Involving designers and engineers in urban policy-making for assuring policy success and sustainable built environment.

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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Policy by its very nature mostly remains abstract and sometimes open to interpretation. Urban policy aspirations related to built environment, have to eventually trickle down from vision to some form of project i.e., to brick-and-mortar level. Such policies also effectively have to reflect in improved quality of life and sustainability parameters like resource optimisation and energy saving, as an outcome. The successful outcome of policy hence depends on whether the policy is closer to ground reality or not.

In the long value chain of city-making affair, usually “urban policymakers” and those who are actually responsible for execution of project i.e., “designers and engineers”, represent two opposite ends of the spectrum. These designers and engineers usually have little say in urban policy formulation related to built environment. This is because the process and information flow in public institutional hierarchy follows similar linear project management model. i.e., top-down; characterised by similar hierarchy and dyadic extremities. Urban policy making though try to represent and incorporate insights from several stakeholders, still essentially remains a top-down process.

First, analysing design project management itself, wondering why design projects for instance tend to overshoot project budget and timeline? Possibly for two main reasons, one in the top down project management process, budget, client negotiation processes, etc. are usually dictated by management higher up or departments/ experts different than planning and engineering (i.e. procurement, financial, legal etc.), who sometimes may or may not be having complete exposure to dynamic day to day design and execution challenges involved in range of built environment projects or may be having limited comprehension of how design and engineering project may get affected in different possible scenarios and in different site context. Hence missing out on critical insights of other bottom extreme of project management value chain, i.e., designers and engineers; while formulating project budget and time frame. The second aspect which may not be directly related to above policy discussion but still noteworthy related to budget and time overshoot is that project management processes like standard operating procedures (SOPs) and tools including many software don’t explicitly factor in real-life challenges and don’t allow to test scenario building, out of scores of possible scenarios which may directly or indirectly impact project. Apparent from the fact that how design projects and project management processes/ software struggled to respond in real time at the onset of the pandemic, despite knowing that the force majeure or Acts-of-God may become a reality at any time; despite having robust industry accepted project management SOPs.

Designers and engineers here imply material experts, product designers, furniture designers, interior designers, architects, building engineering experts (MEP - HVAC/ Electrical/ Plumbing experts), ICT/ intelligent building management experts (IBMS), green building experts, infrastructure experts (Dry/wet utilities), and now emerging circularity experts, who actually design and execute the very constituents or building block or unit of built environment or a city i.e., neighborhood, building/ housing unit or its components, with all its material composition, furnishing, and appliances.

Designers and engineers including project managers, for instance, are those who are usually most close to the reality of execution, having the first-hand understanding of implementation and execution challenges and palpable ground realities. But, urban policy formulation and sometimes strategic report and action plans, related to built environment are traditionally formulated at a level, and with the kind of resources or skilled manpower involved, which may or may not be having the exact or hands-on understanding of sometimes bitter realities of project execution and context. Hence the insight and understanding of designers and engineers are vital for policy making and may simply dictate the success or failure of policy. These critical insights coming from designers and engineers are fundamental to policy formulation as they control the unitary elements of built environment. Any error or innovation at the unitary level has a multiplier effect. If we consider the household or individual house as a constituent unit of the entire population or city, for instance if we save or waste 1 kWh of energy per household, then at a city scale it may result in unimaginable energy saving or energy wastage. Designers and engineers are capable of offering such critical insights, information, modalities, and tools (to save material and energy for instance), which can be directly embedded into the urban policies related to built environment, leading to assured measurable benefits.  

Hence, if we incorporate the insights of designers and engineers in the policy formulation, the outcome of the policy will most likely be tangible, realistic and measurable. The abstractness of policy though is acceptable, but it should not stop policymakers to factor in empirical expertise and insights gathers from the other extreme end of city making value chain, i.e., that which comes from designers and engineers.

Author: Anoop Jha

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[Recent update

Starting 2024, launching urban management, interior design, home decor and commissioned artwork services in the Netherlands, serving local as well as international remote clients.

