As unsustainable as Print Command (Ctrl+P)!Universal blanket standardization of best practices to save our planet.

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

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(Reshared; original post 2012)

Oh, another bunch of refined paper goes to waste-bin thanks to extremely complex and varied document printing processes across the varied software environment, across the government, corporate and educational institutions, across the world. Taking heavier and heavier toll on environment with every “Ctrl+P+Enter”, possibly every second rather micro-second in some corner of world.

It’s fairly easy for a planner specially an architect planner to acknowledge this fact of unsustainable printing practice and track down the reasons behind that due to their diversified nature of work, active participation in software environment and multiplicity of technological affinity. An average planner with architectural background is usually familiar with at least 10 to 15 software even excluding downstream subsidiaries of parent software programs, comfortable working with 7 to 10 software and currently must be using 3 to 7 software applications spread across desktop to online to cloud based environment; Some frequently used software tools ranging from drafting to data gathering and aggregation, to data analysis and interpretation, to collaboration, to mapping and image interpretation to presentation and simulation and so on, printing system ranging from tiniest of printers to the largest of plotters available. And he or she can easily recognize that one thing common in all these tools, systems and activities, is that nothing is common when it comes to Ctrl+P, i.e. print command i.e. printing process. Hence the huge environmental losses!

It’s not that you must have a global authority to control printing behavior across this technological landscape, its more about morality of tech-producers, corporate management as well responsibility and choices at user’s end. Still, it won’t be a bad idea to have some form of global printing governance and management through a nodal or distributed agencies across the globe just to identify, evolve and clinically establish the best probable practices in printing, standardizing and implementing the best printing practices and related programming practices through integration at software programming stage itself or to introduce plugins at regular intervals as tech-retrofit or to printducate (education of best practices about printing) while kids are still getting educated or even through organizational incentives if needed. Some examples of technological intervention even if you consider these at lighter note can be like default “Always draft mode otherwise specified” setting across the printer and plotter community and product lines across the world no matter small or large, something like having two big display/ push buttons one green and one stark red which will appear the moment you press the Ctrl+P (print command), green bottom (default draft mode) saying something like- “Thanks for choosing me because you are helping mother nature to thrive, btw do you really need to do even this?” and the red button (customizable for higher resolutions) saying “think twice before going ahead with higher-resolution, with this single click you might add little more burden to our mother nature, can’t you think of some other way to communicate to help save little more of ink cartridge and little more of paper?”

One interesting and probably right observation and recommendation is that we might need to revise the definition and perception of Draft Print Resolution. At present drat image or text resolution is kind of too much pixelated draft, and creates vast disparity in the outcome of high-resolution (even normal-resolution) and draft-resolution print, hence more and more people are opting for either high or normal resolution across the organizations, leaving draft unattended. We need to raise the print resolution of default draft resolution little higher than the present configuration so that people do not immediately make higher resolution print choices discarding the draft.  There is one dilemma here as well, a common educated person, environmentally conscious as he or she thinks of himself or herself, making more damage to environment than the average person with stubborn but consistent printing behavior.  Most of the environmentally conscious persons take draft mode printouts as a natural choice to protect the environment only to realize that printouts are too hazy, unclear, un-presentable to the client or audience and they end up taking same print again in normal or higher resolution format (shear wastage point No. 1, in the name of being environmentalist), they also tend to take higher size/ A3 content on an lower size/A4 paper in their deliberate (sometimes showing-off) effort to save paper/ environment, only to realize that the texts printed are almost unreadable or at least not presentable and hence they end up taking printouts again on larger size paper (shear wastage point No. 2, in the name of being pro-green or something), same story in case of slide Vs handouts as well. All of this wastage can be avoided just by keeping print command in universally default draft mode while making draft mode with little better resolution format so that people don’t always have to make choices between mostly discarded draft mode and frequently chosen normal or high resolution mode for print.

A random thought which also comes to mind is that may be the life cycle cost of providing every student and employee an upgradable device like ipad or tab or something for the regularized communication, discussion and presentation purpose within the premises or on the go might be much less than lifecycle cost of all the printing gimmicks that goes across the educational and organizational landscape (someone need to do the math), annual, monthly, quarterly, weekly and daily reports sometimes in hard copies, documentation and stacks of documents in so called database or reference library, presentation pamphlets, organizational profile handouts, educational assignments, submissions and so on and on; you know it better or better know it early! Similarly the lifecycle cost of buying and operating ipad or tab or something for reading news (which also has added customization advantage) might be much-much less than the lifecycle cost of buying newspaper for rest of your life. Just a thought though!!       

Need for printed information is not going to go anywhere anytime soon but we can always find out better ways to communicate and better print management at product design end as well as programming and user end, to save the paper and ink cartridge, just to contribute a bit for making this planet a better place!! 

Subtle power dynamics within urban development projects and role of urban management professionals.

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

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What may happen if urban planners and urban management professionals take a step back, stay in steering role and allow subject matter experts to lead a particular planning and development conversation and how sectoral knowledge will shape the conversation? 

If storm water is given focus then urban blue and green infrastructure may dominate the discussion.

