Why planning and development efforts should increasingly shift focus from confined city boundaries to city-region scale.

City regions, made of multiple cities and towns are characterised by mutual influences, unavoidable impacts and necessary interdependencies.

For instance, when the housing demand in one city exceeds supply of residential stock, nearby cities and towns start to feel the pressure and real estate activities start to accelerate. When real estate prices start to escalate in one city then businesses start to flee to other nearby cities and neighbourhoods. When one large city feels infrastructure capacity constraints, the nearby towns start to witness increasing investments in infrastructure upgradation and augmentation to leverage and embrace growth they are about to witness. When one city starts to experience frequent congestion, it may also be a result of simultaneous development several miles away in nearby satellite towns and neighbourhoods.

With city boundaries increasingly getting blurred on functional parameters like mobility and housing; environmental parameters like microclimate and pollution; economic parameter like commerce and trade; it makes sense to have a renewed focus on concerted efforts at regional or cluster level, in terms of shared vision formulation, spatial planning and development framework preparation. In a regional, setting nearby satellite cities and smaller towns are seen to have dyadic and complimentary relationship with larger city and stimulus effect on neighbouring towns and neighbourhoods.

Acknowledging that the problems and opportunities of any town is a resultant of regional dynamics, it is imperative that cities should look beyond its physical administrative boundaries for resilient, timely and appropriate answers i.e., at a city-region scale. City-regions shall benefit from coordination and cooperation to achieve a critical magnitude to attract national and international attention, actors, skillsets, investments and public funding.

Based on the regional strengths, shared history, resource characteristics such city-regions can formulate shared growth vision, thematic identity (smart city region, specialized regional hub, heritage tourism circuit, ecological zone etc.), prioritise investments, forge new partnerships and devise new joint governance mechanism.

This case is especially relevant for the #Netherlands as there are more than 40 such poised city municipality regions which may benefit if they adopt a shared growth vision, create or revisit common unified development framework for city-region.

Author: Anoop Jha

#smartcity #smartcityregion #smartregion #urbanplanning #regionalplanning #networkgovernance #transportplanning #urbanmanagement #urbandevelopement #technology #urbanplanning #exhibition #globalnorth #Amsterdam #Utretch #Hague #alkmaar #noordholland #northholland #Eindhoven #Rotterdam #Netherlands

Typical contemporary city planning evolution, transition and future trajectory in short.

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

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INFRASTRUCTURE: Public obligation for basic provisions, to private participation for sustenance and risk distribution (commercial and political), to eventually being seen by private entities as investment opportunity, to cities that increasingly being seen as test ground for different infrastructure technology products (mobility, energy etc.), to circular infrastructure asset and services (optimisation, end of life-cycle usage, heat recovery etc.), to captive (solar) to off-shore (wind) to off-grid (P2P), to connected infrastructure/ home/ everything, to “all sorts of” infrastructure-as-a-service (mobility, hardware, software etc.), to customised infrastructure service/ experience (through blockchain)

ECOLOGY: Taming and reclaiming wilderness, to green as buffer, control and protection, to green as leisure, to green and open as statement of equality and inclusiveness, to green and open as barometer of liveability, to green, blue and open as resilient system (e.g., allow to flood), to autonomy (e.g., urban farming, urban food islands, seed bank) to rewilding (e.g., wild meadows, bee-hives and pollination)

HOUSING [& COMMERCIAL]: Community efforts, to class divide, to institutions getting overwhelmed accommodating workforce and matching infrastructure and amenities, to reliance on private actors filling gap, to private actors seeing opportunity for investment (real estate), to specialised actors and instruments (financial, mortgage, brokerage), to socio-economic stratification, to suburbanisation, to architectural innovation and experimentation (going high, prefab, modular, parametric), to entity level sustainability promotion (e.g., green rating, subsidies), to individual environmental awareness (carbon footprint, energy visualisation), to co-working to co-living spaces