Please Note, that I am also conducting a FREE 45-minute online individual consultation on your interior design and home decor needs and aspirations if you are in the Netherlands or even internationally. Drop me an email at anoop.jha@gmail.com 

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

Instagram interior design page @urbantenets 

Instagram fine art and illustration page @urbanoregional 

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#urbanplanning #townplaning #cityplanning #circulareconomy #projectmanagement #infrastructureplanning #engineering #construction #biobasedmaterial #policy #publicpolicy #governance #Rotterdam #utrecht #Amsterdam #Hague #Netherlands 

 

 

City’s problem isn't congestion; problem is the way we approach to solve the congestion!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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Majority of city's problems can be solved by simply restructuring policies, but physical infrastructure is more lucrative an option for many.

You can pump millions of dollars in augmenting and upgrading city infrastructure, of course you should, but city in its functionality will still remain a mess and increasingly convoluted unless you pause and think that what has been wrong with our planning approach, why it is that our planning solutions always seem to lag far behind the pace of growth, is it revenue constraints? No! Is it land constraint? No! It is nothing but common-sense deficit. It’s simple, if it doesn’t work go back to the drawing board, put you approach up-side-down or whatever, something different need to be introduced; at least as an experiment.

Our conventional planning approach borrowed from industrial age has remained more or less the same since decades, that is to put it crudely "Planning means addition", more people - let’s make more housing, more congestion - let’s make more flyovers, more heat let’s put more air conditioners and so on.

Building another affordable housing is not a problem but it’s also not the solution. Building another flyover will of course ease the traffic for sometime but it is also not the solution which cities are looking for. The single largest criteria of a livable city can be effortlessness of any city, but effort seems to be the mandate of our city life.

Have we ever considered why such sheer number of people are heading to metropolis in the first place apart from recreational purposes, it’s not because metropolis provide better employment opportunities, it’s because we simply fail to provide livelihood opportunity in small towns and villages. Can we suggest something to calm down this vary pace of regional population flux, instead of simply focusing on making another housing colony here in every metropolis, can we propose something which will help people earn their livelihood in the place of their choice not only in the place where they often come to struggle and survive.

Have we ever considered before making another flyover that why so many people and car out there on the roads in the first place, is it really necessary in this so called wired era for every single individual to commute to work to accomplish a job, is it that being physically present at a specified location every work weekday is of such monumental importance in a time of century were everyone claim to be virtually connected to everyone and having access to the resources of whole world on their finger tip. Considering this can we suggest something to reduce the very need or frequency of people to come to streets, people who commute to work 5-6 days a week or 24 to 40 hour a week.

Why people have to waste a substantial portion of their productive lifetime commuting on city roads or tracks, commuting long hours to work mostly doing nothing, may be listening to music or playing video game on their tab, why to commute to work unless they work in a factory like production environment.

You see we are so caught up in the debate of public transport vs. private transit vs. walkability that no one is willing to ask this fundamental question why does every one of you have to commute almost every day for the purpose of work choking almost every street of city, why have we created such system or business environment or society in general. We simply can’t seem to think of any other possibility than expanding infrastructure trying to meet the pressure of self imposed need of commuting for work.

Whether travelling through private or public transport or walking to work, it’s still a waste of precious time, energy and resources. Can you even imaging the lost opportunity cost of millions of people spending several hours commuting to work-home-work almost every day of their productive life. After decades of industrialization is it still so important even today for 200 employees of a random organization to agglomerate everyday at a specific place called office at a specific time to accomplish some work, majority of which can be done from anywhere in the world, majority of which on majority of days does not fundamentally demand physical presence of worker or employee in office. Can’t we instead of simply expanding the city and transport network think of reducing the number and frequency of trip to work? Can’t we think of increasing the share of recreational trip and reducing the work trip instead of aggressively focusing on increasing the share of public transport?

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This conventional additive approach of planning is a vicious cycle of inefficiency perceived as virtuous cycle and promoted relentlessly without delving deep into the roots of problem and without pausing and questioning the inertia of planning process. Instead of this additive approach, a supplementary approach of planning is needed for fostering and supporting equitable growth across the region, and at the same time conventional planning wisdom which is dear to many, need to be questioned!

