Data mining of local print Media for contextual urban planning

By - Anoop Jha

Analyzing vast database of local and regional newspapers

Media is called the mirror of society and it tells the stories of any region and its people as seen and gathered with continuous efforts.  Imagine the amount of data and information media might have gathered collectively in course of decades of exploration, about any particular region, its people, community and their behavior, their needs and aspirations, their strengths and their opportunities, their social and economic dynamics and potentials. 


[Handpicked Books] 




This huge amount of data can be of tremendous importance for planners and policy makers, if filtered and analysed properly. Let’s take print media for the purpose of data mining since it would be easier to dig from the decades of archive, of national, regional and local newspapers.

Collage of print media

What’s the standard way of research for different planning projects? Planners are generally dependent on secondary data in elementary stage and primary data at later stage to arrive at a conclusion in term of what could be the best suitable plan for a city or region. 


When it comes to secondary data collection, most of the time it’s either published reports or online database which is user uploaded content on which they rely. This relevant information may be authentic, may be half baked, may be partially relevant, may be totally wrong or may not be available even.

Local & regional newspapers

What about local print media? Have we forgot to explore the rich and authentic information which the local newspares have generated across a large time span. Though its little tiresome to filter all those relevant information about the particular region or issue from the thousands of chronological issues of dozens of national and regional newspapers and magazines. But no information can be as authentic, precise and relevant as the collective database of this vast landscape of print media not even primary data. Need is to encourage and formalize a methodology to utilize this untapped knowledge of print media for the planning process.

Breaking the monotony of planning

By - Anoop jha

Interesting twist to parking plan

Parking Grid

Parking lot circulation showing innovative approach of planning grid which serves two purpose

1)It gives a holistic touch to industrial style rigid  parking grid with main organic collector route

2)It puts a desirable physical limitation on speed of car in parking area due to its curvature and alignment

Light Pollution - A nuisance seemingly out of control

By - Anoop Jha

Light Pollution propelled by shear lack of awareness


If you will conduct a survey asking city dwellers, including educated as well as  illiterate population of any developing country to name the types of pollution they know, they tell you water and air pollution, few of them might also tell you Sound pollution but, you will find only handful of population even aware of the phenomenon of light pollution. This is unfortunate that people don’t even know about the price they pay in the name of industrialization and development, not even aware of their rights to live in a healthy pollution free environment.

There is a very simple and straight reason for all this unawareness - there is no curriculum throughout the hierarchy of education ladder that teaches the existence, cause, effects and resolution of light pollution. At least it wasn’t included in course structure in recent past. Another reason of lack of awareness is that majority of young population who were born and brought up in city and have not visited or spent time in any rural area or outskirts of city, they don’t even know that how does a clear night sky look like. They haven’t observed stars in real, lying on the terrace of their home, or in front lawn of their home, because majority of them live in compact flats in the comfort of controlled indoor temperature, they have only vague memories of star filled sky from a movie or childhood imagination of stories that their grandparents used to tell them. Possibly Light pollution is more of intangible in nature and awareness, hence planning communities as well as city authorities are more concerned with the tangible issues whose effects are visible and well known by citizens like water and air pollution.    

Acute phenomenon of light pollution calls for strict urban lighting Guidelines and Regulations whether people are aware of it or not. Parallelly an education drive needs to be conducted throughout the country to make people aware of the illness of industrialization, massive unregulated developments, their rights, emerging global phenomenon.  

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.