PUBLIC FACILITIES AND SERVICES: From community interaction (town hall), to law and order (court of justice, prison), to maintaining peace (law enforcement) to administer (e.g., taxation) to managing day-to-day operation (e.g., modes of transportation) to meeting community needs (public parks, market places), to focus on inclusivity and equity, to involving private actors to fill gaps and increase quality of services, to private actors offering services beyond basic requirements, to private actors offering niche premium/ paid services to privileged, to emergence of service integrators, to services on demand, to virtualisation of services, to services in a parallel universe (metaverse)

Author: Anoop Jha

#urbanmanagement #urbanplanning #urbandevelopment #smartcity #smartcities #livinglab #infrastructure #PSP #communityplanning #Ecology #micromobility #publictransport #Rotterdam #Hague #Delft #Denhaag #Alkmaar #Utrecht #Eindhoven #Amsterdam #Netherlands

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

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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

How to measure dynamic social phenomenon, in what measurement unit and what is the way forward?

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

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When it comes to people, household and community; a varying level of granularity, and a range and gradation can be witnessed from micro, to macro, to global scale.

Looking at smallest groups to global community scale - for instance there are special family traditions, unique folklore of natives, healing traditions of remote communities, unique festivities of distant settlements, peculiar rituals within ethnic subgroups; unique cultural expression, attire and language within different ethnicity; peculiar climatic affiliation, characteristic cultural tradition and signature culinary flavour of region; unique habits, preferences and identity of nations; shared transnational image and layers of collective subconsciousness of world.

Above is a glimpse of spectrum of diverse socio-spatial phenomenon that exists at different scales, sometimes characterised by subtle non tangible traits, mutually exclusive elements, binding ethos, spatio-temporal mutation and often are amorphous and shapeshifting; hence many a times difficult to capture, classify and analyse, at city, regional, national and sub-regional scale.

How profound is this social dynamics, and how difficult it is to capture the essence, still essentially a measure of individual, household and community. Possibly the vastness and complexity of social dynamics is the reason that different specialisation and segmented approach emerged over time for measuring social phenomenon across scale from ethnographic to anthropological to scientific to political.

Also how limited and fragmented are the tools and measurement units available today to capture the dynamic social phenomenon in its completeness, as obvious from the fact that even after centuries there has been lack of comprehensive composite indices which measure, reflect and encapsulate the above social dynamics manifested at different scale, yet made up of same elements people, household and community.

While census, unique statistical identity of individuals and households, and socio-economic research in this area serves their own niche purpose, there is also a need for multidisciplinary empirical approach to come up with composite indices for measurement of social dynamics as a whole, within inescapable diversity of society, for better understanding of social phenomenon, sympathetic acknowledgement of community needs in its interaction and interconnectedness; which may in turn help urban, rural and community planners, as well as administrators to plan, prepare and deliver solutions in a better way.

Author: Anoop Jha

#Urbanplanning #communityplanning #ruralplanning #smartcit #urbanplanning #regionalplanning #urbanmanagement #urbandevelopement #Amsterdam #Utretch #Hague #Alkmaar #noordholland #northholland #Eindhoven #Rotterdam #Netherlands #resilience

Analysing regional spatial dynamics of metropolis - Smart Region approach

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

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Why we end up having one thriving satellite town and another ghost town next to same metropolis? Whether interrelationship of two adjoining cities can be redefined?

We have seen some greenfield satellite towns/ large residential townships around a metropolitan city thriving and some not doing so well and one or two of them may just qualify for a ghost town. The ghost town that initially came up with promising development vision bullish on being in vicinity of metropolis. Though these new towns saw a sudden growth in real estate activities but plummet soon as they eventually had no takers of property. Whether few kms away or close, we realise that success of a satellite town/ large development is not simply a function of distance from metropolis.

We see in this case that proximity in a metropolitan or city region may not just be a function of measure of distance unit (km/ mile). For instance in case of connectivity between two cities, lets think of "20km of 2 lane road with no public transport" vs "20km of 6 lane expressway" vs "20km of metro/ rail/ bus connectivity" vs "20km of electric bike infrastructure" vs "20km of smart corridor with connected infrastructure conducive for autonomous vehicles". Distance of 20 to 30km treated differently, may mean different things in a different conditions and prove to be a deciding criteria for success/survival of greenfield project outside metropolis.