When waste is a considered an urgent issue then circular economy will possibly shape the conversation.

When landscape is dominant matter then urban heat island and urban equity may become dominant conversation theme. 

If energy is considered burning issue then energy security and energy transition pathways may shape the outcome. 

And so on, none of the above areas are less import then other. 

Now, even if above scenario may not be possible all the time due to time and other constraints, it only emphasises that urban planners and urban management professionals when leading the projects are supposed to wear multiple hats and to look at urban management and development projects from all of the above perspectives and many more, especially at the inception stage for holistic development. 

Author: Anoop Jha

#urbandevelopment #urbanmanagement #urbanplanning

The success of new concepts of city development usually either depends on wider demographic coverage or awaits a technological renaissance!

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

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“Walk to work” has been a bit of an old concept, made popular by real estate advertisements while selling housing inventory way back. “15-minute city” comes to the rescue, but should possibly come with a disclaimer that it may have certain demographic and geographical relevance. That is because, a large part of the world and scores of cities may still not be prepared to immediately embrace the poised city planning concepts like above due to multiple structural challenges including real estate unaffordability, the uncertainty of job location over the years, dual and multi-income households, budget deficit etc. Thinking of a dual-income nuclear family and multi-income joint family for instance, at least one or several of such family members might still have to travel long distances to places of work, 5 to 6 days a week, these families may also not be getting time or have the motivation to visit recreational places, parks, sports centres etc., even in walking distances, due to work-life imbalance.

Thinking of millions of those who will still willingly prefer to use e-commerce sites for shopping or use food delivery apps instead of going out. Thinking of all those paying all the bills from home and those who never really required to visit utility kiosks, banks, post office, ATMs or municipal offices, for many of them the distance of neighbourhood facilities may not be of much importance.

It is noteworthy that while there are forces on one side trying to make cities accessible, meaningful and vibrant for wider demography, at the same time there are reverse combined forces of commerce, industry, real estate, and employment market instilling juxtaposing demographic changes, i.e., either forcing people to commute long distances causing exhaustion or making them habitual of a sedentary lifestyle.

The last real changes in city planning concepts that actually altered the urban morphology altogether across the world were driven by technology like high-speed transit and mass transit options. We are fortunately standing at a crossroads when real changes in urban morphology and urban management will possibly again be visible and will be driven by the force of technology only. Many such concepts being already tested in smart city pilots (#autonomous ground and #airmobility etc.) as well as city-scale projects, (#micro-mobility, #MaaS, etc.) as well as some new social change concepts seem to be finding ground (remote working, hybrid working, remote learning, etc). This new technological renaissance to be witnessed through aid of #startupecosystem #ML #AI #IoT ect.

Author: Anoop Jha

#urbanmanagement #urbanplanning #urbandevelopment #walktowork #15minutecity #smartcity #livinglab #infrastructure #UMD #WFH #micromobility #publictransport #MRTS #Rotterdam #France #Paris #Hague, #Eindhoven #Amsterdam #Netherlands

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!

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

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

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#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

 

New generation of businessmen and industrialists in making, based on a new age value system.

Businesses and industries even in a usual scenario follow a natural progression of efficiency over time leading to unitary level sustainability. This efficiency is mostly driven by technological advancement and external obligatory forces. This has been one way of operation for quite some time in history i.e., being guided by regulatory compulsion and customer’s expectations. But real changes have to come from within.

So what has actually changed or possibly going to change about how businesses and industries have been operating since decades?

Businesses and industries have traditionally been based on foundation of demand and supply; production, consumption and profit; leaving little room for value system which world actually demands today.

For instance, the need of sustainability, resilience, equality, need to act responsibly, need to engage and protect community, protecting biodiversity, being mindful about resources that we consume, waste and energy footprint that we leave, having greater responsibility towards other fellow world citizens, these seem to be newly discussed wisdom. Unlike today, many of the elements of new age value system as mentioned above must be rare to find few decades ago, especially in early education system. And in absence of such values what must have resulted, is the businesses and industries leading to mass consumption of scarce resources, exploitation of human capital, causing degradation of environment and community life etc. i.e. old values which though suggested to create abundance but “at any cost” and abundance mostly for self rather than for community.

Now imagine the new generation of businessman and industrialist in the process of emergence, who have access and exposure to all new age wisdom and have been taught same from the elementary level onwards. Now when they will start their businesses and run their industries they will be running and driving companies based on new moral and systemic values, with much clarity of purpose, with a pursuit that goes beyond self-centric growth, being mindful of their action, driven by value system which cares for all impacted, creating abundance for all, also knowing the real cost of growth and managing the externalities. These changes will be from within business and industries driven by new age business leaders and industrialists through a new value system, and will not just be a result of external statutory forces or market obligations.

This a hopeful time in history when new league of human capital is emerging, who are inspired and driven by evolved value system to make world a better place.

Author: Anoop Jha

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

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#business #industry #fossilfuel #greenwashing #climatechange #renewableenergy #energy #corporate #leadership #futureofindustries #alkmaar #sustainability #resilience #Rotterdam #Amsterdam #Utrecht #Hauge #Delft #Netherlands

Its poised time for city administrations and urban management and development professionals.

