of innovation which was only visible in architectural domain till recent past is now have become a regular feature of urban planning processes an proposals.  

How reliable are socio-economic future projections?

By - Anoop Jha

There are always some uncertainties of projections in planning process.

While preparing vision and development plans, planners heavily depends on socio-economic projections short to medium and long term. Based on such projections development plans are proposed for a region or a city, both strategic as well as physical plan. It is an effort to look into the future and plan according to that. For regional vision plan these projections are based on analyzing voluminous amount of social and economic data of the region collected over long period time and referring to survey data archive, which shed some light on decades of  growth pattern of the region. For urban and regional projects, projections are made based on samples collected over relatively shorter period of time.

There are number of theories, school of thoughts, methods and simulation tools which have evolved in course of time for the socio economic projection. Data gathering process are becoming more and more efficient, Simulation tools are getting faster and efficient as well capable of handling large amount of data in no time, Still there is an uncertainty of projections in current planning projections. Future Projections are as accurate and reliable as its tools are i.e. gathered data, sample questionnaires, size of sample, hetroginicity of sample, inclusiveness of sample, simulation tools- software & Computers,  apart from that there are  other factors like willingness and efficiency of of consultants/ surveying agencies responsible for the outcome, human error, time constraint, political influence. Under so many of environmental influences future projections are bound to be hazy, hence there should be certain provisions of  compensatory flexibility both in terms of tangible and intangible inputs in the planning model, especially in physical planning and development plans, to make plans as realistic and as accommodative and future proof as possible.

Intercity travel congestion - Need for a new regional planning approach

By - Anoop Jha

Too much focus on urban planning and too little regional planning

Intercity Transport

Regional Development Plans in terms of intercity mobility plan are long term planning process which are primarily Policy level decisions and most of the time such projects remain stagnant at strategic level. Very few of these projects gets implemented in time while situation keep becoming increasingly critical, for example- intercity traffic congestion.

Most of the proposed projects are capital intensive and hence undergo long review process and witness relatively less thrust from political arena, while other mounting  large numbers of smaller projects at urban level demands immediate attention at the same time and witness  more political willingness, due to relatively shorter implementation period and medium to small  investment in comparison to regional development project, particularly in Transport sector. 

At national and regional scale government has so many pressing priorities in terms of public welfare and social infrastructure like, health, education, water and sanitation etc. that they tend to push  back some elements of physical infrastructure projects like upgradation, widening of existing intercity roads, crucial regional transport junctions, new bypasses, and expressways link roads.  In regional transport plan another reason of choked intercity transport corridors and delayed project implementation is that regional plan are placed lower in terms of prioritized projects, because their immediate priorities are close to core of the city and as we go further from center of the city nature of project starts changing from urban to regional, and projects in regional category are part of later phases of the projects and mostly strategic in nature with some physical planning proposals. 

Need is to identify and prepare  exhaustive list of planning indexes like, demography, revenue, technology,  covering large spectrum of subjects and society, and based on those index a blanket matrix should be created to arrive at more realistic priority list of project.

Perception of space – a function (f) of day and night

Dramatic shift in Perception of Space during Day and Night.

Day and Night, an ever existent inseparable phenomenon, it’s an external influence on the perception of space, architecture and built form, an environmental influence which alter the experience of space in dramatic way, but we pay very little attention on such a wonderful aspect of such powerful influence while planning an urban setting, or while designing interior of a building. 

In day sun light is ambient and almost omnipresent when it comes to outdoor urban setting with an interplay of light and shadow, but mostly the experience of any specific outdoor space is more or less uniform and little monotonous throughout the day, while night provides infinite possibilities to create, mould, play with space, volume and ambiance outdoor as well as indoors using variety of light sources. Volume of space is directly proportional to intensity of light source, sources of artificial light give a totally different perception on a dark night compared to day time since the space that we perceive and experience in night time. In this case the bright perceived space slowly merges into the  dark sphere of night. Hence night provides ample scope of creating user experience in an urban setting and its responsibility of planners, and architects  and landscape architects to plan and design lighting of public spaces as well interiors of a building with an aim to provide a unique experience of end use in night period. 

Definition of “Per Capita Consumption” need to be modefied - Water Sector

By- Anoop Jha

Apparently “per capita consumption” figure is used in financials, estimates and projections of every project, and DPRs across the country and across the sectors, but apparently age old definition (Per Capita Demand in litres per day per head) and formula of “per capita consumption” seem to be flawed and vague. Let’s consider Water Sector for example.