 

It also implies that the success of any new development especially away from metropolis, (new township or satellite town) highly depends on external factors like good connectivity, but these external factors like connectivity often remains outside of means/budget, purview and scope of consortia of real estate agencies or local public administration; reinforcing the fact that a new satellite town or large development away from metropolitan city can only succeed -

1) if they have high speed multi-modal connectivity, range of mobility options, supportive corridor landuse, or

2) if it has either critical mass of mixed complimentary land usage within itself (work-home-commerce) for autonomy, or

3) if it is specialised enough to sustain on its own (university, science park, R&D ecosystem etc).

Silver lining? Yes, distance can always be manipulated with right interventions to make distances feel like within reach by making journey easy/ engaging/ meaningful. Which means that relationship and transactions (labour-housing-entertainment) of two settlements/ town/ cities (both existing and greenfield) in proximity can always be improved based on restructuring/ reconceptualising its transport linkages and restructuring landuse around transit backbone. This may be one of the key aspects of smart region.

Author: Anoop Jha

#urbanplanning #smartregion #smartcity #Amsterdam #Utretch #Hague #alkmaar #noordholland #northholland #Eindhoven #Rotterdam #Netherlands #mobility

What with (typical) agenda of bicycle, why it captures popular imagination and what is the missing piece of puzzle!

Why people support and promote bicycle agenda? Some support considering it is environmentally sustainable, promotes healthy life and community; some, reconsidering their values, choices and transportation means due to new enlightenment on subject, emerging from social, professional and commercial media. Social media in a sense that captures bicycle in all its action and glory all the time; professional media in a sense every alternate post talking about subject of new mobility beyond fossil fuel; and commercial media in a sense those promoted by scores of new businesses emerging almost everyday around idea of bicycle, bicycle infrastructure, MaaS etc.

A lot is happening in this space of bicycle, micromobility and at its periphery, as its still easier for an individual or a group of people to think of building a business around the subject of bicycle, e-bicycle, e-scooters etc. So we see lot of buzz and momentum around the bicycle agenda.

Why even some of those people support bicycle agenda even if they don’t own a bicycle. Possibly they relate more bicycles with safer streets, so good for them irrespective.

There are those who own car but still support bicycle agenda, either they use less car and more bicycle and public transport OR simply to go with the popular opinion OR to distinguish themselves from other (bad?) car owners, considering themselves good car owners. This including cars of all shape, size and fuel types.

Then from a panoramic world view-

There are those who support and want to use bicycle but they don’t have access to bicycle tracks and bicycle infrastructure in their city. (They are many)

There are those individuals and dual income household who / at least one of them cannot bicycle to work due to long distance of work place. (They are many too)

Lets just not talk about role of weather here, as there are always both examples to quote.

There are those individuals and those households who can't even afford the bicycle, whether for individual or for whole family. (There are way to many)

Lets also not forget those, who cannot manage without car, or cannot manage only with bicycle, considering the kind of personal, household or professional situation they are in. (Health, ability, old dependent members, household members with special needs etc.) (There are still many)

So, contrary to the popular notion, bicycle agenda is a complex subject, its not always about either “for” or “against” if you assess subject at global level, going beyond city and neighbourhood. Typical bicycle agenda has certainly lot to do with reducing dependency on fossil fuel, health and safer streets, but researchers, planners and policy makers must consider that individual, household and community choices are not always obvious or easy.

[Views and observations are personal] 

The problem of picturesque cities and towns!

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

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The beautiful and picturesque cities and towns, which are many here in Netherlands for instance; the problem with them is that every time you step out on to the street or from the moment you arrive in these scenic cities and towns, you run the risk of unintentionally getting captured in someone or other’s camera, unexpectedly and at an unimaginable frequency; either getting immortalised in someone’s digital archive or soon to be published on all sorts of social or professional media. You will find yourself surrounded by amature and professional photographers alike, who just can’t help capturing the beautiful surroundings and in the process capturing you, while you may find yourself doing the same. Come to think of it; not to speak of locals and camera-shy, though it may sometimes be amusing but many a times rather uncomfortable and scary experience, even for tourists. It somehow feels very awkward at times and sometimes a nuisance, it also feels very different than the passive city surveillance, which are increasingly being boasted as essential application for smart cities, while later can still be controlled and be anonymised.