It’s interesting to recognise how empowered a city administration can be today to take evidence-based decisions, depending on what kind of, how recent, and what level of access to information they have in their city dashboard; compared to few decades ago when decisions about “urban future” used to mostly get made in closed board rooms and on literal mechanical drawing boards; mostly based on past trends, white papers, fancy of the creative class, administrative zeal, and sometimes based on intuition.

To draw a parallel of insufficiency that old times had, imagine the great architects and planners of history who somehow still managed to deliver all the job old school way, in absence of now integral and pervasive modern survey and modelling tools like satellite imagery, Geographic Information System (#GIS), #LIDAR, #DGPS, #drones, Building Information Modelling (#BIM), #TrafficSimulation and #CrowdManagement software, structural, hydraulic, lighting and range of #EnvironmentalModelling software, including some more which are still taking shape and trying to find widespread application in urban management and development including #DigitalTwin, #ParametricDesign, #AI and #ML.

Technology and data combined (proliferation of data, universal access to technology and open data) has not just minimised the information asymmetry between public and private entities but has also provided a level play field for urban professionals in different parts of world. It has been a journey from then “private entities educating city administrations about how to approach urban problems” to now “city administrations finally resourceful enough to ask ‘why this and not that’ while increasingly interrogative private entities about checks and balances of ethical practices they follow (e.g., data anonymity). Technology and information have made this journey possible from “just a handful” in history to “so many” great young architects and planners who exist today for instance. Technology and wider access to information (data) have made possible the faster diffusion of creativity today and also created an abundance of highly skilled manpower including multi-disciplinary urban managers, at the same time minimising the gap between low-skilled and highly skilled professionals.

As urban problems have become more and more complex and wicked, access to tools, resources, and technology to manage these problems has also become sophisticated and widely available today. There wasn’t a more promising time ever than today in the area of urban management and development.

Author: Anoop Jha

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

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#smartcity #urbanmanagement #urbandevelopment #governance #egovernance #publicpolicy #ml #machinelearning #iot #Rotterdam #delhi #mumbai #gurugram #Amsterdam #DenHaag #Delft #Alkmaar #DenBosch #Eindhoven #Utretch #Hague #Netherlands

 

While working in a fuzzy space of smart city development public institutions may like to think of innovative approaches in different parts of the world!

[01] For instance, #PublicInstitutions may (a) address the apprehensions of the community at large, upfront, by acknowledging the legit concerns over #privacy, #datasecurity and may like to widely publish how they intend to tackle such issues including what safeguard mechanisms are in place, before actually launching the project.

[02] While role of community involvement in smart city development process is increasingly being considered important, the approach should consider exploring innovative ways to go beyond conventional notion of #CommunityParticipation and #CommunityEngagement; i.e. going beyond community workshop venues, road shows and smart city webpage to seek stream of timely inputs from community and expert members and think of devising mechanism (b) to seek early input (e.g. through #LinkedIn, series of short #VideoConference etc.) from wider professional segment who are anyways going to write much of their critical insights on professional media sooner or later about the subject, post-implementation, suggesting what could have been done better (c) Likewise, need of a mechanism to find ways to offer a chance of involvement for wider latent community members to contribute in the process (eg. through #Facebook, #Twitter, #Instagram etc.), those who are going to post, share and possibly vent much on social media (direct #stakeholder), about what interventions couldn’t work well in their city or challenges they are still facing post implementation.

[03] While the critical role of #academia in developing smart cities can’t be denied (d) it may be a good idea to form a mechanism for the active representation of students as well, as they can leverage more creative freedom and contribute through out of box thinking, adding to much-needed innovation.

[04] While the #industry is invited or offers innovative and disruptive tech and solutions, (e) there can also be room for engaging those in the smart city development process who may be having sound innovative ideas but lack the entrepreneurial spirit or resources to launch a #startup or to make it to VC round. Like shopkeepers pitching ideas for the redevelopment of the street next to their shop, or kids floating ideas about retrofitting streets around their school for instance.

When there is no clear pathway to #innovation or maybe multiple pathways, then it makes sense to also innovate on approaches we take towards making better cities, sometimes under the title of the smart city.

Author: Anoop Jha

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

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#smartcity #urbanmanagement #urbandevelopment #governance #egovernance #publicpolicy #ml #machinelearning #iot #Rotterdam #Amsterdam #DenHaag #Delft #Alkmaar #DenBosch #Eindhoven #Utretch #Hague #Netherlands

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.

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

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

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#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?

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

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

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#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?

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

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

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#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

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

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

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#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!

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.  

Author: Anoop Jha

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

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#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.

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.

Author: Anoop Jha

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

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#Urbanplanning #urbanmanagement #urbandesign #smartcity #publicspaces

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 

An inclusive city needs more than smart interventions!

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

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

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www.linkedin.com/in/anoopjha

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

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

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.

Author: Anoop Jha

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

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#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!

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

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

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www.linkedin.com/in/anoopjha

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