Author: Anoop Jha

An inclusive city needs more than smart interventions!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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Inclusiveness is not a function of smartness of the city. A city that is labelled intelligent still can't guarantee inclusion across spectrum of inhabitants or equity of service level across range of end users with varying needs.

Talking of smart citizen app for instance, we must deliberate who are the end users and whether digital benefits get distributed across citizens equitably or is it even accessible to all. Thinking of those homeless, those who can't read, those who don't own phone not to speak of smart phone, those who speak a different language, those whose needs are not listed in app, those who are too young or too old to use it, those who cannot access app due to health conditions, those who are not aware that such app exist, those who are running outdated app, those who do not have best data speed plan or access to internet itself and many others - a citizen app may mean different things to different inhabitants of city and meaningless to some.

Likewise in case of smart public infrastructure, how many actually access and uses public wifi other than tourists and few motivated others; who all actually have time and mindspace to switch to public wifi to save a miniscule amount of money and why will they risk malware attack and phishing if they have to use it only once in a while and when their personal telecom provider already gives them enough data and bandwidth. Again benefits reaches to only limited segment, actually those who are already empowered.

Like health equipment market which is skewed in a sense that those who are already fit tends to buy or use it more to be more fit, similarly E-governance for instance is more empowering to those who are already privileged in some sense or other, while the life of most of marginalized or at fringe or having specific or special needs may still remain unchanged by the noble initiatives like E-governance and public wifi network.

A sense of inclusion, belongingness and well being in a city has a different meaning altogether than solving city functionality through digital intervention or otherwise.

So how do we make a city which accommodates everyone's need - digital way or old analog way or with a parallel system of high tech and low tech intervention or on demand digital services or near-omnipresent services delivery or tailored door step governance and service delivery especially for those forgotten, those having limited means, those in dier needs, those marginalized and those at the fringe to make an equitable society.

Author: Anoop Jha

#smartinfrastructure #municipality #digital #future #policy #governance #cityplanning #urbanplanning #townplanning #inclusion #socialscience

Success or failure of Urban Street Design is based on how you perceive it and what approach you follow!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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-Conventional approach of designing of urban road/ urban street is based all around physical "Space provision" i.e. minimum/ optimum Right of Way (ROW) required for vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian earlier a) based on Guidelines b) now based on traffic demand modeling; through these approach one can solve functionality but it still cannot assure to cater to diverse needs of urban street users

-Conventional approach gives a lot of focus on physical safety, but ultimate objective is not just to provide everyone safe passage and commute but its equally important more than ever that road/street users should not feel anxiousness, intimidated and bullied everytime they are on road/ street.

-Streets must be perceived as a conduit which is supposed to carry entities with different built, needs, capabilities, moving at a different pace, for different purposes, with different levels of demands, expectations and engagement as well as varying degree of impact and vulnerability.

-It's all in the name, damage starts from the moment you start designing it as urban roads instead of urban streets- Roads are for Vehicles, Streets are for "People First"

#transportplanning #urbanplanning #road #street #designcode #transport

PUBLIC TRANSPORT - Revisiting fundamentals

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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- There is no such thing as over creation of public transport infrastructure as where it is actually needed no amount of infrastructure is enough; still if you witness a ghost metro anywhere know that it's just bad planning.

- Know that not everyone rides a public transport out of choice or environmental awareness; for some there is no other choice

- Lack of last mile seamless, quality and safe connectivity to doorstep is single most deterrent towards use of public transport

-They might not disclose, but they should reach break-even much before projected time, and why not, as crowd keeps overwhelming the public transport system, pusing frequently the boundaries of design safety. Their perplexity, they can't show in their financial modeling sheet that design safety compromise of public transport system will be a frequent and regular phenomenon.

#publictransport #transportplanning #urbanplanning

What with data protection and privacy in smart city debate?

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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DataProtection and Privacy must be assessed without fixating on SmartCity.

Data vulnerability and privacy is a subject that goes beyond surveillance and facialrecognition and many a times has nothing to do with smart city, as people are usually no less vulnerable even outside smart city jurisdictions.