Getting unintentionally or intentionally captured in someone’s (eg. phone) camera is a social problem for sure, rather it’s not just a problem of a picturesque city, it’s a problem of any city, any tourist attraction, any commercial district, any event, any workshop etc.

Thinking of solutions, it’s not that nothing can be done; but certainly, choice cannot be left at the user end.

So, on part of all phone manufactures, they may play their role by allowing automatic and default feature something like face blur for unintended persons in crowed situations or otherwise (without compromising on the subject of interest or overall aesthetics of composition), may be based on geolocation or some algorithm; possibly on their next launch.

Social and professional media platforms may play their responsible role again by automatically blurring the faces of people in background or adding Bokeh blur or some other effects during the process of picture upload to public posts and during sharing/ forwarding of photographs, possibly on their next upgrade.  

#city #touristcity #touristtowns #smartcity #urbanplanning #urbanmanagement #architecture #Netherlands #Amsterdam #photography #rotterdam #Denhaag #Hauge #Utrecht #Eindhoven #Delft #socialmedia #futurecities #facebook #linkedin #instagram #twitter #iphone #samsung

How autonomous our public spaces are, and why its worth consideration to think beyond contextual planning.

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

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Whether our public spaces are autonomous or do they only have identity and utility as a function of something else. Public spaces for instance, not being autonomous has an embedded problem, that is, if something else on which it depends, if that something else - the context - changes then public space may become defunct or underutilized.

The traditional urban planning and urban design values of context and surroundings are important but over-emphasis on context may be a compromise and sometimes inefficient way to deal with scarce resource.

Context in a built environment may change anytime or over a period of time due to forces of commerce, real estate, demographic changes, technological shifts, aggravated climate change impacts, and this context anchorage may hence be counterintuitive, a severe compromise on the quality of public realm for instance and even question mark on its existence.

Land is scarce and precious in a city and lifestyle dynamics is changing, so public spaces are expected to serve a purpose larger than its traditional perceptual value, they are expected to have a functionality beyond its established notion and planning and design which should look for its own identity and autonomy.

Hence the need of context independence (doesn’t mean anti-context) and autonomy of spaces (doesn’t mean incompatibility to surrounding) may be worth consideration.

Today, take water out of equation (for instance due to dry riverbed, polluted water) and our waterfronts may not function as envisaged; take buzz out of market place (unaffordable commercial real estate, vacant array of shops, emergence of new attractions elsewhere) and market squares may not perform as expected. If the context is gone, then once thriving public space may become deserted just like that, hence the need of autonomous public spaces.

So, the question to deliberate is, how do we plan and design our public spaces, rich and engaging enough, safe enough and attractive enough on its own, so that they function at its peak autonomously, irrespective of context, while having a context can always be an additional advantage.

#Urbanplanning #urbanmanagement #urbandesign #smartcity #publicspaces

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

www.linkedin.com/in/anoopjha

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

Human limitation of multi criteria assessment!

Computers seem to be more reliable and accurate in running algorithm and doing assessment compared to human for the reason that computers are programmed to process  numerous "if this"-"then that"  scenarios, while human being have this innate limitation in processing multiple criteria and  "what if" Scenarios; a dozen criteria and handful of scenarios and most feel this is all that is there which was needed. Until computers completely master the art of attribute selection and scenario building themselves and learn to take judgmental decision on their own, their assessment and outcome shall also be limited as they are still being programmed by very human being having prejudice and limitations of many kinds.

To illustrate, while deliberating with individual client or a family to design their dream home, how many architects  for instance consider the sun sign traits of client, inquire about their past, their medical history, their travel history, their bucket list, their life philosophy, their spiritual inclination, musical preferences, cultural orientation, their sensitivity towards light, their daily routine, sleeping pattern, their food habit, their environmental commitments and children's future aspirations, child's favorite game and comic character, their idea of space and scale  etc. Unfortunately most of these variables are purposefully or by conditioning or out of hesitation being missed out during client's need assessment, but all or any of these can add immense value to architectural design process and outcome. If architects won't ask, client won't tell, then without considering such variables which are integral to one's life and true personality, how will architects  produce truly personalised, holistic and humane design for example.