There are few reasons for this apparently flawed 

First, this formula invariably assumes that all the water is being consumed at household, institutional or community level for some useful purpose, but that is not the fact. The fact is “the collective water losses at household and institutional level are huge in any given community, settlement, or housing society”, leaking taps, pipes due to “lack of maintenance and willingness to maintain” and water wastage related to casual behavior of users “due to lack of education and sense of responsibility”  are a regular phenomenon of almost every household. Planning bodies and Policy makers have to understand that unless they stop these water losses or unless they change the definition from  “Per capita Consumption” incorporating the water losses, there demand estimates, future projections, projects cost estimates, will inevitably  be vague and skewed,

Some interesting extract from the discussion on “India Water Portal” (indiawaterportal.org) on the similar subject are as follows-

Link: http://www.indiawaterportal.org/ask/5409

“ When the norm for a large city is 250 lpcd, it doesn’t mean the residents actually get or use 250 lpcd. A large city has many other water needs such as public use in offices, railways stations, commercial places, for fire fighting, public horticulture, etc. All these are distributed over the population and indicated as per capita use” - Chetan Pandit

“The norms do not take in to account the climate. No distinction is made between Delhi that has a huge water requirement for desert coolers in summer and a bath twice a day is not a luxury; Pune that uses some coolers but not as common as Delhi and usually bath once a day is enough; and Copenhagen where the maximum summer temperature in 17 C and most of the time it is below 10 C” -Chetan Pandit

“Water consumption is affected by various factors which are variable and hence it is difficult to precisely assess the demand of public. There are empirical formulas available for estimating a fair value of domestic consumption for design of water supply systems. However, Indian Standard (BIS):1172-1993 is the basis of 135 litres/capita/day. This 135 litres/capita/person includes drinking (5 litres/capita/day), Cooking (5), Bathing (55), Washing of clothes (20), Washing of Utensils (10), Washing & Cleaning of house (10) and flushing of toilets (30 litres/capita/day)” - J.Harsha

Second, basis, thumbrules, lifestyle, requirement and related values for arriving at “standard per capita water consumption” in different urban areas changes in courses of time and cahnge as per seasonal variation which need to be accounted for calculation per standard water consumption” Standards need to be revised after a certain time interval.

“Details of present norms for water consumption are available in CPHEEO Manual on Water Supply and Treatment and Per capita water supply in selected urban centers of India is available at Water Supply, Sanitation and Solid Waste Management in Urban Areas by National Institute of Urban Affairs, 2005”

Third, accuracy of standard per capita water consumption figure is directly proportional to the size of sample (no. of household) surveyed, which may vary from agency to agency which prepares the report. Larger the sample more realistic the results would be. There should be Policy norms for minimum size of sample to be surveyed and heterogeneity of the sample.

PPP based Solid Waste Management (SWM) Projects

By - Anoop Jha

By- Anoop Jha


COST COMPARISION  OF SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT (SWM) PPP PROJECTS IN INDIA

(Cost in Rs. Cr.)

PPP for solid waste management 

Here are some cost comparison figures of Solid Waste Management (SWM) Projects in India based on Public Private Partnership (PPP). It appears that now focus of municipal bodies has started shifting towards waste to energy generation which would prove imperative for sustainable cities. Earlier dumping the waste at disposal sites or incineration were the only few possibilities for ever-growing city waste management, but emergence of new technology like plasma gasification and vitrification (PGV) is showing way forward for waste to energy generation possibilities in environmentally sustainable ways compared to other historically prevalent waste management options.

Source: www.pppindiadatabase.com

Urban Infrastructure : Investment Vs Operations and Maintenance (O&M)

Investment Vs O&M

Urban Infrastructure Cost

Per Capita Investment Cost by Sector

(Rs at 2009-10 prices)

Source:  Report on Indian  Urban Infrastructure and Services 

Per Capita Operations and Maintenance Cost (annual) by Sector

Source:  Report on Indian  Urban Infrastructure and Services 

Urban Infrastructure Investment Requirement (2012-31)

(Rs crore)

                            

Source:  Report on Indian  Urban Infrastructure and Services 

Operations and Maintenance Expenditure by Sector (2012-31)

Source:  Report on Indian  Urban Infrastructure and Services 

Pattern of per Capita investment in different urban infrastructure sectors and O&M cost are somewhat different from each other, while Urban Roads demands more capital investment , Water Supply, Sewage, SWM, Urban Road & Transport require more O&M investment. 

"Water utilities in India are typically able to recover only 30-35 per cent of the operations and maintenance (O&M) cost.Even with current levels of highly inadequate service, solid waste management accounts for 25-50 per cent of a ULB’s expenditure (World Bank 2006), but cities recover less than 50 per cent of the O&M cost, according to a study by the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India. ULBs will be required to invest 54 per cent on capital investment and close to 25 per cent on the O&M of physical assets by 2021-22. In practice, user charges cover less than 50 per cent of the O&M cost of basic infrastructure services in India, on an average"

Source:  Report on Indian  Urban Infrastructure and Services 

Urban Infrastructure Investment Requirement in India : 2012-31

Urban Infrastructure Investment Requirement: 2012-31 (Rs crore).