To give this a perspective, from the moment a child is born they tend to become a data point for someone or other, sometimes with or without parental consent depending on which part of world they are in. From their medical test report, to vaccination record, to genetic database, to TV shows they watch, to all the schools they go to or not, even those drop out from school become data points for some research or statistics. Strange enough this is achieved without children necessarily requiring to own a phone.

Collecting data from adults is far easier. Child again become a goldmine of data as they become adult, the moment they are obliged to own a phone without which it may be impossible to access even many day to day or other services in almost every part of world, or whether they own phone by choice. Interestingly our interaction, inaction and rejection (e.g. with website) all becomes equally valid data element for someone out there. 

Hundreds of access and tracking permissions that we give to random sites and apps including saving passwords and what not, all the cookies sitting in our phones and laptops, altogether with our linked identity, possibly makes us more vulnerable sitting at home compared to being out there in street facing surveillance cameras and street sensors.

We entrust and never usually question scores of institutions who take our important data and identity information, including banks, e-commerce, phone manufacturers, assuming they will protect it, but use of data by #governments and entities for smart city purpose remains a much debatable subject. Fear surrounding data and privacy is real and natural, as threats are also real and stakes are high. It is seen that governments and knowledge institutions across the world are increasingly getting aware of this fact and are relentlessly working on safeguarding data of their citizens in smart cities, forming policies, laws and contracts. They are also seen transferring knowledge to other municipalities equipping them for future smart cities. What is also required is national, regional and global cooperation and common framework of data privacy and ethics. Bringing all possible stakeholders of smart cities in the common wider net of law is also important as you never know who is teaching their machines what bias language.

The focus has to be on how to #anonymize and #safeguard data within the network and hierarchy of stakeholders.

Author: Anoop Jha

#data #egovernance #governance #policy #machinelearning #ml #iot #mobility #AR #VR #urbanmanagement #Rotterdam #Delft #Eindoven #Amsterdam #Utretch #Hague #Netherlands 

With possibilities of real-time response, universal payment etc. today there should be a far better public transport pricing mechanism!

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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The following may be true for a range of cities across the world.

When it comes to public transport of all kinds, while the process of ticketing and payment methods and modes have seen a lot of innovation, driven by technology over the past years and decades, but there seems to have been little innovation in the pricing mechanism of public transport ticketing.

When we think of ease and equity of population, but you still see the same decade or so old handful of deferred pricing mechanism like tourist ticket, day ticket, regular passenger discount pass, off-peak hour discount, and maybe age bracket discount. This is so outdated, while you can possibly charge on a scale from one percent to hundred percent of the ticket price (still honoring various categories of tickets mentioned above) based on the real-time occupancy level of the specific bus, tram, etc. at any given time, still running a profitable venture.

The pricing mechanism which is actually one of the most important affairs of the public transport sphere and which directly touches the lives of millions has remained static while everything else about public transport has changed mostly through technology, it's surprising.

Root cause, no authority or transport service provider would like to run the risk of changes in projected revenue from public transport for instance. Even if it means losing out on big profit possibilities (for both parties), as there is comfort in known! 

City is a unique place. You see scores of vacant unsold houses in many cities and you also see those struggling to buy own house and those homeless on the streets, all in the same city.

You also see in a city, public transport of different kinds, many a time running partially or near empty on one or many occasions of day, on one and many stretches of the city, every single day and over the years, and you see people who are not allowed to board these near vacant public transport modes without paying a pre-fixed price or pre-decided discounted price and hence you also don’t see the latent flux of people you could have seen otherwise if authority or transport service provider would have allowed them to board the public transport on a fraction of standard or discounted ticket price i.e., as low as 1% to 5% to 10% or other of the standard ticket price, as a function of public transport occupancy level. Just because no one wants to do the math, both parties are at loss including operators and users. 

Now considering baseline criteria as public transport quality is good, everyone uses a multimodal touch-and-go payment card and payment is made inside or at the entry of the transport system say tram, bus, (possibly LRT, Metro, train as well) etc.