Likewise, when government is collecting census data or demographic profile about individuals or households, they really don't find it worthwhile to ask about individual's hobbies, their skill sets, their unsettled and future liabilities of various kinds, health issues they are struggling with, their affiliations, what they are engaged in post retirement, areas in which they would like to volunteer given a chance, etc. which are equally tangible and crucial pieces of information and valid criteria of assessment, having potential to create a better society and conditions.

Capability to acknowledge, consider and process multitude of criteria and endless possible scenarios is what differentiates one individual from another, one organization from other, one city administration from other, one governance scheme from other and sometimes may even one nation from another.

Author: Anoop Jha

www.linkedin.com/in/anoopjha

#Modeling  #financialmodeling #data #assessment  #analysis #algorithm #architecture #architect #governance #administration #nationbuilding #census #demography #survey #urbanplanning 

Some embedded economic bias in road and transportation planning and policy to ponder.

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

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Speed Breaker experienced differently by different price range cars; flat monetary penalty imposed on breaking any particular traffic rule experienced differently by different income group, one segment better protected while on road due to advanced safety feature of their car compared to not so privileged vehicle owner, VIP and reserved parking spaces in public domain and within public institutions, those opting public transport not out of choice or sense of responsibility but out of economic constraints, those opting private transport not out of ignorance but by choice since they can afford, similar workplace cutoff arrival time or same flexi-hour for those who are insulated from weather while on road (car) and those whose journey is tough and gets Interrupted due to changing weather conditions (bike/ bicycle), those who can afford to take shortcut toll route vs those who cannot, road tax which is not linked to intensity of vehicle usage but type and number of vehicle ownership and some more.

One or many or all may be applicable to any given city and needs a serious thought and deliberation on subject by planners and policy makers.

#transportplanning #urbanplanning #publictransport #tranport #road #design #architecture #economics #carbonfootprint #publicpolicy

Why it's high time to revisit architectural tradition, architectural wisdom and architecture education?

When kitchen's purpose, ideal design and it's appropriate space in a house was being concluded century ago or so, then architects actually had no vision of app based food delivery, home based chef, role of kitchen/kitchen products in remote elementary education, working women, gender equality in kitchen, work from home concept, how important kitchen waste reduction and management is and so on; when this matter is being discussed today, we hardly have any realistic idea how robots are going to take over kitchen in near-distant future, how 3D printed food may altar food production/ preferences, how IIOT/ IOT may impact farm-to-plate food supply chain, whether community/ township level bespoke food/ pizza vending machine may even render private kitchen obsolete.

When architects were convinced that there is basic necessity of having lobby, lounge, drawing room and dining room/area as essential elements of a reasonable house, they had no vision that majority of family individuals in future will spend most of their non-working hours/ personal work hours/ recreation hours/ study hours within two to ten feet range from their TV set and/or desktop/ study table/ gaming console; they didn't envisage that "Activity" and "lifestyle" (scrolling phone, tab, working/ entertaining on laptop, yoga mat time - all virtually devoid of space anchorage) will be paramount compared to need of "Formal Space" (drawing room etc.); they had no idea that family members will be doing part of talking/ communication / information exchange virtually (as a routine) even when present under one roof, getting rid of dining table discussion; they missed visualising that in future due to almost autonomous lifestyle of individual family members of a household it will be almost impossible to bring every family member to dining table, that too at same time and also not realising that with plethora of audio-visual choices and modes available, the empowered individuals in a family will lack the time, motivation and patience to gather in front of TV to watch a common channel, defying purpose of drawing room.

And likewise.

Come today- dining room mutating into study room, drawing room reinvented as gym and so on, calls for urgent need of revisiting the inherited architectural values and reinventing ideology of functional space.

Author: Anoop Jha

www.linkedin.com/in/anoopjha

#architecture #architect #urbanplanning #townplanning #space #interiordesign #decor #studio #design #art #habitat #housing #hfa #housingforall #smartcity #city #bhk #realestate #township #data #future #futurearchitecture #history #lounge #home

Ever-changing Technology Landscape that is making planning, design and life decisions increasingly tough!