Total Expenditure        3918670

 Urban Roads              1728941 

 Urban Transport         449426 

 Renewal and Redevelopment including Slums 408955 

 Water Supply             320908 

 Sewerage                   242688 

 Storm Water Drains   191031

 Capacity Building       101759

 Traffic Support Infrastructure    97985

 Solid Waste Management         48582

 Street Lighting            18580

 Other Sectors             309815

"Almost 44 percent of urban infrastructure investment over the 20-year period  is accounted for urban roads. The backlog for this sector is very large, ranging from 50 per cent to 80 per cent across the cities of India.  Sectors delivering urban services such as water supply, sewerage, solid waste management, and storm water drains account for  about 20 per cent"

Source:  Report on Indian  Urban Infrastructure and Services 2009-2010

Critically polluted industrial clusters in India

State -wise Polluted Clusters No. and Location

Source: pib.nic.in

State-wise prevalent Public Private Partnership (PPP) format

[Handpicked Books]

Infrastructure priority Matrix of India

By - Anoop Kumar Jha

State-wise infrastructure priorities in India-

Acknowledging the need of Flexible Norms and Innovation Support for short-to-medium term housing needs of Urban Poor and Underprivileged segment

By Anoop Jha

Cities and towns of India are living in a perpetual dilemma of “need to provide decent housing to urban poor as per standard norms” Vs “apparent inability to provide even a minimum standard living in growing squatter settlements or slums”. This phenomenon seems inevitable and city authorities seem to be helpless in dealing with this issue, blaming to financial resource constraints, unless they understand the need to review the standard housing norm and make it more flexible to find out whether there is any intermediate solution to fill the gap of this vast disparity even between poor (Lower / lowest Income Group) and poor (Slum dweller, beggars etc.). 

[Handpicked Books]

There is an urgent need to discuss definition of what we call “Standard” in terms of housing or dwelling needs, and the significance and validity of this “standard norms” if we have always failed to provide even a minimum need of safe and respectable shelter to a major segment of urban poor living in slum. We are caught in the illusion of utopia that we will fulfill the housing needs of all as per standards fixed by governments and planners, and fail to see and admit that the fact that under such acute resource constraint, and ever-growing influx of population from rural to urban areas, poor people are finding their own ways to fulfill their housing needs, constructing houses out of junk materials- tin, plastic sheets, cardboards, thermocol, any object or material they find rejected by the city, living in an unsafe and unhygienic conditions. Do planners feel responsible to them, at all? There are buzz words “Slum Networking” “integrated slum” etc., but those are for streamlining existing slums and squatter settlements, what about the slum being built today, what about tomorrow?

City administration will have to increasingly play a role of facilitator and inventor rather than just provider to fulfill short to medium term housing needs, they have the resources and skill sets, thsy have the talented architect and planners and financial brains, to provide a better shelter; they can help and facilitate those poorest of poor people to build their own home with those same materials which is considered junk, providing much decent homes which are structurally sound, planned with proper infrastructure. Some R&D is urgently needed on the similar line of thought.

Following is the abstract from pib.nic.in - (along with comments)

"There are various reasons for creation of slums of which the most important are as follows

(i)    Increased urbanization leading to pressure on the available land and infrastructure, especially for the poor.

(ii) Natural increase in the population of urban poor and migration from rural areas and small towns to larger 

     cities. 

(iii) Inappropriate system of urban planning which does not provide adequate space for the urban poor in the       City Master Plans. (This is what planners and policy makers need to acknowledge. City Master planning has to be an inclusive process, and adequate provisions have to be made for urban poor for a sustainable city plan)

(iv) Sky-rocketing land prices due to increasing demand for land and constraints on supply of land.

(v) Absence of programmes of affordable housing for the urban poor in most States. (The definition of affordable housing itself has to be changed..innovative construction techniques, new materials, check on wastage of material during construction, mass production, low cost housing techniques are some of the key ingredients which might change the definition and cost of affordable housing)

(vi)  Lack of availability of credit for low income housing. (Finance has to be generated partially from Government & Aid and rest from the financial resources mobilised from the community itself, no matter how poor is the individual or a family, collectively a poor community can mobilise a considerable amount of resources in terms of finance and labor)

(vii)  Increasing cost of construction."  (This is where innovation comes into picture, housing with innovative use and reuse of materials, pool of bright talented architects and planners should come forward with innovative ideas for the same, in the guidance of Govt.)

Anoop Jha is an Architect Planner with specialization in Urban and Regional Planning