Now if we use embedded sensors inside tram and bus (and possibly metro and LRT) for instance calculate the occupancy of this particular bus or tram at any given moment and allowing real-time adjustments in ticket prices for "this particular" bus or tram to the extent i.e., near vacant tram or bus means near zero ticket price (as the operator is anyways getting zero if the system is running empty, even marginal profit over business as usual is still a profit), hence pricing will keep changing for every next rider, mostly lower than typical pricing and never exceeding the standard ticket pricing, also prompting more people to board the tram or bus if they see it running at lower occupancy, knowing that they will have to pay lower or just fraction. Apps can provide such projected pricing reduction information about any particular route in real-time to prospective travelers. If we tailor the existing transport system through upgrade or retrofit and adopt a real-time pricing mechanism at this granular level powered by tech (e.g., sensor fusion, etc) both transit service providers and citizens will be winner in terms of benefits and savings respectively, and it will help people switch from private to public transport, a much desired ”model shift”.   

So real issue and opportunity is how to deal with occupancy level for (sometimes mutual) benefit of supplier and consumer?

Occupancy is a wonderful tool!

The hospitality industry learned this long back and hence early bird and last-minute discounts. The rental market is already thriving on this in some places. Aviation also leveraging it somewhat. Taxi services learned the other way around, how to inflate the price 2X or 4X or more through congestion charges. The public transit segment world over is still lagging far behind wrt innovation on real-time occupancy-based pricing (for price reduction not increase) with the unimaginable potential using real-time pricing adjustment mechanism with help of sensors and other connected technology.

Author: Anoop Jha

#smartcity #transportplanning #its #intelligent #trafficmanagement #policy #surveillance #databreach #ml #machinelearning #iot #delhi #mumbai #india #camera #urbanmanagement #urbandeveloent #Rotterdam #Amsterdam #DenHaag #Delft #Alkmaar #DenBosch #Eindhoven  #Utretch #Hague #Netherlands

 

What is to be considered basic essential scope for an urban development projects?

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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In a typical city wide urban planning proposal, greenfield city development plan and brownfield redevelopment scheme, one or several of following important elements/ steps still tend to get missed, overlooked or ignored. Missing some of these planning elements/ tools may come at a huge latent price which cities and communities might have to pay later on. These elements include but not limited to consideration for circular (economy) practices, pedestrian flow modelling, microclimate simulations [like heat island effect analysis, shadow analysis, flood modelling and flood management, wind flow analysis (computer based) or wind tunnel test (using scale model of build environment)], GIS based site suitability, underground utility survey (GPR), structural safety profile analysis of built structure/ assets in old and vulnerable (unorganised/ unplanned) neighbourhoods, disaster management plan (new CBDs, vulnerable pockets), fire risk profile analysis and evacuation plan (old CBDs/ congested neighbourhoods/ squatter settlements), blue green infrastructure plan, urban agriculture and so on.

For example, when we see cities increasingly getting flooded due to aggravated climatic conditions, without discrimination, affecting poor and rich countries/ cities alike; in this context we see cities in global north increasingly working towards watershed assessment, flood management and harnessing strategies, conducting urban flood simulation, taking a watershed approach in urban built environment; but many countries in global south are still lacking awareness on this front, in spite of facing such periodic flooding challenges. In this example whether urban flood is caused by climate change or encroachment of flood plain upstream or due to poor storm water management, urban flood modelling for instance must be integral part of any urban planning and development project scope; but flood modelling still seem to be missing from the consultant's scope/ project scope in many large urban development project RFPs. Likewise missing wind and shadow analysis, disaster management, pedestrian flow modelling and so on.

May be its time that apex planning authorities and academic institutions work together to formulate binding policy, defining essential elements of urban development projects. May be its time when we realise that things which were considered luxury or USP earlier, has now become essential for resilient urban planning, management and development. Like sustainability was once used to be project USP, but now we realise that being sustainable in urban environment is inescapable agent of planning and development, and has not remained just an USP, choice or luxury.

Author: Anoop Jha

#smartcity #climatechange #rfp #scope #policy #urbanplanning #urbanmanagement #alkmaar #sustainability #resilience #Rotterdam #Amsterdam #Utrecht #Hauge #Delft #Eindoven #Netherlands