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

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While you are thinking of purchasing an advanced EV that goes 396 miles per charge, another startup (Michigan) promises to launch an EV battery With a range of 750miles.

The moment you install a city wide Fast charging infrastructure that charges EV in 30 minutes, the new ultra-fast charging technology or startup (Israel) surfaces that promises to full charge EV in just 5 minutes.

The moment city municipality in one corner of world purchases a fleet of 200 modern buses an autonomous Driving Bus Line Officially Commences Operations in another part of world (Guangzhou).

By the time you sanction a mega hydrogen generation plant that uses fossil fuel based electricity, a new technology or company (California) emerges that uses sunlight to generate green hydrogen using "Sunlight Refinery" that stores solar heat to be used even in night making technology commercially viable.

As soon you clad building glass facade with very distinct conventional checkered blue Building Integrated PV glass, a new higher efficiency transparent PV Glass (California) makes way to renewable market.

By the time you inaugurate new building facility equipped with state of art fixed fire sprinkler system at the same time an auto-targeting fire sprinkler system emerges and provides a better alternative.

Unfortunately you can't change expensive city infrastructure at the pace and frequency that you change mobile devices!

Author: Anoop Jha

www.linkedin.com/in/anoopjha

#technology #EV #VR #IOT #AR #IIOT #Autonomousvehicle #Urbanplanning #PV #Energy #ClimateChange #SmartCity #smartinfrastructure #BIPV #power #IBMS #Startup #Future #tech

Why disaster means different things to different economic segments

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

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When fire strikes a premium residential apartment there are embedded fire fighting system in place, disaster management plan in place, near real time fire fighting response, insurance in place for compensation, legal framework to identify concerned accountable, Committee established to improvise future statutory regulations, life-savings to help get back households to second lease of life at the earliest.

When fire engulfs a squatter settlement or slum there is no insurance company to pay compensation, no architect to hold accountable, no firefighting bylaws to look for discrepancy, first fire fighting response is rarely able to navigate to fire incident spot, no post incident assessment wrt to fire regulations as who cares for statutory needs of squatter settlements, there is no handy financial reserve with households to get back on their feet sooner.

Though loss of any kind due to any disaster is unfortunate irrespective of economic strata, and there are layers of institutional, financial and community support available in such situations for both of them, still those at the lowest economic strata of society are clearly in much disadvantageous situation.

Citing illegality of squatter settlements and slums across the world the statutory and life saving needs of such habitats are completely ignored since decades; how ironical it is that while in one part of city the building plans are not approved by competent agency if they are not compliant to fire code and building bylaws and in other part of same city i.e. in squatter settlements and slums there is no policy in place or regulatory thinking neither any mechanism or physical measures to safeguard lives from fire for instance. Will they let inhabitants of squatter settlements and slums stay vulnerable to threats and disasters of all kind just as it seems overwhelming to deal with or whether something can be done, until everyone is rehabilitated, until there are no more squatters and slums in a city.

Author: Anoop Jha

www.linkedin.com/in/anoopjha

#urbanplanning #city #townplanning #squattersettlement #poor #propoor #fire #disaster #disastermanagement #firefighting #policy #governance #economy #slum #architecture #bylaws

Life-cycle gap in architectural services being offered!

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

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A typical house requires to go through not just periodic renovation but also series of remodeling across it's life cycle as a function of household's life events, lifestyle changes and life adjustment requirements. Home remodeling prompted by changes including but not limited to arrival of kids in life, children going to school, children getting married, parents getting old, realisation of yourself getting old and so on. These changes though obvious and imperative but neither being acknowledged nor getting addressed by architects and one time architectural services being offered, while home owners are left on their own to do the required readjustments to house, think of space planning and redefining space usage.

It's worthwhile that architecture fraternity give a serious thought to this challenge and gap that exists in rendering architectural services. Whether one time architectural service being offered can factor in all above requirements or whether architects can handhold their clients for lifetime or something else.

Author: Anoop Jha

www.linkedin.com/in/anoopjha

#Architect #architecture #design #building #realestate #urbandesign #urbanplanning #townplanning #city #smartcity #future #profession #corporate #business